Free The Chocolate Jewel Case: A Chocoholic Mystery by JoAnna Carl Page A

wasn’t the one I could see.
    The face belonged to a stranger.
    I turned to Garnet and spoke in a low voice, trying not to interrupt Dick’s yarn. “Excuse me, but there seems to be someone on the porch.”
    Garnet turned her head toward the windows.
    Joe didn’t bother to be polite. He spoke up loudly. “What’s wrong?”
    Garnet’seyebrows raised. “Lee says there’s someone on the porch.”
    Joe was halfway out of his chair when the door to the deck swung open, and the man came into the room. At that moment I couldn’t have told you what he looked like.
    All I could see was the shiny silver pistol in his hand.

Chapter 7

    “ E verybody stay still,” the man said. “We don’t want any trouble.”
    I think we were all too astonished to give him any, especially after a second man with a second pistol came through the front door and ranacross the living room to join our little tableau. With frightening calm, the two ordered us to keep our seats. When Joe remained hunched over, half standing and apparently undecided about whether or not he was going to drop his fanny onto his chair, the first man pointed his pistol at me. I’m happy to report that Joe quickly sat down.
    Neither he nor Dick Garrett looked happy, but they didn’tstart a fight.
    “Nobody’s going to get hurt,” the first man said. “We’ll have to make sure you don’t follow us, but you’ll get loose without much trouble.”
    The second man produced a roll of duct tape. As I mentally reviewed the numerous cases in which people were bound and gagged, then murdered, he looped it around each of us, securing us to our chair backs, but he didn’t wrap our feet—or evenour hands. Just our upper arms. And he didn’t gag us.
    By then my brain was beginning to function, and I tried to notice what the two guys looked like. One was tall and slim and the other short and not so slim. The difference in their heights was striking. And that was all I could tell.
    Their mothers couldn’t have recognized them, except that they seemed to be sports fanatics. They wore wet suitsover their bodies and ski masks over their heads. Both wore latex gloves. Their getups were effective—I couldn’t tell a thing about either of them.
    I even looked at their feet. They wore rubber clogs of a type available in every drugstore, discount store, and department store in the United States. I couldn’t even see whether either of them had a bunion or an ingrown toenail.
    Dick Garrett mutteredhis opinion of their family heritage as the duct tape went around his shoulders, but Garnet spoke to him sharply. “Keep quiet!” she said. “Please!”
    Dick obeyed, and both armed men seemed to ignore his comments.
    The only one of us who acted brave—or maybe nonchalant—was Alex Gold. “I always expected to be held up at the store,” he said. “Not here, where there’s nothing to steal.” He folded hishands as if praying, holding them over his plate as the tape went around his shoulders.
    After all five of us were well taped, the two invaders simply stood there. I found myself wondering if they didn’t know what to do next. Shouldn’t they be demanding that we empty our pockets and take off our jewelry? I wiggled my hand, twisting my wedding ring around to hide its stone.
    But still the two mendid nothing but stand there watching us. Finally the tall one spoke. “Go yell at him,” he said.
    Yell at him?
    The shorter, rounder masked man left the dining room, and seconds later I heard him yell, “Hurry!”
    And a strange voice echoed into the room, apparently from upstairs. “What’s happened?”
    “Blondie spotted us. Everything’s under control. But hurry! Don’t worry about being quiet!”
    Theshort guy came back into the dining room. He and the taller man stood at either end of the dining table, staring at us—their captives—but again neither said a word. They were obviously waiting for the guy upstairs.
    Then I heard light steps on the stairs. The guy up