Free A Killer Deal (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Leona Fox Page B

grinned.
     
    “That’s an understatement,” he said.
     
    Chief Woodstone let them in through the back entrance and left the door open. The smell of mold was almost overpowering.
     
    “No one came to take care of this place?” Sadie asked.
     
    “We don’t know who to contact,” Chief Woodstone said. “We’re still trying to find a next of kin or a will, we need something to go on.”
     
    “Someone needs to clean up this mess,” Sadie insisted. “It’s disgusting.” She walked through to the front of the store and opened the door to get a cross breeze.
     
    Then she joined Chief Woodstone at the freezer. He had a walk-in refrigerated room, but only a chest freezer for frozen goods. The Chief opened the lid and they peered in. There were some containers of blueberries, raspberries, and other assorted fruits. There were flat freezer bags labeled zucchini and banana. But those things barely filled a quarter of the freezer. It was mostly empty.
     
    Chief Woodstone looked at Sadie and shrugged. “I told you. Delusional.”
     
    Sadie looked around the kitchen. There were day’s old balls of bread dough that had grown out of mixing bowls and bread pans that were hard and crusty around the edges. There were mixing bowls of batter with mold growing on the top. There was a moldy container of blueberries next to the muffin batter.
     
    “I want to clean this up,” Sadie said.
     
    “Let me put a call in. I want to make sure they are done with this place.” The Chief pulled his cell out of his pocket, and a minute later he was nodding and putting it away again.
     
    “You don’t have to do this, you know, Sadie,” Chief Woodstone said. “A cleaning service could do it.”
     
    “No,” Sadie said. “I want to do this. I feel like I owe Roger. I wasn’t as nearly as good a friend as I should have been. I’m just going to take Mr. Bradshaw next door to keep Lucy company.”
     
    She stepped out the back and took Mr. Bradshaw in through her back door. The door she’d been avoiding. She explained to Lucy about the shop next door and Lucy volunteered to help.
     
    When the two of them arrived back at the bakery, Chief Woodstone had his sleeves rolled up and a pair of bright yellow rubber gloves graced his hands. A huge trash bin had been pulled into the middle of the floor.
     
    “What are you doing?” Sadie asked. “Don’t you have to be back at work?”
     
    “I’m helping you. And also Lucy. Hello, Lucy.” He waved a bright yellow hand.
     
    “Hi, Chief,” Lucy said. “I’ll start with the front case.”
     
    While Lucy went into the storefront to clear the glass cases, Sadie and Chief Woodstone dumped the fermenting and moldy doughs into the trash can. Then Lucy loaded the dishwasher while the chief wiped down the counters and cutting boards. It wasn’t long before they were finished.
     
    “It’s a good thing he didn’t have anything in the oven,” Sadie said. “Or the whole shop could have burned down. And mine too.”
     
    “And my lovely China,” Lucy added.
     
    “Actually, the officer who secured the scene would have turned off any ovens,” Chief Woodstone said.
     
    They all three turned to look at the wall of ovens. Sadie started opening oven doors, but they were all empty.
     
    “Thank goodness for that,” Lucy said. “If this garbage can gets any fuller we’d never be able to shift it.”
     
    As it was, it took all three of them to move it out the door and down the stairs to the trash pick-up area.
     
    “Are you going to put it in the dumpster?” Lucy asked. The chief shook his head.
     
    “It’s not worth straining a back over. The garbage guys will take care of it. Now I’m headed back to the office, and I suggest that you ladies pour a couple of glasses of wine. You’ve done your good deed for the day.”
     
    A few days later Sadie was polishing English brasses when Chief Woodstone came in. She wiped her hands on a clean rag and went through the shop to greet