Free Creamy Casserole Murder: Book 15 in The Darling Deli Series by Patti Benning

register, go off. Excusing herself, she got up and hurried over to catch it on the final ring.
    “I’ve got news,” David said.
    “Is it about Danny?” she asked. “Did the police arrest him.”
    “Yes, and no. I got in touch with Beatrice and Delilah’s lawyer—it turns out that they used the same one—and told him I was investigating their deaths. I told him my theory about Danny being the killer, and that I thought he might have killed his mother when he found out that she took his name off of her will. He told me who she put in his place… it was Delilah.”
    “She left everything to her sister?” Moira asked, talking quietly so Martha wouldn’t be able to hear what she was saying.
    “Everything,” David confirmed. “Not a single cent to Danny.”
    “Well, that might have been what made him angry enough to kill her,” she said. “And he probably would have been upset with Beatrice as well. Wait… who did Beatrice put in her will?”
    “That’s the interesting part,” he said. “The lawyer told me that Delilah made a change to her own will around the same time that Beatrice did.”
    “Well, who did she put down?”
    “I don’t know,” the private investigator said. She could hear his frustration through the phone, and could almost see the muscles in his jaw flexing as he fought not to grind his teeth—an old habit that he had been trying to break since a recent trip to the dentist. “The lawyer started getting suspicious, wondering exactly how much he had to tell me. He wasn’t too happy to learn that he didn’t technically have to tell me anything. A private investigator’s badge doesn’t mean people have to talk to you. Once he realized that, he clammed up.”
    “Well, at least you managed to get something out of him,” she said. “I just wish we knew whether or not Danny stands to inherit anything from his aunt. If he was the person she named in her will, then he’s going to be getting a lot of money. He’ll get everything from both his aunt and his mother.”
    “No wonder he bought a one-way ticket out of the country,” David said. “The second he boards that plane Thursday evening, he’ll be free to do whatever he wants with his inheritance.”
    “That just means we have to stop him before his flight,” the deli owner replied with determination.
    “I don’t want you getting involved with this again, Moira,” he said. “He’s already killed two people. Will you please leave this to the professionals?”
    She mumbled something that might have sounded like agreement, told him she loved him, and hung up. It wasn’t that she wanted to find herself hip deep in trouble again, but if the opportunity arose to put a stop to Danny’s killing spree, she had no doubt that she would take it.
     

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    “Sorry, Maverick,” she said to her dog the next evening as she pulled on her boots. “I can’t bring you this time. I promised Candice I’d help her with a big order of chocolates, which means we’re going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen, and I doubt any of her customers want to find a dog hair in their candy.”
    The big black and tan dog continued looking at her hopefully, his eager eyes not doing anything to make her feel better about leaving him behind. Keeva, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten the message. She lay on the hallway floor with her head between her paws, looking up at Moira with a mournful expression that wasn’t much better than Maverick’s eager whining.
    “My goodness, you two act like I’m abandoning you. I’ll only be gone for a few hours, and I’ll see if Candice has any of those peanut butter biscuits that you like so much left.”
    The young woman had begun making homemade dog treats after finding an easy recipe online. She kept a bowl of free samples next to the register for her dog-loving customers to take. The biscuits were a big hit with both Maverick and Keeva, and were probably a lot healthier for them than