Free A Killer Cake by Jessica Beck Page A

jotted down her number on a torn-off edge
of her placemat, and handed it to me. “I’d appreciate it if you’d
let me know what’s going on.”
    “You really do need to talk to the sheriff,”
I said. “He’s not going to care about some parking tickets. He’ll
want to interview you as soon as possible.”
    “I’m sorry, but that’s something he just
can’t do,” she said firmly, and I could see an edge coming out of
her that reminded me of her late father. There was steel there
buried beneath the surface, an unexpected strength of will. “I
trust that you’ll keep my little secret all to yourself. Otherwise,
I wouldn’t take kindly to it.”
    “I’m not making you any promises,” I said,
startled by her veiled threat.
    “You might want to reconsider that,” Loretta
said as she stood.
    After she left the diner, I walked back to
the kitchen. Greg was already standing in the doorway.
    “Did you hear any of that?” I asked him.
    “Just the part where she threatened you,”
Greg said. “That woman is trouble.”
    “I’ve got a hunch that you’re right. What
should I do?”
    To his credit, my husband didn’t even
hesitate. “Call Sheriff Croft, tell him what just happened, and
give him that telephone number.”
    “You’re not worried that she might try to
retaliate?”
    “You can’t let that influence you,” Greg
said. “The sheriff has a right to know, and besides, you’ve got a
whole clan watching your back. Nobody threatens one of our
own and gets away with it.”
    I kissed my husband lightly, and then I
pulled out my cell phone.
    The sheriff answered on the first ring, and I
said, “Sheriff Croft, we have to talk.”
    “Is it about Roy Thompson’s murder?” he
asked, “because otherwise, I’m not interested.”
    “Let me ask you something. Did you know that
Roy had an illegitimate daughter named Loretta Jenkins?”
    There was a moment’s pause on the other end
as he processed the information, and then the sheriff asked, “Do I
even want to know how you came by that particular bit of
information?”
    “I didn’t do a thing,” I explained.
“Apparently she came to the diner looking for me, and after she
asked me for some information I didn’t have, she gave me a pretty
clear threat not to tell you.”
    “Is she still there?”
    “No, after she threatened me, she walked out
the door.”
    “It’s a shame she didn’t hang around,” the
sheriff said. “Do you have any idea where she lives?”
    “She said that she’s in Laurel Landing, but I
can do better than that. I’ve got her telephone number, if that
might help.”
    “Let’s have it,” he said, and I read the
number off the piece of paper she’d given me. “Victoria, you did
the right thing calling me.”
    “There was never any doubt in my mind,” I
said as I winked at my husband.
    “Would you like me to send someone over
there?” the sheriff asked.
    “She doesn’t even know that I’ve told you
yet,” I said. “Besides, we can take care of ourselves here.”
    “I’m sure you believe that, but I’m still
going to ask some of my patrol officers to double up patrolling the
diner and your house for a while.”
    “Do you honestly think she knows where I
live?” I asked, suddenly a little unnerved that Loretta Jenkins
might have that knowledge. The diner was one thing, but my home was
my sanctuary, a place that Greg and I shared away from The Charming
Moose.
    “With the technology available these days, I
wouldn’t doubt it for a second,” he said. “I’m going to make her my
top priority.”
    “Then you should know that she already
admitted to me that she was in town today when her dad was
poisoned.”
    “Slow down a second. We don’t even know for
sure that Roy was her biological father,” the sheriff said.
    “You won’t think that after you’ve spoken
with her. She acts like a chip off the old block, and I don’t mean
that in a good way.”
    “Understood,” the sheriff said. “Thanks