Free Chocolate Most Deadly (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 2) by Mary Maxwell

eyes narrowed
and the muscles in her jaw tightened. “How should I know? I’m Timothy’s
girlfriend.” She lifted her chin slightly. “Remember?”
    I ignored the glib remark, steering
the conversation back to the matter at hand by asking Delilah if she knew where
we could find Viveca’s brother.
    “Did you call him?” she asked.
    Viveca explained that he wasn’t
answering his phone.
    “Then maybe just leave a note over
there.” She gestured at the cluttered kitchen counter.
    “That’s what I do whenever I can’t get him to answer and he
isn’t home.”
    “Did he tell you where he was
going?” I said as Viveca got up and walked to the counter.
    Delilah leaned against the back of
the chair. “We’ve got plans to go hear some music tonight. He better get his
butt back in time for the late show.”
    “Who’s playing?” I said.
    She blinked. “What?”
    “You just mentioned that you and
Tim are going out tonight.”
    She giggled again. “Oh, that’s
right. Uh, it’s a band from Boulder. Nobody you’d know.”
    “What club?” I asked.
    The squinty, evasive expression
reappeared on her face. “Ah, it’s the…um…” She swallowed and brushed one hand
across her face. “Sorry, I’m kind of spaced from the lack of sleep. We’re going
to Mercury Café. Do you know it? They have belly dance classes on Monday. Maybe
you guys should check it out sometime.”
    I looked over to see if Viveca
heard the suggestion, but she was rummaging through the pizza boxes, magazines
and unopened mail on the counter.
    “Thanks,” I said, smiling at
Delilah. “But what’s the name of the band tonight?”
    Her face went rigid. “Jeez, dude!
What is this—the Spanish Imposition or something?”
    Between the increased volume and
irritable edge, Delilah’s coarse comment brought Viveca back into the
conversation.
    “What did I miss?” she asked,
walking toward the sofa.
    “Twenty questions,” Delilah
snapped. “Your friend here seems to be super interested in what Timothy and I
are doing tonight.”
    Viveca nodded. “What are you
doing?”
    Delilah’s jaw tightened again.
“We’re going to Lost Lake Lounge,” she said. “It’s up on Colfax if you want to
check it out. There’s a band from Boulder playing. They’re called Moonglow
Heaven.” She paused and brushed her face again. “They do mostly reggae and
blues,” she said in a calmer tone. “Although, to be honest, you two don’t look
like the kind of girls who are into that kind of thing.”

CHAPTER
11
     
     
    “What was that supposed to mean?”
Viveca hissed. “‘You two don’t look like the kind of girls who are into that
kind of thing.’ I mean, she’s one to talk, don’t you think?”
    It was twenty minutes later and we
were back in the BMW, heading to the Denver PD offices on Cherokee Street. As
we left Tim’s apartment, I’d called Adam Caldwell, the detective that Trent
suggested I talk to about the situation. He told me that he was at police
headquarters for a meeting and could spare a few minutes if we got there in the
next half hour.
    “I mean, my brother has never mentioned that Delilah’s a total flake,” Viveca added. “And I can’t believe
that he’d ever date anybody so judgmental.” Her hands were squeezing the
steering wheel with a death grip that was turning her knuckles white. “I cannot
believe that she made those cracks about what kind of girls we are!”
    I gave her a gentle nudge with one
elbow. “I know, especially since we’re women and not girls .”
    The remark worked. Viveca’s scowl
quickly softened into cheerful laughter as she ran through a list of things she
didn’t like about Delilah.
    “I mean, can you tell me what that
was on her head?” she said. “A dead raccoon? Cruella de Vil’s spare wig?”
    “It was a two-tone disaster,” I
offered. “Although she’d also probably say that we’re not the kind of girls who
could understand such a fashionable hairdo.”
     Viveca groaned.