Free Chocolate-Covered Crime by Cynthia Hickey

either proved innocent or guilty. I darted from the garden and back to my car.
    I broke a speed record racing to the police station and screeched to a halt in front of the building. An officer frowned as I exited the car. I gave a sheepish grin and marched inside.
    “Hello, Ruby.” I greeted one of Aunt Eunice’s oldest and dearest friends, Ruby Colville.
    “Good afternoon, Summer. Accused any innocent people lately?” That woman never had forgiven me for thinking she was behind the diamond heist. A perfectly normal assumption given the fact she’d come into some expensive things at the time. Perfectly honest mistake. Diamonds showed up beneath my rosebush and around her neck. What else would I think? Then I’d gone against her wishes when she wanted to kick the carnival out of town in September because they’d been short of cash. Not their f ^Rdtheault. They’d been robbed and lost a couple of employees to a madman on a killing spree.
    “Is Joe in?”
    Ruby motioned her head toward his office.
    “Thanks.” I shoved aside the waist-high swinging door and made my way past the curious glances of the few officers Mountain Shadows employed. Joe sat behind his desk, working through a pile of paperwork. After noticing me standing in the doorway, he turned the papers facedown.
    Without waiting for an invitation, I sat in the chair opposite his green metal desk. I fished the photos from my pocket and tossed them in front of him.
    “What are these?” Joe flipped through them. “Why are they wrinkled?”
    “They’re leads. I had them in my pocket. While making the funeral arrangements, I asked Lewis Anderson if he knew Mae Belle. He said no. The pictures say otherwise.”
    “Why would you ask him that?”
    “Because he had tears in his eyes.”
    “Tears in his eyes.”
    “Stop repeating everything I say.” I folded my arms.
    “I don’t.”
    “Yes, you do. All the time.” I moved to take back the snapshots. Joe held them out of my reach. “I questioned Lewis a few minutes ago. He and Mae Belle were having an affair. He all but attacked me to keep me from bringing the pictures to you.”
    “An affair? Mae Belle didn’t seem the type. You just can’t tell with people, can you?”
    “Guess not.” I crossed my legs, feeling pleased with myself. “What do you think about my investigative skills now?”
    Joe leaned his arms on the desk. “Not bad. For an amateur. That puts Lewis as our number-one unsub, if your information is correct.”
    “The pictures don’t lie.”
    “Pictures lie all the time, but these do look suspicious. Doesn’t mean he killed her though.”
    “I also suspect Mason White. He threatened me.”
    “How so?”
    “By telling me to be careful because Mae Belle got it in the back.” I was doing great. Keeping my cool. Firing clues like that soldier person who manned a machine gun.
    “Doesn’t mean a thing.” Joe slid the photos beneath the stack on his desk. “You’re ov ^Rd3" erstepping your boundaries again, Summer. Meddling won’t keep you safe.”
    I frowned. “Yes, it does. It makes him another suspect. Didn’t you see his name in the appointment book?”
    “Along with a few others.” Joe’s eyes flashed. “I’m doing my job, Summer. But I do appreciate the photos. They put another spin on things. Remember. . .You’re the candy-maker. I’m the cop. Don’t overstep your boundaries.”
    “Or what? You’ll arrest me again?”
    “If I have to.”
    “You are so unappreciative. After all I’ve—”
    “Am I interrupting something?”
    I turned and saw the person who belonged to another name in Mae Belle’s book. Renee Richards, Mountain Shadows’s homecoming queen.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    What could Miss Glamour Queen want with Joe? I eyed her gemstone-decorated jeans and low-cut silk blouse, instantly regretting that I hadn’t taken the time to clean up before making the trip downtown. Even in a place as small as Mountain Shadows, our paths didn’t