Free Sugar and Iced (Cupcake Bakery Mystery) by Jenn McKinlay

leaned against the wall, and looked for a head of dark hair and a frowning face. She simply could not envision Mariel with a smile.
    She checked the next two rooms, but still no Mariel. Mel crossed the hall and continued checking, opening every door on her way back to the lobby. Some rooms were empty and some were full of people, but there was no one who resembled the missing judge.
    She hoped Cici had better luck. She was closing the door to the last room when an ear-piercing shriek sounded from the lobby. Mel knew that shriek. She had heard it every time she, Angie, and Tate had ridden the Zipper at the Arizona State Fair. It wasn’t Tate and it wasn’t her, so that left—Angie!
    Mel ran to the lobby. Her heart was pounding, her hands were sweating, and she could feel the icy clutch of dread grabbing at her as she came around the corner.
    What could have happened to make Angie scream like that? Had someone knocked over the cupcake tower? Did Angie get into a fight? Had Tate broken up with her?
    When Mel reached the lobby a crowd was forming around the cupcake table. She saw Lupe and her mother on the fringe and yelled, “What happened?”
    Joyce gave her a scared look and for the first time in months she spoke directly to Mel, “I don’t know, honey. We can’t get in there.”
    Mel glanced at the crowd that was five deep ahead of her. There were shrieks and gasps but no one was moving. She used her elbows and began to force her way through the crowd.
    When she reached the front, she stopped in her tracks. Angie was kneeling on the floor, holding up the navy blue tablecloth that covered their circular table.
    A head of dark hair was sticking out from under the cloth. It was Mariel Mars, and Mel knew with the unwelcome knowledge that comes from seeing too many bodies up close and personal that she was dead.

Eleven

    “Finding the body is not
my
job,” Angie said. “That’s supposed to be you.”
    Mel put an arm around her friend’s shoulders. She knew it was shock making Angie babble.
    “I wouldn’t say it was my job exactly,” Mel said. “Did you call the police?”
    “Lydia is on it,” Angie said. She gestured to the far side of the table and Mel saw Lydia, the pretty woman from the front desk, on her cell phone. She looked stressed as she paced back and forth in the narrow area.
    “Are you sure she’s dead?” Mel asked.
    Angie gestured for Mel to look closer. Mel took a deep breath and leaned over Mariel’s still form.
    There was no rise and fall to her chest. No warmth coming off of her body. Her bloodshot eyes were unseeing. A wide pink satin sash was wrapped around her neck and Mel could see scratch marks along her throat, as if she’d been clawed by something or someone.
    “The police are on their way,” Lydia said as she crouched beside them. “I’ve had security paged to move the crowd out of the lobby.”
    As she spoke, a big burly man in a navy blue uniform with a radio on his hip arrived and began pushing the crowd back. Lydia rose to go and speak with him.
    “How did you find her?” Mel asked.
    “I dropped a cupcake,” Angie said. “When I couldn’t find it, I thought it rolled under the table. When I lifted the cloth, there she was.”
    “That was quite a scream you let out,” Mel said. “I’m pretty sure they heard you all the way out to the main road.”
    “And I’m pretty sure I’m going to have nightmares tonight and for many nights after,” Angie said. She shuddered and lowered the cloth, letting it fall carefully around Mariel’s middle.
    “Melanie, Angela, what’s happening?” Joyce Cooper hissed. She ignored the arm of the security guard as he tried to keep her back.
    They looked from Joyce to the body. Mel wasn’t comfortable leaving but she didn’t really want to keep watch, either.
    “It’s all right,” Lydia said, rejoining them beside the body. “Go talk to her. I’ll stay with—her. I can’t get any more freaked out than I already am.”
    Mel