Free Trouble and Treats (A Chocolate Centered Cozy Mystery Book 6) by Cindy Bell Page A

around. A wire stuck out of the wall in the opposite corner. The small window had the shade pulled down. As she walked towards it the shade rolled up with a loud snap. She jumped at the sound and a cry escaped her lips.
    “Ally? Are you okay?” Charlotte burst through the door into the room. “I heard you scream.”
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. The shade rolled up and it startled me.” She walked towards the window to pull the shade back down. When she reached for it she noticed a piece of paper on the windowsill. She picked it up. “She was mine first.” Her eyes widened as she read the words out loud.
    “Let me see that.” Charlotte held out her hand. Ally placed the note in her grandmother’s hand. “As I said, they always leave something behind. I wonder if he meant to leave this behind in Emma’s house.”
    “Why else would he write a note like this? It seems like a threat to me.” Ally peered at it. “It is torn, like part of it is missing. There’s nothing else on the windowsill.”
    “Maybe he thought he grabbed the whole note, but a piece of it was stuck in the screen.”
    “I wish we had the whole thing, but this is a lot. We can take it to Luke.”
    “Or, you can show it to me now.” Ally jumped again at the sound of a voice behind her. She turned to see Luke in the doorway of the bedroom.
    “Luke? What are you doing here?”
    “What am I doing here?” He held out his hand for the piece of paper. Charlotte handed it over to him. “I was wondering what you’re doing here. I overheard a call to the station from the next door neighbor that someone was lurking around a vacant apartment. When I heard the address I suspected it might be you two, so I told the patrol officer I would check it out for him, and here I am.” He glanced down at the note in his hand. “This does seem pretty threatening, but we’re not going to be able to use it.”
    “What? Why not?” Ally asked. “It has to show motive.”
    “It might, if this apartment was still rented to Gary. It’s not. That’s why it’s empty. He broke his lease and moved out. Which means anyone could have been in here, and anyone could have left that note. Besides that, we don’t have the whole thing.”
    “You don’t think you can find Gary’s fingerprints on it?” Charlotte peered at the note.
    “No, I don’t. Even if we did, it wouldn’t be enough. Maybe it’s from his diary, maybe it’s from something unrelated to Emma. Even if we could prove that it was about Emma, that doesn’t mean that her death wasn’t an accident. Did you find anything else?” He met Ally’s eyes. “Since I’m sure you’ve scoured the place.”
    “I haven’t checked the bathroom, yet. Or the closet.” Ally walked towards it, but Luke stepped in front of it.
    “Let me. At least I can’t be arrested for being here.”
    “Good point.” Ally smiled at him as he opened the door to the closet. Bare wire hangers hung from the metal pole stretched across the closet. Layers of dust covered the closet floor.
    “Nothing here.” Luke shook his head.
    “Wait, what’s that?” Ally pointed to a small shelf on the side wall of the closet. “It seems out of place here. Anything to it?”
    Luke looked at the shelf. “Nothing but dust.” He started to pull his hand away, then stopped. “Hm, something’s not right.” He pulled a glove out of his pocket, he put it on and tugged on the shelf and it came right off the wall. Behind it was a small hole in the closet about the width of the shelf. He reached inside and pulled out a stack of photographs.
    “Well, now this is interesting.” He held them carefully with one hand and thumbed through them with the gloved hand. “It looks to me like Gary had quite an obsession.”
    “That’s Emma and Jack.” Ally stared at the pictures.
    “Some are. But there’s at least ten here of Jack by himself.”
    “Why would he be taking pictures of Jack?” Charlotte squinted at the