Cold Cut Murder: Book Three in The Darling Deli Series by Patti Benning Page B

further.
    “That’s nice of him,” her employee said, obviously not as curious about them as she was, now that she had given him a reasonable solution to who they were from. “Do you need any more help here tonight?”
    “Nope, I’m just going to mop the floors, and then I’ll call it a night,” she told him, putting the mystery of the flowers out of her mind temporarily. There was work to do, and the flowers would still be there in an hour when she was home and could call David. “You and Darrin can get going. Oh, and you can leave right after lunch tomorrow if you want, since it’s Valentine’s Day.” She didn’t know if he had a girlfriend, but she thought she would offer anyway. She was closing early on the night of the dance, so she wouldn’t be there alone for more than a couple of hours.
    “Thanks, Ms. Darling. I’ll take you up on that.” He shot her a grin, and then ducked into the kitchen to grab his coat and tell Darrin that they were free to go.
    Later at home that night, Moira called David. She was relieved to hear that he sounded much better, if a bit spacey. He had taken the day off, and spent most of it taking things easy and recovering. He still didn’t have any leads about the identity of the attacker, but he told her that both the Lake Marion and Maple Creek police were working on the case. He had informed them about the single red rose found at the scenes of both crimes, and they said that they would look into it. That brought Moira to her main reason for calling him so late, the thing that had been on her mind the entire evening; the bouquet of roses that had mysteriously appeared at the diner.
    “They could be from Marcus,” she said. “But it just seems like too big of a coincidence.”
    “Marcus?” David asked. Moira realized that she hadn’t told him about her date yet.
    “Oh, he’s a friend of Martha’s. He asked me to the Valentine’s dance at City Hall,” she said.
    “You’re going with him?” he asked. She thought for a moment that she heard a note of disappointment in his voice, but dismissed it. He was still out of it from his injuries and the pain meds.
    “Yeah, I agreed to it even though I don’t know him that well. I don’t go out that often. It should be nice.” She paused. “So, do you think I’m overreacting and the roses are from him?”
    “I don’t know. It’s possible, but like you said, that would be quite the coincidence. Couldn’t you just ask him?”
    “I will tomorrow,” she told him. “It’s late, and I don’t know much about his schedule.”
    “Well, keep me updated. And be careful, Moira. I have the feeling that whatever is going on, you’re at the center of it.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    She was woken from her dreams by an insistent ringing. At first she thought it was her alarm, and that she had somehow slept in late, but it was still dark outside. She realized that the sound was her cell phone ringing, which was never meant anything good in the middle of the night. Sitting bolt upright so suddenly that the blanket fell off her, she grabbed her phone to see Martha’s name on the screen. She answered it cautiously, not sure what to expect, but certain that it couldn’t be anything good.
    “Moira, thank goodness you answered.” Her friend’s voice was panicked, and Moira’s heart lurched. Something bad must have happened.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked in concern.
    “It’s Marcus. He’s in the hospital.”
    “Oh my goodness, what happened?” Her first thought was that he must have been in some sort of car accident. It seemed to be a bad week for the men that she knew.
    “He was attacked. Someone stabbed him when he was getting out of his car this evening,” Martha said, her voice shaky.
    “How bad is it?” Moira asked, feeling faint.
    “Pretty bad,” the other woman said honestly. “He’s in surgery now. The doctor said he didn’t think the knife hit any major organs, so that’s good, I guess. Luckily someone