Deadly Desserts (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 6) by Mary Maxwell Page B

other end. When I
asked her to repeat them, she said it would be best if we talked in person.
    “Do you want to come over here?” I
asked. “We can sit down with a slice of pie and some coffee.”
    “Have you seen my thighs lately?”
she said, no longer whispering. “They’re a mile wide and jiggly as Aunt
Tinker’s Sunshine Salad.”
    I smiled at the image. I’d seen the
side dish enough times to know that Pinky’s thighs didn’t jiggle as much as her
aunt’s much-loved carrot, pineapple and gelatin concoction.
    “You look great, Pinky. But if you
want to skip the pie, we can just have a cup of coffee.”
    She whispered another reply. When I
asked her to repeat it, she sighed and said, “Just give me a sec, okay? I’ll
slip into the powder room. I’ll be able to talk more freely there. I’ve got a
gazillion things to do this afternoon, so I probably shouldn’t be driving all
over the planet.”
    I listened to her footsteps and the
sound of a door opening and closing. Then she repeated the bombshell she’d
delivered a few moments before.
    “All of them, Katie,” she added.
“Every last entry for Decadent Desserts and Sassy Snacks had been tainted with
some kind of toxic substance.”
    “Cicutoxin,” I said.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “That’s the name of the poison that
Lacy ingested. I talked to Detective Kincaid earlier.”
    “Okay,” Pinky said. “But my source
didn’t tell me the scientific name; they just said it was poison.”
    “Who was your source?”
    She scoffed. “Do I ask you to
reveal the secret ingredients in your recipes?”
    “That’s different,” I answered.
“We’re talking about a murder, Pinky. And, potentially, any of us could’ve
sampled one of those contest entries ahead of the official tasting.”
    “Well, we’re not supposed to,” she
said sharply. “Rules are rules! Lacy Orvane ignored that little fact and look
what it got her.”
    “But that was common knowledge,
right? According to Portia’s comments, Lacy was notorious for sneaking a sample
or two ahead of time. It was also her job to organize and inventory the
competition entries, so she was alone in the room for a good hour or so with
the samples. Since everyone in town knew that she was especially fond of
chocolate-dipped strawberries, I suspect that the person who did this probably
counted on her to eat at least one. But then they dosed the other desserts and
snacks just in case.”
    “Oh, what does Portia Pearson know?
That witch is always so busy being high and mighty that she’s as clueless as a
clump of dirt.”
    I quickly considered a short list
of people that knew Pinky and also had knowledge of the police investigation.
There was Dina Kincaid, although she’d never reveal inside information to
anyone but her coworkers and a small group of trusted confidants. Amanda
Crane’s sister was a frequent customer at Pinky’s flower shop. Since Amanda had
been one of the uniformed officers on the scene shortly after Lacy was
discovered, there was a slim chance she’d told her sister. And it was possible
that Nelson Branch from the morgue, someone who played poker with Pinky’s
brother, could have divulged the information. I was thinking about which of the
three might possibly be Pinky’s source when I heard her whispering again.
    “What was that?”
    “Have you talked to Trent?” she
asked. “What’s he say about all of this?”
    “Deputy Chief Walsh is in Evans
representing the Crescent Creek PD for a CACP meeting.”
    “A what meeting?” Pinky
asked. “That all sounded like alphabet soup!”
    “It’s the Colorado Association of
Chiefs of Police. Trent’s involved in a planning committee for their next
annual conference, so he isn’t even in town at the moment.”
    “But surely he’s privy to what his
team is working on,” she said.
    “I would imagine so,” I agreed.
“But I haven’t talked to him in a few days. Dina mentioned that he’s out of
town when we were at