Hearty Homestyle Murder: Book 9 in The Darling Deli Series by Patti Benning

waste everyone’s time.
    “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I keep thinking back to that day, but I don’t remember seeing a single thing that seemed out of place.”

CHAPTER NINE
    Moira opened her eyes to a pale grey morning. Her sleepy brain wondered for a moment what had disturbed her. Then she registered the vibrating of her phone. She must have forgotten to turn the ringer back on when she got home last night; she was surprised that the humming sound had woken her.
    “Hello?” she asked groggily, her eyes searching out the glowing numbers of her alarm clock as she spoke. It was just a few minutes past seven. Way too early for most people to be calling unless there was some sort of emergency.
    “Ms. D, it’s Darrin,” the young man said. “I’m at the deli and, well, you’d better get down here.”
    She dressed hurriedly, let the dogs out, fed them breakfast, then left. When will I catch a break? she wondered. According to Darrin, someone had sprayed graffiti across the deli’s front windows. He had seen it when he got there to open for the morning shift. She had told him to report it to the police, although she was reluctant to have another encounter with either of the two detectives.
    Her heart sank as she pulled into the deli’s parking lot. Someone had spray-painted the words “poison” and “killer” in large blue letters across each of the large picture windows that fronted the deli, along with a skull and crossbones symbol. She knew as soon as she saw it that, unless the vandal had used water-soluble paint, she would have to close the deli for the day while she figured out how to remove the ugly words.
    “The police will be here soon,” Darrin told her.
    “Oh my goodness…” She stared at the deli, shocked and hurt at the sight of the graffiti. Who had done this? And why? Her shock and hurt began to turn to anger. She hadn’t done anything wrong, so why was she being treated like a criminal?
    “Do you think they’ll be able to catch whoever did it?” Dante asked.
    “I don’t know. Probably not. Not unless whoever did it was caught on camera, but I don’t think the camera above the register has a good enough view out the windows.”
    She checked the app on her phone that was linked to the deli’s single video camera. A small portion of the window was in view, but whoever had committed the crime had done it in the middle of the night. They were nothing more than a dark silhouette against the orange glow of the streetlights. Nothing about the person’s shape or movements stood out to Moira, so she saved the video in hopes that the police might be able to get something useful from it.
    A few minutes later a single cruiser pulled into the parking lot. The officer got out, shook Moira’s hand, and introduced himself as Officer Brown. He glanced towards the deli with a frown.
    “What I’ll do is take some pictures, if that’s okay with you. Then we’ll run through some basic questions. I’ve got to be honest with you, though. Chances are we aren’t going to be able to track down whoever did this. I suggest you get some security cameras and motion-activated lights to prevent this sort of thing in the future.”
    The entire thing took only a few minutes. Moira explained to the officer what had happened at the fair, and asked him if he thought anyone at the police station had been sharing sensitive information.
    “We’re professionals, ma’am,” he said, affronted. “We don’t go around spreading rumors. It sounds to me like you made an enemy somewhere along the line. Now, I don’t want to frighten you, but you should be careful and keep your phone close by in case of an emergency. You never know what people are capable of.”
    “Do you really think that whoever did that,” she gestured towards the deli, “might actually want to hurt me?”
    “It’s possible,” he said, nodding. “Just be careful. Do get those security cameras and lights if you can. Visible