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

security measures go a long way towards preventing a crime.”
    Moira watched as the officer drove away. She felt a bit foolish for assuming that her call to the police station would warrant a visit by the town’s two detectives. Officer Brown had been nice enough, though she wished he would have done something more to figure out who the vandal was. Couldn’t he have dusted for fingerprints at the very least? She glanced over at Darrin, who had brought a bowl of warm, soapy water and a sponge out of the deli and was futilely scrubbing the windows. Whatever sort of paint the vandal had used wasn’t coming off easily.
    “It’s okay,” she told him. “I’ll have to call a cleaning service, I’m sure they’ll have some sort of chemical that can get the paint off without scratching the glass. I’m going to run home and get some sheets to cover the windows in the meantime - we don’t want the bad publicity if we can help it - and the I’ll wait around for the cleaners to get here. You can head on home if you want.”
    “Thanks, Ms. D,” he said. He dropped the sponge in the bowl of water with a sigh. “Nothing’s been going right since that bowl of gumbo was poisoned, has it? I hope things get back to normal quickly.”
    It wasn’t until after he was already gone that Moira wondered how he knew that Reuben’s bowl of gumbo had been poisoned. As far as she knew, she, Candice, and David were the only ones who knew that for sure besides the police. It was another mystery to file away, right next to the mystery of why the mayor was so certain that she had been involved with his son’s death. If she didn’t know better, she would think there was some sort of mole in the police station.
    When she stopped at home she decided that she might as well take the dogs back to the deli with her. The cleaning crew wouldn’t be there for a few hours yet, so after she covered the windows with the sheets she would be able to take them out for a walk around town. Maybe she would go take a look at the site where her old house once stood. She had sold the property a few months ago, and was curious to see if the new owner had started any sort a rebuilding after tearing down the burnt shell of her old house. Will Maverick recognize the property? she wondered. He had only lived there for a short time before the house had burned down, so it would be interesting to see.
    With all three dogs in the car and a few old sheets and a roll of duct tape in the trunk, she drove back to the deli. Both Maverick and Diamond had been in the deli before for short periods of time—sometimes Martha stopped by while she was walking her dog in town, and Candice had occasionally brought the German shepherd over during the day to visit—but it was Keeva’s first time. Moira watched her closely for a few minutes to make sure she wasn’t going to potty somewhere she wasn’t supposed to or try to get to the food. The big grey dog seemed just as comfortable in the deli as she was at home, so Moira gathered up her supplies, fetched a stepladder from the storage room, and went outside to cover up the horrible graffiti on her beloved store’s windows.

CHAPTER TEN
    “Thanks again,” Moira said as David packed up his tools.
    “It was no problem,” he assured her. “Your safety comes first. Just remember, flip this switch to turn the motion sensors on the lights on and off. Once winter gets here, it will be dark before the store closes, and you probably don’t want these spotlights coming on and scaring your customers when they walk by.”
    “I’ll try to remember,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll forget by the time the days start getting shorter though. Are the security cameras set up the same way as the one above the register is?”
    “Yep. I already linked them with your account, so all you have to do to access them is open the app on your phone, just like with the one inside the store.”
    “Perfect. You do so much for me, David. I really am