One Dead Cookie by Virginia Lowell

home-cooked meal.” Olivia’s string
     bean of a brother could lose weight eating six meals a day. “I promised to help Maddie
     decorate cookies for the store tomorrow, but I could probably get there by seven.
     You can start dinner without me. I’d feel responsible if Jason passed out from hunger.”
    “I’ll feed Jason while I’m cooking dinner, and he can eat a second meal with the rest
     of us. That should hold him till breakfast. Allan is consumed by yet another new Internet
     business he’s developing, so he won’t linger at the table. Honestly, I think that
     man is happy only when he’s starting up a business. Once it’s humming along nicely,
     he gets bored and sells it.”
    “He seems to be good at it,” Olivia said.
    “That he is.” Ellie finished her second cookie, and said, “Gotta tap-dance away. See
     you sevenish.” But she didn’t move. She stared at the sales counter with a thoughtful
     expression.
    Olivia followed her gaze and saw their new clerk, Jennifer, pushing a large box across
     the counter toward the young couple to whom she’d been demonstrating the wonders of
     the fancy red mixer. Olivia had come to think of that mixer as her worst-ever business
     decision. She checked the shelf the mixer had dominated for so long. It wasn’t there.
    “I don’t believe it,” Olivia said. “Did Jennifer actually sell that red mixer?”
    “I watched her box it up and run the credit card,” Ellie said. “But I keep wondering…”
    Olivia felt a flicker of anxiety. “What? What are you wondering? Because if that credit
     card is bogus, I’m out a lot of—”
    “Take a deep breath, Livie.”
    “But—”
    “I was only wondering about Jennifer. Does she have family around here? She reminds
     me of someone, but I can’t think who.”
    “Maddie hired her,” Olivia said. “All I know is she recently moved here from DC, and
     she has a great deal of knowledge about cookie cutters and baking. And she sold the
     red mixer, which makes her a goddess in my eyes.”
    “Understandable, dear. Anyway, I’m now officially late, no matter how we interpret
     the Hansel and Gretel clock.” Munching on a cookie, Ellie tap-danced toward the front
     door. She wove flawlessly around display tables and two of the customers. When she
     reached the front of the store, she tapped around to face Olivia, blew her a kiss,
     and danced backward out the door.
    The customers followed Ellie’s performance in startled silence. As the door closed
     behind her mother, all five faces turned toward Olivia. Their reactions ranged from
     puzzlement to outright amusement. One customer giggled.
    Olivia shrugged. “I’ve never seen that woman before in my life.”

Chapter Four

    Promptly at seven p.m., Olivia arrived at the front door of her childhood home. Spunky
     wiggled in her arms, eager to be back on his own four paws. He recognized the Greyson-Meyers
     house and yapped with excitement. Olivia had recently begun taking her little Yorkie
     with her when she visited her family and friends. He didn’t do well with long periods
     of apartment arrest, and he was a popular guest. In fact, Olivia had received more
     invitations than usual lately. The reason, she suspected, was Spunky’s adorable nature,
     not hers. It was no accident that Spunky had survived so long on the streets of Baltimore
     after escaping from the puppy mill. The little con artist could really turn on the
     charm.
    Jason, Olivia’s brother, opened the door holding a half-eaten ham sandwich. “Hey Olive
     Oyl, you’re on time. And you brought my buddy. Hey, Spunks.” Jason tore a piece of
     ham from his sandwich and fed it to Spunky.
    “He isn’t starving, you know,” Olivia said. “You don’t have to share your dinner with
     him.”
    “Mom already fixed me some ham and potatoes, but she didn’t think you’d be here on
     time, so she made me a sandwich to help tide me over. Come on in. Mom’s in the kitchen.
     We ran out of ham,