Til a Death Do Us Part: A Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery by Stacey Alabaster

the front of my bakery.
    "Well, I do want the guy to cooperate," Jackson pointed out. "He's not officially a suspect, just a person of interest. Calling him at 6:00am might tick him off."
    I could tell that Jackson's fingers were still itching to make the call as I pushed on the front door of the bakery. I was shocked when the bakery door didn’t budge.
    "What the..."
    I pushed on it again, harder this time. "Why isn't it opening?"
    Jackson tapped on the glass door. "The sign is turned to 'closed'," he pointed out.
    I stepped back and placed my hands on my hips. "That can't be right. We should have been open half an hour ago."
    "Well, it doesn't look like you are."
    Thanks for pointing out the obvious, I thought.
    I pressed my nose up against the glass and squinted as I looked into the bakery. It should have been brightly lit up, the pink and white decor shining in the early morning light. But nothing was turned on. Not only were all the lights still switched off, the coffee machine was totally dead, and there was no sign of life in the back in the kitchen, either.
    I turned back to Jackson and threw my hands up into the air. "Where the heck is Pippa!" I asked. "And why the heck isn't the bakery open!"
    Jackson shook his head and pulled the phone away from his ear. "I don't know," he said as he put the phone slowly back in his pocket. I hadn't even realized he'd actually made the call; I'd been so busy wondering about Pippa's disappearance.
    "I think we've got bigger problems than Pippa not opening the bakery on time," Jackson said flatly.
    Well, I was glad he thought that my losing money and my best friend going missing were such small inconveniences to him. "And what is that?" I asked. "Did you call him? Did you call Surfer Dude?"
    He shook his head. "That wasn't him on the line," he said quietly. "It was someone down at the station."
    I noticed then that his face had gone completely white. "What is it?" I asked.
    "There's been a body discovered out on the highway, about two hundred miles from the vineyard. Rachael, they think it might be Emma."

Chapter 8
    A s soon as the door of the Belldale Police Station opened, the familiar smells of old leather and burnt coffee hit my nose. It had been months since I'd been inside, but the place still had the uncanny ability to make me feel guilty.
    I just stood there staring at the precinct for a moment, thinking how strange it was the way every one was just going about their jobs as though Jackson's whole future didn’t hang in the balance. I gulped. Didn't they care that their fellow detective might be about to receive the worst news of his life?
    "Rachael?" he said, grabbing my arm. "Are you coming in or are you just going to stand there gulping like a fish?”
    His eyes no longer had that bleary look they'd had since the wedding. They were wild, wide awake and alert. He looked like he was holding his breath as he gritted his teeth.
    "Sorry," I said. "I don't really like this place." I rolled my eyes at myself as he looked away. What a stupid thing to say right at that moment.
    He hurried inside and I raced after him. We swerved in and out of the desks until Jackson found the office of his sergeant. I stopped at the door, not knowing if I should come in with him or not.
    Jackson held the door open for me. "Come on, you're a part of this now."
    "Jackson," the sergeant, a man in his late forties with huge biceps and a bald head, said as he stood. I vaguely recognized him from the wedding.
    Guilt was sprayed all over this guy's face and he shot me a nervous look like he really wished I hadn't been standing there. "Sorry," the sergeant said. "False alarm, I'm afraid."
    Jackson looked like he wanted to reach out and wring the sergeant's neck.
    I checked Jackson's face, waiting for the relief to flood it but there was only anger there. "What the heck were you thinking, calling me down here like this, telling me that over the phone before you were even certain?"
    The sergeant looked