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.”While my friend was worried about Aileen disgracing the pageant, I was wondering if that’s all Aileen Shubert was really up to.* * *I heard a scream.One of the ear-piercing screams that meant someone’s life was in danger.Ty appeared from somewhere.“Upstairs! Stay here, Trixie!”I followed him anyway.All the girls were milling in the hall, looking scared, pointing to ACB’s room.Ty drew his gun and kicked the door.The door didn’t move.He kicked it again.Again, the sturdy oak door didn’t budge.I reached around him and twisted the handle.The door opened like I knew it would.“None of the doors lock.I don’t know why,” I babbled.“Get back!” he ordered me.I followed him.ACB was standing in the middle of a mess, even more of a mess than usual.Her muumuus were slashed, the drawers in her plastic carts were out of the frame, and the contents were thrown on the floor.Jewelry was everywhere.Her fascinators were slashed; so were her tote bags and purses.Even her flip-flops were pulled apart.“Who hates me enough to do this?” she asked.“And where are my pageant notes?”Ty shut the door and whispered, “It had to be an inside job.I’ve been watching this place.Trixie, check your room.”Mine was a mess, too.Stuff everywhere, swept off the top of the dressers, drawers tossed on the floor.Even the bedding was pulled off the bed.With my heart in my throat, I looked at Aunt Stella’s gown, praying that it wasn’t in tatters.It was still hanging on the back of the door to the bathroom, where I’d left it.Thank goodness nothing had happened to it.Nothing in the bathroom was disturbed.There goes my power nap.I had to clean up this mess and help ACB.Then I noticed that my spiral notebook was missing.It contained my Miss Salmon notes, but there was nothing exciting in it.Just committee plans.There was nothing about any of the contestants in it.I went back to ACB’s room.Ty was taking photos of her room.He stopped, waiting for my report.“My room was just tossed.It’s a mess, but nothing was cut.Nothing important is missing that I can tell, except my Miss Salmon notebook.But there was nothing exciting in it.”“My folder had the timetable for the ceremony.I need it for the dress rehearsal and the pageant.Oh, what am I going to do?” ACB said.Ty had his hands on his hips.I knew from my past experiences with him that he was beyond angry.“I want to know who did this and how they got past me.”“It could have happened earlier, Ty.On Vern McCoy’s watch.Who knows? My house is always open.”“But your rooms were specifically targeted,” he said.“I asked when everyone was in the hall, and none of their things were bothered.”“But our rooms are the first ones that someone would come upon when they came upstairs.” I paused, letting that sink in.“They seem to have unleashed their fury on Antoinette Chloe’s room.Mine seems more like it was an afterthought, unless they were interrupted and didn’t get to the slashing.”ACB plopped down on a Queen Anne chair by the window.“Who hates me enough to do this? I don’t have any enemies.I’m kind to everyone.”She really was kind to everyone.I went over to her and gave her a big hug and let her cry for a while.“Whoever did this wanted the pageant stuff,” I said.“Why else would they do it?”Ty pulled out his notebook and stubby pencil.“You ladies figure that out.I’m going to talk to the contestants and see if they saw or heard anything.”“Thank goodness my dress muumuus are still at the jail.”“That’s good news,” I said.Always a silver lining with ACB.Ty noticed a piece of paper on the floor.I could see the black print bleeding though.He read it and swore under his breath.“What is it?” ACB asked.Ty hesitated.ACB had a white-knuckle grip on the arms of the chair.“I want to know.”Ty handed her the paper, and I read over her shoulder:YOU ARE NEXT!* * *I double-checked my measurements for peanut butter cookies, because I couldn’t get my brain to focus.All I could think of was how ACB’s room had been trashed and her muumuus slashed.ACB had been with Aileen most of the evening.Toxic and Dog had been there.The only one missing from the scenario was the less-than-delightful Chad Dodson.I spooned out the peanut butter from an industrial-size jar and got my big mixer turning.Slow at first, so the flour didn’t slop all over the floor, then faster.I prepared my pans, cutting parchment paper to size.I swear by parchment paper and use it for cookies all the time.With a soup spoon, I scooped out the mixture, rolled it into a ball, and put it on the parchment, spacing the balls evenly.Dipping the bottom of a glass in sugar, I squished each ball.Then I took a fork and made a crisscross pattern on the top, for no reason other than that my mother used to do it and they look cute that way.I gathered what I needed for my chocolate chip cookies.But first I had to eat some chips for quality control.Just as I finished mixing the chocolate chip cookie batter and started taking the peanut butter cookies out of the oven, Chelsea came bouncing in.“The Roving Rubbers are here.It looks like all of them.”I checked my watch.It was two in the morning.Didn’t those motorcycling chefs ever sleep?“What’s up with them?”“They’re leaving at sunup.Something about eating and roving where the rubber meets the road,” Chelsea said.I wondered if Ty knew that two of his suspects were going to rove.“Well, bring on the orders.I’m ready.”“Trixie, here’s a good one.Toxic Waste said to tell you that he’d like to cook with you.”I thought about that for a bit.“I guess it’s okay.”Actually, it was more than okay.I’d be able to question him more.I almost fainted when Toxic walked into the kitchen through the swinging doors.He wore a white chef’s coat and white hat, black jeans, and black sneakers.He was freshly shaved and looked so unlike the Toxic Waste that I knew.“Can I call you by your real name in my kitchen, Chef?”“Billy.Last name is Gerard.”“Billy it is,” I said.“Before the orders come in, I need to get my chocolate chip cookies out of the oven and onto the cooling rack.”“I’m on it,” Billy said.“Then I’ll start the batter for snickerdoodle cookies.”Billy loaded the last pan of cookies, then yelled over to me.“I’ll chop up more lettuce for salads.I see that the special is spaghetti and meatballs.Got enough?”“How about boiling more spaghetti? I’ll throw a pan of meatballs into the oven to heat them up.” Luckily, I had a pan already cooked and sitting in the cooler.“How about sauce?”“In the cooler.A huge pot of it.Needs to be heated.”“I’ll get it,” Billy said.I was impressed.Billy was a self-starter.He got everything bubbling on the stove, and I got the snickerdoodle dough covered with plastic wrap and in the cooler.It needed to chill for four hours.By then, the Rubbers should be on the road.Which reminded me
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IndexChristine Amsden [Cassie Scot Cassie Scot ParaNormal Detecti
Christine Wood [Life Plan 01] A Life Plan Without You (epub)
Christie Craig [Divorced, Des Divorced, Desperate
Moore Christopher Ssij, mała, ssij (II)
Christine Cody [Bloodlands 01 Bloodlands (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 3 (epub)
Christian Fletcher [The Left Left on the Brink (epub)
Stasheff, Christopher Wizard in Rhyme 6 Haunted Wizard
Christopher G Nuttall [Royal The Royal Sorceress (epub)
Christine Feehan Mroczna Seri Mroczny Demon