Baking is Murder (A Bee's Bakehouse Cozy Mystery) (Bee's Bakehouse Mysteries Book 1) by Kathy Cranston Page A

normal guest have done? She looked up to see that he had vanished into the kitchen. Her heart leaped into her mouth.
    What’s he gone in there for? He could have just sat at the table to write.
    Jessie looked around frantically, wondering what had possessed her to do this. Why couldn’t she just have gone home and watched a movie?
    “You know, she never mentioned a Jessie.”
    The coldness of Lloyd Mackenzie’s voice startled her. She looked up with a surprised gasp.
    Jessie shrugged as nonchalantly as she could manage. “I haven’t known her long. Just since last month.”
    She looked at the open book in his hands and her stomach flipped over. The page was empty. Whatever he’d been doing in the kitchen, he hadn’t been writing a note in Lydia’s book.
    “Just write whatever comes into your head. That’s what we’re all doing,” she said quickly. “It’s good to get your feelings out on paper.”
    He took a step closer. Jessie fought the urge to step back and maintain the distance between them. But she was already beside the wall—there was nowhere else for her to go.
    “You want to know what I think?”
    Jessie opened her eyes wide and shrugged, holding her open palms out beside her in the universal gesture of openness and trust. “What?”
    He came closer and closer until there were only a couple paces between them. Jessie tried to remain calm, but the look of menace in his eyes was unmistakable. She had gone there on a hunch, but there was no doubt remaining in her mind now.
    “I think you thought you could outsmart me. You thought you’d come in here with your prop and trick me.”
    Jessie shook her head. “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Lydia didn’t have a friend called Jessie. I’d have known about you if she did.”
    “We were new friends. We…”
    But he wasn’t listening. He lunged for her like a wild animal, wrapping his hands around her neck. Jessie tried to pull them away but he was too strong.
    “Please,” she said, her voice strained and high from the air being cut off to her lungs.
    And then everything went black.

Chapter 26
    Mayor Stevens stood in front of Jessie, hands on his hips. He looked angrier than she’d ever seen him.
    Jessie shrugged. “The paramedics say I fainted from shock. My throat is fine—the cops arrived before he could do any damage.”
    Mike shook his head, gritting his teeth. He opened his mouth to speak several times, obviously thinking better of it. He paced away. Finally, he came back to her side.
    “You shouldn’t have done it, Jessie. It was careless.”
    She wrapped the foil blanket around her shoulders. “The chief knew what I was doing. We had it all planned out.”
    It didn’t seem to make a difference to Mike. “You could have been killed. Did you think about that?”
    Jessie looked away. “I knew the chief would come in if things got ugly.”
    Mike hissed through his teeth.
    “Oh come on now, Mike,” Chief Daly said, joining them. “I was a little skeptical at first, I’ll admit. But it was a good idea. Got him off the streets a hell of a lot faster than we would have using the normal channels.”
    Mike rubbed his temples. “The legal channels, you mean?”
    The chief glanced around to see who was listening and then leaned closer, lowering his voice. “There was nothing illegal about this. I knew that guy was a slippery character. If we’d asked him for a writing sample, do you think we would have gotten an accurate sample? Plus he had two alibis. No, we needed to flush him out.”
    “How did you even know it was him?”
    Jessie sighed. “When I saw the handwriting didn’t match Clarice’s, I knew it had to be somebody Lydia Mackenzie knew. Because why else would they think to frame Clarice? It stumped me for a while, I have to admit. But then I remembered something.”
    “Go on.”
    “Lloyd Mackenzie had two alibis from that night; two guys who’d spent the entire afternoon and evening drinking with