Death by the Dozen by Jenn McKinlay

too,” Angie said.
    “Well, right now you can help me eat these cupcakes,” Mel said, pushing out of his embrace. “The cooler is full, and I have no idea what I’m going to do with all of these.”
    “Say no more. I am the man for the job,” he said.
    He took a seat and chose two cupcakes. Mel and Angie did the same.
    “So, I’m thinking I should go and see Grace,” Mel said. “I mean, she’s got to be devastated. Vic was her whole life.”
    “Really?” Angie asked. “Even though he was cheating on her?”
    “We don’t know that,” Mel said.
    Angie gave her a flat stare.
    “Okay, we do know that,” she said. “But I talked to her about it, and she wasn’t even mad. She seemed to think it was just inevitable, and she was waiting it out.”
    “Bully for her,” Angie said. “I’d wait it out—in the state penitentiary after I shot the miserable louse in the privates.”
    Joe glanced at her across the table. “This is not information I want to hear.”
    “Sorry, sometimes I forget you’re an officer of the court,” Angie said. “Still, how can she put up with that?”
    “You are assuming that she did put up with it,” Joe said. “We don’t know how Vic ended up in that freezer, and spouses are frequently—”
    “Grace did not murder Vic,” Mel interrupted. “I know it. She loved him, despite his character flaws. Besides, she’s not a killer. I know her and she’s not.”
    Angie and Joe exchanged a glance, but Mel didn’t back down. She knew Grace. They didn’t. As far as she was concerned, that made it case closed, and she was going to tell Uncle Stan and anyone else who cared to listen the same thing.

    When Mel and Angie arrived at the festival the next day, they were greeted by two bright-eyed volunteers. Well, one bright-eyed volunteer and one tipsy one—Mel’s mother, Joyce, and her best buddy, Ginny.
    “Oh, honey, how are you?” Joyce asked as she pulled Mel into a crusher hug.
    “I’m fine,” Mel said, hugging her mother back just as tightly.
    Joyce had checked on her the day before, but Mel was happy to see her again today. Her brother, Charlie, who lived in Flagstaff, had called repeatedly, and Mel had to admit that having her small family circle the wagons for her made her feel much more secure.
    “We were shocked, just shocked, to hear about the dead guy in the freezer,” Ginny said. She patted Mel’s arm while taking a long sip from her water bottle. “And then we heard he was your old professor—didn’t see that one coming.”
    “Thanks, Ginny.” Mel turned back to her mother. “Have you seen Grace?”
    “No,” Joyce said. “And we’re under strict orders from Millicent to say nothing about the incident.”
    “Incident?” Angie asked. “Since when is a dead man just an incident?”
    “When it’s a dead man who might turn off forty thousand festival visitors,” Ginny answered.
    “Ah,” Angie said.
    “Any word on what they’re doing about the challenge to the chefs?” Mel asked.
    “Business as usual,” Joyce said. “Because of yesterday’s chaos, they’ve put up a leader board, you know like in golf, so if you made it to the next round, you’re on it.”
    Mel stared at her, and Joyce gave her a ghost of a smile. Then as if she couldn’t stand the suspense, she jumped up and down and said, “You’re in the lead!”
    “We’re what?” Mel asked.
    “In the lead, numero uno, tip-top,” Ginny said.
    “I have to see this,” Angie said. She grabbed Mel’s arm and said, “Come on.”
    They skirted the booths where restaurants were in the midst of setting up for the day and cut across the lawn. Mel couldn’t help glancing at where the bar had been yesterday. She noticed the trailer that Vic had been found in was gone, and she wondered if the police had impounded it.
    They reached the stretch of the mall where their cooking dais was situated, and sure enough, mounted above the cooking area was a huge billboard and Fairy Tale Cupcakes was