I dropped the screwdriver and started backing up. This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. Memories flooded my brain of deadly garden spades and lethal explosions and . . . I started to shiver all over. I’d seen too many dead bodies under various circumstances and now this? No wonder half the town’s people had dubbed me the local murder magnet.
I continued to inch backward until a scolding voice in my head snapped my mind away from past events. Do something, Lila! the voice screamed. Yet I couldn’t move. What was wrong with me? Here an innocent, hardworking man was lying dead, obviously murdered, in a blob of frosting and all I could think about was my own reputation. I needed to do something . . . call someone . . .
My back hit something soft and squishy. I jumped just as a pair of strong hands clamped onto my shoulders. “What are you doing in here?” a husky male voice demanded. “Hey! What did you do to that guy?” The hands gripped tighter, holding me in place.
Freaked-out, I lifted my foot and slammed my heel down as hard as I could on the shoe behind me. The hands instantly let go as an agonizing scream pierced the air, but I didn’t bother to stick around to see what damage I’d caused. As soon as he released me, I made a break for it, running as fast as I could through the kitchen and back down the hallway, bumping into Zach and Jude as I rounded the corner to the main corridor.
“Lila!” Jude exclaimed. “What’s wrong? We heard a scream.”
I pointed behind me, sucking in a deep breath. My heart was slamming against my chest. “Murder,” I managed to say.
Jude grabbed me and shook. “What do you mean, murder? Speak to me, Lila.”
I pointed down the hall again. “The handyman . . . he’s dead. In the fridge.”
Zach’s eyes popped. “What? You can’t be serious.” He threw his hands in the air and tipped his head back. “Whoa! I can’t believe this. The Murder Magnet has struck again!”
Jude shot him a withering look before turning back to me. “How do you know he was murdered? Maybe he just had a heart attack.”
“No, murdered. He’s dead as . . .” Dead as a doornail. Dead as a . . . I stopped myself from actually saying the horrible phrase that suddenly popped to mind. Shaking my head, I tried to vanquish the gruesome image of the nail in Chuck’s temple. Dead as a doornail. Dead as . . . The sound of heavy footsteps interrupted the automatic replay in my mind. We all looked up as the large man from the kitchen came flying around the corner, cell phone in his hand. I flinched and grasped Jude’s arm.
“Don’t let her get away,” he cried, pointing at me. “She murdered a man! I’ve already called the cops.”
“Me? It was him. And he tried to kill me, too,” I blurted.
“Chef Belmonte tried to kill you?” Jude asked, pushing me behind him as he took a couple of aggressive steps toward the chef.
The chef’s jaw went slack. “What? I didn’t try to kill nobody. I just came into the kitchen and found this woman with a weapon in her hand, standing over a dead man.”
My muscles tensed. “A weapon? What are you talking about?”
“Stop. Both of you.” Jude cut us short. “No one say anything else until the police get here.”
Within moments the sound of wailing sirens could be heard in the distance, muffled at first, then growing louder as they arrived outside. Zach started pacing, raking his hands through his tight black curls, causing them to shoot out in every direction. “Man, Bentley’s going to be ticked when she finds out you discovered another dead body, Lila. And at our event, even! It’s bad enough everyone in town thinks of you as a murder magnet. Now your reputation is rubbing off on us. No one’s going to want to have anything to do with us, once this gets out. We’ll be ruined!”
Belmonte furrowed his bushy brows at Zach. “Is he always so dramatic?” he asked Jude.
“He represents screenplays,” Jude said by way of an explanation. Then, turning to Zach, he said, “You’d better go meet the cops and show them back here. See if you can do it quietly, without drawing too much attention.” He pulled out his cell. “I’ll call Bentley and let her know what’s going on.”