Death by Chocolate

sister what she could do with the vegetables in question.
    Granny Reid would have been
so proud.

Chapter

10
     
     
     
    W hen Savannah arrived at the
gates of the Maxwell estate, Tammy was sitting in her Volkswagen bug parked
right across the road. Savannah waited for her to run across the highway and
get into the passenger’s seat before she drove up to the key pad and punched in
the security code.
    “I didn’t know you had
that,” Tammy said. “When did they give you the combination?”
    “They didn’t. I saw it
written on a piece of paper and taped to the inside of the pantry door.
Discreet, huh?” The gates swung open, and she drove the Mustang through.
    “Not very. Gee.... anybody
could have seen it there.”
    “Exactly. Doesn’t narrow
down our list of who might have been on the property lately.”
    Tammy thought for a moment.
“And with the murder weapon being something she ate, it could have been planted
almost anytime.”
    “Please don’t remind me.
I’m depressed enough as it is.”
    Savannah drove past the
barn-converted-studio and saw Dirk’s battered Buick parked behind the building.
    “Let’s start here,” she
said. “We’ll see how far Dirk’s gotten on his own this morning.”
     
     
    “Where the hell have you
been?” was the cry that greeted them when they walked through the studio doors.
On the far side of the cavernous room, Dirk was on his hands and knees behind a
partition, sifting through what appeared to be a pile of garbage. ‘You said you
were going to give me a hand, and I’ve been working my tail off all morning by
myself with no help from anybody.”
    “And you haven’t come up
with anything,” Savannah replied as they walked across the room to join him.
    “How do you know I
haven’t?”
    “Because you’re crankier
than usual. If you’d found anything good, you’d be more cordial.”
    She knelt on the floor
beside him and saw that it was indeed the studio garbage that he was searching.
The trash consisted mostly of paper, but enough coffee, sodas, and chocolate
cake had been added to the mix to make it a disgusting mess. He was wearing a
pair of surgical gloves. Though he had no hygienic standards about sifting
through garbage with his bare hands, she knew he was concerned about
contaminating anything he might find in the way of evidence.
    She dug in her purse for a
pair of gloves for Tammy and another for herself. They both slipped them on and
began to rummage with him. He appeared to be collecting bits of chocolate cake
and stashing them in an evidence bag.
    “I had to go to the airport
to pick up my sister,” she reminded him, as she tossed a coffee-soggy piece
into his bag.
    Tammy knelt on the other
side of Dirk and wrinkled her nose at the smell of the garbage. ‘Yeah, and
hanging out with Cordele isn’t exactly fun.”
    “Oh yeah.” Dirk nodded
thoughtfully. “I remember that one. Met her in Georgia when we were there last
year. She’s the one with the stick up her—”
    “Yep, that’s Cordele, all
right,” Savannah replied. “And she’s come to visit me for an undetermined
length of time.”
    “Lucky you.” Dirk picked up
another hunk and dropped it into the bag.
    “Yeah, lucky me,” Savannah
said. “I’ve got a homicide to investigate and don’t have to hang around the
house and get my head shrunk.”
    “She’s a shrink?” He folded
the bag closed, took a black marker from his pocket, and began to scribble
pertinent information on an orange label, which he then affixed to the bag,
sealing it.
    “No. She’s studying to be
one.” Savannah continued to sift through the mess, but saw no more cake
fragments. “She’s just learned enough to be dangerous—to herself, that is.
Someday she’s going to tell the wrong person that they’re passive-aggressive
and they’ll forget all about being passive, if you know what I mean.”
    “I can understand how she
might bring out the worst in a person.” He stood and brushed the remnants of
garbage from the front of his jeans. “Why don’t you put her on a plane and send
her home?”
    “Easier said than done,”
Tammy muttered. “She’s a Reid, and they don’t obey very well.”
    “What’s that?” Savannah
said.
    “Nothing.” Tammy looked
around at the empty, relatively dark studio. “Where’s your Crime Scene Unit?
Why aren’t they helping you today?”
    “More budget cuts from our
dear mayor.” Dirk walked over to a box he had stowed near the stage and