by S. Y. Robins
Warm Food Cold Body
Cozy Mystery
S Y Robins
Contents
Copyright
About the Author
About the Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
BONUS
Deadly Brewed
Missing Hearts
Spooky Followers
Wicked Vampire
Witch You Were Dead
Copyright © Lovy Books Ltd, 2016
S Y Robins has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Lovy Books Ltd
20-22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU
About the Author
S.Y. Robins lives in Surrey, England and is a short story author. Despite being partially blind and suffering from kidney failure at a young age, she is perpetually happy and lives in a laughter filled home. S.Y. has turned her personal tragedy into unimaginable strength by envisioning brand new worlds through her writing.
When not writing she spends time with her guide dog, Mochi and reading anything she can get her hands on.
It is very important for S. Y. Robins that her book is available for the visually impaired like herself. After finding out that Braille production is rather expensive for small indie author like herself, S. Y. Robins has decided to make her book available in the version of Audio book. Her first book, Scoop Away is now available to buy on Audible and iTunes.
About the Book
After a bad divorce leaves Shannon without a home or friends, she finds herself moving in with her younger sister, Daisy—only to find that the upbeat young woman is also struggling with heartbreak, and miserable at work to boot. With nothing to lose, the two women decide to give up cubicles and spreadsheets and strike out on their own.
But weeks of careful planning unravel abruptly when, on their very first day operating a food truck, a body is discovered lying by their propane tanks. Suspicion immediately falls on Daisy, and Shannon is determined not to let her little sister go to jail. Daisy may be reckless, sarcastic, and irreverent, but Shannon is absolutely sure that she is not a killer.
Except, the more Shannon pries, the list of suspects only seems to grow longer and longer. And it turns out that Daisy may have had more motives for the murder than she’s admitting…
1
“You broke his heart!” The shout was sharp and sudden, startling Shannon so that she dropped a container of shredded cheese onto her foot. Wincing and muttering an oath under her breath, she cast an annoyed glance in the direction of the street, shook her head, and replaced the box in its rightful place.
As the tirade continued, Shannon rolled her eyes and began stirring the tomato soup that simmered in a large pot on one side of the food truck. The smells of tomato, heavy cream, and basil rose from the pot and she smiled in satisfaction. This was the first day that their food truck, Warm Me Up, was out on the streets, and the bite of winter in the air told her that they would have wonderful success.
Who, after all, could refuse grilled cheese and tomato soup on a day like today?
The shouting was hardly going to help, though. Shannon was just gathering her courage to go out and confront the man outside when she heard her sister’s voice raised furiously.
“I broke his heart? Really? Me?”
“Crap.” Shannon gave one last stir of the soup, peered around to make sure no early customers were waiting outside the food truck, and hurried outside.
“You’ve as good as killed him!” The man shouting was brown-haired, dressed in a button-down shirt and vest, his wrist adorned with a vintage watch and his hair swept neatly to one side. He was, Shannon reflected, absurdly good looking—or at least, he would be if his blue eyes weren’t narrowed, and his face screwed up with anger.
“Oh, please!” Daisy’s hands were balled into fists, her blonde braid swinging as she tossed her head angrily. This morning, Daisy had been all smiles as she donned a red shirt and painted her lips a bright crimson. She was as excited as Shannon was for the success of their food truck. Or, at least, she had been. Shannon was well-accustomed to her sister’s mood swings, and she was fairly sure that if she were to ask Daisy about the food truck now, the other woman wouldn’t even remember what she was talking about.
Shannon rubbed her forehead, closing her eyes as Daisy hissed something and the man stepped forward threateningly.
“Guys—”
Neither of them paid the slightest attention, but people were taking notice. A woman with bright red hair was watching from a doorway nearby, her arms crossed and a hard expression on her face. A few businessmen stopped and turned, raising their eyebrows and laughing. Shannon heard their joke carried on the winter wind: Look! Food truck battles! Think it’s on that one TV show? And worst of all, a policewoman was taking notice. Her golden-brown hair was pulled back in a severe bun, and her eyes were narrowed at the shouting couple. Shannon caught her eye and held up a hand to keep her from starting forward, hurrying into the fray herself.
“That’s enough.” She used her big sister voice as firmly as she could. Stepping between Daisy and the man. “We need to work right now.” Her glare was directed at Daisy, but she sent an unfriendly look at the man as well. His eyes followed Daisy as she disappeared into the food truck.
“I’m not leaving until she—”
“Until she what?” Shannon asked, stepping slightly sideways so the man could see the policewoman watching.
“Until she admits what she did was wrong,” he hissed.
“Well, then you’ll be waiting for a long time,” Shannon said, her voice wry with long experience. Daisy was charming, kind, generous, and funny—and also absolutely unwilling to admit when she was in the wrong.
The man, however, didn’t budge, and Shannon shook her head and disappeared into the truck as well. She bit her lip when she saw the verve with which Daisy was chopping tomatoes for another batch of soup.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.” Daisy dumped the tomatoes into the second pot, banging the cutting board a little harder than necessary.
“Are you sure?”
The look Daisy turned on her was venomous. “Well, do I look all right?”
“Not at all.”
“There’s your answer.”
“Daisy…” Shannon put down a loaf of bread and went to stand at Daisy’s side until her sister looked up unwillingly. To her surprise, there were tears trembling in the woman’s brown eyes. “Oh, my God. What’s wrong?”
“It’s…it’s nothing.” Daisy wiped her eyes and gave a sigh. “Great, now I have to wash my hands again.”
“Food service problems,” Shannon agreed. She pulled her sister into a hug and felt the heavy weight of the woman’s head on her shoulder. “What was that, out there?”
“Well, you remember Silas?”
“How could I forget?” Shannon asked wryly. Daisy’s breakup with her now ex-boyfriend had been tumultuous, loud, and filled with tears. Though Shannon couldn’t approve of the f
act that Daisy had cheated on Silas, the fact was that she knew the look her sister got when she was in love—and while she’d never had that look for Silas, she definitely had it for whoever it was she’d cheated with.
Daisy, however, refused to speak of the other man. She’d said it was over, and Shannon didn’t want to press too much.
“That’s one of Silas’s best friends,” Daisy said now.
“What’s his name?”
“Noah.” Daisy looked up. “And don’t tell me you think he’s cute. He’s a bastard. Total bastard.”
“He doesn’t sound like he likes you much, either.”
“Yeah, well…he can go rot in hell.”
“Daisy!”
“Oh, come on, we’re not in Sunday school anymore.” Daisy shook her head and pulled away, moving to wash her hands. “He’s a hypocrite, is what I mean. He wants to blame everything about Silas’s condition on me, but it’s not all my fault! I know I messed up, but I wasn’t the only one.” Her jaw set stubbornly. “And his drinking was part of the reason I wanted to leave…it didn’t start when I cheated.”
“I know. I know, babe.” Shannon reached out and tucked a stray lock of hair into her sister’s cap. “When you have to leave, you have to leave.”
The fact was, no matter how much she disapproved of the cheating, she would defend to the death her sister’s right to leave Silas. Five months earlier, it had been Shannon’s choice to leave her husband. She had been driven by the passionate belief that she should be happy, she should wake each day with even the possibility of joy in her life—something she could not begin to imagine with her husband.
But Shannon hadn’t had the first idea of how difficult the divorce would be. Her husband’s spite, which had drained the joy from her life for years, had become ten times as strong when she made to leave him. For weeks, all Shannon heard were the stories he spread behind her back, tales that only grew more lurid as time went on. Finally, without a penny to her name or even a house to live in, Shannon had gone to Daisy as one of the few people who would still even say hello to her.
Daisy had never questioned. Never once had she wondered aloud whether Shannon was in the right. She had been fierce in her belief that the stories Jeffrey spread were nothing more than lies. And she had offered Shannon all that she had, from the guest bedroom to the single malt scotch she saved for special occasions. Daisy had been there, unwavering, and Shannon was determined to be as good a friend to her little sister as Daisy had been to her.
Now, when she saw Daisy’s almost fearful look to the back of the truck, Shannon closed the door firmly and took her sister’s face in both hands.
“Don’t even think about him,” she said firmly. “Not for a second. You needed to leave Silas and you did.”
“What if I really did break his heart?”
“Hearts mend,” Shannon said wryly. Who knew better than her? She’d had a broken heart before she even realized it, standing in the wreckage of a marriage that Jeffrey insisted was fine. “Now, what we need is to have an amazing first day so we can go home and have champagne, right? So get ready to yell for people to have delicious soup.”
Daisy laughed and nodded. She hugged Shannon impulsively, and for a moment she was the little sister with the skinned knees and the crooked braids. Daisy, Shannon knew, was constitutionally incapable of being upset for too long.
But before they could so much as serve the first bowl of soup, the screaming started. Exchanging a look, Daisy and Shannon leaned over the counter of the food truck, peering out into the street. A woman in a nice dress was screaming as she pointed between Warm Me Up and the next food truck over. Shannon hesitated, then swung the door open.
“Oh, my God.”
“What is it?” Daisy’s voice sounded behind her.
“Don’t look,” Shannon said insistently.
“What is it?”
“It’s Noah.” Shannon tried to speak, but horror was making her voice come out all funny. “He’s dead.”
2
Shannon paced, rubbing at her arms. Her heart was racing. Every time she looked at the door, it stayed firmly closed. The secretary, on the other hand, was getting increasingly annoyed with Shannon’s incessant pacing. This time, she let out a particularly annoyed sigh.
Shannon gave an apologetic smile and sat. She wasn’t particularly good at sitting still; she never had been. And she maintained that while her sister was being questioned about murder was a time that no one should expect her to be sitting quietly. She jiggled her leg and tried not to leap up and begin pacing again.
The ambulances had arrived within minutes, but it was clear to everyone there that they were far too late. While people screamed and Daisy went an unhealthy shade of grey, Shannon had tried to get any sort of information she could out of the policeman.
“He just keeled over,” the woman said, shaking her head. Her name badge read Smith. “Look, we’re going to need to bring your…ah, cook?”
“Sister,” Shannon said flatly.
The policewoman’s lips pressed together slightly. “Your sister,” she said. “We’ll need to bring her in and ask her some questions.”
“Why? He might have had a heart attack!”
“Yes, he might have. And the autopsy will figure it all out. But did you see his lips and the way his skin got? That looks like poisoning.”
“Poison?” Someone on the street looked around hastily, and Shannon saw her eyes flick to the awning of the food truck, noting the name.
She shut up, cleaned up the food truck on her own, and then drove to the police station to pick up Daisy. Only Daisy was still being questioned. Shannon resisted the urge to bite her nails, or text their parents, or any of a number of unproductive things. For the last few minutes, she would even have welcomed Jeffrey’s presence for the distraction it would afford.
The thought of him striding into this room made her shudder, however. She would never crave his presence, she decided. The man she had loved was gone now—if he ever existed. The Jeffrey that still existed was uncaring and cruel.
When the door from the back rooms opened, Shannon leaped up. Daisy was shown out by two officers, a man in a suit walking confidently after them. His eyes flicked to Shannon and he nodded, then drew Daisy aside. What the two of them spoke about, Shannon did not know, but he seemed to be giving stern instructions. Daisy nodded, more chastened than Shannon had ever seen her, and then came over to her sister.
“Who was that?”
“My lawyer.”
“You have a lawyer?”
“Shannon, you never talk to the police without a lawyer.”
“But you haven’t been charged with anything,” Shannon protested.
“Still,” Daisy said firmly. She looked around and hunched her shoulders. “Can we go?”
“Sure.”
Shannon watched her sister as they headed back to the house. Daisy had her head turned to look out the window. She was pale and acting uncharacteristically quiet, and once or twice, Shannon saw her face screw up like she was about to cry. Whatever she was feeling, she kept it inside until they got into the house. Then she stood in the living room, looking lost.
“Are you all right?” Shannon asked softly.
Daisy’s eyes met hers. “No,” she said finally. “No, I’m not.” At last, the tears came and she could not hold them back. She crumpled onto the couch and Shannon sat beside her, arm around her shoulders. “He’s dead,” she made out.
“It sounds like you knew him…pretty well?” Shannon asked, lost by this storm of emotion.
Daisy shrugged helplessly, face still buried in her hands. “Yes. I guess. He’s dead. How can he be dead?”
“The police said it might have been a heart attack.”
The look Daisy turned on her was haunted. “He’s still dead,” she said quietly. “And I don’t think it was an accident.”
“Why not?” Shannon peered at her, frowning.
Daisy only looked away, pressing he
r lips together.
“Daisy…”
“What?” There it was, the trademark temper. But even as Shannon felt a surge of irritation, she was also relieved. She had never seen Daisy so subdued.
“What is it?”
“Aren’t you at all upset?” Daisy demanded. “You just saw a dead body! You just saw…” She looked away, her chin trembling.
“I’ve been trying not to think about it,” Shannon admitted.
Daisy said nothing.
“Daisy…I was worried about you. Please. Please, don’t get so upset.”
“Don’t get upset?” Daisy repeated incredulously. “Are you hearing yourself? One of my—I don’t even know—was murdered, and now they think I did it!”
“But why would they think that?” Shannon demanded. “It doesn’t make any sense! Even if he was poisoned, he didn’t eat anything from the truck, he stormed up and started shouting at you, he…” She shook her head and leaped up to begin pacing. “It doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
“I told you he hated me.” Daisy slumped back on the couch. “It would be just like him to get his final revenge by putting me in jail.”
“Final revenge?” Shannon asked softly. “What happened between you two?”
“If you’re asking for a reason why he hated me, I can’t give you one.” Daisy looked away, arms crossed. “He always did. From the minute I first showed up at one of Silas’s concerts, he hated me. He thought I was just with him because Silas was in a band and not because I loved him at all. And I didn’t even know when I first met him!”
Shannon nodded. She had heard the story: Daisy peering across a crowded dance floor and catching Silas’s eye, the two of them dancing past his band’s break and the way her heart turned over when he walked up onstage to take the mic again. Daisy hadn’t mentioned, however, the fact that Noah had been there.