Fudgy Fatality: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 10 by Kathleen Suzette (good books for high schoolers .txt) 📗

“Well, I might be moving back.” He looked away when he said it.

“What? Why?” I asked him, hearing the alarm in my own voice.

He looked at Christy. “They had layoffs at my company, and well, I was one of the lucky ones. Or unlucky, I guess you could say.”

I sighed loudly. “Really. Well aren’t we lucky to have you back, then?”

Christy glanced at me, then turned back to John. “That’s a shame. Are you going to see if you can get hired back on at your old job?”

He nodded. “I’m going to stop by there Tuesday morning and see what’s up. Hey, I heard about Olivia Summers. That’s a real shock. Does Ethan have any idea what happened?”

And then I had a thought. Olivia worked at the same company that John had left when he moved away from Pumpkin Hollow. The same company he was going to stop by and see if they were hiring. Which they might be, now that they were short one employee, Olivia Summers.

“He’s investigating. These things take time. Weird, but now that Olivia is dead, the company might have an open position.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

His eyes went wide, then he chuckled. “Really, Mia? Did you think I came back to Pumpkin Hollow looking for a job and then bumped someone off so I could get theirs? That would be kind of stupid, wouldn’t it?”

I stared at him, daring him to look away.

“Mia, that’s ridiculous,” Christy said quietly. “It’s just a coincidence that he came back to town when there’s a murder.”

I glanced at her. I knew it was a coincidence, but I was surprised Christy said it like she did. Like she wasn’t completely sure about it herself.

“It is ridiculous. Look, if you need a suspect, Ethan should talk to Bryce Jenkins. He and Olivia dated years ago. He was jealous of everyone that ever spoke to her. And he’s a little crazy if you want to know the truth. He was the one that spray-painted that crazy poem onto the side of the boys’ gym in the tenth grade.”

“I thought that was Mike Selma?” I said. The poem in question made no sense at all and I had always been puzzled by it.

He chuckled. “Mike Selma took the fall, but it was Bryce that did it. He had something on Mike.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“He caught him buying alcohol with a fake ID and he promised not to tell. But then when he spray-painted the gym, he needed someone else to take the fall, his dad being a police officer and all.”

I shook my head. “That sounds like a lot of juvenile angst. Why would you think he might have killed Olivia, especially since it’s been a while since they dated?”

He shrugged. “When I was working at Storage Inc, I came up behind her one day. She was typing an email, and I saw who it was going to. Bryce Jenkins. This was long after they had split up.”

“And? What difference does that make?” I asked, wishing he would just move along.

“It was the subject line. She had typed, ‘leave me alone!!’ In all caps.”

Okay, that made me suspicious. “Did you ask her about it?”

“Sort of, but not really. I told her it was rude to type in all caps, just kidding with her, you know. She went pale when she realized I’d seen it. I told her I didn’t read it, I only noticed the all caps. I asked her if everything was okay, and she said it was.” He shrugged again. “I don’t know. Maybe it didn’t mean anything. Lots of people have drama in their lives, even though everyone claims they aren’t the cause of it. Maybe it was nothing.”

“Maybe,” I said thoughtfully. The waitress came to our booth and John left for his table.

“I think I’d like the Dracula grilled ham,” Christy said without looking at the menu. “And an iced tea.”

“I’ll take the California monster special and a diet Coke,” I told her. When she left, I turned to Christy. “What do you think about what John said? Do you think Bryce Jenkins could have done it?”

“I don’t know.” She picked up her glass of water and took a sip. “You weren’t serious when you pointed out that there was an opening at Storage Inc and it was a coincidence John showed up, were you?”

I looked at her. “No, I just wanted to give him a hard time. What about you? You almost seemed worried when I said it.”

“Worried? No, I’m not worried. He would never have done something like that. He wasn’t the greatest husband in the world, but he isn’t a murderer. I just hope Ethan can find the killer soon.”

I sat back in my seat. I hoped he could find the killer soon, too.

Chapter Seven

“So, how goes the investigation?” I asked Ethan. He was sitting on my couch, my cat Boo was on one side of him and his cat, Licorice, was on the other. The cats were pretending to ignore one another, but now and then they’d slip each other a glance.

He sighed. “Okay, I guess. She was strangled, as we suspected, and left there on the sidewalk. We searched the office where she worked, but nothing looked out of order there.” He picked up his glass of lemonade and took a sip, then winced at the tartness. “Great lemonade.”

I chuckled. “Does it need more sugar?”

“Nope, this is fine. I like when the acid in the lemon juice eats away the enamel on my teeth.”

“Please, it isn’t going to hurt your gorgeous teeth,” I said and sat on the chair across from him.

He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “Why are you sitting way over there?”

“Because the couch is occupied by you and two