Chocolate Heart Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 14 by Kathleen Suzette (guided reading books .TXT) 📗

she kill him? “I didn’t know that about her.” I wondered if she would say something else.

She nodded as she finished rinsing my hair. “I ran into her at the grocery store the last time they broke up. She wanted him to marry her, but he had no intention of doing that. They had been together for five or six years and she was on him all the time to get him to marry her, but he didn’t have any interest in marrying her for some reason. It made her so angry.”

“I wonder why he wouldn’t marry her?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I really don’t have any idea about that. When I ran into her last December, she told me that she had wasted the last five years of her life because of him. She was so mad. I mean, her face was red, and she just went on and on about how he was a jerk and how he expected her to be there whenever he called, and yet when she wanted to be with him, sometimes he would say he was busy or that he didn’t want to see her. She said she felt like she was being used, and you know that kind of thing can wear on a person after a while.”

I frowned as she squeezed the excess water out of my hair. “I can see where that would be upsetting. But why didn’t she leave him permanently, then? Why go back?”

“I said the same thing to her, and she started crying right there in the cereal aisle and said that she loved him, and she couldn’t leave him. She said she couldn’t live without him.” She chuckled. “Some women have no backbone.”

“Unfortunately, she has to live without him now. If she couldn’t live without him, why would she kill him?” I hadn’t realized that Mariah was so emotionally volatile.

She chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth? But I figure she lost her temper and killed him in a fit of rage.”

“But he died in his car. Someone cut the brake line. That isn’t a fit of rage. That’s planned.”

She nodded. “Did you know that Mariah’s dad used to own the body shop in town?”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t know that.”

She nodded. “Mariah knows her way around a car as well as any man does. It wouldn’t have been a big deal for her to cut that brake line. I guess I don’t know for sure that she killed him, but I would be willing to bet that she did.”

That was news to me. I hadn’t realized that her dad had owned the old body shop. It had closed down nearly ten years earlier. Mariah was fit and in shape, and it would have been easy for her to slip under that car and cut the brake line if she knew which line it was. And if her dad had taught her about cars, then she probably did. I was going to talk to Ethan about this.

Chapter Eight

I was putting fudge into the display case when the bell over the door rang and I looked up. Ethan walked into the shop and grinned at me.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” I said and closed the display case door. I went around the side of the front counter and gave him a quick kiss. We were the only people in the candy store, and I pulled him to me and held him tight. I looked up into his eyes. “Hey, you look tired.”

He nodded. “I am tired.”

“What’s going on?” I asked. The look in his eyes was more than being tired and I wanted to know what was going on.

“The chief thinks I might be a little too close to this case. He thinks I’m stressing myself out over finding his killer. But I owe it to Logan to give him the justice he deserves.”

“Can you ask to be taken off the case?” I asked him.

He gave me a puzzled look. “Why would I do that? I’m going to find Logan’s killer.”

I nodded. “Of course you are, but it’s got to be hard investigating this case with the victim being a friend of yours.”

He sighed and looked away. “It is. But it doesn’t matter. I will find whoever killed Logan and make sure they’re put away for a long time,” he said and walked over to the display case. “What I’ve been missing is your mother’s fudge. Is that raspberry white chocolate fudge I see there?”

“Wait a minute. What you’ve been missing is my mother’s fudge?” I put my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at him.

He glanced at me and chuckled. “I’m sorry, let me rephrase that. I’ve been missing you so much. I also miss your mother’s fudge. But if I had to choose between the two, I would choose you over your mother’s fudge. And that has got to make you feel good, doesn’t it?”

I shook my head and laughed. “Yes, it makes me feel wonderful.” I went behind the counter and opened up the display case. “Raspberry white chocolate fudge?” The raspberry fudge was proving to be a popular flavor.

“Some of that Raspberry white chocolate fudge would make me the happiest man alive,” he said. Then he looked at me wide-eyed. “Let me rephrase that. Seeing you has made me the happiest man alive. The only thing that would make me just a teensy bit happier is if I could also have some of that raspberry fudge that your mother so lovingly makes.”

I shook my head and pulled the tray of fudge from the display case. “You sure are buttering me up for some reason,” I said.

“Only for some fudge,” he said, leaning on the front counter. “Hey, did you do something different with your hair?” He looked at me, tilting his head.

I turned my head so he could