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

“You do that.” I got into my car. John Green was never going to be a friend of mine, regardless of whether Christy had forgiven him or not.

Chapter Nine

It was time to do some investigating now that it was Tuesday and the crowds had thinned out. There would still be plenty of tourists stopping by the candy store in the afternoons once schools were out and people got off work, but most of the action happened on the weekends. It was good to not have to wear a costume during the week, too. I headed over to the offices of Storage Inc to see if I could find out anything about what had happened to Olivia. Maybe she had let something slip to one of her coworkers that would be helpful in figuring out who killed her.

Storage Inc manufactured business shelving, among other things. The warehouse was several miles outside of town, but the offices were here in town. I didn’t know a lot about them, but I knew they manufactured items for businesses, and since my family owned a business, I had a good excuse to stop by and snoop around.

“Hello,” a young woman said without looking up when I entered the office. After a moment she looked away from her computer screen and smiled at me. “Hi Mia.”

I smiled back when I realized who she was. “Hi Carla. How are you?” Carla Steele was just the person I wanted to speak with. Amanda had said Olivia had trouble with her here at her job and I wondered how extensive that trouble had been.

“I’m doing great. I’m so glad fall is on the way and we can get everything pumpkin spice.” She chuckled. “Me and my pumpkin spice coffee, I tell you, my boyfriend says I’m an addict. He might be right.”

There was a cup of coffee from Amanda’s shop on her desk. “Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love everything pumpkin spice, too. It’s been a long time I’ve seen you, Carla. How have you been?”

She nodded. “I’m great. Just great. I bet the candy sales are crazy now that it’s Halloween season.”

“Crazy doesn’t begin to describe it, but it’s the biggest part of the reason why I love fall.”

“I’ve got to get over there and buy some pumpkin spice fudge. Is there something I can help you with today?”

We were out in the open and I glanced around. There were cubicles filled with people that lined the walls. “Business has picked up so much at the candy store with the online sales, we’ve been talking about making some changes to the kitchen. We need more storage, not to mention staging areas for the candy we’ve packed up that needs to be shipped out.”

She nodded. “I bet you do need some rearranging of that kitchen. I was in there years ago when my mom stopped in to say hello to your mom. It was while you were away at college if I remember right. It seemed like the kitchen was pretty small.”

I nodded. “The kitchen was fine when we were just making enough candy for local sales, but the Internet sales have really put us in a squeeze. I think the space could be better utilized if we really thought about it. I wish it was bigger, but for now we’ll have to make better space choices to capitalize on the room we do have.” The idea that one day we might have to move the shop had occurred to me, but the thought made me feel ill. We had been at the same location since my grandmother had opened the business.

“I can imagine. But we only sell wholesale to distributors. Our organization systems and shelving units go out to retail outlets that sell them, or to contractors that do renovations. We don’t sell to small businesses.”

“Oh? I had no idea,” I said. That was disappointing, we really needed to make changes in the kitchen. “When I told my mother we were in need of a better space solution, I thought of you all first.” I shrugged. It really hadn’t occurred to me that they might not sell to me. We were a business after all, and we always bought wholesale from all of our suppliers.

“What you need is a company that can come in and design a better space for you. They would buy the items you need and sell them to you as part of their service.” She smiled and picked up a pen. “I think I might have some business cards here from some contractors that might be able to help you out.” She pulled open the thin drawer on her desk and rummaged through it.

“That’s probably the best idea, anyway,” I said. “I bet a professional will be able to see things with a better eye than we can and make recommendations.” I hated to spend the money. I really just wanted to put in a new shelving rack that would allow us to stack up more boxes that were ready to be shipped. But she might be right about someone coming in that had ideas that would help us out. I just didn’t want to think about what that might cost.

“Here you are. This one is in South Lake Tahoe. I’ve had a couple of people tell me they do good work.” She slid the business card across the desk to me.

I picked it up and looked it over. “Any idea what the pricing might be?”

She shook her head. “No, sorry. I don’t know. The owner is a nice guy though. Ask for Stan Sigall. I deal with him when he places orders for materials.”

I looked up at her. “What exactly do you do here, Carla?”

“I’m in sales. That’s what most of us do. I know, with me sitting