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

“He accused her of cheating. She swears she didn’t, but he was livid about it and insisted that she was lying. But apparently, that was how their relationship went. He would accuse her of cheating on him, and she said it was always an out of the blue accusation and that she had never done anything like that.”

“Do you think she was capable of cheating?” I glanced at him as we walked to see what his reaction to the question would be.

His mouth formed a straight line, and he didn’t look at me as we walked. “Maybe. But I don’t know. It seemed like there were a lot of texts and phone calls from different men. When I would ask her about it, she would just say it’s an old friend from high school, or a cousin, or she’d have some other explanation for it.”

I didn’t know what to think about that. I liked Olivia, and I wouldn’t have thought she would’ve been one to play games like that. But sometimes you don’t really know a person like you think you do. But Jane had said it was Olivia that found texts on Aaron’s phone.

“Maybe it was all innocent,” I said as we got to the paddock gate. I leaned on the rails while he opened the gate and turned the horse loose with the others.

He closed the gate and turned and looked at me. “Yeah, that’s what I always told myself.”

I remembered what Jane had said about them fighting and him leaving a bruise on Olivia’s arm. “Did you and Olivia argue a lot?”

He looked at me, surprise showing in his eyes. “I suppose we had our moments. But honestly, what couple doesn’t argue?”

“That’s true,” I said carefully.  It wasn’t true though. Ethan and I had never argued. Disagreed, yes, but we had always stopped short of a fight. “But I guess it depends on to what extent the argument escalates.” I watched his face as he took this in.

He shook his head and looked away. “Her sister told you I hurt her, didn’t she?”

“I don’t know. Did you?”

“One night Olivia and I had had too much to drink, and things might’ve gotten out of hand. But she started punching me in the chest, and I grabbed her arm and shoved her away from me. I did not beat on her.” He didn’t look at me when he said it, but he seemed sincere about what he was saying, and I hoped it was true.

“Sometimes things get carried away.”

He turned to look at me. “They sure do. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot of work to do around this place.”

I nodded and watched as he headed back to the barn. I might have made him angry, but I didn’t care. I needed to know what happened to Olivia.

I headed back to my car, thinking over the things he had told me. I knew Bryce Jenkins from high school. He had been on the football team, and he was a big guy just like Aaron was. Olivia had been very petite, but she seemed to like tall, muscular men. It wouldn’t have been difficult for either Aaron or Bryce to strangle Olivia.

Chapter Eleven

I didn’t know what to think about what Aaron had told me. He seemed sincere, but did that mean anything? Some people were just good liars. When I got into my car, I glanced at my phone. I still had more than thirty minutes left of my lunch hour. Olivia had received a flower delivery the day before she died. I didn’t know if florists kept records of deliveries or not, but I was going to find out.

I pulled up in front of the Happy Hollow Flower Shop and turned off the engine. The outside of the flower shop was decorated with a large uncarved pumpkin sitting near the door and a scarecrow made of burlap standing beside it. A black crow sat jauntily on the scarecrow’s hat while a smaller Frankenstein stood on the other side of the pumpkin.

Inside the shop, I stopped and inhaled the scent of pumpkin spice and vanilla candles. Frankie Malone owned the flower shop, and she was waiting on a customer at the front counter. She leaned to the side to look at me around the customer and smiled at me. “Hello, Mia. I’ll be right with you.”

“Thank you,” I said and headed over to the display of candles. There were some fat black pillar candles on candlesticks, and I picked up the closest one and smelled it. It smelled like blackberries. I inhaled again and smiled. I put it back and picked up one of the orange ones and smelled pumpkin pie. The cream candles were vanilla, and there were some that smelled like red candy apples, too. Candles were one of my favorite things about the holidays. There were so many scents and I love them all.

When Frankie finished waiting on her customer she came out from behind the counter and joined me at the display of candles. “Aren’t they wonderful? I always overbuy because they smell so good. I can’t resist them.”

“I can see where that would happen,” I said and chuckled. “They smell good enough to eat.”

“That’s what I tell my husband. He says I spend too much money buying stock on these candles, but I always end up selling them. No one can resist them.” Frankie was middle-aged and had dark brown hair done in a pixie cut.

“I certainly have a hard time resisting them.” I picked up a purple candle and inhaled the scent of plum cobbler. “This one smell so good.”

“I had to have some of those. I took three of them home with me when they came in.”

I laughed. “I try not to stop by often because