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

I’d end up spending my entire paycheck on candles and flowers. I hope you won’t hold that against me.”

She laughed. “No, I won’t hold it against you. I should probably offer a frequent buyer program. A free candle with every twelve purchases.”

I turned to her, eyes wide. “That is an excellent idea. No wait, that will mean I’ll be in here spending my check for sure.”

“Okay, I’ll try not to tempt you then.”

“Frankie, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” she said and picked up a yellow, orange, and white candle and handed it to me to smell.

I inhaled and the scent of candy corn came to me. “Oh my gosh, that smells wonderful. If I burned it in my house, I’d probably be sitting around eating candy corn all day long.” I handed back the candle. “Did you hear about Olivia Summers being murdered?”

She nodded and looked at me earnestly. “What a terrible shame. She was such a lovely young woman.”

“She really was. But I wondered, did somebody come in and buy her a bouquet of fall flowers last Friday? It would have been delivered to her workplace.”

Her brow furrowed in thought. “Last Friday? It’s possible, I guess. Why do you ask?”

That was the question I was dreading. I hated snooping around, but sometimes people told me things they wouldn’t tell the police. Besides that, Olivia deserved justice. The problem was that I didn’t want to reveal anything that I knew about the case if someone asked. I was always worried I might let something slip out that Ethan had told me in confidence.

“I stopped by her place of business, Storage Inc, and I saw an arrangement sitting on her desk. I admired them and I wondered if they were ordered from your shop.”

“I was out of the shop Friday afternoon, but I know we didn’t take an order for Storage Inc in the morning. Maybe somebody picked up flowers from the grocery store and dropped them off to her?”

“No, I heard they were delivered.”

She looked at me steadily. “Who did you hear that from?”

I hesitated. “I’d rather not say. I was just wondering if they came from your shop. Since you’re the only florist in town, not counting the grocery store floral department, it’s most likely they were ordered from here. Unless of course, they ordered them from the flower shop in Truckee and they were delivered.”

“Sometimes some of the florist shops over there make deliveries out here. It’s a long drive for them, but I know if they have a couple of deliveries, they’ll make the trip.” She shrugged. “I’d get offended about it, but it’s not like I can control things like that. My prices are lower, and I think my arrangements are nicer.”

“Your arrangements are beautiful,” I told her. “I can’t imagine paying extra money to have somebody drive an arrangement over from another town.”

She shook her head and folded her arms across her body. “Thank you. I can’t imagine anyone doing it either. But, one of my part-time employees may have made up the arrangement and delivered it in the afternoon.”

“If the order wasn’t put in until the afternoon, would they be able to make it up and have it delivered the same day?”

She nodded. “Yes, especially if it’s one of the arrangements already pre-made in the coolers here.” She motioned toward the refrigerated display cases and I walked over and looked in.

“It looks very similar to that one,” I said pointing at a pretty bouquet of fall flowers. I couldn’t remember if the one on Olivia’s desk had mums in it, but it was certainly very similar to it.

“I try to keep one of those, or something similar to it, made up for walk-in customers. It’s possible someone came in and saw it and asked one of the girls to deliver it that afternoon. It would’ve only taken a few minutes.”

I nodded. “Do you think your employees would remember if they delivered it?”

She looked at me, her head tilted to the side. “It’s important?”

I hesitated. “Yes, it’s important. I mean, maybe it won’t be in the long run, but I think it’s important to know for now.”

She nodded. “I understand. Let me ask the girls, and I’ll get back to you on it. Are you sure it was an arrangement like this one?”

I nodded. “Yes, it might not be exactly it, but it was very similar.”

“I’ll ask the girls as soon as they come in this afternoon. They’ll be in shortly. I usually have them work in the afternoons so they can make deliveries of everything I’ve made up in the morning.”

“Do you keep a record of deliveries?”

She shook her head. “No, there’s really no need to do that. I do however, keep a logbook of arrangements that are special orders. Not for any reason other than I want to record the instructions from the customer. When the book is filled, I usually just toss it in a drawer and eventually, it gets thrown out.” She shrugged. “I’m from the old school order of florists. It would be so much easier and faster if I did it on the computer, but it seems like more of a hassle doing it that way.”

“Sometimes computers don’t save as much time as we think they do.”

“You can say that again. Mine exists merely to frustrate me.”

I chuckled. “Well, I better get back to work. I’m on my lunch hour, but I’d appreciate it if you can find out who might have ordered it.” We walked toward the front door.

“There was no card on it?”

“No, it was sent anonymously.”

She nodded. “People do that sometimes.”

“Thanks, Frankie, I’ve got to get going now.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later, Mia. And don’t forget, I’ve got lots of candles if you change your mind.”