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

seen him pull into his driveway and I couldn’t pass up a chance to sti with him for a few moments.

He turned to me. “I did not know that. Sent anonymously?”

“Yes, I talked to Carla Steele there at her office. She thought it was from a secret admirer. She said she had a lot of boyfriends.”

“Huh. Could be. Maybe it was an ex-boyfriend trying to butter her up and get back into her life,” he said thoughtfully.

“I wouldn’t doubt it. I asked Frankie Malone about making a delivery, but she wasn’t there that afternoon. She said she’d try to find out who ordered them.”

“I still need to stop by and look at those pictures that Gayle Anderson took. Hopefully she got something important.”

“I hope so.” I had called him and told him about the pictures after I left Gayle’s house.

He yawned. “Sorry, I’m more tired than I thought I was.”

“You’ve been working hard. I brought some fudge home.”

He turned to me and smiled. “Don’t hold out on me.”

“Let’s go inside.”

Boo got up and followed us inside. We needed to catch a killer and I hoped it happened quickly.

Chapter Thirteen

“Look what I made,” Christy said, holding up a tray of candy for me to inspect. On the tray were chocolate molded spiders and white chocolate skeleton heads. She had piped tiny pastel flowers from royal icing and attached them to the spiders and skulls.

“Oh, pretty,” I said and laughed.

“They’re filled with cherry fondant,” she said. “They’re quite tasty if I do say so myself.”

“They sound tasty and those flowers make them super cute.” I finished sealing the box of pumpkin spice fudge I had just packed, and I set it on the shelf to be shipped out in tomorrow’s mail.

“I think they’ll make a great addition to the candy lineup,” Mom said as she turned off the mixer. “It’s good to have new items on the candy roster. It keeps the customers happy.”

“That’s what I thought,” Christy said. “I’ve been thinking about different candies that we can make to spice things up around here.”

“I want to make black licorice cats,” I said. “In honor of Boo and Licorice.”

“Those two make a cute couple,” Christy said.

“Not that cute. They’re still hissing at each other.” The cats tolerated each other for the most part, but they still slapped at one another, usually seemingly unprovoked.

Christy chuckled. “So, what has Ethan told you about Olivia’s murder?”

I glanced at her. “Not a lot. You know how it is at the beginning of an investigation. Everything’s hush-hush while he’s digging into things.”

“I figured as much. I just hope he finds the killer soon.”

“I’m sure he will,” Mom said as she poured maple nut fudge into a tray for it to cool. “It’s just a shame she died like that.”

“What about you? Have you found out anything?” Christie asked, eyeing me. She picked up an order from the printer and looked it over.

“You know how it is. No one seems to know anything, although a couple of people have pointed fingers at her former boyfriends.”

“I bet that’s what happened,” she said. “She probably got into a fight with one of them and things escalated.”

“I feel sorry for her parents.” Mom used a rubber spatula to smooth out the fudge.

“And her sister,” I said and went to the stove. “I think I’m going to work on some hard candies. We’re getting low on vanilla ghosts and lime goblins.”

“I was going to suggest that,” Mom said. “We need more taffy too, but I think I’m going to wait until tomorrow morning to make a batch.”

“Well, three of my favorite ladies.”

We all turned toward the kitchen door.

“Hey there, handsome,” I said to Ethan as he leaned on the kitchen door frame. “How are you doing?”

He came over and gave me a quick kiss. “I’m doing great. How are things here in the candy making biz?”

“We are making more candy than we ever imagined possible.” I kissed him again. “I bet you need some fudge.”

He grinned. “It’s like you can read my mind. How do you do that?”

“It’s a gift.” I chuckled and gave him a squeeze.

“Ethan,” Mom said. “How is Olivia’s murder investigation going? She’s been on my mind a lot. I feel terrible for her family.”

He nodded. “It’s a shame. It’s still early in the investigation, but I hope to make an arrest soon.”

“That sounds promising,” I said, looking up at him. I didn’t think he was that close. “Did the labs come back on the skin beneath her fingernails?”

He shook his head. “No, it’ll be a while before we get that.”

“There was skin beneath her fingernails?” Christy asked, turning to him. “That’s good, isn’t it? I mean, if they can make a DNA match, then it’s kind of an open and shut case, right?”

“I wouldn’t call it open and shut, but if we can match it to someone, it’s pretty condemning.”

She considered this a moment, then nodded and looked away.

I had already filled him in on what I found out about Olivia’s ex-boyfriends. I hated to pry, but I really wanted to know if he had spoken to any of them.

“Anything new that you can tell us?” I asked him and took a saucepan out of the cupboard.

“Not a lot,” he said, and then he looked at Christy. “I heard John was back in town.”

She looked at him. “Yeah, I guess he’s thinking about moving back permanently. He’s looking for a job.”

“How does that make you feel?” he asked her.

She shrugged. “I don’t care. His family still lives here, so it’s not like I can demand he not move back. As long as he stays on his side of town, I’ll stay on mine and we