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

“Keeping your distance might be a good idea,” I said mildly.

She nodded and went back to looking over the order she had picked up from the printer.

“Someone mentioned they saw John and Olivia having breakfast at the Ghostly Grins Café Saturday morning.” Ethan kept his eyes on Christy when he said it.

She slowly looked up at him. “Oh? Who told you that?”

He shrugged. “Just somebody I was talking to.”

Tension suddenly filled the room and my eyes went from Christy to Ethan and back again. Was that pink creeping into her cheeks?

She stared at him. “I think they were mistaken.”

“Why do you say that?” he asked.

She stared at him, biting her lower lip. Then she shrugged and smiled. “Because I saw him at the parade. He couldn’t have been with her and be at the parade at the same time.”

He looked at her without saying anything for a moment. “I guess that would depend on the exact time Olivia died.”

Her eyes got big and she shook her head. “You think John might have killed Olivia?”

“I’m not saying he did. I’m just trying to gather information.”

“Well, Olivia wasn’t lying there on the sidewalk when we assembled for the parade, so the killer didn’t have much time to kill her unless he brought her from the murder scene and dumped her, right? And if it was John, he wouldn’t have had that kind of time if he was at the café and then at the parade.” She said it with finality. It disturbed me that she was defending John when she didn’t know for sure where he was that morning.

“Do you remember where he was at on the parade route? Which block?” Ethan asked.

“He was at the end of the parade route,” I supplied. “I remember seeing him just before we turned the corner.” As soon as I said it, I realized it wouldn’t have taken much for him to come around the backside of the block and be standing there at the end of the parade route after he had killed Olivia. If he was the killer, that is. And as I looked at Ethan, I thought that was exactly what he was thinking.

“Are you sure about that?” Christy asked me. “It seems like I saw him closer to the drugstore.”

The drugstore was near the beginning of the parade route, and I was sure I hadn’t seen him there. “Mom, do you remember seeing John at the parade?”

She considered it a moment. “I do remember seeing him, but I honestly can’t remember what part of the parade route I saw him. I’m with Christy though, I really couldn’t imagine him killing anyone.”

“I’m not saying he did,” Ethan told her. “I’m just investigating. Someone brought up that they had seen Olivia with John, and I need to look into it. He may have noticed something important, or she may have expressed some concerns about someone that threatened her.”

“Except that you don’t even know if he was with her,” Christy pointed out. Her chin jutted out defiantly.

She didn’t look at me when she said it. Why was she defending him? I glanced at Ethan and he was watching Christy.

Chapter Fourteen

After some uncomfortable small talk in the kitchen, Ethan left to go back to the police station. But not without some pumpkin spice fudge. There was one thing I knew, and that was that Ethan loved my mother’s fudge and I was not going to allow him to leave without getting some.

When he left, Christy headed back out front to arrange and refill shelves. It may have been a weekday, but we were doing a brisk business. The September weather brought out more customers than we had anticipated. I joined Christy out front and put another tray of fudge into the display case. I glanced over at my sister as she straightened the shelf that held the imported candies we sold. She had her back to me, and I couldn’t help but wonder about what she had said. Why did she jump in to defend John? It was certainly possible that he had had breakfast with Olivia before she died. And if he had, it was natural that Ethan would want to speak to him about it.

“The weather sure is nice,” I said to her back.

She glanced over her shoulder and gave me a forced smile. “It is. The leaves will be dropping before we know it.”

I nodded as I removed an empty tray from the display case. “You can say that again. Cold weather is right around the corner.” I didn’t mind the cold weather. Sometimes in January, all that snow wore on me but overall, I loved the fall and then the snow at Christmas time.

I thought she might say more, but she was quiet. I wanted to ask her why she was so sure John couldn’t have been with Olivia that morning, but she seemed closed off now and I didn’t want to upset her.

“I think I’m going to wear my Little Red Riding Hood costume this weekend.” I set the tray of fresh fudge into the display case and closed the door.

“I was thinking I might wear my witch costume.” She didn’t turn around when she spoke.

I picked up a cloth and began wiping the fingerprints from the glass top of the front counter. The counter was pretty with its carved wood trim, having been in place since our grandparents had opened the shop, but the glass invited fingerprints and smudges and it was a constant task to keep it clean.

“So, which events are you looking forward to this Halloween season?”

She was quiet a moment before answering. “I don’t know. I guess all of them. What’s not to love about the Halloween season?”

I sighed quietly. “That’s so