Wedding Bell Blunders: A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery - Kathleen Suzette (parable of the sower read online TXT) 📗

I nodded. “I would think it would be hard for him to hang onto a job if he’s using as well as selling.”

“Oh, he’s using all right. Believe me, I know he’s using. He’s the one that killed my brother, and I hope the police put him away for the rest of his life.” He sounded bitter now, and I didn’t blame him.

“I know the police will find his killer and put them away. Alec is working on the case. I didn’t know if you knew that or not.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I talked to him the other day. I told him all of this, and I hope that he arrests my cousin soon so he can’t do it to anybody else.” His voice cracked when he said the last part.

“I’m so sorry, Skip. I can’t imagine how difficult this must be for you and your mother. Please know that you’re in our thoughts and that Alec is doing everything he can to find his killer.”

He nodded and forced himself to smile. “I certainly appreciate that. And I appreciate all that Alec is doing to find his killer.”

I nodded. “I think I’m going to wait until you get another shipment of yard items in before I decide on the fountain. But I know that I’ll be back in. I sure do appreciate your help.”

He nodded. “Anytime, Allie. Come back in a couple of weeks, and I bet we’ll have a lot more stuff out here. Oh, and congratulations on getting married.”

“Thanks, Skip.”

I headed out of the store and got back into my car. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw Jodi Miller walking down the sidewalk, a large shopping bag on each arm. Her head was down, and she was frowning. I honked to get her attention, and she looked up, a confused look on her face. When she realized who I was, she smiled and walked up to my car. I hit the button to roll the window down.

“How are you doing, Jodi?”

She smiled and sighed. “I’m doing all right. The weather was nice today, so I thought I’d take a walk. I didn’t intend to do any shopping, but I couldn’t pass up a sale.” She lifted the bags and chuckled.

“They look heavy. Would you like a ride somewhere?”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you.” She opened the car door and got in. “I didn’t realize these bags would be so heavy, but the home store has a big sale on pots and pans and linens, so I indulged myself.”

“I’ll have to stop by there. I love a good sale. Where can I take you?”

“Oh, my house is just a few blocks away on Seacoast Lane,” she said, pointing up ahead.

“Well, we’ll be there in a jiffy then,” I said, making a right onto North Street. “So how are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m doing all right. I’m off for the rest of the day and I think I’ll go home and try out my new pots and pans.” She chuckled. “I shouldn’t have done it, but my pans were so old, and I couldn’t pass up a deal.”

“You sound like me. I love a good sale.” I made a left onto Seacoast Lane and she pointed out her house three blocks down. It was a cute, white cottage with green shutters.

“Here’s my house. It’s tiny and doesn’t even have a garage, but it’s all mine and I love it.”

I stopped the car in front of her house and looked at it. “It’s darling.” There was a carport on the side and a white picket fence. The carport was empty, and I wondered where her car was. “Do you walk a lot?” She had walked to work the other day when Lucy and I had stopped in.

“My car is in the shop, so for now, I’m walking everywhere. Transmission problems.”

“Oh no, that can be expensive,” I said sympathetically.

She nodded. “I’ve got my fingers crossed that it won’t be too expensive. I appreciate the ride, Allie. Talk to you later.”

“See you,” I said as she got out. I waited until she got to her front door and she turned around and waved at me and then stuck her key into the lock.

I drove on, thinking about the murder case. I hated that Skip and his mother were going through so much with the death of Richard, but now I really had my eye on his cousin. He had to be Richard’s killer, didn’t he?

Chapter Thirteen

I made another trip to the grocery store, hoping I would run into Jared. Alec had said to stay away, and that probably would have been the smartest thing to do, but I just wanted to get a look at him. I pushed my shopping cart down the freezer section, in the hopes that he would be there, but I didn’t see any employees working there at the moment. That was unfortunate because I really wanted to see if I could find out anything new.

Lucy and Ed had stopped by our house the night before, and I had cooked both the T-bone steaks and the ribeye steaks that I had picked up from the grocery store a couple of days earlier. I had served them with baked potatoes and salad. I needed to pick up a few more things for Alec and me since we clearly weren’t leaving for our trip anytime soon. When I looked over the freezer section aisles and was satisfied that Jared wasn’t around, I headed over to the dairy case. We were out of milk and coffee creamer, so I decided I might as well pick some up. Coffee was my life’s blood, and Alec had a pretty big coffee habit himself.

I peered into the dairy case and pulled out a carton of cream and