Chocolate Heart Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 14 by Kathleen Suzette (guided reading books .TXT) 📗

her with who?” This was the first I’d heard of that and I couldn’t imagine Logan cheating on anyone.

“With Mariah’s sister, Tara.”

“Really?” I said, taking this in. “I had no idea. When did this happen?”

“In December when they had that argument. When they split up for the last time.” He moved closer and leaned over the counter. “Can you believe it? Cheating on her with her own sister!”

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think Logan had it in him to do that to anyone, and certainly not with his girlfriend’s sister. “Are you sure about that? Who told you?”

“Amber did. Amber knows Tara really well. They’re friends.”

I was stunned by this news. “Amber told you that? I’ve talked to her a couple of times and she never mentioned it.” I was skeptical. Why was this coming out now?

He shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know. That’s what she told me.”

I wasn’t sure that Mel was telling the truth. “What about Amber? Amber wasn’t very nice to Logan when he was alive. She spread rumors around town and said awful things about Logan and his barbershop. And you told me you thought Amber was the killer.”

It wasn’t lost on me that Logan’s parents had also pointed at Mel as a possible suspect. And now he was saying that the victim had been a cheater? It felt wrong, talking about Logan that way when he wasn’t here to defend himself.

He turned back to me. “Amber? I think I made a mistake. I guess I was so angry about Logan’s death that I may have jumped to conclusions.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Something wasn’t adding up. “I guess I can see where that might happen. But Amber spread rumors around town that people had gotten lice after going to Logan’s barbershop. That’s a heck of a way to ruin a barber’s business. And she wouldn’t do that unless she had something against him.”

His face clouded over. “Look, I know you want to believe the best of Logan, but I’ve been to his barbershop. It really wasn’t that clean. There were times that I was afraid I was going to come away with something.”

I was shocked to hear him say that about Logan. “What do you mean? Ethan went there all the time, and he never had a complaint about it.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe I just showed up on a bad day. Maybe he hadn’t had time to clean up between customers.” He glanced at his dad who remained quiet.

When neither of them said anything else, I sighed. “Yeah, maybe he was just having a bad day and hadn’t had a chance to get things cleaned up, like you said.”

I didn’t want to hear these things about Logan, and I hoped they weren’t true. It would break Ethan’s heart to know that Mel, someone that was supposed to be Logan’s best friend, was talking about him that way.

He turned back to me. “I think that was probably it. And I’m really not trying to badmouth Logan. He was my friend, after all. I’m just saying, I don’t think he was a saint. And who else would know that better than his best friend?”

He might have had a point. Logan might have confided some things in Mel. “But you have to admit that Amber was unkind in the way that she behaved before he died,” I pointed out.

He nodded. “I guess. But Logan had no business cheating on Mariah the way he did. And since Mariah knew about it, that gives her a really good reason to kill him.”

He also had a point about that. If he really did cheat on Mariah with her sister, and she knew about it, it suddenly made sense for Mariah to be Logan’s killer.

Mel picked up a pen and twirled it between his fingers. “I just think it might be a good idea for Ethan to check into this. Maybe talk to Mariah’s sister. I hear they’re not speaking to one another anymore, so she would probably be willing to tell everything she knows.”

“If it’s true, I could see where they might not be speaking anymore,” I said slowly. It was a shame if all of this was true and the two sisters were no longer on speaking terms because of something like that.

He nodded. “You better believe it. Those two have never gotten along, either. And since Tara had an affair with Mariah’s boyfriend, you can imagine how bad things have to be between the two of them now.”

“I sure can,” I said thoughtfully.

“I’d put my money on Mariah,” Fred said, leaning forward. “So many things about her point to her being the killer. Ethan needs to have a serious talk with her.”

There was something about Mariah that I didn’t like, and Ethan had said the same. Maybe it was true. Maybe she really had killed her boyfriend. Something that would be even sadder with Valentine’s Day coming up. She certainly had reason enough to do it if Logan had cheated on her with her sister. And maybe her sister had better be keeping an eye on her, so she didn’t end up being the second victim.

Chapter sixteen

It wasn’t any coincidence that I ran into Mariah’s sister, Tara, the next day at the grocery store. I had seen her driving in that direction and since I happened to be going in the same direction, I followed her into the parking lot. She parked near the front where there weren’t any more parking spots, so I parked halfway back and watched as she got out of her car. Would she really have an affair with Logan? Her sister’s boyfriend? I just couldn’t imagine it, but Mel had said that she and her sister hadn’t gotten along before the supposed affair. Maybe she had done it out