Peppermint Fudge Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 13 by Kathleen Suzette (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📗

We headed into the bedroom and took a look around. Suzanne’s bed was still made up with a red and white plaid bedspread. The closet door was open, and Brittany had already removed all of her clothes. The dresser drawers were open and empty.

“Makes me kind of sad,” Christy said looking at her bed. “That’s a cute bedspread, I could see myself picking out something like that for the fall and winter.”

I nodded. “Me too. Poor thing.”

Brittany came up behind us. “The bedroom isn’t very big, but it’s big enough. You can fit a bed, and a couple of dressers in here, and still have room to move around.”

Christy turned her. “We were just saying the same thing. I love that bedspread, but it makes me feel sad about Suzanne.”

She nodded. “You can have it if you want it. I don’t know if that makes you feel creepy or not, but I’m just going to have to either give most of her stuff way or keep what little of it I can use. And I have plenty of bedspreads.”

Christy looked at it. “I’m not sure I can do that. It’s completely my style, but it makes me sad to see it.”

Brittany nodded. “Me too. If I didn’t have so many bedspreads myself, I would keep it to remember her by.”

“It must be really hard going through all of her things,” I said. There was a bulletin board still hanging on the wall and from where I stood, I could see postcards, a couple of pictures, and two envelopes with handwriting on them.

“It’s been so hard,” Brittany admitted. She held a small teddy bear in her hands. “I hate to have to do it, but I’m the only one that can. My Mom just wasn’t up to it.”

“I can’t imagine having to clean out the apartment of someone that I loved,” I said. “I’d be crying my eyes out.” I glanced at her and her eyes were as dry as could be.

She nodded. “It breaks my heart.” Then she shrugged. “Someone has to do it though.”

I agreed. But if I was as close to my cousin as she said she was to hers, I would be broken up over it. Every item would remind me of them, and Suzanne hadn’t been gone that long. I glanced at Christy. She was watching Brittany.

“So, Brittany,” I said. “You were really close to Suzanne, weren’t you?”

She nodded and smiled. “We were best friends. We called one another almost every day. It’s been so weird not being able to do that. I keep checking my phone to see if I missed her call or text.”

“But what about the rivalry?” Christy asked.

Suzanne looked at her. “What rivalry? What are you talking about?”

She shrugged. “We heard the two of you had quite the rivalry. In fact, we heard you were constantly in competition for boyfriends and the two of you would fight over them. And from what I hear, that happened pretty often.”

Her eyes went big. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We were never in competition for boyfriends. We liked completely different guys and if she liked someone I liked, I would just back away. I didn’t want there to be anything between us. We were just too close.” She narrowed her eyes at Christy.

I held my phone in my hand and it vibrated. “I heard the two of you hated each other.” Brittany had ridden the carousel horse next to mine. She was there the night Suzanne died.

She shook her head. “What? What are you talking about? Stop saying these things. They aren’t true!”

“I heard Suzanne thought she was prettier than you and it made you so angry,” Christy added. Christy might have been egging her on now. I’d never heard that.

She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Suzanne and I got along just fine. We were friends. We’d never—she’d never.” She sounded flustered now and she took a deep breath. “Really, you need to stop saying these things.”

“I heard the guys always liked her better,” Christy said, knowingly. “It was something that made you angry.”

“Is that true, Brittany?” I asked. “Did it make you angry?”

We may have been baiting her, but I wanted to know the truth. Because I suddenly thought I knew what that truth was.

“Maybe it’s time for you to leave,” Brittany said, clenching her teeth together. “Suzanne was not prettier than I am. The guys like me just fine and I have never had a problem getting a date.” Her cheeks turned pink and her jaw twitched.

“Are you sure? Because I heard Sam Connor liked Suzanne a lot more than he liked you.” I had no idea about this, but I knew she killed her cousin and I wanted to hear it from her.

“That isn’t true! Sam was in love with me. He still is. As a matter of fact, I’m going out with him tomorrow night.”

“Really? Because I thought Sam was seeing Lori Stanley?” I asked.

“He is not! He doesn’t even like her. He’s going out with me.” She looked from me to Christy. “Who told you that?”

“Everyone knows he’s dating Lori. You even said he was when Suzanne saw them at the movie theater.” Was she forgetting what she had told me?

She snorted. “Lori Stanley is too old for him,” she said, rolling her eyes. “He asked me out. We’re going out.”

“When?” I asked. “When are you going out?”

Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Her cheeks had turned pink and she was twisting the teddy bear in her hands. “Soon! We’re going out soon!” she spat out. “What business is it of yours?”

“Is that why you killed Suzanne? Because you thought Sam wanted to go out with her?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No, I