Baby Bundt Cake Confusion (Murder in the Mix Book 31) by Unknown (reading eggs books .txt) 📗

Lil’ Mama barks and it sounds an awful lot like a laugh. “You really are something, Lottie. Mrs. Albright always said, ‘It takes a special person to get the job done.’ And that would be you.”

“You’re still here!” I marvel at the ghostly white pooch. Typically, as soon as the arrest is made, the ghosts that have come back to help float right back to paradise.

Cressida huffs. “Yes, I’m still here,” she snips. “But not for long. How dare you humiliate me like this,” she seethes. “I think turnabout is fair play, don’t you, Essex? One humiliation for the next.” She narrows her baby blues over me. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll go back to my original offer of one hundred thousand dollars to the Honey Hollow General Hospital neonatal unit if you do the big paternity reveal on Getting Candid with Candace. And—in addition to that, I want you to do your own paternity reveal during the show. I doubt Mayor Nash is your father, Lee, and I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.”

Carlotta and Mayor Nash crop up.

“What’s this?” Mayor Nash still looks pretty disheveled, but at least his pants aren’t around his ankles anymore. “Is this true, Carlotta?”

“Uhhh,” Carlotta elongates the word so much she sounds like a foghorn.

“No, Cressida,” I tell her. “You can shove that money where the sun don’t shine because I’m not humiliating my family. I’ll donate the money to the children’s unit myself.” I guess it’s time to liquidate some of those properties Nell gave me.

“I’ll do the donating,” Everett is quick to correct. “In fact, I’ll double it.”

A slight cheer erupts, and it’s only then I notice we’ve amassed a small crowd.

“All right.” Cressida lifts a shoulder. “I’ll sweeten the pot. Take my deal, and if you go through with it, I’ll give your mother my half of the B&B—for fair market value, of course.”

I look up at Everett with my mouth falling open.

“Okay,” I hear myself say it. “It’s a done deal.” I shrug up at Everett. “Is that okay with you?”

He gives a long blink. “I’ll do whatever you want, Lemon.” His lips curve at the tips. “This B&B is as good as halfway hers again.”

I’m about to turn toward the refreshment table to find my mother when my stomach hardens into a knot that feels as if it’s about to squeeze my soul right out of my body.

A horrific cry expels from my lips as I bend over, and a wash of warm liquid runs down my legs and right onto Everett’s pricey leather shoes.

“Lemon?” Everett’s eyes grow wide. “This is it?”

I nod. “This is most certainly it.”

Noah

“Detective Fox?” Sheriff Turner calls out my name as the patrol cars take off with Slater and Ariella locked inside of them.

It’s dark out, with the exception of those pink flashing floodlights Cormack and Cressida have twirling into space. If there is intelligent life out there, they’ll be contemplating our intelligence, I’m sure.

“What’s up?” I say as I make my way over to him.

The B&B is still pulsating with music as the reunion is going strong into the night. And I don’t blame any of them for wanting to stay inside where it’s warm. The air is just as frozen as the snow out here.

“Not without me,” a female voice shouts as Ivy Fairbanks hustles this way in her high-heeled boots and thick wool coat. Her hair is knotted up in her signature bun, and that familiar scowl of hers seems to shift into a smile anytime she sees me as of late. She’s not backing down on her attempts to lure me in her direction. “Go ahead.” She nods to the sheriff and he looks my way.

Sheriff Turner pulls back his shoulders and his belly distends almost as far as Lottie’s. “As you know, the department has been taking the proper steps as far as your suspension goes, and it’s my good pleasure to say—the nightmare is behind you. You’ve been absolved of any wrongdoing. Consider yourself on the clock. Welcome back, son. I’m sure Detective Fairbanks will gladly let you handle all the paperwork as we wrap up this case.”

A breath blows through me. “Really? Just like that?” As elated as I am, it doesn’t seem fair that I get to go back to work while Everett goes to trial. It should be me roasting under the white-hot spotlight of the DA, not Everett.

A man walks past us as he makes his way out of the B&B and I glance his way. And just as I’m about to look back at the sheriff, I do a double take. I recognize him. That dark hair, those bruised-looking eyes, the Italian suit—it’s Mannino, Manny, Moretti, son of the mob boss running New Jersey.

I did a little digging that night we came home from Scooter Springs, and now I know far too much about him to think his presence here tonight is a mere coincidence.

Could he be behind that mystery woman? Everett said he saw her here tonight as well. And I’m not one to put too much credence in coincidences.

“Just like that.” Sheriff Turner offers me a congratulatory slap over the back just as a ruckus erupts from the entry to the B&B.

“Foxy!” I turn back to find Carlotta waving her arms and shouting something unintelligible. “It’s Lot Lot. You gotta come quick. You might just be a papa tonight. Her water broke and she’s spilling that baby bath water all over the place!”

“What?” It’s as if an electrical spark goes off through every cell in my body all at once. “I’m going to be a father.” A silent laugh pumps through me.

Ivy closes her eyes a moment. “Go on,” she says. “I’ll handle the paperwork on this one.”

“Lottie’s having her baby?” Sheriff Turner strides in ahead of me.

“I gotta get in there.” I shake my head in disbelief. “I might just be a father tonight,” I say as I dart past both him and