Puffed, Stuffed, and Melted Murder

by Gretchen Allen

  “Wow. How could you just come in here and say something like that?” Julie’s face was getting redder by the minute.

  “Julie,” Molly asked, “is this true?”

  “Why would I do that? I was sick myself. Are you guys going to accuse me of poisoning myself too?” Julie rolled her eyes, but Yvette could see her hands shaking.

  “It’s okay to tell the truth,” Serena said, looking at Julie. “Did you kill Carrie?”

  “Kill her? My gosh, people. You just finished saying Drew Ross killed her,” Julie huffed.

  “She’s right. We did say that.” Yvette nodded. “Which is exactly why you should just tell the truth now. If Drew killed her, then you may have nothing to worry about.” She hoped that Julie believed that, because Yvette knew very well that Drew would have had no reason to be in Carrie’s house the night of the ceremony, or at all for that matter.

  “Serena is the one that brought it out!” Julie finally said.

  “I was just doing my job. I saw some fancy icing and brought it out to the tables. I figured that someone made it just for the volunteers.” Serena looked worried.

  “You brought it directly to Carrie though. Why?” Molly asked.

  “Carrie hates me. She takes away my hours, and is always on my case about something. I knew she liked cream cheese icing, so I thought the gesture would make her happy with me at least for the day,” Serena answered.

  “Then you poured it all over me,” Julie complained, eyes darting around the room.

  “I went out to call Nate, and you were alone in the kitchen,” Yvette said, looking at Serena.

  “No!” Serena said, looking mortified.

  “Julie,” Molly said loudly. “You’re lying.”

  “What? Why would you say that?” Julie asked.

  “You’ve never been able to tell a lie. You can’t make eye contact when you’re lying, and I’ve been watching you. Did you kill Carrie?” Molly finally asked.

  “I didn’t kill her! I didn’t even mean to make her sick.” Julie slouched in her chair. “Yvette was right, I did go outside to get the antifreeze, I had it hidden outside the back door. I added it to the icing and was going to give it to Carrie, but I felt bad and changed my mind. When I saw Serena carry it out and give it to Carrie, I tried to get over to the table as fast as I could.” She looked at Serena. “I made sure to bump into you, so you’d spill it. I’d rather have been covered in icing at that point that have had anyone eat it. Plus, everyone knows you hate me, so it was easy to make it look like you did it on purpose. Everything was so hectic, and I knew she was just trying to help. She’d been giving me so many hours and I was exhausted. When poor Leslie asked me about her tips missing, I mentioned it to Carrie and she admitted she’d been the one shorting her. Carrie was stealing vendor names and information from Molly to use at her own place. Actually, it wasn’t even Carrie that backed out of the deal. I called Drew and pretended to be Carrie and told him I was no longer interested. I knew Carrie would be so busy with other things that she wouldn’t think twice if I told her that Drew postponed their next meeting. I lied to both of them and I was just trying to protect everyone else. Including myself. But, I didn’t kill her. I couldn’t have.” Julie began to cry.

  “You said you were sick too,” Yvette remembered.

  “I lied. In the beginning I said it, so I had a reason to go outside. When you saw me at the ceremony and asked how I was, I lied. I wanted you to think that I was sick too, like Carrie was. After I saw how she was acting, I started to feel so bad. I kept looking up symptoms from antifreeze poisoning online and the more I did that the deeper I got. You guys said you think Drew did it. Do you really believe that?” Julie looked pitiful.

  “I don’t know,” Serena said. “But, now that we know you poisoned her, even if you’d changed your mind at the last minute, I think you need to go to the police and tell them. They need to know so they can figure it out. If Drew really did do it, you don’t want him running around town a free man, do you?”

  “No,” Julie admitted.

  “I’ll take you to talk to them if you want?” Yvette offered, hoping that Julie would agree. She didn’t really believe that Drew had anything to do with Carrie’s death. It would have been nearly impossible for him to have done it. He was with Emma for the majority of the day and Carrie wouldn’t have allowed him upstairs in her house.

  “O...o…okay…” Julie said reluctantly.

  Chapter 17

  Quiet night tonight,” Yvette observed.

  Every Sunday, the Lockhart’s held a family dinner at their home on Cottage Street. Sometimes the house was full of friends and family and other times, like that night, it was just Charlie, Abigail, and Yvette. No matter how many people were in attendance, Yvette always appreciated the opportunity to spend time with people that were closest to her. That evening though, she didn’t mind that it was just her and her parents. The last few days had been hectic, and she was looking forward to a quiet night.

  “Sure is. But that means even more food for us. Come on and serve yourselves!” Charlie said, gesturing to the kitchen.

  Yvette’s father had made her favorite meal. Pot roast on a cold winter’s night was so comforting, and she couldn’t wait a second longer to get herself a plate. “Thanks, Dad. It looks delicious!”

  “How’d everything work out with that woman you were going to hire?” Abigail asked her daughter.

  “She’s awesome. She caught on really quickly and has such a great attitude. I’ll miss Tonya when she leaves, but I’m so thankful we’ll have Leslie in her place. I’ll be happy to offer her a place of employment that is a tad less crazy than her last.”

  Abigail filled a plate for her husband and handed it to him. “I’m glad to hear it. You could use a little less craziness yourself,” she said, making her own plate.

  “That’s for sure.” Yvette laughed. “I’m a little glad Heath didn’t come tonight, actually. I wasn’t sure what he’d have to say to me. I’m just hoping I’m not the reason he didn’t come.”

  “What happened with all of that anyway?” Charlie asked. “I heard you took Julie to the police department yourself?”

  “You heard right,” Yvette said, realizing just how much people did talk in the little town. “I took a chance, and made her believe that Drew Ross was the one that killed Carrie. I convinced her that if she went to the police and told them the truth about the poisoning that maybe it would help them. Truthfully though, Molly was the one that called her out. She’s known Julie for so long, and she could tell that she was lying. At first, I really thought it was Serena because she was mad that she kept losing hours. When I heard that she needed to move and didn’t have the finances to make it happen, I thought for sure that she lost control, and was so panicked about having nowhere to live that she killed Carrie to try and fix her situation. If Carrie was gone, she’d get her hours back.”

  “Poor girl. I can’t imagine not knowing where you’re going to live.” Abigail frowned.

  “Why doesn’t she talk to Gavin?” Charlie mused. “He’s got to have something available.”

  “Good idea!” Yvette exclaimed. “I’m not sure why I didn’t consider that myself.”

  “Probably because you’ve had a lot of other things on your mind,” Abigail noted, taking a bite of her dinner.

  “No kidding. When I was driving Julie to the Police Department, she asked me if I believed that it was an accident, and that even though she did poison the icing, that she’d changed her mind and wasn’t going to serve it.”

  “Did you?” Charlie inquired.

  “Kind of. But I was also honest with her. I know she planned on hurting Carrie at the very least, and I knew that was something she needed to admit and have a consequence for. Even if she had changed her mind and didn’t serve it to Carrie herself, she still had bad intentions. I told her that people knew she’d had a little crush on Mitch and that it would look bad if she didn’t tell the truth. Up until the very last se
cond, she believed that she wasn’t the one to kill Carrie.”

  “So, it was true? It was the poison that killed Carrie?” Abigail asked.

  “Drew was with Emma all day and night. He had an airtight alibi. Plus, the autopsy results were clear,” Yvette told her parents. “Drew might not be my favorite, but he’s not a killer. I even called Emma myself to make sure that he really was with her the whole day. It’s a shame that Julie changed her mind but either way, she needed to be honest and let the police handle it. She couldn’t just walk away free, even if she changed her mind at the last second. That’s not how life works.”

  “Drew and Emma. Never would have guessed that,” Charlie said.

  “Me either, but I suppose love is found in odd places.” Yvette shrugged.

  “Speaking of that, how are you and Nate doing?” Abigail grinned.

  “Nate and I are fine…” Yvette gave her mother the side eye.

  Abigail sighed. “Maybe you should ask him out? I hear that’s pretty common nowadays.”

  “Yeah, sure. Maybe.”

  “The Briggs are spending Christmas with us, maybe Santa will bring you both the gift of love,” Abigail teased.

  “Enough of this mushy junk. What’s for dessert?” Charlie pushed his empty plate away.

  “You’re done already?” Abigail asked, her jaw dropping.

  “Thanks, Dad,” Yvette whispered, grateful that her father had changed the subject. “I brought Hot Fudge Sundae Nachos. It’s waffle bowls broken into smaller pieces for the chips, and they can be dipped in whatever ice cream you all want with whatever toppings we feel like adding. Kind of a do it yourself sort of thing, but we can all share the waffle chips.”

  “You have such great ideas,” Abigail said proudly.

  Yvette always loved to hear that. She took such pride in her career and loved nothing more than making people happy with her creations. The Cottage and Pine Dine-Around was coming in just a couple of weeks, and Yvette had something in mind that she hoped was going to be one of her best ideas yet.

  “Thanks, Mom,” she said, once again feeling relaxed and excited for the upcoming event. Even if she was still ready for a little vacation, Yvette wanted nothing more than to indulge in some ice cream nachos and enjoy an evening with her parents. Now that she had spending Christmas with Nate to look forward to, suddenly Yvette couldn’t wait to get home and do her decorating.

  The holiday spirit had finally found its way into her heart.

  Also by Gretchen Allen

  Sundae Afternoon Series

  Book 1: Triple Dipped Murder

  Book 2: Melt Down Murder

  Book 3: A Twist of Murder

  Book 4: Caked in Murder

  Book 5: Shivers of Murder

  Author’s Note

  I’d love to hear your thoughts on my books, the storylines, and anything else that you’d like to comment on—reader feedback is very important to me. My contact information, along with some other helpful links, is listed below. If you’d like to be on my list of “folks to contact” with updates, release and sales notifications, etc.… just shoot me an email and let me know. Thanks for reading!

  Also…

  … if you’re looking for more great reads, I am proud to announce that Summer Prescott Books publishes several popular series by Cozy authors Gretchen Allen and Patti Benning, as well as Carolyn Q. Hunter, Blair Merrin, Susie Gayle and more!

  Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Twitter: @summerprescott1

  Blog and Book Catalog: http://summerprescottbooks.com

  Email: summer.prescott.cozies@gmail.com

  And…look up The Summer Prescott Fan Page and Summer Prescott Publishing Page on Facebook – let’s be friends!

  To download a free book, and sign up for our fun and exciting newsletter, which will give you opportunities to win prizes and swag, enter contests, and be the first to know about New Releases, click here: http://summerprescottbooks.com