Confectionately Dead
A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 6
by
Kathleen Suzette
Copyright © 2019 by Kathleen Suzette. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.
Other books by Kathleen Suzette:
Clam Chowder and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 1
A Short Stack and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 2
Cherry Pie and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 3
Barbeque and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 4
Birthday Cake and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 5
Hot Cider and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 6
Roast Turkey and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 7
Gingerbread and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 8
Fish Fry and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 9
Cupcakes and a Murder
A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 10
Other books by Kate Bell, Kathleen Suzette
Apple Pie a la Murder,
A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 1
Trick or Treat and Murder,
A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 2
Thankfully Dead
A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 3
Candy Cane Killer
A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 4
Ice Cold Murder
A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 5
Love is Murder
A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 6
Strawberry Surprise Killer
A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 7
Pushing Up Daisies in Grady,
A Gracie Williams Mystery, book 1
Kicked the Bucket in Grady,
A Gracie Williams Mystery, book 2
Candy Coated Murder
A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 1
Murderously Sweet
A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 2
Chocolate Covered Murder
A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 3
Death and Sweets
A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 4
Sugared Demise
A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 5
Confectionately Dead
A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 6
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Author’s Note
Chapter One
I pushed open the door to the candy shop and inhaled all the sweet scents that were the fantasy of every boy and girl on the planet. Chocolate and peppermint were the dominant scents, but there was plenty of vanilla, cinnamon, and an assortment of other sweet smells that hung in the air.
“Good morning, Mia,” Mom sang out, carrying a fresh tray of peppermint fudge to the display case. She hummed a Christmas tune as she opened the back of the glass cabinet and removed an empty tray.
“Good morning, Mom,” I said, suspiciously. “Why are you so chipper this morning?” I wasn’t a morning person and anyone that happy this early had to be up to something.
“It’s almost Christmas and there’s no reason not to be chipper,” she said. “Have you gotten your shopping done yet?”
I sighed at the thought of Christmas shopping. I had just walked through the door of our family-owned candy store after slipping and sliding on the snowy sidewalks outside. My coffee had nearly spilled in the tussle, and without my coffee, I was going to be a grumpy girl. Luckily, I had managed to keep my grip on the cup and save the day. I didn’t want to think about Christmas shopping.
“No, I still haven’t found a gift for Ethan. I don’t know what to get him,” I said. The truth was, I hadn’t even begun my shopping yet, but it was Ethan’s gift that had me anxiously looking at internet sites late into the night. Ethan and I had only been dating a few months, and I needed to come up with something soon. I didn’t want anything too personal, but at the same time, I wanted something to let him know how special he was to me. We may have only been together for a few months, but they had been the happiest months of my life.
“Well you better get on it. December is going to fly by and the big day will be here before we know it,” she said, placing the fudge she had just made onto the tray and sliding it back into the display case. “I finished most of my shopping on Black Friday. You know how I hate waiting around until the last minute.”
I sighed, set my coffee on the counter, and tied a red apron around my waist. “I certainly didn’t take after you where that’s concerned. It must be Dad’s fault that I’m a procrastinator.”
She chuckled. “You may have inherited that from him.”
I grinned. My father had once sent a wedding present to my cousin nine months after the big day. Mom had thought he had taken care of it before the wedding and was mortified when she found out the truth. Poor Dad still hadn’t lived it down.
My parents owned the Pumpkin Hollow Candy Store, handed down to them from my mother’s parents years ago and it was one of the happiest places I knew, in spite of my current state of grumpy. In Pumpkin Hollow, we celebrated Halloween year-round, even at Christmas time. At the candy store, we currently featured a wide variety of Christmas candy as well as traditional Halloween candy, although the latter wasn’t in as great a supply as it was during the Halloween season.
Some of our candy was brought in from other suppliers, but the best candy was the candy my mother made in our own kitchen. We currently had chocolate ghosts with wreaths, peppermint pumpkins, and a white chocolate Santa holding a red and green striped Jack-o’-lantern among many other items. Combining the two seasons was part of the fun.
We looked up as the front door opened. My younger sister, Christy, stood in the doorway. She looked at us sheepishly, then smiled. “Hi Mom, hi Mia. How are things going?” She looked from Mom to Me and back. “The shop sure looks cute,” she said as she turned her gaze to the decorated candy shop. Mom had trimmed the place with lots of greenery and red bows. A small Christmas tree stood in the corner near the front window, and ghosts, Jack-o’-lanterns, and goblins gathered beneath it, waiting for the big day.
Mom and I looked at her in surprise. Christy had moved away from Pumpkin Hollow two months earlier and we’d hardly heard from her since. I had begun to worry about her when she called at the last minute and said she
couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving, but I kept it to myself. Christy could sometimes be distant when things weren’t going well in her life, but I knew she would open up when she was ready.
Mom glanced at me and then back to Christy. “Christy, I was just thinking about you this morning,” Mom said, closing the display case door. She held her arms out to her and Christy headed straight into them. “I’ve missed you!”
“Hey, sis,” I said and joined them in a group hug. “I’ve missed you, too.” I felt Christy’s body stiffen a moment, and then she began to shake. Something was wrong in my sister’s world and whatever it was, she had kept it to herself.
“What’s going on?” Mom asked, pulling away so she could get a look at her. “Is everything okay?” She brushed back Christy’s brown hair from her forehead to get a better look at her.
Tears spilled down Christy’s cheeks as she shook her head. “John wants a—divorce.” She stumbled over the last word and grimaced.
“What?” I exclaimed. “Are you serious?” That was the last thing I had expected to hear from her.
She nodded and wiped at her eyes with her gloved hand. “He said getting married so young was a mistake. He said he feels trapped.” She sniffed and then inhaled deeply.
“I’m so sorry, Christy,” I said and gave her another quick squeeze.
Christy looked at Mom with wide eyes and then cried harder. Mom pulled her close. “I’m so sorry, honey. Maybe he just needs some time to think things over.”
Christy shook her head. “I don’t think so. He wants out. I told him I wanted a baby, and he told me he wanted a divorce. We sat and stared at each other, then I fell apart. I’m just stunned. It was the last thing I was expecting.”
“Wow, I’m so sorry,” I said. “What about counseling? Will he agree to go to counseling?” I was stunned at first, but that was quickly changing to fuming. John couldn’t wait until after Christmas to tell her he wanted a divorce? He couldn’t at least try to work things out?
She shook her head. “I asked him, but he won’t go. He said he’s been thinking about it for months and he’s just done with the marriage. I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. Why wouldn’t he give me some kind of warning?”
“Because he’s a jerk,” I said. I couldn’t help it. He should have let her know he was unhappy when he first began to feel that way. They might have been able to do something about the problem then. And if he didn’t want to do something about it, he could have waited until after Christmas to tell her.
“I’m sorry you’re going through this, dear,” Mom said. “I’ve finished most of the candy making for the day. How about we go get a coffee and talk? Mia, can you watch the shop?”
“Sure,” I said. “Carrie will be in later, and I can handle things until then.” The early weekday mornings weren’t usually busy, so I’d have plenty of time to straighten and fill shelves with the new shipment of candy we had gotten in and wait on any customers that dropped in.
I watched as they left the shop, feeling bad for my sister and wishing I could have gone along with them. Christy and her husband had married right out of college. They had seemed happy enough in the beginning, but then Christy had occasionally dropped hints that everything might not have been as happy as it seemed. At the time I thought it was something that all newlyweds went through, but now I regretted not pushing her for more details and offering her more help than I had.
The door swung open, and I grinned when Ethan stepped through it. “Hey there, pretty lady,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at me.
I chuckled. “Hey there, handsome fella,” I said and waggled back. “Okay, let’s stop with the cutesy talk and the eyebrow thing. I don’t like it.”
He chuckled. “Got it. How are you this morning?” He came over and gave me a kiss.
“I’m good now that you stopped by. But Christy just came in and she said her husband wants a divorce, so I’m pretty bummed for her.”
“Wow. That’s a surprise. I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.
I nodded. “Me too. She and Mom went to get a coffee and talk. I hope Christy’s just being dramatic and is jumping to conclusions, but she really isn’t the dramatic type,” I said with a sigh.
“Let’s hope she’s reading more into things than there is. I hate to hear she’s going through that,” he said, leaning against the front counter.
“Let’s hope so. What are you doing today?”
Ethan had recently been given a promotion of sorts down at the police station. He had been a patrol officer, but due to recent events, it was decided that the town needed a detective. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any money in the budget to hire one, so Ethan got the job, sans pay raise. Even though it wasn’t a huge step up in his career, he still appreciated the opportunity to do something different.
“I just stopped by the costume shop. There was an attempted break-in, but someone must have scared them off. They banged up the backdoor, but didn’t get inside,” he said. “If the weather holds up, I think we should go snowboarding this weekend. I need a new board, but we can pick one up on Saturday.”
My eyebrow shot up. “I don’t know how to snowboard. And I don’t think I’d be any good at it, but I can come along to watch you.”
He chuckled. “I can teach you. You’ll love it,” he said, turning to look at the fudge in the display case. “That fudge sure looks good.”
“Want some?” I asked, ignoring the comment about teaching me to snowboard. I didn’t want to be a spoilsport, but it didn’t seem like something I would enjoy. “I’m glad the robber didn’t get inside the building.” I opened the back of the display case and pulled out the tray of peppermint fudge. “Peppermint?”
“You know me so well,” he said with a grin.
Ethan had a sweet tooth a mile long. I cut him a large piece of the fudge and put it into a little wax paper bag and handed it to him. He held out his debit card, but I waved it away. There had to be a bonus for dating a candy maker’s daughter, right?
“I’ve got it,” I said. “That’s what girlfriends are for.”
He grinned. “And I’ve got the best one, ever.”
“You really do,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. He leaned over and gave me another kiss. I sighed when I heard the bell over the front door ring. Kissing would have to wait.
Chapter Two
I turned to see Laura Bostwick standing at the front door. Her Gray hair was in a bun on top of her head and her flowy gypsy skirt was caught in the breeze of the closing door and swooshed around her. The skirt was far too lightweight for the cold, but she didn’t seem to mind. She wore a purple coat and a red scarf wrapped around her neck. When she caught sight of me, she smiled. “Hello, Mia. Hello, Ethan. I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.”
I glanced at Ethan and then smiled at Laura. “No, you’re not interrupting a thing. How are you, Laura? It sure is cold out there today.”
She chuckled. “I’m doing well. I don’t mind cold weather. I thought I’d just stop in on my way home from doing a little Christmas shopping. Say, did you both hear about the community play they’re having down at the party house? My sister and I are going to help with the decorations and props. It’s all in the name of getting in the Christmas spirit.” She walked up to where Ethan and I were standing in front of the counter.
“I did hear about it. A Christmas Carol is an ambitious undertaking,” I said.
She nodded and waved a hand. “Ambitious is the right word for it. I suggested How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but did they listen to me? No! I tell you, that Stewie Southworth is a dog. He never listens to anyone. I don’t know how he got to be in charge of the whole thing. Was there a vote that I missed?” She snorted and shook her head.
I chuckled and went around to the back of the counter. “I don’t know how they decided who was in charge,” I said and winked at Ethan. Laura liked to talk. Okay, she liked to complain. But she was a nice person, and I didn’t mind the complaining.
“That’s Old-fashioned ribbon candy fudge,” I said. My mother had made vanilla fudge and added crushed and broken old-fashioned ribbon candy to it. It was colorful and had a wonderfully different flavor to it.
“That sounds interesting. Have you tried it yet, Ethan?” She turned to look at him. “You look like someone that knows his fudge.”
“No, ma’am, I haven’t tried that one yet. I do love Ann’s fudge though, so I need to give it a go soon,” he answered. “Are you going to be in the play, Laura?”
She shook her head and waved away the question. “No, I haven’t got any talent for that sort of thing. My sister is the one with the real talent, but I couldn’t get her to join the play. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. There’s no reason not to join. When we were in school, she was always in the school plays.”
“It does sound like fun,” Ethan said, still leaning on the front counter. “But I just knew if I joined, I’d have to go out on a call on the night of the play, so I thought I better skip it.”
She made a clucking sound and turned to look at me. “What about you, Mia? Are you in the play?”
“I had thought about it, but I procrastinated so long that tryouts were over before I knew it.” I shrugged. “Maybe next year. I’m glad they’re doing the play though. We need more community events like this.”
She nodded. “I agree. I also think I better try some of that ribbon fudge. And some of the peppermint. How about getting me a quarter pound of each? If that sister of mine doesn’t show up soon, she’ll miss out. I intend to eat all of it.”
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