Confectionately Dead

by Kathleen Suzette

  “Excuse me,” I said when I caught up to him.

  The man turned and looked at me. “Yes?”

  I took a deep breath. “Hi, my name’s Mia Jordan. I saw you sitting on one of the family pews and I just wanted to express my condolences for your loss.” I wanted to see if he would correct me on being part of the family. Ethan was nowhere to be seen, and I didn’t want to miss out on a chance to speak to the man.

  He gave me a tentative smile. “Oh, I’m not family. I’m a friend. Jeff Jenkins.” He stuck his hand out for me to shake.

  “Pleased to meet you, Jeff. Ellie will be greatly missed. Did you know her long?” I asked amiably. Small towns are known for their friendliness and I was taking advantage of that.

  “A few months. We met at a senior singles mixer. Ellie was something else. I’ve never met anyone quite like her.”

  I smiled. Jeff was friendly enough. “Wasn’t she though? I just can’t get over the fact that she’s gone.”

  He sighed. “Me either. Ellie was so full of life. We had hoped to spend a lot of time together.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. I don’t know who would cause her harm. Did she ever mention anything unusual? Was there someone she was afraid of?”

  He shook his head. “Not really. She complained about her sister a lot. I thought it was just because they lived together and got on each other’s nerves. But now that she’s dead, I have to wonder if it went deeper than that. She was going to ask Laura to move out after Christmas, you know.”

  “No, I didn’t know that.” I had suspected it, but I hadn’t known for sure.

  He nodded. “Yes. Makes me wonder if her sister made sure it never happened. But, I guess I don’t know Laura well enough to speculate on that.”

  Ethan joined us and I introduced him. After talking to Jeff for a few more minutes and Ethan getting his phone number, he excused himself. I turned to Ethan. “What do you think?”

  “I might need to have a more in-depth conversation with him in the very near future. He might remember something useful.”

  I nodded. Jeff seemed easy-going and friendly and I didn’t think he had anything to do with Ellie's death at this point, but he might know something more of interest. I really hoped Laura hadn’t killed her sister. It would make the situation even more tragic than it already was.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I was standing in the baking aisle at the grocery store staring at the ten-pound bags of sugar. Our online candy sales had been picking up steadily with the coming Christmas holiday and the supply order we had received several days earlier was almost depleted. We had nearly doubled that supply order when we placed it, and yet we still came up short.

  I was debating on how many bags of sugar I should pick up. I hated to buy all the sugar the grocery store had this close to Christmas, but I had to have some, or we were going to run out of candy. We had placed another order with the supply company, but due to the holidays, it was going to be five days before we received it. I sighed, considering what I should do. I didn’t know when the candy sales would slow down for Christmas orders. We had put a deadline on the website for December twentieth, but we would have local walk-in orders until we closed the doors on Christmas Eve. Until then, we were all going to be working longer hours and making more candy than we had ever made before.

  As I was standing there trying to figure out how many bags of sugar to pick up, and out of the corner of my eye I caught Josh Tate walking past the end of the baking aisle. He had a shopping basket over one arm and was heading toward the frozen foods aisle.

  Sugar could wait. I pushed my cart down the aisle and turned left, the direction he was headed. Keeping my distance, I watched him turn left into the freezer section. I turned right and went down the snack aisle so I could keep an eye on him without making him suspicious. I had gone over everything I knew about the crime, and it seemed to all boil down to Josh Tate. That story about leaving the door unlocked when he left in a hurry to take his pregnant wife to the hospital didn’t sit well with me. Ethan had told me he had seen the hospital discharge papers, but I wasn’t convinced Josh was telling the truth about forgetting to lock the door. Who just ran off and left a building open like that? Even if he was freaked out about his wife going into labor, locking a door behind oneself was just second nature.

  I had my back to him and that wasn’t going to help, so I stopped in front of the Christmas candy section and turned slightly so I could keep him in my line of vision. I picked up a bag of red, green, and silver foil covered chocolate Kisses and looked at the information on the back of the package while keeping one eye on Josh. He was shoulder deep into the ice cream section of the freezer. He pulled out a carton of ice cream and closed the door, looking in my direction. Eyes back on the package of candy in my hands, I caught a glimpse of him walking in my direction. I looked up when he was a few feet away from me and smiled.

  “You following me?” he asked, placing the ice cream into the shopping basket.

  I felt my smile falter, but then I forced myself to smile bigger. “What? Following you? Why would I do that?”

  He shrugged, but he wasn’t smiling back. “Because you were just now checking out bags of sugar in the baking aisle, and yet you don’t have any bags of sugar in your shopping cart. And now you’re looking at a bag of candy that I’m sure you have no intention of buying. You do work at a candy store, after all.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “So what if I work at a candy store? Hershey’s Kisses are a classic all-American candy. I love them. It’s not like you can make Kisses, you know.”

  He nodded, looking at me coolly. “Your boyfriend made me show him my wife’s discharge papers from the hospital. Doesn’t he believe me that I was at the hospital the night Ellie died? Because if he believed me, it doesn’t seem like he’d ask to see the papers.”

  I shrugged and tossed the bag of Kisses into the seat of my shopping cart. “He’s a detective. He’s just doing his job.” I didn’t like Josh. He was intimidating, and he knew it.

  “He’s not a detective. He’s a patrol cop that’s doing the grunt work of a detective without getting paid for it.” He gave me a grin that said he thought Ethan was an idiot for allowing himself to be taken advantage of.

  I disliked him even more because of that look. “What business is it of yours whether he gets paid to do the job or not? He’s doing the job, and he is going to find Ellie’s killer,” I said, trying not to let the tremor in my hands show. I gripped the shopping cart handle to steady them.

  He chuckled. “Sure he is. I’m sure he knows exactly who killed Ellie, and he’s closing in as we speak. He’s one fantastic detective, isn’t he?”

  There was no mistaking the sneer in his voice and it made my blood boil. “Yes, he sure is. Tell me, Josh. Why does it bother you that Ethan asked you for your wife’s discharge papers? You aren’t afraid he’s looking in your direction, are you? I mean, you don’t have anything to worry about, right? Seems like innocent people don’t have anything to worry about.” I probably shouldn’t have pushed him, but what I really wanted to do was wipe that sneer off his face.

  His jaw tensed up. “Look, I had nothing to do with that murder. I am not a murderer. It’s not like there’s any proof that it was anything other than an accident, anyway. Right? He doesn’t have any proof that she didn’t just fall down the stairs, right?”

  I stared at him calmly for a few moments before answering. I wanted him to squirm a bit, and as cool as he was trying to be, I think I was successful. “How would I know? Ethan is a professional, and he isn’t going to go around talking about what he does and doesn’t know about a case. He wouldn’t want the killer to get wind of all the evidence he’s using to build his case with.” I wasn’t going to bring up the fact that someone had to have turned the lights off and that someone couldn’t have been a dead woman.

  He snorted. “Build a case. What a laugh that is! Ethan Banks wouldn’t know how to build a case if his life depended on it. I bet
he doesn’t have a shred of evidence suggesting it’s a murder. He’s just trying to make the police chief think he has some evidence so maybe he can grow up and become a real detective one day. I’m sure it’s what he dreams about.”

  “Ethan doesn’t have to make things up. Trust me, he has evidence. How many killers have you heard of that don’t leave evidence behind? None. All of them make mistakes and that’s how they end up in prison. Or worse.” I watched his face when I said the last part. His eyes widened slightly and after a moment, he went pale.

  “Sucks for the killer then, doesn’t it?” he said, regaining his composure.

  I shrugged. “I guess it does. I’d hate to be in their shoes.”

  He took two steps closer, getting uncomfortably close to me. I steeled myself so I wouldn’t reflexively step back. I wasn’t going to be intimidated.

  “You tell that punk boyfriend of yours that I did not kill anyone. I have a kid on the way. I’ve got a family, and no one is going to get in the way of that. Do you understand me?”

  His eyes were hard, and his teeth were gritted together when he spoke. I could smell wintergreen gum on his breath, and I badly wanted to take that step back and away from him. I wanted to flinch at his words. But I couldn’t do that. He wasn’t going to threaten either Ethan or me.

  “If you’re innocent, I don’t know why you’d get so upset over Ethan asking you a few questions,” I said, and I hated that my words sounded weak and breathless. “Doesn’t make sense to me.”

  His eyes got big again, and he took a step back. “Look. I didn’t do anything to Ellie Adams. I’m sorry. You’re right, there’s no reason for me to get upset. I’m just under a lot of pressure lately. Having a kid on the way is freaking me out a little.” He forced himself to smile and relaxed. “Sorry if I came on too strong. I need to get going.”

  He turned and walked down the candy aisle toward the cash registers. I watched him go and felt my body tremble. If Josh was innocent, and at this point I was sure he wasn’t, then why was he behaving like he was guilty? Innocent people didn’t make veiled threats when questioned about something they didn’t do.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The day had turned warmer than expected with a clear blue sky and the sun shining brightly. Snow melted from the sidewalks and dripped from trees and rooftops. It was dark when I arrived home and beginning to get cold again. I took off my coat and tossed it on the back of the sofa. Boo wrapped himself around my legs as I walked across the living room and I had to step around him to keep from falling. I had tried calling Ethan to tell him what Josh had said, but he hadn’t returned my calls or texts. After putting a frozen lasagna in the oven, I went to the front window to look out across the street at Ethan’s house. It was nice having him so close by and I was glad we were both happy together. Otherwise, things could get awkward with us living so close.

  We had decorated both of our houses with large multi-colored Christmas lights along the roof and around the windows and doors. We lived in little rented cottages that looked exactly alike with white clapboard siding and black window shutters. There were twelve cottages in the development with six houses on one side of the street, and six on the other. I placed a huge lighted wreath on both of our doors. It was adorable if you asked me. I planned on making a boy snowman for his front yard and a girl for mine, but we had both been so busy, we hadn’t yet found the time. The murder case and the extra candy orders at work were taking up most of our days.

  Boo jumped up on the console table in front of the window and I absently stroked his back. He pushed his back up against my hand, purring loudly. Headlights turned down our street and into Ethan’s driveway.

  Running out into the street without a coat might not have been the smartest move. The sun had gone down, and a breeze had kicked up and I felt my eyes tear up from the cold. I had to tell Ethan that Josh killed Ellie. He had to get him off the street before he killed again. Namely, me or Ethan. Josh didn’t like either of us at this point, but I thought he especially didn’t like me.

  “Ethan!” I called as I shivered with the cold.

  He turned and smiled. “Hey, Mia, what’s the hurry?” he asked as I ran up to him.

  “Josh Tate killed Ellie,” I said, breathing hard. Not from running the short distance, but from the adrenaline that surged through my body as I thought about what Josh had said earlier.

  “How do you know?” he asked, eyebrows furrowing.

  I took a deep breath to steady my breathing. “I saw him at the grocery store this afternoon. He threatened me. And you. He’s dangerous, Ethan. You need to get him off the street.”

  His eyes went wide. “What do you mean he threatened us? Why didn’t you call me?”

  “I did call you, but you didn’t answer. Josh said he thought you were suspicious of him and he said you think he murdered Ellie. He was really scary, Ethan.” I inhaled deeply again. “I tried calling and texting you. You didn’t answer. Where were you?”

  “I had a meeting at work, then I was interviewing a suspect. Sorry. I just saw you had called and texted when I got ready to come home. I thought I’d just come over and talk to you. It’s freezing out here. You need a jacket.” He put his hands on my arms and rubbed them.

  “Are you going to arrest Josh?”

  “Mia, there’s not enough evidence yet. Yeah, his story is flimsy, hospital discharge papers or no. Most people aren’t going to leave a building without locking it up if they’re the ones in charge of it,” he said. “Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.”

  “I have a lasagna in the oven. Come over and have dinner,” I said, trying to calm down.

  “Then let’s go have lasagna,” he said and took my freezing hand into one of his gloved ones. “Now, what about Josh threatening us? What exactly did he say?”

  We crossed the street and headed back to my house. I had left the door open a crack and Boo was sitting on my step waiting for us. He didn’t attempt to walk out into the cold snow that was covering the ground and I didn’t blame him. We went inside and closed the door behind us.

  “He said you were probably making up the fact that you had evidence and he said no one was going to stand in the way of him taking care of his family. I guess it was more veiled threats than anything, but honestly, he’s got guilt written all over him. Like you said, most people aren’t going to run off and leave a building unlocked when they’re responsible for it. He’s just been so hostile about everything since the day I found Ellie’s body. Who does that? Wouldn’t you think he would have been at least a little concerned or sad that someone died?”

  “Yes, I would’ve thought that with Ellie’s body laying twenty feet from us, he would be a little more concerned. But unless he said something specific in threatening us, I can’t just go and arrest him. I’ll have to bring him in and interview him again. Maybe if I put some pressure on him, he’ll slip up and say something condemning.”

  I nodded. I knew he was right. But I couldn’t stand that sneering, threatening Josh Tate. I wanted to see him behind bars. “Would you like some tea?” I asked and headed to the kitchen.

  “Sure,” he said, following me. “We’re having garlic bread with that lasagna, aren’t we?”

  I turned and grinned at him. “What’s lasagna without the garlic bread?” I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of iced tea. I didn’t normally make iced tea in the winter, but it had sounded good, so I had made some earlier.

  “Lasagna and garlic bread belong together,” he said. “I think Josh is our best suspect at this point, although there are a couple of others that I’m going to keep my eye on. The medical examiner thought Ellie died the evening before you found her, or early that morning. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Josh ran out of the building after killing her. It may have been a coincidence that his wife went to the emergency room that night.”

  “And the thing is,” I said pouring tea into a glass. “His wife didn’t actually go into labor. How hard is it to go into the
emergency room and say she was having contractions, but then they suddenly stopped just before the doctor examined her?”

  “I considered that, too,” he said and squatted down to pet Boo. “Hey, guy.” Boo was a persistent customer. When he wanted to be pet, he was going to be pet, and there was no use trying to hold out. In a battle of wills, Boo always won.

  “Then it’s settled,” I said. “Josh is the killer. Now we just need to figure out how to get him to slip up and say something condemning.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t say it was settled. I said he was my best suspect.”

  I handed him the glass of iced tea and turned back and poured a glass for myself. I had already added sugar to the pitcher, and I took a long drink. I was thirstier than I realized.

  “Okay fine, but mark my words, Josh Tate killed Ellie,” I said.

  “I will definitely mark your words,” he said standing up and taking a sip of his iced tea. “Have I ever told you that you make the best iced tea around?”

  “No, I was just under the assumption that you thought that was true.” I went over to him and gave him a kiss. In my excitement earlier, I hadn’t even gotten a hello kiss from him.

  “Well, it’s completely true. You’re the best iced tea maker in all of Northern California.”

  “Northern California? Not the entire world?” I pouted, pretending to be hurt.

  “Sorry, my mistake. You are the best iced tea maker in the entire world. The universe, even.” He took another drink of his tea, unable to suppress a grin.

  “That’s more like it,” I said. “Let’s go sit down and find something on the television while the lasagna cooks. We’ve got almost an hour before it’s done.”

  “Great idea,” he said and followed behind me. We sat on my couch and I began flipping the TV around for something to watch. “I haven’t seen nearly enough Christmas movies this season. I bet we can find something fun.”