Ames had the rapt attention of everyone in the entire room.
“She met with Kelly Lemon,” Amy said. “In Dos Chicos of all places. I swear, it’s a hub for naughty folk. Anyway, I managed to sneak behind them in a booth and record every word of their evil plan to take down Heather.”
“They had more planned?”
“So much more, and all of it involved slandering you in the press,” Amy said. “Lemon mentioned the lies he’d told in the other articles, too. He called them strokes of imagination.”
“And then what?”
“I marched my vigilante butt right over to the Hillside Reporter HQ and played the tape for everyone in the reception area,” Amy said. “See, they wouldn’t let me through to the Editor In Chief at first. They did after that.”
“My goodness,” Eva said, again.
Ames had taken initiative on this one. But she’d been anything but careful, too. Heather wanted to be angry with her bestie for putting herself in danger but the apologetic headline on the front page took the wind out of her sails.
She’d thought that the horrid articles would become a permanent fixture.
“Thanks,” Heather said, around the lump in her throat. “Amy, thank you. You didn’t have to do this.”
“Say what? We’re practically halves of the same coin,” Amy said. “I wasn’t about to let anyone mess with you or Donut Delights. Family is family.”
Heather pulled her friend into a bear hug and squeezed her tight.
“Oof! All right, all right, don’t pop my spleen.” Amy patted her on the back.
Heather let her go and smiled. “Now, that that’s out of the way, we can finally celebrate the real reason we gathered her today. Amy’s got her investigator’s license.”
And she’d sure used her first week as a qualified investigator well.
Donuts were consumed, milkshakes gobbled down and stories shared. By the end of the evening, the trials of the past week had worked out of Heather’s shoulders.
What did a little discomfort count in the face of happiness?
She had her family and that was all that mattered.
THE END
A letter from the Author
To each and every one of my Amazing readers: I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you think by leaving a review!
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Stay Curious,
Susan Gillard
Peaches and Cream Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy - Book 41 (Donut Hole Cozy Mystery) Page 7
