Iced Pumpkin Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 26

by Gillard, Susan

  “What about the case?” Amy asked. “How’s that going.”

  “I want to say easy, but no, it’s confusing.”

  “Why?” Amy reached for her soda and slurped some through the straw. “I thought you said everyone’s being really helpful.”

  “That’s the thing,” Heather replied. “Everyone is super helpful, but that’s confused me anymore. They’re all suspects, but they’re not behaving like angry killers. Their reactions have been moderate and identical.”

  “And that’s a problem,” Amy said.

  “Yeah, because this was clearly a revenge killing of some sort, and usually that means an angry person on a war path.” Heather rolled her neck, and her bones cracked.

  She grimaced at the noise and straightened.

  “They can’t all be easy.”

  “No they can’t,” Heather said. “Here’s what gets to me. The killer stole the snake from the pet store, which means the killer had to have known the snake was there.”

  “Sure. I can see how that doesn’t exactly rule out anyone.”

  “Right, all our suspects are animal lovers.” Heather shifted again. Man, she couldn’t get comfortable tonight. “But the thief had to have known how to handle a snake or had to have had the right equipment for it.”

  “Both.”

  “So –”

  “Wait a second,” Amy said and raised her index finger. “How do we know the killer and the thief are the same person? The thief could’ve been hired by the killer, for instance.”

  “That’s a great theory, but it doesn’t pan out. You see, the killer wore a certain set of shoes, and Ryan confirmed that the shoe prints outside the pet store were identical,” Heather said. “So, unless the thief got a foot transplant…”

  “I see your point,” Amy said and dropped her hand to her lap. “I don’t know what to tell you. To me, it seems like you need more evidence.”

  “Precisely.” Heather crumpled the blanket in her lap. “Luckily, they took fingerprints at the scene. Which means we’ll get our evidence. I just hope it makes sense.”

  “You’ll find a way to work it out, Heather,” Amy said and winked. “You always do.”

  Chapter 10

  Ryan jived along to the rhythm of the music in Dos Chicos. He clicked his fingers then tapped his fingertips on the edge of the table and smiled at Heather. “You okay, gorgeous?”

  “I’m fine,” she replied. “It’s nice to have a date night.” But her thoughts scratched through the facts of the case and searched for answers.

  She couldn’t switch off once one had started. It was both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand, she wouldn’t stop until she’d solved it, on the other, she couldn’t stop, and it exhausted her.

  The waitress arrived at the table and placed two plates in front of them: soft shell tacos and Heather’s quesadillas. Extra cheesy and with a couple of jalapenos thrown into the mix.

  She grabbed one of the perfect tortilla triangles and dipped into her tiny pot of salsa, then delivered it to her mouth.

  “Delicious,” she muttered and chewed. The cheesy goodness spread through her mouth, accented by the zap of the peppers.

  “This is so good,” Ryan replied. “I’ll never get sick of this place.”

  “Agreed.” Heather descended into silence and focused on her meal. She pushed thoughts of the case aside, but they sat at the fringes of her mind and waited for the opportunity to rush back in.

  “I’ve got news,” Ryan said and put down his taco. “We got that results back from the break-in at the pet store.”

  Heather put down her quesadilla, then grabbed a napkin. She dabbed at her lips. “What did you find?”

  “Fingerprints on the tank, as we suspected. A lot of them,” Ryan replied. “From four sources.”

  “Oh boy, my sleuth senses are tingling like crazy.” Heather grabbed her soda and drank deeply from it. The fizz cleared the flavor from her tongue.

  “Get this, there were fingerprints on that cage from Jamie Purdue, Sofia Lopez, the poacher Jones himself and a woman named Penelope Walsh.”

  “Are you serious?” Heather gripped her soda until her knuckles turned white. “That presents so many scenarios. Penny Walsh was the judge at Lilly’s dog show event. I phoned her about those fliers, remember?”

  “I remember. I didn’t even fingerprint her for this. She was in the system for a minor misdemeanor.” His lips curled upward at the corners.

  “Oh my gosh, what was it?”

  “She, uh, how do I put this? She was much younger at the time and she, kind of, well, she lay naked in front of a bulldozer to stop construction of a new mall. The area was heavily forested.”

  “Wow,” Heather said. “That’s a little extreme.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Apparently, she was an animal rights activist in her day,” Ryan said. He picked up his taco and took a bite, then chewed his way through it.

  “Curious.” Heather passed her soda from her right hand to her left, then back again. “But this doesn’t tell us much at all. Three suspects and the victim touched that cage. We need to figure out the possible scenarios there.”

  “Absolutely,” Ryan said, around a mouthful of Mexican food. “Any ideas?”

  “Only speculation. Sofia and Jamie might’ve touched the cage to clean it or to feed the snake. The poacher, wow, that puzzles me, because Sofia would never have allowed him in the store.”

  “Which means either Jamie did, or there’s something Sofia isn’t telling us,” Ryan replied.

  “Yeah,” Heather said. “And there’s our old lady activist. She could’ve visited the store and been intrigued by the snake. She did express a fondness for them when I spoke to her on the phone.”

  “I see,” Ryan said. He tapped his fingers on the edge of the table and wriggled his nose. “Basically, we need more evidence and information on each of these suspects before we can get closer to the truth.”

  “I agree,” Heather said. “The shoeprints were small, a female size, right?”

  “Yeah, that or a small man’s size,” Ryan replied. “The shoe itself was unisex according to the supplier.”

  “Ugh, that doesn’t help us much.” Heather grabbed her quesadilla and took a bite.

  Gosh, if only she could figure out why the killer would’ve wanted to murder the man with a snake of all things.

  “Here’s a thought,” Ryan said. “That woman, Penelope, was an animal right’s activist. Would she really have endangered a coral snake to a murder a man she despised?”

  “That’s the common theme here,” Heather replied. “Each of them hated the guy, apart from Jamie who was kinda indifferent when we spoke, and each of them definitely loved animals. Maybe we’re missing something.”

  “The maid checked out if that’s what you’re thinking. She didn’t have the same size shoe and no fingerprints on the cage,” Ryan replied.

  “Not what I was thinking, but it’s good to have that information.” Heather sighed and ate more of her quesadilla. “Why can’t we just ask them what size shoe they wear?”

  “Because they could have the same size shoe and not be the killer? We’d have to find that exact pair of shoes, and it’s highly unlikely we’ll find it in their possession,” Ryan said.

  “Why?” Heather asked.

  “Because we found the shoes in the trash can behind Jimmy Bob Jones’ house.”

  Heather exhaled through her nose. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  “I didn’t? I thought I had,” Ryan said and scratched at his temple. A little sauce smudged onto his skin. “Sorry, hon.”

  Heather pursed her lips and pressed them to one side. “I think it would be great if you could send me documentation on your investigation. I feel like I’m flying blind most of the time.”

  Ryan nodded. “You’re absolutely right. I’ll bring home a dossier tomorrow. I should’ve done that kind of thing from the start, but honestly, you move so fast on these investigations I’ve ne
ver needed to in the past.”

  Heather blushed at the compliment. She cleared her throat and took a sip of soda to cool down. “Anyone could’ve bought a pair of those shoes and worn them, whether they were too small or too big.”

  “That’s the gist of it, yeah.” Ryan grabbed a napkin and brushed off his mouth.

  Heather pushed her empty plate aside and narrowed her eyes at the string of cheese draped across it. “Looks like I’ve got some people to interview.”

  Chapter 11

  “I feel like a stalker,” Amy said and clutched her handbag to her side. “We just got off work for heaven’s sake, and we’re thrown right into the middle of a stalking spree.”

  “We weren’t thrown,” Heather replied. “We leaped.” She drew Amy toward the park, under the rays of the afternoon sun.

  They’d left Donut Delights, locked up and spotted Jamie Purdue just across the road. The man had strolled along without a care. Stalking had ensued.

  “And it’s not stalking. We’re casing him out. I need to talk to him anyway. There are things in this case that just don’t add up.”

  Amy nodded but pressed her lips into a thin line. Perhaps, she didn’t like the idea of her semi-crush as the murderer.

  Heather stopped beneath a tree and raised her hand to shade her eyes from the glare. The trees stood still, the afternoon was breathless but without heat, and clouds rolled on the horizon.

  “There,” she whispered, and pointed to the solitary figure on the park bench.

  Jamie Purdue held a small bag of bird seed. He sprinkled the grains onto the grass beneath his feet and birds flocked from the trees. They picked at the food and a slow smile spread on Jamie’s lips.

  “That’s sweet,” Amy whispered.

  “Or creepy,” Heather replied.

  “I thought I was the cynical one.”

  Heather snorted, then took off toward the man and his birds. She stopped just short of the animals and folded her arms. Amy rushed up beside her, then halted and cleared her throat.

  Jamie looked up at them. “Oh hey, how’s it going?”

  “Fine, thank you, Mr. Purdue,” Heather replied, and dug around in her tote. She brought out her notepad and pen.

  “Oh boy. Why do I feel like I’m in school, right now?” Jamie laughed. “I take it you have more questions for me, Mrs. Shepherd.”

  “Quite a few more” she replied. She scribbled Jamie’s name at the top of the page, then frowned.

  She’d gone through several notebooks during her investigations. She needed to transition to an electronic device. This much note-taking couldn’t be good for the environment.

  “Sure, I’ll help in whatever way I can. What do you need to know?”

  “Why didn’t you report the break-in to the cops?” Heather asked, and her pen hovered above the page.

  Jamie scattered more birdseed on the ground and frowned at it. “I honestly forgot. The break-in happened, and Sofia didn’t treat it like a huge emergency. I thought she would since the coral was missing, but she kinda brushed it off.”

  Heather wrote down a shorthand version of his answer. “You forgot.”

  “Yeah, I remember picking up the phone to dial it in, but then another customer came into the store, and I hung up. Totally forgot to call back later,” he said and flashed a sheepish smile at them.

  Amy didn’t make a quip. She just stared at Jamie and kept her mouth shut.

  Heather fumbled through her notes, then brought out a picture she’d tucked between the pages. A mugshot from the dossier Ryan had dropped off at Donut Delights that morning.

  “Did this woman ever enter the store?” She asked and held up the image of Penelope Walsh. “She would’ve looked like this but older. She’s around sixty now, I think.”

  “Oh yeah, Mrs. Walsh? She came in a couple of times. She has a lot of cats. But now that you mention it, she did seem really interested in the coral snake. Although, she stared at the rattlesnake a lot, too.”

  “I see,” Heather said and fumbled the picture back into the pages of her notepad.

  “Is there anything else?”

  “We found your fingerprints on the tank,” Heather said, simply.

  Jamie placed the birdseed sack to one side and folded his arms. “That’s because I clean the case. Admittedly, I do a rush job on the snake tanks because, well, they kinda freak me out. Okay, I’ll admit it, they scare me.”

  “You and me both,” Amy said, at last.

  “One last thing.” Heather stepped closer to Jamie, and a few of the birds fluttered away from the seeds at his feet. “Did you ever see JB Jones in the store? Did he ever come inside?”

  Jamie’s lips writhed. He looked past Heather at the street, then behind the bench at the line of trees. “Yeah,” he whispered. “I didn’t want to tell you before because I thought it might incriminate me. I know it’s stupid, and it looks worse now, but yeah, he came in.”

  “What happened?” Heather asked, and lowered her tone.

  “I was fiddling around below the counter when the door to the store opened,” Jamie said. “I stood up quick, but there was no one there, so I just assumed that whoever it was had gone through to check out the pets.”

  “Okay,” Heather said and wrote the details down. “And then?”

  “It was awfully quiet for a long time. Freaked me out. So, I walked down the aisle, and that was when I saw him.”

  “The poacher?” Amy asked, and swallowed. At least her cheeks hadn’t gone pink this time.

  “That’s right. The poacher. He was right beside the coral snake case. He had his nose pressed up against the things and his palm against it too.”

  “Oh gosh, that’s creepy.” Amy shivered and rubbed her upper arms.

  “Yeah, that was what I thought,” Jamie replied. “So I immediately asked him to leave. Sofia had given him a lifelong ban from the pet store. Yeah, he didn’t like that. He started screaming at me.”

  “What did you do?” Heather asked.

  Jamie bowed his head for a moment. “Ugh, look, I’m not proud of the next part.”

  “Go ahead. You can tell us.”

  “I picked him up and carried him out of the store,” Jamie said. He raised his head again and met Heather’s gaze. “I didn’t want to call the cops for something like that, so I just bounced him myself.”

  “You picked up a grown man,” Amy said. “I didn’t see the body, but I’m assuming the guy wasn’t a tiny dude.”

  “He wasn’t the biggest guy I’d ever seen, but yeah. I’m ex-military. You’ve got to be able to carry heavy loads and think under pressure. Those instincts just kicked in,” Jamie replied. He scratched the back of his neck. “He didn’t like that at all. Threatened to sue me and the store and the entire world.”

  “But he never got the chance,” Heather said.

  Jamie dug into the bird seed again and threw it down. “Nope.”

  Chapter 12

  Heather rapped her knuckles on Penelope Walsh’s front door, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  Amy yawned and rattled the donuts around in the box. “Whoops, sorry. I hardly slept last night. I don’t know why, but I keep having nightmares.”

  “What about?” Heather asked.

  “That I arrive at your house for a slumber party, and you guys are just gone.” Amy shifted to the side of the door and peered at the window beside it. The pale pink curtains blocked her view. “The house is empty. Totally empty. It’s kinda freaky.”

  “Kinda,” Heather said. “Don’t worry, Ames, we’re not going anywhere.”

  “I know,” Amy replied. “I’d find out about it before you left and stowaway in the trunk of your car.” She laughed, but it transformed into a jaw-creaking yawn mid-chuckle.

  Heather knocked again. “Maybe she’s not home.”

  Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door. A lock drew back, and the door creaked inward.

  Penelope Walsh blinked at them, sleepily. “May I help you?�
�

  Oh, shoot, they probably should’ve come a little later. It was just past six in the morning. All those early wake-up calls for donuts had desensitized her to the sleep patterns of normal folk.

  “Hi, Penelope, I’m so sorry to bother you this early in the morning. I’m Heather Shepherd. We spoke on the phone about the poacher?”

  “Are you asking me or telling me?” Penny asked, then forced a weak smile. “Sorry, I’m not a morning person.”

  Amy stifled a yawn behind her fist. “I hear ya on that one.”

  “We brought donuts,” Heather said and flicked the top of the Donut Delights box.

  “That will go well with my morning coffee,” Penelope said, then beckoned. “Come on in.” She turned and shuffled back into her home.

  Heather followed the elderly woman down the dingy hall and into a vast kitchen. She’d never have guessed it’d be in a house as small as Penny’s.

  “What a lovely place,” Heather said.

  “Thank you,” Penelope replied, and grabbed the pot from the counter. She shuffled across the room and set about the coffee preparations. “You mentioned the poacher?”

  Amy strode into the room and placed the donut box on the melamine-topped table, then flipped its lid open and grinned at the glistening Iced Pumpkin donuts nestled inside.

  “That’s correct,” Heather said. “I told you on the phone. I’m investigating in conjunction with the Hillside Police Department. It’s come to my attention that you were in the Sunny Hill Pet Store, recently.”

  “Oh yes, of course, I was,” Penelope said. “I visit there often.”

  Two cats wandered into the room, a tabby and a tortoise shell. They curled around Penny’s ankles and meowed up at her. “All right, you two. In a minute.” She let the coffee brew and hurried to the cupboard opposite.

  The cats trailed after her, still meowing complaints.

  “Cute cats,” Amy said, and stuck her pink in her ear. She twiddled it around. “Noisy cats.”

  “I have six,” Penelope replied, and brought the kibble down from the counter. She poured it into six different colored bowls, then refilled a large blue water bowl at the end of the row. “Six little darlings.”