Chocolate Chip Cookie Conundrum (Murder in the Mix Book 32) by Unknown (the lemonade war series .TXT) 📕

as I take up their hands. “I’m sorry I’ve ruined your lives, and now I’m dragging you down to the lowest dregs of society.” My chest thumps as tears fill my eyes.

Candace hustles over and glares at me as she takes a seat.

“Buck up, Lottie,” she grouses. “Nobody cries on my show until I make them.”

Kit snaps the clapperboard. “And three, two, one—we’re live!”

Candace stretches a plasticine smile across her face, and I can’t help but note it looks sickly sweet, not to mention one hundred percent fake.

“Welcome to another addition of Getting Candid with Candace! I’m Candace Cottonwood, your host, and I have with me Honey Hollow’s own infamous throuple!”

“Teamwork makes the dream work!” someone shouts from the audience and it sounds decidedly like Carlotta.

Good grief.

Candace bellows out a laugh. “The two gentlemen we have here today are Detective Noah Fox and Judge Essex Everett Baxter—he lets me call him Essex.”

She winks in the camera as if that meant something. It doesn’t. In fact, if he did let her call him Essex, it would certainly mean something. It would mean that she was either related to him, and thus stubbornly refused to call him by his preferred middle name, or she’s done the sideways hustle with him—in bed. And that last scenario is far more common than one might think.

Before Everett met me, he was quite the playboy. And even though I more than qualify to shout his formal moniker from the rooftops, I still call him by the name I’m most comfortable with.

Candace smears a smile my way, inadvertently showing off the fact that greasy red lipstick of hers has stained her lips, and I can’t help but think it looks like blood.

“Let’s not forget the mommy at the center of today’s paternity debate. Baker Lottie Lemon, the owner of the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery right there on Main Street in adorable little Honey Hollow.”

Usually I’m thrilled when my bakery gets any kind of coverage. But right now, I’m not so much thrilled as I am embarrassed to drag my sweet little bakeshop into this mess. Then again, everyone else I love has already been sucked into the muck and the mire, what’s a business or two?

The three of us are quick to thank her for having us on, but I can tell by both Noah’s and Everett’s dispositions neither of them is thrilled to be here, and it just makes me feel ten times worse. It’s not like I expected anyone to be hopping up and down with joy, but now that this nightmare is playing out in real time, it feels as if the walls of the universe are crashing down around me—and smashing everyone else on the sofa along with me.

“Now”—Candace lifts her chin—“let’s brief the audience, and our at-home viewers, on a little bit of history.”

I’m about to do just that and she holds up a finger.

“My show, I get to spill all the dirty little details.” She gives a sly wink just as that ghostly rooster bops this way. Great, just what I need. “Lottie, you met Noah once the two of you were tangled up in the murder of your former landlord, isn’t that right? And you were actually accused of killing her, too! Isn’t that true?”

“Yes, but I didn’t do it.” I give a nervous smile to the camera. “Noah and I cracked the case and apprehended the real killer who is now serving time behind bars.”

Noah shakes his head. “That was all you, Lottie. You solved that homicide on your own.”

“That’s right, she did.” Candace gives him a sharp look. “Just the way she has countless other homicides that have occurred in and around Honey Hollow ever since then. Don’t you think it’s suspicious, Detective, that not only does Lottie solve the crimes, but that she is always the one that discovers the body? Not to mention the fact one of her desserts is always eerily present on or around the scene of the crime? I don’t know about you, but I think I smell something fishy here.”

“Objection.” Everett lifts a finger.

“Overruled, Judge Baxter,” she snips his way. “And speaking of legalese, let’s put the spotlight on you for a moment. Shall we? Let’s see, you were the judge in session the day Lottie here was being sued in small claims court by the very landlord that died under suspicious circumstances and you just so happened to side in Lottie’s favor. Did the fact you were attracted to Lottie play into your decision?”

“No,” Everett barks it out clear and sharp.

“Oh, I think it did,” she’s quick to contest him with a smirk. “In fact, you have quite the reputation when it comes to the ladies, Judge Baxter. I have it on good authority that you’ve slept with a wide range of women over the last few years alone. And let’s get this straight, you, Judge Baxter, are also known as Mr. Sexy. Isn’t that correct?”

“That’s right,” Carlotta shouts from the audience. “Every barista on the planet knows it’s true!”

Candace nods her way. “I’d go as far as saying every woman.”

“Well, actually”—I clear my throat—“it was indeed a barista who started that whole Mr. Sexy thing, but she was far from wrong.” The audience gives off a few quick catcalls.

Candace squints over at Noah. “Detective Fox, you and Lottie were together first from what I understand. But a little bird has recently whispered to me that Everett was, in fact, your stepbrother at one point in the past. And do you know what else that little bird whispered to me? That the two of you had a falling-out over a girl in high school. The love of both of your lives—Cormack Featherby.”

“That’s me!” Cormack’s voice squeaks from the audience, and I roll my eyes at that one.

“Not true.” Everett is the first to deny Cormack bragging rights to his undying affection.

“Correct,” Noah says.

“So it’s true?” Candace gawks. “Cormack Featherby is the love of your life?”

Noah’s eyes widen with horror. “I