Murder in the Mix Boxed Set 28-30: Cozy Mystery by Addison Moore (books like beach read .TXT) 📕

“Sugar”—I say her name softly as I step in close—“Verity seemed to have a very strong personality. Sometimes people like that can be hard to get along with. Did Verity have a few rough edges?”

“The roughest.” Sugar looks relieved that I was able to point that out. “She lost her father when she was very young. He fell from a ladder, I think. Then her mother got sick and she lost her, too. An aunt took her in, and they lived not too far from where I grew up. Anyway, her aunt was very poor and she wasn’t all that kind to her. And, in turn, Verity had a bit of a mean streak to her. Sometimes I think she took pleasure in watching others suffer. But she was able to pull herself out of poverty. Too bad she wasn’t able to pull herself out of her need to be cruel.”

Teddy shakes her head. “It’s true, Lottie. I witnessed so much of it while I was with her.”

“We’ll talk,” I say just under my breath.

“What’s that?” Sugar leans my way.

“Did Verity ever talk about not getting along with anyone?”

She cranes her neck toward the exit. “Verity didn’t get along with anyone.” She glances to the signing tables once again. “Bambi and Verity were best friends for a time, but as you witnessed that night, things went south for them at some point.”

“You don’t think Bambi did this, do you?”

Her lips twitch side to side. “Honestly, deep down, Bambi is a nice person. Don’t let that persona she’s donned fool you. But poisoning? I doubt Bambi would risk her livelihood just to off someone she wasn’t friends with at the moment. Both Bambi and Verity’s careers depended on a certain level of drama, so a part of me thought that it was a part of an act. But Juliet?” She hitches her thumb in the direction of the knit shop. “Whatever she and Verity were arguing about felt genuine. I’ve never seen Verity so charged. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Juliet that charged either.”

“How well do you know Juliet?”

“We’re just acquaintances more or less, but she’s a gentle soul. That’s why watching them argue really caught me off guard. Bambi and Verity? Not so much.”

Someone calls for Sugar from the registers.

“I’d better go. Please stay and have a good time, Lottie. I’m so glad you’re here.”

“You bet,” I say as I snatch that furry little koala off her shoulder as she takes off. “I think someone has been avoiding me.”

“Never.” Teddy waves me off. “I just can’t get enough of my sweet Sugar. You do realize Verity snatched me away from her much the way you just did.”

“Are you saying Verity stole you?” I keep my voice down, but the noise level in the room is pretty high in general and those intermittent bouts of laughter are ear-piercing.

“That’s exactly what she did. And she threatened to harm Sugar’s reputation and break the heart of Sugar’s parents if she tried to take me back. Sugar lived in fear of the girl. And so did everyone else who came in contact with her. The girl was a pill as her aunt used to say. So was her aunt.” She groans as if reliving the memory. “And by the way, Lottie, Sugar mentioned you to her mother as well. She said you were married to a judge who’s about to go to prison. She said there’s a rumor going around that your boyfriend set him up. Oh, you’re the talk of the town. Isn’t that wonderful? You’re what Verity used to call popular. Verity said there was nothing more important than being popular. And she said it was equally important to do whatever you needed to do to get there.”

“From what I know of Verity, I believe it.”

“Mom!” Evie shouts as she runs on over and Everett strides up after her. “I just hit four million followers. Like, this is totally surreal. You know what this means, right?” She nods to both Everett and me as he wraps an arm around my waist. “I’m going to have to quit school.”

“What?” we balk in unison.

“No way,” Everett says. “I’m putting my foot down. I’ll take that phone away before I let that happen.”

“I thought you wanted to go to law school,” I cry out to her on his heels.

“Nobody is taking away my phone,” Evie snaps at Everett as her chest pounds. Her eyes are wild as she stares him down with defiance. You’d think he just threatened to take her sanity away, and I guess in a way he did. Her screen lights up and her mouth falls open as she looks at it.

“What is it?’ I scuttle over and hold her wrist steady so I can catch a glimpse, but Evie slaps the phone to her chest. “It’s nothing.”

Everett growls, “Spill it or lose the device.”

Evie growls right back, “Fine! It was Verity, if you must know. And she was reminding me to snap a picture of my environment.”

“Verity?” Teddy sounds about as alarmed as I am. “Why, she wouldn’t say that. Verity would be much more interested in getting a picture of herself in there somewhere. The vain are vain well into the afterlife, too, you know.”

I nod her way. I’ve certainly witnessed a vain character or two who has crossed the earthly divide.

A group of girls circle around us.

“Did you say Verity?” one of them asks.

“Is she speaking to you from the dead?” another gasps.

“No way! She can talk to Verity!” a third shrieks, and before we know it, the entire bookstore has turned itself inside out.

Evie is swarmed by a gaggle of women, all clamoring to speak to Verity, and Everett pulls me to safety just as Noah appears and makes his way over to us.

“What did I miss?” He glances to that hub of bodies surrounding Evie. “Is she safe in