Peppermint Fudge Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 13 by Kathleen Suzette (reading list txt) 📕

hard to believe. I just can’t imagine what happened to her.” Brittany was a year younger than me and Suzanne, and a year older than Christy. I hoped she had some ideas about what might have happened to Suzanne and that she would share them with us.

She sighed. “Me either. I guess the one saving grace is the fact that her parents have been gone for a few years now. It would have been heartbreaking for them to lose their only daughter. Of course, the rest of the family will miss her terribly. I don’t know what we’ll do without her. She always spearheaded the family get-togethers.” She smiled sadly. “She had a real knack for that sort of thing, you know. She always got everybody together and made the arrangements and somehow managed to pull everything together.”

“Do you have a lot of family, Brittany?” I asked her.

“Not anymore,” she said. “Honestly, there’s just me, my parents, and my grandfather. My Grandfather lives in Oregon. I meant that when there was more of the family around, Suzanne would organize everything. We had an aunt and uncle that died in a car accident a couple of years ago, and then our grandmother died of natural causes last year. She was eighty-two.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It sounds like you’ve had a lot of loss in your life in the last few years.”

She nodded. “I just keep wondering when it’s going to end. I have a couple of cousins too, but we haven’t heard from them in years.” She shrugged. “They didn’t get along with their parents before they died, and they both took off after high school. They’ve always lived in Oregon near my grandfather, so it wasn’t like I was terribly close to them, but it’s nice to have family around, especially during a tragedy.”

“You need family in times like these,” Christy said. “This has to be hard for you and your parents.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to get along without her,” she said. “My mother was just crushed when I told her the news. She and my father will be coming out for the funeral, of course, but since I live here, the arrangements are up to me.”

“That has to be hard. Brittany, do you have any idea who might have killed Suzanne?” I asked her. I hated asking it point blank, but there was no easy way to ask a question like that. “Was she dating anyone?”

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t aware that she was seeing anyone.”

“So there wasn’t anyone that you might suspect?” Christy asked.

She hesitated a moment. “Well, I hate to point a finger at anyone, but do you know Katrina Hill?”

“Yes, she works at the haunted house during the Halloween season and Pumpkin Hollow Days,” I said. “Why? Do you think she might have had something to do with Suzanne’s death?” I couldn’t imagine it. I’d known Katrina for years and she was as nice as could be. I couldn’t imagine anyone thinking she might have something to with someone’s murder.

“Yes, that’s her. Suzanne would fill in for her at the haunted house and Katrina resented her. A lot.” She shook her head. “I never understood it. Suzanne was doing her a favor by filling in for her when she couldn't make it to work, and she didn’t seem to appreciate it.”

“Why would Katrina resent Suzanne for filling in for her?” Christy asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”

She nodded. “I guess it’s because Suzanne did a much better job playing the witch at the haunted house. She was more engaged with the tourists. They loved her. I think Katrina had become complacent in her job and Suzanne really showed her up and it made Katrina angry.”

“Did Suzanne tell you about this?” I asked her.

She nodded. “Yes, she said Katrina complained about her all the time. She said that if she ran into Katrina around town, like at the grocery store, she would just walk by her like she didn’t know her. Suzanne would try to strike up a conversation with her, but she would walk away without speaking to her.”

That didn’t sound like Katrina and it surprised me. “Really? How often did Suzanne fill in for Katrina?”

“Not often, but this past Halloween season Katrina got the flu and was out for a week. While Suzanne was there, the owner, Charlie McGrath, kept complimenting her on how well she was doing. Even the tourists would tell him how wonderful she was. She really kept the kids engaged without scaring them. And of course, it got back to Katrina, and she was livid.”

“Did she ever confront Suzanne?” Christy asked.

She nodded. “She sure did. Katrina went to her house and warned her that she had better not try to take her job away from her. She said she had been there for seven or eight years and she wasn’t about to lose it to her.”

“It doesn’t seem like you can warn somebody not to do a great job,” Christy said. “I mean, how do you do something like that? Did she suggest that she do a terrible job when she was at work?”

Brittany chuckled. “Not exactly, but she warned her that she better not be kissing up to the boss. I think that’s what Katrina was worried about. That Suzanne did such a great job that Charlie would think about replacing her. And if Charlie liked Suzanne, why wouldn’t he?”

She had a point. If Suzanne did a better job at entertaining the tourists, there was more chance that they would return on their next visit. Why wouldn’t Charlie hire Suzanne permanently?

“Where else did Suzanne work?” I asked her. Working at the haunted house was only a very part-time job during the busy seasons, and I couldn’t remember where she had worked before.

“She worked at the grocery store, in the produce department.