Pumpkin Spice Lies: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 16 by Kathleen Suzette (you can read anyone .txt) 📕

could feel her looking at me, but I didn’t want to give myself away, so I kept my eyes on Angela.

“Oh? Who is your niece?” I asked.

“Hailey Strong. Sweet girl. But she likes to push the limits. Everyone’s limits.” She chuckled heartily. “I bet the teachers were thrilled when she graduated from high school last year. Wouldn’t surprise me if they passed her just to get rid of her.”

“Really?” I asked carefully. “So she was in trouble a lot?”

“How about I get some of those cherry chocolate creams? They sure sound good.” She pointed at a plate and Christy reached beneath the table to get some out of the ice chest.

“How many would you like?” she asked and looked at me. She squinted her eyes and nodded, trying to get something over to me. I turned away. I didn’t want Angela to read anything on my face.

“Oh, how about a half dozen? I shouldn’t get them, but I will. You know how I am.” She turned to me. “I wouldn’t say Hailey was in trouble a lot at school. It’s just that Hailey is a firecracker. She likes to pull practical jokes on people and she tends to be loud.” She grinned. “I love that girl. But my sister is a worrywart. Always has been. Our father always said Jenny would worry herself to death one day. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was right about that.”

I smiled back and hoped Hailey was just off having some fun somewhere and wasn’t in the county morgue. I needed to talk to Ethan and see if he had found out anything about the victim’s identity.

“Did she try calling her?” I asked. “I’m a bit of a worrier myself, and I do know it’s hard when someone you love doesn’t show up where they’re supposed to be.” This time I did look at Christy. There was a time when she was out of pocket more than in.

Christy rolled her eyes at me.

“Oh sure, she called her. Wouldn’t surprise me if she called her a hundred times last night. She needs to accept the fact that Hailey is an adult now and needs to live her life.”

Christy handed her a cute Halloween decorated paper bag with her candy in it. “Some people have a hard time letting their kids grow up.”

She nodded. “You can say that again.” She paid for her candy and looked at me. “Well, if you get a hankering for a cupcake or a cookie, I’ve got a booth just down the sidewalk there.”

“We just might have to go over and see what you’ve got,” I said.

“See you, girls,” she said and headed over to the next booth.

Christy and I turned to look at each other.

“I have a feeling about that.”

“Me too.” I picked up my cup and took a sip of my iced tea.

Chapter Five

My black cat, Boo, rubbed up against my legs as I stood at my front window watching for Ethan. Ethan and I lived in matching cottages. There were six on my side of the street and six on his. They were white with black shutters and were all neatly kept. They were small, but they were the perfect size for a single person. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do once we got married. The idea had occurred to me to find a larger house to rent until we decided on one to buy, but I enjoyed living in my little cottage and I didn’t know if I was ready to give it up yet.

I glanced at the clock over my fireplace mantle. It was after eight o’clock in the evening and it was beginning to get dark. The vendors’ fair had been a smashing success, with a lot of tourists showing up. We’d taken a lot of orders for candy and sold everything we had made earlier in the morning. I was beat, but I didn’t want to go to bed without seeing Ethan. When Ethan didn’t show up for the vendors’ fair, it had taken all I had not to text or call him. But I knew he was busy, plus I had my hands full with the candy sales.

I bent over and scratched Boo’s ear. “What do you think, Boo? Are you ready for the Halloween season?”

We would have a few weeks of down time in between Pumpkin Hollow Days and the Halloween season, and I was already looking forward to it. Ethan and I had taken a trip up to Lake Tahoe several weeks earlier, and I was wishing we had had more time before we had to come back to our jobs. We were still debating on where we would go for our honeymoon. Ethan wanted Hawaii, and I wanted Paris. My trip was a lot more expensive, but it was someplace I’d always wanted to go to. If we waited, we might never make the trip.

Ethan pulled into his driveway ten minutes later and I hurried out front. I hated to nag at him, but I needed to know the details.

“Hey,” I said, looking both ways before crossing the street.

He turned and looked at me, smiling tiredly. “Hey yourself,” he said, and when I got to him, he kissed me.

“You put in a long day.”

He nodded. “I did. But you know how it goes.”

“I sure do. Have you eaten?”

He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “If you count a bag of chips and a soda from the vending machine at the police department, then yes. I’ve eaten.”

“No, I don’t call that eating. I call that snacking. I ordered a pizza earlier, it’s cold now, but we can warm it up.”

He took me by the hand and we headed back across the street. “I like cold pizza. Don’t even bother sticking it in the microwave.”

“You