Murder with a Cherry on Top

A Cookie’s Creamery Mystery

by

Kathleen Suzette

Copyright © 2022 by Kathleen Suzette. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

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Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Sneak Peek

Chapter One

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“WELL, OLIVER, I GUESS it’s another Friday night watching television.” My orange-striped cat, Oliver, jumped up on the couch and snuggled close to me as I flipped channels on the television, looking for something to watch. I wasn’t fooled. It was the bowl of buttered popcorn sitting in my lap that he was interested in.

“Meow?”

I looked down at him. “I don’t suppose you’d like some popcorn?”

“Meow.”

“I knew it.” Oliver loved his buttered popcorn. I dropped a piece in front of him, and he licked the butter off before crunching on the popcorn. Oliver was a gourmand. He only liked real butter. When I picked up margarine on a recent grocery shopping trip, he refused the popcorn, meowing forlornly. There was no fooling him.

I gave him another fluffy piece and went back to flipping channels. With two hundred channels, you would think there would be something interesting on, but I guess the television programmers figured everyone was out on a date on a Friday evening in June. I didn’t mind spending my date nights with Oliver. The last several guys I had gone out with before moving back to Lilac Bay the previous month had all been duds. I’m sure they were great guys for somebody, but that somebody wasn’t me.

My best friend and co-worker, Chloe, had managed to snag a date with a guy we used to go to high school with. I wasn’t envious. Much. But I did wonder how it was going. She would fill me in at work tomorrow.

Oliver pawed my leg, signaling a need for more popcorn. I tossed him another piece and settled on a true-crime drama. Sighing, I sat back on the couch and did what Oliver was doing. Eating popcorn. It had been a beautiful day, warmer than most here on the central coast of California, and I had my windows open to catch the mild breeze. Air conditioners were pretty much optional around here, and I preferred the soft breezes that brought the scent of saltwater into the house.

Oliver and I ate popcorn and watched the story unfold on the screen. When your baby mama turns up dead, and you only have your homies as your very weak alibi, it’s not hard to figure out who did it. I glanced at Oliver, who was trying to fish out a kernel of popcorn that had slipped between the couch cushions. “The baby daddy did it.”

Oliver ignored me, still working on his piece of popcorn.

“Here, have a fresh one.” I tossed him another. I needed to vacuum between the couch cushions anyway, and I’d get it the next time I did that. Not that it would be anytime soon.

A flash of light hit the one window that was still closed, and I turned to look. It was almost 10:00, and the neighborhood was quiet. The TV was playing commercials, and I glanced at Oliver. Had I imagined it? Or was it a passing car? But I hadn’t heard a car, and this was a quiet neighborhood with little traffic at this time of night.

I turned my attention back to the tv when the show resumed. Ten minutes later, I heard what could best be described as a grunt that came from outside. A shiver went down my spine. Was I imagining things? Turning down the television, I strained my ears to hear, but there was only silence. I had heard something, hadn’t I?

I put the bowl of popcorn and the remote on the coffee table and grabbed my phone. Next, I flipped the lights off inside the house and went to the nearest open window, but the neighborhood was quiet. I stared out into the front yard, and then looked over at the neighbors’ houses, but I didn’t see anything moving. Blue light showed through Mr. Farmer’s living room window across the street. I wondered if he was watching a true-crime drama too. The elderly and I lived exciting lives on Friday nights. I sighed. I had imagined the sound, hadn’t I?

I went back and sat on the couch, leaving the lights off. Oliver had rolled over to the other side and closed his eyes.

“Too much excitement for you?”

He sighed and flipped the tip of his tail.

I sat back, picking up the bowl of popcorn, and this time I heard a voice say, “no.” It was a loud whisper and came from outside my open window. I jumped up and grabbed my phone, almost dumping the bowl of popcorn before I got it onto the coffee table. I ran to my door, throwing it open, only to be greeted by silence. Was I hearing things? I shook my head and stepped outside onto the front step. I was certain it was a man’s voice. My neighbors on the right side were gone, but the ones on the left were home. But no one had come out of their house to see what was going on. Was I the only one who heard it?

“Is someone here?” I said, not too loud, but loud enough that if someone were close by, they would hear me. There was no answer. Not that I had expected any.

The bushes between my house and the neighbors on the right suddenly shook, and it wasn’t from the blowing breeze.

“Hey!” I called. “Who’s there?” I was greeted by more silence, and then I heard footsteps running down the street. I hurried over to the tall bushes where I had seen movement, my phone gripped in my hand, and parted them, but I didn’t see anyone. My neighbors had forgotten to leave their porch light on, and it was dark. Whoever had been running away was out of sight. My heart pounded as I tried to calm my breathing, wondering if I was losing my mind. Taking a deep breath, I pushed my way through the bushes, tripping and falling over something. I landed on my stomach with an oof that took the air right out of me. I was stunned for a moment, and it took a few seconds to be able to breathe again. When I hit the ground, my phone had flown from my hand, and it was lying just out of reach. I got to my knees and crawled over to it in the dark. Picking it up, I turned the flashlight on and shined it back toward the bushes. There was a pile of what looked like clothing on the ground between the bushes. Except, as I moved the light along the pile, I realized that this pile of clothes had a human head. I screamed.

Chapter Two

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I WAS BUNDLED UP ON my front step. The cool breeze I had been enjoying earlier had turned to cold wind. Oliver sat beside me, rubbing up against me, asking for attention. I kept one eye on the paramedics and police and one on Oliver. He was the perfect distraction.

The local detective, Noah Grayson, was carefully inspecting the area around and beneath the bushes. The pile of clothes with the head attached was, of course, no such thing. It was a person. A dead person, as I discovered while screaming my head off. A knife was stuck in his chest.

My neighbors had all gathered around, standing about five feet from where I sat, discussing the possibilities of what had happened to the dead guy, and casting worried glances at me from time to time. Suddenly, the detective looked in my direction. He said something to another officer and headed toward me.

“Hello.”

I nodded. “Hello.”

His eyes went to Oliver. “Cute cat.”

“Thanks.”

“You want to tell me what happened?”

I sighed. No, I did not want to tell him what happened, but I knew I wasn’t getting out of it. “I was watching television, and I had my windows open to let the breeze in. There was a flash of light, and I looked out but didn’t see anything. Then I heard what sounded like a groan, and then someone said the word no. Then I went outside to look. I heard someone running away, and I went into the bushes to investigate and tripped over the body.” I didn’t make eye contact with him as I spoke. I was tired, shaken, and scared. Someone had been murdered right on my property. Or rather, halfway on my property. Who did the bushes belong to, anyway? My neighbors always trimmed them. That must make them theirs, so the dead guy was theirs, too. If only they had been home to handle this mess.

“It didn’t occur to you that it might be dangerous to investigate in the dark when you heard something?”

I looked up at him. He was writing something down in his notebook, and when he said the word investigate, he put an emphasis on it that I didn’t care for. In fact, I hadn’t cared for any of the encounters I had had with Detective Grayson in the past, and it didn’t look like this one was going to be any better.

“Did you really want me to call the police over something that might have just been the wind?”

He looked up from his notebook. “No, I guess not. Do you know the victim?”

I hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. He’s Jim Allred. He was a couple of years behind me in school.” When I managed to get to my feet and got a better look at the guy, that was when I realized who he was. Jim had been a quiet kid in school.

He nodded. “When was the last time you had contact with him?”

I looked at him wide-eyed. “What do you mean when was the last time I had contact with him? What are you talking about?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “It’s just a question. I know you recently moved back to Lilac Bay. Did you see or talk to him when you returned?”

I shook my head, looking away. I ran a hand over Oliver’s back. “I guess it was when I was a senior in high school. He was in my cooking class.”

He sighed. “So no recent contact.”

I shook my head without looking at him. “Nope.”

“What kind of person was he in high school?”

I sighed. This seemed pointless. What did it matter what he was like in high school? “Quiet. He did what he was supposed to do in our cooking class. I don’t remember anything remarkable about him.”

“Was the voice that said no a man’s or a woman’s voice?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I think it was a man’s voice.”

“I see.”

I looked up at him when he didn’t continue. The detective was tall and had dark hair. He was handsome in a rugged way, and he got on my nerves. “And?”

“And what?”

I rolled my eyes. “And what else do you need to know?”

“Are you all right?”

The question threw me off. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you tripped over a dead body. That had to be a shock. How are you doing?”

I glanced up, and my neighbors were watching us. Turning back to him, I said, “I’m fine. Thanks.”

He nodded. “All right. Have you noticed anyone suspicious in the neighborhood? Anything odd going on?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing. Except that my neighbors, the Sullivans, usually keep their porch light on. There are some lights that line the driveway, too, but they were all off. That’s why I couldn’t see anything.”

“The Sullivans went on vacation for a week,” Mrs. Garner said, stepping forward. She lived across the street next to Mr. Farmer. She usually kept an eye on things in the neighborhood, so she would know if something was going on.

The detective turned to her. “I’d like to speak to each of you individually. Please don’t go anywhere without leaving your name and phone number.” He turned back to me and sat next to me on the step. This surprised me. From what I had learned of the detective, he wasn’t friendly. In fact, he was downright rude most of the time. “Is there anything else you can think of?” He had lowered his voice so the neighbors couldn’t hear our conversation.

I shook my head. “The only thing I really remember about Jim is that he came from a poor family. I always got the impression that his mom didn’t do much for him. Like maybe she was on drugs or something.”

“What about his father?”

I shook my head. “I don’t remember hearing anything about his father. I think it was just him and his mother.” I had always felt sorry for Jim. There was just something about him that brought that out in me. He came to school in worn-out clothes that sometimes looked dirty, and kids occasionally picked on him.

He made a quick note, then closed the notebook, reaching into his pocket and producing a business card. “If you can think of anything else, give me a call?”

I nodded, taking the card from him. He got up and moved over to the small group of neighbors. I looked in Jim’s direction again. They were waiting for the coroner before moving him. Sighing, I picked up Oliver and brought him inside. I closed all my windows and took the cat to my bedroom with me. I doubted I would sleep, but at least I had the cat to keep me company.

Chapter Three

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I WAS MORE THAN HAPPY to go to work the next day. I needed to get out of the house. The police had left sometime in the night but had left crime scene tape around the bushes and strung it around my mailbox and the Sullivan’s mailbox. I wondered if the mailman was allowed to leave us mail. The crime scene tape made me feel like I had this flashing red light on my house that said, unsafe, keep your distance! Something unseemly has happened here! Okay, maybe that should have been the least of my worries, but there it was anyway.

I smiled at my BFF Chloe and her mother Cookie when I walked into the kitchen at Cookie’s Creamery. They had gotten there just minutes before I did. “Hey!” I said far too loudly and cheerfully.

Chloe jumped and turned toward me. “What’s up with you?” she asked suspiciously.

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure? You’ve got some majorly dark circles under your eyes.”

“You look tired,” Cookie agreed.

I pasted a smile on my face. “How was your date with Eric Howard?”

She smiled. “It was good. It was nice to catch up with him and we had a nice evening.”

“I’m glad to hear it. He’s a good guy.” I tried to lean on the counter, but in my exhausted state, I misjudged the distance and nearly fell, just managing to grab the edge before it was too late.

Chloe put her hand out to steady me. “What’s going on, Maddie? What’s up?”

Cookie had a look of concern on her face. I nodded. “Okay, you’re right. Something is up. Someone was killed outside my house last night.” I’d had so little sleep that my hands were shaky. I needed some caffeine to counteract it, but we didn’t sell any here at the ice cream shop.

They both gasped, and I filled them in on what had happened.

“That’s so scary,” Chloe said when I had finished.

I nodded. “It really was. I didn’t sleep at all.”

“Why don’t you go home, Maddie?” Cookie suggested. “We can have Savannah come in early. You look so tired.”

I sighed. “I feel tired, but I don’t want to go home. There’s crime scene tape everywhere to remind me of what happened. I’d rather keep busy.” I went to the refrigerator and pulled out two cartons of heavy cream. We made a variety of ice cream and cookies each morning, and blackberry ice cream was on the menu board. Cookie decided the previous day what we would make the next morning and left the recipes out for us.

I caught Chloe giving her mother a look. “Maddie, you should rest. You can go to my apartment and take a nap.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine. Really, I am.” And I was. Except that I felt like I was going to fall asleep while standing up. “I need caffeine. Why don’t I run to the coffee shop down the way and get us something?”

Cookie nodded, tying her apron on. “You do that, and I’m going to call Savannah in just in case you feel like going home.”

I nodded, a smile plastered on my face. “Great. That sounds great.” My nerves were on edge, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do at this point. Coffee would soothe them and help me think.

***

THE GOOD THING ABOUT living in a small town is that everything is nearby. The coffee shop was three blocks away, and the cool morning air was good for me. I picked up six vanilla lattes, one with three shots of espresso. That was mine. Why six lattes? One each for Cookie, Chloe, and Savannah and the supercharged one for me. And I would probably need the other two as well. It’s good to always be prepared.

When Savannah came in, her eyes were red.

“Savannah, are you all right?” Cookie asked.

She nodded. “I’m fine. But my mom just called and said that my cousin was murdered last night.”

Chloe and I spun around to look at her. “Jim Allred was your cousin?” I asked.

She nodded, a look of surprise on her face. “Yeah. How did you know?”

I swallowed. “He was killed next to my house. In the bushes that separate my house from the neighbors.”

“Oh,” she said slowly. “How awful. Did you see it happen? Do you know who did it?”

I shook my head. “No. I found him, though. After he was already dead.” I skipped over the part where I tripped over his body. That fact still gave me the creeps.

She blinked, taking this in. “How did he look?”

“What?”

She sighed. “I don’t know why, but I keep wondering that. Was it bad?”

I hesitated. “Well, he looked like himself. I hadn’t seen him in years, but I recognized him.” I knew she probably meant, was it a messy murder, but I didn't want to think about details. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Yes, Savannah, I’m so sorry. If you had rather not be at work today, we can get along without you,” Cookie said.

She shook her head. “No. Jim and I weren’t close. He was four years older than me. I think it was just such a shock to hear about it. And my mother is upset, of course, because Jim’s mom is her sister.”

“How was Jim doing with his life?” I asked. “I had a cooking class with him when I was a senior, but he was a sophomore, I think.”

She leaned back against the counter and took a sip of the coffee I had given her. “Not very well. My mom was worried about him. He was hanging out with some rough characters. Honestly, I’m sure it’s why he ended up dead.”

“That’s sad,” Chloe said. “I mean that he was still so young and that maybe he died because of his choices.”

She nodded. “My dad got him a job where he works, washing the trucks, but he didn’t show up on time most days, and he got fired.” Savannah’s dad worked as a dispatcher for a trucking company. If Jim couldn’t even make it to work on time after his uncle had gotten him the job, then he had probably gotten himself into something bad.

“That’s a shame,” Cookie said, going to the refrigerator and taking out some butter and eggs to start the cookie baking.

“So, who was he mixed up with?” I asked Savannah as I went to one of the ice cream machines to make the blackberry ice cream.

“Mike Shelby. He’s a rough character. I think he deals drugs.” She sighed. “I wouldn’t trust him for anything.”

Cookie made a clucking sound. “That’s a shame. I know his father, Abe Shelby. He’s a nice man. Comes in every week or two and buys ice cream and extra cookies.”

Chloe nodded. “I know Abe Shelby, too. Nice guy, and he likes the raspberry ice cream when we have it.”

“What about Jim’s mom?” I asked. “Was she a single mother when Jim was growing up?” I wished I remembered more about Jim, but there wasn’t much I could recall.

Savannah turned to me, both hands on her cup. “Yes, she raised him by herself. To be honest, I’m not sure if she knows who Jim’s dad is. She drinks a lot. And I mean a lot. It’s always been a worry to my mom.”

“Poor thing,” Cookie said. “Getting into a fix with alcohol or drugs is hard to get out of.”

Savannah sighed again. “It sure is.”

I knew who Mike Shelby was, too. He had wanted to date me when I was a senior in high school, and while I don’t think he was selling drugs back then, there was something about him that I didn’t trust. He seemed too sure of himself. Too convinced that I would date him just because it was him asking. And it made me wonder. Had he killed Jim?

Chapter Four

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THE THING ABOUT THE police is that they put up crime scene tape, but they don’t take it down. I had stared at it for two days before removing it from my side. It wasn’t like anyone was going to disturb the area anyway. I was staying away from it, and the Sullivans were still on vacation. If the detective had something to say about it, then he could say it.

I was at work scooping ice cream when Mike Shelby came in. He still had that swagger that had bugged me so much in high school and he still had the acne, too. He grinned when he saw me behind the counter.

“Hey, I know you. Let’s see, your name is, oh, don’t tell me, it will come to me,” he said snapping his fingers. I turned and looked at Chloe and she rolled her eyes. Chloe had never liked him, either. “Let me see. I know that I know you.”

“Can I help you with something? Some ice cream?” I thought I had better clarify. Someone like him was easily confused, and I didn’t want him to suggest anything.

Then he snapped his fingers again. “Maddie Bradford. Of course. How could I forget?”

I gave him a tight-lipped smile. Still a jerk, as always. But I was glad he had stopped in. If he had information about Jim Allred’s murder, then I wanted to know what it was.

“How have you been, Mike?” I tried to make my smile seem more genuine. Chloe shot me a look as she rang up her customer. I knew what she was thinking. Don’t encourage the jerk. But I needed that information. I hadn’t slept since Jim had been murdered right outside of my house.

“Hey, I’ve been doing all right since high school. I got a job at the Lilac Bay Garage, and I just bought a new motorcycle. It’s a classic Harley. Maybe you and me should go for a ride sometime.” He winked at me and gave me that sly smile. I guess he thought it was adorable. It wasn’t.

I cringed. “I work so many hours I wouldn’t have time. What can I get for you?”

He looked up at the menu board. “Ah, how about a banana split? With extra cherries on top. I like cherries.”

“You got it.” I turned from him and rolled my eyes at Chloe as I scooped the ice cream into the dish. “So, Mike, did you hear about that awful murder the other night?” It was late afternoon, and the customers had cleared out, giving us a temporary break.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, I heard. Jim Allred. That surprised me. Jim was a good guy.”

“How about I give you cherry ice cream instead of strawberry since you like cherries?” I didn’t have to offer, but customers could customize anything we served anyway, and I wanted to butter him up.

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s great. Do you remember Jim?”

I nodded, glad he wanted to talk. “I had a cooking class with him in high school. I can’t believe he was murdered. Do you have any idea who would do something so awful?”

He looked serious for a moment. “I don’t know. Jim and I used to hang out some, but I hadn’t seen him in a few weeks. If I had to guess, I’d say his mom.”

I was shocked. “What? His mom? Why?”

He nodded and grinned when Chloe stopped what she was doing to listen. “Yeah. She’s nuts. Always has been. She drinks a lot. Jim pretty much raised himself because she couldn’t bother to drag herself out of bed to get him ready for school.”

Chloe stepped closer while I scooped the chocolate ice cream next to the cherry scoop.

“That doesn’t make sense. If she couldn’t even get herself out of bed to take care of him when he was a kid, how was she going to manage to kill him? Seems like it would be beyond her,” Chloe said. I had to agree with her. If his mom couldn’t stay sober enough to take care of him, how was she going to get sober enough to kill him? Especially since she had been drinking for so many years?

He shook his head. “She could manage things when she wanted to. She had to make money somehow, and that usually came from the state or from men she would meet at bars.”

“Okay, but why would she kill him?” I asked as I finished the banana split.

“Because once Jim was old enough to get a job, she depended on him to give her money, and he was getting real tired of it. He told me he wasn’t going to do it anymore. I’ve been thinking about it, and I think he cut her off, and she got mad and killed him.”

I doubted what he was saying. A parent would have a hard time killing their kid, and they would need a good reason to do it. Or at least I hoped so. “Where did Jim work?” His cousin Savannah said he couldn’t keep a job, so how dependent could his mother have been on him?

“He was working over at the tackle and bait shop on the wharf. The small one at the north pier.”

I made a mental note to go visit the tackle and bait shop. “Did he work there long?” I rang up his ice cream.

He shrugged. “About six or seven months, I guess. Hey, Chloe, do you want to see my new motorcycle? Maybe go for a ride? We could have some fun.”

Her lip curled at the thought. “Hardly.” She picked up some dirty ice cream scoops and took them to the kitchen to wash without another word.

He looked at me as he got the money to pay for his ice cream out of his pocket and laid it on the counter. “I never did like her. She always thought she was too good for everyone. You were always more my type.” Before I knew what was happening, he reached over and touched my hair. I jumped back like I had been scalded.

“Here’s your change.” I placed the coins on the counter so I wouldn't accidentally touch his hand. “And I’m sorry that you lost a friend.”

He stopped smiling and nodded. “Thanks. And thanks for the ice cream.”

“You’re welcome.”

He picked up his banana split and was out the door before I realized I hadn’t given him his free cookie. When you bought ice cream at Cookie’s Creamery, you always got your choice of a free cookie.

“That guy gives me the creeps,” Chloe said when she returned from the kitchen.

I nodded. “You can say that again.”

“What do you think about what he said? I don’t believe it. If his mom has been drinking for as long as he says, she would be too inebriated most days to do something like killing her son.”

I turned to her. “I don’t believe she could have been dependent on him for money. If he couldn’t show up to wash trucks, how would he manage to show up to the bait and tackle shop for a few months? People go fishing at extremely early hours, and he would have to be there to wait on them.”

She nodded. “That’s true. I bet he wasn’t getting out of bed that early.”

I hoped that Jim’s mother wasn’t his killer. It would make it so much sadder than it already was. From what I knew of him, he had always had a hard life, and dying at an early age just made it sadder. And if it was his mom that had killed him? That was just horrific.

Chapter Five

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I WAS ON MY WAY OUT the door to go to work the following morning when I almost ran smack into the detective. His hand was extended to ring the doorbell, and he looked just as shocked as I was when I swung open the door.

“Oh. Good morning, Maddie.”

“Ah. Good morning, Detective. Sorry about almost running into you.”

He shook his head. “It’s no problem.” Then he looked toward the crime scene. That was what I was calling the bushes between my house and the Sullivans these days. “As I recall, my men left crime scene tape around those bushes and your mailbox, but it seems to have disappeared.”

“There’s still crime scene tape around the bushes.” Okay, it was on the Sullivan’s side, but it was still there.

He gave me some side-eye. “What happened to the rest of it?”

I sighed. “It was embarrassing. People were driving through the neighborhood just to look at it. This is a quiet neighborhood, and we don’t want the attention.”

His brow furrowed. “Seriously? It was embarrassing? That’s all you’ve got to say for yourself? You can’t just remove crime scene tape when it suits you.”

I nodded. “Pretty much. And it may have been removed by some neighborhood kids who were fooling around. I’m not really sure.”

He sighed now. “I suppose the dead guy was embarrassed by it, too? How do you think he feels?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. Have you found his killer?” This was the longest conversation I had had with Detective Grayson since I had met him last month. It was also the most civil. Sort of. If you didn’t count the night Jim Allred died.

He shook his head. “Not yet. We’re still processing the evidence. And I’m serious about not removing crime scene tape. There may be some evidence that we overlooked that could be destroyed.”

He had a point, but I was stubborn and wasn’t going to admit it. “So you’re just going to let the killer go? Why haven’t you found him?” I was quickly losing my fear of the police, and especially the detective. I wanted answers. There was a killer on the loose, and how did I know they weren’t coming back for me? I didn’t.

He shook his head incredulously. “I have no intention of letting them go free.”

“Good. Because they may have seen me that night, and they may come back for me.” The thought suddenly scared me. What if they had seen me?

“Listen, I’d like to hang out and chat with you all morning, but I’ve got work to do. Is there anything that you’ve remembered that you may have forgotten the night of the crime?”

I shook my head. “No, I can’t think of anything., but I did speak to a friend of Jim’s. He thinks Jim’s mother may have killed him. How do you feel about that angle?”

His eyes widened slightly. “How do I feel about that angle? I don’t think I’m discussing this case with you is how I feel.”

I groaned. “Look, I just want the killer found. I’m serious about being worried that the killer might come back. Don’t you think it’s a possibility?”

“I understand your fear, and there’s always that possibility, but there would need to be a reason. It was dark, and you didn’t see anything. They probably realize that.”

I sighed, shifting my purse to my other shoulder as Oliver came to see what was going on, and finding me still at home, he rubbed up against my legs. “I think they were trying to rob the Sullivan’s house. They always leave their lights on, but they were off, and they’re clearly not at home. It would be a prime house to rob.” The idea had just come to me. It made no sense that they didn’t turn the lights on before leaving, and with it being so dark, it would be easier to rob than another house that was well lit.

He nodded. “I spoke with the Sullivans, and they did turn the lights on. The ones that line the driveway are plugged into an outside outlet, and someone unplugged them. I don’t know what’s going on with the porch light.”

“So robbery is your first thought?”

“I didn’t say that. But there’s a possibility of it.”

And then I saw it. I knew what had happened. “Oh my gosh. Jim was one of the robbers, and he argued with his partner, and he stabbed him. That’s what happened, isn’t it?”

His brow furrowed. “No. At least, I don’t think so.”

“Think about it. They probably got greedy, thinking that if they killed Jim, they wouldn’t have to split what they stole. It was dark that night with a new moon, and there isn’t a streetlight that’s close. With all the lights off at the Sullivan’s, they could sneak up on Jim and stab him before he knew what was happening.”

“I guess it’s a possibility. But there are no signs of attempted forced entry, and I’m investigating a homicide, not a robbery. Unless we find evidence to the contrary.”

I sighed in self-satisfaction. I was sure I had just figured it out. Now we just needed to figure out who Jim’s partner was. “Have you spoken to Mike Shelby? He’s Jim’s friend, and he says he hasn’t seen him for a few weeks, but how do we know that’s true?”

“I have not heard that name.” He got his notebook out and jotted it down. “Do you have his phone number?”

“Ew, no. He’s gross.”

He stifled a smile. “He’s gross?”

I nodded. “When you meet him, you’ll understand.”

He sighed. “I’m going to put crime scene tape up again, and I expect you to leave it alone.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Don’t touch it,” he said, walking back toward the crime scene.

I groaned and pushed Oliver back into the house and locked the door. That detective was a pain to deal with. I was going to focus on this being a robbery gone wrong. And I was going to focus on Mike Shelby. His saying that Jim’s mother had killed him was just a ruse to throw me off. Right? The truth was that he killed Jim because he didn’t want to split what they stole. I think.

Chapter Six

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LATER THAT DAY, I MANAGED to talk Chloe into going with me to visit Savannah’s mom, Tillie. She probably knew her sister better than anyone, and if there was a possibility that she had killed her own son, Tillie would know that, wouldn’t she? Not that I was putting any credibility into what Mike Shelby had said, but it was good to cover all our bases.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Chloe asked. She was holding the small potted daisy that we had picked up at the grocery store in her lap.

“Yes.” I parked my car in front of the Brown’s house. It was a neat, white cottage with rose bushes growing out front.

“Why do you want to do this? Let the detective handle it.”

I turned to her. “Chloe, there was a man killed right outside my house. What if the killer comes back? Jim could have been out for an evening walk, and some killer randomly chose him to murder. What if I’m next?”

She sighed. “You’re being irrational. If it was random, they aren’t going to randomly go back to the same house.”

“Killers always return to the scene of the crime. It’s investigation 101. Now let’s go see what Tillie Brown has to say.”

“Okay, okay.”

We got out of the car and headed up the sidewalk, and Tillie answered on the first knock. Her eyes were red, and she looked tired.

“Hi Tillie, we just wanted to stop by and tell you how sorry we are about Jim. We brought you a plant,” I said.

She smiled. “That’s so sweet of you girls. Would you like to come in?” She pushed open the door, and we followed her inside.

The Brown’s house was light and airy, decorated in pastel greens and blues. Chloe handed her the plant, and we sat down on the love seat Tillie offered.

“This is so sweet of you. I love daisies.” She looked the plant over admiringly. Tillie was tall and had curly brown hair and a ready smile.

“You’re welcome,” I said. “When Savannah told us that Jim was her cousin, we knew we had to stop by and tell you how sorry we were.”

She nodded. “He was my only sister’s son. The poor kid had a rough life, and then to have him end up as he did just breaks my heart. He was a good kid.” Her voice cracked as she spoke, making me feel bad for her.

“I remember Jim from school. He was a couple of years behind us,” I said. I nudged Chloe with my elbow.

“Yeah, I didn’t have any classes with him, but I remember that he was quiet. He seemed nice.”

She nodded. “He did keep to himself. That’s why I don’t understand how he could have gotten himself murdered. Is it true that it happened at your house, Maddie?”

I took a deep breath. “Sort of. He was in the bushes between my house and the neighbors. I was home that night, but I really didn’t hear anything.” I didn’t want to go into what little I had heard that night. I didn’t like to think about it, and it wouldn’t do any good anyway since it hadn’t alerted me to the fact that something bad was happening.

“How awful,” Tillie said. “I’m sorry it happened at your house. His mother is just completely shattered by this. She’s always had problems, and she relied on Jim a lot. Too much actually, so losing him is just devastating for her.”

I nodded. “I’m not sure if I know his mother.”

“Vanessa Allred. I’m afraid my sister has a problem with alcohol, and it’s always made her unstable. I tried to provide some stability to Jim where I could, but I knew his life wasn’t good. Maybe I should have done something when he was young. It crossed my mind to seek custody, but I couldn’t do that to my sister. Now I think that may have been the biggest mistake of my life.” Tears sprang to her eyes. I could see where she felt she had been in a no-win situation. Taking custody of her nephew would mean alienating her sister. Leaving him with her might have meant the end that he had suffered. I couldn’t say what I would do if I were in her position.

“That’s so sad,” Chloe said. “But you can’t blame yourself. Jim was an adult, and he made his own decisions.”

She nodded. “I know, but it is sad. I feel like I should have done so much more for him.” She grabbed a tissue from a box on the coffee table and dabbed at her eyes. “I’ll probably always blame myself.”

“What about his father? Did he help Vanessa with Jim when he was younger?” That was a subject that I wanted to know about. Where was he in all of this chaos that Jim grew up with?

She shook her head. “Well, you know when someone gets mixed up with alcohol, or drugs for that matter, there’s no discretion. We never really knew for sure who Jim’s father was, although I suspect it was Darren Jackson. Vanessa and he were an item for a while, and I always thought that Jim favored him, although she denies it.”

“Why would she deny it?” Chloe asked. “It seems like she would want child support, and if Darren was his father, then he should have paid it.”

Tillie sighed. “There was some sort of falling out between the two of them, and Vanessa said she never wanted to see him again and she meant it. And she said he would never have anything to do with her son, either.”

Even that was sad. Maybe if Darren had been allowed to, he would have been a real father to Jim, and he might have had a different life. We looked up when Caden Brown walked into the living room. Caden was Tillie’s son and had been the high school quarterback. He looked surprised to see us.

“Hey,” he said, nodding. Caden had been a year ahead of Chloe and me in high school.

“Hi, Caden,” Chloe said.

He smiled. “What are you two up to?”

“We brought a plant by. We wanted to tell you all how sorry we are for your family’s loss,” I explained.

He snorted. “Are you kidding? We’ve gotten rid of a rotten egg. It’s good to be free of that loser.”

“Oh, Caden,” his mother said, shaking her head. She turned to us. “Those two never got along.”

I was stunned that he had answered that way, regardless of whether they had gotten along or not. “It’s still sad that he was murdered.”

He shrugged. “Well, I guess he should have been more careful about who he hung out with and what he got himself into. When you’re an idiot, you get yourself into stupid messes.”

I glanced at Tillie, then back at Caden. “Do you have any idea who might have killed him?” With as much vitriol as he had toward his cousin, I thought he might just tell us if he knew.

He shook his head. “No clue. But when the cops find out, I want to shake his killer’s hand. I gotta get going. Talk to you all later.” He was out the door, letting it slam behind him.

I was stunned yet again. How could he be so horrible about what had happened?

Tillie was crying again. “I’m sorry. He isn’t usually that unkind, but the two of them really couldn’t get along. I don’t even know why. It’s all just so heartbreaking. Poor Jim never really had a chance.”

“People handle grief differently,” Chloe said. “It’s hard for some people to show it. Maybe he’ll come around.”

She nodded. “Caden has always had a hard time dealing with his emotions.”

I felt bad for Tillie. Here she was grieving for her nephew, and her son was being downright cruel about it. We sat and talked to Tillie for a while before leaving. I felt like she needed our support. But she didn’t have any idea about who might have killed Jim. We would have to keep looking.

Chapter Seven

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I HAD TILLIE ON MY mind as I left my house to head to work the next morning. Caden was a jerk. He knew how much his mother was struggling with the death of his cousin, and no matter how much he disliked him, he should be there for his mom. I couldn’t imagine behaving that way with my own mother or father. With anyone, really. It just wasn’t right.

I locked the door behind me and turned toward my car parked in the driveway. That was when I spotted a strange woman standing near the bushes on the left side of my house. Her arms were wrapped around herself, and her black hair was in a messy ponytail.

“Um, hello? Excuse me, is there something I can help you with?” The woman was very thin and looked unkempt. I didn’t recognize her. Gripping my keys in my hand, I was on guard.

The woman looked up at me, looking startled as if she hadn’t expected to see someone here. Then she smiled. She was missing a front tooth. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I just wanted to see the place where he died.” From where I stood, I could see black mascara smudged beneath her eyes.

I was a little taken aback by this, but then I realized that this must be Vanessa, Jim’s mother. “Oh. Well, he died on that side.” I pointed to the bushes on the right.

She looked over there. “Oh.” She chuckled in embarrassment, the sound coming out hoarse and throaty, probably from a lifetime of smoking and drinking. “How silly of me.”

She crossed my driveway and went to stand in front of the other bushes. I went over to her. She was a lot taller than I was. “Are you Jim’s mother?”

She nodded. “Yes. Jim was my boy. My only boy. I didn’t have any girls either, so he was it.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. My name is Maddie Bradford.”

She smiled again. “I’m Vanessa Allred. Do you live here?” She glanced at my house.

“Yes.”

“Then did you—did you find him?”

I hated the question because I hated that I had been the one to find him. “Yes.”

She nodded, still looking at the bushes. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too. Are you okay?” I wanted to ask so many questions, but I wanted to be careful. Tillie had said she drank, and I could smell stale cigarettes and some sort of alcohol on her.

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again. I can’t believe he’s gone. It seems like just yesterday I was holding him in the hospital right after I had him. So tiny and pink.”

The vision broke my heart. In that moment, she had had the choice to make both of their lives better, but she hadn’t. Not that I understood what it was like to deal with addiction, because I didn’t. But in my mind, I saw that pink newborn, and her as a young mother, and it was heart-wrenching.

“I’m sorry.” It was all I could say.

She nodded and turned to me, her eyes filled with tears. “He was a good boy. He was smart, too. Some people looked down on me because I didn’t marry his father, but he didn’t want us, so they can look all they want.”

I nodded. Did she know who his father was? “Until you’ve walked a mile in someone’s shoes, you never really know.”

She nodded. “That’s it exactly. And no one walked in my shoes. Half the time, I didn’t even own any shoes. Raising a kid on your own is expensive, and Jim was a fussy eater. That meant special formula and later, special food. But like I said, he was a good boy. Until later.” She looked away, and pulled out a pair of oversized sunglasses from the huge black purse on her shoulder and put them on.

“Did Jim have trouble later in life?” I hoped she would continue talking. If she knew something about his death, then I wanted to know what it was.

She nodded without looking at me. “He got in with the wrong crowd. Especially his cousin, Caden. Oh, people look at my sister and her family, and they think they’re so perfect, but believe me, they are far from perfect. And that Caden is the devil himself.” She coughed a phlegmy cough, still not looking at me.

“I don’t know Caden well. His sister works at the ice cream shop with me though, and she seems nice.”

She glanced at me. “Sure, Savannah is a good kid. But you’re lucky you don’t know Caden well. He’s bad luck. I told Jim that. I told him to stay away from him. And now look what happened to my boy.” She began sobbing.

“Do you think Caden had something to do with his death?” I hated to take advantage of a mother’s grief, but I had to know.

She turned back to me. “You bet I do. He got Jim into shoplifting when he was twelve, and it went on from there. I know they were doing drugs. They were still stealing, and Jim got downright disrespectful to me. That devil boy needs to pay for what he done.” For a moment, she lost her balance and grabbed for the bushes to steady herself. I put a hand on her shoulder to help. She was getting angry now, and I needed to be careful. I hadn’t heard anything good about Vanessa, and I didn’t want her to turn her anger on me.

“I can understand your anger and grief. It’s only natural for a mother to feel that way after her child has been murdered.”

She nodded. “You’re darn right. It’s only natural. If that stupid kid of mine had only listened to me, he would still be alive. I don’t know why kids don’t listen to their parents.”

I was surprised when she called Jim stupid, but she didn’t seem to notice she had said it. “Sometimes we all make bad decisions in life.”

“And sometimes it’s just stupidity that gets you killed. Well, wherever he is, I hope he’s learned his lesson. I tried my best to teach him, but he never was too bright.” There were wrinkles around her mouth from smoking, and she pressed her lips together.

This conversation was going downhill fast. Jim had gone from smart to stupid in just a couple of minutes. “Have you talked to the police about Caden and what you think happened?”

Her head whipped around to look at me. “Are you out of your mind? Those police are only out to get innocent folk in trouble. They just want to pin a crime on somebody, and they don’t care who it is.”

“But they really need to know what was going on in Jim’s life before he died. In order to catch the killer.” And if she wasn’t going to do it, then I was, because I didn’t need Caden or whoever the killer was, coming around my house again.

She snorted. “Look at you. You live in a fancy house, and you think the police are going to help you. Well, you’re right. They will help people like you, but not people like me. You don’t have a bit of sense, do you?”

I sighed. She was giving me whiplash with this conversation, and I needed to get to work. But I didn’t feel particularly safe leaving her here outside my house. What to do? I sighed again as a police cruiser just happened to pass my house, driving slowly. She looked at it and shook her head.

“I’m out of here.”

She squeezed through the bushes and hurried down the street.

I had a lot more investigating to do.

Chapter Eight

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“ONE RAINBOW DELIGHT coming up,” I said to the teenage girl at the counter. “And what kind of cookie would you like?”

She glanced at the display case. “A blueberry white chocolate cookie.”

“You got it.” I got a medium-sized waffle bowl and scooped lemon ice cream into it. The rainbow delight came with lemon, blueberry, cherry, and orange sickle ice cream, then strawberry, lime, and pineapple syrups were drizzled across the top, and it was topped off with whipped cream and a cherry. It was a fruity delight that was popular when Cookie decided to make those flavors of ice cream.

“I take it you’re the traditional sister?” Chloe said to my customer’s sister. She had ordered a waffle bowl with chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

She giggled, looking like she was all of twelve years old, and nodded. “Yeah, I like regular stuff, and chocolate and vanilla are my favorite regular things.”

“Mine too,” Chloe said as she worked on her ice cream.

It was just a few minutes after opening and just a bit too early for the first rush of the day, so we were making conversation with our customers and asking them about their vacation plans. June brought the first wave of tourists that were on a real, week-long vacation, and we would sometimes see the same customers several days in a row. Cookie’s ice cream was incredibly good, if I did say so myself, and repeat customers were pretty much guaranteed.

When the girls had left, Estelle Smith, former county librarian and confessed chocoholic walked through the door. She grinned. “Well, hello, girls! It sure is a beautiful day out.”

I smiled. “It sure is. Looks like it’s going to be nice and warm out on the beach.”

“I’d love to be laying out on the beach and working on my tan,” Chloe said.

Estelle chuckled. “Oh, you young girls and your suntans. You put on sunscreen, or you’ll end up like me, with plenty of wrinkles.” She laughed heartily.

“Wrinkles mean you’ve lived, and they’re beautiful,” I told her.

She nodded. “That’s the spirit. I tell myself the same thing every morning. Now then, what have we got that’s full of chocolate today?”

“Cookie made triple chocolate chunk ice cream,” I said. “That’s about as full of chocolate as you can get.”

“Why don’t you give me two scoops of that and surprise me with something on top of it? Oh, and you better give me one of those chocolate cream sandwich cookies. It always makes me happy when Cookie makes those.”

“You bet,” I said and got to work on her ice cream. The chocolate sandwich cookies were made with two thick, soft chocolate cookies with chocolate cream in the center. They were big and incredibly delicious.

“So, I heard there was a murder. Jim Allred. When he was younger, he liked to read, and he was very good about bringing his library books back on time, so he always got his chocolate kiss. But when he got into middle school, I didn’t see him much. I was surprised. Usually, a child that loves to read never changes.” Estelle had a sharp memory of her library patrons, and if you brought your book back on time, you got a Hershey’s kiss. You can bet I brought mine back on time.

I released the scoop of ice cream into her waffle bowl and nodded. “He was killed in the bushes between my house and my neighbor’s.”

Her eyes widened. “Well, you had some excitement then, didn’t you?”

“More than I’ve ever wished for.” I poured warm marshmallow cream on top of her ice cream and added a cherry.

She leaned on the counter. “You know, when Jim got a little older, he and his older cousin Caden ran around together. They stole a car once. You know Caden’s parents were fit to be tied. Jim’s mother, not so much. I heard she said she expected that kind of thing at some point because that’s how boys are. She acted like stealing a car was normal.”

“Really?” I said as I got her cookie and put it inside the bowl next to the ice cream.

She nodded. “Caden comes from what you might call a good family, while poor Jim only had his mother to look after him. Not to be saying anything unkind, but I don’t think motherhood suited her.”

I’d heard enough about Vanessa to get the same idea about her. Not to mention my own encounter with her had left me with the same impression. She had said Caden was a bad influence, but I hadn’t been sure if it was true or not, even after seeing how he talked about Jim. Now Estelle was implying it was true. I rang her ice cream up.

“So Jim had a rough time of it?”

She nodded and pulled money from her pocket to pay for her ice cream. “I heard they both got mixed up in drugs and were breaking into houses not long ago,” she whispered, even though we were the only ones in the ice cream shop.

“Who told you that?” Chloe asked, moving closer.

She looked up at her. “My friend Mildred’s son is a police officer. Seems the two boys were giving the police fits for a while. Smash and grab is what they called it. They’d smash a window in a house and grab what they could, and they were gone.”

“That’s a shame,” I said. “I’m sure it worried Caden’s parents.”

She shrugged. “It sounded like the police were having a hard time pinning anything on the two. They called them the bandit cousins. Got them on video a couple of times, but for one reason or another, nothing would stick.”

“Wow,” I said. “If they were into that kind of stuff, there’s no telling who might have killed Jim.” It made me feel bad for Tillie Brown all over again.

“If I were Caden, I’d be watching my back,” Chloe said. “The killer might be after him next.”

I nodded. But if Caden had killed Jim, there was nothing to watch for. Maybe the two had argued, and Jim ended up dead that night.

“Did Mildred say this was still going on?” I asked. “The smash and grab stuff?”

She shook her head. “She didn’t say, but when we were talking about it, she talked about it like it was something in the past. Maybe they had stopped.” She shrugged. “Well, ladies, I’ve got to go and enjoy this lovely ice cream while the sun is still out. I hate to gossip, but it seems to come so easily.” She chuckled.

Chloe and I laughed. “What else is there to do in a small town?” Chloe asked.

Estelle waved a hand and left.

Chloe and I looked at each other. “I feel sorry for Savannah,” Chloe said.

“Me too. I wonder if she knows what kind of trouble her brother has been up to?”

“If he isn’t careful, he may end up like his cousin. Dead.”

I nodded. “I ran into Jim’s mom this morning before I came to work.”

She looked at me, her mouth dropping open. “Where?”

“My house. She wanted to see the place where he had died. After I directed her to the correct place, she said that Caden was a bad influence on Jim. She called him the devil.”

“Seriously?”

I nodded. “Caden’s mom said she thought Darren Jackson might be Jim’s dad. We need to talk to him.”

“Oh,” she said as if something had come to her. “He owns the garage where Mike Shelby works.”

“Maybe we should drop in and see if we can find anything new out.”

“Okay, but we need to be careful. I don’t want to end up like Jim.”

I tilted my head. “You’re not the only one.”

I wiped up a small chocolate spill on the counter. If the two had stopped breaking into people’s houses, then what was Jim doing in the bushes outside a temporarily empty house? No, I doubted very much that they had stopped their smash and grab tactics, but something had gone wrong for Jim to end up dead.

Chapter Nine

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WHEN CHLOE AND I GOT off work, we headed to the Lilac Bay Garage. Chloe drove a 1988 Dodge hatchback, and we wouldn’t need to make up a reason to stop by the garage. That car always needed something done.

“Hi Darren,” Chloe said to an older man who was looking under the hood of a car when we got there.

He looked past the raised hood to us as we walked toward him, and he smiled. “Hi, Chloe. Don’t tell me old Bertha is giving you trouble again?”

“Don’t call her Bertha. That makes her sound old. Her name is Brittany.”

He chuckled, wiping grease from his hands with an old rag. “And who are you?”

I smiled. “Maddie Bradford. My dad used to bring his car in here when he lived here.”

“Hank Bradford?”

I nodded. “That’s him.” Darren had blond, almost white hair, and it was cut short. His skin had a natural pink hue to it and his eyes were blue. I could see why someone might think he was Jim’s father. There was quite a bit of a resemblance there.

“Hank is a good guy. Next time he’s in town, you tell him to stop by and say hello.”

“I certainly will.” I was surprised at how friendly Darren was. I don’t know why I was expecting him to be a little more reserved. The big garage doors were open, and I could see Mike Shelby peeking over at us from behind an old SUV. I ignored him.

He turned back to Chloe. “Now, what’s going on with Brittany?”

“She’s making a noise when I drive her.”

Darren laughed heartily. “You’re so funny, Chloe. That car is older than my grandmother. Of course it’s making a noise. Any kind of noise in particular?”

“Sort of a growling sound.”

“Growling.” He shook his head, and we followed him back to Chloe’s car, where he popped the hood and took a look at the engine. “When does it make the noise?”

“When I accelerate. When I stop. When she’s running. Just about any time.”

He laughed. “Maybe it’s time for the boneyard for her.” He reached in and fiddled with the spark plugs.

“Bite your tongue. Not for my Brittney. Say, Darren, did you hear about the murder? I just can’t believe something like that happened around here.”

He glanced at her and became serious. “Some people got it coming.”

Chloe glanced at me. “What do you mean?”

He sighed angrily. “I mean, that kid was worthless. He worked for me for a few months. Or I should say he tried to work for me. He never showed up on time, if he showed up at all. He didn’t know anything about cars, and when I fired him, a bunch of my tools went missing. When you get yourself into trouble, then you’re going to get yourself into trouble.” He moved a wire back and forth beneath the hood. Darren had gone from friendly to angry in a flash. He leaned past the hood. “Hey Mike, bring me a set of spark plugs. From the dinosaur era.”

“I guess you knew him well if he worked for you,” I said.

He snorted. “Yeah. I knew him well.”

Chloe looked under the hood with him. “We went to school with him, but he was always quiet.”

“It’s the quiet ones you have to keep your eye on. The kid was into drugs and thieving. I wish I’d never laid eyes on him.” When Mike appeared with the spark plugs, he said, “You fix Miss Chloe up with a new set of spark plugs. I’ve got my dentist appointment.”

Mike nodded. “Sure will.”

He turned to Chloe. “That isn’t going to completely fix it, but it should help.”

“I don’t know how to thank you, Darren,” Chloe said.

“I do. Tell your mom I’ll be in for a fifteen scooper in a day or so. All that sugar should make my dentist happy.” He laughed. “See you girls later.” He went to his car which was parked on the side of the garage and left.

“This will only take a few minutes,” Mike said as he got to work on Chloe’s car. “You know, I’m surprised Darren didn’t freak out when you asked him about Jim.”

“Why?” I asked.

He shook his head as he removed a spark plug. “He hated Jim. Rumor has it he was his kid, and I think that’s why he gave him the job, but he was really disgusted with the awful job he did working here.”

I glanced at Chloe. “So it wasn’t much of a secret that Jim may have been his son?”

He shook his head. “Not really. He ran around with Vanessa for a few years back when he used to drink. Of course, that’s the rumor—I was just an infant then.”

“Well, it’s a shame that he wasn’t a part of Jim’s life earlier,” Chloe said. “I would have thought he would want that.”

He shrugged. “I got the feeling he didn’t know he was his father at first. Anyway, he’s been in a rage since the news got around that Jim was murdered. He was nice to you girls. Believe me, he isn’t nice to me.”

It didn’t surprise me Darren wasn’t nice to Mike. He was so full of himself. This was the first time I hadn’t seen him try to make himself the center of attention, and I thought that was probably because Darren wouldn’t allow it here. Darren seemed like the kind of guy who was always in charge.

“Has he said anything specific about the murder?” Chloe asked.

“Just that Jim got what he deserved.”

I glanced at Chloe. “That’s pretty harsh if he really thought Jim was his son.”

He nodded. “Darren doesn’t fool around with people, and Jim was fooling around. A lot. Just like he said, Jim didn’t make it in on time, and he stole a bunch of tools when he was fired.”

“I’m surprised you still have a job here,” Chloe said.

He looked at her, smirking. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re so full of yourself. I honestly can’t see him putting up with you.”

He snorted. “Chloe, you’re breaking my heart.”

“I didn’t know you had one,” I said.

“Wow. I’m almost done with this, and you two can drive off into the sunset and leave me with my wounded pride.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. Mike was a class-A jerk on a good day. And he wasn’t anyone I wanted to be around on one of his bad days.

“No problem,” Chloe said.

When he finished, he closed the hood. “You want to know something?”

I was afraid to ask, but I did anyway. “What?”

“I think Darren may have killed him.”

That wasn’t what I thought he was going to say. “Why?”

“It’s just how he’s been since he died. Angry. Complains about everything. And he was here early the morning after Jim was killed. Like real early. There was a pile of rags near the bathroom, and I swear there were some clothes in the pile. He was also wearing a pair of coveralls. He hates coveralls and almost never wears them. I was going to throw the rags into the dumpster, but he said to leave them and that he would take care of it.”

“Really,” I said thoughtfully.

He nodded. “He was acting weird. By the end of the day, he was in a rage. Jim stole expensive tools, too. I figure he tried to get them back, and things got out of hand, and he killed him.”

I didn’t know if I believed him, but I didn’t know if there was a reason not to.

“He seems like a nice guy. Nice guys don’t usually murder,” I pointed out.

He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But he’s got a temper. He might not have intended to kill him.”

“Darren wouldn’t do something like that,” Chloe insisted.

He looked at her, one eyebrow raised, but he dropped the subject. “Well, your spark plugs are in. I hope they help.” He slammed the hood shut.

“Thanks,” Chloe said, and we got into the car.

“No problem. Nice seeing you girls.”

“So, there was blood on Darren’s clothes, and he changed into a pair of coveralls?” Chloe said as she drove away. “That’s what he’s trying to say?”

“If he’s telling the truth.”

Mike seemed sincere in what he was saying, and that was unusual for him. It would be all that much sadder if Darren had killed the son he hadn’t been allowed to raise and couldn’t stand as an adult, but crazier things have happened.

Chapter Ten

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WHAT CHLOE AND I HAD learned about Jim Allred and the people in his life was both shocking, and yet on some level, not. He had gotten himself in deep with someone, and finding that someone was my mission. In the spirit of that thought, we got up early the next day and headed to the bait shop where Jim had last worked. Getting up early isn’t something either of us was excited about, but we decided we’d go have breakfast after we snooped around a bit. Hopefully, we would get some beach time after that.

The bait shop was unsurprising on the inside. There was all manner of fishing supplies, including fishing poles, lures, life vests, and the bait. Both live and not. I had never enjoyed fishing—that was my sister’s forte. So I knew almost nothing about it. But she and my dad would wake up early some Saturday mornings and spend most of the day fishing while I slept in as late as possible.

Two other customers were picking up live bait as Chloe and I walked the aisles. A corner of the store was reserved for soft drinks, snacks, and pre-made cold sandwiches in a cooler. No thanks. The egg salad looked a little iffy.

When the customers left, Bill Washington stood at the counter, smiling. “Well, don’t tell me you ladies are here to get some live bait for your fishing trip? I’ve got minnows, crickets, worms, and cockroaches.”

My skin crawled at the assortment of creatures that I knew were just feet away from me. Maybe even inches. With those things in this shop, there was no way I was going to touch one of those sandwiches in the cooler, sealed package or not.

I shook my head. “Bill, that sounds positively disgusting.”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to pass,” Chloe agreed. “We don’t offer you insects when you come into the ice cream shop, you know.”

He laughed heartily. “Thank goodness you don’t. I’d have to take a hard pass on that. What can I do for you ladies?”

I had known Bill Washington since I was a little girl. He was a good friend of my father’s, and I thought I could be open with him with regard to the information I needed.

I walked up to the front counter. The top of it was almost completely filled with packages of fishhooks, candy, hand sanitizer, lighters, flashlights, and a variety of other items one might need on a fishing trip. “We heard that Jim Allred worked here before he died.”

He nodded, sobering. “Yes ma’am, he did. I was sorry to hear that someone up and killed him. I feel bad for his momma. A lot of people don’t think kindly of her, but when a person has had a tough life, it’s good to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

I nodded. That was why I liked Bill. He was one of the kindest men I had ever met. “Do you have any idea who might have killed him?”

He cocked his head. “Now, Maddie, why would you go asking a question like that?”

I sighed. “Bill, Jim was killed at my house. In the bushes between my house and the Sullivans. I found his body, and it’s something I never want to go through again. I’m a little worried that the killer might come back.”

His eyes widened. “I had no idea. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“I would be really freaked out too if that had happened at my house,” Chloe added.

He nodded. “Can’t say as I blame you. But I don’t know who would do something like that. Jim was a decent kid. He just needed someone to give him a chance. Or maybe another chance, since he kind of wore out his welcome at some of the businesses around town. But I took a chance on him. and he did all right. Not great, but all right.”

“We heard he was hanging around some suspicious characters,” I said.

He hesitated. “There were a couple. His cousin Caden, and Mike Shelby. They’d come in here and fool around, waiting for Jim to get off work. I ran them off a time or two. If you want to know the truth, I think the three of them were doing drugs. But I told Jim if I ever felt like he was doing something like that and came to work on them, he was out.”

“Why do you think they were on drugs?” Chloe asked.

“The other two would come in talking fast, laughing, and I just felt like they were. I’m no expert, of course, but it seemed like it. And then Jim had these dark circles beneath his eyes that never went away. They talked about partying all the time. I don’t know if that meant alcohol or something harder, but I would bet it was the harder stuff.”

I nodded. I hadn’t realized that Caden, Mike, and Jim hung around together. The way Caden talked, he was glad Jim was dead. His mother had also said that the two never got along. But Bill knew they were hanging out. Interesting.

“When was the last time Caden came around?” I asked.

He thought about it for a moment. “Oh, I guess it's been a few months. Maybe back in January or February.”

“So it had been a while,” I said, glancing at Chloe.

He nodded. “Yeah, it had been a while. Now, don’t you girls go gettin’ yourselves into trouble. Looking into something like a murder can get dangerous. You let the police handle things.”

I nodded. “We intend to do that.” Sort of.

He grinned. “When are your parents coming for a visit?”

“I’m not sure. They want to come for a week this summer, but they haven’t decided for sure.”

He nodded. “Well, you tell your daddy that I want to see him. It seems like it’s been forever. We need to go fishing and catch up.”

“I sure will. You stop in at the ice cream shop and try some of Cookie’s new flavors.”

He smiled. “I’ll do that. I've been thinking I was past due for some ice cream anyhow. Are you girls sure I can’t help you out with some live bait?”

I chuckled. “No thanks, Bill. We’ve got to get going, but we’ll see you around.”

“I’ll be seein’ you.”

We headed down the pier and back to my car. “It’s interesting that no one mentioned Caden, Mike, and Jim all hanging out together.”

“I was thinking the same thing. And whatever happened between Caden and Jim must have happened recently if they were together in January or February. Wonder what it was?”

“That’s a good question.” There were still a lot of questions that needed answering if we were going to find out who Jim Allred’s killer was, and I intended to get them answered.

Chapter Eleven

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IT HAD BEEN A FEW DAYS since anything new had happened regarding the case of Jim’s murder. Which translates to Chloe and me being too busy with work to investigate. I had my suspicions about everyone I had spoken to, and I hadn’t been able to make up my mind who was the most likely to have committed the crime.

It had been a crazy busy day at the ice cream shop, and we had finally hit a lull in business. Chloe and I were taking the opportunity to clean up behind the front counter. There was spilled chocolate sauce and dribbled maraschino cherry juice everywhere. Things get wild in the summer in an ice cream shop, let me tell you.

Chloe looked up at me from the other side of the counter as she was wiping it off. “So who do you think did it? Let’s dish.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but Darren Jackson is the most suspicious if we were talking pure physical evidence. I’m talking about the pile of rags the morning after Jim was murdered. Why was he wearing coveralls when he didn’t like wearing them?”

She gazed at me. “I don’t want it to be Darren. He’s a good guy, and he takes good care of Brittany. And if he did do it, why would he kill him outside of your house?”

She had me there. Why would he? But why would anyone? Unless they really were going to break into the Sullivan’s house. They had arrived home from their vacation and had confirmed that nothing was missing or broken. They had also said that the porch light had burned out, so that settled that little mystery.

“I know you don’t want it to be Darren, but you don’t want a killer to walk free, right?”

She shook her head and went back to wiping the counter. “No, I don’t. I just don’t think it’s him.”

The bell over the door jingled, and the detective walked in with the tall blond I had seen him with a few weeks earlier. I froze in place. Why? I had no idea. He was dressed casually, and the blond was wearing a black skinny strap top and very short shorts.

“Hello,” he said, nodding.

“Hey,” I replied, glancing at Chloe.

They came up to the front counter and looked up at the menu board while Chloe gave me a look from behind them. She had moved on to cleaning tables.

The blond looked at me and smiled. “It’s hot out there.”

I nodded. “It is.” Yeah, I was a great conversationalist.

He looked at me. “What do you recommend?”

I took a deep breath. “Everything. It’s all good.” The detective chuckled quietly and went back to looking at the menu.

Chloe rolled her eyes behind them and put her hands to her throat in a choking motion. I narrowed my eyes at her. If she made me laugh, they were going to think I was crazy.

“I love coconut ice cream,” the blond said. “How about a scoop of that, along with a scoop of chocolate?”

I nodded. “In a cone or a bowl?”

“A waffle bowl, please.”

I got to work on her ice cream while the detective continued looking over the menu. Chloe kept signaling me to talk to him, and it was incredibly distracting.

I looked at him, but his eyes were still going over the menu board. “So, um, any news about Jim Allred’s killer?” I finally got out as I scooped coconut ice cream.

He glanced at me. “We’re still working on it. We’ll come up with something.”

“Well, have you talked to Darren Jackson?”

He looked at me, his brow furrowed. “No. Why?”

I cleared my throat, trying not to look at Chloe. “Because it’s rumored he was Jim’s biological father, and he’s very angry at him.” I filled him in on what we had found out, and then I told him everything else I had learned recently.

He looked at me thoughtfully. “I’ll look into it.”

“Seriously? You’ll look into it?” I was a little underwhelmed by his answer. Chloe and I had been working hard trying to figure out who the killer was, and I had expected a bigger reaction from him.

He looked amused at my response. “All I can do is look into it. Some of it I had not heard before, but some of it I have. I think I’d like a scoop of strawberry and a scoop of banana, please. In a bowl. With chocolate syrup.”

There was something about this guy that bugged me. Maybe it was the fact that he seemed so aloof. And sometimes he was downright rude. Maybe it was the blond with him who smiled at me like she thought they were dealing with a child. I had a degree in math. I wasn’t stupid. Scooping ice cream was a temporary job, not a career choice.

“Is it true that Jim and his cousin Caden were part of some smash and grab crimes?” I put the blond’s waffle bowl on a napkin and placed it in front of her. Then I remembered the cookie but decided not to bring it up. I was focused on the crime.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and jingled his keys. “Smash and grab? Who told you that was going on?”

I shook my head as I got his waffle cup. “Everyone knows about it.” Okay, probably almost no one knew, but I wasn’t going to let on.

He cleared his throat. “Oh hey, aren’t we supposed to get a free cookie?”

I nodded as I scooped the banana ice cream. “Yeah, sure. Which one do you want?”

He looked at the blond. “Which one do you want?”

She peered into the display case. “That chocolate chip one looks good.” She pointed at the cookies.

“Yeah, I’d like one of those, too. Thanks.” He smiled at me.

“I’ll get them,” Chloe said and came around the side of the counter. She could sense my frustration.

I forced myself to smile. “Really, Detective, what’s going on with the case?” Maybe asking him directly would get me somewhere.

He sighed. “Maddie, I can’t give out that kind of information. We are doing everything we can to catch Jim’s killer. I think you’re safe. They’re not coming back to your house.”

He was right, wasn’t he? At least, I hoped so. I nodded. “Fine.”

He sighed. “It sounds a little like you two are out looking for information. That can be dangerous, and if anything is going to draw the killer back to you, it’s if he finds out you’re asking around.”

He was right. I knew he was, but I couldn’t help myself. I kind of liked thinking about finding the killer. Putting the pieces together was like working on one of those big jigsaw puzzles my sister and I used to love when we were kids.

“We’re not getting into trouble. People around here like to talk.” I shrugged.

The blond suddenly looked at me and tilted her head. “You know, you look a little bit like Snow White. The cartoon character.”

I looked at her, and it took everything in me not to glare. I did not look like a cartoon character. I did however, play Snow White at Disneyland the summer between high school and college. I rang up their purchases while Chloe got their cookies and didn’t answer her. The detective paid for both of them. I wondered if he knew that he had a lame girlfriend.

The detective grinned, apparently enjoying what she had said. He paid for their ice cream, and I was glad they were leaving.

When the door closed behind them, Chloe turned to me. “You do not look like a cartoon character.”

I shook my head. “Some people.” I took a deep breath. “We need to find Jim’s killer. Where do you think we should look next?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the detective is right. It might not be safe to ask questions around town. And I don’t want to think that Darren could have done it.”

“I know. He seems like a nice guy.”

The detective may not have wanted us to continue asking around, but I knew I was going to do it. Maybe just to spite him. Yeah, it was childish, but I didn’t care.

Chapter Twelve

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“WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Chloe asked me.

I turned my head, opening one eye. “I think laying out on the beach beats working any day. Even if we do have a pretty sweet job.” Working for Chloe’s mom was great, and the fact that we could eat as much ice cream as we wanted only sweetened the deal, but the beach was where my heart was, and today was a nice, warm, sunny day.

She chuckled. “Agreed.”

We had brought a beach umbrella, but we were sitting out in the sun. It took forever for me to get even a little bit of color. Well, a color other than pink, but Chloe was an easy tanner. I envied her. I looked anemic after a day in the sun, while she looked healthy and glowing.

A seagull hopped nearby, eyeing us and hoping for a treat of some kind, but we hadn’t brought any food. We only intended to hang out here for an hour or two before catching a movie. I waved it away.

I sighed and scooted back under the umbrella before I looked like a lobster, and Chloe did the same, although she didn’t need to. Then I spotted someone familiar approaching. It was Caden Brown, and he had a girl with him.

“Well, hello, Ladies,” he said, grinning. “Fancy running into the two of you out here.”

“We’re here whenever we get the chance,” Chloe said.

Caden introduced his girlfriend, Trisha Diaz, a bronzed beauty that I had never met before.

“So, what’s going on, Caden?” I asked.

Caden was blond and had a head full of curly hair. Not tight curls, but the loose kind that a girl loves to run her fingers through. He had always run in the most popular circles in high school, but he had always been nice to almost everyone else.

He shrugged. “We thought we would come out and catch some rays. Maybe do a little surfing later.”

I nodded. “How’s your mom doing?” I knew what his answer would be before he said it, but that wasn’t going to stop me from asking.

He scowled. “Oh, she’s still down about my idiot cousin. I told her he wasn’t worth getting upset about, but she’s going to do it anyway.”

“Losing someone you care about is hard,” Chloe said.

I watched Trisha’s face. She frowned when Caden talked about his cousin. At least she had sense enough to understand what his mother was going through, even if Caden didn’t. That, or he just didn’t care, and I was pretty sure it was the latter.

He rolled his eyes. “Look, I feel bad that my mom feels bad, but I refuse to feel bad that my idiot cousin is dead.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why do you dislike him so much?”

He shook his head. “It was a lifetime of everyone feeling sorry for him. There was no reason for it. If he wanted to change his life, he could have. He could have gone to college, he could have done anything to give himself a better life, but he always depended on others to feel sorry for him and give him what he wanted.”

And then I saw it. That answer told it all. Caden was jealous of the attention and sympathy his mother had given Jim. And now the question was—was he jealous enough to kill him over it?

I gazed at him. “Wasn’t there a time when the two of you got along? Like when you were younger?”

He shook his head, glancing out at the ocean. “Nope. He was always this skinny, wimpy kid that cried over everything. We were never close. And before you ask, no, I don’t regret it for a moment. He got what he deserved in this life.”

“That’s harsh,” Chloe said. Trisha gave a slight nod of her head that Caden didn’t see, and I wondered if she would be his girlfriend for much longer if he kept this attitude up.

He shrugged again. “Yeah. Maybe so. But it is what it is.”

I wasn’t going to let him get away with that. “I heard you were hanging around with him a few months ago.”

He scowled. “Where did you hear that?”

I shrugged. “What difference does it make?”

“Because it’s a lie.” His shoulders went back, and his hands gripped into fists at his side. He was lying, and he didn’t like that I knew it.

“I don’t know why anyone would lie about it,” I said mildly. “What difference does it make if you did hang out with him?”

He relaxed. “I know who told you. Mike Shelby. Well, it still isn’t true. I hung out with Mike, and he wanted to hang out with Jim. We had nothing better to do, just time to kill, so yeah, a couple of times Jim was with us, but that’s not the same thing as me hanging out with him.”

I couldn’t understand why it was so important to Caden to make sure that we knew he and Jim weren’t friendly. And I knew from what Bill at the bait shop had told us that it wasn’t once or twice. It was something they did regularly. So why try to hide it?

“I know you don’t agree with me, but I still think it’s sad that he was murdered. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to do that.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I guess it takes a particularly awful person to kill someone in cold blood.” At least he agreed to that much.

“Do you have any idea who might have wanted to do it?” Chloe asked.

“His mother,” Trisha suddenly spoke up.

We both looked at her. “Why do you say that?” I asked.

She shrugged, glancing at Caden. “We used to live next door to them when I was a little girl. She screamed at him all the time. Sometimes her screaming would wake us up in the middle of the night. She was so drunk all the time. We moved away from Lilac Bay when I was ten, and I remember feeling so much relief to not have to live next door to them. But I always felt sorry for the kid I remembered from back then. And now he’s been murdered.”

With those words, I knew she and Caden weren’t going to be an item long. She felt bad for Jim and what he had suffered, and Caden didn’t care at all.

“That’s sad,” Chloe said.

She nodded. “My dad went over there several times to get her to calm down. She usually did if he went over there, but he hated to get involved in something that wasn’t his business. He’s always been that way.”

“It was really bad?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. Real bad. His mother terrified me, even though she would smile at me and say hello. I guess she didn’t realize how much we could hear, but those houses are cheap and don’t have any insulation. We heard a lot.”

I shook my head. “That’s so sad.”

“It is. It wouldn’t surprise me if she did it.”

Caden looked uncomfortable. Maybe it was being confronted by the truth of his cousin’s life, or maybe it was because he didn’t like that his girlfriend also sympathized with the person he had had to share his mom with as a kid. I didn’t know, but I did know that I needed to talk to Jim’s mother again.

Chapter Thirteen

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CHOE AND I DEBATED for a while about going to visit Vanessa Allred. Chloe didn’t want to, and I did. Actually, I didn’t want to either. She scared me a little. But after what Trisha had told us about Jim’s life when he was a kid, I felt like we had to. It was a sad situation, but there was nothing that could be done about it now. Other than figuring out whether she had killed him or not. And if she did, she needed to be arrested so that Jim would finally get the justice he deserved. And if she hadn’t killed him? Then she might give us some clues about who did.

In the end, we packed up a dozen of Cookie’s best cookies—the chocolate sandwich ones and we decided to stop by. Trisha had given us the address, and Chloe was driving while I held the cookies.

“This is kind of scary.”

I nodded. “It is.” The neighborhood was one of the worst in Lilac Bay. This may have been a scenic seaside town, but there were still some areas that the chamber of commerce would rather not have tourists see. And this was it.

The houses were broken down, and junk filled many of the yards. Blue tarps were spread across some of the roofs to keep the rainwater out, and there were bars on many of the windows.

Chloe parked at the curb when we found the address. She turned to me. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”

I didn’t blame her. It was all I could do to keep from changing my mind and telling her to hit the gas. “We don’t have to stay long. We’ll have our phones in our front pockets in case we need to call the police. We’ll be fine.”

“What if someone steals my car? This is a bad neighborhood.”

I stared at her a moment, and then I laughed. “I think Brittany is fine in this neighborhood. She’ll feel right at home.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “That isn’t funny.”

I snorted and opened the door. “It’s funny.”

One thing Vanessa had going for her was that there wasn’t any junk in her yard and the screens were still on the windows, along with black metal bars. In comparison to some of the other houses, it looked like someone had at least tried to do a little upkeep. Someone had also tried to care for the rose bushes planted beneath the windows. They were in full bloom and looked like they had been trimmed.

“If no one answers, we run,” Chloe whispered as I knocked on the wall next to the door. The doorbell was hanging by wires, and there was a security door that kept me from knocking on the regular door.

I nodded. “Yeah.” The dog next door barked when it heard me knock and it sounded like a very, very big dog. I hoped it was secured in the backyard because I wasn’t sure we could outrun it.

I knocked again, and Vanessa opened the door, looking surprised to see us.

“Yes?”

“Hi Vanessa, I don’t know if you remember me, but we met last week?”

She squinted, then nodded. “Yeah, you’re that rich girl who owns the house where Jim died.”

I shook my head. “Actually, I work at an ice cream shop and the house is owned by my parents. I’m not really rich.” I don’t know why I felt the need to establish that, but I thought she might be more willing to talk to us if she understood we weren’t rich.

She studied me, then glanced at Chloe.

“This is my friend Chloe,” I volunteered when she didn’t say anything.

“So? What do you want?”

This was going to be tough. “Um, we were just thinking about you, and we thought you might enjoy some cookies, so we brought you some. We wanted to make sure you were doing okay, and we wanted to say how sorry we are for your loss.”

She gazed at me. “My son was murdered. How do you think I’m doing?”

“And we are so sorry about that,” Chloe said. “We went to school with Jim, and it was just so shocking to find out what had happened to him. We were so stunned that someone would do something like that to him.”

She softened at this. “Yeah, well. Me too. You want to come in?”

That was the last thing we wanted to do, but we needed information so we couldn’t refuse. “That would be nice.” I could see Chloe’s frozen face from the corner of my eye. She was going in with me whether she wanted to or not. I gave her a look.

Vanessa unlocked the security door and stepped back. We followed her into the tiny living room that held a couch done in a brown and gold weaved fabric that may have been popular in the seventies and a threadbare recliner. She nodded at the couch, and we sat down.

“Oh, here are the cookies,” I said, holding the box out.

She nodded and took them from me. “Thanks.”

Spread out on the scuffed coffee table were old pictures of Jim. My heart went out to him. He was a blond little boy with a dirt-smudged face. The photos spanned his childhood years, and his clothes were either too big or had holes in them and were stained in most of the pictures. I wanted to shuffle through them and take a closer look, but I didn’t dare.

“I was just looking through some old pictures that I found,” she said, picking up a large white Styrofoam cup and taking a sip. “That boy was my whole life.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “He was quiet in school, but he seemed nice.”

She snorted. “He sure wasn’t quiet around here. That kid about drove me nuts.”

Vanessa looked tired. I imagined she had been up for days since finding out her son had been murdered.

“Boys can be loud,” Chloe said.

She nodded. “That detective came by yesterday and said he had no idea who killed my boy. Can you believe that? What’s he getting paid to do? I told him he better find my boy’s killer.”

“I guess working on a murder case can get complicated,” I said. My eye landed on a picture of Jim when he was about three. He was holding a fishing pole and smiling for all he was worth. My heart caught in my chest. Poor kid.

“Yeah, well, I told him who killed my boy. He needs to get after him and arrest him.”

“Oh?” I glanced at Chloe. “Who is that?” I knew she was going to say Caden, but maybe she would have some more information that would prove it.

She took a long swig from her cup and grimaced. “That Mike Shelby. I told Jim he was no good and he needed to stay away from him, but he never would listen.”

I was surprised. “Why do you think Mike would murder him?” I asked. If she was in the mood to talk, I was going to ask the questions.

“Because he’s a thief. He turned Jim into a thief, too. He had him stealing money from me. Can you believe it? He was stealing money from his own mother! But Jim wouldn’t have done that on his own. Oh no, it was Mike. He put him up to it. No telling what else he was up to. Not to mention the bad influence his cousin Caden was.”

“Did you tell that to the detective?” Chloe asked.

She nodded. “I sure did. He didn’t seem impressed by it. But between Mike and Caden, one of them had to have done it.”

“But I bet the detective will look into it,” I said. “He doesn’t seem the expressive type, but I think he will talk to Mike. And Caden.”

“Yeah, whatever.” She took another long drag on her straw and grimaced again. I was pretty sure that wasn’t soda in that cup.

Chloe and I looked at each other. She had suddenly stopped talking and was staring out into space. When she came back to herself, she looked at us. “Do you girls have some money I can borrow?”

I was taken aback by the question. “Uh, I might have ten dollars.”

“Yeah, I think I have a twenty,” Chloe said.

She shrugged. “That’s all? I guess that will have to work.”

We looked in our purses and handed her the money, and she looked at us. “I’m busy now. You’ll have to leave.”

“Okay, well, thanks for taking the time to talk to us,” I said lamely. She didn’t bother getting up, and Chloe and I saw ourselves to the door and then walked quickly to Brittany.

“That was weird.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it was. I wonder if it’s true that Jim stole money from her?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Let’s get out of here.”

I sighed in relief as Chloe pulled away from the curb. Imagining Jim being a little boy and growing up in that house was just depressing.

Chapter Fourteen

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COOKIE LOOKED AT US from across the kitchen. It was a few minutes before opening. “How did things go with Vanessa?”

Chloe and I glanced at each other.

“We made her a loan,” Chloe said.

Cookie’s brow furrowed. “What?”

I grinned. “She needed to borrow some money.”

“Oh,” Cookie said, drawing the word out. “Well, it’s good to do a good deed now and then.”

“Oh, it was a good deed,” Chloe said. “We won’t see that money again.”

Cookie chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. “I’m glad I raised you right. You’re so giving.”

“I feel sorry for her, though. And for Jim. She had a bunch of pictures spread out on the coffee table of him from when he was growing up. It was just sad.” I poured cream into one of the ice cream freezers. I was working on my own ice cream concoction—strawberry chocolate chunk. Two of my favorite flavors. I was anticipating tasting it as I worked.

Cookie put a tray of cookie dough into the oven. “Vanessa has lived a hard life.”

“She says Mike Shelby killed Jim. It wouldn’t surprise me,” Chloe said. “He’s a jerk. And if they were robbing houses, then maybe things got out of hand. She also mentioned Caden may have had something to do with it. I hope not for Savannah’s sake.” She turned to me. “You really didn’t hear much that night?”

I shook my head. “Not really. I heard a groan and what sounded like someone saying no. And then footsteps as someone ran away.” The memory gave me chills. I was assuming it was Jim that I heard groaning and saying no, and he was in the process of being murdered.

“That’s a shame. I’m going to open the shop. It’s time.” Chloe tied an apron on and went out front.

“How’s that ice cream coming?” Cookie asked me.

“It will be ready in about twenty minutes.” My ice cream had real strawberries and milk chocolate chunks mixed throughout. I just knew it was going to be wonderful.

“We’ll name it after you. It will be called Maddie’s madness.”

I chuckled. “Now you’re being funny. I’m going to go help Chloe.”

“All right. I’ll keep an eye on your machine.”

Chloe was already waiting on a customer, a teenage girl in a red striped bikini. Her hair was in a ponytail tied with a red ribbon. When Chloe finished and the customer had left, she turned to me. “Ah, the first customer of the day. It always feels good to get started.”

I nodded. “It is kind of nice, isn’t it?”

The door opened, and Savannah arrived for her shift. “Hey,” she said.

“Good morning, Savannah,” Chloe said as she checked the syrups.

“Sorry, I’m a few minutes late.”

Chloe waved it away. “It’s no problem.”

“How have you been, Savannah?” I asked.

She smiled as she sighed. “Okay. My mom is still upset about Jim, not that I expected her to be over it or anything.” She laughed nervously. “I just hate seeing her that way. She’s so upset.”

“Have you heard if the police are any closer to solving his murder?” I asked. The detective was never going to tell me anything, but maybe Savannah had heard something.

She hesitated. “No. My mom is worried that the killer will get away with it. She thinks the police should have found them already.”

“It must be hard waiting,” I said as I wiped the front counter—a habit I had picked up and was constantly doing even though we had only had one customer so far.

She nodded. “Hopefully they’ll find them soon. I better go back and say hello to Cookie.”

I nodded at her as she went into the kitchen. Cookie would have her help out in there for an hour or so while Chloe and I waited on customers.

“Poor kid,” I said when she was out of earshot.

Chloe nodded. “You can say that again.”

I looked up as Margie Sullivan, my neighbor, walked into the shop. She smiled. “Good morning, girls.” Margie was in her early sixties and was retired.

“Good morning, Margie,” I said. “How are you?”

She stood at the counter and sighed. “Well, we had something odd happen last night. I mean, we don’t know if it was last night or not, but it was recent.”

I shivered. I didn’t like the sound of that. “What happened?”

“Well, when we got home from our vacation, and you told us what happened, we checked everything, just like we told you. There wasn’t anything on the cameras because the two out front had malfunctioned for some reason. But this morning Ralph noticed that the cameras out front had been stolen.”

“What? Are you serious?” I shivered again.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Did you get anything on video?” Chloe asked.

She shook her head. “No, they still weren’t functioning. Ralph had ordered some new ones, and they came in yesterday. He was going to replace them this morning, and that’s why he noticed the others were missing.”

“You know what this means,” I said.

She nodded. “The killer came back and stole them.”

“I wonder why they would wait so long?” Chloe asked.

I turned to her. “That’s a good question.”

“Yes, but remember that I said I wasn’t sure when it happened. They were there when we got home from vacation, and since they weren’t working, we didn’t pay much attention to them. I don’t know when they went missing.”

This was disturbing. Had the killer realized later there were cameras and come back to steal them? That would be the only logical explanation. But if they thought they were working, then they had to have known the police would already have the video. So why come back and steal the cameras? Unless they were wearing a mask and thought they were safe, but couldn’t be sure, and they thought stealing the cameras was the safest route. I sighed. None of this made complete sense, and my head was starting to spin.

“Have you called the police?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes, Ralph is waiting at home for them to show up. I wanted to stop by and tell you so you would know to keep an eye out. Ralph ordered an extra camera and he said if you wanted it pointed at your house, he would do that.”

“Oh, he’s an angel. That would be great. Please do that.”

“He said he could angle it so it would get your front door and if anyone tries anything, we’ll have it on camera.”

“I appreciate that so much.”

She looked into the glass-covered freezers. “And now that I’ve seen all this delicious ice cream, I think I need to get some.”

I laughed. “You pick out what you want. It’s on me.”

She smiled. “Oh, look at you. You’re the best neighbor ever.”

“Nope, it’s you and Ralph who are the best neighbors ever. That camera is going to make me feel a little safer.”

I sighed. It pays to have good neighbors.

Chapter Fifteen

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I WAS SURPRISED TO see Detective Grayson standing out front talking to Ralph Sullivan when I got home from work. I had expected him to show up shortly after Margie came into the ice cream shop and told me about it this morning. Had something new happened? I swallowed. Maybe the killer had returned? Again?

I jumped from my car and sprinted across the lawn, barely coming to a stop before colliding with the detective. A look of surprise was on his face as he took a step back.

“Maddie?”

“Yes?”

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I nodded, trying to catch my breath. “Yes. Why?”

“Because I think you just set an Olympic record for the fifty-yard dash.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and glanced at Ralph. “Hi, Ralph. Margie told me about the cameras.”

He nodded. “Darn thieves. You can’t trust anyone anymore.”

I turned back to the detective. “What happened? What’s going on?”

He looked puzzled by my questions, and I wasn’t sure why.

“What do you mean? Mr. Sullivan called me about his stolen cameras, and I came out to take a report. What’s going on with you?”

“That was this morning. Did the killer come back?”

His brow furrowed, and then his eyes widened. “I had other things to do this morning. I just made it here a few minutes ago.”

“What? Are you kidding me? Margie told me about it at 9:15 this morning, and you’re just now getting here? Six hours later?”

He glanced at Ralph and then smirked at me. “Believe it or not, I do have other cases I’m working on.”

I shook my head. “I don’t believe it. You left Ralph and Margie terrified that the killer would come back. How could you leave them hanging like that?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say terrified,” Ralph said amicably.

Detective Grayson chuckled, and that only made me angrier. “Maddie, I assure you that I do have other cases. And I am taking this one seriously—I thought I had better say that before you accuse me otherwise. We don’t know if it was the killer or not, but Mr. Sullivan has installed new cameras, so if the killer does return, we can catch them on video.”

I was still breathing hard. I turned to Ralph. “You got the cameras installed already?”

He nodded. “Sure did. The instructions were easy and straightforward for once, and they are up and working. Even got one pointed toward the front of your house.” He pointed at the camera behind him.

I took a deep breath. “Good work. Thank you for doing that.”

He grinned. “Well, Detective, I do appreciate your coming out, and I do hope you’ll catch the killer soon.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sullivan. I’m glad I have your confidence. You let me know if you have any other problems.” He looked at me. “Maddie. Have a good afternoon.” Then he turned and headed back to his car.

I hurried after him. “Wait a minute,” I hissed.

He turned, surprised that I had followed him. “What?”

“What are you doing to catch the killer? I mean, what are you really doing?” It wasn’t until this moment that I fully realized how scared I was that the killer would come back for me. What if he thought I had seen more than I had? What if he thought that the only way to keep me from talking to the police was to kill me?

He smiled, this time sympathetically. “Maddie, I am talking to people, and I am looking over the evidence. I am not sitting on my hands, wasting my days. I will catch the killer. I promise you.”

His tone for once was kind, and it had a peculiar way of settling me down. I nodded. “Okay. Okay, then. Are you at least close to arresting someone? Can you tell me that?”

He sighed, looking down the street for a moment. “What’s the chance you’ll keep it to yourself?”

If he was going to give me some real information, then the chances were very good I was going to keep it to myself. “I won’t tell anyone.”

He looked at me again. “I have someone that I’m looking at. And no, I’m not telling you who it is. But rest assured, I am working very hard on this case. Murder isn’t good for the tourist trade.”

I shook my head. “It certainly isn’t.” I was glad that he was taking this case seriously. I really was. But I still wanted to know who it was that had killed Jim. If they were out skulking around the neighborhood, I wanted to be on the lookout.

“Maddie, don’t stress so much. And don’t bother people with questions about the murder. I’ve got it handled.”

I groaned. “Look, I’m not exactly shining a light in their eyes and demanding a confession. This is a small town, and people talk. It’s what we do. If someone knows something, eventually they’re going to spill it. And I’m just your ordinary small-town girl talking to my friends and neighbors.”

He gazed at me. “You haven’t heard a word I said, have you?”

I smiled. “Of course I have. I’ll be careful.”

“You and your friend are not Nancy Drew. Leave the investigating to me.”

I crossed my arms in front of me. “We’ll be careful.”

He shook his head and got into his car, and I watched as he drove away.

“Seems like a nice fella,” Ralph called to me.

I turned to look at him. “I guess if you want to call him that. I just want the killer found, and I want to know that we’re safe in this neighborhood.”

Mr. Farmer was out watering his rose bushes across the street. “Oh, we’re safe all right. My .22 says we are.”

I smiled and shook my head. “I’m glad to hear it, Mr. Farmer.” I went to my house and sat on the couch, petting Oliver for a while. There’s something about the steady purr of a cat that is comforting.

Chapter Sixteen

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THE DETECTIVE MIGHT have thought I was being ridiculous about the whole situation, but I didn’t care. If there was the possibility that the killer might return for any reason, then I wanted to make sure I was safe. But I had to admit that the conversation with him had been disappointing. So disappointing in fact, that I laid around on the couch watching tv and petting Oliver. It was dark by the time I realized we hadn’t had dinner, and by that time I had no desire to cook.

“How does a burger and fries sound, Oliver?”

He looked up at me and meowed, then went back to staring at the food in his bowl. I put some fresh dry food on top of what was in the bowl and that satisfied him.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I grabbed my purse and keys and headed out to my car. The evening air was refreshing after being cooped up inside all afternoon.

There was a mom and pop fast food place with a drive-through and the best burgers I’ve ever had about two miles from my house, and that was where I was headed. I rolled my window down so I could enjoy the fresh air and sang along to an oldies station.

A half-mile from the restaurant, I realized I was following a familiar car. It took a few seconds before I realized that it was Caden Brown’s car. He pulled over and parked at the curb in what was a quiet, expensive neighborhood. I took my foot off the gas, and as I passed him, I realized there was another person in the car with him. The passenger opened the car door, and under the dome light, I could see that it was Mike Shelby. Huh. What were they up to?

Before I even thought about it, I made a right and went around the block, driving slowly. As I came up behind Caden’s car again, I saw them walking down the block in the same direction the car was pointed in. Curiously, they were dressed all in black, including wearing hoodies with the hood pulled over their heads. It wasn’t nearly cold enough to wear a hood.

I drove around the block again, this time going a little faster, so I didn’t lose them. When I came around again, they were standing on the side of a large, older house that had a wrought-iron fence around it. This area had fancy houses from the turn of the last century, and each one was large and expensive when they came up for sale, which was infrequently. I’d love to live in one of them, but that was probably never going to happen. The house in question was gothic style and gorgeous in the daylight. On a whim, I pulled behind Caden’s car and parked. I was back just far enough that they probably wouldn’t even notice me, but still close enough to see what they were up to by the light of the streetlamps as long as they didn’t duck out of sight.

Caden walked up to the gate and tried it, and the gate swung open. They entered the small front yard, looking over their shoulders. From the way they were behaving, I would swear that they didn’t know the people who lived in that house. Next, Caden walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. When no one answered, he knocked on the door. While Caden was doing that, Mike stood on the bottom porch step, still watching, still looking.

Why ring the doorbell? And then I realized it was to make sure no one was home before they broke in.

I got my phone out and recorded them, trying not to draw attention to myself. I held the phone just above the dashboard and zoomed in, hoping the video would come out clear enough if I needed to show it to someone.

Caden came down off the steps, and they talked for a minute. Mike took something out of his pocket, and I realized it was a mask as he put it on. They were going to rob this house, and I was going to get it on video.

My heart pounded in my chest, and my mouth went dry. Should I call the police? Should I record a while longer? Should I get out of here? I wished I had thought to pull up in front of Caden’s car so I could get a better view, but it would have been too dangerous. I watched the two, waiting for Caden to put a mask on, but suddenly Mike took his off and shoved it into the pocket of his jeans. They both turned and left, shutting the gate behind them. And they were heading toward me.

I ducked down, dropping my phone on the floor with the motion. It slipped beneath the gas pedal, and I reached for it, but it moved again, just out of reach of my fingers, while still recording. I heard footsteps, and I stopped moving.

“Yeah,” Mike said.

“I love that house.”

“Someday. You just wait.”

There was laughter and the slamming of two car doors, then the car started, and they were gone. I was breathing hard, and I waited before sitting up to make sure they wouldn’t look in their rearview mirror and see me.

After a few minutes, I lunged for the phone, grabbed it this time, and sat up. I shut off the recording. Great. Now if I showed this to someone, they’d see what a dork I was when I dropped it. I’d have to figure out how to edit it. I took a deep breath. This proved that Mike and Caden were breaking into houses. And since they were breaking into houses, chances were good that they had tried to break into the Sullivan’s house and had killed Jim that night. But why had they killed him? Had they argued about something? Was he even with them? Maybe he had seen what they were doing, and they killed him so he wouldn’t rat them out. Bill from the bait shop had said Caden hadn’t been around in a few months, so there must have been some kind of falling out between Caden and Jim.

I played the video back, and it was clear. Except the guys were wearing hoodies with the hoods pulled up, and you couldn’t tell who they were. And suddenly I knew what the detective would say. They didn’t do anything wrong. They knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. Maybe they knew the owners and were dropping by for a visit. Mike had turned his back when he put his mask on, and it was hard to tell what he was doing. I groaned. Detective Grayson would laugh at me if I showed him this, and he’d warn me not to get involved because it was dangerous.

My stomach growled, reminding me of what I had left my house to do in the first place. I tossed my phone on the passenger seat and started my car. The detective might not believe me, but I knew what those two were up to. I just needed more proof.

Chapter Seventeen

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THE BELL OVER THE DOOR jingled and Mike Shelby walked into the ice cream shop. He grinned. “Well, if it isn’t my three favorite lovely ladies of all time.”

Jennifer, one of the part-timers who worked here, turned to Chloe and me. “I’ll see you girls tomorrow.” She untied her apron and stowed it beneath the counter, picked up her purse, and left the shop without acknowledging Mike.

One eyebrow shot up. “What I really meant was that you two were my favorites. I just didn’t want to leave her out.”

Chloe sighed. “What do you want, Mike? And I’m talking about ice cream.”

He leered at her. “Oh, you know I want a lot of things. But if all I can have is ice cream, I guess I’ll take a mudslide.”

“Great,” Chloe said.

He turned to look at me. It was late afternoon, and business was slow. We had cleaned the front of the shop and were taking a break, discussing weekend plans, of which I had just about zero while Jennifer was going out of town and Chloe was going to see Eric again. Color me jealous.

“So, what’s up, Maddie?”

“Nothing. What’s up with you, Mike?” I hadn’t told anyone about the video I had taken the night before, not even Chloe. I was going to hang onto it in case it became important at some point. But whether anyone else took it seriously or not, I knew what it meant. Mike and Caden were casing that house. Something had scared them off. Whether it was a sound from inside the house or a neighbor coming outside, I wasn’t sure. But I knew what they were up to.

He grinned and scooted down the counter to where I stood behind it while Chloe worked on his mudslide, a chocolaty concoction with plenty of hot fudge and chocolate syrup.

“Not much. Why don’t we take in a movie this weekend? You and me.”

I looked down my nose at him. “I’m having a root canal done.”

He narrowed his eyes at me but was still grinning. “Girls like you think they’re too good for guys like me, but I can show you a good time.”

I sighed. “Really? How good a time? Maybe you can teach me how you and Jim used to break into houses? Smash and grab is what you call it, right?” I wasn’t going to mention that Caden was involved. If they figured out I had seen them the night before, I could be in some serious trouble.

He went pale, and then his brow furrowed. “Who told you that? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t? because from what I heard, you know exactly what I’m talking about.” What I’d actually heard was that Jim and Caden were smashing and grabbing, but what I’d seen last night told another story. Chloe glanced at me as she poured fudge on his mudslide.

He snorted. “You shouldn’t go listening to rumors. People who don’t know anything like to talk about stupid stuff that isn’t true.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve heard it from some pretty good sources.”

He shook his head. “You’re nuts. No way were we doing stuff like that. Now why don’t you go out with me?”

“Because I don’t date thieves.” I looked him in the eye when I said it, and he scowled. I was suddenly feeling brave, but I knew that feeling would go away as soon as I was alone.

“Don’t be calling me a thief. I’ve never stolen anything in my life. “

It took all the self-control I had not to laugh. Even if Mike hadn’t been involved in the smash-and-grab activity around town, I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to take something if he wanted it. He was that kind of person.

“All right.” I said it like I was bored.

He huffed. “Look, I know what you’re trying to say. You’re trying to say that I killed Jim, but that’s not true. I didn’t have anything to do with killing Jim. Like I told you before, I think Darren did it. I swear there was blood on that pile of rags and clothes I saw at the garage the day after Jim was killed.”

“You never said there was blood on those rags,” I pointed out.

“Didn’t I? Well, I meant to. Because there was. There was blood on them, and I know that Darren killed him.”

Chloe rang up his ice cream. “Then why are you still working for him? Aren’t you afraid that he’ll kill you?”

He shook his head. “No. Why would he? He had a thing against Jim because he was his biological kid, and he was an awful worker. You know Darren doesn’t have any respect for anyone who doesn’t work hard. He figures if you have a job, then you give it one hundred and ten percent. Jim gave it fifty percent at the most, and Darren had no respect for him.”

“I don’t believe it,” I said. “That’s no reason for Darren to kill him. In fact, that’s the lamest reason I’ve ever heard for committing murder.”

He snorted. “You can think that if you want, but I’m telling you it’s true. Maybe they had something else going on, too. But all I know is that Darren was in a rage right after Jim died. Tell me he doesn’t have a reason to do it when he might have wanted to be a dad to him, but he couldn’t because of Vanessa.”

“Then why wouldn’t he kill Vanessa?” Chloe asked. She had a point.

He paid for his ice cream. “I don’t know. I don’t know everything. But I think the police need to look at Darren. He’s been drinking a lot, and he said he was glad Jim was dead.”

“Why should we believe that?” I asked. It was too late to convince me that he didn’t have something to do with Jim’s murder. I had seen enough.

“Because he said that Vanessa was the biggest mistake of his life, and now that Jim was dead, he had at least gotten rid of some of his problems.”

I gazed at him, suddenly feeling just a twinge of doubt. Was what he was saying true? If it was, then Darren had to admit that Jim was his son, and as far as I knew, he had yet to do that.

“So he told you that Jim was his son?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly. He was just talking about Jim’s murder and then said his mother was no good. Then he said she was the biggest mistake he had ever made, but at least part of his troubles had been solved.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “But he never said that the reason part of his troubles were solved was that Jim was dead, right? It sounds more like the fact that Vanessa isn’t in his life—that’s the part of his problems that are solved.”

He sighed and picked up his ice cream. “You can believe what you want. But I know what I heard.” He left the shop without another word.

Chloe looked at me. “Well, we got rid of him.”

I grinned. “We did.” I decided I still didn’t believe him. I had seen what he and Caden were up to. By blaming Darren, he was just trying to shift the focus off himself.

Chapter Eighteen

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“THERE’S SOMETHING I have to tell you.”

Chloe turned to look at me. “What?”

It had been over an hour since Mike had left, and we had been swamped with customers. We had another lull in business and what I had seen and done the night before was eating away at me. Would she think I was wrong about what I had seen? It had been obvious to me while it was happening, but it had occurred to me that it may have been a simple misunderstanding on my part. Of course, I didn’t want it to be something I misunderstood, so I pushed the thought away. But it was back.

“Maybe I should show you.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and played the video for her. When it got to the part where I dropped the phone, I shut it off. She looked at me.

“Wait. How did you get that video?”

I inhaled. “I happened to see them park near that house, so I went around the block and parked behind them and took the video from there.”

“So, you went on an investigation by yourself?” She looked at me incredulously.

I knew she wasn’t going to be happy about that. Sure, it was dangerous, and I had no business being there. If they had caught me, who knows what they would have done?

I nodded. “Yes.”

“How could you do that?”

I hesitated. “Well, I didn’t plan it. I was going to get something for dinner, and I just happened to see them.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, and I braced myself for the barrage of complaints about how dangerous it was. “What were you thinking? You know I want to go with you when you do things like this. I never get to have any fun because you’re hogging it all for yourself.”

My eyes widened. This wasn’t what I was expecting. “Well, like I said, it wasn’t planned. And I promise I won’t do anything like this again without you.”

She nodded. “You’re darn right. Did you take it to the detective?”

“Did you take what to the detective?” Cookie asked. Cookie usually worked the early shift, but she had returned to make some more ice cream. We had been so busy the past few days that we were going through it quickly.

Chloe and I glanced at each other. “Uh, well,” I said, trying to decide how or if I should tell her. Cookie was like a second mother to me, and I knew she wouldn’t like it. But I couldn’t lie to her, so I told her what had happened and showed her the video.

She sighed when it ended. “I’m not even going to tell you how dangerous that was. But those two were up to no good, and you need to show it to the detective.”

“Do you think so?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes. People need to feel safe in this town, and those two are going to make sure that they don’t. And they may have had a hand in Jim’s death.”

“I agree,” Chloe said. “He needs to see it.”

Relief swept over me. I wasn’t imagining things, and if both Cookie and Chloe thought the detective would take me seriously, then he would, wouldn’t he?

“Okay then, I’ll take it to him.”

The bell over the door jingled, and Estelle walked in. “Well, will you look at that? My three favorite ice cream ladies are all here together.” She laughed. That was one of the things I liked about Estelle. She always found something to laugh about.

“Hello, Estelle. I bet you’re here for something chocolatey,” I said.

“You know I am. If I ever come in here and order something without chocolate, you should immediately assume that I am under the weather.”

Cookie chuckled. “We’ll keep an eye out for the signs and fix you right up with some chocolate. That should cure you.”

She laughed. “That’s what I love about good friends. They’re always looking out for you. Say, what’s going on with Jim Allred’s murder? I haven’t heard a thing about it in what seems like forever.”

I shrugged. “That detective isn’t very open about what he knows.”

She nodded. “The Hagens had their house broken into last night. Makes me wonder what’s going on in this town.” She shook her head. “This used to be a safe little town, but with a murder and those break-ins, it doesn’t feel the same.”

My heart started pounding. “Oh, no. Where do the Hagens live?”

“Over on Rose Avenue. They went out to eat, and when they got home, a window in the back had been shattered. They lost two laptops and some jewelry. Lynn Hagen is just beside herself because she had her jewelry box out while getting dressed for dinner, and she forgot to put it away in the safe. She has a lot of family heirlooms, and that’s normally where she keeps them. They took the whole box. She lost everything.”

“That’s so sad,” Cookie said. “I’m sure those items that have been in the family meant a lot to her.”

Chloe and I glanced at each other. “What time did they get back from dinner?” I asked.

“She said it was about nine o’clock. They were only gone a few hours, and the neighbors didn’t hear a thing. Sounds like smash and grab, if you know what I mean.”

“I do,” I said. Estelle had been the one to tell us about Jim and Caden being suspected of smash and grab break-ins around town. Rose Avenue was just a few blocks away from where I saw Mike and Caden last night.

She looked up at the menu board. “I think I’d like two scoops of chocolate ice cream with some fudge sauce on it. Nice and simple.”

Chloe made her ice cream for her, and when she had left, we all looked at one another.

“You’ve got to talk to the police,” Chloe said.

I nodded. “I’ll go first thing in the morning. I think the detective is probably gone this time of the evening. I wonder if they hit the Hagen’s house before I saw them on Old Oak Road or if they went afterward? Maybe I should have called the police last night?” I felt terrible that Lynn Hagen had lost all of her family heirlooms. I would be crushed if that had happened to me.

“You couldn’t know, dear,” Cookie said, patting my shoulder. “You be sure and stop in first thing in the morning and talk to that detective. Don’t worry about what time you get to work. We’ll handle things.”

I sighed and started cleaning behind the counter. I couldn’t have known what Mike and Caden were going to do after I had made the video, but I felt like I was responsible for the Hagens’ loss anyway. Maybe they were still holding onto the jewelry, and the police could get it back for them. I could hope so, anyway.

Chapter Nineteen

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I FELT FUNNY ABOUT having the evidence on my phone without telling Detective Grayson, so before leaving the parking lot at work, I searched my purse for the business card he had given me and called him, but there was no answer at his office. Next, I called his cell phone, but it went to voicemail. I hung up, sighing. He was probably out to dinner with his girlfriend. I decided I would just stop by the police station in the morning and show him the video. I headed home.

When I pulled into my driveway, I groaned. Vanessa Allred was standing near the bushes where Jim had died. It was dark now, and I noted that the Sullivan’s appeared to be gone, but at least the area was well lit from their lights as well as mine.

She had her back to me and didn’t turn around when I drove into the driveway. I got out, closing the car door, my phone in my hand. Just in case.

“Vanessa?”

She didn’t answer. Her shoulders shook, and I could hear her sobbing from where I stood. I hated to have to deal with this. It was a selfish thought, but I had been on my feet all day at work, and I was ready to sit in front of the tv and think about nothing.

“Vanessa?”

She turned now, a bandana in one hand as she wiped her nose. “Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you.” Her voice sounded raw and deeper than usual.

I smiled. “You’re not disturbing me,” I lied. “I just got home. Is there something I can help you with? Is there anyone I can call for you?”

She sobbed, then got a hold of herself. “I just wanted to come by and see the place where he died. I don’t mean to be a problem for you. I just miss him so much.”

I nodded sympathetically. “I know you do. I’m so sorry.”

She nodded, wiping at her nose again. I could smell alcohol from where I stood. “We had his funeral, and only my sister and her family came. Well, part of her family. That boy of hers is no good, and he didn’t even bother showing up.” She snorted. “That kid always thought he was better than everyone else.”

I felt guilty. I should have gone. If I had had any idea that no one would show up for his funeral, I would have. “I’m so sorry.” I wanted to say more, but I couldn’t think of anything. What do you say to someone when no one shows up to their son’s funeral?

“I know that Mike Shelby killed him, but the police won’t arrest him. How do I get them to arrest him? And then there’s Caden. He’s evil. It wouldn’t surprise me if they both killed him. Probably lured him out here and killed him together.” She blew her nose into the bandana.

I shook my head, shivering at the thought. “I guess we just have to have patience that the police will get it sorted out and arrest the killer soon.” At this point, I agreed that Mike was the killer. Maybe even Caden. But I didn’t want to say so and have her tell people all over town that I was accusing them of murder.

She took a step toward me and stumbled. I moved forward and put my hand out to help steady her. “I don’t have time to wait. I need them arrested now. Can’t you tell that detective that you saw them stab Jim?”

I was surprised at this request. I shook my head. “I didn’t see that though. I can’t tell him that.”

“Why not?” she wailed. “You’re a rich girl, and the police will listen to you. Just tell them you saw it all happen. Don’t you have cameras?”

I shook my head, surprised that she had gone from grief-stricken to angry so quickly. “No, I don’t have cameras, and I can’t lie about something I didn’t see.”

She grabbed my arm and pulled a knife from her jacket pocket. “You tell that detective that you saw Mike Shelby and Caden Brown kill Jim! You do it now! They’re going to get away with murder if you don’t.”

I tried to take a step back, but she had a firm grip on my arm. “Vanessa, put that knife away. I know that if Mike and Caden did kill Jim, then the detective is going to arrest them. He knows how to do his job, and he is going to do it.” She held the knife closer to my face, and I felt faint. I desperately wanted to scream so Mr. Farmer would come outside with his rifle, but I knew she would stab me before he made it outside.

“You tell that detective that’s what happened, or I will kill you,” she seethed.

She was breathing her stale alcohol breath into my face now, but my eyes were on the knife as it shook in her hand. It was getting closer to my throat. If I screamed, she would stab me. But maybe I could knock it out of her hand first.

“Vanessa, why are you doing this?”

She looked confused for a moment, then she gritted her teeth. “No one listens to me. I want my son’s killer arrested!”

And then I thought of something. More than one person had said that Vanessa had killed Jim. She was the only suspect that had come back to the place he was killed. Had she done it? Was that why she wanted me to tell the police that I saw Mike and Caden kill him?

I summoned all the strength I could manage, and I shoved her backward. She was unsteady on her feet from the alcohol, and she lost her balance, crashing into the bushes. The knife clattered to the sidewalk, and I swooped it up.

“Vanessa, why did you kill Jim?”

Her eyes widened, and she stared at me, stunned. Then she curled into a ball and sobbed loudly. Headlights approached slowly up the street toward me and pulled to the side of the road. I shielded my eyes against the bright lights as a man got out of the car. “Maddie?”

Chapter Twenty

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THE DETECTIVE SIGHED. “Maddie, I swear, if you continue down this road you’re going down, you are going to end up dead.”

I looked up at him, pen poised above the paper. “I highly doubt it. I’m smart enough to keep myself alive. I think.”

He grinned and shook his head. “You need to stop.”

I shrugged and signed the paper. “It isn’t your business to worry about me.”

Thankfully, it was Detective Grayson who had arrived as Vanessa curled up into a ball and sobbed. I had the knife, but I wasn’t sure what she might do. She was at least six inches taller than me, and she was drunk. She might have been able to put up a good fight had she tried.

“How did you know she was the killer?”

I laid the pen down on the paper. He had typed out my statement on his laptop, and I was signing it. “I thought it was a man’s voice that said no the night Jim was killed. But it wasn’t. Vanessa’s voice is deep from smoking and drinking. I realized she was the one who said no. I just don’t know why she stabbed him. She had mentioned he had stolen money from her, but when she said it, it seemed like it was something that she had learned to live with, not like it was one big theft that she was angry about, if that makes sense. Maybe I just didn’t realize how angry she was.”

He nodded. “She confessed to his murder. But it was an accident.”

“Oh, no,” I said. “What happened?” How do you accidentally kill your son?

“She kept warning him not to run around with Mike Shelby because he was a bad influence. What she didn’t realize in the beginning was that it was also Caden who was a bad influence. All three of them were doing the smash and grab robberies. She followed them one night, and they were headed to the Sullivan’s house. They were in the bushes, checking the house out, and she was drunk. She thought if she stabbed Mike, she could be rid of him, and Jim wouldn’t continue down the path he was on. But then she realized that Caden was with them, and she would have to kill him, too.”

“Oh. Wow. That’s sad on a lot of levels.”

"The other two had moved closer to the house while Jim stayed in the bushes as a lookout. Unfortunately, he didn't see his mother approaching, and she thought he was Mike. She stabbed him, and realizing her mistake, she ran away. The other two ran off when they heard noises."

"That's so sad. I feel bad for Vanessa." I don't think I could live with myself if I had killed my child.

He nodded. “But she intended to kill Mike, so it’s not like she wasn’t doing something terrible to begin with. She just hadn’t meant to kill Jim.”

“Who stole the cameras at the Sullivans?”

He chuckled. “Vanessa did. She was worried they had filmed what she had done, so she went back and stole them.”

I shook my head. “It was more than two weeks later, though. Why bother?”

He shrugged. “I think she had been drinking so much that she didn’t even take into consideration that if the cameras had been working and caught her stabbing Jim, then we would have already had the video.”

I sighed. “What about Caden and Mike? Can you use the video I gave you to arrest them?”

“I’m going to keep my eye on them. Since they didn’t do anything at that house, I don’t want to tip them off that I know it’s them. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about that to anyone.”

I nodded. I’d have to talk to Chloe and Cookie so they wouldn’t tell anyone about it, but they would keep it quiet. “But do you think you can charge them?”

He nodded. “It might take me a little time, but I’ll catch them at it.”

“Good. They’ve been scaring people around here, and it needs to stop.”

He grinned. “And I’m just the man that can do it, too. But I want you to stay as far away from them as possible. Don’t hint at anything, and don’t follow them around.”

He was stern now, but he didn’t have to worry. After what had happened with Vanessa and that knife, I was done trying to solve crimes. I liked staying alive and unhurt. I finished with the business I had at the police station, and then I left.

When I got home, I kicked my shoes off and picked Oliver up to snuggle him. I had called Cookie and told her I wouldn’t be in. I had a date. With my cat. I turned the tv on and went into the kitchen to make some popcorn. Comfort food was in order.

The End

Sneak Peek

Murderous 4th of July

Chapter One

“How about over there?” Chloe asked, pointing to a vacant spot on the beach.

I shook my head. “It’s too close to where they’re going to set the fireworks off. It will be too loud.” I wasn’t crazy about loud sounds, and while I loved to watch fireworks, the booms that came with them were hard for me to deal with.

“Maddie, they aren’t going to fall from the sky and burn you up.”

“Says you,” I said over my shoulder.

Cookie nodded. “We’ll find a little quieter place further down the beach.” She was carrying a small cooler with our picnic dinner in one hand, and a beach bag was slung over her shoulder.

“See?” I teased Chloe. “Your mom says we’ll find a quieter place further down the beach.”

“All right,” she agreed. Chloe had the umbrella and her own beach bag while I carried a small cooler with iced tea and another beach bag with the plates, cups, and wet wipes. We had worked the early shift at Cookie’s Creamery, and we were excited to be off work so we could enjoy the fireworks show. Here in Lilac Bay, there was a fireworks show every Saturday night during the summer, but the 4th of July show was special. It was longer, with more extravagant fireworks, and there was patriotic music to go along with it. I could hardly wait.

One thing about the beach on the 4th of July, though, was that it was packed with tourists. We wanted a spot that wasn’t overly congested, and one that would allow us a good view of the show. Not that the aerial fireworks were going to be hard to see, but some spots were better than others.

After we’d walked fifteen minutes, Chloe pointed to a vacant spot just ahead of us. “What about there?”

“That looks great,” I said and stepped up my pace. Kids and dogs played and ran on the beach as we walked, and worried parents yelled at kids to not go too deep into the water. It was already six o’clock in the evening, so we wouldn’t have too long to wait for the show. We could relax, eat our dinner, and enjoy the setting sun. A Frisbee flew past my head, and I ducked. Maybe we wouldn’t be relaxing so much.

“Here we are,” Cookie said as she set the cooler down. She had made homemade fried chicken, potato salad, and a fresh fruit salad, with frosted sugar cookies in red, white, and blue for dessert. Chloe and I had offered to make something so she wouldn’t get stuck doing it all, but she had insisted. Cookie was a great cook and baker, so I wasn’t going to argue too much about it.

“This is a great spot,” I said. “We aren’t too far from the water, and we’ll have a good view.” As an added plus, most of the people seated around us didn’t seem to have any kids. Not that I didn’t like kids, but I’d had my share of them kicking sand in my face as they excitedly ran past me while we tried to enjoy the fireworks show in years past.

Chloe and I spread out the blankets we had brought and set up the umbrella. “We should go for a swim before we eat,” she suggested. “It will be too cold once the sun sets.”

“What do you say, Cookie?” I grinned at her.

She shook her head. “You girls go on. I’m going to lie down and enjoy some rest and relaxation. Then we’ll eat.”

I looked at Chloe.

“She won’t get in the water, so we may as well go ourselves.”

I slipped off my coverup while Chloe did the same. I had bought a red, white, and blue one-piece while Chloe wore her red and blue bikini. We hurried to the water’s edge, where I paused and stuck a toe in it.

“We might have to rethink this,” I said. “It’s cold!”

She walked into the water, getting her feet wet. “Last one in is a rotten egg!” She ran splashing into the water.

I groaned. I couldn’t pass up a challenge like that. “Cheater! I’m telling your mom!”

I quickly adjusted to the water temperature, and we swam and splashed for half an hour before deciding to call it quits. As we walked through the waves to get back to shore, I spotted Cookie laying down on the blanket, book in hand. Chloe and I had been friends since we were toddlers, and Cookie was a second mother to me. We had spent the 4th of July holiday at the beach together frequently while growing up. Chloe had lost her dad when she was still a little girl, and my parents had moved away from Lilac Bay a few years ago, so it was just the three of us this year.

“I told you I wanted to go out to eat. I hate fireworks,” a woman’s voice said.

Chloe and I looked to our right and saw Vivian Bush, head of the local chamber of commerce. Her husband had his head down as they walked to their blanket, and he didn’t answer her. Vivian and her husband Edmund were in their late fifties and were probably one of the wealthiest couples in town. He owned several luxury yachts that he rented out to tourists, and I was surprised they weren’t on one now. Rumor had it that they usually threw a big party on one of their yachts and watched the fireworks from offshore.

“You had better not ignore me,” Vivian warned. But Edmund didn’t seem to care as he kept walking. He was wet from swimming, and he dropped down on a blanket about fifty yards from ours.

Chloe and I gave each other a look.

Vivian sighed, then she caught sight of us. We had managed to match her pace and were coming alongside her, but with some space between us. She smiled, putting on her chamber of commerce smile. She wore bright red lipstick, and her blond hair was pulled back in a chignon. She hadn’t gone deep enough into the water to get her hair wet. I was pretty sure that would have messed up her makeup, and that wasn’t going to happen to a woman like Vivian.

“Don’t you just love the beach?”

We nodded. “We wouldn’t miss the 4th of July fireworks show for the world,” I said.

“Oh, me either. You know the town saves up all year to throw this party, and I told my husband we were not going to miss it, no matter what.”

“I know what you mean,” Chloe said. “It’s one of the best shows around.”

“Lilac Bay was voted one of the best beaches in California again, for the second year in a row, and the 4th of July fireworks show is precisely why.” She smiled and nodded. “We’re doing our best to get more businesses to open up to draw more tourists. That will help everyone in this town.”

“That’s fantastic,” Chloe said.

Vivian looked like she had participated in beauty pageants when she was young. She walked with perfect posture, and she knew exactly what to say to someone, even if it wasn’t true. She must have thought we didn’t hear her tell her husband she would rather have gone out to dinner.

Chloe and I looked at each other as she went to where her husband was now lounging in a beach chair, enjoying a fruity cocktail in a clear plastic coconut. She put her hands on her hips and said something to him, but I couldn’t hear what it was. He held up his coconut in a cheers gesture and took a sip.

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Books by Kathleen Suzette:

A Cookie’s Creamery Mystery

Ice Cream, You Scream

A Cookie’s Creamery Mystery

Murder with a Cherry on top

A Cookie’s Creamery Mystery

Murderous 4th of July

A Cookie’s Creamery Mystery

A Lemon Creek Mystery

Murder at the Ranch

A Lemon Creek Mystery, book 1

The Art of Murder

A Lemon Creek Mystery, book 2

Body on the Boat

A Lemon Creek Mystery, book 3

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery Series

Clam Chowder and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 1

A Short Stack and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 2

Cherry Pie and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 3

Barbecue and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 4

Birthday Cake and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 5

Hot Cider and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 6

Roast Turkey and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 7

Gingerbread and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 8

Fish Fry and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 9

Cupcakes and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 10

Lemon Pie and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 11

Pasta and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 12

Chocolate Cake and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 13

Pumpkin Spice Donuts and a Murder

A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 14

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery Series

Candy Coated Murder

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 1

Murderously Sweet

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 2

Chocolate Covered Murder

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 3

Death and Sweets

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 4

Sugared Demise

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 5

Confectionately Dead

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 6

Hard Candy and a Killer

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 7

Candy Kisses and a Killer

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 8

Terminal Taffy

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 9

Fudgy Fatality

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 10

Truffled Murder

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 11

Caramel Murder

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 12

Peppermint Fudge Killer

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 13

Chocolate Heart Killer

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 14

Strawberry Creams and Death

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 15

Pumpkin Spice Lies

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 16

Sweetly Dead

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 17

Deadly Valentine

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 18

Death and a Peppermint Patty

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 19

Sugar, Spice, and Murder

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 20

Candy Crushed

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 21

Trick or Treat

A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 22

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery Series

Apple Pie a la Murder,

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 1

Trick or Treat and Murder,

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 2

Thankfully Dead

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 3

Candy Cane Killer

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 4

Ice Cold Murder

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 5

Love is Murder

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 6

Strawberry Surprise Killer

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 7

Plum Dead

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 8

Red, White, and Blue Murder

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 9

Mummy Pie Murder

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 10

Wedding Bell Blunders

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 11

In a Jam

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 12

Tarts and Terror

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 13

Fall for Murder

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 14

Web of Deceit

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 15

Silenced Santa

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 16

New Year, New Murder

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 17

Murder Supreme

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 18

Peach of a Murder

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 19

Sweet Tea and Terror

A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 20

A Gracie Williams Mystery Series

Pushing Up Daisies in Arizona,

A Gracie Williams Mystery, Book 1

Kicked the Bucket in Arizona,

A Gracie Williams Mystery, Book 2

A Home Economics Mystery Series

Appliqued to Death

A Home Economics Mystery, book 1