Red, White, and Blue Murder Read online

  Red, White, and Blue Murder

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery

  by

  Kathleen Suzette

  Copyright © 2020 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.

  Books by Kathleen Suzette:

  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

  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 Cream Scream

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 15

  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

  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

  Table of 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

  “Where’s he at?” Lucy asked, scanning the crowd.

  “I’m not sure,” I said, going up on my tiptoes to see better. My fiancé, Alec Blanchard, had gone to the beach ahead of us to get what I hoped would be a prime spot to watch fireworks while I got dinner and snacks together for everyone. But the beach was so crowded, I wasn’t sure he had been able to find a good spot.

  “Gee, you’d think this kind of thing only happened once a year,” Lucy said dryly.

  I snorted and shook my head. “Thank goodness it's only once a year. I’d hate to navigate a crowd like this more frequently.” The sun beat down on us as we stood on the scorching sand, kids and teenagers pushing past us to get to the water.

  “It really warmed up today,” Lucy said as we continued to search for Alec and our crew. “You’re so fair-skinned, you’re going to burn, Allie.”

  I had fair, lightly freckled skin to go with my red hair. The sun and I had never gotten along. “I’m not going to burn because I brought a bucket of sunscreen. I’ll slather it on anytime I feel like the sun is getting ready to roast me.”

  “I should have known you’d come prepared. You always think ahead.” She put her hand to her forehead to shade her eyes and scanned the crowd.

  I nodded. “Let’s see if we can get around this group, and see if he’s on the other side,” I said, nodding at a large group of people lying out on beach towels, enjoying the sun.

  A teenage boy played Frisbee with an Irish setter, and two toddlers dug in the sand with plastic shovels, their mother sitting on a towel nearby, keeping an eye on them. During the summer in Sandy Harbor, the crowds flocked to the beach, but this crowd was particularly large. Three tote bags hung off my arms, and I hugged two blankets and three beach towels close to my body to keep from dropping them. A floppy straw hat protected me from direct sunlight.

  We were maneuvering in between people laying on the ground and those that were coming out from the water when I spotted a familiar beach umbrella up ahead. I reached over and tapped Lucy on the shoulder. She looked in the direction I was pointing and nodded.

  Lucy carried a small ice chest, the handle over one of her arms, and two more totes over her other arm. A beach umbrella was nestled beneath one arm. There was a larger ice chest and two insulated drink dispensers with lemonade and sweet tea still in the car. When we met up with Alec, I’d send him to get it. I had packed the ice chest with enough food to last us a week, but I’d be surprised if we didn’t end up eating it all this afternoon.

  “I am not fooling around, Bill, I said to take it off!”

  The woman shouting above the din of beachgoers caught my attention, and I turned to see a tall woman with straight blond hair, her hands on her hips and leaning forward, shouting at a balding man laying on a towel on the san
d. They looked to be in their late forties. The man looked up at the woman, his jaw set, but didn’t respond.

  “Are you just going to lay there all day? Or are you going to help me do something around here?” There were two bags and an umbrella lying in the sand nearby and she motioned toward them as she spoke.

  “She doesn’t sound very pleasant,” Lucy whispered.

  “She sure doesn’t,” I replied.

  Bill suddenly sat up and removed the flowered tank top he was wearing and threw it on the sand.

  “There. You happy now?” he retorted.

  She glared at him but didn’t answer. With a loud ‘oof’, she sat down on the beach towel next to him. “I don’t know why I have to do everything around here,” she grumbled. “You never listen to me.”

  I looked back at Lucy, and she was watching the couple wide-eyed. She turned to me. “Wow, wonder what that’s all about?” she whispered.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I wouldn’t want to go home with her tonight.”

  “You can say that again.” We trudged through the sand, sidestepping running kids and sunbathers, and finally made it to the umbrella.

  “Hey,” I said, slightly out of breath. I dropped the tote bags and blankets. “I thought we’d never find you.”

  “You should have called me, I could have talked you through the maze of people,” Alec said, looking up from his place on a beach towel. He was shirtless and wore a pair of red and blue swim trunks.

  “Hey Mom, is there anything else left in the car?” my son, Thad, asked from a nearby spot on his beach towel. He and his fiancée, Sarah, had brought their own umbrella and planted it in the sand next to ours.

  “There’s an ice chest and two small coolers, one with sweet tea, and one with lemonade in the trunk of my car. Want to go get it?” I held out my keys to him.

  “You bet,” he said and jumped to his feet.

  “I’ll help you,” Dylan said, jumping up almost as fast as Thad had. Dylan was my daughter’s new boyfriend. He had been hanging around the house for the past two weeks and I was doing my best to get to know him without seeming like I was being overly nosy. For me, that was quite a feat.

  “Thanks, boys. I appreciate the help.” I glanced over at my daughter, Jennifer, lying on a beach towel on the other side of where Thad and Sarah had their umbrella. “Jennifer, you’re going to burn. Your skin is already pink.”

  She raised her sunglasses and looked at me. “I put sunscreen on this morning.”

  “It has to be reapplied regularly. I’ve got some in my bag.” I knelt and rummaged through the tote in search of the sunscreen. Jennifer had strawberry blond hair, and she burned as fast as I did. “Here it is.” I tossed her the sunscreen. “I’ll put some on your back for you.”

  “That’s okay, Dylan can do it when he gets back.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her.

  “Or you can do it,” she said, looking away.

  Alec chuckled, and I gave him a look.

  “What? She’s an adult,” he reminded me.

  I shrugged and went over to help Jennifer out, anyway.

  “Mothers will be mothers,” Lucy said and set her cooler down on the sand. She breathed out heavily. “Sure is hot.”

  Alec jumped to his feet. “Let me help you with the umbrella.” He took it from her and stuck the pole into the sand. “Where’s Ed?”

  “Ed is running errands. He promised me he would get here before it got dark.”

  “I hope he comes earlier than that. It’s not often we can lie around on the beach all day and it isn’t considered loafing.”

  “He doesn’t care. He’s a pro at loafing these days.”

  He chuckled. “It’s nice to see someone that takes his job seriously then.”

  “Believe me, he does.”

  “So, Jennifer, how are things going?” I asked as I rubbed sunscreen onto her shoulders.

  “Fine.”

  “You’re skin is already hot. I think you may already have a burn coming on.”

  “I should have put more sunscreen on, I guess.” She pulled her hair to the side so I wouldn’t get lotion in it.

  She sounded a little down, and it worried me. “How are things going with Dylan?” I should have left it alone, but it seemed like Dylan was always hanging around and she got in late in the evenings. She was an adult, but I wanted to know how things were really going. It’s that nosy issue I have.

  She smiled. She was doing that a lot lately.

  “Good. Great, really.”

  That made me happy to hear. “I’m glad. You seem happy.”

  She looked at me over her shoulder. “I am happy. I’ve never met anyone like Dylan.”

  “He seems like a nice young man,” I said as I worked the sunscreen down her back.

  She nodded and was quiet for a moment. “It’s just, well, he’s got this girlfriend in Bangor and I don’t know what to do about it.”

  My stomach dropped. “What? What are you talking about?” I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around to look at me. “He’s got another girlfriend?”

  She smiled. “Gotcha.”

  I gasped. “How could you do that to me? I nearly had a heart attack!”

  She chuckled. “I don’t know. It just came to me. You should have seen your face. If you ask me, that was pretty good.”

  I sighed and slapped her shoulder lightly. “One of these days you’ll get yours.”

  She laughed again.

  “I told you to be quiet!” a voice rose above the crowd.

  “Don’t tell me what to do!” came the answer.

  We all turned in the direction the shouting came from and I spotted the woman and man we had seen on our way to the umbrellas.

  “What’s going on over there?” Jennifer asked.

  “It seems there’s a couple that isn’t getting along very well today.” I glanced at Alec and he shrugged. “Holidays do that to some people.”

  “Bill, I am not going to put up with this,” the woman said.

  “Too bad. We’re stuck here for the day, and we’re going to be happy about it whether we want to or not.”

  People looked in their direction momentarily, but quickly went back to what they were doing. “Maybe someone has had too much to drink,” I whispered to Jennifer as I finished applying sunscreen.

  She looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “I hope they don’t keep yelling at each other. I don’t want to listen to that today. It’s not what I came here to do.”

  “You and me both,” I said and got up and went to where Alec was laying down on a towel again. “I brought some blankets to lay on, too. It might be more comfortable than a towel.”

  He nodded. “Let’s spread one out.”

  I handed him the end of one of the blankets. We had decided we all needed some time with family and friends and we were spending the Fourth of July on the beach. There would be fireworks later and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the holiday. My oldest, Thad, would be heading back to his fiancée’s family soon and I would miss him. I was glad he was staying for a couple of weeks, but with him away at college, I didn’t get to see him much anymore. It made me sad, and as much as I needed to try not to be too clingy, everything in me screamed that I should cling to him. Where had my kids’ childhoods gone?

  Chapter Two

  “Alec, that sure looks good,” Ed said, coming to stand beside him while he barbecued burgers and hotdogs. We had decided on a simple meal of hamburgers, hotdogs, macaroni salad, watermelon, grilled corn on the cob, and red, white, and blue cupcakes. Each cupcake had either a blueberry or strawberry filling inside of them. I frosted them with vanilla frosting and piping tiny red and blue fireworks on top. I even piped tiny yellow sparks coming out of the fireworks. Call me crafty.

  “Sure smells good, too,” Alec said as he began turning the hotdogs. “I don’t barbecue enough. I don’t know why I don’t since I really enjoy it.”

  “I’m starving,” I said. It was
just after six o’clock in the evening and we’d all been swimming and sunbathing the entire afternoon. I was worn out from the swimming, but I was looking forward to the fireworks after it got dark.

  “It will just be a couple more minutes,” Alec said. “I hope you brought some tasty sides to go with these burgers and dogs.”

  “I did,” I said as I lifted the lid on one of the ice chests. “I hope everyone has worked up an appetite.” I had also brought a lot of snacks that we had been indulging in all afternoon. That didn’t matter though. I was starving and ready for dinner.

  “I sure did,” Lucy said, coming to stand beside me and looking into the ice chest. “Those cupcakes sure look good.”

  “Thanks,” I said. The cupcakes were in a clear plastic carrier and I was delighted to see that they hadn’t fallen against the sides and the icing hadn’t been smashed.

  “Hey, Mom,” Thad called. “Did you bring more sweet tea?”

  “Sorry, honey, I just brought the two pitchers. But there’s plenty of lemonade and sodas left. Want me to bring you something?”

  “No, I’ll get it,” he said, jumping to his feet.

  “Bring me some lemonade?” Sarah asked him.

  “You got it,” he said and joined me at the cooler that held the drinks. He looked at Alec. “I’m starving, Alec. Need any help?”

  “Nope, we’re about ready,” Alec said, shaking his head.

  Shouting erupted, and we looked over at the group we had come to refer to as the loud group.

  “No one ever helps with anything around here!” the woman who we’d seen earlier shouted at a boy that looked like he might be her teenage son.

  The boy shook his head angrily and opened the ice chest and pulled out a soft drink. “Maybe if you asked people nicely, they would help you. Why do you have to yell all the time?”

  The woman’s face turned red, and she put her hands on her hips. “I’d asked nicely if you knew how to be a decent human being and offer to help. I don’t know why I bother with any of you. I’ll certainly think twice about doing anything fun like this again.”

  “Anita, don’t be angry,” a female voice said. Julie Sommers sat on a nearby blanket with a can of soda in her hand. She was a local, and I knew her reasonably well.