Chocolate Heart Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 14 Read online

  The black asphalt slipped beneath the tires of Ethan’s truck as we drove down the highway. The sun slowly crept skyward and as I settled back into my seat, the truck tires suddenly lost their grip on the road and we slid into the other lane.

  “Whoa,” Ethan said, and just as quickly as we slid across the road, he had control of the truck again and guided it back. He glanced at me. “Black ice.”

  I nodded and swallowed, my heart pounding in my chest. That was one of the reasons I hated driving in the snow. Particularly out on the highway as we were. “Thank goodness that wasn’t worse than it was.”

  He nodded, both hands on the steering wheel. “It’s not one of my favorite things to have happen.” The highway curved around and as we came out of the curve, I gasped.

  A car had gone off the highway and hit a tree by the side of the road.

  “Uh-oh,” Ethan said and gently slowed the truck, and eased onto the shoulder. He pulled to a stop next to the car, and we both looked at it. The driver could be seen in Ethan’s headlights, slumped over the steering wheel. “Call 911, Mia.”

  He jumped out of the truck and hurried over to the car. I dialed 911 and watched as Ethan grabbed hold of the door handle and pulled on it, but it didn’t give. He tried again, putting all of his weight into it, and this time the door opened. I looked away as he leaned into the car.

  When the emergency operator answered the phone, I filled her in on what we’d found and asked for an ambulance.

  “Is the driver breathing?” she asked me.

  I got out of the truck. “Is he alive?” I called to Ethan.

  Ethan was crouched beside the car with his hand on the driver’s neck, and after a moment, he turned and looked at me and shook his head. “He’s dead.”

  I let my breath out. “No, he’s dead.”

  I stayed on the phone with the operator for a moment and she promised to send the police out. I hit end on my phone and turned to Ethan, trying not to focus on the driver. “Do you know who it is?”

  He turned toward me, an odd look on his face. “Logan Michaels.”

  I inhaled. “Oh no. That’s a shame, I’m sorry.”

  Logan Michaels was Ethan’s barber and friend. In Pumpkin Hollow, we had hair salons, but we also had an old-fashioned men’s barbershop. Logan’s grandfather had opened the barber shop and his father had also worked there in years past. There was an old-fashioned red and white striped barber pole on the front of the shop, and a man could go in and get a haircut for a reasonable price. Logan also did more modern cuts, and he had been proud of that. I knew he had a large clientele, and my dad was also a regular there at the barbershop. The old-fashioned barber’s chairs were still there, and for the older men of the Pumpkin Hollow community, it was a sort of meeting place. Logan always kept a full coffee pot and there was a hot cup of coffee, free of charge for his customers or anyone else that stopped by.

  Ethan nodded. “This is kind of a shock.”

  Ethan had been good friends with Logan, even though Logan was ten years older. Back in the fall Logan had come to Ethan’s house twice to watch football games. I wasn’t big on football, so I had stayed home on those evenings, but now I was a little sorry I hadn’t joined them. Logan was a nice guy, and I enjoyed his company.

  “I’m sorry, Ethan.”

  He took a deep breath and stepped away from the car. “Me too.”

  “Is he married?” I asked, coming to stand next to him.

  He shook his head. “No, he’s been dating Mariah Anderson for a few years. I forget exactly how long it’s been, but I would bet it’s been at least five or six years.”

  I nodded, crossing my arms in front of myself. I could see Logan’s forehead resting on the steering wheel. I hoped he died quickly and hadn’t suffered out here in the cold by himself. “Do you think he hit black ice?”

  Ethan nodded slowly. “Probably so. He may have been going too fast around that curve and hit some ice, or a deer could have jumped out in front of him and he tried to avoid hitting it.” Ethan turned and looked into the woods and then around at the area where the car had stopped against the tree. “I can’t believe it. Logan’s dead.”

  My eyes widened, and I wrapped my arms around him. “I’m sorry Ethan,” I said into his chest as I hugged him tight.

  He looked down at me and nodded, and I could see the emotion in his eyes. “I just had my haircut two days ago. We talked about basketball. We were going to get together and watch a game in the next couple of weeks. We hadn’t set a date, just promised we would do it.”

  The loss in Ethan’s eyes broke my heart. “I’m sorry,” I repeated.

  He absently ran his hand over my back as I held onto him. “His parents will be devastated.”

  “And Mariah, too,” I added.

  We could hear sirens in the distance and Ethan took a deep breath. I looked at him, deep lines creased his brow. I was sad he had lost a friend.

  Chapter Three

  I stayed with Ethan at the accident site for another hour, in spite of Ethan insisting that I take his truck and go home. The cold eventually became too much for me and I gave in and went back into town to buy coffee at the bakery for Ethan and the other officers that had showed up. I didn’t want to leave him, but he again insisted I go back to town, so I went.

  I let myself into the candy store with my key and headed back to the kitchen. Mom and Christy were making candy, and they both turned to look as I stood there in the doorway. “Hey Mom, hey Christy. Need any help?”

  “Mia, this is your day off,” Mom said in surprise. “What are you doing here? Not that I don’t want to see you, but you need a day off.”

  I sighed. “Ethan and I were headed out of town to go snowboarding, and we came across a car accident. A bad one.”

  I walked into the kitchen and picked up an apron and tied it around my waist.

  “Oh no,” Mom said. “What happened? How many cars were involved?”

  “Do you know who it was?” Christy asked before I could answer Mom. She held a decorator’s bag of icing in her hand and was drawing pumpkins and hearts onto chocolate bonbons. With Pumpkin Hollow being a town that celebrated Halloween all year long, we always had several Halloween items available all year long.

  “Yes, it was Logan Michaels,” I told them. “He went off the road and hit a tree. He was dead when we got there. Thankfully, there was only his car involved in the accident.”

  “Oh no,” Christy said. “Was he by himself in the car?”

  I nodded and went to the printer and picked up the order on top of the stack that had been printed out. “Yes, he was by himself. Ethan thinks he might have hit a patch of black ice and went off the road, hitting the tree.”

  “You have to be careful about black ice,” Mom said quietly. “It’s so dangerous.”

  I nodded. “You do. As we were going around the curve, Ethan hit a small patch and the truck slid to the other side of the road. Thankfully he was able to get control of the truck quickly.”

  Christy pursed her lips “I guess the only thankful thing about the accident is that he was by himself. It would have been terrible if he had had his parents with him.”

  “Or his girlfriend,” I said and went to the counter. “Would you like me to make anything?” I turned to Mom. “Since I can’t be with Ethan, I thought I may as well come and help out around here.”

  “Why don’t you just take the day off? You work so hard when you’re here,” Mom said.

  I shrugged. “Maybe I’ll just work for a couple of hours. Ethan was really shaken up when he saw that it was Logan. They’ve been friends for a long time, and I feel so bad for him.”

  “It’s a real shame,” Mom said. “If you would like to make some of the white chocolate raspberry fudge, that would be a big help. I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet this morning.”

  “I swore that Logan and his girlfriend Mariah broke up a few months ago,” Christy said thinking about it. “I heard they had a big fight.” />
  I turned and looked at her. “Really? I hadn’t realized they had broken up. Ethan didn’t mention it, so maybe he wasn’t aware of it either,” I said and went to the refrigerator to get some butter out.

  She nodded. “I heard it was a nasty breakup.” She shrugged. “Maybe they got back together.”

  “Maybe so. I think we need to go see his parents after they’ve been notified about his death. Ethan was going to take a police cruiser and do that when I left him.” Connie and Bradley were nice people and one or the other would stop in at the candy store every few weeks or so. Bradley had a fudge addiction that he liked to feed.

  I heard the shop door open and close and I looked toward the kitchen doorway.

  “Hello Ladies,” Linda Reid said, stepping into the kitchen. She was bundled up in a gray tweed coat and a black scarf that went over her head and around her neck. “It’s cold out there!” She chuckled.

  “You can say that again,” I agreed. “It’s freezing. All that snow we got in the past couple of weeks is going to stay hard and frozen for a while. It will take more than a plow to get us out of this mess.”

  She nodded. “I told my husband we needed to invest in our own small plow so we don’t have to rely on the city to dig us out.” She chuckled and picked up an apron. “I think he’s about ready to agree to it. Now then, what can I help with?”

  “I’m about to make some white chocolate raspberry fudge,” I told her. “Looks like there are a lot of orders on the printer that need to be packed up.”

  She nodded and went to the printer, then she stopped and looked at me. “Wait a minute. Mia, aren’t you supposed to be off today? Seems like I recall you saying you were going to spend some time with that handsome boyfriend of yours today.”

  I smiled. “I did say that. And that was what we planned, but on the way out of town, we came across an accident on the highway. Logan Michaels’ car hit a tree.”

  Her brow furrowed at the news. “Oh no, don’t tell me it was serious. Something tells me it was if you had to cancel your plans.”

  I smiled sadly and nodded. “I’m afraid he died in the accident.”

  “Oh, how terrible. His poor parents.” She frowned. “He was a nice young man.”

  “That’s what we were just talking about,” Mom said. “It’s a shame.”

  “He was the only barber my husband would go to. He liked that he could still get an old-fashioned no-frills men’s haircut from him.” She shook her head. “He’ll be sorry to hear it. He used to go to Logan’s father and grandfather for his haircuts, too.”

  “Bob always went to him, too,” Mom said. She turned on a burner on the stove and placed a pan with butter onto the burner.

  “Everyone that knew him will be sad he’s gone,” Linda said, picking up the top order on the printer.

  “I heard he recently broke up with his girlfriend,” Christy said, then glanced at Linda.

  She turned to her. “He did. She wanted him to marry her and he wouldn’t, so she left him. I don’t blame her, I suppose. He was a wonderful guy, but a girl wants to get married after she’s dated a man a long while. They’d been dating for years and I guess she thought she had waited long enough. She’s friends with my daughter, you know.”

  That was odd, I thought, since Ethan was under the impression they were still together. But maybe they had gotten back together and word of that hadn’t gotten around yet.

  “My goodness, we have a lot of orders this morning,” Linda said, picking up the rest of orders on the printer. “I’m telling you, we need a bigger shop.”

  Mom grinned. “I expected January sales to be slower than this. But I’m not complaining. More business is always a good thing.”

  She was right. This month’s sales weren’t nearly as busy as the Halloween season and Christmas sales, but they were still brisk. I made a mental note to call about the empty shop next door. I had brought it up to my mother several weeks earlier, but we both had been so busy, that neither of us had called about it.

  The Pumpkin Hollow Candy Store had been at the same location since it opened up in the 1940s and we were reluctant to move it, in spite of the increased sales the online store had brought in. But that empty shop next door could be turned into a new kitchen and the current kitchen could be expanded into a packing and shipping department. Before the end of the year, I was sure we would no longer be able to accommodate the online orders with the current situation.

  “You know,” Linda said, turning back to us. “I saw a recipe for cherry bonbons online. Maybe you could adapt it, Ann? I think they would be lovely for Valentine’s Day candies.”

  Mom looked up at her. “That does sound good. Why don’t you pass on the recipe to me? I can always take a look at it.”

  “Are you going to make more cherry cordials?” Christy asked. “I love your cherry cordials.”

  Mom made the best cherry cordials I had ever tasted. She usually made them for Christmas, but they would be great for Valentine’s Day, too. “I ordered more cherries. We should get them in tomorrow, and we’ll be back in the cherry cordials business.”

  I measured out the rest of the ingredients for the fudge I was making, and my mind went back to the accident. It made me sad that Logan’s family and friends were starting out a new year with a loss like that. Especially since one of those friends was Ethan.

  Chapter Four

  The Michaels’s home was conservative and in a nice area of Pumpkin Hollow. The stucco house had been re-coated during the fall, giving the house a fresh look. I knew this because I had ridden over with Ethan when Logan’s car was in the shop. He had been borrowing his parents’ car and had returned it, and Ethan was giving him a ride to the garage to get his own car back.

  I looked at Christy when I had parked my car. She held a plant in her lap, and she turned to me. “I hate doing this.”

  I nodded. “Especially when it’s someone we know and people as nice as the Michaels’s are.”

  We got out the car and headed up the walkway. Connie Michaels answered the door, looking tired and haggard. It had been two days since Ethan and I had found Logan’s body and I felt bad about what she must be going through now.

  “Hello Connie,” I said gently. “We wanted to stop by and tell you how sorry we were to hear about Logan.” I didn’t mention that I was with Ethan when we discovered the accident. I didn’t want her to ask for details that I didn’t want to give.

  She smiled sadly. “That’s so sweet of you girls,” she said with a nod. “Would you like to come in?”

  We followed Connie into the living room and sat down on the loveseat. The Michaels’s living room was done in yellow and blue and looked like something straight out of Better Homes and Gardens. Everything matched and looked fresh and bright.

  “We brought you a plant,” Christy offered. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you, that’s kind of you.” She took the plant from her and set it on the coffee table.

  We talked for a few moments and then Connie’s husband, Bradley, entered the living room looking tired and haggard. “Hello Mia, hello Christy.”

  We both turned to him and expressed our condolences.

  He came over and sat on the couch next to his wife. “I still can’t get over it. How could our son be dead? It’s something that has been going over and over in my mind and I keep thinking it isn’t true. He’s going to call me or stop by.”

  The sorrow in his eyes broke my heart, and I wished there was something that I could do or say that would ease his pain. There wasn’t of course, but that wouldn’t stop me from wishing I could.

  “I was just telling Connie how sorely missed Logan will be by the community. Both personally, and also with his business. The barbershop was a popular place in town,” I said.

  He nodded. “I was so proud when he told me he wanted to be a barber just like me and his grandfather. I guess it’s not a traditional job anymore, but it was so nice that he decided to follow in our footste
ps. I hated to retire, we had so much fun working together there.”

  “How long have you been retired?” Christy asked.

  “Just over a year,” he said. “I wish I hadn’t retired. I would have had that much longer to spend with my son. When I made the decision to retire, I told Connie I wasn’t sure it was the right move. I didn’t know why then, but maybe somewhere deep inside I knew that Logan wouldn’t be with us much longer.”

  “That’s so sad,” Christy said. “Sometimes I guess maybe people know things without understanding how.”

  He nodded. “I think that’s what it was. I had no way of knowing it, yet I did. I’m not sure what we’re going to do without him.”

  “Are you going to close down the barbershop?” I asked him.

  He was quiet a moment. “I have to confess that the thought that I could go back to work has come to me, but I don’t know if I can do it. All the memories of working there with my son might be more than I can handle. Of course, I have great memories working alongside my dad as well, but I’m not sure I can handle the memories of working with my son now that he’s gone.”

  I nodded. “I can totally understand that. It has to be hard.”

  Connie put her hand on his and he blinked away the tears and smiled again. “But then, the thought of selling the place is more than I can stand, too. My dad opened that shop up back in the 1940s. My family are the only people that have ever worked there. I don’t know if I could stand seeing a stranger working there.” He sighed.

  “Was Logan an only child?” I asked. It suddenly occurred to me that I couldn’t remember if Logan had any siblings.