Pumpkin Spice Lies: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 16 Read online

  “You got it.” I finished filling out the form and got the piece of fudge for her and took her money for it. “I’ll try to stop by your booth in just a bit.”

  She nodded absently, her eyes going to the barricade nearby. “What’s going on over there?”

  I glanced at it. “They’ve been working on the playground for a while now.” I hated not telling Polly the truth. She was a friend, but I didn’t feel right saying anything just yet. Someone’s loved one had been found in that hole behind the barricade, and it would be awful for them to find out about it from someone other than the police.

  She glanced at the barricade, and then nodded again. “Well, thanks for the fudge. I’ll see you later.”

  “See you,” I said.

  Christy returned from the candy store with another ice chest of candy and set it down in the booth. “There. That should hold us for a while.”

  I sighed and picked up my Styrofoam cup of iced tea and took a sip. “I’m ready for fall weather. I am not a fan of the heat.”

  “Me too,” she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

  It didn’t get as hot here in the mountains as it did in other parts of California, but each summer, we had a period that warmed up, and this was it.

  Christy glanced at the barricade and sat down next to me. “Anything new on who was buried back there?”

  I shook my head. “Not a word. Ethan said he would stop by the booth today. Maybe he’ll know something then.”

  She nodded. “Seems like someone should have reported someone missing.”

  “You would think so. But maybe they weren’t dead long when we found them, or maybe they were scheduled to go someplace this weekend, and their family hasn’t even missed them yet.”

  “Wonder what would happen if we slipped back behind the barricade?” she asked, eyeing the formation.

  “The police would stop you from being nosy. I saw Officer Chu hanging out around there.”

  She brushed back her long brown hair and turned to me. “Ethan needs to get us the details. How can we investigate without details?”

  I chuckled. “Have patience, sister. He’ll give us the details. Or at least, enough of them to start snooping.” Ethan wasn’t fond of us looking around and asking questions, but he had become resigned to the fact that it was going to happen whether he wanted it to or not.

  I looked up as Angela Karis from the Sweet Goblin Bakery approached us. She was dressed as a cupcake, the costume covering her torso, and her head popped out from the fabric frosted top. The costume looked bulky and hot.

  “That’s a cute costume,” Christy said, eyeing her.

  Angela frowned, putting her hands where her hips should be. “Do you like it?” She glanced down at herself.

  Christy hesitated. “It’s unique.”

  Angela’s lips curled. “Yeah, I’m not much of a seamstress.” Her eyes went to the candy on the table. She sighed loudly. “I don’t need more sugar, but I’ll take a quarter-pound of pumpkin spice fudge.” She nodded at the plate, then eyed me. “This has been one heck of a week.”

  “Oh?” I asked as Christy got the fudge for her.

  She nodded, sighing again. “I didn’t think I’d ever get this costume finished. I poked myself with a sewing needle at least four hundred times, and had to remove every seam. Twice. I don’t know what I was thinking. Vince said I was nuts for making it, but I’m proud that I actually finished it.”

  I nodded. Vince Moretti owned the bakery, and Angela had been a friend of his now-deceased wife. A lot of people around town had suspicions about their relationship before Stella had died, and now that Vince and Angela were living together, their suspicions were confirmed. “I’m sure it was a lot of work. It’s cute, though.”

  She nodded absently, her eyes on the candy again. “And then my sister called me in a panic late last night when my niece didn’t come home the night before.” She shook her head and looked at me now. “Between the three of us, the girl has always been a little wild. I don’t know why my sister is getting excited about it anyway, she’s eighteen. She has a right to stay out as long as she wants. But my sister was a blubbering mess when she called and kept me on the phone until nearly one o’clock in the morning.” She yawned.

  It took everything in me not to look at Christy. I could feel her looking at me, but I didn’t want to give myself away, so I kept my eyes on Angela.

  “Oh? Who is your niece?” I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Christy rolled her eyes at me.

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

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

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

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

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

  Christy and I turned to look at each other.

  “I have a feeling about that.”

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

  Chapter Five

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  “You put in a long day.”

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

  “I sure do. Have you eaten?”

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

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

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

  “You got it,” I said, and we headed inside.

  “Hi Boo,” he said, and stopped to bend over and pet him. Boo meowed and rubbed up against his legs. “Sorry I didn’t make it to the vendors’ fair. Things were crazy.”

  “I figured as much. I wish you would have gotten to stop by, but I understand. So,” I said, going to the kitchen and taking the pizza out of the refrigerator. I’d ordered it on a whim, and as soon as I placed the order I wished I’d waited until Ethan came home so we could eat together while it was still hot. “How are things going? Do you know who the victim is yet?”

  He nodded and went to the cupboard and pulled out two glasses. “You have iced tea?”

  “Of course,” I said, and got the pitcher of tea out of the refrigerator and filled both glasses.

  “It’s Hailey Strong.”

  I turned and looked at him. “Hailey Strong? Angela Karis’ niece?”

  He nodded. “I think so. Her mother came into the police department early this morning and wanted to fill out a missing person’s report. I asked her a few questions, and she showed me a picture of her that she had on her phone, and I was 99% sure that she was our victim. Then we matched up dental records to make sure. She had just had her teeth capped, and it was a perfect match.”

  I sighed and took two plates down from the cupboard and put them on the table. “What a shame. I saw Angela earlier today, and she thought Hailey’s mother was overreacting to her not coming home the night before.” I set the pizza on the table and we sat down with our iced tea.

  He nodded and helped himself to the pizza, placing two slices on his plate. “I hated to tell her that her daughter was dead, with her being as young as she was. It’s just a shame when a life that young is cut short.”

  “I can imagine that must have been difficult, talking to her mother like that,” I said and took a sip of my iced tea. “Any ideas what happened to her? Do you know how she died yet?”

  He shook his head. “We’ve got to wait on the report from the medical examiner. There wasn’t any obvious trauma to the body. So until we hear from him, we won’t know for sure. Her mother was crushed, as you can imagine.”

  I nodded again. “How horrible. Does she have any ideas about what might have happened to her?”

  He chewed and swallowed a bite of pizza before answering. “Not really. She was so distraught it was hard to get much of anything out of her. I’m going to talk to her again in the morning.”

  I took a piece of pizza from the box and laid it on my plate. It’d been a couple of hours since I’d eaten and the pizza was so good I couldn’t resist. “Angela Karis said that her niece was a practical joker. She described her as the life of the party.”

  One eyebrow shot up. “The life of the party? I wonder if the emphasis is on party?”

  I shook my head. “I really don’t know. She didn’t elaborate on whether she was prone to partying. But she did mention that the high school was probably glad that she had graduated and maybe just passed her to get rid of her. I don’t know how serious she was.”

  He smiled. “Well, that does paint a picture, doesn’t it?”

  I nodded. “Sure does. I wonder if Hailey had some sketchy party friends and something went wrong, and she ended up dead.”

  “That’s probably a pretty good bet,” he said and took another bite of his pizza. Boo rubbed up against his legs, begging for a taste.

  I looked under the table at him. “Boo, you don’t need any pizza. You had some ham off of mine earlier.”

  “Oh, but Mom,” Ethan said, handing a piece of ham to Boo. He looked at me and smiled. “How could I not give him a piece?”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “You are something else. The two of you are going to be quite a pair when we move in together.”

  “Don’t forget about Licorice.” He took a sip of his iced tea. “She won’t appreciate being left out.”

  “Of course not. I’m sure Licorice will be right there in the middle of all the trouble the two of you will be getting into.”

  Ethan had his own black cat named Licorice. She was a more recent arrival than Boo. I had taken Boo in when he hung around the cottages looking for a home, and Licorice had come to Ethan after an earlier murder investigation.

  We sat and visited as we finished our pizza, and then Ethan leaned back in his chair, placing his napkin on his empty plate. “So, how many days is it until we get married?”

  I shook my head at him. “I haven’t counted. Why? Are you getting anxious?”

  He grinned. “Of course I’m getting anxious. Never in my life did I think that I would be anxious about getting married. And I mean anxious to get married. But I’m ready to hang up my bachelor days and put them behind me.”

  I grinned. “Good. Say goodbye to those single bachelor days, because you are done with them.”

  He chuckled. “And you’re done with your bachelorette days.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, you know I was a wild bachelorette. It will be so tough leaving that lifestyle behind.”

  He picked up his glass of tea and drained it. “Good. I don’t want you looking back. From here on out, we’re looking forward. To our married life together and to our future children.” He set his empty glass on the table.

  I raised my glass of iced tea and took a sip, then set it down. “Here’s to the future. Our future together, and our future children, and our future home. Have you thought about that? Where are we going to live after we get married?”

  He shrugged. “I thought you were moving into my house.”

  “That’s a negative. I like my house better.”

  “Why? They’re identical.”

  “I know, but I did some really cute decorating in my house, and you haven’t done much of anything to yours. I think you own fewer things than I do anyway, it’ll be easier to move you over here.”

  He shook his head. “You could just decorate over there.”

  I shook my head now. “No. You’re moving in with me. And one of these days, after we save up a hefty down payment, we’ll move into our own forever home.”

  He nodded. “It’s a deal.”

  I was still having a hard time accepting the fact that this was really happening. I was going to marry Ethan Banks, the love of my life. But I figured I’d get used to it.

  Chapter Six

  Monday morning Christy and I walked down to the Sweet Goblin Bakery. I hoped Angela would be there, but after losing her niece, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she wasn’t at work.


  I pushed open the door to the bakery and inhaled the sweet scent of vanilla and donuts. Angela was finishing up with a customer at the front counter, and Christy and I walked up to the display case and peered in.

  “Oh, she made muddy ghosts,” Christy said.

  I nodded. “She makes the best muddy ghosts.” A muddy ghost was a Boston cream donut. Angela had a way with them that made them the best I’d ever tasted.

  I glanced at Angela as she chatted for a moment with the woman at the front counter. Then I looked back at the display case. “And I love her decorated sugar cookies. She always does such a wonderful job.” Angela had frosted the sugar cookies and drawn in Halloween scenes by hand with food coloring and icing.

  “I’ve got to have that jack-o’-lantern sugar cookie.” Christy moved down the display case. “Oh, she’s got her boo berry donuts made.”

  I nodded, my eyes still on Angela. When her customer left, she turned toward us and forced herself to smile. “Hello girls,” she said quietly. “I suppose you’ve heard?”

  I nodded, clutching my purse to my side. I had dressed as a ballerina today and my black boho bag was out of place. “Angela, I’m so sorry. I hated to hear about what happened to your niece.”

  She looked down at her hands for a moment, then looked up at me. “I tell you, that girl was a firecracker. From the day she was born, she was the happiest baby I’d ever seen. She loved ballet, she loved any kind of dancing really, and she wanted to be an artist.” Tears sprang to her eyes and her nose wrinkled up as she tried to keep them from falling.

  I stepped up to the front counter. “I’m so sorry, Angela. I can’t imagine how hard this is for you and your family.”

  She inhaled deeply. “Never in a million years would I have thought I would live to see the death of one of my nieces or nephews. You always think about the younger generation outliving you. But I sure was wrong about that.”

  I nodded. “How is your sister doing?”