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

  I glanced around the store. There was one other customer, and Joey Harper was waiting on them at the front register. I brought the shoe over to where Christy stood with the boot in hand.

  “They’re pricey,” she whispered, turning the boot over.

  “I figured they would be,” I said. “Aren’t these shoes cute?”

  She looked at them now. “They really are cute. I wonder what other colors they come in?”

  “I don’t know, but at this point, I would buy a pair in every color. I wish fall would hurry up.”

  “You and me both.” She set the boot back on the display and looked around the store. “They’ve got a lot of fall shoes and boots in already.”

  I nodded as she picked up a pair of suede tennis shoes in pink.

  “That’s cute,” I said, coming to stand beside her.

  “I don’t have money to spend on shoes. Honestly, I need to pay rent and all those obnoxious things called bills. What am I going to do?” She glanced around at the shoes on display again.

  “We might need to get a part-time job so we can buy all the shoes we want,” I suggested.

  “I know, right?”

  The woman Joey was waiting on left the shop, and he turned in our direction and smiled, then came over to greet us.

  “Hello, ladies. Is there something I can help you with?”

  “We’re just looking at all your new fall shoes and boots,” I said. “You’ve got a lot of really cute things in.”

  He nodded. “We just got a shipment in last week. They sent us a lot of nice fall shoes, and we’re starting to get our boots in too, as you can see. We’ll get another big shipment in next week, too.”

  I glanced at him. Joey was tall, slightly over six feet I’d guess, and had a thin build. His blonde hair was a little on the long side. He wore a thin tie and a white button-down shirt and black pants.

  “I can hardly wait,” I said. “I love shoes, and don’t get me started on the boots. I need at least one more pair of boots this fall. One of my old pairs wore out last year.”

  He nodded. “A girl can’t have too many pairs of boots.” He chuckled, but it sounded awkward.

  “How have you been, Joey?” Christy asked him. “Haven’t seen you around the candy store lately.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking about stopping in to get some pumpkin spice fudge before it’s gone again.”

  “You better hurry,” I advised. “Joey, I heard your girlfriend, Hailey Strong died. We just wanted to stop by and tell you how sorry we were.”

  He frowned. “Thank you. I appreciate you thinking about me. I just can’t believe she’s gone.”

  Christy nodded. “I can’t imagine how shocking that must have been when you were told. Do you have any idea what happened to her?”

  He folded his arms in front of himself and his brow furrowed. “One day you’re planning your next date and the next, she’s gone. It’s crazy and I can’t get used to the idea of her being gone.” He shook his head slowly. “I really don’t know what happened to her. But to be honest, it doesn’t surprise me that she ended up dead.”

  Her death might not have surprised him, but hearing him say that did surprise me. “What do you mean? I would imagine hearing that your girlfriend had been murdered would surprise a person.”

  He shook his head. “We’ve been together since the end of our junior year in high school. I thought I’d be with her forever, if you want to know the truth. But, for the last six or eight months, Hailey was running around with some different people. I didn’t like it at all.”

  “What do you mean, different people?” I asked, picking up a smooth leather penny loafer. It was a reddish-brown and was as cute as anything else in the store.

  “There were just some weird people that she like to hang around with is all. Ever since she started college last fall, it seemed like she changed. She wanted me to go to college too, and at first I thought I was going to, but then when I was offered a full-time position here at the shoe store, I decided that making money was more important than going to a junior college where all I’ll ever be able to earn is an Associates Degree. What would I do with that?”

  “You could’ve used it to go on to earn a bachelor’s degree,” Christy suggested. “A lot of people go to a junior college for the first two years and then transfer to a four-year school later. It saves a lot of money.”

  Joey half-rolled his eyes at the suggestion, but then caught himself. “Sure, I guess I could have done that. But I thought I would take a little time off from school and try to figure out what it was I wanted to do with my life. But Hailey, she was determined she was going to start school right after high school.”

  “I think that’s a pretty logical step,” I said, trying not to sound like I was inferring anything about what he had just said. Some people aren’t cut out for college, and that was fine. There was nothing wrong with getting a job and working hard. But it sounded like Joey may have been a little jealous of Hailey moving on with her life.

  He nodded. “Sure, I guess so. But then she started hanging out with these college people. She started drinking and going to parties. And there was one person in particular that I didn’t like at all. Her professor, Frank Gillespie.”

  Her professor? “Frank Gillespie? What does he teach?” I asked.

  “Literature. Can you believe it? He was reading her Shakespearean poetry.” Now he did roll his eyes and smirked at the idea. “She thought it was so romantic.”

  “What do you mean by romantic? Was he making a pass at her?” I asked him.

  His jaw twitched. “She wouldn’t admit to anything, but she would sit around whining about how much she loved poetry and how much she enjoyed Gillespie’s classes. I told her poetry was boring and that old guy sounded boring, too. I couldn’t imagine sitting through a class like that.” He snorted.

  “So she was fond of his class?” I asked.

  He nodded. “You better believe it. I had to listen to her talk about it every time we were together. She’d go on and on about what an awesome class he had, and why didn’t I go to college and take his class.” He shook his head. “No way. I couldn’t sit through that class and listen to all that garbage.”

  “Lots of people like poetry,” Christy said. “But I can see where if your girlfriend was talking about some other guy all the time, even if it was her professor, it could get irritating.”

  He turned to her. “Yeah, I just don’t trust the guy. There was something about him that was all wrong. He had a party at his house for his students back in April, and Hailey insisted that we go. She made me dress up in a suit and tie. Can you believe it?” He snorted again. “But I went. Only because she bugged me about it for so long. And it was all a bunch of snooty people sitting around reading poetry. I was bored out of my mind.”

  “Did Gillespie pay special attention to Hailey while you were there?” I asked. I was beginning to get a picture of this professor, and I didn’t like it.

  His mouth made a straight line. “Yeah, he did. He kept coming around her and complimenting her on her dress. She was wearing a really short dress, and it was all the guy could talk about. It was ridiculous. After we left, I told her we were not going to any other parties like that again. I told her she needed to find a job and drop out of school.”

  I thought he was making a lot of assumptions by thinking he could tell his girlfriend to drop out of school and get a job, but I didn’t say so. “Did he behave that way around any of the other girls?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t notice. I was more concerned with Hailey.” The bell over the door rang and an older couple walked into the shoe store. “Excuse me a minute.” He walked over to the couple to see if he could help them.

  I looked at Christy. “It sounds like she was enamored with her college professor.”

  “And I wonder if her college professor was just as enamored with her.”

  I nodded. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

 
She set the boot she was holding back on the display. “Frank Gillespie and his wife used to live next door to me when John and I were first married.”

  I looked at her. “Really? Did he seem like a creep? Because the way Joey described him, it sounds like he might be.”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t notice that about him, but he and his wife worked a lot. We didn’t see much of them.”

  I put the shoe back onto the display. I had an idea that the college professor might be more interested in his students than he should have been.

  Chapter Nine

  We left the shoe store without buying a thing. If we waited another month, the fall boots and shoes would go on sale, and besides that, neither of us had money to throw away on shoes that we wouldn’t even wear for at least another month or so.

  “Where to next?” I asked, looking at her.

  She shrugged. “I guess we can go get some pizza. Or, why don’t we stop by Betty’s Closet and see what they’ve got in for the fall?”

  I looked at her. “Why? They won’t run their sales for fall clothes for a while yet either.”

  “I know, but Hailey Strong used to work there. I don’t know if she was still working there before she died, but she might have been.”

  “Oh, I see.” I started my car, and we drove over to the clothing store.

  When we walked through the doors of Betty’s Closet, I glanced around. Like the shoe store, they had a lot of their fall clothing out already. There were lots of sweaters, coats, scarves, and knit hats. The place smelled like cinnamon and new clothes, and made me wish for fall.

  “Oh, look at this,” Christy said, heading over to a display of thick, chunky knit sweaters. They were folded up on shelves and came in a wide variety of colors. She picked up a pumpkin orange colored sweater and turned to look at me, holding it in front of herself. “Can’t you just imagine this with a pair of chocolate brown suede boots?”

  I ran my fingers over the sweater. It was a thick cable knit and would be warm and cozy for the coming cold weather. “It’s adorable. I love the color.” I turned over the price tag and inhaled. “But that’s a not so adorable price. We really have to wait until the sales.”

  “I know, I just can’t resist looking at things though. I swear, if I ever strike it rich, I’m not going to have a closet for my clothes. I’m going to have a separate bedroom. An entire bedroom. I’ll put rows and rows of racks so I can hang everything, or display them on shelves.”

  I eyed her. “That sounds ambitious.”

  “You better believe it. Go big or go home.” She picked up another sweater. It was hot pink, and she held it up in front of herself. “What do you think?”

  “Hot pink goes well with your skin tone.”

  She nodded. “It does. I might have to get one of these, too.”

  I looked up as Betty Mays, the store owner, headed in our direction. She was wearing a silk dress in teal with black heels. No costume for her. I glanced down at my costume and then at Christy’s costume. There was something about Betty Mays that made me feel like she looked down on the Halloween season. And maybe on us, too.

  She smiled, her dark red lipstick penciled in perfectly. “Hello ladies, is there something I can help you with?”

  “Oh, we just stopped in to take a look at what you might have for the fall. Summer has been fun, but we’re more than ready for fall,” I told her.

  “I just wish the weather would cool off so I could wear sweaters,” Christy added.

  Betty looked us up and down and smiled again. “I’m with you on that. I love fall and winter. Actually, I just really love sweaters and boots and coats. How come warm weather clothes aren’t as cute as fall weather clothes?”

  I smiled. “I feel the same way about it. There’s just something about cold weather clothing that makes me happy.”

  “What do you think about this sweater?” Christy asked, holding up the hot pink sweater again. “Do you think it looks good on me?”

  She nodded. “It complements your skin tone. You should definitely get it.”

  “I told you it was perfect for your skin tone,” I said.

  Christy nodded and folded the sweater up carefully, put it back on the shelf, and turned back to Betty. “I’m absolutely going to come back and get it, but I have to wait until I get paid. And until there’s a sale.”

  She nodded, tucking a lock of her short red hair back behind her ear. “I always wait for sales myself. There’s no sense in spending money if you don’t have to.”

  I nodded. “Betty, I heard about your employee, Hailey Strong. She still worked for you, didn’t she?”

  Betty folded her arms in front of herself and nodded. “Yes, she still worked here. Although between the three of us, I have to tell you if she hadn’t died, she probably wouldn’t have been working here much longer.”

  I wasn’t sure if I was more surprised by what she said or the tone in which she’d said it. It was clear Betty didn’t think much of Hailey.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

  “The girl was lazy. I regretted the day I hired her. Of course, it took me a while to catch on to her, because when I was here at the store, she ran around like a little busy bee. But word from the other girls got back to me. She was lazy, and as soon as I walked out the door, she would slack off and the other girls would have to do her job for her.” She rolled her eyes. “Some people.”

  “Oh, that’s a shame,” I said carefully. “I hate having to work with people like that.”

  She nodded. “We all do. But here I was paying her good money to hang around the store and do practically nothing. I tell you, I need to check the security cameras more often.”

  Christy nodded. “That would be one way to catch someone like that.”

  “Still, it’s a shame that she died the way she did.” I tilted my head, looking at her, hoping she had some information that might be helpful.

  She nodded. “Yes, it is a shame. I certainly would never have wished anything bad on her. Does Ethan have any idea what happened?”

  I shook my head. “No, it’s kind of early yet. But he’s investigating, and I know he will figure out what happened before we know it.”

  She ran the tip of her tongue along her lower lip as she thought. “Honestly, the girl just seemed to find trouble. It was like she was a magnet for it. The other girls always talked about the way she would run around with different men, and twice I had customers come in here screaming at her because she had been fooling around with their boyfriends. I should have gotten rid of her months ago.”

  I was stunned by this. “They came into the store and started yelling at her?”

  “Yes, I was so embarrassed. I had a talk with her. A long one. But did it help? No. Honestly, I know what kind of family she comes from and I should have known better than to hire her, but stupid me. I did.”

  She knew what kind of family she came from? Betty Mays had a reputation for being a snob. And that statement certainly said it all.

  “So do you know anything in particular? Something that might lead to finding out what happened with her? Do you know if either of those women that came in accusing her may have still been holding a grudge?” I ran my hand across a sweater on the display.

  She shrugged. “No, I have no idea. Although, I have my eye on her boyfriend, Joey Harper. There’s something about that boy that I don’t like. I was in the shoe store about a month ago and he started smooth-talking me. I couldn’t understand it, complimenting me on my clothes and the shoes I was wearing. But in the end, he hit me up for a job. Can you believe it? Why would I hire a man to work in a woman’s clothing store? I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be terribly unusual, but I just can’t see it. All that complimenting and all he wanted was a job.” She rolled her eyes.

  She seemed miffed about Joey being nice to her just so he could ask for a job. I couldn’t imagine anybody not being nice to a potential employer. Had she read something else into it up until the point that he asked about
the job? Odd.

  “Was Hailey a full-time employee here?” Christy asked.

  Betty snorted. “Goodness, no. I can’t imagine having to put up with that girl for forty hours a week. She only worked about twenty hours a week. She went to college during the day and worked here in the afternoons and evenings.”

  “I suppose working part-time is the most a lot of college students work,” I said.

  She nodded. “Hailey thought she was a sly one, that girl. She pulled a prank on her best friend, Shayna Gates. Shayna used to work here, but left back in December. She regretted ever leaving my employ, of course. She had it too good here. But Hailey pretended that I was interested in hiring her back, and then when Shayna came and asked me about the job, and I told her I wasn’t hiring. You should have seen the look on the girl’s face. She comes from a needy family, you know, and I’m sure that the prospects of a job meant a lot to her. She never should have left to begin with. What I should have done was fired Hailey and given her hours to Shayna. Oh well. But, I suppose I can do that now can’t I?”

  “Wait, she told her best friend that you were going to hire her?” I asked.

  “Apparently so. Hailey told Shayna all she needed to do was meet with me, and that I was going to hire her back based on her recommendation. Of course, that was all a lie.” She shrugged and straightened up a blouse that was hanging on a nearby rack. “Oh well, some people are so gullible.” She turned around and walked away without another word to us.

  I turned to Christy. “I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty angry about something like that.”

  I nodded. “Me too. She probably felt pretty foolish, and Betty wouldn’t have tried to make her feel better about it, either.”

  “That’s no lie.”

  It made me wonder how embarrassed Shayna had been about Hailey making her look foolish. Was she holding a grudge? And did she get even with her?

  Chapter Ten

  It was Friday night before Ethan and I got to spend any real time together. We decided to go out to dinner at a little steakhouse a few miles outside of town. It was the second weekend of Pumpkin Hollow Days, and tomorrow there would be a craft fair down at the park. The construction work had been finished, the hole filled in, and the barricade removed. It wasn’t a moment too soon because once everyone heard about Hailey’s murder, there were all sorts of lookie-loos hanging around, trying to get a glimpse of where she had been buried.