Chocolate Covered Murder

by Kate Bell

  “After a while, it’s not as big a temptation as you might think,” I said. “My mother just made some bonbons. I strongly suggest that you give them a try because they’re the best I’ve ever tasted.”

  “Hello Charlie,” Mom called from across the room.

  “Hello, Ann,” he said, turning toward her. “I sure hope we can get the haunted house opened soon.”

  “We all do,” Mom said.

  He turned back to me. “Why don’t you wrap up half a pound of bonbons for me?” he said and looked across at the shelves of prepackaged candy that we had just gotten in. He walked over to the shelf and took a look at it. “My niece just loves orange and chocolate together. I might have to get her some of these ghosts.”

  “Those are tasty. If she likes orange and chocolate, I think she’ll love them,” I said, opening the display case.

  He picked up a box of chocolate ghosts with orange centers and a bag of candy corn and brought them back over to the front counter and set them down. “I guess I’ll try these and the bonbons and maybe a quarter pound of that rocky road fudge.”

  “You do have a sweet tooth,” I said with a chuckle and wrapped the bonbons for him.

  “That I do, that I do,” he said absently. “Say, Mia, has Ethan mentioned anything about the investigation?”

  I glanced at him and then went to the display case and took out the tray of rocky road fudge. “You know, it’s just so early in the investigation that I don’t think they’ve gotten far with it yet. I’m sure the police are doing everything they can to figure out what’s going on.” I cut off a slab of fudge for him.

  “I understand,” he said. “I know they’re trying to get the investigation wrapped up so we can open the haunted house again on Friday. It just concerns me that Greg was killed in my haunted house. I don’t even know how he could have gotten in. There was a broken window in the basement, but why would he even want to be in there? It just doesn’t make sense.”

  I weighed out his fudge. “It really is weird that he was in there. There wouldn’t be any reason he would have a key, is there?”

  He stopped and thought about it. “I can’t imagine how he would. I keep a tight hold on those things, you know. I just collected them a couple of weeks ago because people weren’t being responsible with them. I can’t take the risk of people being in there after hours.”

  I looked at him. Did he really believe he was responsible with the keys? Or was he trying to cover something up? “That’s important,” I said, nodding.

  “So, Charlie, did you go home after work Friday evening?” I asked him. I couldn’t remember if Ethan had mentioned where Charlie was Friday night or Saturday morning.

  He nodded. “I went home around seven on Friday. My wife and I slept in late Saturday morning. Gary usually opens Saturday morning and we were beat after working all week. It’s nice to be able to sleep in once in awhile, you know?”

  “I know exactly what you mean. Sleeping in now and then is good for the soul.” Charlie and Evelyn were alibis for one another and it made sense, but at the same time, it made me wonder.

  He nodded. “This thing has me worried though,” he said leaning against the front counter. “I just don’t know what this town is coming to. And I hate that it might scare customers away. You know how the city council wants to close down the Halloween season. If that happens, what am I going to do for business? No one wants to come to a haunted house out here in the middle of nowhere if there aren’t other attractions as well.”

  “Believe me, I understand completely. This is hurting all the businesses in town,” I said and finished ringing up his purchases. “It’s been a huge worry for all of us.”

  He nodded as I put his purchases into a paper bag, folded over the top, and handed it to him. He ran his debit card through the card reader and picked up the bag.

  “We do appreciate what the police are doing as far as trying to get this thing settled before Friday. You’ll let me know if you find anything out, won’t you?” he asked.

  “Sure I will, as soon as I hear anything I’ll get back to you,” I said.

  He turned to go and then turned back at the door. “You know, that Frank Garcia was sure a troublemaker when he worked for me. I heard he’s a troublemaker at his new job, too, but the manager is related to him and he can’t fire him. If you want to know the truth, I’ve always suspected him of doing drugs and stealing to support his habit.”

  “Do you really think so?” I asked, wondering about the drugs. Maybe Greg was involved in drugs as well and it was a drug deal gone wrong.

  “It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Frank killed Greg,” he said. “Well, I guess I better get going. I’m taking this time off with the haunted house closed to do some work around the house. My wife has got a honey-do list thirty-feet long.” He laughed as he walked out the door.

  “Have a good evening,” I called as he went.

  I watched him go. I had to wonder if what he said about Frank was true. It felt like he was digging for information, but if he thought he was going to get information out of me, I was sure I had disappointed him.

  ***

  Later I drove over to Ethan’s house to say hello, but when I got there, his truck wasn’t in the driveway. I sighed and my eye was drawn to movement at the house across the street from his. Someone was inside the house and they stuck a red for rent sign in the window. I parked my car and got out, crossing the street. The door of the little house was open, and I went up the two front steps, stopping to knock on the open door.

  “Hello?” I called.

  “Oh, hello,” a woman said, coming to the door. She had blond hair and green eyes and smiled big when she saw me.

  “Hi, I just saw you put the for rent sign in the window. Do you mind if I take a look around at the place?”

  “Sure, come on in,” she said. “We just got it cleaned up after the last tenants and it’s ready to go.”

  “It’s cute,” I said, walking through the living room. “It’s the perfect size for one person.”

  “It sure is. It’s only one bedroom, one bath, but it’s roomy,” she said as I looked into the kitchen. The kitchen had white cupboards and matching white appliances. The linoleum on the floor was in good condition and I could smell fresh paint.

  “I really like this,” I said as I went through the rest of the house. “Do you have an application?”

  “I sure do,” she said and picked up an application from the kitchen counter. “We need to do a credit check after you fill this out.”

  “Thanks,” I said, taking the application from her. It may have been a bit impulsive, but getting my own place had been on my mind for a couple of weeks. Living with my parents was fine, but I enjoyed living on my own. It wouldn’t hurt to submit an application and I could decide for sure if I got approved. After filling out the application, I said goodbye and went to my car smiling. It would be fun to live across the street from Ethan.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I drove by Ethan’s house after work that afternoon. Ethan was just getting into his car when I drove up. He waved at me, and I parked my car and went to him.

  “Hi Mia, I was just going over to talk to Veronica.”

  “Can I ride along?” I asked hopefully.

  “I don’t know Mia, I’d hate for the police chief to say something about your being with me when I go to talk to people,” he said apologetically.

  “I can understand that,” I said. “But maybe the police chief wouldn’t have to know. What do you think?” I gave him my best smile.

  He grinned. “You’re trying to get me in trouble aren’t you? Come on, get in the car and we’ll go talk to her.”

  Veronica lived in a modest ranch-style house in a quiet neighborhood that featured neatly trimmed lawns and large oak trees in the front yards. Ethan parked the car, and we walked up the sidewalk. Ethan knocked on the door and we waited while the neighbor’s beagle barked at us.

  The door swung open and Veronica st
ood there with her eyes puffy and red from crying. Her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore no makeup. She looked exhausted, and it made me sad to see her that way.

  “Hello, Veronica,” Ethan said. “We’d like to come in and talk to you if that’s okay.”

  “Yes, of course,” she said and stood back for us to enter. “Come in, please.”

  We walked into the house. The color scheme in the living room was done in neutral colors and pictures of English cottages hung on the walls. Veronica offered us a seat on the sofa and she sat on the loveseat across from us.

  “I’ve looked through Greg’s office and couldn’t find anything mentioning the haunted house. I did find his laptop, but I have no idea what the password to get into it is. I’ve tried everything I can think of and looked through everything in his desk in case he noted it somewhere,” she said, crossing her legs and picking up a bottle of water from the coffee table. “I just don’t know what he was doing there at the haunted house.”

  “Can I take the laptop with me? Maybe someone in our IT department can figure out the password and have a look at it. It just doesn’t make sense that he was there at the haunted house unless he had some business with the killer.”

  She considered this for a moment. “No one seems to know anything. I don’t understand this at all. I don’t know I—.” Her eyes welled up with tears and she grabbed a tissue from a box on the coffee table and dabbed at her eyes.

  “We only want information leading to the killer. We’re not interested in anything else on the laptop,” he assured her. “We’ll return it as soon as possible.”

  She nodded, looking down at her hands. “Okay. I need to know who killed my husband. I can’t stand the thought of someone out there enjoying their freedom after taking my husband’s life,” she said, relenting.

  “We appreciate that,” Ethan said as she got up and went to another room.

  She was back within a few moments. “I just don’t know what he could have gotten himself in to,” she said as she held the laptop out to Ethan.

  “The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better,” Ethan said, taking the laptop from her.

  “We’re looking into who may have had keys to the haunted house,” Ethan said. “Right now it’s just too early to give you any answers.”

  “When I was down at the gas station filling my car with gas, the girl that worked there told me there was a curse on this town. I told her there’s no such thing as a curse,” she said and chuckled bitterly. “But then she pointed out the other recent murders and the fire. And then I remembered that I heard about the curse when I was a girl. Back then there had suddenly been a string of murders in Pumpkin Hollow, too. I know it sounds absurd, but it does make you wonder.”

  “Veronica,” Ethan said. “I don’t believe in curses. I do believe there have been some people who chose to handle their problems in a very inappropriate way and murdered some innocent people. But I do not believe in curses. We’ll get to the bottom of who killed your husband. I promise you that.”

  My heart sank at the thought that the rumor of a curse was spreading all over town. To think that intelligent people would believe in such a thing was mind-boggling. These people weren’t just whispering about it, or wondering if it might be true, but they were actually out there telling people it was true, and that concerned me.

  “Officer Bates,” Veronica said. “I want you to know something. I loved my husband with all my heart. We were married for thirty years and I thought I would spend the rest of my life with him. Now he’s gone, and no one knows a thing about what happened. I’m not threatening you, but I’m telling you right now that you and your police force need to find out who killed my husband and arrest them.”

  “Veronica, I assure you that we are doing everything we can to find your husband’s killer. We need more time. But I assure you, we’re going to find the killer.”

  I refrained from looking over at Ethan. I could tell by the tension in his voice that he didn’t like what Veronica had just said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said looking away. “It’s just that my world has crashed in on me. I know you’re doing everything you can, and I appreciate that more than words can say. Please forgive me if I sound rude.”

  “I understand completely,” Ethan said, relaxing. “We’ll find whoever killed your husband.”

  Ethan went over some questions with Veronica, but her answers didn’t reveal anything new. No one seemed to know anything about the murder and unless that laptop held some answers, this would be a difficult case to solve.

  When we were back in the car, I turned to look at him. “What do you make of all this?”

  “What I make of it is that we still don’t have much of anything to go on. I had better figure something out soon though. I’d hate for this to be my one and only case as a detective.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’d hate to be fired because I couldn’t find the killer on my first case.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “We’re finally going to put an end to that silly Halloween season,” Stella Moretti said. Stella owned the Sweet Goblin Bakery just down the street from the candy shop. You would have thought that a Halloween themed business owner would have been desperately trying to save the Halloween season, but there were several others that owned Halloween businesses that were against it as well. It would have been better for all of us if they had just moved across town and operated as ordinary businesses, but they were all against doing that.

  I rolled my eyes behind Stella’s back. It wasn’t very adult-like, but I was getting tired of hearing people badmouth the Halloween season.

  “Come on, Mia,” Ethan said. “Let’s go inside.”

  Ethan was dressed in business casual today and I couldn’t help but think how sharp he looked. Ethan was going to be a great detective one day. We found a seat near the front of the room and waited.

  Tracy Goode was filling in for our now deceased mayor, Stan Goodall. Stan had come to an untimely demise a couple of weeks earlier.

  I looked over at Ethan. “I wonder who’s going to be our permanent mayor,” I whispered.

  “It’s so close to being time to vote, I heard that Tracy will fill in for a while, and we will just vote like we normally would have if Stan hadn’t died.”

  “That makes sense. Actually, it’s one of the few things that does make sense around here anymore,” I muttered.

  Tracy sat down at the desk and called the meeting to order. I looked around me and was surprised that there weren’t very many people here. I had expected a larger turnout, but I was glad to see that a lot of the business owners were here. Tracy read the minutes from the last meeting and then lay down the paper she held in her hand.

  “At this point in time council members have decided that we will not vote on whether to end the Halloween season at this present time and we will table the measure for now.”

  There was a groan that went up from the people who wanted to end the Halloween season. I looked around me and there were about a dozen people shaking their heads and whispering.

  “The city council has found that the original motion to end the Halloween season went against the bylaws of this town. In the future, if someone would like to put up a motion to end the Halloween season, it needs to go through the proper channels. If anybody wants details on what those channels are, they’ll need to see the mayor which is temporarily myself.”

  I held my breath.

  Stella jumped to her feet, moving faster than I had ever seen her move. “You can’t do that! We’re supposed to be allowed to vote!”

  “Mrs. Moretti,” Tracy said. “You’re out of order. We have researched this, and we have found no cause to bring this motion to an open vote at this time. As I said earlier, if you want to file another motion, you’ll have to abide by the laws.”

  Ethan and I looked at each other wide-eyed. “Did she just say what I think she said?” I asked him.

  Ethan n
odded. “She sure did.”

  I was stunned. I thought for sure we would have another fight on our hands. Ever since this measure was filed, it had been a source of worry for me. The Halloween season was so important to this town that I didn’t know how we would function without it. There were a lot of business owners that relied on the Halloween season, including businesses not in the Halloween business district. We had several hotels and motels that might have gone out of business had there not been people coming to visit the town for the Halloween season as well as restaurants and other shops.

  I reached over and took Ethan’s hand and he gave my hand a squeeze. I couldn’t help but grin like a fool. We were going to be able to keep the Halloween season. At least, for now. We sat and listened to everything else that came before the city council, hoping it would be a short meeting. Some people that had been in favor of ending the Halloween season got up and left while Tracy still spoke. I thought it was rude.

  When the meeting ended, Ethan and I hurried outside. He gave me a hug and pulled me to him, kissing me. “Do you see that Mia? We won. There’s no curse on Pumpkin Hollow!”

  “We did,” I said. “We really did it, didn’t we?”

  Fagan Branigan ran up to us, clapping Ethan on the back. “We did it, we did it! We are going to keep the Halloween season.” Fagan owned the Little Shop of Costumes and had been on our side from the beginning.

  Several other business owners gathered around us and we all congratulated one another. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The Halloween season would remain.

  “Mia, I really think it was because you made the city website. I’ve had so many people mention that they saw us on the web, and they stopped in because of how lively and entertaining your website is,” Polly Givens, owner of the Pumpkin Hollow Gift Shop, said.

  “I just did what I thought might help everyone. It’s because all of you have such wonderful businesses, and Pumpkin Hollow is such a wonderful town,” I said, beaming.