Confectionately Dead

by Kathleen Suzette

  Amanda squealed. “Yes! I knew he was falling hard for you. And what about you? Did you tell him you love him?”

  I glanced at Christy again. Her face was impassive, but I saw the pink creeping up her neck. I turned back to Amanda. “Yes. I’ve never been happier.” I needed to keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t. I was just so excited. I glanced at Christy again.

  She smiled. “I’m happy for you, Mia. I really am.”

  “Thanks,” I said quietly.

  “I bet it won’t be long until the two of you are going to be planning your own wedding, Mia,” Amanda said. “I can hardly wait!”

  I smiled. “Let’s not rush things. I like just enjoying being with him.”

  “I want you to be my maid of honor, and Christy, I want you to be a bridesmaid,” she said, placing a hand on mine. “I couldn’t do this without you girls. I’ve known the two of you for longer than anyone outside of my family.”

  “That’s so sweet of you, Amanda,” I said. I refrained from looking at Christy. Was she going to be able to handle being a bridesmaid when her own marriage was falling apart?

  Christy turned to her. “That’s so sweet of you to think of me,” she said and glanced at me. “Really, I—,” Christy stopped. “I’d love to. Thanks.”

  Amanda squealed again. “Oh, this is going to be such fun! We’ll go shopping together for the dresses and the decorations.”

  Christy’s eyes went big and her face went pale. She looked at me again and then back at Amanda. “Yeah, it’ll be fun.”

  I wished we weren’t having this conversation right then. It was too painful. Christy was trying to be happy for both of us, but her own world was crumbling down around her, and I knew she was hurting inside.

  “I’ve got to get planning. June will be here before we know it.” She was quiet a moment, then she looked at me. “Oh, I almost forgot. Ellie came in a few weeks ago and said she and Laura had had a big fight. She was thinking of kicking her sister out. Can you believe that? Did I tell you this? Because I meant to when it happened.”

  I looked at Amanda. “No, you never mentioned it. Did she say why she wanted to kick her out? Is it her house?” Laura had said it was her house when she came into the candy store the day Ellie’s body was discovered. She had mentioned thinking about asking her sister to leave, so what Amanda was saying was surprising.

  “I guess it must be Ellie’s, since she was going to kick Laura out. She didn’t say exactly why she was going to do it. She just said Laura was impossible to live with and she had had enough. She seemed really upset, but I didn’t want to pry. I had a lot of customers in line that day. I gave her a free blueberry muffin because she seemed so upset. It made her smile.”

  This was interesting. Laura and her complaining might not be as innocent as it had seemed after all. Maybe the sisters had issues they couldn’t sort out. Shelly had said she thought Laura might have had something to do with her mother’s death because they argued a lot. Maybe when Ellie told Carrie she had finally come to a decision, she meant she was kicking her sister out and moving the man she was with into her house. It was sad that she would do that to her sister, but there may have been more trouble between the two than I had imagined.

  Chapter Ten

  “This is my favorite place in this whole town.”

  I heard booming laughter, and I turned around. The woman standing in front of me looked familiar, but I couldn’t come up with a name. I smiled. “That’s wonderful to hear. Can I help you find anything?”

  She nodded and laughed again. She had long wavy red hair and her face was liberally sprinkled with freckles. She looked to be about 5’9” and was what my grandmother would have called sturdy.

  “Oh, you can help me find more calories than a girl has a right to consume, I guess. If I worked here, I’d be in trouble. I’d gain five pounds every week. How do you stay so skinny working here?”

  I grinned. I would never have called myself skinny, but I’d take it. “When you grow up around it, it loses its charm, I guess. Plus, I try to exercise regularly. Just because it loses its charm doesn’t mean I never eat it. Exercise helps.”

  She chuckled and stepped up to the display case and looked in. “Fudge never loses its charm for me. I’d like some of the eggnog and peanut butter fudge, please.”

  “Sure, how much?” I asked, opening the door to the display case.

  “Better give me a quarter pound of each. Oh, and I better take a quarter pound of the peppermint fudge, too. I have to buy enough to keep myself in a Christmas sugar fog.”

  “Coming right up,” I said. “We don’t want the sugar buzz to fade away.”

  She straightened up and looked around the room while I removed the trays of fudge. “You guys carry the cutest things in here.”

  “Thanks. My mom’s very creative. She’s always coming up with new items.”

  She turned and looked at me, her eyebrows raised. “So you really did grow up with all this deliciousness in your life?”

  I chuckled. “Sure did. My sister and I helped out around here most weekends when we were kids and now we work here full-time,” I said and began cutting the fudge she had asked for.

  “Well, I’m Harper Casper,” she said holding her hand out for me to shake.

  I clenched my teeth together to keep my mouth from dropping open. I had been wondering how to get ahold of her so I could ask her about Ellie’s death, and here she was. I reached my hand out and shook hers. “Nice to meet you,” I finally managed.

  She grinned and pulled a business card out of her oversized black bag. “I run a cleaning business. I clean businesses.” She laughed at herself. “I saw you all have an Internet presence, and I just had a hunch that your business must be going through the roof, especially this time of year. What are the chances you’re in need of someone to come in and clean the shop? I bet you have a kitchen that needs a deep cleaning on a regular basis, and what about a shipping department?”

  I was shocked. She was offering to work for us. After what Charlie O’Rourke had said about her stealing, that was the last thing we needed. Of course, I didn’t know if what Charlie had said was true, but if it was, we weren’t hiring her.

  “I don’t know, usually we all clean as we go, and then do a more thorough clean after we close.”

  “That’s just it. After you’ve worked hard all day, who wants to stay after closing and clean some more? Why not have a professional come in and do the dirty work? I have fifteen years of experience and references. I’ve cleaned restaurants before and I know exactly what the health inspector is going to be looking at when he drops in. I can do it fast, efficiently, and cost-effectively.” She placed both hands on the counter and gave me a million-dollar smile. I believed her. There was just something about her that made me believe she meant every word of what she said. But I didn’t know what to think. Had Charlie lied about her stealing from the car dealership? I wondered if someone would back up his claims and how I could find that someone.

  “Well,” I said as I slipped the fudge into a cute Halloween and Christmas decorated paper bag. My mother special-ordered the bags and had them printed up each Christmas season. “I’m not sure hiring a cleaning person is in the budget.”

  She held one hand up. “I know what you’re thinking. You’ve always done it yourself and you don’t want the extra expense. But if you’re expanding your business with an Internet presence, your trained personnel shouldn’t be wasted on cleaning. They should be making more money for you by making candy and fulfilling orders.”

  I stared at her. We currently had more than twenty orders waiting to be filled and shipped in the back room. Harper Casper drove a hard bargain. She was professional, and she knew how to sell herself and it made me doubt whether she could have been stealing from the car dealership. She seemed like a savvy businesswoman.

  “I tell you what,” I said, looking her in the eye. “My mother makes most of the business decisions around here and she isn’t here right now. W
hy don’t you write down exactly what kind of work you’ll do and the price, and I’ll talk it over with her.” I smiled and handed her a notebook and a pen.

  “What? Just write it by hand? I usually do that on my computer and print it out on business letterhead so it’s nice and professional.”

  I shrugged. “We don’t need business letterhead to be impressed and since you’re here, why not? I’ll explain it to my mother. She’ll understand and won’t hold it against you. Besides, you’re right. I have a bunch of orders in the back that need to be packed and shipped and I could get some of that done instead of cleaning.”

  She grinned. “Now you’re talking,” she said and took the notebook from me.

  I watched as she began writing down what she would do for us. “So have you lived in Pumpkin Hollow long, Harper?” I asked.

  “Yeah, fifteen years. I moved here from Utah with a boyfriend that left me fourteen and a half years ago.” She laughed heartily. “I also lived here when I was a kid and my father still lives here, but I moved away to go to college. Now I’m back. I love this town, and I’ll never leave again.”

  I instantly liked Harper. I hoped it wasn’t true what Charlie had said about her. I had never considered it, but we could use a cleaning crew. Business was picking up, and I wanted that to continue. Focusing on the business and not on the cleaning was important.

  “Well, I’m glad you stayed. Pumpkin Hollow is just about the best small town in America. But I may be biased,” I said.

  She chuckled. “I’m biased, too. It is the best small town in America.”

  “Oh, and can you provide some business references? It would be nice to have a variety of them from places you’ve cleaned. I know my mom will insist on that. She’s a stickler for professionalism and cleanliness.”

  “Of course I can,” she said without looking up at me. “I can get you anything you need. I understand professionalism and business references are important.”

  I watched as she continued writing. Her price was reasonable and now I hoped more than ever that what Charlie said wasn’t true. We needed her to take over the cleaning.

  She finished up and signed the page with a flourish and laid the pen down, looking up at me. “Tell your mom I can do more or less than what I put down and we can negotiate the price. Whatever she needs. I try to be flexible with new clients. I want them to be happy.”

  “I’ll tell her,” I said, picking up the notebook. She had written down three references, none of which were the car dealership. “This looks great.”

  “I hope we can do business together. I believe in women-owned businesses and I love the idea of a mother and her daughters in business together.”

  “I hope we can, too. Let me ring up your fudge for you,” I said and turned to the cash register.

  “Have you lived in Pumpkin Hollow all your life?” she asked.

  “Except for when I went to college,” I said.

  “I heard there was a murder the other day. It’s a shame. Something like that can give a town a bad name. Although, I guess it might appeal to some. We do have a Halloween theme here, after all.” She chuckled.

  I smiled. “Did you know Ellie Adams?”

  “Kind of. She was a fixture in this town, wasn’t she?”

  “She sure was. She’ll be missed. I just can’t imagine who would kill her,” I said, looking at her. Charlie may have said he thought she could have killed Ellie, but I wasn’t convinced the motive he gave was reason enough to do it.

  She ran her debit card through the card reader. “Well, don’t tell anyone I said it, but if I was going to look at a possible murderer, I’d look at Josh Tate. That man’s suspicious, if you ask me.”

  “Why do you say that?” I hadn’t liked Josh’s attitude the day I had found Ellie’s body, and I wondered if there was a reason for it.

  “I clean the party houses for the Petersons. It’s mostly seasonal work except for when they rent it out for special occasions. Josh does maintenance at the party houses. He’s a flake and a hothead. I told the Petersons they seriously needed to reconsider hiring him. I happen to know that he lies to them.”

  “What does he lie about?”

  “He once loosened the bathroom sink pipes so it would leak, and they hired him to fix it. He charged them for five hours work when it only took him about two minutes to tighten the pipes up. I wanted to tell them, but I didn’t want to mess with Josh. He’s dangerous. That temper of his can get out of control quickly.”

  “Really? I don’t know him well I guess,” I said. I looked up and smiled as a customer entered the candy shop.

  She nodded. “I was cleaning up the party house after that Thanksgiving dinner that was held there a few weeks ago, and he came in fuming. He said he was stiffed for a job he did. Said some woman had hired him to do some patching on her roof and he quoted her a hundred and fifty dollars. But when he got done with it, she would only pay him a hundred dollars because it didn’t take him as long as he said it would.”

  “Who was the woman?” I asked, feeling like I already knew the answer to that.

  “Ellie Adams.”

  “So if he was being paid by the hour and it didn’t take as long as he said it would, why would he be angry?” I remembered that Josh had said Ellie had stiffed him on a job.

  “He said he was charging for the whole job, not for the time spent doing it. He just gave her a time estimate so she’d know how long it would probably take him to get the job done. I figured she misunderstood and thought she was paying by the hour and then refused to give him the difference. He said she’d regret it. When I talked to him, he had been fussing and fuming about it for days.” She sighed and made a clucking sound. “Well, I better get going. It was nice meeting you. Tell your mom we can discuss the cleaning when she’s ready, and I hope she agrees to it.”

  I nodded. “I sure will. Thanks for stopping in.”

  I watched her go. Josh did seem to have a temper, but would he kill someone over fifty dollars? It was hard for me to believe it, but people had been killed for less.

  Chapter Eleven

  After talking things over with Mom, we had decided to give Harper’s cleaning business a try. Her references had checked out with glowing recommendations and we told Harper we’d try out her service on a trial basis for a month. We would clean as we went during the day, and she would come in three times a week to do a deeper cleaning. We’d keep a close eye on Harper, just in case what Charlie had said was true, but I had called the manager of the car dealership and he had said he couldn’t remember anything negative about Harper’s cleaning business. According to him, they had stopped using her services in order to cut back on expenses. I’m not sure if that meant Charlie lied, or if the manager didn’t want to commit to complaining about another business owner.

  I was looking forward to giving up some of my cleaning time so I could focus on growing the business. The more I thought about it, the more I anticipated that growth. If Christy and her husband went through with the divorce, she would need a job and with Mom’s candy making expertise, my business degree, and Christy’s ideas, I really thought we could go worldwide someday.

  What Harper had said about Josh kept playing over and over in my mind. It was two days later when I decided the best way to get to the bottom of it was to get the story straight from Josh. I drove by the party house a few times before I saw Josh’s work truck parked out front. Amanda had asked for Christy’s and my help in planning her wedding. What better way to do that than to stop by the party house and see if it would be suitable for her wedding reception?

  I pulled my coat tighter as a frigid breeze tried to blow it open when I stepped out of my car. I headed up the porch steps and raised my hand to knock on the front door, but then thought better of it. It might be good to surprise Josh. I turned the doorknob and gently pushed the door open. The lights were on in the house this time, and I slipped inside, closing the door gently behind myself.

  I walked carefully acros
s the hardwood floors, trying to make as little noise as possible. From somewhere in the back of the house, I heard hammering, then a pause, followed by more hammering. Looking around the ballroom, I could imagine Amanda holding her reception here. The stage would accommodate a live band and there was a kitchen the caterers could utilize. Of course, I already knew what the inside of the house looked like, but I still wanted to see it again in person to visualize everything. And then there was the matter of talking to Josh about the murder.

  My eyes went to the bottom of the stairs and I shuddered. Poor Ellie. I wasn’t sure how Laura would get along without her. Unless what Ellie had told Amanda was true and behind closed doors, they really didn’t get along well. Even Mom had mentioned they had fought a lot when they were in school. Maybe that had never changed.

  I walked into the middle of the ballroom and tried to picture the wedding reception. I thought it would be a great place to hold it. My mind wandered, imagining my own wedding. I had never been a romantic and had given my own wedding little thought. Christy had always dreamed of a big wedding and that’s what she got. It may have been that Christy had married too young to know what she really wanted. Had she wanted a wedding so badly that she settled on someone that didn’t truly love her? Christy was a romantic at heart, but she was also very straightforward and caring. She had a heart of gold and if John didn’t appreciate that, then it was his loss. She deserved better.

  The pounding stopped, and I heard heavy footsteps on the floor. My heart pounded in my chest when Josh walked into the ballroom from the kitchen. He stopped, surprise showing on his face. I smiled.

  “Hello, Josh,” I said and took a deep breath. “How are you?”

  He looked at me, uncertain. “I’m fine. What are you doing in here?”