The Bark of the Town
Page 17
What Olivia needs is a distraction and she’s found one in stumbling upon Yvette Dunn dead in her coffee foodtruck—drowned in a vat of fresh coffee. Olivia starts out as an unlucky bystander to the crime, but she’s forced to dig in deeper when it looks like her sister could be involved in Yvette’s death.
Olivia is running out of time in regards to the mystery, the mortgage, and the marriage. She’s going to have to solve all three problems—and quick—or face a future most foul
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EXCERPT
Chapter One
The sun was barely peeking over the horizon when I walked up to the truck. Jump Start Coffee. It was a cute name. Cute painting on the food truck. Everything was just so perfect for the woman inside.
Lexingburg is straight out of Mayberry. I grew up here, and sometimes even I can’t believe how idyllic the streets are. Everyone knows everyone. It’s the type of town where we make time out of our morning schedule to speak to people as we walk or drive to work. There was a time when I wanted nothing more than to run away from it all, but eventually the town grows on you. We all lend a helping hand to those in need. It’s like living in a television show. We even have town square fairs with cotton candy machines and kissing booths.
She starred in a few of those kissing booths. It curled my stomach to think of her sitting there with her bleached-blonde hair and cherry-red lips.
Those lips that did nothing but spew lies. That woman did nothing but think about her bottom line. She didn’t care who she hurt.
Enough was enough. I couldn’t let her poison anything else. This was my town, and it was time that she played by my rules. She was finally going to listen to me.
I walked behind the truck, ripped open the back door, and climbed in. Yvette glared at me as she pulled the basket of steaming grounds from the large vat. “What are you doing here? I’m not open yet!”
“I’m not here for coffee.”
A taunting smile curved over her poisonous lips. “Don’t tell me that you came here to talk.”
I could feel my jaws clench as I narrowed my eyes. “I just came here to ask you to stop. Enough is enough.”
“Enough is enough,” she mocked. “I haven’t done anything wrong, and I have no reason to back off.”
I wanted to talk to her. I wanted her to see what she was doing to me, what she was doing to this town.
Yvette didn’t grow up here. She didn’t care about the people. She had no friends.
She was alone.
“I’m warning you,” I whispered.
Straightening, she glared at me. “I’m not going to stop, so you might as well just give it up.”
“Give it up?” I hissed. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
She smiled coldly at me. “I know exactly what I’m doing, and you’d better stay away from me!”
I don’t know what happened. One minute I was standing by the door, and the next, I had her hair in my hands and plunged her face into the boiling liquid. It was like something out of a dream. I didn’t hear her screams, though in hindsight, she must have. I don’t remember a struggle. It was so simple, so elegant, just holding her in place, letting her get a really good idea of how foul her coffee was.
When she slumped over, I eased her to the floor. A mess. I’d made a mess. Grabbing the mop in the corner, I cleaned up. Coffee beans were spilled all over the counter. When did that happen? I didn’t even remember being on that side of the truck. I didn’t even remember drowning her.
No fingerprints. No mess.
When I finished, I grabbed a couple of scones from the tray and carefully stepped over the body. It was only then that I saw the sun glinting on the object that had fallen in the struggle. Bending down to pick it up, I inspected it with a slow smile.
No one was anyone near the food truck when I walked away.
It wasn’t until later that I felt the pain. The coffee had splattered and burned me. Funny how overpowering the adrenaline from taking a life could be. I felt unstoppable. Nothing would keep me from protecting what was mine.
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