I walked faster than I realized and became slightly out of breath by the time I got to the candy store. I inhaled and tried to steady my breathing before opening the door. When I got myself settled, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. “Coffee!” I sang out.
“Oh, yum!” Lisa said, and she hurried over to me. The candy store was empty, and we’d be closing soon. As I glanced around, I was pleased to see that it looked like we were all set for the big day. The shelves were stocked, and we’d added a few more Halloween decorations to the ones we’d bought for Pumpkin Hollow Days. Mom had bought fabric vintage-look streamers that hung across the ceiling from corner to corner and also along the perimeter of the ceiling. The streamers were black and orange and we had hung tiny clear lights around the window and door.
Lisa took her coffee and I headed back to the kitchen. Only Mom and Christy were there. The other employees had gone home early in anticipation of the beginning of the Halloween season. I pasted a smile on my face. “I’ve got coffee.”
Christy turned to me. “Oh, good. I am starting to drag.” She headed over to me and took her coffee from the cardboard carrier. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” I said and took my own coffee from the carrier. “So, how are things going back here?” My voice had suddenly become high pitched, and I wondered if anyone noticed. I didn’t want to tell Christy that John was in town, but I didn’t want her to be surprised by running into him.
“Great. We’ve got all of the Internet orders packed and ready to ship first thing in the morning. Tomorrow morning we’ll have a fresh start without any orders backed up on us.”
“I’ve got things set up so when I get here first thing in the morning, I can get right on the candy making. I think I’ve got that maple fudge recipe perfected.” Mom picked up a dish towel and wiped her hands.
“What about the apple cider fudge recipe?” Christy asked her.
“I think that one is ready, too. We’ll have those two along with the pumpkin spice fudge and candy corn fudge as our specialty flavors for the Halloween season. I’m sure they'll all be big sellers.” She laid the dish towel down on the counter. “Now I’ll just clean up around here and I think we can all go home.”
“Yay,” Christy said and took a sip of her coffee. She closed her eyes and groaned. “I love coffee far too much. I can’t help it.”
I looked at her. “Christy, there’s something I need to tell you.” Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to do, but she’d run into John eventually and she might as well be prepared.
Her eyes went to me. “That sounds ominous.”
I smiled and shrugged. “No, not ominous. Not exactly.” I suddenly didn’t want to tell her that her ex-husband was back in town. The one that had caused her so much pain.
“Well? Spill it,” she said when I didn’t continue.
I glanced at Mom. She had turned toward me, waiting expectantly.
I sighed. “John is in town.”
Christy’s eyes went wide as she held the coffee cup in front of herself. “What do you mean he’s here in town?”
“I just ran into him after I picked up the coffee. He said he was here to take in the Halloween season.” I nodded, feeling like an idiot. So what if her ex-husband was in town? He had a right to come here and enjoy the festivities, didn’t he? His parents still lived here, after all.
She licked her lips and took another sip of her coffee, taking this in. “Okay. Okay. So he’s here in town. That doesn’t mean anything.” Her eyes darted to Mom and then back to me.
“It doesn’t mean a thing,” Mom said. “He’s probably visiting his parents.” She blinked and then sighed. “He has a right to be here.”
I nodded. “Exactly. He has a right to be here.”
“How did he seem?” Christy asked me.
I shrugged. “He seemed good. He seemed happy, I guess.” Was that the right word? I wasn’t sure.
She nodded and turned away. “No big deal. He’s visiting his parents, not me. I don’t want to see him.” She turned back to me. “Did you tell him that? Did you tell him I don’t want to see him?” Her voice cracked on the last word.
“I told him you were busy and there wasn’t any reason for him to stop by. Look, it’s fine. He’s visiting for the weekend. You don’t want to see him, right?”
She hesitated and her eyes suddenly turned shiny from unshed tears. “I don’t want to see him. I’m going to put the packing materials away and get this place cleaned up so we can go home.”
It was good to hear her say she didn’t want to see him, but I wasn’t sure it was true. But Christy was an adult. She could make up her own mind about what she wanted to do. I just didn’t want to see her hurt.
“Well,” I said slowly. “I guess I’ll go out front and take another look around and make sure everything is ready to go.” I waited for Christy to say something, but she didn’t turn around. I glanced at Mom, who had her eyes on Christy, her brow furrowed.
The front of the store was still just as clean and neat as it had been a few minutes earlier. I hadn’t expected anything less.
Lisa went to the front door and locked it and then turned to me. “I’ll get the vacuum out.”
“That’s okay. Why don’t you go ahead and go home? I’ll take care of the floor and you can go home and get rested for tomorrow.”
She grinned. “You don’t have to tell me twice. See you in the morning.”
“See you.” I headed to get the vacuum.
Chapter Three
“Wow, I like your costume,” Lisa said, looking me up and down.
We were standing at the parade assembly area and I was dressed as a hippie. I had put the costume together with items I’d found at a thrift shop and I was pretty happy about how it turned out. I had managed to find genuine bell-bottom jeans and a fringed leather vest, then added a beaded leather headband, round lens sunglasses, and painted a peace sign on my cheek. I was feeling pretty groovy. Lisa dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and she had a stuffed Toto dog tucked beneath one arm. Her dark hair was done in two braids and she could almost pass for Judy Garland’s double.
“Thanks, your costume is pretty cute, too.”
She beamed. “I bought it with my own money. I told my mom I wanted something really nice for the parade.”
“It sure is cute.”
Mom, Christy, Linda, and Carrie were all here to toss candy to the crowd, too. Carrie had dressed her twin girls as sheep to her Little Bo Peep. The girls were adorable in their fluffy sheep costumes, holding hands and talking to each other while we waited.
We each had a trick-or-treat bag filled with candy and we were standing behind the float for the junior high school. The junior high had a jack-o’-lantern theme on the back of a flatbed truck with a group of kids dressed in Halloween costumes and holding trick-or-treat bags. They had made six huge jack-o’-lanterns from Styrofoam and placed them on the bed of the truck, then carved some from real pumpkins and placed them around the truck, too.
We were assembling behind the shops on the parade route. Ethan was in a police cruiser, along with several other policemen in police cars and two fire trucks at the front of the line. They would start us off with their sirens and horns blaring. I had gotten a good look at the crowds on my way over and I thought this might be the best Halloween season we’d ever had.
“All right, listen up, listen up,” Darleen Grant shouted into a megaphone as she walked up the sidewalk. “We are going to get started at ten a.m. sharp. We don’t want any laggards. Try to keep the appropriate distance between floats and marchers. And most important of all, smile! People have come from all over the state to see happy Pumpkin Hollow citizens entertaining in the only way we know how. Happily!”
I glanced at Christy and she rolled her eyes. She had never been a fan of Darleen’s, ever since she had cheated for her daughter at a dance recital by giving gifts to the judges. Christy and Darleen’s daughter Hannah were nine at the time, but apparently my si
ster knew how to hold a grudge.
I chuckled when she rolled her eyes and I put my fingers to the corners of my mouth, drawing it up in an exaggerated smile.
She shook her head, laughing.
“My mom is going to take pictures,” Lisa said. The excitement in her voice couldn’t be missed. “She’s going to put them on her website. I told her to get some of us.”
“I hope she gets a lot of them,” I said. Lisa’s mom had recently taken up photography, and she had a real talent for it. I had seen a number of the pictures she had taken online and if Ethan and I ever had formal photos done, I wanted her to be the one to take them.
“Anyone have any questions?” Darleen asked.
We shook our heads.
“Good. Let’s get started then.” She trotted up to the beginning of the line and leaned into the open window of the nearest police car.
“Remember to toss the candy close to the crowd,” Mom said. “We don’t want the kids to go out into the street any further than they have to.”
Lisa straightened the stuffed dog beneath her arm. “Got it.”
The blare of the sirens began, and we all moved slowly toward the intersection where we would make a right onto Ghostly Avenue and then another right onto Spooky Lane. The parade would go down the length of the street and then make another right when we got to the end of the parade route as we made our way back to where we began. We were going slowly, and as long as everyone kept moving, we’d end up back where we started within an hour.
Christy was dressed as a roaring twenties flapper, my mother was a scarecrow, and Linda wore a cupcake costume she had made herself. Christy walked a few feet behind me while Mom and Carrie and the girls were on the far left side of us while Lisa and Linda took the middle position. We each had a handful of candy, and as we made the righthand turn, we could see all the visitors standing along the parade route. Some of the tourists wore costumes, but most were still in summer clothing. That was fine because other Pumpkin Hollow residents were dressed up and lined the parade route to show their support.
I waved at the kids and tossed a handful of candy. There was a mad dash for it, and I realized how important it was going to be to toss the candy as close to the kids as we could get it. We didn’t want the kids to run in front of the parade floats behind us.
I laughed when a little boy stuffed pieces of candy into his pockets and scrambled for more. We had brought about twenty pounds of assorted candy to hand out and I doubted we’d have any left by the time we were finished.
“Cute costume,” Christy said above the sirens and nodded to a teenaged girl dressed as a mermaid on the sidewalk. Her tail curled behind her and her blond wig sparkled in the morning sun.
“That’s cute. It would be hard to move in it, though.” Her legs were pressed together by the fabric of the tail, and she waddled when she walked. It wouldn’t work as a costume to wear at the candy store. I wouldn’t be able to get any work done in it.
“Yeah, I’d trip in it,” she said and tossed a handful of candy.
“There’s my mom,” Lisa said, pointing to the sidelines.
Gayle Anderson walked along the parade route nearby, taking pictures of the parade and the crowds. “I bet she gets some great pictures,” I said and waved when she turned in my direction.
“She will.” Lisa waved at her mother.
Gayle Anderson grinned and took pictures of us as we walked. Christy and I stopped, putting our arms around each other, and posed for a picture. Gayle laughed and took two quick shots. “Your mom will love these!” she called.
“I hope they turn out,” I said, and tossed a handful of candy to nearby kids.
There was a light breeze blowing, and it helped to keep us cool beneath the sun. Summer was gradually wearing away, and we’d have those cool fall temperatures before we knew it. I could hardly wait. There was nothing better than fall weather.
The float in front of us stopped, and we did the same. We waved at people on the sidewalk and tossed more candy until the float began to move again. I hadn’t been in a parade since high school. Our Senior class had had a float in the Christmas parade and everyone in the class had been invited to participate. I had walked behind Jessica Branson, almost hidden by her big red poofy dress, but I didn’t care. It was fun to get to be in the parade and have the attention while it lasted.
John was standing on the sidelines, but I ignored him. I glanced over at Christy, but she didn’t seem to see him. It was just as well. She said she didn’t want to see him anyway.
We waved and tossed candy the entire parade route, and I’ll admit it was a bit of a letdown as we approached the final block of the parade. The people were crowded together along the sidewalk and I thought things were shaping up to be a great opening weekend. If this continued throughout the entire Halloween season, we were all going to be very busy.
“I’m all out of candy,” Christy said as she tossed the last two pieces of saltwater taffy to a little girl.
“Just in time then. We’re all out of parade route, too.” I glanced over my shoulder as we hit the end of the block. We were leaving lots of happy people in our wake. Candy did that.
“I’ve got a mind to turn around and do it all again,” Linda said with a chuckle. “This was more fun than I imagined.”
“It’s all that sugar making everyone happy,” Christy said.
“We need a parade for the last day of the Halloween season,” Carrie said as she led her tired little sheep by the hands to make the turn onto the next block and off the parade route.
I looked at her. “That’s not a bad idea.”
She laughed. “If we can get the rest of the town signed up for it.”
“I doubt they’d go for one more event. We’ve got a lot going on this season.” We turned the corner, still following the junior high float and the police and fire department vehicles. I’d barely gotten a chance to talk to Ethan before the parade and I wondered what he was doing for lunch. We’d had dinner the night before, but we needed to spend more time together. The preparations for the Halloween season had taken more of my time than I had liked, and I missed him.
We headed to the sidewalk when we were off the parade route. My feet were getting tired, and I still had a full day at the candy store ahead of me.
“What’s going on?” Christy asked.
I looked ahead of us. The police cars had turned their lights on and pulled to the side of the street. “I don’t know. Let’s go see.”
We hurried ahead of the others. Ethan got out of the patrol car and headed to where someone was lying on the sidewalk. Christy and I glanced at each other and walked faster.
“Someone’s on the ground there,” Christy said just loud enough for me to hear.
“Maybe it’s a homeless person sleeping.” I doubted it. Not with the way Ethan had hurried over. He was crouched on the ground now and he looked up at the other nearby officer.
Two more officers joined them and then they turned in our direction. One began directing the floats to continue down the street without stopping and the other two officers walked down the sidewalk toward us.
“We’ll need you all to head back the other direction,” Officer Chu said when we got closer.
“What’s going on?” I asked. I looked past him, and I could see it was a woman on the sidewalk. Ethan was on the phone, still crouched down.
“Mia, we really need you all to go back in the other direction and stay away from this area.”
I nodded. Whoever was on the ground wasn’t moving and by the grim look on Ethan’s face, I thought they might never move again.
Chapter Four
“Any word from Ethan?” Christy asked.
I glanced at her. The candy store was nearly filled to capacity with tourists. It was good to see, but it was wearing me out. It was almost four o’clock in the afternoon now and I really needed a break. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like I was going to get one before we closed this evening.
I
shook my head. “No.” Then I turned to the customer at the counter. “That will be twenty-three dollars and sixteen cents.” I waited as she dug in her purse for the money.
Christy went back to waiting on customers. I was itching to call Ethan, but I knew he was busy and wouldn’t appreciate it. I hoped that whoever that was lying on the sidewalk, they had met their demise by natural means. I finished with my customer and glanced at the clock again.
“I love this shop. You all have the best candy in the state. Maybe the world,” the next woman said as she stepped up to the counter. She was dressed as a witch and she had an assortment of candy in her hands. She laid it all on the front counter.
I smiled at her. “Thanks, we love to hear that. Did you find everything you needed?” I asked, trying to sound cheery. My feet were well past being cheery, but I was going to give it my best effort.
She nodded. “I just need a half a pound of pumpkin spice fudge to make my day perfect.”
“A half-pound of pumpkin spice fudge coming right up,” I said and slipped over to the display case. I removed the tray and weighed out the fudge for her.
“I heard someone died on the parade route.” She placed her hands on the front counter and eyed me.
“Really? I wonder what happened?” It didn’t surprise me that rumors had already started, and I wondered if she knew anything concrete about what had happened.
She nodded and raised her voice. “A woman was stabbed. Right there on the parade route.”
I glanced up as some of the other customers turned in the woman’s direction. “I haven’t heard that. Maybe it’s just a rumor.” Now I was having second thoughts about wondering if she had heard anything. I didn’t want the other customers frightened.
She nodded. “I heard she was stabbed. Right there on the sidewalk. And there was blood everywhere.” She glanced around to make sure she had an audience and she looked pleased with the looks of horror on the other customers’ faces.
Fudgy Fatality: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 10 Page 2