We were pleasantly surprised to see the café wasn’t quite as busy as I thought it might be. But we were unpleasantly surprised to run into John Green. He looked up from where he sat at a table and smiled at Christy in a manner that was far too friendly. I frowned at him.
“Uh oh.” Christy stood still a moment. I nudged her, and we went and sat at a booth. The Ghostly Grins Café was casual about seating, and if there was an empty booth or table, customers seated themselves.
Much to my dismay, John didn’t hesitate to come over and say hello.
“Hey Christy, Mia.” He looked at us with that grin of his. John Green was self-confident, I had to give him that. I didn’t blame Christy for being smitten, but he had some nerve waltzing over to us like we were old friends that hadn’t seen one another in some time.
“John,” Christy said, making a noise in her throat. Her eyes went to mine, and I turned to John.
“What’s up, John? Why are you still in town?” I asked him.
“Well, I might be moving back.” He looked away when he said it.
“What? Why?” I asked him, hearing the alarm in my own voice.
He looked at Christy. “They had layoffs at my company, and well, I was one of the lucky ones. Or unlucky, I guess you could say.”
I sighed loudly. “Really. Well aren’t we lucky to have you back, then?”
Christy glanced at me, then turned back to John. “That’s a shame. Are you going to see if you can get hired back on at your old job?”
He nodded. “I’m going to stop by there Tuesday morning and see what’s up. Hey, I heard about Olivia Summers. That’s a real shock. Does Ethan have any idea what happened?”
And then I had a thought. Olivia worked at the same company that John had left when he moved away from Pumpkin Hollow. The same company he was going to stop by and see if they were hiring. Which they might be, now that they were short one employee, Olivia Summers.
“He’s investigating. These things take time. Weird, but now that Olivia is dead, the company might have an open position.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
His eyes went wide, then he chuckled. “Really, Mia? Did you think I came back to Pumpkin Hollow looking for a job and then bumped someone off so I could get theirs? That would be kind of stupid, wouldn’t it?”
I stared at him, daring him to look away.
“Mia, that’s ridiculous,” Christy said quietly. “It’s just a coincidence that he came back to town when there’s a murder.”
I glanced at her. I knew it was a coincidence, but I was surprised Christy said it like she did. Like she wasn’t completely sure about it herself.
“It is ridiculous. Look, if you need a suspect, Ethan should talk to Bryce Jenkins. He and Olivia dated years ago. He was jealous of everyone that ever spoke to her. And he’s a little crazy if you want to know the truth. He was the one that spray-painted that crazy poem onto the side of the boys’ gym in the tenth grade.”
“I thought that was Mike Selma?” I said. The poem in question made no sense at all and I had always been puzzled by it.
He chuckled. “Mike Selma took the fall, but it was Bryce that did it. He had something on Mike.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“He caught him buying alcohol with a fake ID and he promised not to tell. But then when he spray-painted the gym, he needed someone else to take the fall, his dad being a police officer and all.”
I shook my head. “That sounds like a lot of juvenile angst. Why would you think he might have killed Olivia, especially since it’s been a while since they dated?”
He shrugged. “When I was working at Storage Inc, I came up behind her one day. She was typing an email, and I saw who it was going to. Bryce Jenkins. This was long after they had split up.”
“And? What difference does that make?” I asked, wishing he would just move along.
“It was the subject line. She had typed, ‘leave me alone!!’ In all caps.”
Okay, that made me suspicious. “Did you ask her about it?”
“Sort of, but not really. I told her it was rude to type in all caps, just kidding with her, you know. She went pale when she realized I’d seen it. I told her I didn’t read it, I only noticed the all caps. I asked her if everything was okay, and she said it was.” He shrugged again. “I don’t know. Maybe it didn’t mean anything. Lots of people have drama in their lives, even though everyone claims they aren’t the cause of it. Maybe it was nothing.”
“Maybe,” I said thoughtfully. The waitress came to our booth and John left for his table.
“I think I’d like the Dracula grilled ham,” Christy said without looking at the menu. “And an iced tea.”
“I’ll take the California monster special and a diet Coke,” I told her. When she left, I turned to Christy. “What do you think about what John said? Do you think Bryce Jenkins could have done it?”
“I don’t know.” She picked up her glass of water and took a sip. “You weren’t serious when you pointed out that there was an opening at Storage Inc and it was a coincidence John showed up, were you?”
I looked at her. “No, I just wanted to give him a hard time. What about you? You almost seemed worried when I said it.”
“Worried? No, I’m not worried. He would never have done something like that. He wasn’t the greatest husband in the world, but he isn’t a murderer. I just hope Ethan can find the killer soon.”
I sat back in my seat. I hoped he could find the killer soon, too.
Chapter Seven
“So, how goes the investigation?” I asked Ethan. He was sitting on my couch, my cat Boo was on one side of him and his cat, Licorice, was on the other. The cats were pretending to ignore one another, but now and then they’d slip each other a glance.
He sighed. “Okay, I guess. She was strangled, as we suspected, and left there on the sidewalk. We searched the office where she worked, but nothing looked out of order there.” He picked up his glass of lemonade and took a sip, then winced at the tartness. “Great lemonade.”
I chuckled. “Does it need more sugar?”
“Nope, this is fine. I like when the acid in the lemon juice eats away the enamel on my teeth.”
“Please, it isn’t going to hurt your gorgeous teeth,” I said and sat on the chair across from him.
He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “Why are you sitting way over there?”
“Because the couch is occupied by you and two felines.”
He looked at one and then the other. “They need to learn to get along better.”
“At least they aren’t hissing and spitting at each other. We’ve made progress.” The two cats were slowly learning to get along, but some days it was hard to see the progress they’d made. Boo wanted to run everything, and Licorice resented it.
“True,” he said and took another sip of lemonade. “So, what’s the word on the street?”
I laughed. “The word on the street? Well, Olivia’s sister thinks Aaron Cox, her ex-boyfriend murdered her, and John thinks it’s Bryce Jenkins.”
He looked at me. “John? John who?”
“John Green. Christy’s ex-husband.” I tilted my head, waiting for his reaction.
“What? Wait. He’s in town? He and Christy aren’t back together, are they? What happened to Devon?”
“I haven’t seen Devon for a while, and she hasn’t mentioned him, other than to smile when I brought up his name. John lost his job, and he’s moving back to town. It’s funny, but I pointed out he was coming back at an opportune moment—a job has just opened up where he used to work, at Storage Inc because of Olivia’s death. Christy acted kind of weird when I said it. I asked her about it, but she denied anything was up.”
He eyed me. “You don’t seriously think he had something to do with Olivia’s murder, do you?”
I thought about it a moment. “No. I don’t. I was just giving him a hard time. Did you interview anyone at Olivia’s place of business?”
“Yes, everyone. They were all surprised an
d couldn’t imagine what had happened to her.”
“So, since she was strangled, the killer has to be strong, right?”
“Like I said, there were ligature marks along with the bruising. The killer probably wouldn't need to be as strong as they would if they strangled her with their bare hands.” He ran a hand across Licorice’s back, and she began purring and gave him a head butt.
“Olivia was petite. I bet she didn’t weigh over a hundred pounds. It wouldn’t have taken a lot to kill her, I guess.”
“Yes, and she had some skin beneath her fingernails that we’re running for DNA. Other than that, there isn’t much to go on right now. We checked in the alley and street near where she was found, but there wasn’t much there, either.”
“How long does a DNA test take?” I asked, slouching down in the chair. We had ordered a pizza, and we were waiting for the delivery.
“A few weeks. Hopefully, it will give us something to go on. Otherwise, we’ve got to come up with something else. Did her sister say she knew anything specific about Aaron, or why she thought he might have killed her?” he asked as Licorice crawled into his lap. Boo narrowed his eyes at her. He wasn’t excited by the newcomer taking over his territory.
“She said they had a fight, and he grabbed her by her upper arm, leaving a bruise behind. Who all works at her office?”
He looked at me, one eyebrow raised and gave me a rundown on the employees at Storage Inc, but none of them seemed like killers to me. I knew all of them to one degree or another. There wasn’t a suspicious one in the bunch.
“Had she been dead long when she was found?” I asked him.
“Nope. Rigor mortis hadn’t set in. The medical examiner thought she’d been dead less than two hours, based on her body temperature.”
“So it might have happened during the parade, or at least, while we were all lining up for it, and then someone dumped her body off? That makes me sick. She could have still been alive while we were out there enjoying the day.” I groaned. “If only we’d seen something that might have made us take a closer look.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing. I didn’t notice anything that was amiss though, and you can’t blame yourself for something you were unaware of.”
The doorbell rang, and I got up to answer it. Jenna Adams stood at the door with the pizza. She smiled when she saw me. “Hey, Mia, how are you?”
I smiled back. “I’m great. How are you doing, Jenna? I thought you worked at the bank?” Ethan and I had gone to school with Jenna and I was surprised to see her delivering our pizza.
She chuckled. “I do. But I’m moonlighting to make some extra money to put down on a new car. Mine is sputtering and making all kinds of weird noises and I decided I had better get a jump on it and replace it before I end up on foot. I’m using my husband’s car to deliver pizzas. There’s no money in the budget for a new car without this side job.”
“I hear you,” I said, taking the pizza from her and handing her a tip. “It’s good you could get this job.”
She nodded and looked past me at Ethan. “Hey, Ethan.” She lifted one hand and waved her fingers at him.
“Hey, Jenna,” he said and came to the door. “How are you?”
“Great. I heard about Olivia Summers. What a shame. I just talked to her a few days ago over at the gym. I can’t believe it.”
He nodded. “It is a real shame. Did she seem okay when you saw her? Did you notice anything unusual about her?”
“Well,” she said, thinking it over. “Seems like she was distracted. Or, I don’t know, worried about something. I asked if she was okay and she said yes, but it seemed like there was something on her mind.”
“Did she give you any indication of what it might be?” he asked, leaning on the doorframe. The two cats joined us at the door and sat down so they wouldn’t be left out.
“Not really. She just said she had some work struggles.” She shrugged. “We all have those, don’t we?”
“You can say that again,” he said. “But she didn’t say anything specific?”
“No. Oh, wait. She said her job was kind of cut-throat and she was wondering if she should look around for something new.” She shrugged again. “Maybe selling storage stuff is like that.”
“Could be,” Ethan said thoughtfully.
“Maybe I should have asked her more questions. I feel terrible about it.”
“I’m sure you did what anyone would have done. It’s hard to help someone if they aren’t willing to go into specifics and actually ask for help,” he said.
She nodded. “That’s true. Well, I’ve got more pizzas to deliver. I hope you find her killer fast. I hate thinking someone is out there on the loose that’s capable of murder.”
“You be careful while you’re out there delivering pizzas,” I told her.
“I will be. I’ve got pepper spray.” She opened up her other hand and I could see a small canister of pepper spray that was attached to her hand by a small webbed strap.
“That’s a great idea,” I said.
“That is a great idea,” Ethan agreed. “Take a look around you before you get out of your car and if you see anyone suspicious, don’t hesitate to call the police.”
“I won’t. Thanks guys,” she said and headed back to her car.
The summer night air was cool, and it felt good. “Let’s leave the door open to get some air,” I said and headed to the kitchen with the pizza. “That pepper spray is a good idea. I like that it’s right there in her hand.”
“It is a great idea. Maybe I’ll get you some. You can never be too safe. Especially when there’s a killer on the loose.”
The cats followed us into the kitchen, and I got some plates out for us. I had ordered a half Hawaiian and half pepperoni pizza, and I pulled off some of the ham and pepperoni and put it on small plates for the cats. They went after the treat greedily while keeping an eye on one another.
“I love pizza,” Ethan said, and we sat down at the table for dinner.
“Me too. So, Storage Inc is a cut-throat office? Makes me wonder what’s going on there. Do they have cameras in the office?”
“Nope. I already asked. They have a security service that drives by at night and on weekends, but no cameras.”
I sighed. “We need to talk to the other employees again.”
“We?” he asked.
I chuckled. “You. Unless I happen to run into someone that works there.”
“I guess that’s why you wanted the names of who worked there, then.” He looked at me, one eyebrow raised.
I grinned at him. “Maybe. You never know what someone might tell me.”
He laughed. “All right, then. If you just happen to run into someone and they just happen to tell you something, I guess that’s okay.”
I took a sip of my lemonade. Someone knew something. Maybe Olivia had been killed there in the office and was dragged outside when no one was looking, or maybe someone had killed her some place else and dumped her body. But if the killer had driven her there—far away from the murder scene, then that might be why there wasn’t any evidence where her body had been found.
Chapter Eight
“Okay, so what gives?” Amanda asked, sitting down at the table across from me. “I haven’t seen you in at least three days.”
I laughed. I had stopped by Little Coffee Shop of Horrors to take a break and rest my feet. It was Tuesday afternoon, and she was right. I hadn’t been here since Friday. I normally stopped by every day and I had missed her and the coffee.
“It’s been a madhouse at the candy store. I’m so glad today is Tuesday and it isn’t nearly as busy as the weekend was. How has business been for you?”
She sighed. “The same. I can’t remember when we’ve had so many tourists on opening weekend of the Halloween season. And I couldn’t be happier about it. I made pumpkin spice muffins with cream cheese in the middle, pumpkin scones, and I also made pumpkin cranberry biscotti. You know how I am. I love pumpkin everyth
ing.”
“And you know I’m the same way,” I said holding up my cup of pumpkin spice latte. “There’s nothing like the fall and pumpkin-flavored everything.”
“I thought fall would never get here.” She looked over her shoulder as a customer came in the door and stepped up to the front counter. Mary, her part-time employee asked for his order. She turned back to me. “So what’s the scoop on Olivia Summers’ murder?” She pushed her glasses up on her nose.
“She was strangled, and Ethan is on the case, of course. There really isn’t much to tell just yet.”
She nodded. “I knew all that already. I was hoping you had something more. Poor thing. I hate that that happened to her.”
“Me too. She was nice. At least, from what I know of her, she was.”
She took a sip of her coffee and looked at me again. “She had some problems with Carla Steele. Do you know her?”
“Yeah, she used to work at the gift shop. I talked to her there a few times. What kind of trouble did Olivia have with her?”
“She works at Storage Inc now. Olivia said Carla couldn’t stand her, and she wasn’t sure why. It sounded like petty stuff before she ended up dead. Now I have to wonder.”
I took a sip of my coffee and glanced at the customer at the front counter. He was out of earshot. “Did she say anything specific?”
“She said Carla was always telling their boss that she was late, or that she wasn’t getting her work done. Olivia said she was lying and that she couldn’t stand her. I don’t know. It’s probably nothing.”
It did sound like nothing. But you never knew when nothing could turn into something. “Some people are impossible to work with. I had a part-time job in college and there was a girl there that had it in for me. She was always telling the manager that I was messing up. She was lying, and I never could understand why she did it. The manager finally caught on and fired her. She was causing trouble for a lot of people.”
She nodded. “I think everyone in the workforce runs into that kind of person at some point. Has Ethan talked to the people at her job?”
Fudgy Fatality: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 10 Page 4