Raspberry Creme Murder: A Frosted Love Cozy Mystery - Book 14 (Frosted Love Cozy Mysteries) Read Online Free Page A

at work all day on the day that they
found poor Sally. How could they think that I had time to kill someone when I
was working all day? It’s just crazy,” she shook her head, despairing.
    “Sam,
I…” Missy began, reaching a hand toward her.
    Sam
shook her head. “No, never mind. Forget it. I thought that you might be able to
see past the accusations and actually be my friend, but I guess that’s just too
much to hope for. You’re just like all the others,” she accused, standing and
swiping the blades of grass from the seat of her capris. “Don’t worry, I won’t
bother you anymore,” she called over her shoulder as she ran from the yard,
tears streaming down her face.
    Missy
frowned as she watched her go. The evidence that had been discovered to date,
pointed in Sam’s direction, but it still seemed inconceivable that a person who
appeared to be so incredibly good and harmless could have committed such an
act. She felt scared that she might have just angered someone who was capable
of killing, while feeling sorry for someone who might have been wrongly
accused, and she had no idea which feelings to trust.
    **
    “The
safe thing to do at this point, is trust your fear,” Chas advised Missy when
she told him of her encounter with Samantha. “She obviously knows where you
live, but I’m sure she also knows that the police department is watching her
every move, so you should be safe, but take extra precautions. Lock your doors
and windows, even if you feel that LaChance is the safest place on the planet,
avoid being alone after dark – I’ll be happy to help you with that one if you’d
like,” he teased, “…and try not to make her angry if you happen to encounter
her again. If what Marsha says is true, she apparently has a hair-trigger
temper that can end up being lethal. Keep your cell phone on you at all times, and
don’t be afraid to call me or the station if something is scaring you, okay?”
    Missy
nodded. “It all seems so surreal. Last week we were all just a happy group of
women, drinking wine and talking about books, and now, one of us may be a
murderer, and one or more of us may be in danger, it’s just so crazy.”
    “It
is very strange,” Chas agreed. “I’ve been looking into Sam Lemmon’s past and
the woman is squeaky clean – graduated with highest honors, has been an
exemplary employee at every job, no nasty divorces or break-ups that I can
find, no criminal record of any kind, not even so much as a parking ticket. I
really wonder what’s going on here,” he admitted.
    “Aren’t
the most heinous criminals often the ones that seem the most nice and normal?”
Missy asked in a small voice.
    “Absolutely,”
he agreed grimly. “So it will behoove us to be on our toes until the case is
solved,” he warned her, then took her in his arms.
     

Chapter 6
     The
Burgundies and Books ladies showed up at Crème de la Cupcake on the
Tuesday after the murder, somber and quiet. They took seats at their normal
table, leaving the chair where Sally used to sit unoccupied. Missing from the
group was Samantha, and during the course of their conversation about how awful
it was not having Sally with them, no one even mentioned Sam’s name. Missy
served fresh, hot coffee and the Cupcake of the Day, the Fluffernutter, a
peanut butter cupcake, filled with molten chocolate and capped with marshmallow
crème, then sat with the gals, who all seemed, understandably, to be in a state
of shock.
    “Who’s
going to host book club on Thursdays now?” Tamela asked, wiping crumbs of
peanut butter cupcake from her fingers with a napkin. “I mean, I think that
Sally would definitely want us to go on meeting and enjoying each other, don’t
y’all think so?”
    Marsha
nodded. “She absolutely would. This club was important to Sally, we can best
honor her memory by keeping it going. She and I started Burgundies and Books
years ago, so I think that it should naturally fall to me to host the