Cupcakes and Killing: A Cozy Mystery (Sweet Shoppe Mysteries - Book 2) by Cora Wilkins Read Free Book Online Page A

fine,” Kaye said in a soothing voice.
    She gestured for us to sit and then sat down across from us. “So you actually don’t think I did it? Because you’d probably be the only ones. You should see the way people looked at me when they called me down to the hospital after she…after she passed.”
    She sniffed and wiped her face, and I leaned forward. “We aren’t here to accuse you, Mia. Like we said, we just want to talk about your Mom.”
    “I feel so awful. The last time I ever spoke to her I said the most horrible things. I was in a bad mood and we’d been fighting a lot, but I never thought…I never thought it’d be the last time I spoke to her. I can’t believe she’s gone, and she died thinking that I hated her.”
    “I think she knew that deep down you loved her,” Kaye said. “She spoke to us about you, and I don’t think she ever believed that you actually hated her.”
    “Still,” Mia said, wiping her eyes again. “I’ve been so horrible. I wish I could take it all back.”
    “Would you mind telling us what you were fighting about?” I asked. I didn’t want to upset her by letting her know that we’d actually witnessed her very public fight with Zara the other day. It was better that she just told us of her own accord.
    “Well, we’ve always been very different. I know she’s done her best to help me out in any way she can, but you know what small towns can be like…it was just hard for me when all my friends were gossiping about my own mother. She even dated a friend of mine once, even though he was twenty years younger. But that didn’t stop her.”
    “It didn’t stop him, either,” Kaye said, trying to keep her voice as gentle as possible.
    “Yes, I know. I shouldn’t have blamed her. It was so petty. Especially when she’s done so much to help me out. I’ve been studying software development for years, and I’ve been building this computer program and trying to sell it. She helped me pay for everything I needed, and she even paid my rent and bills when I was desperate. And in return I treated her like dirt.”
    Her eyes welled up with tears again, and I knew then and there that she had to be innocent. No one could fake such genuine emotion.
    “Mia, is there anything you can think of that might help in identifying her killer?” I asked. “I know it’s hard because it’s all happened so suddenly, but if you could think of anything at all, it might help.”
    She shook her head. “Like I said to the police earlier, I don’t know what else to say other than that it wasn’t me.”
    “What about Amy McNamara? Do you think she might have had something to do with it?”
    Another shake of the head. “No way. Amy’s a friend of mine. I helped her get the job at Mom’s flower shop. I know she was really angry with my Mom over some stuff that happened recently, and she didn’t handle it too well. But she isn’t capable of murder.”
    “Were you aware that Amy threatened your mother the other day?” Kaye asked.
    “Yes, she told me about it. I was actually really annoyed at her for doing it. But she wasn’t threatening to kill her. She was just angry.”
    “What was she threatening then?”
    “There’s this website that lets people rate all different kinds of stores they’ve been to. Amy planned on making a bunch of dummy accounts online and leaving terrible reviews of my Mom’s store. It was really petty and juvenile, and I told her not to do it. Basically she just wanted to try to ruin Mom’s business by spreading lies about it.”
    “I see. What about your Mom’s love life in recent times? Do you think she was dating someone who might have wanted to hurt her?”
    Mia shrugged. “I don’t know. She never mentioned anything about being scared of someone she was seeing. You said you were her friends. Didn’t she say anything to you?”
    “We only became friends recently,” I explained. “So we hadn’t had the chance to discuss much about our love lives.