Mint Chip Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 6 by Susan Gillard Read Free Book Online Page A

saw him really, really angry.”
     
    “I wish I could go over there and talk
to him,” Heather said.  “Just ask him a few questions.”
     
    “But Ryan wouldn’t like it?”
     
    “Nope.  And I understand why not. I
mean, I’m not a professional.  He’s right.  And I see what a defense attorney
could make out of my involvement.  But it’s killing me to sit here and not go
talk to him.”
     
    “There’s no reason I can’t go talk to
him,” Amy said, spooning up the last bit of her fro-yo. 
     
    “No.  Don’t,” Heather said.
     
    “Why not?  I’m not dating Ryan
Shepherd.  He didn’t tell me to keep my little nosey nose out of this case.”
     
    “Please don’t,” Heather said.  “I
don’t want him to think I’m trying to find a way to get around what he asked me
to do.  Or not do.”
     
    “Okay,” Amy sighed.  “Although I don’t
guess it would really do any good to talk to him, anyway.  I mean, what, we
say, ‘So, Brent, you seem to be a mild-mannered guy, but I bet you really get
angry sometimes.  Were you angry that Kelly wouldn’t date you?  How angry were
you?  Oh, and by the way, did you kill her?’”
     
    “Yeah, probably not,” she agreed. 
“That kind of confession only happens on TV.”
     
    “Perry Mason,” Amy said.  “That’s how
it always went.  Perry would get the killer up on the witness stand, and
everybody knew it was the killer, but the guy just hadn’t confessed yet.  And
somehow, Perry always got them to give themselves up.”
    “Oooh, and like in A Few Good Men, too,”
Heather added.  “Where Tom Cruise provokes Jack Nicholson into admitting that
he ordered the code red.”
     
    “I haven’t seen that movie,” Amy said.
     
    “You what?  Never?  How did I not know
this?  You have lived a sheltered and deprived life, girlfriend.”
     
    “Is it a romance?”
     
    “No.  There actually isn’t any romance
involved.  For once.”
     
    “Then what’s the point of the movie?”
     
    “Only truth triumphing over lies,”
Heather said.  “Good triumphing over evil.  Right overcoming wrong.”
     
    “Too bad real life doesn’t work like
that,” Amy said.
     
    “Sometimes it does.  Sometimes things
turn out right.”
     
    “Think that’ll happen in Kelly’s
murder?”  Amy stared across the food court at Brent as he threw his trash in
the trashcan and set his tray on top.
     
    “I hope so,” Heather said.
     
    “Because she was a good person, you
know?” Amy said.  “Not just a good hairdresser, but a truly good person.  And
she didn’t deserve what happened to her.  No matter who did it.  Or why.”
     

Chapter 6
    When she got home, Heather let Dave
out and walked down the hall to her room, still holding her shopping bags.  She
set them on her bed and began pulling things from them one by one.  The deep
burgundy maxi dress was, with its silver accents around the hem, was, in her
opinion, just perfect for her medium-red hair, fair skin, and green eyes. 
     
    She was well aware that some people
believed redheads shouldn’t wear red, but in her opinion, you just had to
choose the right red to complement your own coloring.
     
    Next, she drew a shoebox out of
another bag.  The silver sandals, she set on the bed next to the dress.  At the
mall, she’d debated whether or not she should buy them, but now, she was glad
she had.  They were chic but not too fancy—which was good, since “fancy” had
never been her style.  She much preferred simple and elegant.
     
    She laid the chunky silver bracelet
and silver hoop earrings on the top of her dresser.  Then, she went into her
tiny bathroom with its clawfoot tub to run a bath.  She turned on the hot
water, waited for it to heat up, then turned on the cold to lower the
temperature to just below steaming. 
     
    While she waited for the tub to fill,
she twisted her hair up on top of her head and clipped it in place. Then she
let her clothes fall into a heap