Buttercream Murder: A Frosted Love Cozy Mystery - Book 7 (Frosted Love Cozy Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the kitchen to put the teakettle on, Missy surveyed the house subtly. There didn’t seem to be anything out of place, which made her wonder what on earth had happened to prompt such a dramatic response in her typically laid-back friend. She came back to the couch with two steaming mugs of lavender tea, hoping that the brew would help Echo to relax, and settled down next to her.
    “Tell me what’s going on, sugar,” she prompted gently as Echo wrapped her hands gratefully around the mug.
    “Oh Missy, it was awful. I know that our shops have to stay closed until this whole thing gets settled, but I just wanted to go create something, you know? I thought that I could go in there, maybe develop some new flavors, and just take them home to put in my freezer so that we could have a little treat on occasion.”
    “Sure, that makes sense,” she nodded supportively, sipping her tea.
    Echo continued. “So I went to the shop and unlocked the back door, and it smelled awful. I flipped on the light and saw that the entire kitchen floor had been covered with blood. Missy, I’ve been vegan my entire life, and when I saw all that blood, I just fainted dead away,” she shuddered at the memory.
    Horrified, Missy’s hands unconsciously went to her throat. “Echo, that’s awful! Where did the blood come from?”
    “I have no idea, there was no body found,” she shook her head. “Detective Keller and the police are there now, taking samples. They said that they’ll let me know when I can call a company to come in and do cleanup. I’m going to have nightmares for a very long time,” her eyes welled with tears, remembering the heinous sight.
    “Oh honey, I’m so sorry…do you want me to stay here tonight?” she asked, as Toffee wandered over, placed her furry head in Echo’s lap and looked up at her with soulful brown eyes.
    “I’d really appreciate it,” Echo nodded. The two sat up talking until the wee hours of the morning, and when the traumatized woman trailed down the hall on her way to bed, Missy texted Chas, briefing him on what had happened, knowing he’d get the message upon waking.

Chapter 7
     
    “It was pig’s blood,” Chas announced when he joined Missy for lunch at a local café the next morning.
    “Pig’s blood? Why on earth would someone do that? And where would you even get such a huge amount of it? That makes no sense whatsoever,” Missy shook her head, puzzled.
    “How do I put this delicately…” Chas began. “There are some folks who think that there’s something fundamentally wrong with anyone who chooses to live in a manner that’s significantly different from them. Echo is from California and bought an ice cream shop that’s been a family favorite in Dellville for more than 80 years and turned it into a vegan ice cream shop. It may just be that some ignorant and angry person was trying to make a statement.”
    “With blood? What kind of message could they possibly hope to convey with that?” Missy was disgusted.
    “Well, if you think about getting a point across in the most profound way possible, of course a vegan would be horrified by blood. It was probably a narrow-minded prank that someone took way too far,” Beckett hypothesized.
    “So, what are they doing about it?” she asked, referencing the Dellville police.
    “Right now, Keller has officers out questioning every pig farmer in the area. That amount of blood had to come from somewhere, and the farms are the most logical places to start looking.”
    “But…what if it wasn’t something local?” Missy mused, frowning.
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning that maybe we should check to see where Jonathan Michener was last evening,” she gave him a pointed look.
    “Did he really seem like the type of man who would get his hands dirty by spilling pig blood in an ice cream shop?” Chas returned skeptically.
    “Do the perpetrators of heinous crimes always fit the profile of a stereotypical villain?” she shot back, smiling