Strawberry Cream Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 1 Read Online Free PDF

then.”
     
    “Will do.  Let’s see if we can get Todd to bring us our check.”
     
    “Todd, huh?”
     
    “That’s his name .  Didn’t you notice?”
    ***
     
    As Pink begged through the speakers for her boyfriend to just give her a reason, and Amy sang along, slightly off key, Heather stared out the passenger’s side window at the headlights reflected in the side mirror.  Had the car they belonged to really been following them, or was she imagining things?
     
    “Turn left right there,” Heather said, pointing.
     
    Amy wrenched the steering wheel to the left.  The tires squealed as she zipped past oncoming traffic onto a side street.  Another car honked at them as it barely missed their rear bumper.  “Am I allowed to ask why?”
     
    Heather watched the car behind them come to a stop in the turning lane, wait for an opening, then turn in the direction they’d turned.  “There’s a car following us,” she said.
     
    “Really?” Amy slowed down, turned the CD off, and glanced in the rearview mirror. 
     
    “Yes, really,” Heather said.  “Turn right up here.”
     
    Amy obeyed while Heather kept a watch on the mirror.  No car turned behind them.  Amy pulled her car to the curb and waited, but still no one followed.  “Looks like we lost him,” she said.  “Are you sure somebody was really following us?”
     
    Was she?  Heather didn’t want to be paranoid, but some instinct told her she wasn’t mistaken.  “I’m sure,” she said.
     
    “Okay, that’s creepy,” Amy said.  “Why would anybody be following us?”
     
    Heather shrugged.  “I don’t know.”
     
    Amy stopped at a light.  “Well, I don’t see anybody behind us now.  You still want to go for drinks?”
     
    “Definitely.” 
     
    “Okay, then.”  Amy cranked the volume on the CD back up and turned back onto the main street that would take them to O’Henry’s.
     
    ***
    “See you tomorrow morning,” Heather said as she got out of Amy’s car at her own back door.
     
    “Ten or so.  Maybe eleven.”  Amy sighed.  “Okay, for you , I’ll be up by ten.”
     
    “Thank you for your sacrifice,” Heather said with a straight face.
     
    “What are friends for?”
     
    Heather closed the car door and reached into her purse for her keys.  When she had them in the lock, and her kitchen door open slightly, she turned and waved at Amy.  Amy waved back and put the car in reverse as Heather pushed the door open, slipped inside, and locked it behind her.
     
    It wasn’t until she turned on a light that she saw Billy Fordyce sitting at her kitchen table.
     
    She screamed and dropped her purse on the floor.  “I didn’t mean to startle you,” Billy said, half rising from his chair as Dave rushed into the kitchen, barking like mad.
     
    “What in the bloody—what—what are you doing in my house?” she demanded, one hand at her chest, trying to still her pounding heart.
     
    “I’m sorry,” Billy said, stretching a hand toward her, then withdrawing it as if he realized that wasn’t a good idea.  “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
     
    “You already said that,” she said, still breathing hard.  “How did you get in?  The door was locked.”
     
    Billy shrugged.  “You learn stuff,” he said.
    “Was that you who was following us earlier tonight?” she asked.
     
    Billy didn’t answer her question.  “Look, I wanted to tell you something,” he said.
     
    “Something you couldn’t tell me in the daytime?  Something you couldn’t just call me about?  Or text me?  You know, most people text nowadays instead of breaking into other people’s houses.”
     
    “I didn’t do it,” Billy said.
     
    “You didn’t do what, exactly?”
     
    “I didn’t kill Christa.”
     
    Heather slid a chair back from the table at the opposite end from Billy and sat down.  “Nobody said you did.  Nobody said anybody killed her.”
    “But people are thinking it.  I know they are.  Like that