I looked up when the bell over the door jingled and Bryce Jenkins walked through it. I gave him a smile. He was just the person I wanted to talk to.
“Hi Bryce,” I said brightly. “How are you this afternoon?”
He grinned. “I’m low on sugar, so I thought I’d stop in and get a refill.” He chuckled. “Hi Mia, hi Christy.”
Christy turned and looked at him and smiled shyly. Bryce was tall, with dark brown hair and a million-dollar smile. He had been one of the most popular boys in high school and Christy had had a crush on him years ago.
“Hi Bryce,” she said nodding. “If you need sugar, you came to the right place.” Her mood suddenly seemed more upbeat.
He walked over to where she was standing in front of the international candies and glanced at the shelf. “I knew I did. There’s nothing like the candy you all make and sell here. It’s the best around.”
“Thanks. My mom is the best candy maker in the world. But I might be a little biased.”
He nodded. “And you have every right to be.” He looked over his shoulder at me and then headed back toward the display case. “Wow, the fudge gets to me every time. Your mother comes up with so many creative ideas and every one of them is delicious.”
I chuckled. “She’s a wonder. There are a couple of new fudge flavors this season, maple nut, and apple cider. They’re only here for a limited time, so you better get some if you don’t want to miss out.”
He looked in at the trays of fudge and grinned. “You know what? I think I’d like a quarter pound of the maple nut, and then maybe just a smaller sliver of the apple cider fudge. What I really came in for was the pumpkin spice fudge, and I’d like a quarter pound of that as well.”
“You got it. You will not be disappointed with the new flavors, but the pumpkin spice seems to be most people’s favorite.” I opened the back of the display case and removed the trays of fudge.
“I know I won’t be disappointed. There’s no way for that to happen.” He laughed.
I glanced at him as I cut the fudge. He was looking over the hard candy ghosts, goblins, and jack-o’-lanterns in a basket on the front counter. “How have you been, Bryce?”
He gave me a quick nod of his head. “I’ve been great. Never been better. It’s fall, and that means the holidays are right around the corner. Call me a sentimental softy, but I love the holidays.”
“Me too,” I agreed as I cut into the pumpkin spice fudge. “It sure was a shame to hear about Olivia Summers. Such a terrible surprise.”
His eyes went to mine. “It was, wasn’t it? I just can’t imagine what happened to her. I can’t get over it.”
“Didn’t you and Olivia date for a while?”
He nodded. “Yes, we dated for about a year and a half, but that’s been a few years back. If you want to know the truth, I always felt like she was the one that got away.”
“Really? I guess we all have people like that in our lives.”
He nodded again and his eyes got a faraway look. “She was a sweetheart. I could just kick myself for letting her go. Maybe if I hadn’t, she might still be alive.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked him carefully.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged and looked away again. “I just have to wonder if maybe she knew somebody wanted to hurt her and maybe if we had still been together, she would’ve brought it up to me and I could have done something about it.” He looked at me again. “It’s probably silly, but I just can’t get it out of my head.”
I nodded. “Sometimes when someone dies, all sorts of thoughts go through a person’s mind about things that they should or shouldn’t have done. Why did the two of you break up?”
“We were younger then, and neither of us were ready to make a commitment. But you know, one thing that just keeps coming to mind is the fact that she was having trouble with one of her coworkers.”
I placed the fudge on the scale and weighed out what he had asked for. “Her coworker? What kind of trouble was she having?”
“It was Carla Steele. I ran into Olivia a few months back and she looked upset. I asked her what was going on and she told me that she had work troubles. We talked for a few minutes. She said Carla had it out for her and she was miserable at work. She said she was thinking about finding another job.”
I stared at him, fudge knife still poised in the air. “Really? There was enough trouble between the two of them to make her want to look for another job?” Aaron had said Olivia thought Bryce was following her around town, but it sounded like she wasn’t worried about him enough to keep her from telling him her troubles.
“Yeah, that’s what she said. But Olivia tended to be an emotional person, and maybe it was just a bad day for her.” He shrugged. “I’d hate to think Carla might have had anything to do with Olivia’s death. I always thought she was a good person.”
“Did Olivia go into any details about what she meant? About Carla having it out for her?”
“She said Carla was jealous of her. Apparently, she accused Olivia of stealing some of her customers and because their sales were down, their boss was on her about it. So she turned on Olivia, threatening her, and told her she’d better not steal any more
