“No, of course not,” Mom said, nodding. “You weren’t expecting to find anyone dead there.”
“So we need to find out why the lights were left on the carousel,” Christy said and reached for a maple bar.
“I have no idea why they would be left on. Maybe Sam had an arrangement with the city. It’s really pretty even though it isn’t operating at this time of night.”
“That could be,” Mom said thoughtfully. “Were the rest of the Christmas lights on at the plaza?”
The city had strung clear lights across the entire plaza and added Christmas greenery and big silver bells with red velvet ribbons to the lamp posts. I shook my head. “No, only the streetlights and the parking lot lights were on. I don’t know why the lights on the carousel were still on. It doesn’t make sense. That’s why I pulled over to take a look. It just seemed wrong somehow.”
“If everything else was turned off, then it is odd,” Christy said. “I wish you would wait until I’m with you to check out things like that. You could have come here and picked me up and we could have gone in and looked together.”
I sighed. “Christy, I swear I wasn’t trying to exclude you from anything. Like I said, I didn’t expect to find a dead body. I just thought it was weird that the lights were on, so I parked my car and got out. I thought there might be a power switch somewhere that I could shut off.”
“I don’t think the lights were left on accidentally,” Christy said. “The killer must have done it.”
I nodded. “That’s what I think.”
“Well then, we just need to figure out who has access to the lights on the carousel, right? Whoever had access to them is the killer.” Christy’s head furrowed in thought.
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “I mean, if the killer is somebody that everybody would know had access, it would be kind of silly to leave the lights on. The police are going to take a look at that person first. And I’m assuming it’s Sam Connor.”
“I’m sure the killer wouldn’t want something like that to point to themselves,” Mom agreed. She turned and took a sprinkle donut out of the box. “Poor Suzanne. And poor Ethan. He never catches a break.”
“Poor me,” I said and took a sip of my coffee. “If Ethan has to work a case, that means I won’t get to see much of him and I had plans for the Christmas season.”
“Well then,” Christy said. “I guess I’ll be your date.”
I rolled my eyes. “Great. I get to date my sister. Again.”
She shrugged and took a bite of her donut. “Great donut.”
“They are great donuts,” I said and took another bite of mine. I didn’t know who would want to kill Suzanne Wilson, but I was going to find out. “So what are we making today?” I looked around at the ingredients that were sitting on the counter.
“I’ve got a lot more peppermint fudge to make. We’ve got a lot of Internet orders for it, as well as the eggnog fudge. So, I suppose we’ll make a lot of that today, along with chocolate Santas, bonbons, and some truffles.”
“Okay then. I’ll get started making some peppermint fudge, if that’s okay with you.” I picked up a green apron and tied it around my waist.
She nodded. “That would be great. I think I’m going to make some peppermint truffles and maybe some eggnog truffles, too.”
“Well, somebody might have wanted to destroy our Christmas spirit, but the candy making must go on,” Christy said.
And it did. There was a thick stack of Internet orders sitting on the printer and I went over and picked up the one on top. Peppermint fudge.
Chapter Four
I didn’t know a lot about Suzanne’s life after we had graduated high school. I had been gone from Pumpkin Hollow for ten years, and although I had bumped into her twice since I moved back more than a year ago, I hadn’t spent much time with her. The one thing I did know about her was that her parents had died in a motorcycle accident seven or eight years earlier. They had enjoyed motorcycle riding for years, going camping up in the mountains, and one day they had taken a turn too fast on a curvy road after it had rained and they had died out there on that road.
Christy and I went by the flower shop and picked up a poinsettia and drove it over to her cousin’s house. Brittany’s parents had moved away from Pumpkin Hollow a decade ago, and she was Suzanne’s only family living here in Pumpkin Hollow. I wasn’t sure if she had other relatives other than Brittany’s parents that lived elsewhere or not.
It had been two days since I’d found Suzanne’s body on the carousel and now we stood on Brittany’s doorstep and knocked.
“Oh,” Brittany said when she saw the poinsettia, and then she smiled at us. “Hello Mia, hello Christy.”
“Hi Brittany,” I said. “We just wanted to stop by and tell you how sorry we were to hear about Suzanne.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Christy added. She held a small gift tin of peppermint fudge out to her.
“That’s so sweet of you girls,” she said, taking the tin. “Would you like to come in?”
We followed her into the living room and took the seat she offered us. I put the poinsettia on the coffee table and Christy sat next to me.
“I can’t believe Suzanne is dead,” Brittany said quietly. Her blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail and she wasn't wearing any makeup. It made her look ten years younger.
I nodded. “It’s so
