Buttercream Murder: A Frosted Love Cozy Mystery - Book 7 (Frosted Love Cozy Mysteries) by Carol Durand, Summer Prescott Page B

for something good,” Chas grumbled good-naturedly at his friend and colleague, Detective Richard Keller.
    “Lab results,” Keller said, tossing the report in front of Beckett and giving him a chance to look them over.
    “Pig’s blood? In both locations?” Chas was bemused.
    “Yup, apparently the same perp committed all three of the vandalism crimes, using pig’s blood in Miss Willis’s shop and home, and Miss Gladstone’s home,” Rich summed up the report.
    “Anything else?” Beckett asked. “Anything to tie that perp to the murder?”
    “Not yet, we’re working on it. But…I did find out something interesting. I have a friend who works in a certain corporate office at a certain phone company who owes me a favor, and this friend somehow stumbled upon the fact that the phone calls to Miss Gladstone and Miss Willis originated from a cell phone registered…get this…in California.”
    “California?” Chas sat up straighter. “Echo is from California. Both she and Missy thought that they recognized the voice on the phone, but couldn’t place it. Sounds to me like someone that Echo knew, who maybe at some point was introduced to Missy.”
    “You get anywhere with the corporate dude from New York…Michener?” Keller asked, looking through his reports.
    Detective Beckett shook his head. “Nahh…everything he had to say checked out, he was on video attending some sort of seminar when all of the weirdness went down around here.”
    “Well, try to probe Miss Willis’s memory a bit. See if she’s had any visitors from back home recently,” Rich advised.
    “Will do. Thanks Rich, keep me informed,” Chas shook hands.
    “You know it.”
    Missy, I really don’t think that we should be doing this,” Echo worried as she trailed behind Missy in the dark. “Mr. Wonderful told us to stay put, and I think it would have been a really good idea if we had done that,” she said, scared and disapproving.
    “Don’t be such a ninny,” Missy scolded her friend. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with stopping by my own home to pick up some clean clothes,” she insisted.
    “Then why aren’t we turning on any lights?” Echo challenged.
    “We’re just taking extra precautions, that’s all,” Missy returned, sounding lame, even to herself.
    “I just don’t think this is the smartest…” Echo’s sentence was cut off by the sudden blindness brought on at the snap of a light switch.
    “Well, well, well, what have we here?” a chilling voice asked snidely from behind them. The women whirled around to confront the intruder.
    “Brice?” Missy was confused.
    “Jimmy?” Echo was terrified.
    The two women looked at each other. “You know him?” they asked in unison.
    The sinister laugh that had chilled the marrow in their bones when they’d heard it on the phone, rang out, piercing the room with its evil tones. “Hmm…two peas in a pod, huh?” the man in the blue coveralls snarled.
    Missy was furious. Thinking that she was dealing with an overzealous dry goods supplier, she put her hands on her hips and moved to step toward him, Echo’s hand reaching out to snatch her backward. “Now you listen to me Brice, I don’t know what kind of game you think that you’re playing here, but I’m more than tired of it. You get yourself out of my home immediately,” her eyes flashed fire, as she strained against her friend’s iron grip.
    “Spitfire, eh?” he snickered, licking his lips.
    “What are you doing here, Jimmy?” Echo growled. “These people have no business with you.”
    “That’s right my little California Sunshine, they don’t, but you do, and if they happen to get in the way of my business with you, that’s just too bad,” he threatened, stepping up to Echo, who held her ground even when he thrust his face no more than an inch away from hers.
    While Brice or Jimmy or whoever he was, was fixated on Echo, Missy saw her chance and took it. With lightning-fast speed, she stomped on his