Cupcakes and Killing: A Cozy Mystery (Sweet Shoppe Mysteries - Book 2) by Cora Wilkins Page B

you know who it was he was dating?” I asked.
    She narrowed her eyes. “Why does that matter?” she asked, her voice noticeably cooler.
    “Oh, it doesn’t,” I said breezily. “Just curious.”
    “Was it Zara Keilson?” Tori asked, and Kaye and I glared at her. Way to be subtle, Tori! I thought.
    Amelia’s hands started to shake, and she abruptly stood up. “I see what this is. You’re trying to accuse my Theodore of hurting that lady.”
    “No, no!” I said, trying to defuse the situation. “It’s not like that.”
    “I wasn’t born yesterday,” Amelia replied, grabbing her handbag. “I have a mind to go down to the station right now and tell him what you’re saying about him!”
    “We aren’t saying anything about…” Kaye began to say before reaching out to catch Amelia. She’d taken two steps forward and tripped over the coffee table in her haste to leave.
    “Amelia, are you all right?” Kaye asked, helping her to her feet.
    “Here,” I said. “Let me get your bag for you. Then we’ll leave, okay?”
    As she’d stumbled, Amelia had dropped her handbag and several items had flown out of it. I scooped them up in my hand, and she cried out.
    “No, leave it!”
    I was about to put the things down when I realized what I was holding in my right hand. A small, cylindrical plastic container filled with a dark grey powder.
    “Oh….oh my…” Kaye stuttered. “It was you!”
    Amelia snatched her bag away from me and reached into it, pulling out a small pistol which unfortunately hadn’t already fallen out.
    “If you had behaved like proper ladies and minded your own business, then none of this would be happening,” she said, cold seeping into her eyes. “You should’ve left it alone. That woman deserved to die for hurting my Theodore.”
    “How did she hurt him?” Tori asked, trying to buy time for us as we nervously backed away, our hands in the air.
    “She refused to let anyone know they were dating. Sick of people gossiping about her, or so she said. Really, she just wanted to string my Theodore along. The other night he told her he was tired of the games, and he wanted her to commit to him or that was that…he’d be done with her. She said no, and my poor boy was brokenhearted. I couldn’t let her treat him like that! She had to die!”
    “And I thought my mother was a bit crazy,” Kaye mumbled.
    “ What ?” Amelia said, her voice shrill.
    “Nothing…err, I was just saying, surely Ted must suspect what you did if he knows you heard the argument with Zara?”
    “He has no idea,” she said stiffly. “They had the argument outside the house after dinner. He had no idea I overheard it all. He thought I was in the spare room with a headache.”
    Goose bumps cropped up all over my arms as she continued to wave the gun at us, and my heart raced as I considered our next course of action. Or rather, her next course of action. Surely she couldn’t just shoot us all. She may have done a decent job at covering up the fact that she’d murdered Zara, but she couldn’t exactly cover up three more homicides right inside a policeman’s house…could she?
    “Amelia,” I said softly. “Just put the gun down.”
    “No,” she said, steeling herself and aiming it right at me. I squeezed my eyes shut, and suddenly a male voice rang out.
    “Yes,” the voice said. “Drop it right now! I’ve got my own gun and a much better aim than you, Mom.”
    My eyes flew open, and Amelia whirled around. Ted was standing in the doorway, his face etched with a mixture of grief and rage.
    “Teddy Bear….you wouldn’t hurt your own mother!” Amelia said.
    “I don’t want to, but I’ll be forced to if you hurt anyone else,” he said, his eyes fixed on her. “Drop. The. Gun.”
    “Oh, Teddy…I was just trying to protect you!” she cried. “You have to understand!”
    Seeing so much rage in her son’s expression must have finally made her realize the gravity of her actions, and she dropped