Strawberry Cream Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 1 by Susan Gillard

do we know he’s telling the truth now?”
    “We don’t,” Shepherd said.  “Believe me, we’re looking at him pretty closely.  But he’s not going anywhere for awhile, so we have plenty of time.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
    “I arrested him,” he said.  “When I got there, he was just finishing a deal.  He didn’t think I saw him.”
     
    “So you talked to him, and then you told him he was under arrest?”
     
    “Of course.  I’m not new to this game.”
     
    No, she supposed he wasn’t.  “I wonder if he was lying about dating Christa,” she said.
    “I don’t think so,” he said.  “I asked him that.  He had a picture of her in his wallet.  They were at a party, and they looked pretty cozy.”
     
    “But if he wanted to talk to her, and if they were still dating, he wouldn’t have had to go to her shop,” she said.
     
    “Exactly.  When I pointed that out to him, he admitted they weren’t dating anymore.  Hadn’t been for several months, apparently.”
     
    “What if he wanted to keep dating her, and she broke up with him?  He might have gotten really angry.”
     
    “Exactly,” Shepherd said. “And since he’s pretty familiar with drugs and powders, he could have easily obtained some cyanide.”
     
    “I wonder if he did,” she said.
     
    “ That ,” he said, “is the $64,000 question.”
     
    ***
     
    “Michelle, do you have a house alarm?” Heather asked.  “Maricela?”
     
    Maricela shook her head, but Michelle answered, “I do.”
     
    “What company do you use?”
    “AHS.  American Home Security.”
     
    “Good prices?”
     
    Michelle shrugged.  “I think so.”
     
    “I’m going to give them a call,” Heather said.
     
    “Did something happen?” Michelle asked.
     
    “Got home last night and found Billy Fordyce sitting at my kitchen table,” she said.
     
    “How’d he get in?”
     
    “Wouldn’t tell me.  Said you just ‘learn things.’”
     
    “Go sign up with AHS,” Michelle said.  “You want to know you’re safe.”
     
    Heather Googled AHS and clicked on the link to take her to their official website.  In the upper right corner was a toll-free number and the suggestion to “call now for a free estimate.”  She dialed the number.  It rang four times before a recorded voice began asking Heather to pick her way through various menu options.  Somehow, she navigated the system, punched “1” for “residence,” and was advised that her call was very important and would be answered by the next available representative.  She sighed and leaned back in her chair to wait.
     
    Thirty minutes later, she had an appointment for a technician to come and install the alarm system she had signed up for.  Rubbing the kinks out of her neck and shoulder, she decided to call it a day.  “I’m leaving,” she called to Michelle and Maricela as she headed for the back door.
     
    “Have a good one,” Michelle said before turning her attention back to the customer she was serving.
     
    Just as Heather was about to back out of her parking space, her cell phone rang.  She glanced at it, saw Amy’s number, and picked up.  “I have been on the phone all day ,” she said.
     
    “So come talk to me in person.  I want your opinion on something anyway.”
     
    “You’re at home?”
     
    “Where else?  I don’t have a life during the daylight hours.  That’s you, remember?”
     
    “Whatever,” Heather said, laughing.  “See you in a few.”
     
    Amy’s house was ten minutes from Donut Delights.  Heather parked in the driveway, knocked on Amy’s back door, and let herself in.  “You know, you really ought to start locking your doors,” she called out.  “Anybody off the street could just come wandering in.”
     
    “Too trusting, I guess,” Amy called.  “Come on back.  I’m painting.”
     
    Heather walked down the hallway to the rear bedroom Amy used for her studio.  She dropped her purse on the raggedy but