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

oh-so-comfortable couch and flopped down next to it, her feet hanging over the arm of the couch.  “Really,” she said.  “Could be anybody.  That’s why I’m getting an alarm.”
     
    “You’re what?”  Amy turned away from her canvas to look at Heather.
     
    “I’m getting an alarm.”
     
    “Why?” Amy asked.  “Oh, I bet I know.”  She pointed her paint brush at Heather.  “So no more Billy’s come in and plunk themselves down at your kitchen table and scare you half to death.”
     
    “Exactly,” Heather said.
     
    Amy shrugged.  “I suppose I don’t blame you,” she said.  “Here.  Come look at this.”
     
    With a groan, Heather lurched up off the couch and went to stand looking over Amy’s shoulder at the landscape she was painting.  Two trees composed of short slashes of color stood at the edge of a lake painted in the same style.  Yet despite the choppiness of each individual stroke, somehow, it all blended into a gorgeous whole.  “Wow,” Heather said.  “That’s really nice.”
     
    “Thank you,” Amy said.  “So here’s what I need your opinion on: People, or no people?”
     
    “Two boys,” Heather said.  “Taking a nap under the trees.”
     
    “Hmm,” Amy said, squinting at her painting.  “That might work.”
     
    Heather flopped back down on the couch, sitting upright this time.  Amy turned to face her.  “So ask me what I found out today,” Heather said.
     
    “What did you find out today?”
     
    “Just two itty-bitty things.  One, that Mrs. Fordyce didn’t love Christa very much and blamed her for Billy’s getting cut out of the will.”
     
    “What?” Amy said, her mouth agape.
     
    “Yeah.  She’s grieving over Billy’s life being ruined, not over Christa’s death.  And she says it’s Christa’s fault his life was ruined.  Apparently Mr. Fordyce had threatened to cut Billy out of the will if he went to rehab one more time.  Mrs. Fordyce says Billy was doing great.  Making lots of progress.  Until one day, Christa accuses him of using drugs, and dear old Dad just takes her at her word, plops Billy in rehab, and cuts him out of the will.”
     
    “She thinks Christa was lying?”
     
    “Mrs. Fordyce said if Billy had been using, she would have known about it, because she’s his mother.”
     
    “Um…yeah, sure,” Amy said.  “But the point is, she thinks Christa was lying and deliberately set up the favorite child—at least Mrs. Fordyce’s favorite—to get cut out of the will.”
     
    “Yep.  And she’s bitterly angry.”
     
    “Sounds like she’s a suspect,” Amy said.
     
    “But that’s not all.  Remember how Joey Gorham was the one who discovered Christa’s body?  The one who claimed to be her assistant, and claimed to have dated her?”
    “Yeeeeees,” Amy said.
     
    “Apparently, he did, in fact, date her.  At least a couple of times.  But he was never going to be her assistant.”
     
    This time, when Amy’s mouth fell open, she remained silent.
     
    “He says he just wanted to talk to her.  And when he showed up, she happened to be dead.”
     
    “What did he want to talk to her about?”
     
    “Nobody knows.  He wouldn’t tell Detective Shepherd.”
     
    “Ah, the hunky Detective Shepherd,” Amy said.  “ I’d tell him anything he wanted to know.”
     
    “I’m sure you would,” Heather said.  “But here’s the thing I still don’t get: Why did she date him in the first place?”
     
    “To make Mommy Dearest mad?”
     
    “Maybe so,” Heather said.
     
    “But then maybe it made Joey mad when she broke up with him,” Amy said.
     
    “That very well could be.”  She sighed.  “And then there’s Billy, who was apparently angry with her, too.”
    “Wow,” Amy said.  “That’s three people in her life who were probably angry enough to kill her.  Yikes.”
     
    “Yeah.  Yikes,” she said.  “I’m just glad that Don seemed plenty happy to get rid of me.  He