Mistletoe With a Pink Bow by Vella Day

Author:Vella Day [Day, Vella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Paranormal, cozy, mystery
ISBN: 9781951430238
Publisher: Erotic Reads Publishing
Published: 2020-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The next morning, I was surprised and delighted to find Stephanie Carlton at breakfast. Sure, she had to eat, but I bet she could have asked to have her breakfast delivered to her room. If I’d been arrested for a crime, I probably would have hidden upstairs. On the other hand, if I was innocent, I might not.

While she probably would have preferred to be by herself, I wanted her to tell us to leave her alone. The three of us walked over. “Hey, Stephanie. Do you want some company?”

Her eyes were a bit red. She smiled, and her relief seemed sincere. “Yes, please. Maybe you can help this nightmare go away.”

We all sat down. “Tell us what happened.”

“I admitted that I kind of set my sights on Dr. Hamstead. After all, he was good looking, single, nice, and he had a good job.”

“Money is tight, is it?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.

“You have no idea. When Burt died, he left me with very little. My second husband had a prolonged hospital stay that ate up our savings. When my mother became ill, I used up what savings we had.”

Since she didn’t mention this mother was Richard Ashton’s maid, I let it be. “That had to be tough.”

“It was.”

“If I could be so nosy, why did the sheriff think you murdered Dr. Hamstead?”

“Like he said. He found my fingerprints on the tea cup. There was some poison in Michael’s cup, so he figured I’d put it there.”

“I can’t imagine that would hold up in court. It’s purely circumstantial,” I threw out.

“I know. At the station, I told him that I’d heard someone talking to Michael in his room about an hour after I left. My room is next to his.”

“Was it a man or a woman?” Jaxson asked.

“I couldn’t tell.” She huffed out a laugh. “I thought about knocking on the door and pretending I’d left something in his room, but I didn’t want to look like the typical jealous woman.”

“That would imply you didn’t poison him, but why did the sheriff believe you? I mean, you could have been making it up.”

“The lab tested the rum bottle in his room and found it contained the same poison.”

“If Dr. Hamstead just died,” Rihanna said, “How were they able to determine that so fast?” Was there some kind of litmus paper test for poison?

“Turns out the sheriff’s wife is the medical examiner.”

Are you kidding me? Can we say conflict of interest? “Handy. Does the sheriff have any idea who might have harmed the victim?”

“He was very tight-lipped.”

Mrs. Tully carried over our breakfast. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.”

While I wanted to ask about the diamonds, I thought it best to eat first and think about how I wanted to bring up the topic afterward.

Rihanna spoke up. “In what department was Dr. Hamstead going to teach?”

“History.”

I was surprised my cousin asked since she knew the answer.

“That’s a shame. It would have been fun to take a class from someone I’d sort of met.

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