Fruit Baskets and Holiday Caskets by Gayle Leeson

Author:Gayle Leeson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Gayle Leeson
Published: 2020-09-18T06:00:00+00:00

RYAN DIPPED A TORTILLA chip into the queso. “This is really good. I’m glad you decided to go with appetizer-type foods rather than a heavy meal.”

“Me too.” I didn’t feel the need to say I did the best I could with the amount of time I had. He and I were both enjoying the food, and that’s all that mattered.

Having finished his own dinner long ago, Rory proudly trotted out of the kitchen with the gingerbread ornament.

“He does love that thing, doesn’t he?” Ryan grinned. “I’ve never seen him so taken with a toy.”

“Neither have I. Normally, he’d have torn the thing to shreds immediately, but he treasures that little thing. I wish I could tell your mother how much Rory appreciates it, especially since she thinks neither of us do.” I told him about her reaction at seeing his ornament on the tree at the café. “It’s in my purse. Don’t let me forget to give it back to you before you leave. If she comes in tomorrow and sees that it isn’t on the café tree, I’d like to be able to tell her it’s back where it belongs.”

“She’s coming back tomorrow?” he asked.

“Oh, yes. Today’s cookie-baking marathon was the first of five. We’re doing one every evening this week leading up to the parade on Saturday.”

He laughed. “That’s hilarious.”

“You think it’s so funny, you can take my place tomorrow,” I said.

“And you’ll work on the investigation?”

“I’m already ahead of you on that.”

That wiped every smidgeon of the smile from his face. “Amy, what did you do?”

“I paid a visit to Belinda Carpenter a little while ago.” I decided I needed a tortilla chip with queso myself. It beat answering the questions I knew were coming.

“I know you didn’t tell her anything you learned about Devon. You’d never do that.” He sounded confident, but there was a teensy thread of doubt beneath his words.

“Of course not. I was there to get information, not give it. All I gave was food to a grieving widow.” I gave him what I hoped was an innocent, downright wholesome look.

“And did you get any information?”

“Belinda gave me the pickaxes, but we have to mine the gold. Let me get my laptop.” I retrieved my computer from the fancy room and booted it up. “Do you know how Devon is related to the Carpenters?”

“Yes. Do you?”

“No, but there’s no need to hedge on the answer since it’s not directly relevant to your investigation, and we’ll save time if I don’t have to search for the Carpenter family tree online.”

“Fine,” he said. “Devon’s mother was the sister of the Carpenter matriarch.”

“The matriarch.” That word fired up all my neurons. “If Devon’s mother married into the Carpenter family, then that surname wouldn’t show up in his background at all. It was the perfect choice for an alias. It would be like me calling myself Amy Fonseca. Unless the authorities knew about my relationship with Jackie, they’d never make a connection between Amy Flowers and Amy Fonseca.

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