Suds and Slayings by Jemma Bard

Author:Jemma Bard [Bard, Jemma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Missing Key Press
Published: 2019-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The scents of freshly baked pumpkin chocolate muffins and coffee greeted Violet as she stepped into Déjà Brew the next morning. And boy did she need it more than ever.

After she’d found Gordon’s murder weapon in her vat of soap yesterday morning, Violet had decided to take the rest of the day off to relax at home. Although the idea sounded ideal, it was much easier said than done. Violet had attempted more times than she could count to just sit back and relax, with Ralphie comforting her at her side. But that proved too difficult as her anxiety and all the spiraling questions that came with it got the best of her.

Why was the murderer in her shop? Were they looking for something? If so, what? What if they came after her next? And worst of all—what if Violet’s fingerprints were on the murder weapon and she was falsely accused of murdering her ex-father-in-law? It was only a matter of time before Carol Kincade ran the fingerprints on the weapon, fingerprints Carol claimed would still be in place even after the soap solidified and then re-melted around it.

But the murderer’s fingerprints would be there too, she reminded herself.

She thought back to her therapy sessions with Dr. Hazelton, Cape Flower’s only psychologist, after her divorce from Michael. He gave her two pieces of advice to stop the spiraling nagging thoughts. His first was to simply allow the thoughts and questions to bubble up to the surface of her mind, acknowledge them, and then let them go. He always told her that holding onto those thoughts and replaying them over and over again in her head would give those thoughts power.

But murder was a bit different than a divorce. And the fact she was a suspect made it all the more pressing.

This morning, she took Dr. Hazelton’s second piece of advice—get out of the house (and out of your head) and throw yourself into a new project. Since Violet was asked by the Cape Flower police department to close her shop for one more day, Violet couldn’t keep herself busy making soaps or experimenting with new lotions in her shop. Instead, she’d keep herself busy by investigating Gordon’s death herself.

So now she sat in her favorite Cape Flower coffeeshop, waiting for Cale. Her plan was to brainstorm a suspect list complete with motives and narrow down the suspects from there. She only had Cale and herself to rely on at this point. Carol was forbidden to share any information she knew about the case with Violet, and Richard’s lips were sealed with professionalism. It was up to Violet now.

I’ll be the Jessica Fletcher of Cape Flower after all.

“What are you thinking today, Violet?” Sylvia asked, jarring Violet from her sleuthing thoughts.

Violet peered behind Sylvia and at the large chalkboard behind the coffee bar showing this week’s specialty drinks—a spiced hot apple cider, a dark chocolate pumpkin latte, and a cookies and cream cappuccino.

“I think I’d like the dark chocolate pumpkin latte,” she said.

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