Tea, Thyme, an Murder by Carolyn Q Hunter

Author:Carolyn Q Hunter [Hunter, Carolyn Q]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Summer Prescott Books
Published: 2018-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

By the time Bert reached her apartment, she’d already made the decision to investigate this herself. If Harry was going to treat this as an accidental death, rather than a homicide, simply based on previous similar cases, she knew she’d have to dig around and find the real killer herself.

She knew she should head to bed and get enough rest to face the day, but she wanted to start planning right away. After all, she needed a list of suspects she could potentially investigate.

At the moment, her only suspect that came to mind was the sister, Karen. The back door to the shop had been open, meaning that whoever had come through either was a trusted friend (or family member) of Susan’s, they had a key, or they were simply forgetful and didn’t latch the door behind themselves.

If it had been Karen, she would have already been in the building. If it had been someone else showing up after hours—like Bert had to find her phone—Susan must have trusted them because she let them in.

So far, the only person who made any sense at all was Karen.

Karen and Susan seemed like polar opposites, which seemed like a red flag for siblings going into business together. She supposed it was possible that Susan acted as the face of the company, great with people and customer service and terrible with numbers. That would be where Karen came in. She seemed more like the stereotypical accountant type who could handle the money management with ease and finesse.

However, it was clear that Susan had been undermining her sister. Karen’s frustrated behavior—seemingly always talking about money—and the red numbers on the budget sheets at the crime scene were indication enough that the business was already in trouble out of the gate.

Of course, with most small businesses, it took a while to get back what you’d put into the opening. However, by the sounds of it, Susan was already bringing the budget in the opposite direction.

Could it be that Susan’s pride had all gone to her head? Did that make her feel like she had the right to act in any way she pleased despite her sister’s warnings?

More importantly, had their money troubles been bad enough that Karen felt justified in killing over them? Did she stand to inherit something from her sister in the event of her death?

Bert knew there was only one way to find out.

She’d have to go over and talk to Karen first thing in the morning.

* * *

Bert woke up early the next morning, just around four a.m., having slept restlessly during the few hours she’d gone to bed. Unable to lay there staring at the ceiling any longer, she popped up out of the bed and headed into her kitchenette to brew some coffee. She had a long day ahead of her and needed to start getting ready anyway.

By six, she was down in the shop working on baking some pies for that day’s batch of customers. She spent

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