Free Sweet Taffy and Murder: Sweet Taffy Cozy Mysteries Book #1 by Dana Moss Page B

hadn’t seen them since. And she’d never wondered where they went, because something in Taffy froze that day. All her childhood memories jumbled and then faded. She made a habit of never looking back.
    “Murder’s not very bright and shiny,” said Taffy, trying to push aside the hazy memories of her past.
    “Compared to an accidental death, it’s pretty dramatic and exciting.”
    “You think I’m making it up?”
    Maria looked at the marble. She looked at Taffy.
    “I think you’ve lost your marble.” She handed it back to Taffy. “Have a good day.”
    “Now wait a minute.” Taffy held up the marble between her thumb and forefinger. “This marble means you just might have an unsolved murder on your hands.” She clicked it down onto the desk. Then she rolled it toward Maria. “The closet shelf in Janet’s foyer is so crooked, nothing could have rolled off it.”
    Maria looked confused. The marble came to rest beside her mug. She picked up the marble and looked at Taffy.
    “What are you saying?”
    “It’s true Janet stored her bowling ball on the closet shelf. I saw the bag and the shoes and the empty space where the ball might have been. But it couldn’t have rolled off accidentally.” She nodded at the marble. “Somebody must have hit her with it. The bowling ball, not the marble.”
    Maria cleared her throat. “Who would have done that?”
    Taffy shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s your job. I’m nothing but a good-time, jaywalking sugar elf.”
    She stood up to leave and then stopped. She looked back at Maria, who had picked up the marble and seemed to be lost in deep thought, and said quietly, “When you said death brought you to Abandon, you meant my mother, didn’t you?”
    Maria sighed and didn’t meet Taffy’s gaze.
    “That was a long time ago. My mother and I started a new life here.”
    Taffy’s memories of Maria’s mom were hazy, too, as if everyone from that time in her life had faded to mere shreds of an irretrievable dream. But what little she recalled stirred a feeling of warmth in her chest.
    “How is Rosa?”
    Maria smiled slightly and then stiffened. “Fine. Never been better.” She crossed her arms and turned back to her work, effectively shutting down any further conversation.
    Ethan might have been right about her being a good nut, but she was also a tough one.
    “Well. Good luck with the case.”
    Maria nodded without looking up as she started searching files on her computer. Taffy took one last longing look at the mug of coffee.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
    After leaving the police station, Taffy slumped like a limp leaf inside the Aveo. Maria Salinas? How could Taffy have been so blind? They’d practically been like sisters, or for a while they had both wished that were true. Maria’s and Rosa’s lives must have changed dramatically after Ellen Belair’s death. Is that when they’d moved to Oregon? Did her Nana know they were here? Taffy had blocked out so much from that period in her life. Maria had just been a casualty to Taffy’s trauma.
    She took a deep breath. There was nothing she could do about it now. The past was the past. She’d delivered the marble to prove her theory, and now it was up to the police to figure out the rest. It was up to Taffy to get herself home to New York as quickly as possible.
    She was tempted to try calling Nana again, to tell her about Maria, but then she looked at the car clock and realized she only had ten minutes to get to work on time. With Maria safely behind her police desk, Taffy sped the Aveo through town and up the hill to the candy factory.
    * * *
    Though Taffy had hung up everything she’d tossed into yesterday’s kitchen puddle, her elf jacket was still a little damp and marked up with chocolate. When she got to work, she begged Aubin for a second jacket.
    “The cost will have to come out of your paycheck, Hon.”
    “What if I don’t wear it?”
    “Then you’ll probably get fired and not get a paycheck at