Free M&M Surprise Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 17 by Susan Gillard

the time and the other kids could hit the targets.”
    “The smaller field. Anything else?”
    “No, sheesh, what’s your deal?” Hardy
asked, then flapped his sweaty shirt.
    Lilly clamped her fingers on her nose
and squeezed.
    “My deal is that there’s a murderer on
the loose, and she’s been using your arrows to kill people. Come on, Lils,
let’s get out of here.” Heather marched her charge forward and out the front
door of the Foster Folks’ house.
    They stomped down the front stairs and
the path, then stopped beside Heather’s car?
    “Where are we going?” Lilly asked.
“What about the bike ride?”
    “I’m sorry, honey, but we’re going to
have to postpone that. I’ve just figured out who killed Kyle Henson. I need to
call Ryan. I need to call –”
    “But what am I going to do?” Lilly
asked, and twisted her lips to one side.
    Heather stared at the young girl. Her
ruddy cheeks shone in the morning sunlight. Innocent and free.
    “You want to spend some time with Eva?
She’d love to see you.”
    Lilly’s grin lit up Heather’s life.
“Yeah, that would be great! Can Dave come to?”
    “Yeah, he can. Get in the car,
sweetie, let’s go fetch him.” Heather opened the back door for Lilly, waited
for her to get in, then shut it behind her.
    She had to hurry. There wasn’t much
time. Jinx was on the loose, and if she didn’t get to her in time, things in
Hillside would get real bad, real fast.

Chapter 18
    Eva Schneider stood on the sidewalk,
her hands on her hips and an apron fastened around her neck. “I was making a
pie,” she said. “There’s going to be plenty to share.”
    Lilly scooted off her seat and jogged
to Eva, Dave padding along beside her. “Hi, Aunt Eva,” she said and threw her
arms around the old lady. “Heather said Dave and I could spend the afternoon.”
    “Of course, you can, dear,” Eva
replied, and patted the girl on the top of the head. “And you can have some pie
too.”
    “Eva, I messaged Colleen and told her
that Lilly is with you. She said it was fine. Do you need her number?” Heather
asked. Butterflies pummeled the lining of her stomach, demanding attention.
Demanding Heather rush off to find Jinx, right away.
    Amy slipped out of the passenger seat
of Heather’s car and leaned her forearms on the top of the car. “I don’t like
this,” she whispered.
    Heather shot her a look. “Not in front
of Lilly,” she hissed.
    “We’ll be back a little later to pick
you two up, Lils. Be safe. Enjoy the pie.”
    “Bye!” Lilly waved, then led Dave up
the garden path. Eva walked next to her and chattered on. Pie this, cherries
that.
    They disappeared inside the house, and
the door slammed shut behind them.
    “Like I said, I don’t like this,
Heather. It doesn’t feel right.” Amy shivered and rubbed her upper arms. “What
if she, you know, the bow and arrow. She’s got to be good at aiming.”
    “Relax, we’re not doing this on our
own. I’ve got to phone Ryan and tell him what’s going on.” Heather scrabbled
her phone from her front pocket, and her fingertips brushed against the rough
fabric. She brought it out, then frowned.
    The notification light at the top of
the phone flashed purple.
    Heather swiped her finger across the
screen and unlocked it. A message from Jung flashed front and center. She
tapped to open it.
    Something weird is going on at my
place. Call me back.
    Heather bit her lip. “I’ve got to call
Jung first.”
    “What, why?”
    “Let’s find out.” Heather dialed his
number, then placed the phone against her ear.
    It rang three times, then clicked.
“Boss?” Jung asked.
    “Yeah, I got a message from you, Jung.
Is everything all right?”
    Jung exhaled into the phone and the
sound distorted. “No,” he said. “Everything is not all right. Something creepy
happened a couple of minutes ago, boss.”
    “What is it?” Heather met Amy’s gaze
and shrugged. Amy rapped her knuckles on the top of Heather’s car and