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

A bowstring creaked.
Heather clenched her fists and forced herself to calm down.
    “Turn around and look at me,” the
woman said.
    Heather turned on the spot and raised
her hands above her head. “Don’t shoot, Jinx.”
    “Stop calling me that,” the blond
woman snapped. “I hate that stupid name. I’m not jinxed, and I have never
been.”
    “No,” Heather replied. “You’re not
jinxed. But that doesn’t make you a good person.”
    Jessica through back her head and
laughed at the sky. She laughed and laughed. Her breath wheezed in her chest
and then she flopped her head back down and met Heather’s gaze.
    “I don’t care about being a good
person, Heather Shepherd.” She clicked her tongue, bow still drawn, arrow
knocked. She hadn’t taken aim yet, at least. How strong was this woman?
    Surely, it took a lot of strength to
keep that arm extended?
    “Everyone wants to be good. Everyone.
That’s why we’re here. To help each other, to be better, and to learn.” Heather
flashed a smile. “You can still do that, Jessica.”
    “Oh, you are so barking up the wrong
tree.”
    This was the riskiest move Heather had
pulled in recent memory. She hadn’t purposefully put herself in harm’s way
before but, to be fair, Jessica could’ve been at Jung’s house, rather than at
the field.
    “You have no interest in being a good
person? In being respected and loved by everyone?” 
    Jessica rolled her eyes. “Who cares
about that stuff? Respect, love? That’s for losers. And I want to win.”
    “I respectfully disagree,” Heather
replied. “You can’t truly win unless you’ve felt real love.”
    “This is not a debate. I am not on
trial,” Jessica snapped. “If you wanna win, you have to know how to play the
game, and this is the only way to do that.” She let the bow sag, a little. “I
won’t let you run to your little cop boyfriend and tell him the truth.”
    “He’s my husband, not my boyfriend.”
    “Whatever,” Jessica spat. She raised
the bow again. “It’s over, Heather.”
    “I don’t understand,” Heather said.
“How do you figure you’re going to get away with this?”
    Jinx blinked at her, then sniffed.
“What do you mean? I’m going to kill you, and then no one will know.”
    “You left the arrow in Jung’s trash,
right?” Heather asked.
    Jinx’s cheeks paled, but she still
didn’t lower that bow. “What, how do you know that?”
    “He’s one of my closest friends. He
called me the minute something happened and told me all about.”
    “So? Who cares?” Jinx snorted. She
readjusted her grip and stretched her neck from side-to-side. “You’re going to
die, and everyone will think it’s Jung. He’ll take the fall for it. Serves him
right for competing against the best.”
    “You can’t call yourself the best if
you have to bribe judges to win,” Heather replied.
    Jessica growled in her throat. “You
shut up!”
    “My husband is over at Jung’s place,
right now. That’s right. My husband, the police officer, is with him. Your
story won’t check out.” Heather shook her head. “I’m disappointed, Jinx. I
thought that you made a mistake. Or that you had a grand plan when you bribed
Leticia.”
    Jessica’s arms wobbled and the bow
swerved left and then right.
    Heather froze, her arms still above
her head and her heart pounded against the inside of her ribcage. “Turns out,”
Heather said, breathing deep to keep her voice even, “You don’t have a master
plan. You didn’t realize that Kyle was the other judge until the last minute
did you?”
    She didn’t reply, just stared at
Heather.
    “I guess you walked into the locker
room and found him there. What happened then?” Heather asked. “Did all the old
emotions come rushing back? Did you remember the day he fired you from the
team? Or was it losing the Olympics that got to you?”
    “Don’t,” Jessica whispered, tears
gathering at the corners of her eyes.
    “The arrows were right there,