Free Sweet Somethings (Samantha Sweet Mysteries) by Connie Shelton

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selection edged toward the front of the room.
    “Carinda, how about if we discuss
this outside? A little stroll might help.”
    Sam walked to the front door and
held it open, ready to step out and leave Carinda talking to the walls unless
she followed. Leading the way past the front of Puppy Chic, Sam started out
with the gentle tone she’d planned to use.
    “Carinda, I want you to know that
we all appreciate—”
    “Like hell! No one has cared one
bit for all the work I put in. I had those booth spaces lined up perfectly—then
I find out you redid all my work according to some other plan that didn’t even
exist!”
    “Carinda—”
    “I have to do everything for this
festival and then you come along and—”
    Sam stopped in the middle of the
sidewalk. “Wait just a minute. It was never your assignment to allocate the
booth spaces. I’m not saying that you couldn’t have done it, but you didn’t
have the vendor applications and didn’t know what each of them needed.”
    “And what about distributing the
posters all over town? That was another of my jobs that someone else took over.
I tell you, I’m mad as hell over this!” She spun toward Sam. “And then you dared to hang up on me.”
    Sam felt the sting of that—she had
done so.
    “Sorry. Can’t we just—”
    “I’m not putting up with it. I
don’t need any of you people. I might as well just—” Her eyes were wild and she
made a hacking motion with her hand.
    “Carinda, settle down. That’s
crazy talk.” Sam reached to touch her shoulder but the woman jerked back and
ran toward her car.
    “Crazy? You think I’m crazy?” She
yanked open the car door and slid in, starting the engine and putting the car
in gear immediately. “Well, you are a
controlling bitch!” she shouted through her open window.
    Sam stood frozen to the spot.
Crazy? That would probably be a yes.
    “Sam? What’s going on?” Riki had
stepped out of her grooming shop with a tiny Maltese cradled in her arms, just
in time to hear the chirp of Carinda’s tires and the honk of another driver’s
horn when she reached the street.
    “I have no idea.”
    Riki shrugged and gave the fluffy
white dog a tickle on its head before going back inside.
    Why did I go for the bait? Sam chided herself on the way back to
Sweet’s Sweets. I knew the lady was a
little off balance; why didn’t I pacify her?
    Because maybe everyone has always pacified her and that’s how she gets
away with these temper tantrums. Or, she’s having raging PMS?
    Another car had pulled up in front
of the bakery and a woman with two kids got out. Sam held the door, then
followed them inside where she sent Jen a half smile and continued to the back.
    “Trouble?” Becky asked, looking up
from a tray of chocolate nut drop cookies.
    “I really hope our voices didn’t
carry all the way in here.”
    “Only a comment or two when your visitor
first arrived.”
    Sam rolled her eyes. Four more
days and she would never have to speak to Carinda Carter again. The image of
that slashing motion came back to her—could Carinda be suicidal? Maybe she
shouldn’t be so flippant about this. She supposed one never knew with someone
whose moods swung as wildly as this woman’s. Maybe she could learn something
more about Carinda’s state of mind from Rupert when they met to unpack the
boxes in the barn.
    Sam couldn’t get Carinda’s freaky
mood swings out of her mind as she finished checking her festival inventory,
gave a glance at her desk and informed the others that she would make a couple
of deliveries and would be at home after that.
    She phoned Rupert as she was
leaving the home of a baby shower hostess, where a cupcake tree featuring two dozen
pink booties was now ready for a party. He agreed to be out at the ranch in
twenty minutes.
    “Never saw the woman before that
first committee meeting,” Rupert said when she brought up Carinda’s odd
behavior.
    Sam unlocked the barn and swung
the big door open. Late