Free Green Velvet Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 16 by Susan Gillard

the morning of Bernie Belushi’s murder?”
    The woman twirled a strand of her
long, dark hair, around her finger. “I was at work. You can call my old boss
and ask.”
    “Okay,” Heather said. “Where did you
work?”
    “Uh, Bob’s Bug Debunkers. It’s this
weird place in the main street. He has these bugs all over the glass at the
front and –”
    “A plastic bug for a door handle,” Amy
said, for her.
    “Yeah, that’s right. Anyway, he fired
me cos I missed too much work. And cos his store was robbed and Tiny’s a
suspect. You know how it is,” Lavender replied, then shrugged.
    Amy and Heather exchanged a glance.
No, they didn’t know how that was.
    “You were the receptionist there?”
Heather asked.
    “Yeah, that’s right!” Lavender
replied. “Tiny visited me there that day, can you believe it. He offered to
take me for a donut at the new place down the road. But the boss came out and
screamed at me, so I didn’t go.”
    Thank goodness she hadn’t gone.
Heather’s brain fired at a rate of knots. Neurons sizzled at light speed.
Information overload. “Lavender, promise me you’ll never take another of Tiny’s
calls again.”
    “Why?”
    “Because he might be out to hurt you,”
Heather replied. She grabbed the woman by the arms and held her. “Promise me.”
    “Gosh, okay, I promise. You’re kind
hurting my arms, here.”
    Heather let go, then whipped out her phone.
“I’m going to text my husband. He’s a detective, Lavender. I need you to speak
to him when he gets here. And, this is a weird request, but I need you to take
off your top and give it to me. It’s evidence.”
    “This is a little scary,” Lavender
replied, and grasped the straps of her dark green, velvet top.
    “Ya think?” Amy pursed her lips. “You
think this is scary? You should pay a visit to Karly. She’ll scare the fear
right out of you.”
    “Not now, Ames,” Heather said. She had
to concentrate on this. Ryan needed to interview Lavender because Karly wasn’t
the problem anymore. She wasn’t the killer.
    At Tiny Belushi’s house. You need to
get here, now. Lavender has a lot of evidence to offer. Tiny is the killer.
Come quickly.
    She paused and reread the text. It was
as clear as she could make it.
    “I’ll just run indoors and change my
top,” Lavender said. “Uh, Amy, right?’
    “Yeah, that’s my name. Wear it out, if
you have to.”
    “Mind coming with me? It’s kinda
creepy in there. Quiet and I dunno, Tiny’s small. I keep thinking he’s gonna
jump out of one of the kitchen cupboards at me,” Lavender said and brushed a
fly off her shoulder.
    Amy stared at her for a long time. She
shook her head once. Then she burst into laughter. “Sure, that sounds like
bucket loads of fun.”
    “Wait a second,” Heather said and held
up a palm. “Here, take my Taser, and Dave too. You let him off the leash if you
run into trouble. He might be small, but you know what they say about –”
    “Don’t say it,” Amy replied. She
reached into Heather’s tote bag and pulled out the black slab of plastic. She
clicked off the safety, then examined the device in the light. “First time I’ve
held this,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s the last. Let’s go, Lavender.”
    “What about Heather?”
    “I’m staying out here to wait for my
husband and check the coast is clear. Holler if you need me,” she said. A
message pinged through on her phone.
    “Oh trust me, I’ll holler loud enough
to burst your eardrums if there’s a mini-psycho in the kitchen cupboard,” Amy
replied. She pressed the button on the Taser and electricity sparkled between
the two silver nodes. “Ooh, I might get one of these for myself.”
    The two women hurried down the stone
pathway. Lavender held a spare shirt against her stomach, and Amy grasped the
Taser in one hand and the end of Dave’s leash in the other. Two lone crusaders
off on a mission to change a t-shirt.
    Heather opened the text message from
Ryan.
    I’m on