Free Chewy Chocolate Chip Murder: A Cookie Lane Cozy Mystery - Book 1 by Karen Sullivan Page B

breeze, which whipped past her nose and swept into
the living room.
    “Calm down?” Joseph Walters asked.
Then grasped at his hairpiece. He ripped it off his head and waggled it. “Calm
down?”
    “Joseph,” Tara hissed. “I told you to
keep your hair on.”
    “This intruder has accused my wife of
murdering my Great Aunt,” he growled. “How am I supposed to calm down?”
    “She hired me to kill her,” Jarred
Weaver said, calm as could be. His arms swung at his sides. He reached up and
scratched the back of his greasy neck. “I did what I had to do. Now, I want my
money or else –”
    “Lies!” Joseph exploded, then threw
the hairpiece at the trespasser.
    It sailed past his shoulder and out
the window. Cat ducked back, and the thing swept above her head.
    “What’s wrong with you?” Jarred asked.
    “You killed a woman,” Tara said.
“You’re one to talk.”
    “Yeah, on your orders! And now I want
my pay,” Weaver replied. He flexed his fingers at his sides.
    Detective Bradshaw’s gaze flicked from
one person to the next. His body was tense, but his eyes remained calm.
    Joseph glared at his wife. “Tara, will
you please tell this man to leave our home? He’s clearly a liar, and I won’t
stand –”
    “He’s not lying,” she snapped.
    The room fell silent. Bradshaw raised
his eyebrows ever so slightly, then relaxed them again.
    “What?” Joseph asked. “What did you
just say?”
    “I said, he’s not lying. I ordered him
to kill Beth.”
    Joseph stumbled back and grabbed at
the piano to steady himself. He squashed a few keys flat, and a discordant tone
sounded in the living room. “No.”
    “Yes,” Tara replied. “I ordered him to
kill her, and I’d do it again. She did nothing for our family. Every time we
asked her for help, she rejected us.”
    “Why, Tara? How could you do this?”
    Tara reached up and jerked on her string
of pearls – pink this time. “I did what I had to do to save this family.”
    “What are you talking about?” Joseph
asked.
    “Everything was fine until you lost
your job, Joseph. Fine! And then the bills came in. College fees for Kevin and
Rachel. Electricity, the mortgage, the gambling debts from your little habit.”
    “What? I don’t –”
    “Don’t bother lying, Joseph, I spoke
to Richard at the casino. He told me they had to ban you,” she replied. “So,
yeah, I did what I had to do. I stepped up to the plate to support our family.”
    This was messy and Tara was
delusional. She’d only made matters worse.
    “Beth –”
    “Beth was nothing,” Tara replied. “She
didn’t care about you, or any of us.”
    “That’s not true,” Detective Bradshaw
said.
    Tara flinched and looked at him –
perhaps she’d forgotten his presence. “What did you say?”
    “Beth paid for Kevin’s college tuition
in full. All the years. You might have ruined one life, but your son’s future
is secured, thanks to the woman you murdered.”
    “What?” Joseph whispered. He touched
his fingers to his lips. “I had no idea. I called her a few days before she
died and begged for help. I didn’t know she followed through.”
    Tara shrunk on the spot and sat down
on the sofa. She placed her head in her palms.
    “I don’t care about any of this,”
Jarred Weaver said. “I was hired for a service. I performed said service, and
now I want my payment, or this isn’t going to end well.”
    “Are you crazy?” Joseph asked. “You’re
trying to extort money for murder in front of an officer of the law.”
    Crickets chirped in the ensuing
silence. That was a good point. The only way Jarred would reveal himself as the
murderer was if he thought he could get away with it. And that meant –
    “I don’t have the money,” Tara said,
from between her hands. “Beth’s inheritance didn’t pay out to the family. It
paid out to some idiot who runs a bakery store.”
    “Watch your mouth,” Detective Bradshaw
snapped, through a clenched jaw.
    “Are you telling me,