Free Death by Tea by Alex Erickson

still spinning from what had just happened. I didn’t think it was possible for me to forget about David’s murder, but right then it was the furthest thing from my mind.
    Instead, I was thinking about Will, about his willingness to help a hopeless girl out with her ball-handling skills.
    And I thought about Paul Dalton. Would he be jealous I’d talked to another man? Would he even care?
    As I strode forward and threw my ball, I realized that at that moment I didn’t really care either way.

7
    Red and blue lights spun, illuminating the front of my house. I sat in my car at the end of the driveway, backseat full of things Vicki and I had bought on our free day together, and stared at the two police cars, not quite believing what I was seeing. Eleanor Winthrow stood outside her house, nodding as if she’d known this day was coming all along, which seemed to be the norm with most of my detractors. Chief Dalton stood, arms crossed, facing the front of the house. She turned as I started forward again. She motioned for me to park behind her cruiser.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” I asked, getting out of the car. “Did someone break in?” It would be just my luck to come from having something good happen to me, in the form of Will, to having someone break into my house and steal all of my things. Couldn’t I ever catch a break?
    Patricia frowned at me before handing me a piece of official-looking paper. I looked at it and gasped.
    â€œA warrant? Why did you get a warrant?”
    â€œWe have reason to believe a stolen object that might pertain to the murder investigation could be inside the premises.”
    â€œWait. What?” My heart started pounding. What could they possibly think was inside? “Why would you think that?” I looked down at the warrant in my hand. “And how did you get this so fast?”
    â€œLocal judge,” Patricia said, leaning against my car as if we were simply shooting the breeze. “Helps expedite things.” She chewed on her lower lip a moment before narrowing her eyes at me. “Did you actually admit to stealing something from Rita Jablonski?”
    My stomach fell. Of course. No wonder Buchannan had left the ice-cream shop so quickly. Apparently, he’d overheard my confession to Vicki, and after the scene Rita had made over her stupid cardboard cutout, he’d surely assumed I was up to something nefarious, especially since I hadn’t told the police I’d taken it.
    â€œI can explain . . .”
    â€œGot it!” Buchannan strode out of my house, Cardboard Dad tucked under his arm. “She had it in her bedroom.” His eyes fell on me and a grin split his face. “And there she is.”
    I went immediately defensive. “I didn’t kill anyone!”
    He sauntered my way, clearly enjoying every second of this. “Oh? Then why do you have this?” He held out the cutout as if it proved my guilt.
    I reddened. “Because it was an eyesore.” I glanced at the chief. “I was going to give it back.”
    He snorted a laugh. “Or is it because there are bloodstains on it that would implicate you in the murder?”
    â€œWhat? Where?” I started forward, intent on scouring every last inch of the cutout in search of blood, but Chief Dalton stopped me with an arm across my chest.
    â€œThat’s far enough, Krissy.”
    â€œBut there isn’t any blood! I took it from the front of the store last night. That’s all I did! I didn’t kill anyone. Honest!”
    â€œWe’ll see about that.” Buchannan opened the back door of his cruiser and shoved the cardboard cutout into the backseat. Apparently, there were no evidence bags big enough for the cutout, or I was sure he would have made a show of sliding it inside. Once satisfied, he crossed his arms and stood expectantly in front of his cruiser.
    â€œI guess we’re all done here,” Patricia said. She