Free The Chocolate Moose Motive: A Chocoholic Mystery by JoAnna Carl Page A

sit beside her.
    Even after that, Chip argued that his only goal was to protect Sissy. She ignored him, and Joe told him he’d better leave. He finally did.
    After Chip was out the door, Joe made a feeble joke. “That guy doesn’t seem to speak English very well.”
    Sissy held her head in her hands. “He’s unbelievable. He has a reputation among his friends as quite a ladies’ man. I guess no woman ever turned him down before.”
    “Well, you’ve got witnesses,” I said.
    “I might need them.” Sissy shot a glance at the state cop, now sitting quietly in a chair against the wall.
    “Did you ever go out with him?”
    “No! I’ve never been alone with him in my life. Unless he came by to see Buzz and had to wait on him or something. Now he’s bringing me flowers?”
    “Maybe he thinks he has to make a move before anybody else does,” I said.
    “Nobody has shown any interest in me.” Sissy shook her head. “I’ve always tried to be nice to Chip because Buzz liked him. When Ace sent Buzz away to military school, Chip wasthere, too. He was a year ahead of Buzz, and I guess he really helped him out. Stood up for him. But Chip’s never been my favorite person. He sucks up to Ace too much.”
    I handed coffee around then, and we waited. After about a half hour, another car came. This one edged past the cars sitting in the lane and went around to the back, where Joe and I and our visitors normally park.
    Joe looked out the kitchen window. “It’s Hogan,” he said. “They must be nearly finished down at the beach.”
    Hogan came in and accepted a cup of coffee; then he sat down opposite Sissy.
    “I know you’re exhausted,” he said, “but I have to get a preliminary statement. Then you can go home.”
    Sissy looked relieved. I took myself off to the dining room, but Hogan didn’t tell me to go into another part of the house, so I didn’t. Joe kept his seat near Sissy. Though he doesn’t do criminal law, Sissy had consulted him. I could almost see him thinking he’d better stick with her, even if his status was informal.
    Hogan’s questions weren’t onerous. He just got Sissy to tell her story. There was no way I couldn’t hear the interview.
    Sissy said she’d received a text message from Helen Ferguson at about seven thirty p.m. She showed her cell phone to Hogan, and he read the message out loud.
    “‘Sissy! I’ve stumbled across something crazy about Ace. It ought to stop him trying to take Johnny away from you. You need to know this! Meet me at Beech Tree Beach at ten o’clock, and I’ll tell you. Don’t bring anybody. If Ace finds out I’ve blabbed, I’ll be in trouble.’”
    Hogan put the phone down on the coffee table. “I’ll have to keep your phone for a while, Sissy. Had you ever received a text message from Helen before?”
    “No! In fact, back when I saw Helen occasionally—before Buzz died—when Ace and I were still speaking—she told me she didn’t know how to use the text feature of her phone. She was sort of proud about it.”
    “Yeah, us old folks don’t trust technology. Did you have any doubt that the message was from Helen?”
    “Not really. Of course, she’d used the one bait I couldn’t resist. I’d do anything to get rid of Ace’s threat to take Johnny away from me.”
    “I understand.”
    “I talked to my grandmother, and we agreed that I should go. Helen was in a position to know a lot about Ace, and I couldn’t miss a chance at learning something that would help me end this custody battle. So I gave Johnny his bath and read him a story. He went off to sleep long before I left the house.”
    “When did you leave?”
    “About nine fifteen.”
    “What time did you get to the beach?”
    “Maybe ten minutes to ten. Helen’s car was in the parking lot. I guess it’s still there.”
    “We towed it,” Hogan said. “Did you go straight down to the beach?”
    “I went straight to the stairs. Since Helen’s car was there, I thought she was,