A Mouthful of Murder: A Frosted Love Cozy Mystery Book 4 (Frosted Love Mysteries) (4 page)

Detective
Chas Beckett called that night, and despite the fact that she knew she
shouldn’t be discussing the Cora Nesbitt murder case with him, she had to tell
him everything that had been happening to her since the murder, including her
frustration with Detective Johnson.

“Don’t
worry about Johnson, he’s always like that,” Chas assured her. “Occupational
hazard for some detectives.”

“It’s
been awful, Chas,” Missy said, trying her best not to cry. “They even have cars
driving around my house spying on me.”

“Actually,
most of those times, it’s probably me, doing whatever I can to watch over you,”
he admitted. “But they probably have stepped up patrols as well, just in case.”

“They’re
just barking up the wrong tree by investigating me,” she wailed, distraught.

“Don’t
worry, Missy, they’re barking up more than one tree. It may seem like nothing
is moving forward with this investigation, but new evidence and discovery comes
in every day. They’re getting closer.”

“Don’t
think I’m silly for saying this, but…I miss you,” she confessed, holding
tightly to her phone.

There
was a brief pause, causing her stomach to plummet to her knees, hoping that she
hadn’t said too much too soon, before Chas responded, “I know, it’s
frustrating…I miss you too.”

A
smile broke over Missy’s face like the dawn of a new day, while at the same
time, a tear rolled down her cheek. The two talked for another half hour or so,
about daily mundane things, before hanging up with promises of a spectacular
reunion once the Nesbitt case was over.

Missy
came back in from walking Toffee on a beautiful sunny morning and fixed herself
a cup of coffee. Feeling better after having talked with Chas, she sighed with
pleasure, basking in the sunlight of her cozy breakfast nook. Ben and Cheryl
were scheduled to open this morning, so she could drink her coffee, have a
leisurely breakfast while scrolling through the news on her phone, and meander
in to the shop whenever she felt like it. It was the closest thing that she
could get to a day off, and she intended to make the best of it. A phone call
interrupted a news story that she was reading, and when she saw that it was Ben
calling, she picked up immediately.

“Hey,
Ms. G….so, there’s something going on down here at the store,” her loyal
manager began, sounding hesitant. “But, you probably shouldn’t come down.”

“What?
Why? What happened, Ben?” Missy demanded, reaching for her keys.

“Well,
somehow, a whole lot of snakes got in here…”

“Snakes?
What do you mean snakes got in? That’s impossible, there’s no way for snakes to
get in,” Missy insisted, shuddering. Snakes were her most profound fear. Just
the thought of them caused her to tremble with dread.

“Yes
ma’am, I know it’s weird, but the whole place is literally crawling with
snakes. Grass snakes, garter snakes, water moccasins, cotton mouths, all kinds.
They’re everywhere…in the cases, in the bathroom and the lounge, all over the
kitchen, everywhere. The only place I didn’t see them was in the freezer,” Ben
sounded a bit shaken.

Missy
fought her rising hysteria. “You’re not in there, are you Ben?” she asked,
gritting her teeth.

“No,
I’m outside. I got here first, so I didn’t let Cheryl go in. I called Wildlife
Control and they have a special team coming in to take care of it,” he explained.

Shudders
rippled through Missy like waves on a pond. “Okay, good. Thank you for handling
that appropriately, Ben. I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been as clear-headed if I
had been the one to encounter those particular circumstances.”

“Yeah,
I figured I’d better call and warn you so that you didn’t have to see this.”

“You’re
the best, Ben. When the Wildlife Control guys get there, you make sure that
they double and triple check every inch of that shop. If I find so much as one
little baby snake in my store, I will not be responsible for my actions,” she
warned.

“Yes
ma’am, I figured that. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come down, and Ms.
G., we need to talk about what’s going on around here.”

“You’re
absolutely right, Ben. I value your opinion. We’ll talk later today. Be careful
out there,” Missy said, concerned.

“I
will, Ms. G., thanks.”

The
drive to Dellville was over all too soon for Missy, who was reluctant to enter
her shop after having it overrun with reptiles. She loved creatures of all
types, but for some reason, snakes inspired an irrational fear in her that
seemed impossible to overcome. She knew that if she encountered one of the
skinny, slithering critters, her reaction would be profound and embarrassing.
She parked her car and got out, looking carefully at the ground before stepping
out, and bravely opened the back door, continually scanning every inch of the
floor as she moved through the kitchen. Ben was just finishing up scouring the
glass cases in the front of the shop, and the image of snakes crawling through
the display space that flashed through Missy’s mind sent shivers up and down
her spine.

“Ben,
you are a saint,” Missy declared, more thankful than ever for his steady and
unwavering loyalty.

“At
the moment, I’m a bit too smelly to be considered for sainthood,” he joked,
throwing a wad of paper towels into a sack that he dragged along beside him. He
pulled off his rubber gloves and took the bag to the dumpster in the back.
Missy made coffee while she waited for him to come back in and wash his hands.
The shop smelled fresh and clean and showed no signs whatsoever of the creepy,
crawly condition that it had been in when Ben arrived. Sitting in the sunlit
eating area, it was hard to believe that the strange event had ever happened.

“Well,
we lost a day of sales, but it looks like everything is taken care of and ready
to go for tomorrow,” Ben observed, sitting down across from his boss.

Missy
rubbed her temples. “This just keeps getting weirder and weirder, Ben.”

“Yeah,
it does,” he agreed, standing and moving to the kitchen to pour their coffee
when he heard the burbling of the brewer stop. “Don’t you think that all of
this stuff is being done on purpose?” he asked, setting down a mug in front of
her and sipping from his own.

“Well,
clearly it’s on purpose, there’s been too much going on to be passed off as
mere coincidence, but why? Why would someone do this?” Her question wasn’t
rhetorical, she valued Ben’s opinion. He was a grad student in Criminal Justice
and had an insight into both criminals and the justice system that she did not.

“Let’s
just take a look at events…Ms. G., you’ve had nothing but trouble ever since
you bought this place. It makes me wonder if it’s haunted by the Donut Man’s
ghost or something, I mean, he did die here you know,” Ben said in
exasperation.

“Well,
thanks for that extremely scientific analysis, Ben,” Missy teased. “But I’ll
remind you that I did not get where I am today by being a shrinking violet who
runs at the first sign of trouble.”

“I
know, I get that, and I’m not saying to give up, but I’m worried about you. A
severed finger? A heaping helping of snakes? These events have gone from being
symbolically threatening to actually threatening, and I’m guessing that if
Detective Dufus Johnson doesn’t catch whoever is doing it, that things will
continue to escalate.”

“Speaking
of the dear detective, how did it go when he showed up?”

Ben
shook his head in disgust. “He didn’t get here until after Wildlife Control had
already finished the roundup, so he treated me like I was being hysterical over
the fact that somehow a couple of snakes had gotten in.”

Missy
absently patted down the hackles that had risen on the back of her neck. “How
many snakes were there, exactly?” she asked, dreading the answer.

“WC
said over a hundred. They didn’t get an exact count because some of them were
picked up in tangled clumps.”

Closing
her eyes against the nausea rising in the back of her throat, Missy tried to
erase the image that Ben had just described from her mind. “Did Johnson talk to
the WC guys?”

“He
said that he would follow up with them, but who knows?”

Missy
twirled her coffee mug round and round, thinking. “I just can’t help but wonder
who would do this, and why. I don’t have any enemies that I know of,” she shrugged,
feeling helpless and confused.

“I
think I might have an idea about that,” Ben said slowly.

She
sat forward. “Who? Who is it?”

“Cheryl
and I have both seen the hippie-looking guy, who pretended to dislike your
lemon cupcake so that he’d get it for free, wandering around down here.
Sometimes he’ll stand just out of sight between two buildings, and when we go
out to confront him, he disappears.”

“But
why would this total stranger, no matter how creepy he seems, have any interest
in scaring me away? It just doesn’t make sense,” Missy shook her head,
frustrated.

“Yeah,
I haven’t figured that out yet, but, believe me, if I get a chance to confront
this dude, I plan on getting some answers,” Ben vowed grimly.

“Just
be careful. I don’t need to be worried about your safety too,” she patted his
hand.

Missy
sat with Echo in Sweet Love, with a spoon and samplers of seven different
samples of frozen delights. She had told her friend about the episode with the
snakes and was surprised when the free-spirited woman had giggled.

“What
on earth is funny about an entire shop full of snakes?” Missy asked, tasting a
lovely vanilla bean soy milk ice cream.

“The
unwarranted prejudice against those beautiful creatures just never ceases to
amaze me,” Echo frowned. “Why on earth would a store full of snakes be any more
intimidating than a store full of bunnies? They’re no more dangerous. I have a
few of them myself,” she replied, pushing a container of a light,
yellowish-orange colored treat in front of her to try next.

“Ewww…you
have snakes in your house…by choice?” Missy was astounded, her spoon stopping
midway to her mouth.

“They’re
pets. Watch out, you’re going to drip,” she looked pointedly at the spoon,
which Missy then popped into her mouth.

“Oh
wow, that’s delicious, it tastes like fresh-picked peaches,” she exclaimed.
“And I just think it’s strange to voluntarily house reptiles.”

“You
have a dog, it’s all the same,” Echo asserted firmly. “That’s my rice milk
peach whip. Ian Barker had more peaches from his aunt’s trees than he had
buyers for, so he brought me several bushels and they just have the best
flavor.

Missy
exercised a great deal of willpower in not grimacing at the mention of Ian’s
name, preferring to focus on the delightful dessert in front of her. “Hey, you
know what…Ian Barker is actually the reason that I’m afraid of snakes!” she
remembered.

“Ian?
How on earth did that come about?” she asked, presenting the next concoction, a
Honduran coffee ice cream made with coconut milk.

“He
was a couple of years behind me in school, and when I was in 7
^th
grade, on the last day of school, he slipped a garter snake into my backpack. I
opened it up at home, in my room, and reached in, startling it, and it latched
onto the webbing between my thumb and forefinger. I pulled my hand out of the
backpack and shook it as hard as I could, flinging the snake to the floor and
ran from my room screaming. I refused to go back into my room until my dad went
in and removed the snake. I had nightmares for weeks after that, and found out
from Ian that he was the nasty little prankster who did it. I didn’t speak to
him for quite a while,” Missy shuddered, remembering. She took a bite of the
coffee treat and her eyes practically rolled back in her head at the
ridiculously delicious flavor.

Echo
stifled a giggle behind her hand. “Well, you can’t exactly blame the snake in
that scenario. Sounds like Ian was quite the little mischief back in the day.”

“Mischief…hmmf,
that’s one word for it,” Missy observed wryly.

“Don’t
you think he’s kinda dreamy?”

“Dreamy?
Ian? Hardly. I’m actually shocked that you do.”

“Really?
Why? He’s good looking, charming, has that “Southern boy manners” thing going
on,” she sighed. “I mean…wow. Why wouldn’t I think he was wonderful?”

Missy
put down her spoon, trying hard not to let the degree of her distaste for Ian
Barker show when she answered. “Hmm…I don’t know, maybe because he’s a spoiled
little conspicuous consumer whose never worked a day in his life and you’re
setting out to save the planet one recycled bowl at a time?”

“You
really don’t like him, do you?”

“I
actually don’t really care one way or the other. I hadn’t thought about him in
years before I ran into him after his aunt’s death. We’re just very different
people I suppose,” Missy shrugged as a bowl of light green ice cream was placed
in front of her. “What’s this one?” she asked, poking at the mass with her
spoon.

“Ginger
and lime,” Echo responded, still focused on their conversation. “Well, you and
I are very different people, and we get along well.”

“Yes
we do, and I’m glad,” she smiled, taking a bite of the latest treat. “Ooooo!
This is made with coconut milk too, isn’t it?”

Her
friend beamed. “Yup, put the lime in the coconut and eat it all up!” she joked.

The
two laughed and chatted and found themselves forgetting all about snakes and
Ian Barker as they discussed everything from the environment to politics to old
boyfriends (although Echo became markedly distant when that topic came up,
making vague references to shiftless charlatans – Missy made a mental note to
ask her more later). When Missy left a couple of hours later, stuffed and
happy, she was thankful for a pleasant afternoon, and was looking forward to
exercising her ice cream indulgence away in the company of her energetic Toffee.