Pecan Pie Predicament Read online

  Another contender steps up, and Barry helps get my feet in the proper stance. Yet again, I channel my rage and my cow chip has drifted off into no man’s land, much to the delight of the crowd. With Barry’s coaching, I smash competitor after competitor until a crowd the size of the entire state of Vermont has gathered to see the little lady squash the big boys—Reese’s words, not mine.

  While the tub-o-poop is busy getting refilled, I do a little victory dance and Reese comes over and crowns me with a complimentary cow chip hat. The crowd hoots and hollers, and I step out to take a mock bow to my left then to my right and stop cold once I spot not one but two handsome men. I just so happen to recognize them both, with their arms folded across their chests, their faces looking stone-cold serious.

  They step my way and Greer floats in close as well.

  “Look at those tasty treats, Lottie.” Greer purrs like a kitten at the sight of them—as any sane woman would. “I heard the three of you have finally shacked up. Good move on your part.”

  “My house burned down,” I tell her.

  Reese clucks her tongue as she looks my way. “I heard about that.” She shakes her head. “I’m so sorry. Britney told me all about that curse.”

  Noah and Everett step up, looking like a couple of delicious beefcakes that I’m suddenly having a carnal craving for.

  “Congratulations.” Noah gives a tight smile as he nods up at the hat on my head. “I’m up next.”

  “I’m up next,” Everett says, taking off his jacket and quickly landing a kiss to my lips. “Cow chip is a good look on you, Lemon. Evie tipped me off to where you were.”

  Noah shrugs. “I stopped by the bakery, and Lily pointed me in this direction. Did you know Cormack is sitting outside your shop with a petition to toss you out of town?”

  “I hope you arrested her.”

  Everett frowns over at him. “Rumor has it, he signed it.”

  Noah grunts, “Only because she told me it was in protest of the oil drilling at the end of Main Street.”

  “I’m shocked she was able to concoct the big oil lie.” I avert my eyes at the thought. “Why don’t you boys go head-to-head out there? I need a break. I’ll buy the winner dinner.” I give a quick wink. “Besides, I need some water.”

  Reese blows out a breath. “I was just headed to get a drink myself.”

  Barry Honeycutt steps up just as Greer heads over to watch Noah and Everett battle it out with the cow chips.

  “Perfect.” Barry slaps his hands together. “Now we’ve got her alone. Ask her what she knows, Lottie. If I had to guess who poisoned Hannah, I’d point the finger at her competitor, which just so happens to be this girl right here. It makes sense.”

  I nod because it sort of does.

  Reese leads me a few feet over to a wooden table and hands me a water bottle.

  “You’re really good out there. You must have some serious pent-up rage inside of you.”

  “Yes, well, you would, too, if someone was trying to run you out of town.”

  Barry motions for me to get on with it. “Ask her about Hannah.”

  “Hey, Reese? You wouldn’t happen to know if anyone was trying to run Hannah out of town, do you?”

  “Ha!” she belts it out loud and sharp. “That would be me.”

  Barry claps so long and loud, I’d swear three different people just looked our way.

  “She just admitted it, Lottie,” he spits it out with a smidge of glee. “Now get that boyfriend of yours over here and let’s hogtie her with cuffs and shove her in the back of a sheriff’s cruiser.”

  I shoot him a look. If only it were that easy.

  Reese shrugs. “Look, I didn’t kill Hannah. And believe me, I know I’m the easy target for the sheriff’s department. I mean, I hated the woman. She heartlessly stole all of my clients even when I told her to stop. She would come into my gym and tack up posters that advertised her early morning booty lift classes and undercut my prices. I was bleeding customers by the day. She was going to cost me my gym. I’ve got a one-year lease that still has six months to go. It’s not like I have spare change lying around to pay that loan off without any clients—not to mention paying the rent to keep a roof over my head. So, of course, I crumpled up her silly poster and told her to take a hike. Trust me, Britney wasn’t all that thrilled with her either.”

  “Do you think Britney could have done this?” My muscles freeze at the thought of pinning Noah’s ex with a homicide, especially one that I volunteered to clear her of.

  She shakes her head. “Nah. If Britney was going to off someone, she would never think to do it with a pie. She’d probably strangle them with a jump rope or something. Britney, unlike Hannah, is the real deal.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I look to Barry, and he shrugs.

  Reese leans in as a tiny giggle escapes her. “Hot Hannah was nothing more than a nip and tuck beauty. She’s a socialite who had her credit cards revoked a few years back. You ever hear of the show Real Estate Kings? Her father was one of the regulars.”

  A breath hitches in my throat. “I have heard of it. That’s a huge reality show. I used to watch it all the time about five years ago.”

  “That’s when it was at its peak. Her dad was kicked off before the show fizzled, but basically that’s when the endorsements and appearances dried up for him. He was so overleveraged he had to file for bankruptcy. At the time, Hannah wasn’t doing anything but taking pictures of herself in exotic locations and living off his bank account. Once Daddy’s money ran out, she was left to her own devices.”

  “Which were?” The crowd goes wild, and I glance over to Noah and Everett as the moderator who is filling in for Reese announces a tie, and just like that, they’re at it again.

  Reese shrugs. “She was desperate to fill the cash gap. She tried everything from selling racy pictures, to dating billionaires, but she finally found her niche, bilking hard-working women out of their hard-earned money. I had a fitness class I was teaching in Fallbrook, and Hannah was one of my students. She saw me raking in money hand over fist and decided she could build a better fitness mousetrap. No sooner did I move to Honey Hollow than she followed suit a few months later. I couldn’t believe her transformation. That butt of hers that she claimed she got by way of squatting her way into a booty-ful body? She bought it.” Her eyes roll to the sky. “It was a combination of lipo and a butt lift. And that pie she was eating as she bit the big one? It wasn’t a one-off. Hannah was a notorious carb junkie. Have you ever heard of Food Friends?”

  “Of course I’ve heard of them. They come by the bakery all the time to pick up internet orders. They’re a huge hit and a treasure for those who don’t have time to run around picking up their meals or their groceries.”

  A knowing smile glides across her face. “Rumor has it, she was one of your biggest customers. She didn’t shy away from eating the wrong things—because she knew she didn’t have to. She had a standing appointment for lipo every four months.”

  My mouth falls open at the revelation.

  “Come to think of it”—I lift a finger as I do a little mental math—“my Food Friends orders have gone down significantly over the past few days. How do you like that? Hot Hannah was a closet pie fan. Not that I could blame her. You should really try one of my pies.”

  Barry balls his fists into his hips. “You’re letting her get you off track, Lottie. I think she knows something that’s she’s not telling you. It’s a classic diversion tactic to make the victim sound as if they deserved what they got. I logged a lot of time in front of the TV watching CSI: Vermont.”

  I think on it, and a light bulb all but goes off.

  “Reese, I saw a man leaving your gym today. He was tall and was wearing a fedora. Would you happen to know who that was?”

  Her eyes enlarge a moment. “No. Wh-why would I know that?” She takes a deep breath as she looks to Noah and Everett. “Are they still going at it? I’m sorry, Lottie. I’d better get over there. I thin
k that’s their fifth tie. Something isn’t right.”

  Something isn’t right, all right.

  “Wait,” I say, desperate to hold her down another minute. “Reese, who do you think could have done something like this to Hannah? Did she have any enemies that you know of?”

  She blows out a breath, and her lips vibrate. “Obviously, Brit and I were her competition. But she came after our livelihood. She gave us no choice.” She scans the sky as if looking for answers. “There was that food critic, something or other. The one with the red hair?”

  “Autumn? The journalist from Better Homes and Calories?”

  “That’s the one.” Her expression sours. “I’m shocked they sell a single copy of that magazine with a name like that. Anyway, she and Hannah were having a tense exchange that day.”

  She’s right. I witnessed the tension between them myself, but I have no idea what that could have been about. Autumn said they were friends and offered to introduce me to both Hannah and Maizy. Maybe I’ll do a little digging in Autumn’s direction, but I’m not letting Reese off the hook for getting squirrely when I brought up the man in the fedora. It’s clear she knows more than she’s letting on.

  “That poor handsome man with the broken arm.” She shakes her head while looking at Everett. “He’s going to feel this tomorrow.”

  “That’s my husband. He’s been a real trooper about that arm, but I bet you’re right. I’d better get out there and put a stop to this.”

  “Oh, I am right. I broke my wrist last summer. Had surgery, pins put in—the whole nine painful yards. Honestly, the best thing for him is a good soak in the hot tub. Make sure to wrap up his cast really well so it doesn’t get wet, but the rest of his body will appreciate it. You just don’t know how much compensating you do when you’ve got a limb out of commission. My hot tub saved me these last few months.”

  “Ohh, that sounds good.” There’s nothing I like better than Everett in a hot tub.

  We head back to cow chip ground zero, where Noah and Everett are grunting it out by way of showing off their cow chip hurling prowess.

  Noah takes off his shirt, and all of the women in the crowd jockey their way to the front.

  Everett looks unamused as he unbuttons his shirt and slowly loses some of his stitches, too. The female crowd doubles in an instant, and I’m pretty sure about three different women faint as he exposes his rock-hard chest to the masses.

  Don’t get me wrong. Noah has a rock-hard chest, too. And to be honest, between the two of them, this is one too many six-packs than this sweet corn festival can handle.

  The two of them battle it out until their chests are slicked with sweat and the fairgrounds are soaked with drool.

  “All right”—Reese shouts as Noah and Everett hit yet another tie—“let’s hear it for the handsome, shirtless gentlemen! Introducing the cow chip kings for the night! And maybe if they’re lucky, our cow chip queen will take them both out for a corn cob dinner.” She lands a cow chip hat over each of their heads, and the three of us step off to the side to the cheers of the crowd.

  Carlotta elbows her way over as she steps in close.

  “Nice work, Foxy and Sexy,” she says while pulling her phone out. “Now say cow chip,” she sings as she snaps a picture of the three of us. “This is a great shot, Lot. I think I’ve got your Christmas card taken care of. Don’t be shy, boys. Make her buy you a juicy steak. Rumor has it, she’s got deep pockets.”

  Everett wraps an arm around my waist. “There was no tie, Lemon. I won fair and square. Noah greased the moderator twenty bucks to stay in the game.”

  “It was a tie,” Noah asserts. “I was paying her because I felt bad we were hogging the floor. It’s not a free-for-all. It’s a ploy to make money.”

  Carlotta smacks Everett on his broken arm. “Before you go breaking Foxy’s limbs, I think we’d better get to the stage.”

  We follow her gaze to the front where a familiar looking sixteen-year-old is strutting her stuff with her top reconfigured and tied off under her chest, her skirt hiked up just barely covering her bottom and she has a bright red ten-gallon hat sunk over her head.

  The three of us groan as Evie Baxter sways her hips from one end of the stage to the other.

  Before we can get to her, Evie is crowned Miss Sweet Corn for the night, and Dash is right there cheering her on.

  We pick up enough enchilada corn casseroles to feed every soul at this fairground before we hightail it back to Noah’s place to enjoy our dinner.

  Evie laughs about the fact she belongs to cow chip royalty, and I laugh along with her.

  We curl up by the fire with my sweet cats Pancake and Waffles while Noah and Everett watch sports on TV. Pancake and Waffles are downy creamed-colored Himalayans with blue eyes and rust-tipped tails, and on a night like tonight they feel like living furry quilts. And right about now, I want nothing more than to fall asleep with them in my arms.

  Carlotta falls into a food coma on the sofa and snores so loud it’s hard to hear the game. Evie uses Toby as a pillow as she sits on the carpet with him. I’m sipping on a cup of hot apple cider while nestling with my kitties and my men, and I can’t think of a single place in the universe I’d rather be.

  Things may not be perfect in my world, but it’s times like this when my heart overflows with thanksgiving.

  My hands warm my belly, and I imagine my sweet little sugar cookie sleeping safe and sound.

  Poor Hannah will never know the level of peace I feel because someone out there decided to rob her of everything her future could have held.

  Reese certainly had a motive to poison Hannah’s pie. She was costing her everything. She also knows something about the man in the fedora. I’ve never seen anyone look so jumpy as she did when I brought him up. She mentioned that Autumn and Hannah had some tension between them…

  I guess that’s my next move.

  But right now, I don’t want to think about Hannah or her killer. I want to soak in every ounce of this cozy night.

  Some might say I’m cursed.

  But I say I’m the luckiest girl alive.

  The only one cursed around here is Hannah’s killer.

  And their luck is about to run out.

  Chapter 8

  Since I’ve been toting a plus one along for the ride in my belly, both Noah and Everett helped me hire a staff to open the bakery so I wouldn’t have to get up so early and head to my shop alone where I would bake to my heart’s content before most people in Honey Hollow lift an eyelid to the day. And to be honest, I’ve appreciated sleeping in more than I could have imagined.

  Who knew it was so exhausting to grow a human in your body?

  Women who have grown other humans, that’s who.

  But this morning, both Noah and Everett are still here well after the time they both should have left for work, and I catch them murmuring about something on Noah’s expansive wraparound porch.

  “What’s going on?” I ask while sipping on the hot pumpkin spice latte I just brewed. “Why do the two of you look as if you’re plotting something?”

  Noah frowns over at Everett. “I was just letting Toby out to do his thing.” He ticks his head toward his furry strawberry blonde retriever as he bounds from one end of the front yard to the other, kicking up a flurry of autumn leaves in his wake. “Then I suggested Everett earn his keep around here by raking the leaves in the yard.”

  “Noah.” I bump my shoulder to his. “The man broke his arm trying to save you from a burning building.” I shake my head at Everett. “Don’t you dare rake the leaves—at least not alone. What’s this really about?”

  Everett’s chest expands. “I’ve got a surprise for you, Lemon. I talked to Hannah’s landlord this morning. He says he’ll rent us the house as soon as the sheriff’s department is through with it.”

  I give a quick glance to the white boxy house across the street. It’s a single level and looks every bit like the house I just lost in the fire, with its white picket fen
ce that surrounds the porch and its cheery red door.

  “Oh my goodness!” I squeal loud enough for them to hear me out on the space station. “Noah, are you through with it?”

  He gives a long blink. “Just finished up yesterday.”

  Carlotta pokes her head out the door. “Do you got the key, Foxy?”

  “I got the key.” He nods her way.

  “Evie Stevie!” Carlotta warbles. “Get your shoes on, kiddo. We’re going across the street to the murder house. It’s time to pick out our rooms!”

  “It is not a murder house,” I shout. “Sort of.”

  Not two minutes later, the entire lot of us is migrating in that direction.

  “Noah?” I catch his gaze. “Why did you close your eyes like that when you said you wrapped up your investigation here yesterday?”

  His dimples dig in deep. “Because I knew as soon as you stepped into that place you’d begin yours.”

  I shrug up at him. “You would be right. It’s not every day I get to roam the house of the deceased.”

  Evie grunts, “Wow, deceased sounds so creepy. You don’t think her ghost is still lingering in there, do you?”

  I spot Barry Honeycutt in the window, offering up a friendly wave our way.

  “Not hers,” I say.

  Everett wraps his good arm around me as we make our way up the porch. “Noah mentioned she has a home office,” he whispers. “I say we start there first.”

  “I like how you think, Judge Baxter.”

  Noah shakes his head. “You won’t find anything. I sifted that place as if I were mining for gold.”

  Evie scoffs. “No offense, Uncle Noah, but my mom is a pro. She’s going to find something so incriminating it’s going to come back to bite the killer in the butt. Speaking of getting bit in the butt.” She grimaces my way. “Cormack swung by cheerleading practice yesterday and had a bunch of us a sign a petition to get the cafeteria manager fired for feeding us the human equivalent of dog food. But it turns out, it was to give you the heave-ho out of Honey Hollow, Mom. I think we need to lawyer up. Dad, it’s your job to throw the book at that dingbat.”