Pumpkin Spice Lies: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 16

the future. Our future together, and our future children, and our future home. Have you thought about that? Where are we going to live after we get married?”
He shrugged. “I thought you were moving into my house.”
“That’s a negative. I like my house better.”
“Why? They’re identical.”
“I know, but I did some really cute decorating in my house, and you haven’t done much of anything to yours. I think you own fewer things than I do anyway, it’ll be easier to move you over here.”
He shook his head. “You could just decorate over there.”
I shook my head now. “No. You’re moving in with me. And one of these days, after we save up a hefty down payment, we’ll move into our own forever home.”
He nodded. “It’s a deal.”
I was still having a hard time accepting the fact that this was really happening. I was going to marry Ethan Banks, the love of my life. But I figured I’d get used to it.

Chapter Six
Monday morning Christy and I walked down to the Sweet Goblin Bakery. I hoped Angela would be there, but after losing her niece, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she wasn’t at work.
I pushed open the door to the bakery and inhaled the sweet scent of vanilla and donuts. Angela was finishing up with a customer at the front counter, and Christy and I walked up to the display case and peered in.
“Oh, she made muddy ghosts,” Christy said.
I nodded. “She makes the best muddy ghosts.” A muddy ghost was a Boston cream donut. Angela had a way with them that made them the best I’d ever tasted.
I glanced at Angela as she chatted for a moment with the woman at the front counter. Then I looked back at the display case. “And I love her decorated sugar cookies. She always does such a wonderful job.” Angela had frosted the sugar cookies and drawn in Halloween scenes by hand with food coloring and icing.
“I’ve got to have that jack-o’-lantern sugar cookie.” Christy moved down the display case. “Oh, she’s got her boo berry donuts made.”
I nodded, my eyes still on Angela. When her customer left, she turned toward us and forced herself to smile. “Hello girls,” she said quietly. “I suppose you’ve heard?”
I nodded, clutching my purse to my side. I had dressed as a ballerina today and my black boho bag was out of place. “Angela, I’m so sorry. I hated to hear about what happened to your niece.”
She looked down at her hands for a moment, then looked up at me. “I tell you, that girl was a firecracker. From the day she was born, she was the happiest baby I’d ever seen. She loved ballet, she loved any kind of dancing really, and she wanted to be an artist.” Tears sprang to her eyes and her nose wrinkled up as she tried to keep them from falling.
I stepped up to the front counter. “I’m so sorry, Angela. I can’t imagine how hard this is for you and your family.”
She inhaled deeply. “Never in a million years would I have thought I would live to see the death of one of my nieces or nephews. You always think about the younger generation outliving you. But I sure was wrong about that.”
I nodded. “How is your sister doing?”
She sighed. “The poor thing. Like I said, she’s always been a worrier. And now her worst worry has come true, and she’s beside herself. She blames herself, of course. I told her that was ridiculous. She had nothing to do with this. Her husband is a mess, too.”
“Why would your sister blame herself?” I asked. Christy came to stand beside me.
“It’s just that worrying tendency she has. Somehow self-blame just feeds itself into those thoughts. She was that way with both of her kids; always worried she wasn’t a good enough mother. That maybe she wasn’t doing enough to keep them safe or healthy.” She shook her head. “I never had any kids, so I didn’t have to deal with those sorts of worries, but I always thought she went a little overboard with it. But, I guess unless you have kids of your own, it’s hard to know if a parent is going overboard or not.”
“I think I remember Hailey from when I was a teacher’s aide at the elementary school years ago,” Christy said. “It was my first real grown-up job; I was eighteen when I started work there. It was so much fun working with the fifth-grade class. And if I remember right, Hailey was the happiest child there. A little distracted, but it seemed like she was always laughing.”
Angela beamed. “That was her all right. She laughed all the time. I just don’t know what the family is going to do without her. When I went to sleep last night, I swear I could hear her laugh echoing in my mind.” She shook her head sadly and wiped a tear away.
Angela was about to make me cry with her. She spoke so fondly of her niece, that I could just picture it. I wasn’t sure that I had ever met Hailey, but the way that she described her, I felt like I knew her.
“Angela, do you have any idea what might have happened to her?” I asked.
She looked at me solemnly for a moment. “I really don’t, except that I know she had boyfriend troubles.”
Now we were getting somewhere. “Oh? What kind of boyfriend troubles?”
She put both her hands on the front counter and glanced at the closed door. We were the only customers in the shop.
“She was dating Joey Harper. You know him?”
I thought about it a moment. “I think I do know him. Doesn’t he work at the shoe store?”
She nodded. “Yes, he’s worked there for a