Pumpkin Spice Lies: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 16

got it,” I said, and we headed inside.
“Hi Boo,” he said, and stopped to bend over and pet him. Boo meowed and rubbed up against his legs. “Sorry I didn’t make it to the vendors’ fair. Things were crazy.”
“I figured as much. I wish you would have gotten to stop by, but I understand. So,” I said, going to the kitchen and taking the pizza out of the refrigerator. I’d ordered it on a whim, and as soon as I placed the order I wished I’d waited until Ethan came home so we could eat together while it was still hot. “How are things going? Do you know who the victim is yet?”
He nodded and went to the cupboard and pulled out two glasses. “You have iced tea?”
“Of course,” I said, and got the pitcher of tea out of the refrigerator and filled both glasses.
“It’s Hailey Strong.”
I turned and looked at him. “Hailey Strong? Angela Karis’ niece?”
He nodded. “I think so. Her mother came into the police department early this morning and wanted to fill out a missing person’s report. I asked her a few questions, and she showed me a picture of her that she had on her phone, and I was 99% sure that she was our victim. Then we matched up dental records to make sure. She had just had her teeth capped, and it was a perfect match.”
I sighed and took two plates down from the cupboard and put them on the table. “What a shame. I saw Angela earlier today, and she thought Hailey’s mother was overreacting to her not coming home the night before.” I set the pizza on the table and we sat down with our iced tea.
He nodded and helped himself to the pizza, placing two slices on his plate. “I hated to tell her that her daughter was dead, with her being as young as she was. It’s just a shame when a life that young is cut short.”
“I can imagine that must have been difficult, talking to her mother like that,” I said and took a sip of my iced tea. “Any ideas what happened to her? Do you know how she died yet?”
He shook his head. “We’ve got to wait on the report from the medical examiner. There wasn’t any obvious trauma to the body. So until we hear from him, we won’t know for sure. Her mother was crushed, as you can imagine.”
I nodded again. “How horrible. Does she have any ideas about what might have happened to her?”
He chewed and swallowed a bite of pizza before answering. “Not really. She was so distraught it was hard to get much of anything out of her. I’m going to talk to her again in the morning.”
I took a piece of pizza from the box and laid it on my plate. It’d been a couple of hours since I’d eaten and the pizza was so good I couldn’t resist. “Angela Karis said that her niece was a practical joker. She described her as the life of the party.”
One eyebrow shot up. “The life of the party? I wonder if the emphasis is on party?”
I shook my head. “I really don’t know. She didn’t elaborate on whether she was prone to partying. But she did mention that the high school was probably glad that she had graduated and maybe just passed her to get rid of her. I don’t know how serious she was.”
He smiled. “Well, that does paint a picture, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “Sure does. I wonder if Hailey had some sketchy party friends and something went wrong, and she ended up dead.”
“That’s probably a pretty good bet,” he said and took another bite of his pizza. Boo rubbed up against his legs, begging for a taste.
I looked under the table at him. “Boo, you don’t need any pizza. You had some ham off of mine earlier.”
“Oh, but Mom,” Ethan said, handing a piece of ham to Boo. He looked at me and smiled. “How could I not give him a piece?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “You are something else. The two of you are going to be quite a pair when we move in together.”
“Don’t forget about Licorice.” He took a sip of his iced tea. “She won’t appreciate being left out.”
“Of course not. I’m sure Licorice will be right there in the middle of all the trouble the two of you will be getting into.”
Ethan had his own black cat named Licorice. She was a more recent arrival than Boo. I had taken Boo in when he hung around the cottages looking for a home, and Licorice had come to Ethan after an earlier murder investigation.
We sat and visited as we finished our pizza, and then Ethan leaned back in his chair, placing his napkin on his empty plate. “So, how many days is it until we get married?”
I shook my head at him. “I haven’t counted. Why? Are you getting anxious?”
He grinned. “Of course I’m getting anxious. Never in my life did I think that I would be anxious about getting married. And I mean anxious to get married. But I’m ready to hang up my bachelor days and put them behind me.”
I grinned. “Good. Say goodbye to those single bachelor days, because you are done with them.”
He chuckled. “And you’re done with your bachelorette days.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, you know I was a wild bachelorette. It will be so tough leaving that lifestyle behind.”
He picked up his glass of tea and drained it. “Good. I don’t want you looking back. From here on out, we’re looking forward. To our married life together and to our future children.” He set his empty glass on the table.
I raised my glass of iced tea and took a sip, then set it down. “Here’s to