All I Want For Christmas is Fudge (A Candy-Coated Mystery with Recipes Book 4) Read Free Page A

sank a bit.
    “He says I have to stay on the island until the crime is solved,” I said.
    “In that case,” Shane said as he set down his forensic case, “we should get right on it.”
    My expression fell at his cool response. Somehow my return to the island wasn’t exactly as welcome and romantic as I imagined. Now I knew how Allie felt. Finding a dead guy wasn’t as much fun as they made it seem on television.

Chapter 2
    “Hi, Jenn, how was your run?” Frances Wentworth, the reservations manager and all-around helping hand of the Historic McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop, greeted me. Frances was in her early seventies and carried off the bohemian chic look with pizazz. Her brown hair was cut in a short bob and swung just above her shoulders. She wore giant silver earrings encrusted with various gemstones, which I suspected were real. She had on a white T-shirt sprinkled with a purple rosebud pattern, a long denim skirt, and a thick, handmade purple sweater to coordinate the two. She wore granny boots on her feet and silver bangles on her wrists.
    “Extraordinary,” I replied, and headed to the coffee bar in the lobby of the McMurphy. My best friend, Allie, had remodeled the place in the spring and wisely added a five-foot-long bar that held fresh coffee and cocoa twenty-four hours a day. I pulled out a mug and half filled it with coffee, then dumped some sugar, caramel syrup, and a splash of half-and-half into the brew and wrapped my hands around it. “Oh, Caramella kitty,” I purred when I spotted the calico cat who had adopted Allie. She sat on the back of one of the wing-backed chairs closest to the fireplace. Her tail twitched as she pretended not to notice me. I had to give her a rub between the ears and she purred against my hand. “How’s little Mella, Mella today?”
    “That cat missed you,” Frances said.
    “I missed her, too.”
    “I heard you had an interesting morning,” Allie said as she hopped down the stairs. My best friend was gorgeous. Slightly shorter than me, she had an oval face lit up by stunning hazel eyes fringed with thick, long lashes. Her brown hair was also thick and held a slight wave so that all she had to do was finger comb it and it looked like it had been set with hot rollers. She had long legs and arms and a curvy figure that stunned any man who got within a few feet of her.
    Her bichon-poodle puppy, Marshmallow, bounded ahead of her and took a flying leap toward my feet. The dog was wearing a red-and-white Christmas sweater.
    I braced myself for the pup’s classic slide into me. “Mal!” I loved that little doggie so much. I held my coffee high and leaned down to pat her head. Caramella gave Mal the evil eye.
    “What happened?” Frances asked.
    “Jenn found a body,” Allie replied.
    “Oh, my goodness!” Frances said, and looked at me over the top of her deep-purple-framed reading glasses. The glasses had rhinestones along the earpieces and in the cat-eyed corners. “What happened?”
    “I spotted a guy in a Santa suit sleeping in a snowbank.”
    “Only he wasn’t sleeping,” Allie said, and picked Mal up.
    “No, he was quite dead.” I sat in the chair and pulled Mella into my lap. Her soft fur and purring comforted me.
    “I guess you’ve caught Allie’s tendency to find murder victims!” Frances exclaimed.
    I laughed. “Yeah, Charlene at nine-one-one dispatch asked me if I was Allie.”
    “Charlene would,” Allie said, and crossed her arms. She pouted. Frances and I giggled.
    “You must have been so upset to find something so awful on your morning run,” Frances said.
    “Yes, I was,” I said, and sipped my coffee while Mella snuggled in my lap.
    Mal seemed a little jealous and squirmed in Allie’s arms. Allie put the pup down and Mal jumped up into the chair with me and the cat. “Hey!” I said. “There’s coffee in my hand, guys.” But the two pets seemed not to care. Mella retreated to the top of the chair, where she could bat the puppy on