Green Velvet Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 16 (7 page)

Lavender threw open the trunk of her
Kia Rio, then hefted a massive bag off the sidewalk and shoved it into the
hole. A square of material peered out of the corner, zipped into place.

“Lavender?” Heather called out. “Hey,
Lavender!”

Tiny’s girlfriend paused and looked
around for the source of the noise. She spotted them and waved. “Hey there. I
didn’t think I’d see you again anytime soon.”

“I didn’t either,” Heather replied,
then stopped beside the trunk of Lavender’s bright, red car. She adjusted her
grip on Dave’s leash, so he could explore and hopefully not pee on tires of the
Kia.

“What do ya need?” Lavender asked, and
raised a hand to shield her eyes.

Amy smiled at her, a querulous effort
at mirth, and sighed. “We wanted to talk to you about Tiny,” she said.

“Are you going somewhere?” Heather
asked.

“Well, yeah, I got fired, so I’m
leaving this town. And I can’t live with Tiny any more, now that he’s run off
for good.” Lavender fanned her face. “And it’s too hot in this town. Isn’t
Summer s’posed to be over by now?”

“Yeah,” Amy replied, then wiped the
sweat from her brow.

“Have you heard from Tiny, recently?”
Heather asked.

Lavender adjusted the straps on her
dark top and sighed. “Yeah, he came back yesterday to get some of his stuff. He
threw a tantrum because he couldn’t find his phone.”

“Did the cops take it?”

“Nope. I hid it from him on top of the
fridge. Ha, serves him right for dumping me. You know, he screamed at me for
still being in his house? What a loser.” Lavender bent and picked up a smaller
bag, then stole a quick pat from Dave. “This dog is too cute.”

Dave wagged his tail and licked her
fingers.

Lavender squinted up at them. “I left
his front door open if you two want to take a look around inside. I should
never have dated him. He treated me like dirt and turns out he’s a wanted
burglar. I should’ve figured after he turned up with that TV.” The younger
woman straightened at last.

She drew Heather into a hug and patted
her on the back. Heather returned the pat, then froze.

“This is a velvet top,” she said.

Lavender pulled away from the embrace.
“Yeah, my best one. And it’s ruined, look.” She turned and showed them her
back. “Someone cut a big chunk out of it, and I can’t figure out why. I bet it
was Tiny, trying to mess with me. He knows how much I love this shirt, the
jerk.”

“Lavender,” Heather said, “Where were
you the morning of Bernie Belushi’s murder?”

The woman twirled a strand of her
long, dark hair, around her finger. “I was at work. You can call my old boss
and ask.”

“Okay,” Heather said. “Where did you
work?”

“Uh, Bob’s Bug Debunkers. It’s this
weird place in the main street. He has these bugs all over the glass at the
front and –”

“A plastic bug for a door handle,” Amy
said, for her.

“Yeah, that’s right. Anyway, he fired
me cos I missed too much work. And cos his store was robbed and Tiny’s a
suspect. You know how it is,” Lavender replied, then shrugged.

Amy and Heather exchanged a glance.
No, they didn’t know how that was.

“You were the receptionist there?”
Heather asked.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Lavender
replied. “Tiny visited me there that day, can you believe it. He offered to
take me for a donut at the new place down the road. But the boss came out and
screamed at me, so I didn’t go.”

Thank goodness she hadn’t gone.
Heather’s brain fired at a rate of knots. Neurons sizzled at light speed.
Information overload. “Lavender, promise me you’ll never take another of Tiny’s
calls again.”

“Why?”

“Because he might be out to hurt you,”
Heather replied. She grabbed the woman by the arms and held her. “Promise me.”

“Gosh, okay, I promise. You’re kind
hurting my arms, here.”

Heather let go, then whipped out her phone.
“I’m going to text my husband. He’s a detective, Lavender. I need you to speak
to him when he gets here. And, this is a weird request, but I need you to take
off your top and give it to me. It’s evidence.”

“This is a little scary,” Lavender
replied, and grasped the straps of her dark green, velvet top.

“Ya think?” Amy pursed her lips. “You
think this is scary? You should pay a visit to Karly. She’ll scare the fear
right out of you.”

“Not now, Ames,” Heather said. She had
to concentrate on this. Ryan needed to interview Lavender because Karly wasn’t
the problem anymore. She wasn’t the killer.

At Tiny Belushi’s house. You need to
get here, now. Lavender has a lot of evidence to offer. Tiny is the killer.
Come quickly.

She paused and reread the text. It was
as clear as she could make it.

“I’ll just run indoors and change my
top,” Lavender said. “Uh, Amy, right?’

“Yeah, that’s my name. Wear it out, if
you have to.”

“Mind coming with me? It’s kinda
creepy in there. Quiet and I dunno, Tiny’s small. I keep thinking he’s gonna
jump out of one of the kitchen cupboards at me,” Lavender said and brushed a
fly off her shoulder.

Amy stared at her for a long time. She
shook her head once. Then she burst into laughter. “Sure, that sounds like
bucket loads of fun.”

“Wait a second,” Heather said and held
up a palm. “Here, take my Taser, and Dave too. You let him off the leash if you
run into trouble. He might be small, but you know what they say about –”

“Don’t say it,” Amy replied. She
reached into Heather’s tote bag and pulled out the black slab of plastic. She
clicked off the safety, then examined the device in the light. “First time I’ve
held this,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s the last. Let’s go, Lavender.”

“What about Heather?”

“I’m staying out here to wait for my
husband and check the coast is clear. Holler if you need me,” she said. A
message pinged through on her phone.

“Oh trust me, I’ll holler loud enough
to burst your eardrums if there’s a mini-psycho in the kitchen cupboard,” Amy
replied. She pressed the button on the Taser and electricity sparkled between
the two silver nodes. “Ooh, I might get one of these for myself.”

The two women hurried down the stone
pathway. Lavender held a spare shirt against her stomach, and Amy grasped the
Taser in one hand and the end of Dave’s leash in the other. Two lone crusaders
off on a mission to change a t-shirt.

Heather opened the text message from
Ryan.

I’m on my way.

Relief juddered through Heather’s
torso, and she rested her back against the side of Lavender’s Kia. “Almost
over,” she muttered. “Another one for the case studies and the textbooks.”

Her ringtone burst out of the phone’s
speakers. A call? Who could that be?

Heather stared at the screen of her
cell, those darned butterflies dancing around in her belly, bouncing off the
walls, landing on trampolines, then bouncing back again.

Who was it? Only one way to find out.

Heather swiped her thumb across the
screen, then pressed it to her ear. “Heather Shepherd, speaking.”

“Heather,” the woman hissed, into the
phone. “Heather, it’s Karly Belushi.”

“Karly?” The last person she’d have
guessed. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t talk very loud. Someone’s
here. Someone’s in the house. I can hear them.” Karly’s voice trembled.

Ice trickled down Heather’s spine,
followed by a parade of shivers. This was too close to the call she’d received
from Honey Trickle, before her death.

“Where are you?” Heather asked. “I need
to know, right away.”

“I’m in my house, in the upstairs
bathroom. I can hear them. They’re banging around downstairs.” The call cut off
for a second, the scrape of fabric against the receiver. “He just screamed
something. It’s a man. Help me, please.”

“Okay, Karly? Listen to me, really
carefully. Is there a lock on the bathroom door?”

“Yeah,” she hissed.

“Is there a window you can crawl out
of?” Heather asked, and panic tightened its grip on her throat. She cleared it
and focused her mind. Karly was in more danger than she realized.

“No,” Karly whispered. “No, there
isn’t. I’m dead. He’s going to kill me, isn’t he? Who is it?”

“I can’t say for sure, right now.
Karly, you have to lock that door and climb into your tub. Hide. Keep a low
profile and no matter what, no matter what he says or who he sounds like, do
not open that door. Do you hear me?”

“Yes.” Karly sobbed, then swallowed
it. “Heather, I’m sorry for being so mean.”

“Now isn’t the time for apologies.
Keep quiet and low. I’m calling the cops, right now.”

“Thank you,” Karly whimpered.

Heather hung up the phone, then swiped
through to her contacts and found her husband’s number. She tapped her feet on
the tar beside Lavender’s car. Impatience drummed through her soul.

The second sister was in danger.

Ryan’s phone rang twice. “Don’t worry,
I’m on my way to you,” he said, the minute he answered.

“No, don’t come to Tiny’s house. You
need to head over to Karly Belushi’s right away,” Heather said and gulped for
air. The panic crawled through her again, demanding attention.

She wouldn’t feed into it.

“Why?”

“Because Tiny is there. Or whoever is
there is after her. She’s locked herself in the upstairs bathroom. You have to
get there, now, Ryan.” Heather crossed her fingers. Her hubby had never let her
down before.

“I’m on my way,” he said, then hung
up.

Heather heaved a sigh of relief. It
was out of her hands, now, and in the grasp of her super qualified Detective
husband. He’d fix this.

She sagged against the Kia for the
second time in five minutes. “What a day,” she muttered.

“Hey, Heather,” Amy yelled.

She jerked straight and spun on the
spot, heart pounding in her throat. “What is it? What’s wrong? Is he in there?”
Wait, no, he couldn’t possibly be in the house, could he?

“What? No way. The house is officially
clear of creepy little dudes with kitchen knives.” Amy laughed, and Dave turned
in a circle at her feet and sat on her shoe, again. “What is this?” Amy asked.
“Is this a new habit, Dave? Because we’re going to have to break it.”

“What’s wrong, then?” Heather asked.

“You gotta come see some of the stuff
in here. Close up Lavender’s trunk and come take a look,” Amy replied. She
booted Dave off her foot – gently – then led him back into the depths of Tiny
Belushi’s home.

Heather slammed the trunk of
Lavender’s Kia, then traipsed onto the sidewalk and toward the stark Belushi
house. Enough was enough. She needed a donut and a choc milkshake after all of
this.

“The work isn’t over yet,” she said,
to herself. She still had to find the real evidence, which would bring down
Tiny.

Heather’s lips curled back. The man
had killed his mother. What could’ve possessed him to do that?

“Hey, are you coming?” Amy yelled.

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses.”

“I can’t,” Amy replied. “I’m holding
Dave.”

Heather stomped down the path and into
the cool, darkness of Tiny’s house.

“What is it?” Heather asked, and
strode into the living room.

Lavender and Amy stood in the kitchen
area of the room, their eager expressions reflected in the shining, silver
fridge. Lavender grasped a phone between her fingertips and Amy leaned against
her shoulder, gaze flitting across the screen.

“Tiny’s phone?” Heather hurried to
Amy’s side.

The harsh fluorescent tubes
illuminated their square of the kitchen, and the screen too.

“Go back to the other one,” Amy said.

Lavender tapped the screen, then
opened a message and directed the screen toward Heather. “Read it.”

“No need for weeping. The evidence is
here, Heather,” Amy said.

Heather bent her head over the phone
and read the text.

I’ve had enough. I know you’ve been robbing
some of the places around town, son. I won’t stand for it. We left Dallas
because of you, and I won’t let you bring us down again. It’s over.

“Wow. So, Tiny was the one who forced
them to leave,” Heather whispered. “He was a fugitive. On the run from the law
because of his priors.”

“Yep, yep, yep,” Amy said, then
reached across Lavender and tapped her finger on the screen. “Look at this
one.”

No, Tim. You’ve gone too far this
time. I won’t let you hurt people like this. Not your family. I’m going to
speak to my lawyer tomorrow. You’re out of my will.

“Wait, why would Tiny kill his mom
after she’d removed him from her will?” Heather asked. “That doesn’t make
sense.”

“Unless, he wanted revenge,” Amy
replied. She bent, then let Dave off the leash. He sniffed around in the
kitchen and scratched at the tiles.

“Revenge? Maybe.” Heather scratched
her chin. “Or maybe, just maybe, he didn’t think she’d changed it yet. He
probably wanted to get rid of her before she did it, then benefit from the
payoff.”

“I dunno,” Lavender said. “That
doesn’t make sense to me.”

Heather and Amy froze and looked at
the young woman. Heather chuckled. “I almost forgot you were there, Lavender.
Why do you think he did it?”

They were past the point of ‘who did
it’ and onto ‘why’.

Lavender straightened her modest
t-shirt, then narrowed her eyes at the screen of Tiny’s fancy smartphone.
“Because of the way he killed her. He didn’t try to make it look like an
accident. He choked her on a sweet ball.”

“You’re right,” Heather said. “Of
course, you’re right. He also used your velvet shirt to try to frame you for
the murder.”

“What if,” Amy said, and clicked her
fingers three times in a row. “What if he went to meet his mom with the thought
of killing her in his mind? Maybe he wanted her to eat the fudge balls and go
into shock or something. And then when he was there, she revealed that she’d
already changed the will? He got angry and, well, you guys know the rest.”

Heather nodded. “That’s another
theory. Look, this is all speculation. We can’t be certain about anything at
this point, except that Tiny killed Bernie Belushi in cold blood.”

“Cold sugar,” Amy replied.

Dave whined and scratched at a bottom
cupboard at the other end of the kitchen. He sniffed it, then scrabbled his paws
against it.

“Dave? What’s wrong?” Heather asked.

Her doggy dearest ignored her and
scratched at the cupboard s’more.

“I’m too afraid to open it,” Amy
whispered. Lavender clamped onto Amy’s arm, and they shivered together.

“Drama, drama,” Heather said and
rolled her eyes.

She marched to the cupboard, which had
caught Dave’s attention, then dropped to her haunches in front of it. She
wrenched it open. A box sat inside. Plain white, no insignia.

“What if it’s something gory?” Amy
asked. “Oh gosh, what if it’s like, trophies. Like a serial killer?”

“Shush,” Heather said, and flapped her
hand over her shoulder.

Dave whined and sniffed the cardboard
box.

Heather reached into the cupboard and
grabbed it. Her fingers fumbled against the card. She brought it onto her lap,
then sat down in the center of the kitchen. Amy and Lavender crept forward,
still clutching each other.

Heather flipped the lid.

The women gasped. Dave licked his
furry lips.

Heather burst out laughing. “It’s the
fudge balls,” she said.

The rock hard sweet balls sat flush in
the box, rows upon rows of them, except for a gap where the murder weapon had
sat.

“We found the final piece of the
puzzle,” Heather said, then closed the lid before Dave could lick them. His
sugar-lovin’ nose had saved the day, again.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this
relieved.” Amy blew her cheeks out and sighed.

Heather’s phone beeped. Another
message. She rose from the tiles, then walked to the counter and propped the
box of evidence on top of it.

She brought out her phone, then tapped
through to the message.

Karly is safe. We have Tiny Tim
Belushi in custody.

“They’ve got him,” Heather said and
raised her fist. “Yes, they’ve got him.”

Lavender and Amy high-fived. Dave
barked and hopped around in circles, wagging that tail fast enough to take off.

Heather typed a text back.

Got some evidence over here at his
house. Love you.
She
sent it off, then shut her eyes. Another mystery solved. Another murderer
brought to justice.

Ping! And another text message. Heather
opened her eyes and tapped to open it.

I love you more. Donuts and milkshakes
to celebrate
?

Heather chuckled.
On the house.