Raspberry Mojito Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 20 Read Online Free Page A

eyed Amy, shook his head once, then
bent, got another packet of Cheetos and tossed it to her.
    “Yeah we’re talking about Quick Paul,”
Heather replied, then tilted her head to one side. “And you are?”
    The elderly gentleman shuffled forward
and stuck out his hand. He had to be at least Eva’s age. “Peter Hill. You spoke
to my son yesterday. He told me all about it.” Peter pursed his lips. “My son
didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “I, uh, nice to meet you too,” Heather
said and finished the handshake.
    “The greetings sure have gone down
around here,” Amy muttered.
    “You knew Paul?” Heather asked.
    Peter shook his head. “Nah, not
really. I just know he wasn’t a good guy. He was involved in all kinds of bad
deals, my son told me all about it.” He cleared his throat and jabbed his
finger at her in mid-air. “So don’t you go accusing my son of doing something
he didn’t do.”
    Amy chomped on Cheetos, her fingers
coated in orange dust, and snorted.
    “You seem awfully protective of your
son.”
    “As is every parent’s right to be,”
Peter replied. He smoothed his fingertips over the tufts of hair at his
temples. “I, uh, don’t have any other family. Lost my wife a few years ago.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Hill,”
Heather replied. She couldn’t imagine losing Ryan, and Eva still missed her
husband, though he’d died many years back.
    “It’s all right. It was better she
went when she did. She was ill for a long time.” Peter cleared his throat. “Not
easy to see someone you love suffer like that.”
    Heather nodded slowly. The only time
she’d seen similar had been the day Eva had wound up in hospital after she’d
been attacked. “Mr. Hill, I’m trying to get to the bottom of this murder, so
that I can take another dangerous criminal off the streets. Any information you
have would be greatly appreciated.”
    He grunted and brushed off his palms
on his worn pants. “I’ll help in whatever way I can.”
    Amy crumpled up her empty bag and
presented it to Bob. He chucked it into the trash can beside the counter, then
grinned at her. “You like Cheetos,” he said, between orange teeth.
    “Not as much as I like donuts,” Amy
replied, then turned to Peter instead. “Did your son tell you anything about
Quick Paul?”
    “Not really,” Peter replied. “He
doesn’t discuss his business matters with many people, and especially not with
his old man. Ha. I never had a successful business, like him. Why would he ask
me, right?”
    Heather blinked. “I see.”
    “But I did hear that Quick Paul was
into some dangerous dealings. Got in trouble with the bad types over in that,
uh, Dallas or Houston or somewhere. Heard he had a lot of enemies.”
    Heather whipped out her notepad and
pen from her back pocket and made a note of it. Or tried to, at least, her pen
had run out of ink. She shook it back and forth, and black ink spurted out of
the end and onto her plain, white cotton blouse. “Oh, fantastic.”
    “That’s totally in fashion, right
now,” Amy said, then hurried to Heather’s side. “Maybe it’s time to call it a
day.”
    Heather glanced down at her blouse and
back up at Peter. He didn’t have much information on Quick Paul, anyway. Just
the type of conjecture that Sharon Janis would spew if asked. “Well, Mr. Hill,
it was nice meeting you. Take care.”
    “And you,” he replied.

Chapter
7
    Heather hummed Truly Madly Deeply by
Savage Garden and barely managed to keep up with Lilly.
    “C’mon, Au-Heather, if we don’t pick
up the pace, Dave will never lose any of his puppy fat,” Lilly said and glanced
back over her shoulder.
    Dave whined and tried slowing down
again. Lilly waggled the end of the leash, and he trotted back to her speed.
    “Finally, Dave, I feel your pain,”
Heather called out, then wiped sweat from her brow. At least, clouds blanketed
the sky, and they’d bruised from gray to black in the past ten minutes.
    Lilly would have to quit