“—that Hughes is strong enough to have strangled and strung up Dr. Merriweather.”
“It wasn’t him!” Willow shrieks. “Hughes is not the murderer, but I know who did it! It was Maris.”
“Maris?” The police are confused.
“Yes,” she says firmly.
“Well, there, you see? You have the wrong person,” Nana says firmly. “Let my grandson out of there.”
“I have evidence, and I’ll give it to you if you let my boyfriend go!” Willow states.
“He stays, and I don’t need any muffins,” the chief warns.
Nana glares at him.
“I’m trying to watch my sugar.” The chief rubs his belly.
“At least release me on bail,” I ask.
“That’ll be up to the judge. And she’s out until Thursday.”
“We need to release him. We have the wrong person.” Bobby rushes into the room.
“What?”
“We just got back the autopsy from the county. Dr. Jonah Merriweather wasn’t electrocuted.”
“Suck it, fire department!” The officers whoop.
“Or hung.”
“Oh, that’s what I thought.” Winston looks sad.
“He was poisoned. And everyone knows it’s women who do poisoning,” Bobby thunders.
“They tested Taylor Grace, too, for the same poison and found it. So Hughes’s gun didn’t kill anyone.”
The chief glares then sighs. “I guess you’re free to go.”
27
WILLOW
“Poison! They were both poisoned.” I pace around the Jingle Bites Café.
Because he stinks of betrayal and jail, Hughes has been dragged to the RV that belongs to the man his grandmother is sleeping with so he can take a sponge bath. I’m stress-baking cookies.
Poison. Poison. Taylor Grace was poisoned.
The leaves in the kitchen. I can’t help but think of them… and Josie’s bracelet.
“Oh my gosh!” Josie rushes breathlessly into the café. “I just heard. Poison! And everyone says Maris is the culprit.”
“I shouldn’t have just blamed her like that in public. I don’t have watertight evidence.” I fill Josie in while my friend stuffs her face with cookies.
The traitorous part of me whispers,You need to knowwwww.
Josie dunks a cookie into her latte.
