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  Marshmallow and Malice

  Sticky Sweet Cozy Mysteries, Book 14

  Allyssa Mirry

  Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  Copyright 2019 Summer Prescott Books

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying, or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.

  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

  Contents

  1. Goodbye, Old Home

  2. The New Chapter

  3. A Date Idea

  4. Surprises

  5. A Not So Mini Fight

  6. The Station’s Visitors

  7. Shop Talk

  8. Plans for House Hunting

  9. Golf Gossip

  10. The Dog and the Daughter

  11. Tailing the Suspect

  12. An Annoyed Detective

  13. The Sandcastle Course

  14. Broken Pipes

  15. Realizations with a Realtor

  16. The Trap

  Epilogue

  Also by Allyssa Mirry

  Author’s Note

  Contact Summer Prescott Books Publishing

  1

  Goodbye, Old Home

  Sunny watched in confusion as another box was carried outside of the house and brought to the car in the driveway. Most of the items from the house had already been moved out, and it was clear that the little dog did not like this. However, Sunny didn’t start crying until she saw her owner carrying her favorite dog bed toward the door.

  Lydia Doherty stopped and set the bed down by the door. Then she hurried over to her tan French bulldog mix and scooped her up in her arms.

  “Don’t worry, Sunny,” Lydia said. “I’m not getting rid of your bed. Or any of your bones or toys.”

  Sunny whined, and Lydia held her closer. She was also beginning to feel emotional as the last of her items were taken out of the home she had grown up in.

  Lydia had been preparing for this moment all summer, and she thought that she was ready for it, but she found herself feeling nostalgic and melancholy. It probably didn’t help that the final packing she did reminded her of her Uncle Edgar, the man who had raised her and who had passed away earlier in the year. Staying in the house had helped her continue to feel close to him, and to her aunt who was currently traveling the world as she was encouraged to do with her inheritance.

  Lydia knew that she didn’t need to remain within these specific walls to remember the people she loved who had cared for her and her brother through the years. She would always be able to cherish those memories no matter where she was, and she was also lucky because the saltwater taffy shop that she owned on the boardwalk would always remind her of her uncle. It was because of him that she was finally able to open it and she liked to think that any time she created a new flavor of taffy she was doing him proud.

  Still, it did feel strange to be leaving the house for good. She was being flooded with memories everywhere she looked. Looking at the stairs, she remembered when her brother, Leo, had decided to try snowboarding down the steps and had ended up needing stitches. In the dining room, she remembered all the holiday meals the family had shared together and how she had first experimented making candy at the kitchen counter. Looking at the living room, she remembered how happy Aunt Edie and Uncle Edgar had looked when she returned home to stay with them and had brought the newly adopted Sunny with her as an added bonus.

  She had left home before. Lydia had gone away for college, and she lived further north in New Jersey when she had been engaged (before learning of her fiancé’s true character when he proved unsupportive and selfish when her uncle fell ill.) However, those times when she left, she always thought that she would be able to return again. Now, it would become someone else’s home.

  Lydia continued to hold the dog and soothe her. Being close to her canine friend was calming for her too. Though leaving the house was more emotional than she expected, it was something she had been planning for. Aunt Edie wanted a new home where she could make new memories when she returned from her trip, and Lydia had no need for a house this large. She had been planning on getting her own place for quite a while.

  Perhaps that was another aspect of the move that was putting a damper on the day – because Lydia had not been successful in finding her new house. It had not been for lack of trying. Lydia had looked at dozens of rentals and houses for sale, and she had gotten assistance from a helpful realtor, but none of the places had seemed quite right. Maybe she had been dragging her feet a little at the beginning of the search, and maybe she had gotten distracted when she became embroiled in some murder investigations, but she had still done a good amount of house hunting. Nothing she looked at felt like home.

  However, it was because of this that she wasn’t moving into a new house when she left her childhood home that day. Instead, she and Sunny would be staying with her brother for a while.

  Lydia thought there was a good chance that they might drive each other crazy, but she was grateful that he had made the offer for her to stay. It wasn’t that long ago that their relationship had been strained. In fact, at the beginning of the summer, her detective brother had believed her to be a killer and had nearly arrested her. Leo had been willing to believe the worst of her because he had been hurt by how Uncle Edgar had split their inheritance. Lydia had been given enough money to open her taffy shop, and he thought he had been left nothing until he later learned about Uncle Edgar’s true intentions. Uncle Edgar didn’t think Leo needed money but needed the chance to reconnect with a girl he had a crush on in school, and Uncle Edgar provided the opportunity for their reunion.

  “Everything okay?” Leo asked, walking into the room. “I think it’s all packed up.”

  He had the same green eyes as Lydia and dark hair, though his was kept short and hers was almost always in a messy bun on top of her head.

  “Sunny is having trouble letting go,” Lydia explained.

  “I am too. I keep looking around at the empty rooms and thinking about the good times we had here. I remember roller skating inside the house that day it rained.”

  “Because Aunt Edie had promised that we could go roller skating if we helped her in the garden the day before,” Lydia said, smiling at the memory.

  “And I remember how Uncle Edgar let me completely cover his office with notes when I was preparing for my law enforcement exam. And how we’d all sit on the porch after dinner in the summer and watch the sunset.” Leo’s voice quivered, and Lydia knew that he was feeling as emotional about leaving the house as she was.

  Lydia walked toward her brother, but he didn’t want to be comforted. He focused on the dog’s feelings instead of his own.

  “She was a rescue, right?” Leo asked.

  Lydia nodded. “But she rescued me right back. Her unconditional love and support came at a time in my life when I really needed it.”

  “But you don’t know what her life was like before she was surrendered to the place you adopted her from. Maybe her previous owners got rid of her when they moved, and that’s upsetting her.”

  “You’re a pretty smart detective,” Lydia said before squeezing Sunny even closer and addressing her canine best friend. “You don’t have to worry about that, pup. You’re my family. I’m never abandoning you. We’re just going to a new home.”

  Sunny reached up and licked Lydia’s chin, and Lydia sensed that she had understood what she had just told her.

  “Are you ready?
” Leo asked.

  Lydia wasn’t quite sure that she was, but she followed Leo as they made a final sweep of the house to make sure that nothing was forgotten. They were quiet when they finished and walked outside. Leo locked the door, and they walked away. Lydia continued to hold Sunny who whined slightly. She stroked the dog’s fur.

  They were all about to get into their cars and head to Leo’s house when the mailman arrived at their house. Lydia accepted the mail at this address for the final time but burst into a giant smile when she saw what was there.

  “What is it?” asked Leo.

  “Just Aunt Edie having perfect timing,” Lydia said, showing off the postcard that had arrived with a picture of the Sydney Opera House on the front.

  Leo smiled too. “What does she say?”

  “She says: G’day, mate. I hope this card catches you. I’m enjoying my time in Sydney before I travel further into the outback with a tour. We’ll go scuba diving by the Great Barrier Reef! But this isn’t just one of my usual cards. I know that you’ll be leaving the house that had been our home for so long. I want to remind you that when one chapter ends, another begins. I believe that this move is part of moving on. So good on ya! (Australian slang.) And no matter where we are, we’ll always love one another. With great love, Aunt Edie. P.S. Don’t kill one another while living under the same roof again.”

  They both chuckled, and Sunny barked along with them.

  “She does have great timing,” said Leo. “I think we both needed to hear that.”

  “Let’s get started toward that new chapter of our lives,” Lydia said.

  2

  The New Chapter

  “I’m sorry. I should have cleaned it out more,” said Leo.

  “No. It’s all right,” Lydia said, walking into her brother’s crowded guest room. “You were taking some boxes from the house, so not all of Aunt Edie’s things had to go to storage.”

  “After the murder case we had at a storage facility, I didn’t have great faith in them. But I do want you to feel at home. There’s too much stuff in here, isn’t there?”

  Lydia looked around the room. There was a bed and a dresser which signified that it was a guest room. However, it was also full of exercise equipment, which meant this must work as Leo’s gym when he didn’t have guests, and there were multiple boxes from the other house piled up.

  “It’s going to be fine,” Lydia said, setting Sunny’s bed on an empty space on the floor. “And I know you didn’t have much time to get ready for my arrival.”

  It was true that Lydia had started to have a feeling that she wasn’t going to have a new house of her own to move into by the time the new owners of her childhood home arrived. The closer it got to the date and the more houses she looked at and dismissed, the more inevitable it seemed. However, Lydia hadn’t thought that Leo would be the one she would stay with.

  She hadn’t seriously been considering staying with the man she had been dating over the summer. Things were going well with the handsome lifeguard, but she wasn’t ready to move in with him – even temporarily. That would have put undue pressure on their relationship, and they were both still getting used to dating again. Luckily, the idea never had to be brought up. Daniel was hosting two of his friends who were still visiting the town, and there wouldn’t have been room for another person.

  Lydia had thought that she would be staying with her best friend, Trina. The two friends had talked about it before, and Trina had said that she would love to have Lydia and Sunny as houseguests. They joked how becoming roommates would be like an extended version of their regular girl’s nights nowadays combined with the sleepover parties they used to have when they were kids.

  However, when the time came for Lydia to move in, it wasn’t a good time for Trina. Trina had just become a co-owner at the hair salon where she had worked for years and was beginning to implement new marketing strategies to get tourists to stop in during the summer, even though getting a haircut wasn’t usually high on their vacation to-do list. She was planning for themed days that would attract attention and had been creating the decorations in her home. Trina felt awful about not inviting her friend in with open arms, but she warned her that staying at her place might result in getting covered with sequins and glitter.

  Lydia had been looking forward to staying with her best friend to take the edge off of leaving her home, but she thought it was better if she looked for other accommodations. She didn’t want to cause Trina any extra stress when she was worried about her new ideas going into effect, and she didn’t want to take the chance that Sunny would eat something dangerous from the decorations.

  Lydia had planned on finding a dog-friendly hotel and hoped that hotel hunting wouldn’t be as difficult as house hunting, but then Leo had made the offer that she could stay with him. Pleased that Leo had opened up his home to her and glad that they felt like a family again (and, honestly, not wanting to do any more searching for accommodations,) Lydia accepted.

  The room was small and crowded, but she really was happy to be near her brother. He loved Sunny too, so she knew that the dog would be taken care of, even if she didn’t love the change of scenery. Besides, Lydia didn’t expect to stay there that long. There was a chance that she might be there until the end of the summer when more rental home options would open up, but Lydia was hopeful that she would find a permanent place before long. Just because she hadn’t found a new home with the advance notice she had been given didn’t mean that she wouldn’t find it.

  “You’re welcome to whatever food I have here,” Leo said. “Though, I guess that’s not much at the moment. I eat at the station a lot. But I’m sure I have milk and… uh… you know what? How about we order take out tonight and I can go to the grocery store tomorrow?”

  “That sounds nice,” said Lydia. “Why don’t we order from one of the places that we used to love as kids?”

  Leo smiled. “And some saltwater taffy for dessert?”

  “I just need to unpack it.”

  He laughed and said that he would go on a trip down memory lane and bring up some takeout menus. Lydia sat down on the bed and helped Sunny climb up and sit next to her. Sunny looked at the boxes and whined.

  “I know it’s different, but it’s not so bad. We’ll have our own place soon, and until then we’ll stay with Leo. It might be a little cramped, and we don’t have all the food options that we had in my kitchen.”

  Sunny barked.

  “But it’s nice to stay with family. And I always liked visiting Leo here. I’m sure staying here will be…”

  “Oh, by the way,” Leo said, poking his head back in the room. “I forgot to warn you that the shower pressure isn’t great right now. I think there’s a slight issue with the pipes. I’ve just been working a lot lately and haven’t had time to deal with it.”

  “Oh. Do you want me to call a plumber?” Lydia asked. “I could be here while he works. I know that my employees can cover the shop, and I already taught them how to make the new flavor.”

  “A plumber?” Leo scoffed. “I don’t need a plumber. I fix my own problems around here. By the way, remind me to show you the trick for closing all the windows. I installed my own locks on them.”

  Lydia nodded as Leo went off in search of the menus again. Sunny moved closer to Lydia and crawled onto her lap.

  “I’m sure staying here will be fun.”

  3

  A Date Idea

  “Are you feeling okay?” Kelsey asked Lydia. “You look exhausted.

  “Yeah. You don’t look good at all,” Jeff added.

  Lydia decided to accept her employee’s words as they were meant to be received – as concern for her and not as an insult. She was in the kitchen of Doherty’s Taffy and Trinkets, and the two employees had just come up to the window that allowed guests to see the taffy making process. However, by now, they knew the process very well and were just worried about her.

  “I am pretty tired,” Lydia admitted. “It can be hard for me t
o fall asleep in a new place as it is, but I was feeling a little emotional about leaving the house I grew up in. And Leo watches TV so loudly. And I forgot about how he always ends up needing a midnight snack, and the noise frightened me in the middle of the night.”

  “Well, after all the near-death experiences I don’t blame you,” said Jeff. “I’d constantly be worried about a killer trying to take you out before you could solve the murder he committed, or about some loved one of someone you sent to jail coming to seek revenge.”

  “Well, now she’s not going to get any sleep at all tonight!” Kelsey said crossly.