Read Online Devil's Food Murder: A Frosted Love Cozy Mystery - Book 10 (Frosted Love Cozy Mysteries) by Carol Durand, Summer Prescott - Free Book Online

stitches on the left side of his face and his forehead, a black eye, and bruises that seemed to purple him from head to toe. “It’s okay, sweetie, I’m fine,” he assured her, gently pulling her back into his arms and kissing her hair, despite his split and swollen lips. “The airbag bruised my ribs, that’s all,” he soothed. Once she had calmed down a bit, they headed for the car, glad to be together again, taking comfort from each other’s company.
    Touching him at all times, almost as if to assure herself that he was real, Missy walked slowly beside the battered detective to the parking garage, refusing to allow him to drive home, despite his repeated assurances that he was more than capable. Once they were in the car and headed for the safety and security of home, Missy asked him for more details about the accident.
    “There were a couple of things found in the wreckage that clued the police in to what had happened,” he explained grimly. “The first was a tiny hole in the reservoir that held the brake fluid, the second was a note, in Amanda’s handwriting, that had been placed in the glove compartment.”
    “There was a note?” Missy said, frowning at the mention of Amanda Heatherington’s name. “What did it say?”
    Chas sighed, not wanting to reveal the note’s heinous message, but knowing that he couldn’t protect his lovely girlfriend from it, eventually it would be on the news. Reporters had already begun hanging around the gates to the mansion, hoping for an interview, and he’d had to shoo them away at the hospital. “It said, If I can’t have you, no one can ,” he said reluctantly.
    Tears welling in her eyes, Missy digested the information, saying nothing at first. Swiping away her tears with the back of her hand, she took a deep breath. “She’s sick,” she said finally. “Clearly sick. She wanted something so badly that she was willing to kill to get it, and when she couldn’t, she tried to destroy it. To destroy you,” she shuddered.
    “It seems as though tampering with the car was her back-up plan. If her attempts to poison you hadn’t worked, we’d have both been killed on our way to the airport. At least, that was her intention,” Chas explained, shaking his head, knowing just how close he’d come to never seeing Missy again.
    “Did she admit to it?”
    The detective grimaced. “Proudly. She was just so pleased with her own cleverness. She hasn’t shown any remorse for killing Giles or attempting to kill us. Her confessions sound like bragging,” he shook his head.
    “Do you think she’s insane?” Missy asked in a small voice.
    “It’s possible,” he shrugged. “If the choices are between insane and evil, I guess I’d like to believe that she was insane.”
    “Did you ever have any inkling when you dated her that she was capable of such horrendous behavior?”
    “Well, first, we only went on a handful of dates, so I really wouldn’t consider it “dating,” but no, I never picked up on that side of her personality. She seemed needy, selfish, more than a bit spoiled, but this was a shock. I guess I never paid enough attention to her to have picked up on any subtle clues that she might have been leaving,” he admitted.
    Missy paused for a moment “Did you ever actually consider marrying her?”
    “I knew that’s what our families wanted, but no, I never even considered it to be a possibility.” He turned in his seat, facing her as she drove, studying her profile. Brushing a stray golden curl back from her face tenderly, he asked, “How could I even think about marrying her, Missy? You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
    Missy’s beautiful smile and tears of relief and joy gave him the only answer that he needed.

Chapter 21
    Chas’s injuries were healing nicely, plans for Althea Browning’s wedding were coming together better than Missy could’ve imagined, and business at both shops was booming. It was such a simple pleasure to be manning