Page 7 of Toxic Apple Turnovers

“Funny,” I say. “Unlike you, I have to go through it the old-fashioned way.” I open the door and make my way down the expansive porch where Greer, Winslow, and Lea all look somberly into a patch of lavender impatiens.

“What is it?” I trot forward and stop abruptly, a scream buried in my throat.

“Oh no,” I gasp.

“Oh yes.” Greer nods.

It looks as if our party planner extraordinaire, Amanda Wellington, just booked her last event.

Amanda Wellington is dead.

Chapter 3

Dead.

I sway back on my heels just as Everett and Noah come bounding down the stairs.

Noah checks for a pulse while shouting for us to call 911.

Everett pulls me to the side. His jaw is tense, just the way it is when he gets angry. “Lottie, why didn’t you get me? I would have come with you.”

“I should have.” I shake my head back at Amanda. She’s lying facedown, her bare legs sticking out of the border garden in a grizzly manner. “Greer was the one who called me out this way.” I do a quick scan of the vicinity for her, Winslow, or Lea, but the three of them have vanished.

Noah comes our way while texting someone on his phone. “I just told Ivy to get out here. Lottie, what did you see? What brought you out to the front?”

“Greer Giles,” I whisper her name like a secret.

Noah’s eyes expand just as Ivy clip-clops her way over.

“Tell her you needed a breath of fresh air,” Noah whispers frantically.

“Why?” I glance over at Ivy who goes straight to the body.

“Because ghosts make lousy alibis.” He heads over to her just as a couple of squad cars scream in this direction.

“He’s right about that.” Everett shakes his head wistfully. “But he’s wrong about the breath of fresh air. Your story is that we agreed to meet one another outside, five minutes apart, in an attempt to leave that circus without drawing any attention to ourselves.”

I suck in my bottom lip a moment as I take in this handsome blue-eyed devil before me. “You don’t know how much of a turn-on it is to hear you willingly perjure yourself for me.”

His cheeks flex in an attempt to smile, but Everett is too stubborn to give it, dead body in the vicinity or not.

The light cooing of an owl goes off behind us as we head toward an overgrown maple dripping with bright orange leaves.

“I hear you,” I whisper as I crane my neck, and sure enough, a sparkle of light refracts sharply as if it were a prism. The owl materializes with its wings spread out, and it’s a magnificent sight. “It’s here.” I quickly take up Everett’s hand. For reasons I have no control over, if someone touches me, they can hear the dead, too. “What’s your name, and why in heavens didn’t you warn me before someone shoved poor Amanda off the planet?” My chest bucks with emotion as I look to the radiant being.

The beautiful creature lets out a whirling sound as if it were clearing its throat. “OwlbertEinstein.” It shoots off a couple ofwho-whos. “Manda’s murder was not mine to interfere with—only mine to solve. Who-who are you?”

“My name is Lottie, and this is my boyfriend, Everett.” It just felt so natural to say that. Unfortunately, I’m wondering if it will feel just as natural saying the same about Noah? “Did you see anything? Who in their right mind would want to kill Amanda?”

“I don’t know, Lottie. But I’m determined to find out. I’m headed back to the party.” He flies right through Everett and into the B&B as quick as a lightning bolt.

A dull groan comes from me. “I doubt he’s going to find the killer at the party.”

Detective Ivy Fairbanks walks over with Noah as the area floods with sheriff’s deputies from both inside and the bevy of patrol cars pulling up on the scene. A fire truck just rolled up, and Forest dashes past us on the way to the scene of the crime.

“Another one?” Ivy shoots me a look that could make theMona Lisacry. She folds her arms over her chest in a show of judgment and, believe me, I’m starting to think I deserve it.

“I was planning an escape with Noah.” I wince. “I meanEverett.And once I hit the bottom of the stairs, I saw her legs.”