I nodded. “Actually, two things. Amber and Sharon both mentioned Pamela was obsessed with the color pink, and the flip-flops were purple. Pamela was also a tall girl and Amber was short. Chrissy is also a tall girl. Usually, not always of course, but usually, a taller girl will wear a larger shoe and a shorter girl will wear a smaller shoe. Amber is slightly shorter than I am and we wear the same size shoe. I could have been wrong, but I had a hunch I wasn’t. And then there was the cheap bead bracelet found beneath Pamela’s car. A girl like Pamela is going to wear nicer jewelry even if it’s costume jewelry. The more I learned about beauty queens, the more I was certain the bracelet couldn’t have been either Pamela’s or Chrissy’s. Amber isn’t a high maintenance girl, so it was a good guess that it had to be hers.”
“I actually know something about the bead bracelet,” he said, with a grin.
“Oh? Do tell.”
“Amber bought the bracelet for Pamela and gave it to her two days before she killed her. The pink beads were because pink was Pamela’s favorite color and the purple beads were because both Pamela’s and Amber’s birthstone is amethyst. She thought Pamela would think it was sweet because the purple beads were for both of them. But when she gave the bracelet to her, Pamela laughed at her and gave it back. She said she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing something that cheap. That wore on Amber along with everything else. I think it may have been the last straw.”
I gasped. “I bet Pamela regrets that now.”
“Now, let’s talk about something happier. Those ribs smell great and I’m starving. Do you think they’ll be done soon?”
I got up and lifted the lid on the hibachi to check the meat. I had squeezed everything onto the grill and just made it fit. “I think we’re about ready. Can you call the kids?”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said and got his feet, heading to the edge of the river.
I used a thermometer to check the temperature, removed the meat from the grill, and put it on a serving platter. Then I refilled the grill with hotdogs. The kids would be starving after playing in the river all morning. I had brought a package of big marshmallows that we would roast after we were done eating lunch. I looked up and watched Cade as he called the kids in. And I smiled. Sometimes, you never know when something good might happen to you when you take a chance. And Cade Starkey was my something good.
Author’s Note
This might be one of my favorite Rainey Daye books. I wasn’t sure where the story was going to go with Craig, because of how he had mistreated Rainey while they were married. And as much as Rainey couldn’t stand having him in Sparrow, in the end, his sudden appearance helped Rainey to forgive and move on and say yes to Cade.
Table of Contents
Barbecue and a Murder A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 4 by Kathleen Suzette
Copyright © 2018 by Kathleen Suzette. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fict...
Books by Kathleen Suzette:
Books by Kate Bell, Kathleen Suzette
Pushing Up Daisies in Arizona,
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Author’s Note