Black Bottom Murder: A Frosted Love Cozy Mystery Book 6 (Frosted Love Mysteries) by Carol Durand, Summer Prescott Page B

headed to their rooms and were both asleep the moment
their heads hit the pillow. Up early the next day, eager to get to the
conference rooms early and find a good seat, they grabbed a quick breakfast
from the coffee shop in the hotel and made their way back to the Convention
Center.
    Missy
took a break in between workshops, leaving the room frowning at her phone,
concern etching her features. She had received a disturbing voicemail from
Echo, her friend who had recently moved to Dellville from California and purchased
the ice cream shop across the street, turning it into a vegan “ice cream” shop.
The clearly distraught woman’s words in the message were garbled by tears and a
bad connection, and Missy couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was saying.
Worried, she texted her friend to let her know that she didn’t have time to
call at the moment, but that she’d be in touch as soon as she was done for the
day. Her mind wandered with concern for her friend throughout the day, and as
soon as the last seminar ended, she excused herself and dialed Echo’s number,
frustrated when her call wasn’t answered.

Chapter 2
     
    Sweet
Love, Echo’s vegan frozen treat shop, didn’t open for several hours, but Missy
headed over there anyway, knowing that her carefree friend usually experimented
with new “ice cream” flavors in the morning, when there were no customers. The
front door was locked, which was unusual. Practically the only time the
diligent owner was absent was when she went home to her meals, and she was
consumed with the art of creating new and exciting flavors in her “spare time.”
    Getting
no answer to repeated knocking on the front door, Missy tried the back, with
the same result. Worried, she called Detective Chas Beckett, whom she’d been
dating for a few months, to ask if he’d heard from Echo or knew what was going
on.
    “Are
you sitting down?” the handsome detective asked, his voice serious.
    “Oh
goodness, what happened, what’s going on Chas?” Missy demanded.
    “Echo
was questioned by the Dellville police this weekend in connection with a
homicide.”
    “A
homicide? Who? Why would they question Echo?” she exclaimed, worried about her
friend.
    Beckett
sighed, hating that he couldn’t break the news to Missy in person. “One of her
customers died shortly after eating one of her desserts, and preliminary
reports indicate that he was poisoned,” he explained.
    “Oh
my goodness, that’s awful!” Missy gasped. “But why on earth would anyone
suspect Echo? She wouldn’t hurt a fly. I mean, literally – when a fly gets
inside, she shoos them out rather than swatting them. She loves all creatures,
she’d certainly never kill someone,” she asserted.
    “I
understand your concern, but how well do you really know this woman?”
    His
question made her bristle. “I know her better than anyone else in this town, and
I’m telling you that there’s no way in the world that she could’ve done this!”
    “Okay,
okay. I understand you’re upset, but let’s just give the police room to work on
this and not interfere,” he cautioned her, knowing her tendency to attack
situations head-on when she felt frustrated by lack of progress.
    “How
can you say that, Chas? Echo is my friend. I’m going to try everything I can to
help her out, and I’m shocked that you wouldn’t want to do the same,” she
admonished him.
    The
detective was trying his best to not let his frustration show. He hadn’t been
able to see Missy for quite some time due to her commitments to work and his
own, and didn’t want to waste time arguing. “Well, it’s out of my jurisdiction
for one thing, but let’s just table this discussion for now. Are you free for
dinner?”
    Missy
sighed and tapped her foot, trying to decide how to answer. She wanted to
continue talking about what had happened to her friend, and was frustrated with
Chas’s seeming nonchalance in the matter. She missed the detective badly,