Teaberry Baking Contest

by R A Wallace

  Several minutes later, he parked in front of Anderson’s Florist. There wasn’t anyone at the front counter, but Doug knew that the bells let Caitlyn know he was there. He bypassed the counter and went into the room behind it where Caitlyn did her magic. He found her holding up a work in progress as she examined the arrangement. She smiled and set it down when he reached her, so her hands were free for his embrace.

  “Is everything a go for tonight?” he asked.

  She snuggled closer in his arms and nodded, then looked up. “My mom and Jax are both free and can make it to dinner. We’ll be there.”

  “Great. I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time with them, you know, as a couple. I haven’t seen Jax since he graduated. And he was a couple of years behind me. Besides, with the baking contest, I didn’t get to see you last weekend at all.”

  Caitlyn nodded in agreement. “I was pretty busy with that. But we’ll see you tonight.”

  Doug was leaning down for another kiss when they heard the bells chime on the front door. “I’d better get going. I’ll see you tonight.” Doug popped his head out into the front room and saw Megan approaching.

  They exchanged greetings as they passed each other. Megan went directly into the workroom in the rear. Caitlyn had returned her attention to her arrangement but looked up and smiled when she saw her friend.

  “Got a minute?” Megan asked as she leaned against a counter.

  “Sure, what’s up?” Caitlyn reached for another flower and began weaving it into the arrangement.

  “I was wondering if you could tell me about your experiences with the baking contest.”

  “As a judge?” Caitlyn asked. She made a face, to show that she was thinking about it. “It was okay. I didn’t interact with the contestants at all. That was actually part of my instructions. I was just with the other judges. And a lot of food.” Caitlyn glanced up and grinned before turning her attention back to her flowers.

  Megan smiled. “I’ll bet you loved that.” Then she sighed and thought about what she’d learned so far.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s just that it isn’t really making sense yet. I mean, I think I’ve figured out that there may have been some competitive mischief going on.”

  Caitlyn raised her eyebrows at that. “Do you think that’s why Charlotte got sick? Boy, she was sure something, wasn’t she?”

  Megan smiled at the observation. “Maybe. But what I’m hearing seemed harmless. I mean, physically harmless to others. And it was all about winning. Not killing off the competition.”

  “Maybe you just haven’t found enough pieces to the puzzle yet.”

  Megan thought about it. “Or, maybe there really are two separate puzzles.”

  “You’re thinking that the competitive hijinks had nothing to do with the murder?” Caitlyn asked.

  Megan tilted her head. “I just feel like I’m missing some important pieces still. What do you remember about Gladys?”

  Caitlyn turned to place her finished arrangement into one of the coolers. “Not much, actually. She was a couple of years ahead of me and, to be honest, I didn’t really care for her.”

  Megan nodded. She’d felt the same way. “Do you remember who her friends were in school? Maybe I could talk with them.”

  Caitlyn shook her head. “I don’t really remember her hanging out with anyone back then, do you?”

  Something tugged at Megan’s memory, but she couldn’t pin it down. “Well, I have some more contestants on my list to speak to. I’d better get going. Let me know if you remember anything though.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Megan pulled up to Allison Germaine’s house and parked her truck on the street. Allison lived in the same house she had as a child. Megan remembered the family. Allison’s mom had raised her children alone but had had to go to work to do it. That’d left Allison as the surrogate parent to her younger siblings and had caused her to take a job straight out of high school. A job she still had, though she’d advanced to head cook. Allison had never married, and Megan couldn’t remember ever hearing any stories of her dating.

  Megan rang the bell and waited for a response. There was both a car and a truck in the driveway. She assumed someone was home. It didn’t take long for the door to open. Allison didn’t seem all that surprised to find Megan on her doorstep. She appeared resigned when she suggested that Megan should probably come in.

  Megan followed her to the living room and was surprised to see Walter already there. It must have been his truck in the driveway. Allison motioned for Megan to take a seat. Megan watched Allison sit next to Walter on the sofa. She took the chair opposite them and reconsidered her practiced speech for why she was there. She was about to speak when Allison turned to Walter. The two of them communicated in silence before turning back to Megan.

  “He didn’t do it,” Allison said emphatically.

  “Excuse me?”

  “He didn’t do it. He was going to, but he didn’t.” Walter reached over and took Allison’s hand, a united front, and neither of them took their eyes from Megan’s face. Allison was typically pale, her skin normally the color of someone who rarely went out into the sun. And now Allison looked fraught with worry, her face even whiter than usual with pinched lines around her mouth.

  Megan leaned back in her chair and nodded encouragingly. “Why don’t you both tell me about it?”

  After sharing another glance between them, Walter began the story. “I entered the contest because I wanted to impress Allison. I was hoping it would get her to notice me as more than a friend. I mean, we’ve known each other our whole lives. But I didn’t think she ever really noticed me.”

  Allison snorted which caused Walter to look her way quickly. They shared a smile, then turned back to Megan.

  “He’s an idiot,” Allison said to Megan with a shy smile.

  Megan smiled back.

  “I didn’t figure I had a chance of winning the competition. I just wanted Allison’s attention,” Walter said, then stopped.

  Megan thought they might be getting to the important part now. Max DeWitt had seen Allison going into the kitchen. Megan wanted to know what she was doing there. “Go on,” she encouraged.

  “I saw Gladys poke holes in that man’s cake. One of the other contestants, from out of town, you know? It gave me an idea.” Walter took his hand from Allison’s and wiped his palms on his pants nervously before grabbing her hand again.

  Allison jumped in. “He was going to sabotage Gladys’s cake so that I’d have a better chance of winning.” She turned toward Walter, a bemused look on her face. She couldn’t believe he’d have done that for her. “Like I said, he’s an idiot.” She smiled fondly at Walter.

  “You were going to go in through the kitchen?” Megan guessed.

  Walter nodded. “I have a key. Allison caught me.”

  Allison turned back to Megan. “I saw him going into the kitchen and I knew he shouldn’t be there. I followed him in to ask what he was doing in my kitchen.”

  “We didn’t want to get into an argument there, so we made plans to get together later,” Max explained.

  “But then Gladys was murdered, and we were both caught up with the police questioning us. We didn’t tell the police about being in the kitchen, we were too scared,” Allison said. “And we didn’t have a chance to speak with each other until this morning.”

  “That’s when I told her everything.” Max took a deep breath, happy to have the whole story out.

  “You need to tell the police now,” Megan said, watching the two of them share another look.

  They both nodded in agreement. “We know. We were just talking about that. But we had other things to talk about first. You know…” Allison blushed.

  “I understand.” Megan was happy for them.

  They were both now around forty and had waited this long to realize their friendship meant more to both of them. Then Megan had another thought. They were both working in the school already
when Gladys went through as a student. Gladys had been around four years younger than the two of them.

  “Do you remember Gladys in school?” Megan asked.

  “Oh, yes. She was a Mean Girl. Over the years, there always seems to be one in school at any given time. As soon as that one graduates, another one takes her place,” Allison said with decades of experience.

  “Did she have many friends?” Megan asked.

  Allison shook her head. “That type never does. I mean, every now and then, one reforms and you see them again as a parent with their own children in school years later. And they’re almost human, you know?”

  Megan nodded. “But that never happened with Gladys? She didn’t change?”

  Allison shrugged. “She never had kids so I didn’t really see her much.” She looked over at Walter and he shook his head, then they both turned back to Megan.

  “And you don’t remember her having friends in school either?” Megan wondered out loud. She couldn’t think of any time that she’d seen Gladys with a friend.

  “Who would want to be with her? She was always saying mean things about people. Absolutely no one escaped her cruel remarks.”

  Megan left soon after, wondering why Gladys and Tara had suddenly become friends after all these years. Maybe Gladys had begun reforming after all. Tara was next on her list. If she found her at home, she could ask her.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Erica sat at a red light on her drive home at the end of a very long and very weird day and thought about when it had gotten weird. The day had started out fairly normal, or at least as normal as it gets when they were working a murder case. Lately, that had been way more often than she’d like.

  Her partner, Jerry, spent the previous day going over any electronics that they’d recovered and reported the results to her. They’d found a computer, a tablet, and a cell phone at the victim’s home. He said he hadn’t gotten much from any of the three devices.

  The call log on the phone didn’t reveal anything surprising unless the lack of calls were considered surprising. The victim had made and received relatively few calls and most of those were service-type calls, like to have her oil changed. The calls all seemed pretty normal, nothing threw up any flags, but they’d be going through everything carefully anyway. She and Jerry spent part of the day making headway on that.

  Gladys’s computer didn’t appear to have anything interesting on it except recipes. Jerry said there were literally thousands of recipes stored on the computer. Gladys used her tablet to read digital books and also to store more recipes. There were no surprises there.

  The light turned green and Erica continued on her drive home. They had finally gotten the results of the lab tests back. They now knew what had made the one judge, Charlotte LaMonti, ill. They were still testing the foods that had been found with Gladys.

  At this point in the investigation, they had interviewed most of the people involved with the baking contest. Certainly, those who had been most involved had been interviewed first. There was still no clear indication if the death was related to the baking contest at all. The fact that the victim happened to have entered one before she died or that she had samples of food from said contest didn’t guarantee that the death and the contest were related.

  Jerry and Erica worked all morning together and had, in fact, missed lunch. After working through all of the clues in the office, they had gone back out to ask more questions. The later it got, the crankier Erica had gotten until finally they’d been able to stop and pick something up on their way to interview someone else. And that, Erica thought, was when things had gotten weird.

  She hadn’t realized how cranky she had been all morning until Jerry pointed it out. She hadn’t realized that anything about her was different. And she’d told Jerry as much. She was surprised when he’d barked out a laugh and disagreed with her completely. Apparently, she’d been a tad cranky more than just today. In fact, Jerry said it had been happening with some regularity.

  She and Jerry had been working together for a few years now. Although he was younger than she was, they’d really hit it off from the very beginning and had been highly effective as a functioning team. Like many people who work so closely together day in and day out, she and Jerry had worked out their own shorthand method of communication and they always seemed to be in tune with each other.

  Jerry knew when she’d been unhappy with Brad and knew when they’d gotten back together before Erica had even told him. Erica knew when Jerry was interested in someone or when his family was driving him crazy. They were a team. They had each other’s backs.

  When they stopped to pick up something quick to eat, Jerry volunteered to run in and get it. Erica waited in the car, tapping some mindless tune on the steering wheel, until he returned and handed her two bags. She’d opened the first one and drooled at the sandwich inside. She’d opened the second one and punched him in the arm. Her appetite had quickly flown. She’d eventually apologized to him but not until much later. He had ended up eating both of their sandwiches.

  Erica pulled into her driveway and parked the car. She opened her door and started to get out before turning back to look at the offensive bag that had earned Jerry a punch in the arm. Sighing, she reached over and picked up the bag containing the pregnancy kit.

  She smelled dinner cooking as soon as she opened her front door. The smell brought her appetite back. She followed it into the kitchen and smiled when she saw her husband standing at the stove.

  Brad turned and saw her watching him. “Hey, you’re home. You look a little tired. A quick shower should help. Dinner will be waiting for you when you’re done.”

  Erica kissed him on her way to the bathroom. Then she read the directions on the box. Didn’t look like any advanced degrees would be needed to pass this test, Erica thought, crossing her fingers. Rather than drive herself crazy waiting for the results, she took her husband’s advice and jumped into the shower. She thought about the possible results the entire time she was in the shower. Only two ways it could go here. She either was or she wasn’t. Either way, she’d know soon.

  She ended the shower, wrapped a towel around her long, red hair, and quickly pulled on some clothes. Then she checked the results. Taking a deep breath, she went back to the kitchen and stopped a few feet from Brad. He had placed the food on the table and was reaching for two wine glasses.

  “Brad.”

  He looked up and smiled at her. Then his eyes lowered to the evidence in her hand.

  “Tell me you aren’t kidding.” He looked back up at Erica and grinned.

  She wasn’t kidding. He let out a yell and picked her up, then set her back down quickly. She smacked his arm for treating her like delicate china but not as hard as she’d hit Jerry.

  She’d need to apologize to Jerry again. While Jerry was eating both of their sandwiches, he’d explained to her that all of his sisters had acted different when they were pregnant and that’s how he knew something was up.

  Dinner was spent talking about the baby. They’d need a crib and the room would need to be painted. Eventually, the conversation wound down and went back to her current case. They were both cleaning the table by then.

  “How are things going with your case?” Brad asked as he took the glasses from Erica and put them in the dishwasher. They’d both used wine glasses but Erica’s had apple cider from Megan’s farm. Erica had begun craving it the other day and they’d taken a jug from the freezer.

  Erica shook her head. “Early days yet. It’s going, but not as quickly as I’d like. We’ve talked to a lot of people and still have some things to check on. We’re still waiting for some results.”

  “Is Megan looking into things also?” Brad turned the dishwasher on and then took Erica’s hand and led her out to their deck behind the house.

  “She is. In fact, I need to call her. Do you mind? I’d also like to tell her she’s going to be an aunt.” Erica hadn’t even realized she was going to say that until it came
out. She wanted to though. She was happy about the baby and she wanted to share the news.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Matthias Reynolds looked across the table and thought about how lucky he was. He had some good friends, he thought, as he watched Caro and Tom sharing some story across the table. And he and his wife had been settling into marriage together just fine. Although Barbara had been a little quiet lately, Matthias understood why. She was understandably troubled by the recent murder. He caught her eye and smiled.

  “How are you holding up?” Matthias asked Barbara quietly.

  “This was a good idea, thank you. I needed to get out with friends.” Barbara lifted her wine glass and looked around the Station Pub & Grill. Her new husband had a fondness for the barbeque there. Normally, she would have enjoyed the food also. She hoped the case was solved soon. But for now, she needed to focus on being better company.

  “How have you been settling into your new house, Caro?” Barbara asked her old friend with a smile.

  “Oh, it’s lovely. I’ve been meeting some of my new neighbors too. And, of course, I met a lot of people during the baking contest. Matthias and I had a lot of fun acting as judges, didn’t we?” Caro asked.

  Matthias nodded and patted his stomach. “I’ve been trying to get a little more exercise in since then.”

  “The other judges were kind enough to help us with our duties,” Caro said.

  “Well,” Matthias flashed a smile. “Most of them anyway.”

  “Yes,” Caro agreed with a twinkle in her eyes. “One of them was far too advanced to help anyone with our skillset.”

  “She said that?” Barbara asked with a chuckle. “I can believe it. She didn’t have kind things to say about the contestants either. And they weren’t very happy with her comments.”

  “Your young friend put us all to shame, however,” Caro said, looking across the room at the group just entering the restaurant.