Coup de Glace

by P. D. Workman

  Erin nodded and didn’t argue. They were two different people, and while she hadn’t thought she’d ever have the opportunity to settle down with her own home and her own business, she’d been quick to do it when the chance came along. Reg wouldn’t have taken the opportunity. She would have just tried to get whatever money she could have out of it and blown it all on some new scam.

  “Well, good luck with whatever is next. Me… I’m going to take a nap.”

  Erin said her goodbyes to Vic and Reg and retired to her room.

  Orange Blossom had obviously been sleeping in Reg’s room, but when he heard Erin going to her bed, he jumped down from Reg’s bed and hurried after Erin, yowling inquiringly after her, confused by her strange behavior. Erin rarely had time for a midday nap and, even when she did, she rarely took it. There was too much to do. Too much planning. Too many lists. Too many frozen treats to be made.

  “Come on, then,” Erin told the cat. “Come and get some cuddles.”

  Soon, he was curled up under her chin, his whole body vibrating with purrs. Erin closed her eyes and went to sleep.

  Monday everything was back to normal, with Erin and Vic at the bakery early, baking the day’s bread and then opening to the usual morning crowd.

  What wasn’t usual was that Bella was there even though it wasn’t her shift. Erin had watched her drive up to the bakery in her mother’s car, but with Cindy nowhere in sight. Bella was driving herself.

  She came in and ordered a cookie and tea just like any other regular customer. Erin sensed something different in her. A new determination and independence. Far from withdrawing into herself after the horror of the kidnapping, she had instead remade herself. She was the new and improved Bella, confident and unafraid.

  “You look really good,” Erin told her. “No one would guess that just two days ago…”

  “I’m not even going to talk about it,” Bella said, holding her hands up. “Yesterday is over and today is a new day with new opportunities. I’m not going to waste another day fussing and worrying about things that are outside my control.”

  “Good for you. I don’t know if I could ever stop myself from worrying. But I agree about taking on every new day… like a gift. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Just deal with one day at a time.”

  “What good did worrying ever do for anyone? I spent my whole life worrying about what my mother would think, what the people in the town would think, what the right thing to do was… but I’m done that now.”

  Erin considered this. “Your mom loves you.”

  “I know that. But I’m not a little kid anymore. I can’t just stay there my whole life, sheltered by her. She shouldn’t have stayed there all this time. She should have gone to the city or somewhere she could be her own person. Like she was before Grandma disappeared.”

  “You think she should have sold the farm and done something else?”

  “She’s never been happy here. I don’t know about selling the farm. Maybe someone else could stay here and look after it until she was ready to retire. But she hates it here. She should have gone on to do what she wanted.”

  Erin nodded. She didn’t know Cindy Prost well, but the woman had never seemed particularly happy. If she’d left a happy, independent life to look after her father and then her daughter, her resentment was understandable.

  The bells over the door jingled, and she and Bella looked up to see who it was. Reg stood in the doorway for a moment, looking first behind the counter where Vic was, then at the table where Erin stood talking to Bella.

  “Oh, there you are. I just came to tell you… I’m heading out. I guess this is it.”

  “You can call me,” Erin said. “Keep in touch. I’d like to know how you’re getting on.”

  “As long as I’m not living here.”

  “I don’t think it was a good fit,” Erin said, keeping the comment as neutral as possible.

  Reg swept back her hair. “No, I thought a little backwater town would be a good place to set up shop. Lots of superstitious people, don’t get out much, they could use some entertainment.” She shrugged. “But it wasn’t like I thought it would be.”

  “Is that all this was to you?” Bella demanded. “Entertainment?”

  Reg looked at her. “I tried to help you,” she said. “That wasn’t fake. I never said I’d be able to solve your Grandma’s murder… but in the end, it did get solved.”

  “By Erin, not by you.”

  “I didn’t say I did. But I did communicate with her. Maybe that helped Erin to figure out what was going on.” Reg gave a shrug. “You never know how these things are meant to unfold. What we call coincidence and intuition…”

  Bella gave her a scornful look. “You said that she was cold where she was and that she wanted to be buried next to my grandpa.”

  “Yes. That’s what she communicated to me.”

  “But she was buried next to my grandpa.”

  “Err…” Reg looked for an answer. Then she looked at her phone, feigning surprise. “Is it that late? I’d better be getting on my way.”

  She stepped closer to Erin, gave her a hug and an air kiss, resting her cheek against Erin’s for an instant, then pulled away.

  “I’ll write,” she promised. “Or something.”

  Epilogue

  E

  rin was cleaning up when her phone rang. She had a good idea who it would be and pulled it out of her apron pocket.

  “Hi, Terry.”

  “Are you okay to get together for a while this evening, or are you too tired?”

  “Either way, I need to eat.” Erin wouldn’t really be sure how she felt until she’d had a chance to sit down and relax. Then it might all catch up with her.

  “Do you mind eating at home today? Would that be too much work? We can just have sandwiches.”

  “That’s fine. Why don’t you pick up a packaged salad at the grocery store? I’m not sure what’s in the fridge.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you in half an hour or so.”

  Erin ended the call and slid the phone back into her pocket. “Terry’s coming over. You want to join us?”

  Vic shook her head. “Willie and I already have plans. You guys can have the house to yourselves.” She winked. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  Erin felt herself blushing for no reason. Rather than protesting, she tried to raise her eyebrow in an enigmatic quirk, but wasn’t sure whether she succeeded or just ended up making one of the crazy faces she and Reg used to practice on each other.

  It was obvious when she let Terry in at the house an hour later that he had something on his mind. He took the salad into the kitchen to put it in a bowl and mix it, but said barely a word to her. Erin started to get the sandwich fixings out.

  “What’s up?”

  “What makes you think something is up?”

  “I may not be a detective, but I think I can tell when something is wrong.” She studied him. “Is it work? Something go off the rails with Mr. Ware?” She remembered how he had said he wouldn’t last in prison and hoped something hadn’t already happened to him. Surely, they would be careful when introducing a new prisoner into the general population.

  Terry’s dimple was nowhere to be seen. His lips were pressed tightly together and there was a frown line between his brows. K9 watched him, panting.

  “It’s not Mr. Ware.”

  “But it is work? I guess it’s not something you can talk to me about?”

  He seemed to be torn. Erin lifted her hands in a questioning gesture.

  “It’s about Reg.”

  “Reg is gone. You don’t need to worry about her anymore. I told her she’d been imposing on my hospitality long enough and sent her on her way.”

  “Did she say where she was going?”

  “No. I asked her to keep in touch… but it could be another ten years before she decides to talk to me again. She’s like that.”

  “No idea where she might go? Any mutual friend who might be able to
put you into contact with her?”

  “Uh… I don’t know.” Erin thought through their various acquaintances. Was there anyone Reg might keep in closer contact with? “What’s wrong?”

  “Your sister made off with several family heirlooms when she left town.”

  Erin’s stomach clenched. She turned away from the table, where she had been laying down plates. “No! Oh, tell me she didn’t!”

  Terry didn’t recant. Erin had known he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t have joked about something like that. And it wasn’t something Erin would have put past Reg. Erin reached for the nearest chair and sat down with a thump, her knees weak.

  “Oh, Terry, I’m so sorry. Who? What did she take?”

  “I can’t give you a list, those reports are confidential. But I did get reports from several women that are remarkably consistent with each other.”

  “What did she do? Did she steal from their houses? I said she was trouble. I knew this wasn’t going to turn out well!”

  “She apparently would ask for an item that the dearly departed would have valued, for her to hold on to and get a clearer picture of the person they wanted to talk to. She asked to hold on to them for a day or two, so she could really get to know them, and then set up appointments to return the valuables and give a reading. But when word spread that she’d left town… we started to get anxious calls.”

  “Oh, Regina,” Erin groaned.

  “Do you mind if I check her room, just to make sure she didn’t leave anything here?”

  “You don’t think she’d leave heirloom jewelry here.”

  “No. I’m hoping maybe a note scribbled on the bedside table, a reservation number, something that might indicate what direction she was going.”

  “Of course. You know which room she was in. The one that used to be Vic’s.”

  “I thought you were going to take back the master bedroom after Vic left.”

  Erin shrugged. “Mine is too cozy. I can’t bring myself to take Clementine’s room.”

  Piper clicked his tongue at K9 and went to search Clementine’s bedroom. Erin hadn’t yet had a chance to see what needed to be tidied away and to change the sheets; everything was just as Reg had left it. Terry was back a couple of minutes later shaking his head.

  “Nothing there. In fact, you might want to check and make sure she didn’t abscond with any of your valuables.”

  She shook her head. “No… if she had the nerve to steal from me… I don’t want to know about it. I really don’t.”

  They turned their attention to their supper, both quiet and pondering over the developments individually. Orange Blossom was under foot, while K9 stayed politely by Terry’s chair and Marshmallow kept to the side of the room, watching them all with one eye.

  They avoided any further discussion of Reg during dinner, instead talking about the weather, their friends, and the bakery, occasionally returning to the subject of Mr. Ware and Martha Prost.

  “Bella even went downstairs to the storeroom today,” Erin told him after they had adjourned to the living room couch. “She hasn’t gone down the hall to the commode yet, but she went downstairs, and that’s a huge improvement. I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually made it to the loo one of these days.”

  “She’s a brave girl,” Terry said. “I don’t think she knew that about herself before.”

  Erin nodded. “She’s spent too much time worrying about ghosts and being safe from things that were never really a threat. I think this experience… forced her to see that there are a lot worse things in life. There’s no point spending your time worrying about things that don’t really matter.”

  “A good lesson,” Terry agreed pointedly.

  “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying. And I’m not afraid of ghosts.”

  “I still think you worry more than you need to. And like Bella… you worry about what other people are saying about you.”

  “I’m going to try not to.”

  The doorbell rang. Erin looked at the clock on the wall. K9 lifted his head and looked in the direction of the door, his ears pricked curiously, but he didn’t give any sign that there was danger lurking outside.

  Erin went to the door. She flicked on the outside light and looked out the peephole. She didn’t have the burglar alarm armed like Terry thought she should in the evening, but she couldn’t be much safer, at home with the town cop. She opened the door.

  “Charley, hi! Come on in.”

  Charley entered. She saw Terry on the couch and gave a sly smile. “Well, I’ll be sure not to interrupt you for too long.”

  “Come visit with us for a few minutes.”

  Charley sat down in an easy chair, and Erin slid back into the warm spot next to Terry. He put his arm around her.

  “I just got word from the estate lawyers,” Charley said, leaning forward excitedly. “They’ve finally agreed to let me open The Bake Shoppe!”

  Erin’s stomach tightened into a knot. “They did? That’s great news for you. Does that mean…” She frowned, trying to sort it out. “They’ve decided to give you Davis’s portion as well?”

  “Not yet. They’re going to hold half of the estate in trust, but for now, they’re letting me control the decisions about what to do with the bakery. They said that since Davis hasn’t been proven guilty of causing Trenton’s death, they can’t take his portion away from him yet. If he’s found guilty, they will. Until then, they’re just going to hold it.”

  Erin nodded. “Well… I’m glad it’s working out for you. I guess that means we’ll both be in the baking business.” Erin’s job was going to be that much more difficult with a direct competitor.

  “I’m still not getting up that early in the morning. I’ll have other people to do that for me.”

  Erin laughed. “You’re not exactly a morning person.”

  “No. But…” She made a gesture like she didn’t know what to do with her hands. “I wanted to thank you for what you did.”

  Erin glanced over at Terry. “I just did what anyone would have. There was written evidence that Davis knew about Trenton’s allergy and that it could be fatal. There’s enough circumstantial evidence piling up to show that he and Joelle knew exactly what they were doing and were happy with the results.”

  Terry nodded.

  “So… thanks for that,” Charley said again. “I don’t know that it was the smartest business decision for you, but I appreciate it. I’m sure people in town will be happy to have The Bake Shoppe open again. No offense to your baking—you make some amazing stuff—but some people just want traditional wheat breads.”

  “I’m sure there’s enough business for two bakeries.” Erin had said it many times before, but had never doubted her own words so much. She gave Charley a reassuring smile she did not feel. “I’m looking forward to it.”

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  ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

  Mystery/Suspense:

  Auntie Clem’s Bakery

  Gluten-Free Murder

  Dairy-Free Death

  Allergen-Free Assignation

  Witch-Free Halloween (Halloween Short)

  Dog-Free Dinner (Christmas Short)

  Stirring Up Murder

  Brewing Death

  Coup de Glace

  Zachary Goldman Mysteries

  She Wore Mourning

  His Hands Were Quiet (Coming Soon)

  She Was Dying Anyway (Coming Soon)

  He Was Walking Alone (Coming Soon)

  Cowritten with D. D. VanDyke

  California Corwin P. I. Mystery Series

  The Girl in the Morgue

  Looking
Over Your Shoulder

  Lion Within

  Pursued by the Past

  In the Tick of Time

  Loose the Dogs

  Young Adult Fiction:

  Tamara’s Teardrops:

  Tattooed Teardrops

  Two Teardrops

  Tortured Teardrops

  Vanishing Teardrops

  Between the Cracks:

  Ruby

  June and Justin

  Michelle

  Chloe

  Ronnie

  Medical Kidnap Files:

  Mito

  EDS

  Proxy

  Toxo (Coming Soon)

  Breaking the Pattern:

  Deviation

  Diversion

  By-Pass

  Stand Alone

  Don’t Forget Steven

  Those Who Believe

  Cynthia has a Secret

  Questing for a Dream

  Once Brothers

  Intersexion

  Making Her Mark

  Endless Change

  Preview of She Wore Mourning

  Chapter One

  Zachary Goldman stared down the telephoto lens at the subjects before him. It was one of those days that left tourists gaping over the gorgeous scenery. Dark trees against crisp white snow, with the mountains as a backdrop. Like the picture on a Christmas card.

  The thought made Zachary feel sick.

  But he wasn’t looking at the scenery. He was looking at the man and the woman in a passionate embrace. The pretty young woman’s cheeks were flushed pink, more likely with her excitement than the cold, since she had barely stepped out of her car to greet the man. He had a swarthier complexion and a thin black beard, and was currently turned away from Zachary’s camera.