by Amber Crewes
Pamela squeezed her aunt’s hand. “It’s not your fault, Aunt Mia,” she assured her aunt. “She’s crazy. You didn’t deserve to have her destroy your stall.”
Meghan bit her lip. “Is there anyone else you think that could have had anything to do with it?”
Mia scowled. “Lola,” she muttered. “I wonder if it was Lola. She and I got into a huge fight last night, and she’s always up to something. My daughter is my best friend and worst enemy all in one. She’s capable of anything, that girl…”
Meghan’s eyes widened. “You really think she would do that?”
Mia looked down at her drink, clearly stifling tears. “My husband’s absence took a real toll on that girl,” she explained. “Oh, Lucky. Poor Lucky. I wish our last time together had been more amicable…”
Just then, the barista from the coffee stand approached the three women. “Ma’am?” she asked Mia. “Here’s your peanut butter scone.”
Mia blinked. “You already gave me my scone,” she kindly informed the barista as she held up her half-eaten blueberry lemon scone. “It’s so delicious.”
“So sorry, that must be for the next table,” the barista stumbled.
Mia laughed. “Hey, I’m almost done with this one and am still hungry, so it’s really like you were reading my mind.”
The barista smiled. “It’s been a long day; we’ve been understaffed all morning. I remembered you stopping by with your family last week and ordering that peanut scone, so I must have mistaken the orders. By the way, I heard that your husband passed away? So sorry to hear about that.”
Mia shrugged. “Thank you for your kind words,” she said.
The barista set the peanut butter scone in front of Mia. “Here, it’s on the house,” she said with pity. “I hope it makes this hard time a little better.”
Mia nodded and unwrapped the scone. “This smells so good,” she sighed. “I’ll have to eat it on my way back to the stall. I’ve been away too long, and I should really get going."
Pamela hugged her aunt goodbye. “I hope you have a good day,” she told her as they embraced. “I’ll see you later.”
“See you soon, Pamela,” Mia waved goodbye. “Bye, Meghan!”
Meghan watched as Mia walked away, noticing that she turned left instead of turning right when she reached the street corner. “That’s not that way back to her stall,” she murmured she wrinkled her nose. “Say, do you know where Mia, Lucky, and Lola had lunch on the day he died?”
“I think they ate here,” Pamela told her. “I remember Lola telling me she had a scone and a sandwich, and this is Mia’s favorite place…”
Meghan gulped, thinking of the barista’s words. “Mia had a peanut butter scone that day,” she whispered to herself. “She ordered a peanut butter scone only hours before Lucky passed away…”
Meghan thought back to her conversation with Frank as she left the laundry mat. He had told her that for someone to die from an allergen, they would have had to have been exposed hours before.
Meghan gasped. She knew she needed to act quickly. “Stay here,” she ordered Pamela. “I’ll be right back.”
Meghan walked away from Pamela, not wanting to scare the teenager. She pulled out her phone and dialed Jack’s number. “Babe,” she said breathlessly as he answered. “You have to come to the market immediately. I think I know who killed Lucky.”
19
“I’m back!”
Meghan and Pamela cheered as Trudy walked into the dining room of the bakery. The two had been enjoying a fresh batch of cherry mochi, and they were pleasantly surprised that Trudy had arrived home a few days early.
“Trudy!” Pamela squealed as she ran over to hug her coworker.
“Welcome home!” Meghan greeted as Trudy and Pamela rejoined her at the table. “We’ve missed you!”
Trudy laughed. “I missed you, too. It sounds like I’ve missed a lot of trouble around here…what on Earth happened with that clown?”
Pamela’s face darkened, and she excused herself from the dining room. It had been nearly two weeks since Mia had been arrested for the murder of her husband, but Pamela had not wanted to talk much about what had happened.
“It was a mess,” Meghan told Trudy. “The long story short is that Lucky, who happens to be Pamela’s uncle, died of a nut allergy. Everyone in town thought he died from one of my treats.”
“That’s awful,” Trudy said. “I bet that was a hit on the business.”
“It was,” she confirmed. “We’re just getting back to normal, thank goodness. The Sandy Bay Gazette published a thorough story explaining that I had nothing to do with Lucky’s death.”
“That’s good news!” Trudy exclaimed. “So who killed him?”
“His wife,” she murmured. “Pamela’s aunt. She was so bitter that her husband had left the family and was traveling around with Wendy, his young colleague and girlfriend, and she killed him.”
“She gave him nuts?”
Meghan nodded. “Mia, her daughter, and Lucky were having lunch on the day he died. Mia intentionally ordered a peanut butter scone. As they were saying goodbye, she gave Lucky a big kiss on the lips, and apparently that was enough to kill him.”
Trudy’s eyes bulged in disbelief. “Did she confess?”
“She did,” Meghan said. “And the police were able to trace the nuts in his system to the nuts in the scone.”
Trudy shook her head. “That’s terrible,” she sighed. “You said they have a kid?”
“Actually, two kids. A boy and girl. The girl, Lola is Pamela’s age, but very troubled.”
“Now she’ll be even more troubled,” she replied in horror. “Her dad is dead, and her mom will soon be off to prison. Is there anyone to take care of her? You said her dad had a girlfriend? Would she watch over Lola?”
Meghan bit her lip. “It gets even crazier,” she informed Trudy. “Wendy, the girlfriend, is also going to prison! When Lucky died, she made several calls to the insurance company to try and get ahold of Lucky’s money. She impersonated Mia several times, and the company recorded her calls. Mia got wind of it, and now, they’ll both be serving time at the same prison.”
Trudy scoffed. “People are crazy these days,” she declared. “I can’t believe all of this went down over a few weeks’ time.”
Meghan smiled. “It’s never quiet in Sandy Bay,” she reminded Trudy. “Now, enough about the bakery. How was your trip? Is everything okay with your daughter?”
Trudy beamed. “Everything is wonderful. She pulled a small photograph out of her purse. “She hasn’t announced it yet, but I’ll tell you the big news: my daughter had twins! I am the grandmother of twins!”
Meghan’s jaw dropped. “What? I didn’t even realize she was expecting.”
Trudy laughed. “No one did. It was a high-risk pregnancy, and she and her husband kept it under wraps. Now that the babies have been safely delivered, I can tell everyone the news.”
Meghan shrieked. “That is big news! Congratulations.”
“I am so excited,” Trudy squealed. “She had two healthy baby girls.”
Meghan hugged Trudy. “They are lucky to have you as a grandmother,” she murmured to her friend. “And we are lucky to have you back. It wasn’t the same around here without you.”
Trudy grinned. “It was wonderful to be with my daughter and the new babies,” she said. “But in the end, it’s always so good to come home. In fact, it’s truly sweet!”
The End
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