Changing Fortune Cookies

by P. D. Workman

  There was a crinkle in one pocket, and the figure pulled it out. “A cookie,” he whispered. “But it’s broken up in pieces.” He made to put it back in his pocket.

  “No. I’ll eat it. Please.”

  His captor considered it for a few moments, then shrugged. He wrestled with the plastic wrapper and managed to get it open. Josh’s hands were out of commission, so it was the figure’s job to get the pieces of cookie into Josh’s mouth.

  One at a time, the shadow put little bits of the crispy, bland cookie into Josh’s mouth. He didn’t have much saliva to moisten it and get it down, but he did his best. He had to do everything he could to get some sustenance into his system.

  “That’s all.” The whisperer crumpled the plastic wrapper and shoved it back into his pocket.

  “That soup was so good. Do you think you could bring me some more?”

  “No.”

  Josh tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He had expected a ‘maybe’ or ‘if I can,’ not a flat-out no. Didn’t his captor think it worthwhile even to string Joshua along? Make him at least think he was going to get fed again?

  His eyes stung. He didn’t cry. He probably couldn’t spare any of his body’s moisture for tears. But he was crushed by the denial. The figure intended to let him die. That much was pretty clear.

  “Can I… can I write a note to my mom? Or make a recording? Anything?”

  “Why would I let you do that?” The whisper was an angry hiss.

  “Because… I never got to say goodbye. I’d like to say goodbye.”

  “People don’t get to say goodbye. Lots of people leave or die without ever saying goodbye first. You should know what that is like.”

  Chapter 24

  Erin stared out at the night. It was late. She should have been asleep already. She would be tired at the bakery the next day if she didn’t get the sleep she needed.

  But how could she go to sleep when Joshua was still out there somewhere? It had been too long. The longer it took them to track him down, the less likely it would be that they would find him alive and unharmed. She hated to think of him out there, alone and scared.

  The police were now intent on finding out who had swapped the fortunes. But it seemed like a mistake to Erin for them to be so concerned about the fortune. It could have been a prank. It could be completely unrelated to Joshua’s disappearance. Maybe, as Vic had said, it was never the intention of the fortune-swapper to send the swapped fortune to Mary Lou. If it were just a coincidence, they were wasting their time trying to catch someone who had not even committed a crime.

  Erin needed more. There had to be a reason for kidnapping Joshua. It wasn’t just random. Not when they had either gone into his house or somehow lured him out in the middle of the night. Someone had gone there intending to take him. And that person had to have a motive.

  What?

  If they had something against Erin, as implied by the note, why had they taken Josh? Why hadn’t they taken Erin herself? Or done something to hurt her—either physically or by hurting someone close to her. Terry or Vic or one of the animals. Joshua was a friend, but they hadn’t been that close. She knew him to talk to, but they hadn’t shared a lot. Not like with her closest friends. If the kidnapper’s motive was to upset Erin or make things difficult for her, there were much more direct ways to do so.

  Terry cracked open the door to look at her, then pushed the door open the rest of the way. “What are you still doing up? You’re not waiting for me, are you?”

  “No… just thinking.”

  “Do you need anything? You should be getting to sleep so you can get up in the morning.”

  Erin sighed. “I know. I just can’t stop worrying.”

  “About Joshua?”

  “Of course.”

  “There isn’t anything you can do. I know you would like to, but there are only so many avenues to investigate. The police department is looking into them. Beaver and the sheriff are getting the FBI involved as well, in case it was something to do with Mickey, so there will be more manpower on the case. Everyone is doing everything they can. It isn’t up to you.”

  “But I can’t not be worried about it. Joshua is my friend. My friend’s son. And Mary Lou thinks that I had something to do with his disappearance. Or that I’m making it worse. Those fortune cookies… if someone wanted to implicate me in all of this…”

  “They couldn’t have done much better than to swap the fortunes,” Terry finished. He looked at her thoughtfully. “Mary Lou knew that you were supplying the fortune cookies to the Chinese restaurant?”

  “I don’t know if she knew anything about it. But when she got one, she would have known. There’s a note on the menu now that gluten-free fortune cookies are supplied by Auntie Clem’s Bakery. And when they bring you the bill in the little tray with the cookies on the tray, there’s a little tray liner that says…”

  “Compliments of Auntie Clem’s Bakery,” Terry suggested.

  “Something like that, yeah. So… she would have known when she got it that it came from the bakery.”

  “And then she opens it and sees a message that seems like it was intended just for her.”

  “Yeah. She was… not very happy.”

  “No,” Terry agreed. “I got that.”

  Erin was up early as usual the next morning, assuming that the police would be done with the bakery and she would be able to reopen at the regular time. She looked at her phone and found that she had received a text during the night from Sheriff Wilmot.

  Have finished with processing the bakery. All yours.

  That was considerate of him. Erin didn’t have to wonder about whether she would be able to open or not.

  But they would have extra cleanup and prep to do since they hadn’t been able to run through their usual closing procedure the day before. Erin was going to have to make some adjustments to have the display case filled in the morning and everything ready to go. Less variety than usual. Bigger batches. Maybe some promotional price would attract people’s attention and distract them from the fact that the display was plainer than usual. She hadn’t had a chance to cash out, so she would have to go with the running totals from the day before and hope that there wouldn’t be any large discrepancies. And cleanup. There would be a lot of cleanup, with pans and bowls sitting out for hours with the remnants of batters and doughs drying to them. Ugh.

  There was nothing she could do about that.

  When Erin got to her kitchen, she was surprised to see that Vic’s light was already on. Vic didn’t usually get up until some time after Erin, savoring those last few minutes of sleep.

  Erin started the kettle and put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster. Before the kettle started whistling, Vic let herself in the back door.

  “Morning,” she greeted, and smothered a yawn. She was dressed for work, not still in her pajamas as Erin had expected.

  “Hi. I’m surprised to see you up so early!”

  “I knew you would be worrying,” Vic said with a shrug. “You’re going to be trying to figure out how to get everything done before opening this morning when we didn’t get a chance to close properly last night.”

  Erin laughed. “Yup. Exactly right.”

  “So I figured I’d be ready for work as soon as you were, so we can get in a few minutes earlier than usual if we have to.”

  “You’re the best, Vic.”

  Vic shrugged modestly. “I know.”

  They both laughed. They moved around each other in the kitchen, used to the routines and anticipating each other’s movements. Orange Blossom wound around Erin’s legs, seeming like he was trying to trip her up. Even after she fed him, he still wanted attention. Marshmallow was more sedate, watching the morning preparations. K9 hadn’t yet put in an appearance. Though he still slept in his crate, Terry usually left it open now. There had been too many close calls. They both wanted K9 to be free in case someone tried to break in.

  “How’s Nilla?” Erin asked, thinki
ng of the new fluffy white dog that Vic had ended up taking in after Beryl’s death.

  “Well, you know. Still acting out a little. He hasn’t totally destroyed the apartment, but he’s not as well-behaved as K9.”

  “I figured Willie would have him whipped into shape in no time.”

  “Willie…” Vic’s voice was amused, “…is a pushover!”

  Erin gasped dramatically. “No! Willie?”

  “He spoils Nilla. Feeds him at the table. Tells me not to get after him. Lets him sleep on the bed.”

  “On the bed?” Erin repeated. She shook her head. “Here I always thought Willie was tough. Disciplined.”

  “Willie is a puffball. With that dog, anyway.”

  “Well. I’ll have to have a talk with him about how to properly train an animal,” Erin said loftily.

  Then she yipped as Orange Blossom dug his claws into her leg, trying to get her attention.

  “Ouch! Stop that, Blossom. You’re supposed to be demonstrating how well-behaved you are.”

  Chapter 25

  Erin walked into the kitchen, expecting to find it in a complete mess. She knew that the police weren’t required to put things to rights after a search, and she knew how much work there normally was to do at the end of the day. Even with a plan in place and arriving earlier than usual, she was still not looking forward to all of the extra work they would have to do.

  At first, she thought they must have taken a bunch of her pans and equipment with them as evidence because the counters were clear. She and Vic looked at each other and then started to explore the kitchen to see what was missing. If they had seized her pans, it would make it even harder to reopen in one day. They’d need to go into the city to get all of the replacements she needed.

  But a closer inspection revealed that most items were put away in their appropriate slots or drawers. There were a few muffin or loaf pans in the sinks, soaking in water that was now cold, but most of the cleanup they’d been unable to do the evening before had been done.

  “Who did this?” Vic demanded, looking around. “Did any of the employees come in last night after they were gone to fix everything up?”

  “I don’t know.” Erin pulled out her phone to look for text messages or emails that she might have missed. “No one said anything!”

  She ducked into her office and looked around. There were no papers scattered around, no drawers left standing open. Even the mug was gone from beside her computer and had apparently been washed and put away.

  Erin put in her earbuds as she and Vic started with their morning preparations, so she could place calls with her hands free. She called Sheriff Wilmot’s number, planning to leave a voicemail message on his office phone. But it clicked through, and she heard him live on the other end, voice tired and a little clipped.

  “Sheriff’s.”

  “Sheriff Wilmot? It’s Erin Price.”

  “Oh, is it that time already?” A pause as he looked at his computer or phone to verify. “I guess it is. I’m just finishing off here and then I’m going to knock off for a few hours. Everything in order there?”

  “Yes!” Erin looked around the kitchen, shaking her head. “Did you do all of this? I was so shocked to find everything put away!”

  “I helped. Mostly it was Stayner.”

  “Stayner?” Erin couldn’t keep the disbelief out of her voice. She’d always butted heads with Stayner, right from the start. She found him impatient and overbearing. Someone who made assumptions too quickly, was egotistical and didn’t have the discernment that he needed to be a really good cop. “He was the one who cleaned up?”

  She could see him tearing the place apart, pulling every dish and bowl and mixing spoon out to see if she had anything hidden, but she couldn’t see him taking the time to wash all of the dirty bowls and pans and to find their proper places.

  “His momma must have raised him right,” Wilmot said. “No way he was going to leave your kitchen in a mess.”

  “Well, please tell him thank you for me. And I’ll bake him something nice.”

  “Will do,” the sheriff agreed. “But before you go, Miss Price…”

  “Oh.” Erin had been about to hang up. She stopped herself. “Yes…?”

  “We seized the remainder of the package of fortunes for examination.”

  “Oh. Well, okay. That’s fine.” Erin supposed it made sense for him to take some kind of evidence. The fortunes didn’t prove anything, except that the fortune Mary Lou had received was not one of the ones Erin had printed. So that was a good thing. It would help convince the police department that Erin hadn’t had anything to do with the fortune in Mary Lou’s cookie. Even if Mary Lou herself wouldn’t believe it.

  “What can you tell me about the fortunes you had printed? Where did they come from?”

  “We looked for some online. We presented them to the employees, and had everyone vote on them and make suggestions of their own. Eventually, we pared it down to twenty that we liked, and we had the Quiki print them on little slips of paper.”

  It had been a fun exercise. Erin and Vic had enjoyed going through the suggestions and tallying everything up. In the end, she thought they had ended up with a really good pool of fortunes. They would last for a long time, but when they ran out, they could refresh them, adding some new ones in. People who ate at the Chinese restaurant wouldn’t always get the same ones but would see some new fortunes every now and then and stay interested.

  “Did you make any changes to the order after you put it in initially?”

  Erin frowned to herself as she mixed the batter. Why would she do that? She shook her head. “No. I didn’t make any changes. I just gave them the instructions and they let me know when they were ready to be picked up.”

  “Did you check the order when you picked it up?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How did you check it?”

  “Well… I just looked through a few of the fortunes. Made sure that they had printed clearly and weren’t cut off.”

  “How many is a few?”

  “A few?”

  “You said you checked a few. How many? Two? A dozen? More?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe…three to five. I just pulled a few out, looked at them, and put them back in the bag for later, when we would put them into the cookies.”

  “And did you check them as you were making the cookies? For quality control?”

  “No. I probably looked at a few of them, I don’t remember. But not… I wasn’t checking each one to make sure that it was perfect.” Erin dumped some frozen blueberries into the batter and stirred them gently before starting to scoop batter into cupcake wrappers. “Sheriff… it wasn’t really that technical. Everything looked fine. We made the cookies. We delivered them to the restaurant. It wasn’t a big thing. I mean, it was a big order, but it wasn’t like… it was the moon landing.”

  “The problem is… Mary Lou’s wasn’t the only fortune that was… odd.”

  “Oh.” Erin leaned against the counter to steady herself. She pulled her stool closer and sat down. She left the muffins alone for a moment, giving her full attention to the phone. “There were others? Who got them?”

  “We opened a number of the cookies at the restaurant and found a few that were strange. Fortunes that could have been referring to Joshua Cox’s disappearance. We went through the fortunes remaining in the bag, and a number of them were also… wrong.”

  Chapter 26

  Erin’s head spun “That doesn’t make any sense. It had to be someone at the restaurant. No one here would have swapped them.”

  “Apparently, someone did.”

  She thought about her employees. Who could have done such a thing? She couldn’t think of how anyone would have had the nerve to go into Auntie Clem’s and tamper with the fortunes. Had Erin been there while it had happened? How long would something like that take? Had she been out at the front, serving customers while one of her employees excused herself to the kitchen and added the wrong for
tunes to the bag Erin had printed?

  “No one here would have any reason to do something like that. It must be some kind of mistake.”

  “We are still investigating.”

  “I can’t understand it. No one here had anything against Joshua.” Erin turned and looked at Vic, who was trying to look as though she wasn’t listening in on the conversation, and was just putting bread dough into loaf pans as usual. “Vic, no one had any reason to do anything that would hurt Joshua. Or Mary Lou. Right?”

  Vic shook her head. “Not that I can think of. But if that’s what happened…”

  “I don’t think that could be what happened. I just can’t even picture it. The fortunes were stored in my office. No one went in there.”

  “Someone could have,” Sheriff Wilmot countered, his voice sounding far away. Erin put the phone back up to her ear.

  “I would have noticed if someone had been in there.”

  “Would you? If Miss Victoria had been in there, for example?”

  Erin glanced over at Vic. “Well… no.”

  “And you’ve never sent an employee in there to get something for you? Or had them stow their valuables in there?”

  It was the regular landing pad for purses or backpacks. Out of the kitchen, behind closed doors. Not that it was particularly secure. If people had started to notice things disappearing from their bags, Erin would have locked the door or found a better way to secure them. As it was, everyone just dumped their bags there and pulled the door closed. It kept personal items out of the kitchen. The only people who had access to them were other employees, so it had never been an issue.

  “Well… yeah, it’s where we put our purses.”

  “So any employee could have been in there and it wouldn’t have seemed out of place.”

  “At the beginning or end of her shift, yes. But not in the middle of the day.”

  “An employee would never access her purse in the middle of the day to check her phone or get out... sanitary items?”