Two Wicked Desserts

by Lynn Cahoon

  Mia glanced at the empty hallway. “Well, Cindy is still in her room, so I haven’t made much progress either. But I did get a timeline written out last night.”

  “Let me see it.” Trent reached for the notebook. After studying it for a while he set it down. “You’re kind of good at this. Details like dates, times, who was there, it’s all on this one list.”

  “I’m an event planner as well as a chef. I have to have everything on the plan or I’ll forget something.” She glanced at her schedule. “Which also means I need to get into the kitchen today and make a shopping list for next week. I don’t have another catering event on the books, so I need to do some marketing and maybe plan another class. The business can’t survive on just the home deliveries.”

  “And I thought managing the store was twenty-four seven.” He tapped the paper. “You know, this all started with your houseguest. Are you sure Baldwin isn’t right?”

  Mia had entertained that thought too. “All I know is, Grans trusts her. My grandmother has a knack for reading people.”

  “On the other hand, she’s here at the apartment with you rather than in her own house with this Cindy person. Maybe she felt she needed some backup.” Trent finished his coffee and put the cup in the sink. “I’m heading to the store to check on the ovens; then I’m going home. Call me if you need me.”

  “And wake you?” Mia shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll need you that bad. Go get some sleep. You look beat.”

  After Trent left Mia sat in the kitchen for a while. But no one else joined her. Apparently, the rest of the house was sleeping in this morning. She grabbed Muffy’s lead. “Do you want to go for a walk before I get busy? Then you can sleep in the office while I work.”

  Muffy did a dance when he saw the lead. At least someone besides her was ready to start the day. Mr. Darcy looked over at her, yawned, then laid his head back down. He was in the sleeping-in camp.

  They’d just finished their walk around the small park when a woman with a Great Dane turned up their path. Mia hadn’t seen the dog before, but Muffy apparently knew him and barked out a quick greeting. She pulled the leash closer, just in case the bigger dog didn’t share the idea of friendship. She was surprised to look up into the woman’s face and see she knew her. “Priscilla? What are you doing here?”

  “Walking Elvis, what else? Sit, boy.” She reached down and scratched the dog’s ears, and he sat quickly, watching Muffy strain at the lead to get near the larger dog. She shot a look at Muffy. “Why are you walking Mary Alice’s dog? Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine. She and Muffy are staying in the apartment with me for a few days, and I was the first one up, so I got puppy patrol.” Mia pulled Muffy back a few inches, but he wasn’t going to sit like Elvis had on command. Maybe Grans needed obedience classes for Christmas. “I didn’t realize you lived nearby.”

  “In the subdivision on the other side of the park. I’ve got a three-bedroom ranch I’ve had forever. It’s my retirement savings, because once I sell, I’ll be set up, but for right now, I’m stuck running the winery.” She glanced over toward St. Catherine’s. “I was happy you bought the school for your little cottage industry. Having a strip mall with a grocery store would have cut my land value.”

  “At least someone’s happy I bought the building.” Mia reached down and tried to push Muffy into a seated position. “Sit. No one likes a pushy puppy.”

  Priscilla nodded to Muffy. “You can let him have some lead. They’re friends. Elvis won’t eat him.”

  Mia let out the lead and Muffy went directly to the sitting Elvis and licked his legs. She smiled as the dog sat between the Dane’s two front feet and grinned at her. “I guess you’re right.”

  “I’m not a bad person, Mia. Your grandmother and I just have a history.” Priscilla paused, then looked toward the school again. “I heard someone was killed on the grounds. Did they find out who he was?”

  “Some guy from out of town.” Mia didn’t want to say “hit man,” because . . . well, she didn’t know why he’d even come to town.

  “I saw the picture in the newspaper. He was at the winery with your new friend.” Priscilla was still looking in the direction of the school. “I don’t want to say anything negative, but what do you know about Dorian’s daughter?”

  With that, she snapped her fingers, and Elvis gave Muffy a sniff on the head, then turned and followed her on the path away from Mia. Muffy gave out a small whine, then looked up at Mia.

  “I guess it’s time to go back to the house and talk to Cindy.” Mia turned back toward the house. Something wasn’t adding up, and if she didn’t get the answers she wanted, Mia was kicking Cindy out of the house, with or without Grans’s approval.

  When she got back to the apartment, Grans and Cindy were at the kitchen table.

  “Good news—we fixed the spell. I’ve reversed the bad karma and now Cindy is clear again,” Grans chattered, then she looked up at Mia and paused. “So why do you look like you have bad news?”

  “I just have a few questions.” Mia unclipped the lead and Muffy ran to his water dish. She sat at the table and opened her notebook. “Cindy? Tell me exactly when you got into town? And when did you have lunch with Denny?”

  “I didn’t have lunch with Denny.” Cindy dropped her gaze and her face went white. “Yes, he came over to the hotel, but we were working on the new part.”

  Mia pointed to the time frame on the page. “Seriously, cut the crap. Someone saw you at the winery. What haven’t you been telling us about your relationship with Denny?”

  Cindy swallowed hard. “Okay, fine. Look, I told him I was coming here to finalize my father’s estate. I had some papers to sign and the lawyer was getting pressure from that real estate guy to sell the property cheap. Denny said he knew the guy and would help me out. We met the same day I arrived from California. He was supposed to come take me to dinner a few nights later, but he never showed up. Then I saw the news.”

  “When Grans came to visit you at the Lodge, that’s when you decided to come stay with us?” Mia shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense at all.”

  “It does if you killed him. I wanted to find out more about you. He died here, but no one was even looking at any of you as his killers,” Cindy responded. “Besides, I did want to correct this spell, so I thought it was a win-win.”

  “You came here because you thought one of us killed Denny?” Mia couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “Yes. But Baldwin just laughed when I brought up the idea. I told him I’d find proof, but I didn’t.”

  “Because we didn’t kill him.” Mia leaned back in her chair, frustrated. They’d been protecting Cindy all this time and she’d been trying to pin the murder on Mia or Grans or Christina.

  “I know that now.” Cindy met Mia’s gaze. “But my plan backfired. Baldwin still thinks I killed Denny. And being here has just made things worse.”

  Chapter 20

  Mr. Darcy jumped on Cindy’s lap and patted her cheek, where tears had begun to fall. She reached out almost without thought to pet him. She smiled down at the cat. “I don’t know why, but he always seems to know what I’m feeling.”

  “Cindy, you need to know something.” Grans turned toward her.

  “I’m not sure this is the right time,” Mia warned.

  “Pishposh, she’s an adult, and she just cleared her karma in more ways than one. It’s time we came clean with her.” Grans turned back toward Mia and waited for her nod of approval.

  “I knew it—you guys did kill Denny. Why? Did he see some magic ritual you needed kept secret? Or did you just need the blood?” Cindy’s eyes widened as she stared at Mia and Grans.

  “Seriously? I’ve just spent the last week teaching you about magic and you bring up that old stereotype? Neither my granddaughter nor I killed your friend. And this isn’t about Denny at all. This is about Dorian.” Grans reached out and rubbed Mr. Darcy’s ears.

  “What about my father? I know the
two of you were dating. That wasn’t a secret. He called both me and Mike and told us.” Cindy absently reached out and touched her grimoire, the one physical object she had from her father close by.

  “Go ahead. This is your party.” Mia leaned back to watch the conversation. She didn’t have any part in this. Grans had put Dorian’s essence into Mr. Darcy; she needed to explain the problem.

  “It’s not about us dating either, but thank you for telling me you knew about our relationship; that was so sweet of him.” Grans pressed a hand to her heart.

  “Get to the point, Grans,” Mia pushed.

  Sighing, she turned back to Cindy. “After your father was killed we didn’t know who had murdered him. So I tried to talk to his spirit to find out.”

  Cindy didn’t say anything, just stroked Mr. Darcy’s back.

  “Anyway,” Grans continued, “your father came to me after my spell and I was trying to talk to him, and then, well, the cat jumped on the table and your father’s essence went into his body.”

  “Father’s body? You mean his spirit is stuck in his body?” Cindy’s face winced, as if she was thinking about what that might mean.

  “No, dear, Mr. Darcy’s body. Your father’s spirit is in the cat.”

  * * *

  Mia was in the new-to-her library, looking at the space and the massive amount of junk in between her and a usable room. She walked over to where Christina had seen the picture of the girl, but there was nothing there that could have made the projection or was even close. She heard a noise in the hallway and looked up to see Grans coming into the room.

  She paused and touched one of the old student desks. “Oh my, I haven’t seen things like this for years. I didn’t attend school here, but as you know, I sent your mother here for a while.”

  Mia crossed the room to stand next to her. She pointed to a far wall. “It’s a lovely room. I’ll be able to break out part of the kitchen wall to make a doorway right there. As long as the school is going to let me use the room.”

  “I don’t think it would have opened the door if it didn’t want you here.” She glanced around the room, seeking out something. “I don’t feel any negative vibes here. Maybe there’s a ghost, but it’s not angry, or at least not right now. Moving things around can upset them, so we’ll have to be gentle with what we do with the stuff in here.”

  “I was thinking a yard sale. Maybe a call to an antique shop? These desks have to be old.” Mia thought about the story about the school that Abigail Majors had told her. Maybe the story was somewhere in between that story and the one Gran knew. She rubbed the wood on the top of a desk that had an attached seat. The top flipped open, and she could imagine a child storing their books and school supplies in the desk. “I want to keep a few for the library, though, too. Just for decoration.”

  “You could have a section for cookbooks too. I think you have a couple of boxes still downstairs that need to be unpacked.” Grans sank into a chair. “I needed to get out of the apartment for a minute. Cindy’s still in her room. She’s having trouble dealing with Dorian’s current state.”

  “She took it better than I expected. Although I can’t believe she thought we’d kill someone.” Mia leaned against a table. “I guess it’s not any different from us thinking she killed the man.”

  “True. But Cindy has trust issues. Dorian didn’t do her any favors by walking away from the children when he divorced their mother. Children need both parents.” She waved a hand at Mia. “I’m not saying they should have stayed together. But parents need to keep active in the children’s lives, even if it’s difficult. Dorian was a weekend, now-and-then dad. Not a solid force in their lives.”

  Mia let that sit a while. It was hard to judge someone who couldn’t defend himself. “Okay, so we’re back at square one. Just some random killing that happened to be in my backyard?”

  “Maybe you’re just going to have to trust that Baldwin will figure out who killed Denny without your input.”

  “Maybe.” But Mia wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. “I’ve got to go into town to check on something. Do you mind starting dinner?”

  “Of course not, but where are you going?” Grans pulled herself up and followed Mia out of the room and into the hallway.

  “I need to talk to Barney Mann about some legal work for the business.” She made the idea sound dull, like it was just about the paperwork. Hopefully, Grans wouldn’t catch on.

  “Okay, dear. Tell Sheila I still need a tennis partner for my doubles league next week.” Grans paused at the door as Mia headed downstairs. “Are you driving?”

  “No, I think I’ll walk. See you in a few.” Mia left the house and headed toward the business section of town.

  When she got to the second-floor office that held Barney Mann’s law offices, she had a plan. It wasn’t a great one, but it was a step in the right direction. She knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” Sheila called out. “No need to wait in the hallway.”

  “Sheila? Is Barney in?” Mia stepped inside, and a strong coffee smell made her wake up a bit.

  “No, sorry, dear. Barney’s in Boise for the week. He had a trial that got moved out of the county to get a clean jury.” She nodded to the chair in front of her desk. “Have a seat. Can I get you some coffee or water?”

  “No, I’m fine. I need to get back home. When will he get back?”

  Sheila glanced at the file on her desk. “Looks like they’re seating a jury today. So Friday at the earliest. Maybe sometime this weekend, if the jury gets sequestered. Can I help you with something?”

  “You’ve been around a while in Magic Springs, right?” Mia held out the paper that showed a mug shot of Denny. “Have you ever seen this guy? Denny Blake?”

  When Sheila nodded, Mia asked, “I need to know what Denny was doing in town but, more importantly, who would have seen him.”

  “I didn’t know that was his name until the paper came out. But yes, we both had seen the guy. Both Barney and me.” Sheila frowned at her over her glasses. “The guy showed up wanting to know if Mr. Mann knew what the legal process for getting married was in Idaho. That’s all I got before they went inside his office and closed the door. I thought it was a little strange, because he wasn’t a resident and all, but you know how the rich are. They just come up here for a visit and the next thing you know, they’re trying to put down roots. But roots don’t grow overnight. And now that poor man is dead.”

  Mia pushed away the antinewcomer sentiment that Sheila’s words held and tried to go back to the marriage thing. Maybe Denny had been here for another reason. Not related to John Louis. “So when he came in, you just thought he was visiting?”

  “He told me he was in town for the week and had a proposal he wanted to take care of while he was here.” Sheila smiled sadly. “I wonder if he ever got to ask the girl to marry him before he died. I don’t know what would be sadder for the woman. Not to know how he felt or to know and lose him right afterward to a random mugging.”

  “You think it was a mugging?” Mia watched Sheila’s reaction.

  A frown came over her face. “I guess I’m not sure how he died. I just assumed from what the paper said that he’d been killed when he was on a walk through the trail system. He was found on the trail behind your house, right? You may want to make sure that big house is locked up at night. You’re just far enough out of town that it could look like an easy place to break in to.”

  “Yeah, I’m very careful.” Mia stood and put the paper back into her tote. “Thanks for your time. If you think of another time you saw Denny before he died, please call me. I’m trying to do some follow-up work for the family to clear up some missing time in his travels here.”

  “Oh well, isn’t that sweet of you? I thought maybe you were just worried about the murder being so close to your home. I mean, St. Catherine’s has a reputation for some strange goings-on there. Have you had any bumps in the night or seen any apparitions?”

  Mia smiled, shook her head
, and lied. Sheila wasn’t part of the local coven culture. “Not a one. I’d heard the rumors too before I bought it, but it must have been just kids messing with one another when the place was vacant. No ghosts hanging out at the school now. Maybe they don’t like all the cooking I do. It must make them frustrated that they can’t eat.”

  Sheila laughed. “Well, that might just be why. I’ve been meaning to order one of your takeout meals, but it’s just me, so it’s a lot of food.”

  “I should make some one- or two-person serving choices. Actually, that’s a great idea. I’ll stop by next week with a free sample for you, if you don’t mind. And one for Mr. Mann, of course.” Mia started toward the door. “Thanks for chatting with me.”

  “No problem.” She paused, tapping the desk. “You know, I did see that man one other time.”

  “Denny? Where?” Mia dropped her hand from the doorknob and turned back to focus on Sheila.

  “I think it was that same night. Or the next night? Days mix together at my age. Anyway, I was shopping for groceries, so it must have been a Monday night. I came out of Majors and he was standing by a car, talking to someone. I walked by and was shocked to see it was John Louis, but then again, it made sense because John is a Realtor. I think Denny was talking about a house, and John, well, he said something weird.”

  Mia could feel the muscles in her body tense. Would this be the missing piece that put the two of them together for Baldwin? “What did he say?”

  “Something about it not being why he was in town. I guess John was having trouble getting him focused at looking at a house. Realtors are like that. They really want the sale.” The phone rang and she sighed. “Sorry, work calls. Literally.”

  Mia walked out of the office and shut the door behind her. So, not a smoking gun, but another flashing arrow, at least in her mind, pointing toward John as the killer.

  She really needed to focus her cover story. If Sheila hadn’t been just lonely enough to want to talk, she might not have given Mia as much as she had. So now Mia had two questions. Why was Denny here? And who was he planning on popping the question to?