Expresso Messo: A Cozy Mystery (Sweet Home Mystery Series Book 6)

by Constance Barker

  “Of course I will.”

  “Thanks. I gave her a quick hug. We should get back out there before Essie starts tearing all the decorations down.”

  I sighed with relief when we returned to the front of the shop. In no time they had the front decked out in hearts, cupids and streamers. I wiped down the counter and pulled out more take away lids. The shop was ready for the next crowd of customers.

  “The place looks great,” I said.

  “It’s pink and red,” Essie said.

  I nudged her shoulder. “What’s the matter Essie? Toe hasn’t asked you out for Valentine’s Day yet?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t care what he does for the ‘holiday’.”

  I grinned when she walked to the counter and wiped it down again. Making herself busy to avoid talk about her crush no doubt. I loved teasing her but I didn’t push my luck today with it so close to Valentine’s Day. On a day meant for couples I’m sure she expected longtime friend and bachelor Toe to ask her out. Even though he’d dated most of the widows in town he kept coming back to Essie when it mattered.

  When the bell above the door jingled I looked up to see Toe walk through the door. His face was a little paler than I would expect even for February in Florida.

  “Good morning Toe,” I said.

  “Hey, Lily.”

  He hurried into the shop and sat down at one of the tables in the front. Essie and Hildie joined him. I brought over a cup of coffee with a plate of the rolled waffle cookies.

  “I thought you were going to Mildred’s this morning to fix her leaking faucet,” Essie said, a slight sneer on her face.

  Though she denied having feelings for Toe, Essie frequently showed signs of jealousy especially when it came to women the old gent had dated in the past. Mildred was harmless and a little ditsy but Essie still saw her as a rival. I thought it was cute that she was a little possessive when it came to Toe. My aunt would never show it to him though.

  He picked up his coffee and took a sip before speaking. “I went over but she wasn’t there.” He beamed at Hildie and Essie. “These waffle cookies are great. You ladies out did yourselves with these.”

  He grabbed another one from the plate and looked at me with eager eyes.

  I got up and retrieved more cookies, plunking them down on the table. I fought the urge to grab one myself for fear of Aunt Essie slapping my hand.

  “She went out? Wasn’t she expecting you?” Hildie asked.

  “I told her I would stop by today. She’d been asking about the leaking faucet for a few days now but today was the first time I had free. I confirmed with her two days ago that I would be there.”

  A twinge of concern raced through me but I was sure there was a reasonable explanation as to why she wasn’t there. Reasonable for Mildred anyway. She wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. The appointment could have slipped her mind. I was forgetting things all the time and I’m at least half her age at thirty-two. My forgetfulness could have something to do with a plate piled high with things to do. I needed to start making lists. I hadn’t even started planning the wedding. I’d never be able to keep track of everything without lists.

  “Even though you reminded her she still could have forgotten,” I said.

  “Maybe she went out for a few minutes to the store,” Hildie suggested.

  Toe shook his head. “Doesn’t she usually lock the door when she goes out? The door wasn’t locked. I waited for an hour but she never came back.”

  “You think Mildred has gone missing?” I asked, taking a seat at the table.

  “Based on the look of her place, I know she’s missing.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Mildred can’t be missing,” Hildie said. “There’s a reason she wasn’t there. She forgot you were coming. That’s all it is.”

  “I reminded her,” Toe insisted. “And she called to confirm yesterday.”

  “You know how ditsy she can be. It probably slipped her mind and she went out,” Essie said.

  I frowned at Essie. She frowned back but wouldn’t apologize for her comment about Mildred being scatterbrained. I know part of her comment came from jealousy. Part was that she was a little brasher than Hildie. Sometimes that filter got lost when heading from the brain to the mouth. It was endearing most of the time. You always knew where you stood with her. She didn’t pretend to like you if she didn’t want your company, but she would still be pleasant to you. If she could stomach it.

  “She always shows up,” I said. “She’s probably there now waiting for you.” I knew I was grasping at straws at this point but I had to believe the red-head was okay. No one I could think of would have reason to hurt her. I glanced at Essie. Well, no one who would actually do something about it anyway. Okay, no one else. Gladys had tried to kill her but it came out that she was mixing up her medication and it was driving her loony tunes. For the time being she was recuperating at an assisted living home near her daughter’s in Miami until the court released her. Mildred didn’t want to charge her and the prosecution said they wouldn’t bring charges either but she’d have to be tested once a month to ensure she was taking the right medications. I was happy about that. I know deep down that the real Gladys would never hurt her friend like that.

  Toe shook his head not buying what we were selling. “You didn’t see her place.”

  I shifted in my seat and Jules pulled up a chair beside mine. We all focused on Toe. He wasn’t one to worry over nothing so if he said her house indicated she didn’t leave of her own free will, there might be something to it.

  My need to investigate took over. “Tell us exactly what you saw when you got there,” I said.

  The bell above the door jingled as someone came in. I suppressed a groan and bolted up from my seat.

  “Don’t say anything until I get back,” I said.

  Essie opened her mouth to ask Toe something but I glared at her. She crossed her arms and relaxed back in her chair and glared back at me.

  “Nothing about Mildred until I get back.”

  “Okay fine, but hurry up,” Essie said.

  When drama happened she seemed to forget we were running a business here. A business I loved but right now I wanted to be back at the table grilling Toe about Mildred’s place. I couldn’t complain. We had great customers; awesome regulars that helped the day pass by quickly.

  We had a few stragglers during the day but usually between 10 and noon the place was pretty quiet. I was dying to know what Toe found at Mildred’s but customers came first. I hurried behind the counter and flashed a smile at the gentleman who had strolled to the counter. He was about a decade older than me with a kind face and a twinkle in his eyes. His visit today surprised me because I rarely saw Joseph Commiskey in the shop. I thought the hairdresser only drank the instant stuff at the hair salon. He was still perusing the menu and didn’t make eye contact with me. He was so engrossed in the menu I didn’t think he knew I was there yet.

  I craned my neck to check out the table to make sure they weren’t talking about Mildred. I couldn’t hear them from here but if he told them what he found he’d just have to repeat himself. Essie and Hildie watched Joseph intently. Since the man had arrived in Sweet Home some of the senior ladies in town had flocked to the salon. Fresh meat was always welcome and the salon was the perfect place for pampering and gossip.

  “Hi, Mr. Commiskey. What can I get you?” I asked.

  He started and finally focused on me, surprised to see me there. “I’m not quite sure yet.” He went back to reading the menu again.

  I didn’t have a lot of food on the menu. And it was a coffee shop. True, we had lattes, cappuccino, coffee and espresso with a few different flavors but it wasn’t a huge selection. Since he didn’t come in often the menu had changed since he was here last. I stopped myself from fidgeting. It wasn’t his fault drama was going on in Sweet Home and I desperately wanted to find out what was going on with Mildred.

  “I’m a little surprised to see you in here.
You don’t usually come in for a coffee.” He must be tired of the swill at the salon. That’s the nicest thing I can think of to call it. Even when they make a pot of coffee instead of using the instant it was horrible. I didn’t know who was in charge of making it for the customers but they couldn’t be a coffee drinker. Even with those cheap coffee makers it was possible to get a half decent cup of Joe.

  “Some of my customers have been talking about the new menu. I was intrigued to say the least.” He glanced up at me with a slight shake of his head. “When are you going to let me do something with those limp locks, Lily?”

  Self-consciously I smoothed my hand over my hair. He wasn’t wrong about the lack of body in my tresses. I glanced over at my aunts and their perfectly coiffed, full of body hair. Why did the good hair gene skip over me? At least Eli liked me the way I was. I held out my hand to admire my ring. Sometimes I still can’t believe he asked me to marry him. The only thing that kept me from pinching myself was the fact that I would look crazy.

  “I don’t think even you could do anything with this mess.”

  I’d spent hours trying to revive my dead strands, attempting to add body to my hair. All I ended up doing was giving up in frustration. So except for special occasions I’d given up on trying to make my hair do anything except sit there. Thankfully Jules can tame my tresses if even only temporarily.

  He grinned, a twinkle in his kind eyes. “Darling, I can work miracles. Come see me soon.”

  “I’ll think about it.” I looked over at the group who were waving their hands in front of themselves to tell me to hurry up. I shook my head and focused on Mr. Commiskey again. “Anything strike your fancy?”

  “The raspberry latte is new. What’s that like?”

  “It’s delicious. Our new Valentine’s Day beverages come with raspberry chocolate truffles and rolled waffle cookies.”

  He nodded eagerly. “Sounds like a nice mid-morning snack. I’ll take that then. To go.”

  I pumped raspberry syrup into a to go cup and poured espresso on top. I made sure the milk was nice and frothy before pouring it over the flavored coffee then put the lid on top. With the display case restocked I didn’t have to reach in very far to get the baked goods for him. I pulled those out and dropped them into a bag. I handed everything over and rung up the sale.

  “Thanks for stopping in. See you soon.”

  I didn’t think he would be back in the next few days. Maybe not even this month. I could count on one hand how often he’d been in the shop since we started running the place. As soon as he was out the front door I rushed back over to the table. “Did I miss anything?”

  Jules shook her head. “We waited.”

  “Under protest,” Hildie said. “Essie was trying to get Toe to spill what he knew.”

  I glowered at Essie who glowered back.

  “What? I wanted to know. Nothing happens around here.”

  I gave her a “come on” look and she shrugged.

  “Okay fine. Nothing has happened here in at least a month,” she said.

  The last drama had Mildred at the center of it as well. The two situations couldn’t possibly be related because Gladys was out of the picture right now. Still, I wondered at Mildred’s talent for being in the middle of drama even though she usually meant well. At least I didn’t think she meant people harm.

  Was it bad judgment here? Was she involved with someone she shouldn’t be? I know she’d had her eye on Toe but he didn’t seem to notice. After Carl Jefferies I thought she would stay away from all men for a while.

  “Carry on with the details,” I said.

  I sat beside Jules and waited for Toe to continue his story.

  “Go on then,” Essie said. “Why do you think she’s missing?”

  “Her door was unlocked for one.”

  “That is a bit unusual if she wasn’t there. If she was home I would have expected it to be unlocked,” I said.

  “Okay, but I thought that too. That she was probably home but didn’t hear me knock. So I went inside and called her name. There was no answer.”

  “That alone doesn’t mean anything happened to her,” Hildie said.

  “She could have gone out. Maybe she’s home now waiting for you.” I leaned into the table my mind churning with scenarios.

  “I don’t think so because her half-finished breakfast was still on the table. If she was going out wouldn’t she have finished that?”

  “Maybe she was in a hurry,” Jules said.

  “Her cell phone was still there. No Mildred and her purse wasn’t there either that I could see.”

  I had to give him that point. Leaving her cell phone behind was odd but not unheard of. I’ve been known to forget mine in my charger. But the fact that her purse was gone too made me think she’d left willingly. If she had time to grab her purse why hadn’t she taken her phone too?

  “It all sounds very strange to me,” I said. “Did she say anything to any of you about going anywhere?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “I think she would have mentioned something if she’d made plans to go anywhere since I reminded her I was stopping by,” Toe said.

  “What about her friends?” I asked. “Maybe they know where Mildred is.”

  Mildred didn’t have a lot of friends but she must have told someone if she’d planned to go somewhere. If it was only a few hours though why would she bother? I still thought the most logical explanation was forgetfulness. She dashed out to do something and forgot Toe was coming over despite the reminders.

  “I came right here.” Toe took another drink of his coffee.

  “Lily’s right,” Hildie said. “We should ask some of Mildred’s friends if they know where she is before we decide she’s been kidnapped.”

  Toe shrugged. “The house looked like she left in a hurry. I can’t think of another reason why it would unless she was kidnapped.”

  “Who said anything about being kidnapped?” Jules asked.

  I tried to think of other reasons. Not for the first time this week I wished I could talk to Eli. I’d tried his cell phone the other day but he must be somewhere without a signal. He told me where he was going but it still niggled that I couldn’t get in touch with him. Old insecurities died hard especially during the week of Valentine’s Day.

  A pensive look came over Jules’ face. She bolted up from her seat and headed toward the door.

  “Jules, what’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I’ll be right back. I think I remember something.”

  I watched her push through the door wondering what she could have remembered. Something Mildred said? But why did she need to go back to her newspaper?

  “Can I fill that up for you, Toe?” I asked.

  “Sure, Lily. That would be great.”

  I took his mug and hurried behind the counter. I put his empty dish in the dishwasher and grabbed another mug for him. I poured his drink and brought it back to the table. As soon as I put it down he took a tentative sip.

  It seemed like Jules had been gone for ages when she returned ten minutes later. She waved a piece of notebook paper in front of her when she came in.

  “What’s that?” Essie asked.

  “It came into the secret admirer column a few days ago. I haven’t printed it yet because there are so many messages. I didn’t think the column would be this popular. I was going to print it tomorrow. Anyway, read it. Tell me what you think.”

  She passed it around so we could all read it. The note itself was typed so that didn’t offer any clues as to who wrote it. The message on the paper was cryptic.

  This shock of red needs to see you at big R cafe again. Friday. To make up for last week.

  “What do you think it means?” Jules asked when the note came back to her.

  “Good question.” I reached for the note again so I could study it more.

  I read it a few times, turned it over in my hands. Nothing came to mind. I didn’t quite know what the message meant. It sounded
like the person was talking about a meeting at Reva’s last week.

  “It could have been written by Mildred,” Hildie said. She took the note from me. “Shock of red has to mean her hair.”

  Essie grabbed the note from Hildie. “This makes it sound like she was meeting someone at Reva’s last week.”

  “Not just anyone,” Jules said. “A man by the sounds of it. And the person wants to meet them again.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her,” Essie said.

  She frowned at the note and handed it back to Jules. I didn’t think that after all Mildred had been through recently she would get involved with another man so soon. She deserved a break. Putting some distance between Mildred and men would be a good idea.