Blueberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Ann S. Marie

  The sign was in neon parlor lights and read “Welcome to Bea’s Salon: Look great. Feel great!”

  Warmth tingled inside her. She sure wished she could just sit down and have a nice massage right now and her nails and feet done.

  When was the last time she’d pampered herself?

  Too long, she thought. Way too long.

  She’d been too busy working hard around the clock, penciling time in for chores, errands, bookkeeping for the café, helping out at the café, fixing stuff around the aging Victorian house, paying bills, dealing with bill collectors and grandma’s old uninsured debts and tons of other stuff. Everything, except herself. Well, she was going to make a point of putting in some self-care time. Once all this was done with, of course. She still had to get down to the bottom of this itching problem?

  Who really killed Karla Sweet?

  “Aww, well aren’t these cute and lovely,” Bea said when Dana presented the goods to her at the door. “They look too good to eat, child.”

  Bea took the box with the cupcakes piled high with whipped cream frosting and a cute message on each of them with a bow tie and a design of an edible nail polish and nail file.

  “My, my, my. This is so creative, child. I love it,” Bea continued.

  “I’m glad you love them, Bea. Sorry, I’m a bit late with the delivery.”

  “Oh, no worries, child,” Bea said. “Heather! Come here and take these over to the table there.” Bea called out to her assistant.

  It was the Salon’s tenth anniversary and they were giving out free tea and cupcakes to their loyal customers.

  “I know you must have had a lot on your head, child. Come over here into my office. I’ve got a few things to do.” Bea snapped her gum in her mouth.

  The sound of music played over the system and the TV was set on the HGTV as the patrons got their nails and toes done while either reading on their phones or looking at the screen. Few were speaking to each other but the place was packed.

  “Thanks, Bea.”

  “Hey,” Bea said, looking suspiciously at Dana’s nails. She reached out to grab Dana’s two hands and glanced at them with a shame-on-you expression on her face. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Child, you know you shouldn’t be walking around with dem nails like that, right?”

  “Oh, Bea. I know, I know. I need to make an appointment.”

  “You sure do, child. I’m sorry about your fiancé there. But if you ever want a chance at another fella, you’ve got to take care of dem nails of yours.”

  Dana playfully rolled her eyes. “I think there’s more to mating than one’s nail status, Bea.”

  Beatrice. Beatrice. Beatrice. As was her full name. Bea was ever the nail-obsessed beautician. She once trained as a nurse in her earlier life but never finished nursing school, according to what Nans once told her. Bea once said, she could tell a lot about a person through their nails and their skin. Like stuff about the customer’s blood circulation, their diet, whether they got enough protein or calcium or had nerves problems.

  “Are you kidding me, child. I once told a customer to go see a doctor when she came in here with her pail nails and low energy. Turned out she was anemic and didn’t know it at first.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really, child. And never mind that,” Bea said, looking at Dana’s nails and examining them carefully. “You know I can tell a lot about a person’s character by the shape of their nails.”

  Dana rolled her eyes. “Really?”

  “Yes, really, child. You act like you don’t believe me.”

  “I don’t,’ she teased.

  “Well, you have vertically long nails.”

  “I thought most people do.”

  “Oh, no, child. Some are squared, or broad, or round, or egg-shaped, or almond, or triangle shaped and so on. But yours is nice and vertical and long on the fingertips.”

  “Which means?” Oh, boy. Was Dana about to receive nail reading from the town’s most popular beautician. This was so not like New York. Only in a small town like Berry Cove.

  “Which means that you are what’s called a mild-tempered romanticist.”

  “A mild tempered romanticist?” Dana sounded dubious.

  “Yes, that’s right. And it means that you’re probably more right brain oriented, and you’re a highly imaginative type.”

  “Well, okay, that is true. A coincidence of course.”

  “Oh, I’m not finished yet. It also means that you’re meticulous and creative, but you can get a little overwhelmed by the surrounding atmosphere and you might easily be deceived, so you might want add a little extra caution to your diet.”

  “Oh.” Well, Bea did seem to read her quite accurately like a book. She couldn’t argue with that.

  “See, I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “I guess you are, Bea. Good. You really study your craft well. And here I only thought you were more concerned with the outer appearance of your customers.” Dana grinned.

  Bea smiled. “I can tell you have a lot on your mind.”

  “I do, Bea. In fact, I just spoke to Uncle Max and Aunt Mary this morning.”

  Bea leaned closer. “How is that poor Max doing and his mama?”

  Dana sighed. “As best as can be. I have a feeling that he’s innocent and somebody else it to blame. I mean, no one’s really saying anything much but…I feel as if it could have something to do with people that knew his late wife, Karla.”

  Bea leaned back in the beauty chair by her desk and brushed imaginary lint off her shoulder. “Well, you know, word has it that Ms Karla got around.”

  “She did, didn’t she?”

  “Well, she had to look her best. Always pristine, she was. But then again a woman had to look like gold if she was going to be digging for it. We did the works for her every other week. Different stuff each week, of course. She had a Brazilian wax, a French manicure, and a Japanese facial. The list goes on. Girl, she was a worldly woman in all sense of the word.”

  “Wow! I see. She took a lot of pride in her appearance, too.”

  “That girl of his was a real get-around-type of girl, you know.”

  “She was?”

  “Yes, child. She was dating a lot of guys behind your poor uncle’s back. She was even dating Echo, the electrician.”

  “Echo?” Dana was dubious. “Really?” Dana just couldn’t see a Vegas show girl settling down with a down-to-earth electrician.

  “He was her true love but he didn’t have any money, honey. You know what I’m saying?”

  “I think I do.”

  “Well, anyway, he wasn’t too pleased about her brushing him off to the side like he was a nobody and that guy is sweet and all but he does have a temper like a volcano. Erupts when you least expect it. I remember when he came in here to fix the panel and something blew and I cursed him out for it. You would have thought he would have been professional and tried to fix it. Guy just blew up like a fuse in my face. I had to get Dion from the barber to get him out of here. Of course, he apologized later and came back all sweet and everything and said he was really sorry but had a lot of problems on his head, yada yada.” Bea continued talking and got up to unpack a box of nail polish to put up on the display at the front.

  “Wow, that’s awful. I never knew Echo had a temper like that.”

  “Oh, don’t we all at one point and time.”

  “But do you think he could have…you know, killed Karla.”

  “I can’t tell you that, Dana. But I will say this. One of my newer girls did Karla’s nails once. It was a quiet day at the salon. Karla and Feffy were here alone. Now Feffy’s English isn’t all that great. I guess, Karla thought speaking on the phone while her feet was in the solution, Feffy wouldn’t understand what she was saying. Well, anyway, Karla apparently said that the only way a girl can get rich is to marry a nice rich guy without a prenup then divorce the bastard.”

  “What? She said that?” Dana couldn’t believe her ears. But then if Uncle Max knew that and knew she
was cheating and didn’t have a prenup signed, he couldn’t divorce her, could he? That would break his bank account. Completely wipe him out. That would give him a motive, wouldn’t it? A damn good motive.

  Oy, yoy, yoy!

  “I have a customer here who works as a care worker,” Bea continued. “What do you call those people, personal support workers?”

  “Yes, and?” Dana probed for more information.

  “Well,” Bea said, quietly, “she told me that she went to work for your auntie and there was some huge argument. A fight between Max and his wife.”

  “There was? Could you tell me what that was about?”

  “Sure, honey. I’m not one to gossip, so you didn’t hear it from me, okay?” She arched a brow. “Anyhow, Max told her that he knew about her affairs.”

  “He did?” Dana’s eyes widened. Her heart beat harder, her breath felt constricted. Her world was being turned upside down. She didn’t like what she was hearing at all.

  Well, that didn’t look good for her Uncle Max. If the police knew about this, they would say he had a very strong motive for murder.

  Dana felt her stomach twist into knots. Could Uncle Max have been guilty after all?

  “And then he told her something like she had to stop seeing Chester.”

  “Stop, seeing Chester? Who’s Chester? What else did he say, Bea?” Dana swallowed a hard lump in her throat, feeling as if her day was getting worse by the minute with each word that came out of Bea’s lips.

  Mon, Dieu!

  This isn’t looking good. This isn’t looking good at all.

  “Well, his wife there said that she knew about the secret and she would let it all out.”

  “Secret? Let it all out? What secret?”

  “Oh, yes, honey child. Something big went down there. Next thing you know, she was found dead. Poisoned.”

  Secret? What secret could Uncle Max have been hiding from her?

  Dana felt her head spin out of control.

  “Well, you know, I had to tell the cops.”

  “I understand. Good thing you did. That was the right thing to do.”

  Great. Now her uncle was looking even more guilty. Dana was going to have to have yet another chat with dear old Uncle Max—not to mention Echo. But if there was some dark family secret to be discovered, Dana needed to know now sooner than later.

  Chapter 13

  “What are you talking about Dana darling?” Uncle Max said in the study of his home.

  Aunt Mary was sitting by the fireplace relaxing. Her eyes were now closed. Earlier, Aunt Mary told Dana that she’d lost her spare pair of reading glasses and she thought it could be at the nursing home where she stayed while her son was in jail. Dana said she’d go and retrieve it after talking with her uncle.

  Uncle Max insisted on speaking in the study with Dana, despite Dana wanting to go into another room as not to wake or upset Aunt Mary.

  “Well, Uncle Max. I really want to help you solve this riddle. I mean this murder. We need to find out who really poisoned your late wife, but you need to tell me everything you know.” Dana didn’t want to get Bea involved so she kept her name out of the conversation.

  “And what makes you think I haven’t told you everything, Dana? What have you heard?”

  “Well, for one thing, I heard you had a confrontation with Karla—an argument not long before her death.”

  Uncle Max’s face froze.

  Then a shadow of regret and sorrow slid across it.

  “Uncle Max, is everything all right? I’m so sorry to bring this up. But if you don’t talk about it now, you might have to talk about it in front of grand jury.”

  He took a deep sigh. “Dana…I can’t talk right now. There isn’t anything to say.”

  “Oh, Uncle Max. I’m so disappointed.”

  “Dana, I did not kill my wife. Neither of them. That I swear to you. But…”

  “Is there a secret that…”

  “What?”

  “A secret.”

  “Dana. There’s no secret. Yes, Karla mentioned that she knew a secret but she didn’t say what it was.”

  Dana didn’t want to bring up her lovers, thinking it would be much too painful right now. After all, he was still mourning her loss and she didn’t want to entertain rumors without having hard facts of that first. But it wasn’t looking good right now. Her job in finding the real killer was going to be far more complicated than she had ever imagined.

  Chapter 14

  “Maybe the motive wasn’t greed or jealousy. Maybe it was something else.” Dana sat with Katie in the kitchen at the Victorian. Truffles was swinging her tail back and forth listening to their conversation as she sat propped up on the table.

  “What do you think it could be then?”

  “I don’t know. But…” Dana didn’t feel good about telling Katie just yet about the strange “feelings” that she often got when something wasn’t right or when something resonated with her. But she could feel Truffles energy. And it told her that she was on the right track.

  “What is it?” Katie probed.

  “I think there’s something way more serious.”

  “Such as? Dana are you holding back on me?”

  Dana didn’t know how to tell Katie this. After all it was gossip, right? But then Bea told the cops what the care worker had said. Did the care worker tell the cops, too?

  “Yes. I think fear might be the motive here. I just don’t know why but trust me on this one.”

  Katie shrugged. She then sighed and placed her cup down on the table. “Okay, Sherlock. Who do you think had enough fear to take out both of Uncle Max’s wives? Do you think Karla was trying to get rid of his secretary? Are we back to that square again?”

  “That’s a possibility. Darlene didn’t seem too fond of her boss’s wife and the wife had a lot of say in the company. I’m going to figure that one out soon.”

  “Dana, I know you’re not telling me something.”

  “Well, yes. I was at the salon this morning to deliver the cupcakes to Bea.”

  “And?”

  “And she told me that one of her clients worked as a caregiver and did a home visit to see Aunt Mary at Uncle Max’s house.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Well, that they had a serious argument and she accused his wife of seeing a guy named Chester.”

  “Chester?” Katie looked puzzled. Dana could see the wheels turning in Katie’s head. “Chester. Chester. Now why does that name sound familiar?”

  Truffles hissed at the sound of Chester’s name. Dana and Katie exchanged glances.

  “Hmm, that’s interesting.” She turned her attention back to Katie. “Do you know of any Chesters around here?”

  “Wait a minute.”

  “What?”

  “Echo’s real name is Echo Chester.”

  “Oh, crap! So she was seeing Echo then.”

  Dana got up from the table.

  Truffles followed suit and climbed off the table.

  “Where are you headed?” Katie asked Dana

  “Oh, I’m going to pay Echo a visit. Then I’m heading over to the nursing home. Aunt Mary can’t find her spare pair of glasses. We don’t know where they are. She must have left them there when she went there for those few days when Uncle Max was arrested.”

  “Do you want some company?”

  “I’m good, thanks cuz. You can just watch things at the café. I’ll be fine.”

  Dana felt lost. She felt more further from the truth than before. If Uncle Max was convicted of the murders, then he’s as good as gone as so was Aunt Mary.

  Which meant, so was the whole family. Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia were in no position to care for Aunt Mary and not only that, it won’t look very good if her uncle was convicted of murder, right after she’d been suspected of murder herself. The reputation of the Cozy Cupcakes Café would be forever tarnished, not to mention lives ruined if this ever went sour.

  Dana felt as if the wind was knocked
out of her. What would she do? How would she cope? She really thought she had some magical psychic powers that could make a real difference in the lives of those around her.

  So much for that.

  “Here you go, sweetie,” Dana said as she lowered a bowl of delicious Meow Mix for Truffles.

  The kitty meowed and purred delightfully.

  Dana looked over her notes while Truffles sat next to her devouring her snack.

  “So, there’s Darlene, the secretary who seems to be hiding something. Check.” Dana felt more disillusioned than ever before. Sure, Darlene was a prime suspect, but her vibes were telling her she was colder than an ice-cream smoothie right out of the freezer.

  Besides, Truffles didn’t seem too bothered with Darlene. She didn’t hiss or anything. Only at the Heparin thingy the other night.

  Truffles did, however, hiss around Dr. Cromwell, Aunt Mary’s physician. But he couldn’t’ have possibly had anything to do with the murder, could he? Dana spun it over in her mind, like a gazillion times.

  Dana then continued her notes out loud. “Then, we have that crazy ex of Uncle Max’s wife.”

  Truffles continued to purr sweetly, enjoying her meal, wagging her fluffy tail from side to side.

  Dana sighed deeply. “Well, I give up. Maybe, we won’t ever solve this case, Truffs. I’m going to be leaving you right now. I’m heading over to see Echo then I’m going to the Oxbridge Nursing Home. Be right back soon, okay?”

  Truffles paused from eating and stared blankly at Dana.

  “What is it, sweetie? I won’t be too long now.”

  Truffles then arched her back and hissed loudly.

  “What? Sweetie, what is it?”

  “The nursing home?”

  Again Truffles hissed.

  “Oh, sweetie,” Dana said as she scooped the little furry kitty in her arms and brushed her cheek against hers, stroking her behind her ears. “I wish I could speak your language. I won’t be too long, I prom…”

  Dana froze.

  She then immediately turned Truffles toward her and looked her straight in her lovely saucer dark eyes. There was a sparkle of light there. Something strange came over Dana.