by Ann S. Marie
“If you’re finished Troy, I’d like to ask the young lady a few more questions.” Detective Evan seemed much more polite and ready to interrogate her again.
Detective Troy looked a bit uneasy at first. Dana picked up that even though they were partners, they might not be bosom buddies. Okay, she was so not going to fall for the good cop, bad cop thing anytime soon.
Detective Evan then spoke forcefully, getting to the point asking Dana a few more loose end questions before letting her go. She couldn’t get over his muscular physique and tall stature. And his handsome blue-green eyes. What a mixture. So mesmerizing. Were all the cops in this small town gorgeous as models?
“A witness said he saw you outside the newspaper office after that nasty story about your bakery hit.”
Okay, that really killed the mood.
“Excuse me?” Dana said defensively.
“He said and he quoted that you “had some business to take care of at the Gazette.”
A witness said that? Talk about taken out of context. Okay, so somebody was cooking up a heck of a story with all the ingredients of a frame up.
“Yes, I mean, no. I mean, yes.”
“Which is it, ma’am?” Evan arched a brow.
“Yes, I said I had some business to take care of. But it’s not what you think. I had to run an ad.”
“I see,” Troy said, scribbling something down on his pad. He sounded dubious.
Detective Evan seemed way more nicer to Dana. More understanding. But she reminded herself about the good cop, bad cop scenario. She had her guard up higher than a pile of whipped cream topping on a rich chocolate caramel sundae.
Somebody was trying to frame Dana in this sweet old town and she was going to find out whom.
An hour later at the café, Dana couldn’t focus one little itty bit. She stood in the back sifting through the new order of cupcake wrappers and supplies. Imagine that! Her newest purple designed cupcake wrapper with the saying scratched off and a new one added in its place was found at the scene of the crime at the Gazette. She still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that Brad was dead.
Brad or Bradley, or whatever his name was, might have been a sneaky, cantankerous little thing, but he certainly didn’t deserve to end up with his head slouched over on his desk—dead as the wooden desk he rested on.
“There's so much commotion out there,” Katie said rushing through the swinging back doors of the kitchen with an empty cupcakes tray. “Everyone is talking about what happened at the Gazette to Brad this morning. You would not believe how news spread fast.”
Got to love the small town.
“Well that certainly serves him right,” Inga chimed in as she whipped up a new batch of creamy cupcakes. The sweet scent of vanilla mixed with butter and eggs filled the air. The oven had about a dozen or so more cupcakes going that made Dana’s mouth water for a taste.
“Inga!” Dana said, shocked. “That's not fair.”
“What's not fair is what Brad said about the Cozy Cupcakes Café in that article. That silly fool.”
Dana couldn't help but agree with the last part about what he said wasn’t fair about her late grandma’s café. But nobody deserved to die like the way Brad did.
Dana’s mind was still in a whirlwind spin over her brief interview with detectives Evan and Troy.
Have mercy!
She’d never had any reason to speak to law authorities until now.
And she liked it that way, too.
She’d always tried to keep her nose clean all her life and certainly never had any minor infractions of the law or accidents, to which she was eternally grateful for. Since accidents happen.
She always drove according to the speed limit and often parked only where she was supposed to park. Okay, well there was that one time when she parked for more than thirty minutes at a mall parking spot which clearly stated thirty minutes maximum stay. You know, the parking spots near the front of the mall on a busy holiday rush season.
But who would have known that the mall lines would have kept her there for more than an hour and a half. She would never, repeat, never shop on a Black Friday again. No matter how great the sale was. From now on, her only Black Friday sales would entail online shopping in her pajamas where she would be safe from being pushed, shoved to the ground, and punched by other eager sales shoppers looking for that hot one-of-a-kind bargain.
“Dana,” Aunt Nia’s voice interrupted her brief daydream.
Funny, while in New York, Dana used to daydream at her desk in the cubicle at the Ad agency about the simple small town life back in Berry Cove. But right now, she couldn’t help but feel as if someone here didn’t want her to be there and now she was daydreaming about being back in New York. Only she really did fall in love with Berry Cove with all its simplicities and warm, cozy atmosphere and beautiful scenic parks and historic buildings all wrapped up in neat lots of cobbled roads and warm Victorian homes.
“Yes, Aunt Nia.” Dana tried to sound as cool as possible.
“Are you all right, dear?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Aunt Nia rushed over to Dana and placed her manicured hand with her French manicured long nails on her forehead.
Aunt Nia had gold rings on each of her fingers including her thumb. Dana wondered if she would be getting rid of those, too and replacing them with custom jewelry just as she’d gotten rid of her designer bags and replaced with fakes so that newly penny-watching Uncle Merv wouldn’t know.
More than ever, Dana had to make this café work so she could be there for her family, too.
Everyone seemed to be hitting hard times and even though Aunt Nia was a bit of a fun drama queen, she was there for her when her folks died and took care of her and paid most of her college expenses. Nans was always struggling financially, though always offered her emotional support and kind words of wisdom and a place to call a second home, but in the past, Aunt Nia had always been there for her financially and she would never forget it.
Her gold shiny bangles on her wrists were dangling and clinking together as she felt Dana’s forehead. Dana could smell the sweet scent of Aunt Nia’s designer perfume fill the atmosphere in the kitchen that already had the aroma of freshly baked goodies.
Was she wearing Angel by the designer Thierry Mugler?
Auntie Nia always liked the finer things.
“Ah-ha. You certainly don’t feel well, child. You’re hot as sin.”
“That’s because I’m in the kitchen, Aunt Nia. And I have to unpack this inventory of cup cake wrappers so that we can keep our cakes going. We’re already low on stock.”
“And you’re low on morale right now, too, aren’t you, darling?”
“What?”
“I can tell, honey child.” Aunt Nia smacked gum in her mouth and placed her hands on her hips. “That hot-looking detective got you all hot and bothered this morning, didn’t he? I can tell. The nerve of that guy insinuating that...well, that you could have been involved somehow.”
“Aunt Nia, it’s not like that really. I had nothing to do with it.”
“Oh, I know that, but I don’t want any silly rumors going around town about my niece.”
“How could they even think that?” Katie chimed in. “Why would Dana go over there with our cupcakes and poison him? Wouldn’t that have been obvious?”
“Hey, who said anything about poison?” Dana asked, cautiously.
“I just assumed.” Katie flushed.
Immediately, Dana regretted speaking her thoughts out loud. After all, her cousin was only trying to help her out. Still, there were too many ears right now in the kitchen.
Inga stopped swirling a few cupcakes with the tool for a moment and looked up. Her expression emotionless. Then she proceeded without saying a word. “These will be ready soon. You can take these out to the front,” Inga then said to Katie.
“Fine. I will.” Katie perked up and lifted her chin.
“Katie,” Dana said to her qu
ietly. “Is there anything I should know?” Dana was beginning to have the sneaky suspicion that nobody was telling her the whole truth about the going-on in the small close-knit township.
“No. No, of course not. It’s obvious that he was poisoned and I don’t blame who ever did it. That guy’s mouth was as lethal as they came. He’d always had nothing good to say about anyone. I’m surprised it never happened sooner.”
Aunt Nia sighed heavily. “It’s all right, child,” she said to her Katie. “Everyone knows Brad had a few nasty things to say about you, too.”
“He did?” Dana’s voice rose in surprise.
Katie’s warm expression froze.
“But why?” Dana took a quick breath of utter astonishment. She was more vested in this too now. She had to get to the bottom of what really happened to Brad. Only because, well, she was always a problem solver in her old job and now on her mystery blog. It was something that she liked to do. Solve riddles.
“Because, I dated that creep once. There, I said it, okay.” Katie had her arms folded tightly across her chest.
“You dated Brad?” Dana’s jaw fell open. Intense astonishment touched her face. “Why didn’t I know about this before?”
“Well, it wasn’t what it sounds like. He asked me out for a drink once, and I went. I just didn’t know that he was creep at the time. He tried to put the moves on me before I was ready and well, I gave him a piece of my mind.”
“And the next thing we knew,” Aunt Nia added, “Brad went and spread all kinds of naughty rumors about our little Katie. That simple fool. And you know in this part of town, rumors fly like pancakes in the wind.”
Dana couldn’t help but grin at her auntie’s metaphor. She didn’t think pancakes could fly in any wind. Well, maybe a strong wind, but...anyway...
“Katie. Aunt Nia, I’m so sorry you’ve been through all of that.” Dana felt genuinely bad for them. Words could not express her shock at this new revelation. Her cousin with the town snob?—may he rest in peace.
“Well, it looks like he made a living out of making enemies with everyone,” Dana added.
“You can say that again,” Inga added, stiff lipped. Dana also wondered what Inga’s story could be.
“Hey, I thought you girls would be hiding back here,” Uncle Merv said walking through to the back with his walking cane as he entered the kitchen.
“Uncle Merv!” Dana was always happy to see her dear old uncle. “You know we’re busy at work in here as usual.”
“Sure. Sure. My dear sweet, Petunia never steps into a kitchen. A store, yes. A kitchen. No.” He lovingly teased his wife before giving her a peck on the cheek.
The two of them always play fought back and forth. Uncle Merv looked his age while Aunt Nia looked thirty years younger so people often assumed she was younger than he was when they were really the same age. But, oh, he loved her very much. Uncle Merv’s hair was salt and pepper white with black at the sides. And he looked every bit the classy man he’d always been.
“What are you doing with that empty water bottle, Uncle?” Dana asked.
“Oh, I’m filling her up, of course. Why buy water when you can just fill her up? Do you know how much a bottle cost these days?”
Aunt Nia playfully shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Merv, you’re going to give everyone here a breakdown if you keep on with those penny-pinching antics of yours.”
“Easy for you to say, my dear,” Uncle Merv replied.
Dana grinned. She loved the chemistry between them and hoped it would last forever, given the serious nature of their finances. It was still good to see them in high spirits. And as always, there for Dana.
“Oh, and Dana,” Uncle Merv added as he hobbled closer to her while everyone else was busying around in the kitchen.
“Yes, Uncle.”
“There’s something I need to talk to you about. But not in here. Too many ears,” he whispered leaning closer to her.
Too many ears?
“Okay, Uncle. I’ll be finishing up the inventory pretty soon, then I’ll take a break.”
“No worries, dear. We’ll see you at the house later—after work. You’re still having us for dinner, right?”
“Oh, of course.” Dana had almost forgotten after all the commotion this morning. She wanted to throw a little family housewarming dinner to mark her official move back to Berry Cove at the Victorian. Just a little meal with her close family members.
She couldn’t wait to hear what Uncle Merv had to say about all of this.
At his own corporation where he worked in accounting, it was he who had suspected some faux reporting from his bosses and did his own investigation. It turned out that he was right about the corruption at BB&X Accounting firm who were swindling pennies from each of their corporate accounts which added up to millions in embezzlement over the years.
Uncle Merv was the penny king. Always had been. Thanks to growing up after the great depression, he would say. To Uncle Merv, everything was about money. Money was always a motive. Money bewitched people, he would say. It was the greatest motivation for anything. That and power and love.
Dana wondered now if Uncle Merv wanted to speak with her because he thought money could be behind Brad’s death.
Did he really think that?
Could it be?
Either way, someone was trying to frame her and defame the good name of her grandmother’s café since Dana took it over and she was not about to let that happen. At least not without defending herself and her nana’s legacy.
Soon after, Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia left the kitchen with their own order of strawberry cream cupcakes with fresh strawberries and berries on the side.
It was amazing that he met someone who loved to spend like Aunt Nia. Still, they were great for each other and Aunt Nia ran a successful business back in her day before her injury and before she took up Yoga and all the other fun stuff she did today to keep herself fit, looking healthy and feeling good about herself. In fact, Aunt Nia had been trying to get Dana to go with her to the Berry Cove Health Club for some time now for one of her Yoga classes. She really needed it more than ever now.
Dana had a lot on her mind. Keeping the café afloat, the grand opening and now a murder investigation involving a restaurant critic and one of the café’s prized strawberry cream cupcake served with a cup of cold murder!
The day couldn’t possibly get any worse. Could it?
Chapter 5
After an exhaustingly long day at the café since the murder, and after writing her latest article for her online mystery magazine, Dana was all too happy to be back at the cozy Victorian, in the grand kitchen, swirling up a batch of her newest recipe that she wanted to try out at the café this week in time for the opening. That’s if the cops didn’t shut the café down first. She was just waiting for the detectives to show up with a search warrant of some sort from the town judge.
She carefully whipped butter and granulated sugar in the electric stand mixer until it was nice and fluffy. Then she mixed in a couple of eggs and whisked together with a half cup of vanilla-flavored almond milk and some strawberry puree she’d made earlier along with a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Savoring the scent of the creamy mixture. She drew in a deep breath and her mind ran on the scent of the strange cologne that wafted to her nostrils at the time of Brad’s death. Why was he wearing that strange cologne? And so strong? Wasn’t the newspaper a scent-free environment? That’s what the sign said at the entrance of the building.
Stop that, Dana. Stop thinking of awful things that’s happened.
But then how could her mind not drift to the recent events of the day? For cricket’s sake, there was a murder!
A murder in the sweet small town of Berry Cove.
Which meant...there had to be a murderer on the loose, right? Or at least one very vengeful person who would stop at nothing to get revenge—and in the process try to frame or pin part of the blame on her late Nana’s café.
One ingredient at a tim
e, Dana. As dear old nans would say. Or was that, one worry at a time?
Actually, her nans would say that worry was the worst ingredient in a person’s daily happiness diet. It totally spoiled the flavor of any day and served no purpose and was useless. Well, Dana would like to think so, too. Only, she didn’t know what she’d do if the café was shut down during the grand opening week. She’d already put a lot of her own savings into the business to try and save what was left of her late grandmother’s legacy.
Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia would be there soon. She also had home-made baked lasagna in the oven and she could smell the tasty Mozzarella and parmesan cheese and oregano and garlic spiced sauce wafting from in the oven. She took a peek through the glass window of the oven where the light was on in the oven.
“Yep. Looks about right.” She noted the bubbling Mozzarella cheese on top of the lasagna and golden-brownish baked top.
Grandma Rae had taught Dana about cooking and baking and she found it to be the most relaxing activity after a long day. Especially baking fresh pastries and cupcakes.
There was nothing like baking to ease the stress. She found it hard to get into the ordering everything to eat or take-out culture in New York. Sure, they had the best pizza restaurants she’d ever seen, but there was something sentimental and relaxing about baking your own.
Once Dana got the cupcakes in the oven and set the timer for twenty-five minutes, she pulled out the piping hot tray of lasagna with the melted cheese bubbling up nicely. It was already done. She’d learned to multitask from her job in New York. She could never have one activity going at a time—or one thought at a time, for that matter. But that was something entirely different.
At least busying herself, preparing a feast for her family kept her mind and her thoughts away from the murder at the Gazette this morning. Dana still couldn’t quite wrap her head around that bizarre event.
Who in heaven’s name would do that to Brad?
And why?
And why use one of Cozy Cupcakes Café’s treat of the day—and then, of course, they nastily switched up the saying of the day to say something mean instead of kind?
