Dead on Doughnuts: A Culinary Cozy Mystery (Coffee Shop Mysteries Book 1)

by Sarah Jane Weldon

  “He’s ever so professional isn’t he?”. I remarked to Eloise.

  “And handsome too. His girlfriend was lucky to snag him”. Eloise giggled, her face flushing red.

  “What? Do you fancy him then?”. It was always fun to tease Eloise especially since she embarrassed easily”.

  The coach was already full, and only a few spaces remained. Since Eloise and I sat together, Sophia was left to sit on her own, a spare seat next to her close to the aisle. There were just two seats left now.

  “Ahh, here they are at last. Our two stragglers. I think there are two seats left in the middle of the coach there”. Nicklas pointed the two passengers to the remaining seats.

  I was horrified, and I felt for Sophia, and the two remaining passengers Audrey and Stefan took their seats next to her. Audrey next to Sophia, and Stefan across the aisle. They were still holding hands, and insisted on French kissing each other for most of the journey. Sophia seemed to take it all very well considering, and stared out of the window, her arms folded across her chest, and her body sat as far away from Eloise as she could manage. Eloise shared concerned glances, not knowing what we could do to help ease her discomfort.

  I elbowed Eloise gently in the side. “Look over there. Do you see them?”.

  Eloise looked confused. “See who? What is it I’m supposed to be looking at?”. She surveyed the general direction of my nod.

  “Oooh. I see. You mean the two French women from the coffee shop?”. Eloise commented.

  “Yes. Exactly!” I watched the two women for much of the short coach journey. They had clearly chosen to travel together and to go on the excursion, they were stuck to each other like glue, yet they didn’t seem to be especially fond of each other, or to have anything in common. They barely spoke, other than to argue. I didn’t catch a great deal of their conversation, but I did pick up the words ‘papers’, sign’, ‘come of age’, and ‘inheritance’.

  I turned to Eloise. “They seem to be still arguing about those papers I saw at the coffee shop, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t even friends so it must be to do with Audrey’s trust fund”.

  Eloise looked at me, as if remembering some useful piece of information. “Oh yeah. You remember when we first met her at the summer party? Well, she said something then about her getting a load of money as soon as she married or reached her next birthday. It has to be to do with that. But why would her stepmother want her to sign papers? Why would she be so interested? It doesn’t seem like she and Audrey are that close?”.

  I thought for a moment, processing what Eloise said. “Well, I think we should try and speak to them during the excursion, see if we can find out anymore”.

  Eloise shook my hand. “Agreed”.

  A hand tapped on a microphone over the loud speaker, the voice of Nicklas blaring through the speakers. “OK folks. If you look out of the window to your left you will see the glacier above you. There are two types of glacier on the planet; the alpine glacier and the continental ice sheet. This one here is an alpine glacier. The ice is hundreds of thousands of years old, and the reason for the blue colour that you will see once we get close to it, is caused by the ice being dense and compact. Glaciers are basically huge masses of fallen snow, that has been compressed to form ice, and now flows like a slow moving river. In a moment, we’ll be stopping in the layby, ready to begin our walk, and I recommend that you DON’T put all your layers of clothing on at once, even if you feel cold at the start. That is because you will get very HOT as we walk up the short but steep slope, and if you get sweaty, that sweat will cool once we stop on the glacier, and could lead to hypothermia. Is everyone clear on that?”.

  A unanimous “Yeah” ran through the coach as people started doing up boot laces, and preparing themselves for the trek. Nicklas continued with his safety briefing.

  “Now. Provided that you follow my instructions, you will be perfectly safe, but you should not, under any circumstances, go off on your own. Doing so will put yourself and the rest of us in great danger. You must follow me as we walk across the glacier. Do not go off on your own path as there are crevasses and you could easily fall through the cracks, and a very long way down. There is no guarantee that anyone will be able to rescue you, should you fall down a crevasse, so please, please, please follow my instructions. That is why I have spent years training as a mountain guide, and I have amassed many, many hours as a guide here. Is everybody clear?”.

  There was another drawl of “ye——ss” from the passengers, as the reality of the glacier walk sank in.

  The coach pulled in to the layby, and Karl ticked off the names on the list as each person climbed down the steps and onto the ground. There was a huge sense of anticipation, excitement, and nerves now, and the passengers were packing and repacking and double checking their backpacks.

  “By Jove, this is exciting”. Eloise beamed at me as we climbed off the bus and out into the cool, clean air of the mountain.

  I could barely speak during the ascent. Partly due to the slight change in altitude, but mostly down to Nicklas being right about the slope being steep at first. It was as much as I could do to put one ski boot in front of the other as my suddenly heavy legs swung in front of me and settled into the snow beneath me. But it didn’t take long to reach the glacier, and the ground flattened off as we reached the side of the glacier. Nicklas led us across the surface as we followed him in a neat line, like ants on a march. No one dare’d step away from his tracks in the snow. Finally we reached the other side, and Nicklas led us into a magnificent ice cave.

  “Woah!!!!”. Was the reaction of each and every one of us as we entered a magnificent blue room. Nicklas was not wrong when he said that I would love it.

  “OK guys. We’re going to stop here for a bit for some lunch, and time for you to take photos. You can walk around in here and just outside the entrance, but don’t go wandering off, unless of course you want to die”. Nicklas laughed playfully as the party of people joined in nervously.

  “Come on”. Audrey said as she pulled Stefan over to the wall of ice. “This would make a great selfie”. She pulled out her iPhone and positioned it for maximum effect. Slipping it into her pocket as she grabbed Stefan for yet another kiss.

  “I REALLY don’t see what Audrey finds so attractive about him”. Sophia remarked, her eyes watching the two lovers embrace by the wall of ice. “I mean, he’s almost old enough to be her father, he’s practically bald, and he’s got a pot belly”.

  Audrey noticed Sophia staring at her kissing Stefan. “Seriously Sophia, what is your problem with us? Are you jealous? Why are you even here, not just on this trip, but I mean here in Austria. I swear it’s like you fancy me or something? Like you are stalking me. Face it honey, I’m just not into you”.

  It was a good job that the excursion was only for the resort staff, otherwise it would have been awful for Nicklas if there were real, paying guests in the coach party. I looked at Eloise and then at Sophia. It wasn’t necessary for Audrey to speak to Sophia like that, and in front of everyone. Sophia looked humiliated and stormed out of the cave for a moment. She looked like she was about to cry.

  “Sophia”. I called out.

  Sophia patted my arm. “It’s alright. I’ll be fine in a minute. I’m just going to get some fresh air a second. I’ll be back in a bit”.

  “OK”. I offered. “Just don’t go off on your own alright. Audrey’s not worth it. We all know what she’s like”.

  Eloise handed me a chocolate muffin. “I hope Sophia’s going to be alright. You know, maybe we should talk to Audrey, ask her to lay off Sophia? They can’t keep on at each other like this. It’s not good for anyone, and it’ll be awful if they behave like this with the tourists around”.

  “Hmmm? I think you’re right”. I replied, though I wasn’t convinced that someone as mean as Audrey would care about the feelings of another. But Eloise was right, someone needed to stop them from fighting.

  “Here. Why don’t you take her one of E
milio’s doughnuts, as a kind of peace offering?”. Eloise passed me a paper bag of red velvet doughnuts. Audrey was sure to complain about them, but it was the best we could do at short notice.

  I walked over to Audrey who was now sat on Stefan’s knee, stroking his hair in the back of the ice cave. The sight was sickening but I needed to be strong. “Here, I’ve brought you some of our doughnuts, in case you’re still hungry. Actually, I’d really like to speak with you Audrey, alone in private, just for a minute. Can we go outside for a bit?”. I gave the doughnuts to Stefan and waited for Audrey to follow me. I didn’t think for a moment that she would, but she surprised me as she stood up and led the way to the outside of the cave. I could feel my hands trembling with the nerves.

  Audrey walked underneath a ledge on the outside of the cave, into a little nook where we would have some privacy. She pulled out a tissue and blew her nose.

  Audrey rubbed her hand on my arm gently as a tear rolled down her cheeks. I thought it must have been from the cold at first, but I suddenly realised that she was crying, and her eyes were filled with pain and sadness. “Look. I’m sorry OK”. Audrey divulged, knocking me for six. I’d expected a lot of different reactions to my request to speak to her in private, but this was not one of them. “It’s just, well, it’s complicated you see. Sophia had a bit of a thing for me when were at culinary school together, and she didn’t take it at all well when I turned her down. She just wouldn’t accept it. And now she seems to follow me wherever I am, and does everything she can to turn people against me. She did it at college too. That’s why I was so mysterious when you asked me about my plans for the summer and for the future”. Audrey wiped her eyes with the tips of her fingers, as more tears streamed down her face. She was very convincing. But something was bothering me.

  There was one glaringly obvious hole in this sob story, I simply had to ask her for more information. What kind of detective would I be, if I didn’t quiz her for details. “I see. But why did you think that we would tell Sophia about your plans? I mean, we didn’t even know Sophia back then”.

  Audrey cleared her throat. “It was when you said that you had got the job at the coffee shop, and this exact resort. It seemed too much of a coincidence that we should be working in the same place, and I knew that if Sophia found out from anyone at all that I would be working here, then she would follow me, and chances were, you would meet her, and then she would spread her lies about me. I’m really not a bad person you know. It’s just that Sophia has made me a bit paranoid, made me on edge and it comes across as me being snooty, but that’s just not who I am”. Audrey’s story did seem a little plausible, but I was confused about the situation with the job offer.

  It was make or break time and I needed answers. “But, what about the letter that Sophia has, the job offer from Stefan? It looks pretty genuine?”.

  Audrey hesitated for a second, but covered it up well, pretending to well up again. I was starting to doubt my own gut instinct. She was very convincing, but so was Sophia. Audrey coughed into her tissue. “Look Madeleine. There’s something that you don’t understand about Sophia. She’s not the person you think she is. She’s manipulative and devious. You know her parents died don’t you?”.

  “Um, yes”. I said

  “Well, the thing is, no one was ever really able to explain how or why they died, and my sense is that Sophia killed them. Oh, she’ll give you this whole orphan story, but don’t be taken in by her. I know I’m not perfect, I know I’m spoiled rotten, but my heart is always in the right place, and I certainly don’t go around being crazy like Sophia does”. Audrey seemed irritated, as if she needed to justify herself.

  She hadn’t yet answered my question though, and I wondered if she was just stalling for time to come up with an answer. “So what about the letter?”.

  Audrey was unashamedly frank. “Made it up. The whole thing. It’s a fake. Stefan had no knowledge of it at all, or of her, until that day that she walked into his restaurant”.

  It was a reasonable explanation from what I could see. “But how did she know that you had a job here, or where to find you?”.

  From my close examination of Audrey’s face, I felt like she might just be telling the truth, but I wanted to try and keep an open mind. Audrey continued. “A simple mistake. It was at my graduation ceremony. My tutor Pierre knew that I had got the job here, you see Stefan contacted him for a reference when I applied for the job. Well, he was so excited that me, the student with the best grades of the whole cohort, had earned a job at one of the most award winning restaurants, that he couldn’t help but announce it to all the parents at the presentation ceremony. He must have told everyone about his high achieving student, and of course Sophia was at the ceremony too and people were asking her what her plans were, but she had nothing, no job. She was a failure. And she was jealous of me. Blamed her poor grades on me for breaking her heart, and has had a chip on her shoulder ever since. She’s always wanted to get revenge somehow, and now here she is trying to cause a rift between me and Stefan, and trying to get people to hate me”.

  I suddenly felt quite sorry for Audrey and wondered if I too had fallen under Sophia’s spell and judged Audrey too harshly as a result. I needed to speak with Eloise, get her take on things. “OK. well, where do we go from here? It’s clear that the two of you can’t go on like this. It isn’t fair on the people around you who feel like they have to choose sides. We can’t let the rift between you two affect Stefan’s restaurant, or Emilio’s coffee shop”.

  “I couldn’t agree more”. Audrey said “I’d love nothing more than to the bury the hatchet and start afresh, but do you think Sophia would be willing?”.

  But before I had a chance to speak about a solution, something awful happened. Out of nowhere the roof of the nook we were in collapsed around us, a long thin shard of ice almost hitting Audrey. If I hadn’t of pulled her towards me at that very second, it would certainly have pierced her body and killed her outright.

  Nicklas came rushing over, moving lumps of ice from around us. “Is everyone OK? Can you hear me?”. His voice sounded panicked and he was very shaken.

  I wanted to reassure him so badly, but my own voice was shaky.

  “Yes Nicklas, we’re OK. It’s just myself and Audrey, part of the roof seemed to have collapsed on us”. I looked at Audrey who was clearly in shock and very pale and clammy. “Are you hurt Audrey?”.

  It took a moment for her to reply. “I’m OK. I’m OK. Just shaken I think. I want to go home now. I want Stefan”.

  Karl did a role call, the group shaken by the sudden collapse of the small ledge outside the cave. “Nicklas, everyone is present, apart from Sophia, Rose, and Margot”.

  “I’m here”. Sophia said. “Right behind you. What’s happened?”.

  “We’re here too”, Rose and Margot announced. “Rose needed to spend a penny but didn’t want to go on her own, in case she fell down a crevasse, but we’re here now”.

  “Super. Everyone’s accounted for, and it seems like no harm was done”. Nicklas breathed a massive sigh of relief, but was concerned as to why the roof had collapsed. It just didn’t make sense. The structure had been solid enough, and there was no way that the ice could have melted. He pulled Audrey to her feet, and I took his hand too, as I dusted myself off.

  “Are you guys really alright?”. Nicklas looked unconvinced.

  I picked up the large icicle that had narrowly missed Audrey. “Yes, Nicklas, really, we’re all good”. I looked closer at the end of the icicle. It seemed as if it had teeth marks, like it had been sawn off rather than broken of its own accord. “Here, Nicklas, what do you think of this? If an icicle broke off wouldn’t you expect it to snap off cleanly? This one looks all crumpled at the edges”. I handed it to Nicklas.

  “You know what Madeleine, I think you’re right. The collapse looks deliberate to me. I don’t think this was an accident at all. But who would want to kill either of you?”. I didn’t need to answer Nicklas’s question
. I doubted that anyone here would want to kill me, but pretty much everyone had wanted to kill Audrey at some point or another.

  I spotted something on the ground, under a piece of the fallen ice. “Oh. Has anyone lost a glove? Is it yours Audrey? I know it’s not mine”. I looked inside the glove to see if it might have a name in it, Sophia must have read my expression, because she snatched it off me quickly.

  “Why have you got my glove Madeleine? Did you steal it? Are you trying to set me up now? I thought you were my friend?”.

  “Now hold on a minute Sophia. I’ve just had a near death experience because someone here tried to kill me, and now you think I’m trying to frame you for it? That’s just silly”.

  Sophia skulked. “Well explain to me how you have my glove then, when you know damn well that I lost it in the restaurant and haven’t seen it since”. Audrey looked at me as confused as I was at Sophia’s sudden change of character. “Told you so”. She said. “Sophia’s crazy”. I felt stupid suddenly, had I really been taken in by Sophia? Had she actually just tried to murder us? I threw the glove at her and walked over to Eloise, passing by Violetta in the process.

  Eloise did a double take. “Hang on? I thought you were at the restaurant Violetta, what are you doing here? I mean how did you get here? You weren’t on the coach?”.

  Audrey suddenly recovered herself after her near fatal accident. “Yes, I’d like to know the answer to that too. You’re supposed to be looking after the restaurant”.

  Nicklas stepped in, keen to defend his girlfriend. “Now look here, don’t you dare accuse my girlfriend. She’s as much right to be here as any of us. It’s awful how you treat her, making her do everything for you and you just swanning off whilst she does all the work. I’m not having it”. Nicklas put his arm around Violetta’s shoulders, as Stefan stepped up to Audrey to comfort her after the cave collapse.

  Violetta did not want her boyfriend sticking up for her. “If you must know, the delivery driver came earlier than expected, and since I managed to get all the jobs done without you two love birds getting under my feet, I decided to knock off early, since there was nothing else left to do. Daan dropped me off on his way to one of the ski runs, and since it was such a nice day, I thought I’d come and join you. Not against the law is it?”.