Coconut Frosted & Murder

by Susan Gillard

  All her assistants were feeling content after trying the newest donut. Luz, Digby, Nina, and Janae were licking their fingers after they finished.

  “I’m nuts for this new donut,” Janae joked.

  “I think I’ll bring some to my next rehearsal,” Digby said. “Actors love donuts.”

  “Perhaps Nina would like to bring some of these donuts across the street?” Luz suggested. “To the nice young man who is running Mr. Rankle’s shop while his leg is still broken?”

  Nina blushed. “Maybe.”

  “You’re welcome to do all those things,” Heather said. “But I have to bring some of these Coconut Frosted Donuts out to Amy. She’s sitting out front.”

  “She didn’t come rushing in here to get donuts the second they were done?” Digby asked. “Is she all right?”

  “Are you involved in another murder investigation?” Janae asked, twirling her red hair around a finger.

  "We came across a fire this afternoon," Heather said, twirling her own red hair.

  “Did Fire Frank put it out?” Janae asked.

  Heather nodded. “But unfortunately, someone did die in it. But we’re not sure if it’s a murder or not.”

  “If it is a murder, Detective Peters will be helping,” Janae said.

  “The fire could have been an accident,” said Heather. “The result of faulty wiring or something like that.”

  “And it’s upset Amy so much she wasn’t running after donuts?” Digby asked.

  “Was this fire at the place she was supposed to have her art show?” Luz asked. “I know she was excited about it.”

  “It was,” Heather said. “But I think she’s become more upset because she’s realized that she might have known the person inside the building. They haven’t identified the victim yet, but Amy is afraid it’s someone she met at the gallery.”

  “You better bring these to her,” Nina said, handing Heather a tray of the new donuts. “Sounds like she needs her friend.”

  Heather nodded and brought the donuts to the table Amy was sitting at, while her assistants broke into pairs. Nina and Luz decided to bake another round of the sure-to-be-popular Coconut Frosted Donuts, while Janae and Digby returned to the front of the shop to clean and help customers.

  “I should have realized it before,” Amy said. “If he was found inside the gallery, then it might be someone I know. What if it’s Ernest Norwauld who owns the gallery? What if it’s L’artiste Andrews? Or another artist?”

  “Ryan will let us know as soon as he learns anything,” Heather said. “Try not to think about it for a few minutes.”

  “How can I do that?”

  “Try one of my new donuts,” Heather suggested.

  Amy happily obliged. However, she wasn’t able to forget about the fire for long. Eva and Leila entered Donut Delights. The two senior ladies saw them and sat down at their table.

  “Amy, dear, we’re so excited to go to your gallery showing tonight,” Eva said.

  “Yes. We’ve been practicing our looking-at-serious-art faces,” Leila joked.

  “Vincent is excited to join us as well,” added Eva.

  "Oh," Heather said unhappily. "I meant to call you. The gallery showing isn't going to happen tonight."

  “What?” said Leila. “How could they do that to you?”

  “I better explain from the beginning,” Amy said. “My sculpture was going to be at the Norwauld Gallery tonight.”

  "That's the gallery?" Eva asked. "That one has been in the newspaper."

  "There's been some controversy about it," said Leila. "It's displaying some art that certain people around here don't like."

  “Did someone shut it down?” asked Eva.

  “Maybe,” Amy said. “The building was set on fire.”

  “Ohmy goodness!” cried Leila.

  “I hate fires,” Eva agreed, thinking about the time that her house in Texas had been the victim of arson.

  “We don’t know if it was set intentionally yet,” Heather said, trying to keep everyone calm, even though she found the circumstances suspicious. “We need to see what Ryan and the firefighters say.”

  Eva frowned. “This started out as such a happy day.”

  “I know the feeling,” Amy said.

  “Here,” Heather said handing her friends donuts. “Try a sneak peek of my upcoming flavor of the week.”

  “What is it?” Eva asked, allowing for the welcome distraction.

  “This is a Coconut Frosted Donut,” Heather said. “The donut base is a coconut cake, where I used coconut milk to help with the flavoring. It’s covered with a vanilla frosting and sprinkled with shaved coconut.”

  “It sounds delicious,” Eva said. “And perfect for a tropical island.”

  “I wish these grew on trees around here,” Leila agreed.

  They giggled and enjoyed the donuts. Heather was still waiting for her husband to call when Amy’s boyfriend entered the shop.

  “Amy, have you been getting my calls?” he asked.

  “My battery died. And it’s a shame because I have a lot to tell you.”

  “You can tell me on the way. Or did you forget?” Jamie asked.

  “Of course I didn’t,” said Amy. “But what is it that I didn’t forget?”

  “The prospective dog adopters are coming over,” Jamie said.

  “You really are meeting with people to adopt Miss Marshmallow?” Heather asked, surprised.

  “We’ve been saying we were going to,” Amy said. “But I did forget about it today. With my art show and the fire and the dead body, I forgot all about it.”

  "Did you say fire and a dead body?" Jamie asked.

  “I’ll explain on the way,” Amy said. “Do you want to meet the dog people too?”

  "Sure," said Heather. "I can pick Lilly up on the way home, and then help with your interview. Hopefully, by the time it's over, we'll know if we'll have to start interviewing suspects."

  INTERVIEW

  A re they really going to get rid of Miss Marshmallow?” Lilly asked, as her mom brought her home.

  “Don’t say it like that,” Heather said. “They’re interviewing nice families to adopt her. They told us that they didn’t plan on keeping her.”

  “But neither of us believed them,” said Lilly. “I thought they were falling for her.”

  “Sometimes it takes a while for adults to decide if they want to commit to something,” Heather said. “We’ll see what they decide.”

  “I guess so,” said Lilly. “But Dave is going to be disappointed if Miss Marshmallow leaves. He had a doggie crush on her.”

  Heather chuckled. She loved her mixed-breed white troublemaker, but Miss Marshmallow had wanted nothing to do with the lovable mutt. She did like him more than her kitten, Cupcake, but she still wasn't slobbering over him the way he did over her.

  “Why don’t you comfort Dave while I go check on the potential adopters?” Heather said.

  Lilly agreed and went to play with the pets, while Heather went to the adjoining home above her to meet Amy.

  “I can’t believe this day,” Amy muttered. “Do you think I should put the pink bow on Miss Marshmallow? Or the lavender?”

  “Why do you want to dress her up?”

  “I want her to look her best if people are deciding to adopt her or not,” Amy said. “I think I’ll use the lavender one. It makes her eyes stand out more.”

  “Are you sure that you don’t want to keep her?”

  "A dog is a big commitment, and we have so much else going on right now," said Amy. "Now, let me brush her hair and get her a snack."

  Heather refrained from saying anything else on the matter.

  When Miss Marshmallow was ready, they met Jamie in the living room. He had just finished the final cleaning that he wanted to do before anyone arrived. The couple arrived and seemed perfectly nice.

  Heather asked a few questions to help her friend get a better idea about their suitability for adopting Miss Marshmallow, but then her m
ind began to wander towards the fire. Could it have been an accident? Depending on what was on display, the art could have been flammable. She didn't know anything about the gallery before she saw it ablaze. It was possible that it was an old building that was in need of repairs that could have contributed to this disaster.

  But maybe that wasn’t the case. Could the fire have been set deliberately? The gallery was showing controversial art by L’artise Andrews. Did someone want to stop the art from being shown so badly that they set a fire? Did they want to punish the gallery for daring to show this art that someone found so offensive? Or did they want to destroy all the "offensive" art?

  Heather thought that was an interesting point and decided she would need to ask Ryan about it. Was the controversial art display already set up inside the gallery? Or was it arriving later in the day? Amy had been told that her piece didn't need to arrive until 4 p.m., but they were trying to bring it in earlier so that they would have time for their other commitments before the show. They were told that the owner lived nearby and could be called when they arrived to unload.

  Heather was brought back into the dog adoption interview when Amy mentioned her. "Heather has a daughter, and she loves Miss Marshmallow."

  "That's right," Heather said, perhaps a bit too loudly to cover up that she hadn't been paying attention. "Lilly loves her."

  “So, she might get along with children,” Amy said. “But you didn’t mention any on the phone.”

  “How old are your kids?” Jamie asked.

  “We have triplets, boys. They’re two,” the proud mom said.

  “Three two-year-olds?” asked Amy.

  "They're in the stick everything in their mouths phase," said the father.

  “And they desperately want a dog,” the mom continued. “It’s the one word they keep repeating. Dog. Dog. Dog.”

  “They have this dog stuffed animal toy, and they just love it. They're always wrestling with it and fighting over it.”

  Amy looked down a Miss Marshmallow with her perfectly groomed hair and a haughty look on her face.

  “You know, I think your boys might be a little rough for this little dog,” said Amy.

  "Miss Marshmallow requires a lot of care," Jamie agreed. "She needs special grooming and only eats certain foods."

  “She’s dainty,” Amy agreed.

  The couple wasn’t sure what to make of this, but luckily Heather’s ringing cell phone provided a needed excuse to end the interview.

  Heather happily greeted her husband. “I’m glad to hear from you. In more than one way.”

  “We’ve finished what we could at the crime scene, but there are things we’re going to have to analyze back at the station,” he said. “Would you like to meet me over there?”

  “I would, but I have a quick question first. Was the art from L’artiste Andrews already set up inside?”

  “There were charred remains of framed works,” Ryan said. “So most likely.”

  “And did you have any luck determining who the victim was?”

  “Not yet. We’re going to compare dental records of people who had access to the building. But we did discover that he wore round glasses.”

  “What’s going on?” Amy asked.

  “They discovered that the victim wore round glasses,” Heather told her. “But they’re going to compare dental records to see who it was.”

  “Round glasses?” Amy said, frowning. “I know who they should check first. Ernest Norwauld wore those type of glasses. He was the owner of the gallery.”

  “Did you hear that?” Heather asked Ryan. “We might have discovered who the victim was.”

  ARSON

  Heather and Amy hurried over to the police station to learn what they could about the case. Jamie agreed to watch Lilly and was allowing for Miss Marshmallow to visit with the other pets. Knowing that Amy was triply disappointed from 1) having her Key West gallery premiere canceled, 2) finding a dead body, and 3) not finding a home for Miss Marshmallow, Jamie offered to make them a nice dinner. He was also planning on having donuts and wine ready for her when she got home.

  “He’s a good guy,” Heather said.

  “I love him,” Amy said. “And we probably will get a dog together someday. But Miss Marshmallow requires so much care.”

  They walked into the station and were greeted by Ryan. “I’m glad you could come.”

  “Of course we did,” Heather said. “It’s the next best thing to going to the wreckage of the crime scene. And after coming across the flames ourselves, we want to do everything we can to help with this case.”

  “There’s nothing more we could have done, right?” Amy asked. “If we went inside or moved faster, could we have saved him?”

  “No,” Ryan said. “Don’t beat yourself up over that. The flames were most intense in the room that the victim was found in. He would have been dead by the time you arrived on the scene. You did the right thing.”

  “I still feel bad,” Amy said. “Especially if it was Ernest Norwauld. He was the one who asked me to be in the showing. He was nice to me. And I didn’t even consider that it could have been him who died until hours later.”

  “Out of curiosity, in case it relates to a suspect, who did you think it was in there?” Ryan asked.

  "I guess I was too overwhelmed by everything that was going on to think about it at first. Then I thought it might have been the person who set the fire. And then I thought that it could have been an artist or someone I met at the gallery. It was when you mentioned the glasses that I thought it sounded like Mr. Norwauld.”

  "Do you know now that the fire was set on purpose?" Heather asked. "It sounds like there are too many coincidences for my liking, with the controversy of the art showcase and the exhibit opening tonight. However, I also don't like jumping to conclusions before knowing about the evidence. Do you know if it was arson?"

  “And when will you find out if it was Ernest Norwauld or not?” asked Amy.

  “Well—” Ryan began. However, he was soon interrupted and approached on both sides. Detective Peters and Fire Frank both came up to him eager to share their results. They began talking at once until Ryan yelled, “Quiet!”

  “If you both talk at once, we can’t hear any of the clues,” Heather said.

  They both took a deep breath but again began talking at the same time.

  “And that means that the victim has to be—”

  “And with the accelerant that had to mean—"

  “Good policework—”

  “Knowledge of fires—”

  Ryan shushed them again, and this time Heather used threats. "If you keep that up, I won't be serving you any more donuts. And I just started serving a Coconut Frosted one."

  This quieted them down.

  “Why don’t you go first?” Detective Peters said. “This did start out as a fire.”

  “No. After you. Detective Shepherd is your partner.”

  “Knowing the cause of the fire is very important,” Peters said.

  “But so is knowing who the victim in a case is,” Fire Frank pointed out.

  “I insist you go first.”

  “Please, you first.”

  “Oh, for goodness sake,” Heather muttered.

  Amy took charge and turned to Detective Peters. “Was it Ernest Norwauld who was killed?”

  “Yes,” Peters said. “Knowing who to compare dental samples to, the coroner was able to make the match. It was Ernest Norwauld who died. He's not finished with the autopsy, but on first look, it appears that the fire is what killed him. There aren't other obvious signs of trauma on the body. He wasn't hit on the head and then placed by the fire or anything like that."

  “So, it’s possible that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Ryan.

  “But was it the wrong time because of an accident at the building that caused the blaze? Or was it arson?” asked Heather.

  “It was definitely arson,” Fire Frank said. “I understand if you want t
o bring in another forensic expert to corroborate what I’m saying, but there are two things at the scene that tell me that this was arson. Firstly, based on how quickly everything burned in the room that the victim was in, I know an accelerant was used.”

  “Could that have been an accident?” Heather asked. “Like paint thinner spilled on the floor?”

  “Unlikely,” said Fire Frank. “Because I also found something that looked like a timer for a fuse.”

  “Like on a bomb?” asked Amy.

  "The same sort of mechanism," said Fire Frank. "But this didn't need to cause an explosion. It just needed to cause a spark, and then the accelerant in the room would keep the fire going."

  “You said it was a timer?” asked Heather. “Was it set to go off at that time specifically?”

  “It looks like it was made to go off an hour after it was set,” said Fire Frank. “You arrived on the scene before two o’clock. I think it began about one thirty. The timer wasn’t set to go off at one thirty exactly. But it must have been placed around twelve-thirty to go off in an hour.”

  “This is terrible,” said Amy. “I hate that Mr. Norwauld got stuck inside.”

  “He wasn’t in the main showing area,” Ryan explained. “He was in a storage room.”

  “I wonder why the arsonist chose that room to start with,” said Heather.

  "Probably because it was the best place to guarantee that a fire would grow," said Fire Frank. "The front part of the gallery is mostly open so that art can be displayed. Things were stuck close together in the storage room. It gave the fire a lot of fuel."

  “Great work, both of you,” Ryan said. “I’m sure Heather would be willing to give you some donuts after all that information.”

  “Thank you,” Peters said. “Maybe I will go to Donut Delights later to get those donuts.”

  “Perhaps I will, too,” said Fire Frank. “But, Heather, if you wanted to mention to some of your assistants about the work we’ve been doing, Maybe that might be nice.”

  “Yes,” Peters said. “So they know that we do more than just eat donuts. We’re doing our part to help see justice served.”