Fudgement Day (Chocolate Cozy Mystery Book 3)

by Wendy Meadows

  “Good idea,” Jake said. He zoomed in on the writing in the picture. “I think the best way to do it, at least for us, would be to focus on the structure of one of the words or letters.”

  Olivia shifted her chair and scooted around so that she sat beside the investigator. “Which one?”

  “Take this ‘e’ for example. On the threatening note, the end stroke is long and flows right into the ‘t’ beside it,” Jake said.

  “And on Sebastian’s letter home—” Olivia grabbed the page and studied the first ‘e’ she found. “Nope. It’s not a long stroke at all. His letters are all blocky.” Another memory Olivia couldn’t erase was of Sebastian’s little face screwed up with frustration during the first days of kindergarten. He’d been desperate to write just like his mom.

  That’d never happened.

  “It’s not him,” Olivia said, and leaned back in her chair. A surprisingly amount of relief flowed through her. She hadn’t thought her son capable of murder, but she’d still been afraid. The past few months had taken their toll.

  “It doesn’t look like it,” Jake said, “but this doesn’t prove much.”

  She stared at him.

  “I hate to say it—”

  “Then don’t.”

  “We don’t know that the note came from the murderer. This could be a trick on Horn’s part to throw us off the scent,” Jake said.

  “Assuming he would want to do that.” Olivia sighed and grabbed her coffee mug. “What are you saying, Jake?”

  “I’m saying I don’t think your son did this, but this isn’t evidence that would help him get off if he was accused of the crime. We have to link the note to the murderer or remove Sebastian as a suspect completely.” The investigator drank the dregs of his coffee.

  Olivia rose from her seat and walked to the counter at the back of her store. She put down her mug, then squeezed her eyes closed. She had to keep her wits sharp. She turned back to Jake.

  A dark shadow caught her attention. A figure, hovering in the darkness outside on the other side of the street, just outside the circle of light from one of the lampposts, was watching. She could feel its gaze resting on her. Contemplating.

  Prickles of fear beset her.

  “Hey!” Olivia yelled.

  Jake jumped and dropped his mug. “What’s—?”

  “You! What do you want?” Olivia sprinted to the front door, unlocked it, then rammed it open.

  The mystery figure scurried backward and disappeared down an alley between the antique store and the butcher’s shop beside it.

  “Hey!” Olivia yelled again. Dodger barked upstairs. “Don’t you run away from me. Come back here right now!”

  “Olivia, what are you doing?” Jake, behind her, scraped his chair back.

  Olivia didn’t have time for a reply. She sprinted across the street and toward the alley, her heart pounding in her ears. She placed her palm on the bricks of the antique store and peered into the alley.

  “Olivia, stop.” Jake took hold of her forearm and wrenched her back from the wall. He wasn’t out of breath, but his cheeks had colored bright red, and a vein popped out on his forehead. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “There was someone there,” Olivia said. “Someone watching us.”

  “And you decide chasing after them is the solid option?” Jake asked, incredulous at her apparent stupidity. “What if it was the murderer?”

  “Ugh,” Olivia said and shook her arm free. “Don’t make this worse.” She’d had the watcher within her sights. She just hadn’t been quick enough. Years of chocolate-making had dissolved the track star she’d been in high school. That Olivia was long gone, as the sweat on her brow showed.

  “You can’t just—”

  Olivia held up a hand, and Jake quieted right away. Olivia shook her head; another round of shock coursed through her. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She didn’t want to believe them, in fact.

  Another tarot card had been taped to her door.

  The image of a woman, bearing a pair of scales in either hand and shrouded in a flowing white dress, stared out of the picture impassively. The word JUSTICE ran across the top.

  Olivia unstuck it from the door and turned it over.

  “What does it say?” Jake asked.

  “Come see Madame Mystery,” Olivia replied.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “You’re not even a little bit intrigued?” Alberta asked and popped her hip. She placed her hand on it. She’d spent the better part of the morning in ‘convince Olivia’ mode. “Olivia, darling, this is the second time in as many days. Isn’t it? Have I got the timeline right?”

  “Just about,” Olivia said and focused on polishing the coffee machine.

  They hadn’t yet opened for the day, and the first streaks of morning light had only just hit the front windows of the store.

  “Then? I mean…?”

  “I’m not going to go see some fortuneteller just because she keeps tacking cards to my front door,” Olivia said at last. “It’s a ridiculous marketing method.”

  “I don’t think this is marketing,” Alvira said quietly. She sat at one of the tables closest to the front. “None of the other buildings on the street have been subject to it. Maybe Alberta’s right.”

  “Of course I’m right,” Alberta said. “I’m always right.”

  “Words that will be etched on your tombstone.” Olivia chuckled and stopped polishing. “Look, I understand what you two are saying, but I’ve got bigger things to deal with at the moment. You know that.”

  Alberta pressed out her plum-colored lips in a bout of petulance. “But what if this is a part of it, Olivia?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You think it’s a coincidence that you spotted a stranger outside the store on the same night you found the card?” Alberta asked, and the pout didn’t fade. “Let’s face facts, dear, this woman wants your attention, and she hasn’t until now. Why do you think that is?”

  A knock interrupted their conversation, and the three women turned to the front of the store.

  Sebastian wavered in front of the glass, pale as a white chocolate truffle and shivering in a thin jacket.

  “Heavens,” Alberta said.

  Olivia dropped her polishing rag and rushed to the door. She let Sebby in, concern lodged in her throat. “Are you all right, love?”

  “Fine,” he said and shuffled inside. “Just fine. Except Kerry and I fought because she’s distraught about Jason.”

  Olivia’s heart dropped. Did that mean what she thought it did? Could Sebastian have been jealous of their relationship?

  “Come sit down,” Alberta said and pointed to the chair next to Alvira. “A cup of coffee and some chocolates will sort you out.”

  Sebastian lowered himself into the chair and sighed. “What a week.”

  “I know,” Olivia said. She patted him on the back, then walked back around to the front of the counter. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not really. I want to be around people, but I don’t want to have to talk. Weird, I know.”

  “That’s not weird,” Alvira said. “Totally understandable.”

  An awkward silence drifted through the interior of the shop. Olivia set about making cups of coffee for the four of them and for Alphonsine, who’d tasked herself with creating another batch of caramel fudge drops.

  “You should go see her,” Alberta said, at last.

  “Are we still on that?” Olivia asked. “Come on, Albie. It’s a waste of time. Back me up here, Alvira.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t have an opinion on this one yet. I don’t want to say you should see her—”

  Alberta huffed out a breath and cut off the other woman.

  “What’s going on?” Sebastian asked.

  “Some Madame Mystery woman keeps pasting tarot cards to the front of the store,” Olivia replied and shifted porcelain cups onto the grate below the spouts. “It’s quite irritating.”

  “It’s i
ntriguing.”

  “Not the word I used,” Olivia said. “I don’t like it, and I’m not going to go anywhere near the woman.” Unless it was absolutely necessary. “We’d better get ready to open up, everyone.”

  The two A’s rushed to slip on their aprons. Poor Sebastian sat at the table and stared into space. Olivia would’ve given anything to take a peek at his thoughts. She trusted her son, but something was up with the situation.

  She just wasn’t sure what it was yet.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Olivia sat on the edge of her bed, a cup of steaming hot chocolate on her table and her laptop on her lap. Sebastian had spent half the day in the store, staring into space or taking measured sips of coffee. He’d wandered out at noon and hadn’t answered her text.

  She sighed and eyed Dodger in the corner. He slept peacefully; his soft golden ears flicked and settled again.

  “You’re lucky aren’t you, Dodgy? All you’ve got to do is stay away from chocolate, eat your doggy food, and scratch when you itch,” Olivia said, although it had to be difficult to stay away from chocolate in the Block-a-Choc Shoppe.

  Olivia opened her browser and typed Kerry Walter’s name into the bar. Her index finger hovered over the enter key.

  An email pinged into her inbox, and a notification popped up.

  “What now?” Olivia muttered. She shut the browser and brought up her mailbox instead.

  The subject line was empty, but the sender’s name made her stomach twist. Jake Morgan.

  Oh boy, what had he found for her?

  She opened the email.

  Olivia,

  I’ll call you about this picture in a couple of minutes. Don’t freak out too much until I’ve explained it.

  Jake.

  “Oh. Well, that’s helpful,” Olivia said and clicked on the attachment.

  The image opened in a separate tab, and it seemed to take an eternity. Gosh, did the pixels have to load one at a time like that?

  Finally, the picture cleared up, and she sucked in a breath.

  Her phone rang on the bedside table. She didn’t pick it up.

  “Sebby, why?”

  Sebastian and Kerry filled the screen, locked in a romantic embrace, never mind the fact that their lips were locked, too.

  Olivia grabbed her cell and answered. “What is this?” This didn’t bode well for Sebastian. “Where did you get it?” If the cops found it, they’d surely use it as a motive for Sebby to kill his friend.

  Jake exhaled, and the rush of air crackled in her ear. “It’s exactly what it looks like, except worse.”

  “How can this get any worse?” Olivia asked.

  “It was sent to me from my contact. You know, the one inside the department?”

  “Oh.” That meant the police had access to this photo. “But this doesn’t mean anything. It could’ve been that—”

  “Olivia, they pulled this photo off Jason’s phone. He took it,” Jake said. “It looks like Kerry was cheating on him with his best friend.”

  “No,” Olivia said. She’d raised Sebby better than that. He wouldn’t have betrayed his friend, would he? Then again, love did strange things to people, especially young men and women.

  “This is part of the reason the police are investigating him as a suspect,” Jake said. “They think that Jason caught Kerry and Sebastian together and that there was a confrontation.”

  “But the murder was planned. It wasn’t heat of the moment. We talked about this, remember?”

  “Does that really matter right now?” Jake exhaled again.

  Olivia jerked the phone away from her ear, waited until he was done, then placed it back again. “Of course it matters.”

  “Apparently, the cops got the note from Horn, and they think it strengthens the case against Sebastian,” Jake said.

  “How is that even possible? Why would Sebastian threaten him to stay away from his own girlfriend? No, that—”

  “They think that Jason wrote the note, warning Sebastian away from Kerry.”

  “And then, what, he never sent it?”

  “Apparently,” Jake replied.

  Anger rushed through Olivia and clammed her right up. She couldn’t take the insinuation that her son was anything but a good kid. Another memory floated up from the past. An image of Sebastian at his first piano recital. She’d insisted he take music because she’d read a research paper that said it helped kids develop.

  “He didn’t do it, Jake. I know my child, and he wouldn’t do this to his friend, whether he’d fallen in love with Kerry or not.” Yet, Sebby had been in the store today and complained of an argument with Kerry about Jason.

  There was too much going on to handle.

  “I know,” Jake said. “Hey, I’m on your side here. I don’t think Sebastian has it in him, but we’ve got to talk evidence here, and right now it’s looking really bad for him.”

  Olivia tapped her free hand against her thigh. “So what do you suggest?”

  “I think Sebastian should move out of the Walter residence right away. Staying there with Kerry doesn't help his case. It just makes things look worse. Like they could have conspired to get rid of Jason together,” Jake said. “That’s how the cops might see it, I mean.”

  “All right.”

  “He needs to get home and lie low for a while,” Jake continued. “Even if that means sleeping on your couch.”

  “Not a problem.”

  “Other than that, it’s pretty much out of our hands.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” Olivia pushed her laptop onto the bedspread. “This isn’t out of our hands because our investigation isn’t over yet.”

  “All right,” he said, but he didn’t sound too sure. Jake did more of that terrible huffing and puffing.

  “Do you want to say something else?” Olivia asked, barely containing her agitation. Gosh, she needed to get a handle on her emotions.

  “Olivia, do you need me to come over?” Jake asked.

  Olivia turned to mulch on the inside. A human sack of mulch and nerves. “No, I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

  “If you’re sure. I thought you might need a friend right now.”

  “I’m fine, really. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, Jake. Thanks for the information. All right, bye now.” She hung up before he could say anything else that would undoubtedly make her blush as red as a ripe strawberry.

  Olivia lowered the phone and stared at the screen. The cops had the picture and the note. They had set their sights on her son. She had to get him out of there before it was too late.

  She scrolled through her contacts, tapped on Sebastian’s number, then dialed.

  The phone rang, but her son didn’t pick up.

  “Sebastian Cloud, pick up your phone,” she muttered.

  Dodger let out a raucous bark followed by a whine.

  The phone clicked off without a prompt to leave a message. Oh, for heaven’s sake. This couldn’t be good. It certainly didn’t feel good. Sebby usually answered his phone when she called, and he hadn’t replied to her previous text, either.

  Olivia lurched to her feet. “Dodgy, do you want to go for a walk?”

  His tail nearly wagged itself off his furry body.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Olivia crept up the path toward the Walter residence, although she couldn’t truly creep anywhere with Dodger snuffling on the end of the leash. He stopped and lifted his leg to pee on the mailbox.

  She tugged him away before he could start the deed.

  “Now’s not the time for bathroom breaks, Dodgy,” she hissed.

  The night sky twinkled with stars—not a sign of a cloud or the promised snowstorm the weatherman had expounded upon. A bird hooted in a tree, and Dodger padded along beside her.

  On any other occasion this might’ve calmed her, but the living room lights in the house were on, and Olivia didn’t want to walk right up to the house and knock. A strong sense of foreboding stopped her. Honestly, it might’ve been all the
chocolates she’d eaten that afternoon.

  Olivia ducked behind a bush and studied the front stairs. Empty. She had the all-clear here, and if anyone jumped out at her, she had her dog for protection.

  Dodger was more likely to lick them than attack them, but the disgust factor would probably work just as well.

  “We’re all clear,” she whispered to her pooch.

  She rose from her crouch, then ducked right back down again.

  A black Buick 8 was parked in the drive. Two people sat inside it, visible thanks to the half-open door that illuminated them.

  “What on earth?” Olivia’s eyes went as round as an owl’s. This was the last thing she’d expected to see. To make matters worse, and a little weird, it meant that Henrietta Long’s hunch had been correct.

  Mr. Walter, the consummate high school teacher, sat beside Mrs. Horn, gorgeous in a checked coat-dress. Walter slammed the door and plunged them into semi-darkness. Olivia could still make out their silhouettes.

  “I don’t believe it,” she whispered and inched forward a little. Dodger followed her, for once realizing the gravity of the situation and keeping silent.

  Mrs. Horn wrapped her skinny arms around Walter’s neck and kissed him full on the lips.

  Olivia lowered her gaze. It might be an affair, but she wasn’t a peeping Tom. Gosh, this was the most awkward event she’d ever encountered. It was the last thing she’d expected to happen upon during her rescue mission.

  Rescue! She still had to get to Sebastian, regardless of Mrs. Horn’s penchant for late-night snuggles with her boyfriend. But how? The car was right beside the house, and though they were pretty involved in all their smooching, they’d probably notice if Olivia and Dodger sprinted past them.

  There wasn’t another path around to the back of the house, apart from the narrow alley beside the garage.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Olivia said, and Dodger grabbed an opportunity to lick the side of her face. Apparently, love was in the air. They’d have to move the car at some point, and when they did, she’d rush to Sebby’s rescue. Until then, she was stuck.