Boo Buried Cupcakes (Black Cat Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 11)

by Lyndsey Cole

  “I bet you’re wondering how I managed to get Cody’s Jeep.”

  Annie stared at Kitty. “Right. How did you guess?” Sarcasm dripped from her words. What she was actually wondering was how she would get herself out of this horrible situation. How had she never noticed that Kitty was crazy?

  Kitty laughed. “You’re funny. Well, I’ll tell you anyway. You know that beautiful black Porsche that Brian drove to my house for the Halloween party? Cody stopped by late last night to pick it up and he left his Jeep in my garage.” She turned her head to smile at Annie. “Didn’t you always love Jeeps, because I sure did but I never had a chance to drive one. Soooo . . . I decided to take this baby out for a little drive to Rachel’s house. You know, a little one-on-one girly talk.” Kitty slapped Annie’s thigh. “Are you following me?”

  “A chit chat with Rachel. Got it. You were angry that she won Brian’s heart?” Annie was beginning to put more than two and two together. She also realized that Kitty loved to brag about herself, which meant she would probably spill all the details of what she did to Brian. And maybe what her plan with Annie was? Annie shivered.

  “Now, now. Brian was weak but he came back to Catfish Cove. Back to me—to Kitty. He wanted that jogging manipulator out of his life.”

  More likely, Kitty wanted Rachel out of Brian’s life, but, hey, just a minor detail in Kitty’s crazy land.

  “I hadn’t decided what I was going to do to her but then you,” she sneered at Annie, “showed up outside with that dog of yours. You always appear like a bad nightmare at the most inconvenient times. Well, girly, this is your nightmare now.”

  Kitty jerked the steering wheel. “Oops, almost missed my turn.” The Jeep swerved, then teetered on its two driver side tires. Annie clamped her eyes shut, got thrown against the steering wheel from the force of the turn, and screamed.

  The driver side door flew open.

  Annie, wedged between the steering wheel and the console, opened her eyes to the sight of Kitty dropping out of the Jeep. The Jeep balanced on two tires for what felt like an eternity. With her hands zip tied, Annie had no option but to go along for the spine-jarring ride. She didn’t dare even breathe until the Jeep crashed back on all four tires, which threw Annie to the opposite side of the Jeep, against the passenger door. The Jeep rocked back and forth sideways a couple more times before it stopped.

  28

  Annie sucked in several deep, slow breathes. She looked around, trying to figure out her new situation. Was it better . . . or worse?

  With the Jeep stalled and still, silence blanketed everything around Annie. What happened to Kitty? Annie saw no trace of her.

  She scooched forward to the edge of the seat and leaned as far as possible toward the open driver door. She still couldn’t see Kitty.

  First things first; she had to free her hands. Annie moved the palms of her hands as close together as possible and smiled. She managed to create some slack under the zip tie. She wiggled and slid her palms forward and backward until she worked one thumb out from under the zip tie.

  With patience, she maneuvered her right hand free and pulled the handle on her door. Nothing happened. She flipped the lock, flung the door open, and let her feet slip to the ground.

  What now?

  Her phone was in her back pocket, but when she pulled it out there were no bars. No service. No luck. She dialed Jason’s number anyway with exactly the result she was afraid of. Nothing.

  With one hand on the Jeep for balance, she slowly crept down the side and around the back. She scanned the ground for Kitty’s body. No sight of her anywhere.

  This didn’t make sense. Where did she land? Every nerve in Annie’s body was tense and ready for a fight.

  She moved up the driver side toward the open door, toward her escape. Just as she picked up her foot to step into the Jeep, she felt a hand grab her ankle.

  She screamed and thrashed her foot. With the advantage of using the steering wheel for leverage to pull herself away, she felt the hand slip off and she got herself inside the Jeep.

  Her breathing came in loud gasps. Her ears roared with fear.

  She fumbled for the key and almost cried with relief when the engine thundered to life.

  “Annie. Annie.” Kitty’s pathetic plea slammed through the engine’s rumble. “Please don’t drive or you’ll run right over me.

  “I don’t believe you.” Annie looked out the still-open door and searched the ground for Kitty.

  “Roll out where I can see you.”

  “I can’t move. The tire landed on my leg. I’m stuck.”

  Annie jumped out of the Jeep. Bending down, she saw Kitty on her back with one leg trapped under the back tire. Her right hand reached toward Annie.

  “I think my leg is crushed and I can’t move my left arm. A bone is sticking right through the skin. Everything hurts. Please, Annie,” Kitty pleaded, “help me.”

  Annie got her phone out again and aimed it at Kitty. “First, answer a question—did you kill Brian?”

  Kitty nodded.

  “Yes or no . . . say it out loud,” Annie yelled.

  “Yes. I couldn’t lose him to Greta after all the years I waited for him to come back to me.” She sobbed. “It was always Brian I wanted. Always. Brian.” Her eyes closed and her head rolled to the side.

  Annie slid her phone back into her pocket. She didn’t know if Kitty could hear her but she explained her plan anyway. “I’ll back up enough to get the tire off your leg, then get you into the back of the Jeep.”

  Annie wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans. She put the Jeep in reverse and, very slowly, she let the clutch out and gave a tiny bit of gas. The Jeep bucked and stalled. She tried again with more gas, hoping she didn’t go too far and run Kitty over with the front tire.

  The Jeep lurched backward. Annie slammed on the brake. When she leaned out the door and looked down, she saw the front tire inches from Kitty’s head.

  Kitty moaned.

  Now what? How would Annie get Kitty in the Jeep without causing more damage?

  Before Annie had time to figure anything out, a black Porsche screeched to a stop behind her. A cloud of dust swirled around the car. Cody leaped out with Greta and Roxy right behind. Thelma waved from the front passenger seat.

  Relief flooded Annie’s body as Cody reached inside to embrace her. “Are you all right?”

  All Annie could manage was a nod. She pointed under the Jeep.

  Greta’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “How? What happened?”

  Cody steadied Annie and helped her out. “How about you sit in the car while I figure out some way to move Kitty.”

  Greta had already run back to the main road. “I’ve got some reception here,” she yelled. “An ambulance is on the way.”

  Annie sat in the driver seat of the Porsche with the door open so Roxy could keep her head on Annie’s lap. Thelma patted her leg. “How are you doing, dear? Lucky for you that Cody had a tracker thing-a-ma-jiggy on his Jeep. Although I’m sure you would have figured something out.” She pulled a Black Cat Café bag out of her purse. “Want a chocolate cookie? I saved two for you but you never came back to Greta’s house.”

  Detective Christy Crank arrived, followed closely by the ambulance.

  Christy leaned her elbow on the top of the car. “You ran over Kitty?”

  “Actually, she managed to run over herself. And,” Annie pulled out her phone “here’s her confession.”

  Christy watched the short video. “I’ll have to keep this, you know. Evidence.” She pointed to the bag. “Anything in there?”

  Annie held the bag out for Christy to help herself to the last cookie.

  Christy munched then wiped a couple of crumbs off the edge of her mouth. “So, Kitty ran over herself. How exactly did that happen?” The edges of her mouth twitched.

  Annie described, in excruciating detail, how Kitty’s driving skills needed a bit more perfecting. “I suppose, if she’d been buckled in, she wouldn’t have f
allen out and ended up under the rear tire.”

  Thelma chuckled. “Your description, after the fact, is quite amusing.”

  Christy shook her head. “She won’t have to worry about her driving skills where she’ll be going.”

  Roxy wagged her tail and licked Annie’s face.

  Greta drove the Porsche with Thelma still in the front and Annie and Roxy squished in the back. “This is still more comfortable than riding with Kitty while my hands were tied together and I bounced from one side to the other.”

  “I can’t believe that Kitty killed Brian. She loved him. Why kill him?” Greta asked.

  “She was convinced that Brian came back to town because of you and she was done with sharing.”

  Greta quickly wiped her cheek. They drove in silence until they arrived at Cobblestone Cottage.

  Jason helped Thelma out but his eyes stayed on Annie in the back. As soon as she crawled out, Jason wrapped his arms around her. “Kitty? It was Kitty?”

  “Uh-huh,” Annie managed to mumble into Jason’s chest. “And it was her cat, Moby, who found the clue.”

  “If that cat needs a home, I know just the place,” Thelma said. “He could help me with my crossword puzzles.”

  Jason winked at Annie and whispered, “What a perfect solution.”

  29

  Annie let herself enjoy her warm bed on Thursday morning.

  She ignored Roxy’s stare.

  She blocked out the scent of coffee that drifted to her nose.

  But when she heard Thelma’s voice, curiosity got the best of her, especially when Roxy rushed down to investigate.

  With her flannel pajama pants and a warm fleece, she shuffled down the stairs.

  “There she is,” Thelma gushed. “Jason was about to pull you out of bed but I said, no, let her sleep, the poor thing had an awful lot on her plate yesterday. But I am glad you’re finally here to see the surprise Greta and I brought over.” Her smile went from ear to ear and made several wrinkles appear at the edge of each eye.

  Jason grinned and handed Annie a cup of coffee. “Why don’t you sit on the couch?”

  That sounded good to Annie but when she turned toward the couch, a big box with a blanket covering it was right where Annie wanted to relax. She crunched her brow and looked at the others who all watched her with silly grins plastered on their faces.

  “Take a look, dear.” Thelma sat with both her hands clasped together.

  Annie stepped closer to the box and she felt her face break into a grin as she heard tiny mewing coming from inside the box. She peeked under the blanket. “Aww.” A tear ran down her cheek. “Missy and her four kittens.”

  Greta walked next to Annie. “I’m taking Missy and the kittens. Since Kitty didn’t want them anyway, I’ll keep them until they’re old enough to go to good homes. I’m planning to keep Missy and Moby—”

  “You can’t keep Moby. I already said I want him,” Thelma interrupted vehemently.

  “Hang on to your walker, Thelma, and let me finish. Moby is going to live with Thelma, and Cody is taking Kitty’s other three cats. He has plenty of room on the farm, which should make them all happy.

  Jason put his arm around Annie’s waist. “I said Missy and her kittens could stay here until Greta gets a space set up for them. Is that okay?”

  Before Annie could answer, Roxy put her front paws on the edge of the box, looked inside, and sniffed the kittens. Missy didn’t seem to care.

  “That looks like a big yes!”

  Thanks for reading Boo Buried Cupcakes. Click here and start reading my next book in the series today!

  A Note from Lyndsey

  Thank you for reading my cozy mystery, Boo Buried Cupcakes.

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  About the Author

  Lyndsey Cole lives in New England in a small rural town with her husband who puts up with all the characters in her head, her dog who hogs the couch, her cat who is the boss, and 3 chickens that would like to move into the house. She surrounds herself with gardens full of beautiful perennials. Sitting among the flowers with the scent of lilac, peonies, lily of the valley, or whatever is in bloom, stimulates her imagination about who will die next!

  Also by Lyndsey Cole

  The Hooked & Cooked Series

  Gunpowder Chowder

  Mobsters and Lobsters

  A Fishy Dish

  Crook, Line and Sinker

  Catch of the Dead

  Caught Dead Handed

  Lily Bloom Series

  Begonia Means Beware

  Queen of Poison

  Roses are Dead

  Drowning in Dahlias

  Hidden by the Hydrangeas

  Christmas Tree Catastrophe

  The Black Cat Café Series

  BlueBuried Muffins

  StrawBuried in Chocolate

  BlackBuried Pie

  Very Buried Cheesecake

  RaspBuried Torte

  PoisonBuried Punch

  CranBuried Coffee Cake

  WineBuried Wedding

  Jingle Buried Cookies

  Easter Buried Eggs