The Sugar Hit

by Morgana Best

  I walked up the short flight of wooden stairs to the shop and pushed carefully against the door. Inside was a much more modest offering. The shop itself was quite small, though not any less appealing than the outside. One wall was lined with small packets of seeds, each of which had a picture of the plant on the cover. These were every bit as unusual as the garden outside, some of which were as vibrant and bizarre as the plants outside.

  Along another wall was the counter, which contained a large glass display case, showing off all manner of live plants. The wallpaper was the only feature that I didn’t love, being a cheap and tacky looking image of fake plants on an ugly shade of blue. The shop appeared to be completely empty, so I took a moment to look around.

  I walked up to the seeds to inspect them and realized that most weren’t seeds at all, but packets of dried herbs. I wasn’t exactly an expert horticulturist, but I hadn’t recognized any herbs on the way in or inside the shop itself. It seemed more and more likely that the story was true.

  I looked around the shop for signs of workers, but it seemed completely empty. There was a back door, so I assumed they were tending the garden. Still, it seemed strange that all of them would go out to the garden at once. I noticed a bell on the counter and rung it loudly, waiting about a minute before ringing it again.

  “Maybe nobody’s here,” Carl suggested with a shrug.

  “Doesn’t that strike you as more than a little weird?” I asked. “I mean, this is a shop. It’s not like we broke into somebody’s house.”

  “Can I help you?” a familiar voice asked. I spun around to see Herb Green standing at the entrance to the shop, holding a pair of garden shears. I swallowed nervously and took a step back, making sure I was firmly wearing my hat, scarf and sunglasses that Carl had wisely suggested. I noticed Carl was doing the same, clearly not as bothered by his fashion sense as he was by the intimidating man with a deadly weapon.

  “Oh, yes, hello. If you’re busy we can talk to another staff member,” I suggested hopefully. Herb walked straight past me without a word, standing behind the counter and laying his shears down.

  “I’m afraid I’m the only one that works here,” Herb said flatly, looking me directly in the eyes despite my sunglasses. He hadn’t seemed to recognize us, but I felt like it was only a matter of time.

  “Well, we were looking for organic herbs. Do you have any?” I asked as calmly and politely as I could.

  “No!” Herb shouted. “We don’t, and we haven’t for a long time. If somebody told you that we do, please tell them otherwise. If that’s all you were after, I suggest you leave,” he said sternly, motioning toward the front door. Carl let out a weak noise that sounded somewhere between a whimper and a scream, but managed to stop himself.

  “Oh, s–sorry...” I stammered, taking a step back.

  “Wait a minute,” Herb said, leaning in to look at me. “Have we...” Herb was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing, which he promptly answered. I let out a long, relieved sigh, and Carl looked as though he was about to pass out.

  “Hello?” Herb spoke into the phone. “Hi!”

  Carl and I shot each other a strange look. Herb’s tone was entirely different. Whoever was on the phone was clearly somebody very important to him. Unfortunately, there was no way we’d be able to figure out who it was. Herb was standing much too far away and the phone wasn’t on speaker, which meant we had no way of finding out who he was talking to without acting highly suspicious.

  Carl and I walked briskly back to the car as Herb continued to speak on his phone in the shop.

  “What was that all about?” Carl asked as we sat in the car.

  “What part of it? He’s so scary!” I said, looking around to make sure he hadn’t come back out of the shop and heard me.

  “Well, yes, he’s terrifying, whether or not he’s innocent. But who do you think that person on the phone was? He was like a completely different person once he’d answered,” Carl said as we pulled out of the driveway.

  I had no idea who the person on the other end of the call had been, but I was sure we’d find out.

  Chapter 15

  I flipped over the shop sign, displaying the Closed side for any prospective and late customers.

  “Any recommendations?” Carl called out from the back room.

  “Whatever you want! It’s all good,” I replied. Carl was on supply duty, gathering the chocolate we’d need to get us through the night. We had decided to stake out Herb’s house overnight and look for any suspicious activity. Carl came out with two massive bags, each bulging to the seams with brightly colored chocolates of all kinds. I couldn’t help but feel bad about using my own stock like this, but I didn’t feel nearly bad enough to stop me from doing it. Nothing could stand between me and my chocolate.

  “I still think this is a bit of a long shot,” Carl admitted as he sat the bags on the ground at the front door. He was clearly struggling with the weight.

  “I know. I think you’re right,” I sighed. “But it’s our best lead at the moment. I mean, Herb is clearly suspicious, right? He was easily my number one suspect before I saw him with those garden shears yesterday, now he’s practically a permanent boarder in my nightmares.”

  Carl laughed, but ended it abruptly with a kind of shudder. “We should get going before it gets too dark,” he suggested.

  “What? Why?” I asked, astounded. “Isn’t the point to avoid being seen?”

  “Well, yes, of course,” Carl said with exaggerated exasperation. “But we don’t know his property that well, so we’ll need to get there while it’s light to get a lay of the land. Otherwise we could be sitting there all night while he’s using a completely different road, or something.”

  I considered it for a moment before nodding in agreement. “I don’t think he saw your car when we went to the shop yesterday, so that should still be fine,” I said, more thinking aloud than looking for a response. “But we should wear disguises again, just to be extra safe.”

  Carl looked like he was about to cry when he realized he’d have to wear my scarf again, but I figured he’d eventually recover from the trauma.

  We packed the car tightly with chocolate. I felt the cool afternoon breeze, noting that the chocolate probably wouldn’t melt, even while it was inside the car. Wasting chocolate was an extremely serious crime, especially when it was my chocolate.

  I sat in the car, and noted that I didn’t feel particularly worried about the drive itself. At first I was elated, thinking that I was finally getting over my fear of driving, but realized it was probably because I was too focused on being nervous about the stakeout itself.

  “Do I need to get a cup to use as a bathroom?” Carl asked me, a serious expression on his face.

  “Carl, we’ll be parked in the middle of nowhere. The entire land is your bathroom now,” I explained, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. Carl’s expression changed to a mixture of relief and worry, but he got in the car all the same.

  We arrived at Herb’s farm before the day’s light had gone completely, which made me appreciate Carl’s suggestion that we get here early. It was easy to make out the road and see his house, but we were far enough away that it didn’t look as though we had anything to do with his property. Carl parked behind some thick bushes.

  “Do you think we should get closer?” Carl asked. “We can’t really see what he’s doing from here.”

  “Not yet, let’s just wait,” I suggested. “We need to see if he goes somewhere at night. I mean, that’s suspicious enough, but it will give us a chance to search his house.”

  “What!” Carl exclaimed loudly, causing me to jump. I looked around nervously, but we were very much alone. “You want to break in and search his house?”

  “Not really, no,” I said. “But if it proves he’s the murderer, then it’s something we have to do.”

  “Wouldn’t that make the evidence inadmissible?” Carl asked.

  “Not if it was randomly donated,” I expla
ined. “Or, uh, so I assume.” I was suddenly losing some confidence in my plan.

  We waited for a few hours, sitting idly by the road and eating chocolates. I was worried that Carl might be sick, as he’d only eaten several in the few hours we’d been sitting there, but he seemed otherwise healthy.

  Before I could ask him about it, he suddenly perked up and tapped me on the shoulder, pointing to something coming down the road. It was a car turning into Herb’s driveway. I recognized the driver as Paula Prentiss and shot Carl an excited look, though it was immediately clear that he’d recognized her as well.

  “What do we do?” Carl hissed. “Do we just wait? What if he murders her? What if she murders him?” he asked, clearly panicking.

  “Carl, calm down. You’re being weird again,” I said, which had the intended effect, even if it seemed to hurt his feelings a little. “Let’s just wait and see what happens. Whatever she’s there for, it probably won’t take her too long, and we don’t want to be going in as she’s coming out.”

  Carl nodded slowly and breathed even more slowly, clearly trying to calm himself down.

  Ten minutes passed without event, then another ten. An hour later, I suspected that maybe I was wrong. “Um, maybe we should go in after all,” I suggested nervously.

  To my surprise, Carl nodded in agreement. “We can sneak up and look in the window. If we leave the car here, they shouldn’t be able to see us, and the area around the house isn’t too well lit,” he said, and I figured he’d been thinking about this for some time.

  “What if they have dogs?” I asked, feeling a surge of nervousness.

  “What!” Carl said in fright. “Dogs! Dogs? I hadn’t even thought of dogs! Let’s go home.” He searched frantically for his keys.

  “Carl, stop it! Carl! Calm down,” I said, trying my best to stop Carl from hurting himself in his frantic attempt to get away. He managed to regain some lucidity and began breathing heavily. “I was just thinking out loud. I didn’t mean to scare you. Let’s look at this logically, okay?” I asked.

  “Okay, okay,” Carl said between pants. “Well, we haven’t seen a dog, and there wasn’t one when we were here the other day, right?” he asked, clearly wanting an answer.

  “Right, and he doesn’t own livestock, so it’s not as if he’d need a working dog. If we hear barking or see any sign of a dog, we’ll come straight back. Deal?” I asked.

  Carl took a moment to think about it and sighed melodramatically. “All right, Narel, you win. Let’s go see what we find out.”

  We carefully moved through the field leading up the house, careful not to stand too tall in case we silhouetted ourselves against the road behind us. It took a lot longer than I’d realized, but eventually we made it to the house itself. There was no kennel or any sign of a dog as far as I could see, and there’d been no barking. I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Carl, who still looked as worried as ever.

  “We’ll just see what we can see through the window and then get out of here, okay?” I whispered, careful to keep my voice as low as possible. Carl nodded quickly and the pair of us carefully moved up the outer wall of the house, peeking in either side of the same window.

  It was immediately clear that not only was Paula alive, she was more than alive than ever. Paula and Herb were on the couch together, clearly more than strangers, even more than friends. They were very much enjoying each other’s company.

  “What!” Carl yelled, recoiling from the sight. Herb and Paula both looked up at the noise to see us looking in.

  Carl and I immediately sprinted away and back to the car. “Oh my goodness!” Carl managed to say while running as fast as he possibly could. “I wish they’d just had a dog!”

  “Do you think they’ll catch us?” I asked, feeing a surge of panic.

  “They’ll have to put their clothes on first with all these grass seeds,” Carl wisely pointed out as we sprinted through the field.

  I jumped into the passenger’s seat as fast as I possibly could, for the first time in my life regretting eating as much chocolate as I had. Carl awkwardly tried to slide across the car hood, but fell on his face before he scrambled to his feet and got in the driver’s seat.

  We sped away. I looked back to see if they were following us, but there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary. “I think we’re okay,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “Do you think they saw us?”

  “Definitely,” Carl said grimly. “But we were wearing our disgusting disguises. Maybe they won’t recognize us,” he added hopefully.

  “I wish they’d been wearing more,” I admitted, to which Carl laughed.

  We pulled into my driveway and headed inside. Carl and I checked the house for anything out of the ordinary, but it seemed like it was just us. Mongrel slowly walked out of his carrier basket and stopped at my feet, before looking me directly in the eyes and meowing loudly.

  “Are you all right, Mongrel?” I asked, bending my knees to look at him. He pawed at my legs and I realized I’d forgotten to feed him before we’d gone for the stakeout. “I’m so sorry!” I said, as I hurried to get him some food.

  “Narel?” Carl asked, stepping out of the room he’d been checking. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, I’m just apologizing to the cat!” I explained, not at all perturbed that my explanation was entirely insane. I filled Mongrel’s bowl with a tin of the most expensive cat food that money could buy, because of course it was the only kind he ate.

  “Well, now that the cat’s fed, would you like some dinner?” I asked Carl, who was eyeing Mongrel with some suspicion.

  “No, thanks,” Carl said with a dismissive wave. “I need to get home and wash my eyes out with bleach. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to unsee that particular herb garden, if you catch my drift.”

  “I do, but I wish I didn’t,” I said with a sigh.

  “Will you be okay by yourself?” he asked. “With everything going on, I know it can be quite scary.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I said, smiling. “Besides, I’m not alone, I have Mongrel. And let’s face it, he’s much scarier than either of us.”

  Carl laughed and nodded, clearly agreeing. Mongrel shot him an angry look and Carl immediately stopped laughing and took a big step backward. “Well, I’ll be going then,” he said.

  “Are you sure you don’t want dinner?” I asked as Carl was halfway out the door.

  “I’m sure, thanks though,” Carl said, waving goodbye. “Goodnight Narel, goodnight Mongrel.”

  The door closed behind him and I hurried over to lock it. I felt surprisingly comfortable alone in the house, despite everything that was happening. I decided to make myself a chocolate cake for dinner, since I’d left a large portion of my chocolate in Carl’s car.

  As I was getting some flour out of the cupboard, I heard a knock on the front door.

  “Just a minute,” I called out, setting the flour on the countertop and striding over. “Decided you’d have some dinner after all, huh?” I asked teasingly as I opened the door.

  There, standing at my front door, was Paula Prentiss.

  Chapter 16

  I stood frozen to the spot in horror.

  Paula Prentiss was one of my main suspects, and she was standing in front of me. A quick glance revealed that she wasn’t holding a weapon, although she was clutching a large purse to her chest.

  “I need to talk to you. Can I come in?” Without waiting for a response, she pushed past me and straight into my house. I followed her, at a loss as to what to do. Where had I left my phone? I need to call Carl and get him to come over.

  Paula made straight for the nearest living room chair, and she moved some paperwork off it and sat down, placing her keychain and her large purse on the small coffee table next to it.

  I walked around her, giving her a wide berth, and stood opposite her.

  She cut straight to the point. “Why have you been following me?”

  I put on my best fake expression of surprise.
“What do you mean?”

  Her face slowly turned beet red. “I saw you and your friend, Carl. I wasn’t mistaken, so don’t try to pretend it wasn’t you.”

  I hoped she was bluffing, so I tried to keep up my pretense. “It wasn’t us! I’ve been here all night.” I didn’t sound convincing, even to myself. I regretted the words as soon as they are out of my mouth.

  “I know it was you, so stop pretending, or it will be the worse for you,” she said in a commanding voice.

  I took a step backward. “Are you threatening me?”

  She wasted no time answering. “Yes!”

  I was lost for words. I wished I had some sort of weapon in case she came at me, and then I considered that maybe I should carry around a small piece of rope and throw it at people who came to murder me. Then again, that wouldn’t be too wise in case Mongrel caught me with the rope. I shuddered at the thought.

  “Would you like some coffee?” Perhaps it was strange that I had slipped into hostess mode, but I didn’t know what else to do. I was taking some consolation from the fact that she hadn’t tried to shoot me or stab me or stick a syringe of some poisonous substance into me so far. I was hoping my forced act of normalcy would calm her down. It wasn’t to be.

  She screwed up her face. “Are you mad?”

  “Quite possibly,” I said. “Well, you’ve come to say what you had to say, so maybe you should leave.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “I’m going to leave when I’m good and ready, and not until you’ve told me why you were following me. You know, I could have you arrested as a Peeping Tom!”