The Blackmail Flour Trail: A Culinary Cozy Mystery (Slice of Paradise Cozy Mysteries Book 3)

by Nancy McGovern

  She shivered and had to look away. Then annoyance surged through her again. Who did this guy think he was? But then he was only acting on a lead… Who on earth had called in about her, and what did they say? And her utensil being found at the crime scene? Faith heard every single beat of her heart as she realized the truth. She was being framed. Blood thundered through her ears, and it seemed the air was getting tighter and tighter around her.

  Doom. Doom. Deep, dark doom.

  That was the feeling Faith got every time she had a panic attack. And she could feel one right then, slowly creeping up into her consciousness, like cold water slipping slowly slowly up around her, until it would flow into her lungs and she’d never breathe again.

  But she remembered her technique just in time. It’s only a panic attack, she repeated to herself over and over. Only a panic attack. In the moments when they closed in, she was always completely and utterly convinced she was going to die. Though it had gotten a lot better in recent times, because she’d managed to disarm that debilitating thought and replace it with the new, soothing, It’s only a panic attack, and a deliberately casual shrug that sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.

  Somehow Deputy Valdez coming back into the room made it all disappear. Sometimes a change of scene or someone else doing something was enough to break the spell. “You can go,” he said, his voice carefully controlled. His lip twitched and his eyes raged in a way she hadn’t seen before. “Don’t leave the country. Don’t leave the state. Don’t even leave Paradise. Don’t do anything outside your normal routine. I have to let you go, but I’ve got my eye on you.”

  Faith had run out of ways to fight him. All she wanted to do was get out of there. “Okay,” she said, already getting up. “Bye.”

  “Not so fast,” he said coolly, then walked over to the door. “I have to escort you to the front desk.”

  “I know where—”

  “Protocol.”

  *****

  Faith usually opted for low fat ice cream – working in a bakery was always an occupational hazard when it came to weight and health, and she didn’t want to make her choices outside work ruin her chances – but that night, she opted for a Ben & Jerry’s pint tub she saw in the little grocery store nearby her apartment. Cinnamon Buns, the flavor was called. She’d never heard of it before but since she loved actual cinnamon buns it called out to her, and she swiped it off the shelf along with a baking magazine with a cake stand on a summer outdoor tea party table on the cover. Faith had a weakness for that sort of thing – bunting and flowery tablecloths and cake stands and delicate tea sets.

  She stood in line feeling like the world wasn’t real, and once she’d paid and headed back to her apartment she didn’t actually remember being in the store at all. It felt like some kind of twilight zone.

  As soon as she opened her door, Cirrus and Nimbus were dutifully waiting for her. Nimbus looked a little plaintive, as if to say, We’ve been waiting for you, and were worrying about where you were.

  Faith dropped her shopping and kicked off her flip flops and dove down onto the carpet. “Hello, babies,” she said, reaching out to stroke one, then the other. “I’ve had the worst day ever. I sure am glad to see you guys, though.”

  Cirrus came forward with a confident mew as if to say, Cheer up, you’re home now. Then he started tapping her arm with his paw, which he always did when he wanted to play. He gave off such a friendly, positive vibe that Faith couldn’t help but smile, though there was still a lump in her throat.

  Nimbus, always the cuddler, came and snuggled up by her belly, turning around on himself and tucking his tail in until he was a ball of gray fluff. Faith could feel his purring against her belly and she reached out to stroke him.

  Then, just as she was beginning to feel more calm and safe, Faith surprised herself by bursting into tears. It was totally one of those I-want-my-mommy moments. They didn’t happen very often but when they did it felt like the world was closing in and the only thing that could make it better was mom’s affection. Diana hadn’t always been the most demonstrative of parents, but one thing was for certain – when things went wrong, Faith knew she could count on her mom to make everything seem all right again.

  Diana had moved out to her cabin in Ohio, her long held dream. Unfortunately her salary as a freelance writer and editor didn’t afford her all that much money to fly down to Florida whenever she pleased, but she came twice a year all the same. “Plus,” she’d said to Faith, “with the cabin I have so few expenses, I’ll be able to visit more often.”

  Faith desperately wanted to ring her mom and cry down the phone, but she knew she couldn’t. As soon as she’d tell her mom she was a suspect in a murder investigation, her mom would want to fly straight down, no matter what the cost. She’d already tried to persuade Faith to let her come to the Cupcake Marathon, but the flights were so expensive at that time of year, Faith had told her to stay home and come another time. Since she’d lived at home until the age of 24, barely able to contribute with her erratic stream of poorly paying jobs, her mom had borne the financial burden for a long time. Faith certainly didn’t want her mom shelling out money she didn’t really have.

  “I love you, mommy,” Faith said out loud. She was so full of sadness and fear, since everything was going so horribly, that she didn’t even feel strange talking out loud into the apartment to someone who wasn’t there.

  And in Faith’s mind, she heard her mom reply, “I love you too, baby.” That already made Faith feel a little better. Then, “Don’t worry about this whole thing. The truth will out.”

  “But what if it doesn’t?”

  “It always does. Now go eat your ice cream and watch Friends and forget about the whole thing. Tomorrow you’ll start investigating.”

  Faith rolled over to face the ceiling, spreading her arms wide, her sandy hair flung in every which direction over the carpet. Her eyes wet with tears, she found a smile. “Sounds like a plan.”

  So after a nice hot shower, a cup of chamomile tea, putting on her pajamas and slippers, and snuggling up on the couch with her cats, Faith began her cozy Friends marathon with a whole tub of Cinnamon Buns ice cream.

  Cirrus had worn himself out by darting around the apartment, playing some game that only he knew the meaning of, and was just as cuddly and sleepy as Nimbus usually was. Cirrus snuggled on Faith’s left, while Nimbus was on the right. Faith was so cozy right in between them she was sure she would drop asleep at any moment.

  *****

  Chapter 9

  “I don’t get how one of your baking utensils could have been at the murder scene,” Laura said. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Unfortunately it does,” Faith replied, feeling embarrassed.

  It was a gloriously sunny day, with the perfectly cooling ocean breeze sweeping through, and customers were few and far between, so they were sitting out on the veranda, watching Nathan as he tended to the tropical yard. When Faith had first taken over, he’d transformed the little scrub of vegetation out the front of the tearoom into a veritable botanical garden, with gravel pathways wending throughout, leading visitors from the main pathway toward Slice of Paradise. For the first year, the path had been visible from the Slice of Paradise veranda, but now the bougainvillea blooms blocked the view as they climbed up their criss cross trellises, and the huge palms jutted upward to obscure it further.

  Faith sipped her lemonade, realizing that her own people-pleasing had come back to bite her.

  “What do you mean?” Laura said. She broke off a piece of the Scottish buttery shortbread they’d made. “I don’t get it.”

  Faith blew a stream of air out. “It’s embarrassing.”

  “When I went up to the front of my class to make a presentation the other day, the back of my skirt was tucked into my tights and I didn’t realize until afterward.”

  “I know, you told me.”

  “Well, then,” Laura said in a matter of fact way, “I told you my embarrassing story. Y
ou tell me yours.”

  Faith picked at the hem of her turquoise sundress. “Oh…” The thing was they’d already spoken about it, and Laura had told her to do the exact opposite. She felt so foolish.

  “Come on, already,” Laura said, then took a swig of lemonade.

  “Oh, all right.” Faith shook her head, then started talking really fast, like the whole experience would be like ripping off a band aid. “So basically you know you told me I shouldn’t give gifts to any of the competitors or judges because it would look like I was bribing or sucking up to people?”

  Laura rolled her eyes. “You didn’t.”

  “Only small things!”

  “Like…”

  “Well, I tried to give Wilhelmina a measuring spoon set, but she wouldn’t accept it. She said they were for amateurs and professionals measure everything by eye.”

  “Oh man,” Laura said. “What did you give the others?”

  “The Baking Babes I gave some silicone cupcake molds. Um… Karen, I gave that heavy metallic rolling pin, with the teal handles.”

  “That could be a murder weapon!”

  Faith bit her lip. “Possibly.”

  “Definitely. What else?”

  “Um… I gave Marigold a mixing jug with a teal handle.”

  “One of those heavy-duty thick glass ones?” Laura asked, her eyes wide.

  Faith nodded.

  “Another possible murder weapon! What did you give Nico?”

  “A spatula,” Faith said with a grimace. “Obviously not a murder weapon.”

  Laura scrunched up her mouth, thinking. “What about Chad and Tamalynn?”

  “Chad, I gave an apple cutter corer thing I never used. And Tamalynn… oh, yeah, it was a whisk.”

  “You couldn’t kill someone with a whisk,” Laura said. “What about the apple thingy?”

  Faith shrugged. “Maybe. It does have a sharp edge. But it’s quite bulky. It would be awkward to use… It feels weird talking about killing people with kitchen implements.”

  “I’ll say.”

  “I wish we could just find out which one of those was at the murder scene,” Faith said. “That might be all it takes to work out who the killer is. But of course Mr. Deputy Sheriff Thank You Very Much won’t tell me a thing.”

  “And I’ll bet who tipped you off has something to do with this murder as well. From what you’ve said, I’ll bet it’s Chad, Karen or Marigold. They’re the ones with the deadly utensils.”

  They heard people talking and looked up to see Nico coming up one of the winding tropical paths, talking to Nathan.

  “Hi ladies,” Nico said confidently, striding up the path toward them. “Nice yard you have here. This guy’s been telling me he’s the one that fixed it up.” He tossed a slightly disrespectful thumb in Nathan’s direction, and Faith saw Nathan bristle.

  “Nathan has done an awesome job,” Faith said quickly. “You should have seen what it was like before. He totally transformed the place.”

  Nathan couldn’t keep from beaming, and Nico drew one nostril up as he looked around, pretending to be impressed but obviously full of jealousy at not being the center of attention. The more Faith saw of him, the more she realized just how toxic he was.

  “I just wanted to pass on a message from Marigold. She lost her phone this morning, and she’s getting it fixed now. But I saw her in the lobby at the hotel and she asked me to come tell you that the event tomorrow is canceled. You know the one where we were going to do some filming in different bakeries around the area and do interviews and things?” He leaned against the veranda railing and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Apparently she’s had to make some budget cuts, so the camera crew had to go. I’d thought about covering the cost myself, but I don’t want to embarrass the poor woman. So it looks like we don’t have much to do until Friday. That’s when we’re all having dinner together, remember?”

  “Of course,” Faith said, not wanting to admit to herself that she felt relieved. The whole interviews and camera thing had been something she’d tried to forget. She’d had nervousness in the pit of her stomach about it all week. She was trying to work out if it was more or less nerve-racking than the whole school auditorium thing.

  Nico flashed them a narcissistic looking smile. “Finally my girlfriend will get some of my attention, even if it is via Skype.”

  “You have a girlfriend?” Laura said, incredulous.

  Faith thought about the simpering super fans and already felt sorry for whoever Nico’s poor girlfriend was.

  “Don’t you read my blog?” he asked. “My girlfriend’s called Lily. She lives in L.A.” Said proudly, as if that was a major feat. “She works in the movie industry, behind the scenes, you know.”

  “Oh right,” Faith said. She was thinking of any question she could ask him to work out if he was guilty. Was he the one that murdered Wilhelmina and then falsely tipped the Sheriff’s Department off about Faith? But then killing with a spatula was altogether impossible.

  But before she could think of anything, Nathan said, “You know, it would be a good idea for us all to have a day off, too. Laura, isn’t it Yale’s morning off tomorrow?”

  Laura laughed. “Why do you keep such good track of my boyfriend’s schedule?”

  The truth was that Nathan had a great memory and seemed to remember most things. He shrugged. “Why don’t we all head out, the four of us?”

  Laura stretched. “I could sure use some romance after all this drama. Maybe Stephanie or Danica will cover the tearoom for us. Or Grandma Bessie?”

  “Nope,” Faith said with a grin. “She called me to tell me that shift the other day was her last one before Friday. She said she feels like she’s stunting her own growth when there’s so many things to do. So she’s gone with Arthur, one of the men from her living accommodation, to the bowling alley. Ten pin bowling.”

  “Aha, so she’s on a date, too!” Nathan said, laughing.

  “Ooh, talking of dates,” Nico said. “I forgot to mention. Tamalynn told me to apologize to you guys for her husband’s behavior here the other day. They’re actually the sweetest couple, usually, but since the… incident… well…”

  “We understand,” Laura said.

  “Things are harder for them now,” Nico continued, looking genuinely sorry about it. “Anyway, I’d better be going. See you on Friday then, I guess?”

  Faith nodded. “See you, Nico.”

  He gave them a wave with his bulky bronzed arm then jogged off down the path.

  “He’s not too bad, actually,” Laura said.

  Nathan was leaning on his spade, and turned his lip up in disgust. “He’s a creep. There’s something not right about him.”

  Faith felt slightly unsettled, too. But was that because Nico was just a slightly narcissistic guy, or because he was a killer? She knew she didn’t like him for sure, but she didn’t want that to cloud her judgment.

  “Nah,” Laura said, flapping her hand at Nathan. “You’re being dramatic. He’s fine.”

  Faith didn’t want to think about it for a while. “So what’s this big plan for tomorrow?” she asked Nathan.

  “Aha!” he said with a joyful smile. “You’ll have to wait and see. But I think we all deserve a day off, out of the whole contest zone. Just doing something else completely.”

  “Sounds good,” Faith said. She finished the last of her lemonade. Perhaps getting out of the whole situation would make her see things from a new perspective. But then she remembered. “Oh, it’s not out of town where you want to take us, is it?”

  “Yeah, sort of, just out of town,” Nathan said. “Why?”

  Faith took a breath. She’d avoided telling Nathan about what had happened so far, because she knew he’d kick off. “Now don’t get mad, all right?” she said. “I really don’t want you going down there and making a scene.”

  Nathan frowned. “Going down where?”

  “Deputy Valdez says I’m a suspect,” Faith said, “and—”

&nb
sp; “That guy!” Nathan exploded.

  “I knew you’d do that,” Faith said, feeling tearful all of a sudden. “Can’t you just be calm about it? We all know he’s a jerk, we all know he’s wrong. There’s no point getting mad at him because it won’t do anything. Let’s just get on with trying to find out who it is. Then we can prove it wasn’t me.”

  Nathan was pacing by then, his shovel over his shoulder. “What’s his problem, though. Really?”

  Faith took her empty glass and headed back into the tearoom. Why couldn’t Nathan just be calm? Why couldn’t he wrap his arms around her and stroke her hair and tell her everything was going to be all right? Why did he have to get all mad and protective and go and defend her honor like she was some damsel in the medieval times?

  She shoved the glass down into the sink and felt like she wanted to burst with frustration.

  *****

  Chapter 10

  “Wow,” Faith said as she followed Nathan under the vines he pushed to the side. “Oh my gosh.”

  Laura and Yale followed after them.

  “Whoa,” Yale said. “Good find, Nathan.”

  “I thought when you told us to bring our bathing suits we were going to any old swimming pool,” Laura said. “This is much better.”

  It truly was. Faith hooked her arm into Nathan’s and looked around, feeling like she was in heaven. They’d come out of a thick forest walk to find themselves on the banks of a ravine. Clear water skipped over big boulders into shallow pools. But their trickling sounds were drowned out by something even more spectacular – a small waterfall, where the crystal water came slipping down from a tall rock formation into a pool at the bottom, frothing in turquoise and white and blue. The sun glistened on the water, and the whole place was surrounded by lush green vegetation.