Killer Caramel Cookies: Book 1 in the Killer Cookie Series

by Patti Benning

  “I wouldn’t step foot in here again if you paid me. This is unacceptable. Your employee is incompetent. I’m going to sue. I’m going to make it so neither of you will ever be able to get another job in this town again.”

  “Good luck convincing anyone to listen to you, with that ‘do,” Teri said, still chortling over in her chair.

  “Did you do this?” Ellen shrieked, turning on her. “Did you switch the bottles, or slip them an extra twenty under the table? Were you trying to get back at me? I’m going to make you pay for this, you little —”

  “Ellen, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you keep this up,” Gwen cut in. “I’m truly sorry for what happened to your hair, and I can assure you we won’t charge you for anything — I’ll even give you a free cut if you want — but this behavior is completely inappropriate.”

  “I don’t want a free cut! I’m never letting anyone from this salon near my head again.”

  Tears mingling with the water on her face, Ellen began to sob. She swiped her purse off the counter and hurried out of the hair salon, trailing pinkish water after her the whole way. The salon fell silent. With some trepidation, Lilah looked over at her boss. Gwen looked pale, tired, and most definitely angry.

  “Get your things,” she said in a toneless voice. “You’re fired.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “It’s just like you never left,” Randall said, patting her on the shoulder. “Your name tag’s still in the drawer. Toss an apron on, and get to work. Kate will be in at three to relieve you.”

  With that, the old man went back to the stove and began turning sizzling strips of bacon over, as unruffled by her sudden reappearance as he had been by her quitting just as suddenly a couple of days ago. Lilah stood still for a moment, her brain still trying to process what had happened at the hair salon the day before. Thinking about it made her cringe. How could she have made such a horrible mistake? She felt so stupid. She would never be able to look Gwen in the eyes again. And Ellen, well… she thought that she would rather jump in front of a truck than come face to face with her.

  Feeling numb, she grabbed an apron, tied it around her waist, then pinned her name tag onto her shirt. It was time to get to work; the last thing that she needed was to lose this job too. Hefting the pot of coffee, she pushed her way out through the kitchen doors, determined to put her best foot forward with this, just as she did with everything else.

  When she saw who her very first customer of the day was, her mood sank even lower. Teri, the other woman from the salon, was sitting at the counter with a file folder and a stack of papers.

  “Hi,” Lilah said, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t be recognized. “Would you like some coffee? This is real, and we’ve got decaf in the back.”

  Luck seemed to be with her for once. The woman seemed to be absorbed with her papers. When Lilah approached, she shifted the folder to cover them, and quickly said, “Real is fine. And I’m ready to order. I’ll have a plate of sausage and hash browns. Thanks.”

  Normally she would have been upset if a customer treated her so brusquely and didn’t even bother looking at her, but today she was grateful. She poured Teri’s coffee, then hurried back into the kitchen to place her order. Maybe she would be able to get through this day without anything humiliating happening to her, after all.

  When she brought out Teri’s order, the woman behaved just as she had done before. She pulled the folder over the files, covered it protectively with her arm, and looked up warily. This time Lilah was sure that the woman was looking right at her, but if she recognized her, she didn’t say anything. She put the plate of food in front of her, asked if she wanted anything else, and was more than happy to retreat to the kitchen once more when the answer was no.

  She was glad that Teri wasn’t making a big deal out of what had happened the day before. Despite her good luck, however, she was curious as to what exactly the woman was so focused on. Why did she keep hiding the papers whenever someone walked by? Lilah knew that it wasn’t any of her business, but she was unable to help but glance over at them whenever she walked by to serve other customers. She finally got her chance when she was walking behind Teri back to the kitchen after wiping down a table. The front paper was a printed out picture of Ellen with her hands pressed to her newly red hair, and a horrified expression on her face.

  Teri seemed to sense that someone was looking over her shoulder, because she snapped the folder shut an instant later. Lilah hurried back to the kitchen, wondering why on earth someone would be carting around pictures of Ellen like that. What had she stumbled into?

  Lilah was still feeling sorry for herself the next day. She wasn’t scheduled at the diner, and she didn’t really want to see any of her friends. It would just be embarrassing to explain why she had been fired from yet another job. Margie would probably make her another meal out of pity, and Val… well, she loved Val, but her friend was notoriously outspoken. Right now what she needed was a nice, calm day at home with Oscar and Winnie. She would take a bath, try her hand at making some cookies on her own, and maybe have a glass of wine for good measure. She was bound to feel better tomorrow, after a day of pampering herself.

  Deciding to get a start on the cookies first, with the vague idea of eating a plate of them in the bath while watching her favorite show on her phone, Lilah went into the kitchen and pulled out her one cookie sheet. It had come with the house, and up until now she had only ever used it to heat up frozen meals. She was glad to think that she was finally going to put it to some real use.

  Trying to remember what ingredients Margie had used inn her sugar cookies — better to start out simple, she figured — she took down flour, sugar, and salt. Had her friend used baking powder or baking soda? Both? No, it couldn’t have been both. Could it? She discovered that she only had baking soda in her cupboards, so that would have to do. Lilah realized that things might go more smoothly if she looked up a recipe, but Margie had made it look so simple. Surely she could figure it out on her own.

  She thought things started off well, but once she finished measuring out the dry ingredients, everything started to go downhill. First, she left the butter in the microwave for far too long, and instead of just softening it, she ended up with it completely melted. Since she hadn’t put the stick on a plate, this meant that her microwave was completely flooded with butter. Then, she didn’t have quite enough left to try again, so she ended up adding some milk to the dough. She figured they were both dairy, and it probably wouldn’t end up tasting that different.

  Once she finished mixing it, the dough seemed a lot more liquid than she remembered — more like batter, really. To firm it up, she added more flour. Eventually it got to a more dough-like consistency, but something still seemed off. At a loss for what else to do, Lilah formed a ball of dough with her hands and put it in the middle of the cookie sheet. She would start with one, and see how it turned out.

  Ten minutes later, she dumped the whole batch of dough in the garbage can, then carried the bag outside and put it in the dumpster. The cookie had been bland, a bit too salty, and as hard as a rock. She had definitely gone wrong somewhere in the process; severely wrong by the taste of things. Next time, she promised herself, she would look up a recipe and follow it to a tee.

  Her phone was ringing when she went back inside. She picked it up, only to find Randall on the other end.

  “Lilah, can you come in today? The diner’s busier than usual, with everyone in town getting ready for the Arts and Crafts festival. Kate can’t handle it on her own, and my joints are acting up.”

  “I’ll be there in a few,” she said with a sigh. Her day wasn’t going as she had planned in the slightest.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The diner was busy, and Lilah didn’t have much time for self-pity between bussing tables and taking orders. She didn’t really mind the extra hours, when it came down to it, and she definitely didn't mind the extra tips. Being busy worked wonders to take her mind off
of the hair salon fiasco, and within her first hour there, she was beginning to feel a lot more upbeat.

  Then Reid came in and her good mood began to fray. He made a beeline right for her when he spotted her, even though she was trying her hardest to look completely absorbed with the table that she was cleaning. Why couldn’t he leave her be? He was just as handsome and well-dressed as ever, and here she was in her grubby apron with a dirty rag in her hand. Couldn’t he see that she didn’t want to talk right then?

  Apparently not. When he reached the table she was cleaning, he leaned casually against the neighboring booth, with his hands in his pockets. He watched her in silence for a second, and Lilah wondered if he was expecting her to say something first.

  “I’ll be done with this table in a few seconds, if you’re waiting to sit here.”

  “I’m just getting a coffee, I’ll probably sit at the counter,” he said. “I just wanted to check in with you. You were acting weird the other night.”

  Lilah looked up, confused. What was he talking about? They hadn’t spoken since the evening that she had made cookies with Margie. She didn’t think she had done anything weird then. Well, not weirder than normal, at least.

  “You were jogging?” he prodded. “I was about to say hi, but you reversed direction so suddenly. I called out, but I don’t think you heard me.”

  Oh… that. She winced. “I, ah, got hungry. I decided to head back and get dinner. Sorry I missed you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I was just concerned that something might have been wrong.” He smiled at her. “I’ll let you get back to work. See you at the festival?”

  “I’ll be there somewhere,” she told him.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when he walked away. It seemed that he hadn’t heard about the salon catastrophe yet. She most definitely did not want to have to explain that to him. She was too embarrassed to even tell Margie. No, that wound needed time to heal before anyone began prodding at it. She was sure one day she would look back and laugh, but right now she felt more like crying.

  Things didn’t get any better when she saw who walked in next. Marie Motts walked in, with Greg and Ellen right behind her. Facing Reid was one thing; he was a decent guy, who just had terrible timing and a penchant for asking all the wrong questions. Ellen, however, was a completely different story. Lilah would have hidden in a dumpster rather than come face to face with the woman whose hair she had wrecked. Feeling like a coward, she backed away from the trio and slipped into the kitchen.

  “Kate,” she called out. “Can you take table, um…” she waited while Marie, Greg, and Ellen found a booth, “… table six? I need to… do something,” she finished lamely.

  Luckily, Kate was happy to help. She hurried out to take their order while Lilah busied herself with the dishes. This arrangement was only a temporary solution, though; it wouldn’t have been fair to ask Kate to service all of the tables in the entire diner until those three left. She would just have to hope that she would be able to somehow slip by Ellen’s table without her noticing when it came time for her to go and check up on her other customers.

  She needn’t have worried. Ellen, still sprouting a mane of red, was so involved in whatever she was talking about that she probably wouldn’t have noticed an elephant walk into the room. She didn’t even glance up at Kate when she brought their food, though Greg thanked the young woman sincerely. In fact, the more Lilah watched Ellen, the less bad she felt about her hair. As far as she was concerned, anyone who treated their waitress poorly deserved their hair to be accidentally dyed.

  Feeling a bit better as she hurried by the table for a third time, a full tray balanced on her arm, Lilah couldn’t help but to overhear a snatch of conversation. Ellen was sitting alone with Greg; Marie having vanished a few minutes before to use the restroom. The two were having an intense conversation, and reluctant redhead looked positively furious. Against her better judgment, Lilah deposited the plates at the table that she was supposed to be serving, then pulled a rag out of her pocket and began wiping down the already clean table behind Ellen, shamelessly eves dropping on the couple.

  “My answer’s the same, Greg. I don’t want to move back to this podunk town, and I wouldn’t be caught dead dating someone who runs a silly little toy store. Someone like me needs a successful man in her life.”

  “If it’s money you’re worried about, sweetie, you know I’ve got us covered. This is something I’ve always wanted —”

  “It’s not about the money!” Ellen hissed furiously. “You need to stop thinking about yourself so much. Quit being so selfish. Think about how this would affect me. After I finally get my good break, the media is going to be interested in everyone I know. I don’t want the world hearing that the famous and beautiful Ellen Hawning is dating a toymaker.”

  “But, sweetie—”

  “That’s final, Greg. If you want to be with me, then you have to think of the bigger picture.”

  With that, Ellen took a sip of her lemonade, bit into her chicken club sandwich, and seemed confident that their argument was over. Lilah gaped at her, forgetting to even pretend to wash the table. To think she had felt bad for that woman. Now she was glad that she had accidentally colored the woman’s hair. From what she had just heard, she had very much deserved it.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The diner closed down early for the day so everyone would have a chance to go to the festival. Lilah, who was feeling much better about the fiasco at the salon, though she was still too embarrassed to want to talk about it, stopped off at home to let Winnie out and change into fresh clothes before walking towards town, where the festival was set up along Main Street. Both Val and Margie would have booths set up, and she was eager to see what her friends had brought to the Arts and Crafts Festival.

  The entire town seemed to have turned up for the festivities. Everyone was in a good mood, and it wore off on her. She found herself smiling and admiring handmade items along with everyone else, the hair incident pushed to the back of her mind. She found Val’s booth first, and spent a good half hour looking through everything her friend had brought from the boutique. The shop’s full name was Val’s Vintage Gifts and More, but most people in town just called it Val’s. It sold everything from collectible figurines, to jewelry, to clothes. In fact, it sold pretty much anything that Val could get her hands on, which meant that its wares changed monthly, sometimes even weekly. Lilah loved the little shop, though she rarely found anything in it that she wanted to buy.

  “How are things going?” her friend asked as she gazed at a display of gaudy, handwoven bags.

  “Not bad,” Lilah said, turning her attention to a rack of snow-globes.

  “I heard about the salon,” her friend said in a low voice.

  “Oh.” She put the snow globe down, and looked up to see her friend struggling not to laugh. “I don’t want to talk about it. I feel terrible enough already.”

  “Oh, hun, don’t worry about it. Ellen could stand to go down a peg. She’s not a very nice person; if the same thing had happened to anyone else, I can guarantee you she would have been thrilled.”

  “I’ve been getting that feeling,” Lilah told her. “I saw her at the diner earlier…”

  She told her friend about Ellen’s argument with Greg, and Val shook her head sadly. “Poor Greg. I’ll never understand why he’s dating her. I think she’s in it only for his money — she needs someone to support her while she keeps trying for her big break.”

  “What is she? An actress?”

  Val nodded. “She’s been in a couple of commercials, and I think she was an extra in some film no one has ever seen. The paper ran a story on her a few years ago. It’s a big deal when someone from Vista gets on national television, even just in a small way.”

  “Did you know her, back when you were going to school here?”

  “She’s a few years older than me, but I think we might have had a class or two together in high school. Come to think of it, she might have
been in Reid’s grade…” Val waggled her eyebrows. Her friend thought she was crazy for ignoring the handsome, successful businessman’s advances. Lilah put her hands on her hips and glared until the other woman continued. “Anyway, from what I remember, she’s always been full of herself. Don’t feel too bad for messing up her hair.”

  “Even if she deserved it, I feel terrible for Gwen,” she replied, sighing. “Ellen was so furious at her for letting someone as incompetent as me work on her hair that she threatened to sue.”

  “Well, if you feel that bad, you could always go apologize,” Val told her in her usual no-nonsense manner. “She’s got a booth with her hair products a little bit further down.”

  The last thing Lilah wanted to do was face her ex-boss, but she knew her friend was right. She definitely owed Gwen an apology. It would be embarrassing, but there was no point in putting it off, or she would just be thinking about it all day. With a reluctant goodbye to Val, she began trudging down the aisle, passing other booths full of interesting items, but forcing herself to ignore them until she had spoken to Gwen.