Murder in the Oven: A Camellia Cove Mystery Book 1

by Jessica Preston

  Murder in the Oven

  By

  Jessica Preston

  Get Early Access to My Books for FREE!

  Every month you’ll get a new Cozy Mystery Novella from me absolutely FREE.

  Sign up now!

  Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places,

  events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright 2015 -All rights reserved.

  All rights Reserved. No part of this publication or the information in it may be quoted from or reproduced in any form by means such as printing, scanning, photocopying or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 1

  Kim Harris pushed her fat Maine coon cat off the counter at the Pembrooke Bakery. “You know you're not allowed on the counter, Winslow, and you've eaten too many cookies today already.”

  The front door swung open, and Kim’s best friend Betts McCormick entered. “Same old Chocolate Cherry Bomb this morning, Betts?”

  Betts surveyed the display case. “Maybe I’ll try something different today. What about a Peanut Supreme instead?”

  Kim's eyes popped open. “But you always get the Cherry Bomb. What's gotten into you? Are you sick or something?”

  Betts grinned. “There’s a bad moon on the rise. Anything could happen. You better buckle your seat belt.”

  Kim laughed. She lifted the Peanut Supreme out of the case with her tongs, tucked it into a paper sleeve and handed it over. “Just don’t go changing your coffee order. You might give me a heart attack.”

  Betts munched her cookie and scratched Winslow behind the ears when Kim’s mother Candace burst into the shop. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “You don’t have to blow the door off its hinges, Mom,” Kim replied. “You know I always come in at five o’clock in the morning to open the shop. I have to come in that early to get my cookies made fresh for the day.”

  Candace waved her hand toward the door. “Haven't you heard? Ivor Wilson has slashed prices over at Dappley Donuts. He's trying to drive you out of business.”

  Kim sighed and her shoulders slumped. “He’s not trying to drive me out of business, Mom. He lowers his prices every month between the fifteenth and the twentieth. That's his way of clearing out old supplies before he brings in a new supply order. It has nothing to do with me.”

  “Well, what are you going to do about it?” Candace shrieked. “You can’t let him undercut you. Everyone in town will flock to him. You'll have no customers left.”

  Kim looked around the shop in mock surprise. “You’re here, and Betts is here, and all these other customers are still here. Customers who want my cookies will keep coming to me, and customers who want donuts will go to Ivor. It's that simple. You can't force customers to come to you just by cutting prices. Now, do you want your usual Pistachio Praline, or did you want to try the new Cinnamon Apple Crisp?”

  Candace set her fists on her hips and scowled. “How do you expect to stay in business with that attitude? You’re supposed to be a hardened business woman. You can't just stand here and wait for customers to come to you. You have to act, and you have to act now.”

  Kim smacked her lips. “I am acting now, Mom. I’m acting by selling my cookies. What do you expect me to do—drop everything and leave the shop unmanned? I'm doing the best thing I can do for my business by giving my customers personal service and a quality product. Now do you want a cookie or not? If you don't, could you move out of the way so the other customers can get to the counter?”

  Candace cursed under her breath and threw up her hands. “Well, I never!” But at least she moved to make room for Detective Sergeant Aaron Walker.

  Kim couldn’t stop herself from blushing whenever Aaron came around. He sure looked good in his casual suit with his pistol tucked under his jacket. He smiled back at her, too. “Hi, Kim. Another Sweetheart Surprise, please.”

  Kim kept her eyes down while she served Aaron so she wouldn’t see Betts making faces behind his back. His finger accidentally touched her hand when he took the cookie from her. “Thanks.”

  Kim stumbled over to the cash register. “That’s a dollar fifty, please.”

  He didn’t take his eyes off her face while he handed her the money. “Did you hear about Ivor Wilson cutting his prices?”

  Kim rolled her eyes. “Only about a dozen times this morning.”

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about a thing,” Aaron told her. “Your cookies are ten times better than his donuts. Your loyal customers will stick with you, come what may. You can count on that.”

  Kim burst into a radiant smile. “Thanks, Aaron. That means a lot right now.”

  He turned away, and Betts went into some kind of victory dance that could only mean one thing. Kim did her best to ignore her and turned to the next customer in line. “Good morning, Pat. You’re not here to inspect my shop again, are you?”

  Pat Malloy leaned against the counter. “No way! You passed your last inspection with flying colors, so you aren’t due for another one for six months. I'm here for the cookies, not for business.”

  Kim smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. If I can win you over, I can win over anybody.”

  Pat nodded down at the display case. “A Spicy Pumpkin Pie, please, with cream cheese frosting.”

  Kim laughed and picked up the cookie. “I can hear your arteries hardening from here.”

  “My arteries might be hardening,” Pat replied, “but my taste buds will thank me.”

  He took his cookie and sat at a table next to the front window. Kim’s heart sank when she spotted her grandmother Ethel come through the door. She sang “I've Been Working On the Railroad” to herself.

  “Hi, Grandma,” Kim called. “Can I get you anything?”

  “Have you seen my blue-handled pinking shears?” Ethel asked. “I thought I put them in the pantry yesterday, but now I can’t find them.”

  Kim stole a glance at the other customers waiting to be served. “Could you stand over here, please, Grandma? I have other customers who want to get to the counter.”

  “Singing Fee Fie Fiddly Eye-Oh,” she sang.

  Before Kim could ask her to move again, a crash brought her attention to the front window. Before her eyes, Pat Malloy staggered out of his chair with his hands clawing at his throat. A raw gurgling scream tore out of him, and cookie crumbs flew from his mouth. He teetered one way, then the other, before he crashed head first through the window. He toppled onto the sidewalk outside in a shower of broken glass.

  Kim and the other customers stared at him in horror, but Aaron burst into action. He rushed to Pat’s side and did something Kim couldn't see. The next moment, Aaron turned around and locked his bright blue eyes on Kim's face. “Quick! Call 911. He isn't breathing.”

  He started CPR, and Kim didn’t see anything else after that. She had her back turned and stammered into the phone. “I don’t know what's wrong with him. One minute, he was sitting there eating, and then next minute he was holding onto his throat. No, he didn't turn any colors. There's a police officer here doing chest compressions, and someone else is helping him.”

 
; The operator told her the ambulance was on its way, and she could only wait until they came. Customers stood around and watched Aaron and Tony Barker doing CPR on Pat.

  “I wouldn’t want to do mouth to mouth on another person,” Betts remarked. “That would be disgusting.”

  “What would you do?” Candace asked. “Would you stand back and let a man die because you wouldn’t do mouth to mouth? You are so selfish. You always have been.”

  “I don’t see you jumping in and doing mouth to mouth,” Betts pointed out. “I’ll bet you don't even know how to do CPR.”

  “I’m not a cop,” Candace shot back.

  “But you could try to save a man’s life,” Betts countered. “You could do the chest compression part.”

  “I don’t have to,” Candace replied. “These two men are doing it. It’s their job.”

  “Tony's a plumber,” Betts argued. “You can’t tell me it's his job.”

  A woman called back over her shoulder at the two of them. “Can’t you be quiet for five seconds? Can't you see this is serious? Can't you stop arguing and pay attention?”

  “I am paying attention,” Betts replied. “I'm paying very close attention. I'm paying attention to Tony's underwear sticking out from the back of his pants. And I'm paying attention to that gun under Aaron's arm. I'm also paying attention to Winslow creeping up on my cookie and coffee. That cat is a terror.”

  Candace grunted. “You’re a terror. Why don't you get a job and do something productive with your time?”

  “I don’t need a job,” Betts replied. “My job is supporting Kim in her quest for world domination.”

  Ethel furrowed her brow. “When do the florists come out with the new spring collection of flowers? Do you know what flowers are best for Valentine’s Day?”

  “I prefer dandelions for Valentine’s Day,” Betts replied.

  “Dandelions don’t come out until summer,” Candace told her.

  “How long does it take for an ambulance to get across town?” Betts asked. “We’ve been waiting here for hours.”

  Aaron stole a glance at his watch and gasped for breath between compressions. “It’s been five minutes.”

  “That’s too long,” Candace grumbled. “We should complain to the city. It’s an outrage.”

  “It’s standard,” Aaron replied.

  “A chicky chick,” Ethel sang, “a chicky chicky chang chang.”

  Kim hid behind the counter and tried to make herself invisible. She couldn’t look at Pat's ashen face without getting sick to her stomach. She couldn't watch the sweat spreading between Aaron's shoulder blades while he tried to pump life into the prostate man's body.

  Betts headed Winslow off at the pass, and Kim picked him up. She held him against her chest for comfort and hoped none of the customers would look in her direction. The last thing she wanted to see right now was someone eating.

  When the ambulance arrived, the paramedics took over and Aaron moved back to give them room. He leaned against the counter and panted. Kim handed him a paper cup of water. “Thanks.”

  “Will he be all right?” Kim asked.

  Aaron dropped his eyes and shook his head. At that moment, the senior paramedic sat back on his heels and pointed to the straight line on his defibrillator machine. “He’s gone.”

  Kim cried out in shock. “He can’t be! He was alive and well ten minutes ago. What happened? Did he choke on his cookie?”

  Aaron straightened up. “He didn’t choke. Choking doesn't kill a person that fast.”

  “What was it, then?” Kim asked.

  “I don’t know,” Aaron replied. “But this is my investigation now.”

  Kim gasped. “You don’t mean….?”

  Aaron pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling my Captain. He'll send out the Medical Examiner's team, and then the Crime Lab will take over. After that, I'll start my investigation.”

  Kim turned white. “But you can’t think there was anything suspicious about this. You saw what happened. He was sitting there eating a cookie. There's no crime to investigate.”

  Aaron’s features softened. “Don’t jump to any conclusions. Let the Medical Examiner do his job. If he finds out Pat died of natural causes or he choked or something like that, you can forget all about this.”

  Kim stared at the body outside her shop window. “I don’t think I'll ever forget about this.”

  Chapter 2

  Kim drummed her fingers on the table top and tapped her foot. Nothing put her on edge like waiting. After an eternity of anticipation, the door opened and Aaron came in. He wore a fresh shirt and no jacket, so his pistol showed plain as day under his arm.

  He carried a plain file folder, and he sat down across the table from her. “Thanks for coming in, Kim.”

  Kim shifted in her seat. “If I’m being interrogated, maybe I should have a lawyer here.”

  “You’re not being interrogated,” Aaron replied. “You’re just here to answer a few standard questions.”

  Kim glanced around. “But this is an interrogation room. That must mean I’m being interrogated.”

  Aaron shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it an interrogation, but you have to admit, you're the most likely suspect. Pat Malloy dropped dead in your cookie shop with one of your cookies in his mouth. The Medical Examiner found strychnine in his….”

  “But I didn’t put strychnine in his cookie,” Kim interrupted.

  Aaron opened his file folder. “Actually, the strychnine wasn’t in the cookie. It was in the cream cheese frosting.”

  Kim’s mouth fell open. “The frosting! But Pat’s the only one of my customers who gets cream cheese frosting. The others all get either whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on their cookies instead.”

  Aaron cocked his head to one side. “Now who would know that better than you? No one else had access to the cookie and frosting before he ate them, and you would know no other customers would get the frosting. It gives you a perfect opportunity to kill him.”

  “But why would I do that?” Kim asked. “I always got along with Pat, and he just gave me an A+ on my last inspection. I had no reason to kill him.”

  Aaron closed the file folder. “I don’t know why, but I have a job to do, and I have to follow the evidence. I'm going to let you go now, but I have to warn you not to leave town. I'll want to question you again after the investigation progresses.”

  Kim let her head fall down on her arms on the table. She groaned in agony. “This can’t be happening.”

  Aaron stood up. “The crime lab has taped off your cookie shop, and they'll be going over every inch of the crime scene. That'll probably take most of the rest of the day.”

  Kim’s head shot up. “How long will they have the shop taped off?”

  “I couldn’t say,” Aaron replied.

  “But I have a business to run,” Kim pointed out. “Okay, so they have to go over the scene today, but at least let me open up tomorrow morning. At least tell me they won’t have the shop shut down for more than one day. I'd be out of business if I couldn't open up.”

  “I can’t promise you anything,” he replied. “I don’t have any control over the Crime Lab. If they want to keep the place taped off for three or four weeks, that's up to them.”

  “Three or four weeks!” Kim shrieked. “How am I supposed to deal with that?”

  “They usually keep a crime scene taped off for six to eight weeks,” Aaron told her. “They have to make sure all the evidence gets taken into the investigation. The investigating officer has to be able to re-enter the crime scene at any time, right up until the trial and even afterwards, and collect more evidence. They have to make sure no one tampers with the evidence during that time.”

  Kim heard her voice crack with emotion, but she managed to stop herself from bursting into tears. She couldn’t let Aaron see her break down in despair. She would break down in front of a lot of people, but not him. “Please don't do this to me, Aaron. Don't you know what this business me
ans to me? I've put everything I've got into it. Don't take it away from me now.”

  Aaron regarded her with his head on one side. Then he sat down at the table again. He pushed his folder out of the way and put his hand across the table. He stopped himself just before he touched her hand. “Listen, Kim. We’ve known each other a long time. We went to high school together, and I've always liked you.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t take her eyes off his face. “I've always liked you, too, but….”

  “I know what this business means to you,” he went on, “and I’ve supported you with my business since you first opened. You’re a top-notch baker, and you've got the best food in town.”

  “Aaron, I…..” She faltered.

  He held up his hand to stop her. “You’re under suspicion of premeditated, capital murder. That means a lot more than any business. Concentrate on that for right now, because if you're found guilty of Pat's murder, you won't have a business left to run.”

  Kim blinked back tears. “I didn’t kill him.”

  Aaron stretched his hand the rest of the way across the table, and his warm fingers closed over her hand. Not even that could comfort her now. “I’ll do everything I can to help you clear your name, but I'm a cop. I have a job to do, and I'm going to do it. I'm going to find out who killed Pat Malloy and put that person behind bars, no matter who it was.”

  Kim opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off. “Go home. Think about what you’re going to do about this murder, not what you're going to do about your cookie shop.”

  Kim frowned. “You make it sound like something stupid.”

  He stood up, opened the interrogation room door, and held it open for her. “Thanks again for coming in. I’ll be in touch in the next couple of days.”

  Kim stared at him. What more was there to say? She struggled out of her chair and hurried out of the room. She couldn’t look at his stiff, formal expression when she walked past him. How could he change from being warm and comforting one minute to cold and heartless the next? She would never understand men as long as she lived.