The Cheesecake Fake: A Culinary Cozy Mystery Set In Sunny Florida (Slice of Paradise Cozy Mysteries Book 2)

by Nancy McGovern

  Suddenly Graeme chose a different tack. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Dad, what is this?” Yale said. He’d given up trying to attack his father but stood on, listening. Other people were edging closer, too, but Graeme was locked onto Faith.

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Faith said. “You killed Becky. You had to, you thought. Because she’d made it clear that if you didn’t keep paying up, she was going to expose you.”

  “Expose what?” Yale said, panicked.

  “Expose that Graeme was her father. That he cheated twenty-five years ago, when he was supposedly Mr. Good-Guy-Go-To-Church-Family-Man. And not only did he cheat, but he got a woman pregnant. And then, not only that, he didn’t take care of the child, financially or otherwise. He abandoned the mother and the child, Becky Trigg, and came back here to continue his stellar reputation.” Faith slipped the passport out of her pocket and held it up. That had been what Dr. Asante was going to show her. “It was never Becky Harris. It was Becky Trigg. Dr. Asante must have found the passport when he was going through Becky’s things after her death.”

  Danica came up, her hand over her mouth. “Graeme,” she said, heartbroken. “Is this true?”

  Graeme had tears streaming down his face, frozen with his gun pointing at Faith.

  “He needed to kill her because she was asking for too much money,” Faith said. “That’s why money was going missing, Danica. She wanted money for her mom’s medical treatment. They ran that on the TV station in Ohio, my mom told me. That’s also why she stole the cat from another state, and was trying to get Dr. Asante to sell it for her. Tara took the cat, but she didn’t kill Becky or Dr. Asante for it. She just saw an opportunity and seized it.”

  “But…” Danica said. “But… Graeme, surely you didn’t kill George? He was your friend!”

  “A friend who ended up knowing too much,” Faith said sadly. “I think Dr. Asante figured it out. He invited Graeme down to talk, and Graeme used one of the horse injections on Dr. Asante. Graeme, you said you didn’t like needles, but then Yale told me you administer pain killers. I thought maybe it was in tablet form, but they’re often injections, aren’t they?”

  “Dad, what the heck is all this?” Yale said. “Just tell us it’s not true. Tell us what really happened.”

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  Chapter 20

  “My mom was looking for cabins in Ohio,” Faith continued, while Graeme stared right through her. “She told me there’s a missing person investigation going on there right now for Becky Trigg. Her mother is on the news. But of course, because Becky’s fake name was Harris, and Deputy Valdez closed it as an accidental death, the two events haven’t been connected.”

  Just then, Graeme jumped out of his trance, and took off running toward the parking lot. He scrambled in his pocket for his keys, and by the time everyone had rushed after him to the parking lot, he was already in his beat up old Land Rover.

  “Nobody get in my way!” he hollered. “Or I’ll run you down!”

  He made a rough turn with the car, and was about to get away, when Yale rushed in its path and stood there firm as anything. “Dad, this is over!”

  “Move, Yale!” Graeme hollered.

  But Yale’s feet were firmly planted, his hands on his hips.

  Graeme revved up the car, and everyone gasped as he swung the wheel to pass Yale, hitting him in the process.

  It was then that the Sheriff himself appeared from the other side of the building, running, his pistol held out. He let off five bullets, boom boom boom boom boom, right into Graeme’s tires.

  Nathan and Faith didn’t waste any time. They were the head of the charge as a surge of people rushed toward Graeme’s Land Rover. Before Graeme could even grab his shotgun from the backseat and get out of the car, they’d dragged him out of the car and onto the ground.

  The Sheriff swooped in. “Everyone move!” he said, still holding his pistol up. “Graeme Trigg, you are under arrest.”

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  Danica had probably had it the worst out of all of them, there was no denying that. But she had come on such a long way, and Faith was so glad to see her progress. The Shakespeare event had been helping a lot. In fact, Danica had confided in Faith about how she had come to love the Bard so much in the first place: She’d left her tiny town in Texas to go to university in LA, and as an immature, impressionable girl aged just 17, she’d found city life terribly difficult to adjust to. But then she’d found a tiny theater group, enamored with Shakespeare, and she’d spent nearly every night in the tiny rundown studio they squatted, watching them weave worlds of magic before her eyes. “I went to Greece in my mind, to England, to Turkey, to Spain. To France, to Lebanon, to Egypt. I was able to escape from my troubles.”

  So, despite Graeme being convicted and sentenced to life for the murders of Becky Trigg and Dr. Asante, Danica decided the show must go on. She’d sold the huge mansion and ranch – “too many memories of him”, said with some disgust – and bought a lovely historic townhouse in Paradise. She’d brought in Nathan to transform the overgrown front garden into a gorgeous tropical paradise, and with the help of her children, she’d made the whole place quite lovely. She had some of her children living with her, but others had relocated to their own houses and apartments in Paradise and further afield. They’d all wanted a new start.

  But Danica had decided that, as much as she adored her new place, the garden simply wasn’t big enough for the annual Shakespearean production. So Faith and Laura had stepped up.

  Now, Faith breathed a huge sigh of relief as she watched all the happy guests chattering and eating mini cheesecakes. She spotted Krystle and her family laughing together, and Molly with some of her students. It seemed most everyone had a little cheesecake in their hand.

  “You think I’m going to let that man take away the joy of those cheesecakes from me?” Danica had said, when Laura had been concerned of them reminding her of their horrific ordeal. “No, no, no. These cheesecakes are good, good, good, and no one’s going to get in the way of that. Especially not a lying, cheating murderer.”

  So in a way, Faith thought, those cheesecakes were the symbol of a massively hard won victory for Danica. Even though she had been deceived and tricked, she had come out on top. She still had all her loving children and grandchildren, a lovely house with character and charm, and a whole new life to live. She had enough money to live off for the rest of her life twenty times over, and yet she still decided to come and cover shifts whenever Laura and Faith needed them – Laura had started her part time degree in Special Education, and Faith was taking on new catering work.

  Nathan came up behind Faith and put his arm around her. “So would you say this is a success?” he asked.

  Faith laughed, turning toward him and winding her arms around his neck. “Too early to say,” she said. “We haven’t even seen the play yet. Something might go dreadfully wrong.” They were doing Cymbeline this year. “Hopefully it’ll be someone forgetting their lines, this year, or the hem of their costume getting caught in a prop.”

  Nathan laughed. “Not someone whipping out a shotgun and threatening to burst everyone’s brains out.”

  Faith shrugged. “You know, it would be nice if that didn’t happen.”

  “I’ll say,” Nathan said. He nodded over to where Deputy Valdez was having cheesecake and drinking champagne, chatting to a good looking young woman. “Well, he’s certainly having a better time of it.”

  “Yep. And she’s pretty,” Faith said. “Go Tyler, go Tyler, go, go, go Tyler.” She laughed, and felt better than she had in ages. Deputy Valdez had actually changed quite a bit since the incident. Faith didn’t know if it was him getting banged on the head – that’s what they all joked had caused his personality change – or if he had just realized new things about life. But he was certainly more relaxed and less defensive. He smiled more often, and laughed sometimes, too, a sound Faith hadn’t heard before.

  But L
aura was cozied up with Yale on the veranda. They had made up a huge ice cream sundae, and each of them was using the long spoon to feed each other. Faith giggled as she looked over at them. “And they’re having a better time, too.”

  “Reminds me of Lady and the Tramp,” Nathan said. “You know, when they have the spaghetti—”

  “And their noses touch!” Faith said. She’d loved that cartoon when she was little. Then she leaned in to Nathan and made her nose touch his. “Like that.”

  “And then…” Nathan said quietly. Then he leaned in and kissed her.

  A surge of intense happiness went through Faith as he did.

  And when he pulled away, it settled into a blissful kind of contentment. She turned to look out over everything, and he put his arms around her. There was no way Faith could keep a smile from her face as she watched over all the guests, excited and happy in the warm Florida sunshine.

  Yes, she thought to herself, smiling from ear to ear. Yes.

  The End

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  Thank you for reading our story! We hope you liked it! If so, the next book in this series is available for Pre-Order ON AMAZON.

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  Also, if you did enjoy this story enough to go get Book 3, please consider LEAVING A REVIEW for this book while you’re at Amazon! It would be such a huge help to us in getting this series off the ground! And a long review is not necessary! Simply a star-rating (hopefully 5 stars!) and a sentence or two is plenty! We would be so appreciative and we thank you in advance!

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  Lastly, if you would like to receive updates on future “Slice of Paradise” books PLUS behind-the-scenes info, special offers & a FREE BOOK in the series called The Cream Pie Alibi, please SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LIST! (Please note: this is a mailing list for the “Slice of Paradise” series ONLY, not for any of Nancy McGovern’s or Cyra Bruce’s solo projects. There is more information about each of the authors, including more about their other work & how to contact them, on the last pages of this book.)

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  Continue for your delicious recipe…

  A RECIPE FOR YOU!

  Mini Apple Caramel Cheesecakes

  Yield: 12 servings

  Preparation Time: 30 minutes

  Cooking Time: 15 minutes

  Cooling Time: 30 minutes

  Ingredients:

  For The Crust:

  1 cup of cracker or wafer crumbs

  2 tbsp sugar

  ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

  3 tbsp butter, melted

  For The Cheesecake:

  16 oz softened cream cheese

  ½ cup white sugar

  1 tsp vanilla extract

  2 eggs, beaten lightly

  For The Topping:

  1 large apple - peeled, cored & finely chopped

  1 tbsp butter

  1 tbsp sugar

  ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

  Pinch of ground cloves

  ½ cup of caramel or caramel-butterscotch sauce (ice cream topping or similar, or homemade, if desired)

  Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

  2. Prepare 12 muffin cups with liners.

  3. Mix dry crust ingredients: cracker crumbs, cinnamon and sugar. Then stir in the melted butter. Spoon 1 rounded tbsp of this mixture into each of the muffin cups, and press down with the back of the spoon.

  4. For the cheesecake filling: beat sugar and cream cheese together until smooth, then add the vanilla extract. Add the eggs, then beat slowly until just blended. Pour or spoon this mixture over the crusts.

  5. Bake for around 15 minutes until the centers are set. Overbaking will ruin the dessert, so be careful to watch it. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and leave to cool for 30 minutes.

  6. Add the topping ingredients together in a small skillet. Cook the apple with butter, sugar, cinnamon and cloves at a medium heat for about five minutes, stirring continuously. Once the apples are tender, stir in the caramel sauce. When the cheesecakes are cool, spoon the apple mixture onto the cheesecakes.

  7. Enjoy! (Make sure to refrigerate any leftovers.)

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  Meet the authors…

  Nancy McGovern

  I'm a mother, wife, homemaker, pet lover, teacher, student, reader, writer, drinker of tea & wine (depending on the time of day) and sleep-deprived dreamer. While originally from Northern New Jersey, I now live in Syracuse, New York with my husband, Doug (a veterinarian & writer of science fiction), our three children and too many furred & feathered friends to list!

  My Email:

  Nancy@McGovernBooks.com

  My Books:

  http://www.Amazon.com/Author/NancyMcG

  My Facebook:

  http://www.Facebook.com/AuthorNancyMcG

  My Twitter:

  @AuthorNancyMcG

  My Newsletter:

  http://eepurl.com/bTH4Jb

  *** NOTE: This is NOT the mailing list for this series! This is my own newsletter! And, when you subscribe, I’ll not only send you updates & special offers on my future solo books, but you’ll also receive a FREE Cozy Mystery (from my “A Murder In Milburn” series) as a Thank You for joining me!

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  *** Because Cyra & I are writing this series together, we have a series-specific mailing list that we will both be heading up! And when you sign up, you’ll also get a FREE BOOK from this series called The Cream Pie Alibi! If you enjoyed this book, you’ll love that one, as well!

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  Meet Cyra Bruce…

  Cyra Bruce

  I’m a 30-something young woman with an old soul – I love staying in and baking on a Saturday night, growing flowers, little old southern houses, lacy tablecloths, taking afternoon tea on the porch and, of course, writing cozy mysteries! I live in a little stone cottage on the Caribbean island of St Lucia with my husband, a St Lucian, who I met and married in my native England. We decided to move to this little island paradise to grow our own food and live more simply, and I am grateful to live a much more peaceful life than the characters in my books!

  While I have been writing for myself and others all my life, “Slice of Paradise Cozy Mysteries” is the first work I’ve published under my own name. If you would like to know more about both the books and me, please SUBSCRIBE to the series mailing list! You’ll get a FREE story called The Cream Pie Alibi that cannot be found anywhere else PLUS special discounts & fun stuff…like contests! We’ll have so much fun!

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  Rights & Disclaimer

  This is entirely a work of fiction. All people, places and events contained have been completely fabricated by the authors. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are completely coincidental.

  The Cheesecake Fake Copyright © 2017 Nancy McGovern & Cyra Bruce

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any manner or used in any way without advanced written permission by the authors.