She was nodding at me eagerly. “I think someone purposely lured me out there so they could come in and put the poison in the cake.”
“Did you lock the door when you went outside to look?”
She shook her head, no. “I doubt it. I just ran out without thinking.”
“Well you need to tell the police all this,” I told her.
“I did,” she shrugged. “They don’t believe me. They say I’m changing my story now, because I need to pin the blame on someone else.”
“Babette. Who do you think did it?” But even as I asked, I knew what her response would be.
“Doug. He’s the one who claimed to have found the poison research in my web history. He knew where I kept the bottles of almond oil. It had to be him.” She looked down, shaking her head. “The problem is, his family has so much power in this town, the police will never even consider what I’m telling them.”
“But why would he kill Dahlia? I mean…”
“He wouldn’t! He was trying to kill me, not Dahlia!” she interrupted. “I think he thought I was still taste-testing the cakes, and that I would be tasting that frosting that he poisoned. He was trying to make it look like I was baking with a dangerous substance and that I accidentally died from it!”
She shook her head, teary-eyed. “I think that instead of dealing with a long protracted fight over the store, he wanted to get rid of me so he could do what he wanted with the store and the land. And now he pretty much can. He’s won.”
“No, you can’t think that way…”I said. I didn’t know if I believed her, but she seemed so miserable, and her theory did make some sense. “You’ll get out of here and you’ll get your store back and…”
“No,” she shrugged. “The Bundt Baby chain has a morality clause so they’re pulling my franchise. My business is closed no matter what. So it doesn’t matter anymore. He can do what he wants with the land now. It doesn’t matter.” She looked up at me, her blue eyes wet and beseeching. “If only there were some way to prove that I’m telling the truth about what happened.”
I nodded. I was almost starting to believe her. It was hard to believe that Doug would resort to murder, just for the money, but stranger things had happened.
On the other hand—I couldn’t know for sure. For all I knew, Babette really did do it. After all, she wasn’t exactly the trustworthy friend I thought she was.
I knew now wasn’t the time to bring it up. It must seem so trivial to her, but I had to know.
“Babette,” I said. “Why did you tell Doug about that ex boyfriend of mine who cheated with my good friend?”
“What? I didn’t. I would never tell Doug anything you told me.”
I looked at her. She was staring at me, her pale blue eyes looking huge in her thin, pale face.
“I promise you, Rosie. I don’t know how he does it but Doug always knows everything. Everything…”
Just then the Stevie came back, holding the empty plate. “Find the bathroom okay?” he said with a friendly smirk.
“Yeah, I just took a wrong turn on the way back,” I said. I looked at Babette, then started to leave.
“Rosie,” she called out as I started walking away. “I don’t know if you believe me, but if you do, even a little, please do what you can to help me. And please, take care of Cupcake! You can use the key hidden under the planter, anytime! It’s still half my house.”
I nodded as she sat back down on her little cot.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It was strange, to be so closely involved with something like this. And I still didn’t know who to believe. Either Babette was a complete innocent who was being framed, or she was a psychopath of the first order who was able to lie believably and to cry on cue.
It seemed much more likely to me that Doug was the bad guy, but who knew?
In any case, it seemed like the store was going to be sold quite soon and I would be out of a job. I had no idea when it would happen, so I decided to go back there and get the few things I’d left in a locked cabinet in the back.
But as I entered the store, and walked past the empty glass display towards the kitchen door, something felt off. I stood in the empty store. Listening. A loud bang came from the back.
I gasped then froze in place. The doorknob to the kitchen started turning. Whoever was in the kitchen was coming out! I had to hide!
I quickly jumped to the side of the door and flattened my back against the wall—hoping that the door itself would hide me when it opened. My eyes were shut tight in fear as I felt the door swing open toward me. I forced myself to open them as the door started swinging shut again.I was about to be exposed!
I quickly grabbed something from my purse, then screamed, “Aaah!” and pushed out at whoever was nearby.
He stumbled back. I backed away breathless.
“I have pepper spray!” I screamed out.
“Jeeze,” a male voice said. He steadied himself then came closer. It was Casey. He squinted at me, then at the object in my hand. “That’s not pepper spray. It’s…a citrus facial rejuvenation mist?”
I continued holding it out as a weapon nevertheless—until I was sure he meant me no harm.
He didn’t seem concerned in the least as he looked around. “What are you doing here this time of night?” he asked.
“What are you doing here?” I countered.
“I was looking around. As you know, I’m interested in buying the place. Doug’s realtor was showing it to me.”
“Oh. So…that loud banging noise I heard from the kitchen?”
“The realtor went out the back way. I was going to leave as well when I saw your car outside and came back in to see if you wanted to grab dinner.”
“You did?” I gave my face a quick misting, then put the bottle back into my purse.
“Yes. Why are you so surprised?” He looked at me with that same amused expression on his face.
“I’m not surprised.” I smoothed back my pony tail and found myself wishing that I’d listened to Nana and fixed myself up a little more.
Boy his eyes were green. And Birdie was right, they did have little bluish flecks in them.
No! Stop! I told myself. He’s not worth it. He’s a cheater!
“I’m just…I’m not focused on dating right now,” I said coolly. “I have more important things to think about.”
“Oh, right,” he nodded. “Like being out of a job. It’s pretty much a done deal.”
“Hmph. That figures,” I said. “The body’s not even cold…so to speak."
“Actually the body is totally cold,” he said. “And if you must know, Doug contacted me about selling, not the other way around.”
Well, Doug sure didn’t waste any time. It was all just like Babette had said.
“So…dinner?” He looked at me, eyebrows raised.
Hadn’t I already told him no to dating? He definitely seemed like the type who didn’t take no for an answer, and I was about to tell him as much when he leaned towards me.“ I might have a lead on a new job for you," he said. “Pays pretty well.”
“Oh? Okay, then. I guess. ” I shrugged. “Let me just get my stuff from the back.”
I went in back to get my stuff out of the locked cabinet but before I went back out, I pulled out my cell phone to dial Nana and tell her I wouldn’t be home until late and not to hold dinner.
“Ahh! You have a date!” she screamed into the phone when I told her.
“No. it’s not a date. It’s just a dinner about…”
“A dinner date! I’ll wait up.”
“No, Nana, don’t. I mean, I won’t be home late but it’s no big deal. Really. It’s about a job…”
Just then Casey peeked his head into the kitchen. “Ready?”
“Gotta go, Nana,” I said and hung up.
“Ready,” I said to Casey. “But I have to go feed Cupcake first.”
He looked at me puzzled as I relocked the cabinette and sighed. “Cupcake. Babette’s cat,” I explained. �
�Doug would let her starve rather than feed her.It’s up to me.”
“Well let’s get a move on it then,” Casey said. “I guess I have two lovely females to feed.”
I rolled my eyes and we left.
CHAPTER TWELVE
At Babette’s house, I rang the bell and a drunken Doug answered.
“I’m here to feed Cupcake,” I said.
He nodded as if expecting me and went to get her but she ran out of his grasp.
“I’ll get her if that’s okay,” I said. “She likes me."
He breathed whiskey on me but moved aside to let me in, scratching his neck and watching me.
“Cupcake,” I called out. I knew where her favorite hiding places were and found her in the third one, behind the couch, under the console table. I bent down to lure her out. “Cupcake, food, honey.”
She came out and rubbed herself against me and we went into the kitchen for together.
After feeding her and staying with her a few minutes, I was heading back out when I passed the den and heard the chiming of a cuckoo clock. I reached out to push the door open and look inside, when just then, Doug walked up.
“You have another cuckoo clock? Here at home?” I asked surprised.
He shook his head no and made a disgusted face. “Please. I made Babs take ours to the store. I hate that thing.”
“Oh, Rosie,” Doug said, following me to the doorway.
I stopped and turned to look at him. He was trying to focus his drunken tired eyes on me, and was scratching his arm like crazy.
“Just for your information,” he said. “It’s not that I would starve Cupcake. I don’t even hate her, really. It’s that I’m allergic. Babette knew that when she got her and she went ahead and got her anyway. My wife is not the saintly cake-baking-angel you think she is. She can be quite selfish and stubborn.”
“Right,” I said, frowning. I realized that I’d just solved one mystery that I didn’t even know was plaguing me.
I hopped back into Casey’s car. “Ready for dinner?” he asked.
“No, we have to go back to the store.” I put my seatbelt on even though we weren’t going far. “I think we can prove that Doug was the killer.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Casey kept the car idling outside Bundt Baby, insisting that I explain what happened at Doug’s. He threatened to call the cops on me otherwise, and tell them I was about to break into the store.
“Okay,” I sighed. “Fine. Now, I’m not sure about all this but I think Doug has Bundt Baby’s bugged.”
“You do like those alliterations,” he said, nodding intently. “But what on earth do you mean?”
I looked him in his eyes, which were dark and inviting in the dim light of the car. Of course I had no idea whether I should trust him or involve him in all of this. But since he already was involved, it seemed I had no choice.
“Okay,” I said, trying to sound as logical as possible. “Doug just knew something that he couldn’t possibly have known--because I only just told it to you fifteen minutes ago.
“Okay,” Casey said, shaking his head, utterly confused. “What?”
I sighed loudly for emphasis. “ I just went in to feed Cupcake just now, and Doug told me that he wouldn’t starve her. But why would he even think that I would think that? He wouldn’t, unless he knew that I just told you he’d starve her only 10 minutes before, in the kitchen of the bakery. How could he have known that I’d said that to you?”
“Coincidence? Or…perhaps you’ve said something like that to him before?”
“No, I haven’t. Also, he’s known some other things about me. Things I told Babette that she promised she never told him. But he knew!”
Casey didn’t look convinced but the more I the thought about it, the more certain I was that I was right. “You know…Babette always said that Doug was jealous and paranoid. And Nana told me a few days ago that Doug was trying to catch Babette cheating. What better way than by planting a camera in her store!”
Casey shrugged, unconvinced.
“And then there was the cuckoo clock,” I said mysteriously.
“Not the cuckoo clock,” Casey gasped. He was making fun of me, so I shot him a look. “Okay what’s with the cuckoo clock?” he asked.
“I heard it chiming in the den when I was at Doug’s house. But when I asked him about it, he told me he didn’t have a cuckoo clock at home. I think the cuckoo clock was really chiming in the store—and he was watching it in his den from a surveillance camera.”
Casey looked at me, then at the store. He shook his head, growing irritated. “Okay, so what? You want to go in and find this camera? And …what then? It’s his store. He can plant twenty cameras in there if he wants.”
“That’s true,” I frowned. “But if he was filming the store that night, he knows exactly what happened in the kitchen that night. Exactly who put the poison in the Bundt cake.” I took off my seatbelt. “If Babette did it, he would come forward and given it to the police, just like he did with the poison research in her web browsing history. I’m sure of it. So we just have to get the surveillance camera footage and see what’s on it. My guess is it’ll be Doug himself who put the poisonous oil in.”
“And how exactly do you plan on getting this supposed surveillance tape?”
“By breaking in, obviously.”
He looked at me as if I were nuts. “Breaking in? Really? I’m a businessman. A pillar of this community.”
He caught my smirk.
“Well, I’m at least a really wide column of this community. I can’t just go breaking into places that…”
“Fine, don’t help me then,” I said. “I’ll do it all myself.”
And with that I got out of the car and walked towards Bundt Baby.
The slamming of the driver’s-side door behind me, alerted me to the fact that Casey was now out of his car and following me in. Which was good, since I needed him for my plan.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“So what exactly are we looking for?” Casey asked when we walked into the kitchen of the store, several minutes later.
“A clue. That Doug has a camera set up in here.”
“But wouldn’t the police have found it if it were here?” Casey asked with a frown. He started looking into various cabinets, then he opened the oven door.
“Not necessarily,” I said, studying the drawer knobs, seeing if they could be hiding a button-sized camera lens. “ The police were looking for something having to do with poison. No one suspected there were any cameras.”
There was a ceiling vent up high, over a counter, so I pulled over a stool and climbed on top of it.I was feeling around, trying to see in through the vent slats, but there didn’t seem to be anything up there. I decided to unscrew the covering anyway, just to be sure.
After ten minutes of struggling I got the vent cover off and saw what was behind it. Nothing.
I was just starting to think that the whole idea was stupid and that perhaps Casey was right, when the cuckoo clock began its half hour chime/chirp combo. Startled, I nearly fell off the stool. Casey came up and grabbed me, steadying me.
“Thanks,” I said softly, as he helped me down.
“You’re welcome. Now let’s go. It’s not here.”
I sighed loudly. “Fine,” I said. I started to follow him out to the front, when I stopped, frozen.
“Wait! The clock!” I screamed.
“Yes, it is an irritiating clock,” Casey said. “Now let’s go before it starts again.”
“No!” I turned to look at him. “Maybe the camera is in the clock itself.”
Casey frowned at me, then he went over to clock. “Wouldn’t that be a hard place to hide it?”
He was tall enough to see into the little doors that opened when the cuckoo came out so he pushed them open and squinted inside. “No camera that I can see.”
He then pulled over the stool and climbed on top of it. From that vantage point he was able to look over whole clock from
bottom to top.
“Well, well,” he said, noticing a black button sized lens, hidden behind the decorative wooden foliage on top of the camera. “I think you’re right.”
I gave him a smug smile.
“But we shouldn’t touch it,” he said, jumping to the floor. “We should call the detective and have him come in and find it.”
“Good idea,” I said.
Casey took out his cell phone, pressed a button and put it to his ear. “Yes hello, this is Casey Baron for Detective Sanders,” he said into the receiver. He waited a few moments then spoke again. “Yes, hello, Detective. I’m in the Bundt Baby kitchen. I think there’s some evidence here that might help you in the Dahlia Wiggins murder. Yes, that’s fine. Thanks.”
Casey put his phone back into his pocket and looked at me. “The detective will be here in an hour.”
“An hour? Why so long?” I knew I was overreacting but I couldn’t stop myself. “This could be the evidence that breaks open the case and proves that Dahlia’s innocent! And that Doug is guilty! Why would they take so long?”
Casey sighed. “Believe it or not, I don’t know the workings and scheduling of a small town Police department. But I do know that we have an hour to kill, so, in the meantime, let’s go get something to eat. I’m starved.”
He walked to the kitchen door and opened it.
I hesitated, then shrugged. “Okay. Let’s go. But we’re coming back here in an hour.”
He nodded, then we turned out the lights and walked out of the store.
***
We waited in the car, which was parked under on the street, under a big fig tree, down the street from Doug’s house.
“Do you think he bought it?” Casey asked, eyeing the house. “We don’t even know for sure he was watching our little drama. Nice overacting by the way.”
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