by Carol Durand
Chapter 8
Significant progress had been made toward the rebuilding of Missy’s Muffins and More shop in LaChance. Her contractor estimated that she might actually be able to reopen by the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which would be perfect timing – the holidays were her busiest time of year by far. Orders flooded in beginning as early as September for holiday parties, gift boxes and baskets, and special occasions of all kinds. She had made Christmas trees out of stacked cupcakes, as well as designs that stretched across table tops for several feet. Once she knew when this location would be ready to open, she’d have to collect applications for someone to work in both the Dellville shop and the LaChance shop. She planned to have Cheryl manage the Dellville store and Ben would go back to managing the LaChance location. The inseparable duo would be disappointed at not being able to work together anymore, but since they saw each other practically every day outside of their workplace, it wouldn’t be intolerable.
Missy was pleased with both the progress of the LaChance shop and the performance of the Dellville shop, but everything in her life was overshadowed by the fact that Cora Nesbitt’s murder was still unsolved, she was still classified as a person of interest, and she saw police cars cruising slowly by her house at times, as though keeping an eye on her. Detective Johnson had treated her report of having seen the scruffy-looking man near her shop with extreme suspicion, remarking that the sighting had certainly been ‘convenient,’ which infuriated Missy to no end. She had not made it up, she really saw and chased the man, and if he had nothing to hide, why had he run?
When she parked in the back of the Dellville store, arriving early, even before Ben, Missy saw a bushel basket brimming with peaches sitting next to the back door. She unlocked the door, balancing the basket on her hip, and felt a trickle of peach juice soaking through the thin fabric of her white linen capris. Sighing, she knew that she wouldn’t have a chance to go home and change, because it was Cheryl’s day off and Ben couldn’t handle the crowds that would undoubtedly be showing up on his own. Once inside, she set the bushel basket up on the kitchen counter and grabbed a towel to try to sop up some of the peach juice on her pants. She was perplexed when she saw that the juice was tinged with red, but made the best of it, wetting the towel and trying to clean it off with a bit of dish soap. She didn’t get nearly as much of the icky stain out as she would have liked, but gave up and waited for it to dry, thinking she could use stain remover before laundering them at home.
She dumped the peaches into one of the stainless steel commercial sinks so that she could wash them and dispose of the ones that had split open and were leaking juice. After dumping the basket, she looked in the sink, horrified and unable to believe what she was seeing. There, in the midst of the pile of plump, ripe peaches, was a severed finger, with a half-moon of dirt under the nail. Missy felt faint, but knew that this was certainly no time to swoon. She made two phone calls, the first to Ben, to let him know that he needed to call Cheryl in on her day off, the second to Detective Johnson, for obvious reasons.
Missy had requested that the police park in the rear of the building, so as not to alert customers that something was afoot, and soon, two uniformed officers, followed by Detective Johnson and a forensics tech came in the back door. The poor woman was white as a sheet, and Ben made her sit down and drink some coffee when he came in, as police swarmed her kitchen. Every time she looked down at the ugly stain on her capris and realized that it was blood mixed with peach juice, she had to fight the nausea and revulsion that rose up within her. The forensics tech swabbed her pants, and she turned her head away, not wanting to think about it.
“So what happens now?” she asked Johnson, as his team wrapped things up and prepared to leave.
“Now we test the digit for DNA, blood type, the works, we’ll get a soil sample from underneath the nail, and hopefully that’ll help us determine who it belongs to. We’ll also be contacting local hospitals to see if anyone has come in with a missing finger. Once we find the owner of the finger, we’ll be able to get more information about how it ended up in your peach basket.”
“Should I be worried? Do you think this is some sort of a threat?” she worried.
Johnson looked at her for a long moment before replying. “Miss Gladstone, if I find out that you somehow put the finger in the basket to throw suspicion on someone else, you should be very worried indeed.”
“You think I did this?” Missy was appalled. “I am a law-abiding citizen who has done nothing wrong, and I will not have you stand there and falsely accuse me. You are welcome to leave, Detective,” she directed, opening the door, eyes flashing fire and fury.
Johnson moved to the door at a leisurely pace. “Interesting that the victim’s blood is on your pants,” he mused, on his way out.
“I already explained how that happened, Detective. Goodbye!” she slammed the door shut, locking it behind him. She was so angry that she shook, from head to toe. Ben advised her to get out of the store for a while, until she recovered a bit. She had concocted a vegan flax seed breakfast muffin that she wanted Echo to try, so she decided to take her one and headed across the street. Maybe, once her stomach settled a bit, she’d try another ice cream flavor.
“Hello?” Missy called out, entering the deserted shop. Echo didn’t open for several hours yet, but had a habit of leaving the front door unlocked.
“Back here!” she heard her friend’s voice from the back room.
Wading her way past stacks of eco-friendly paper products, she wound her way to the kitchen, where Echo was on her hands and knees with a bunch of towels, mopping up a mess. Moving closer, Missy gasped.
“Echo! What happened?” she said, seeing the pool of blood seeping into the towels, the coppery smell nauseating her even further.
“Clumsy me,” her friend chuckled. “I spilled an entire bowl of raspberry puree. Why don’t you have a seat up front, I’ll be out shortly.” Missy nodded, thankful that her original impression had been incorrect. She rationalized that she must have imagined the smell of blood after her traumatic morning.
She sat at a table for two in the corner, placing the white paper bag with Echo’s muffin in it at the seat across from her. Her friend soon came bustling back into the seating area, holding a paper towel around one finger. Missy’s heart nearly came out of her chest, until she noticed that the unfortunately clumsy woman still had all fingers firmly attached, she had just hurt herself somehow.
“What happened?” she managed to ask, sounding somewhat normal.
“I cut myself on a can lid this morning, it’s nothing really,” she dismissed her friend’s concern with a rueful laugh and a wave. “Would you like some herbal tea? I have an organic chai that is just to die for,” she offered.
“That would be nice,” Missy nodded. “I’ve had a rough morning. I brought you one of my new vegan creations to try,” she rattled the bag.
“Awesome, I’m starving!”
Echo brought their tea, and she wasn’t kidding, it was the best tea that Missy had ever tasted, and it soothed her somehow. Or, it may have just been the company of her feisty, irreverent friend that raised her spirits, but either way, she was feeling much better than when she had come over, managing to forget, both about the finger in the peach basket and the pool of raspberry puree that smelled like blood.
“Oh Missy, this muffin is the best,” Echo raved, her mouth full of moist muffin. “I’m seriously going to buy a hundred of them and live off of them for the next few weeks.”
“Let me try some more vegan recipes before you commit to a hundred of this particular one,” she teased, pleased that her creation was a success.
“Good idea,” she nodded, still chewing. “Want to try another flavor?” she asked gesturing to the glass fronted freezers behind them.
“Well, since you twisted my arm, I guess I’ll have to,” Missy grinned, standing to peer into the cases.
“Pick any one you’d like, or more than one, whatever,” Echo waved breezily, still enjoyi
ng her muffin and tea.
“Coconut Dream sounds intriguing,” she pointed at a tub of snowy white frozen fluff.
“You’re gonna love it!” She got up with a flutter of her skirt and a jangle of bracelets to dip some of the creamy concoction into a bowl for Missy, the two enjoying each other’s labors of love together.
Chapter 9
Detective Chas Beckett called that night, and despite the fact that she knew she shouldn’t be discussing the Cora Nesbitt murder case with him, she had to tell him everything that had been happening to her since the murder, including her frustration with Detective Johnson.
“Don’t worry about Johnson, he’s always like that,” Chas assured her. “Occupational hazard for some detectives.”
“It’s been awful, Chas,” Missy said, trying her best not to cry. “They even have cars driving around my house spying on me.”
“Actually, most of those times, it’s probably me, doing whatever I can to watch over you,” he admitted. “But they probably have stepped up patrols as well, just in case.”
“They’re just barking up the wrong tree by investigating me,” she wailed, distraught.
“Don’t worry, Missy, they’re barking up more than one tree. It may seem like nothing is moving forward with this investigation, but new evidence and discovery comes in every day. They’re getting closer.”
“Don’t think I’m silly for saying this, but…I miss you,” she confessed, holding tightly to her phone.
There was a brief pause, causing her stomach to plummet to her knees, hoping that she hadn’t said too much too soon, before Chas responded, “I know, it’s frustrating…I miss you too.”
A smile broke over Missy’s face like the dawn of a new day, while at the same time, a tear rolled down her cheek. The two talked for another half hour or so, about daily mundane things, before hanging up with promises of a spectacular reunion once the Nesbitt case was over.
Missy came back in from walking Toffee on a beautiful sunny morning and fixed herself a cup of coffee. Feeling better after having talked with Chas, she sighed with pleasure, basking in the sunlight of her cozy breakfast nook. Ben and Cheryl were scheduled to open this morning, so she could drink her coffee, have a leisurely breakfast while scrolling through the news on her phone, and meander in to the shop whenever she felt like it. It was the closest thing that she could get to a day off, and she intended to make the best of it. A phone call interrupted a news story that she was reading, and when she saw that it was Ben calling, she picked up immediately.
“Hey, Ms. G….so, there’s something going on down here at the store,” her loyal manager began, sounding hesitant. “But, you probably shouldn’t come down.”
“What? Why? What happened, Ben?” Missy demanded, reaching for her keys.
“Well, somehow, a whole lot of snakes got in here…”
“Snakes? What do you mean snakes got in? That’s impossible, there’s no way for snakes to get in,” Missy insisted, shuddering. Snakes were her most profound fear. Just the thought of them caused her to tremble with dread.
“Yes ma’am, I know it’s weird, but the whole place is literally crawling with snakes. Grass snakes, garter snakes, water moccasins, cotton mouths, all kinds. They’re everywhere…in the cases, in the bathroom and the lounge, all over the kitchen, everywhere. The only place I didn’t see them was in the freezer,” Ben sounded a bit shaken.
Missy fought her rising hysteria. “You’re not in there, are you Ben?” she asked, gritting her teeth.
“No, I’m outside. I got here first, so I didn’t let Cheryl go in. I called Wildlife Control and they have a special team coming in to take care of it,” he explained.
Shudders rippled through Missy like waves on a pond. “Okay, good. Thank you for handling that appropriately, Ben. I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been as clear-headed if I had been the one to encounter those particular circumstances.”
“Yeah, I figured I’d better call and warn you so that you didn’t have to see this.”
“You’re the best, Ben. When the Wildlife Control guys get there, you make sure that they double and triple check every inch of that shop. If I find so much as one little baby snake in my store, I will not be responsible for my actions,” she warned.
“Yes ma’am, I figured that. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come down, and Ms. G., we need to talk about what’s going on around here.”
“You’re absolutely right, Ben. I value your opinion. We’ll talk later today. Be careful out there,” Missy said, concerned.
“I will, Ms. G., thanks.”
Chapter 10
The drive to Dellville was over all too soon for Missy, who was reluctant to enter her shop after having it overrun with reptiles. She loved creatures of all types, but for some reason, snakes inspired an irrational fear in her that seemed impossible to overcome. She knew that if she encountered one of the skinny, slithering critters, her reaction would be profound and embarrassing. She parked her car and got out, looking carefully at the ground before stepping out, and bravely opened the back door, continually scanning every inch of the floor as she moved through the kitchen. Ben was just finishing up scouring the glass cases in the front of the shop, and the image of snakes crawling through the display space that flashed through Missy’s mind sent shivers up and down her spine.
“Ben, you are a saint,” Missy declared, more thankful than ever for his steady and unwavering loyalty.
“At the moment, I’m a bit too smelly to be considered for sainthood,” he joked, throwing a wad of paper towels into a sack that he dragged along beside him. He pulled off his rubber gloves and took the bag to the dumpster in the back. Missy made coffee while she waited for him to come back in and wash his hands. The shop smelled fresh and clean and showed no signs whatsoever of the creepy, crawly condition that it had been in when Ben arrived. Sitting in the sunlit eating area, it was hard to believe that the strange event had ever happened.
“Well, we lost a day of sales, but it looks like everything is taken care of and ready to go for tomorrow,” Ben observed, sitting down across from his boss.
Missy rubbed her temples. “This just keeps getting weirder and weirder, Ben.”
“Yeah, it does,” he agreed, standing and moving to the kitchen to pour their coffee when he heard the burbling of the brewer stop. “Don’t you think that all of this stuff is being done on purpose?” he asked, setting down a mug in front of her and sipping from his own.
“Well, clearly it’s on purpose, there’s been too much going on to be passed off as mere coincidence, but why? Why would someone do this?” Her question wasn’t rhetorical, she valued Ben’s opinion. He was a grad student in Criminal Justice and had an insight into both criminals and the justice system that she did not.
“Let’s just take a look at events…Ms. G., you’ve had nothing but trouble ever since you bought this place. It makes me wonder if it’s haunted by the Donut Man’s ghost or something, I mean, he did die here you know,” Ben said in exasperation.
“Well, thanks for that extremely scientific analysis, Ben,” Missy teased. “But I’ll remind you that I did not get where I am today by being a shrinking violet who runs at the first sign of trouble.”
“I know, I get that, and I’m not saying to give up, but I’m worried about you. A severed finger? A heaping helping of snakes? These events have gone from being symbolically threatening to actually threatening, and I’m guessing that if Detective Dufus Johnson doesn’t catch whoever is doing it, that things will continue to escalate.”
“Speaking of the dear detective, how did it go when he showed up?”
Ben shook his head in disgust. “He didn’t get here until after Wildlife Control had already finished the roundup, so he treated me like I was being hysterical over the fact that somehow a couple of snakes had gotten in.”
Missy absently patted down the hackles that had risen on the back of her neck. “How many snakes were there, exactly?” she asked, dreading the answ
er.
“WC said over a hundred. They didn’t get an exact count because some of them were picked up in tangled clumps.”
Closing her eyes against the nausea rising in the back of her throat, Missy tried to erase the image that Ben had just described from her mind. “Did Johnson talk to the WC guys?”
“He said that he would follow up with them, but who knows?”
Missy twirled her coffee mug round and round, thinking. “I just can’t help but wonder who would do this, and why. I don’t have any enemies that I know of,” she shrugged, feeling helpless and confused.
“I think I might have an idea about that,” Ben said slowly.
She sat forward. “Who? Who is it?”
“Cheryl and I have both seen the hippie-looking guy, who pretended to dislike your lemon cupcake so that he’d get it for free, wandering around down here. Sometimes he’ll stand just out of sight between two buildings, and when we go out to confront him, he disappears.”
“But why would this total stranger, no matter how creepy he seems, have any interest in scaring me away? It just doesn’t make sense,” Missy shook her head, frustrated.
“Yeah, I haven’t figured that out yet, but, believe me, if I get a chance to confront this dude, I plan on getting some answers,” Ben vowed grimly.
“Just be careful. I don’t need to be worried about your safety too,” she patted his hand.
Chapter 11
Missy sat with Echo in Sweet Love, with a spoon and samplers of seven different samples of frozen delights. She had told her friend about the episode with the snakes and was surprised when the free-spirited woman had giggled.
“What on earth is funny about an entire shop full of snakes?” Missy asked, tasting a lovely vanilla bean soy milk ice cream.
“The unwarranted prejudice against those beautiful creatures just never ceases to amaze me,” Echo frowned. “Why on earth would a store full of snakes be any more intimidating than a store full of bunnies? They’re no more dangerous. I have a few of them myself,” she replied, pushing a container of a light, yellowish-orange colored treat in front of her to try next.
