One Last Bite_A Darling Bakery Cozy Mystery

by Brenda De Witt

  Peeking out from under the baseball cap were several strands of unnaturally red hair.

  “Trish?” Dani said genuinely surprised.

  The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really expect me to believe that you were here in the middle of the night to look at used appliances?” A burst of throaty laughter resonated through the room.

  Dani knew the story was a little weak, but it was all she had, so she was determined to sell it.

  “That’s really why I’m here!” she implored. “I need some new things at my bakery, but I can’t afford to pay much for them. I figured I’d be able to pick these up for next to nothing since Lisa was so desperate to get rid of them. I just needed to make sure they worked before I made an offer.”

  Trish stared at Dani smiling as if she was considering the plausibility of her story. Then her smile vanished and Dani realized there was no use in continuing with the charade. She might as well stop lying and spend what might be the last moments of her life trying to find out exactly why Trish was there and what happened to Guy. At least then someone would know the truth.

  “Okay fine, I wasn’t here to look at the appliances,” Dani confessed. “I was here to try to find that.” She nodded her head toward the EpiPen laying on the floor. “When I found out that Guy had an allergy attack the same day he died I couldn’t figure out why he didn’t use his EpiPen to save his life.”

  “Oh, he tried,” Trish said with a snarl. “But I grabbed it out of his hand before he could give himself the injection. Unfortunately, when I did the thing slipped out of my hand and slid under the stove — with my fingerprints all over it.”

  “But why didn’t you get it out from under the stove then?” Dani asked. “Guy couldn’t have been much of a threat in the middle of having an allergy attack.”

  A sly smile stretched across Trish’s face. “Nope, Guy was no threat at all. He was just laying there after stumbling around struggling to breathe and ultimately hitting his head on the counter,” Trish glanced down to the spot where traces of the police chalk outline could still be seen. “But I knew Anne had an appointment to show someone the house that morning and I couldn’t risk getting caught in here with a dead body.”

  Trish kept a gun trained on Dani as she walked over and picked up the EpiPen. She slipped the instrument into her jacket pocket and then turned back to Dani.

  “So what do you think I should do now,” Trish asked sarcastically.

  Dani didn’t bother to offer any suggestions because she knew that there weren’t any options that ended with Dani being able to get in her car and drive away. Instead, Dani decided to probe Trish for more details about how and why she killed Guy.

  “So, why did you do it, Trish? Why did you just let him die like that?”

  Trish shrugged her shoulders. “I might as well tell you considering you won't be able to tell anybody else after I get finished with you.”

  Dani’s stomach trembled at the threat, but she tried to keep her face from revealing how scared she actually was.

  “I met Guy at G.A. meeting for family members of gambling addicts,” Trish said as she leaned on the center island with the gun still trained steadily on Dani. “He was in pitiful shape when he first started coming to the meetings. All he could do was moan and cry about the things his wife had done to him. She’d maxed out all his credit cards and even took out a second mortgage on their home.

  She left him in such bad financial shape that he didn't think he’d ever recover. That's when I approached him with an idea for a little moneymaking opportunity. You see, I’d just rented Anne the space in my office and I’d been listening to some of her clients complain about being upside down in their mortgages. You know, owing more to the bank than the house was actually worth. I realized if I could find a way to get the appraisal price up then the clients would be able to pay off their existing mortgages and have a little cash left over as a thank you for my services. I staked out a few of the more desperate clients and presented them with my plan and they were eager to try anything to get them out of their financial bind. It was all working perfectly and both Guy and I were making a nice little profit off of the deal. He was paying off some of his wife’s debt and I was building a nice little nest egg that was going to get me out of this small town and into a beachfront condo on an island somewhere.

  Then Guy got a letter from the Real Estate Board inquiring about a few of his appraisals and he got spooked. He called me and told me he couldn’t do any more deals.”

  “So that's why you killed him,” Dani asked. “Because he wouldn't play along with your scheme anymore.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t even plan to do it. I asked Guy to meet me here last week hoping I could talk some sense into him. We’d been here talking for almost forty-five minutes, but Guy wouldn’t budge. Then he got a phone call on his cell and stepped into the other room to have the conversation in private. I stayed here in the kitchen. I was just standing here trying to figure out what to do next when I started to cough. I dug into my pocket to get a lozenge or something and found a peanut butter candy in my pocket. I knew Guy was allergic to peanuts because I’d offered him one of those candies before and he told me why he couldn’t take it. So, I just slipped the candy into his coffee, stirred it around a little and that was that.”

  Trish gave another uncaring shrug.

  “I was just going to leave the EpiPen under the stove. I figured by the time this house sold I’d be long gone. That is until the listing agent mentioned at Guy’s memorial that all the appliances were being replaced. I knew I had to get over here as soon as possible and get that thing out from under the stove.”

  Trish turned her eyes back to Dani. “And now my dear, it's time for me to get rid of you.” Trish waved the gun in Dani's direction indicating that she wanted Dani to head toward the front door.

  Dani let her shoulders drop and followed instructions. When she reached the door she opened it and moved forward with Trish following closely behind her. Dani had only taken a few steps on to the porch when she heard a loud thwack sound. She turned and before she knew it Trish’s body was crumpled on the floor behind her. Dani looked to her left and there, to her relief, was Mr. Jones standing on one side of the doorway with a shovel in his hand smiling.

  “Are you okay young lady?” The grinning senior citizen asked as he pulled Dani away from the body on the floor.

  “Yes I think so,” Dani stammered, still trying to process what was going on. “But what are you doing here?”

  Mr. Jones’ smile broadened. “I thought I saw a light flash over here earlier and I came to investigate. When I heard voices inside. I called the police and was just going to wait for them to get here — until I recognized your car sitting in front of the house. I couldn’t imagine what would bring you out here in the middle of the night, but when I tipped back up on the porch I heard the whole conversation. Or should I say confession.”

  Mr. Jones leaned the shovel against the side of the house and reached into his pants pocket. He pulled out a handful of plastic trash bag ties, looped them together and made a pair of temporary handcuffs. He’d just tightened the ties snuggly around Trish’s wrists and ankles when she began to come to.

  “What in the hell?” she grumbled when she realized she couldn’t move.

  Just then Clint’s car sped into the driveway with lights flashing. He jumped out of the car with his gun drawn, but as soon as he surveyed the scene he put it back in its holster and walked up on the porch laughing.

  “Does one of you want to tell me what’s going on here?” he asked staring at Dani, Mr. Jones and the woman tied up on the porch.

  “Oh, nothing much,” Mr. Jones said with a grin.

  “Just taking out a little trash,” Dani said with relief. “Just taking out a little trash.”

  Chapter 21

  “Happy House Warming!” Dani’s mother Renee Darling shouted as Dani opened the door Saturday morning.

  After everyth
ing that happened the night before, Dani had decided to sleep in a little and let Matt and Rhonda open the bakery by themselves. She stifled a yawn and reached out to hug her mother.

  “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad,” she said as she waved at her father who was pulling suitcases out of the car. Then Dani melted into her mother’s embrace. It felt good to be safe and in the arms of someone who loved her, especially after everything she’d been through for the past two weeks.

  There was a moment last night when Dani hoped that Clint would scoop her up in a hug like this, but that hadn’t happened.

  “These are for you,” Dani’s mother said pointing to a pot of flowers she’d placed on the porch.

  “I suspected you might need them,” her mother said glancing at the weedy flower bed in front of the house.

  Dani glanced over at the bushy pot of purple flowers. Even from a distance, the sweet smell they gave off was lovely.

  “Thanks, Mom. I’ll make sure my new gardener puts these right in front of the house.”

  “Oh, my! Aren’t those lilacs wonderful!” Marla said as she stepped out the front door. “The butterflies are going to love them.”

  “Is this your new gardener,” Dani’s mother asked with a giggle.

  Dani hesitated not knowing exactly how to answer. She hadn’t thought about how she was going to introduce Marla to her parents when she’d invited the older woman to stay for the weekend. Now she was a little stuck.

  “You must be the Darlings!” Marla said extending her hand to Dani’s mother and then to her father who’d joined them on the porch. “My name is Marla Nettles. Your lovely daughter was kind enough to invite me to stay at her home while I’m in town for a short while on family business.”

  Dani breathed a sigh of relief because of Marla’s quick thinking.

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Marla,” Dani’s father said. “It sounds like you know a little something about flowers.”

  “I sure do,” Marla replied. “Gardening is a bit of a hobby of mine.”

  A moment later another car pulled into Dani’s driveway.

  “Hi there Mr. and Mrs. Darling!” Clint said as he got out of his SUV.

  Dani cringed. She totally forgot that Clint said he was going to stop by her house that morning. It had been well after midnight when Dani finished giving her statement at the police station. Clint said it was going to take a little while longer for them to question Trish and then he was going to drive her to a more secure jail facility in Atlanta. He must have just gotten back off the road. She wondered if the detective had gotten any sleep at all.

  “Clint Johnson,” Dani’s mother said as she scooped Clint up in a hug. “I haven’t seen you in years! What brings you out this early in the morning?”

  Dani could tell her mother was fishing for information about the detective’s appearance on her daughter’s doorstep at this hour.

  Dani tried to send Clint telepathic messages not to mention what happened last night to her parents. She didn’t want them to worry about her safety.

  “Clint stopped by to pick me up,” Marla said quickly. “I need to go into town to meet with an attorney.

  Well, that was at least partially true. Marla did have an appointment with Guy’s attorney this morning. Apparently, Guy had left Marla his car in his will and she had to go to the attorney’s office to sign some paperwork.

  “Why don’t I give all of you a ride,” Clint said catching on to Marla’s story quickly. “I’m sure the Darling’s are eager to check out the bakery and I could use a cupcake myself.

  “That’s very nice of you,” Mrs. Darling said, with a little hint of playful suspicion in her voice.

  “Mr. Darling, I’ll just help you take these bags inside and then we can all head down to the bakery.”

  As soon as the two men disappeared inside with the bags, Mrs. Darling nudged Dani in the ribs.

  “You didn’t tell me that you and Clint Johnson had reunited since you’ve been here,” Dani’s mother whispered in her ear. “He always seemed like such a nice boy when we used to come to Riley for the summer. And he’s grown up to be a handsome young man,” she said with a wink.

  Dani pretended not the hear the last part of her mother’s comment, although she definitely agreed with her mother’s observation.

  “Alright, everyone! Let’s get going,” Dani’s father announced as he walked back outside. “I’m ready to sink my teeth into one of my daughter’s famous gluten-free German Chocolate cupcakes!”

  “Oh, Garry,” Mrs. Darling complained. “Don’t you think it’s a little early to have cupcakes?”

  “It’s never too early for cupcakes!” Mr. Darling replied. “Isn’t that right, Clint?”

  “You won’t get any argument from me, Sir,” Clint replied and smiled at Dani. “I think cupcakes are good all day, every day!”

  Dani smiled with appreciation and excitement that her family was finally going to see that her new business was running just as well as it did when her grandparents ran it back in the day.

  With that, the little group piled into Clint’s car and headed to The Darling Bakery.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading the first book in

  A Darling Bakery

  Cozy Mystery series.