by Naomi Muse
“Perhaps your officers were a little careless when they left the crime scene. You’ll find no sign of forced entry. I would never make Angelo a criminal.”
“Maybe so. Either way, how about you and your crime scene eating dog make your way out of here. The last place this poor man was seen was your café. While I don’t consider you a person of interest this time. I might want to have a chat with the other interviewees.”
“But I have to hire someone. I don’t mean to be crass, but I can’t stay closed forever.”
“Hire who you like, but I can’t guarantee that I won’t be arresting them later.”
“Being the boss sucks,” I said, as I turned to leave.
Angelo snorted and followed behind me. He wasn’t a big fan of law enforcement.
Chapter 5
“Angelo, why me? I’m just trying to do my job and witch in peace. How am I going to tell Anita?”
Angelo replied with a low woof.
“You always know just what to say, Angelo.”
He snorted, and we continued on our way home.
I wasn’t sure what to think. I still didn’t believe that Leo had done this to himself. The fact that the word written on the floor was most likely in Greek could mean that Sally was a murderer. I just couldn’t believe that she had it in here. Alternatively it could be someone who knew that he was a jerk. That didn’t explain the word written in honey. I don’t know if he made Greek foods all the time if he did that might shed some light on things.
If I were a smarter woman, I would probably interview all new bakers. But the thought of going through the interviewing process all over again sucked. Plus, the chief said he didn’t have anything to go on. I don’t know that either of the remaining bakers was involved. Angelo seems to get a good vibe from both of them. Well, he didn’t openly dislike them, so that was close enough for me.
I had lead with my intuition. I was fine with letting mine be the guide today. I would talk to Anita about in the morning.
The next morning, I awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. No one would call me this early. It had to be either the chief or Anita. As always, my trusty intuition was correct. It was Anita.
“I had trouble sleeping last night. Picking a chef is harder than I thought it would be.”
“You have no idea,” I grumbled.
“After a lot of tossing and turning I decided that Leo might not be the right one for us.”
“Funny should mention that.”
The fact that she couldn’t sleep and had a bad feeling about Leo was interesting. Maybe Anita had more insight than she was aware of.
“Anita, I don’t know how to tell you this. Leo is dead.”
There was silence on the phone for a few ticks.
“For someone who didn’t know how to tell me, you sure got straight to the point. What happened?”
I explained to Anita all that it happened the night before. She seemed dumbfounded. She didn’t speak for so long that I was afraid she had hung up.
“Anita? Are you there?”
“I’m here I just can’t believe that. Do you think he killed himself, or do you think he was murdered?”
“I don’t know. But, the chief said that it shouldn’t affect our hiring process. He did mention that we might not want to get attached.”
“This is a weird way to do business. We can’t open right away, But, I was leaning towards Sally’s. Do you think we should reconsider?”
“I am all for it looks give her a call. She probably doesn’t know about Leo, so it might be best not to mention it. We don’t want to scare her away. If we really want to make a good impression, you should be the one to call,” I said.
“Aren’t you the manager.?”
“I’m the boss. And as my employee, you should do any work delegated to you.”
Anita let out a soft chuckle. I was glad that I could make her laugh even in these dire circumstances.
“I’d rather deal with her than deal with the police. I’ll make the call. How do you feel about meeting at the store in a few hours?”
“Works for me,” I said.
Angelo was waiting patiently beside the bed. I told him about our new hiring plan, and he gave a soft thump of his tail. Wags were always a good thing. I made a quick breakfast, then we got ready for our day and headed for the bakery.
When we reached the bakery, Anita and Sally were already inside. They were discussing possible themes for the bakery. Sally insisted that she didn’t want to stick with just food like she had made for test bake. She wanted to branch on try new things. That gave me an idea.
“How would you feel if we had a magical theme for pastries. You can still make whatever you like, but we can give them all magical names. It could be a fun twist on things.”
“You sure are dramatic lately,” Anita said.
“I just want to make something new. I’m tired of the same old thing. It’s my place why shouldn’t I do something fun with it?”
“I actually really like that idea,” Sally said in a bolder voice than I would’ve expected from her.
If I needed any other reassurance that this was a good idea that was it. The woman barely spoke when you said something directly to her, but she jumped on board with this idea.
“Well if you ladies like it, I’m all for it. We’re not going to open for a few days, so we have time to plan,” Anita said.
We both got right to work making up recipe ideas and tried to come up with the quickest to prepare to open the restaurant. It required some shopping but why not have fun with it. And
We decided that we should make desserts that Anita could help decorate like sugar cookies and cupcakes with fun names. Sally thought it would also be a good idea to have signature baked goods every day. She wanted to start with honey buns.
My mouth watered at the thought of honey buns. I hadn’t had them since I was a kid and the thought of them sounded amazing. Plus, the idea of cookies and quick treats was a great idea. The more we talked about recipes and menu ideas the more Sally seem to come to life. I was convinced that she was a good fit and I was happy that we had chosen her. I just hoped she didn’t turn out to be a murderer. We also suggested that she make her favorite dish for the first day just to give the patrons of a sigh of her personality. But she thought the honey buns would do the trick, so we went with that. Sally was eager to get into the kitchen and start her baking, so we left her to it.
Anita and I exchanged glances as we saw her smile. This was really making me feel better about the situation.
I wasn’t sure how the public would respond to the magical theme, but the place was called the Bewitching Bakery after all. I guess would see on opening day.
I made a quick call to the chief. He was still being tightlipped about the whole case, but he did say they were pursuing other avenues. For Chief Rowan, that was practically a confession. It had to be a murder. He might not want to share any info, but this was a small town. Word would get out eventually.
<<<>>>
The night before the grand reopening, I put out a chalkboard sign to advertise. I used a little magic on to make it pretty. I didn’t really expect too many people in town to show up. We’d been closed for a few weeks since the Quinns left for their vacation. There was a handwritten sign stuck in the window saying under new management.
We got a decent amount of foot traffic, I couldn’t believe that a lot of people would suddenly turn out. I was shocked when I came around the corner and saw a line out the door. I don’t know what was going on. Maybe Sally had more fans that I knew about.
I smiled and said hello courteously to people in line as I made my way inside. Anita was buzzing wringing out people like a mob scene in there. The few tables that we had had people sitting in every seat.
“What’s going on here,” I whispered to Anita as I made my way behind the counter.
“They all heard about Leo and turned out to see who is here. You’re somewhat of a local celebrity after solving that mu
rder last a few months ago.”
I stepped back in surprise. I couldn’t believe that this many people showed up on the off chances of finding either a murderer or me. I didn’t like to get press this way, but hopefully, they’d come in for the news story and come back for the baked goods. The way things were selling out, I wasn’t sure if Sally would be able to keep up. We might have to get her an assistant baker.
Opening day went by in a whirlwind. I had to send Anita to the back to help out Sally with mixing and decorating while I took over the cash register. I tried to bus the tables too. It was hard to keep up. Luckily our customers were a polite lot, so they helped by keeping things relatively clean too. By the time the final customer walked out the door. We all practically collapsed onto the closest table.
Almost every single customer had tried to get info for me about the case. But when they saw that I was being tightlipped, they seemed to think buying more food would get them more info. I may or may not I may not have tried to dissuade them from that belief. They didn’t get any more info, but I got more of their money, so I was happy. I expected to see the chief at any point showing up to accuse me of having something do with the murder. It seemed to be his favorite past time, but he stayed away. It was just as well come. We didn’t really have time for him today anyway.
“Well ladies, this one for the books,” I said
“Is it always this busy?” Sally asked.
“Not really. I’ve never seen a mad rush like this. Business is usually steady here,” Anita said.
“Well, I hope I can keep up.”
“If your work today was any indication, I think you’ll be just fine,” Anita said.
I nodded in agreement. We made small talk as we broke things down for the night. I wasn’t sure what we settled on for the next day’s menu, but I needn’t have worried. Sally had an idea for what she was calling kiss of darkness cupcakes. They were dark chocolate cupcakes with black frosting. The idea was a little outside of the box, but she had me at chocolate.
Once they had the plan mapped out I let the ladies go home early while I finished the last of the cleaning up. Something about sweeping always was good to me. I felt like I was sweeping any negativity and stress out the door so that we could have a clean slate the next day. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell Angelo all about it. He put up a little bit of fuss when I left in the morning, but I explained that opening day could mean a lot of toes to trample him. He hates having a lot of legs coming in his direction, so he was agreed in the end.
On the walk home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were eyes on me. I should’ve done a travel safety protection spell, but it had been pretty quiet around town. When I got home, Angelo was waiting at the window with his nose pressed against the glass. Once he saw me, he started barking and jumping up and down. He seemed happier to see me than usual. He was probably bursting at the seams.
“Hey buddy. I have so much tell you. The day went so well. He barked again and ran for his leash. I guess we were skipping the small talk and going straight for the walk.
Chapter 6
It was a lovely night outside. There was a light breeze, and the sky was completely clear when Angelo and I started our walk. As usual, he wanted to sniff every blade of grass and tree stump along the way. I was still getting an eerie sensation. I knew that Angelo would alert me to any incoming danger. At least that’s what I thought until a hand closed over my mouth and someone grabbed me from behind.
I heard Angelo snapping and snarling, but I couldn’t see him. Based on the movement it felt like the bad guy had picked him up was holding the dog in his arms. The man leaned over and whispered in my left ear, that your furthest from Angelo.
“You should have stayed away from the store. Bad bakers always get their due. It doesn’t concern you, and you shouldn’t be looking into it any further. We know your reputation, and we don’t need your help.”
I was trying furiously to open my mouth far enough to bite the man since it seemed Angelo wouldn’t be able to get the job done. But his hand was clasped too tightly over my mouth for me to get my teeth around him. I did manage to lick him though. As he was snatching his hand away from my mouth, he cursed under his breath. I heard a familiar sound. Seems that Angelo on, knowing he wouldn’t be able to bite the man, decided to do what we went on the walk to do. He peed on our attacker.
I jumped back, out of his reach. My attacker shouted something unintelligible and ran off into the night. I didn’t want to take the chance that he would come back or have a partner waiting in the wings. After making sure that Angelo was okay, I dropped to my knees fished out my travel altar from my purse to perform a quick ritual for safety. Just as I started to wind down the spell, I heard a siren coming up behind me. I couldn’t leave the spell unfinished, that would have dire consequences. I finished up the spell and heard the familiar footsteps of Chief Rowan coming up behind me. Thinking quickly, I pulled out my purse grimoire began sketching while simultaneously trying to sweep the contents of my travel altar back into the bag.
“Ms. Bell, are you all right. An anonymous tipster called it in. They reported hearing Angelo snarling in and looked out the window to see a man grab you.”
“Yes. I think it had something to do with Leo. I was attacked.”
“You were attacked, so you decided to drop down the floor and light a candle?”
Damn it. He saw that. I had to think of something fast.
“I was trying to figure out the man’s height relative to mine based on the way he grabbed me. I didn’t get a look at him because he was behind me, but I thought it might help you.”
The chief looked at me skeptically. Then, his eyes went back to my purse that I was still trying to discretely shove things into.
“I don’t think that will be necessary. But I will take you and Angelo down to the station to get your statement, so we have this on file. Once we get there you can fill me in with everything the purpose said. He put his hand on my shoulder.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked his face softening.
“He didn’t really hurt me. I did manage to lick his hand to try and get it off of my face, and I think Angelo peed on him.”
“What is it with your dog disrespecting people?” The chief asked.
“If by disrespecting people you mean doing anything in his power to protect me, I guess he’s just disrespectful,” I said.
Angelo let out a yelp in agreement. The chief just shook his head and walked us to his car. It was a silent ride back to the police station. I really was shaken up. I’ve been through a lot in my days were being attacked on the street by a stranger wasn’t one of them. I kept trying to turn it over in my mind. Someone had been definitely killed, Leo. And they have been watching this the specialty store. I could have been attacked in there. I guess the chief had gone there before the bad man could get to me. I hated to think that someone could be watching me without my knowledge. I was definitely a have to do some spell work to put an end to that. But what had the man meant by being a bad chef? The food he made was pretty good I just and like his attitude. I definitely would have to look more into this guy.
Back at the station, Chief Rowan had one of the uniformed officers take my statement while he stood by with his brows furrowed. If I hadn’t been so freaked out, I would have been touched by his concern. Angelo, sensing my distress did his best to climb into my lap. At thirty-five pounds he had I bit more dog than I did lap. We made it work. It comforted me to have him close. He had done his best to save me after.
I didn’t realize that I had been absent-mindedly been petting Angelo while staring off into the distance until I heard Chief Rowan clear his throat. I shook myself out of it and looked up at him. The chief looked from me to the officer taking my statement and back again. The officer may have been talking to me.
“I’m sorry did you say something?” I asked.
“Yes. Did the man say anything to you?”
I chewed my lower lip for a
minute.
“He said I should have stayed out of the store.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“No. I don’t know. Why would he care if I went to that little store?” I asked with tears welling up in my eyes.
I hated to lie, but I had to sell it. If the police knew about the rest of it, they might make a mess of things. I just wanted to see what I could find out. If I didn’t find anything, I could always tell them that it slipped my mind. Traumatic experiences make people on TV forget all the time, so he should go for it.
Once my statement was all over and done with, Chief Rowan brought me home. I noticed he was treating me a little differently. He wasn’t as suspicious and prodding as he normally was. Thank the goddess. I could use a break.
“I’m sure you don’t need me to say this, but you handled yourself well tonight.”
“Licking an attacker is handling myself well?”
“Some people just give up. But you did whatever you could to get yourself free and that’s what matters. Aside from whatever you were doing on the ground, you didn’t break down. You tried to remember the important details. That matters.”
I felt a knot forming in my stomach. I almost felt bad for lying to him. Technically, I didn’t lie. I just left out some important information.
“ I can expect you guys to do it all yourselves. I have to do my part too.”
“Don’t get me wrong. You can feel free to let the police do our jobs. I’m just pleased that you are willing to help yourself and you didn’t wait to be saved like some damsel in distress.”
“If I just sat around waiting to be saved nothing would ever get done. You know there are more women than men in this world. I’ve never needed a man to save me, but I appreciate the hard work you and your officers put in.”
“,Thanks, it’s good to hear that. I know normally I wouldn’t ever say this, but I sometimes feel like there’s something holding us back from solving all the crimes. I can’t say for sure what it is, but it’s just a gut instinct.”
“Aren’t you police officer supposed to trust your instincts?
