A Caffeine Conundrum

by Angela Ruth Strong

  Really? Tandy wanted to ask again. Who says conundrum anymore? But she kept her mouth shut. The shop owner apparently enjoyed creating conundrums.

  Virginia reached across her body to rub her left shoulder. Her mouth opened as if to continue, but she only sucked at the air.

  Cocoa whimpered.

  “Virginia?” Marissa prompted.

  Tandy leaned forward, studying the older woman’s face.

  The contemptuous glint in Virginia’s steely eyes glazed over. She shuddered then slid off her seat onto the floor. Tandy scrambled to check her pulse as Marissa called for an ambulance. But it was too late.

  The shop owner was dead.

  Chapter Two

  Tandy studied the police deputy who looked more like a kid in a Halloween costume. Weren’t little towns supposed to have old sheriffs who loved their easy job so much they refused to retire?

  This kid was making his job way harder than it had to be. He held a stylus over his phone, taking notes the modern way as EMTs released Virginia’s corpse to the coroner and the Marissa chick made a panicked phone call to her mother. Tandy’s mother was the last person she wanted to talk with, so she rubbed Cocoa’s silky ears to comfort herself while answering the detective’s questions.

  “You say Ms. Pierce brought you in to have a bidding war over the shop?” The kid looked up and narrowed his eyes.

  Tandy narrowed her eyes right back. Did he suspect her of foul play? Virginia had most certainly died from a heart attack. The way she’d grabbed her left arm was a clear sign. “Yes.” She kept her tone even.

  Perhaps her coolness made her a suspect because she wasn’t freaking out like the other witness. Or perhaps it was because she was an outsider. As usual.

  “Interesting.” The kid acted like they were playing a game of Clue.

  A turquoise vase decorated with the image of a dragon teetered from its perch on a nearby pedestal, announcing Marissa’s arrival with the clinking sound of porcelain on stone. “Sorry. Sorry.” She caught the vase, and though it had sounded like it might have been chipped, it appeared completely intact. Not so for Marissa, whose beanie slipped from her head. She straightened the vase then swiped her hat off the floor before standing up fast enough to whip most of her long hair behind her back. One strand remained over an eye, but she blew it to the side. “Whew, I’m super glad I didn’t break that old thing. What did I miss?”

  Tandy waited for the kid to resume his line of questioning, but he simply stared at the blonde with his mouth hanging slightly open. Was he in awe of her beauty or her clumsiness? Both were equally impressive. And Tandy was hard to impress.

  She tilted her head toward him. “Encyclopedia Brown here thinks it’s interesting that Virginia died after tricking us into a bidding war.”

  “What?” Marissa threw her hands wide, barely missing the vase this time. “Where is Officer Woodward?” She leaned forward to better read the nametag on the kid’s uniform. “Deputy Griffin?” She stood straight. “Lucas Griffin? Little Lukey? I used to babysit you when you were eight. Are you out of high school now? When did you graduate?”

  Little Lukey focused intently on his smart phone. “I graduated from college last year. Got my bachelor’s in criminal justice.”

  “I guess I’m only six years older than you, but wow. I thought by now I’d be…” Marissa’s speech trailed off into rapid blinking. “Never mind. Where is Officer Woodward?”

  The kid glanced up, his expression a mix of puppy dog looking for love and kitten backed into a corner. Tandy could handle the puppy dog in him, but she knew better than to mess with a scared cat. He rubbed his clean-shaven jaw, though honestly, he probably didn’t have to shave that regularly. “Woodward has been called in to investigate a heist at the Grace Springs Historical Society Heritage Museum.”

  The blonde nodded. “Oh, I heard about that. The six diamonds that have been found here in Ohio were on display. Super awful that anyone would take them.”

  Tandy hadn’t heard of them, but it made sense that Marissa had. With the way she dialed her mom as soon as the shopkeeper died, she was sure to know all the latest gossip. Though a jewel heist sounded more like headline news than gossip. Definitely not what Tandy expected when moving to a small town.

  “Officer Woodward knows you’re here then?” Tandy asked to be sure.

  The deputy’s eyes snapped her direction. “Certainly. I go on routine calls all the time.”

  That’s what Tandy had been hoping to hear. “So the officer believes this call is routine and Virginia Pierce died of natural causes?”

  The deputy grunted. “We all hope it is natural causes, but Virginia was kind of a family friend. I’ll make sure to do her justice by reporting any suspicious findings.”

  Marissa tilted her head, a lone wrinkle forming above her upturned nose and marring her smooth skin. “Such as?”

  The kid read through his notes again. “Such as how Ms. Pierce drank coffee right before she died.”

  Tandy’s heart rate shot up. “Don’t blame the coffee.” She would almost rather she be accused of murder than for coffee to get a bad rap. “Studies show that drinking four to five cups a day helps people live longer.”

  “I don’t know how they can prove that.” Marissa rolled her eyes toward the ugly chandelier. “However, it has been proven that coffee can negatively affect digestion, increase stress, and cause heartburn.”

  Tandy guffawed. “That can be said for overdosing on caffeine in general—including your precious tea.”

  Marissa stuck a hand on her hip, ignoring the cold gust of wind and tinkling bell from the door. “Well Virginia wasn’t drinking tea when she died.”

  “My mom is dead?” A woman in her early twenties with chin-length curly brown hair stood in the doorway, her skin as white as the snow outside.

  Oh no. Virginia’s daughter.

  Marissa covered her mouth.

  “Excuse me while I talk to Jenn.” The deputy cleared his throat and stepped away.

  Tandy pressed her lips together and nuzzled Cocoa to avoid eye contact with her new nemesis. Why did she have to have a nemesis everywhere she went? Why couldn’t people get along with her the way dogs did?

  “I can’t believe I said that,” Marissa whispered.

  Maybe they weren’t nemeses after all. It wasn’t like they were still going to have a bidding war for the shop with Virginia gone. Who cared if Marissa drank tea? She also wore a red beanie, and Tandy wouldn’t hold that against her. “You didn’t know.” She offered the olive branch.

  Marissa lifted a finger to wipe at a tear.

  Tandy shifted her weight uncomfortably and planned an escape route between an armoire and a rocking chair. Not being enemies didn’t mean they were friends. And it especially didn’t mean she was offering a shoulder to cry on. “I’m gonna—”

  “This is like when I came home from the Miss Ohio competition to find out my grandmother had died. Nobody had told me because they didn’t want to distract me from the beauty pageant, but I’d been competing for Grandmother in the first place.”

  Beauty pageant? Right when Tandy had started to like Marissa…

  “At least she didn’t have to find out I was the first Alexander since Miss USA started in 1952 to come home without the crown. That was my last year to compete at that level, and I should have won.”

  Marissa had lost? Of course she’d lost. She was as graceful as a reindeer wearing ice skates.

  “That would be tough,” Tandy agreed. She’d stick around to protect any antiques that could get in Marissa’s way. Virginia’s daughter was sure to have enough to mourn without her mom’s prized possessions being destroyed in the wake of the town’s aspiring beauty queen.

  Marissa sighed, her eyes filling up again as she looked toward the deputy discussing Virginia’s death with the dead woman’s daughter.

  Tandy followed her line of sight and grimaced. If they were comparing Virginia’s daughter’s circumstances to their own lives, sh
e’d compare Virginia’s death to her own mom’s decision to divorce her dad and take off with their pastor. That had kind of been like a murder.

  The deputy shot a skittish glance her way. He looked how she felt—ready to run. How close had he been to the Pierce family?

  “I…I can’t believe she’s gone.” Virginia’s daughter twisted her fingers, eyes on the floor. “Can I see her now?”

  “I’m so sorry, Jenn.” The deputy sighed and put an arm around her. “I’d like to ask you a couple questions before you go, if you don’t mind. Is there anything you can tell me about your mom’s health? Any new issues?”

  Jenn’s chin puckered. “As you know, she had atrial fibrillation.” Her voice faded, and it was a moment before she could continue. “Mom was selling the shop to get rid of extra stress in her life. The doctor warned her to cut out both stress and caffeine.”

  Caffeine? Oh man. It had been the coffee that killed her.

  Marissa gasped. Despite what she’d said to Tandy-the-rebel-barista, she hadn’t seriously thought Virginia had been killed by drinking coffee. She’d believed the drink to be unrefined, but not deadly. This had to be rare.

  Both Lukey’s and Jenn’s eyes focused on her.

  “What are you doing here?” Jenn’s voice held mistrust. Naturally, she had every right to be emotional after her mom’s passing.

  Marissa didn’t mean to interfere. “I’m…I’m here because—”

  “I know you. You were the prom queen when I was a freshman.” Jenn pointed. “Though you didn’t fall off stage then the way you did at the Miss Ohio Pageant.”

  Tandy’s head cocked sideways. “You fell off a stage?”

  Marissa waved her arms as if she could erase the visual. “I was tripped and—” The back of her hand smacked into something sharp, stinging like the insertion of an IV line. She knew about IVs because of the time she’d gotten dehydrated on a bike ride and passed out while riding over a bridge, fell into the river, and was rescued by the man she’d once thought she’d marry. If only this pain had been caused by something so harmless.

  A vintage brass picture frame clattered sideways and slid towards the edge of the French country bookshelf. Marissa watched in horror. She’d been trying to be so careful.

  In one fluid motion, Tandy lunged forward, clutching her dog in one arm and swiping her other hand underneath the tumbling antique. Her fingers curled around the frame so quickly that by the time Marissa blinked in disbelief, the frame had been set upright and Tandy was petting Cocoa again.

  Marissa exhaled in relief. She couldn’t help wondering what would have happened in the beauty pageant if this woman had been standing next to her instead of Miss Cincinnati with her runway pose and pointy-toed stilettos. Maybe Tandy wasn’t so bad. Even if she drank coffee.

  The tick of a grandfather clock behind Marissa grew louder, and she realized that while she stared at Tandy, the rest of the people in the room stared at her.

  Little Lukey rubbed his chin. “Perhaps we should all sit down.”

  Was he remembering the time she’d been making him macaroni for lunch then accidentally set his kitchen curtains on fire? If so, it would be best if she found a place to sit quickly so they could return their focus to the real tragedy—Jenn’s mother’s untimely death.

  Spotting what Grandmother would have called a settee, Marissa scurried toward it and plunked down, hands tucked under her legs to keep them from waving hazardously. Mom was always trying to get her to sit on her hands to appear more ladylike. She’d never really supported this endeavor to start a teahouse, because she didn’t think Marissa could handle it, but Marissa had wanted to prove her wrong. Now she might not get that chance, unless she could convince Jenn to sell to her.

  Tandy followed at a slower pace, eyeing Marissa.

  “I’m sitting on my hands. You’re safe.”

  Tandy lowered onto the gold brocade cushions, giving her dog the opportunity to lean over and lick Marissa’s cheek with his wet tongue. Marissa grimaced, but kept her hands under her legs.

  “Sorry.” Tandy caught Cocoa’s muzzle between her fingers. “No licking.”

  Marissa pasted on a smile. It wasn’t that she didn’t like animals. It was simply that as often as she tripped over them, it felt like they were out to get her. Kind of like Miss Cincinnati. She turned her damp face toward the deputy she still thought of as an eight-year-old. Because seriously, his skin looked that smooth.

  Lukey must have released Jenn to tend to her mother because he strode their way alone and planted himself above them with a wide-legged stance. It reminded Marissa of the way he used to play superhero with his Underoos over his pajamas and a pillow case pinned around his neck like a cape. He scrolled through his phone then paused. His gaze rose to scrutinize them. “It appears I was right to question what was in Ms. Pierce’s mug.”

  Marissa’s lips parted. Witnessing a death was hard enough, but Lukey sounded like he wanted to take it further. “Obviously, Virginia shouldn’t have been drinking coffee, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

  Tandy’s expression remained neutral. “You know, they do make this brew called decaf.”

  Marissa pursed her lips in thought. “Maybe this has nothing to do with her coffee at all.”

  “Or maybe…” Lukey took turns at attempting to peer into their souls. “Maybe she thought she was drinking decaf, but someone made her regular coffee. Strong coffee.”

  Marissa wished she still had the power to put him in a time out. “You think somebody wanted to kill Virginia?” Her voice squeaked on the word kill. Because this was Grace Springs, Ohio. Where the worst thing that ever happened was dehydration by bike ride. Well besides the jewel robbery, but that was likely done by someone from out of town. Locals wouldn’t know the first thing about planning a heist. “Who would do that?”

  Lukey quirked an eyebrow. “Perhaps someone whom she was trying to take advantage of by forcing them into a bidding war for her shop?”

  “What?” Marissa’s hands must have escaped from underneath her legs because they appeared in front of her, fingers splayed wide as if his logic were impossible to grasp. And it really was. “Are you accusing me of murder? You know me better than that. Your mom trusted me with your life.”

  The expression on his baby face remained unchanged. “Until you—”

  Her right hand twisted into the signal for stop. “That was an accident,” she whispered, though it wasn’t like she could keep Tandy from overhearing another admission.

  Tandy studied her out of the corner of her eye.

  Marissa bit her lip. “Nobody died.”

  Lukey nodded in understanding. About time. “I guess you could have accidentally made Ms. Pierce regular coffee instead of decaf.”

  Marissa’s hands flew wide again. “I don’t make coffee for anyone. I’m starting a teahouse, remember?”

  Lukey’s gaze sliced toward Tandy like a laser. “Did you make coffee for Ms. Pierce?”

  Tandy’s chartreuse eyes widened. “No way. I wouldn’t even drink the sludge she was serving.”

  She sounded innocent, but… “You were with her when she came into the office with a mug. And you said you brought coffee beans in your backpack.” Marissa pointed at Tandy’s face as the realization struck. Was she sitting by a cold-blooded killer?

  Tandy slapped her hand down. “Put that thing away before you hurt someone.”

  Marissa ignored the sting of the words. “Someone is already hurt.”

  Tandy shook her head. “Not by me.” She faced Lukey again. “The coffee was already made when I entered the shop, and the only people in the shop before me were Virginia and Marissa.”

  If Tandy was being honest, then Virginia was responsible. Whether it was decaf or not, Virginia made it, Virginia drank it, and Virginia died. There was nobody to blame but herself.

  Lukey slid his stylus into the side of his phone and stuffed it in his pocket. “Well, ladies. I’ve got both your statements. The coron
er will be checking Ms. Pierce’s blood, including her caffeine levels, and I’ll be checking out the remaining coffee in the pot.”

  Marissa sank against the cushions. She was glad not to have to defend herself anymore. The evidence would do that for her.

  Tandy, on the other hand, sat up straighter. Cocoa whimpered.

  Lukey hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “If you’re both as innocent as you say you are, then there shouldn’t be any problem.”

  “Great.” Marissa was free to go.

  “But until we know that for sure, you’ll have to stay in town.”

  Well, not entirely free yet, but close enough. Marissa was planning to stay in town anyway. There was the tree lighting that night then the Santa fun run and the living nativity on Christmas Eve. She wasn’t as excited about going to Mom and Dad’s for dinner, but that never stopped her before. “Okay,” she agreed. The sooner they ruled Virginia’s death from natural causes, the sooner she could make Virginia’s heir, Jenn, an offer for the place. This time she’d be sure to beat Tandy to the purchase.

  “Okay,” Tandy parroted, though by the way she shot Marissa a warning look, the competition was on.

  “Good.” Lukey accepted their agreement before taking off for the curtain that hid the kitchenette.

  Marissa twisted to face her competitor. If she explained the fact she wanted to start the tea shop in Grandma Ettabell’s honor to make up for losing what had once been the older woman’s crown, Tandy might take pity on her. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  Tandy’s chest rose and fell against her pup as she took a deep breath. “No, you don’t, Marissa.” She sounded so calm. Like she wanted to protect Marissa rather than go into battle against her. Not to mention the haunted look in her eyes.

  Dare Marissa ask? “What then?”

  Tandy glanced at Lukey’s retreating back then lowered her voice. “I think the police will discover Virginia was murdered, and we will be the prime suspects.”

  Chapter Three