A Cherry Sinister Murder: A Culinary Cozy Mystery (Slice of Paradise Cozy Mysteries Book 1)

by Nancy McGovern

  “I guess,” Faith said, shaking her head.

  Laura paused. “But… you want to know something? Actually, I’ve never told anyone this before.”

  Faith’s chest felt warm when Laura said that. She felt like she was the first true friend she’d ever had, someone who accepted her for who she was. “Go on.”

  “Well…” Laura looked down at her feet. It was the first time Faith had ever seen her get really serious.

  Faith’s voice was gentle. “Well…?”

  “Well, that’s kind of what I want to do for a living, actually. Help people like this,” Laura said, then started to gabble. “I mean, it will probably never happen, ‘cause like, you have to do all this qualification stuff and certification, and I’m not sure if I’ll—”

  “It sounds like an awesome idea,” Faith said. “You’d be so good at that. Like, you always make me feel better. I bet you could help loads of people.”

  Laura clutched the book to her chest, her eyes a little bright, like she was just barely daring to believe she could make it work. “You think so?”

  Faith nodded firmly. “Absolutely. And think of this, right? Less than a month ago I was at home, feeling kinda miserable, thinking that I would never ever ever be able to have my own café like I’d always dreamed of.” A huge smile spread over her face. “And…?” She held her hands up, gesturing toward the beautiful new place, with its floor they’d newly stained pale blue, the wooden furniture in mix-match colors of delicate peach and country kitchen yellow and baby pink and minty green, the white curtains she’d snagged on eBay that fell down all the way to floor in frill after frill after frill, and the aura of coziness and comfort that wrapped around them as soon as they stepped in the door. “Now I’m here, doing what I always thought was impossible.”

  Laura grinned. “Now that’s inspiring. But don’t be too inspiring or I might just get enough courage to pack up this job now in search of better things, and leave you to it.”

  Faith crossed her arms, pretending to be mad. “That’s it, I’m never encouraging you again.”

  Laura giggled. “Now leave me to my book and go back to flirting with my cousin.”

  “Ugh!” Faith said, her mouth dropping open. “I was so not…”

  But she trailed off as she heard a disturbing sound in the distance. It sounded like men shouting, and the aggressiveness in their voices set Faith’s nerves on edge.

  “What the…” Laura said, hurrying over to the window to look out.

  They couldn’t make anything out from there, as some of the new plants Nathan had put in obscured their view, so they ran outside, hoping to catch a better look.

  Nathan acted casual and shook his head. “Probably just some jerks. Don’t even give them the attention. That’s what they crave.”

  But Faith was still concerned and kept going on forward with Laura, leaving Nathan shrugging behind them.

  “Oh, look!” Laura said, pointing to a group of young men. They looked like some sort of gang, as they were all dressed very similarly, with tracksuits that were far too heavy for the Florida weather. They were facing someone, though the trees blocked out the view, hurling insults and rocks.

  “Nathan, come on!” Laura called out.

  He sighed deeply, put down the pineapple plant he was attending to and came over. “What?” He saw what they saw and turned back. “Like I said, just some jerks. Leave them to it. They’ll get bored eventually.”

  But Faith wasn’t to be placated. She kept going, moving around the bushes until she came out right in front of them. It was Ellis’ huge frame the thugs were aiming their rocks at, and he was shouting at them as loudly as they were at him. The whole situation looked like a firework explosion, but Faith was sure the loudest bang was yet to come.

  “Ellis!” she hollered, her heart hammering in her chest. Whenever Faith was scared, her natural instinct was to confront it right away. She then looked at the rock-wielding thugs, who up close she realized couldn’t have been much more than 15.

  The ring leader, a tall boy with blond hair cropped so close to his head it shined gold in the sun, strode up to her, turning the rock over in his hand. “Oh, look, it’s Ellis’ girlfriend, come to save him.” He laughed and his whole gang sniggered.

  “Get out of here,” Nathan said, suddenly coming up from behind Faith and standing as tall and wide as his stature would allow – it looked like he worked out from time to time but he was no Incredible Hulk. “Go on, get lost.”

  *****

  Chapter 6

  The gang leader stayed cool when Nathan stepped up beside Faith. “Ooh, so this is your boyfriend. I knew the other guy was too fat for a pretty little thing like you.”

  Faith balled her fists instinctively. Being called a ‘pretty little thing’, especially by a 15 year old, set her blood boiling. Her mother had always told her that a woman was worth much more than her looks and any person that judged her on that first was simply not worth knowing.

  “Come on, out,” Ellis said, striding over to them and casting a huge shadow over them all. The man was 6’5”, wide, and clearly a lover of all the vendors’ offerings in Paradise Point. “I’ve called Deputy Sheriff Valdez and he’s on his way over.”

  “Ooh, I’m terrified,” the ring leader said, but there was actually a flicker of fear in his eyes and he began to slope off lazily, looking Nathan and Faith and Ellis up and down with disgusted eyes. “Don’t look at me,” he snapped as they returned his gaze.

  The rest of his crew followed him toward the path and soon disappeared behind the palms that lined it. As soon as they left, Faith couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and Nathan joined in.

  Ellis didn’t look pleased, folding his doughy arms over his chest and twisting his mouth into a knot.

  Laura, who had been behind a bush, came over and began to laugh along, wiping her eyes.

  “Don’t tell me you were crying?” Faith said to her, laughing all the more.

  Laura burst out laughing all over again. “Yep!”

  “She cries at everything,” Nathan said, shaking his head and grinning. “Don’t you, Weepy?”

  Ellis let out a huffing sound. “None of this is a laughing matter,” he said sternly. “Those scum bag boys keep coming down here. The front desk knows not to let them in. I’m not sure if they go over the rocks at the beach or climb in some other way. But it’s got to stop. It’s got to.”

  Faith shrugged. “I know what you’re saying, but their bark is much worse than their bite, surely?”

  “They were throwing rocks!” Ellis said, shaking his head and turning in the direction they’d left in, though they were long gone.

  Nathan stooped down to pick one up and turned it over in his hand. “Not much more than pebbles, really.”

  “Well, just see how you’d like it if they were pelted at you,” Ellis snapped, then marched his bulk toward his office as fast as he could, swinging his arms violently. After a couple moments he turned back, his face like thunder. “This is a family place, you know, and I’m not standing for this thuggish behavior any longer. I’m calling a meeting for tonight. Be there, Faith and Laura.”

  “All right,” Laura said, then turned back to the others and widened her eyes. “Whoah. I guess that’s what you call trouble in Paradise.”

  “Oh ha ha,” Nathan said. “I don’t see what Ellis is getting so upset about. They’re just idiot kids. He called the Sheriff, the kids are gone. What else needs to be done?”

  They started ambling back toward the newly named Slice of Paradise. They’d yet to create the sign, but they’d already painted over where it used to say Bessie’s Café, which Faith felt quite guilty about. But, she reasoned with herself, her grandmother had put her in charge, and she was doing what she best saw fit to make the place profitable. Marlene was bringing the account books over to Faith’s apartment that evening and Faith was expecting to see a lot of red.

  “I agree with Ellis, actually,” Laura said. “If it wasn’t
for you guys being so brave, it would have been pretty scary.”

  Nathan turned to Faith and smiled at her, his dark eyes deep and dancing. “I think we make a good team, huh?”

  “Oh, brother,” Laura muttered to herself, retying her bun since so many blonde wispy flyaways had escaped.

  Faith smiled, then looked away as she felt heat flush her cheeks. “Yeah,” she said quickly. “We all make a great team, me, you and Laura. We’re making this café into something special, I think. I just really hope my grandma likes it.”

  *****

  The meeting, as Faith has expected, was dreadful. Everyone had been dragged in unexpectedly after a hard day of rushing about on their feet, cooking, cleaning and serving customers, and no one was pleased.

  As usual, it was held in Ellis’ tiny little wooden office, with half of the vendors crammed in on folding chairs so close together they were thigh-to-thigh, while everyone else had to stand up.

  Faith, Laura and Nathan – who Laura told not to come but he smiled at Faith and came along anyway – had arrived early, even before Ellis, who was out on some errand, so managed to squeeze into some squished up seats. Joanne Cobb arrived after them but pointedly did not take a seat and stood by Ellis’ desk, fiddling with her fingernails and making little huffing noises now and again.

  Josiah Kelly, who ran an awesomely successful smoothie and juice shack down by the shore’s edge came in and flopped down in a chair, his long blond semi-matted hair falling everywhere. On her first day Faith had taken a stroll along the beach with Grandma Bessie and they’d each had a mango and coconut cream shake from his shack that had tasted like heaven on earth. He was quite attractive in an alternative sort of way. He tossed his satchel down and pushed the stray white-blond curls away from his tanned forehead. “So what’s this all about then, uh?” he said loudly. “Eh, Joanne?” He grinned.

  She completely ignored him, pretending to find her fingernails fascinating and not giving him so much as a glance.

  “It’s something about those young boys that keep coming in,” Faith said. “They were throwing rocks earlier today.”

  Josiah tipped back in his chair. “Ugh, no one cares. I just wanna go home.” He puffed out a long sigh. “I’ll bet any of you a hundred dollars, it’s just gonna be some long lecture about make sure you keep an eye out for these miscreants and report it back to Deputy Sheriff Valdez, the most stuck up, annoying, fuddy-duddy-acting young guy in the history of—”

  “Well, I’m terribly sorry if I want to do something meaningful with my life, instead of blend fruits together all day everyday.” Deputy Sheriff Valdez stood in the doorway, his booted feet firm on the floorboards in a wide stance and his fists planted on his hips.

  Josiah rocked forward on his chair. “I… uh… well, I meant…” Then he sighed. “Oh, I can’t be bothered to backpedal. Yeah, I don’t like you.”

  “Obviously that’s not important to me,” Deputy Sheriff Valdez said, striding to the front of the office. He couldn’t have been any older than her, Faith reckoned, but he had the most disarming self-assurance, somehow with only a tinge of arrogance instead of being steeped in it. It really did look like he was devoted to his job, his uniform neat and all tucked in. He was clean shaven with neat jet black hair. Totally not Faith’s type. She turned to raise her eyebrows at Laura, but found her gazing at him appreciatively, and suppressed a giggle.

  Ellis came in at that moment, scanned the room quickly and said, “Where’s Tonya?”

  “Oh, man, can’t we just do it without her?” Josiah said with a groan.Ellis frowned. “She’s never late. Hello, Tyler,” he said to Valdez.

  “Hello,” Valdez said in a voice much too loud for the tiny office. “I’m ready to talk to your vendors whenever you are.”

  Ellis kept taking glances outside. “I think we should wait for Tonya and Mer—”

  “I’d like to bring something up first,” Joanne said, her voice quiet but shaking with anger. “About what food people can serve and what they absolutely cannot serve.”

  Faith’s heart sank. Joanne really wasn’t going to give this up, was she?

  Ellis shook his head. “I told you earlier, Joanne. Faith and Laura are well within their rights serving cupcakes. They’re also serving juices, which is Josiah’s—”

  “Everyone serves juice!” Joanne snapped. “It doesn’t take rocket science to chuck fruit in a juicer, does it?”

  Josiah rolled his eyes. “Yeah, hold the Nobel Peace Prize for the intricate genius of cupcake baking.”

  “Cupcake baking is an art!” Joanne said ferociously.

  Josiah, Ellis, Nathan and Laura laughed.

  But for the first time, Faith felt herself able to agree. “It kinda is. Well, at least to people who really care about it.” She tried to offer an olive branch. “I get what you mean, Joanne. I really hope we can work this out.”

  Joanne flashed an ice cold look directly at her. “Then wipe cupcakes right off your menu.”

  Faith took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. Confrontation was the worst, leaving her with shaking hands and a dry mouth. “Look, I studied your cupcakes to make sure they’re totally different. We don’t have any of the same flavors, or anything.”

  “Really, we don’t,” Laura chimed in.

  “Tell you what,” Faith said brightly, sure it would fix everything, “why don’t I get some of my cupcakes now and bring them to you, so you can see how totally different they are?”

  “No way am I waiting around for that,” Josiah said, then yawned widely. “Some of us have beds to go to.”

  The sun was only just beginning to set outside. Tonya Tate, the lady who ran the pancake house near the playground, came hurrying in, a folder tucked underneath her substantial arm. Her gold earrings flashed in the dusk light and what seemed like thousands of teeny tiny braids skimmed her waist. “Sorry we’re late!” she said, and Merlene the redheaded accountant entered after her with an exaggerated creep and stage whisper of, “Sorry!”

  Faith’s heart was still beating a little faster as she waited for Joanne’s response.

  “Absolutely not,” Joanne said. “And to stop you wasting your breath, let me tell you that nothing you can say will ever shut me up or placate me. The only thing I want to hear out of your mouth is that you’ll stop stealing other people’s ideas. Bessie would be ashamed of you.”

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Tonya said, standing back up as soon as she’d sat down. “Is this really still an issue?”

  Josiah swung his satchel over his shoulder and headed for the door. “I haven’t got time for cupcake drama, man. I’m out.”

  Ellis shook his head but made no attempt to stop him.

  “I would like to remind you all to be civil,” the deputy sheriff said, though no one was listening.

  Nathan stood up by Faith’s side. “I really think Faith’s idea is a good one. She should let Joanne see the cakes to show her how different they are.”

  Tonya nodded. “That sounds fair.”

  Tyler looked up at Ellis and gestured to his watch.

  “Do that after the meeting,” Ellis said. “For now we’re talking about those hooligans.”

  “No!” Joanne said at the top of her voice. “Tell her to stop selling cupcakes!”

  “Joanne!” Ellis thundered. “That conversation is over. Faith is going to bring cupcakes over to you tonight. Then we will see what happens afterward. Now everyone sit down and listen to what Deputy Sheriff Valdez has to say. I don’t want to hear another word!”

  A stunned silence settled over the room, then it faded into resignation.

  Faith sat down and listened as Valdez began to talk. She hadn’t realized quite how much adrenaline was zipping around her body until everything went quiet and still. She could feel Joanne’s evil stare burning into her, no matter how hard she tried to listen to Valdez and forget about the whole cupcake situation. She could only hope that Joanne would see some sense when she saw the difference in their styles –
Joanne’s cupcakes were generally bright synthetic colors with fruit flavorings and a whole ton of garish frosting. They were certainly eye catching, but not Faith’s style. She preferred adventurous combination flavorings, like white chocolate and lavender, or maple syrup and bourbon and pecan, or dark chocolate and candied ginger, with artistic marbled frosting. Neither was better, per se – it was all a matter of taste – but they really were poles apart.

  “Don’t worry,” Laura whispered in her ear. “It’ll all work out.”

  Faith was trying to convince herself that was the case, but she couldn’t deny a creeping feeling was spreading through her. A feeling that was telling her something was about to go dreadfully wrong.

  *****

  Chapter 7

  Faith walked through the palm-edged walkways of Paradise Point feeling anxious. She was never a person to be scared of the dark, but all of a sudden everything seemed to hold hidden dangers that not even the pretty white Christmas lights strung up everywhere could chase away.

  She clutched a box of cupcakes under her arm and regretted insisting Laura and Nathan go on to their homes without her. They had both wanted to come but she had been quite firm. In a strange way, she felt she wanted to resolve the issue with Joanne personally. As much as Joanne hated her, Faith was sure she could get through to her with their mutual love of cupcakes.

  Trying to be accommodating, she’d even thought of setting up a deal whereby Joanne could bake the cupcakes Faith and Laura sold in Slice of Paradise. But then she’d felt a sinking feeling in her gut, knowing that she just couldn’t give up baking cupcakes, no matter how much anyone had wanted her to.

  As weird as it might have seemed to others, cupcakes had always been there for Faith. When a horrible bully Katy transferred to their school for a semester and relentlessly tormented her and turned other girls against her, cupcakes had been her refuge in the evenings, a safe place where she could get lost in the warmth and the sweet scent and the preciseness of following recipes. And then when the relationship with Jeremy had fallen apart, baking cupcakes had been her coping mechanism. She’d invented a whole ton of new creations then, like apple cupcakes with cinnamon frosting, and vanilla cupcakes cut in the middle like miniature sponge cakes, stuffed with raspberry jam and creamy hazelnut butter.