At the bakery, I raced in a dozen directions. Due to a few flooded roads remaining, there was actual traffic this early in the morning as people left early to make it through all of the detours. Thanks to the unusually congested route, I arrived late to the bakery and yet, managed to be the first person there. Not a good sign.
Pre-heating the ovens, pulling dough out of the fridge, carrying boxes of baked cookies to the display case; the tasks that normally brought me joy seemed to be never-ending this morning. A car horn beeped out back. Cracking the door open, I saw Sam in the dim parking lot light struggling to carry boxes and bags and…were those balloons?
“Is Gladys here yet? Or Millie?” Sam puffed, out of breath and about to lose the juggling battle.
“Not yet.” I kicked the door stop in front of the door, propping it open. Just in time, I caught two boxes as they toppled from the stack in Sam’s arms. “What is all this stuff?” Somehow, she had made it all the way across the parking lot without catching her heels on a rock or in a pothole even though she couldn’t possibly see past the stack of packages. Amazing. It’s like high-heels are her superpower.
“Party supplies.”
A resounding thud sounded as we placed everything on the island table.
“Quick – we have to hide it before everyone gets here.” Sam opened the supply closet.
“Don’t you think Millie will see it when she goes in there for cleaning supplies?”
“Shoot.”
“Where do you think we’re going to hide balloons?”
Sam tapped her long fingernails on the table. “Flo’s Flowers!”
I considered it. “That’s actually pretty brilliant. Anybody who sees the balloons will assume they are going on a flower arrangement that Flo is making.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay. You take those to Flo; I’ll try to hide the rest of this in the pantry.” Surveying the mound of purchases again, I had to ask. “Don’t you think this might be a little much for one going away party?”
“It’s not for one going away party.”
“Then…?”
“Half of it is for a belated congratulations / engagement / wedding party / thing for Gladys.” Sam grinned. “No friend of mine is getting married without having a party. No reason we can’t do both at the same time.”
“Good idea, except one thing.”
Sam’s lips turned down in the tiniest frown. “What’s that?”
“You didn’t tell me, so now I don’t have a present for Gladys.”
Sam’s face lit up. Too late for me to take it back. And as expected, the next words from her mouth were predictable. “That means we get to go shopping before dinner tonight!” With an added bounce in her step, another unfathomable thing at this time of morning, she clasped the balloons and went to stow them next door.
With some serious speed and stacking skills, the other boxes were put away before she returned.
The door barely shut behind Sam before her phone rang. “It’s Vinny.” She moved to take the call in the café.
I scooped tiny balls of dough onto pans and slid them into the oven. Once the racks were filled, I set about making something new. Today would be experiment day. Olive Oil Rosemary Baby Bundt Cakes. By the time I had sprayed the miniature Bundt pan, Victoria and Millie were knocking on the back door.
Flipping the lock, I opened it and let them in.
“BeeBee already went to Flo’s.” Millie, seeing me looking around outside, spoke up.
Victoria knelt in front of the oven. “Sorry we’re late. Looks like you didn’t really need much help.”
“No problem. Did y’all still have issues with the roads?”
Millie nodded her head up and down, blonde ponytail swaying wildly. “We had to take a really long way.”
“Our scooters wouldn’t have made it through most of the water. Some of the shallow places might have been fine but we figured it’d be best not to risk it.”
I agreed with Victoria. “A few minutes late is far less expensive than an accident or injury.”
Sam tiptoed through the swinging door.
“Why are you being weird?” I tilted my head at her.
“What?”
“You look like you’re sneaking. Why would you be sneaking in our own bakery?”
Victoria and Millie shrugged and nodded. “You look like my mom when my little brother first goes to sleep, like you don’t want your feet to touch the floor or an explosion might sound.”
“Maybe I tiptoed a little. The reason though is that I didn’t want Gladys to notice me slip away. She’s here and I need you to need her for something.”
I quirked a brow. “You’re making no sense.”
“Frédéric brought her to work today. If you hurry up and call Gladys back here for something then I can invite him…you know…” She faltered, unable to say more with Millie right there.
“Gotcha. On it.” I whisked out of the kitchen with Sam trailing behind before the girls could ask questions. Now they probably think we’re both nuts.
“Piper, you remember Frédéric?” Gladys stood up from pointing out different desserts and greeted me.
“How are you?” Smiling, I shook Frédéric’s hand.
“Je vais bien.” He inclined his head. “I’m doing fine. Merci.”
“Gladys, I need you in the kitchen for half a minute. Do you mind?”
“Of course not.” Patting Frédéric’s arm, she followed me.
Now, what to tell her needs her attention. I racked my brain for ideas as we walked through to the kitchen. She would know that it wasn’t to taste test; typically, we brought those into the café for whoever was working the counter.
“What did you need?”
I looked around, hoping inspiration would strike. Sadly, inspiration seemed to be taking the day off. “I…forgot?”
“Happens to me all the time.” Gladys turned to leave.
“Wait!”
Eyebrows rose expectantly as she paused. I blurted the first thing that came to mind. “I wondered if Frédéric knows any savory dessert recipes. I hoped you could ask him, save me the embarrassment.”
Suspicion passed over Gladys’s face. Her hands moved to her hips.
“I could Google them, of course. But he’s a real French chef and all.” I gestured helplessly, sinking. Come on, Sam, hurry it up in there. Timid and embarrassed wasn’t my style; Gladys knew that and had to be wondering what was up with my odd behavior.
As if hearing my mental plea, Sam stuck her head through the door. “Hey Gladys, I think Frédéric is about to leave if you want to tell him bye. If you and Piper are done?”
“All done.” I spun on my heel and disappeared into the pantry before Gladys could get a word in.
For the rest of the morning, avoiding Gladys became my main objective. Easier said than done. The fourth time that I ducked into the pantry, or was it the fifth, Gladys cornered me.
“Strange. You’re alone.”
“What?” The comment puzzled me. My guard dropped.
Gladys crossed her arms and that teacher look she was so good at fell into place. “You’ve spent so much time in the pantry today that I felt certain I’d catch you in here making out with Griff. But no, it’s only you in here.”
I snatched an open bag of dark chocolate chips off the shelf. “You caught me. Bad cravings today.” She looked unconvinced. I tossed back a handful of the dark chocolate morsels, talking with my mouth full. “It’s that time of the month.” I rubbed a hand across my lower abdomen.
“Oh!” Understanding dawned on her face followed by a most sympathetic expression. “Score one for getting old, no more of that time of the month.”
Sam calling my name broke up the uncomfortable moment in the pantry. Stepping out into the kitchen, I sighed as Gladys made her way back to the café. “Yes?” I searched for Sam.
She stood by the back door. “We have to go early. Vinny called. He needs us to pick up the outfits for tonight.”
&nbs
p; ~
“Has there been any sign of that new story about your mother yet?” With the Seashell Bay Press employees abuzz yesterday with rumors of a new article, I expected another front-page headline. The hectic morning left no time for checking out the paper or social media.
Sam scrolled her phone as I drove. “Nope. I don’t see a thing yet. The announcement about food and shelter at the church looks great though.”
“Excellent.” Silence stretched as we drove. “Have you asked her about the adoption clinic photo yet?”
Sam’s head swung side to side. “I’m not sure I even want to.”
“Why not?”
“Two reasons, really. First, she’ll probably flip her lid if I bring it up. Second, what if I was adopted? Do I want to know?”
“I think I would be too curious not to know.”
“This is it.” Sam pointed to a house on the left.
Signaling, I turned in. “Vinny works from home?” I changed the subject. Sam would figure out what to do when she was ready.
“No. He has an office on the East end of town. He said he wasn’t going in to work today when he called.”
I rang the doorbell, noting the camera feature and giving a little wave.
Hacking and coughing sounded before the door even opened. “Achoo!”
Involuntarily, I stepped back out of the germ range of sneezes. Vinny held a wad of tissue to his nose and trumpeted into it.
“I guess you’re a little under the weather.”
Vinny glared through puffy eyes.
“I mean, not you’re little. Or below the weather.” I stuttered. “Sick. You look sick.”
Vinny eyeballed Sam. “Your friend is a real smooth talker isn’t she.” Leaving the door open, Vinny waddled down the hall, blowing his nose every few seconds.
I waved an arm toward the house. Sam entered and I followed behind. Far behind. Vinny and I obviously weren’t meant to be chummy which was fine; the excess snot kept grossing me out anyway.
“Your clothes are in the purple bag.” Vinny stood in front of a pile of garment bags and boxes. There were various garment bags and boxes lined along the wall behind the sofa like sentinels. The purple garment bags lay across the coffee table, hanging off both ends.
“Thanks, Vinny.” Sam gently swooped the garment bags into her arms.
Making haste, I retreated into the hallway. Two steps. Only two steps before Vinny called me back.
“Where are you running off to? Someone has to carry all the rest.”
Wary, I re-entered the living room. “The rest of what?”
Jerking a thumb at three black and one golden garment bag swinging from the trim above a door across the room, Vinny used the other hand to blow his nose yet again. The man housed a mucus factory behind that flat nose. “Deidra’s order. It’s only right you deliver them, too. After all, my considerate nature and willingness to make a house call during a hurricane is how I ended up with this bloody cold.”
“It was not a hurricane.” I matched Vinny glare for glare. “It was a tropical storm.”
“Grab the bags, Piper.” Sam let out a long sigh. “We have to see Mother tonight regardless. Might as well get on her good side by bringing the rest of the clothes.”
CHAPTER 20
The rear-end of the truck slid sideways as I slammed on the brakes. “Holy cow!”
“The storm must have been even worse here than we realized.” Sam leaned forward in the seat, staring out the windshield at the massive tree laying across her parents’ driveway. “Maybe that’s why Jerry abandoned the guard house, to find someone to cut up the tree.”
“Maybe.” It had been odd to find the gate open and the old guard not at his post. Coming up on the tree, the storm was my first thought, too. I got out of the truck. I needed to see if driving around this mess would be possible. Something didn’t seem right. There were no broken tree limbs. Not a single limb from any of the surrounding trees. Only this one solid tree, directly across the drive.
Sam’s door slammed. She would probably ruin whatever heels she had on in all of this mud.
I picked my way through the branches and around the end of the tree. “Uh-oh.”
“What’s wrong? Are we going to have to walk all the way to the house?” Sam asked.
“We’re going to have to walk all right. And we need to be careful.”
Sam drew close but stayed on the other side of the downed tree.
“Why?”
Crouching, I found my way back to her. “This wasn’t the storm. This tree has been cut down.”
“Like, on purpose?”
“Yeah. I don’t know why. There’s no room to drive between the other trees. We’ve got to walk.”
“Okay. I guess we should take the bags?” Sam began unbuckling the straps on her heels. Deidra would have a fit when she showed up with bare, muddy feet.
“Isn’t there a golf cart or something at the house we can use to come get them?” Really, I thought we should burn the bags so we didn’t have to wear the crazy yellow outfits tonight.
“Probably.” Shoes off, Sam started walking forward. “Why do you think they cut the tree down?”
“That’s what worries me. The tree seemed perfectly healthy. The chainsaw was still sitting beside it; the motor was cold.”
Sam frowned. “It was cut down but not cut up?”
“Yep.” My mouth pulled into a grim line. “Someone blocked the driveway with no intention of unblocking it.”
Moving faster now, we held to the cover of the tree line and jogged toward the house. My eyes roamed the grounds. No movement that I could see, nothing to indicate anything was wrong but nothing to indicate everything was fine either.
Sam left the shade of the trees to go up the porch steps.
Pulling her back, I jerked my head around the side.
Sam gasped as she noticed what I did. An arm lay sticking out of the hedges next to the house. Both hands flew to her mouth, her eyes round with fear.
A finger to my lips, I shushed her. Whispering, I told her to stay put. “I’ll be right back.”
Stooping so low that I nearly crawled, I inched forward. With every snapping twig or rustling leaf beneath my foot, my gut clenched. My movements slowed the nearer I came to the bushes and the prone arm. I told myself that slow and quiet was necessary if I didn’t want anyone in the house to know we were outside, it’s hard to say. If I were honest with myself, I just really didn’t want to pull those bushes back and find out who lay among them.
Steeling myself, I drew a bracing breath and reached my hand forward. Pulling back the lower branches, I peered through the leaves. “Son of a!” I fell backward as something leapt out at me.
Hearing my cry of alarm, Sam rushed forward, brandishing one of her shoes as a weapon.
A small grayish brown frog hopped away.
My chin sunk to my chest in relief. “False alarm,” I whispered. We sat silently. I counted to five but my yelp seemed to have gone undetected. “Okay. Here goes.” Latching on to several branches again, I pulled the curtain of green hedge back.
“It’s Jerry.” Sam rested a hand on my shoulder as she peered beneath the foliage. Jerry, the kind-hearted guard from the guard shack. “Is he…?”
As I watched, his chest rose and fell in small breaths. Blood trickled from a spot behind his ear. “He’s alive but he’s been knocked out.” I kept my voice low and dropped the bushes back into place.
“Thank God,” Sam exhaled. “Now what?”
Before I could answer, my ringtone pealed out the Pink Panther theme song on full volume.
I fumbled with my pocket in my cargo pants but couldn’t get the button undone. The music played on and on. I finally jabbed the side button through the fabric, silencing the ringer, and jerked the flap, button flying off. The screen continued to show an incoming call. “Gladys?” I whispered.
“Piper, I have those recipes for you.” Her voice coming through the speaker in my ear sounded loud eno
ugh to wake the dead. I cringed.
“Gladys it isn’t a good time.” I whispered, sneaking a glance at the window above us. Did the curtain just twitch? “Send police to Deidra’s house.”
“What? What? Piper? I can barely hear you. Do you want the recipes?”
“No,” I growled a little louder. “Send the police to Deidra’s house.”
“What did that crazy woman do now?”
Gravel crunched behind us. I sprung around but froze when I saw the gun.
Sam lifted her hands into the air.
“Drop it.” A command, no doubt about it.
I let the phone slip from my grasp as told, hearing Gladys still on the other line, yelling my name. I hoped she hung up and called 911 fast; this didn’t look good.
“Hey, baby sister.”
CHAPTER 21
I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was seeing. Or hearing. Illogical. Ludicrous. Insane. At the prodding of the gun, Sam and I were marched into the house.
“Mother!” Sam lurched toward the dining table. Deidra Lowe sat at the head, dripping with jewelry like royalty and trussed up like the Thanksgiving turkey.
“Of course, you show up with her instead of someone who could actually get me out of this ridiculous situation.” Even tied to a chair, Deidra’s high-and-mighty attitude didn’t waver. “We’re never going to make it to the country club on time at this rate. And you, young man, are no longer invited. You’ll never dine anywhere but the inside of a prison for the rest of your life.”
“Shut up!” Garrett waved the gun. “You’re right about one thing: you won’t be makin’ it to the country club on time. And neither will baby sis’ here either.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
A crazed grin spread across Garrett’s face. “You mean Mommy-Dearest here never told you about me? She wouldn’t have, now would she.”
Gone was the polished speech and fancy clothes. This man could have been Garrett’s homeless twin. Dirty, tattered jeans, stained with mud, a ripped dress shirt, half-tucked in and half loose; he looked like he’d been caught in the storm. And maybe he had. Maybe he’d been hit in the head and lost his mind.
Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery Box Set Page 58
