Whole Latte Magic

by Samantha Silver

“Leanne and Eliza,” she said. “You’re the two women who saved me. I’m so glad you came, I cannot begin to thank you enough.”

  “These are for you,” Leanne said, handing her the flowers. “I wanted to come and apologize for, you know, hitting you. I swear, I tried to swerve. I did my best.”

  “You’re too kind,” Karen replied, reaching over to take the bouquet and inhaling deeply into the flowers. “Please, do not worry about me one bit. It’s thanks to the two of you that I’m alive at all. So you must be Leanne.”

  My cousin nodded. “That’s right, I am. And this is Eliza.”

  “Do you remember us hitting you?” I asked, and Karen shook her head.

  “I’m afraid not. I only know what the police have told me. They said I was stabbed, and that I ran out into the road in front of you, and you’re the ones who called the ambulance. I don’t remember anything that happened after school ended that day. I remember the bell going off, and then waking up in the hospital bed. Everything else is a blank.”

  “Do you know if the police know who did this to you?”

  Karen shook her head. “I don’t think they do. Chief Jones himself came down to Seattle, asking me all sorts of questions. Had I been fighting with anyone, did I know anyone who might want to hurt me, that sort of thing.”

  “Do you?” Leanne asked. “We were just wondering ourselves who might have done it.”

  Karen shook her head. “Frankly, no. I’ve had a few disagreements with people in my life, but nothing worth killing over. I’m quite sure of that.”

  “What about Andrew, who runs the recreation center?” I asked. “We heard you had an argument with him a few days before you were stabbed.”

  Karen frowned slightly. “Now, I wonder who’s been running their mouth in town. Yes, Andrew and I had a disagreement. It was very much a private matter, however, and I’m sure it wasn’t something he would have killed me over. You know, I still can’t even believe this is a conversation I’m having. I just can’t think of anything I’ve ever done that would make someone want to kill me. I just can’t believe it.”

  She was getting a little bit worked up, and obviously wasn’t going to help us all that much, so I decided to try and make her feel a bit better, instead.

  “It must be nice to have this community support, at least. I work with Leanne at the coffee shop and everyone I’ve spoken to was hoping you would pull through.”

  “Oh, that’s just wonderful,” Karen said with an appreciative smile. “I really can’t believe the outpouring of support I’ve received from everyone here on Enchanted Enclave. Sasha came over to see me, and she made enough food to feed Kyle, the boys and my parents for weeks. A few of my coworkers came by as well and offered to take the boys out for a while so the adults could get some rest. I just can’t thank everyone enough. And now these lovely flowers, when I should be the one thanking you, not the other way around.”

  “We’ll let you rest now,” I said. “Thanks for seeing us.”

  “Oh, thank you for coming. It’s so nice to see some friendly faces from home. I’m really glad to be back here, even if it is just in the hospital.”

  “We were just talking about that today with Gary’s sister, the florist,” Leanne said.

  “Janet is lovely, isn’t she? She works so hard to keep that florist going while working part time at the school. Honestly, I don’t know how she does it.”

  “A lot of people have been saying that about you, too,” I said. “After all, you’ve got the two little boys at home, and we know how most of the childcare falls onto the woman’s shoulders.”

  Karen gave us a smile. “Ah, yes. Well, Kyle does do his bit sometimes. I always wish he did more, but then, what mother doesn’t? The boys are really wonderful, though. My parents say they’ve been taking this like champions, which is what I’d expect all the way. They’re so young to have their mother being hurt like this, so I try to put on the bravest face I can when they’re here. They’re too young to know what suffering is, and I don’t want them to know about it yet, either.”

  “Yeah,” Leanne said, nodding. “I agree. I’m really glad for their sake as well as yours that you’re going to be alright.”

  “Me too,” Karen said. “I love them so much.”

  We spoke for a few more minutes and then left the hospital. I was really glad Karen was alright, and it was nice to meet her when she wasn’t just about to die of blood loss, but I had hoped she would have been able to give us a bit more of an indication as to who her killer was.

  “Do you believe what she says about Andrew and the argument not being important?” Leanne asked, obviously thinking the same way I was.

  “No,” I replied. “If it hadn’t been important, he wouldn’t have broken into her home.”

  “Exactly,” Leanne replied, nodding. “I agree completely. There’s something there, we just have to find out what.”

  The problem was, I was completely out of ideas, and it seemed Leanne was as well.

  The next morning at the coffee shop, Karen’s return to town was the talk of everyone who came in to get a coffee.

  “I missed you at yoga last night,” Janice said to us when she came in first thing.

  “Sorry,” Leanne replied. “We got distracted by other things. I promise we’ll be back on Wednesday.”

  “Speak for yourself,” I muttered under my breath, and Janice gave me a knowing smile.

  “It is difficult to start the practice,” she told me. “However, I ask that you give it a little bit of time. No one is an expert straight away, and after you’ve gone to a few classes and your body has adapted to the movements you may find you feel differently.”

  Wow. She had to have the hearing of a bat.

  “I’ll be there on Wednesday,” I said, the people-pleasing part of me taking over while inside my brain began sobbing at the thought.

  “Good,” Janice said. “I promise, it won’t feel as bad the second time.”

  “It better not, or I might actually die right there in the yoga studio,” I said after Janice left, and Leanne laughed.

  “You’re so dramatic. You did not almost die.”

  “You don’t know what I felt. People have been known to die from exercising. It’s happened.”

  “I’m pretty sure those people did more than a single hour of yoga,” Leanne replied, rolling her eyes.

  “You don’t know that,” I said, just as another customer walked in through the door, interrupting our discussion. It was Jack, looking chipper.

  “Good morning,” I said to him, and he smiled back at me.

  “Morning. Some good news today. Karen is back at the hospital. I went and saw her late last night and I’m thrilled to report she’s looking in good spirits and is on the mend.”

  “Yes, isn’t that great?” I replied. “We went and saw her as well. She was so gracious. I’m glad she’s pulled through.”

  “You couldn’t be more right. I met her parents at the hospital. They’re quite nice people, although understandably stressed. But did you hear someone broke into the family home while they were gone?”

  “No!” I said, my mouth dropping open, doing my best to feign surprise. “You’re kidding.”

  “Unfortunately not,” Jack said, his mouth a grim line. “I had no idea when I saw Karen, but I heard about it later; my wife found out about it at the bakery and told me that night.”

  “Is anything missing?” Leanne asked.

  “That’s the funny thing. Apparently, their place was ransacked a little bit, but no, nothing was gone. And there was cash and jewelry not well hidden from what I’ve heard. That’s the worrying thing – my bet is whoever tried to kill Karen snuck into her house to try and find some incriminating evidence and get rid of it.”

  “Well, by all accounts it wasn’t Gary,” I replied.

  “I heard he was in Seattle at a conference when it happened,” Jack replied, frowning. “I guess that means it wasn’t him after all.”

  “It cer
tainly looks that way,” Leanne said. “He’s dropped to the bottom of our list of suspects. On the other hand, we know that Karen and Andrew had an argument about something. She won’t tell us about what, and says that it wasn’t important enough for him to kill her over, but we don’t have any answers on that front.”

  “Well, hopefully the police will figure it out,” Jack replied.

  “Agreed,” I said, handing Jack his muffin. He said goodbye to the two of us and headed off. Frankly, it didn’t look like we were going to solve this crime anytime soon, so hopefully the police would manage it sooner rather than later.

  Chapter 19

  “Alright, time for you to take over the coffee making for a little bit,” Leanne said, motioning for me to make my way to the machine. We can swap if we get a crowd, but you need to get a bit more experience.”

  “Sure,” I said, swallowing hard and trying to hide my nerves. I was still worried that I was going to completely mess things up for customers and that they were going to hate coming to the coffee shop, but at least I had already done this once without messing things up too badly.

  Our next customer was a young woman who I had seen a few times, but whose name I didn’t know yet. She ordered a twelve ounce latte to go. Perfect – that was the easiest thing to make. I took a deep breath and made the coffee, carefully tamping the beans and watching as the machine extracted the espresso, the creamy brown fluid exuding that wonderful aroma that made me involuntarily inhale deeply.

  Carefully steaming the milk, I added it to the coffee and handed it to the woman. “If this isn’t up to our normal standard, please come back and Leanne will remake this for you,” I said to her. “This is only the third coffee I’ve ever made, so I won’t be insulted if you tell me it’s terrible.”

  The woman laughed. “Thanks, but I’m sure it’s fine. I’ve never had a bad coffee from here yet, and besides, as long as it’s got caffeine in it, I’ll drink basically anything.”

  “Finally, someone with low enough standards I might be able to meet them,” I said with a smile, and the woman gave me a friendly smile as she took a sip.

  “I don’t know what you’re worried about. This tastes fine. You’re doing great. Thanks again, have a great day.”

  “You too, thank you,” I said, my heart swelling happily as I realized I had just served my first ever paying customer. And she hadn’t asked for a refund! Maybe I was eventually going to be good at this barista gig after all.

  “Nice,” Leanne said to me with an approving nod. “Good job.”

  I smiled, but suddenly there came a noise from above me. I looked up just in time to see one of the huge industrial-style lamps hanging from the ceiling plummeting towards me.

  It took my brain a split-second to realize what was going on, and I managed to leap out of the way with a yelp just as the lamp went crashing to the ground a moment later, the sound reverberating across the room. The force of my jump knocked me off my feet and I fell against Leanne, dragging us both to the floor. A small piece of shrapnel scraped against my leg as pain seared through it.

  “What in the name of Saturn?” Leanne muttered hazily as I blinked, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

  “Are you alright?” a customer asked, peering over the counter as Kaillie rushed out from the kitchen.

  “Leanne! Eliza! What happened?”

  Aunt Debbie had been speaking with Uncle Bob on the distribution side of the building, but had rushed over at the sound, along with her brother.

  Uncle Bob immediately made his way around the counter and reached down towards his daughter.

  “Are you alright?” he asked us.

  Still slightly dazed, I sat up a little bit and looked at what had happened. One of the lights had come crashing down from the ceiling and was now in the middle of the floor, practically unrecognizable, right where I had been standing a minute earlier. If I hadn’t moved out of the way, I would have been crushed.

  Someone was helping me to my feet, and I got up, unable to tear my eyes from my near-death experience. That had been one heck of an accident.

  “How did that thing fall?” I heard Leanne ask next to me. “It could have killed us.”

  “They were only installed last year,” Kaillie said, frowning. “And we got Yuri, the best contractor in town to install them. He wouldn’t have done a shoddy job.”

  Uncle Bob stepped past me to have a look at the wire that had led from the lamp to the ceiling. His face was grim as he held it up.

  “I don’t think this was an accident,” he said quietly, and I gasped.

  “Someone cut it on purpose?” Leanne asked, and Uncle Bob nodded.

  “Yes. About ninety percent of the cable was sliced through cleanly, cut with a knife or some other sort of blade. Only about ten percent is actually torn. I think someone came in here and cut through most of the cable, expecting the rest of it to eventually tear off and crash to the ground.”

  I looked over at Leanne, who shared my horrified look.

  “But… who would do something like that?” I asked. “When?”

  Uncle Bob shook his head. “I don’t know. If the two of you are alright to move, I think we need to clear away from this area and call the police.”

  A sinking feeling developed in the pit of my stomach. Someone had tampered with the lamp on purpose?

  Aunt Debbie took over quickly and motioned for the customers to head back to the tables. I could hear her reassuring them, telling them that they were in no danger, but that if any of them wanted to take their items to go that wasn’t a problem.

  Most of them were trying to look past Aunt Debbie and looked over at Leanne and me, so I flashed a reassuring smile as best I could while Kaillie took Leanne and I to the kitchen at the back.

  “What on earth happened?” she asked, and I shook my head.

  “I have no idea. I just heard a snap, then I looked up and the lamp was falling. I just got out of the way instinctively.”

  “It’s a good thing you did,” Leanne replied. “If you were still under there when it hit the ground you’d be dead for sure. Those lamps are heavy.”

  “And Uncle Bob said someone did it on purpose. That means someone just tried to kill you, Eliza.”

  My face paled at the idea. It wasn’t the first time my life had been in danger since moving here, and in fact a killer had tried to silence me before, but this was different. That time, I’d had a gun leveled right at me when I had confronted the killer. This time, I was just going about my day-to-day life and almost had it ended in the blink of an eye. Just like that.

  Who on earth would have done this to me?

  “You realize it was probably whoever tried to kill Karen, right?” Kaillie said softly.

  “How could they have gotten in? When did they do it? This might actually be a good thing. If we can solve this crime, that can confirm for us who tried to kill Karen. If it was Andrew, maybe he left his fingerprints on the lamp or something like that,” Leanne said. “It sucks, but it might get us a bit closer to solving Karen’s stabbing.”

  I wasn’t quite in a mental state to be looking at the positives to this event yet. Kaillie must have noticed, because she made her way towards me.

  “Hey, come on over here and sit down,” she said, motioning to a small bench in the corner that she must have used to take breaks. “Leanne, can you get Eliza some water or something? She’s not looking so hot.”

  “Are you hurt?” Leanne asked, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge and bringing it over to me.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, I think I have a cut on my leg, but it’s not too bad. It hurt at first, but it’s fine now. I’m just a bit shaken up.”

  “That’s understandable,” Leanne said, leaning down to look at my leg. “After all, someone just tried to kill you. But listen, if anything, this just makes me more determined to find out who did this.”

  I winced as Leanne moved her finger towards the cut. “Kaillie, you have a first
aid kit back here, right?”

  “Yeah,” my cousin replied, making her way towards one of the shelves near the door. She grabbed a sealed tub and brought it over to us. Leanne quickly took care of the cut, cleaning the wound, putting s magical potion to heal the cut immediately, and then covering it with a large bandage.

  “Thanks,” I said with a smile when she was finished. “I appreciate that.”

  “You’re lucky you got away with just that scratch,” Leanne said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe it. It also means someone broke into the coffee shop. And they had to have done it in secret, or else we would have noticed. It’s not like the window in the door was broken this morning or anything like that.”

  “Right,” I said. “You didn’t notice anything strange when you unlocked it this morning?”

  “No,” Leanne replied. “On the other hand, I can’t guarantee that I would have noticed anything out of the ordinary at all. I’ve unlocked that front door in the morning probably over a thousand times in my life. I tend to do it on autopilot now. If the door had been unlocked and I just turned the key around an already unbolted door I might not even have noticed, to be completely honest.”

  “That makes things harder,” I said with a frown. “What about back doors?”

  “There’s one here,” Kaillie said, motioning to a door on the side wall. “This one leads to the alley at the side, which makes it easy for me to take out the trash when I’m baking. But there’s no way to unlock it from the outside, and I’m one hundred percent sure it was locked from the inside when I got here this morning.”

  “The other option is from dad’s side in the warehouse,” Leanne mused. “There are a few entrances there, including the rolling door that leads to the loading dock at the back. Whoever did it probably came through there.”

  “Do you know if Andrew has any particular lock-picking skills?” I asked, and Leanne shook her head.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have a clue. I never heard about it. If that sort of information ever got out he’d probably lose his job as the manager at the recreation center. After all, you can’t have someone with a criminal record working around so many kids like that.”