Death and Sweets

by Kate Bell

  Death and Sweets

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 4

  by

  Kate Bell

  Kathleen Suzette

  Copyright © 2018 by Kate Bell, Kathleen Suzette. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

  Books by Kate Bell, Kathleen Suzette

  Apple Pie A La Murder,

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 1

  Trick or Treat and Murder,

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 2

  Thankfully Dead

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 3

  Candy Cane Killer

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 4

  Ice Cold Murder

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 5

  Love is Murder

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 6

  Strawberry Surprise Killer

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 7

  Pushing Up Daisies in Grady,

  A Gracie Williams Mystery, Book 1

  Kicked the Bucket in Grady,

  A Gracie Williams Mystery, Book 2

  Candy Coated Murder

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 1

  Murderously Sweet

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 2

  Chocolate Covered Murder

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 3

  Death and Sweets

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 4

  Other books by Kathleen Suzette:

  Clam Chowder and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 1

  A Short Stack and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 2

  Cherry Pie and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 3

  Barbecue and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 4

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  I yawned as I drove down the street toward the Sweet Goblin Bakery. I wasn’t normally up and out the door at five a.m., but Mom had called me an hour earlier and asked me to go into the candy shop early to start making the candy for her. She didn’t feel well and didn’t know if she would be in at all, but she hoped to be in later. I usually went to work at nine and hadn’t expected the early morning call, so I was still groggy with sleep and trying to keep my eyes open. A stop by the donut shop would help me get going with a donut or two and a big cup of coffee.

  It was early October, and the air was crisp and cold. Stars still twinkled in the early morning sky and the moon was still out. I had donned a warm, fuzzy red sweater, jeans, and my brown suede boots that came up mid-calf. My hair was tucked beneath a white knit hat, a few strands of brown hair peeked out from beneath it. Fall is my favorite season, and I was trying to enjoy every minute of it by slowing down and breathing deeply. It passed all too fast for my tastes.

  Pumpkin Hollow is a small town in Northern California that celebrates Halloween all year long. We had an assortment of tourist attractions and we saw a lot of business during what we called the Halloween season. The Halloween season ran from the day after Labor Day until two weeks after Halloween and we were in the thick of the season now.

  Things were finally going well for me, now that I had moved back to Pumpkin Hollow after being away for ten years. I had a new boyfriend, one Officer Ethan Banks, my own house—it was rented—and a new pet, my little black kitty named Boo. In spite of all the trouble we had had in Pumpkin Hollow this Halloween season, I was still reasonably happy with my life and the way things were going.

  When I pulled up to the bakery, I noticed the lights were still off. I glanced at the clock on my dashboard and it read 5:13 a.m. That was unusual. Stella Moretti owned the Sweet Goblin Bakery, and she was normally very punctual in opening each day. She did a brisk business early in the morning with people stopping in to pick up donuts and coffee before heading out to their jobs.

  The Pumpkin Hollow Candy Store was only a couple of blocks away, but I parked in front of the bakery since I had to pass it to get to the candy shop. I got out of my car, headed to the front of the bakery, and peered in through the window, but I didn’t see any movement. That was odd, I thought.

  I glanced at the front door and noticed that it was slightly ajar. Maybe Stella had gotten busy in the back room making donuts and forgot to come out front to turn the lights on, I thought.

  I gently pushed open the door and stepped inside the bakery. I couldn’t smell baking donuts or cupcakes, and I didn’t know what to make of that.

  “Stella?” I called out to the darkness. Silence greeted me. It wasn’t like Stella not to be here early, busily baking up a storm for her customers.

  “Stella?” I called louder. When there was still no answer, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was cold inside the bakery, and I wondered why Stella hadn’t turned on the heater. I went to the front counter and peered over at the cash register. Had she been robbed? The drawer was closed, so I thought that wasn’t likely.

  I pulled my cell phone out of my front pocket, just in case, and strained my ears to hear. I was met with continuing silence, and a feeling of dread came over me. I glanced down at my cell phone and it showed the time was 5:15.

  “Stella?” I called out, sounding more hopeful than I felt. Maybe she was running behind this morning and hadn’t even gotten her baking started. I took a few more steps toward the back room where the kitchen was. There was a light switch on the wall on this side of the kitchen doorway and I flipped it on. The front of the bakery flooded with light behind me.

  “Stella?” I called again, more quietly this time.

  Something inside of me said to turn and run, but my feet were glued to the spot. I squinted my eyes into the darkness of the kitchen. I could make out the kitchen island where Stella decorated cookies, cupcakes, donuts, and cakes. The oven sat cold in its corner, and the industrial-sized refrigerator suddenly came to life. I jumped and then realized the refrigerator compressor had kicked on. Where could Stella be? I swallowed hard and took two steps into the kitchen.

  I knew it was pointless to call out again, but I couldn’t help myself. “Stella?” I said in my normal tone.

  I reached back and ran my hand along the wall on the inside of the kitchen doorway and felt the light switch. I swallowed again and flipped the switch on. The kitchen was flooded with light and I had to shield my eyes from the brightness for a moment.

  When my eyes adjusted, I remove my hand and glanced around the kitchen. What I saw gave me goose bumps. There was flour on the kitchen counter tops, dirty mixing bowls, and the big stainless steel stand mixer had batter dripping down the outside of the bowl. This was completely unlike Stella. She would never leave her kitchen in a mes
s after a workday and this mess was clearly left from the previous night.

  Stella had been a difficult person to deal with when the city council had tried to cancel the Halloween season. She sided with the city council. But Stella knew how to conduct her business and a dirty kitchen was not something she would tolerate.

  I slowly walked farther into the kitchen, my boot heels clicking and echoing on the kitchen’s tile floor. I surveyed the mess and wondered what to do. I didn’t know Stella well enough to have her home phone number, nor her husband’s cell phone number. Had she had an emergency and needed to leave suddenly the night before? Maybe that was it. Maybe her husband had fallen ill, and she needed to leave without having a chance to clean up. Maybe she had made an emergency trip to the hospital over in the next town, and had been up all night with him and hadn’t made it in to clean up and open the bakery on time.

  I thought this was the logical explanation. I decided that if I at least ran some hot water into the dirty bowls, it would help loosen the dried on batter and it would give Stella a helping hand when she arrived later. I stuck my phone in my front pocket. Part of my brain said I was really reaching and making up a story, but I picked up two dirty bowls from the counter and headed to the kitchen sink, anyway. I set them in the sink and turned the water on, squirting dish soap into them and watched them fill with hot water.

  When the two bowls were full, I turned the water off and turned back to the kitchen island to get more dishes to put into the sink, and that was when my eyes landed on a pair of athletic shoes. There were feet and legs still in those shoes and I realized somebody was lying behind the kitchen island. I gasped.

  “Stella?” I whispered, thinking she must have had a heart attack or some other medical emergency, and I hurried to her side. I kneeled down and touched her shoulder. She was cold and stiff, and I gasped again. “Stella.”

  I gently pushed on her shoulder, rolling her on her back and her head turned toward me. I suppressed a scream and sat back on my heels. Her mouth was open and her eyes stared vacantly. My eyes went to the red stain on the white apron she wore, and I jumped to my feet. Backing up quickly, my mind trying to grasp what I was seeing. When I got several feet away from her, I stood and stared at her for a few moments. I pulled my phone from my pocket again and dialed Ethan.

  “Ethan, I’m down here at the Sweet Goblin Bakery and Stella Morreti is dead.”

  “What? Say that again?” he mumbled sleepily.

  “Stella Moretti is dead. She’s here in her bakery,” I repeated. “Oh, Ethan, she’s dead. There’s blood on her apron, I need you to come down here. Now.”

  “I’ll be right there,” he said sounding alert now. “I’ll call for an ambulance and a squad car, and I’ll be there in just a few minutes.” He ended the call, and I stood with my cell phone still pressed to my ear and looked at Stella again.

  What happened Stella?

  I shook myself, stuck my phone in my pocket and headed back out of the kitchen to pace back and forth at the front of the bakery. What had happened to poor Stella? What was going on here in Pumpkin Hollow?

  I breathed out, trying to steady my nerves. Pumpkin Hollow had had a string of bad luck the last couple of months, and it seemed like the nightmare would never end. I went to the big picture window and looked up at the still dark sky and willed Ethan to come faster.

  Chapter Two

  I couldn’t stand being in the bakery with Stella’s body, so I went outside and paced back and forth in front of the bakery, waiting on Ethan. A man in denim overalls pulled up to the curb, parked, and got out of his pickup, heading toward the door. I stepped in front of the closed door before he got to it.

  “I’m sorry, but the bakery isn’t open just yet,” I said, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.

  “What do you mean it’s not open yet? I stop in for my maple bar every morning. Where’s Stella?” he asked, looking at me in surprise.

  “I think she had a family emergency,” I said. I couldn’t come up with anything more creative on such short notice. “She isn’t here right now.”

  He scratched his head. “That isn’t like Stella at all,” he said. “Did you talk to her this morning?”

  “No, I haven’t talked to her. I know she’s always diligent about getting the bakery open on time, but you know, sometimes things happen,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say, and I wished that he would just leave. I didn’t want to have to tell him that Stella was never going to open the bakery again.

  “Well, I guess there’s another bakery on the other side of town. But I sure hate giving them my business when I’ve given Stella my business all these years,” he said looking plaintively at me.

  I forced myself to smile. “I’m sure she’ll understand. Sometimes things can’t be helped.”

  He nodded. “Okay, when you see her, you tell her Rick stopped by, will you?”

  I nodded. “I sure will.”

  Rick got into his work truck and backed out of the parking space as sirens sounded in the distance. I wrapped my arms around myself. Pumpkin Hollow had had a lot of trouble the past couple of months, and I was hoping it was over.

  Ethan pulled up and parked next to my car. I walked to the curb and waited for him.

  “Where is she?” he asked as he got out of his squad car and slammed the door shut.

  I pointed at the bakery. “In the kitchen laying behind the kitchen island.”

  He headed into the bakery and I followed behind him, closing the door behind us so no one else would wander in.

  “What’s this?” Ethan asked, stopping and crouching down to look at something on the floor in the middle of the bakery.

  I stood beside him and looked. “Looks like a bakery bag with cookies in it.” I had missed it in all the excitement of having found Stella’s body.

  He nodded and picked up the small wax bag and looked at the cookies. There were four sugar cookies that were iced with a smooth white frosting. Intricate Halloween designs had been hand-painted on top of the frosting in what looked like edible paint or food color.

  “Cookies,” Ethan repeated and stood up again. He headed back to the kitchen and straight over to the island, taking the bag of cookies with him. He walked around the side where he stopped and looked down at Stella. “Did you check for a pulse?”

  I shook my head, walking up to the kitchen island. “I think she’s been dead for quite a while.”

  He knelt down beside her and put his hand on her neck, anyway. “I think you’re right,” he said. The sound of sirens got loud as an ambulance pulled up out front and then cut off its siren.

  I went out front and waited for them to come into the bakery. “She’s in here,” I told them. They brought a gurney and followed me into the kitchen, then went around the other side of the island to take a look.

  Ethan moved out of the way and came to stand beside me. “I’ve called for the coroner, and I’ll need to wait for him,” he told me.

  “What do you think happened?” I asked him.

  “Looks like a bullet wound to her chest. But we’ll have to wait for the medical examiner to know for sure,” he said. Then he looked at me. “What are you doing here this early?”

  “My mom was sick, so she asked me to come in early and get the candy started. I thought I’d stop by and get a big cup of coffee and a doughnut on my way in. Everything was dark, and the door was ajar, so I just came in. I thought at first that she was just running behind and was back here in the kitchen getting ready to bake, but the kitchen was dark, too. When I came in here, I found her like that.”

  “You really shouldn’t have walked into a dark building where the door has been left ajar,” Ethan said mildly.

  I nodded. “I guess I shouldn’t have, but I really thought she was here in the building somewhere and just hadn’t had time to turn the lights on.”

  “Did you touch anything?” he asked me.

  “Just the light switches and the doorknob. Oh, and I picked up some dirt
y bowls and put them in the sink, turned the water on, and put soap in them. I thought maybe she had had some kind of emergency and didn’t get a chance to clean up. Stella would never leave her kitchen looking like this, so she had to have been killed last night.”

  Ethan looked around at the mess in the kitchen. “Do you know her well enough to know for sure that she wouldn’t have left the kitchen looking like this last night?”

  “I think I do. The only way she would have left it like this is if she had some sort of emergency. But since she’s still here, I’m pretty sure she was killed last night.”

  “Do you know her husband? Do you have her home phone number?” he asked me.

  I shook my head. “I guess I don’t know her well enough to have her home phone number. She was just so darn aggravating when she was fighting against continuing the Halloween season. I guess I wasn’t very nice to her these last few weeks,” I said thinking about some of the conversations we had had. I couldn’t understand why Stella was against the Halloween season. “You know, she was one of the official Halloween businesses and yet she refused to participate in most of the activities that the rest of us did. Sometimes she made her donuts and cookies festive with Halloween colors, but she never went out of her way to paint her windows with Halloween scenes or buy cute Halloween boxes and bags to put her baked goods in. I just couldn’t understand it.” I shook my head. Poor Stella hadn’t seemed very happy in life.

  “You know, when someone dies, it seems like those left behind go over things in their minds that they wish they had done or said. But the fact is, everyone annoys someone at some point in their life, and if they die suddenly, people will feel bad that they hadn’t been nice enough to them. It’s just life,” he said, trying to reassure me.