Death and Sweets

by Kate Bell

  “Do you really think Daisy was capable of hurting her own sister?” I asked him, thinking this over. Daisy seemed like a sweet woman, but I didn’t know her that well.

  He shrugged. “Sometimes you never know what a person is capable of until they’re pushed to the limit.”

  “I guess you’ve got a point there,” I said.

  “When she found out you and your mom were making cupcakes and selling them at the candy store,” he said eyeing me, “she had a fit. She said she was going to go down there and give your mother a piece of her mind. But I told her that she didn’t even have any cute cupcakes like that in her bakery, so why bother? I’m sure had she lived, you would have heard from her.”

  I felt guilty again. “We didn’t mean anything by it, we just thought they were really cute and fun to make.”

  He held his hand up to me. “I understand completely,” he said. “And I wouldn’t have blamed Daisy if she had made good on her promise to open her own bakery. Sometimes I think having the Halloween business district is kind of ridiculous. Why not allow any business in town to participate in having Halloween themed businesses? It would be a bigger draw for the town and would help bring in more money.”

  He had a point there. We paid extra in taxes to operate on our side of town, and a little competition might improve things for everyone. “I agree with you completely, Vince,” I said. “But I hope Daisy isn’t the one who killed Stella. That would be incredibly sad if her own sister killed her.”

  He nodded. “It would be very sad. But I have my suspicions.”

  I did hope Vince was wrong, but it was something to keep in mind. I needed to speak to Ethan and see what he thought of Vince’s theory.

  Chapter Five

  “You look tired,” I said glancing over at Ethan. He had been working late on the case and this was the first chance I had had to speak to him since I saw him at the bakery the previous morning. We were driving down the highway in his pickup and he was quiet.

  “I am pretty tired,” he admitted and glanced at me. “Telling people they’ve lost a loved one is something I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to doing.”

  “I don’t envy you having to do that,” I said. “I spoke to Vince Moretti today.”

  He glanced at me again. “You did?”

  “I did,” I said, as I looked out the window at the passing landscape. “I decided to take a walk by the bakery and he was there. It was kind of sad if you want to know the truth. He was just sitting all alone in the dark.”

  “Yeah, he took it hard. That’s expected, of course. It just makes me feel terrible for him,” Ethan said, keeping his eyes on the road.

  “He thinks Stella’s sister, Daisy Browning, may have killed Stella. He said Daisy was resentful of Stella because she had helped her to get the bakery over in the Halloween business district and then Stella let her down by not participating in the season.”

  He nodded. “He very briefly mentioned something about that. In fact, it was the first thing he said when I told him Stella was dead. But when I questioned him about it, he kind of backed off of it and said he didn’t know who would kill her.”

  “I hope it wasn’t Daisy. I can’t think of anything sadder than one sister killing another,” I said. “Where are we headed?”

  He grinned. “The haunted farmhouse, of course. I have a surprise for you.”

  “What kind of surprise? Don’t keep me in suspense,” I said, turning toward him.

  “If you’ll just look through the back window there, I think you’ll see an ice chest in the back of my truck.”

  I did as he said and looked back, and sure enough, there was an orange Igloo ice chest in the bed of his truck. “And what does that mean?”

  “It means I packed us a picnic dinner and since it’s a weeknight, there won’t be many people at the haunted farmhouse. Nice and cozy, just the two of us.”

  “Oh, you little romantic you,” I said and giggled. “I can’t think of anything more romantic than a picnic dinner at the haunted farmhouse. As long as the ghosts and goblins don’t come out and try to interrupt our dinner, I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”

  He chuckled. “Since they don’t exist, I guess we’ll be safe.”

  “We really need to thank Tom for that load of straw to help us get that maze rebuilt.”

  Ethan pulled into the dirt parking lot at the haunted farmhouse, parked his truck and then turned toward me. “I was thinking we needed to send him and his dad some kind of thank you gift. Something just to show our appreciation for what they did for us.”

  “I like your thinking,” I said and opened the truck door and slipped to the ground. My eyes went directly to a small corral. Inside the corral were about a dozen goats, grazing. “Oh my gosh, Ethan! There are goats here!”

  He laughed and went to the back of the pickup truck, opened the tailgate and took hold of the ice chest. “I bet you won’t believe this, but I knew there were going to be goats here.”

  I looked at him and then I turned back to the goats and trotted over to the corral. When the goats saw me, some of them bleated a greeting while others ran in the opposite direction. Some of the goats had ears that hung down, and some had ears that stood up. There were red ones, brown spotted ones, and a black one with a white stripe around its belly.

  “They’re all so cute!” I said as Ethan hurried to keep up with me. I stuck my hand through the corral fence and scratched a red goat on its head. “These guys are perfect. So I take it Tom had a herd of them he could loan out?”

  “He didn’t, but one of his neighbors did. Of course, we have to give them back after the Halloween season, but they’re ours for the next few weeks.” He set the ice chest down, breathing hard. “I’m either going to have to start exercising again, or I’m going to have to walk a lot slower.”

  I laughed. “I’ll try to go slower for you, old man.” The farmhouse was deserted, and I was glad of it. It would just be the goats, and the two of us, plus a few horses that were already put up in the barn.

  He eyed me and reached a hand through the rungs of the corral and pet the goat I was petting. “I hope they’re not all too tame, it wouldn’t be that much fun if the kids were able to just walk up to them and take the ribbon from their tails.”

  “We’ll save this friendly one for the really young kids,” I told him.

  He nodded and picked up the ice chest and headed for some bales of straw that had been set up as seats near where the corn maze had stood. As promised, Tom had delivered a truckload of bales of straw. After petting the goat one more time, I followed after him. The ground was still black with ashes from when the maze had burned, and I kicked at the dirt with my black boots.

  “This is going to be kind of messy, isn’t it?” I said to him and went to sit beside him on a bale of straw.

  “Tom said he would bring a small tractor and turn over the ground before Saturday. I guess it won’t be a perfect situation, but it won’t be as bad as it is now.” He turned to me. “Now you know you’re dating the most romantic man in all of Pumpkin Hollow. I brought you to a haunted farmhouse, and I packed cold fried chicken, potato salad, fruit salad, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Top that.”

  “I never doubted that you were the most romantic man in all of Pumpkin Hollow. I’m just glad you got over the spider thing.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “You never forget, do you?”

  “Never.” Ethan had packed paper plates, napkins, cups, soft drinks, and plastic cutlery along with the food. He had thought of everything.

  “I have to tell you, I cheated. I bought all of this at the grocery store, but I did go to the store myself and picked it all out.”

  “I expected nothing less from you,” I said. “Are you going to talk to Daisy Browning?”

  “Yes, definitely. I have a few other people to speak to as well. Oh, and by the way, someone brought your name up as someone that I should speak to.”

  I turned to look at him to see
if he was kidding, but nothing on his face suggested that he was. “What do you mean speak to me?” I asked as he opened the box of fried chicken.

  “You and Stella really didn’t get along very well,” he pointed out. “What I’m wondering is, do you own a gun?”

  I was all set to protest when I saw a grin spread across his face.

  “You’re not even a little bit funny. Honestly, Stella was a difficult person to get along with. I could see where she might have more than one or two people that didn’t like her. But there is a huge difference between not liking someone and killing them. Heck, there’s a big difference between wishing somebody was dead and actually doing the deed.”

  He spread out a blanket over a bale of straw and we began unpacking the food and the plates. “There certainly is a huge difference. I guess I haven’t been a police officer long enough to understand how someone could go to that length. But, we will figure out who it was and put them behind bars.”

  I couldn’t understand somebody that would resort to murder. There are different ways of handling things, and I couldn’t imagine being pushed to the breaking point where I thought murder was my only option.

  Chapter Six

  I packed up a box of handmade candies the next day and drove them over to Daisy Browning’s house. I knew she had to be grieving over the loss of her sister and I wanted to know if she might tell me anything that would be useful in the investigation of Stella’s death.

  Daisy lived in a cute little Cape Cod cottage painted white with red brick halfway up the front. I rang the doorbell and waited. I didn’t know Daisy that well, but I knew her well enough to say hello and ask how she was doing when she came into the candy shop.

  The door opened and Daisy looked at me, trying to place who I was for a moment. Then she smiled. “Hello, Mia.”

  I smiled and took in Daisy’s disheveled appearance. Her short red hair hadn’t been brushed and her shirt was wrinkled. She looked like somebody who had had a rough couple of nights, and that didn’t surprise me at all. Grief did that to you.

  “Good morning Daisy, I hope I’m not disturbing you. I just wanted to stop by and pay my condolences. I’m so sorry about what happened to Stella. I brought by some candy. Sorry, I know it isn’t much.”

  She smiled and her eyes went to the box of candy in my hands. “That’s so sweet of you,” she said. “You’ll tell your mother that I appreciate it, won’t you?”

  I nodded and held it out to her. “I sure will.” She took the candy from me and there was a moment of awkwardness as I waited. I almost turned to leave, thinking she didn’t want company.

  “Would you like to come in for a minute?” she asked quickly. “I’m afraid I’m really not dressed to see anyone, but if you don’t mind that the house is a mess, I’ll make you a cup of coffee.”

  Daisy was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and I didn’t think she wasn’t dressed to see anyone, but she normally dressed in business clothing, so I supposed that was what she meant.

  “I’d like that,” I said and followed her into the house.

  Some people like to grieve by themselves, but some liked the company, and I was glad Daisy was up for some company. She led me into the living room and if she thought the house was a mess, I didn’t want her to see my bedroom. The living room was immaculate with nothing out of place. She showed me to the sofa, and I took a seat while she went and got some coffee for us. That gave me a minute to look around the living room. The furniture was velvet and was a reproduction of Victorian style furniture. I ran one hand over the chocolate brown fabric and it felt luxurious beneath my hand.

  “I already had some made,” she said returning with a tray that had a coffee pot, cups, creamer, and sugar on it. “Some days I think I live off of coffee.” She chuckled. “I think it’s Stella’s fault. She made the best coffee of anyone I know. She could take cheap supermarket brand coffee and make it taste expensive. I wish I had learned what it was that she did to make it taste that way.” She gazed down at the coffee pot for a moment. “Help yourself.”

  “Were you and Stella close?” I asked as I poured myself a cup of coffee. “My sister and I are close, but now that she doesn’t live in town anymore, we don’t get to see one another nearly as much as we’d like to.”

  “I guess it depends on what you consider close,” she said and poured herself a cup when I set the pot down. “The last few years we didn’t get along very well if you want to know the truth.” She glanced at me but didn’t continue.

  “Family relationships can be hard sometimes,” I encouraged.

  She nodded. “It just made me so angry, that I stuck my neck out for her when I was on the city council and helped her get that business license for the bakery. There were three other people that wanted it, and I promised the city council that Stella was the right person for it. Your mom has the candy shop in the Halloween district, and you know exactly what I’m talking about. People expect you to celebrate Halloween all year long and decorate for it. Stella refused to do it, not even during the Halloween season. I felt like such a fool for telling everyone that she was the right person for that license.”

  “I tried to encourage Stella to do a little bit more, but for whatever reason, she just didn’t seem to have the heart for it,” I said carefully. I didn’t want to offend Daisy by complaining about Stella. But she had been resistant to the Halloween season for as long as I could remember, and when the city council had considered ending the season, she supported that.

  She nodded. “I’m brokenhearted over what happened to my sister, I can’t believe someone murdered her. And the worst part of it all is that we hadn’t gotten along for so long. I wished I had just swallowed my pride and accepted Stella the way she was. She wasn’t just cantankerous over the Halloween season, she was cantankerous all the time.” She gave me a weak smile. “My sister was something else. She’s older than me by nine years, and I looked up to her when I was a child. All I ever wanted was to be like her. But somewhere along the line, she changed. Or maybe it was that I changed and I could no longer remember what it was about her that I had wanted to be like. I don’t know.”

  My heart went out to Daisy. She was obviously grieving for her sister, and I wondered how Vince could think that she had killed her.

  “I think when a person dies, we all have our regrets. We can drive ourselves mad if all we ever do is go over the hurt and the pain that occurred during times when we didn’t get along with that person very well.”

  She looked at me with unshed tears in her eyes and nodded. “That’s exactly right. When my parents died, I grieved over when I was in my teens and all the times I rebelled against them. They wanted me to do one thing— be a girl that studied hard and got good grades—and what parent doesn’t want that for their children? But I was angry and rebellious and I snuck out of the house at night, among other things. We fought constantly. But my goodness, I had been out of my teens for twenty years by the time they died, and yet I still went over and over all of that in my mind. I suppose it was made worse by the fact that my father died one year and my mother the next. It was just too close together.”

  “That’s exactly it. We replay those things over and over in our minds and it just drives us mad,” I said agreeably. “Daisy, you can’t think of anyone that might have wanted to harm Stella, can you?”

  Her eyes went to mine as she put her coffee cup to her lips. She took a sip before answering. “Do you want to know the truth? The first person I thought of when Vince told me was Angela Karis.”

  “Angela Karis? You mean her part-time employee?”

  She nodded. “I don’t know why Stella kept her around. They had been friends in grade school and I suppose it was because Angela had fallen on hard times that Stella gave her a part-time job. But, Angela had treated her terribly over the years. So you see, even though my sister was cantankerous, she still had a soft place in her heart for people.”

  I nodded. “Sometimes a rough exterior hides a soft heart. Wh
at did Angela do to Stella that was so bad?”

  “She had an affair with Vince.”

  My mouth dropped open and my mind scrambled for a response to this. It was the last thing I expected to hear. “Seriously?” I finally managed and then I wished I had just kept my mouth shut.

  Her eyes remained steady on mine. “It is a shock, isn’t it?”

  I shut my mouth and nodded my head. Then I opened my mouth again. “I don’t understand why Stella would hire her at the bakery if she was having an affair with her husband.”

  “Me either. Stella insisted it was years ago, not long after high school. But I’m telling you, I think it is continuing to this day.”

  “Poor Stella,” I said still trying to process this.

  She nodded and took another sip of her coffee. “Poor Stella, indeed. But, Stella felt sorry for her. Angela had destroyed her own marriage, and now she was trying to destroy Stella’s, but Stella refused to see it.”

  “So you think Angela killed Stella so she could be with Vince?”

  “Not only be with Vince, but take over the bakery. She complained about Stella’s not participating in the Halloween season like she should. Personally, if I were a murdering woman, she would be at the top of my own list right now.”

  “I kind of wouldn’t blame you, to tell you the truth,” I said, hoping I wasn’t encouraging anything by saying it. “So, Angela had an affair with Vince after they got out of high school, and they’ve been carrying on ever since?”

  “I don’t think that’s quite what happened. I think they had the affair, and Stella found out about it. They broke up, and Angela went on with her life. But after her husband left her for another woman, Angela went crying to Stella and Stella gave her a job. I think at some point after that, she and Vince started back up again. I know this because I caught them at a restaurant together about six months ago. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Vince was in on the murder.”