"Oh yes, you totally should," Masie said. "Call me if you need backup too."
She hung up before I could respond, most likely going back to sleep. I didn't have a clue if Logan was up or out. I just knew I wouldn't be able to sleep until I got the thought off my chest.
He picked up quickly. “Coco, is everything okay. Are you at the bakery at this time?”
“No, I’m at home. I need you to come over if you can. There’s something I need to talk to you about. Were you sleeping?”
“Um, no working on a case. You want me to bring anything?”
I thought about that for a minute and decided I could definitely use some coffee.
“Coffee, cream, and sugar,” I said. “I’ll see what baked goods I have lying around.”
“Sounds like a plan, see you in about twenty minutes.”
When he made it to the house later, I’d already put cookies in the oven. I figured chocolate chip cookies were always welcome.
“That smells amazing,” he said with a smile.
“So does that,” I said inhaling deeply and anticipating the caffeine as I took the cup from his hand.
“Okay, you got me here. What did you want to tell me?”
“I think there’s someone we forgot about with this whole murderer thing. If you’ll remember I asked you what you thought about the guy Tom was arguing with. I thought he was running coke for him or something.”
“Oh, the case,” he said, “you called me over here for the case.”
“Yeah, what else would I call you for Logan,” I said with a laugh. The look on his face was hard to read, but I found myself wondering if he thought I wanted him to come over for a more romantic reason. I blew that off though, it didn’t make sense.
“Nothing,” he said shaking his head, “so the coke in your sugar bags. I admit I didn’t remember you said that after I left.”
“Didn’t you write it in your notebook?” I asked.
He looked sheepish.
“And here I thought you were listening to everything I said,” I told him.
“I’m sorry, but I’m listening now, tell me about the guy.” He pulled out the notepad again.
I retold him the story of what we’d heard and seen that day. The argument they had in the parking lot and the woman calling the police. He said he’d follow up and by the time he left it was almost four.
I didn’t see a reason to go back to sleep, so I went and took a long hot shower thinking about everything that had happened so far. It was so strange to be in the middle of a murder mystery. I didn't realize how in the middle I would be.
Chapter Thirteen
With the grand opening two days away, not even my trashy reality television could distract me. I couldn’t sit still so I went on in to my new shop to start baking. When I arrived, I realized Scooter’s ride was outside. He had leaned it against the side of the building. It'd seen better days and the kickstand appeared to be broken. I decided if the bakery took off, I’d buy him a new scooter.
He did well on his cake business, but he had to pay rent and buy food, so I assumed all his money went to that. I saw a bloody death cake first when I walked into the bakery and cringed. His side cakes had gotten weirder.
This one appeared to be a different murder scene than the one he’d done before. I didn’t really want to ask him if it was for another murder mystery party.
“Hey Coco Bean,” he said. “You want to see the larger of the two cakes?”
“Yes,” I said. I had been dying to see what he was going to create. The cake was drawn on a huge easel and each tier leaned the opposite way. A Mad Hatter hat sat on top and it looked absolutely perfect. The colors were bright and the little caterpillar at the bottom and mushrooms throughout gave it an amazing whimsical look.
“You’ve outdone yourself,” I told him.
“I have,” he said smiling. “Well I will have when I make the actual cake.”
“And so modest,” I joked.
I got busy making some red velvet cookies and lost track of time. Before I knew it lunch time had arrived and I heard my stomach growling. Logan came in and surprised me.
“I didn’t know you were coming by today,” I told him rubbing batter on my apron.
“Yes, well I followed up on your leads this morning. The guy you’re speaking of with the bald head, he’s skipped town since the murder.”
“That means he’s guilty right,” Scooter said, “since he ran from the scene.”
“Not necessarily,” Logan said, “but it’s worth checking out.”
“Oh good, you can let me know what happens with that,” I told him.
“No, I came here to tell you to come with me. I need backup.”
“That doesn’t seem like protocol.” I said. “You probably aren’t supposed to take a civilian to a perp's house.”
“Well, if he is there then you can identify him.” he said. “We don’t have to call it a date. It’s just two people going to see if a guy is guilty.”
“Well, that’s my cue,” Scooter said and slipped back out to the front of the bakery.
“Fine, I will go and identify the Bald Sweater man,” I told him. “I need something to distract me from being nervous about the opening anyway. But I get a gun.”
“You do not get a gun,” Logan said holding the door open for me.
“Scooter,” I said passing him, “hold down the fort.”
He saluted me and I followed Logan to his police cruiser. He opened the door for me and I slid into the passenger seat.
“If I’m your backup, I should totally get a gun,” I told him.
“No, again. You are just going to identify him,” Logan said.
“What if you get shot, then where will I be,” I asked.
“Thanks for putting that out in the universe,” he said.
He turned down Main Street and I became confused. “I thought you said he skipped town,” I said as he turned down Bright Street...we were going deeper into town.
“It’s just a figure of speech,” he said. “He is in hiding, skipping town is an expression.”
“It’s not, it means you leave town,” I told him.
“Man you’re hard to get along with,” he said but he smiled letting me know he wasn’t completely serious.
“Just speaking my truth,” I said as we pulled into a long driveway. The house at the end was small and green. The roof appeared to be in disrepair and the front door hung off its hinges.
“This is where he lives?”
“No, this is where he’s hiding,” Logan said.
“This looks like the start of every terrible cop shoot out I’ve seen on television,” I said.
“Again,” he said, “thanks for putting that out into the universe. Stay behind me and let me talk okay.”
“Fine, I will,” I said not sure why I was feeling defensive. The whole situation put me on edge. We creeped slowly up the driveway.
There wasn’t any sound coming from the inside. A small pickup truck was parked right outside the house and there was a ton of scrap metal in the bed of it.
Logan knocked on the door. “Police,” he yelled.
I jumped, his serious voice was jarring. He yelled and knocked again.
“I’m coming in,” he yelled.
“Do you have a warrant?” I asked. I really wasn’t sure if he needed one.
“I have probable cause,” he said pointing to a potted plant next to the garage.
“Is that,” I started to ask.
“Yes, don’t touch it.” He kicked the door in and I followed behind him.
Chapter Fourteen
"Police," Logan yelled, "make yourself known."
"Okay, I'm in here don't shoot me. It's just me, I'm not armed," the guy yelled from somewhere in the house.
"Come out with your hands up," Logan said. Slowly a door creaked open somewhere in the house and footsteps came our way. "No sudden movements,"
"Okay, I'm coming, I'm not wearing pants," he s
aid.
The man I'd seen arguing with Tom in the restaurant and fighting outside was there. He had his hands all the way up and wore a white t-shirt with a pair of pineapple boxers. I may have snickered.
"Dude," Logan said, "why are you hiding in your sister's rental?"
That explained why there wasn't any furniture in the house. They most have been between rentals.
"Some bad men are after me," he said still standing still with his hands over his head. "I needed to lay low. How did you find me?"
"I went to the diner you were arguing with Tom the mover and they told me you were staying here." Logan turned to me. "His sister is a waitress there," he added for my benefit.
"Tom is an idiot, he's gotten me into a lot of trouble."
"Because of the cocaine he was running for you," I said moving from behind Logan. He glared at me, but I couldn't help myself.
"What," the guy said putting his hands down, "he was running coke?"
"You tell us," Logan said. "What were you arguing about at the restaurant?"
"He lost some merchandise," the guy said as he went to reach into the couch.
Logan started yelling, "don't reach," and I panicked falling to the ground and covering my head like I was taking part in a tornado drill.
"I'm sorry, I was just going to show you the merchandise, you can come get it," he said putting his hands back up.
Logan moved forward and pulled a small oval object out of the couch. I looked up from my position on the floor. "What is it?"
"It's a Faberge egg," he said. "A lot of people collect them, some dangerous people. They could really hurt me because Tom's dumb moving company lost a huge shipment of them. The collection was worth like ten thousand dollars."
"Eggs," I said still on the ground, "he was moving eggs." I couldn't help but laugh. I'd pictured them fighting over bags of cocaine not pretty eggs.
"Well, I don't know if someone would murder him over eggs," Logan said not amused by my losing it on the floor.
"Wait, what do you mean? Murder?" The guy said. Either he was the best actor in the entire world, or he wasn't our guy. Listening to him I was completely convinced he didn't know Tom was dead.
"Tom was killed in my bakery," I told him despite Logan giving me the stink eye. "Tom's dead."
"Then I'm next," the guy said. Boxers and all he grabbed his egg from Logan and ran out of the house.
"Aren't you going to chase him?" I asked Logan.
"Why, he hasn't done anything wrong that we know of. Sure, he may have stolen those eggs, but how would I know. I'm not a collector?"
"Wow, that's top notch police work. He was our only lead.” I may have whined during that last statement.
"And you gave him the full story. Now he knows everything. We have nothing to hold over his head," Logan said walking towards the door.
"Oh," I said, "well in my defense, I told you bringing a civilian wasn't protocol. Now what?"
"We track people trading and collecting Faberge eggs to see if we can get a lead that way. And by we I mean I do. Your police work is over Coco."
We walked out to his car and I couldn't say I was disappointed. While it had been exciting trying to figure out what was happening, it was also terrifying busting into the house like that.
"Wait, you could have arrested him for the plant," I told him.
"Oh, that wasn't anything," he said smiling at me and pulling out a piece of paper. "I got permission from his sister to enter the property. That was a random plant."
"That wasn't a funny," I said while Logan laughed. Clearly, I didn't know what illegal plants looked like. "Take me back to the bakery, this whole day was a waste of time."
"At least you go to spend it with a devilishly handsome police officer," Logan said.
I rolled my eyes at him as he pulled back out onto the street, but when I turned to the window there was a smile on my face.
Back at the bakery everyone had shown up.
“Hey Coco,” Masie said coming over to give me a hug. “Was he our guy?”
“No, it wasn’t what we thought,” I told her. “He was moving antique eggs.”
“Wouldn’t those kill you,” Stella asked.
“Not that type of antique,” Logan said. “I’m going to leave my deputized baker in your capable hands and be on my way.”
“Bye officer,” most of the people in the bakery said.
“What’s everyone doing?” I asked looking around.
“You’ve been working hard enough,” Rose said, “and you’ve dealt with a lot. We thought a little night out to the bar and karaoke would be fun.”
“You know,” I said, “you’re right, let’s do it.”
Chapter Fifteen
Later on after everyone had showered, we all met up at Delilah's Bar. It was our favorite place to go and relax. There never were too many people in the bar and they had really good bar food. Like, seven different types of cheese appetizers. Their drinks were great too.
I sat at the bar watching Stella argue with Red but I wasn't sure about what.
"What's going on over there," Logan asked walking up to me. I hadn't know he was coming.
"Hey, you decide to take the night off?" I asked.
"Rose invited me...said you wanted me to come," Logan said and I glared over at my best friend. She pretended to be very interested in the umbrella sticking out of her amaretto sour.
"Well, it will be fun to have you here...wanna take bets on what Red and Stella are arguing about?"
I had guessed everything from Jell-O to who had the best car in the fifties when Rose made her way to the microphone. The familiar twang of her favorite song came on. Rose always sang Islands In The Stream when she had a couple amaretto sours. She was a light weight and somehow her tolerance never improved.
"If you really want to know where I was, Stella," Red yelled, "I was hanging out in Doris Tuttle's room during the murder."
There it was, Stella had moved on to Red instead of Henry. Why he would be any more likely to kill Tom I wasn't sure.
"You old dog," Henry said as Logan and I walked up to them.
"What's going on," I asked Stella.
"Red's been acting weird. I heard him telling someone he was in real trouble and then he acted shady. I decided he probably killed Tom to save your honor."
"I back her up on that," Vivian said. "He's been acting real squirrely."
Rose's voice rose and fell with the chorus and she whooped a little. She really got into Dolly's part.
"You two are old gossips...I didn't want you to know about Doris. She's shy."
"Okay, how about I check out his alibi," Logan said. I couldn't believe he was feeding into this.
"Fine," Red said, "then you'll see I'm telling the truth. Stella is ruining any chance I had with Doris. I've been courting her for months now."
Red went to sit down at the table and pouted. The night went on and Rose sang Islands in the Stream two more times. Logan sang some old country western song I didn't know. Stella and Vivian did a duet of Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Red continued to pout.
"Can you tell us something we don't know Logan?" Vivian asked. "Something we aren't seeing."
The two ladies still fancied themselves on the case. Having accused Red, they were still hot on the killer's trail in their mind.
"Well," Logan said, "I'm not supposed to talk about it. We haven't found the knife. If we find the knife, then we might be able to get some fingerprints."
"Is that normal," Masie asked. She'd been absent for most of the night and I didn't know where she'd been. When I went to the bathroom, I ran into newscaster Gus Smathers and realized where she'd been. Interesting it seemed her distracting him had taken place outside of the bakery as well.
I smiled at her knowingly, but she was too focused on Logan.
"Well, it happens. Sometimes they toss the murder weapon. Sometimes they take it with them, and we don't have the right person."
"So, we need to find the mur
der weapon," Stella said with a nod. "We need to look in Red's room."
"Oh, come on," Red yelled. "I told you where I was. You don't need to keep barking up this tree."
“Like I said,” Logan told him. “I am going to check your alibi, innocent until proven guilty ladies.”
“Alright, I need to rest before the grand opening,” I told everyone. “I’m headed to the house.”
When I got home, I took a shower and made some tea. I was wired from the night and all the things that had happened so far. Taking out a notepad I wrote down what I knew about Tom’s murder and the people that could have been after him.
Everything was right in front of me but I just couldn’t make the pieces fit. So far, all the people my friends and I had suspected had been wrong. I didn’t think there was any way Red could have done it. I’d known him for a while and believed his Doris story.
Finally, I decided to sleep on it. I still had a few loose ends to tie up to be ready to open and I needed to be rested.
THE DAY OF THE OPENING, everything was as ready as it could be. I couldn’t have baked anything else or polished any other surface. The bakery was ready, and we opened the doors on time. The next few hours were complete chaos.
Every person who’d come to the bakery in the old location decided to come back for the opening. I was thrilled somehow we’d managed to avoid the news and the paranormal investigators so far. I wasn’t sure if it was just my good luck or someone had interfered.
The cookies and cakes were hits. We sold out of the red velvet cookies first so I went into the back to make a new batch. They were delicious, and I decided to experiment with adding chocolate icing on top. That made them even more decadent and they sold out again.
Masie was killing it in the customer service department. She checked in on everyone and made sure they were fine. Scooter was getting private orders for cakes and making contacts. I couldn’t have been more proud of everyone.
Stella and Vivian had agreed to avoid Red and Henry so they were on different sides of the bakery and not engaging with each other. Everything was going great until Logan showed up.
A Drizzle of Murder Page 6
