Death by Strawberry Cupcake

by Rose Pressey

  His eyes widened. “Now I get it. I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t realize.”

  I released a deep breath. “Yeah totally not cool to send a girl who just got a death threat a message like that.”

  “I’m so sorry, Scarlet,” he said.

  “I’m going in the car with you, but I’m still angry,” I said.

  Finn opened the car door. “Can I buy something to make up for it? Chocolate ice cream? a cupcake?”

  “You want to give a cupcake to the Cupcake Whisperer?”

  “Have we decided exactly who is the Cupcake Whisperer in this equation?” Finn asked as he started the car.

  “I’m the Cupcake Whisperer of course.” I buckled my seatbelt.

  “Did you ever happen to think I might be The Cupcake Whisperer?” he said.

  “I’m not going to have this argument with you.”

  He actually thought he was The Cupcake Whisperer? Okay, technically I had never been named officially The Cupcake Whisperer, but I just assumed I was The Cupcake Whisperer.

  He shoved the car into drive. “I suppose we are both considered The Cupcake Whisperer.”

  I exchanged a look with him. “All right, I guess you could be right about that.”

  I still wasn’t completely convinced, but I would humor him.

  “So what did you find out?” he asked.

  I didn’t want to tell him “nothing” because then that would be admitting defeat.

  “Actually, it sounds promising,” I said with a smile, trying to sound completely enthusiastic. “She’s emailing me surveillance video. I hope to catch something on that. What about you? What did you find out?”

  “The woman I talked to said she was actually taking out the trash around the time of the murder and saw someone.”

  Okay, he had an eyewitness. See, I should’ve gone to the quilt shop. I would be the one with a good lead. Nevertheless, this wasn’t a competition, I reminded myself. Finn and I had enough of that going on in the kitchen.

  “What did the person look like?” I asked excitedly.

  “She described the person as not that tall, probably around five foot seven. The person was dressed in dark clothing.”

  “And what else?” I asked. “Did she get a good look at that the face?”

  Finn shook his head. “No look at the face.”

  “I suppose that’s better than nothing,” I said.

  Chapter 7

  Thank goodness I had finally arrived at the farmhouse now. White fencing surrounded the acres with green lush trees in the background. A smaller white picket fence encircled the front of the house. My neighbor waved as I pulled into the driveway. As soon as I parked, Lucille headed across the street.

  Lucille was always neatly put together. Her gray strands were always perfectly coiffed with bouncy curls close to her head. Usually she wore a variation of the same outfit: cotton pants with a floral print blouse. Today the pants were fuchsia and the shirt white with fuchsia roses.

  When my grandmother owned the place, she had a lot of farm animals. That was something I doubted would ever happen for me. Lucille still had some animals, like pigs and chickens. Oh, and the cat. The cat liked to visit often. I loved having both Lucille and the cat over for visits.

  The gravel crunched under the wheels as I drove down the driveway. I put the car into park and sat there for a moment, releasing a deep breath. I just wanted to make some comfort food and zone out in front of the TV. I hoped to forget about this whole day. It was the only way I would survive the rest of the evening.

  The scent of the rosebushes hit me as I walked down the driveway. The pink blooms colored the entire front of the house. I headed to the side of the house. This was where I went in and out at the kitchen. I suppose it could be said that this kitchen was where I’d gotten my start. If not for my grandmother showing me, I probably wouldn’t have any skills to be on the show.

  When I stepped into the kitchen a flood of memories rushed back. Memories of making cupcakes with grandma. She made pancakes, cornbread, and everything else. I hadn’t changed much about the way it looked either.

  I supposed at some point I might change a few things, but right now I had been so busy with the show that there was no time to hire a handyman. I loved the curtains on the small window above the sink. They were white with a cherry print. They matched the farmhouse sink so well. Another favorite of mine was the shiplap on the walls. The appliances had been updated with stainless steel recently. But grandma had this fantastic antique dining table against the far wall in the kitchen.

  I climbed onto my bed released a deep breath as my head hit the pillow. Just as I closed my eyes, a noise caught my attention. After jumping up from the bed, I stepped out into the hallway, thinking that maybe it was just the wind blowing the tree branch against the down stair’s window. This had happened when I’d first moved in too. The noise had turned out to be my neighbor Lucille, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t her this time.

  She would no longer come into the house without letting me know first. At least that was what she’d said. I checked my surveillance camera. Having those around made me feel much better. Nothing showed up. I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or worse.

  It was already six o’clock. I had slept for several hours. At least I had tomorrow off. I would be able to relax more, but I had a bunch of errands to run and the house clean. Plus, I had a stack of laundry. Okay, now that I thought about it, there would be no time to relax. As I said earlier, I wanted comfort food tonight, so I decided on mac and cheese.

  For someone who had her own cooking show, I sure liked to keep it simple when I was home in my own kitchen. On occasion, I made something nice and fancy, but when it was just me, and I’d had such a terrible day, I wanted to do nothing but zone out in front of the TV. My favorite thing was to watch the crime shows. I supposed it was the detective in me. I was always looking for a clue, trying to put the criminal behind bars. After making my dish, I carried it into the living room and flipped on the TV. I sat on the sofa with my bowl of mac and cheese and watched an episode of Dateline.

  As I sat there staring at the screen, a strange feeling came over me. It was as if someone watched me. It was impossible though because all my doors were locked. I told myself it probably had something to do with the fact that I have been involved in a murder investigation and was now watching a show about murder as well.

  Since the feeling hadn’t gone away, I decided to get up and take a look out the window. I peeked out the blinds. Of course, it was dark outside. I checked the camera that I had at the front of the house on my phone. I saw nothing unusual. I had it set up for motion detection in case something had moved.

  I’d had the cameras installed after I moved in. It seemed a wise idea after the murder on set. I felt much safer with the cameras here. But yeah, it didn’t explain the strange feeling I had right now. After studying the surroundings for a few more seconds, I closed the blinds.

  I sat back down and turned on Steel Magnolias. Maybe a movie with some humor would be better. Every time this movie was on TV I had to watch. Who didn’t love Ouiser’s wise cracks and hoped that Shelby made it through her surgery? Of course, I knew how the movie turned out, but it was like watching it for the first time every time. I was just being too stressed over what happened, I told myself. When my phone dinged, I jumped. Okay, I really was on edge if a text message alert was making me jump like that.

  I was surprised to see that the text message was from Finn Fine.

  How are you doing?

  I’m all right, I typed back.

  It was kind of sweet of him to check on me. That reminded me that I needed to check my email to see if the woman had sent the video from the shop. Pulling up my email on my phone, I was surprised that there was actually an email from her. I couldn’t click on that fast enough. She had included video from that morning which was probably about an hour’s worth. But I had to watch the whole entire hour. I suppose that was what Detective Bailey wo
uld do. But as a reminded myself, I wasn’t a detective.

  I felt as if I had a duty to figure out who had killed this woman. Definitely I had to find out more about her. Maybe this was some sort of domestic dispute. If I found nothing from the video, then I would check for more information about her.

  Okay, I was pretty sure that even if I saw something on the video, I would still have to research her. Because unless the killer stood right in front of the camera and I recognized them, then I wouldn’t solve the crime. Although that would certainly help a lot in leading me to the killer. I wasn’t holding out hope that that would happen now.

  Before I got the chance to click on the link and watch the video I got another text message from Finn wanting to know what I was doing. Researching a murder was what I wanted to say.

  Instead I just typed, not much.

  I hurried back to the link to watch the video. I clicked on it and there was nothing but traffic going up and down the street. I saw the video of the woman pull into the parking lot and get out and go in.

  Nothing much was going on and I looked at the time that I would’ve been headed back to the studio. To my surprise, I actually saw my car driving down the road. And then a short time later there was a car right behind me. It could’ve been just a car that happened to be driving behind me, but I made note of it just in case that person had actually been following me.

  I have noticed anything at the time, but then again, I wasn’t looking for that. It was a dark green car but I couldn’t tell who was behind the wheel. I rebounded tape and looked at the time just before the motor what occurred. To my surprise I saw that car as it drove the opposite direction. If only I could see just off the camera when it happened. Maybe it was nothing, but I definitely wanted to find out more about that car did she know someone who drove a car like that?

  Are you thinking about how you can solve this murder?

  That was the next text message from him. In fact, that was what I was thinking. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit that to him. He would just tell me to stay out of it. Although he had helped me be involved by taking me by the candy shop again today. Not to mention going into the shop. Maybe.

  Okay, I should have sent a simple “no” message back. It only took a couple of seconds until the phone rang.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “What do you mean by maybe?” Finn asked.

  “Oh, you know that my maybe means yes.”

  “Exactly what are you looking into now?” he asked.

  “I was checking out that video I got.”

  “Did you find anything?” he asked.

  “There was one car that showed up twice. And strangely enough, it was following me when I drove through the video.”

  “That is interesting,” he said. “What did the car look like?”

  I gave him the car’s description. There was no response. Silence filled the air.

  “Is everything all right? Are you still there?” I asked.

  “It’s just that now that you mention that type of car, I’m pretty sure I saw that car today when we were at the candy shop.”

  “Oh, so that means that it’s probably somebody who works in the area.”

  “I suppose,” he said. “But what if the killer is someone who works in the area?”

  “There are a lot of cars that go up and down there. We could label each one of them a suspect. I really think that this clue is nothing, a non-clue.”

  As much as I hoped it was something.

  “I’m sure the police will figure this out soon enough. In the meantime, we have to figure out a new recipe,” Finn said.

  “I’m working on one and may have something up my sleeve that will knock your baking socks off,” I said.

  “And what is that?”

  “It’s top secret for now. When the time’s right I’ll tell you.”

  Chapter 8

  The next morning, I was up bright and early so that I could make a wonderful breakfast. I even made extra muffins that I planned on taking across the street to Lucille. After dressing in my usual attire of shorts and a T-shirt, I slipped into my flip-flops, grabbed my bag, the basket of muffins, and headed out the door.

  I dropped off my bag in the car and then made my way across the street. It was a two-lane road, but not traveled that often really. The only people who came back here were the ones who lived around the area. It was a beautiful late summer day, but it would be another hot one. Trees were bright green and a slight breeze blew the leaves. Acres of farmland with cows grazing in the green pastures for as far as the eyes could see. Sometimes I liked to just stand out on the porch and soak it all in. The splendor of the world seemed right there in front of me, just outside my front door and I felt blessed to have it.

  I made it halfway across the street when, all of a sudden, the gun of an engine caught my attention. I screamed and managed to jump out of the way across the street just in time. A huge red truck zoomed past, narrowly missing hitting me. I stood there in a state of shock with the basket clutched tightly to my chest. My hands shook and I was surprised that I hadn’t dropped the muffins. I tried to catch my breath. As I stared at the green truck, it was already far in the distance now. A couple stickers were on the back of the truck, but I couldn’t make out what was written on them. They have been driving entirely too fast. Didn’t the driver see me out there?

  This was a straight stretch and pretty much anybody crossing the road would be visible from a good distance away. It was almost as if the driver had tried to hit me on purpose. But why would they do such a thing? An innocent person walking across the street with a basket of muffins?

  “Oh, my heavens, are you all right, Scarlet?” Lucille asked.

  Apparently, Lucille had stepped out onto her porch just as the incident had occurred. She headed my way as I walked the rest of the way down her driveway. With Lucille beside me now she touched me with her caring hands just as my grandmother would have done. She placed her hand to my forehead. Was she checking me for a fever? If anything, I’d escaped having a lot of broken bones. With each passing second, I realized how lucky I was to be alive. That truck had almost killed me. I wanted to jump in my car and chase that person down. I’d ask him just what the heck he thought he was doing.

  “That truck just came out of nowhere,” I said with a wave of my hand.

  “I saw it just as it happened. It was terrifying. I thought you were going to be hit.”

  “Did you get a look at the driver?” I asked.

  “Not too good no. I was too busy worrying about looking at you. I think it was a man. Maybe in his mid to late thirties. He had dark hair and was wearing a plaid shirt. He also had a dark beard.”

  For someone who hadn’t gotten a very good look at him, she had certainly gotten quite a bit more detail than I had.

  “Well, I certainly hope he slows down before he kills someone,” I said.

  “I’ll be on the lookout for that truck. If I see him speeding, I’ll call the police,” she said.

  “I just came by to bring you some muffins. I hope you like my berry.” I handed her the basket to her.

  “Oh, aren’t you just the sweetest thing. Just like your grandmother. I love blueberry,” she said. “You really didn’t have to do that.”

  “I know but I wanted to,” I said. “I was just on my way out to run some errands and I thought I’d bring them by.”

  “Well, this will just be a lovely treat this morning, thank you.”

  “Okay, if everything is all right, I’ll be headed off now.” I gestured.

  “Just be careful crossing that street dear,” she said.

  “You do the same if you happen to come back over.”

  “Oh, you know I’ll be back over.” She picked up a muffin and sniffed it.

  Lucille wasn’t shy about coming to visit her neighbor. Before stepping out onto the street again I made sure to look to the left and to the right. After doing that I looked to the left again. I stepped out onto the road wit
h a bit of anxiety.

  Thank goodness I made it back across the street without being smashed. There was no sign of that giant truck. I hopped in my car and pulled out of the driveway. Lucille was still standing on the porch holding the basket and waving at me as I drove away.

  Perhaps now I should take a short drive around and see if I spotted that truck. If he was headed into Atlanta, then I’d never spot him. If he’d gone into town here though, then I might just see him. Would I really confront him though? If his driving was any indication, then he was obviously crazy. Maybe I just needed to keep my distance. Then again, I could at least get his license plate number and tell the police to be on the lookout for the crazy driver. Yeah, right, like the police didn’t have more pressing issues. I didn’t have much time for a side trip though. I suppose a swing through town wouldn’t take too long.

  I rolled into town on a mission to find that truck. I drove around the town circle keeping my eye out for any sign of him There were a lot of trucks, but I hadn’t spotted that one yet. This was probably a pointless trip. But I had to know for sure. I couldn’t get that dangerous driver out of my head.

  One more trip up and down the main street and I still hadn’t spotted the truck. I couldn’t waste any more time. I just had to hope that this driver was more careful in the future. Though I knew if he was that reckless once then he would probably do it again in the future. I had hoped to stop him, but in reality, I knew that would never happen. A scolding from me wouldn’t change things. I headed away from the small town and toward the big city. I would just have to push that bad incident out of my head.

  My next mission was to swing back by the candy shop and find out if that car was still in the area. If the car in question in fact worked around the area, I would probably see it. After that I was going by the victim’s house to find out any information from there. Maybe I’d talk to some neighbors. I would pick up some lunch and then take it from there, kind of wing it was my plan.