They stare at each other for a long moment before Tanya shrugs and looks at me. “He was a bully.”
“Bully how?” Kristie asks. Good question. Bullying comes in degrees from teasing to outright torture.
Allison gasps. “You’re the grad student who figured out Mr. Timmer was the campus rapist!”
Tanya jumps in, “I heard Don was a rapist as well.”
“What?” Kristie asks between clenched teeth.
Tanya nods. “Several students have claimed he forced them, but the campus police won’t do anything because the girls were drunk at the time.” She snorts. “As if being drunk is an excuse for a man to do whatever he wants to a woman. Drunk means no. End of.”
“Do you know who these women are?” Kristie’s hands are fisted, and I swear there’s smoke coming out of her ears.
Neither woman responds.
“If we don’t have any names, we can hardly investigate these claims,” I push.
Tanya and Allison stare at each other for a long moment. I hold my breath hoping they’ll trust us, but then Allison turns to me and says, “Sorry, we can’t give you any names.” They stand, obviously done with our conversation.
“If you think of anything, anything at all, don’t hesitate to call me,” I tell them. They nod but don’t slow down as they hurry to leave the auditorium.
As soon as the door closes behind them, Kristie turns to Anna. “I’m all in.”
Darn it. I knew the moment the girls mentioned the word ‘rape’ Kristie would jump on board. Now, I have two women I need to try and keep under control and safe.
Anna rubs her hands together, a smile stretching from ear to ear. “We’ll get him, my precious.”
Chapter 5
Dear Santa, You’re not watching all the time, right?
“Where are you rushing off to?” I hear Anna shout at Kristie. Uh oh. I dash out of my office before the tiny baker can tackle Kristie. Although the bakery is already closed for the day, Anna is still baking her heart away on Christmas orders. It would be a shame for any of the Christmassy goodness to get ruined in a tussle.
“Um…” Kristie stalls with her hand on the back door. The expression on her face screams ‘guilty’.
Anna stands in front of her with her arms crossed over her chest. She’s brimming with anger. With her usually pink hair dyed green with red stripes for the holidays, she looks like an elf. An angry elf. “You weren’t perhaps going to the Youth Center without us, were you?”
Kristie ducks her head but not before I see her cheeks turn a light shade of pink. “I can go to the Youth Center by myself. I do fund the place, after all.”
“But you aren’t going there to check on things. You’re going there to talk to the kids about Donald.” Anna tilts her head and taps her foot practically daring Kristie to contradict her.
Before more accusations can fly, I move to stand in between the two women. “Can we talk about this calmly?”
“No fudging way.” Anna stomps her foot. “She’s not going to talk to the kids about Donald without us.”
Kristie deflates. “I can’t take you. If Logan finds out you were there, he’ll lose his mind.”
Anna rolls her eyes. “As if I’d tell him.” I raise my eyebrows at her. She tells her man everything. She snorts. “I can keep a secret from him.”
“But it is dangerous and you’re …” Kristie motions to Anna’s hair and small stature. “Just a little thing.”
“Who you calling little?”
Kristie chuckles. I can’t blame her. She’s five-foot-seven and Anna barely reaches five-foot.
“Besides, I already made a batch of cupcakes for the kids.”
“They’re not kids.”
Anna waves away Kristie’s comment. “Please. When it comes to Christmas, everyone is a kid. And everyone loves my cupcakes. Especially my hot chocolate cupcakes.” With a flourish, she indicates a batch of cupcakes all packed up and ready to go. My mouth waters at the sight of the chocolate cupcakes with hot chocolate frosting and topped with mini marshmallows.
It looks like we’re going to the Youth Center tonight. Something I can’t exactly tell Ben about, which totally sucks. I hate lying and sneaking around. Maybe I can tell him about going to the scary downtown area after I’m home safe. Yeah, I can do that. It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission after all.
“Okay.” I clap my hands. “Make sure the ovens are turned off and maybe wash up a bit.” I point to Anna’s cheek where there are streaks of flour and dabs of red sprinkles. Kristie huffs. “You knew there wasn’t a chance of you sneaking out of here. I don’t know why you bothered trying.”
“Fine. I’m going to make a coffee while she cleans up.” She stomps off.
By the time Anna’s ready, Kristie’s drinking coffee from a huge travel mug with the saying ‘I have seen awful things. Empty coffee cup things.’ stamped on it. I grab one of the boxes of cupcakes and trudge out to my car.
“And why are we going to the Youth Center exactly?” I ask once we’re settled in my car and on our way.
“If Donald was a bully or rapist, he may have been intimidating the kids at the Youth Center. I won’t let my kids be intimidated by someone who was supposed to be helping them.” Kristie may deal with kids who are troublemakers – some may even be gangbangers – but she believes in them. Believes what she’s doing can help them to have a brighter future. I admire her. I think she’s wearing rose-colored glasses, but I admire her nonetheless.
“And if Donald was bullying kids at the Youth Center, then those kids have a motive to kill him.”
Of course, Anna is more concerned with solving the murder. I swear the woman thinks she’s Veronica Mars. Why can’t she stick to what she’s good at? Solving crimes is not it.
When I pull into Kristie’s parking spot at the Youth Center, Kristie and Anna jump out of the car before the car comes to a complete stop. “Hey!” I shout after I manage to park the car and follow them. “Don’t we need a plan of action?”
Kristie ignores me and keeps walking. Anna turns around to wink at me. What have I done bringing them here? Kristie marches to her office. But when Anna and I try to follow her into the room, she puts up her hand and shuts the door on us. Anna shrugs before wandering off. I trail after her.
“Who wants a cupcake?” she shouts as she reaches the lounge area where several teenagers are playing video games. “They’re hot chocolate cupcakes!”
As soon as the words are out of her mouth, she’s mobbed by the group of boys who take one look at Anna’s lovely cupcakes and start drooling. Her box is soon empty. Anna perches herself on the arm of one of the chairs. “Can I ask you guys a question?”
“Give me another cupcake and you can ask me anything,” answers one of the boys who’s licking his fingers. The others nod in agreement. Anna was right. Everyone loves her cupcakes.
“Did any of you know Donald Griffin?”
My eyebrows raise as I hear several expletives muttered. Seems Donald was not a well-liked guy.
“You mean Don the dinky?”
“The dinky?” Anna asks for clarification.
“Dude thought he was hot stuff.” Several of the boys snort. “We showed him.” The speaker snickers.
I step forward. “You do know Donald Griffin was murdered?”
“No skin off my back. I didn’t do it.”
“No way I’m suffocating some dude to death,” another adds his two cents. “They’d take away my …”
“Your what?” Kristie demands as she walks into the room.
“Nothing, Ms. Larson. I was talking trash.”
“I should hope so, Cain.”
“But we didn’t have no reason to kill Don the dinky,” Cain continues digging his own hole.
“You didn’t?” I ask. “By your own admission, you didn’t like him and thought he was too big for his britches.”
“I don’t know what britches is, but there was no reason to kill him. After the first time…�
�
“Please continue,” Kristie demands. She stands in the middle of the room glaring down at the group of boys with her hands on her hips. This is not the sweet woman who works as a barista at our café.
“Aw shucks, Ms. Larson. We didn’t do nothing bad.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Another boy explains, “We scared him is all.” Uh oh. Not good. His definition of scaring someone is probably terrifying.
“And how did you ‘scare’ him, Jermaine?”
Jermaine bites his lip and looks at Cain who shrugs. “We kind of surrounded his car when he was trying to leave.”
“And did you let him leave?”
“Eventually.”
The security guard who is standing at the door clears his throat. “Yes, Roger?” Kristie asks.
The guard nods to the kids. “They didn’t do much. Just surrounded his car, so he couldn’t drive away.”
Kristie sighs. “Which is wrong. You should have stopped them.”
Roger’s cheeks turn pink, but he’s not deterred. “That boy, Don, he harassed them the entire time he was here.”
“Harassed how?”
“Wouldn’t let them use the games, wouldn’t let them have any food.”
Kristie growls. One of her main goals with the Youth Center is to make sure the kids who come here get at least one square meal a day. “You swear to me you didn’t do anything else to him?”
The boys nod. “After the car incident, Don mostly stayed in the office when he was here,” Roger tells us.
Anna’s shoulder slump. “But then they are probably not murder suspects.”
I roll my eyes. Way to tell people they may be murder suspects. I open my mouth to berate her, but Kristie’s phone rings and stops me.
“Rotten coffee beans, it’s Tyler.” She walks toward the kitchen to answer with Anna and I hot on her heels. “No, I’m not here alone. I have the troublesome twosome with me.”
Anna gasps. Tyler and Logan became buds when Kristie’s life was in danger. There’s no way Tyler will keep the news of her being at the Youth Center to himself. Of course, I’m in the same boat. Tyler will rat me out to Ben as well. Our boyfriends gossip worse than old ladies.
“Anna wanted to bring some Christmas cupcakes down for the boys.”
I give Kristie a thumbs up. No one will question Kristie when it comes to feeding her boys. The woman is a mama bear when it comes to feeding the youth.
As soon as Kristie hangs up, Anna is on the move. “Come on. We need to get out of here. If Logan manages to catch me here before I get home…” She shudders.
“I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from staying anyway,” I say as we start walking towards my car. “These boys didn’t kill Donald.”
“We need to investigate the rape aspect.”
I agree with Kristie but, “How do we do that?”
“I’ll think of something,” Anna promises, which is exactly what I’m afraid of.
Chapter 6
Dear Santa, Remember – it’s nice until proven naughty.
Glad you’re home safe.
I stare at the lame text Ben sent last night when he found out I was at the Youth Center while drumming my fingers on my desk. He’s definitely acting weird. He didn’t berate me for getting myself in danger. Didn’t rush home to check on me. This lame text was his only response. I’ve complained and complained about how overbearing he is. Now he’s finally pulled back, and I’m complaining about that. Ugh. Be careful what you wish for.
“Watcha staring at?” Anna asks as she leans against the doorway to my office.
“Nothing,” I say and quickly lock the screen on my phone.
She raises an eyebrow but changes the subject. “Logan was not amused last night. Not at all. Holy chocolate snowmen in the sky was he not amused.”
Great. Now I feel worse. Her boyfriend cares. Why doesn’t mine? I stand. I need to get out of my tiny office and get my mind on other things. “Shall I help you this morning?”
Anna crosses her arms over her chest and plants herself in the doorway. “Okay. Now I know something’s up. Why are you acting weird?”
I am not acting weird. I help Anna bake all the time. I refuse to respond and motion for her to get out of my way. I could easily push her out of the way. I’m a half a foot taller than her and weigh substantially more than her. How much more? I’m not saying. No way.
“What’s going on?” Kristie peers over Anna’s shoulder to ask me.
“No—” I’m cut off by Anna’s answer.
“Callie’s acting weird.”
“Are you still worried about Ben acting strange?”
I feel my cheeks heat up and know they’re onto me, but I refuse to answer the question.
“We should totally follow him tonight after we close.” Anna rubs her hands together. Yeah, not going to happen. I’m not ready to find Ben cheating on me. Or am I? Would it be better to know? Before I drive myself batty wondering what’s going on? Gah.
“Maybe later. For now, we’ve got more important things to think about.”
I mouth thank you at Kristie at the same time Anna asks her what.
“We need to find the women Donald Griffin raped and get them help.”
We walk into the kitchen and take seats around one of the islands overflowing with baked goods ready to be moved onto the shelves in the café. “You’re assuming Donald was a rapist. We don’t know if that’s true.”
Kristie rolls her eyes. “Please. You know better than to assume he’s innocent. You can probably rattle off statistics about rapes on college campuses in your sleep.”
I nod because I’m an encyclopedia like that. “Just because sexual assault is a problem on campus doesn’t mean Donald was a rapist.”
“But we need to find out because if he is a rapist? Because – Boom! Perfect motive for murder.” Anna will not let this murder thing go. I watch as she grabs a bottle of Kahlua and starts pouring it into a mixing bowl. I grab her wrist and stop her.
“Aren’t you going to measure it first?”
“The recipe is called Boozy Christmas Pudding Cupcakes. They can’t be boozy without adding alcohol.” With my free hand I grab the measuring cup and slam it down in front of her, but she still doesn’t give in. “It’s a liqueur. Twenty percent alcohol. It’s fine.”
I glare at Anna until she huffs and pours the liquid into the cup.
“We need to talk to those girls …”
“Tanya and Allison,” I supply. She’s not wrong. If someone is abusing college women, we need to do something about it. “Okay,” I nod. “They’re in my World Lit class. Why don’t you guys meet me afterwards and we can talk to them then?” I agree because I’m worried about Allison and Tanya. What if one or both of them were abused by Donald Griffin? They were obviously uncomfortable giving us any details about Donald’s activities. Not a good sign.
♥♥♥
Five minutes remain in class, but I’m done. This lecture feels like it lasted weeks instead of a mere two hours. It took everything in me to not stare at Tanya and Allison the entire time. I made sure they were in class but have otherwise avoided their eyes. I don’t want them to realize they’re going to be ambushed at the end of class.
“Okay, we’re done for today. Remember your papers are due in two weeks.” I smile when nearly everyone groans at my announcement. I do love to torture my students. “See you next week.”
The words are barely out of my mouth before the door flies open and Anna comes rushing in. Kristie is holding onto her shirt and trying to keep her back, but no one can stop the baker when she’s on a mission. I saunter over to them as if it’s totally normal they’re visiting me at the end of a class.
Allison and Tanya gab with each other as they shuffle behind their classmates towards the door. “Allison? Tanya? Can I speak to you?”
They look up in surprise before Allison pastes a smile on her face. “Of course, Dr. Muller. How can we help?”<
br />
I nearly roll my eyes at the doctor acknowledgement. Students address me as Ms. Muller unless they want something. “Have a seat.” I indicate the front row of seats. Once they’re seated, I begin. “We wanted to ask you some questions about Donald.”
Kristie steps forward. “Is there something else, anything else, you can tell us about his sexual aggressions?” We agreed this morning to try and avoid using the word rape. Even though Donald is dead, I can’t go running around calling a former student a rapist.
Christmas Cupcakes and a Caper Page 3
