One Last Bite_A Darling Bakery Cozy Mystery Read online

  Detective Johnson just stared at her. The blue eyes that Dani thought were so heart-stopping minutes before were now making it hard to breathe for totally different reasons.

  “It’s normal procedure to examine the contents of any strange food found near a dead body,” the detective said, breaking the silence. “Especially if that food was prepared by someone who might have had a grudge against the victim.”

  The sound of the words strange food and dead body propelled Dani abruptly out of her chair causing it to roll backward and bump the small table behind her desk. A stack of papers tumbled off the table and onto the floor, but Dani didn’t have time to focus on her disorganized office right now.

  “Strange food?” she repeated. Dani could feel her face getting hot. “There’s nothing strange about the food at The Darling Bakery!” she said as she folded her arms across her chest defiantly. “And I didn’t have any grudge against Guy Mason,” she exclaimed.

  Detective Johnson didn’t react to Dani’s agitation but calmly continued talking. “I was told by someone at Riley National Bank, that you didn’t get as much money from the refinance of your building as you wanted. And…” the detective paused and pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket, unfolded it and held it out for Dani to see.

  “According to your own advertising.” He pulled the piece of paper back so he could read it. “The Darling Bakery’s Grand Opening. Unique new ingredients, but the same old love!” The detective’s eyes moved from the flier to meet Dani’s. “Maybe one of those unique new ingredients didn’t agree with Guy Mason?”

  Dani couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She stepped from behind her desk, walked to the door and swung it open.

  “Detective Johnson, I’d be happy to provide you with a copy of my cupcake recipes, but I assure you that there are no life-threatening ingredients in anything we make here.”

  Dani hoped the tone of her voice made it clear that she was done with the conversation. She watched as Detective Johnson got up from his chair and stepped toward her in the doorway. They were only about two feet apart now and Dani felt her heart flutter slightly as she tried not to notice how much taller the detective was up close and how much bluer the eyes looking down at her really were.

  “Thank you for your time, Ms. Darling.”

  Detective Johnson pulled a business card from his shirt pocket and extended it towards Dani. She did her best to take the card without allowing their hands to touch.

  “My email address is on the card. You can send the cupcake recipes to me there.” He stepped toward the open doorway but turned around before exiting completely. “Both my office number and my 24 hr. cell number are on the card too — in case you think of anything else you’d like to share with us.”

  With his silent accusation still floating in the air, Detective Johnson turned and walked back into the kitchen and through the double doors leading into the store.

  Dani’s jaw was set like stone as her eyes followed his exit. She had no intention of calling him to share anything, she thought, but the heat she felt as she watched him walk away definitely wasn’t coming from the kitchen’s stove.

  Dani was still standing there fanning herself with the detective’s business card when Matt walked back into the kitchen with a concerned look on his face.

  “Is everything okay, Boss?” Matt whispered.

  Dani wasn’t quite ready to drop the bombshell of Guy’s death — or Detective Johnson’s suspicions — on her new employee. It had taken long enough to get Matt and Rhonda excited about gluten-free baking, and she certainly didn’t want to destroy that progress by telling them that the detective suspected her cupcakes might have played a role in Guy’s death.

  “Yeah, everything is fine, Matt,” she said in an attempt to convince herself, as much as assure her employee.

  “Okay, good,” Matt said as his still-boyish smile returned. “It’s almost four o’clock. Are you ready to take over up front for the last hour? I’ve got to head to class.”

  Matt took classes at the local community college on Wednesdays and Fridays. He was working toward his associate’s degree in business. That was one of the reasons Dani had agreed to hire him as a full-time employee even though it meant working around his class schedule. Matt had a keen sense of numbers and had already helped Dani create a manageable budget for the store. The benefit of having someone who was good with numbers on staff was worth any minor scheduling challenges.

  “Yeah, I’m ready to take over up front,” Dani said, thinking maybe interacting with her customers would brighten her mood again.

  “I think you’ll be able to handle it on your own for the rest of the day. All of a sudden it’s not very busy out there,” Matt said with a puzzled tone. “This time yesterday the after-work crowd was just beginning to stream in, but today things seem to be slowing down instead of picking up.”

  Dani’s heart dropped and she felt a lump in her throat. Matt had no idea why customer traffic had slowed, but Dani thought she might. News traveled fast in a small town. Was it possible that the residents of Riley were already hearing the rumors about Guy Mason’s death and avoiding The Darling Bakery because of it? Was her bakery already in trouble less than one week after its grand opening?

  Dani kept a straight face until Matt left, but as soon as he was gone she felt like she was going to collapse and she knew her lightheadedness wasn’t because she’d only eaten half her turkey sandwich.

  As Dani stared out into the empty store a knot began to grow in her stomach. She needed comfort food and quick! She reached into the display case and pulled out a German Chocolate cupcake, but as soon as she brought it to her lips the picture on Detective Johnson’s phone flashed through her mind.

  Was it possible that something in one of her German Chocolate cupcakes had harmed Guy? Dani sat the cupcake back on the counter and just stared at it. She went over and over the list of ingredients in her mind, almond flour, eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate powder…, but just like she told the detective there wasn’t anything in the cupcake that could have harmed Guy. And there certainly wasn’t anything in it that would have killed him!

  Dani was about to make herself crazy trying to figure out what might have happened. She needed to talk this through with someone and there was only one person in Riley she trusted enough to have that conversation with.

  Chapter 4

  “Good afternoon. Riley Star News. How may I help you?” the cheery voice of Francine, the paper’s receptionist, answered.

  “Hi, Francine. This is Dani Darling. Is Gretchen in?”

  “Hey Dani!,” Francine said cheerfully. “Yes, she’s here. I’ll transfer you, but first I’ve got to say thanks for those cupcakes you sent over the other day. They were to die for!”

  Dani cringed at Francine’s choice of words but managed to thank her for the compliment. She was still taking deep breaths — trying not to be unnerved by the word die — when Gretchen picked up the line.

  “Hey, I was just thinking about you,” Gretchen said. “We have an open advertising spot in Friday’s edition of both the print and online version of the paper. What do you think about placing an ad for the bakery? I can give you the friends and family discount and sell the spot to you cheap,” Gretchen giggled through the phone.

  “Yeah. That would be great,” Dani answered dryly.

  “Sheesh. Don’t sound so excited,” Gretchen said. “I know we’re not the New York Times, but people do read our little paper.”

  “Oh, no. I’m sorry,” Dani replied, trying to make her voice sound less somber. “I think the ad would be a great idea. It’s just that that’s not why I called.” The worry began to seep back into Dani’s voice.

  “What’s wrong Dani? You don’t sound like yourself. Is everything okay?”

  “Well, yes and no,” Dani replied speaking softly over the knot in her throat. She didn't want to start crying again and upset Gretchen.

  “Hold on. I’m heading over there. It sounds like
whatever you need to talk about should happen face to face.”

  Dani was standing behind the counter helping a lone customer when Gretchen walked into the store. She nodded to her friend as she continued waiting on the thin, disheveled looking woman standing at the counter. The woman didn’t talk, but she was waiving a coupon at Dani and pointing to a row of cupcakes in the display case.

  “So, you’re an Apple Spice fan,” Dani asked forcing a smile and attempting to ignore the woman’s strange behavior. With no other customers in the store, she couldn’t afford to piss anyone off — even if she was only getting one free cupcake.

  The woman nodded her head slightly but kept her focus pointed downward, avoiding Dani’s eyes. Dani put the single cupcake in a box, closed the lid and sealed it with the star-shaped Gluten Free sticker. “Here you go. One Apple Spice cupcake. I hope you enjoy it. Please come again soon,” Dani said with more cheer in her voice than she felt.

  The woman turned quickly and dashed out the door.

  “It looks like your coupon idea is bringing everyone into the store,” Gretchen said enthusiastically. “Connie Wilson hardly ever comes out in public, but she never misses a special event.”

  Dani sighed. “Yeah, well everyone was coming in until about three hours ago and that particular woman has been in here five times since Saturday — always with a coupon for a free cupcake in hand.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Gretchen laughed. “They call her Crazy Connie around town. She’s not wrapped too tight if you know what I mean.” Gretchen tapped the side of her head with her finger. “But she’s harmless. Her family used to run the old amusement park on the edge of town. The park closed years ago, but Connie still lives in the family home nearby. It’s not really a Riley event unless Connie shows up. But are you saying she’s the only customer you’ve had this afternoon?” Gretchen asked puzzled.

  “I’m afraid so,” Dani said. “That’s why I called you.” Dani paused before asking her next question. “Did you know Guy Mason?”

  “Yeah, I knew him,” Gretchen said in the past tense and reverently bowed her head. “Sam, one of our field reporters, got a call from someone who saw the Coroner’s Department picking up his body earlier today. Sam’s out trying to gather information about what happened so we can post an article about Guy’s death on our website. He’s also got a call into the police department, but for some reason, they haven’t called us back yet.”

  “That’s probably because they’ve been too busy harassing me!” Dani said indignantly.

  “Harassing you? What are you talking about?” Gretchen asked. Her voice was filled with concern.

  Dani motioned for Gretchen to join her at one of the small tables near the front window of the store. The two women sat down and Dani took a deep breath before beginning her story.

  “A detective stopped by earlier and said there was an empty cupcake box from my bakery found next to Guy’s…” Dani still couldn’t say the word dead. “Next to Guy’s body. And the detective more than hinted that the police think my cupcakes have something to do with the whole thing.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Gretchen blurted out almost laughing, but when Dani’s expression didn’t change she got serious again. “Okay, who was it that stopped by to talk to you?”

  “He said his name was Detective Johnson,” Dani said with a sigh. She reached into her apron pocket and retrieved the card the detective had given her. She started to hand it to Gretchen, but Gretchen just rolled her eyes and waived the card away.

  “This is nuts,” she said dismissively. “Clint’s gotta know he’s barking up the wrong tree with this one. He was probably just trying to scare you,” Gretchen suggested. “You know he’s still mad about what happened when we were kids.”

  Dani just stared at Gretchen without blinking. She had no idea what her friend was talking about.

  “What happened when we were kids?” she asked, totally confused.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about the infamous Truth or Dare scandal?” Gretchen said with a laugh.

  Slowly a long-forgotten memory trickled to the surface of Dani’s mind. That’s why the detective had looked slightly familiar. “Clint Johnson?” Dani asked. “Is he the same Clint Johnson that was always hanging around pulling pranks on us girls during the summer?”

  “One and the same,” Gretchen said. “He’s the same Clint Johnson that you said kissed like a robot that time you and he had to go into the closet together when we were playing truth or dare.”

  Dani rubbed her temple with her hand trying to coax the rest of the memory to the surface. “But wait a minute. Wasn’t that kid a lot younger than us? The detective who came to my office earlier is clearly our age.”

  Gretchen shook her head. “No, Clint just seemed younger back then because he was really short as a kid.”

  Dani’s eyebrows lifted as the memory of standing in her office doorway with Clint bubbled to the surface. Clearly, he had a growth spurt at some point in his life because he must have been close to 6’ 3” now.

  “You know he had a huge crush on you back then,” Gretchen said wiggling her eyebrows.

  “What? A crush? I… I had no idea. All I remember is that he was a pest and always followed us girls around because the boys said he was too little to play with them.” Dani let the childhood summer memories flow through her mind. “We spent most of our summers trying to avoid him.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Gretchen said laughing. “But what about now? You still want to avoid him?” She smiled and winked knowingly at Dani. “He’s not a little kid anymore. And he’s single.”

  Dani felt her face grow warm when she thought about how she felt standing inches away from the detective. It was hard to imagine that the short bratty kid from her youth had grown up to be so tall — and handsome. Just then Dani remembered Clint’s interrogation and all of the warmth she was feeling turned hot— and not in a good way.

  “What I want to do is prove to him that The Darling Bakery’s cupcakes didn’t have anything to do with Guy Mason’s death. My reputation and my family name are on the line!”

  “I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of this soon. No one’s really going to believe that your cupcakes killed Guy Mason.”

  As if on cue, the text message notification on Gretchen’s cell phone buzzed.

  “Sorry about that. I have the newspaper’s social media page connected to my phone so that anytime someone sends a private message to our tip line I get a notification on my cell.”

  Dani watched as Gretchen tapped the screen and read the message. Gretchen’s eyebrows furrowed and she shook her head from side to side.

  “Oh, no. This isn’t good,” she mumbled softly and then bit her bottom lip as if she was afraid to share what she’d just read.

  Something in the tone of Gretchen’s voice made Dani even more nervous than she already was. “What? What is it?”

  “Have you met Eunice Bradshaw yet?” Gretchen asked.

  “Eunice Bradshaw? I don’t think so. Who is she?” Dani asked trying to figure out what some woman she’d never heard of had to do with her.

  “Well,” Gretchen sighed. “She calls herself a reporter, but she doesn’t work for the paper. She’s really just a retiree with a new computer, a love for gossip and too much time on her hands.”

  Dani still couldn’t figure out why any of this was so important — or distressing.

  Gretchen sighed and looked at her friend. “It looks like Eunice got wind of Guy Mason’s death — and the cupcake box found near his body.” Gretchen paused and bit her lip again. “Eunice wrote a post on her blog about it and hinted that the food at the Darling Bakery might be responsible for Guy’s demise.”