One Last Bite_A Darling Bakery Cozy Mystery Read online

  Even though the word demise sounded a lot better than die, dead or death, it still made Dani’s stomach churn.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dani exclaimed getting as agitated as she was when Clint first dropped his accusation. “I don’t even know this Eunice Bradshaw! Why is she attacking my bakery?” Dani’s voice elevated and she grabbed Gretchen’s cell phone to read the blog post for herself.

  Dani swiped her finger across the screen and scanned the text. With each line she read, she got more and more angry.

  “At this time we don’t have an official cause of death for our beloved friend Guy,” Dani said reading aloud. “But I think Riley residents should be cautious about diving into every new fad that comes to town. The cupcakes at The Darling Bakery might be “free”, but they also may have cost Guy his life!”

  Dani silently read and re-read the last sentence and then finally exploded.

  “She can’t do this!” Dani shouted as she got up from her seat and began to pace the room. “She can’t make accusations like this!” Dani spun around to face Gretchen. “Isn’t this defamation of character? I should sue her for liable!”

  Gretchen stood up and took her friend by the shoulders. “Okay, I know you’re upset,” Gretchen said as she steered Dani back to a seat. “But let’s try to stay calm while we figure out what to do.”

  Dani slumped helplessly into the chair. She knew her friend was right, losing her cool wasn’t going to help this situation, but she couldn’t help but feel a little angry.

  “What did Clint say before he left?” Gretchen asked as she sat back down across from Dani.

  Dani took a deep breath and tried to remember what the irritatingly hot detective had said in her office.

  “Uh… He just told me to email him a copy of my recipes and call him if I thought of anything else that might help his investigation.”

  “Okay, that’s good. It means the police don’t have any grounds to arrest you yet.”

  “Yet?” Dani shrieked.

  Gretchen reached across the table and patted Dani’s hand.

  “I just mean there’s no real evidence to tie you to Guy’s …” Gretchen paused and looked into her friend’s panicked eyes and didn’t speak the D word. “Clint’s probably going to send the recipes to the lab so they can check the ingredients,” she said. “That shouldn’t take very long and then all of this will be cleared up. In the meantime, don’t worry too much about Eunice’s blog. People only really read it for laughs. No one in town takes Eunice too seriously. Why just last month she went on a rampage against Mr. Cho at Cho’s Chinese Food Restaurant. Apparently, Mr. Cho was trying out some new humorous fortune cookies and Eunice got one that said ‘Your friends secretly think your head is too small for your body! She went into hysterics claiming that Mr. Cho was participating in fat-shaming and when he wouldn’t apologize for what the fortune cookie said she wrote a blog post accusing him of discrimination. She even made a picket sign and walked up and down in front of the restaurant for two whole hours.”

  “Then what happened?” Dani asked trying to block out a vision of some woman marching back and forth in front of The Darling Bakery with a picket sign.

  “Oh, it all blew over soon enough. Mr. Cho coaxed her back inside with an order of spring rolls and then promised her free lunch for a week. The whole thing was over before it really got started.”

  “Well, if a few free cupcakes will keep her from maligning my name in her blog I’d be happy to send her a dozen right now.”

  Dani looked around the empty store. She shoved her hands into her apron pocket in frustration. When her fingers touched Clint’s business card she felt her hand grasp it and crumple the card into a ball.

  “Riley residents may not take Eunice too seriously,” she blurted. “But her negative blog is the only thing that would explain this sudden drop in business. Maybe they’re a little more sensitive about death than they are about fat shaming.”

  Chapter 5

  When the sun broke through the curtains of Dani’s room the next morning she felt like she’d hardly gotten any sleep at all. Even though she was able to sleep past her usual 4am alarm, Dani had tossed and turned all night worrying about Clint Johnson’s suspicions and Eunice Bradshaw’s accusations.

  Dani picked her cell phone off her nightstand and tapped the screen. 8:30. She could still afford to stay in bed for another two hours and make it to the bakery before noon. Dani pulled the blanket over her head blocking the bright sunlight. If only she had something to block the worried thoughts spinning around in her mind.

  It seemed like Dani had just nodded back to sleep when she felt a gentle kneading feeling on her butt. Her first thought was of Brad and the way he would tap her on the butt before asking if she was planning to go to the gym anytime soon. She sighed. Thoughts of her cheating ex-boyfriend were almost as bad as thoughts of the accusing detective Clint Johnson. Neither was what she wanted to start her morning with.

  When she pulled the covers back and looked over her shoulder there sat Sheba, her orange Tabby cat.

  Sheba, also called Queen Sheba, The Queen, Her Royal Highness — or this morning a literal pain in Dani’s butt, was splayed on her side with her front and rear paws kneading Dani’s fleshy rear end.

  Dani turned over and scooped Queen Sheba into her arms.

  “Well, good morning to you too,” she said pulling her feline companion to her chest.

  The Queen let out a meow and pushed her paw to Dani’s lips. A feline facepalm.

  “Humph. I bet your breath doesn’t smell that great either,” she growled as she dumped Queen Sheba back onto the bed.

  Her Royal Highness jumped down to the floor and walked toward the bedroom door. Just before she walked out of the room she turned her head and let out a long meow.

  Translation. Come human. Feed me!

  Dani rolled her eyes and contemplated ignoring her cat’s demands, but she knew she’d just pay for it later. Long before Dani had been properly trained she’d made the mistake of spending the night at a girlfriend’s house, leaving Queen Sheba home alone. When Dani got home the next morning her pillow had been clawed to shreds and there were down feathers all over her bed. For the next three days, Sheba had given Dani the cold shoulder and wouldn’t let Dani pet her. No, it was better to get up and feed Her Majesty than to suffer her wrath.

  In spite of her passive-aggressive tendencies, Queen Sheba was the one good thing that had come from her relationship with Brad. He bought the cat as a makeup present after their first big fight. Dani should have read the signs way back then. Animals are really good judges of character and Queen Sheba never did like Brad. From the moment Sheba crawled out of her carry-cage and into Dani’s arms she’d never allowed Brad to touch her again. She hissed every time he tried to pet her and even when he tried to entice her by putting some tuna in his hand, Sheba would just turn up her nose and walk away. If Dani had been more fluent in cat back then she would have known her feline protector was trying to tell her something. Wisdom thy name is Sheba!

  Dani removed the cat food can from the can opener and scooped the fishy smelling contents into Sheba’s dish.

  “Sheba, you’d better enjoy this premium cat food while you can,” she said as she placed the dish on the floor. “If the medical examiner can’t prove that my cupcakes had nothing to do with Guy’s death I won’t be able to afford this expensive stuff anymore and you’ll have to start eating store brand cat food.”

  Sheba looked up at Dani and let out a loud, disapproving meow.

  “I know you don’t like the store brand stuff, but if I have to close the bakery you’ll just have to get used to it.”

  Sheba’s whiskers twitched and her tail flicked through the air defiantly.

  “I’m doing the best I can to figure this all out and clear the Darling name, but if you have any ideas on what I should do next I’m open to suggestions.”

  Sheba lifted her face from her dish, walked over to Dani and rubbe
d her head against Dani’s leg affectionately.

  Dani sighed. “I’m not going to give up, Sheba,” she said acknowledging her cats attempt at encouragement. “Keeping the bakery open is too important.”

  “Meow!”

  “Yes. And it’s also important to keep feeding you your favorite food,” Dani said as she gave Sheba a scratch behind her ears.

  ***

  It was almost 11:30 when Dani arrived at the bakery. Instead of driving around back to her normal parking space, she slowed her car down almost to a crawl and drove past the side of the store where the long window looked into the kitchen. Each of the previous mornings a small crowd of curious passersby could be found peering into the window, but this morning the sidewalk in front of the window was empty.

  Dani sighed and drove around to the back of the building. She cut off the engine and let her head fall to the steering wheel. What was she going to tell Matt and Rhonda? Surely they were wondering why all their new customers had vanished so suddenly. Dani wasn’t ready to talk about the detective’s visit yesterday and she doubted the two college students paid any attention to the online ramblings of a nosey senior citizen. Maybe they hadn’t heard the news about Guy yet? Maybe Dani had a little more time to figure this mess out before breaking the news to her new staff.

  “Good morning!” Dani said trying to sound casual as she walked into the kitchen.

  Matt was sitting at the baking counter hunched over the iPad he used to tabulate the daily sales and calculate how many cupcakes Dani should make for the next day. Dani could see several shelves of unfrosted cupcakes sitting on the racks they used to store the cupcakes in the refrigerator.

  “How are things going?” Dani mentally crossed her fingers hoping for some good news.

  “Hey, Boss,” Matt said still distracted by whatever he was reading on the iPad. “Well.” He looked up at Dani before he spoke. “To be honest, it’s a little slow. We didn’t even frost the whole batch of cupcakes you made last night and we still have…” Matt paused and tapped the screen of his iPad. “We still have thirty percent more inventory this morning than we did at this time yesterday. “I can’t figure out what’s going on,” he complained. “There’s nothing to explain this sudden drop in business.”

  Dani just sighed. She knew she couldn’t avoid the inevitable conversation any longer. “I think I may know what’s going on Matt. Where’s Rhonda? I need to talk to both of you.”

  “She’s out front,” Matt said as he jumped off the stool he was sitting on. “I’ll go grab her. I don’t think she’s helping any customers right now. I haven’t heard the bell on the front door ring for almost twenty minutes.”

  When Matt and Rhonda walked back into the kitchen, Rhonda barely said hello. She just kept looking down at her feet uncomfortably. Dani took a deep breath trying to find the words to share the bad news, but before she could speak Rhonda’s voice pierced the air.

  “I’m so sorry, Dani!” she burst out. “I know I followed your recipe exactly when I made that second batch of German Chocolate cupcakes on Wednesday. I don’t know what could have happened!” She was wiping tears from her quickly reddening eyes. “Maybe that guar gum stuff was spoiled or something?”

  Dani let out a long sigh. Matt hadn’t heard the news, but clearly, Rhonda had. Dani felt her face get hot with anger. It was one thing for Clint to accuse her of making Guy sick with her cupcakes, but she never considered that one of her new assistants would think they’d done something wrong in the baking process. Dani rushed over to Rhonda and scooped the young woman up in a big hug.

  “Rhonda, there wasn’t anything wrong with any of the cupcakes that came out of this bakery. The police have barely started their investigation. I will not have you blaming yourself for anything either of them is saying.”

  “Wait. What is she talking about?” Matt asked totally confused.

  Dani released Rhonda and then took a deep breath before she spoke.

  “That detective who came to the bakery yesterday. He came to tell me that a man named Guy Mason had been found dead and an empty box from the Darling Bakery was laying next to the body.”

  Matt just frowned. “That’s nuts,” he said defiantly. Then he looked at Rhonda. “But how did you find out about it. And why didn’t you say anything to me when we got here this morning?”

  Rhonda kept staring at her feet. “My grandmother heard it from her hairdresser who said her neighbor got the information straight from someone at the police department. There’s a whole story about it in a blog online.”

  Dani’s jaw clenched tight. The neighbor must have been Eunice Bradshaw.

  “Look you two, I don’t care what some crackpot said in a blog nobody reads.” Dani paused. Well, clearly somebody read it or business wouldn’t be in the toilet right now. Dani shook the thought from her mind. “We are not going to let this little set back ruin all the hard work we’ve done to get this bakery up and running. Do you hear me?” She looked each of her assistants in the eye and wouldn’t break her gaze until they’d both nodded.

  “The police are going to clear this mess up and until then we are going to press forward with business as usual. Even if business doesn’t pick back up today we still have to bake 300 cupcakes for the Riley Community College Career Day Fair next week. Those sales will tide us over until things get back to normal.”

  Dani sounded almost confident enough for her to believe the little speech she was giving to her employees, but the truth was she was fighting a sinking feeling of helplessness. She’s already told the college that she’d sell her cupcakes at a discount so the job seekers could afford them. Dani agreed to cut the price in hope of landing a contract to provide the school’s cafeteria with gluten-free cupcakes year-round.

  Dani’s stomach began to knot with worry. Was her business going to fail before it even got started? Were the police even interested in the truth, or was Dani just an easy scapegoat to pin this tragedy on?

  Dani looked up at the picture of Nana hanging on the kitchen wall. Please help! she asked silently as she stared at the picture of the woman who’d known how to be strong in the face of adversity. After all, Nana had started her own business while her husband was away at war. She’d managed to create wonderful baked goods even when the country was facing rations on the key ingredients. This was Dani’s grandmother! Certainly, some of that strength must still be coursing through Dani’s veins.

  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do!” Dani said boldly. “You two will say here and bake a few dozen fresh cupcakes. Maybe business will pick back up at lunchtime. Meanwhile, I’ll take the leftover cupcakes from yesterday around to some of the local businesses. I’ve been meaning to introduce myself to some of the other business owners but we’ve been too busy before now for me to do that. Maybe I can stir up some special orders. I don’t like selling day-old cupcakes, but they’re still fresh enough to give away.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Matt said enthusiastically.

  “Dani,” Rhonda chimed in timidly. “I’ve been doing some research on a few gluten-free cooking blogs after work. Would it be okay if I took a little time to experiment with some new cupcake flavors if things stay slow today?”

  “Wow, Rhonda! Sure. That would be great.”

  Dani could feel a cheek to cheek grin stretch across her face. She wanted to rush over and grab each of her assistants into a big hug, but something told her they’d probably respond much like Queen Sheba did and she wasn’t sure if her ego could take a human facepalm.

  Instead, Dani celebrated silently that she’d been able to find employees who not only worked hard but could think for themselves. Matt’s defense of the bakery and Rhonda’s willingness to spending time after work to learn new gluten-free recipes was proof that Dani had chosen the perfect assistants for The Darling Bakery! If they weren’t going to give up on her dream she certainly couldn’t!

  “Alright, everyone! Let’s get this plan started!”