Deadly Pumpkin Slice (A Sinful Sweets Cozy Mystery) (6 page)

“Unfortunately, I am. My team is on their way now. I’ll have to ask you to leave until we’ve completed our search.”
“How long do you think this
search
will take?” Sydney had lost all patience but knew she shouldn’t put on an attitude.

“We hope to work through the night and have everything completed by noon tomorrow. You’ll have to remain closed until we’re through.”

“Will I be compensated for lost business?”

“We can’t promise that. What we can promise is a timely search so that you’ll be able to reopen promptly.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, Detective Massey.”

“Please, call me Austin.”

Sydney was speechless. Here was this stunningly gorgeous hunk in front of her who just shut down her only means of income, and he was trying to get friendly with her. His nerve.

“We’ll get out of your way.”

“Here’s my card. If you think of anything that might be helpful in our search or any other part of the investigation, please don’t hesitate to call. I’ll let you know as soon as we’re able to let you back in.”

“Thanks,” she said, but didn’t mean it. “Let’s go Maple.” Together they wanted back to the kitchen, leaving Austin to let himself out.

“We have to close?” Grace hissed.

“Yeah. Let’s go get a beer and talk through these suspects some more. Then we’ll have a long baking session in my kitchen so we can get these scones made in time.”

***

“Levi is out,” Sydney said confidently after she’d downed her first beer.

“But we still have Allison. Since we’re not allowed to work tomorrow morning, I’ll go to the library as soon as it opens. See what her alibi is.”

“And then we could head over to Westhedge. Maybe visit a diner there. Just listen in on what people are saying. See if there are any accusations floating around. And maybe even find Jody, Michael or Madelyn. Let’s Google them to see what comes up.”

“Already on it. Jody Durham,” Grace started, staring at her phone. “She’s an elementary school teacher, listed as their only kindergarten teacher. We have their emails, why don’t we send out surveys tonight and tell them we’d love to come pick them up so we can get any feedback from them about our service and sweets.”

“Love it! I’ll start writing it now, you look up Michael and Madelyn.” Sydney took out her own phone and opened up her notes. Questions she would ask included: 1. How did you first hear about Sinful Sweets? 2. How long have you been a customer of Sinful Sweets? 3. Is there anything we could do better to improve our service to you? 4. If you shared your most recent order, do you think they will become a customer in the future?

She already knew what and when their most recent orders had been, so she would include that in her personalized emails. She would make it look like everyone was getting one, but only the three suspects would.

“Did you find anything out about Michael?”

“His Facebook profile is completely accessible. It looks like he has a wife and a couple kids, works for the post office, and we don’t have any mutual friends. Let me search his friends for Aaron, what’s his last name?”

“Gibbs.”

“Right. It looks like they’re not friends on Facebook.”

“What about Madelyn?”

“Hang on, let me open a new window. . .There. Wow. She’s beautiful. I’m getting a couple articles about her. Not local, though. She used to be a model. These are old articles, so I’m not sure when she left that and moved here.”

“What about her Facebook page. Is it public?”

“No. I can’t see anything but her picture. Can’t even see her friends.”

“Oh well. We’ll look for them tomorrow. We have a busy day—find Allison, talk to Mia and visit Westhedge. Here, take a look at my email.”

Dear [name],

Thank you for your recent order of [include specific sweets] from Sinful Sweets. To improve our service to you and all of our loyal customers, we’d like to ask you a few questions. We will also be visiting Westhedge tomorrow afternoon and would love to hear any feedback in person. A complimentary cider donut will be included!

1. How did you first hear about Sinful Sweets?

2. How long have you been a customer of Sinful Sweets?

3. Is there anything we could do better to improve our service to you?

4. If you shared your most recent order, do you think they will become a customer in the future?

Feel free to respond via email, or let us know a time we could bring you another delicious treat tomorrow.

Forever yours,

Sinful Sweets

“Perfect, but what if we don’t hear from anyone before tomorrow? A teacher, a postal worker and an ex-model who we don’t know what she’s doing now—we might not get to meet anyone.”

“That’s OK. We’ll cross our fingers to hear from them, otherwise we’ll just show up in town and seek them out. I’ll have to go back to Sinful Sweets to send this email. I don’t have access to their contact information at home.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Detective Massey and his team will be there.”

“He was getting all friendly with me earlier. I’ll try to play my hand and bat my eyelashes enough to let him just use my computer. I wouldn’t be touching the ingredients!”

“You are trouble, Sydney!” Grace said, laughing.

“I’ll use Maple as a decoy, say she led me straight here and wouldn’t go home without a visit first. She must have left a bone.”

“I’ll meet you at your house to get busy baking scones.”

Grace paid for her drinks and headed out the door. Sydney went the other way, back to Sinful Sweets.

“Too bad you can’t tell Detective Massey—
Austin
—that I was home two nights ago,” Sydney said to Maple as they walked slowly back to the bakery. Maple seemed to always know where they were going, leading Sydney without straying from the path Sydney planned. Sydney pushed her bike next to her. She preferred not to ride at night when there was a greater potential for Maple to get caught on a smell and take off. “You’re my only witness for my innocence.”

They arrived at the bakery and were surprised to find everyone still hard at work. Sydney felt humiliated that she had to ask permission to enter.

“Detective Massey—” she started when she opened the back door.

“Austin,” he interrupted her.

“Austin,” she tried again. “Would it be alright if I just used my computer for a couple minutes. I want to send an email to a couple customers. . .Let them know their orders will be delayed,” she improvised at the last second. “I don’t have it setup to be accessed from home, and I don’t have their contact information there.”

“I think that’d be alright. Just stay out of the kitchen.”

Sydney gave him the best smile she could muster given the circumstances and headed to her small office. She sent an email to Jody, Michael and Madelyn, hoping beyond hope that they would see them tonight and get back to her.

She also checked around her desk for anything she may have printed and made notes on regarding her own investigation. She didn’t think a detective finding them would be good for her case.

She took a few more lists of customers and shuffled Maple out the door. “Thanks, Austin,” she called as the door closed so he wouldn’t have another chance to talk to her. Given any other scenario, she’d almost beg for him to notice her and talk to her.

“Let’s go home, girl. We have scones to make with Grace.”

Maple led the way and Sydney found herself on her doorstep, feeling exhausted from the events of the day.

***

Sydney woke up at her usual early hour, but had nowhere to go. She couldn’t go to the bakery and the baking from the previous night was complete. She figured it was still too early to get together with Grace and discuss their plan of attack for interrogations—no, questionings. And it was definitely too early to find Allison at the library.

Instead, she took a morning for herself. She grated a potato and fried it up for hash browns. She added sour cream to them so they were creamy and fluffy. She added two eggs to a different pan and made over easy eggs with pepper. She cut a tomato and avocado, catching it just before it passed its prime, and put them on a plate while everything else cooked. One piece of bread went into the toaster and she took out her blueberry jam. A neighbor had made it from her own bushes the previous summer. Sydney was surprised she still had any. Finally, she put water on to boil and took out her biggest mug. She’d take it easy this morning and enjoy an extra large cup of tea with her enormous breakfast. She’d need all the energy she could get to make it through another day of proving her own innocence.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t forget you,” she said to Maple, giving her a rub behind the ears. “Here’s a peanut butter sandwich for your breakfast.” Peanut butter was Maple’s favorite. “What do you think, are you going to come with me today on all of my adventures?”

Maple looked up expectantly, knowing she’d never be left behind.

Just before Sydney sat down to enjoy her meal, her phone sang, letting her know a text had come in.
Couldn’t sleep.
Grace had written.

Me neither. Kept thinking about AUSTIN and his allegations. See you in an hour at the library?
Sydney checked her watch and was surprised to see it was already eight o’clock. If she didn’t get up so early every day, she’d never get anything done!

Perfect. See you then.

Their first plan was made.

***

“So,
Austin
, huh?” Grace said when Sydney and Maple arrived on the front steps of the library.

“He keeps telling me to call him that,” Sydney defended herself.

“You can’t deny he’s quite the catch.”

“He
would
be. In a different lifetime.”

“We both know you’re innocent. If he’s moving to a first name basis, he must know something we don’t.”

“He’s certainly not letting on that I’m about to get removed from the top of the suspect list. Let’s talk to Allison and see if she can take my place up there. Sorry Maple,” she said, turning to the dog. “You have to stay outside. This isn’t Sinful Sweets.”

Sydney tied Maple to the banister leading up the front steps and she went inside with Grace.

“I hope the detectives are quick about their ingredient testing. I hate thinking about all the customers we’re letting down this morning,” Sydney whispered as they passed into the main part of the library.

“It won’t be good for business, that’s for sure. But it will all blow over. This can’t ruin us, we’re stronger than that,” Grace reassured her friend and employer.

There was no one at the front desk, but there were also no other patrons. This was likely one of the quietest times of the day, so Allison was probably putting books away. Grace began walking up and down the aisles looking for her, while Sydney stayed at the desk hoping she’d feel their presence.

“Good morning,” an unfamiliar man’s voice said to Sydney. She turned around to see a new face.

“Oh, hi,” she said, trying to hide her surprise.

“Is there anything I can help you find?”

“Actually, I’m looking for Allison. I thought she’d be here today.”

“She no longer works here. She was transferred yesterday to Westhedge. They found themselves without a librarian all of a sudden and she had the most seniority so she was lucky enough to get it,” the man told her, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

Who knew the librarian business was so competitive?
Sydney thought to herself.

“And between you and me, she’s been eyeing that position for years,” he continued in a conspiratorial whisper.

“Just having enough seniority got her the job?” Sydney asked, surprised that there didn’t seem to be any kind of application process.

“Normally, she’d only be there temporarily, but I think she’s been sneaking favors to the man upstairs, if you know what I mean,” he continued to whisper, this time adding a wink and a nudge of Sydney’s arm.

“You’re here permanently then?” Sydney asked.

“It seems so. Couldn’t be happier, though. I was coming from a high school where kids just don’t care about books anymore. I’m Steve, but the way.”

“Hi Steve,” she said, shaking his hand. “Sydney. You don’t know anything else about this vacancy Westhedge found themselves with, do you?” She plowed on, determined to get answers, even if they weren’t from the person she was tracking down. Grace made her way back to the front of the library and hung off to one side, reading a book full of canning recipes while eavesdropping.

“Well, actually, I heard the previous librarian, Aaron, was murdered. Can you believe that? Who goes after a librarian?”

“Do you know if Allison knew him?” Sydney was hoping she wouldn’t have to give too much away.

“I heard they were friendly. But if you ask me, you have to check out the members of the Library Commission. They’re like the board of directors. There have been shady things going on with the Westhedge Library budget for years. I don’t know any details, but the commissioners will.”

“Thanks Steve. We’ll head over to Westhedge to find Allison.”

“No problem. See you around.” He waved as he turned back to his work.

Sydney walked out the front door with Grace close behind. She untied Maple and they started walking back to Sydney’s house.

“Can you believe that?” Sydney nearly shouted. “This goes deeper than either of us knew! I bet either he was skimming off the top of that huge library fund and got found out—but why kill him over it, why not just fire him?” She was thinking out loud and there was too much to process.

“Or one of the commissioners was using the fund for personal use and Aaron found out. This was their way of shutting him up. If Allison was eyeing that job, they probably think they’ll have her wrapped around their finger or they’ll threaten to fire her,” Grace countered, adding plenty more suspects to their list.

“Either way, we need to find out what was going on with that money. But first things first, we have to meet with Mia to get her ready for tonight’s wake.”

“What about the Westhedge customers? Have you heard back from any of them?”

“I’ll have to brave going back to Sinful Sweets before we leave. I’ll stop there after we see Mia. Hopefully they’ll have cleared out. But if not, I’ll sweet talk my way into my office again.”

***

“Auntie Sydney!” Ariel cried as soon as Sydney opened the door to her sister’s house. She opened her arms and Ariel flew into them.

“Hi Ariel. Where’s your mom?” she asked, knowing that her day was packed and as much as she’d love to spend quality time with her niece, she had to get straight to business.

“She’s putting Aiden down for a nap,” the three year old told her. “Can I play outside with Maple?”

“Of course. Grace and I will come too. We’ll wait outside until your mom comes back downstairs.”

“Hooray!” Ariel shouted and Sydney knew she should try to keep her quiet. Going outside would help solve that problem.

Sydney found herself pushing Ariel on the swing again. Grace sat on the second one, barely moving, absorbed in her phone, looking up members of the Library Commission in Westhedge. Everything was public on the library’s website, so she made a point to save the page before Googling their names.

She found six members, including two couples. One couple—Lewis and Linda Page—was made up of an accountant and a well known author. Linda had been a local sensation since her first novel hit number one on the New York Times Bestsellers list 20 years earlier. Her husband flew to the top of Grace’s suspect list. An accountant would know exactly how to manufacture the books to look legitimate, even when they weren’t.

Another couple—Arthur and Marilyn Jeffreys—included a former Wall Street broker who had retired in Westhedge with his children’s book illustrator wife. They’d have to check them out, but they seemed to pose little risk in the way of stealing money.

The final two members—Kevin Markus and Jordan Nash—were both lifetime residents of Westhedge—a bus driver and a business owner. Grace would have to ask Sydney if she knew them from the three years she’d lived there with Aaron.

“Sorry Sydney, Aiden just wouldn’t fall asleep!” Mia complained when she came outside.

“Don’t worry about it. That just meant I got more quality time with Ariel.”

“Why don’t you come inside and we can talk about tonight,” Mia suggested. “Ariel, do you want to do fingerpaints in the play room?” Sydney suspected this would be a special activity for her and would keep her occupied to prevent overhearing anything she might question later.

Ariel nearly ran straight into the glass sliding door on her way back inside, her excitement all consuming.

“Lunch?” Mia asked.

“That’d be great. Whatever you have.”

“So, what do you want me to look for tonight?” Mia asked, setting peanut butter, jelly and bread out onto the counter.

“Anything suspicious. I think it will be more about listening to people,” Sydney started.