Deadly Pumpkin Slice (A Sinful Sweets Cozy Mystery) (7 page)

“What do you think of as suspicious?” Mia asked.

“If anyone is too adamant that I’m the killer. We all know I didn’t do it, so see who is blaming me.”

“Or anyone who is grieving just a little too much, but maybe didn’t know Aaron well,” Grace added.

“Or anyone who knows too much about the hotel room details—that there were two pumpkin pies, that they came from my bakery, that my fingerprints were found in the room.”

“Those details haven’t been made public,” Grace explained when Mia looked confused.

“So I should be schmoozing?” Mia asked.

“Definitely. And keep all your conversations light, don’t let anyone know that you’re digging for clues or suspects. Oh, that reminds me. We have a list of suspects for you to look out for too.” Sydney wrote down the names of the customers they were hoping to question. “We don’t know any of them, and we don’t even know if they’ll be there. But they all ordered pies from us right before the murder.”

“And I was able to find the six members of the Library Commission. Keep your eyes open for them too.” Grace added six more names to the list. “We’ll try to find out as much as we can about each of them before tonight and we’ll let you know if there’s anyone you can skip.”

“Nine people to check out. People are going to be suspicious of
me!
”

“Hm, they might be,” Sydney agreed. “We hadn’t thought that far ahead. Just, be careful. How about we stay in Westhedge and you can call us if there’s anything you overhear that you think we should check out. And we’ll be able to Google anything too. Maybe I should try to get into Detective Massey’s good graces beforehand so I can give him a call to get even more information if needed.”

“You’ve fallen out of his good graces?” Mia asked.

“Well, I was brought in for questioning yesterday and they’ve closed down Sinful Sweets to test for poison in our ingredients. I didn’t have much for patience when he was telling me we wouldn’t be able to work this morning. I got short with him. But I have to go back and check my email before we go to Westhedge—we should probably get going, Grace!” Sydney looked at her watch and was surprised it was already after one.

“Thanks for lunch,” Grace said.

“Thanks for giving me a list of suspects,” Mia said sarcastically.

“We’ll be in Westhedge all afternoon, so if we hear anything, we’ll let you know. Thanks for doing this!”

Sydney and Grace brought Maple back to Sydney’s house and picked up her car before stopping at Sinful Sweets. Sydney rarely left her home alone, but today was one of those rare occasions. They’d be going into uncharted territory and they couldn’t risk being kicked out of places because dogs weren’t welcome.

Back at the bakery, Sydney was thrilled to see no police presence. She unlocked the back door and everything was cleaned up. She hoped that meant she’d be able to reopen the next day. She made a mental note to call Detective Massey to double check.

Grace headed to the front to do a quick cleaning so they’d have less work the next day. Sydney went into her small office.

She stopped short when she got to the door.

On her desk, on top of her closed laptop, was a gruesomely carved Jack-‘o-Lantern. It had been carved such that it appeared to be in extreme pain. Her own name was written in Sharpie so there would be no mistaking that it was a threat.

“What is it, Sydney?” Grace had seen her turn white as a sheet when she’d reached her office.

“I think we’ve been warned.” Sydney walked to the pumpkin and picked it up. Inside was one of her ramekins, smashed to pieces. Also included was a note.

Two can play at your games.

“This isn’t good,” Grace cautioned. “We should call Detective Massey right now.”

“Let’s give it 24 hours. We have a lot of leads to check out, and he wouldn’t want us doing that. This could clear my name, but we have to find whoever it was because they seem to be after me right now. Stopping our investigation wouldn’t keep me safe.”

“At least take a photo so we can send it to him if needed,” Grace suggested.

Sydney snapped out of her shock and turned on her computer. As she waited, she looked at the note again. Each word had been cut from a magazine. It would be impossible to trace without fingerprinting the page, which they couldn’t do without help. She took out her phone and snapped a photo of the whole scene, then each individual piece.

Grace went back out front to finish cleaning. She found a note on the register from Detective Massey.

Sorry for the inconvenience. You’re cleared to reopen, effective immediately.

Sydney logged into her email and saw two responses from the survey—both Jody and Michael were willing to meet with her this afternoon. She’d bring each of them a half dozen donuts instead of one each. This was a better response than she’d expected. Only Madelyn hadn’t responded.

“Thanks for responding to our survey and meeting us on such short notice,” Sydney said to Jody as they sat down at the bar. There were no bakeries in
Westhedge, so they were at the local diner instead. Afternoon coffee. Sydney and Grace would be full of it after talking to Jody and Michael.

“I’m just so thrilled to be able to buy your sweets without having to find the time to go to Twin Peaks! I know it’s not far, but with all the work teachers are expected to do outside the classroom, I’d never be able to enjoy your goodies,” Jody gushed.

“Thanks. We take great pride in being able to ship our products. But we also love to know our customers. And from our survey, it looks like you’ve been a customer since we started shipping.”

“That’s right. A friend let me in on the secret of how good everything you make is, and as soon as I could place orders, I did. I must order something every month. But your pumpkin pies—they’re, hands down, my favorite.”

“Do you ever bring them to gatherings with friends? Share them at events? We love to know how they’re being used so that we can add personalized touches to them.”

“That should be something you ask when placing an order!” Jody offered. “It could be an optional answer, but then maybe offer additional toppings for extra costs for those special occasions.”

“I love that idea!” Sydney said, smiling at Grace. This might have to become one of their customer service trademarks—visiting with customers.

Jody beamed. Both Sydney and Grace could tell that she couldn’t hurt a fly, so they weren’t even going to dig into her possible knowledge of Aaron’s death. But they did still want to know how she’d used her recent pies to more fully rule her out.

“Your most recent order—four individual sized pumpkin pies—did you share those? Would it have been helpful if we’d included anything else with them to fit a special occasion?” Grace asked.

“I actually shared them with coworkers and students. We have a student of the term, even in kindergarten. One boy and one girl. So I got each of them a pie, plus one for myself and one for my teaching aid. They loved them. That’s what’s so great—they’re even kid friendly! And I know I need kid friendly treats that aren’t full of all the artificial sweeteners and allergens. But don’t worry, I don’t bribe the kids with sweets!” Jody added at the end. Neither woman had suspected her of bribery.

“Thanks so much for your feedback, Jody,” Grace said, hoping to wrap up their quick meeting before Michael showed up. “Is there anything else you’d like to add for us to improve on?”

“You should open up more branches!” she said with a laugh.

Sydney and Grace chuckled too. They knew that would never happen. They loved their one store, working in a small town and still being able to ship throughout the state. They would never sell out and become a chain.

“Oh, and we brought you have a dozen cider donuts.” Sydney had almost forgotten to give them to her.

“Thanks! I’ll have to keep these for myself.”

Just as Jody was walking out the door, a man walked in, clearly looking for someone he was supposed to meet. He walked to the two women and introduced himself as Michael.

“Michael, nice to meet you. I’m Sydney, and this is Grace. Thanks for meeting us today on such short notice.”

“No problem. I love your products and you do quite the business here in Westhedge! I see the packages that come through the post office and there have to be a couple dozen some weeks!”

They made small talk for a little while before jumping into the same line of questioning they’d asked Jody.

“This was the first of my orders that even lasted long enough to share with anyone,” he said laughing. “They usually disappear within the first six hours of having them in my house. But this time my wife and I were having a dinner party for some friends—the Pages. They said they’d be placing an order when they got home that night, maybe you’ve already seen it come through.”

“Nope, not yet, but thanks for doing our marketing for us!” Sydney laughed.

Grace tried hard to not look up. She didn’t want to give away her surprise. Lewis and Linda Page were on their suspect list, and now they’d had access to the murder ‘weapon.’

Sydney noticed Grace’s avoidance of the conversation and wrapped up so she could ask what was going on. Sydney was making sure to keep on top of the customer suspects and hadn’t paid attention fully when Grace caught her up to speed on the Library Commissioners on the drive over.

“What is it?” Sydney whispered after Michael had left with his complimentary donuts.

“The Pages!” Grace was nearly speechless.

“What about them? You said they were on the Library Commission, but is there something else?”

“He’s an accountant. If Aaron was stealing money, he would have caught it. Or, if Lewis was stealing money, he would have known how to cover it up, but Aaron could have still found out. We didn’t know if they’d bought any pies, but they didn’t have to. Michael brought them right to the Pages!” Grace was just about jumping up she was so excited with this new development.

“I guess we have to find Lewis Page next then.”

“Great news. All the Commissioners will be together. There’s a public meeting in a half hour,” she told Sydney as she stared at her phone and they paid their bill.

***

Sydney and Grace didn’t have to consult each other about where they’d be heading next. They both knew they’d be going to that meeting. Everyone they were looking for would be there—Allison, the Pages, the Jeffreys and Kevin and Jordan.

Outside the library, they spotted Allison.

“Sydney, Grace! What are you doing here?” she asked, a look of questioning on her face that they both took for suspicion.

“Oh, we were just in the area conducting customer feedback interviews.” Sydney was glad she wasn’t lying. “What are you doing here?” Sydney asked, playing dumb.

“I got transferred after Aaron’s death. Didn’t you know him?” she asked Sydney.

“Yes.” She wasn’t willing to give more information than was explicitly asked.

“It’s really a shame what happened. Killed in Twin Peaks. It’s unspeakable, really.”

“Mmm hmm,” Sydney and Grace commiserated with her.

“And to be poisoned. I can’t imagine who would do that.”

“It really is terrible. You knew him, too, didn’t you?” Sydney asked, needing to turn the conversation around.

“We’d worked together for years in the same library district. But I wouldn’t say we knew each other well.”

“Is this a good move for you?” Sydney was digging.

“It’s a great move. Of course, I’ll miss working right down the road from my house. But the resources of this library! I didn’t even know the half of it! Kenneth Jeffreys left a trust fund when he passed away. It’s grown since then! Unbelievable in this market. But it means I’ll be able to have a lot more interaction with the community because of the funds he’s made available.”