Never Trust a Skinny Cupcake Baker (Death by Cupcake Book 1) (12 page)

Make
cupcakes, not war.

I’m surprised to see Kristie coming into the bakery the next
morning. “I didn’t realize you were coming in today,” I comment as she rounds
the display cases.

She stops and looks unsure. “Anna called me to come in. I
hope that’s okay?”

“Of course it’s okay! I just didn’t realize is all.”

Kristie smiles and rushes to the back to put away her jacket
and bag. When she returns, Anna’s following her. I motion Kristie to help the
next customer and approach Anna. “What’s going on?”

“I made an appointment with that doctor this morning,” she
whispers and looks around furtively as if she’s on a secret spy mission.
“You’re coming with me, aren’t you?”

“Of course!” After a night spent in Ben’s arms, I’m lucky I
remember my name. It’s no wonder I forgot about our rendezvous with Dr.
Abrahams. “What time is the appointment?”

Anna looks at her watch. “In thirty minutes.”

I nod and turn to Kristie. “You got everything covered
here?”

“Of course, Callie.” She smiles and turns back to help
another customer.

I’ve already grabbed my bag and followed Anna to the back
door before I realize my mistake. “Shoot!”

Anna turns around and stares at me. “What?”

“I promised Ben I wouldn’t go anywhere without him.”

Anna smiles and bumps my hip with hers. “You really like
him, don’t you?” I resist the temptation to roll my eyes at her because who
wouldn’t like the hot detective when he’s sweet and attentive? “Call him. If he
hurries, we should still be able to make my appointment.”

I quickly call Ben. He says he’ll be at the bakery in five
minutes and makes me promise to wait for him. My eye roll at his pushiness is
completely ineffective considering we’re on the phone. We hear a car honking in
the alley a few minutes later, and I get a text message from Ben telling me
he’s waiting in his car.

Anna and I pile into Ben’s car. “Where are we going?”

I hesitate, and Anna answers for me. “I’ve got a doctor’s
appointment,” she hedges.

Ben’s eyebrow rises as he stares at her in the back seat. “A
doctor’s appointment? Really? This appointment wouldn’t be with a Dr. Abrahams,
would it?”

Anna shrugs. “Maybe.”

Before Ben has a chance to admonish us, I jump in. “You said
we needed to check his alibi. And,” I quickly continue when I see Ben open his
mouth. “Anna made this appointment before the whole cupcake incident yesterday.
Besides, we have this big, sexy detective with us to protect us.”

Ben smiles and shakes his head at my obvious attempt to butter
him up. “I’m going to do the talking.”

I mumble, “Whatever,” but secretly, I’m glad that he’s not
mad at me.

We arrive at the University Medical Center, and Anna checks
in while Ben and I find somewhere to sit. Anna sits next to me and leans in to
whisper, “So what do you suppose everyone thinks? I’m going with two lesbian
lovers looking for a sperm donor.”

I can’t help the giggle that escapes. “Except that Ben has
his arm around me.”

“True,” Anna says and taps her cheek. “How about you’re
infertile and I’m going to be your surrogate?”

Ben leans over and responds. “Not sure your tiny pixie body
could handle my baby, Pinkie,” he says and winks.

My mouth falls open, and I stare at the man. “Did you just
make a joke?”

He smiles and shows me his dimple. “Yeah, honey, I’m more
than just a hot body.”

I don’t get a chance to respond as the nurse calls Anna. We
all stand and follow her. The other patients in the waiting room don’t even
bother to hide their surprise. Raised eyebrows above rounded eyes stare at us
as we walk through the room to the exam rooms.

The nurse opens the door and points to the gown laying on
the table. “Please undress and put on that gown.” She looks up at our group and
blushes before rushing out of the room.

Anna hops up on the exam table. She makes a face at the gown
before moving it out of her way. “So, how are we going to play this? Good cop,
bad cop. Or I guess good cop, good cop, bad cop?”

Ben shakes his head at her. He doesn’t get a chance to berate
her, though, as Dr. Abrahams walks in. When he looks up from his chart, his
eyes take in the spectacle the three of us create. He looks confused until his
gaze lands on me. Then, he narrows his eyes and hugs the chart to his chest.
“I’ve already said everything I’m going to say on this matter.”

Before he can turn around, Ben has his badge out and holding
it up. “I’m Detective Evers and I just have a few questions for you.”

The doctor stops and puts his chart on the cabinet next to
the sink. “How can I help you, detective?”

“I just need to know where you were on August tenth between
the hours of 3 and 5:30 p.m.” Ben clips his badge back on his waistband and
pulls a small notebook out of his pocket.

“I’m sure I was here, but let me show you.” Abrahams grabs a
tablet that is affixed to the wall next to the door. He starts ticking away and
just a few seconds later, he holds out the tablet to Ben. “I’d appreciate it if
you wouldn’t note the patients’ names. Doctor confidentiality and all that. But
you can confirm my whereabouts with my staff.” He grabs the tablet again and
taps away. “Here is the list of nurses who were on duty on that day.”

Ben grabs the tablet and copies the names onto his notepad.
“Thank you, doctor.” He hands the tablet back and folds his notebook. He looks
like he’s about to leave.

Anna’s not going to let this opportunity to question the
doctor go. “Do you know any women on this list?” She shoves a copy of the list
of women at the gym when the cupcake was placed in the locker room in his face.

The doctor scrunches his nose at the list and shakes his
head. He doesn’t bother to look at the names. “I have a medical practice which
only serves female patients. I can’t possible know all the names of those
patients.”

Anna shakes the piece of paper. “But were you friends or
maybe ‘intimate’ with any of these women?”

Abrahams takes a deep breath and is obviously holding onto
his patience with a thin thread. He turns his head to me and glares. “As I told
your associate, the only person I’ve been intimate with recently was Dolly. I
paid her for sex because women are not to be trusted. Even if you tell a woman
that you don’t want a relationship, once you have sex, she thinks you’re in a
relationship.” He grunts. “I don’t do relationships.” 

“Aren’t you married, doctor?” Ben asks.

The doctor scuffs. “Yes, I’m married, but my
wife
and
I haven’t been intimate in a long time.” He returns the tablet to its resting
place and grabs the chart. “If that’s all.” It’s not a question. He’s already
exiting the room.

“Well, that was anti-climactic,” Anna notes as she jumps
down from the exam table. “So much for being your baby mama.”

I shake my head at her, but Ben chuckles before grabbing my
hand and pulling me out of the room.

Procrastibaking:
The art of making cupcakes instead of doing what you should be doing.

It’s one of those rare moments in the bakery world when
there are no customers to serve and the café is completely empty of lounging
students. The summer semester is finished and fall semester starts in just two
days, which is why – despite sitting in the super-comfy chairs – I’m anything
but relaxed.

“What am I going to do?” I whine to Anna for not the first
time today.

“We’ll figure something out,” she responds in a cheery voice
that makes me want to punch her.

“How?” I continue to whine.

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “You’re the one with the
doctorate. Can’t you look at it like an intellectual puzzle somehow?”

I sit up straight. I do have a doctorate, and I do love
intellectual puzzles. “Okay, let’s start with what we know. What do we know and
what are we missing in this puzzle?”

“We know Dolly was poisoned by a cupcake, which I didn’t
bake by the way.” Anna just had to add that last part. She was completely
affronted when she heard that someone put alcohol in the cupcake that killed
Dolly.

“And we know that cupcake was placed in the gym between 3
and 5:30 p.m. on the day Dolly died.”

“And we have a list of names of women who were in the gym
during those times.”

I snort. A fat lot of good that name of suspects has done us
so far. “Maybe the person who killed Dolly isn’t the same person who delivered
the cupcake. After all, our best suspect so far is Doctor Abrahams, and he can
prove he was at work at the time of the murder.” 

Anna leans forward and whispers even though there’s no one
else around. “Are you saying you don’t believe the doctor is innocent? What did
Ben think?”

I shrug. “I don’t know if the doctor is a killer or not, but
he’s so slimy. I mean, he’s admitted to using a prostitute already, and then
yesterday he practically told us that he sleeps around with his nurses.” I
shiver in disgust.

 Anna scrunches up her nose. “Can you imagine him doing
an examination of your private parts? Gross.”

I vigorously shake my head. “And you said I’m the prude!”

“Hey, it’s not being a prude when you don’t want some sleazy
dude all up in your female bits.” She points her finger at those very same
bits.

I giggle at her choice of terminology. “But seriously, do
you think he could be a murderer?”

Anna shrugs. “I don’t know. Everyone said Ted Bundy was
charming.”

“True.” I lean over the table and place my hands in my chin.
“But how did he do it if he’s the murderer? I mean it’s obvious he could have
made some deadly concoction with that beta blocker to cause death, but how did
he get the cupcake into the locker room without anyone seeing him? He had to
have someone place the cupcake on his behalf.”

“But how are we going to figure out who that could be? It’s
not like the good doctor told us the names of his lovers or anything.” Anna
protests.

“True,” I nod. “We’ll need to talk to everyone on our list
of who was at the gym and see if they know the doctor.” But then I realize how
much work that is. We only have two days. How are we going to manage to talk to
everyone in two days? I let my head fall onto the table. This is impossible.
What was I thinking?

“Maybe we don’t need to ‘talk’ to everyone,” Anna says with
a gleam in her eye.

I immediately sit up. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe,” she says as she grabs my tablet. “We could
virtually talk to them.” I scoot my chair next to Anna’s as she opens Facebook.
“Give me the list,” she demands with her eyes glued to the screen. I grab the
list, which has been my constant companion for days now, and hand it to her.
She quickly goes through the list sending every woman on it a friend request.

“What now?” I ask as she finishes.

“Let’s see if any of the women are friends with our lovely
doctor.”

I shake my head in confusion. “How can you do that if you’re
not friends with them yet?” I have my Facebook profile set up so that only my
friends can see any information about me except for my profile picture, which
is public.

“Not everyone is as private as you,” Anna answers as she
clicks on the doctor’s profile. “Okay. Maybe not everyone is as private as you,
but the doctor definitely is.” She sighs and grabs the list again. “Guess we’ll
have to do this the hard way.”

Anna spends the next few minutes going through the gym
attendee’s profiles, but none of them is friends with Dr. Abrahams or at least
not Facebook friends. She finally gives up and sets the tablet down. “This
isn’t working.”

 I nod. “I’m not sure what good it would do anyway. I
mean, doesn’t everyone know Dolly was poisoned by the cupcake? If you had
delivered the cupcake to Dolly that killed her, you would have come forth by
now.”

Anna shrugs. “Not if Dr. Abrahams is your lover. You’d
probably want to protect him.” The tablet pings. “Hold on.” Anna grabs the
tablet and opens the Facebook app. “Looks like several women have already
accepted my friend request.” She starts scrolling through her new ‘friends’. “I
hate it when people post like two gazillion pictures of their vacation.”

I start to respond to how annoying that is when something
hits me. “Wait a minute! When did she go on vacation?” I don’t even know what
‘she’ we’re talking about, but I assume it’s one of Anna’s new ‘friends’ from
the gym.

Anna scrolls and then gasps. “The day after Dolly was
murdered.”

I bob my head in excitement. “When did it become public
knowledge that Dolly was poisoned by the cupcake?”

Anna starts typing away. “I don’t know, but I’m going to ask
her if she heard about Dolly being poisoned. She’s online now. Fingers crossed,
she messages back right away.”

I’m not crossing my fingers; I’m biting my nails. It feels
like forever before I hear the distinctive ping of an incoming Facebook
message. It takes all my willpower not to grab the tablet from Anna’s hands.
Another two fingernails are lost while I wait for Anna to read her new message.

Anna gasps and looks at me with big eyes. “She didn’t know
that Dolly was poisoned. She left early the morning after the murder and hasn’t
been following the local news.” She starts typing again. “I’ll ask her if
anyone gave her a cupcake to give to Dolly.”

I grab the tablet out of her hands. “Don’t do that. Maybe
she’s an accomplice! We don’t want to tip her off. I’ll call Ben.” This is no
time for our fumbling investigative techniques. We need to pull out the big guns
on this one.

Ben arrives at the bakery within fifteen minutes. He rushes
to me. “Is everything all right?”

I stand, and he crushes me in a hug. I pat his back.
“Everything’s fine, but we need your help.”

He releases me and stands back. “You had me rush over here
as if the building was on fire because you need my help?”

I squirm under his gaze. “I’m sorry, Ben, but we only have
two days until classes start and we have a lead. I didn’t want to run off
without you.”

Ben takes a deep, relaxing breathe and nods. “Okay, I can
appreciate that, I guess. What’s the lead?”

“We found out that one of the women who was at the gym when
the killer cupcake was placed was on vacation and didn’t know that Dolly was
poisoned.”

“And now you want to go interrogate her?” He raises a brow
in question.

“No,” I shake my head. “Just ask a few questions.”

“I’ve got her address and she’s at home right now,” Anna
speaks up.

“Let’s go,” Ben says with a shake of his head.

In less than ten minutes, we’re standing outside the apartment
door of Shirley Adams. Ben turns to us and puts on his cop face. “I’ll do all
the talking.” I roll my eyes and nod. He knocks, and I’m nearly bowled over
when the door opens and the woman who answers the door is the witch from the
pole dancing class who always insists on being in the front row and is
buddy-buddy with Dolly.

“Ms. Adams,” Ben begins while holding his badge up for her
to see.

“Shirley, please,” she coos at him and bats her eyelashes.
She opens the door and motions for us to enter.

“Shirley, then,” Ben says with a smile aimed at her after
we’re all inside. I try not to growl when I see him smile in her direction, but
I’m apparently not entirely successful as Ben winks at me. “We just have a few
questions for you.”

“Of course,” she replies in a low voice, which is probably
supposed to be sexy but in reality sounds like she has a pack-a-day habit.

“You were at the gym on August tenth, the day Dolly died?”
Shirley nods. “Did you happen to see anyone deliver anything to Dolly?”

She shakes her head and flips her hair. It’s all I can do
not to throttle her for flirting with my man. Yes, the man may be totally and
completely out of my league, but I don’t care. He’s mine until he moves on and
that means she needs to keep her hands off.

“Not even a cupcake?” Anna asks as she glares at Shirley.
“From
Callie’s Cakes
?”

“Oh that. I delivered that.”

“What?” The question just slips out of my mouth.

Shirley shrugs. “What’s the big deal? I saw the box sitting
at the receptionist’s desk, and I decided to help out by giving it to Dolly.”

“You gave the box directly to Dolly?” Ben asks as he takes
out his notebook and starts scribbling away.

“Well, no,” Shirley shakes her head and does another hair
flip. “I ran into a friend and chatted for a while. I ended up being late to
class, so I just put the box on top of Dolly’s locker.”

“Did you see who gave the box to the receptionist?”

“No, like I said, it was just sitting there.” She looks at
us and narrows her gaze. “What’s the big deal?”

Ben answers before Anna or I get the chance. “I’m sorry, but
I can’t answer that right now.”

I jump in before Ben can shut me down again. “Did Dolly have
a boyfriend?”

“Or a girlfriend?” Anna adds and then does a full body
shiver; undoubtedly thinking about Dolly’s creepy come on.

Shirley laughs. “Do you want me to give you a list? Dolly
always had tons of boyfriends coming and going out of her life.” She looks at
Anna and shrugs. “I don’t know about any girlfriends.

Ben clamps his notebook closed. “Will you excuse me for a second?”
He asks before walking away to make a phone call. Shirley stares at Ben who has
turned his back to us to talk, and I try not to let my jealousy get the best of
me. Luckily, it doesn’t take long before Ben’s back with us. “We need you to
make a statement.”