“Like what?”
“Honestly, there’s an entire list of things that I want to see and do before I die. Ironically, they all seemed to pop into my mind while I was trapped in that jail cell.”
“The universe does have a strange sense of humor, doesn’t it?”
“Tell me about it. I spent days contemplating all of the activities that I would never be able to take part in. Now that I’m free, I’m going to do everything in my power to see the world. To live life to the fullest.”
“It sounds like this was a real wakeup call for you.”
“It was.”
“In that case, I hope you go out and do some amazing things.”
“That’s the plan.”
“I wish you the best of luck.”
“Thanks,” she said. “Honestly, it will also be nice to put Majestic Cove in my rearview mirror for another reason. If I stayed here, I don’t know if I’d ever be able to get over the trauma of being wrongfully imprisoned.”
“Maybe not.”
“Meanwhile, a fresh start could do me some good.”
“I think you’re right. I’m really curious to see what the future holds for you.”
“So am I. But before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to get myself a treat.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Good. Because I’m paying.”
“You’ll get no argument from me. What do you have in mind?”
“Something really tasty. I haven’t eaten any good food in days.”
“That isn’t exactly surprising, given the fact that you’ve been in prison.”
Amy chuckled. “I know, right? Jail isn’t known for having wonderful food.”
“That’s putting it lightly. It’s known for having nothing but lousy food. It’s right up there with hospital food.”
“Which is all the more reason to eat something incredible.”
“I’m all ears.”
“I was thinking of getting some ice cream.”
“Wow. You’re going straight to dessert, huh?”
“Why bother messing around when we can dig right in to the good stuff?”
“I like the way you think.”
“Great,” Amy said. “Ice cream, here we come.”
Chapter Three
After the celebratory dessert, I probably should have skipped going to Majestic Cove Bakery the following morning. I knew that my scale was already mad at me. Why wouldn’t it be? I had indulged in a number of treats lately. Deservedly so. If ever there was a reason to celebrate, it was because I had solved a murder and had saved an innocent woman from getting sentenced to life in prison.
Even though I had earned the treats, it didn’t change the fact that the gym was calling my name. Eating more pastries would only dig myself a deeper dietary hole. The treadmill didn’t care why I had gone a little dessert crazy. It just wanted me to burn off calories.
I would definitely get back to a regular gym routine. That said, I also needed breakfast. I suppose I could have scrambled some eggs and toasted some bread, but I instinctively got dressed, jumped into my car, and headed over to my favorite bakery.
There was a good reason for that. I told myself that my diet could be put off for another day. Also, I went to the bakery to do more than just eat pastries. My good friend, Kristina Fowler, happened to run the place. There was a social component at play. With all of the tense conversations that I had been a part of lately, I wanted to just catch up with a friend.
Kristina greeted me with a smile as I entered the bakery. I was curious how things were going in her life.
After I ordered a muffin, we made some small talk.
“It’s so nice to see things finally getting back to normal,” Kristina Fowler said.
“What, you don’t like it when things get crazy around here?” I cracked.
“Don’t even joke about that,” she replied. “Although, I have to admit, it was good for business.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “The more that people panicked, the busier it got in here. It turns out that stress makes people crave comfort food. At least, that’s my theory.”
“It makes sense.”
“Coincidentally, while customers came here to relieve their stress with a little snack, the extra crowds ended up making me want to pull my hair out a little.”
“I didn’t know that things got that bad.”
“I didn’t have nearly enough staff for massive crowds. After all, this isn’t tourist season. In fact, we’re deep into the offseason.”
“In that case, I’m glad that things quieted down for you.”
“So am I,” she said. “I’ll gladly take a more relaxing work environment over a little extra profit.”
I stared off into the distance. “Wow. I must have just gotten lucky. Every time that I came in, the lines were reasonable. I didn’t even realize that you had seen a huge uptick in business.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. It turns out you’ve been busy taking care of other things in the last few days.”
“That’s putting it lightly.”
“I’ll bet you’re really happy to have this case behind you.”
“Oh yeah. I wouldn’t complain if I never conducted another investigation like that again.”
“You probably won’t.”
“How can you be so sure? Last time I checked, you don’t have any psychic abilities.”
“I sure don’t. If I did, I would use them to pick out some winning lottery numbers.”
“Wouldn’t that be sweet?”
“Of course, it would. Who wouldn’t want to be a multi-millionaire?” Kristina asked. “But before we go off on a wild tangent, let me just explain my logic about homicide investigations.”
“Okay. Go for it.”
“Up until last week, you went thirty-six years without ever conducting a murder investigation. Which means that statistically speaking, you might be able to go decades without something like this ever happening again.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“Or, if you’re really lucky, this might be the first and last time that you ever have to experience this.”
“Your logic definitely makes sense. The problem is that life isn’t always logical.”
“I know what you mean. Sometimes, it feels like the universe has lost its mind. Things just go completely bonkers on you.”
“Those are the days that I desperately try to forget.”
“I don’t blame you,” Kristina said. “Anyway, I guess we’ll just have to see if life has any new surprises in store for us soon.”
“I’ll bet it does.”
Kristina grimaced. “Uh-oh. Are your instincts acting up on you?”
I put my hand up. “Don’t start panicking. They’re not going crazy on me or anything.”
“But you do feel like we’re in for some surprises?”
“Yes.”
“Oh dear.”
“That said, my gut isn’t giving me any specifics. I’m just getting a general feeling of uneasiness.”
“Well, that’s not very helpful.”
“No. It really isn’t. But it’s all the more reason to appreciate the peace and quiet that we are being treated to right now.
“The question becomes, how long will it last?”
“I’d rather not speculate.”
“Neither would I, but my mind has other ideas.”
“Since we don’t have any concrete details to work with, why don’t we try to avoid rampant speculation?”
“All right. I’ll do my best.”
I tried to change the subject. “So, what else is new?”
“We were so busy talking about the case that I almost forgot about this, but I actually signed up for an online dating site last night,” Kristina said.
“Really?” I replied.
“You know the old saying about how beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Kristina, I don’t know that it’s fair t
o call yourself a beggar.”
“Hey, if it will lead to me finding Mr. Right, I’ll do all the begging in the world. At this stage in my life, I’m tired of being single.”
“I know what you mean.”
“I’m also not too proud to admit that I need all of the help that I can get.”
“With all of that in mind, have you gotten any bites?”
“No, but I wouldn’t expect to quite yet. After all, I just signed up for the site. I need to give things time.”
“Well, I hope it works out for you.”
“So do I. Speaking of which, I think you should join me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You should sign up for an account too.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Why not?”
“I think I’ll just wait and see how things work out for you.”
“I think that’s a big mistake.”
“Why?”
“To start, it’s nice to try new things together.”
“It depends on what kinds of things you’re talking about. Pastries? Yes. Dating sites? Not so much.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”
“Because?”
“For someone like you, in particular, there’s an added wrinkle.”
“Such as?”
“Dating sites provide a number of mysteries to solve. And I know how much you like a good mystery.”
“Not when it comes to dating.”
“You’re really down on this service, aren’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say that. I’m just a little skeptical. But if you have a good experience, I will gladly give it a try.”
“If you want me to have a good experience, you should help me out. I could really use a hand.”
“With what?”
“Solving the mysteries of online dating.”
“Would you care to be more specific?”
“My biggest problem is trying to determine if the information I’m being presented with is accurate.”
“Oh, I get it. You’re worried that men aren’t being truthful in their profiles.”
“It’s not just that. I’m also not sure that I can believe what I’m seeing in their pictures either.”
“I hear you. People do get pretty creative with camera angles and filters and editing.”
Kristina nodded. “They also post pictures of other people sometimes.”
“You mean, group photos?” I asked.
“There’s a lot of those out there. But I was actually talking about people who pull a photo of a better-looking person off of the internet and use that as their profile photo.”
“Yikes. That’s crazy.”
“It is, but it happens. Which makes it difficult for me to know who I’m actually talking to until I meet them in person.”
“That’s a tough one. I don’t really know what to tell you.
“I guess I just have to hope that people are being relatively truthful with me. Otherwise, I might find myself having a string of awkward dates.”
I took a deep breath before replying, “This is why I’m hoping that I meet a man in real life. Then I don’t have to deal with any of those internet-specific questions.”
“Don’t you think I would be ecstatic if a great guy came into the bakery right now? In fact, I would lose my mind if Mr. Right came through that door right now.”
Kristina stopped talking and stared at the front door of her bakery.
She remained quiet for a few seconds as no one entered her shop.
A few moments later, she continued speaking, “It turns out the real world hasn’t been doing me any favors lately.”
I chuckled. “Kristina, you can’t just make a great guy show up on command. Life doesn’t work that way.”
Kristina let out a sigh. “I know. That sort of thing only happens in the movies. I just thought it was worth a try.”
“I’ll give you credit for this. You’re definitely trying out a bunch of things.”
“What else am I supposed to do? I can’t just sit around and wait for something to happen. Nor should you.”
“I know you keep pushing me, but I’m not ready to sign up for an online dating account quite yet.”
“Will you at least think about it?”
“Of course. But I’m not going to make a decision right now.”
“Fair enough.”
“Let me know how things go with you, though.”
“I will,” Kristina said.
Chapter Four
A few minutes later, as I finished off my muffin, I saw Scott coming in to the bakery. Unfortunately, the detective didn’t look good. An unsettling feeling came to my gut. Was trouble afoot already? That would be terrible. This town deserved some relief.
The idea of disaster striking again was enough to make my stomach turn. Of course, there was also a chance that I was getting ahead of myself. Maybe something else was going on in the detective’s life. Perhaps it wasn’t serious. There was one way of finding out.
“Scott. Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’ve been better,” Scott replied.
“What’s the matter?”
“I didn’t sleep very well last night.”
I waited for him to keep speaking, but that was his entire response.
I became slightly confused. “Is that all?” I asked.
“Isn’t that enough?” he replied.
“Make no mistake. Getting good sleep is important. But I was worried that you were staring down another tough case already.”
“You have a really active imagination, you know that?”
“Trust me. I’m well aware of that.”
“Maybe a little too active,” he said.
I squinted. “Hold on a second. Does that mean you’re not working on a new case?”
“Not at the moment.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I hope things stay quiet.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“It sure would,” I replied. “That said, given the fact that your latest case just wrapped up, I’m a little surprised that you slept so poorly.”
“Why is that?”
“If anything, I thought you would have slept like a baby.”
“In my experience, that’s not usually how things work.”
“That’s a shame. With the weight of the investigation off of my shoulders, I ended up crashing out almost immediately.”
“I have to admit, I’m a little bit envious of you. When I got into bed, I just couldn’t seem to relax. The adrenaline was still pumping in my veins for a while.”
“Here’s hoping that you can catch up on your sleep tonight.”
“That’s the plan. Of course, a quiet day on the beat would help as well.”
“I will keep my fingers crossed for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Since things are quiet at the moment, maybe you can finally answer a few of my questions about why you moved back here.”
“Melody, I thought we discussed this last night. I’ll tell you all about it over dinner sometime.”
“Forget about some unknown time in the future. What’s wrong with just telling me now? We’re talking about a few simple questions.”
“Just because the questions are simple doesn’t mean that the answers are as well.”
“You know, the longer that you stall, the more questions I end up having.”
“You are relentless, you know that?”
“What you call relentless, I call curious.”
“You can call it whatever you want. But it isn’t going to get you anywhere right now.”
“Oh, come on. What’s the big deal? Give me something to work with. Even if it’s just a snippet.”
“Melody, you’re the one making a big deal about this. Why don’t you just let it go for now?”
“Because I’m an impatient person.”
“You certainly are.”
“I can’t help it.”<
br />
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “Why don’t you try to find some restraint?”
“You’re really not going to budge, are you?”
“Honestly, I don’t understand why you care so much about this in the first place.”
“Really? You’re a detective and you don’t understand why this would be such a big mystery to me? When you left Majestic Cove, it seemed like you were never going to come back.”
“Well, I am back. And I’m ready to move on with my life.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy about that. But you should be able to understand why I have questions. After all, you were gone for four years. Then you come back out of the blue. It’s only natural that I would want to know what prompted you to return.”
He laughed nervously. “You really were born to be an investigator, weren’t you?”
“Scott, that wasn’t an answer to my question.”
“You’re just going to remain doggedly determined until I explain everything, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely. So, why don’t you just tell me what I want to know?”
“I know it’s going to sound like I’m trying to stall, but at the moment, I really do need to be getting to work.”
“You’re right. It does sound like you’re trying to dodge my question.”
“I’m telling you the truth, though. My shift begins in ten minutes.”
“So, that’s it? You’re just going to keep me waiting then?”
He nodded. “For now.”
I let out a groan.
“Besides, this isn’t the sort of thing that should be discussed in the middle of a busy bakery,” he said.
“Okay. Then when is the right time and place to talk about it?”
“I’ll tell you what. Do you have plans tonight?”
“No. Why?”
“How about I take you out to dinner? I’ll explain everything then.”
“All right. That sounds good.”
He smiled. “It’s settled then.”
***
From there, Scott quickly ordered a donut to-go. When his order was ready, he left the bakery and headed off to work.
Meanwhile, I had so many questions. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any answers. Talk about a frustrating situation for me. I hated being made to wait.
Majestic Cove Mysteries Box Set 2 Page 5