Sweets Shop Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Maisy Morgan

  Hannah, he noticed, was busy jotting down notes and paying attention to the teacher. She seemed so perfectly normal to him. Not scared or worried at all. He wondered if Hannah even fully realized what was happening to her.

  When lunch arrived, it was awkward. He and Draco kept staring at her, and it was very annoying to her. “You two are being jerks,” she snarled while eating her lunch. “I don’t want everyone at school finding out about this, and you’re both being weird about it. Please stop.”

  “I’m sorry,” Draco said. “We’re just worried about you.”

  “What? And you think I’m not worried?” Hannah snapped. “Of course, I am. I’m scared, but I can’t just… dwell on it all day. I’ve got to give myself a break. And I’d like that break to be here at school where there are things to distract me. As soon as I get home today, Mom and I are going to be talking about treatment options and all sorts of crap I don’t want to deal with at all. Can we please just…” She paused, looking sad for a moment. “Can we just pretend everything is normal?”

  Tripp forced on a smile and gave Draco a kick from under the table. “We can do that, Hannah,” Tripp told her. “We’re sorry if we got you worked up. Draco just found out last night. I just found out this morning. It’s still new to us. We just want to be there for you, if you’ll let us.”

  Hannah smiled, but it was a nervous sort of smile. There was a long pause, and she instantly had on this pained expression. “You know, I had friends before you two,” she said bitterly. “Some girlfriends. Before the accident.” She smacked the armbar on her wheelchair discontentedly. “And they just sort of dipped out on me… Mom said they were just kids who didn’t know how to handle it, but—”

  “We wouldn’t do that to you,” Tripp said.

  “Seriously, Hannah,” Draco added. “That’s the last thing you need to worry about. We’re not going anywhere.”

  She tried not to grin, but they both saw it. They agreed from this moment on that school would be a cancer-conversation-free zone. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. Much to Tripp’s surprise, the rest of lunch was fairly light. They talked about a new project Draco’s parents were going to be a part of and what that would mean for the filming industry. They also talked a bit about the classes Hannah had missed that morning and what she would need to ask the teacher about to get caught up. And, finally, Draco teased them about the scene they would be practicing that afternoon in drama class. It was remarkable how normal their day had progressed to be. Tripp was glad for it because he was beginning to think he was going to have to call his grandmother to come get him, and the last thing he wanted to do was admit to her that he hadn’t been able to handle the news.

  That afternoon in drama, he and Draco and Hannah sat together at the start of class as always. Mrs. Smitz exited her side office in a dramatic fashion like she usually did, and she winked happily at Hannah to see her back in class. They would be practicing their showcase scenes for the first half of class before moving on to another assignment. Tripp smiled; he was finally going to rehearse his scene with Hannah, and for the first time, he didn’t have butterflies in the pit of his stomach.

  He and Hannah found a corner of the room. He pulled up a chair next to her wheelchair so that they could quietly read lines. “This is a really awkward scene for us to be doing together, you know,” Hannah said, fumbling with her script slightly. “Are you going to be good… you know… with all of it?”

  Tripp blushed slightly. “Well, I guess we’ll see, huh?” he said, and she laughed. “Let’s just… you know… run lines first. Sound good?”

  “Sounds good,” she said and stared blankly at him.

  “You start,” he reminded her, and her face went pink for a moment. He noticed that she really was cute like Draco had mentioned.

  “Oh! Right,” she said. “Hold on; I’m going to put the script down. See if I remember my lines.” She paused for a moment and started. “Hello, Jack. I changed my mind. They said you might be up…”

  “Ssshhh. Come here,” Tripp said. He paused. “Close your eyes.” He paused again. “Okay. Open them.”

  “I’m flying!” Hannah exclaimed, and they both broke into hysterical laughter, unable to continue. “Oh, it’s so bad… I can’t keep a straight face, Tripp!” She snorted, but this only made him laugh even harder. He couldn’t believe how nervous he had been about practicing this with Hannah. He was having fun. “Okay, I’m sorry,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes as she attempted to gain control of herself. “Let me start with that.” She cleared her throat. “I’m flying!”

  “Come, Josephine, in my flying machine,” Tripp said blandly.

  “Be serious, Tripp,” Hannah interjected. “You’re supposed to be singing to me.”

  “We’re just running lines,” Tripp said.

  “Yes, but you should at least say it the way you’re going to say it if we’re not practicing blocking yet,” Hannah said. “That’s literally all of our lines. The rest of it, we’re just… you know… making out…”

  “You are trying to make it awkward,” Tripp said.

  “No, you and your monotone singing are making it awkward,” she said. “Let’s go from the top. And, you’re supposed to cut me off after that first line of mine. Don’t leave me waiting.” She cleared her throat. “Hello, Jack. I changed my mind. They said you might be up—”

  “Sshhh… Come here. Close your eyes. Okay. Open them.”

  “I’m flying!”

  Tripp paused, not wanting to sing, but he did it because Hannah was expecting it. “Come, Josephine, in my flying machine…”

  Hannah smiled. “That’s literally the entire scene,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Well, there’s more,” Tripp said.

  “Yes, but we’re not practicing that now, are we?” Hannah asked raising her eyebrow a smidge to tease him.

  Tripp glanced to the side, looking to see if anyone was looking their way. Most all of the groups had gone out into the hall to practice. “Well, I mean, we could go over blocking. Are you going to be in your chair for the scene?”

  “I was thinking we could do it a little differently,” she said. “Like have me already be out there, and I could just stand upright holding onto a railing.”

  “Won’t you fall?” Tripp asked.

  “Have you seen the movie? I can hold myself upright, especially if your arms are going to be all over me like that,” she said, and they both laughed again.

  Tripp looked down at the flimsy little script. He didn’t want to meet her eyes. “Should we just kiss and get it over with so we’ll quit being so weird about it?” he asked. He’d been thinking about it for a while, and he figured that she would handle it fine since she had been so nonchalant about everything else up to this point. But she didn’t answer him, and now he felt highly embarrassed, and he could feel his cheeks get hot. “I mean, we don’t have to…”

  He glanced up at her, and she was slouched in her chair very awkwardly—leaning back. Her jaw was quivering. “Tripp…” she said, and there was a fear in her tone. She went to try to grab onto her armrest to pull herself into an upright position, and she fell flat out of the chair and onto the hard ground.

  “Hannah!” Tripp shrieked, jerking himself forward just in time to catch her head from hitting the ground. Hannah was jerking and twitching about like something had possessed her. Never in his life had he ever felt more afraid. “Mrs. Smitz! Mrs. Smitz!” Tripp screamed, his voice full of horror.

  She came bolting into the room from the hallway where she had been observing one of the scenes. She spotted Hannah on the ground seizing. “Tommy! Run, get the nurse!” she shouted, and she whipped out her cellphone. She hurried over, rolling Hannah onto her side.

  Tripp felt tears starting to roll down his face. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” he heard Draco behind him suddenly. The whole class was standing around watching.

  “Hannah, sweetie, you’re going to be fine,” Mrs. Smitz said in-between filling
in the 911 operator on what was taking place.

  Tripp didn’t know what to do; he had never felt so helpless, so he just held her hand.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Mary arrived at the sweets shop that morning, she smiled slightly to see that Preston had gotten there first, along with Ella May. Ella May had the shop up and running that morning, and upon receiving a text from Mary that Tripp had elected to still attend school after hearing the news about Hannah, Preston too had headed straight for the shop. When she entered the building, she could see that Ella May had already fixed him some of their cookie specials, which he was currently enjoying.

  “How is Tripp doing?” Preston asked urgently. “I was surprised to hear that he still wanted to go to school today.”

  Mary sat down at one of the pink tables. Ella May joined them, too, resting her tired old feet. “Preston filled me in,” Ella May said, shaking her head. “That poor girl. Lord knows her mama is wondering what He’s up to.”

  “I know the feeling,” Mary admitted. “It was a low blow. Tripp is holding up all right, I think. I heard from Anna and Roy that they told Draco last night, and he went to school today too. I hope the boys are okay.”

  “I think Hannah is going back to school later today after her appointment this morning,” Preston said. “At least that’s the way I understood it from what Cindy was telling me last night.”

  “We should all pitch in,” Mary said. “Anything we can do to make this easier on Cindy and Hannah. I promised her I’d make some more of that fudge she likes.”

  “Already on it,” Ella May said with a wink. “Started a batch just this morning.”

  “Thanks, Ella May,” Mary said.

  “Maybe we can cook meals for them,” Preston said. “I’m sure Cindy would appreciate not having to worry about cooking every night. Take shifts going with them to appointments too.”

  “I’ll see if Anna and Roy would be down to getting in on that and contact some people at the church too,” Mary said.

  “I’m sure they would be,” Preston said. “My bet is Bradley’s mother would want to help too if she can.”

  “Even Kara’s parents might,” Ella May added.

  “Yes, I’ll make some calls this week and see what we can do to help,” Mary said.

  “Well, for now,” Preston said, sitting upright, “I’ve got some detective work to do. Tasha is supposed to be on set today, and I’m hoping to get some answers from her about whatever went on between her and Donnie.”

  Mary nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

  “You sure?” Preston asked.

  “Ain’t hurting my feelings none,” Ella May said, edging them on. “I can sneak as many sweets as I want to when the boss isn’t here.” She laughed slightly at herself and looked at the two of them as to give her nod of approval.

  Mary smirked. “Yeah, I’ll tag along. Wouldn’t mind stopping to see Lilly and Matthew if they’re on set today.”

  They left the shop to Ella May and then headed out in Preston’s patrol car. Preston showed his badge to the security personnel at the gate again once they arrived on set at Senoia. They headed straight towards the trailers where they heard that Sven was, assuming Tasha would be nearby. As they were walking down the grassy hill towards the trailers, they spotted Matthew and Sven walking together towards them.

  Matthew smiled. “Nice game last night,” he told them. “Glad I was able to make it.”

  Mary smiled back at him. “Us too, Matthew. Headed to shoot a scene?”

  “That’s right,” Sven said. “Looking for Tasha? She’s in my trailer making a few phone calls for me.”

  “Yes, actually, thank you for that,” Preston said.

  “Lilly’s taking a nap in my trailer,” Matthew said. “Sure she wouldn’t mind if you popped in once you’re done talking to Tasha.”

  Mary nodded. “Will do. Break a leg as they say.”

  “Appreciate it,” Matthew said, and he and Sven continued on their way.

  Mary and Preston made their way down to Sven’s trailer. She knocked on the door, and Tasha flung it open, a phone to her ear. “Yes, seven would be great. Thanks,” she said into the phone, hanging up and then looking at them apologetically. “Officer Preston. Mary. Sven mentioned you might want to speak to me today.”

  “Do you have a moment?” Preston asked.

  “Yeah, sure, come in,” Tasha said, stepping inside.

  Sven’s trailer was more impressive than Matthew’s, though not by much. He had decorated the place with a handful of movie posters from some of his past works, and there was a whole assortment of costumes lined up on one wall. They sat down on some of the lounge furniture as Tasha finished up a quick email on her phone and then sat down, doing her best to appear attentive. She brushed her curly red hair out of her face and pushed her glasses up on her nose. “What can I do for you two?” she asked at last, taking a breath as though this was the first moment she had had to breathe since she had gotten up that morning.

  “Let’s start by talking about where you were the day Donnie was murdered,” Preston said. “Not to worry. We’re asking everyone that.”

  Tasha thought for a moment. “I was around the set somewhere. Exactly where, I can’t really say—I don’t remember. I know I was on the phone with either the dry cleaner or was ordering Sven’s lunch…. I was definitely on the phone when I heard everyone shouting.”

  “We’ve been told you pulled some strings to land Matthew an audition. Is that true?” Preston asked.

  “I suppose you could say that,” Tasha said. “Donnie had sent me his headshot. I showed his headshot to Sven and Walter and gave them a little bit of a push to pass the information on to lead directors and to casting. Matthew got an audition and nailed it from what I’ve been told.”

  “Matthew’s a good-looking guy,” Mary said, eyeing Tasha carefully. “Any chance that’s why you wanted him here?”

  “I mean, there’s a lot of good-looking guys around here,” Tasha said with a nervous laugh. “Have you seen Walter? He should be on camera if you ask me.”

  “What about Donnie?” Preston asked. “I’m under the impression that something might have been going on between you two.”

  Tasha’s face went as red as her hair for a moment. “Well…”

  “We’d appreciate you being open and honest with us,” Preston said. “This is a murder investigation, after all.”

  Tasha sighed heavily. “Yes, well… we did… have something… going on…”

  “So, you were romantically involved?” Mary asked.

  “Yes,” Tasha said. “Briefly. We met out in LA. He was very… charming. You know, one thing led to another, and we ended up sleeping together.” Tasha’s face went red again. She took a moment to compose herself. “I suppose I should have known better than to think a guy that cute would be interested in me.”

  “Don’t say that,” Mary said with all the sweet, sugary encouragement she could give.

  “What happened?” Preston added.

  “He played me—bad,” Tasha said. “He acted all sweet and charming. Got me to send in Matthew’s headshots. Got him the audition just like Donnie wanted me to. As soon as it was official, Donnie gave me the boot.”

  “Seriously?” Mary questioned.

  “Donnie was just using me to try to get his client an audition,” Tasha said. “Well, I suppose it worked, didn’t it? I don’t blame Matthew. Pretty sure he had no idea what Donnie was up to. It was more embarrassing than anything—for myself. I don’t think anyone knew what was going on between Donnie and me. I don’t think he would have wanted it to get out what he had done to me.”

  “I’m really sorry Donnie put you through that, Tasha,” Mary said, liking Matthew’s best friend less and less the more they learned about him.

  “Well, it’s over now,” she said. “I’m sad about what happened to Donnie. I really am. I’m just… hurt, is all. He tricked me, and it wasn’t fair to me at all. Matthew earned his way onto
this set with that audition, though. I just was his way in. Donnie made sure of that.”

  They wound up talking with Tasha for another hour or so, but eventually, she had to send them on their way so that she could get back to work. When they were finished talking with her, the woman was almost instantly on the phone again making calls for future auditions.

  Mary and Preston left the trailer and headed over to Matthew’s. They stopped a few times along the way, talking with a number of members of the set and crew. By then, much of the day had already gone by.

  They paused for a moment before knocking on the door to Matthew’s trailer to talk about what they had just learned from Tasha. “What are your thoughts?” Preston asked, curious to know what Mary thought.

  “I don’t know,” Mary answered after moments of thinking and brief hesitation. “That’s a pretty deep scar if you ask me. I’d have a hard time forgiving that one if it had been me. He tricked her to get Matthew this audition.”

  “Do you think she’s telling the truth about people not knowing about it?” Preston asked.

  “I don’t think that Matthew knows,” Mary said. “Donnie was already in hot water with him after the incident in December. Doubt Donnie would have willingly told Matthew he had tricked Tasha in order to get him the audition.”

  “You’re probably right,” Preston agreed.

  They walked up the steps to Matthew’s trailer and knocked. A moment later, Lilly appeared in the doorway, and her face lit up when she saw them standing there. “Glad you stopped by!” she exclaimed, inviting them into Matthew’s trailer to sit. “I loved coming to the game last night, Mom. Tripp did so amazing. I was so proud of him.”