“Pleased to meet you,” Ashley said. “Why don’t you get yourself those donuts and a cup of coffee and I can show you the menu for your wife’s birthday party?”
“Be right back,” he said.
As he walked up to the counter, Ashley took another quick peek at the story about the body up on the ridge.
“Body found up on Hawk Ridge by hiker this morning.”
Pretty early to be hiking, Ashley thought. Not even light outside yet.
The article went on to say that that it appeared as if the body had been there “for some time” and autopsy results would be pending. She wanted to read more, but her client came back to the table with a bag of donuts, a big cup of coffee, and a plate with a donut and apple tart on it.
“Now I’m ready to talk!” he boomed.
She smiled at him and they got down to the business of going over the menu. The smells coming from the kitchen were intoxicating, and soon the bakery filled up with town folk clamoring for their morning treats. All was well in Comfortville.
Well, except for that body turning up.
***
Meanwhile, across the country, an old woman walked down a deserted dirt road near a beach in the far northeast. She took a bag filled with papers out of a backpack, attached a weighted rope to it, and threw it in the ocean. She stood there and watched it get sucked under by the waves.
Soon it will be carried far out and dissolve in the salt water. No one will ever have proof of what happened, she thought.
She stood there a few moments longer and breathed deeply, her arms extended to the sky. When she could no longer see the bag, she turned and walked back down the lonely road.
“My job is done now, wouldn’t you say?” she said aloud.
No one answered. The only sounds were the reeds rustling in the breeze and the big sea gulls circling overhead, squawking for food.
***
Back in Comfortville, once Ashley’s client left, she checked her schedule for her first party next week. It was a luncheon at the Town Hall with the Cheery Gardeners group. It would be simple, an autumn chicken salad served on a bed of lettuce, wheat rolls and cold-poached pear with allspice.
Her second party on the weekend was a birthday dinner for a couple and their six friends. She would have light appetizers of caramelized onion and cheese puffs, mushroom tartlets, and a butternut squash soup to start. The main course would be a cider-braised pot roast with autumn vegetables, a simple salad of fresh greens, crusty sourdough rolls, and a dessert of apple spice cake. She had chosen a hearty Cabernet to accompany the meal. She smiled to herself. This was the time of year to cook with abandon. She had called her best friend, Lara, to help with the dinner party.
“I’d be happy to,” Lara said. “Would you like me to bring Will to help out?”
Ashley hadn’t employed Will since his problems a few years ago with the police. But enough time had passed by and he had matured. It was water under the bridge now.
“Sure,” Ashley said. “But it’s not a big party. He could help with the serving and clean up, though.”
“That’s good enough for him. He wants a career in hospitality now, and every little bit helps.”
“A career in hospitality? Cool,” Ashley said. “Maybe I can use him even more as time goes on.”
“He’d be grateful for anything, Ash. Thanks. And email me the menu so I know what we’ll be doing.”
“Okay, let me know if you have questions. Otherwise, see you and Will at 1:00 p.m. at my place and we’ll load up and ride over to their house.”
“Great! See you,” Lara said.
Ashley hung up the phone and smiled to herself. It was always great to cater with Lara as her help mate, and even nicer to have Will back on board and working toward a career.
He’s come a long way since that terrible day at the car dealership, she thought. Good for him.
Ashley made up her shopping lists and decided she had to check over her utensils for the upcoming events. And she had three phone calls to return about parties through the holidays. Her favorite of all the bookings would be a holiday tea for a large group of first graders. Their moms wanted them to dress up and have a formal tea on china with sandwiches, scones, and pastries. Ashley would do everything in a very traditional way, with lemon curd, clotted cream, and jam. She would have a choice of three teas; two herbal, and one a holiday blend of black tea and spices like cardamom, cinnamon and orange peel. It would be so much fun. She remembered doing a similar tea with her mom and her friends when she was little. They had all brought their teddy bears and dolls with them.
She also called Lara excitedly about helping with that one.
“Can’t wait to see them all dressed up with their cute little dolls,” Ashley had said.
“I don’t know if the girls will bring dolls anymore, Ash. Maybe their tablets and smartphones?” Lara had said.
“Come on! Smartphones and tablets so young? Ugh, I hope not.”
Lara laughed. “Have you been to a mall lately and looked at elementary school kids? They’re all armed with them! Still, it would be nice if their mom’s insist they put them away,” Lara said. “Fingers crossed.”
Ashley sighed. “I hope the moms’ kibosh the electronics then. Talk later.”
She really looked forward to doing the tea, but the image of little girls on their phones was not what she had in mind.
Maybe I’ll suggest to the moms to take their kids’ phones away, she thought. But then again, maybe not. The little girls might get pissed. Ashley laughed out loud. But the moms might be more pissed! Adults have phones attached to their hands these days too.
Meanwhile, back in the café, she looked down at her own phone. She had been on it all morning in the bakery after her meeting—reading emails, booking appointments, and occasionally checking social media and the news. She shook her head.
Okay, Sean and I need to do a tech blackout this weekend like we said we would, she thought.
She also noticed the bakery was jammed packed by now and there was a big line at the counter. People were looking around for a place to sit. It was time to give up her table and get back home. She waved to Sean as he bustled around with his employees behind the counter and headed out the door. The sunlight lit up the vista as she walked to her car. A perfect Indian summer day.
***
As soon as Ashley got home, Charlie jumped down from the couch and came running up to her, then hightailed it to the kitchen with Susie Q close behind him. Ashley greeted her cats.
Charlie looked up at her, as if to remark, “Say whatever you want, Mom, but feed me while you’re talking.” He winked his green eyes at Ashley and started to purr.
Susie Q backed him up while she twirled and meowed for food. Ashley filled their bowls with filet cuts and watched them eat in triumph and satisfaction.
A quote from Shakespeare’s MacBeth came to Ashley’s mind. “I bear a charmed life.”
Ashley watched as her cats strutted back into the living room after eating, pausing only to lick a paw quickly before settling down to thoroughly groom.
“You’re welcome!” she called from the kitchen.
Charlie turned and gazed at her with his green eyes again.
Ashley knew it was her privilege to serve them. They did too. It was all good.
Ashley’s cell phone then rang.
“Hi, Mom,” she said.
“Hello, honey,” April said. She sounded out of breath. “I just got into the bakery. What a crazy day already!”
“Is the bakery still really busy?” Ashley said.
“Yes, as always. But mostly it’s the news of the body they found up on the ridge. Everyone is talking about it. It’s just terrible.”
“I know, Mom, but try not to think about it. Good thing Sean doesn’t have a TV there, or everyone would be staring at it.”
“That’s true, but they’re still on their phones anyway reading about it and have been asking me all kinds of questions at the
counter the second I got behind it! Like did I know the person? I don’t even know who the deceased is!”
“That’s weird. Why would anyone assume you knew that poor person?”
“Because I’m old! And the talk is that it was an elderly person they found up there. And everyone just assumes if you’re older, you should know everyone old around here!”
“Mom, don’t get upset. It’s a small town and everyone wants to know everyone’s business. Just smile and say, ‘No, I didn’t know the deceased.’ Don’t let it get to you.” Ashley changed subjects. “Are we still coming over to your place for dinner tonight?”
“Oh, honey, I forgot!” April said. “And now with working all day here I won’t have time to prepare anything.”
“No worries, we’ll get take-out. I’m in the mood for Chinese. Haven’t had good Chinese in a while. Ask Sean what he wants and you think about it too, and we’ll pick it up and come over. Simple,” Ashley said.
“Easy peasy!” April said. “See you tonight.”
After Ashley hung up, she sat down and stretched out her back. Then she arched and kicked her legs under and out a few times. It loosened her muscles a little bit, but what she really needed was a walk. She got Charlie’s halter and leash and called him. He bounded to the door.
“Good boy, let’s go get some exercise.” she said.
She set off down the street with her little ‘doggy’ cat, and smiled at the passerby who waved and called out Charlie’s name. It was a brisk day and the trees rustled in the breeze and blew their leaves in swirls down the street. As she passed some of the houses, she could smell the smoke from their chimneys. Many of the homes had pumpkins and gourds on their stoops, and autumn wreaths on their doors. She loved that no one in her neighborhood was in a hurry to put up winter holiday decorations. They preferred to enjoy autumn and Thanksgiving before changing over the season and draping colored lights and putting up snowmen Santa’s in their yards. That suited her just fine. She wanted to enjoy each season as it came before it melded into the other. Charlie picked up the pace and she dutifully followed as he sniffed and trotted down the street. She began to think about her menus again and mentally went over each one in her mind trying to figure out if she needed anything else. Not surprisingly to anyone who owned a pet, she started to talk aloud to her cat.
“Does spice cake with bourbon cream sound good, Charlie?” she asked. He put his head up at the sound of his name and gazed at her for a moment before motoring ahead.
A woman walking a big Labrador passed them on the opposite side of the street and waved. Ashley waved back and Charlie stopped for a moment and whisked his tail from side to side while he stared at the dog and uttered a low growl. The Lab was wagging his tail like a big pup, though—it looked like he just wanted to play.
The woman called out to them. “He’s friendly! He lives with two cats and loves them!” the woman said.
Ashley laughed and called back. “I’m sure he is! It’s my cat I’d have to worry about if we crossed the street.”
The women both waved goodbye and walked on. Charlie strutted ahead certain that he had scared off the big dog, and Ashley smiled down at her little big man. What a character he was. But it was getting late and there was a lot to do.
“Come on tough guy, time to go back.” She pulled the leash gently and he reluctantly turned around and trotted back home.
The sky was colored by a subtle apricot tint, and the trees had dropped piles of colorful leaves on the lawns. The smell of more wood smoke from chimneys filled the air. Autumn was intoxicating. Ashley breathed in deeply.
I never want to move, she thought. I love home.
Chapter Two
An old house sat up on a side road off the mountain ridge on the outskirts of town. Parts of it had the paint peeling off, and some of the windows were cracked. The front yard was slightly overgrown, but the path to the door was clear and there was a chair with a small table out front. A childish looking ghost decoration still hung on the door from Halloween, and some furry fake spiders were still in the fake cobwebs hanging from hooks in the porch overhang. The wind had shifted the decorations, though, and they hung haphazardly over the chair. On the table was a cup and an ashtray with a small pipe in it. One bottom window was open, and a faded looking curtain blew in and out of the opening. A scratchy sound of jazz music came from within.
The front door opened and the screen door made a squeak as it was pushed aside. An old woman in faded pants and garden clogs came out and sat in the chair. She took a long sip of coffee and lit up her pipe again. She sat and took a few puffs and called out down the empty road.
“Queenie! Queenie!”
She drank some more coffee and sat in quiet, savoring a long drag on the pipe. The breeze had picked up and one of the spiders fell on the porch as a cobweb blew down.
“Gotta take these things down,” the woman grumbled. “Silly kids never came up here for candy anyway. Scared to. Calling me a witch. Crazy kids.”
She drank the last bit of her coffee and got up with a groan from her chair. She gazed out on the quiet road again. “Queenieeeeee!”
A sleek black cat came bounding around the corner of the house and jumped up on the stoop. She was about four-years-old with thick fur and bright gold eyes, and one tiny spot of white fur under her chin. She jumped up on the little table and stretched her paws up on the woman’s chest and nuzzled her.
“Don’t go running off, you hear? Every creature that lives in these woods up here would love to eat you.”
Queenie jumped down and batted at the fake spider on the ground.
“That’s right, bought the spiders for the webs. Looked good too. Those kids missed it.” She bent over and petted Queenie. “And lookie here, I even had a black cat to go with the Halloween decorations!” Queenie began to purr again. “Now get inside and let’s have some of that chicken I cooked last night.”
The old woman opened the screen door and Queenie strutted in. She sat patiently while the woman cut up small pieces of chicken for her and put them in a bowl before setting it on the floor. Queenie ate while the woman sliced some cold chicken for herself, cut a slice of bread from a loaf she had baked, and chopped up some carrots and turnip on her plate. She poured herself some more hot coffee from the pot and sat at a little round table in the small kitchen.
“See, that’s good, am I right? Tastes good to me. But needs salt. You don’t need salt,” she said, looking at Queenie.
The cat looked at her and meowed softly, then began to groom herself.
“But you sure are lucky,” the woman said. “You don’t eat out of a can. Mamma makes you fresh food.” She smiled at her cat. “Just like me. Maybe we ain’t got much money, but we eat good.”
Queenie sat still looking at the woman. Then she walked over to a big worn chair and jumped up on it. She looked over at the woman again.
“I know you miss him. I do too. Miss him real bad. Don’t know what I’m going to do now.”
The light had started to fade in the living room. The wind picked up outside and the old woman felt a cold draft coming in the little window. She got up to close it and drew the faded little curtain shut. She quietly walked around the room and made sure everything was shut tight, then bent over and put a log and some kindling in the fireplace. As soon as she lit it, she pulled the screen guard tight around the opening. Queenie jumped off the chair and curled up on a shabby little rug in front of the fire.
“That’s right, girl. We still got a fire and food in our bellies. We’re doing okay.”
The old woman pulled a throw blanket over her as she sat down. She looked at the big faded green armchair across from her and tears welled up in her eyes.
“Sure do miss you, Frank. You were the best son ever. I’m so sorry you suffered so. It ain’t right. No boy should die before his mamma, don’t matter how big he is.”
She reached out for a framed picture of her and her son that was taken several years ago. She was practica
lly dwarfed by his height. He had his arm around her and was smiling broadly.
“You were always the tallest boy around,” she said. “And the sweetest too. Everyone said so.”
She looked at the picture again. The frame said Arabella and Frank on the bottom. He had made the frame for her when he graduated from tech school and she put the picture in it. On the back she had written “Proud Mamma.”
Taped to the back was Frank’s obituary from the newspaper: Local resident Frank Williams has passed away from leukemia at age fifty.
Arabella couldn’t bear to read anymore and set the frame back on the side table.
“And I was a proud mamma,” Arabella said aloud. “I know you always knew it, but I gotta say it again. I was so proud of you. And I miss you so much. Your Daddy’s gone. You gone. Just me and Queenie now.”
She gazed at the fire. It was so quiet up here. Too quiet these past years alone. She knew she had to get out in the yard tomorrow and do something to keep up the place before those nosy people down the road drove by and complained again. But she was always so tired these days. She could only do her best.
In about an hour it would be time for bed. But for now Arabella sat motionless, dreaming of ghosts. Tears streamed down her face as she thought of her husband and son.
“Thank God I still got you, Queenie. You watch yourself out there now. Can’t have nothing happen to you girl. Y’all I got.”
Queenie raised her head up from her catnap and looked at the woman. The only sound was the fire hissing and spitting as it consumed the kindling. Soon Arabella dropped her head over on her shoulder and dozed. But the cat knew what to do. Before it got too late, she’d jump up on her mistress’s lap and wake her up to put the fire out, and then they’d walk upstairs to bed and curl up together.
Something in Arabella knew that was all it would take to be okay for one more night.
Chapter Three
Ashley Crane Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 74