Rock Candy and Robberies

by Patti Benning

  She shook her head. “I don't know. They were definitely looking for something in his office, but I guess it wasn’t this.” She sighed. “I'd better see if Mom and David are still available for a video call. I just want to brainstorm with them for a bit.”

  “Do you want me to join you? The chicken breasts have to get into the oven soon, but I can take a short break.”

  “I’ll just do the call in here. That way you can still be involved while you cook. I’ll help you with dinner afterward.”

  She opened up the video call application was a bit surprised when the call went through. Her mother answered, looking as if she just gotten out of the shower.

  “Is everything all right, sweetie?”

  “I’m fine,” Candice said, understanding that her mother was worried something serious that happened in the short time since they had last spoken. “I just found something interesting.” She picked up the folder. “This is the file that Terry gave us. I found it under the desk. Which means that all of our guesses about the motives of the people who broke in were completely wrong. I suppose David was right after all.”

  Hearing his name, David appeared on the screen, and Candice repeated what she had just said to him.

  He sighed. “I can't say I’m surprised, though I can understand how frustrating it must be. Like I said, there’s really nothing interesting about that file.”

  “Then why was your office the room that they seemed to focus on the most? Did you have anything important in there? Anything at all?”

  “I have no idea,” he admitted. “I didn’t have anything recent in there, that’s for sure. All the active files are kept at the office. Even as far as personal files go, there wasn’t much. Everything important was locked away.”

  “I didn't find any locked file cabinets,” she said, frowning.

  David raised an eyebrow. “Well, there should have been some. They probably could have forced the cabinets open easily enough, though. That metal is not exactly the strongest thing in the world.”

  She shook her head. “I mean, the drawers were all thrown around and stuff, but nothing looked like it was damaged. Eli and I both spent a fair amount of time in there cleaning up. I’m sure we would have noticed if some of the drawers had been forced open.”

  “The man who was killed was a locksmith,” he pointed out. “He could have picked the locks.

  But listen, now that we know for sure that they weren’t after that file, you guys need to be even more careful. If they were looking for something specific and didn’t find it, the second burglar might come back.

  “I hope not,” Candice said, shivering.

  “I've been sleeping pretty lightly ever since it happened,” Eli said. “I’d hear it if someone was trying to break-in. Plus, we’ve got the dogs. They’ll give us enough warning that we can at least lock ourselves in one of the rooms and call the police.”

  Her mother nodded. “That sounds very sensible. Take care of yourselves first.”

  “This whole thing is a mess,” Candice said with a sigh, shaking her head. “We shouldn’t be talking about whether or not we’re going to hide away in a bedroom if burglars come back. We should be talking about your vacation and what we’re having for dinner. Why does this sort of stuff always happen?”

  “Sorry,” David said. “I can’t help but feel like this is somehow my fault, even though I really don’t think we have anything interesting enough in file cabinets to inspire a break. Thanks for calling to tell us about the file, anyway. Oh, have you heard from Theodore yet? He’s supposed to return that key once he’s made a copy. I’ve only got two of them, and I don’t want to have to worry about locking myself out of the brewery when I get back.”

  “I haven't,” Candice said. “He probably doesn’t think there’s any hurry, since you’re not even in the country right now.”

  “That’s probably true,” David admitted. “Thanks for handling everything, Candice.”

  “Yes, thank you, sweetie. We’re planning on spending the rest of the night in our cabin, so feel free to call us if you need anything else.”

  They said their goodbyes and turned their attention back to dinner after ending the call. Eli worked on the chicken breast, while Candice prepared the potatoes for the boiling pot of water. It felt good to be cooking beside him. There wasn't anything much better than making a nice homemade dinner with her husband and settling down for a family meal before spending the rest of the evening doing whatever they wanted. It would have been perfect, if she wasn’t still jittery from the stress of the break-in and murder.

  The chicken breasts were in the oven and the potatoes were bubbling away when a knock sounded at front door. It was a like a bomb had gone off as Maverick and Keeva exploded into barking. Candice winced. None of them had heard the car come up the driveway, not with the radio on and she and Eli carrying on a conversation. With a sigh and a shared glance, she and Eli made their way toward the front of the house.

  Candice peeked out the window next to the front door and was surprised when she saw vaguely familiar woman instead of Theodore, whom she had half been expecting. It was her mother’s new friend, Annabelle. Raising an eyebrow at Eli, wondering if he was as amused and exasperated by all of the unexpected drop ins they had been having as she was, she opened the door. Annabelle blinked, looking shocked to see her.

  “Oh, dear, I was expecting your mother. Is she all right?”

  “She is having a great time,” Candice said. “She's enjoying her cruise in the Caribbean.”

  Annabelle blinked, then slapped hand to her forehead. “That's right, I forgot. I guess she didn’t get my tin of pastries. Did you happen to bring it in, dear? It’s blue with herons on it.”

  Candice had forgotten completely about the pretty little tin that had been sitting by the front door on the night of the murder. She wasn’t exactly sure what had happened to it, and said as much.

  “It had some lovely, fresh-baked pastries in it,” Annabelle said, sounding disappointed. “And I was really hoping to get that tin back.”

  “I’ll go see if I can find it,” Candice said. She stepped aside, meaning to slip back into the house while Eli entertained Annabelle at the doorway, but was surprised when the other woman stepped through the doorway so close behind her that she was almost pushing Candice out of the way. She stomped the snow and slush off her boots and looked around, her eyes seeming to light on every out of place thing in the entranceway. As she turned to take her boots off, Candice met Eli’s eyes and through a series of facial expressions and gestures made it very clear that she wanted him to keep an eye on the woman while she went to find that pastry tin.

  It took a while, but eventually she found it in the kitchen, next to the microwave, where she had completely overlooked it for the past few days. The police must have gone through it, because there were some rather crushed and mushy looking pastries inside. She winced and carried the box out to where Annabelle was chatting with Eli in the entranceway.

  “Here,” she said. “I found it. Sorry, I honestly just forgot about it in all the excitement. I’m sure my mom would have appreciated the gesture, though.”

  Annabelle gave the box a disappointed look. “Well, in the end this is my fault since I forgot she was going be out of town. I just thought it would be a nice little surprise for her. Thanks, dear, for finding the box. When does your mother get back?”

  “In about a week,” Candice told her.

  “I'll try again then,” Annabelle said. She half turned toward the door, then frowned. “Actually, do you mind if I use your restroom before I go?”

  Candice couldn’t say she was super happy that the woman had barged into the house, but she couldn’t think of a polite way to decline, so she nodded. Annabelle obviously knew where the bathroom was, because she made a beeline for it. At the sound of the door shutting, Candice and Eli’s eyes met.

  “I’ve got to say,” Candice said softly. “I think I like Denise and Martha a lot better now, and I a
lready liked them quite a bit. Something about this woman’s sense of over familiarity just rubs me the wrong way.”

  Chapter 11

  Candice decided to go back to the kitchen and start mashing the potatoes while Eli waited around for Annabelle to reappear. She had just begun when she heard a soft ringing sound. It was coming from her computer. She blinked, and realized it was a call from her parents. Concerned, she answered it. She hadn’t been expecting a third call with them in such a short period of time.

  “Hey,” she said, seeing her mother and David on the screen. “What's up?”

  “We just wanted to let you know that we managed to talk to someone on the ship who arranged for us to get a flight back in two days,” her mother said. She must have seen Candice about to object, because she shook her head. “We want to come back, sweetie. This is our house that was broken into, and we’re probably just about as worried as you. Don’t worry, we’ll try to enjoy our vacation until then, and Karissa’s going to be bumped up to our double room, so she’s happy.”

  “Well, thanks for letting me know. Sorry you guys didn’t get the relaxing trip you wanted.”

  Her mother smiled. “Actually, it has been pretty nice, all things considered. David has managed to talk me out of being completely stressed the whole time.”

  “It wasn’t very hard,” he said with a smile. “Not when drinks and food are included, and we are practically living in paradise.”

  “I’m glad you guys have had a good time,” Candice said, smiling. “Oh, before I forget, which drawers were locked? If you remember what’s in them, maybe we can see what’s missing.”

  “The bottom three on the cabinet closest to my desk.”

  “What was in them?”

  He shrugged. “Important stuff, but only in the sense that it’s important to me – Social Security information, birth certificates, the deed to the house, that sort of stuff… my gun and ammo, and then a few recipes I came up with for the brewery as well as all of the important documents for that.”

  “Why were you keeping recipes locked away?” she asked.

  “I just hadn't gotten them copyrighted yet,” he said. “I’ve had a few friends and business associates over to the house and didn't want one of them finding the recipes and ‘accidentally’ using it for their own brews.”

  Candice gave a very unladylike snort. “Accidentally?”

  David gave her a grin. “I’m just trying to give people the benefit of the doubt here. Anyway, I can't think of anything that would be important enough for someone to go to all that trouble to steal it. Whoever broke in either was the king of weird coincidences, since his partner was a locksmith, or they asked poor Jimmy to come along specifically due to his skill set.”

  “But if they knew where what they wanted was, then that means it was someone you know. It also raises the question of why they had to tear up the entire house if they were only looking for one specific thing that they knew was in one of those three locked drawers.”

  David looked grim. “You’ve got that right. That’s why we’re coming back. Whoever did this, chances are it was something personal. They may have messed up the house to send a message, or to cover their tracks if what they took would make it obvious who they were.”

  “Oh, your cabin looks lovely.” The sound of the woman’s voice behind Candice made her jump. She had forgotten Annabelle was there. She turned back to the screen to see mother blink in surprise, then give a short wave.

  “Hi, Annabelle. What on earth are you doing there?”

  “I forgot you were going to be out-of-town,” the other woman admitted with a small smile. “I dropped off a box of pastries for you, and dropped by to see if I could have the container back, of course Candice here didn’t know what was in it and they went bad. Sorry, I’ll have to drop off another tin when you get back.”

  “I’m sorry Annabelle, it’s a shame they went to waste.” Moira looked regretful at the loss of the pastries, but also fondly at her friend’s actions. Candice got the feeling that Annabelle’s poor memory was a normal issue for her.

  “I think it was the police sorting through them more than anything that made them go bad,” Candice said. “I’m not sure what they expected to find at the bottom of a box of pastries –” She broke off as the dogs began to bark. It was hard to hold back an exasperated groan. Would people never stop dropping by?

  “I’ve got it,” Eli called, already partially down the hall. A moment later, he said, “It’s Theodore.”

  “He might as well come on in. Tell him we’ve got David and Mom on a video call, if he wants to say hi.”

  She turned back to the conversation to find that Annabelle was asking her mother why on earth police were digging through her pastry tin. She sounded concerned, and Candice realized that if she didn’t know what had been going on, it had probably been a very strange comment on her part. Well, the entire thing was strange, but knowing the whole story helped a little.

  “Sorry, Annabelle, we haven’t actually told anybody about this. We’ve been trying to keep it quiet for Candice’s sake.” Moira began giving her friend a quick rundown of what had happened, her voice tinny through the speakers of the laptop.

  Candice heard footsteps behind her and turned to greet Theodore, who was coming into kitchen. Eli was right behind him and hurried over to the oven with an alarmed look on his face, hurriedly opening it and taking the chicken out.

  “Sorry for barging in,” Theodore said. “I just thought I would return that key like David asked. I’m still using the manuals. One of the machines was acting a bit strangely, but I think I got it working.”

  “Thanks,” Candice said, taking the envelope with the key back from him.

  “Theodore,” David said cheerfully from the screen. “Come over and say hi.”

  “Hello, David,” Theodore said, approaching the table and hovering just behind Annabelle, who had stopped talking to her mother, since it would have been impossible for more than one person to talk clearly through the video call.

  “What’s this I heard about a problem with one of machines at the brewery?”

  Theodore launched into a description of the problem, and Candice tuned him out. There was no way she was going to be able to follow the technical conversation.

  Instead, she turned to Annabelle. With a sigh, she said, “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  “Thank you, but I’d actually better get going. I’ve got a couple more errands to run. And honestly, the thought of being here, where a man died so recently, it gives me the chills. Moira told me all about what happened. I hope you’re not too scared by it, dear.”

  “It was terrifying when we stumbled across the body, but I think we have managed to recover pretty well,” Candice said.

  She managed to break into the conversation with Theodore and David long enough for Annabelle to say goodbye to her mother. She followed her out to the hall, where the other woman paused to put on her boots. Out of the blue, something occurred to her.

  “I just realized, you were here the night of the break-in,” she said. Shock passed over the woman’s face, and Candice hurried to reassure her. “I don’t mean that you were involved in it, but that evening is when you dropped off the pastry tin. Do you remember seeing anything unusual? We were only gone for a couple of hours, so you had to have stopped by right before the burglars showed up.”

  “I don't really remember anything out of the ordinary,” Annabelle said. “The house was quiet when I got here, other than the dogs of course, who barked when I knocked on the door.” She opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. “All I did was drop off the pastries and leave when no one answered. I didn’t see anything…” She trailed off, her gaze falling on something in the driveway. “No, I saw that car. I passed it as I was leaving.”

  Candice followed the direction her finger was pointing. Her eyes fell on Theodore’s blue sedan.

  Chapter 12

  Candice felt a chill as she looked back i
nto the house, where Theodore was still in the kitchen talking to David and her mother on the computer. She glanced at the woman beside her. Annabelle’s eyes were wide as she looked at the blue sedan and her face had gone pale.

  “It’s probably just a coincidence, right?”

  “I don't know,” Candice said. “But… I don’t want to risk it. I need to find a way to get him out of my house. A way he won’t find suspicious.”

  She blinked, trying to make it all make sense. It was possible that Annabelle was wrong, of course; there were probably plenty of similar looking cars in the area. And besides, what on earth could Theodore want to steal from David badly enough to break into his house? She thought of the file cabinet of locked recipes and information about the brewery, and a bad feeling rose up inside her.

  “Candice, your phone is ringing,” Eli called out from the kitchen. She forced herself to turn around and hurry back inside. Annabelle followed her, and Candice was surprised that she actually felt grateful for the other woman’s company.

  She took her phone from Eli, trying not to look at Theodore, who was still deep in his conversation with David. She glanced at the number and frowned. It was Detective Jefferson. She stepped out of the room to answer the call.

  “Hello, am I speaking with Candice?”

  “This is she,” she said.

  “I just got two calls, one from the security company that owns the security system installed in the brewery and one from one of your neighbors. It appears that the brewery is on fire. We have a fire truck on the way, and I’m heading out there myself. You’re one of the emergency contacts your stepfather put down with the security company, and since as far as I know he and Moira are out of town, you are the one I called.”

  “Thanks,” Candice said distractedly, her mind racing. She looked around, checking to make sure no one from the kitchen was watching her, then walked to the bathroom, where she turned on the faucet to help cover her words as she talked to the detective. “Listen, I think it was arson.” He made a surprised sound, but she hurried on, not wanting him to interrupt. “I just found out that someone spotted Theodore Otto’s car near my parents’ house the night of the break-in. He is also the only one who’s had a key to the building for the last couple of days. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve got the feeling he is behind it. He’s been working with David and Karissa at the brewery for the past couple of weeks.”