by Ashley Cain
“Well sit down and have a glass of wine, you deserve it after the day you’ve had” April looked around her at all the boxes stacked up on the counter. These cakes would keep her going for the next few days. “You can stay as well Miguel if you want, as I assume you are going to take Rachel home”.
“Yes, but I don’t want to gate crash your conversation”. The look on his face suggested that was exactly what he wanted, he was obviously burning with curiosity for what potential plans April and Rachel were going to discuss. “I’ll go for a walk on the beach until you have finished your chat”.
“No, you won’t, there is plenty of food for the three of us”. The truth was April was happy for the two of them to stay, they were close to her in age and she liked them as friends as well as co-workers. They brought a much-needed air of cheeriness and positivity wherever they went. She hoped that they would get together, that the time they were spending with each other tomorrow would just be the start. Miguel obviously really liked Rachel, and she sensed that Rachel would be more than receptive to them being more than just friends if he plucked up the courage to make a move.
“So where are you off to tomorrow?” She poured Rachel and herself a glass of wine and got Miguel a small beer. It would be a couple of hours before he had to drive, and the continental beers she had in the cupboard were very small.
Miguel and Rachel both blushed.
“I want to show her an apartment I’m planning to rent, one of the Rockspur apartments just up the road”.
April was surprised. “The ones that Ivan Fletcher has been building. They are very expensive, aren’t they?” Ivan Fletcher had bought an old dilapidated house that had been on the corner where the road met the harbour a couple of years earlier, and had knocked it down and built eight apartments in its place. Built of grey granite and with large windows that afforded a view of the bay he was renting them out at a high cost to professionals who wanted to live away from the hustle and bustle of the main town.
“They are, but you know he only got planning permission if he made one of them an affordable unit? And there is a two bedroomed apartment on the ground floor at the back with no view other than of the carpark that he rents out very cheaply. The previous tenants have moved out and he has offered it to me. He mentioned it yesterday morning when he came in to the café for his morning coffee”.
“That would be really convenient for work Miguel, it sounds perfect” April was pleased that Ivan Fletcher had thought to make Miguel the offer. Miguel worked long hours on the days that he was working, and even though the island was small, the lanes were narrow and the speed limit low. Just the five miles that he had to drive could easily take him half an hour which at the end of the day could be tiring. To be able to walk five minutes home would help him considerably.
“I know” Miguel nodded, “and because Rachel may have to reduce her hours and won’t be bringing in as much money, I suggested to her last night that she may want to rent the second bedroom off me. For no other reason than it wouldn’t cost her as much money and she would easily be able to get to work”. As he finished speaking, he blushed slightly and Rachel turned her head to look out of the window in order not to catch anyone’s eye.
April hid a smile. She thought that they weren’t the only reasons that Miguel had suggested it, and judging by the pinkness of Rachel’s face as she looked away from the table at the view, she was pretty sure that if Rachel did move in it wouldn’t just be for those reasons either.
“I hope it works out, even if Rachel doesn’t need to reduce her hours. Let me go and cook the prawns and I can then tell you both my idea” April refilled Rachel’s glass and went to cook the prawns. Miguel helped her by grabbing the bowl of salad and placing it on the table. Nobody felt the need to chat and April thought how nice it was that the three of them could spend a few minutes in companionable silence. If Miguel and Rachel did move in to the Rockspur then she could have them over for dinner or drinks more often.
Over dinner of garlic prawns and salad, with a delicious white chocolate cheesecake that April had made that afternoon, she outlined her plan. Any misgivings that she had that Rachel would say no to the extra hours, and the baking, evaporated when she saw the big beam on Rachel’s face. And that was even before she told her she would get an increase in her hourly rate.
“That’s amazing” she said eventually looking at Miguel who had a smile stretched equally as wide on his face. “But won’t you need less cakes in the winter than in the summer?”
“For the café yes, but I’d like to add in some winter fruit pies and some seasonal treats, like biscuits for Halloween and parkin and cinder toffee at bonfire night. Now that you have agreed to my idea, I am going to put an advert in the local paper saying that you have started baking cakes full time for the café, which should bring more people through the door. I’m also going to get some flyers printed to give to the local stores here and in the neighbouring villages. I’m sure that there are quite a few places that would love to stock some homemade cakes and biscuits”.
“It’s just wonderful” Rachel said. “I can really make my imagination run wild. I can make some Chocolate Brownies, I have a great recipe using potatoes, and a Black Forest Roulade. I tried that at home last week and was going to suggest it, but I didn’t like to knowing that you may have to start taking less cakes from me over the next few months”.
“Well, this gives us the chance to experiment a bit. We can start introducing a cake of the day which may bring more people in” Rachel’s enthusiasm was infectious and April didn’t want to bring down the atmosphere, but she knew that she was going to have to mention the cake that Hope had retrieved from the bin earlier in the day “I want to talk to you about something else” she said running her finger around the edge of her wine glass. “A mystery that I wonder if you could shed some light on”.
“A mystery, how exciting” Rachel said rummaging in her bag and shaking her head as April asked her if she would like some more wine. She retrieved a small paper bag from her handbag and tipped the contents on to a small plate. “These chocolate truffles I made today may help us think” she said with a grin. “They are laced with rum”.
“They are delicious” April said, sucking on one, a dreamy look on her face. “Absolutely gorgeous. Maybe we could sell small bags of these in the café as well, or put the price of a pot of coffee up a few pence and give people one of these with each mug. You are such a good baker Rachel, I can’t believe how lucky I was to find you, or that you want to stay”.
“I love working here” Rachel said clapping her hands together “Anyway, what is the mystery? I love a good challenge”.
“You may not like this one” April said with a grimace, as she relayed the story of the cake in the bin to Rachel and Miguel. The tiny nagging doubt that had been running through the back of her mind all afternoon, that Rachel had maybe put the cake in the bin in order to sell more to her and make more money, or that Miguel had done it to ensure that Rachel was kept busy, evaporated when she saw the looks on their faces. Rachel looked close to tears and Miguel angry. They were either incredible actors, and if they were that good, they wouldn’t be working in her café, or they were genuinely stunned. April knew that it was the latter.
“A whole cake?” Rachel was incredulous. “It hadn’t been cut in to and someone had thought there was something wrong with it?”
“No”. April shook her head. “It was a whole cake, still in its box. A Toffee Crunch cake”.
“But I don’t understand who would do such a thing, or why” Rachel’s eyes were brimming with tears. “Oh April, you have been so good to me that the thought that you have had to pay me for a cake that someone then threw away really hurts me. Maybe someone thought there was something wrong with it, I will make you another for free”.
“No, you won’t Rachel”. April said firmly reaching out her hand and grabbing Rachel’s across the table. “It’s not your fault. I would like to know whose fault it is though�
� she said bitterly.
“Well, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find out”. Miguel had stood up and was walking about the terrace deep in thought. He put his fingers to his lips. “Let’s think. If Hope said the bin was emptied yesterday morning, and she found the cake this morning, then it had to be someone who had access to the store room on either yesterday afternoon and evening or this morning. We can discount the three of us, so that leaves Martha, Jerome or Sylvain” He stood looking out of the window at the bay deep in thought. Swinging around suddenly to face them he said. “It was Martha”.
“Why would Martha throw the cake away?” April shook her head “It can’t be Martha; it doesn’t make sense”.
“Of course it does April” Miguel was warming to his idea. “Remember yesterday Martha was furious when she thought you were going to give Rachel more hours and reduce hers. I bet she wanted to discredit Rachel and so took the cake and threw it in the bin. She did have the opportunity because I wasn’t in the kitchen the whole time”.
“No, but she was with me setting the tables in the front”. Rachel said. “I would have seen her if she had left the kitchen and walked past me with a cake box in her hands”.
“She could have gone out the back way” Miguel shot back
“She would have taken a hell of a chance” April said, “walking down the harbour with a cake in her hand at that time in the afternoon. It was still busy. And also, I was on the beach and she would have pretty much had to walk past me. If I had looked up, I would have seen her and she would have then had some explaining to do. Surely it was too risky?”
“It could have happened later then” Miguel was not going to be dissuaded from his view, but April shook her head.
“No” she said “She would have had no chance in the evening, and when she left, she left with us. Her bag was not large enough to carry a cake box”.
Miguel sighed. “Well, if it wasn’t her then it could only have been Jerome or Sylvain when they opened up this morning. It was quiet at that time, maybe one of them did it?”
“Or James” Rachel said. “You are forgetting about James. He would have been on first thing this morning as well remember? It could as easily have been him as Jerome or Sylvain, but to be honest none of them make sense. Why would any of them try to steal a cake from April?”
April didn’t know. They had all worked for her ever since she had opened, and although she didn’t know them well, she had always treated them with kindness and respect and they in return had worked hard. But if one of them had been trying to steal a cake, and on their way to the carpark had seen Hope coming out of her front door, then they may have had had to get rid of the evidence fast. She knew that James parked his motorbike in the carpark and that it was a big one with paniers that would easily hold a cake box, and Jerome and Sylvain parked their car in the same carpark. Much as she didn’t like the idea that one of those three could have done it, it was the most plausible one that they had.
“Well,” she said wearily getting to her feet to clear the table. “Hopefully we don’t lose many more cakes. Let’s forget about it and hope it doesn’t happen again. I’m going to have to turn in early tonight, unlike you two I’ve got to be up at the crack of dawn to open up tomorrow”. She yawned and looked at the clock. Miguel and Rachel had stayed much longer than she thought they would and it was almost ten. “Let’s just hope tomorrow doesn’t bring more bad news”.
Little did she know that tomorrow was going to do just that.
Chapter 9
Despite the fact that April was awake, dressed, and out of her little cabin by just after seven the next morning, Hope was waiting for her at the café door when she arrived with her keys. Hope had many a time asked if she could have a key so that she could open up if she was the first one there, but April had refused. Hope could be very forgetful on occasion. She would often be distracted at the cash desk gossiping to someone and walk away leaving the till drawer open, or take a customer’s coat to hang up in the cupboard and leave it lying on the back of a chair if someone she knew caught her attention. April didn’t trust her with the café keys, knowing full well that if she gave her a set they would be lost within the week. As it was, Miguel and James, the two cooks had keys and they were always the first to arrive so Hope could always get in to the café when she turned up at seven for the start of her shift.
Except this morning, as James did not appear to have arrived at work yet. The café didn’t open to customers for another twenty-five minutes and so technically he still had time to get things prepared for the early morning breakfast rush. She was surprised though that he wasn’t there as James was a stickler for time keeping and was always at work just before seven on the days that he was working. Where Miguel was creative and messy, James was methodical and organised, and he liked to get everything prepared and ready for the grill or the pan for when the doors opened and the first few fishermen arrived. The local fisherman liked a cooked breakfast when they brought their catch home.
In a way April was pleased that she had a few minutes alone with Hope though, as she wanted to question her as to exactly what she had seen yesterday morning when she had found the cake in the bin. If she was honest with herself, she was a little unnerved by the thought that one of her staff was trying to steal from her. As they busied themselves putting the loaves of bread and French pastries that had been delivered in to the display baskets, and turned on the coffee machine and the hot water for tea, April asked Hope exactly what she had seen when she had come out of her front door the day before.
Hope thought deeply, her pale blue eyes looking upwards as she tried to remember. “Mr Hollis, my neighbour was watering his window boxes, his hose pipe curled up over the pavement ready for some unwary person to trip over it. I told him he should be more careful but he didn’t seem that bothered and just nodded. Very inconsiderate he is as a neighbour, plays his piano at all hours of the day and night he does, very badly. You should hear his rendition of Ode to Joy, sets your teeth on edge, or it would if I had any left”.
“And then what?” April prompted. She didn’t want Hope to get side-tracked on the subject of her badly fitting false teeth, which had been a bone of contention since the beginning of the summer when she had been encouraged to get a new pair by an offer in town from a new dentist that had just opened. They were very white and shiny but Hope had told anyone who would listen that she thought the dentist must have been a vet before he became a dentist because the teeth would have been a better fit for a horse.
“I walked a few doors down and had words with Terence Dixon. He is the man who owns the boat repair shop. He was just pulling out those jet skis that he hires out”. April smiled to herself. Hope had a huge issue with the jet skis that hurtled up and down the bay in the height of summer, and so she could imagine what sort of words those had been. “Anyway” Hope continued “Dixon didn’t want to speak to me and so I didn’t linger. And then I came down here, and Jerome and Sylvain were just arriving, ten minutes late they were by my watch”.
“Which direction did they come from?” April asked. It was interesting that they were late she thought as the two of them were always very punctual. They could have arrived at seven, taken a cake and tried to put it in their car before the café opened. If they had been caught on the way to the car by Hope coming out of her front door then it was not inconceivable that they had shoved it in the bin quickly to avoid detection.
“I’ve no idea. If you ask me, I think they had been there a while having a crafty cigarette. They don’t do it when you are there, but I’ve caught them out the front of the café more than once having a cigarette. Disgusting to do it in full view of potential customers, what sort of impression do they think they are giving?”
“You think they had been standing there a while then?” April said absent-mindedly “that’s another theory out the window then”.
“What theory?” Hope’s eyed gleamed with interest. “You have a theory about how the cake may have got
in the bin? Well spit it out, don’t just keep it to yourself”.
April could have kicked herself. She hadn’t wanted to tell Hope why she was interested in what Jerome and Sylvain had been doing, but now she had said too much and she knew from experience that Hope wasn’t going to let her get away without saying something. That was the thing about their relationship. Hope tended to treat April less as a boss and more as her late best friend’s grand-daughter which, in her eyes now Ruby was dead, meant that she was April’s guardian, advisor and general inquisitor. It was too early in the day to try and make something up so April was just going to have to tell her what they had been discussing the evening before.
“Rachel brought some more cakes last night” she said trying to hold back a sigh, “and we were trying to work out who had the opportunity to take the cake. One possibility, and it was one possibility from many, was that Jerome and Sylvain were taking it to their car in the carpark when you came out of your house and, rather than get caught in the act, they decided to dump it in the bin. It could of course have just as easily been James”.