Killer Acorn Pie

by Carolyn Q. Hunter

  It left a bad taste in Bert’s mouth.

  Most officers (and store managers for that matter, seeing as Bert technically was one) were efficient yet kind. They were good at their job without being overbearing.

  Bert knew if she hadn’t been there distracting him, Shiv might have ended up stuck inside the building under temporary police custody for hours until things got a little more sorted out.

  She was so grateful to Harry who gave them a look of, “you owe me one.”

  Bert gave a half smile of thanks in response.

  “Come on, let’s go back to the shop for now,” Bert said to her employee in a comforting tone, putting her arm over her shoulders and leading them away.

  “And don’t think you’re off the hook. There will still be questions for you later,” the officer called after them in a last hurrah of feigned authority.

  “Flannigan,” Harry’s voice boomed, sending the officer into submissive silence.

  Bert tried to hold back a chuckle, but it managed to sneak out. Thankfully, it caused Shiv to laugh a little as well, lightening the mood and taking away from the drudgery of the current situation.

  The women began to laugh louder as they headed down the concrete steps, at least until Bert saw someone standing next to her car, bent over it as if looking at what was inside.

  She was about to be robbed!

  Chapter Four

  “Excuse me,” she shouted, her voice ringing against the nearby building as she marched right up to the car.

  The thief, however, seemed unfazed and didn’t bolt away from the crime scene. Instead, he stood up straight and looked directly at the two women. He had piercing dark eyes and black hair that was slicked back so flat it looked almost as if it were varnished on.

  There was something ever so vaguely familiar about him.

  He was wearing a dark suit and a name tag. He clearly worked on campus in some capacity.

  “Oh, no,” Shiv whispered only loud enough for Bert to hear. Obviously, she knew this man, but Bert wasn’t going to let that stop her from confronting him.

  “This your car?” the stranger demanded to know.

  “Yes, it is, and I don’t like people snooping around my private property. Do you want me to call the police on you?” she threatened, pointing toward the flashing lights.

  “Lady, I am the police,” he explained, digging out a badge and flashing it toward them.

  “Campus security,” Shiv said in a low tone.

  He still managed to hear.

  “I’ll have you know, young woman, that we are in fact a division of the police force specifically stationed here at the college.”

  Bert folded her arms. “All right, officer, my apologies. What is it you need with my car?” she questioned him, still unsure of why he was nosing around so much.

  Digging into his leather bomber jacket, he retrieved a pad and a pen. “Your car is parked in a community college parking lot without a permit. Therefore, I’m going to have to write you a parking violation ticket.”

  “What?” Bert exclaimed. “But I just came here to pick up Shiv.”

  “Y-yeah, my friend just died,” she admitted quietly.

  “That’s too bad,” he said, not flinching.

  “I was only in this spot for a minute or two.”

  “A minute or two that it didn’t belong here,” he declared, beginning to write out the parking violation.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am,” he noted, ripping the slip from the pad and placing it on the window, not even bothering to hand it to her.

  Bert couldn’t believe the nerve of this man. She’d thought the police officer she’d encountered up at the student center had been a bit of a pain in the neck, but this man took it to a whole new level.

  “Are you aware of the multiple police cars sitting up in the quad?” she questioned him, sure that if he really was part of the Culver’s Hood Police Department that he’d know all about a student death on the very campus where he patrolled.

  “I certainly am, ma’am, and if I could, I would give all of them violations as well,” he stated like the cops being parked up in the quad was nothing more than a minor inconvenience rather than a necessity during an investigation.

  “They’re investigating my friend’s death, you fool,” Shiv barked, lashing out. It was out of character for her, but the man’s complete lack of sympathy for the situation had just rubbed her the wrong way.

  The man’s eyes instantly darkened, narrowing on Shiv like an animal scoping out its prey. “You think I don’t know that? Of course, I do. I know it because they came onto my campus, into my jurisdiction, and just took over this case.” His voice was raised to a fever pitch of anger. “I should have been the first one on the scene and the first one to make calls, but no. According to that detective, my small force of men and I don’t even come up to the same level as his beat cops.”

  Shiv and Bert were taken aback, standing up straight and unaware of what to say next.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more violations to write for improperly parked cars, bikes, and even skateboards. Goodbye.” Balling his hands into fists, he marched off toward the quad.

  “Good heavens,” Bert exclaimed. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Opening the car door, she climbed in, grabbing the ticket as she did. Shiv didn’t hesitate to climb in on the other side.

  “Do you know him?”

  “Not personally, but I do know of him,” Shiv admitted, buckling her seatbelt and then folding her arms around herself in a comforting pose. “Grey Flannigan. He used to be a student here but now he works here. He’s something else.”

  “So, I gathered.”

  “He is the head of the campus security,” she revealed.

  “Nothing surprising there, but are they really a division of the Culver’s Hood police?”

  She tilted her head to one side. “Well, yes and no. The security is funded by the police department, and the department helps choose employees.”

  “But?” Bert wondered, knowing the man from earlier had to be exaggerating his connections to the police.

  “But they aren’t actually sworn-in police officers in any way. Their only ability is to enforce campus rules.”

  “Like parking.”

  “And making sure there aren’t trespassers, vandalism, the works. However, if anything more than that comes up, they’re supposed to call the police department.”

  “So, he lied when he said he should have been the first responder and the person in charge of the crime scene?”

  Shiv nodded. “That’s right. I purposefully called the police first, knowing his reputation, and his personal connection to Ronnie.”

  Bert blinked a few times. “Hold on. Hold on. This seems like a more involved story. Let’s head back to the shop. I’ll make you a strong cup of coffee and you can tell me everything . . . from the beginning.”

  “I could use a cup or two or five,” she sighed. “And a slice of acorn squash pie?”

  Bert smiled. “You got it, hon.”

  “Let’s start with when you left the shop this morning,” Bert suggested, setting a hot steaming mug of Black Death coffee in front of her employee. She’d used double the beans she usually would for the pot, giving it an almost pitch-dark hue.

  In her upstairs apartment above Pies and Pages, she had the gas fireplace running, the orange flames licked up against the glass and adding a comfortable glow to the room while they discussed difficult topics. The garland of autumn leaves and a cornucopia on the mantel added a holiday appeal to the room to help remind the both of them to think of better things, to be grateful for their lives.

  Wyn was downstairs watching the shop and Bert told her to call her down at a moment’s notice if things got too overwhelming. Having a new employee to manage things was something Bert was thankful for.

  Still, with the death of Shiv’s friend, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. If this truly was a murder, the
re was a killer to catch.

  “We don’t have to do this. We have a lot of work to do,” Shiv tried to argue, standing up from the small circular table sitting on the black and white tile beside the kitchen area of the apartment.

  “Now, sit down and relax a bit. You’ve had a shock,” Bert ordered her, gently pushing her down into the seat. “Besides, you need to at least finish the pie.” She motioned toward the large slice of acorn squash pie sitting between them with whipped cream on top.

  Shiv smiled. “I guess I do need a little breather,” she agreed, picking up the coffee mug first and taking a long drink of the energizing black liquid. Setting the mug down, she cut into the sugary pie and took a bite. Only after that did she start to talk.

  Bert didn’t mind. She waited patiently for her friend to be ready to talk.

  “When I got there, I couldn’t find Ronnie or Dale,” she began, instantly taking another sip of the coffee.

  Bert wished she’d poured herself a mug but didn’t want to be rude by standing up to get it. “Dale? Who’s that?”

  “Ronnie’s boyfriend. He’s got a thick accent of some sort.”

  “Where is he from?”

  Shiv shrugged. “Not sure, honestly. He never seemed too keen to talk about where he’s from.”

  Bert folded her hands on the table, nodding. “All right. So, they were both supposed to be there?”

  “Well, Dale is sort of the brainchild behind the project.”

  “He came up with the idea?” she clarified.

  Shiv took another big bite of pie and chewed it. “Right,” she said, swallowing. “He is a fan of escape rooms, the only one out of our group who has been to one.”

  “I see.” Bert had already heard all about this project for the business course her employee was in. Students got into groups of three to five and had to start a small business with a pseudo loan from the banker (the class’s professor). “Why did you girls agree to the plan if you’d never been to an escape room yourselves?”

  “It sounded fun. I used to be in theater back in high school and it sounded like that.”

  “That makes sense, I guess.”

  “I mean, Ronnie wasn’t totally into it or anything, but she is a quiet kind of girl. She goes along with things.”

  “Do you think she enjoyed it at all?”

  “I don’t know. She took on the accounting side of things and never once looked at the setup or advertising.”

  “And you were the head of advertising.”

  She sipped her coffee. “That’s right. Dale thought using the pie shop was a great idea. It was the whole reason he designed the escape room around a Thanksgiving theme. He thought it all tied in well together.”

  “He sounds very creative.”

  “Oh, he’s so talented, Bert. I helped him with setting up the room and his craftsmanship is bar none. He painted all the false walls himself and set up the fake table. He even bought one of those portable space heaters that looks like a fireplace and set it into the wooden flats.”

  “Wooden flats?”

  “Well, inside the room we sort of built a second room out of wood, like you would with a stage set. That way you might be able to find secret compartments and stuff like that for the room.”

  Bert leaned back. “Wow. This whole thing sounds really intense.”

  “It’s so cool, Bert. You would have really loved it. . .” her voice trailed off.

  “Shiv?”

  “If the room is even able to open. The police might keep us shut down for good.” She slammed her fists on the table. “What are we going to do about all of our customers? The ones who got tickets?”

  Bert gulped back a lump in her throat. Shiv was absolutely right. They had tons of customers all expecting to be able to go to that escape room for free. Many had ordered an extra pie just to get the tickets. Making a mental note to pick Harry’s brain on the subject later, she shook her head. “Let’s not worry about that right now. Concentrate on this morning.”

  Shiv went slightly pale being brought back around to the harrowing events of the day.

  “You said you were supposed to test run the room?”

  “T-That’s right. I’d helped build the room, but don’t know the actual secrets to winning the game and escaping. Ronnie had never once been inside the room and was going in completely blind, thus making it a truer test run.”

  “I see, and was she there when you arrived?”

  “I-I got there and the door on the escape room was closed and locked and neither Dale nor Ronnie were anywhere to be seen.”

  “So?”

  “So, I unlocked the room and went in.” She paused, her throat pulsing as she struggled to choke back tears. “And there she was, lying on the floor.”

  “Did she appear hurt?”

  Shiv’s eyes widened as if seeing the body all over again in her mind. “She was so pale, like a ghost or something. I knew immediately something was wrong, but it didn’t look like she had been hurt or attacked.”

  That was interesting. Why did the police suspect foul play? Or was inviting Harry to the scene just an extra precaution.

  “All I know is that there was this weird thing on her hand like she got pricked by something. It was bleeding.”

  “What could it have been?”

  “I-I don’t know, but right after, I thought I heard someone moving behind the fake wall panels.”

  “Was there anyone there?”

  “Not when I looked, no.”

  Bert hummed quietly as she muddled over these facts, tapping her chin. “You had a key to the room?”

  “Yeah, Dale and I both did.”

  “And you still don’t know where Dale is?” Bert asked. It was the main question burning at the forefront of her mind.

  “His phone is off. I haven’t been able to track him down.”

  Bert nodded knowingly. “Then I think our first task will be finding him and figuring out what exactly happened in that room.”

  Chapter Five

  Bert knew she couldn’t just leave the shop in Wyn’s hands all day long to go searching for one of Shiv’s friends—especially not at the very peak of pie season. Wyn was a fast learner and extremely capable of taking care of things on her own, but it wasn’t fair to leave her alone all day.

  Looking for Dale would have to wait.

  Letting Shiv rest upstairs, and just binge watch television to keep her mind off things (the local channel was marathoning a bunch of holiday romances already) Bert got to work side by side with Wyn in the shop.

  “We’ve gotten ten more orders for Thanksgiving,” Wyn declared with a big smile, tapping the sign-up sheet with the pen.

  “That’s wonderful,” Bert exclaimed but quickly stopped herself from celebrating. What should she do about the escape room tickets? There was no guarantee that the escape room would even be continuing onward at this point, and knowing Harry, it would be shut down for good until the case was officially solved. “Wyn, come over here for a second,” Bert instructed, waving a finger.

  “What’s up, Bert?” she whispered as they stood in the corner of the kitchen near the oven. The heat felt good on such a frigid day.

  She hesitated, not sure if she was making the right choice. “Uhm, I’m not sure we can continue handing out free tickets to the escape room at the college.”

  “Huh? Why not?” she inquired, tightening the bun of hair she’d made atop her head to keep it out of the way while she helped customers.

  “There has been a bit of an accident over at the college, as you know.”

  “Shiv’s friend,” she said sadly, sympathetic to her new coworker's plight. “I know it must be hard for her right now, having just had a friend of my own die recently.”

  Bert gave a knowing nod. “Well, her friend was found in the escape room.”

  Wyn’s eyes widened. “Hold up, what? Someone died in the escape room?” she gasped, keeping her voice as low as possible.

  “Don’t let it get out. I’
m worried we might have people canceling their Thanksgiving orders if customers realize what’s happened. I mean, most of these folks are families looking for a fun holiday activity to do together.”

  “But don’t give out any more tickets?”

  She sighed, letting her shoulders slump a little. “No, I’d say not.”