Killer Cupcakes (MURDER IN THE MIX Book 14)

by Addison Moore

  I clear my throat and Naomi glances over, their voices suddenly mute and it quiets the environment around us substantially.

  “I’m all done laying out the desserts in the ballroom, and I have an enormous overstock in the kitchen. I’ll be here all night, so I’ll make sure the dessert tables are amply supplied.”

  Naomi ticks her head back. “Thank you.”

  The cinnamon-haired woman steps over. “Trisha Maples. I’m the manager here at the Evergreen Manor.” Her lips pull tight in a line as she extends her hand, and I apprehensively shake it.

  Manager of the Evergreen? I’m pretty sure that’s Naomi’s job.

  “Lottie Lemon. I, uh”—I glance to Naomi, trying to see if maybe the woman misspoke—“I’m the owner of the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery on Main Street. I provided all the baked goods for the evening.”

  “Perfect. You were next on my list.”

  Why do I get the feeling this is a hit list?

  She closes her eyes a moment too long as if putting me at ease. “The Evergreen is hosting a friends-giving charity event early next month. It’s fifty dollars a plate, and a large portion of the proceeds will go directly to feeding needy families in the area. Of course, all of Honey Hollow is invited, so we’ll need to have plenty of pumpkin pie on hand. Could you provide those for us?”

  “Absolutely. I’d be thrilled to help out with the event in any way I can.”

  “Perfect, just put together an invoice and have it sent directly to me. Apparently, I’m the only one that can understand numbers around here.” She turns to glare at poor Naomi. And oddly enough, I do believe this is the first time I’ve ever referenced my salty cousin as poor Naomi. Usually, it’s poor me for being in her presence. She moans as if to acknowledge this. “Did I hear you say Naomi ordered far too much dessert for the evening?”

  “No, I didn’t say that.”

  “I distinctly heard you mention an enormous overstock in the kitchen.” She shifts her narrowed gaze to Naomi. “This is a prime example of why I’m needed here. I’m a numbers girl, Naomi. And I, unlike you, know how to make them work. I’m off to see the gratuitous spending for myself.” She heads toward the kitchen, leaving a scarf of heavy perfume in her wake.

  “What’s going on?” I take a step forward. “I thought you were the manager of the Evergreen Manor.”

  “I thought I was, too.” She glares hard in the direction Trisha took off in. “I called my boss and he assured me that Trisha is not taking over my position. He says she’s the district manager of the chain. I’m not sure I’m buying it. She’s gunning for my job just the way Lily is gunning for my boyfriend.”

  A scoffing sound emits from me, and I try to play it off like a cough. “Have you and Alex taken that next step? You know, making it official?”

  “About as official as that fake marriage of yours. I heard you spent the week in bed with Everett.”

  “It wasn’t a week.” I hold my breath for a moment. “Okay, so it was three days, but Noah was right there with us and I had to make sure Everett didn’t die in the night. He took a nasty fall out my windshield.”

  “Noah was with you, too? Eww.” She sweeps her gaze from my head to my toes. “Or should I say ooh. I’m sure they both cater to your every need and desire. Who would ever think our little Lottie would grow up to be such a Lolita? Oh, wait—I did. You’ve always been easy, Lottie, but my God, two men at once? And you don’t even hide it.”

  “There’s nothing to hide.”

  “There wouldn’t seem to be to a loose woman like yourself.”

  I’m not going to fight her on this. I know what she’s implying isn’t true. “You’re just jealous, Naomi.”

  Thirteen hops up onto the counter between us, his body glowing a strange purple hue, and a part of me wonders if that’s some sort of supernatural costume he’s donned for the evening.

  “Somebody knows something,” he growls. “Something is afoot. I’m not sure what.”

  Naomi steps around the counter until we’re just about nose to nose. “I am jealous, Lottie.” She crimps a sarcastic smile with those dark crimson-stained lips. “Are you satisfied? I’m jealous that you have two grown—seemingly sane men warring over you. That they can’t seem to breathe without you, and that they even share the same airspace despite the fact they can’t stand one another half the time. They sacrifice a piece of themselves and their egos all in hopes that you’ll choose them. And what do I get? I get to be on the other end of the deal. I get to war with my own best friend over a man I would die to be with. But then, she’s no best friend. If she truly cared for me, she’d back off and let Alex and me have the future we deserve.”

  “I’m sorry, Naomi. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be. But you and Lily are like sisters. Surely you can figure this out. And if I were you, I’d figure it out fast. It’s only going to erode your friendship a little more each day.”

  “What friendship? Once Alex and I tie the knot, I’m never speaking to Lily again. The only reason I’m even pretending to tolerate her is so that Alex doesn’t think I’m being petty.”

  Someone clears their throat from behind, and we find Alex there looking dapper in a suit.

  “Good evening, ladies.” He pulls Naomi into his arms and lands a kiss to her lips. I’ll admit, it’s a little unnerving to witness considering he looks so much like Noah.

  She blinks up at him. “And what are you supposed to be? Let me guess, my naughty prince? We can go to my room in a bit, and I’ll let you show me exactly how naughty you can be.”

  He laughs as if it were funny and not at all the siren song Naomi meant for it to be.

  Alex opens up the lapel to his jacket and flashes a silver badge our way. “My brother lent me his old badge, so the both of you better behave or I’ll have to take you into custody.”

  Naomi titters like a schoolgirl. “I won’t behave. I promise.” She holds out her wrists as if she’s ready to be cuffed right now.

  He nods my way. “How’s the case, Lottie? I just talked to my brother and he says he’s stumped. But then, I don’t expect much out of him to begin with.” He gives a little wink.

  “Noah is right. Honestly, in all the months I’ve been investigating cases, this one has proven to be the toughest. Sure, there are suspects, and boy, did each and every one of them have a great motive, but nothing seems to be clicking. I think I just need one strong shred of evidence to propel me in the right direction.”

  He shakes his head sympathetically. “I’m sure it’ll come together. Have you tried talking to his family?”

  “I wouldn’t know where to begin. Noah mentioned the body was unclaimed at the morgue.”

  Thirteen twitches. “He has a sister and a brother.”

  I take a deep breath. “I know.” I nod his way. “One of his exes mentioned that Pastor Gaines did have a brother and a sister. Pastor Gaines.” I roll my eyes for even saying the name. “He was a fraud through and through.”

  Alex pats me over the shoulder. “Review the footage on Main Street once again. Who knows? You might see something new.”

  “Maybe.”

  Trisha the mummy manager comes back just as Alex and Naomi head into the ball. There will be no fun for Trisha this evening, I suppose.

  Noah and Everett emerge from the hall to my left, and I make a face at the two of them without meaning to.

  Everett says something to Noah before offering me a polite nod and heading into the ballroom. Noah strides in my direction, the beginnings of a dangerous smile curving on his lips, and even though I’m a twinge angry with him for not siding with me, I suddenly feel the need to steal him away into the nearest dark corner.

  He wraps his arms around me and lands a kiss to my lips.

  “I’m sorry. How can I make this up to you?”

  For a moment I get lost in those glowing green eyes. I’m about to suggest the dark corner, but my mind makes a left.

  “Can you show me the footage from the bakery that day?�
��

  His brows swoop in low. “Yes. After the party. I just saw Lainey and Forest head in dressed like salt and pepper shakers. And there’s a rumor Meg has reprised Madge the Badge.”

  “Ooh, that does sound like costume gold, but I think I just need to settle my soul a bit.”

  “Let’s do it.” He pulls out his phone and leads us to the exact dark corner I had in mind. Noah fiddles with his phone until the footage pops up. Noah has just about everything related to the case accessible by phone. “Here we go. This is about fifteen minutes before the murder occurred.” Noah has the speed adjusted so that it’s time lapsed just enough to avoid monotony.

  “There he is,” I say as my adrenaline kicks in. “Pastor Gaines and my mother. That striped sweater sure makes him easy to track,” I muse as they whirl their way through the crowd comically. “My mother was so angry with him for following her around—at least until they got into my office.” I avert my eyes at the memory of my mother getting busy in there with him.

  “I remember.” Noah points to the screen. “And here they are talking to you, and there they go into the bakery.”

  “And there’s the infamous food fight,” I say, almost amused this time. It’s taken me the entire month to forgive Meg for starting it to begin with.

  “Here you are!” a high-pitched voice calls from behind, and we turn to find Cormack dressed in a short beaded dress. A cradle-like cap is pressed over her blonde locks as strings of pearls grace her neck. The heels on her feet have to be at least six painful inches tall. Cormack makes a stunning flapper, and here I look as if I belong in a cartoon. “Guess what, Big Boss? Have I got a surprise for you.” She struts over, weaving one leg over the other dramatically. “You have to come outside to see it.”

  “Let me guess?” I tilt my head, my voice filled with a homicidal level of sarcasm. “A wood chipper with my name on it?”

  “I’m not speaking to you, Loretta. I’m talking to Noah. My Noah.” She gives a wink his way.

  “Lottie, I—”

  “Go,” I say, taking the phone from him. “I want to review this a few more times anyway.”

  Noah leans in. “I’m going to make things crystal clear. I’m letting her know we’re over,” he whispers lest she actually hears him.

  Noah takes off, and I land my focus right back on the footage taken from the day of the murder.

  Thirteen jumps from the floor to my shoulder, and I let out an audible oof.

  “You do realize you can control your heft,” I grunt, and just like that, he’s lighter than air. “Thank you.”

  “Let me see the footage,” he purrs into my ear, and I hold the phone a little higher. “Ah yes, I tried my best to lap up those cupcakes gone to waste. You should look into arresting the woman who caused the carnage.”

  “She’s my sister, and Carnage is her middle name.”

  “I like her already.”

  “Look at this. The street is filled with every style of ghoul and tool, much like tonight. And there’s Pastor Gaines again. This is the second time he’s coming in.” I blink back. “Only he’s not wearing that striped garish sweater. He’s wearing a leather jacket and that baby blue shirt underneath. I remember wondering why the wardrobe change, but now that I can see what a malfeasance that sweater was to begin with, I can totally understand the need to stop everything and burn it.” I sigh as I turn off the footage. “I’m sorry, Thirteen. I’m officially done with this case. Not only do I lack any real leads, but he was a terrible person. If Noah can’t catch the perpetrator, then the killer just might go free forever. I can’t help you anymore. Maybe it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

  Thirteen digs his claws into my shoulder as he arches his back, letting out a hair-raising meow before using me as a springboard and running all the way into the ballroom.

  “What in the heck was that about?” I’m about to head in that direction when a man dressed in a black suit and a black felt mask covering his face partially like the Phantom of the Opera walks through the door. He pauses and does a double take in my direction before offering an eerie, all too familiar grin and acknowledging me with a nod.

  He melts into the crowd that’s feeding into the ballroom, and I freeze. I can’t breathe. Something about him felt sinister, pure evil. A feeling I’ve gotten before from Pastor Gaines himself.

  That couldn’t be him. Noah is sure he’s in the morgue.

  Here it is, All Hallows’ Eve, and I’m pretty sure I’m being haunted by the scariest ghost of them all.

  Just my rotten luck.

  Chapter 20

  The ballroom at the Evergreen Manor pulsates with strobe lights as the music filters in through the speakers, a touch too raucously loud for my liking. The room is thick with bodies, all of them moving and grooving, and it feels as if I’ve just been thrust into a sea of limbs. There’s no hope of me ever finding Noah or Everett in this mess.

  The Monsters Ball is in full swing, and the magic of Halloween night has cast its spell over all of Honey Hollow.

  A blonde Cinderella, dusted with glitter from head to toe, makes her way over, and I can’t help but crack a smile at my best friend.

  “Keelie, you are ridiculously adorable,” I say, pulling her into a quick embrace and her sugary perfume stuns my senses. “And you smell like cotton candy.”

  “It’s not cotton candy. It’s your friendly ghost cupcake. Bear and I were sharing one in the laundry room in the back and—”

  “And I’m going to stop you. Have you by chance seen Everett or Noah?”

  “Not Noah. But I saw Everett. I didn’t get his costume.” Her lips tug to the side the way they do when she sees something she wants to gobble up. “What’s he supposed to be anyway?”

  “The usual—a sexy beast.” I crane my neck over her shoulder, hoping to see him.

  “Isn’t that the truth. Speaking of missing people, have you seen my sister? Lily is on the warpath, and I really need to warn her. You’d think as her twin, I would know where she is at all times.”

  “Last I saw, she was on her way in here with Alex. But then, she is dressed as a wicked witch for all practical purposes. Who would ever think you were twins?”

  We laugh it off before Keelie gets sucked back into the undertow of the crowd.

  A sparkle of light ignites at my feet before darting through the sea of bodies.

  “Thirteen,” I say as I do my best to follow him. I stagger my way out of the ballroom, and in an instant my eardrums soak in the relief from all the boisterous noise. I’m holding two phones, one of which is Noah’s, and I take a moment to frown at it because I’m wishing it were him.

  Who knows what Cormack wanted to show him out front? She probably had a net ready to trap him.

  I glance around for Thirteen, but there’s no sign of any supernatural presence.

  “Boo!” an eerie female voice shrills from behind, and I jump as I turn around, ready to strangle whomever it is for scaring my wings crooked, but it’s not any person I could send into eternity. This soul already happens to be there. “Greer! Don’t do that to me. I nearly had a heart attack. I’d kill you if you weren’t already dead.”

  She chortles away as if it were hilarious.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask as I look around for signs of that wily cat.

  “We just finished the last haunted house tour. Your mother is closing up shop and heading this way, so we thought we’d join in on the fun, too. Winston and Lea are in the ballroom checking out the costumes, and I saw a fairy out here so I thought I’d say hello. Imagine my disappointment when I realized it was just you.” She gives a giggle and a wink.

  “Funny.”

  “How’s the investigation going?”

  “It’s not. I’ve got five suspects and nowhere to go with them.”

  “I bet one of them is the killer, Lottie.”

  “I bet one them is not—or if she is, I don’t really care. I quit the case.”

  She inches back a notch. “Now
we both know that’s not allowed.”

  “Lucky for me, no one ever flung a rulebook in my face.”

  She shakes her head emphatically. “Tell me about the suspects. Maybe I can help untangle this knot?”

  “Fine, but believe me when I say the only way out of this one is to cut it loose.” I sigh as the suspects rotate in my head like an all too sparse Rolodex. “First, there’s my mother.”

  She nods. “Who went on record to say she could kill him just shortly before he was gunned down.”

  “How do you know that?” It happens to be true, but still.

  “I was there, remember?”

  “Okay, but she didn’t kill him. And if she did, I am totally turning a blind eye—which oddly enough, I think I’d do with just about any of the other suspects. There’s Mitzi Underwood, the socialite from Fallbrook who looks suspiciously like my mother. He married her, took all her money, and split town. There’s Elaine Gilmore from Lake Champlain who looks exactly like my mother. He married her, took all her money, and split town. Her daughter, Rachel Kane, who does graveyard tours in Ashford. She actually had the cookies to put a hit on him a couple of years ago, but nothing came from that—unless her useless hitmen were having a latent reaction, which I doubt. They took her money, and that was that. I’m still considering erecting a monument to her.” I sigh. “Then there’s roller derby queen, Julia Wright. She happens to be a replica of my mother. He married her, took all her money, and split town. Are you sensing a theme yet?”

  She wiggles her nose as if an offensive odor filled the space between us. “I smell a rotten egg.”

  “Stephen Gaines was worse than that. Anyway, I’d better find Everett and Noah. We had a bit of a tiff.”

  “The three of you?”

  I give a guilty nod, and she titters.