Caked in Murder

by Gretchen Allen

  “I forgot how good your coffee is. What is it you do again to make it taste this way?” Nate asked, sipping from his mug.

  “I use two different brands of freshly ground beans and I sprinkle cinnamon on top before I do the brewing.”

  “Delicious. Now, tell me what’s been going on.”

  “Before I do that, I have to ask you something.” Yvette twirled her hair, not quite brave enough to confront Nate about his lie.

  “Okay. What?”

  Sighing, she began, “I was wondering if you could clear something up for me? I talked with Emma a few days ago and she shared something with me that caused some confusion.”

  “Emma? I haven’t seen her around since I’ve been in town. What’s she been up to?” Nate asked.

  “She’s in Florida,” Yvette blurted.

  Nate’s face paled, showing he knew just where Yvette was going with this. “You know, don’t you?”

  “Know what?” she asked, wanting him to tell her the truth.

  “About Bridget?” Nate looked away.

  “Why did you lie?”

  “Embarrassment? My mom and dad, you, your parents, and all of our friends told me not to marry her. I truly believed that each of you were wrong about Bridget. She was nothing but kind to me from the first time we met, and I couldn’t understand what you guys were seeing that I was missing. I thought my parents just didn’t want me to leave Heritage, but it turned out all of you were right. Bridget was a terrible person from the very beginning. I wanted so badly to get married and have a family and be happy. Now, I’ve been divorced almost a year, I’m miserable and I’ve been lying to everyone this entire time.”

  “I’m sorry it didn’t work out. I truly am. I know you loved her, and you deserve to be loved back. Have you told your parents yet?”

  “No way! I wasn’t going to tell anyone. I planned on going back home and letting it lie. It wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary for Bridget not to come visit here with me. My parents rarely come to Florida and I had no reason to do anything but go back home and pretend everything was fine.”

  “That’s ridiculous. You don’t need to hide it from anyone. You think your parents would say I told you so rather than be thrilled for you to be away from her?”

  Nate grinned. “They’d be so thrilled.”

  “See. You should tell them. I’m glad Emma told me.”

  “What are the chances of that? What’s she even doing there?” Nate relaxed back in his chair.

  “Buying a storefront on St. Alders Beach Boardwalk for Sundae Afternoon.”

  “What? Wow! Maybe Bridget can get a job there,” he chortled.

  “Please, no. If I ever end up down there, the last person she’ll want to see is me, and vice versa,” Yvette laughed.

  “You two never did get along,” Nate recalled.

  “I have to ask. Are you thinking about moving back here ever?”

  “I hadn’t thought about it. Like I said, I wasn’t even going to admit this to any of you but now that the cat is out of the bag, I’m not sure. I did see that new steakhouse downtown is looking for a new head chef…” Nate trailed off, with a twinkle in his eye.

  Yvette suddenly felt refreshed and had an idea. “Let’s go to the farm to see Mark. He asked me for some help the other day and I promised him I’d do it after your dad’s party but since that’s been postponed, I think we should go see him together. He was your best friend, you should tell him the truth too.”

  “It does feel good to be honest. I’ll drive,” Nate said, getting up. “What’s Mark need?”

  “He misses Amelia and wants to show her how he feels. He needs help coming up with ideas on how to surprise her with something big to let her know,” Yvette said, looking around for her phone.

  “They aren’t together? I miss everything!” Nate joked. “Really though, I’m not sure having someone like me around anything to do with romance is such a great idea. I don’t exactly have a great track record.”

  “You’ll be fine. Now, let’s get out of here.”

  11

  I don’t see Mark’s truck,” Yvette said when she and Nate pulled into the employee parking lot at Kline Family Farm.

  “We can go inside and check anyway,” Nate said, getting out of the vehicle.

  The two made their way to Mark’s office and knocked on the door, getting no answer.

  “He’s gone for the day,” a voice came from behind them.

  “Armand, hi! He won’t be back?” Yvette asked the groundskeeper.

  “Nope. Took off lickety-split, hollering about some Tim or turtles or something,” he shrugged.

  “That’s not good!” Yvette yelled a little too loudly.

  “Who’s Tim?” Nate asked. “And what about turtles?”

  “It’s Tom Myrtle. Amelia went on a date with him,” Yvette explained.

  “Yikes. Hope you two get everything settled, I’ve got goats to tend to. Much less hassle than humans,” Armand noted, shaking his head.

  “See ya later. Thanks for letting us know,” Yvette said, waving to the man.

  “So, this is bad, right?” Nate stated the obvious.

  “It’s not good. There’s no reason I can think of that Mark would need to leave in a hurry to meet Tom.”

  “Well, then let’s get out of here and see if we can find him.”

  “How on earth would we know where to go?” Yvette asked once they’d gotten back to the truck.

  “No clue. But your phone is going off. Aren’t you going to answer it?”

  “Oh, yeah. I was lost in my own little world. I didn’t even hear it.”

  “It’s a text from Monica Carothers. She wants me to meet her at Brew’s for coffee,” Yvette repeated the text to Nate.

  “I can drop you off back at home, so you can get your car and go meet her if you want?” Nate offered.

  Yvette considered the idea for a moment but decided against it. There was even less of a reason for Monica to want to meet her for coffee than there was for Mark and Tom to be meeting. If Yvette was going to see Monica, Nate was coming along.

  “Nope. You’re in this with me now. You can’t escape that easily. Let’s go to Brew’s and see what she wants. We can look for Mark on the way and if we can’t get in touch with him before then, we can look for him after too.” Yvette shut the truck door and looked at Nate.

  “Okay. Let’s do it.” Nate grinned, not hiding the fact that he was enjoying every moment of this.

  * * *

  Nate walked in the front doors of Brew’s coffeehouse behind Yvette, whispering, “Are you sure you want me here? I can stay in the truck or go to a different table?”

  “Hush. Let’s go.” Yvette pulled him by the arm the rest of the way inside the building.

  They spotted Monica sitting alone with her back to the door and they sauntered over to where she sat.

  “Monica? Hi,” Yvette said tapping the woman on the shoulder.

  “I’m so glad you came! I was hoping we could…” Monica stopped when she realized Yvette wasn’t alone.

  “Monica, this is Nate Briggs, Heath’s son. Nate, this is Monica, the new chair of the Downtown Association.”

  “Good to meet you. Let’s talk some other time, though. I didn’t realize you already had plans,” Monica said.

  A look of shock and fear flashed over Monica’s face. It took Yvette a moment to realize that the mention of Heath and the Association was most likely what had scared her off. She wanted to hear what Monica had to say, so she suggested Nate go sit at a different table for a few minutes.

  “You didn’t have to send him away, you know. I didn’t mean you had to rush here when I texted you.”

  “No rush. We were in the area and I thought maybe you wanted to tell me the ice cream floats at the Trolley Tour were going to happen,” Yvette said, exaggerating the truth.

  “Not quite, but it is related to something we discussed the other day. I wanted to explain something to you and I didn’t think I c
ould wait much longer,” Monica admitted.

  “What’s wrong?” Yvette asked, trying to think back to everything they’d talked about.

  “I feel so terrible about this, it’s hard to even say out loud.” Monica rocked back and forth in her seat. “After I left our meeting, I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said about Janet. I wracked my brain for days trying to think back to all the times I told her an idea I had and what her response was each time. Eventually, I started to wonder if she was even telling Amelia the ideas were mine. I definitely wouldn’t put it past her to lie and try to take credit for them.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You had no reason to think that Janet was lying to you or to Amelia,” Yvette told her.

  “Yes, but that’s not the worst part. I truly believed that Janet was being honest, and that Amelia hated my ideas, so I’ve been doing some things that…” Monica hesitated.

  “Doing things?” Yvette asked.

  Monica’s leg was shaking so hard it was making the table move. “Yes. I can’t believe I acted so foolishly. I’ve been doing things that would mess with her and make her lose focus. I wanted her to be distracted and mess things up with her job. As far as I was concerned, she didn’t deserve to hold the position she did if she was denying ideas that were good for the town. She was being unfair, and I wanted to cause her trouble. Make her life difficult, ya know?”

  “Monica…”

  “I know. It’s all I’ve been thinking about since we talked last. I wasn’t trying to hurt her. Like I said, I just wanted to distract her, so she’d mess up and people would see it publicly. That way she would know how it felt to have people think she wasn’t capable. I couldn’t live with myself, and I had to tell someone before I went crazy. I’m too afraid to tell Amelia and I figured you were the next best thing.”

  Yvette knew that prank calls and stealing petty things weren’t remotely the same as murder, but if Monica got upset enough with Amelia about something so trivial, maybe she had a reason to kill Janet that she wasn’t admitting. Yvette was feeling flustered and wasn’t sure she could hide the fact that she was considering Monica as a potential suspect. So, she finished their conversation quickly, suggesting that Monica tell Amelia the truth before Yvette did, and told her she had to get back to Nate.

  * * *

  “You think she’s playing a game? Making it seem like she feels bad about messing with Amelia, so people won’t assume she killed anyone? It’s kind of a good cover, really. Pretend you feel bad about doing something small, so no one thinks you’re capable of murder,” Nate observed once they’d gotten back to his truck.

  “I’m not sure what to think. All I know is that my mom didn’t do it and I’m fairly certain Eddie didn’t either. Originally, I expected them to be all over Amelia, but no one has even said two words to her about it.”

  “As far as you know,” Nate replied.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t think she’d have told me if she was a murder suspect? I know you’ve been gone a while, but Amelia and I tell each other everything.”

  “Sorry. I’m getting ahead of myself. Truthfully though, she was at the Town Hall all day long and someone was most likely by her side the entire time. They probably know it wasn’t her just because of that. Oh, have you heard from Mark at all?” Nate asked. “I called and texted him and told him to call one of us the minute he got the message.”

  “Wait! Stop!” Yvette yelled, pointing across the street to Amelia’s office building.

  “That’s Mark’s truck, isn’t it? I’m turning back around now,” Nate said, taking a left turn.

  “I don’t see Tom’s truck here so that’s good news. Imagine if they were all inside together?” Yvette tapped her fingers on the window restlessly.

  Nate pulled his truck up right behind Mark’s and both he and Yvette hopped out of the vehicle, dashing to the front door of the Visitor’s center.

  “What on earth are you two doing?” Amelia asked when she’d opened her office door after hearing a loud knock.

  Quickly scanning the room, Yvette saw that Mark and Amelia were alone in the office. “Is everything okay in here?” she asked.

  Yvette explained what Armand had told them and how worried they were that Mark would do something unnecessary.

  “I’m not dumb. I’m not gonna go beat someone up just because they were acting like a creep,” Mark stated, dumbfounded.

  “What did he do?” Nate asked.

  “He’s been stalking around, giving Amelia a hard time. Didn’t you tell anyone about this?” Mark looked at Amelia.

  “Yvette knew, but we just found out that it was Tom prank calling me and stealing my stuff,” Amelia explained.

  “How sure are you of this?” Yvette asked.

  “Yeah, Mark. Tell them how sure you are,” Amelia said, trying not to smile.

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on Amelia lately. Ever since I heard about what she’d been dealing with, I wanted to make sure she was safe. It’s not a secret that I wasn’t a fan of her dating what’s his name, but when I saw him at almost every spot she was, it started getting weird. I remembered Amelia telling me her desk calendar was missing, and it made sense after that. Tom stole it, so he could see where she’d be and when. Then he followed her around. Like I said, the guy is a creep,” Mark repeated.

  “I don’t doubt that but… I’m afraid I have some information that may change your minds.” Yvette looked around the room.

  “Go on…” Amelia said.

  “I met with Monica just a little while ago and she admitted that she was the one doing everything to you.” Yvette explained the rest of the conversation she’d had with Monica and then went silent. Again, looking around the room for reactions.

  Receiving a bunch of blank stares, Yvette continued, “none of this explains why Tom was everywhere Amelia was though. And to lighten the mood a little, why Mark has been following her.”

  Amelia blushed. “He was trying to keep me safe.”

  “Did you ever end up seeing Tom?” Nate asked.

  “No. I stopped at his house but got no answer. I came here instead,” Mark said, smiling at Amelia.

  “That’s enough you two,” Nate chuckled. “This mystery has been solved, but don’t forget there was an actual murder that happened here not too long ago. My mother is an anxious mess over it.”

  “Mine too,” Yvette agreed. “Oh, and Amelia, you said you felt like someone had been watching you. I think you just found your guy,” she giggled, looking at Mark. “Anyways, I’m glad you both are safe. Right now, Nate and I have work to do.”

  Amelia gave her friend a knowing look and waved them away.

  12

  You missed quite the show here yesterday,” Vanessa told her boss.

  “Hang on, I just have to finish up the Inside Scoop Newsletter but I want to hear all about it,” Yvette said, not looking up from her laptop.

  She’d received an email earlier that morning from Amelia and The Downtown Neighborhood Association agreeing to her idea for the refreshments at the Fall Foliage Trolley Tour. Yvette had been working on the Inside Scoop for the last couple of hours, adding in the menu for the tour, photos of a customer that had completed The Groundskeeper Ice Cream Eating Challenge, some upcoming flavors that the shop would be offering, and she was just about done. Putting the finishing touches on the newsletter, she then sent it wirelessly to her printer and got up from her desk, realizing that Vanessa had probably been long gone.

  “Alright, what happened?” she asked when she found Vanessa putting away the delivery order in the stockroom.

  “There was a Neighborhood Association meeting here yesterday, and it got ugly.”

  “What do you mean?” Yvette asked.

  “They got in a huge fight. Like, all of them were arguing with each other. The only person that sat quietly and tried to stop it was your mom. Joey even had to ask a few of them to leave.”

  “What?! Why didn’t anyone call me?”
Yvette asked, wondering why her mother hadn’t told her about it either.

  “We handled it and it was your day off.” Vanessa shrugged before putting a large box of to-go cups on the shelf.

  “That’s kind of a big deal. If something like that ever happens again, please call me,” Yvette told her employee.

  “I’m sorry. We will,” Vanessa agreed.

  “Do you know what they were fighting about or why my mom was here?” Yvette asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

  “I thought you’d never ask! I’ve been dying to tell you this.” Vanessa gushed. “It looked as though both the Downtown and the Cottage and Pine Associations were here at the same time which is rare. Monica was directing it from what I could tell but even Della was here.”

  “Della isn’t even a member of either one of the branches,” Yvette pointed out.

  “That’s how the argument started. Monica was at the head of the table explaining something and asked your mom a question. When she started to respond, Della went crazy. She didn’t understand why your mom had any business getting involved.”

  “But both the branches were meeting together. That’s not common but if they were both here, it would make sense for my mom to be included since she’s the chair of that branch.”

  “You and I know that, but Della wasn’t having it. She was really mad and wouldn’t let up. She kept going on and on about how unfair Janet had been to her but in the end, it was all of the women that were out to get her. She screamed at the top of her lungs that no one wanted her as part of the team and she was sick of it. That’s when I asked Joey to go over there. I could hear your mom trying to reason with Della. Telling her that she could join and be part of whichever branch she lived closest to, and maybe even both if they ended up merging. That’s when Monica lost her mind and started yelling. Joey asked Monica and Della to leave and your mother was mortified that all of this happened in your shop. I think she’s embarrassed to tell you about it.”