Ashley Crane Cozy Mystery Collection

by Laurie Anne Marie

  “Hey Ash!” Sean said. “What’s up girl?”

  His smile was as wide as could be. That, combined with all the delicious smells, made her feel better instantly.

  “Hi Sean, wow am I glad to see you. I need a pastry, right now. I’ve had a very weird day. What do you recommend?”

  “How about my apple crumble? It’s perfect with a cup of coffee—and ice cream too.”

  Ashley sighed. She resigned herself to the calories. Might as well enjoy them while she could.

  She shrugged. “I give in. That sounds delicious. Who cares about a few extra pounds anyway?”

  “Ash, I don’t know what mirror you’re looking in, but from my view, you look fantastic.”

  Sean gazed at her with puppy dog eyes. Sweet ‘ole Sean. He always made her feel good about herself. She reflected on what a good husband he’d make.

  He leaned in closer and beckoned to her to do the same.

  “See that dark haired woman at that table over there? That’s Darren’s wife, Julia Short. You wanted me to let you know the next time she came in.”

  “Thanks. Yeah, I thought that was her. I’ve only seen her from a distance a few times at the restaurant when she would come in and argue with Darren. Other than the fact that she and her husband seemed to be at each other’s throats, I don’t know much about her. Has she said anything weird since the murder?”

  Ashley peered into the case as she was talking to him so as not to call attention to their conversation.

  “Not to me. But she’s been sitting there all morning on her laptop, and a few people have gone over to talk to her. Couldn’t hear what they were saying, though. Sit awhile and eat your crumble and see if you can notice anything.”

  ***

  Ashley sat down and took a bite of the buttery crumble. The taste exploded in her mouth. Tart apple and sweet caramel flavors hit her taste buds. She took a sip of the dark roast coffee and a spoon of the rich vanilla ice cream. Heaven. Ashley sighed. Boy, this man sure knew how to bake.

  She turned her attention to Darren’s wife. The woman kept typing furiously and glancing around nervously. What was she doing? Julia looked up abruptly and caught Ashley staring at her.

  Julia shot Ashley a dirty look.

  “Excuse me? Can I help you?”

  “Uh, no…” Ashley stammered. “I was just looking around the room while munching on this heavenly apple crumble. Have you tried it?”

  “I don’t eat sweets,” Julia snapped. “Sugar is bad for you.”

  “Uh, yeah, I know. But it sure tastes good.”

  Ashley gave Julia a weak smile. What was this woman doing in a bakery if she didn’t eat sweets? Sean said she was a regular, ordering all kinds of baked goods.

  Ashley pressed on. “Still, it must be tempting with all these smells in here.”

  Ashley didn’t know what else to say so she decided to stick with the bakery angle to see if Julia would talk more.

  “I come for the coffee. It’s the best in town. I only order pastries here for my events. I can’t afford to get fat,” Julia replied.

  Ouch. She had hit a nerve. Here Ashley was talking to a reed-thin woman while she shoveled in spoonfuls of apple crumble. Oh well. Julia didn’t look so happy. Nor was she very polite. Maybe a good pastry would make her a lot more pleasant. Ashley wasn’t about to suggest it though and get her head bitten off.

  “Not to mention there’s the free WIFI too, “Ashley continued on.

  Julia stopped mid-type and glared at her. “Yes, there is. Everyone uses it.”

  Ashley smiled at her. “Not me, I only come in here to eat.”

  “Look, I’m not in the mood to chat. If you don’t mind, I’ll get back to my work.”

  Julia then turned her head and continued her frenetic typing on her laptop.

  Wow. What a piece of work. Ashley thought she was one of the rudest people she had met in a while. Of course Julia Short had just lost her husband recently and had been no doubt questioned by the police, but still, you’d think in that case, she’d try to be as nice as possible to everyone.

  Sean was right. Ashley could see why the woman had a reputation for being unlikeable. Still, Ashley felt a little sorry for her remembering her arguments with Darren over his cheating. Or should she?

  Just then, Julia’s phone rang. She answered and dropped her voice to a mumble, but Ashley could make out some of the conversation.

  “I told you no. How many times do I have to say it?” Julia asked.

  Then, more mumbling. Julia put her head down and faced the wall to try to mask her words.

  “I can’t get any peace at home with everyone coming around. I need to finish this soon. I’ll see you later,” Julia continued, into the phone.

  Ashley heard more mumbling that she couldn’t make out.

  Julia then yelled “No!”

  After that, Julia looked up nervously, then turned her phone off. She gathered up her things and left the bakery quickly.

  Sean approached Ashley looking confused. “What was that all about?”

  “I don’t know. First she insulted me for eating sweets, then snapped my head off when I tried to start a conversation, and finally got into an argument on the phone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear most of what she was saying. I just heard her say ‘no’ a few times. Then out she ran. Weird,” Ashley said.

  Sean looked shocked and annoyed at the same time. “She insulted my sweets?”

  Ashley laughed at the look on Sean’s face. “No silly, she insulted me for eating sweets. Told me sugar was bad to eat.”

  “She could do with a good pastry now and then. She’d probably be a more pleasant person. Didn’t I tell you she was difficult? I know we should feel sorry for her because her husband was just murdered, but as I said, she’s always been like that.”

  “Yeah you did, and you were right. But it seems a woman like that can’t be bribed to get rid of her svelte figure,” Ashley said.

  “Svelte? That’s putting it nicely. She’s skin and bones!”

  “Who were the people who came and talked to her today? Anybody you recognize?” Ashley asked.

  “Just looked like some of the regular town folk. Probably consoling her about her husband.”

  “Probably. I wish we hadn’t gotten off to a bad start. I wanted to ask her a few more questions.”

  Just then, a tall, skinny man walked into the bakery. He had a hood pulled over most of his face. He stood at the counter buying something.

  “Wait a minute Ash. That guy at the counter seems like one of the men who came in today and had a talk with her. I’ve never seen him around here before,” Sean pointed out.

  “How can you tell who he is at all? I can’t get a good look at him with that hood on,” Ashley admitted.

  Ashley turned all the way around and stared at the tall man’s back. Who was he, and why was he hiding his face?

  Before Ashley had a chance to walk up to the counter, the man paid for his pastries and left. His head was down with the hood pulled low, so it was hard to get a good look at him as he hurried out.

  Sean went up to the register to see if the guy had paid with a credit card, but of course he hadn’t. The server said the man had bad breath too.

  Ashley thought for a moment. That might be the guy who called her! And broke into her place! Mrs. Norris said he was tall and skinny. Maybe he had followed her here. She felt a funny feeling in her gut. She told Sean goodbye and quickly went out to try and get a look at him. Before she had walked a few steps, a dark hooded figure stepped out to her back on the left side.

  “I told you not to talk,” he growled. “That was stupid on your part.”

  His breath was foul.

  He then took off and ran back behind the bakery. Ashley knew there was no way of keeping up with him. Not to mention it could be seriously dangerous.

  She whirled around trying to look for him, but the man was gone. Without watching him get into a car, there was no license plate to ID. Ashley
couldn’t believe it. At least now she had a vague physical description of him.

  Ashley immediately picked up her phone to call Detective Thompson. Just then, the dark figure came out of nowhere on a motorcycle and was racing full speed at her. He had a black helmet on. She couldn’t see his face at all. Ashley barely was able to jump out of the way as he sped on by. It happened so fast; she wasn’t able to get any physical description of the motorbike.

  As Ashley laid on the ground shaking, Sean came running out of the bakery.

  “Are you okay?” he shouted.

  She gasped. “I think so.”

  Ashley examined herself for scratches or cuts from landing hard on the pavement, but all seemed to be okay.

  “I was talking to a customer by the front window and saw him roar on his bike towards you. Thank God you’re okay. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”

  Sean seemed to be shaking as hard as she was as he bent over to help her up. She put her arms around his neck to steady herself for a minute and for some comfort.

  “Ash, this is getting serious. That guy could’ve really hurt you, or even killed you. You have to stop getting involved in this and leave it to the police.”

  “I think it’s too late for that now Sean. I will go see the detective right away though and let him know what happened.”

  Sean held onto her for a moment longer.

  “Do you promise?”

  “I promise,” Ashley said.

  After Ashley had dusted herself off, Sean walked with her to her car, and she thanked him and immediately drove off to see Detective Thompson. But first, she pulled over to call her parents.

  ***

  “Hello?” Burt Crane answered.

  “Dad, is everything ok over there?”

  “Yes honey. I’m taking off to work soon, and your mom is with her decoupage group, but we’re doing fine. Why?”

  “Well, be careful. Seems the guy who’s been threatening me on the phone just tried to run me down with his motorcycle. I hate to tell you this, but please be cautious and tell mom to be careful too. Keep everything locked up tight. I’m going to see the detective and let him know.”

  Ashley grimaced at having to tell her father that the situation had escalated.

  There was a silence on the end of the phone. Ashley was getting more nervous by the second now.

  “Dad?” Did you hear me? Dad?”

  “Yeah honey,” Burt said, quietly.

  He was nervous himself too, mostly for his daughter’s sake, but decided he would keep his cool while on the phone at the moment. There would be plenty of time to go over all of this at home.

  “But promise me that you’re coming right back home after you see the detective.”

  “I am dad. I’ve had enough already for one day,” Ashley replied.

  “See you at dinner.” Her father gulped, then hung up the phone.

  Ashley frowned. She wanted to know who this tall, skinny guy was that tried to run her down. And why was he after her in the first place? There was no time to waste however. He was still out there, and she had promised to tell the detective the second something else happened. As she drove to see Detective Thompson, she felt more charged up than ever. This was a game changer. She was furious that someone had tried to hurt her and worried sick about her family. She wasn’t going to step back down because of the threats. She was going to work at solving this case even harder now.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Detective Thompson looked as handsome as he did when she last saw him. Which was not so long ago, she reminded herself. He was staring intently at her with those blue eyes as she relayed the events of the skinny, hooded ‘motorcycle man’ to him. When Ashley finished, she tried to stare back, but blushed, and quickly looked down.

  “That’s all,” Ashley stammered.

  “This is more serious than I thought,” Thompson said. “I’m going to put a car on you and your family for a while. We can’t take any chances. This guy could come back and do some grievous harm to all of you. If he sees a patrol car around you, he will be less likely to try something.”

  Ashley began to say that it might not be necessary. People in the town would wonder what was going on and start to gossip. After all, in a small town like this, nothing went unnoticed.

  Thompson glanced at her as if he read her mind.

  “No arguments. This is what we’re going to do, at least until things settle down, or we get closer to making absolutely sure who the killer really is. Anything else?”

  “So, you don’t think that Jimmy Potenski is the killer then? Maybe this mysterious guy is?

  “I don’t know. We have hard evidence on Potenski, but maybe he had help from this guy.”

  “What evidence?” Ashley blurted out.

  The detective raised an eyebrow at her; then she saw the corner of his mouth curl up.

  “I’m afraid I can’t divulge that. And thank you for all your help, but I need to remind you that we are the police here. And we are doing our jobs.”

  Detective Thompson then coughed and stared at her.

  “Of course. I was just curious. You know what they say about curiosity,” Ashley said.

  “What do they say?”

  Ashley felt her face flushing again. “About what?”

  “Miss Crane, you just said ‘you know what they say about curiosity.’ What do you mean?”

  Ashley laughed nervously. “Oh! That ‘curiosity killed the cat.’ You know that saying, right?”

  “I don’t see any cats here. I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

  He looked completely baffled.

  “Oh! I meant I have a cat at home, and he’s curious, and sometimes he gets into trouble because of that, and maybe this guy out there trying to run me down is curious too and maybe that will trip him up.”

  That certainly came out all garbled up.

  Thompson cleared his throat. “Thank you Ms. Crane. I’ll try to remember that. Do you have any more questions? Or quotes?”

  “No, thank you very much,” Ashley muttered.

  She caught him staring at her intently again and immediately felt her face getting warm. He must’ve thought her last line on cats was crazy beyond belief. On the other hand, he didn’t seem so quick on the uptake when it came to wit. But that didn’t matter at the moment. He was lethally attractive. That tall, strong, type who was handsome beyond belief. Every woman’s dream at some point in their lives.

  She was rattled again. She had just blown her chance to sound even remotely coherent. She gave him a weak smile and then he winked at her. What? Again? Does he always wink at every woman? As she left, she thought she heard him laughing quietly to himself.

  Ashley walked to her car and went over how silly she felt in every way. There were things bigger than her ridiculous attraction to this detective. But she was lonely and vulnerable. And her ex-boyfriend Ray had really hurt her. She was human after all and between the breakup, being humiliated by having to work with that server Meagan that Ray had left her for, the murder of her boss, and her family’s lives now possibly being in danger, she thought she was going to crack.

  “I’m starting work again soon,” Ashley thought. “I have to get a hold of myself.”

  As she drove home, she adjusted her dashboard mirror as she nervously thought that ‘motorcycle man’ might come after her. She momentarily panicked. Then she saw a cop car in her rearview mirror. The car flashed its lights at her once. She immediately felt relieved.

  “Must be the car Detective Thompson sent for us,” Ashley thought.

  Sure enough, the car followed her at a steady distance all the way home. She parked in the driveway as she watched the car stop across the street in front of her house. She got out and decided not to call attention to it. Instead, she glanced at the policeman and gave him a brief smile. He nodded his head at her. Ashley then headed in the front door with a sigh of relief.

  The delicious smells coming from the kitchen knocked he
r out.

  “Mom?’ Ashley called, as she walked around the house. “Mom!”

  April popped her head out from the bedroom door. “Be right there.”

  April then came flying down the hallway holding the new kitten with Charlie trotting behind her.

  “Hi honey,” April beamed. “Hungry?”

  “Starved,” Ashley said.

  “Here, take Suzie Q,” April said, as she handed the kitten off to Ashley.

  Ashley petted Suzie Q as her mom rustled around in the kitchen. Charlie gave Ashley a look as if to say ‘who is number one here?’ as Ashley bent down to pet him. She instantly felt better in this domestic scene after nearly being run down today.

  “Did dad fill you in on what happened today?” Ashley nervously asked her mom.

  “Let’s wait until dinner to talk about it honey. I’d like to have your father here.”

  “Well, just to let you know, we have our own personal cop keeping an eye on us now. He’s been appointed by the detective and is sitting outside the house in his patrol car.”

  “Oh my goodness! I should go out there and invite him in for dinner,” April gushed.

  Her mom peered out the window at the policeman.

  “Mom, no. Not a good idea. He’s got a job to do, and we need to let him do it.”

  Just then Burt rushed through the front door. “We got a cop outside. Everyone ok?”

  He had a worried look on his face.

  “Dad, it's fine. The detective appointed him to watch over us after what happened this morning.”

  “Yes dear, imagine that. Our very own cop.” Ashley’s mom actually seemed excited instead of nervous.

  “I wanted to invite him to dinner, but Ashley said no because it would distract him from his job.”

  “No fooling,” Burt said. “Besides, that will leave more for me. What’s for dinner? I’m famished.”