Getting out of the car, I power walked to Mr. Landry. “Good morning, Mr. Landry, how are you?” I asked, shaking his hand and then I remembered that his hands had probably been on a dead body only moments before our handshake.
Giving him a tight smile, I wiped my hand on my skirt. “Good, and yourself?” he asked, looking down his glasses at me.
“I can’t complain,” I said before Daniel walked up to where we were standing and threw his arm around my shoulders.
I had spoken way too soon. “Actually, now I can complain, Mr. Landry,” I told him, trying to shake Daniel’s arm off of my shoulders.
“Let’s go inside, shall we?” Mr. Landry asked, holding the door open.
Walking inside, a very disturbing smell invaded my nose. “That’s the smell of death, Suzie Q. I wonder if they make it in an air freshener?” he asked, noticing my scrunched up nose.
“They make it in men’s cologne.”
Daniel gave me a skeptical look. “Really?” he asked.
“Yep, you wear it all the time, silly,” I told him. Mean Malady was back in force.
I could have made fun of him all day, but we had more important things to focus on like what Mr. Landry had found. Mr. Landry led us into a room that had a desk and a bunch of file cabinets. Rummaging through one of the desk drawers, he retrieved a plastic bag that had some sort of card inside of it.
“Have a look at this,” he said, handing me the plastic bag. Looking closely I noticed the card was a business card for a local cupcake shop. “I don’t get why this is important, Mr. Landry. All this tells me is that Bobby stopped by Cherry on Top for amazing cupcakes before he was murdered,” I told him, scratching my head in confusion.
“Turn it around,” Mr. Landry said, looking a little aggravated that I doubted him.
Flipping the bag over, I saw that someone had written ‘Call me’ in pink ink across the back of the card. That piece of evidence showed us that we were wrong, Bobby did have a connection in Cat’s Cradle. One that his sister didn’t know about.
“Who owns the cupcake shop?” Daniel asked, taking the bag from my hand, “And more importantly why didn’t you tell me that there is a cupcake shop in town?”
“Because I don’t like you and that means you don’t deserve to eat one of Pearl’s delicious cupcakes,” I told him, cracking a slight smile, “Can we focus on the dead guy? If we solve Bobby’ murder, I’ll buy you a cupcake.”
That shut him up. “I don’t know how much it will help, but I knew that you needed to see it,” Mr. Landry said, pulling a pair of latex gloves on his hand.
Just knowing that he was about to play operation with dead bodies gave me the creeps. “We should get going,” I told Daniel practically pushing him out of the door.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“To the cupcake shop.”
“But we haven’t solved the murder yet,” he said.
I could only roll my eyes at that.
6
The Cherry on Top was the most heavenly smell on Main Street. Every time I took a whiff of the delectable sweets I felt like I had automatically gained five pounds. I never understood how Pearl owned a bakery and remained so skinny. It was like a superpower.
“Are you buying me a cupcake, Suzie Q?” Daniel asked with his stupid smirk in place.
“I’m trying to solve a murder, so if you’re not going to help me, please go wait in the car,” I told him, leaning up on my tip toes and patting his head like a child.
He pouted before holding the door open for me. “Thank you,” I told him, walking into the overly pink and white bakery.
“Now, this is pink. It looked like the walls were painted with Pepto-Bismol,” he said, cringing.
If he thought that was too much pink, I couldn’t wait until he saw Pearl. She was always rocking hot pink lipstick, nails, and clothing. She thought she was Barbie. She even dyed her hair pink when were in high school, but had to change it back to her natural blonde locks when her mom saw it.
“Hey, y’all! Welcome to Cherry on Top, your hometown cupcake shop!” Pearl exclaimed, smiling at a horrified Daniel.
“Even her aura is pink,” he whispered, causing me to break out in a giggle fit.
I should’ve known better, but I didn’t because the next thing I knew Daniel was covered in pink buttercream frosting from the large industrial mixer that had spiraled out of control. Sometimes my curse was a blessing in disguise.
Running my finger through the frosting on his shoulder, I tasted it. “Cotton candy, my favorite,” I told Daniel, smiling at him.
“I’m not a fan of cotton candy,” he said, proving that he was going to forever remain unlikable in my book.
“Everyone is a fan of cotton candy.”
Laughing at his expression, I slipped on some of the frosting that covered the floor and ended up wearing some of the buttercream myself.
Pearl tossed Daniel and me two wash rags to clean the frosting off of ourselves best we could and of course they were pink.
“You got a little frosting, well, everywhere,” Pearl said, holding back her laughter.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Daniel said dryly as he did his best to wipe away the buttercream.
Shaking my head, I wiped my black pencil skirt only doing more harm than good. The pink frosting was smeared all over my outfit.
“How can I help you? Malady, you here for your usual?” Pearl asked, gesturing to the salted caramel cupcake in the large glass case.
My stomach growled causing Daniel to look over at me. “What are you looking at, Cupcake? No, Pearl, not today I think I consider all of this frosting my sweet treat for today. I needed to talk to you about something,” I told her, sitting my briefcase on the counter and pulling out the plastic bag with her business card inside.
“Are you aware that there was a murder at the Under the Stars Charity Ball?” I asked, sliding the bag across the counter to her.
I knew she was because in Cat’s Cradle everyone knew everything. The town was too small for anyone to have privacy.
“Yes, I’m aware. I was there, I catered the cupcake station,” she said, looking down at the card.
She never made eye contact with me, and that made me suspicious.
“Did you know Bobby Matthews?” Daniel asked.
The feeling in the room changed. “I did,” she said somberly, “We met when I went to a baker’s convention in Atlanta a year ago. There was a small café in front of where the convention was being held, so I went to grab a quick cup of coffee. I was in a rush to get back to the convention when I ran into Bobby and spilled my iced coffee all over his shoes. I was mortified, but he assured me his shoes would be fine. We got to talking, and before I knew it I had missed the entire convention,” she said as her eyes glossed over with tears as she recalled every detail of the memory. My heart ached as I looked at her.
“Did he come to Cat’s Cradle to see you, Pearl?” I asked, flipping the card over to show her the handwritten note on the back.
She ran her eyes over the scribbled pink writing. “Yes,” she said barely above a whisper.
“You know he was married, right?” Daniel asked, narrowing his eyes at Pearl.
“They were getting a divorce. He was leaving her for me. Bobby told me that neither of them had been happy in a long time,” she said, wiping at the tears streaming down her face.
“Did you have any interaction with Bobby that night?” Daniel asked, doing his best to look serious despite all the pink frosting he was wearing.
“We went for a walk through the garden, and he told me that his wife, Oliva, was angry. But then I had to get back to the cupcake station, and ten minutes later Helen ran on the dance floor. I couldn’t believe that Bobby was dead, I still can’t grasp it. I was with him only moments before he died,” she said as her bottom lip quivered.
“His sister didn’t seem to know about his divorce when I spoke with her. She was still calling Oliva his wife and said she coul
dn’t make it because she had to work,” I told her, watching Pearl to see if she was lying to me.
“No one knew. He wanted everything to be finalized before he told his family,” she said, picking at the pink place mat on the even pinker counter.
Just like that, we had a suspect and a motive. I had never had a more productive visit to Cherry on Top. We said our goodbyes and made our way to the car.
“Take me home, so I can pack a bag,” I told him, putting on my seatbelt.
“Where are you planning on going?” Daniel asked, looking in his rearview mirror at his frosting covered hair.
“We are going to your old stomping grounds. We’re going to Atlanta to talk to our newest suspect,” I told him as we pulled out of the parking lot.
I cranked up the music to stop him from talking to me as we drove to my house. I needed to clear my mind and think of what questions I was going to ask Bobby’ wife. Daniel turned the music down and started rambling on about his glory days in high school.
I made a mental note to myself to buy ear plugs for our road trip. I was going to need them.
7
We were thirty-six miles out of Atlanta, and I was counting down the minutes until I could get out of that car. Daniel Price was even more irritating on a road trip because I was trapped in the car with him. The only out was to jump, and I wasn’t that daring.
“Do you like hair metal?” He asked, looking over at me.
Okay. Maybe I was that daring.
“Maybe we should just talk,” I suggested, running a hand through my hair.
“Good idea,” he answered. “Atlanta is such an exciting town. You won’t want to leave, Suzie Q,” His fingers drummed against his black leather steering wheel in an annoying rhythm.
“If you love it so much, why don’t you move back?” I asked, rolling down the window and letting the night air touch my fingertips.
I didn’t have to turn my head to see that he was looking at me. I could feel it. “Atlanta is exciting, but Cat’s Cradle is magical.”
“Magical?” I asked, looking out the window. “That’s a curious definition.”
In truth, the lawyer had no idea how spot on he really was.
“Besides, it might sound silly, but it feels like something pulled me to Cat’s Cradle. I want to explore that,” he said, the tone of his voice taking me completely by surprise.
“It doesn’t,” I answered, thinking about-not only the dream Daniel was featured in- but every moment we’d spent together since he arrived. “It doesn’t sound strange, I mean.” I swallowed hard. “Though I have to admit, you never struck me as the type of person who believed in fate.”
“What kind of person do I strike you as, Suzie Q?” He asked, still strumming on the steering wheel.
“The annoying kind,” I said, though that wasn’t necessarily true. At least, not entirely. In truth, I wasn’t sure what I thought about Daniel Price. He pushed all my buttons, but there were times when he could take me completely by surprise and make me rethink everything I thought I knew about him.
Our relationship wasn’t like that though. Our relationship required me to tell him he was annoying and him to retort with something like-
“Some girls think annoying is cute.”
Yeah. Like that.
“Is that what your mother told you?” I asked, looking over at him with coyness in my eyes.
“She did,” he admitted. “She also told me I was special and that, one day, the whole world would see it.”
“Well then it must be true,” I chuckled.
I knew we had reached out destination when I could no longer see the stars as clearly as I could in Cat’s Cradle and the trafficking was moving at the same speed as a turtle crossing the street. I hated Atlanta already.
“I can already say with one hundred percent confidence I don’t find this exciting and I can’t wait to leave.”
“You are always in such a sour mood,” he said, bring the car to a complete stop and turning it off in the middle of the road.
“Sour? Aw, man, I was going for charming. Why did you turn the car off?”
“Because it’s Atlanta traffic, Suzie Q, we are going to be here for a while.”
I pretended to listen as Daniel talked about all the hot spots in Atlanta. He was so wrapped up in his stories he didn’t notice that I wasn’t listening.
My mind drifted to Mason. He showed up at my door as I was packing to leave for Atlanta. He wanted to go to the movies to catch some Sci-Fi flick that was playing. He looked disappointed when I told I couldn’t because I had plans, but he looked devastated when he saw that my plans included Daniel Price. The way he stared at me after that, like a puppy who had just been kicked, led me to believe that my sisters weren’t the only people who thought I was in some sort of ridiculous love triangle.
“Are you listening to me?” he asked, snapping his fingers in front of my eyes.
“No, I stopped paying attention to the things you say a long time ago,” I told him, looking out the window, “How long does this whole traffic situation take?”
Sure, in New York City I had seen my fair share of traffic jams, but I walked everywhere, so that meant I never took part in a traffic jam. And in Cat’s Cradle traffic wasn’t really a problem because there wasn’t there wasn’t enough people to cause a traffic jam.
“It varies. It will be two or three hours tops,” he said like it was nothing.
There was no way I could have stayed in a small closed space with Daniel Price. I mean I could barely stand him in an open space with other people around.
“Are you kidding?”
“Yep, it won’t take that long,” he said, reassuring me.
“Thank goodness,” I said, relaxing into the seat.
“It will probably only take an hour,” he said, shrugging out of his coat and tugging on his tie.
I had never seen Daniel in anything besides a suit. He was always so dressed up. “Great, wake me up when we’re on the move again,” I told him, turning over on my side and closing my eyes.
“Oh, no you don’t. We’re going to play twenty questions. I feel like I don’t know anything about you, and I know that you want to know everything about me,” he said, winking.
“Okay, I’ll go first. What planet are you from?” I asked, taking Daniel’s discarded coat and rolling it up like a pillow.
It smelled like that horrible cologne he insisted smelled like a sexy lumberjack, but it just made me want to gag. Reaching in my purse, I pulled out my perfume that Grandma Misty made me for my birthday and doused his coat with it.
“There, that’s better,” I said, laying my head back down.
Daniel gawked at me before shaking his head. “I’m from the same planet as you. Now, ask a better question than that,” he said, taking a sip of the bottle of water he had been sipping on for an hour.
“I don’t know what to ask,” I told him.
“And you call yourself a lawyer. I’ll go first, what’s your favorite color?” he asked.
“Wow, you really bring those hard-hitting questions,” I said, laughing, “My favorite color is yellow.”
“Why is yellow your favorite color?”
“Because to me it represents happiness and isn’t that what everyone wants?”
“I was just expecting you to say because it’s bright. I didn’t know you were going to get all deep on me, Suzie Q.”
I wanted to shave his eyebrows off every time he called me that horrible nickname. “What’s your favorite color? Wait, let me guess black like your soul. Am I right?” I asked, trying my hardest to get on his nerves the way he got on mine.
“No, my favorite color is orange.”
“Because it represents success and determination?” I asked, raising one of my eyebrows up at him.
“I was just going to say because it was bright,” he said, shrugging. I looked at him, and almost chuckled at the answer.
After playing one million questions, the traffic finally
started to move, and we made it to our hotel. It was the fanciest hotel I had ever seen. In Cat’s Cradle, we only had small bed and breakfasts and one or two tiny hotels. We didn’t really get a lot of visitors and apparently when we did they ended up murdered. That was really going to make our tourist rate drop.
“Welcome to the Ritz-Carlton. My name is Carolyn, how can I help you?” A redhead asked with a very tight smile.
She was having a bad day but didn’t want to risk showing it and lose her job. Everything about her screamed ‘I don’t want to be here, but I have no choice.’
“Thank you. Check in for Price,” he said, pulling his wallet from his dress pants pocket and fishing out a shiny black credit card.
She pulled the card from his hands looking very unimpressed. “I have you for a two bedroom penthouse suite, is that correct?” she asked, letting fake smile drop from her face and yawned.
“That’s correct,” he said, shaking his head as he took his credit card from her hands and placed it back in his brown leather wallet.
Daniel had another thing coming if he thought I was going to be impressed by his collection of credit cards and penthouse suite. All that could have impressed me at that particular moment was a bed and my fuzzy pajamas with the yellow butterflies all over them that Sadie gave me for Christmas before I left for New York.
Daniel and Carolyn were in the middle of a scowl off with each other, and it was intense. So intense that I had to pull Daniel to the elevator. He kept staring at her. “I don’t like her,” he said, keeping eye contact with Carolyn until the elevator doors closed.
“I don’t think she’s your biggest fan either,” I told him, swinging my small overnight back over my shoulder.
“Let me get that,” he said, gripping the strap of my bag.
“I can manage, thank you,” I said, holding on to my bag like he was trying to mug me.
“So weird,” he mumbled under his breath.
I had no time to bicker back and forth with Daniel, I needed to get some sleep because we had a murder mystery to solve.
Cursed on the Second Date: A Witchy Cozy Mystery (Cursed Coven Cozies Book 2) Page 5