1 Chocolate Worth Dying For

by Pat Amsden

  "It's going to be all right. Just give me a minute and I'll get you free." He held her frail, bony body is his arms, furious at whoever had done this as Maxine who'd followed him, dropped down beside him, horrified.

  She worked quickly to untie the piece of fabric that had been used to tie Bernice's arms together, then moved down to untie her legs. Tears mixed with anger at whoever had done this to Bernice. What if they hadn't come along when they did? Would anyone else have come along before it was too late?

  "We'll have you free in just a minute," Maxine said. She looked at the duct tape. "But it might hurt a little."

  "A little," Heath said in disbelief.

  She looked at him. "Have you got a way to remove it painlessly?"

  Bernice started tearing at it herself seemingly oblivious to the pain. Heath grabbed her arms.

  "Stop! You're hurting yourself. My brother once duct-taped me…to a pole in the back-yard. Don't ask. But my mother found something that worked to help remove it."

  "Really? What?" Maxine asked excitedly.

  He just glowered at her. "You have to promise not to tell anyone."

  She just looked at him. "Your secret is safe with me. Spill."

  "A hairdryer and Skin So Soft massaged in around the edges."

  "You're kidding."

  "Do I look as if I'm kidding?"

  "No," she said looking at him. "You look dead serious. OK, nod if you have any Skin So Soft Bernice." She shook her head vehemently. "It has to be Skin So Soft?"

  "I'm not sure he admitted. I know that's what Mom used for a reason but I don't know if something else would work too."

  "Maybe we should just call an ambulance."

  Bernice angrily shook her head, pointing towards the house.

  "Or maybe not. Your doors locked though. Do you have a spare key?" She looked at Bernice nodding her head. Under the door mat?" Bernice shook her head. Where else would she put it? Close so it wouldn't be too hard for her to get to if she needed it. She closed her eyes picturing Bernice's porch. "The planter," she said hesitantly and watched Bernice shake her head. She thought again. "The frog," she said triumphantly remembering a small decorative frog perched on a ledge close to the door and Bernice nodded her head, her eyes lighting up. She gave her a big hug. "We'll have you free in no time."

  She kneeled before Bernice. "Do you think you can make it to the house if we help?" Bernice nodded. Maxine gestured towards Heath to help her up. But even as they tried to get Bernice up it was clear the ordeal had taken a toll on her.

  Heath grabbed Bernice as she wobbled, picking her up in his arms as if she weighed nothing. "It's OK, I've got you."

  Maxine took a closer look at the frog on the porch noticing for the first time the frogs' mouth and opened it up finding the keys within triumphantly. She opened the door quickly and Heath strode in going straight through the kitchen and into the bedroom where he set Bernice gently down on the bed.

  Maxine found a hair dryer in the bathroom and searched the cupboards finding some baby oil. Would that work, she wondered. And did they have a choice? She gathered up some towels as well. If there was going to be baby oil all over the place she didn't want Bernice's blankets and pillows messed up.

  "Are you sure this will work?" she said anxiously as she joined them in the bedroom. "Maybe we should just call an ambulance."

  Bernice reached for the hair dryer.

  "Or we could see if this worked first," she said brightly. "There's a plug right there on the wall," she said plugging the hair dryer in as Bernice held it. "So do we just put baby oil all over," she said looking up at Heath as she opened up the bottle.

  "It's been awhile," he said. "But I think she put it on a cloth." He looked at the pack of cotton balls Maxine had brought in. "Those would probably work too."

  She soaked one with baby oil and applied it liberally over the duct tape and mouth area until Bernice started to shake her head. "Think that's enough?" she asked anxiously looking at Heath.

  He shrugged. "We can always try more if that doesn't work." He looked at Bernice. "Should we turn it on high." She held the hair dryer tighter, shielding it from both of them and looking at Heath angrily.

  "OK, maybe we should start with low?" Bernice relaxed visibly and Maxine fought an urge to laugh. Bernice was a tough old broad. It looked as if she'd be sticking around awhile longer.

  Heath turned the dryer on low and tried it on one side. While he held the hair dryer warming up the duct tape she massaged the edges with baby oil. Slowly, carefully, she started to get under the edges and pull up the duct tape. It was a slow process but it seemed to be working.

  She looked at Bernice carefully. "Are you OK? We can stop for a few minutes if you want?" Bernice shook her head angrily. "OK. But just let me know if you need a break."

  Bernice shook her head. Even without being able to hear her voice Maxine was pretty sure she was telling them to hurry up and get the dammed duct tape off! It took another thirty minutes before she managed to get the rest of the duct tape off.

  "That's it," she said pulling the last part off slowly. "You're free." She sat back watching as Bernice's eyes lit up and she spoke.

  "I thought I was going to die in there."

  "Do you know who did this?" Heath said with a growl.

  "It was that lady who was investing for me." Bernice said triumphantly. "Let me call the police." But eager as she was her voice was cracked and the words were an effort for her.

  "You stay where you are," Maxine said, worried. "I'll call Patrick while I make you some tea." She pulled out her cell phone and found Patrick's number. She could see Heath putting pillows around Bernice and doing everything he could to make her comfortable.

  "Patrick!" She couldn't stop the rush of relief when he answered. "I'm over at Bernice's. Someone tied her up in the shed and left her, left her." Suddenly she felt herself over-whelmed by emotion, by the realization of how close Bernice had come to being left locked up until… "to die, I think. Oh Patrick."

  "Maxine! Where are you? Have you called 911?" His voice was rough with emotion but as she looked up she let out a small gasp dropping the phone.

  "Carly!?"

  "Why couldn't you leave things alone," Carly said furiously.

  Maxine took a step back. This wasn't the Carly she knew. Gone was the smile and sunny disposition. The happy pills Wendy hinted at had clearly run out and she was working on full-out crazy. A smudge of dirt on her cheekbones didn't hide the fury in those blue eyes. Her beautiful blonde hair, always so carefully arranged was messy and dirty.

  "You just keep pushing and pushing." Her eyes went wild as she aimed a gun at Maxine. "Why couldn't you let it go? The police had a suspect!"

  Maxine's' heart was beating so loudly she was surprised Carly hadn't said anything about it. "How, why?," she said now backing away until there was nowhere to go. Her hand searched behind her trying to find something, anything…

  "I got tired of being the one without money. So creative and artistic," she said, her voice rising. "When Rick Dodd started paying attention to me I thought, why not?"

  "I mean Rae-Ann, Tracey, all the other wives, they didn't know how good they had it."

  "But, Bernice?"

  "You'd figured out too much already. Once you talked to Bernice I was done! I couldn't let that happen!" She waved the gun at Maxine.

  Maxine's mind was racing furiously. Bernice? But it was Devon… She looked up, the pieces coming together. "You were the one who Bernice invested with," she whispered.

  "You always were smart," Carly snarled.

  "And the project. Rick had found a way to take money from West Shore Developments hadn't he?" She knew she was right. "What? How much of West Shore Developments has he pre-sold without Ron's knowledge," she guessed suddenly.

  Marly just shrieked. "It wasn't supposed to be like this! He already had the tickets, we were going to go away!"

  "And then Ron found out!" Maxine said suddenly.

  "I'd liste
ned to David one day talking about how dangerous some of the medications he prescribed were and how people needed to be more careful. It was easy," she boasted. "I said I'd get something from Devon's' closet when I was over and I swiped some samples from David's' home office."

  "But, how did it get in my chocolates," Maxine said, horrified as she looked at this creatures she'd always seen as someone too nice to hurt anyone.

  "Simple," Carly said leaning forward now and smiling. "Everyone trusts me. They'll trust me now when I tell them I came in and found you fighting with a stranger." She shrugged, a mad smile on her face. "I tried to stop it, I really did but the gun went off and hit Maxine." She raised the gun.

  "At least tell me how you got it in my chocolates," Maxine said frantically. "You can tell me now."

  Carly stopped, considering. She gave a small smile. "I suppose I can afford to give away my secrets. I crushed the pills and made them into a paste mixed with water. Then I loaded up a needle with it. No one paid any attention to me. I saw a tray of truffles waiting to go out and I," she paused, smiling triumphantly, "borrowed one. After I put a hypodermic of drugs I found Ron and told him he had to try the truffle, it was special. I don't think he knew about me so he just thought I was acting like myself." She smiled triumphantly. "And what I told him was true. It really was a chocolate worth dying for!" She raised the gun.

  Maxine put a hand up. "Wait a minute. You still haven't told me why you had to," she paused for a moment feeling bile come up in her throat, "get rid of Bernice."

  "That old lady," Carly said disdainfully. "She'd have ID'd me and you'd have known it wasn't Devon. Besides how much longer does she have anyway?"

  Maxine had thought there was nothing more Carly could do to surprise her. But now as she thought of just what she'd done to Bernice a sense of disgust threatened to overwhelm her. "Why wouldn't you just kill her?"

  Carly shrugged. "There'd have been a bullet. With luck no one would find her until they started developing here. And with her out of the way it would only be a matter of time." She shrugged, "there'd be no evidence left."

  "How? Why?"

  "I wanted a better life," Carly said firmly. "I was tired of being the nice girl, the creative one."

  "But your shop?" Maxine said, stalling for time. She had to believe Heath would be doing something, Patrick would figure out where she was.

  "Was losing money hand over fist," she said cheerfully. "Rick bailed me out once. But it was only a matter of time." She raised the gun.

  Heath launched himself from the bedroom off to the side. He hit Carly full force slamming her into the ground as a bullet fired and Maxine dived for cover. The wail of police sirens filled the air as Heath sat up, rubbing his shoulder for the second time that day. Carly appeared to be out.

  The door burst open and she found herself looking into another gun, this one held by Patrick. "It's OK," she said. "Heath stopped her from, from," her voice started to wobble.

  He looked over at Carly. "Carly Halvert?"

  Maxine nodded. "With Rick Dodd. But she was the one, the one," Maxine broke down crying as Bernice joined them, looking slightly wobbly herself.

  "She tied me up and left me for dead. Sounds like she's been on a killing spree." She looked at Heath, nodding towards him. "It's lucky Heath came looking for me. Otherwise I'd probably be tied up in my shed. And who knows who she'd have come after next." She looked at Marly in disgust. "I thought I'd seen just about everything in my life but that one… that one's a special brand of evil."

  An ambulance was called to get them checked out and once again she found herself giving a statement to Patrick. "You see," she said. "I knew Heath couldn't do something like this!"

  Patrick smiled. "I'm glad about that. But next time let the police do the investigating OK?"

  "Of course," she said sweetly. "I just wanted to help."

  "Stick to catering," he advised her. "Leave the police work to me."

  Chapter Seventeen

  Marly was safely in jail, after bail had been denied her. With the string of killings she'd been judged far too dangerous to let loose on the community. Thankfully once the story had come out Maxine found herself the caterer for events both large and small.

  Rick Dodd had been caught at the airport and was also languishing in jail. West Shore Developments had started up again with Tracey Vandemeer the new president.

  "It's not the same," she said now as she stopped by to discuss some last minute details. "I'll always miss Ron. But this is what he would've wanted."

  Bernice was wearing a new outfit and discussing something with Grandma Ellie. It might be better not to think about what. The two had become firm friends as they'd worked with Tracey to design a new set of townhouses.

  Tracey stood at the podium. "Today," she said speaking to everyone assembled "I'm proud to announce we're opening a new townhouse development. But this one is special. It combines the best parts of living independently with their own community kitchen and recreation area. I'd like Bernice Kelly to come on up."

  As everyone clapped, Heath took Bernice's arm and escorted her up to the podium. Maxine felt herself tearing up as she watched from the sidelines.

  "When I first heard about Bernice Kelly I knew she wasn't very happy about West Shore Developments. Ron was upset about that. He was a visionary and always thought his developments were going to make people's lives better and he was trying to come up with a solution." She paused here, visibly choking up. "I know he would be proud of the Bernice Kelly Townhouses. Bernice could you please cut the ribbon." She held a pair of scissors to Bernice who did the honors.

  After that there was chocolate for everyone. In cakes, cookies, cupcakes and chocolates because, as Maxine was so fond of saying, "you could never have too much chocolate."

  The End

  From the author

  I have had great fun writing this book and hope you have enjoyed it as well. I've included some chocolate recipes that have been used in the book. The people who have bravely taste tested these for the book, seem to have enjoyed them so I hope you do too!

  Basic Rules of Chocolate Making

  Always use the best possible chocolate you can find

  Chocolate and water don’t mix.

  If you do get water in chocolate don’t despair. Add cream and make it into a chocolate ganache.

  Use oil based flavors to flavor pure chocolate. If you must use water based make the chocolate into a ganache and add flavoring to that.

  Chocolate chips in recipes using chocolate chips shouldn’t be switched with chocolate chunks. The melting temperatures are different and you won’t get the same effect.

  Most of all, have fun!

  Chocolate Mousse

  4 oz chocolate of your choice (white,dark, semi-sweet)

  1/2 cup heavy cream (whipping cream)

  2 egg whites

  Flavoring of choice (optional)

  Melt chocolate in microwave (when melted add flavoring if using)

  Beat cream until it stands in stiff peaks in separate bowl

  Beat egg whites to stiff peaks in separate bowl

  Add chocolate to whipping cream careful not to over-mix

  Fold meringue in

  Divide into servings

  Garnish with shavings of chocolate, berries, wafer sticks

  Makes 2 – 3 servings

  Chocolate Covered Strawberries

  1 litre or quart of Strawberries or other fruit

  1/2 cup chocolate of your choice. Whatever type you choose make sure it's the best quality you can find.

  Foil covered plate

  Wash and dry fruit carefully. Drying is particularly important since water and chocolate DO NOT MIX.

  It’s your choice whether you leave the leave/stem on the strawberries or other fruit. For bananas cut into sections.

  To get strawberries of uniform size you’re either going to have to make a deal with a local farmer or supplier to give you uniform size strawberries or buy at least dou
ble the amount you need and then pick through for uniform sized ones. The good news is that the ones left over can be used for smoothies, jam or any number of goodies.

  Melt chocolate

  Dip fruit in chocolate. You may cover the whole berry or half the berry, double dip or just make sure you cover it thickly the first time. You can swirl white chocolate through the dark or fill the centers with cream cheese.

  You may use other fruit such as bananas, orange segments, pineapple

  Chocolate Torte

  6 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate

  5 oz. unsalted butter cut into pieces

  3 TBSp rum, brandy, or other liqueur of your choice

  3 drops or to taste of almond extract

  Pinch of salt

  1/2 cup whole almonds

  2 TBSP flour

  *Pulse previous 2 ingredients together in food processor until texture of cornmeal. (almonds and flour)

  4 large eggs separated at room temperature

  3/4 cup sugar

  Pinch of cream of tartar

  Glaze

  6 oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate

  4 oz unsalted butter, cut into pieces

  1 TBSP white corn syrup

  2 oz white chocolate or 1 oz each of white and milk chocolate

  Torte Instructions

  Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 8" x 3" springform pan

  Melt chocolate and butter together.

  Stir in flavorings

  Whisk egg yolks together in large bowl with 1/2 cup of sugar.

  Stir chocolate mixture into egg mixture.

  In clean dry (Dry very important) beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.

  Fold in remaining 1/4 cup sugar as whites are beaten at high speed until peaks are stiff.

  Sprinkle nut flour mixture over chocolate along with about a third of egg whites. Fold in with spatula and repeat until egg whites are folded in. Be careful not to over-mix.