by K. J. Emrick
As Belvedere laughed and Cream continued to bark, Jerry flexed his hands into fists and then relaxed them again, over and over. He was going to do something stupid to try and save her, Cookie just knew it. If he got hurt because of her or worse, if he was killed, she would never be able to live with herself. Not ever again.
So she shook her head, very slightly, back and forth. He blinked at her, getting her message. It was clear that he didn’t like it but he did stay back. For now, that would have to be enough.
Cream lunged at Belvedere’s foot and then away again, barking the whole time. “How do you stand this mutt? Dear God, will you shut up! Jessica, let’s go!”
“No! Not again!” Jessica cried out, latching onto Jerry from behind, peeking out over his shoulder.
“You’ll come with me or I’ll kill you!” Belvedere promised, spittle flying from his mouth and hitting Cookie’s cheek. “If I can’t have you, no one will! Do you hear me!”
“Belvedere, please, listen to me,” Cookie tried.
Cream dodged in and then away again.
“Mister Mayor, don’t do this,” Jerry said, trying to get Jessica’s hands to unclench from him in case he had to do something. Anything.
“All of you shut up!” Belvedere screamed. Cookie felt his body tense. This was getting out of hand. “Just shut up! Do as I say! I am the mayor of this town, and you will all do what I say!”
A resounding bang like the sound of a gong nearly deafened Cookie. Silence followed.
She was still trying to figure out what had happened when Belvedere went limp behind her and toppled like a deflating hot air balloon, dropping the gun from his limp fingers as he went.
Cookie turned around. Her rescue had come. That’s what it was. She was expecting Officer Jones or one of the others to be standing there, all smiles, telling her that everything was all right now, it was all over.
Instead, she saw her granddaughter Clarissa, in her pink heart pajamas, holding a frying pan in both hands like she was gripping a tennis racquet, her chest heaving with each breath.
“You aren’t my mayor,” she said to the unconscious man at Cookie’s feet.
“Oh, Clarissa,” Cookie blurted out, taking the girl in her arms. “What did you do! That was very dangerous!”
“I’m fine, Gram,” the girl promised her. “He was going to hurt you. And, well, I wasn’t going to let him.”
Cookie hugged her harder. “I love you, Clarissa.”
“I love you too, Grandma.”
Cream came over and pawed at Cookie’s leg. “Yes, Cream,” she laughed, picking the dog up in her arms. “I’m proud of you, too.”
“It was Cream who came to get me,” Clarissa said, her smile perplexed. “Guess he’s more than just a dog after all.”
Cookie knew that, for sure.
Chapter Fourteen
Jerry had already rushed over to take possession of the mayor’s gun. Although, Cookie supposed she should get out of the habit of calling Belvedere the mayor. He wasn’t going to be in office after this. He’d be in jail. The very place he swore he wouldn’t go.
Officer Jones and the others rushed in now, and handcuffs were put in place, and radio calls were made, and it wasn’t much longer before Belvedere was carted away in the back of a patrol car, still groggy from the hit Clarissa had given him upside the head. Jessica had already been taken away in an ambulance to take care of her injuries. The woman would need a long time to heal, Cookie knew, and not just her body.
Cookie took a deep breath. It was all over. What was happening to their little sleepy town of Widow’s Rest that so much could happen in such a few short days? She looked over at Clarissa. Had it been a week since she brought her granddaughter to town? No. Not even.
“You know we’re going to have to tell mom about this, right Gram?” Clarissa’s expression said she wasn’t looking forward to that call. “Maybe we can leave out the part where I conk a man in the head with a frying pan?”
“Whatever for?” Cookie asked her, in all sincerity. “I think it would do your mother good to know how well you can take care of yourself. And your grandmother.”
“Maybe.” She chewed on her lip. It was obvious she had more to say to Cookie. “Gram, I just wanted to tell you that I’m, um, well…”
She sighed, fiddling with her hands. Cookie wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. This was another thing her granddaughter needed to learn if her life at home was ever going to get better. “Go on, dear. Oh, wait. You don’t like it when I call you that, right?”
Clarissa tilted her head in a little shrug. “Actually, I don’t think I mind anymore. You can call me dear, if you want.”
Cream whuffed his approval. “I’d like that. Thank you. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?”
In a near whisper, her granddaughter said, “I’m sorry, Gram.”
“Apology accepted. Now. Want to help me clean up?”
Jerry sat at a nearby table, filling out what Cookie could only guess would be the first of several reports. “No cleaning up yet, girls,” he told them. “We’ll need to photograph everything and take some measurements. The boring part of police work.”
“Well,” Cookie told him, resettling Cream in her arms, “having just experienced the exciting side of police work I don’t think I’ll mind seeing some of the boring stuff for a while.”
“Me, neither,” Clarissa agreed. She took her phone out of the back pocket of her pajama bottoms. “Wait till I text Hamish about all of this!”
After her granddaughter had gone back up to her bedroom, Cookie sat down next to Jerry. “So. This is what you do at work?”
He laughed. “Not usually. Usually I’m issuing speeding tickets and writing parking citations. Then there’s always my personal favorite, finding lost cats.”
Cream barked in her arms. He did not like that word.
“Do you know what time it is?” she asked Jerry.
“After midnight, now. It’s a brand new day.”
Hmm. A brand new day, Cookie repeated to herself. A chance to do everything over again, fix mistakes, and make things better. Kind of like tossing out an old recipe when you find something better.
“What are you thinking?” Jerry suddenly asked her.
It was an unexpected question and it made Cookie realize she’d been thinking about a half a dozen things all at once. “I’m thinking about how I’ll need to get that window fixed now, along with my door. I’m wondering if all of my customers will come back now that they know the mayor was the real man behind Julien’s death or if they’ll blame me for his downfall. I’m wondering what to do about Benjamin Roth’s offer, and about my granddaughter, and about, um, you.”
Jerry’s pen paused in his writing. “Me?”
“Yes, you. Jerry, you are such a man.”
“Uh, thank you?”
“So clueless, I mean. Missing everything that’s right in front of your face.”
“Oh. In that case, no thank you.”
“You have me all turned around. You tell me you love me, and what am I supposed to do with that? Hmm? I’m not a young woman anymore, Jerry, in case you hadn’t noticed and I don’t know what you want from me…”
She stopped talking when he leaned in close and kissed her lips.
Cream let out a little sigh, as if to ask them what had taken so long.
The world spun on its axis for Cookie as Jerry pulled away again, and for all she knew the sun had risen and set once more and it was another new day all over again.
“That’s what I want from you,” he said.
Maybe he wasn’t as blind as most men.
“Um. That was nice,” she said. Nice? What sort of a thing was that to say to a man when he kissed you? She might have to ask her granddaughter for dating advice, after all. Wow. Now there was something she never thought she’d say. Ever.
“Look,” Jerry told her, tapping the pages of the report in front of him. “I’m going to have several hours of pape
rwork to do. We have to rescind the warrant request for Jessica. We have to do up all of the charges on Belvedere, and there’s going to be a lot of those. I don’t think you really understand how much paperwork is involved in something like this.”
“I run my own business, thank you very much. I understand paperwork.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. I have my own reports and receipts and ledgers to take care of—”
“No, I mean, do you really understand what I do?”
Oh. “Well, if I didn’t understand it before when you were just the good friend who came and stood around my bakery counter for an hour every morning, I certainly understand it now.”
“It’s not always easy,” he said.
“I can see that.”
“It’s not always pretty.”
“I saw that, too.”
“So… you’re okay with dating a cop?”
She stood up, smiling at him, holding her dog close. “I wouldn’t want you to be anyone other than who you are, Jerry Stansted. I’m going to go back up to my room now after I take care of one more thing. When you’re done with the boring part of your job, why don’t you call me, and if you’re not too tired, I wouldn’t mind showing you how much I want to be your girlfriend.”
“Too tired?” he laughed. “I’m younger than I look, you know.”
She leaned in close to whisper in his ear. “You look pretty good to me.”
Then she kissed his forehead very gently. It was more of a thank-you than words would have been.
As she turned, he snagged her hand. “Cookie, don’t worry about your shop. People have always loved the things you bake. They always will. Word will get around, and you’ll have all of your customers back. Starting with every single member of the police force. I’ll see to it.”
She didn’t know what to say. Her heart was too full.
Leaving him there in the main room to take care of whatever the police needed to do in her store, Cookie walked out into the kitchen. She doubted that Jerry wanted Cream running around their crime scene, so she shooed him up the stairs and waited until he had scratched at the door and Clarissa had let him into the apartment. She promised her granddaughter she’d be right up.
She had one more thing to take care of.
From over the stove she took a box of kitchen matches. The kind that always lit on the first strike. Then from her desk she picked up Benjamin Roth’s very lucrative agreement. She took another look at the bottom line. It really was a lot of money.
Holding the paper over the sink she lit a match, and touched it to the edge of the proposed sales contract. Then she let it drop.
It burned to ash where it fell.
This was her bakery. No one was going to take it away from her. Not as long as she had the support of family like Clarissa, and a good man like Jerry. And Cream, of course. All of them had been there for her when it really counted.
For now, she needed some sleep. The recipe of her life was still mixing itself together. She couldn’t wait to see what got added next.
-The End-
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Cream Puff Recipe
(This is an old family recipe)
Ingredients
Put in saucepan
½ pint of water (237mls) and 2 ounces (57gms) of butter
When boiling quickly add 4 ounces (114gms) of flour, stir until smooth.
Method
Remove from heat and when luke warm add 3 eggs, one at a time and beat well. Drop in spoonfuls onto a greased tray and bake in a moderate oven for approx. ¾ of an hour. When cold make a slice in the front and scoop out dough inside. Fill with whipped crea and sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar (icing sugar).
Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (icing sugar)
In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat.
World’s Easiest Non-Dairy Whipped “Cream”
http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/02/worlds-easiest-non-dairy-whipped-cream.html
Enjoy!
About the Author
Strongly influenced by authors like James Patterson, Dick Francis, and Nora Roberts, Kathrine Emrick dreamed of being an author for the majority of her life.
She never quite gave up on the idea of being a published author and at the age of 51, thanks to Amazon and their Kindle platform, she finally realized her dream. Her maturity allows her to bring a variety of experiences and observations to her writing.
She lives in beautiful South Australia with her partner Michael and son Adam. Also part of the family are their tribe of animals including four cats and two dogs.
Kathrine can always be found jotting down daily notes in a journal and like many authors, she loves to be surrounded by books and is a voracious reader. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and volunteering at the local library.
Her goal is to regularly produce entertaining and noteworthy content and engaging in a community of readers and writers.
To find out more please visit the Kathrine's website at kathrineemrick.com or her Amazon author page.
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Table of Contents
How to Bake a Murder - A Cookie and Cream Cozy Mystery
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Cream Puff Recipe
About the Author