Bake Off

by S. Y. Robins

  He had teased her at first saying that he couldn’t disclose that information to her, but then said, that maybe he could, if she agreed to have dinner with him. Unamused Sandy had just said if he didn’t tell her, she would have no problem telling the college football team at the next reunion that it actually had been Jefferson who had spiked the punch at a party that had put most of the team out of commission before the biggest game of their college career. Knowing Sandy would follow through on her threat, Jefferson had promptly told her that Jasper had been in town the whole week and that Detective Roonie had come in to interview him right after his father was found murdered. Sandy found that little tidbit of information very interesting.

  “Ummm excuse me?” Sandy said, redirecting her attention to what was going on in front of her. “I’m sorry, but what are you doing?”

  “Are you Sandy Pepper the owner of Hot Stuff?”

  “Yes,” Sandy said hesitantly.

  “Great. I’m Marshall. I’m the new host of Culinary Hype. I’m taking over for the late Dr. Carver Jenson.”

  “That was fast,” Kat said tactlessly and Sandy nudged her.

  Marshall didn’t seem offended. He just shrugged, “That’s Hollywood for you. One minute you’re in and one minute you’re out.”

  “Well, he’s more than out. He’s dead...sooo...” Kat said matter-of-factly and finally Marshall had the grace to look embarrassed for his flippant comments.

  “I’ll have you know young lady that we’re here to do a memorial show in honor of Carver.”

  “Let me guess... for the ratings?”

  Sandy gasped at Kat’s “tell it like it is” attitude, but Kat was only saying out loud what Sandy was thinking.

  “Who are you?” Marshall said narrowing his eyes at Kat.

  Before Kat could say something, well catty, Sandy jumped in and said, “She’s my assistant. And frankly, no one contacted me asking my permission to do this.”

  Marshall seemed to have stopped listening and instead was staring at a spot on the floor.

  Suddenly he said, “Oh my God! Is that a blood stain? Is this where he died? Maybe we should get a shot of that.”

  “We’re filming a food show, not CSI.” A woman who could only be described as a bombshell said as she walked up and pushed past Marshall. She was wearing plain jeans and a tight fitting t-shirt that emphasized her ample bosom. She was a brunette with large brown eyes and her eyes looked tired, but Sandy could see the intelligence there despite the tiredness.

  “I’m Samantha Williams. I’m the producer. Sorry about this, it was sort of last minute. The network wanted something done about Carver’s death and just flew us all out here. I apologize. Do you mind if we do a memorial segment here? We can even include you in it, if you would like.”

  Sandy stared at her, “No. No way.”

  “Excuse me?” Samantha said narrowing her eyes. Sandy took her hands out of her pockets and by accident the flash drive hit the floor. She snatched it up, sticking it subtly out of sight before answering the producer.

  “My business is suffering enough. I don’t need the public to have another reminder of why NOT to eat here.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way,” Samantha said tightly.

  Before she could say another word, Marshall came over, tugging at his bow tie as if it made him uncomfortable. Sandy figured it was just some sort of nervous twitch.

  “I can assure you, young lady that if we’re allowed to film here your little shop will be in the headlines...”

  “Yep, for all the wrong reasons,” Kat cut in.

  Samantha ignored them and said to Sandy, “Can I speak to you privately somewhere?”

  Sandy didn’t want to agree, but felt she should at least listen to what Samantha had to say. They walked to the back of the kitchen and Samantha leaned against the counter with a sigh.

  “Listen, I get that you don’t want bad press, but we both have a job to do.”

  Sandy nodded, “Yep. But if I let you film here then I won’t have a job soon. Did you not notice how empty this place is?”

  Samantha gave a careless shrug, “With the right public relations company your business can easily go back to booming.”

  “I don’t have the money to hire a public relations team. If you haven’t noticed, this is a bakery owned by a small town chick, not some retired pop star or some other minor celeb who would employ a PR team.”

  She seemed ready to argue, but then rubbed her eyes tiredly. “I can see your point. Here’s my card. If you reconsider, give me a call. We’re scheduled to leave here within the next few days, so if you change your mind, do so quickly.”

  And with that she turned and walked away from Sandy and signaled to her crew who followed her straight out the door. Marshall turned at the last minute to give Sandy an annoyed look and then followed with a pouty expression behind the others.

  “What a jerk,” Kat said leaning against the display case.

  “Which one?” Sandy asked, given that both Marshall and Samantha had rubbed her the wrong way.

  “Hmm...Now that you mention it, both of them for just randomly dropping in here and assuming they could take over the place.”

  “I guess people march to a different tune in California,” Sandy said given that she had never lived there.

  “Well, I don’t like that tune much...” Kat said under her breath. She then noticed Sandy staring down at the card in her hand.

  “You’re not seriously going to let them in here to do that segment are you?” she asked incredulously when she caught Sandy looking down at Samantha’s card.

  “Not quite...” Sandy had something else in mind.

  * * *

  It was dark when Sandy arrived to meet up with Samantha in the gazebo across from the hotel for a quick chat as Samantha had proposed. Sandy had agreed given that she wanted to talk to Samantha to see if she could get additional insight into Carver and his life. Besides an angry son and a questionable significant other, Sandy had no idea who could possibly have hated Carver enough to kill him. She just didn’t feel that money, as it seemed to be in Melanie’s case or fame, as it seemed to relate to Jasper, were motives enough to viciously take someone’s life. However, what did she know about that sort of thing? Wasn’t the news full of stories about people who had murdered others over much more trivial things?

  With that thought in her mind, she had contacted her father, who ran a private security firm, to ask for his help. He, of course, hadn’t answered her nor the email she had sent. Not that that was any surprise to Sandy; she was accustomed to her father not being there when she needed him.

  And as she sat on the bench waiting for Samantha to arrive under the ruse that she would allow her to film at her store, she didn’t see the person who came up behind her and delivered a blow to her head that knocked her off the bench and onto the floor, unconscious.

  * * *

  “Sandy? Sandy? Are you okay?”

  Sandy could hear the voice, but felt like she was underwater and couldn’t answer. She carefully opened her eyes and saw a crowd of people standing around her as pain shot through her skull. Samantha was kneeling next to her.

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I think so,” Sandy said sitting up and gingerly touching her head.

  “What happened?” Samantha asked.

  “I don’t know. I was just sitting here waiting for you and then the next thing I know I was on the ground and you were leaning over me.”

  “Do you have vertigo?” Samantha asked sympathetically.

  Sandy shook her head. She knew someone must have hit her. But who would want to harm her and then she thought about the flash drive that had been in her pocket. Instinctively, she reached for it and found that her pants pockets were empty. She looked around in vain for it, attempting to be subtle and then outright asked Samantha, “Did you see a little flash drive by chance? I think it might have fallen out of my pocket when I hit the ground.”

  “I didn
’t see anything,” Samantha said and then suddenly Marshall was there. “Wow, don’t you look worse for wear.”

  “Shut up,” is what Sandy wanted to say, instead she said, “You wouldn’t look so hot either if you found yourself on the ground unconscious.”

  “You have a point.” He said shrugging, but he looked as if he had a smirk on his face.

  “I think I should drive you to the hospital,’ Samantha said once she saw Sandy wobbling as she got to her feet.

  “No. No. I’m fine.”

  “No. I insist.”

  Grudgingly, she let Samantha lead her to the car.

  “Be well,” Marshall said and something about his tone gritted on Sandy’s nerves. “I bet he’s capable of murder,” she said under her breath.

  “What?” Samantha said as she buckled her seatbelt looking at Sandy curiously.

  Sandy sighed under her breath, “Nothing.”

  As they drove, Sandy tried to focus on the reason she had been meeting up with Samantha in the first place.

  “So I was thinking since I’m going to let you use the store in all. Maybe you could tell me about Carver. What type of person was he?”

  “Selfish. Inconsiderate. A phony who didn’t care who he stepped on to get what he wanted.”

  “Wow, I guess you don’t believe in that whole adage about never speaking ill of the dead?”

  She sighed, “I know it sounds harsh, but he was a pretty terrible person to work with.”

  “So you must be happy Marshall took his place?”

  “That prima donna? Ha! He’s even worse. He’s been chomping at the bit for Carver’s job for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he offed Carver.” She said that comment matter-of-factly.

  Sandy found herself surprised by Samantha’s frankness, “Have you told the cops that?” Sandy asked.

  “No. No way. That Detective Roonie is a piece of work. He would take me seriously and probably arrest Marshall and then most likely I would be out of a job.” She then looked at me and said, “I bet the police drilled you good.”

  “Yeah, they did. I heard they were a little rough on his wife too,” Sandy said trying to learn more about Melanie.

  “Well, they always say when someone’s murdered the first suspect is the spouse.”

  “You think his wife is capable of something like that?”

  Sandy shrugged, “If it was anyone in his family it would have been Jasper. He’s nearly as annoying and entitled as his late father. We’re here. Let’s go.”

  As Samantha helped Sandy out of the car, Sandy had to wonder if Samantha was just really frank or if that bitterness she heard in the producer’s voice was a true testament to the ill feelings she harbored towards Carver.

  5

  After the hospital staff released her, Sandy headed immediately back to the small house she rented in town. She was grateful to Samantha who had arranged for a member of her crew to take Sandy’s car to the hospital parking lot. Exhausted, Sandy had pulled up slowly into her driveway, frowning at the person who was leaning against a large black truck that was parked where she normally left her car. She recognized him immediately. It was her father.

  “Dad?” she said in disbelief as she quickly climbed out and stopped a foot in front of him.

  “Hey, Sandy. Your grandmother called me. Left me a message that was just a hint threatening,” he smile ruefully, “So I heard you need my help.”

  She didn’t know what to say or how to react. Were they supposed to hug? Should she invite him in?

  It was then that her phone rang and she absently reached for it and answered, “This is Sandy.”

  “I saw you talking to Samantha and Melanie. What did they tell you?” a distorted voice demanded as soon as Sandy answered. She immediately felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

  She looked at her father and he raised an eyebrow, clearly able to read the worry now evident on Sandy’s face.

  “Who is this?”

  “Who do you think?”

  “Jasper?”

  “Just mind your own business. This doesn’t concern you.”

  And then just like that the line was dead.

  “Let’s go inside,” her father ordered.

  Sandy just nodded and reached for her keys with shaking hands. After she opened the door, she sat down heavily on the couch and her father locked up. Once he was done, Sandy said, “All I wanted to do was figure out who could have had a motive so that I could tell the detective and now someone probably wants to kill me.”

  Her father raised a brow questioningly, “So you think that you’re actually in danger?”

  “I swear someone hit me over the head this evening and now that phone call. I’m scared.”

  “Let’s talk. Who has a motive? Who are your main suspects?” Her father asked sitting down and leaning towards her while scratching at his beard.

  “I hate to say it, but his son seems to be the primary suspect. According to the hotel owner, he was here before Carver was murdered so he had access to him and of course, he would have known that he was allergic to penicillin.”

  Her father nodded solemnly, “Anyone else?”

  Sandy shrugged, “He has an ex-wife. I overheard her talking about how she was entitled to a sum of money, but she could have been talking about anything.”

  Her dad didn’t comment for a while and then he said, “So just the wife and son?”

  “And maybe the guy who currently has his job, but he was in California when Carver was killed.”

  “Any proof of that?”

  “Nope. I just assumed.”

  “You can’t assume anything in an investigation.”

  “Duly noted,” Sandy said tossing her legs up on the couch with a sigh.

  “I can make some phone calls to see if Marshall got on a plane to come here before Carver’s death.”

  “There’s one more thing.”

  Her father looked up as he pulled out his cellphone. “What’s that?”

  “Well, I found a flash drive when I went into Carver’s office. It seemed to be hidden.”

  “Did you look at the files on it?”

  “I tried. The files were password protected. A bunch of jpg files. There were just the letters CFC on the actual drive.”

  “CFC? That could be anything. Maybe a local business around here that was giving away free flash drives. Companies do that all the time. Did you google it?”

  “Yep.”

  “Came up with anything interesting?”

  “Not at all.”

  “How about at the university, was he well-known there? Anyone possibly out to get him?”

  “From what I could tell, he was a bit of a minor celebrity, but wasn’t liked all that much by the students.”

  “Maybe we should focus on that angle. Speaking of the university, you grandmother told me that she helped you snoop.”

  Sandy laughed, “She kept the Dean busy while I went prying through Carver’s office.”

  “And she had a heck of a time doing it. She said she hadn’t had that much fun in a while.”

  “She did have a twinkle in her eye the entire time,” Sandy said smiling at her father. She stared at his salt and pepper colored hair that used to be jet black. She hadn’t seen him in at least five years and nothing had changed about him besides the color of his hair. His eyes looked much like Sandy’s, but that’s where the similarity between the two of them ended. Sandy had never met her mother given that she had died from a drug overdose when Sandy was only six months old and her father, young and not wanting to be responsible for a baby had promptly given Sandy to his parents to raise. After a stint in the military, he had started his own private security firm. Sandy knew most daughters in her position would have been resentful towards an absentee father and normally she was. But today was different. Today she realized that whomever hit her, could have killed her. She wasn’t going to let resentment towards her dad keep her from remembering that despite her father’s abandonment, s
he had grown up much loved. And that’s what she kept in mind, when she offered her father a place to stay while he was in town.

  “Thanks, kid,” He had said in surprise and gently nudged her in the shoulder. “Not that I would have it any other way given that you’re being threatened by some sicko.”

  Later on, before dinner, he took several calls leaving Sandy alone at the table. He came back and sat at the dinner table and looked disappointed.

  “What? Did you expect more than leftovers from my fridge?” Sandy said looking down at the meal she prepared of left-over fried rice from the Chinese restaurant and chicken she had found in the freezer.

  “I just thought you know, with your culinary background...”his voice trailed off.

  Sandy couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m normally so busy at the shop that I barely have time to go to the grocery store for myself. I’m afraid to admit, I eat out most nights. Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. We have that in common. My personal assistant bought me a set of pots and pans for Christmas two years ago since I decided I would try to cook a meal at home at least once a week. Needless to say, the whole set is still in the box.”

  They both laughed together and started eating. “That guy on the phone confirmed that no one fitting Marshall’s description got on a plane anytime except for their most recent arrival.”

  “So he’s no longer a suspect.”

  “Unless he’s a professional at changing his identity and what not. Which I doubt he is. My intel tells me he’s just a fame hungry boot licker.”

  “Yeah, Samantha said as much. So we’re back at square one.”

  “Looks that way.”

  * * *

  Sandy barely got any sleep that night even though her father was just down the hall. Every time she closed her eyes she saw either Samantha or Jasper leaning over her looking ominous. It felt as if as soon as she was able to close her eyes, there was a pounding at her door that abruptly woke her up.