by Tonya Kappes
“I’ve got a real issue with one of my clients, and I’ve been up all night worrying about it.” She paused. “Do you think I could come in the coffeehouse for an early coffee while you get the place ready?”
“Sure. I’d love company.” There was something that she needed to get off her chest, and I was more than happy to have her unload while I was in my happy place. “Give me a few minutes to get there and get the coffeepots brewing.”
“Sounds good, Roxanne.” My mama loved to call me by my full name, and I didn’t mind. It’d taken a lot for her to move here, and at first, I was worried about it. Now, I couldn’t imagine my life in Honey Springs without her.
We hung up, and I slipped my phone in my back pocket. I tied the hood of my jacket snugly underneath my chin to help keep the chill off my wet head of hair. I grabbed my keys off the kitchen counter and made sure the wood burner was cool enough for me to leave before I locked the front door behind me.
With no traffic on the old road back to the boardwalk, the bike light led the way with no trouble at all. Pepper appeared to sleep most of the way until we drove along the ramp to the boardwalk, and the wooden planks thumped one after the other as we rode our way down to the coffeehouse.
“Babette wasn’t kidding when she said she was getting here early,” I said after I pedaled past All About the Details and noticed the lights were on at the event center. The condensation from my breath let off little puffs of air. “Babette?” I called out when I noticed she was sitting with her back to me at one of the café tables I had out in front of my shop. She was wearing her new fancy white coat. “It’s cold out here.”
I slipped off the bike, grabbed Pepper out of the basket, and put him down on the boardwalk. I walked the bike over to the bike rack next to Babette.
“You’ve got your new coat on.” I tapped her on the shoulder. “Babette!” I screamed when she tipped right over. “Babette! Help!” I screamed out into the dark sky, knowing that no one else was there to hear me.
FIVE
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed 9-1-1.
“Nine-One-One, what’s your emergency?” The dispatch operator barely got her spiel out before I interrupted her.
“I need an ambulance at the boardwalk at the Bean Hive coffee shop. My friend Babette. She’s not awake.” My voice cracked. “I’m not sure, but I think she’s…” I gulped and looked down at her just as the cloud that was covering the moon passed to give the moonlight a spotlight on her face. “Hillary?”
“Ma’am, what’s going on?” the dispatch operator asked.
“It’s not Babette. It’s Hillary Canter. I think she’s dead.” Saying the words made me feel as though I were having an out-of-body experience. I bent down and felt for a pulse on her neck. There were no signs of life—no puffs of air like the ones coming from every word I took. She definitely wasn’t breathing.
“Did you say the Bean Hive on the boardwalk?” she asked.
“Yes. Please send someone quickly.” I stood up and walked backward toward the railing of the boardwalk and looked out over the lake.
“Would you like me to stay on the phone with you until the sheriff gets there?” she asked.
“No. I’m fine.” I bent down and clutched Pepper to me. “I hear the sirens,” I told her. I hung up and slipped the phone back into my pocket.
I sat cross-legged on the boardwalk with Pepper snuggled in my lap while I waited the few minutes until Sheriff Spencer Shephard showed up.
“Don’t tell me. You again?” he asked with his flashlight pointing straight at me as he referred to the other time I’d found a body. Okay, more than once. I’d found a few bodies. “What is it with you and dead bodies?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered. I took another look at Hillary Canter while the officers worked on her. “Why does she have on that coat?”
“That’s a very strange question to ask.” Spencer’s eyes flickered with a gleam of interest.
“It’s cold. That’s all.” I grabbed the edges of my jacket and snuggled it closer to me.
It wasn’t too long ago that I’d found another dead body, and I quickly learned that when you accuse someone of something they didn’t do, such as murder, then you pay the consequences for it later. Though I knew Hillary hadn’t bought the coat she and Babette were fighting over, it certainly didn’t mean that she hadn’t gone back and bought a different one, even though the store was closing, and the door was locked behind me and Babette.
“What on earth is going on here?” Mama ran up to me, breaking the police tape. “Roxanne?”
“Ma’am, we’re going to have to ask you to stay back,” one of the officers said.
“I’ll do no such thing.” She fisted her hands and jerked them down to her sides. “This here is my daughter, Roxanne Bloom, and I’m going to be here with her for whatever this is.”
“It’s fine,” Spencer said to the officer. He waved a hand at the other man. “They will stay right here and be out of your way. Right, ladies?” His eyes slid from me to Mama and back again. Both of us nodded in agreement.
The other man—the coroner—motioned for Spencer to join him. Their heads were stuck together as they conversed about something. They bent down, and the coroner pointed the pen in his hand at Hillary’s neck.
“Who is that?” Mama asked. “Is that a dead person?”
“Yes,” I replied. “It’s a local girl by the name of Hillary Canter. I’m not sure why she was sitting in my café chair.” I watched the coroner interact with Spencer.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Again?” Her tone had changed from a loving mother to a scolding one.
“Don’t give me that right now,” I warned her. “It’s been a rough morning.”
“I’m afraid it’s not going to get better,” she groaned. “What are they doing?”
“It looks like the coroner is showing Spencer something.” I turned to her. “Can you hang out for a while? I’m going to be crunched for time to open when Spencer lets me in the shop. Plus, I want to hear what you wanted to tell me about your client.”
We watched the coroner take the point of his pen and move the collar of the coat away from her neck. I rose up on my tiptoes, trying to see over the others, who stood around and gawked. Nothing. I leaned left then right to look around them, but I still couldn’t see a darn thing.
“I think this is the first time in your adult life you’ve ever asked me to help you.” Mama put her hand up to her heart. “I really wondered if I was doing the right thing by moving here, and now I know I did.” She reached over and gave me a much-needed hug.
My relationship with my mama had been a very volatile one, especially after my dad had died. I was glad we could connect, even if it was over a dead body.
“While we wait, why don’t you tell me about what the client did?” I said.
The coroner and his crew moved Hillary’s body a bit.
“It can wait.” She nudged me with her elbow when Spencer started to walk back toward us.
“Roxy, can I talk to you over here?” He took a couple of steps away from Mama.
I motioned for Pepper to stay next to Mama. She bent down to his level and petted him to make sure he listened.
“What’s going on?” I asked when I stepped closer to Spencer.
He turned his back to Mama, apparently not wanting her to hear. “Did you see or hear anyone running away when you got here?” he asked.
“Nope.” I shook my head. “The only thing I noticed was that All About the Details’ light was on, which was odd at this time of the morning. I know because I’m always here around this time, and I’m always alone.”
“Maybe you need to think about having Patrick drive you in the mornings until we can figure out who killed Hillary.” His words stopped me in my tracks.
“Killed?” My jaw dropped, and my mouth dried out.
“It appears that Hillary Canter has been murdered. She was choked. There’s some pretty fresh bruising
around her neck. At least, it’s the preliminary report of the coroner, and he’s seen a lot of these types of things. But we won’t know anything for sure until he completes the autopsy.” Spencer wrote something down on his notepad.
The coroner got his church cart and started to take Hillary’s body away while the officers roped off the area around the café table and down the walkway toward the opposite end from where I’d ridden my bike not long before. Apparently, Hillary’s expensive two-door convertible was parked down there.
“Exactly what happened?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” I gave him an odd look.
“How did you find her?” he asked.
“I was riding my bike, coming from that way”—I gestured toward the opposite end—“and I saw someone sitting here. Well, kind of.” I hesitated.
“What? If you know something, you need to tell me.” Spencer’s voice was hard and stern.
“I thought it was Babette Cliff, from next door at All About the Details.” It was as if my mouth had turned into a water faucet with all the handles on high. I vomited all the information. “Last night, she and Hillary got into an argument over that very coat at Queen for a Day. Ended up, there was only the one size. Babette thought she should get it, but Hillary insisted that Babette couldn’t fit into it.” My hand waffled in a back and forth motion.
“Kevin!” Spencer called after the coroner. He held up a finger for Kevin to wait a minute. “What was the size?”
“Small.” I barely got the word out before Spencer took off in a jog.
“What was that about?” Mama didn’t waste any time walking over to me. Pepper followed.
“He said that Hillary was….” I hesitated, taking a big gulp and licking my dried lips. “Murdered,” I whispered.
I wasn’t sure if Mama was in as much shock as I was, but we stood there with just the air hanging between us.
Spencer said a few words to Kevin, then Kevin carefully unzipped the body bag, only exposing Hillary’s head and shoulders. He picked up her head and peeled back the collar of the jacket. Both men started to nod. Spencer gave Kevin a pat on the back and a quick handshake, and both went in their separate directions.
“You said that there was only one small?” His eyes held a purpose.
“Yes. Only one small, according to the sales clerk. Eventually, Babette bought the coat, and Hillary stormed out of the shop.” The sound of a door opening caught our attention, and we looked to see who was there.
Babette stuck her head out the front door of the events hall, made a strange face, and then quickly ducked back inside.
“Can we head into my shop?” I swallowed the thought that Babette had anything to do with Hillary’s death.
“Yes. But I’m going to have to interview you later today to finish this up.” Spencer pointed at All About the Details. “It appears Babette is already at work.” He looked at his watch. “Five a.m. seems awfully early to be cake tasting, wine sipping, and making reservations for clients.”
“She mentioned she was meeting a client early this morning.” I shook off the chills that climbed my legs and travelled to my arms. “I really don’t think she killed anyone.”
“I didn’t say she did. It’s seems funny that the coat you said she purchased is on the victim’s body. I’m wondering how it got there.” He gave a side nod and walked away.
Pepper and Mama and I stood there for a few seconds. My favorite class in law school had been body language. I hated to brag, but I was definitely good at it. And Babette had a great poker face.
SIX
I tried not to look out the window as the darkness of the morning turned to sunrise, but it was hard to focus on what Mama was telling me. The officers were taking pictures and collecting things in bags marked “evidence.” In between, they did a lot of standing around.
Luckily, Mama had helped open the coffeehouse before, so she knew how to start the coffeepots. They began to hum and release the aroma that made the stress melt away from my shoulders and brought them back down from around my ears. I sucked in a deep breath and let the scent of the freshly ground roast soothe my soul. On the exhale, my brain felt calmer.
“She’s moving already.” Mama’s words sounded like the cartoon characters who only made the wha-wha sounds. She continued to tell me about her client. “When she went to sell the house, she was told that she didn’t have a clear title. I can’t get answers from the mortgage company.”
Pepper danced around his bowl. I walked over to the counter and pulled out the container with his kibble in it then dumped a big hearty scoop in his bowl. While he gobbled it up, I took a few more sips of coffee.
“I hate to do it, but I think I’m going to have to ask Maxine to help me, since she knows everyone.” Mama sighed.
That got my attention.
“You must be desperate if you’re willing to go to Aunt Maxi for help.” I held up the coffeepot, gesturing to ask if she wanted more.
“No. I’ve had enough. With no sleep over my client’s situation and now this dead body thing, my nerves are shot. Coffee is something I don’t need.” She gave Pepper a few more ear scratches before she retrieved her keys from her purse. “This is how you hold your keys while walking to your car in case there’s an attacker.” She gripped the keys in her hand. One stuck out between a couple of fingers as she jabbed the air.
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do or anyone I can talk to for you,” I offered, even though I didn’t know as many people as Aunt Maxi. Since the coffeehouse had opened, I’d gotten to meet a lot more community members and hoped to know everyone eventually. “Did you park near the hotel?” I asked, referring to the parking lot closest to Cocoon Hotel, the only hotel in Honey Springs that was located on the lakeshore.
“I did because the police had the other end blocked off. Why?” She asked.
“Do you mind taking the two industrial coffeepots to Camey?” I referred to Camey Montgomery, the owner and operator of the Cocoon Hotel, who had contracted the Bean Hive to provide free coffee to her hotel guests.
“Sure, I will.” Mama waited for me while I grabbed the two carafes.
“Thanks, Mama.” I gave her a kiss, and she took one pot in each hand.
“You’re welcome, sweetie. Are you going to be okay today?” she asked as I opened the door.
“I’ll be fine.” I made sure to keep my voice steady so I didn’t alarm her. She gave me a sideways glance that made me think she didn’t buy it. I didn’t acknowledge it.
“I’ll call you later.” She stepped outside.
I let Mama out the door and made sure I locked it after she left. Then I headed back into the kitchen and flipped on the ovens before I retrieved a few of the scones and the Bundt cakes.
While the ovens preheated, I looked at the calendar hanging on the wall to see exactly what I had to make that morning. I’d marked that Louise Carlton was visiting to drop off a dog from the Pet Palace, and there was also a reminder to take coffee to All About the Details written in black ink. It made me wonder if I was still supposed to take sample specialty coffees for Pam to sample. Standing around thinking about it wasn’t going to get the shop open, and Pepper was good at reminding me. He darted into the kitchen and jumped up on my leg. It was his way of thanking me for feeding him.
“Do you want a special treat?” I gave him one. “You’re so welcome.”
There was nothing better than his unconditional love. That was one reason why I’d contracted with Pet Palace, Honey Springs’s local no-kill SPCA, which was run solely on donations and volunteers.
After I’d bought the cabin, I was a little lonely, and Aunt Maxi told me that I needed to get a dog. I had every intention of picking out a bigger dog that would want to fetch and run alongside my bike. Little did I realize that it was the other way around. The pet picked you.
Pepper wasn’t about to let me get out of there without him. The rest was history. The thought of those sweet animals in the shelter put a spark
under me to do something other than volunteer my time to clean their cages, feed them, or play with them, even though Louise loved them all and took great care of them.
It took a lot of paperwork, coaxing, and free coffees to get the health inspector to even consider allowing me to have a weekly featured shelter animal in the coffee house to mingle with the customers, but the trend of service animals started to get popular, and it was my ticket to make an amazing proposal. Then it took an act of congress with the citizens of Honey Springs, but it passed, and each week, Louise would drop off one of the shelter animals to hang around the coffee shop.
Customers had the option to play with the animal or not, but I knew that if I could get the animals in front of people, I could get them adopted.
There was no better time to make my Cheddar Cheesy Fur Treats to pass out to customers who might have some animals at home. They might even offer them to the Pet Palace animal Louise was bringing. That way, I knew what was in the treats, and they were very healthy.
“First, we will use the rolled oats,” I told Pepper as I walked over to the shelf with the dry ingredients on it. On my way over, I took an apron off the hook and tied it around my waist.
My finger dragged down the lidded jars that had the contents written in chalk on the little black label on the front of the glass containers. I juggled the oats, oatmeal, sugar, and flour—all things I considered to be boring ingredients—all the way over to the workstation in the middle of the kitchen. As I made my way to the refrigerator, there was a knock at the back door.
“Hello?” I asked through the door after I detoured from getting the wet ingredients for the animal treats. “Who’s there?” I asked, knowing that no one but the delivery men used that door, and I wasn’t due for any sort of delivery.
“It’s me. Louise,” she called from the other side.
“Hold on.” I rubbed my hands down my apron and unlocked the deadbolt and the other locking contraptions Patrick had put on the door for safety. “Hi,” I greeted her.