Chocolate Cadavers

by Constance Barker

  Suddenly, we heard a loud crash and some voices over the line.

  I looked at Logan wide-eyed.

  “What is it? What happened?” Logan asked.

  “A window just broke,” Vivian exclaimed.

  Logan looked at me. “Get your coat. We’re going over there.”

  Chapter 9

  I kept Stella and Vivian on the phone as we rushed over. When we arrived, there was an actual mob scene outside of Daniel’s house. A crowd of angry-looking men were armed with baseball bats and large rocks. They all looked ready for a fight.

  “Go out the side door,” I desperately said over the phone. “There’s a big crowd there. Try to avoid them.”

  I didn’t know what the crowd was doing at Daniel’s house, but I knew it would mean trouble for us. Logan looked just as worried about the situation as I felt.

  Logan pulled the car over. I saw Stella and Vivian try to sneak out, but they were quickly spotted by the crowd. I jumped out and rushed over to find Stella and Vivian.

  “I’ll tell you where you can put that baseball bat, Sam Porter,” I heard Stella yell. I followed the angry shouting to the front door.

  Stella and Vivian looked as ready to fight as the crowd. Don't mess with these old girls. Logan was hot on my heels. I hoped we could diffuse the crowd without escalation.

  “Well, Officer Owensby, you can arrest these two,” Sam said, gesticulating with his bat. “As you can see, they’re guilty of breaking and entering.”

  “Now hold on just a minute, Sam,” Logan said. “Let’s not escalate this. It already looks like it’s getting out of hand.”

  Sam shook his head. “There’s nothing to see here besides two old bats trying to use their age to commit crimes in our town that we work hard to protect,” Sam said. “Why, they’re no better than Daniel.”

  “No better than Daniel?” I asked. “What about you? I highly doubt you’re all here to play a game of baseball.”

  Some people in the crowd looked sheepish, but Sam just got red in the face. “We aren’t on trial here,” he said. “We haven’t done anything illegal.”

  “No? Then I’m sure the security cameras will show someone else threw that rock through the window. I’m sure none of you would honestly come here to damage the property of a dead man. That certainly wouldn’t happen in our sleepy little town, or would it?”

  I was lying about the security cameras, but I was hoping to get everyone to move on from accusing Vivian and Stella of wrong-doing.

  “If you won’t do anything about this, Logan, then I will. I’ll call whoever’s on duty and get them to come down here to sort this out,” Sam said. He pulled out his phone to punctuate his point. I had to think fast.

  “They’ll be just as interested in what you were doing here,” I argued. “Or don’t you care about your reputation and the reputation of all of your friends who were ready to illegally destroy Daniel’s property?”

  For a moment, I worried that he had called my bluff. However, he sighed and put his phone back into his pocket. A few of his friends in the crowd looked relieved.

  “Let’s fight this out the old-fashioned way, Porter,” Vivian suddenly yelled. “I’ll show you what a baseball bat can really do.”

  “Vivian, please,” I said, pulling her back. “It’s done. Let’s just go.”

  “Come on, ladies. I’ll drive you all home,” Logan said. He turned to the crowd. “I suggest you all go home. If nothing else happens, I don’t think anyone needs to report anything.”

  I pulled Vivian and Stella towards Logan’s car, and we all loaded in. Logan drove off towards the retirement village to drop off Vivian and Stella.

  I turned in my seat to talk to them as he drove.

  Vivian bounced excitedly in her seat. “We’ve made a real break in the case, Stella. No more knitting circles for us. We’re in the big leagues now.”

  “We don’t have a break in the case yet,” I cautioned, Vivian, trying to calm her down. “We still need to make sense of what we’ve found.”

  “Well of course, but we found real clues. We barely even had to do anything illegal.”

  “Breaking and entering is very illegal, Vivian,” Logan said. “You’re lucky Coco talked Sam down.”

  Vivian scoffed. “We were acting in the interest of justice.”

  “Do we know someone who can develop photo negatives? Those might have a clue to what Daniel had been up to before his death,” I said.

  Stella nodded her head. “I know someone who can help us out on that front. Leave it to me.”

  “Then we just need to figure out how he got the petty cash,” I said. “I can take care of that.”

  “No jobs for me?” Vivian pouted.

  “You can develop the photos with me, Viv,” Stella said. “Do you still have your old magnifying glass?”

  Logan pulled up to Vivian and Stella’s houses. We said our goodbyes, and they went off to their respective homes.

  The street lights filtered in through the car windows as we drove. The calm of the night started to make me feel sleepy.

  I sighed. “I am exhausted.”

  “Yeah, I am too,” he said. “All this extra police work, and I’m still never the one to solve the cases.”

  “You solve cases all the time,” I said.

  “Not murder cases like this,” he said. “You make it look so easy.”

  I smiled a bit at that. “It’s nothing special. They teach you all about it when you open up a bakery.”

  “Do they now?”

  “They do. Besides, I’m lucky you were there to protect me tonight. I don’t think Sam would have listened to me if you weren’t.”

  “Oh I wasn’t scared at all,” he said.

  “No?” I asked. “Why not?”

  “I mean, did you hear Stella and Vivian? I think Stella was pretty serious about that threat.”

  We shared a laugh. The car felt cozy.

  “If you want to thank anyone, thank those two,” he said. “I know we went to protect them, but I think we might have been goners without them.”

  “Maybe,” I said with a chuckle. “We’re lucky to have them. Who knows what would have happened otherwise.”

  “Yeah,” Logan said. “Who knows.”

  Chapter 10

  I arrived to the bakery early and helped Masie fill the case with cakes, large and small. We were just finishing when Scooter walked in the door.

  “Morning boss. Ready for some spooky pastries? I was looking up ideas all last night.” He grinned at me, already knowing my answer but apparently hoping for some leniency anyway.

  I shook my head at him, smiled and pointed a finger so he knew I meant business. “Harvest, not horror, Scooter. Not yet anyway. Plus, Laurel isn’t a fan of scary stuff, did you know? Wizard of Oz is about as ‘spooky’ as she gets. Wouldn’t want to frighten her off, would you?”

  Scooter went pink up to his ears at my teasing and offered a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am. Understood. Don’t scare the cute customers. These will be the most harvest-y pastries you’ve ever seen. Just straw and corn and pumpkins on everything.”

  I rolled my eyes as I washed up. “You know what I mean. Just keep it wholesome for another month or so. You’ll have your chance for candy glass shard decorations and red icing drip, alright?”

  He nodded and tied up his apron then gave me a look as I tugged on a light jacket, “Now where are you going?”

  “Gotta go see someone about some real estate.” I gave them both a wave as I left the Mad Batter to find out more about Down Home Real Estate and if they knew about their missing money.

  I pulled up outside a small office set near the library. ‘Down Home Real Estate’ was written neatly on a faded sign by the front door and I nearly ran into Laurel as she walked out.

  “Oh! I’m so sorry, can I help you—Coco! Hey, how are you?”

  I blinked through my surprise and smiled. “I’m doing alright, but what about you? Have you been okay?” Scanning over he
r outfit, professional and complete with a name tag, I pointed to the building. “I didn’t know you worked in real estate?”

  Laurel offered a restrained smile, “Just...keeping busy, you know.” She reached out a hand to my arm. “Thank you so much for asking. It means a lot, really.” Pulling back, she checked her phone and made a face. “I’m sorry, Coco, I have to go to a showing, like, ten minutes ago. But we need to catch up, yeah? Alric’s inside, he’ll take care of you. Bye!” Laurel beeped her car open and blew me a kiss as I waved her off.

  A little bemused, I opened the office door and poked my head in. A man in his late twenties, early thirties looked up from the desk with a welcoming smile. “Hello. Come in, come in. Alric Hoffstedter, call me Alric. What can I help you with?”

  As he stood from his seat, I got the full view of his vest over a simple long-sleeved shirt. Almost iridescent green or teal, with a peacock feather patterned tie tucked into it. I took the offered hand and he followed my gaze down to his own outfit.

  He shrugged, not quite embarrassed and waved me to the other seat. “I like to keep things colorful. Nothing worse than a boring real estate salesman, am I right?”

  Before I could do more than sit in the chair and open my mouth, he shook a finger at me. Warm brown eyes narrowed conspiratorially. “You’re Colleen Forster, Coco, the baker? I’ll bet you’re here to talk about The Grove. What you can get for it, how long it might take to sell?”

  Gratefully, I jumped on the excuse. “Yup, you got it. I suppose it’s bigger news for real estate than for the rest of the town, huh?”

  Pleased to have been right, Alric leaned back in his chair, “It’s a grand old place. Lot of history in that building. I’d love to see the inside. See how the crown molding has held up.”

  We talked for almost twenty minutes about The Grove before I managed to turn the conversation to Laurel and Daniel.

  “How is she doing, really? She seems alright but people can put up a front.”

  Alric sighed and nodded, “I catch her staring off sometimes, but I think she’s been okay. If you ask me, it’s for the best. He was horrible for her.”

  Interested, I lean in. “How do you mean? Did you ever meet him?”

  “More than once, which was more than enough to know he was an aggressive ass who thought too much of himself and not nearly well enough of Laurel. He came in a couple times, grabbed her arm, pulled her outside.” Color started to fill Alric’s cheeks as he spoke, clearly still harboring emotion. He shook his head and brushed back his short sandy hair. “I hated the guy. Not supposed to speak ill of the dead but...yeah. Hated him.”

  “So, you think Laurel will be alright without him?”

  He made a sound close to a snort and nodded, “Better than alright. He wasn’t a healthy person for her to be around. Bad influence. He was a drunk and a cheat and she’s sweet and smart. She deserves better. You know he stole off of Shirley when he worked there years ago? Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how he got that money he came to town with. The rest of us just do the best we can, ups and downs, financially speaking. What a horrid man.”

  While I was processing that information, Alric seemed to have another thought and paled slightly. “What is it?”

  “I-uh. You and Daniel...You were married, weren’t you? I’m sorry, I just remembered in time to stick my entire foot in my mouth—”

  I waved a hand, stopping his apology short. “It’s fine, Alric. You’re right about him. He was horrible. There’s a reason he’s my ex-husband.”

  He was placated somewhat but seemed to have said about everything he was willing to say after that. I promised to set up a time over the weekend for him to come evaluate The Grove then hurried back out to my car.

  I sat there for a moment, my mind turning over possible leads. I couldn’t seem to organize my thoughts as I had the night before and the only thing missing was Logan. After a moment, I called him. Just because he wasn’t officially on the case, didn’t mean we couldn’t bounce ideas around. Putting him on speaker, I headed back to the shop.

  “Hey Coco, getting into trouble? Need me to grab Stella and Vivian?”

  The smile in his voice was infectious and I couldn’t help the one spreading over my face.

  “No trouble yet. Just some more information. Turns out the money from the real estate office is the same office where Laurel works. I think Daniel was stealing it or even getting Laurel to steal it. Even worse, I think the other salesman, Alric Hoffsteddter knows about it. He flat out told me that he hated Daniel.”

  Logan hummed thoughtfully. “A lot of people hated Daniel though. Might be something there if Alric knew he was stealing. But why not just report it? Did he seem the kind of man who would confront Daniel on his own?”

  I thought back to my first impression of the man in the peacock colored vest and doubted it, but when he had talked about Laurel and how Daniel treated her. “I don’t know. He might have. For more reasons than money.”

  “Sounds like you’ve got a theory.” He almost sounded proud. “Go ahead, lay it on me.”

  We talked more about Alric’s possible interest in Laurel and the financial state of Down Home. As I drove, I spared a thought to how many other people were discussing motives for murder with their friend-maybe-more on the way to a bakery. Probably just me. Maybe it was weird, but it made me smile.

  Chapter 11

  As soon as we got to the bakery, I knew it was time to cut my conversation with Logan short. Angie was sitting at the front counter of The Mad Batter talking to Masie. She held a coffee cup in her perfectly manicured hands.

  I had no idea what my most famous relative was doing in my bakery. Normally, Angie let me know before she dropped by.

  “I’m sorry, but I think I have to cut this short,” I told Logan over the phone.

  “Okay, I'll talk to you soon.”

  I walked over to Angie. She and Masie were in the middle of talking about the case.

  “With all that’s happened, I really don’t know who could have done it,” Masie said. “Though I’m sure Coco will figure it out in no time.”

  Angie turned as I came up. She smiled at me. Her perfect teeth were blindly white. “Hey, Coco. We were just talking about the case.”

  “Yeah, I heard a little bit of it,” I said. “Anything interesting come up?”

  “Not really,” Masie admitted. “I was just filling her in on everything.”

  “I’m so sorry that you’re having to go through all of this, Coco,” Angie said. “It must be so stressful.”

  “It’s hard, but I’ll get through it,” I said. “I just really want to catch whoever did this.”

  Angie made a facial expression that I couldn’t quite read. “Well, not to be crass, but I think that whoever did this frankly performed a public service. I’m sorry for how it’s affected you, but I’m happy he’s gone.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  She sighed heavily. “Daniel was just the worst. I could never stand him. I’m sorry, Coco, but it was awful when you two were together. I’m so happy you dumped him.”

  “Wait, really?” I said. “I didn’t realize you hated him so much.”

  “I did. Every second you two were together is a second I wish for your sake that you could get back. At least now he’s gone for good.”

  I felt very taken aback. Angie had never spoken about someone like this before. And she had never expressed these feelings about Daniel.

  “Weren’t you interested in him before we started dating?” I asked.

  She pretended to gag. “Coco, please. I would never be interested in someone like him. Even now, I wouldn’t even spit on his grave.”

  I couldn’t understand why Angie was saying she had so much vitriol for Daniel. I knew for a fact she was lying about being attracted to him before we got together.

  I had to find out more about why she was acting this way. Reluctantly, I added her to my mental suspect list.

  Just then, He
nry and Red walked into the Mad Batter, giving me the perfect excuse to end the strange conversation.

  “Excuse me,” I said to Masie and Angie. “I’ll be right back.”

  I walked over to the two senior men. They looked uncharacteristically solemn.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Has something happened?”

  “It’s Stella,” Henry said, seriously.

  My heart dropped. Stella wasn’t the youngest person, and she had a knack for getting into trouble. “What? Is she hurt?”

  “No, no. Nothing like that,” Red said. “She’s fine, physically.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Henry sighed. “She’s moving, Coco. Far away.”

  “Oh...” I sat down at the nearest table. “Moving? But why?”

  I was relieved that she wasn’t hurt or dying, but any good feelings were short-lived.

  “I don’t know,” Henry said. “But I don’t know what she’s thinking, moving at her age.”

  “She’s too old to be leaving all of her friends and her home,” Red said. “There’s a time and place to strike out on your own, and this isn’t one of those times.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Angie leave.

  “I’ll be right back, guys,” I said. I rushed over to Masie.

  “I need to talk to you in the back,” I told her.

  She followed me into the back of the bakery.

  “That was strange with Angie, right?” I said. “What was she doing here?”

  Masie shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you, Coco. I think she was dropping in for a visit. Why? Are you thinking there’s something else going on?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I thought that the way she talked about Daniel seemed really strange.”

  “I noticed that too. What do you think is going on?”

  “She used to have a school girl crush on Daniel. She backed off when we started seriously dating. She definitely wasn’t as disgusted by him then.”

  “Could it be just because you two divorced? She might just be trying to be a supportive cousin.”