Chocolate Cadavers

by Constance Barker

  “Something still feels weird about it,” I said. “It’s such a sudden change. Even when we divorced she didn’t talk about him like that.”

  “What do you think the reason could be? If there’s that sudden of a change, there has to be a reason, right?”

  “I don’t know the answer now, but I have a feeling that there’s a reason why she’s acting so differently.”

  “You don’t think...” Masie trailed off, but I knew what she meant.

  “I don’t know. There’s still some other suspects. I was considering Laurel and Alric, but I’m not so sure about them now.”

  “Why not?”

  “Don’t you think that where we found his body seemed kind of personal? I don’t know why Alric or Laurel would want to target me. I hardly know them.”

  “So then it really could be Angie.” Masie looked shocked.

  “It could be anyone. But those are the people with the most motive so far.”

  I heard the front door open. Masie and I went back out front to see who it was.

  Detective Spinner had just walked in to The Mad Batter.

  We locked eyes. I knew right away that this was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

  Chapter 12

  Henry stood up. “Detective Spinner, how are you?” He reached his hand out. I’m sure he was used to dealing with police all the time from his lawyer days.

  Detective Spinner shook his hand, but didn’t respond. Henry shifted awkwardly before sitting back down.

  “So, Spinner, what brings you in here?” Red asked, trying to be jovial. However, Detective Spinner was unmoved by his attempts to be friendly.

  “I’m here on business,” he said, dismissing Henry’s question. “Miss Foster and I have serious matters to discuss. I’m afraid I don’t have time for idle gossip.”

  I could feel the mood in the bakery shift. Red turned red in the face. He always hated being talked down to.

  I intervened before he made a move to challenge the detective.

  I gestured to the tables. “Please, take a seat,” I said.

  “Can I get you anything?” Masie asked. “It’s no trouble to put on a pot of coffee or grab a muffin. Oh and our scones are to die for.”

  He put up a hand to silence her. “That won’t be necessary, ma’am. I won’t be here long and I don’t want any interruptions.”

  “Oh...” Masie trailed off, unsure of what to do. She looked at me, and I just shrugged. I wasn’t sure how to deal with the unemotional force of tension that Detective Spinner was radiating either.

  “Please, make yourself comfortable,” I said, gesturing to the tables nearby. Almost immediately, he started walking. I exchanged a few looks with the others. None of us were used to such unfriendly behavior. Even Owen, Detective Spinner’s fellow police officer, was always cordial when conducting himself.

  He went to the nearest table, and I quickly followed. Masie busied herself wiping down the counter and Red and Henry went back to their conversation. Whether they were listening in or not, they did a good job of acting like everything was totally normal.

  Even sitting at the little bakery table, he held himself with authority.

  “Coco, I don’t think I should have to tell you that your conversations are not as private as you think. Public speculation on murder cases can lead to serious consequences.”

  I bristled a bit. The Mad Batter was hardly public. Still, I didn’t realize Masie and I were being that loud.

  “I’m not publicly speculating anything,” I said, trying to remain diplomatic.

  “I don’t have time for games. I know you were discussing the murder case. I would hope I wouldn’t have to remind you that Officer Owensby is still a prime suspect, and the evidence is stacking against him.

  I frowned. “What evidence?”

  Detective Spinner leaned back in his chair. “All of the firearms from Logan’s home came back clean. However, there’s one firearm still missing. We’re waiting on the ballistics to come back. If it’s a match to the missing firearm, then he better have an excellent excuse for why a firearm registered in his name was used as a murder weapon.”

  “Logan didn’t do it.” I may not have known the murderer, but I knew for a fact that Logan was innocent.

  “You seem to have more opinions about this case than anybody,” he said. “If you’re this confident, walk me through what you think happened. Who are your top suspects?”

  I hesitated. Angie was family. I couldn’t name her as a suspect.

  “Have you looked into Clive?” I asked. “Or Alric Hofstadter?”

  He thought for a moment. “What makes you name those two? Have you found any evidence?”

  “Well, I heard—”

  He cut me off. “I’m not interested in rumors, Coco. I’m looking at hard evidence.”

  I wasn’t sure how to proceed. “This is the evidence I have right now,” I said. “Obviously it wouldn’t hold up in court, but it may point you in the right direction.”

  I paused for a moment. Detective Spinner didn’t cut me off right away, so I continued. “Clive has a pretty well-known crush on Laurel. He was probably jealous of her relationship with Daniel. I know better than anyone that Daniel knew how to make enemies.”

  I paused again before continuing. “Also, Daniel was stealing from Alric. Or maybe he was making Laurel do it. I don’t know. But that’s as good of a motivation as any to kill someone.”

  “Do you have suspicions about anyone else?” he asked.

  I thought again about Angie. Other than our weird conversation, I really didn’t have any evidence or even a motivation. And none of that was enough to give my own cousin up to the cops.

  I shook my head. “No. That’s everyone I can think of. I may find out more about other people later. I don’t know.”

  “Well, Miss Foster, it seems that Daniel was involved in quite a few unfortunate activities,” he said. “Lucky for you, we’ll be looking into half the town in addition to Owensby.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. The farther away this investigation gets from Logan, the better.

  “But, unfortunately for you, we’re looking into everyone,” he continued. “And ex-wives, especially those who have recently received a large inheritance, have as good of a motivation as anyone to get rid of someone.”

  I tensed up a bit. Could he really be accusing me of murdering Daniel?

  He stood up, looming over me.

  “Have a good evening, Colleen.” He walked out of the bakery. I exchanged glances with Red, Henry, and Masie. They looked at me expectantly, but I was too shaken to fill them in on what happened.

  “Excuse me,” I said, as I walked into the back. There was only one thing on my mind. I needed to call Logan.

  I pulled out my phone and shakily pulled up his contact information. The phone rang a few times, but went to voicemail. I tried again, but the same thing happened.

  I slipped my phone back into my pocket. The last thing I needed to do was worry him.

  However, after my tense conversation with Detective Spinner, I desperately needed some comfort.

  Chapter 13

  I went into the shop the next day absolutely determined not to think about the investigation at all. Detective Spinner said he had it in hand, so he must. I hoped. Besides that was his job and mine was getting everything ready for the Harvest Festival coming up. I came in all smiles and greeted Masie and Scooter who had arrived early to get started.

  “Alright team, I need your best ideas, your worst ideas, your favorite flavors and everything in between. We don’t have too much longer before we’ve got to blow everyone away.” Scooter beamed at me but Masie seemed a little preoccupied as I explained my plan.

  “Okay, so. We want some variety but we need to keep it to only a few different things because we’ll be making a lot of them. As complex as it might be, people love small things. Teeny cakes that you can grab and eat will win over cake slices every time. I want both of you to bring me t
hree possible ideas, then we’ll reconvene and try to have at least six things to test bake before the end of the day. Sound doable?”

  “Yes, chef.” Scooter was already in baking competition mode, grabbing a couple recipe books and some scratch paper and ducking into a corner. Masie nodded, gave me a double thumbs up and took a seat in the front of the house at a little table.

  I couldn’t help but smile at my team. It was easy to forget amidst the drama, but I had a pretty good set up. Great workers, good friends, and a successful business. Now if I could just keep my...Logan out of jail, everything would be perfect.

  Harvest Festival. Right.

  I spent the next hour or so sketching out some designs and swapping flavors around. Caramel was a big one and easy to implement. Pumpkin was the obvious seasonal choice but I had to decide whether to lean into the pumpkin spice trend or try to find something new. Plus there was the issue of refrigeration. Most mousse or meringue would be okay for a couple hours but anything longer than that and things were likely to get droopy. I made a note: cake and buttercream, bars, cookies. Things that would be okay for several hours at room temperature. We’d have to decide later if it was worth trying to bring a cooler or run back and forth from the bakery to get refrigerated product.

  We had a pretty quiet morning which worked out well for our brainstorming. After about an hour, I called Masie and Scooter over again. “Alright, what do you have?”

  Scooter burst in quickly. “Caramel apple tartlets. Shortbread shell, baked spiced apples, drizzled with caramel.”

  “Very nice,” I pointed to Masie, game show style, “Contestant number two?”

  She grinned at me, seemingly in a better mood after a creative hour. “Pumpkin white chocolate cookies. Should be super soft and chewy with a bit of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.”

  “Sweet potato pies with meringue topping,” Scooter jumped in. “And maybe a spice cake with caramel mousse.”

  Before I could say anything, Masie put out a hand to stop him. “Can we do mousse? We’re not going to have any coolers, will we?”

  Scooter’s face dropped and I made an apologetic face at Scooter. “I’m not sure yet. I have a couple things with mousse too but it’s a good idea to think of things that will be okay at room temperature for a while.”

  Masie nodded, her suspicion confirmed. “Other than that, I’ve seen a video where they made dulce de leche with white chocolate in it, and is candied. Sort of a burnt caramel rich chocolate delicious—well it would be decoration but it looked amazing.”

  I sent them off to start on their projects and Scooter ducked out of the bakery to go find some pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice mix in case we wanted to mix up lattes or cider for the festival too.

  A few minutes after she got started on her caramelized white chocolate, Masie sidled up to me where I was considering the logistics of mini mousse cakes. “Hey, Coco? I know it’s none of my business...but why didn’t you tell Detective Spinner about what Angie said? You seemed to think she might have had something to do with Daniel, but you didn’t mention her with everyone one else you suspected.”

  I looked down to see myself tapping my pen frantically on my idea pad and carefully set it down beside the paper. So much for forgetting the investigation. I sighed heavily. “I don’t know, Masie. She’s family, you know? I can’t see her doing anything like what happened to Dan. She’s a little severe, but she’s not...Not a murderer. Plus it’s not as though we have any solid evidence on her anyway.”

  Masie wrapped an arm around me and rubbed my shoulder. “Coco, hun, you don’t have any solid evidence on anyone else either. Maybe Alric but even that’s a lot of speculation. I know you like to help out Logan when weird things happen in this town but...” She sighed and I braced myself knowing that she was about to say something completely true that I didn’t really want to hear. “Maybe, this time, you’re not helping? I mean, you want to obviously, and you have before but this time is different. I’d just...I’d hate to see you hurt his case while trying to help.”

  I was saved having to respond by the smell of burning sugar. Masie yelped and ran over, pulling the pan from the stove and turning off the burner. “Oh no...I’ve made lava.” She raised the pan to me and I couldn’t help but laugh at her face by the molten burnt mess.

  “Bit more burnt than caramel, hm? It’s all right. Just get some water in the pan and we’ll dissolve it back down.”

  I stared down at my notepad and pen and thought about Logan. Masie might have been right. I’m not a detective or an investigator. Even if I’ve managed to help out before, I couldn’t hurt Logan. Whatever he was to me after all this dancing around, I cared for him. I cared for him a lot. Putting my head down on the counter, I wrapped my arms around it and sighed. But what sort of friend-possible-girlfriend-whatever would I be if I didn’t do everything I could to help him?

  Chapter 14

  “Do you know what you’re doing for the Harvest Festival yet, Coco?” Masie asked. She rested her chin in her hands as she stared up at me, waiting for an answer.

  I stared down at my sketches. Try as I might, ideas just weren’t coming.

  “I don’t know, Masie,” I said. “Maybe something with apples?”

  “Oh, you could do like, a big apple shaped cake,” Scooter said, excitedly. “And like a big worm coming out of it or something.”

  Masie made a face. “A big worm? Gross. What’s wrong with you? The last thing people want to eat is something that a big worm is coming out of.”

  “Well no, it will be like a cute worm,” Scooter explained.

  “There’s no such thing as a cute worm.”

  “Yes there is. I bet I can make one that you’ll want to eat.”

  I ran my hands through my hair. I tried to be as creative as Scooter and as technical as Masie, but it just wasn’t working. Whenever I tried to think of harvest apples, all I could think of was poison apples.

  I picked up my sketch pad and stood up. “I need somewhere quiet to think. Sorry, guys.”

  Masie and Scooter continued to argue about how cute worms could be while I made my way to the front of the shop. I sat down at one of the tables and stared at the blank page.

  I knew why I couldn’t focus on the Harvest Festival. I was too focused on the murder.

  I had a list of suspects, and I wasn’t sure where to start. I began to jot down some notes. The Harvest Festival would have to wait.

  I wrote down what I knew so far. Daniel was holding petty cash stolen from the real estate firm as well as mysterious photographs. Clive was pursuing Laurel, and Sam was somehow involved through his hatred of Daniel.

  It was no surprise to me that Daniel had gotten himself into some shady dealings. I wasn’t surprised to find that he was stealing money, but I wondered how exactly he was able to do it. Could it be a motivation for his murder?

  With that in mind, it wasn’t surprising that Sam didn’t like Daniel. He didn’t like that I owned my own business. He would have hated that Daniel was doing things that were actually illegal.

  Still, the memory of the angry mob stuck out in my mind. If Sam was willing to destroy a dead man’s house, could he be capable of something more? I couldn’t tell if Sam was simply a grumpy, old-fashioned man, or if there was something more sinister bubbling just beneath the surface.

  And then there was Clive. As a journalist, I’m sure he was used to bending the rules to get the scoop that he wanted. If he wanted Laurel, what lengths was he willing to go to?

  “Oh, Daniel,” I muttered to myself as I thought about all of the clues. He had lived his life in such a way that there were so many motivations for his murder. One of them had to be the right answer. I just needed to find out which one.

  I looked at all of the pieces. They didn’t seem like they fit together. Still, I needed to start somewhere.

  I looked over everything, and one name stuck out more than anything else: Laurel.

  The police were looking into her, so I thou
ght that I should too.

  I shut my sketchbook and grabbed my keys. I needed to interview Laurel for myself.

  I drove over to her house, and went up to the front door. I knocked and waited a few moments for someone to answer.

  To my surprise, it wasn’t Laurel who answered the door at all.

  Ernestine was the one who answered the door. After our last interaction, I wasn’t looking forward to talking to her.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “Hi, I was actually hoping to speak to Laurel.” I stood on my toes to try to see into the house. “Is she home?”

  “No, she’s not home.”

  “Can you tell her to give me a call? I can leave my number.”

  “No. Why would I do that? What are you here harassing my daughter for?”

  “I’m not harassing anyone,” I exclaimed. “I haven’t even talked to her.”

  “If you’re not going to tell me what you want, then clearly you’re up to no good,” she said. “I think we’re done here.”

  “What?” I asked, bewildered. “But—”

  She slammed the door in my face before I could get my words out. I heard her lock the door.

  I sighed and retreated to my car. I knew she was watching from the windows as I drove away.

  However, I was not going to give up that easily. I drove around the block and then parked up the street. I wasn’t about to give up that easily.

  After about an hour, I saw Ernestine get into her car and leave. I let out a sigh of relief.

  I drove back over to the house and got out of the car.

  I was hoping Laurel was home, and her mother was just blocking access to her. However, when I knocked on the door again, no one answered.

  I tried to think quickly. I didn’t want to give up that easily. I went around the nearby windows. They looked into the foyer.

  I briefly considered breaking in. After all, our first break in the case came when Stella and Vivian broke into Daniel’s house.

  My plan was quickly thwarted. As I was peeking inside, I noticed a robust blinking alarm system right in the front hallway.