Murder By Lime: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 4

by Summer Prescott

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  Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright 2015 by Maven Publishing - All rights reserved.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 1

  Petite, dark-haired Marilyn Hayes glanced at her watch for the fourth time in twenty minutes, concerned that her daughter Tiara hadn’t yet made it to work. Having recently graduated with honors, the lovely young blonde was working in her mother’s Key Lime pie shop on Key West, until she found her dream job. Tiara was a godsend to Marilyn, who had an aversion to technology, and a profound disinterest in business and marketing, areas in which her daughter excelled. They had moved to the island shortly after her divorce, a few years ago, and Marilyn made her living selling pies out of their tiny kitchen. In no time at all, she had established enough of a following to first rent a small store, and eventually expand into buying her cozy little yellow and green shop near the beach.

  The worried mother had just reached into the back pocket of her jeans to grab her phone and text her daughter, when the carefree young woman breezed into the shop, flushed and smiling.

  “I was about to call out the Coast Guard, young lady,” Marilyn crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.

  “Sorry, Mom,” Tiara glided past, giving her mother a quick peck on the cheek on her way by. “I just got done with my beach yoga class…it ran a little late, then I had to go home and take a quick shower,” she called over her shoulder, heading to the kitchen to wash up and don an apron.

  Marilyn frowned, wondering if class had indeed run late, or if the thirty-something, beach-boy yoga instructor, Andrew, had been trying to chat the somewhat naïve young woman up again. It was no secret that her normally level-headed, pragmatic daughter had a crush on the older man, but she had hoped that, like most crushes, it would wane and falter. No such luck, apparently.

  “How was class?” she asked, trying to sound casual, when Tiara came back into the front of the shop, tying her apron strings into a bow behind her back.

  “Really good,” she replied with a faraway smile. “I worked out all of my aches and pains, and Drew asked me if I wanted to go out on his boat later.”

  Marilyn took a deep breath, trying to keep her reaction from showing. “Awww…that was nice of him. Too bad you’re closing with me tonight,” she said with ersatz sympathy.

  Tiara gave her a look. “Nice try, Mom. I know you don’t want me to hang out with Drew, but you’re just going to have to accept that I make my own choices regarding who I date. And before you try to throw a roadblock in the way…” she began, seeing her mother open her mouth to protest. “I already asked Kelcie to stay later to help you with closing tonight,” she said smugly, having tied up every loose end that her mother could use to try to dissuade her.

  “Tiara, the man is in his early thirties and doesn’t even have a real job…” Marilyn protested.

  “Actually, he has more than one “real job,” Mom. For your information, not only is he a yoga instructor, but he also has his own business doing some sort of importing,” her daughter faced her squarely, hands on hips.

  “You know that I only bug you about this stuff because I care, right?” she sighed, helpless in the face of her daughter’s determination.

  “I know, but you need to trust that I can take care of myself now, Mom,” Tiara reminded her in a much gentler tone.

  “It’s not you that I don’t trust,” her mother frowned.

  “Well, you’re just going to have to get past that,” was the no-nonsense reply. “Now, go make pies with Kelcie, and leave me alone to get this business growing,” she shooed Marilyn away playfully, sitting down at the computer next to the register.

  “How did you end up getting so darn bossy?” her mother teased.

  “I learned from the best,” Tiara fired the parting shot.

  Marilyn went back to the kitchen to create something new and exciting to add to the shop’s appeal, something she tried to do at least once a week, and came up with Key Lime Cheesecake Bites, drenched in white chocolate. She and Kelcie carefully placed the graham cracker crust and cheesecake into tiny molds, and when they were sufficiently chilled, dipped them by hand into creamy, dreamy, melted white chocolate. A raspberry on top capped off the delicate and delicious treat, which they generated by the dozen.

  “Mom…I need to talk with you in the office,” Tiara came back into the kitchen looking stunned. “Kelcie, can you watch the front for a bit?” she asked.

  “Yep, I’ve got it,” doe-eyed, mocha-skinned Kelcie agreed immediately, hoping nothing was drastically wrong. She’d only been working for SubLime Sweets for a few months, but she absolutely loved her job, and wasn’t keen on the possibility of having to find another one.

  Alarmed, Marilyn immediately pulled off her plastic gloves, untied her apron, tossed it on the counter top, and followed her daughter into the business office.

  “Honey, what’s wrong?” she asked, sitting on a corner of her desk while Tiara paced in the small space.

  “I just received the invoice from our lime supplier. Apparently, the storms in Mexico have wiped out a significant portion of the orchards down there,” she shook her head.

  “Well,” Marilyn sighed. “If we have to pay a little extra until they recover, that’s just what we have to do,” she shrugged.

  “No, Mom, you don’t understand,” she waved the papers in her hand in agitation. “It’s not just that the limes are going to cost more, it’s that they may not have the supply to keep up with our demand. Apparently there are going to be caps on the weight that can be ordered at any one time,” her daughter worried.

  “So…are we going to be able to get enough to meet our needs?” Marilyn’s eyes widened.

  “Not according to this, unless we get another supplier.”

  “Then we have to find another supplier,” her mother replied.

  “That’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ve been making calls ever since I got in, and everyone else is in the same boat too. I’m going to call Drew and see if he knows anyone that we should try,” Tiara sighed.

  “Does he have those kinds of connections?” Marilyn asked.

  “I have no idea, but at this point, I have to pursue every possible option,” her daughter shrugged.

  “Okay, sweetie. Thanks for taking care of this. Let me know if there’s anything that I can do,” she said, standing up and giving Tiara a hug. “I know it seems difficult
right now, but we’ll get through this,” she encouraged.

  “We always do,” the young woman attempted a smile, then headed back up front to her computer.

  Chapter 2

  “Great news, Mom!” Tiara sang out happily, a few days after having tried unsuccessfully to secure additional lime suppliers.

  “A new supplier?” Marilyn was hopeful.

  “A new supplier,” her daughter confirmed, nodding.

  “That’s my girl,” the proud mother swept her up in a hug. “How did you do it?”

  “Well, as it turns out, Drew knows a guy who brings them in once a week, and not only can we get as many as we need, but we’re going to be getting them cheaper than everyone else,” Tiara informed her with a satisfied grin.

  “Wow, how did that happen?” Marilyn was cautious, thinking that the arrangement sounded too good to be true.

  “The guy who brings in the limes has done business with Drew for years, so he’s giving him a discount, isn’t that amazing?”

  Marilyn nodded, hiding her suspicions. “Amazing indeed.”

  “We’ll actually have to go down to the docks to pick up the cases ourselves, because the guy doesn’t deliver, but the discount will be more than worth the extra effort. We can just use the delivery van,” Tiara had it all planned out.

  “I suppose that will work,” her mother agreed, reluctantly.

  “Trust me, Mom, this is going to be a good thing,” her daughter reassured her. “We might even order double and sell the limes that we don’t use for profit,” she suggested.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Marilyn pursed her lips, thinking. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet,” she cautioned. “Let’s just see how things go.”

  Her fears were allayed when Tiara, with Drew in tow, pulled up to the back door at the beginning of every week to unload the crates of beautiful bright green limes that they’d secured from their supplier. Restaurants and bars were charging astronomical prices for drinks and dishes that required limes, with some of them removing entire sections of the menu, but SubLime Sweets continued to thrive. One balmy Monday morning, the couple arrived in the van, and Drew tried his best to avoid Marilyn, but she made a point of talking to him and saw that he had a broken nose and a horrendous black eye.

  “Goodness! What happened to you,” she asked, causing a flush to rise from his neck to his ears, making the purpling on his face that much more profound

  “Oh...uh…it’s really nothing,” he stammered, embarrassed. “The deck of my boat was slippery, and I fell, that’s all,” he shrugged, avoiding her eyes.

  “Well, that sounds rather dangerous,” she wasn’t fooled for an instant, and gave her daughter a hard look.

  “It was an accident, Mom. Lighten up,” Tiara rolled her eyes as she swept by, carrying a crate of limes.

  “Mmhmm…and I wonder what the other guy looked like,” Marilyn muttered under her breath, turning away. She certainly was not feeling any better about her daughter’s association with an older man, even though he had secured a lime supplier for them.

  “Well, that’s the last of them,” Tiara let out a deep breath, brushing her hands off after having set the last crate of limes in the cold storage room.

  “Looks like Kelcie and I have plenty of ammunition for our creative indulgences today,” Marilyn nodded with satisfaction, surveying their ample supply.

  “I would certainly hope so,” her daughter grinned. “I’ll see you two around noon, Drew and I are going out to breakfast,” she tossed out casually as she turned to go.

  “Make sure the poor man doesn’t slip and fall,” her mother replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

  “Mom…” Tiara warned, closing the door behind her. Marilyn and Kelcie looked at each other and laughed, then donned their aprons, eager to get started.

  **

  Today’s new and daring lime creation was cream-filled Key Lime cupcakes with vanilla bean whipped buttercream frosting. Marilyn and Kelcie made a pact to keep each other from eating more than one apiece, because it would be far too easy to overindulge in the delightful treats. To cap off the tasty and elegant desserts, Marilyn sprinkled green crystalized sugar over the top, and drizzled them with a tangy Key Lime glaze. After the last cupcake was frosted and ready to go, she and Kelcie sat down with their designated cupcake and cups of steaming hot coffee. They had just enough time to savor their creations before the store opened.

  Tiara arrived just as they were finishing up. She was right on time, as usual, but looked harried and a bit scared.

  “Honey, is everything okay?” Marilyn asked, picking up her plate and heading to the kitchen behind Kelcie.

  “No,” she said dully, then seeing her mother’s look of alarm, clarified further. “I mean, I’m okay, but…Drew got a call while we were at breakfast, and somehow, his boat sank in the marina,” she sighed, trailing into the kitchen behind her mother.

  “Oh no! That’s awful,” Marilyn exclaimed.

  “Yeah, he was pretty upset,” Tiara said. “Fortunately, it’s insured, so he’ll be able to replace it, but he has to pay to have it taken out of the marina, and wait until the insurance check comes in before he buys another boat. He said it’ll hurt his business pretty significantly.”

  Her mother frowned. “Hurt his business? How? You said he was in importing…surely he doesn’t use his own boat for that?” she asked warily.

  “For some of it he does – he meets suppliers from other countries out in the water and brings things in on his boat, but mostly he has other carriers working for him,” she explained, sounding as though she didn’t quite understand the process herself, which was unusual for the business savant.

  “How does a boat sink while it’s in a marina anyway?” Marilyn wondered.

  “I have no idea. Drew took meticulous care of that boat, she was his baby. If there had been a hole in the hull or something, he would’ve known about it. He checks her stem to stern every time he secures her for the night,” she frowned.

  “Does he have any enemies?”

  “I don’t really know, but I wouldn’t think so. Everyone he meets seems to just love him,” Tiara replied.

  “Especially when most of the people he meets are the ladies in his yoga class,” Marilyn smiled faintly.

  “Yeah, at least he still has that,” her daughter made a face.

  Chapter 3

  “What do you mean there are no limes this morning? How can there be no limes? It’s delivery day!” Marilyn panicked.

  “We went down to the dock, as usual, and Pedro wasn’t there, so Drew tried to call him and there was no answer,” Tiara explained. “So then we checked the warehouse where he sometimes leaves the shipments if he’s in a hurry, and it was completely empty. I don’t know what to do,” she ran an anxious hand through her hair.

  “We have a little bit of inventory left over from last week, but that’ll only last us a couple of days at most. We certainly won’t make it through the week with the few crates that are back there,” Marilyn worried. “What if we go buy out all of the limes that are in the grocery store?”

  “There aren’t nearly enough, and with what it would cost us, we wouldn’t be able to make a profit,” her daughter replied, disheartened.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Let me get on the phone and try to lean on some suppliers,” Tiara’s jaw was set. Marilyn nodded as the determined young woman headed toward the office.

  “Okay, Kelcie, it’s damage control time,” the grim-faced owner said, reaching for her recipe files. “Let’s look for every recipe that we can find that uses as little Key Lime as possible. It’ll be a flavoring, rather than a feature – that way we’ll be able to string along what little inventory we have, stretching it as far as it’ll go. If we have to, we can use some concentrated lime in with the fresh lime juice, and we’ll make the most of the zest as well.”

  The two bakers put their heads together and came up with as many recipes as they could
which used as little lime juice as possible, and spent the rest of the day baking and strategizing how to make the most of their remaining limes.

  “Any luck?” Marilyn asked, when Tiara came back to the kitchen to talk about the plan for the week.

  The despondent young woman merely shook her head. “Not only did none of the vendors have any inventory, but one of them basically said that we got what we deserved because we chose to work with pirates.”

  “Pirates? That’s pretty harsh language to use when talking about a competitor…I wonder what was behind that comment…” Marilyn mused.

  “Well, people can get pretty ugly when they’re being undersold,” her daughter pointed out. “So what’s the plan?”

  “For now, we’re minimizing the use of lime, and hoping to come up with another source at some point. If it gets bad enough, we might just have to close for a few days,” she shrugged helplessly.

  Tiara shook her head. “We can’t, Mom. Not only would it be a bad idea to lose that much revenue, but it would cause our customers to doubt our longevity. We have to show them that we can weather this storm, no pun intended. Even if we stay open and sell non-lime related items, it’ll be better than closing down,” she pointed out.

  “Okay, then we’ll come up with a couple of different plans, and hope that we can find a supplier in the meantime. Hopefully Pedro will return Drew’s calls and we can carry on with business as usual,” Marilyn said, trying to remain optimistic.

  “I certainly hope so,” Tiara agreed, clearly stressed.

  All three of them looked up when the bell over the front door jangled, signaling that someone had come in.

  “That’s my cue,” Tiara remarked, trying to smile. She left the kitchen and Kelcie and Marilyn watched her go.

  “Mom!” they heard her call a few minutes later. Marilyn trotted out of the kitchen and to the front counter, more than a bit surprised to see two uniformed policemen and the ever-handsome Detective Bernard Cortland standing with her daughter, whose face was ashen.