A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3

by Samantha Silver

  I laughed. “Wow, no kidding. I’d need a bit of an extra boost too if I were taking care of three babies at once.”

  “Plus their families aren’t from here; they moved to Enchanted Enclave for her job. She’s only been in town for about ten years. So she and Kyle are on their own in terms of help from extended family. It can’t be easy for them.”

  “I think I remember her now, she’s been in once or twice since I started working here, I had no idea she was in that situation.”

  “Yup. It might be a bit easier for her now that the kids are in school. I think they’re all in first grade now.”

  I shook my head. The whole situation was just so sad. I couldn’t imagine what Karen’s husband and kids must have been going through.

  Chapter 4

  I did my best to ignore the rumor mill for the rest of the day. At one point Aunt Lucy came by the coffee shop along with the rest of Lucy’s Floozies, as they were known. They were basically a group of Mean Girls – without the meanness – in their fifties and sixties who went around town doing whatever they wished, whenever they wished to do it. They had taken on the name ‘Floozies’ as their way of reclaiming the word.

  “I heard the two of you are the ones who found Karen,” Aunt Lucy said as she made her way to the counter while the others, including Leanne’s mother, staked out a spot at the biggest table in the place.

  “We were,” I confirmed.

  “There’s a rumor going around that Karen died this morning, but don’t believe it. I’m pretty sure Ariadne started it. She’s been going around accusing Leanne of murder. But Dorothy spoke to Joe just a few minutes ago, and he said Karen’s recovering from surgery, but is still very much alive and kicking. Well, ok, she’s not kicking since she’s unconscious. But she’s alive.”

  “Good,” I said, a wave of relief washing over me. Dorothy’s husband Joe worked as a police officer here in Enchanted Enclave, so I knew his information would be good. “Ariadne was in here earlier, she told us she thought Leanne should have been arrested for what she did.”

  “Oh, please,” Aunt Lucy said, waving a hand in disgust. “From the way Dorothy said it, you’re in the clear, Leanne. With Eliza backing up the story that Karen jumped in front of the car, there’s nothing you could have done. Besides, the doctors said the injuries from the accident were superficial at best, and that the only actual issues stem from the fact that someone stabbed her beforehand.”

  “That’s a huge relief,” Leanne said. “I was thinking we should convince Kaillie to make some food and send it over for Kyle. He must have his hands full right now with Karen being in the hospital.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Aunt Lucy replied. “I imagine he’s in Seattle right now. Hopefully he’s got someone to take care of the kids, give him a bit of respite. I’m going to talk to the others about this, too. Maybe we can work something out so we can take care of the kids and give him some alone time with Karen while she recovers.”

  “That would be really good of you, I bet he would be very appreciative,” I said. “Especially if the two of them don’t have much family support around here. Although, you know, we probably should consider the fact that it’s possible he stabbed her.”

  Leanne looked at me like I was crazy, but Aunt Lucy nodded sagely.

  “Yes, that is a consideration. After all, statistically it’s most likely that he did it.”

  “Aunt Lucy!” Leanne said, obviously shocked. “Kyle and Karen always looked like the happiest couple.”

  “Yes, but you never know what’s going on in someone’s private life. Never assume that just because someone puts on a happy face on the outside that you know what’s going on behind closed doors.”

  “I guess,” Leanne replied. “Still, I can’t imagine him being a killer.”

  “Does Karen live near where we found her?” I asked.

  “Not really,” Leanne answered. She frowned. “Actually, the thing is, there’s not really any houses around there. It’s just an empty street. I don’t know why Karen would have been there, or who would have stabbed her there. The whole thing is weird.”

  A sobering thought hit me. “Aunt Lucy… if Kyle really did stab Karen, who’s to say that he might not try something else when she’s at the hospital?”

  “Nothing,” Aunt Lucy replied. “Except for the fact that he’d be about a thousand times more likely to get caught. Not only would there be far more people around than on Enchanted Enclave in the middle of the night, but the number of people who know Karen drops down to the single digits down there.”

  “Right,” I said, nodding. “Whereas here on the island it could be one of any number of people.”

  “Any number of people who would have wanted Karen dead,” Leanne mused. “What if she recovers and she has to come back to living here, knowing her murderer is somewhere nearby? It’s not like Chief Jones has a great reputation as a crime solver.”

  I bit my lip. That was a good point. A couple of months ago when I had been accused of murder he had been next to useless.

  “Well, we’ll see what happens. Anyway, I just wanted to give you the update. Can we have our normal orders?”

  “Sure. I’ll bring them over in a minute,” Leanne said as Aunt Lucy scuttled off to join the rest of the Floozies.

  “I guess when your brother and sister are the owners you don’t need to pay,” I said with a laugh.

  “Aunt Lucy once told Aunt Debbie that her payment is her constant presence in her home. I couldn’t quite make out what Aunt Debbie muttered in reply but it was something about not being paid enough to deal with Aunt Lucy.”

  “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

  Leanne turned to look at me, and spoke suddenly, like she had wanted to say this for a while but hadn’t dared.

  “I think I need to find out who stabbed Karen.”

  “What?” was the only thing I could reply. Had I seriously heard Leanne correctly?

  “I’m serious. Chief Ron isn’t going to do anything about it. And I hit her with my car. I know everyone except Ariadne is telling me not to feel guilty about it, but I do. I feel so guilty, Eliza. If only I’d paid more attention, if only I’d pressed the brakes a second sooner, or swerved harder, I might not have hit her. I probably still would have stopped to see what was going on, so it’s not like it would have changed anything. If she comes out of this – when she comes out of this – I don’t want her to have to go around town wondering if the person who killed her is lurking around the corner.”

  “But Leanne… what if she wakes up and just tells Chief Ron who did this to her? Then that person will be arrested and it’ll all be fine.”

  “I know. And believe me, no one would be happier than me to see that happen. But what if she doesn’t wake up? Or what if she doesn’t remember? Look, I know you think this is a bad idea, and I’m not asking you to help, but I need to do it.”

  “Are you joking? Of course I’m going to help you. You not only helped me when I did the same thing, you ended up saving my life. Do you honestly think I’m going to let you do the same without me?”

  Growing up, Dad and I had always had each other. We were family, and one thing Dad made sure to instill in me was that when your family needed help, you had to be there. Dad had always been there for me. Leanne had been there for me, even though she barely knew me when I was almost killed trying to solve a murder. And now, it was my turn to repay the favor. In no universe was I going to let her do this alone.

  “Oh, you’re the best, Eliza,” Leanne said, stepping forward and taking me into a big bear hug. “We’re going to find out who did this. We just have to.”

  “Alright, so tell me what you know about Kyle,” I said.

  “Not a ton, really. He doesn’t come in that often. Maybe once a month, so I know him by sight, but that’s about it. He works construction here in town.”

  “Why did Karen and Kyle move here if they don’t have any family ties to this place?”

  “For the
weather. Karen is from Portland, but Kyle’s family is on the east coast. They met over there while Karen was in college, got married, but after a few years Kyle decided he had enough of trying to work construction in the middle of winter in Vermont, so they decided to come back out this way. Karen applied to a bunch of jobs, got one here, and so they ended up on Enchanted Enclave. But I think Aunt Lucy is wrong. I don’t think Kyle would have done this to her. From everything Karen’s said to me about him, and the few times I’ve seen them together, he seems like a really good guy. He seems to care a lot about Karen.”

  “Alright, so we’re going to have to look into the rest of her life,” I said. “What do you know about it?”

  Leanne shrugged. “Only that she works at the school. She teaches kids. She seems to enjoy her job, and while she seems quite a bit frazzled when she comes in I figure that’s sort of par for the course for a woman trying to juggle a full-time job and triplets.”

  “What about the other teachers? We should see if we can interview them, find out if someone had something against her. Friends, too.”

  “Good thinking,” Leanne said, snapping her fingers. “I know she’s actually good friends with Jack.”

  Jack Frost was a retired math teacher who had taught both my cousins when they were in high school, and was due in for his morning coffee soon. I hoped he would show up today.

  Sure enough, about half an hour later he walked through the door, his normally-friendly face looking a little bit more subdued.

  “Good morning, Jack,” I greeted him. “I’m sorry about Karen. I heard she’s a friend of yours.”

  “She is, yes,” Jack replied. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard what happened this morning. Such a huge shame. Who would do something like this to her?” He shook his head sadly before taking out his wallet. I rang through his regular order on the till.

  “Do you have any idea who might have done this?” I asked. “Was there anyone at the school she wasn’t getting along with?”

  “Well, she had a few disagreements with the principal, lately,” Jack said, handing over a ten. “Apparently, the two of them disagreed with how they should handle students who weren’t keeping up to standards. Karen wanted to let the parents know, bring them into the loop, and come up with strategies to get the students having a hard time get back up to speed. After all, in Karen’s mind, if they fell behind this early in their education, they were never going to catch back up, and it was just going to snowball. Whereas if she could get them back on track now, they’d have better odds of success when they got to high school. Which was a strategy I completely agreed with.”

  “What did the principal think?”

  “He believed that Karen should simply fudge reality a little bit on the report cards, move the child up to the next grade, and let the high school handle it when they got there. Of course, Karen strongly disagreed, and I know they’d had a few meetings about it.”

  Leanne gave me a hard look. “The school is actually not far from where we found Karen. It’s about half a mile away.”

  “I heard it was you who found her,” Jack said. “Thank you. I’ve been told you’re the reason she didn’t bleed to death. I appreciate you saving her life. You must be wrong about the principal though. I can’t see Gary Vanderchuck murdering Karen over a simple disagreement.”

  “What about anyone else at the school? Were there any teachers she disagreed with, or anyone she might have been close to?” I asked.

  “You’re not thinking of investigating this, are you?”

  “No, of course not,” Leanne lied smoothly. “We’re simply curious. After all, we’re the ones who found her; we know what kind of shape she was in. I really hope Chief Jones manages to get the person who did this off the street.”

  “So do I,” Jack said grimly. “I really cannot think of a nicer person than Karen. And with those kids. Such a tragedy. I can’t imagine what Kyle and the boys are going through right now. I don’t know who else could have done it. Sasha was her best friend at the school. She could be worth talking to if you really want an idea as to who could have done it.”

  He took his coffee and chocolate chip banana muffin and left, with Leanne immediately turning towards me.

  “I think Gary Vanderchuck should be one of our best suspects. But we need to find Sasha,” I said.

  “I know her,” Leanne said. “She works part-time at the school, mainly as a substitute, but she spends her weekends and days when she’s not teaching volunteering at the animal shelter. She’ll be there when we close up, we can go and see her then.”

  That sounded like a good plan.

  Chapter 5

  The rest of the day flew by pretty quickly, but by the time we closed, I was definitely starting to drag.

  “Hey Leanne, can you show me how to make a coffee before we go?” I asked.

  “Sure,” Leanne answered. “It’s probably about time you learned how to use the espresso machine, anyway. What do you know about coffee?”

  “I know that if there was a way to hook myself up to an IV and inject it directly into my veins, I would do that.”

  “Alright,” Leanne said with a laugh. “So we’ll start with the basics. Coffee beans come to the factory raw. You can recognize the raw beans by their color; they’re green when they get here. In the back, Dad is in charge of roasting the beans we use here and that we distribute to other coffee shops and stores around the state. Basically, the longer the beans are roasted, the darker they are, and the stronger the flavor. We use our classic medium-roast blend here in the coffee shop.”

  “Classic Cauldron Blend,” I said, nodding. “I’ve seen the name on the bags when you dump them into the grinder.”

  “That’s the one,” Leanne said. “It’s got a rich, deep flavor profile, but it’s not overly strong. Now, once you have the beans, they need to be ground. That’s what this machine here is for.” She tapped the top of a large, black machine with a clear funnel at the top that was filled with beans. “I call him Henry. Henry grinds the beans, and gets them ready for use in the machine.”

  She motioned for me to come closer, and picked up one of the things she used to make the coffee. It was like a metal cup with a long, straight handle coming out of the side.

  “This is called the portafilter. Always clean it out with hot water before you start making a new cup of coffee; any old grinds in it have already been used and will simply burn if you run water through them again. I’ve already cleaned this one for you, so you’re going to put the ground up beans into there. Go ahead, try it.” She handed me the portafilter and I looked at the grinder. I placed the portafilter underneath it, and then pulled on a lever at the bottom of the grinder, like I’d seen Leanne do.

  A small pile of ground coffee fell out of the grinder and right into the portafilter’s basket.

  “Perfect,” Leanne said. “Pull it a second time. I have the grinder set up so that two pulls will give you the exact amount of ground coffee that you need.”

  I did as she said, and Leanne grabbed a small piece of metal off the counter. It was thicker at the bottom, and designed to fit perfectly in the basket.

  “Good. Now, this is a tamper. You’re going to press down on the coffee grinds with about thirty pounds of pressure. When we get home you can use the scale to see what thirty pounds is, but I always think of it as a decent, but not excessive amount of pressing. You’re going to put some effort in, but it shouldn’t be hard.”

  She handed me the silver tamper and I pressed down on the beans, trying to imagine what thirty pounds of pressure would feel like. When I was done, I looked up, and Leanne nodded approvingly.

  “Good. The most important thing once you get the hang of it is to be consistent. If you don’t use enough pressure, the coffee will be watery and bland. If you use too much, the water will pass through the beans too slowly and will burn them, giving your coffee a bitter taste. So nail down the pressure, and be consistent.”

  “Got it. Do it perfectly
every time or you’ll ruin everything.”

  Leanne laughed. “Ok, that’s a little extreme. There is some leeway. But the sooner you get it down pat, the better. Now that you’ve got the tampered coffee, you just need to slot it into the machine and press the button with two little cups on it.”

  “Alright,” I said, nodding. I’d seen Leanne do this a hundred times a day for the last six weeks or so, so I was fairly confident I could get it done. I lined up the protruding parts of the portafilter basket with the holes in the coffee machine, slotted it in, and twisted. The portafilter was in solidly, and I pressed the button, grabbing a take-out cup and slotting it under the portafilter.

  A couple of seconds later, golden rich crema began to pour from the two nozzles at the bottom of the portafilter and into the cup, like the nectar of the gods. The sweet aroma of roasted coffee floated up to my nostrils and I breathed in deep, inhaling the scent as I closed my eyes. This was perfection.

  “That looks pretty good,” Leanne said. “Obviously, I’m the best teacher in the world.”

  “I have to say so,” I replied with a grin. “What about the milk?”

  “Yeah, so to steam the milk, you want to get the temperature to one hundred and sixty degrees. Again, consistency is key. People come here every day because they know the coffee is going to be good, and they know exactly what they’re going to get. Some places just do it by touch, but we use a thermometer, just because they are going to give you the most accurate temperature every single time. Turn off the steamer when you hit a hundred and fifty five degrees; the temperature will climb another five degrees on its own. Fill the jug up to the halfway mark with milk.”

  I did as Leanne told me. “Alright, so I just put the wand from the steamer into the milk?”

  “Give the wand a quick burst of air first, just to get rid of any water that might be in the wand, so it doesn’t end up in the milk,” Leanne said. “And then yes. You want to steam and stretch the milk. So put the wand in the milk, turn on the steamer, and then lower the milk slowly until you hear a kind of ‘kissing’ sound.”