Cheesecake and Chills

by Ramona Ransom

  Nessa didn’t want to talk to Bizzie on a good day, but her grandfather was right. The only other person besides Bizzie that would know Liam was his boss, who had enough to worry about right now. If Nessa wanted answers, she’d have to suck it up and talk to Bizzie.

  “I don’t think Bizzie is a killer either, for what it’s worth.”

  “I was hoping you’d try to stay away from this mess and figured that if Bizzie was your only hope, you’d give up before you started.”

  Her grandfather wanted to keep her safe, and she knew that, but it might not be such a bad idea to talk to Bizzie. For some reason, everyone in town wanted to know what was going on in both of their lives, and even though both Nessa and Lex didn’t believe Bizzie was a killer didn’t mean everyone else in town would agree. If she played it smart, she might be able to convince Bizzie to talk simply because they were both dealing with something similar. Ranger thought Nessa was targeting people, and Bizzie was dating a guy who was now dead. As different as that was, it was still the most they’d had in common in all of their years knowing each other.

  Chapter Six

  A busy shift behind her, with news that Faye had told Heather she’d be leaving Shelfies, Nessa headed to her new home. The sun had set, and it was just about completely dark as she pulled her Jeep into the driveway.

  She got out, grabbing a to-go box from the seat beside her. She’d stopped off at The Shack on her way home to pick up something for dinner and couldn’t wait to get inside to eat her burger and fries. She was less excited to get started unpacking but knew it was time. The only things she’d unpacked so far were a few toiletries and some kitchen utensils. Even her bed was barely made, so that was her first priority. She needed to dig out her comforter and favorite pillow because she’d not been loving what she’d been using the past few weeks.

  Halfway up the steps to her porch, Nessa screamed.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Bizzie Eadler had nestled herself into a rocking chair on Nessa’s porch. The woman had moved the chair over from where it was previously, so she was in complete darkness. She had a bag next to her and wore a dark hooded sweatshirt and black pants, adding to the already strange situation.

  “Hiding,” Bizzie said, barely above a whisper.

  Nessa needed a moment to process.

  “What are you hiding from, and why did you think this would be the best place to do it?”

  “Who.”

  “Who what?” Nessa asked, still confused.

  “You asked what I was hiding from. I’m not hiding from a what. I’m hiding from a who.”

  Nessa wrapped her head about the tongue twister and put her bag down on the table next to Bizzie. She couldn’t very well turn the woman away when she’d been so concerned about whoever she was hiding from that she’d thought to come there.

  “Are you okay? Who are you hiding from?”

  “Can we go inside?” Bizzie asked, rendering Nessa speechless.

  “I… sure. Yeah. Let’s go.” Nessa picked up her food and unlocked the door, letting Bizzie in ahead of her. She couldn’t say that hanging out with Bizzie was the last thing she wanted to do with her night, but it certainly wasn’t the first. Bizzie stayed standing with her bag as Nessa moved around the house, putting her things down and turning on the lights. “Do you want something to drink?”

  “Maybe some water, if you have it.”

  Nessa wanted to tease Bizzie and tell her, of course, she had water but didn’t figure now was the time to play around. She got them each a bottled water from her fridge, since she’d yet to unpack any glasses, and told Bizzie to sit and put her bag down.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I’m fine,” Bizzie answered, chugging her water.

  “If that were true, you wouldn’t be sitting in my kitchen right now. I can’t think of any reason other than that something is horribly wrong that you’d have come here to make yourself feel better.”

  “I saw someone sneaking around. Or at least I think I did. I went outside to check my mail because I’d forgotten to do it earlier, and when I was on my way back inside, I swear I saw someone in the bushes. I heard some rustling, which freaked me out, and I ran inside, then straight out the backdoor and over here. I figured that if someone was going to break-in and kidnap me, then I’d surprise them and be gone when they got inside.”

  “Kidnap you?! Bizzie, what are you even talking about?” Nessa wanted to believe whatever she was saying but had to wonder if maybe Bizzie was letting paranoia get to her since her boyfriend had just been killed. On the other hand, maybe she wasn’t crazy at all, and someone was around because her boyfriend had just been killed. Either way, Nessa knew she was in for a long night.

  “I don’t actually think anyone wants to kidnap me, but I’m so sure I saw someone. I don’t know why they’d be here or what they’d want, but I didn’t want to stick around to find out. Someone close to me was just murdered, and I can’t help but think someone is after me, too.”

  “Why would anyone be after you? Did you do something wrong? Did Liam?” Nessa asked.

  Bizzie looked up from her position at the table. She’d had her head in her hands until Nessa mentioned Liam.

  “I should have known you’d know about him. Let me guess. You’re doing that little investigating thing of yours again?”

  What possessed Bizzie to even be remotely rude right now was beyond Nessa. She’d come to her house for help and still wanted to be snarky.

  “It’s not like we live in a great metropolis. News spreads pretty quickly. Liam was killed, and there is money missing from the radio station. Do you know anything about that?” Nessa asked, afraid of the answer. If Bizzie knew where the money was, then that would open a whole other can of worms.

  “I don’t know any more than you do. I don’t believe that Liam stole the money, but we may never know the truth now that he’s gone. I know he’d been in a little argument with his boss beforehand. I guess the whole reason Robby was doing that stupid contest in the first place was because the listeners had dwindled down quite a bit. Levi, the old owner, had built himself quite the audience, and Robby was having a hard time keeping them around. They were loyal and didn’t like the kind of changes Robby was making. He all but stopped having guests on the show and started playing all this weird music no one has ever heard of. Liam had some ideas, and Robby had no desire to listen.”

  “You know Robby has an alibi, right? There’s proof that there’s no way he could’ve killed Liam.”

  “But there’s no proof that it wasn’t him skulking around here. If he thought Liam stole the money, it’s possible that he thought it might be at my house,” Bizzie pointed out.

  “Just like there’s no proof it wasn’t anyone else. You don’t know that it was Robby. It could have been the killer,” Nessa told her, leaning back into her chair.

  “Well, that’s helpful.” Bizzie rolled her eyes and slammed her water bottle down. “I don’t know why I came here. It was stupid.” She got up, but Nessa grabbed her arm before she could get away.

  “I have no idea why I said that. I’m sorry. I just meant that we don’t know if it was Robby or if maybe you were mistaken and it was something else you saw and not a person at all. I get that this is scary. I’m scared. I just moved here, and now you tell me you saw someone in the bushes. But we can’t just keep guessing what happened. Do you want to call Raff?”

  “Absolutely not. There’s enough attention on me already. I don’t need Raff coming here. That would only serve to make people wonder, and they do enough of that as it is.”

  “I know the feeling,” Nessa muttered. “Hey, you want half a burger and some fries? We can eat and maybe talk some more. You can stay over if you want. Who knows what we might figure out.”

  She didn’t want to share her burger or her house with Bizzie, but if someone was sneaking around in the area looking for money or for Bizzie herself, then Nessa didn’t want to be alone either. Th
ey’d have to settle for each other’s company until morning.

  Chapter Seven

  “You’re late,” Lex said, eyeing Nessa as she came barreling into the bakery’s back entrance. “I’m going to buy you an alarm clock. You have to keep it downstairs, though. That way, you’ll be forced to get up to shut it off.”

  “I wish that was the reason I’m late,” Nessa said, hanging up her coat by the door. “I had a slumber party.”

  Lex paused mid-brownie batter pour. “You had a slumber party with whom?” His full attention was on her.

  “Bizzie.”

  Nessa washed her hands and began pulling out the cheesecake mixture she’d made the day before. While she didn’t know much, she’d learned quickly that making it the day before she planned to use it somehow made it taste better. Her recipe this week was a simple no-bake berry cheesecake cup. It was more of a cheesecake cupcake, but thankfully, she wasn’t in charge of naming her items.

  Pressing crushed graham crackers mixed with butter into the bottom of an oversized cupcake liner, Nessa had her crust. She scooped out the cheesecake mixture and topped each of the crusts with a mix of blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. She watched as her grandfather finished working on his brownie baking and moved on to creaming butter and sugar. Every time she tried that, the butter either wasn’t melted enough or was melted completely, and she always ruined whatever she was making. She looked back at her own masterpiece and thought about how much easier it was.

  “Voluntarily? Was one of you holding the other hostage? Was there any torture involved?” Lex asked, trying hard to hide his laughter.

  “I don’t know if I’d say it was voluntarily, but we both woke up this morning no worse for the wear, so I guess it wasn’t so bad.”

  “Care to share why you and your archnemesis had a slumber party?”

  “Archnemesis? What are we, Batman and The Joker?”

  Lex chuckled, and Nessa explained everything. She knew how weird it sounded because it was weird.

  “Is she okay? Did you call Raff?” Lex asked, realizing the severity of the situation.

  “She didn’t want to draw more attention to herself, and I didn’t argue. I don’t need anyone telling Ranger anything about me. He’s already causing enough trouble. I locked the doors, and we were fine. I’m not even sure if she really saw someone or not, but she believed she did, and she needed someone to be there for her.”

  “I don’t like that. You two shouldn’t try to deal with things yourselves. What if she did see someone and they come back again? I know you don’t want Bizzie staying over every night. Did you get any clue as to why she’d think someone was around? I haven’t heard of any break-ins.”

  “It might have something to do with the missing money. She was dating the guy who died, and since no one knows who stole it, it’s still out there somewhere. I don’t think she has it or knows where it is, though. From what she told me, Liam and Robby had been in a fight about how to run the radio station, but I didn’t feel like Liam had reason to steal the money.”

  “Any other ideas?” Lex asked.

  She knew that anyone with access to the radio station’s building could have stolen the money. What she didn’t know was who would be on that list. There wasn’t even a way to rule out the previous owner unless they’d had the locks changed, and Nessa had no idea how to go about figuring that out.

  “Not really. Do you know if anyone else worked there?” she asked. “Maybe another employee or someone who was a guest on the show and knew where the money was.”

  “I don’t know too much about any of it. I know Heather from Selfies has been a guest a few times. I know they’d had Rose on there from Wash and Curl, but I also heard that the new guy made some changes, so I don’t know how much of that matters anymore. Maybe Ranger knows something. I’m almost positive he cleans their building.”

  “That should go over well. I’m sure he’d love to know that I’m asking around. I could ask, and he’d just tell me that I should already know since I’m probably the one who stole the money and killed Liam, anyway. I think it’s better I avoid Ranger at all costs. Maybe you can ask?” Nessa suggested.

  “I don’t know that I want to get involved at all, to be honest. What about Mavery? Have you two talked much? Maybe she knows something.”

  Nessa hadn’t made a strong friendship with Mavery. She’d meant to, but life kept happening and getting in her way. It was a good idea to talk to her rather than Ranger, though. The only problem was that because she didn’t know Mavery that well, she didn’t know how loyal she was to Ranger. Nessa would never want anyone to give up their loyalty, so if even for a second, she believed that Mavery wasn’t comfortable sharing information, she’d stop. But she was going to give it a shot.

  “That’s a good idea. I don’t want to strain any relationships or anything, though. I don’t want to talk about what Ranger thinks of me. I only want to know who has access to the radio station. If we can figure that out, maybe we can find a reason someone disliked Liam, or maybe we’ll find out that someone was desperate for money and they stole it. If there’s a connection between the two, I think this is how we’re going to find out.”

  “You’re throwing that we word around quite a bit again. Remember that the only reason I’m involved at all is because you are. I don’t want to get caught up in any of this. I would, however, love to be a fly on the wall when you tell Daniel that you had his sister over. He’s going to get a kick out of that.”

  “I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t even gotten a chance to call him. Maybe after work, I will. Speaking of work, one of us should probably get out front,” Nessa said, realizing they’d been in the kitchen for entirely too long.

  “Faye’s out there,” Lex told her.

  Nessa thought Heather would have wanted to keep Faye for even just a short time, but she wasn’t complaining. She already felt relief wash over her, knowing Faye was around.

  She wanted to talk to her, and since her grandfather seemed to have everything under control in the kitchen, she went out to do just that.

  “You’re here!” Nessa said, excited to see the older woman. “I’m so glad.”

  “I’m glad to be here. Thanks for finally being the Pierce brave enough to ask me to join the team.”

  Seeing Faye working at the bakery made Nessa smile. She didn’t look overworked like she had that day at the bookstore. Every hair was in its place, and it’s what reminded Nessa that she’d wanted to talk to Faye before she went to her hair appointment but had totally forgotten. She knew Faye went every week, but anything could happen between now and then.

  “Nice hair,” Nessa commented, hoping she could broach the conversation with ease.

  “Your grandfather already told me. No need for the compliments.” She winked. “He said you two were talking about things, and he mentioned that Rose is Judson’s aunt. I know Bizzie was dating Liam when he died, but Rose didn’t like that much since pretty much everyone around here knows Bizzie liked Judson except for Judson.”

  She hated to stick up for Bizzie but felt the need. “Bizzie does like him, but it’s not exactly her fault for seeing someone else. I mean, if she likes one guy, then sure, maybe she shouldn’t be worried about someone else, but it’s not fair of Rose to be mad at her for it.”

  “Fair, no, but happening anyway? Yup.” Faye took care of a couple of customers that came in while Nessa refilled the case. Before they knew it, they were back to chatting.

  “I’m going to talk to Mavery soon, I think.”

  “That’s a great idea. She’s a lovely girl.”

  Nessa smiled and took off toward the back, turning at the last second. “Hey, if you hear anything more from Rose, let me know.”

  Chapter Eight

  Whoever had thought of putting tile at the bottom of the cabinet under the kitchen was a genius.

  Nessa had finally unpacked a few cleaning supplies and planned to put them under the sink. When she opened th
e doors, water came dripping out onto the floor, and there were a few small puddles in the back corners. The tile protected things, which she was thankful for, but any water at all meant something was wrong.

  She searched for the phone number from Clint, the guy Mavery had brought along with her when they unpacked the moving truck, and dialed his number, hopeful he had time for her. With no answer, she called her grandfather to see if he knew anyone that could help.

  In the background, she could hear Faye’s voice telling her not to come to work that day and to take care of her house.

  “What’s Faye doing there?” Nessa asked. She knew the woman wasn’t on the schedule that day because she was supposed to be there herself in just over an hour.

  “She stopped in for coffee and breakfast,” Lex answered. “But now that she’s here, you might as well take care of things. You don’t want whatever is leaking to get worse.”

  Nessa knew he was right but hated how guilty she felt. She didn’t ask Faye to work there so she could take extra time off.

  “I see. Well, I can still come in. I put in a call to that Clint guy. Hopefully, he’ll call me back soon. I can always shut off the water and hope for the best. He was looking for work, so I doubt he’ll take too long to call back.”

  She heard Faye’s voice again and laughed. She’d called the bakery line, which had no speakerphone, and even if it did, her grandfather had no idea how to use it. That meant Faye knew that Nessa was trying to come up with reasons for Faye not to cover for her.

  “Does she have bionic ears, or does she just know me really well?” Nessa joked.

  She could almost hear the smile on Lex’s face over the phone. “She knows you’re making excuses. You have to take care of your house. This is exactly why we wanted to hire someone else in the first place. It just happens to be Faye, and that’s something you’re going to have to get over. You’re the boss, now Nessa, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t here for you. We’re all in this together.”