Gluten-Free Murder (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 1)

by P. D. Workman

  “How did you hear about that?” she demanded in a hushed tone.

  “Someone was telling me how Angela’s husband disappeared without a trace. And then later, in his graduating year, her son. Same thing. Just disappeared into thin air.”

  “Nobody disappears into thin air.”

  “Does that mean someone knows something about it?”

  Mary Lou considered this for some time. “Somebody always knows something. And in a little town like this, probably more people than you would expect know something.”

  “Does that mean you know what happened to them?”

  Mary Lou’s hand dropped away from Erin’s arm.

  “I do not.” Her voice was crisp and firm, devoid of emotion. “I know nothing about what happened to them and I don’t want to know. The family was apparently much more dysfunctional than it appeared to be in public. Angela always appeared to have things in control. But there are some things you just can’t hold on to. The harder you try, the more they squirm away.”

  “Like secrets?”

  “Like I said, secrets are hard to keep in a small town like this. Even if you lie to cover them up, people still figure it out. You try to cover it up, but someone sees. Someone hears. Someone knows.”

  Erin gave a little shiver in spite of the heat of the day.

  “Who knows?” she asked. Was Mary Lou trying to give her a warning? Or a clue?

  There was a period of silence from Mary Lou while she considered her answer. Erin had decided that she wasn’t going to answer, and then Mary Lou spoke. Her voice was low.

  “Angela was the type of person who always knew. Always figured things out. Trying to keep a secret around her was like… trying to hold on to the wind. Somehow, she always knew things that were best left alone.”

  “Did she know things about you?”

  “Honey, I don’t have any secrets. It’s all out there. Everybody knows my business. I don’t try to cover it up. But other people. Most people have something they would rather keep private. An indiscretion. A secret addiction. A mask that they wear…”

  Erin thought of the people around her and, in particular, the suspects in Angela’s murder. If Angela was someone who collected other people’s secrets, that made her a target to a lot more people than just Erin or Vic. Erin’s and Vic’s motives were tiny in comparison to secrets that other people might be desperate to keep from public view.

  “Was Angela a blackmailer? Is that what you mean? Did she make people pay her to keep quiet?”

  “Of course not. Nothing so crass. But she had other ways of manipulating people. Getting what she wanted from them. A little twist here, a nudge there. A word or two dropped at a time when only her target would understand. You can understand how someone who wanted to protect their reputation could become… hostile.”

  “Do you know who wanted to hurt her?”

  Mary Lou looked back the direction they had come. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Do you? Do you know who wanted to hurt her? Who would want to kill her?”

  There was only silence for a reply.

  “Mary Lou!”

  “A lot of people wanted to put a stop to what Angela was doing.”

  “You?” Erin could hear the malice in Mary Lou’s normally calm, cultured voice. “What did she do to you?”

  Mary Lou looked down at her watch, then ran her hand over her hair, smoothing it. “I’m afraid I can’t chat any longer. You can get my story from anyone in town. Like I said, it’s all out there. I don’t have any secrets.”

  Erin reached out to delay Mary Lou, but the gesture was pointless; Mary Lou had already turned away from her and was walking away at a quick pace, her heels clicking down the sidewalk. Erin watched her go. There was so much hate and anger toward Angela; it seemed that the surprise wasn’t that she had died, but that she had survived for so long in the first place.

  She went on to the police department and looked in on the offices where she had previously met Terry Piper. He was not there, but there was an unfamiliar woman typing at one of the computers. She looked up and nodded at the form clutched in Erin’s hand.

  “Witness statement?” she asked briskly. “In the bin over there.” She nodded to a tray on the corner of the desk that was neatly labeled ‘forms to be processed’ and contained a few other varicolored papers waiting to be dealt with.

  “Thank you.” Erin put it down and looked at the woman, awkward and unsure what else to say.

  “You must be Erin Price.”

  “Yes. I don’t think we’ve met?”

  “Nope. Clara Jones.”

  “Uh… nice to meet you.”

  “So, you run the new bakery.” Clara was a middle-aged woman with brassy red hair and large earrings. She seemed out of place in a police department, but seemed to be comfortable there and acted as if she knew what she was doing. Erin remembered that Melissa had said she worked there as well, transcribing reports for Officer Piper.

  “Yes. I hope you’ll stop by. You missed opening day, but I’ll give you a free muffin.”

  “I’m sure they’re good for gluten-free. But I don’t eat that kind of crap.”

  “Uh…” Erin wasn’t sure whether it was ‘crap’ because it was gluten-free or because it was full of processed flour and sugar, and decided that either way, she didn’t want to take it up with Clara. “Sure. Well, any time.”

  “I don’t know what you’re still doing in town,” Clara said, pausing in her typing to pick up her mug and take a sip of coffee. “If it was me, and I was accused of murder, I wouldn’t be sticking around for them to pin it on me. Nobody wanted another bakery in town, and with Angela Plaint’s murder… if it was me, I’d sell the business and pack up.”

  “I can’t really leave,” Erin protested. “Not while it’s still being investigated.”

  “You stay around here stirring up trouble like you have been and you’ll be the next one on a slab in the city. Don’t you know how you’re upsetting people?”

  “Stirring up trouble? What did I do?”

  “Asking questions. Stirring up the past that is best left undisturbed. What business is it of yours?”

  “It’s my business because I’m the one who’s been accused of murder! You expect me to just tuck my tail between my legs and run away? Maybe that’s how people handle things here in Bald Eagle Falls, but like you say, I’m not from around here. And that’s not how I’m going to act. I’m not going to pull a disappearing act. I have just as much of a right to live here and to run my business as anyone else.”

  “Sometimes people don’t leave of their own free choice,” Clara said cryptically.

  “Clara.” Terry Piper’s voice came from behind Erin, making her jump.

  Clara had been looking at her computer screen and obviously hadn’t seen Piper approaching. She took another sip of her coffee, hiding her face behind the big mug. “Miss Price brought in her witness statement,” she said, indicating the pink page at the top of the basket to be processed. “About the alleged burglary of her shop by someone looking for an alleged buried treasure.”

  Erin opened her mouth to retort, but Piper spoke over her.

  “Good. We need to get that into the computer as soon as possible. It’s important to stay on top of these reports.”

  “Yes, sir,” Clara agreed, her voice light and unconcerned.

  “Anything else?”

  “No, it’s been pretty quiet. Barking dog complaint from Mrs. Snell. Mr. Timon asking for the latest on the Plaint murder for an update in the paper.”

  “I’ll deal with those later.” Piper motioned to Erin. “I’ll walk you back to the bakery.”

  “I think I’m pretty safe,” Erin retorted. She looked at Clara. “It isn’t like anyone is trying to kill me.”

  “Come.” He grasped her upper arm lightly and steered her back out of the office. He didn’t speak until they got out to the sidewalk and started heading back to the bakery. K9 kept pace at Piper’s side.
“Too many loose lips in Bald Eagle Falls,” he said. “I wish we had a bigger pool to draw on for administrative help at the office. But there really aren’t that many people who are interested. The help that we do get is too… undisciplined.”

  “It’s a bit of a shock living in such a small town. I thought I had lived in some little places before, but by Bald Eagle Falls standards, they were huge. Here… everybody really does know everybody else’s business, don’t they?”

  “There are plenty of people who are happy to spread it.”

  They walked for a couple of minutes in silence. “I hear that Angela was someone who knew everyone’s business,” Erin ventured.

  “I don’t know that she was any worse than anyone else.”

  “From what I’ve heard… it sounds like she was blackmailing half the town.”

  Piper chuckled. “Now that she’s not around to defend herself. That’s pretty blatant gossip. I don’t have any evidence she was blackmailing anyone.”

  “Maybe not blackmailing,” Erin said, “I don’t mean she was demanding to be paid. But… manipulating people, threatening to expose them.”

  Piper frowned, shaking his head. “I haven’t heard anything like that. I’m not sure how to prove something like that.”

  “Maybe she had pictures of people, or recordings or letters…”

  “Nothing in her possessions. We’ve already searched through them.” He caught her glance at him. “What?”

  “Who is we? You and K9?”

  K9 looked up when he heard his name. He let out a whine.

  “I’m not the only person in the police department. We have the Sheriff. And Tom Banks is the other officer, but he is only part time, called in as we need him. All three of us searched Mrs. Plaint’s house. I can assure you, there was no evidence she was keeping dirt on anyone.”

  Erin sighed and nodded.

  “I am investigating Mrs. Plaint’s death, Miss Price. You seem to think that I’m just a country bumpkin and don’t have any idea what to do with a murder investigation, but I can assure you I’m fully qualified and I have federal resources to draw upon.”

  “You could call me Erin.”

  He gazed at her for a moment, his eyes deep, dark pools. “No. I don’t think I can. I need to maintain a certain level of professionalism.”

  Erin thought about what he had said. “I believe that you’re investigating,” she said. “It just seems backward that you’re focusing on the two people who are from out of town, when it seems more likely someone who knew her well would have a motive to harm her. What motive would I have? You really think I would kill someone because they were a competitor?”

  “People have killed for less.”

  “I didn’t kill Angela Plaint because I want a monopoly on Bald Eagle Falls’s bakery business.”

  He shrugged. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “You had the best means and opportunity. But I admit that your motive is not as strong as others’. Vic’s, for instance.”

  “Vic didn’t kill Angela.”

  “How much do you really know about Vic?”

  He turned his gaze on her. Erin looked away uncomfortably, not wanting to give anything away.

  “I know she didn’t kill Angela.”

  “You hope she didn’t. You don’t know anything about her.”

  “I know what kind of person she is. She’s been living and working with me. I know she’s not a killer.” She turned back toward Piper and stared at his nose. She couldn’t meet his eyes, but she knew he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference as long as she was close. She had promised Vic she wouldn’t tell him about her past unless asked directly and she intended to keep that promise. She needed to give him the impression that she had told him everything she knew. That she was trustworthy. “I’m a good judge of character.”

  Piper continued to look at her. “Do you know that’s not her real name?”

  Erin swallowed. “Yes.”

  “Really. What is her real name?”

  “You’d have to ask her.”

  “Did you know she’s not Angela Plaint’s niece?”

  “Angela was her aunt,” Erin said firmly.

  He considered this, then shrugged. Aunt could mean different things to different people. It didn’t always mean there was a blood or legal connection. Sometimes an aunt was your mother’s best friend, or a godmother or cherished babysitter. Or a cousin who happened to be a generation older.

  “You can let her know that I need to talk to her again. Go over a few things in her statement.” He looked at his watch. “I know you’re getting ready for the lunch rush, so I won’t expect to see her right now. But I’d like to talk to her again soon.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  KNOWING THAT THEY WERE going to be working Sunday morning and that they were going to need a little bit of equipment for their trip to the cave after the women’s tea, Vic and Erin closed up shop early Saturday afternoon and took Erin’s car to the city.

  Vic seemed much more anxious in the city than in Bald Eagle Falls. Erin caught her looking around the camping gear store nervously, as if she were expecting to be attacked or accused of something.

  “What’s wrong?” Erin asked. “Did Officer Piper tell you not to leave town?” she teased.

  “Well, he did, but I told him we’d be coming here. He said that was okay, as long as I was going to be around and would make myself available for questioning.”

  “It was a joke. I didn’t know he had really told you that.”

  “I know.” Vic turned all the way around, like a searchlight sweeping the darkness for some hidden danger. “I know you like him, but I don’t like having to answer all his questions. He’s nice enough about it, but I know he suspects me. He thinks I killed Aunt Angela.”

  “We’ll have to just keep asking questions and pushing him to look in other directions. As long as he keeps looking, he’ll find out who it was sooner or later.”

  But she knew that the disappearances of Angela’s husband and son had never been solved. Who had the police been at that point? It would have been too long ago for it to have been Officer Piper. Then again, Melissa wouldn’t necessarily have had all the details. She hadn’t been transcribing police reports back then. She had only been seventeen when Angela’s son disappeared. And younger when Angela’s husband left. The police might have tracked both of them down. Might have satisfied themselves that there was nothing to be concerned about, that they simply hadn’t wanted to be with Angela anymore. A man was entitled to leave if he wanted to. Plenty of men did, and never contacted their families again.

  Still, it worried her. Maybe crimes weren’t so easily solved in Bald Eagle Falls.

  “What are you so nervous about?” she asked Vic, getting back around to the original question.

  “I don’t want anyone to see me who might know me. From before. I don’t want to run into any old friends or neighbors. Or worse, family. Or somebody who knows my mom and is going to run back and tell her all about seeing me here. Like this.” Vic slid her fingers through her smooth blond ponytail, frowning.

  “You look lovely,” Erin assured her. “If anyone recognizes you… well, we’ll just deal with that. What’s your mom going to do? She already kicked you out. You’re not in contact with her. What does it matter what she hears or thinks?”

  “Yeah.” Vic bit her lip. “You’re right. I just can’t help feeling…”

  “It will be okay. We’ll handle it. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

  “Okay.”

  They went on with their shopping, referring to the equipment list that Vic had compiled. Erin couldn’t believe how eager the girl was to explore some caves. Erin felt anxious just thinking about it, but Vic was all-in. She wanted to be crawling through dark tunnels, miles underground, where there was no telling when you might fall off of a cliff, into an underground lake, or just asphyxiate from lack of oxygen.

  “We’re not going anywhere dangerous,” Erin s
aid. “Nothing that’s really far underground. We’re both just beginners.”

  “I know.” Vic gave her a grin, laughing at Erin’s anxiety now. “But even beginners need flashlights and safety equipment. Just the basics.”

  “It seems like an awfully long list for just the basics.”

  “That’s all it is. I just went by beginner lists.”

  “What else?”

  “Uh…” Vic looked down at her neat, concise printing. “Rope.”

  “Rope? Why do we need rope? We’re not going to fall down anywhere.”

  “Just to be safe. Just for emergencies.”

  “No emergencies. I’m not going to any caves if we’re going to have emergencies.”

  “We won’t. It’s just on the list. So, we get it.”

  Erin grumbled while Vic searched through the spools of rope to find the kind that she wanted. An employee cut it to the specified length and finished the ends. Vic added it to the shopping cart.

  “Oh, look who it is!”

  Vic’s head whipped around and she followed Erin’s pointing finger to see Gema. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Don’t scare me like that!”

  “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t know any of your family or friends anyway. The only people I know around here are from Bald Eagle Falls.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  They were both watching as Gema spoke to another woman, a little younger than she was. She was closer to Erin in size and body shape and, unlike Gema’s iron-gray waves, she had close-cropped, spiky red hair. The two women were too far away for Erin and Vic to hear what they were saying. The other woman had on the green vest of a store employee, but Gema didn’t seem to be looking for anything. They were just having a friendly conversation. Gema’s fingertips rested on the clerk’s arm, as if stopping her from leaving.

  “These little towns,” Vic said. “You can never go anywhere without running into someone you know. Even when you go into the city.”

  “I suppose. I haven’t lived anywhere as small as Bald Eagle Falls before.”

  “Compasses.”

  “What?” Erin looked down at the shelf display of compasses. “Do we need anything special? Maybe we should get a GPS. Do they make GPSs for caving? They make those little fish radar things for fishing, is there anything like that for mapping out the tunnels in case you get lost?”