Murder Train: A Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery

by Stacey Alabaster

  Office Green rolled her eyes. "That is because I called Garry out for his interview late in the evening," she said. "He was here to give a statement. Where is Garry now?"

  "Oh." My stomach dropped a little when I realized we had overplayed our hand and now given away the fact that Garry was missing. Now Green would need to hunt for him...she'd probably call for back up...and it would only be a matter of time before Dan was awake and hot on the trail as well.

  "Oh my goodness," Pippa said, suddenly hitting her forehead really hard. "I'm so stupid. The light in our bathroom was on when we left and I heard the shower running. Garry must have been in there." She made an apologetic face at me and shrugged. "Sorry, Rach, I guess I dragged you out of bed for nothing. It's my weird brain fog lately. I haven't been feeling well."

  "That-that's okay," I said slowly, unable to tell if she was making this up or whether she had actually heard the shower running.

  Officer Green looked at us both with suspicion. "Okay. But if either of you notice anyone missing again, you come straight to me." She glared at me. "Just without the salacious accusations next time."

  I gulped and nodded.

  "Now get back to your cabin and don't leave it again. This has been a long day and I need some darn sleep."

  Pippa and I crept away, pretending to be heading back to our cabin until we were sure that Green's door was shut and her lights were off again.

  "Do you believe her?" I whispered, crouching down.

  "I don't know," Pippa replied. "If I was stuck with Garry in my room after lights off, I might get embarrassed and lie about it as well. Especially if I was a police officer in the middle of interviewing suspects in a murder case."

  "Hey, so you didn't really hear the shower on in our room, right?"

  Pippa shook her head. "No, that was just to get Green off our backs."

  "You're a really good liar these days, Pippa," I said. "For a second there, I couldn't quite tell." I stood up and looked at the tracks again, then slowly followed them back to Green's cabin, making sure that we were quiet enough not to disturb her. They still seemed to end when we got to the steps of the cabin.

  Pippa stepped up onto the porch and got down onto her knees to inspect. "There are some footsteps here, but they are dusty and hard to see," she whispered, beckoning me. I didn't want to climb up onto Green's balcony. She was going to wake up.

  But Pippa was insistent so I took a step, gently enough I thought, but I cringed when I heard the wooden board creak beneath me. I held my breath waiting for the door to open, but it didn't.

  Pippa was still down on her hands and knees. "Look," she whispered. "The tracks lead, very faintly, right up to the door. But when he came out again, he didn't go back the same way, didn't head back toward our cabin." She pointed. “He turned right and left the campsite all together."

  I also got down on my hands and knees and saw that she was right—there was the faint trail of dusty footprints after Garry had left Green's room. "Maybe we are finally getting somewhere," I murmured.

  But the tracks stopped when the dirt ended at the end of the porch. Beyond that, there was only grass. We both jumped down gently, though I was shocked that our crawling around and jumping hadn't disturbed Green at all.

  Pippa shone the flashlight over the endless fields. No prints. No dirt. No sign of Garry.

  "He could have gone in any direction," I said, feeling helpless again just when we'd got a new lead.

  "What is he doing going out into the fields at all, though?" Pippa asked, shining the light across them. "Because that's the real question here. You and I both know that the only thing out there, the only sign of civilization at all, is Ana's windmill."

  I thought for a second. "You're better with directions than I am," I said. "Which direction WAS the windmill? Do you remember?"

  Pippa stood up and took a few moments to orient herself, then she walked out onto the grass and pointed in a direction that was just north from the way we'd all walked from the train. "It's that way...somewhere...." Pippa said, dropping her arm. "But it’s dark, Rachael, and I'm not even one hundred percent confident that is the right way."

  "How confident are you?" I asked bluntly.

  She shrugged. "Eighty percent sure?"

  I sighed. "That's going to have to be good enough." I stepped out onto the grass.

  "Rachael, you're not really serious are you? We could get lost. Or eaten by..."

  "By loose chickens?" I stared at her. "I am serious. Like you said, Ana's windmill is the only sign of civilization around here. So that's where we have to go."

  Chapter 9

  "Didn't the grass seem shorter when it was daylight?" I whispered, creeping along slowly, feeling the blades brush against my ankles. "What if there are snakes out here?"

  "Then you shouldn't be whispering!" Pippa yelled back at me, making me jump. "We should be making as much noise as possible to keep them away!"

  "I don't think that is right!" I whispered back frantically. "I think you're supposed to avoid attracting them!"

  "I'm right about this," Pippa said, stomping loudly. "They are more afraid of us than we are of them." She stomped a few more times. "Besides, I don't think there are any snakes out here."

  "Besides Garry," I said. I tried to look around, but the moon was behind the clouds and we didn't want to attract attention to ourselves by shining the light around too much.

  "I'm not sure we're heading in the right direction," Pippa said. "We need to go back. We're going to get lost out here and it's going to be like Blair Witch Project."

  "Great, I shouldn't have let you watch that last week," I said, shaking my head. "Every time you watch a movie you think it's going to happen to you. We're not going to get lost..."

  "Okay, then tell me which direction is back to the camp site then?" Pippa asked, spinning around. "Because I can't remember which direction we came from."

  I spun around and gulped, because I couldn't remember either. It all looked the same in every direction. There was a howling noise and Pippa jumped and fell back down so hard that she dropped her phone.

  "Was that a wolf?" she asked, frantically searching for her phone in the grass.

  "Maybe it was just a chicken," I said, trying not to panic.

  Pippa found the phone, immediately dropped it again, and finally stood up, desperately trying to get the flashlight back on. "That didn't sound like a chicken."

  "Sometimes, chickens can howl..." I said.

  "Okay, now that is definitely not true," Pippa said. "I don't care what you say, I am heading back to the camp."

  She turned to stomp away, but I grabbed her arm. "You don't even know the way! Don't be stupid, Pippa!"

  "What is stupid is coming all the way out here!" she yelled. "And don't call me stupid!"

  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

  "You think everything I say lately is stupid," Pippa said, really getting into a huff. "Whether it's four leaf clovers, or windmills, or snakes..." She suddenly glared at me. "Or trying to reschedule important meetings."

  "I didn't think rescheduling the meeting was stupid," I said with a sigh. "I just..."

  "Then why did you lie about having reception on your phone?"

  "I-I didn't lie! I didn't realize I had reception on my phone," I said.

  "Yeah right." Pippa looked at the ground. "I've been so worried about getting through to The Pastry Tree all day and you didn't even care if we totally blew off the meeting. Do you even care about saving the bakery, Rachael? Or is it just me that cares?"

  I couldn't believe she was saying this. "Of course I care! That's why I'm not sure making a deal with the devil is the best idea! I want the bakery to stay the way it is!"

  Pippa shook her head. "You might not have a choice, Rachael. This might be the only way to save the bakery. I don't want to end up without a place to work if the whole thing goes under. Not right now..." It seemed like Pippa was about to get teary.

  "Pippa, you'll always be able to find
another job, just like you always have before," I said gently.

  "You don't understand. Not a good secure job, like I have now for the first time in my life." Oh my gosh, she really was crying. Right there, in the middle of the field.

  I put my arm around her. "Don't worry, Pips, you're not going to lose your job. The bakery isn't going to close. We're going to make that meeting tomorrow and everything is going to be all right."

  "Not if we get lost out here in the middle of a field!"

  Suddenly, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from somewhere ahead. "Shh," I said.

  "Oh my goodness," Pippa whispered. "Is that a wolf?"

  I shook my head. "Not unless it's a very, very large wolf who walks on two legs," I said.

  "Well, what is..."

  "Hang on," I said, grabbing the phone off her. I brought the flashlight up and waved it around the fields like it was the light from a lighthouse.

  I heaved a sigh of relief when I spotted the windmill about two hundred feet away. At least we weren't entirely lost in the world. We might have been miles from civilization, but at least we recognized a landmark.

  And we recognized the figure heading toward the windmill, a hundred feet in front of us. Garry knew exactly where he was going.

  "Got him." But now we had to turn the light off. If we were going to follow him, we were going to have to go incognito from that point forward.

  "Let's go after him," I whispered.

  "What if there are wolves out here!"

  "Wolves are the least of our problems right now." I began to follow Garry, trying to be as quiet as possible.

  Pippa followed behind me. "Why is he going to Ana's windmill?"

  I shook my head. "How does he know Ana at all?"

  "Hello, chickens," Pippa whispered as we walked past the coop. "It's okay," she said to me. "They know me from earlier."

  Still, hiding next to a chicken coop wasn't the subtlest idea. But the windmill was round at the bottom and there were no sides to hide behind while we waited to see what Garry was going to do. He'd hovered around the bottom of the windmill for ages, circling it again and again, attempting to peer into the windows before he'd finally knocked on that same wooden door I'd tapped on earlier.

  "These chickens really better stay quiet," I said, watching Garry knock on the door.

  It was after 2:30 in the morning and Ana and her family would have all been fast asleep. It seemed awfully rude for Garry to be knocking on their door.

  When no one answered, Garry didn't give up. He just knocked again, harder and louder this time.

  "Hello!" he called out. "This is the police! I need to ask you a few questions about a fugitive you were harboring here yesterday afternoon!"

  Pippa and I looked at each other in shock. "He's impersonating a police officer!" Pippa asked. "That is a federal offense!"

  "If you don't come out here, you're going to be sorry!" Garry screamed, banging on the door again."

  Then he pulled something out of his jacket.

  "Oh my goodness, he's got a gun!" Pippa squealed. "He must have taken it from Officer Green's room when he left!"

  I stood up. "I don't know where he got it from, but it looks like he intends to use it." I accidentally backed away without thinking about the chicken coop behind me and screamed when the backs of my knees hit the sharp wire, scratching and cutting right through my business suit and disturbing the chickens who no longer cared if Pippa was an old friend or not.

  Four dozen chickens suddenly came to life, squawking and flapping their wings, trying to attack me through the wire while I tried to scurry away. A light went on at the top of the windmill and I saw one of Ana's daughters staring out at us.

  I tried to duck down, but it was too late. She had spotted us.

  "Who’s there?" Garry called out, shocked at being disturbed. He turned the gun in our direction with shaking hands as the chickens continued to squawk and squeal, only growing more and more wild.

  Then he dropped the gun and ran.

  Chapter 10

  "Now just remember," Pippa said the next morning while I was trying to make myself presentable in the cabin bathroom. "We were here all night, sleeping."

  I shot her a look. "Yeah, 'sleeping' all night. Too bad I actually only got half an hour's sleep by the time we got back here. I still can’t believe we got back here before Garry did. That means he didn’t come straight back to the cabin."

  Pippa squeezed into the bathroom and lowered her voice. "If Garry knows we saw him threatening Ana's house with a gun, who knows what he'll do to us? Besides, if Green knows we left the cabin all night, we're going to be in big trouble."

  "We need to tell her," I whispered back. "We need to figure out what he was doing, at the very least."

  Pippa shook her head. "No. We need to keep our heads down and get out of here as soon as the track is cleared and the next train comes. Whatever's going on here, we need to wash our hands of it and just walk away."

  I dried my face with a hand towel. "Fine. You're right," I said, standing up and sighing as I looked at my sorry self in the mirror. "I can't believe I'm going to attend a corporate meeting looking like this."

  Pippa shrugged. "Maybe we can quickly buy new outfits when we get to the city. Anyway, let's pack our bags and get ready to leave without Garry seeing us."

  We both tried not to jump out of our skins when there was a knock on the bathroom door and a hand pulled it back.

  "Hey! I need to ask you two ladies something!"

  Pippa and I both looked at each other in the mirror, the same expression on our faces. What is he doing here?

  Oh, cripes. He saw us. He knows it was us at the chicken coop last night.

  "Can you cook up something for the camp, for breakfast?"

  Pippa exhaled. "Umm, I think that should be fine?" She looked at me for help.

  I nodded slowly. "Sure," I said, pushing my way out of the bathroom. It was getting way too crowded in there.

  Then, just before I turned to leave the cabin, I turned back to Garry and said to him, "You don't happen to know where we can get any eggs, do you?"

  He held my gaze for a long time before a slow smile spread across his lips. "Sure I do. The kitchen is stockpiled with them. Bacon too this time. So you can go crazy in there."

  Right before were about to start plating up food for the rest of the still-stranded passenger—half of them complaining that they were about to starve to death trying to survive on the rations in their rooms—Garry cleared his throat and stood up in the middle of the dining hall, clanging a teaspoon against his glass of orange juice like he was about to give a toast at a very depressing wedding ceremony.

  "I have an announcement to make," he said, stepping up onto a chair, a tiny little plastic thing that I wasn't confident could hold his weight.

  The bacon smelled amazing and I knew I wasn't the only person in the dining room willing Garry to shut up so we could start eating.

  "There will be a train arriving in two hours’ time to collect anyone who still wishes to go to the city today. If you want to go back in the opposite direction, there'll be another train an hour after that. As long as you have been cleared by the police by then, you are free to get on either of them."

  There were sighs and groans of relief from the crowd. But more than relieved, they were hungry, and we soon had a long line waiting for bacon, eggs, toast, and pancakes.

  Pippa and I took our chance to eat once everyone was seated again and before they started coming back for seconds.

  Pippa was stuffing her face again, her appetite having returned since her illness last night. "This is the best food I have ever tasted. We're going to need our strength for the meeting. Have you thought about what you’re going to say to them when we get there?"

  I sat down at the table in the kitchen and stabbed at my pile of eggs. "I'm supposed to say something to them?" I asked. "I thought they had to impress us."

  Pippa's eyes grew wide with worry. "I think w
e have to convince them that we are a business worth taking over."

  I groaned and leaned forward, rubbing my temples. "I'm not sure I have the strength to deal with this after a night spent in a field and a chicken coop."

  Pippa kept eating. "Well, you'd better come up with something impressive to wow them."

  Low Blood Sugar came back for seconds once we were done eating. "I'm almost going to miss your cooking."

  "Almost?" I asked, pretending to take offense.

  She laughed. "You know what I mean. It almost makes me want to get stuck here for another night."

  "I'm just going to be relieved to finally get out of here," Pippa said with a grin, piling her own plate high with another serving of bacon and eggs.

  I waited until we were alone again to speak. "So you do really want to get out of here? What about Garry?"

  Pippa shrugged a little. "I still say we just leave all this behind us and get on that train." She checked the time. "But we'd better get cleaned up here, grab our bags, and get walking. We don't have long until that train gets here."

  I nodded. "I'll meet you back at the room in a few minutes then."

  I took my apron off, but I didn't leave the kitchen yet. Instead, I walked over to the sink and began scrubbing the dirty tray full of bacon fat. An employee of the lodge, a kitchen hand named Gwen, offered to do it for me. "Don't worry about that, sweetheart. You've got a train to catch," she said with a grin.

  "I don't mind doing it," I said with a smile as I scrubbed harder

  I knew I was dawdling; I knew I was biding time.

  I kept telling myself it was because I couldn't walk away from this case. I had to know what Garry was doing there at Ana's, and why he'd had the gun.

  But I knew why I was really trying to waste time. Part of me wanted any excuse to miss the meeting.

  I scrubbed harder and harder, hoping that as I removed the grease, clarity would come to me and I'd know what to do. Pippa was right—I couldn't just turn up to the meeting with nothing, expecting them to try and woo us. They were a national corporation. They'd only invest in the bakery if they were sure there was a profit in it for them. So now I was stuck having to decide whether I wanted to spend the time convincing them, or just throw in the towel all together.