A Twist of Murder

by Gretchen Allen

  Teresa’s eyes flashed with worry. “Yes, I’m sorry about that. We’ve been so busy over there and we couldn’t have handled running out of stock. You must be the one covering for Henry while he’s on his much-needed vacation. That man works so hard and has been so hospitable to me and my business, he deserves it.”

  “I suppose he does,” Yvette forced a smile. “Anyway, I have to get to work. It was nice meeting you.”

  Yvette continued on through the dining room and into the office unsure what to think. Gina and Teresa had some sort of agreement. She needed to figure out exactly what Teresa was up to and why she was using Gina for her plans.

  Something kept niggling in her mind. Could it be possible that it wasn’t Gina herself that had killed Damien but that she knew who did it? Teresa could have killed Damien for some reason. Yvette wasn’t sure why she’d have a reason to kill her business partner, especially when they were so successful and trying to become a full-time establishment. On the other hand, no matter how much a person liked scary movies, it seemed way too out of the ordinary for Gina to have been so calm after finding a body. Had she been the one to kill him? Or maybe she’d known what she was going to find and had already prepared herself on how to act.

  Yvette knew she was reaching pretty far with these theories, but someone killed Damien and she never wanted to get to the bottom of anything so badly. Even just one person thinking that she was capable of murder was too many.

  11

  Henry! What are you doing here?” Max stopped in his tracks when he saw his boss.

  “After everything that happened here, I wasn’t enjoying my little ‘staycation’, so I decided to come in for a little bit,” Henry replied, looking around the shop that was half full with customers.

  “I’m glad you’re here. I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes,” Yvette told him.

  “Sure, but it looks like you all are a little busy today. Maybe I should leave more often,” he joked. “Do you want any help?”

  “You two go ahead. I only have a couple more orders to make. If I get any busier, I’ll come get you,” Max offered.

  “We’ll just be a few minutes.” Yvette motioned for Henry to follow her to the office, so they could have a little privacy.

  “What’s up?” Henry asked.

  “I don’t mean to overstep but I’ve noticed a few things that I wanted to ask you about.”

  “Listen, I know why you’re here. I’m on vacation and all that but I know Emma wanted you here to see what’s been going on,” Henry admitted.

  “Oh.” Yvette looked away.

  “Yeah. I get it. I’ve made some poor choices and it’s starting to affect the business. I didn’t mean for it to go down like this, but it has and I’m not sure how to dig myself out.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not particularly but maybe it will help. I don’t even know where to start.” Henry’s shoulders slumped.

  “How about… Why is Gina only scheduled for a few hours a day and why does she only work in the back?”

  “Gina’s had a rough go. She’s a very talented baker and she was rising to the top. Last year, she was on a show called Bakery Wars, you may have heard of it. When she lost, it was said that she had stolen the recipe she’d used, but she’d never admit that. She chooses to work in the kitchen and I think it’s because she’s embarrassed and doesn’t want to have to interact with the public after everything that happened. I only know about it because she confided in me one day a while back. Gina ended up fired from her job at Clyde’s Patisserie. She was devastated and found herself with no job, no money and ultimately nowhere to live because of it. I’ve known her for some time now and she’s a good gal, she just needed a little help. I had an extra room in my house, so I let her move in while she looked for another job. She finally found one at Oh Hey Ganachery when it was in town the first time, but they didn’t stay for long. I ended up hiring her here, so she could have a little money.”

  “I see. So, you were just trying to help. Were you trying to help Teresa as well?” Yvette asked bluntly, suddenly realizing that the reason Teresa and Gina knew each other was because they’d worked together before.

  “You know about Teresa? Wow, okay.” Henry’s leg was shaking his entire chair. “I guess I was trying to help her too. She was such a kind woman and when she asked for help so she didn’t run out of inventory for her dessert bar, I knew I just had to help her. She promised she’d return the favor but never did. She’d keep asking for few things here and there but after a while, it got to be a little ridiculous. She was asking for our ice cream and toppings, and even our whipped cream. When she started to ask for our recipes, I knew I bit off more than I could chew so I did a little research.”

  “Research?” Yvette tilted her head.

  “I had a little crush on her. She paid so much attention to me and I wanted to be able to help her and show her I cared about her too. When she started asking for our recipes, I knew something was wrong, so I looked her up online. It turned out that the sweet woman I thought may have liked me a little was actually married to the man she referred to as her business partner.” Henry’s eyes flashed with something that frightened Yvette.

  “Damien was her husband?!” she exclaimed.

  “That was my reaction too,” Henry said, his face turning red. “That’s why I took this vacation. Not because I needed one but because I am a terrible liar. I knew that I’d see Teresa and not be able to control myself. I didn’t want her to know that I knew she was trying to scam me. She was trying to take us down just like she was trying to take down every other little bakery in the area. She successfully knocked out Mama Leoni’s a while back. Teresa isn’t a good person, she’s been playing this game for years and unfortunately, I almost fell for it. When you saw me the other day in front of her restaurant, I was planning on going in to confront her. I probably would’ve if I hadn’t seen you there.”

  Yvette sighed. Everything that she had learned was making her head spin. She pulled out her phone and brought up the screenshot she’d taken of Teresa and Damien.

  “Look at this. I found it when I was doing a little research of my own.” Yvette showed him the phone.

  Henry leaned over the desk and opened the laptop, bringing up the article online. “Yup,” he said, shaking his head, “that’s the same thing I saw.”

  Yvette read over the article quickly. “I can’t believe I didn’t read this. I was more worried about the picture of her than anything else.”

  “I spent hours looking up the both of them, trying to learn where they lived and what they drove and how they spent their days. I was so angry, and I was losing control.”

  “You wanted to know where they lived?” Yvette asked.

  “I wanted to confront them and let them know I was on to their little scheme. They pushed out one of the oldest bakeries in town and I wasn’t about to let them walk all over me. Especially since I was truthfully starting to have feelings for Teresa, but she’d only been using me the entire time.”

  Yvette was feeling a little uneasy after everything that Henry had told her. She could understand why he was upset but to resort to nearly stalking these people was scary. He’d said that he was trying to figure out how they spent their days…did that mean he would have known that Damien would be at Sundae Afternoon on the day he died? Did Henry lure him there? The thoughts running through her mind were making her uncomfortable, so she was trying to figure a way to end their conversation.

  “I’m so sorry that she hurt you, you didn’t deserve that. I’m glad you realized it in time before things escalated. You’re a good guy, Henry. You just got caught up with a couple of con artists trying to better themselves by knocking everyone around them down.”

  “You’re darn right I didn’t deserve it, but Damien sure deserved what happened to him.” Henry bolted from his chair and stormed out the door of his office, without saying goodbye.

  Yvette knew she didn’t know h
im very well, but things were starting to come together. Henry had every reason to want to see Damien dead. He’d planned his vacation around finding a way to stalk Damien and Teresa. If Henry killed Damien, was it possible that Teresa was next on his list? Not wanting to call the police right away, in case she was overreacting, she closed her phone and went back out front. Half hoping Henry was still in the building, so she could talk to him more and clear her mind of the thought that he was the killer, and half hoping he was gone because she was feeling a little nervous at the thought of being around him for a second longer.

  12

  Thanks for meeting me all the way out here,” Yvette told Amelia, when she met her in the parking lot of Clyde’s Patisserie.

  “No problem. I just got out of a meeting with the Town Council about doing a trolley tour next month! How cool would it be to have it stop at all our landmarks and check out the foliage?” Amelia grinned, showing her excitement.

  “I can’t wait for it. I’m definitely signing up,” Yvette told her friend.

  “So why are we here again?”

  “I need your help. The owner thinks I’m a murderer and…”

  “Wait. What?!” Amelia’s jaw dropped.

  Yvette laughed. “It’s not that serious but I need a little information about Gina, the woman from that Bakery Wars show you like. Josephine may not be very fond of me but I’m hoping you can strike up a conversation with her about the show and maybe we can learn a little about Gina in the process.”

  “You’re still worried about this?” Amelia asked, glaring at her. “I thought you figured it out already. You just finished telling me you thought Henry was the bad guy of the bunch. You need to tell the cops and be done with it. They can decide if he’s the killer or not.”

  “I think Henry is a little scary, but I don’t think that means he’s the only option. I think he got hurt and he let his anger take over and it’s definitely possible but I’m not ruling anything out yet. I told you I overheard Gina and Teresa talking and I can’t very well ask either one of them about it.”

  “Okay, okay. I know I tell you to knock all this stuff off, but I have to admit, it’s a little exhilarating.” Amelia winked. “Let’s do it!” she said, grabbing Yvette by the arm and pulling her forward.

  “Don’t you want to hear what I need to find out?”

  “Nope! I’ve got this!” Amelia giggled as they entered through the front door of Clyde’s Patisserie.

  The women walked toward the front counter, Yvette seeing that Josephine was there and had her back to them.

  “Good morning,” Amelia sang out.

  “Good morn..” Josephine began, stopping when she made eye contact with Yvette.

  “Hi, Josephine,” Yvette greeted her. “I brought my friend in. I knew she’d love it here.”

  “What can I get the two of you?”

  “I think we’ll try your strawberry soufflé pancakes! I’ve been dreaming of them ever since I saw them on Bakery Wars. Please tell me your restaurant is going to be on the show again, it’s my absolute favorite! Even being here gives me the chills,” Amelia gushed and gently nudged Yvette with her elbow.

  “How lovely. I’ll get that into the kitchen for you right away.” Josephine jotted down the order and handed it to the pastry chef through the window that allowed the customers to observe the kitchen staff hard at work.

  “Thank you. I’d love some coffee too, so I think we’ll have a seat,” Yvette said, pointing at a nearby table.

  “I may join you ladies if you don’t mind,” Josephine looked at Yvette.

  “That’d be great,” Amelia chimed in.

  Once the women were seated and had their coffee in front of them, Amelia began her charade again. “You have to tell me! Are you thinking of personally auditioning for the show this year?”

  Josephine blushed. “I don’t know yet. They are opening up the auditions in a few weeks. I think we may give it a shot. But after the upset last year, I’m not so sure.”

  “Upset? What you mean not winning?” Amelia sipped her coffee.

  Josephine sighed and leaned a little closer. “Who knows why I’m telling you two this, but I figure it doesn’t much matter anymore. When we lost, it was sad but that wasn’t the problem. The recipe our baker used was my personal recipe. We trusted her with everything. She stole it from our safe in the office and used it as her own. She told us that she thought we’d be even more proud when she won using my recipe, but I think she just used that as a cover up when she was caught. When we fired her, she was positive that I was more upset about my recipe losing that I was about her stealing it. She was quite the hassle.”

  “Oh my gosh, I had no idea! I can’t believe Gina would do that.” Yvette did her best to act surprised.

  “You know Gina?” Josephine raised a brow.

  “She works at Sundae Afternoon,” Yvette responded.

  “I had no idea. I haven’t seen her since we fired her.”

  Yvette didn’t say it, but Henry had been right. The reason Gina worked the hours she did was making more sense. If Gina didn’t have to serve customers, she’d be able to save face. Henry would never suspect her of stealing recipes from his shop because he thought they were friends and he’d believed her story. Yvette recalled what Max had told her… No one ever spoke of why Gina was fired. Henry had known the reason and he’d still trusted her. He’d felt bad for Gina and did his best to help her get her feet back on the ground all the while, she’d been scamming him just like Teresa had.

  “What do you know about the man that was killed?” Yvette blurted, knowing she was risking an argument since Josephine already thought she was the killer.

  “Dear, I’m sorry I accused you. I was so upset and took out my frustration on you.”

  “Why were you frustrated?” Amelia asked.

  “When Damien was killed I was relieved.” Josephine looked away. “I thought that meant that he and Teresa would finally leave us alone. They’ve been after our shop for months. Never in a million years did I expect her to stick around after that.”

  “They were trying to push you out, so they’d get more business?” Yvette asked.

  “No. They were trying to push us out, so they could have our building.”

  “I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have an emergency phone call,” Amelia interrupted. “I need to get back to Heritage as soon as possible.”

  Yvette looked at her friend, wondering what she was doing. She was sitting right next to her and hadn’t heard her phone ring or even vibrate.

  “Thanks for coming in gals, I’ll get your food boxed up for you,” Josephine said, heading for the kitchen.

  “What was that about?” Yvette asked when they’d gotten out to the car.

  “Josephine fired Gina for stealing her recipe but what if the only reason Gina did it was because Teresa asked her to? She’s been scamming people for who knows how long so maybe it all ties together somehow?

  “Teresa did say she had an inside source on Bakery Wars.” Yvette agreed. “Knowing her, she was probably conning everyone back then too. But still, that doesn’t explain why Teresa would kill her husband.”

  “I’m not saying she killed him but every single thing that has happened has been because of her. This woman has been back and forth to Townsend for over a year, trying to shut down businesses left and right. All the while, her own dessert bar is doing wonderfully,” Amelia said.

  “From what I see and hear they are always busy, so those other businesses aren’t causing her much harm. But she’s still borrowing from Henry with the promise of paying him back for all the stock he’s given her. If they are that busy, then they must have some money. They can just buy their own food. Why worry about Henry?”

  “I don’t know but I have to get out of here. My pretend emergency call couldn’t have been very important if I’m still hanging out in the parking lot.”

  Amelia got in her shiny red sports car, started the engine and zoomed away, leaving Yvett
e alone with her thoughts.

  13

  The only thing Yvette felt good about when she woke up that morning was going into Sundae Afternoon in Heritage. She missed her shop and her staff and while she was glad that people no longer thought of her as a killer, she still wasn’t feeling quite right.

  Knowing there was a storm on its way, Yvette tossed her mini umbrella in her purse and dashed out the door.

  “You’re here!” Stella exclaimed.

  “I know I said I’d stop in more than I have but you guys don’t need me meandering around while you’re trying to work.” Yvette laughed.

  “Can I make you something? You boosted my ego so much last time that all I’ve been thinking about is what I can impress you with next!” Stella nearly jumped up and down.

  “You don’t have to twist my arm,” Yvette agreed, knowing that anything Stella made would be delicious.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Stella bowed playfully. “I think I’ll make something extra chocolatey. Here comes Vanessa, I’ll leave you gals to it,” she said.

  “Ohhh, I’m so glad to see you! There’s so much to say.” Vanessa pulled Yvette to a table and sat down across from her.

  “Nothing work related. You have to tell me your idea first. I keep putting it off and I feel terrible.”

  “It’s no big deal but it is work related. I keep hearing about the upcoming Halloween Tour and I was thinking we should get involved somehow. We could open up the shop as a haunted house or do trunk or treat for the kids in our parking lot.”

  “That’s a great idea! I’ll give it some thought and once I’m back here next week, we can start making plans.”

  Yvette was proud of Vanessa for taking charge the way she was and doing her best to find a way for the shop to get involved in the town’s activities. Right as Stella was headed back to the table with yet another amazing looking milkshake, Yvette’s phone dinged, signaling she’d received a text message.