The Very Killer Caterpillar

by Samantha Silver

  “Uh, are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked Cat.

  “I think it’s awesome,” the girl said, her eyes lighting up.

  “Bring in the Renaissance! It made France great, it can make Sapphire Village great too!” Denise Williams shouted into the crowd. I frowned slightly; somehow I didn’t think a water park and a new hotel was quite on the same level as the works of Michaelangelo, Raphael, and countless others.

  “I think you mean Italy, not France!” Cat shouted back at her, and the façade of the smile briefly falling as she turned to glare at Cat. I heard more than a few chuckles from other people within hearing distance of Cat’s shout.

  The little girl next to us took her chance now that Denise was facing us. She wound up her arm and threw the cupcake–a hummingbird cake topped with cream cheese icing–straight at Denise.

  Obviously her practice had paid off, the cupcake hit Denise right in the middle of her face, then the cake detached from the icing, falling to her feet, while the cream cheese icing remained in a circle in the middle of Denise’s face.

  Chapter 19

  Silence immediately descended on the whole street as people realized what had happened, and then roars of laughter exploded from all sides. Even some of the people in Denise’s group were laughing. One lady holding up a sign was laughing so hard she had taken it down and was now leaning on it for support.

  Denise turned to look at us, her face so pinched with rage it looked like she’d just eaten a lemon. She pointed at the little girl, on whose shoulder Cat had put a protective hand. “You! You did this!” she screamed at the little girl.

  “Don’t worry, the more she yells at you, the fewer people are going to vote for her,” I heard Cat whisper in the little girl’s ear, and I shook my head. I couldn’t believe they’d actually done that. It seemed like no one could unhinge Denise Williams quite the same way Cat could. The little girl had a beaming smile on her face; evidently being told by an adult that she could throw a cupcake at the old lady who yelled at her for practicing her baseball skills was a dream come true.

  “I just wanted to show you how much better I’ve gotten at pitching since my mom told you to stop yelling at me,” the little girl replied, and I bit back a smile. The girl had spunk; she was going to go places.

  “You can’t throw a cupcake at me! I’m on a tour! That’s so incredibly rude!”

  “What’s rude is you telling a little girl she can’t play baseball because sports are for boys,” Cat shot back. “What kind of woman–what kind of person–says that to a little girl?”

  Denise looked around at the faces of the ten or so people that heard Cat’s words, and going by the shocked look on them, must have realized that her position wasn’t a popular one.

  “Well, um, well, I’m sure I never would have, um, said that,” she stammered out. “You must have misunderstood.” She wiped off the cream cheese icing from her face, and looked at Cat. “I knew you would have been involved in this,” she hissed. “You’re always trying to muck things up for me.”

  “What’s that you’re saying?” Cat said, pretending to put a hand to her ear. “I can’t quite hear you.”

  “Oh just go back to your stupid shop,” Denise muttered before turning around and storming off. Apparently, her weird parade–she had acted like it was a victory parade, but the election wasn’t even for a few more weeks–was now over. The couple of dozen people who had been watching now murmured to each other, apparently all of them just as confused as I was.

  Cat turned to the little girl. “So, what’s your name?”

  “Elise,” the girl replied.

  “I’m Cat, and this is my cousin Alice. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “It was really nice to meet you too,” the girl replied solemnly, and I smiled. I liked Elise.

  “You keep practicing that pitch,” Cat told her. “You’re really good!”

  “Thanks,” Elise said, her face lighting up. Suddenly I heard a half-panicked voice from behind me. “Elise! Elise! Oh there you are!”

  A tall woman who looked exactly like Elise only thirty years older–very obviously her mom–rushed over to us. “What are you doing? You ran off and I had no idea where you were.”

  “But mom, you were talking to Frank and whenever you talk to Frank it takes forever and I was really bored, so I came out here to see what was happening. And we saw Denise Williams.”

  “You did, did you?” her mother replied with a frown. “Well, regardless, come along now Elise. You can’t just run off like that without telling me. I was really worried about you.”

  “Ok, sorry,” Elise replied, not sounding the least bit sorry at all. Her mother took her by the hand and began walking away with Elise behind her, the little girl turning around to wave at us. We both smiled and waved back.

  “That little girl is awesome,” Cat said, and I shook my head.

  “You’re a terrible influence on kids.”

  “You know, you’re not the first person who’s told me that,” Cat said with a grin. “I just remember all the adults in my life telling me I couldn’t do things growing up, so I decided that I would always encourage kids to do what they want.”

  “Even if that means throwing a cupcake at a mayoral candidate?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Please never have kids,” I laughed, and Cat laughed along with me.

  “Wasn’t planning on it, don’t worry. I’m just spoiling other peoples’ kids.”

  I laughed as we made our way back inside the cupcake shop, where Cat grabbed another hummingbird cupcake to make up for the one she’d sacrificed to ruin Denise Williams’ day, and took a big bite from it.

  “That can’t have helped Denise’s chances for the election, anyway,” I said. “I don’t know what the point of that march was, but she came out of it looking more foolish than anything.”

  Cat grinned. “Absolutely. If you ask me, she’s going to get absolutely destroyed when the election comes around.”

  “I hope so,” I replied, sitting back down at my table and taking another sip of my hot chocolate, which was still warm, and then eagerly taking a bite of my own cupcake.

  About fifteen minutes later, as I was pulling my Kindle out of my purse to read for a little while, Chase walked in through the door. He looked around, then, spotting me, smiled and slipped into the chair across from me.

  “So, do you want to explain to me why Denise Williams was just in my office, ranting about how the Calliope family is out to ruin her life?”

  I shrugged with a smile. “Well, it might have something to do with Cat giving her cupcake to a little girl. But I don’t think Cat can entirely be held responsible for the cupcake hitting Denise. I think it was an accident that the girl threw it.”

  “An accident, you say?” he replied, a small smile curling onto his lips.

  “Definitely an accident,” I said solemnly. “It had nothing to do with the fact that Denise once told the girl that sports were for boys when she was practicing her pitch at the local playground.”

  Chase shook his head. “I knew there had to be more to the story than what Denise told me. She said she was attacked by a little girl in the middle of the village, that Elise Norbertsen was trying to squash her political voice and restrict her free speech.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, right. Denise decided to stage some sort of weird walk through the village where she waved at people and got half the retirement home to hold signs of support behind her.”

  Chase snorted with laughter. “I wish I’d seen that. Anyway, when I told her I wasn’t arresting Elise for anything, what with her being twelve years old and all, she started ranting about how I was biased against her because of her mayoral platform, and that I was specifically refusing to treat her the way I would any other citizen. Then she said it was all your cousin’s fault anyway, and that I should arrest her. I promised to come and speak to her.”

  “I can go and get her if you’d like, she’s just working in the back.
”

  “No, it’s fine. I’ll come back later, it’s obvious she’s busy right now and I don’t want to actually interrupt her day at all. Besides, I still have a bunch of paperwork to do about the three deaths we’ve had recently. See you around, Alice,” Chase said, getting up and smiling at me.

  He had taken two steps away from the table when I finally made up my mind. “Wait!”

  Chase stopped and turned around, looking at me expectantly. “Sure, what’s up?”

  “Do you want to go out for dinner sometime? Like, on a date?”

  Chase’s eyebrows rose almost imperceptibly. “Of course I do,” he told me. “I’d love to. Are you sure you want to do that?”

  “I am,” I smiled, and as I said the words, I knew that I was finally ready. Finally ready to trust again. Finally ready to give dating another shot. I’d known as I watched him fall toward the ground and used my magic to save him.

  “Sounds good, do you like Indian food?”

  “I love Indian food.”

  “There’s a great place a couple of blocks from here. How does that sound?”

  “Great,” I said, breaking out into a smile.

  “What day would you prefer?”

  “How about tomorrow? Seven?”

  “Sure. I’ll pick you up from the bookstore then.”

  As Chase left my heart felt giddy. I had to admit to myself, I wasn’t nervous. I wasn’t scared. I knew Chase wasn’t going to be like my ex.

  And while almost everything had finally settled back down to normal in Sapphire Village, one thing had changed. I was going on a date with Chase Griffin.

  Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

  Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

  Would you like to visit Cat’s Cupcakes? Well, even if Sapphire Village doesn’t really exist, a recipe for her amazing cupcakes certainly does!

  Ingredients (Makes 24 cupcakes)

  Red Velvet Cupcakes

  1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

  ¼ cup vegetable oil

  1½ cups sugar

  2 eggs

  2 tbsp red food coloring

  1 cup buttermilk

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

  1 tsp salt

  2 tsp baking soda

  2 tsp white vinegar

  1 tsp vanilla extract

  Cream Cheese Icing

  16 oz brick cream cheese, softened

  8 oz unsalted butter, softened

  2 lbs confectioners sugar

  1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

  Red dots or sprinkles to top

  Instructions

  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two 12-cup muffin pans with cupcake liners.

  Cream together the butter, oil and sugar until light and fluffy.

  Add in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.

  Add the food coloring and buttermilk and mix until combined.

  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda.

  Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

  Add the vinegar and mix, then add the vanilla extract and mix until just combined. Make sure not to overmix the batter.

  Divide the batter between the 24 lined muffin cups.

  Bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

  While you allow the cupcakes to cool, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes on high speed with an electric mixer.

  Gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar, mixing very well.

  Stir in vanilla the vanilla bean paste until incorporated.

  Use a piping bag with your preferred tip and top the cooled muffins with cream cheese icing. Make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled before doing this step!

  Top the cupcakes with decorative red dots, sprinkles, or whatever topping you’d prefer.

  Enjoy!

  Also by Samantha Silver

  First of all, I wanted to thank you for reading my book. I well and truly hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I loved writing it.

  If you enjoyed The Very Killer Caterpillar I’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment and leave a review for the book on Amazon, to help other readers find the book as well.

  You can also sign up to my newsletter to receive an email every time I release a new book. To sign up for my newsletter, click here now.

  Want to read more of Alice’s adventures? The fourth book in the Magical Bookshop Mystery series, is scheduled for release on December 28th, 2017.

  Other Magical Bookshop Mysteries:

  Alice in Murderland (Magical Bookshop Mystery #1)

  Murder on the Oregon Express (Magical Bookshop Mystery #2)

  Willow Bay Witches Mysteries:

  The Purr-fect Crime (Willow Bay Witches #1)

  Barking up the Wrong Tree (Willow Bay Witches #2)

  Just Horsing Around (Willow Bay Witches #3)

  Lipstick on a Pig (Willow Bay Witches #4)

  A Grizzly Discovery (Willow Bay Witches #5)

  Sleeping with the Fishes (Willow Bay Witches #6)

  Cassie Coburn Mysteries:

  Poison in Paddington (Cassie Coburn Mystery #1)

  Bombing in Belgravia (Cassie Coburn Mystery #2)

  Whacked in Whitechapel (Cassie Coburn Mystery #3)

  Strangled in Soho (Cassie Coburn Mystery #4)

  About the Author

  Samantha Silver lives in Oregon with her long-time boyfriend, her Jack Russell terrier named Kilo, two cats who like to help her type by lying across the keyboard, and the occasional foster. When she’s not playing mom to all these animals, Samantha is either writing the mysteries she loves, volunteering at the local animal shelter, or watching Netflix.

  You can connect with Samantha online here:

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