A Flair for Truffles (The Sadie Kramer Flair Mysteries Book 4)

by Deborah Garner

  A Flair for Truffles

  A Sadie Kramer Flair Mystery

  Deborah Garner

  Cranberry Cove Press

  A Flair for Truffles

  by Deborah Garner

  Copyright © 2019 Deborah Garner

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  First Printing – January 2019

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  EXCEPT FOR BRIEF TEXT QUOTED AND APPROPRIATELY CITED IN OTHER WORKS, NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM, BY PHOTOCOPYING OR BY ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL MEANS, INCLUDING INFORMATION STORAGE OR RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS, WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER/AUTHOR.

  Printed in the U.S.A.

  Books by Deborah Garner

  Above the Bridge

  The Moonglow Café

  Three Silver Doves

  Hutchins Creek Cache

  Crazy Fox Ranch

  Cranberry Bluff

  A Flair for Chardonnay

  A Flair for Drama

  A Flair for Beignets

  A Flair for Truffles

  Mistletoe at Moonglow

  Silver Bells at Moonglow

  Gingerbread at Moonglow

  Nutcracker Sweets at Moonglo

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  RECIPES

  CHAPTER ONE

  Sadie looked over the assortment of chocolates and wondered how she’d ever decide which to try first. The combination Matteo had put together for his Valentine’s Day special was nothing short of sinful.

  “You’ve outdone yourself this time, Matteo,” Sadie said, unable to take her eyes off the silky heart-shaped box of confections. “You always have a knack for unique chocolate treats, but this year’s truffle extravaganza tops everything.”

  Matteo smiled at his most loyal customer. Sadie’s fashion boutique, Flair, flanked his chocolate shop, Cioccolato, allowing the businesses to share customers. And Sadie’s near addiction to chocolate made her the perfect taste-tester. Naturally, she generously offered her services whenever needed, as well as sometimes when not.

  “I especially love the look of that one with the caramel drizzle on top,” Sadie said as she continued to admire the assortment.

  “Would you like to try it?” Matteo suggested, pulling a tray out from under the display counter.

  “Why, yes! That would be delightful!” Sadie exclaimed, as if the thought had never crossed her mind.

  Matteo lifted a truffle with a square of wax paper and held it out. Sadie grabbed it eagerly and popped it into her mouth. She closed her eyes and sighed. “Mm. Coffee,” she mumbled. She placed one hand over her mouth as she let the delicious confection melt slowly.

  “Caramel espresso to be exact,” Matteo said.

  “Yes, of course,” Sadie said once she could speak clearly again. “That should sell well. In fact, the whole assortment will. I’m sure you’ll be swamped today.” Sadie glanced at the front door, noting several customers already outside. She felt privileged to be able to visit with Matteo before he opened for the day. Not only was it fun to chitchat with her handsome, Italian thirty-something neighbor, but it let her pick up samples for her own customers.

  “Swamped is putting it mildly,” Matteo said. He nodded toward a stack of boxes on the counter behind him. “I have to get those special orders out too. And I don’t have anyone coming in until this afternoon to help.”

  “Ah, yes. Thanks for the reminder,” Sadie said. “I have a delivery today too. Sue Bennett ordered a pink ruffled blouse to wear to a dinner event later this week. I told her I’d drop it by.”

  “Really?” Matteo looked up from the display case, his brown eyes matching the color of the dark-chocolate-raspberry truffles he was placing in neat rows. “I have a special order going to her today as well. Three, to be exact.”

  “Three?” Sadie eyed the stack of red boxes on the back counter. “Lucky woman. Someone must be feeling quite generous.” Sadie couldn’t help but be envious. To receive not one, not two, but three boxes of Matteo’s creations would be heavenly.

  “I’d say three people were feeling generous,” Matteo said. “The orders all came from different customers.”

  “Really,” Sadie said, even more impressed. Then again, Sue’s friends had to know she loved chocolate as much—well, almost as much—as Sadie. No one could love chocolate as much as Sadie did. But Sue always grabbed a free sample or two when she came to check out Sadie’s new clothing and accessory arrivals. And she almost always headed next door to buy some after she finished her purchases at Flair.

  “Listen, Matteo,” Sadie said. “I know you’ll be going crazy today with all the sales for Valentine’s Day. It’s not as busy next door, and I have Amber to help. Why don’t I just deliver those boxes to Sue Bennett when I take her the blouse she ordered?”

  Matteo looked out the front window at the growing line. “I hate to ask a favor, but maybe I should take you up on that offer. It doesn’t look like I’ll have a minute to spare after I open up.”

  “That’s a good problem to have in business,” Sadie pointed out.

  Matteo picked up the three boxes and started to hand them to Sadie, then pulled them back teasingly right before she grabbed them. “These are going to make it to Sue Bennett’s house, right?”

  Sadie laughed. “As if I don’t know where to go for chocolate when I need it? Yes, of course. I’ll deliver them to her personally.”

  “That’s why I’m worried.” Matteo winked as he placed the boxes in Sadie’s hands.

  Thanking Matteo for the extraordinary trust he was placing in her, Sadie returned to her boutique. Amber, her shop manager, was half-in and half-out of the front window display.

  “Rearranging the window?” Sadie asked. She headed straight for the register counter where Coco sat on a velvet pillow. It was the perfect spot for her sidekick to spend time on shop days. Sadie always knew where she was, and the caramel-colored Yorkie received mounds of attention from customers.

  “Just replacing a scarf.” Amber’s voice was muffled but grew clearer as she backed out of the display. “Mrs. Wiggins wanted that red paisley scarf on the mannequin. We only had purple and green left on the rack, so I had to pull the one in the window and replace it with another.” She straightened up and stretched her neck to one side, then the other.

  “I’m so glad I have you to crawl around in that window most of the time,” Sadie said. “I know that feeling of cramped neck and shoulder muscles, even without your lovely height in my genetic makeup.”

  “You know I
don’t mind,” Amber said. “No point in taking all those yoga classes if I can’t fold myself into a pretzel to arrange the front window!” Her eyebrows lifted as she eyed the boxes in Sadie’s hands. “For us?”

  Sadie shook her head. “Don’t we wish! No, these are for Sue Bennett. I told Matteo I’d drop them off. We have a blouse to deliver to her anyway.”

  Amber nodded as she stepped behind the sales counter. “Yes, she called right before closing yesterday to see if it had come in. She’s looking forward to wearing it for some sort of Valentine’s Day event. I told her it had just arrived in the UPS delivery. She said her car will be in the shop for a couple of days and you offered to drop the blouse off.”

  “Yes, I did,” Sadie said. “She wants to wear it to a special event tonight. Speaking of the UPS delivery…” Sadie grinned as she waited for Amber to respond. Amber’s crush on the driver had been a subject of discussion for months. Sadie had encouraged her to ask him out on a date, stating that modern times allowed women as much right as men to instigate a lunch or dinner on the town.

  “You’re going to tease me about Dylan again, aren’t you?” Amber blushed and busied herself rearranging a small tray of earrings on the counter.

  Sadie placed her hand on Amber’s to stop the young store manager from fidgeting. “You know this crush of yours isn’t one-sided.”

  “You don’t know that for sure,” Amber said.

  “Oh, I think I do.” Sadie smiled, remembering her youthful days of flirting and being flirted with. “He takes his time when dropping off packages, always asking how you are.” She released Amber’s hand and patted Coco’s head.

  “He’s very polite,” Amber offered as she resumed arranging the earrings.

  “And he often stops by on his lunch hour to see if we have any packages to go out,” Sadie added. “You know we rarely ship anything, and when we do, we put a sign in the window.”

  Sadie watched as Amber silently fished for a rebuttal, coming up empty. “You know, romance is in the air this time of year.” She lifted a pair of heart earrings, held them up on either side of Coco’s head just for amusement, then put them back in the display.

  “Sue Bennett’s blouse is in the back, ready to go,” Amber hinted, looking grateful for an excuse to change the subject. Sadie let her get away with it, knowing she teased the girl enough, if not too much.

  “Yes,” Sadie said. “And I’d better deliver it before we get tempted to break into her boxes from Matteo’s.”

  “We?” Amber laughed.

  “Okay, you’ve got me there,” Sadie said. “Before I get tempted to break into them. Of course, we could always buy another to replace one…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Sadie…,” Amber prompted.

  “Just kidding,” Sadie said. “Sort of,” she added, laughing as she added the customer’s blouse delivery to the boxes of chocolates and grabbed her tote bag from the back office. She placed Coco comfortably in the tote, bid Amber goodbye, and headed off to Sue Bennett’s house.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Sadie glanced at her GPS as she waited at a red traffic light. She’d never been to Sue Bennett’s home but had ordered items to be drop-shipped directly from vendors, so she’d had the address even before offering to deliver the blouse. The woman lived in the posh San Francisco neighborhood of Russian Hill on Lombard Street. It wouldn’t be hard to find.

  The light turned green, and Sadie continued on. She knew the area well enough to expect a refined, immaculately restored Victorian house on a quiet block with peaceful surroundings. What she found when she arrived was anything but that.

  “Oh dear!” Sadie exclaimed. “This doesn’t look good at all, Coco.” The Yorkie stuck her head out of the tote and looked around. Too short to see above the dashboard, the petite canine sighed and dropped back inside the bag.

  Pulling over to the curb, Sadie turned off the ignition and took in the scene. Multiple police cars surrounded one stately home, which was painted in pastel colors with gingerbread-style trim around the eaves. Yellow tape blocked off the property, and clusters of neighbors stood on the sidewalks, conversing with each other and watching the activity around the house.

  Sadie left Coco in her tote bag and exited the vehicle, boxes of chocolates in her arms. Fairly certain she wasn’t going to be able to deliver them now, she still wasn’t going to risk leaving them near Coco. Any responsible pet owner knew that dogs and chocolate did not mix.

  Approaching the others on the sidewalk, Sadie found a spot where she could both watch and overhear discussions. Certainly, eavesdropping was justified occasionally.

  “I just knew it would come down to something like this,” a woman said. The shapely, middle-aged woman was holding a broom and seemed to be directing her comments to anyone and everyone. She wore a housecoat, and her salt-and-pepper hair was in disarray. “Different men coming and going from her house, for one thing, and that crazy work schedule.” She clucked her tongue.

  “Mags,” another neighbor said. “She was a flight attendant, for heaven’s sake. Of course she had a crazy work schedule.”

  The woman named Mags let out a huff. “Well, it seemed strange to me.” Sadie noticed more than one neighbor roll their eyes. Clearly, Mags was known for spouting her opinions, not to mention keeping an eye on the neighborhood. As if to prove Sadie’s point, the woman spotted her and called over. “And who are you? I haven’t seen you around here before.”

  Sadie offered her name and her reason for being there, though it seemed odd to be interrogated simply because she’d come by to drop off a few deliveries. Still, an answer would be the best way to get the woman to back off. “I came to drop off something Sue Bennett ordered from my store, as well as chocolate assortments from Cioccolato.”

  “Well, I’ll be happy to take the chocolate off your hands,” Mags offered. “Everything that shop sells is delicious.”

  First reasonable thing the woman has said, Sadie thought, not that she was about to hand the boxed truffles over. She could think of better solutions if Matteo couldn’t take them back. “A kind offer,” Sadie said, trying to keep her sarcasm under wraps. “But I’ll need to take them back to the shop since it seems I’ll be unable to deliver them. What happened anyway?”

  “I’ll tell you what I think…,” Mags began. “I think it was one of those men she’d been seeing. Maybe the skinny, sleazy one who slinked around like a weasel. Yep, I bet he did it.”

  “Did what?” Sadie asked, already trying to get the description of the man out of her mind.

  “Killed her, that’s what,” Mags said. “Why do you think the place is taped off? Besides, look who’s pulling up.” Sadie followed Mags’s arm gesture. Sure enough, the coroner’s vehicle had just arrived.

  Mags turned away from Sadie to another woman standing nearby. “Don’t you think so, Linda? That slinky guy must have killed her. I mean, he seemed the type. Not trustworthy.”

  The woman Mags addressed as Linda shot Mags a dubious look. “You didn’t even know the guy. You can’t just go around accusing people of something serious, especially without knowing them.”

  “Well, I just didn’t like the way he looked.” Mags crossed her arms as if to solidify her point. “And I saw him plenty of times.”

  “Of course you did,” Linda said. “From that front window of yours. Don’t you have better things to do than watch the neighborhood all the time?”

  Mags shrugged her shoulders. “Someone has to.”

  “You’re like that character in the old show,” Linda said. “The one about the witch who could wiggle her nose and her house would be clean. I always wanted to be able to pull that off. What was that show called?”

  “Bewitched,” Sadie said.

  “Yes, that one. Thank you.” Linda turned away to talk to other neighbors, but Mags continued to hover near Sadie.

  “Who are the chocolates from? Looks like you have three boxes,” Mags leaned forward in an obvious attempt to read the name on the top bo
x.

  “I don’t know,” Sadie said, moving the boxes away from the woman’s intruding gaze. “I just offered to drop them off. It’s not really any of my business.” Or yours, Sadie added silently.

  The conversation paused as two police officers stepped out of the Victorian house. They descended the front steps and began questioning observers on the sidewalk. Mags abruptly turned away from Sadie and rushed over to offer whatever information she knew and likely some she didn’t. Sadie took advantage of the moment to walk back to her car. As she opened the door, her cell phone rang. She set the boxes of chocolate down and reached into a side pocket of her tote bag to pull the phone out. Coco let out a small yip of protest at being disturbed.

  “Hi, Amber,” Sadie said, having recognized the phone number for the store. She slid into the driver’s seat and listened to Amber recount a customer request. “Yes, we can order that sweater in for Mrs. Figtree. Just write down the color and size she needs. It comes in pastel blue, yellow and pink, I believe. … Maybe in lavender, I’ll have to check. I’ll be back shortly.” … “No, I wasn’t able to. It turns out I won’t be delivering the blouse or the chocolates, I’m afraid. I’ll explain when I get back.”

  Sadie disconnected the call and slipped the cell phone back in the tote’s pocket. From a separate pocket, she pulled out a bone-shaped treat and dropped it into the bag. Smiling at the soft crunching that followed, she watched Mags move from one officer to the other, trying to peek at their notepads. Her arms flew about in exaggerated gestures. The officers appeared to be listening politely while trying to give equal attention to other neighbors.

  “Quite a scene,” Sadie said, shaking her head. “And poor Ms. Bennett. I didn’t really know her, but you liked her, Coco. She always took time to pet you when she came into the shop.” Coco’s head popped up above the rim of the tote at the sound of her name. Sadie gave Coco a pat on the head and then started the car. “Let’s go, Coco. We’d better get back to the shop and give Matteo the news.”