A Catered Christmas Killer (A Sinful Sweets Cozy Mystery)

by Lee, Carol

  “That is interesting. You don’t think she was having an affair, do you?”

  “I couldn’t tell from the littler interaction I saw, but Maria might know something. Do you think an affair could have led to her murder?” Sydney asked.

  “Maybe Marcus had found out about it! He seems a little callous today about his wife dying. And he was here all last night.”

  “And Ryan seemed really surprised when I told him Julia wasn’t here. Like they’d had plans and she hadn’t had a chance to tell him they’d been changed. Maybe Marcus brought her somewhere she couldn’t refuse just to get her out of the house.” As Sydney talked, getting more and more into this scenario, she kneaded her dough harder and harder, small clouds of flour making their way into the air.

  “This seems like a place that would have security cameras. Did you see any outside?”

  “No. But, if Marcus suspected Ryan was coming yesterday and he wanted to get Julia out of the house, he could have checked the cameras to see if he came. Or they would have caught the murderer on camera entering the house and there wouldn’t be a need for any of this investigation. Hey, have you seen my knife?”

  “Your knives are all here,” Grace pointed to the drying rack right next to her.

  “No, the one that’s engraved.”

  Grace looked through the knives in the drying rack but didn’t find the knife in question. “When was the last time you used it?”

  “Yesterday. When I was cutting the ham for the quiches. And then I washed it. I’m sure I did. And I would have put it with the rest of them to dry.”

  “Did you see it this morning?”

  Sydney shook her head, no.

  “Could it have been what was used to kill Julia?” Grace asked, fear in her eyes.

  Remembering the large pool of blood on the tile, Sydney said, “Oh my God. I’m not going to just be a suspect. I’m going to be the main suspect. My fingerprints are all over that. It has my name on it. It even says Sinful Sweets. If this gets out, we’re done.”

  “We’re not done. Remember when our pumpkin pies were found poisoned at the scene of another murder? We never even suffered from that. And this isn’t happening in Twin Peaks.”

  “But the Durans are a big name. We have to find that knife!”

  ***

  Sydney and Grace didn’t have the freedom to leave the kitchen to hunt for a knife. They were on a tight schedule and had to stick to it. By noon, the first loaves of bread were in—they’d had to speed up the rising process by sticking them in a warm oven and they hoped they wouldn’t suffer criticism because of it—and the quiches were cooking. Sydney was putting layers into glasses for the parfaits and Grace was finishing up the shrimp scampi. They just had the dipping oils and the eggnog to finish in the next five hours and they thought they could get it all done early.

  The doorbell, once again, interrupted them.

  To their surprise, Maria opened the door. They hadn’t seen Marcus since early morning and Sydney assumed he was resting after the traumatic events.

  “You must be Drew,” Maria greeted whoever was at the door.

  “Yes. Is Julia home? She told me to come at noon to get everything setup and she wanted to walk through everything with me,” Drew explained.

  “She will not be joining us today. There was an accident last night.”

  Accident? Sydney thought to herself.

  “Is she okay?”

  “Not quite. She’s dead. But Mr. Duran would like for the party to continue—he says that is what Julia would have wanted—so we’re all preparing. Let me show you to the bar.”

  Maria led Drew through the kitchen, introducing him to Sydney and Grace. Sydney was immediately struck by how young he was. And good looking. If Julia was having an affair, why wouldn’t she have had it with him instead of Ryan?

  She chided herself for even thinking that. She and Austin hadn’t yet labeled their relationship, but in her mind, she was exclusive.

  Austin! She knew she should have called him after Julia’s murder, but she hadn’t even thought of it.

  “Are you done with those shrimp?” Sydney asked Grace when Maria and Drew had left.

  “Just a few left. I’ll start on the eggnog next.”

  “Could you actually finish these parfaits up when you’re done? I’m going to call Austin and let him know what happened.”

  “You haven’t told him?” Grace asked. “That would have been the first thing I would have done!”

  “Well, the first thing I did was get you up to speed. But thanks for ignoring me in your hypothetical world.” Sydney laughed.

  “Go call him. I’ll work on the parfaits next.”

  Sydney went back upstairs to her room so she could have some privacy and called Austin on his cell. He was good about answering it even if he was at work.

  “Hey Sydney,” he said when he answered. Sydney could hear the smile in his voice.

  “Hey. How’s work?” She wondered if he’d heard about Julia’s murder already.

  “Slow today. Saturdays are usually busier. How’s the catering job going?” He must not have heard if he wasn’t asking about it.

  “Well, it’s gotten interesting. Julia Duran was killed last night.”

  “I heard on the scanner about something going on in Newhall. That’s the family you’re working for, right?” He sounded worried.

  “Yeah.”

  “So are you back home?” he asked, the smile returning to his voice.

  “No. Sorry. No dinner tonight,” she teased. “But I just wanted to let you know I was okay. I found her body when I woke up early this morning to start working again. She was stabbed in the kitchen. And now one of my knives is missing.”

  “Oh man, Sydney. Who’s the lead detective over there?”

  “Detective Joe Moore.” Sydney had to pull the business card out of her pocket to remember his name. “You know him?”

  “No. But if you need my help in anything, let me know. Just stay out of it and be careful.”

  “Yeah. Of course.” She knew she wouldn’t be staying out of it with her knife missing and possibly the murder weapon, but she would be careful.

  ***

  “Grace, we forgot the mushrooms and cheese plates!” Sydney exclaimed as the afternoon wore on and their five o’clock deadline was quickly approaching.

  “What mushrooms and cheese plates?” Grace asked. She was pulling the final loaf of bread out of the oven. She thought they were finished with the bulk of the work and just had to get everything laid out before guests arrived.

  “Julia wanted bacon-wrapped stuffed mushrooms added to the menu, and cheese plates too. We talked about it Thursday when I got here. We have all the ingredients, we just have to make them.”

  “Okay. You start destemming the mushrooms, I’ll start making the filling. We can add the cheese plates last even once guests are here. That doesn’t have to cook. And then we can do the eggnog.”

  They got to work on the mushrooms and it wasn’t long before Maria interrupted them.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked.

  “Actually, yes. We have all this cheese that needs to be cut into cubes. If you don’t mind—” Sydney left the instructions open for her to back out just in case she had other work to do but was just being polite.

  “Sure. Do you have a knife I can use?”

  “Let’s see if we can find you one.” Sydney started opening drawers looking for Julia’s knives. With her missing knife, she and Grace were using everything she’d brought. “Here’s one. And a cutting board.”

  Sydney was grateful for Maria’s help, and she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask Maria about her relationship with the Durans.

  “Maria, how long have you worked for Julia and Marcus?” Sydney asked, opening the conversation.

  “I’ve been with Mr. and Mrs. Duran for seven years. They’ve been wonderful to work for.”

  Sydney had paused her work so she could turn and see
any expressions Maria gave away, but Maria kept her back to both Sydney and Grace as she worked facing the windows.

  “And you’ve been their housekeeper all that time?” Grace asked.

  “Yup. My late husband used to be their gardener, rest his soul.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” Sydney turned back to her mushrooms, realizing Maria wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of looking at her.

  “It’s been nearly five years now. Time has flown by.”

  Sydney thought that was an odd way to talk about the time since one’s spouse had passed. Many widows had trouble recovering, ever.

  “You must have a strong community here to have been able to bounce back after that,” Grace jumped in. Sydney realized she must have been thinking along the same lines.

  Maria paused in her cheese cutting and turned to look at the other women. “It was really hard at first.” Maria had a faraway look in her eyes, reliving the pain of loss. “But Mr. Duran welcomed me into his home even more afterward. My family is all far, so they have become like a family to me. Mrs. Duran’s passing—it’s just tragic.”

  Maria hadn’t shed a tear since learning of Julia’s death, but she could talk about her like family? Something didn’t seem to add up.

  “You must know a lot about them if you’ve been working for them for so long. You must see plenty of people coming and going here.” Sydney was grateful for Grace being so blunt.

  “Yes.” Maria turned back to the cheese and didn’t elaborate.

  Minutes later, Marcus joined the three women in the kitchen.

  “Mr. Duran, how are you coping?”

  “Oh, Maria. I don’t think the reality has fully hit me yet.” Sydney was nearly relieved to see the pain in his eyes. Maybe he truly did miss his wife.

  “It does take a little while. It’s the quiet times at the end of the days that become the hardest. Do you have any idea how she died?” Grace and Sydney exchanged a look. He hadn’t told Maria?

  “She was stabbed, here in the kitchen, last night,” he said matter of factly.

  “Stabbed?” Maria nearly shouted. “Who would do such a thing?”

  “The detectives are looking into it.”

  “If I can offer any assistance, I’d be happy to,” she said.

  “That won’t be necessary. How is the food coming? When are guests due to arrive?” It became clear that Julia had done all of the planning and now Marcus was stuck with a party he might not even want to be having.

  The doorbell was all the answer Marcus got.

  “I’ll get that, Mr. Duran.” Maria left the kitchen toward the front door and Marcus headed in the direction of the bar. Drew was ready for the onslaught and handed Marcus his first drink of the evening.

  Grace finished the last of the mushrooms and Sydney put the tray in the oven. They would cook for just a few minutes. Grace took over the cheese cutting and Sydney started filling bowls with dipping oils. They were coming right down to the wire and they still had the eggnog.

  Sydney glanced out through the door and saw Maria leading an older man toward the bar. Marcus turned and smiled at his first guest, happiness not quite finding its way to his eyes.

  “The first guest is here,” Sydney hissed at Grace. “What’s left to do?”

  “Just these oils, and the cheese is almost done. I’ll get the eggnog going. Everything else is plated and out in the main area. I set out trays on the Christmas table cloths you brought, a bouquet of flowers next to each one. There should be plenty of food. We will just have to keep an eye on refilling trays as they get low.” Grace’s steady voice calmed Sydney’s nerves about the party and opened her mind to start digging into Julia’s murder.

  “Once we get into the swing of the party, I want to look around to see if there’s any evidence of an affair. I’m not going to let some crazy murderer try to pin another death on me! I have to find that knife!” Sydney whispered back.

  “I would start in Marcus’ office. He’s gotta have a space here that’s truly just his. He may have looked sad a little while ago, but he’s barely shown any emotion today. And he never noticed his wife hadn’t come to bed last night? Look for your knife in the house first. I bet he’s at least partly responsible for her murder.”

  Sydney peeked back toward the bar. Marcus was deep in conversation with his guest.

  “I’m going to bring these oils around first. I’ll be right back.” Sydney picked up as many bowls of oil as she could with the hope of having to get close enough to Marcus to figure out who his guest was. She headed toward the loaves of bread that were scattered throughout the enormous room, concentrating hard on not dropping anything.

  Sydney didn’t have to wait long to get what she was looking for.

  “Howard, this is Sydney. Sydney, Howard is my business partner,” Marcus introduced them. Sydney was taken aback that she was even acknowledged, let alone introduced. “Sydney is responsible for all the food that we’ll be eating tonight. She’s been cooking away for nearly three days, and it has smelled delicious!” he continued, turning back to Howard.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Sydney said, awkwardly shaking his hand while still trying to carry too many bowls of dipping oil.

  “The pleasure is mine. You know, I’ve actually been looking for a cook—” Howard started.

  Sydney didn’t mean to be rude, but she cut him off. “Actually, I own a bakery in Twin Peaks. I specialize in desserts, but have just expanded to include catering events.”

  Howard looked disappointed. Sydney wondered how much money these men actually had if one of them was hosting a 100 person party and the other was looking for a personal chef.

  “Well, at the very least, let me get your card. Without Julia, I don’t know who will host this party next year. It might have to be at my house!” Howard gave a belly laugh and Sydney turned to put down her bowls of oil so he wouldn’t see her appalled look. She pulled a business card out of her apron pocket and handed it to Howard. “Sinful Sweets. I’m intrigued.”

  Sydney was disgusted. Here he was, joyous, and Marcus’ wife had been killed just before her own Christmas party. She’d have to swallow her dislike for this man and grill him later with questions about Julia. He didn’t seem to harbor any sympathy for either of the Durans.

  She finished putting out all of the bowls of oil and headed back to the kitchen. Grace passed her on her way to put out the first of the quiches. It wouldn’t be long before more guests arrived.

  Maria had made herself scarce, and Sydney suspected she was doing a last check of the areas where guests would congregate, especially the main room that was wide open and filled nearly half of the first floor of the house. She said a silent thanks that Maria had helped in the kitchen when she’d surely had more work to do.

  On the threshold between the kitchen and main room, Sydney looked around and took stock of what she’d accomplished. She was proud of herself, and of Grace, for getting enough food cooked for 100 people. She wasn’t tired yet, but knew she’d be dead on her feet by the end of the night. The first of everything was set out and it looked perfect—color coordination, flowers, beautiful food—and she couldn’t wait for guests to begin enjoying the spoils of her labor.

  When she scanned the room and her eyes passed over the stairs, she saw Maria furtively dash up them, looking behind her with an expression Sydney had a hard time reading from afar, but thought it was either guilt or fear. She slowly began to follow her.

  CHAPTER 3

  Sydney confidently walked to the bottom of the stairs. She made like she was checking the food laid out there. She exchanged a knowing look with Grace across the room, who was setting out the first of the quiches and waved for her to keep going. She must have seen Maria leave, too.

  Sydney looked up and saw that the landing was empty at the top of the stairs. Wherever Maria was, she was trying not to be seen. Sydney crept to the top of the stairs, not making a single noise.

  She saw light coming from under one
of the doors. It wasn’t her bedroom, that was in a different part of the house. She’d been using the back staircase that she thought had, at one time, been used by live-in help.

  All of the doors were closed and she didn’t hear anything coming from any of the rooms. The thick carpeting was working against her right now as she listened, all sounds absorbed by the rug. She snuck behind a curtain at the near end of the hall and waited. She hoped Maria would be quick so she’d at least know if she was in the room with the light on.