Red Velvet Cupcakes to Die For (A Liana Campbell Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Alaine Allister

  Liana’s day was getting much better.

  That is, until she took the garbage out.

  After bundling up against the cold, she slipped out of her bustling little coffee shop. She made the short walk to the back of the building. The alleyway where the big red dumpster sat was full of snow. In fact, the snow came up right past the tops of her cozy winter boots.

  With a sigh, Liana stepped into the snow and prepared to freeze her shins.

  She dragged the heavy, overfilled garbage bag behind her. When she reached the dumpster, she tried to hoist the bag up and throw it in. Unfortunately, something sharp must have pierced the thin black plastic. As soon as the bag was in the air, it split open.

  Trash rained down, tarnishing the freshly fallen snow.

  “Crap!” Liana muttered.

  She briefly contemplated asking Reese to come out and clean up the mess. He had agreed to start work immediately, stating that there was no time like the present to begin learning the ropes. It was his first day on the job and he was already more competent than Joel. It was fantastic.

  Technically Reese was Liana’s employee now, so she could ask him to do things like clean up litter in the alley. It was a tempting thought...but it was also kind of a jerk move. It was the guy’s very first day on the job. She wasn’t about to order him to pick up trash that she had spilled.

  Moving as quickly as she could, Liana began scooping up the garbage and tossing it into the open dumpster. In went her destroyed cupcake tin, various baked goods Joel had ruined and miscellaneous bits of debris.

  She made a face as some mysterious, gooey black substance oozed onto her mittens.

  “Yuck!” she hissed under her breath.

  “Mew!”

  Liana looked across the alley. She spotted a small cat sitting on the fire escape of a neighboring building. The little creature regarded her with interest and then let out another little chirp of acknowledgment.

  “What are you doing out here?” Liana called to the cat. “It’s cold out!”

  “Mew,” the cat replied.

  The cat’s fur was long and thick. It was such a dark shade of grey that it was nearly black. The friendly feline was a cute little thing, all fluffy and pink-nosed. Liana hated to leave the critter outside all alone on such a cold day.

  “Here kitty!” Liana coaxed, plodding over to the fire escape. “Come here! I don’t know where you came from, but I’ll take you inside my shop so you can warm up,” she offered, reaching for the fluffy feline.

  The cat turned and ran up the fire escape. Then it disappeared through an open window. Whose bright idea had it been to leave a window open in the winter? Liana could only imagine the massive heating bill that would elicit.

  “Fine, don’t come inside with me,” she grumbled good-naturedly. She would have liked to pet the cat; it had looked so soft and cuddly. But she was mostly just relieved that the cute little thing was out of the cold.

  “Time for me to go inside,” Liana whispered to herself. She could see her breath when she spoke. She glanced over at the dumpster and noted it was covered with frost. It was a good day for staying inside, as far as she was concerned.

  Suddenly Liana spotted something familiar - and unexpected - lying in the snow.

  “My cupcake liners!” she exclaimed out loud. “What are they doing out here?”

  Not long ago, she had placed an online order for a bunch of novelty, holiday-themed cupcake liners. They were to be delivered by a party supply store in Green City. The delivery hadn’t arrived...or at least that’s what Liana had thought until now.

  Liana bent down to investigate - and then let out a scream.

  “Is everything alright back there?” a man’s voice called.

  Liana looked toward the sidewalk and saw a middle aged couple standing there.

  On closer inspection, she realized it was Morris and Barbara Norman.

  Morris was a pleasant and mild-mannered man who frequented the coffee shop. He had a slight stutter that only made an occasional appearance. He was balding, slightly pudgy and very nice to deal with. He was always polite and he tipped well.

  His wife Barbara was a local busybody who primarily hung out with other busybodies from the church. Her favorite pastimes included snooping, bragging, judging and chastising. She was only tolerable in Very Small Doses. Perhaps that was why her passive, long-suffering husband hid out at the coffee shop with his buddies so much.

  At a loss for words, all Liana could do was stare at the Normans with her mouth agape.

  “My husband asked you a question!” Barbara Norman called shrilly. Apparently she was taking offense to Liana’s stunned silence. In an hour’s time, the entire town would probably know all about how rude the young coffee shop owner was.

  Morris, however, seemed to sense that something was amiss. He raised a hand, momentarily silencing Barbara. His eyes were locked on Liana, and his expression was one of concern. He was apparently far more perceptive than his hotheaded loudmouth of a wife.

  He set the shopping bags he was carrying down on the snowy sidewalk and took a step closer.

  “Morris!” Barbara screeched as her plump, round face grew red with anger. “What do you think you’re doing? That is my shopping you just dumped in the snow like trash! I didn’t spend three hours picking out Christmas presents for you to discard them on the filthy ground. My bags are going to get wet in the snow! Pick them up right now!”

  To his credit, Morris ignored his indignant wife as she stood there raging. Perhaps decades of marriage had made him deaf to her constant and often silly complaints. Or maybe he was finally growing a backbone.

  The mild-mannered, balding man trudged purposefully through the snow.

  “Liana?” he asked, his neat grey moustache wiggling as he spoke. “What’s wrong?”

  Still too shocked to answer, all Liana could do was point.

  Morris craned his neck to see what had gotten the young woman so upset. Then, when he spotted it, he froze in his tracks. All the color drained from his face as he and Liana exchanged a look of utter disbelief.

  Behind the red dumpster was a body.

  Chapter 05

  “Yep, he’s dead,” Sam Swanson announced.

  The young police officer had been on his way to buy coffee when he had heard Barbara Morris screeching. It wasn’t all that unusual for the middle aged drama queen to be making a big public scene. A few months earlier she had seen a mouse in the park and screamed so loudly the entire town had heard.

  Since he was a cop, Sam had felt obliged to investigate. And it was a good thing he had.

  Now he was crouched down next to the lifeless body, quietly surveying the scene.

  “How did he die?” Liana asked. “Do you think he had some sort of medical emergency?”

  She was shivering, but it wasn’t from the cold. She was standing farther away from the deceased man than was necessary, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to get any closer. There was something downright ghoulish about finding a dead person right outside her shop.

  “He was strangled,” Sam said matter-of-factly. “See the abrasions around his neck?”

  Liana let out a gasp. Then she took a tentative step forward to get a better look. At first glance, the dead man had appeared to be wearing a navy blue checkered scarf. But upon closer inspection, Liana saw that the scarf was tied much too tightly.

  “He was strangled with his own scarf?!” Liana could hardly believe it.

  “It’s likely the perp’s scarf,” Sam corrected her.

  “How do you know?”

  Sam pointed to a grey scarf lying in the snow a few feet away.

  “The grey scarf matches the dead man’s mittens,” Liana realized.

  “Exactly,” Sam nodded. “So the blue checkered scarf almost certainly belongs to our perp.”

  “Poor guy,” Liana sighed, taking a step closer. “I wonder why he was murdered?”

  “Don’t come any closer,” Sam cautioned, stop
ping her in her tracks. “I don’t want the crime scene to get any more contaminated than it already is. I want to preserve any footprints or other evidence there may be.”

  “Oh, of course,” Liana agreed, feeling foolish for not thinking of that herself.

  She took a hasty step backwards, nearly slipping and falling on a patch of ice.

  “You look cold,” Sam observed as he noticed Liana’s teeth chattering. “Why don’t you go inside and warm up? I need to finish up out here right away, before it starts snowing again. I’ll be in to take a formal statement from you soon.”

  “Okay,” Liana agreed, grateful to get far away from the stiff corpse.

  Sam was had a gruff, abrupt manner that made his personality seem abrasive at times. She knew of several people around town who weren’t particularly fond of him. But she suspected it was only because he had given them parking tickets. Despite his tough exterior, Liana had always considered Sam to be a decent guy.

  “Hey Liana, can you do me a favor?” he asked. “I know it’s a small town and people talk. Word will get out about this soon, but I’d love to have a chance to investigate before all sorts of crazy rumors start floating around. It’s less complicated that way, you know?”

  Liana nodded. “I won’t say a word to anyone,” she promised.

  Suddenly Barbara Norman came barrelling into the alley, kicking snow up behind her. “Did I hear you say that poor fellow was murdered?!” she shrieked, her voice so shrill that every dog in town was probably whimpering.

  Sam stood up and gave her a stern look. “Mrs. Norman, I’m going to need you to remain calm,” he told her matter-of-factly. “This is an active police investigation, and it’s very important that we don’t disturb -”

  “Who is it?!” Barbara demanded, pushing right past Sam so she could get a better look at the body. “I don’t recognize him,” she announced, sounding almost disappointed. She looked at Sam. “Who is he? Do you know his name? Ooh, maybe he has a wallet on him!”

  “Get back!” Sam barked. “You’re contaminating the crime scene!”

  Barbara completely disregarded the order, of course. No one told her what to do.

  “If you don’t step away from the body right now I will arrest you!” Sam threatened.

  But it was too late. Barbara had already managed to kick up a bunch of snow.

  “Dear, maybe we should go into the coffee shop,” Morris called from the sidewalk.

  “Yes, we should make sure everyone in town knows there’s a murderer on the loose!” Barbara agreed eagerly. She looked downright gleeful at the prospect of having juicy gossip to share.

  Sam looked utterly defeated. “Mrs. Norman, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t -”

  “Oh look, there’s Patricia!” Barbara chirped, spotting one of her busybody friends down the street. She began to wave her arms around frantically. Then she began to shout at the top of her lungs, causing quite a commotion.

  “Yoohoo! Yoohoo, Pat! Guess what? There has been a murder!”

  Sam smacked his forehead in frustration. “So much for delaying gossip,” he sighed.

  Liana shot him a sympathetic look, but she wasn’t really surprised. Nothing ever stayed a secret in Sugarcomb Lake for long. Hopefully that meant the murderer would be caught soon. The thought of there being a cold-blooded killer on the loose in town was unsettling, to say the least.

  Chapter 06

  Word of the murder spread through the small town like wildfire.

  In the days that followed the grisly discovery in the alley, it was all anyone could talk about.

  “I heard he was a deliveryman from Green City,” Patricia Porter announced authoritatively. She was seated at a table with several other middle aged women who loved nothing more than to gossip. “He worked at that party store that sells the cutest pinatas and -”

  “His name was Colin Watson,” Barbara interrupted. She seemed determined to prove that she knew more about the deceased man than anyone else. That was no surprise; she and Patricia always seemed to compete in that regard.

  Patricia pursed her lips, clearly annoyed at being cut off. “He knew Penny Trembley,” she said.

  “How do you know?” Barbara demanded in an almost accusing manner. It appeared she hadn’t been privy to that tidbit of information. Now she was scowling in the most unbecoming manner. Her jowls were even more pronounced than usual and her nostrils were flaring.

  “Penny’s mother told me,” Patricia said smugly, looking very proud of herself indeed. “It seemed Colin had taken quite a shine to Penny.”

  “Harumph,” Barbara grumbled.

  “He was making a delivery to this very coffee shop!” Patricia told the table full of ladies, all of whom were hanging on her every word. They were all practically salivating, feasting greedily on scraps of information - and freshly baked banana bread.

  Barbara’s eyes lit up as she remembered another juicy detail. “The poor fellow’s delivery van was still idling in the street while he was dead in the alley. I saw it with my own eyes and it was horrible!” she announced, dramatically clutching at her heart.

  Liana rolled her eyes as she cleaned the counter.

  “They’re at it again?” Reese asked, coming up behind her with a broom in his hand.

  “Unfortunately, yes. How many times can they go over the same details?”

  “I guess we’ll find out,” Reese replied. “Whether we want to or not.”

  “Ugh.”

  “Hey, look who just strolled in,” Reese said suddenly.

  Liana glanced over at the door. She saw Herman Herold shuffling along, tracking snow everywhere. The elderly, longtime resident of Sugarcomb Lake was moving at a snail’s pace. It looked like his arthritis was acting up again.

  As she watched, Luke hurried over, took Herman by the arm and helped him to a table.

  “Have you met Mr. Herold?” Liana asked, wondering why Reese had pointed him out.

  “No, I wasn’t talking about that guy. I was talking about that guy,” Reese clarified, pointing.

  Liana’s eyes widened. “Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise. The fluffy grey cat she’d encountered in the alley had darted inside the coffee shop while the door was open. It stood uncertainly in the entryway, looking around with wonder.

  Immediately, Liana crouched down. “Here kitty!” she called from across the room.

  The cat’s head whipped around. Then the little critter obediently trotted over.

  “Well hello!” Liana smiled as the cat butted up against her hand. “Aren’t you friendly!”

  “Mew!” the cat agreed.

  Grinning, Liana scooped the cat up in her arms. It immediately began to purr.

  “Hmm, no collar. I wonder who this cat belongs to?”

  Reese shrugged and continued sweeping.

  Liana stepped into the middle of the room and held the cat up above her head. Then cleared her throat. “Excuse me! Excuse me, folks! Sorry to interrupt but does anyone know whose cat this is?” she asked loudly, looking around. Sugarcomb Lake was a small place, so surely someone would recognize the adorable feline.

  “I think he’s a stray,” Herman Herold told her. “I’ve seen him around before.”

  “A stray, hmm? He looks pretty well fed for a stray. But if he doesn’t have a home, I can’t send him back outside into the cold. And there’s no sense taking him to an animal shelter when I’m perfectly capable of looking after him. He can stay here if he wants to,” Liana decided.

  She lowered the cat so that they were face-to-face.

  “Would you like that?” she asked the fluffy critter. “Would you like to stay here with me?”

  The cat began to purr even louder.

  “You’re hired,” Liana grinned.

  “You’re not seriously keeping that cat in here, are you?” Luke asked, looking appalled.

  “Sure I am,” Liana told him. “I spend more time here at the coffee shop than I do at home. And this friendly little guy seems to like b
eing around people,” she added, scratching the top of the cat’s head. “He can be my little mascot.”

  Luke wrinkled his nose. “Having a cat in a coffee shop seems unhygienic.”

  Liana was a bit annoyed by Luke’s frosty reception. Did he hate cats or something? “Relax,” she told him tersely. “Having the cat here will be perfectly fine. It’s not like he’ll be prancing around on tabletops or anything.”

  Luke looked unconvinced.

  “What are you going to name him?” Reese asked.

  “Hmm…” Liana ran her fingers through the cat’s soft coat as she thought. “How about Fluffy?”

  “More like Sheddy,” Luke grimaced. “That thing is going to shed all over the place, you know.”

  “I think Fluffy is a great name,” Reese said, giving Luke a dirty look.

  “No one asked you,” Luke muttered under his breath, looking irritated.

  “Everyone, I have an announcement to make!” Liana called out. She waited for the noise to die down. Then she held the cat up again so everyone could get a good look. “This is Fluffy and he’s my new mascot!” Liana announced, barely able to contain her excitement.

  Most of the customers smiled or chuckled in response. A few folks even applauded.

  Over the next little while, Liana busied herself with the cat. She procured a litter box and cozy pet bed. She bought several brands of cat food in every flavor she could find, since she didn’t yet know her new friend’s preferences. And then she rearranged the kitchen to make space for the cat.

  As she worked, the cat went for a leisurely stroll out front. Though he seemed to be easily spooked by loud noises, he wasn’t shy. In fact, he was rather sociable. He circulated from one table to another, pausing to let delighted customers stroke his head.

  Fluffy seemed quite content with his new living arrangements.

  Liana had hoped the cat’s arrival would help lighten the mood. But before she knew it, every conversation in the coffee shop had turned back to darker subject matter. There was no avoiding it, she supposed. Everyone in town wanted to discuss the mysterious alleyway murder.