by Lee, Carol
“Glad to hear that. I think it’s time we had another chat. Could you come down to the precinct with me?” he asked Sydney.
“I’d be happy to. Let me just bring Maple home and I’ll be down in a half hour,” she told him.
“I think it’ll be best if you come with me right now,” he said authoritatively.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take Maple. We’ll go for a long walk,” Grace said, always coming to the rescue.
“Thanks. Here are my keys. You can keep her with you or bring her back to my place if I’m not home yet. I’ll text you when I’m on my way.” Sydney handed her keys to Grace and squatted down to Maple’s level to give her a quick hug and receive a kiss. If for no other reason, she had to clear her name so she could come home to Maple.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine together,” Grace reassured her and they parted ways.
“Ready to go? Sorry about all this,” Detective Massey said, completely changing his demeanor now that he was alone with Sydney.
She didn’t have a response, so just got into the passenger seat of the cop car. He courteously held the door open for her. She was thankful she didn’t have to go through the embarrassment of getting into the back of the car.
Now that she was alone with him and had the time to study him, she couldn’t deny his good looks. His hair was the kind you would be able to run your fingers through if you were given the chance. And those eyes. Sydney knew most girls fell for the deep blue. But Detective Massey’s dark chocolate eyes were eyes she could get lost in.
As he turned the key and started driving, she also noticed his long slender fingers. Fingers made to serenade a girl with piano melodies.
She looked away before she got caught staring.
“I’m really sorry to be doing this, Sydney.”
“It’s all part of your job.” Why am I reassuring him? she wondered to herself.
“It is. But I wish it wasn’t. Sinful Sweets has always been good to the department. I’d hate for anything to happen to its owner.”
“That’s nice to hear. We treat everyone as well as we can.”
Sydney really wasn’t interested in making small talk with Detective Massey. She was frustrated that she was missing work for a second afternoon in a row, and that she wasn’t able to track down Allison today. The library would undoubtedly be closed by the time she was released, though she wasn’t sure how long giving a statement generally took.
They arrived at the police station and Sydney was escorted to an interrogation room. She was not given the pleasure of having Detective0020Massey as her interrogator. She would have enjoyed being able to look at him again. With a good reason. Instead, she was met by Detective Mike Luck.
Detective Luck wasn’t endowed with the same dashing features that Massey had. “Where were you two nights ago?” he asked, hands clasped in front of his enormous belly. Sydney wondered why she never saw him in Sinful Sweets. He was clearly eating plenty of donuts.
“I was home.”
“Is there anyone who can verify that?” he asked, double chin doing all the work.
“No. I left work just after five. Grace was the last person to see me before I got home 20 minutes later.”
“So no one can account for your whereabouts between, say, five thirty and midnight?” he confirmed.
“That’s correct. Oh no, I got a phone call around seven thirty. Here, I have my cell phone, you can check the time the call came in. I remember it now, because I was on the phone for over an hour.”
“Let’s see.” He started scrolling through her recent calls. There hadn’t been many since then, so she didn’t know what was taking him so long. “It looks like you were on the phone from 7:24 until. . .8:49.” He paused to do the math.
“Yes.”
“But you could have been anywhere. You didn’t have to be at home.”
“But I was. Can’t you check surveillance videos from the crime scene to see that I wasn’t there? Or track my whereabouts from my phone’s GPS?”
“We’ll get to that, Miss Marshall. But right now, we’d like to know how your fingerprints ended up at the crime scene if you claim you weren’t there.”
The conversation continued for what felt like hours. Sydney was sure it was well past closing time when she was released, so was surprised to see that it was still only 4:30.
She sent Grace a text, On my way to work. You there still?
She had to unload about the circular questioning and pull her weight with the fulfillment orders.
Working away. See u soon, Grace texted back.
Sydney had refused a ride from Detective Massey and she’d left her bike at the bakery, so she was on foot back to Sinful Sweets. She was happy to have the extra few minutes to get her frustration out and figure out where to go from here.
“What happened? I was worried they’d keep you overnight,” Grace nearly shouted as soon as Sydney let herself in the back door. They met in the kitchen where Grace had been working. Boxes were spread out over every surface in various stages of being packed.
“My fingerprints!” Sydney shouted back. “My fingerprints!”
“Slow down. What about your fingerprints?”
“They’re in the hotel room where Aaron was killed!”
“How did they get there?”
“You know as well as I do that I wasn’t there, so I have no idea.”
“Did they ask where you’d been the night he was killed?”
“Yes, but no one can verify that. I was on the phone for over an hour, but they said I could have been anywhere. We need to get this case solved so I can sleep at night.”
“Well here’s something interesting,” Grace started, changing the subject and putting on a much more positive tone. “We got a big order for an event in Westhedge. You’ll never guess what it’s for.”
“A welcoming for Allison at her new library,” Sydney said with cynicism.
“No. Even better. For the funeral of Mr. Gibbs.”
“You’re kidding!” Sydney cried, snatching the order request out of Grace’s hand. “The first thing they need is 200 pumpkin scones for a wake. If only I could go so I could check out more possible suspects. There have to be more people we don’t know about.”
“Maybe you can’t go, but I could,” Grace offered.
“No. Even better. I need to call Mia.” Sydney whipped out her phone and dialed her sister.
“Mia,” she said after a longer than expected wait. “Aaron’s wake is coming up. You ended on better terms with him it sounds like, and you’re not a suspect in his murder. I need you to go scope out everyone in attendance,” she rattled off before she could be interrupted.
“Sydney, are you out of your mind?”
“No. I was just questioned about his murder. My fingerprints are in his hotel room. I can’t go there alone, and the police think I did it. I need you to go see if there’s anyone suspicious looking so I can clear my name.”
“Sydney—”
“Mia,” she interrupted. “I would do it for you.”
“I was going to say alright.”
“Great, thanks. Let’s get together tomorrow to talk about what to look for.”
“Like you’d even have a clue. I’ll ask Austin.”
Austin, she thought to herself. “Please don’t bring Detective Massey into this.”
“He’d want to know that I was getting involved.”
“Then don’t think of it like that. Just go to the wake as a friend of Aaron’s and talk to his grieving friends and family. Report back to me and stay out of it.” Sydney added a hint of cheer to her voice.
“Alright. This one time. But then I’m really out of this investigation you have going on.”
“Thank you, I owe you one!”
“She’s in?” Grace asked, a smile on her face.
“Yes. It took some convincing, but she’ll go. Let’s make another list of suspects that we can give her tomorrow, or what we’d be looking for in someone guilty.”<
br />
“But let’s finish these orders first.”
“Not going to happen. Trouble approaches,” Sydney said, the cheer gone from her voice and demeanor. She saw Detective Massey knocking on the front door. “What can he possibly want now?”
Sydney walked slowly to the front of the store, leaving Grace to keep working alone. She made a mental note to give her an extra large bonus this year.
“Sydney, sorry to bother you again,” Detective Massey said when Sydney had unlocked and opened the front door.
“Come in. I’d rather this conversation be held inside, not where potential customers could overhear.”
“Thanks. Again, I’m sorry about all this. I know your sister, and I don’t want to think that someone in her family would be capable of murder. We just have to go through the steps to get everything cleared up.”
He paused, but Sydney had nothing to say to him.
“So right now, we’re going to have to test your kitchen for possible contaminants and poisons like the one used in Aaron’s murder.”
“What? You can’t be serious!”
“Unfortunately, I am. My team is on their way now. I’ll have to ask you to leave until we’ve completed our search.”
“How long do you think this search will take?” Sydney had lost all patience but knew she shouldn’t put on an attitude.
“We hope to work through the night and have everything completed by noon tomorrow. You’ll have to remain closed until we’re through.”
“Will I be compensated for lost business?”
“We can’t promise that. What we can promise is a timely search so that you’ll be able to reopen promptly.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, Detective Massey.”
“Please, call me Austin.”
Sydney was speechless. Here was this stunningly gorgeous hunk in front of her who just shut down her only means of income, and he was trying to get friendly with her. His nerve.
“We’ll get out of your way.”
“Here’s my card. If you think of anything that might be helpful in our search or any other part of the investigation, please don’t hesitate to call. I’ll let you know as soon as we’re able to let you back in.”
“Thanks,” she said, but didn’t mean it. “Let’s go Maple.” Together they wanted back to the kitchen, leaving Austin to let himself out.
“We have to close?” Grace hissed.
“Yeah. Let’s go get a beer and talk through these suspects some more. Then we’ll have a long baking session in my kitchen so we can get these scones made in time.”
***
“Levi is out,” Sydney said confidently after she’d downed her first beer.
“But we still have Allison. Since we’re not allowed to work tomorrow morning, I’ll go to the library as soon as it opens. See what her alibi is.”
“And then we could head over to Westhedge. Maybe visit a diner there. Just listen in on what people are saying. See if there are any accusations floating around. And maybe even find Jody, Michael or Madelyn. Let’s Google them to see what comes up.”
“Already on it. Jody Durham,” Grace started, staring at her phone. “She’s an elementary school teacher, listed as their only kindergarten teacher. We have their emails, why don’t we send out surveys tonight and tell them we’d love to come pick them up so we can get any feedback from them about our service and sweets.”
“Love it! I’ll start writing it now, you look up Michael and Madelyn.” Sydney took out her own phone and opened up her notes. Questions she would ask included: 1. How did you first hear about Sinful Sweets? 2. How long have you been a customer of Sinful Sweets? 3. Is there anything we could do better to improve our service to you? 4. If you shared your most recent order, do you think they will become a customer in the future?
She already knew what and when their most recent orders had been, so she would include that in her personalized emails. She would make it look like everyone was getting one, but only the three suspects would.
“Did you find anything out about Michael?”
“His Facebook profile is completely accessible. It looks like he has a wife and a couple kids, works for the post office, and we don’t have any mutual friends. Let me search his friends for Aaron, what’s his last name?”
“Gibbs.”
“Right. It looks like they’re not friends on Facebook.”
“What about Madelyn?”
“Hang on, let me open a new window. . .There. Wow. She’s beautiful. I’m getting a couple articles about her. Not local, though. She used to be a model. These are old articles, so I’m not sure when she left that and moved here.”
“What about her Facebook page. Is it public?”
“No. I can’t see anything but her picture. Can’t even see her friends.”
“Oh well. We’ll look for them tomorrow. We have a busy day—find Allison, talk to Mia and visit Westhedge. Here, take a look at my email.”
Dear [name],
Thank you for your recent order of [include specific sweets] from Sinful Sweets. To improve our service to you and all of our loyal customers, we’d like to ask you a few questions. We will also be visiting Westhedge tomorrow afternoon and would love to hear any feedback in person. A complimentary cider donut will be included!
1. How did you first hear about Sinful Sweets?
2. How long have you been a customer of Sinful Sweets?
3. Is there anything we could do better to improve our service to you?
4. If you shared your most recent order, do you think they will become a customer in the future?
Feel free to respond via email, or let us know a time we could bring you another delicious treat tomorrow.
Forever yours,
Sinful Sweets
“Perfect, but what if we don’t hear from anyone before tomorrow? A teacher, a postal worker and an ex-model who we don’t know what she’s doing now—we might not get to meet anyone.”
“That’s OK. We’ll cross our fingers to hear from them, otherwise we’ll just show up in town and seek them out. I’ll have to go back to Sinful Sweets to send this email. I don’t have access to their contact information at home.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Detective Massey and his team will be there.”
“He was getting all friendly with me earlier. I’ll try to play my hand and bat my eyelashes enough to let him just use my computer. I wouldn’t be touching the ingredients!”
“You are trouble, Sydney!” Grace said, laughing.
“I’ll use Maple as a decoy, say she led me straight here and wouldn’t go home without a visit first. She must have left a bone.”
“I’ll meet you at your house to get busy baking scones.”
Grace paid for her drinks and headed out the door. Sydney went the other way, back to Sinful Sweets.
CHAPTER 5
“Too bad you can’t tell Detective Massey—Austin—that I was home two nights ago,” Sydney said to Maple as they walked slowly back to the bakery. Maple seemed to always know where they were going, leading Sydney without straying from the path Sydney planned. Sydney pushed her bike next to her. She preferred not to ride at night when there was a greater potential for Maple to get caught on a smell and take off. “You’re my only witness for my innocence.”
They arrived at the bakery and were surprised to find everyone still hard at work. Sydney felt humiliated that she had to ask permission to enter.
“Detective Massey—” she started when she opened the back door.
“Austin,” he interrupted her.
“Austin,” she tried again. “Would it be alright if I just used my computer for a couple minutes. I want to send an email to a couple customers. . .Let them know their orders will be delayed,” she improvised at the last second. “I don’t have it setup to be accessed from home, and I don’t have their contact information there.”
“I think that’d be alright. Just stay out of the kitchen.”
Sydn
ey gave him the best smile she could muster given the circumstances and headed to her small office. She sent an email to Jody, Michael and Madelyn, hoping beyond hope that they would see them tonight and get back to her.
She also checked around her desk for anything she may have printed and made notes on regarding her own investigation. She didn’t think a detective finding them would be good for her case.
She took a few more lists of customers and shuffled Maple out the door. “Thanks, Austin,” she called as the door closed so he wouldn’t have another chance to talk to her. Given any other scenario, she’d almost beg for him to notice her and talk to her.