Wedding Bell Blunders: A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery

by Kathleen Suzette

  She nodded and finished the carrot cake. We stayed and visited a while longer while they tried all the desserts I brought.

  “I’ll be in touch, Allie,” Della said as I gathered up my containers.

  “I look forward to hearing from you.”

  When we got into my car, Lucy turned to me. “She flat out lied about Richard selling drugs behind the shop.”

  “She sure did.”

  I didn’t know what was going on at Sandy Harbor Catering, but I was suspicious of a certain diabetic that didn’t tell the truth about what was going on at her place of business.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Here we are,” I said to Cynthia Hoffer, setting the desserts I had brought on her kitchen counter. Making the desserts for Henry’s Home Cooking Restaurant had been a dream of mine at one time. But I wasn’t as excited by it anymore. I still felt like I was wandering a little in life. Maybe marriage would change things for me.

  Cynthia smiled, looking over the cherry pies and German chocolate cakes I had brought. “Allie, they look so good. You are a dessert-making genius. And my customers are going to be so disappointed they won’t be able to buy your desserts when you go on your honeymoon.”

  “I’m sorry I sprang that on you so suddenly. My daughter Jennifer promised to bring you something on the weekends, though.” I felt bad about leaving Cynthia in the lurch while I was gone on my honeymoon. Jennifer was as good a baker as I was, but she had college, so she would only be available to make desserts on the weekends.

  She waved away the thought. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll make it through somehow. You enjoy your honeymoon and your new husband. Alec is a great guy.”

  I grinned. “I know it. I still can’t believe I was lucky enough to find him.”

  She nodded. “You hang onto him. Good men are hard to find.”

  I picked up the empty shopping bags I had brought the pies and cakes over in. “Oh, believe me, I will. Well, I had better get going now.”

  Cynthia’s husband had died more than a year ago, and I hoped she would find someone to spend the rest of her life with when she was ready. I headed out to the parking lot and spotted Lisa getting out of her car. She was alone, so I headed over to her.

  “Hi, Lisa.”

  She smiled. “Hi, Allie. Fancy meeting you here.”

  I nodded. “I just dropped off some German chocolate cake that is to die for. You had better get some while you can.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Oh, I am going to have to order some of that. I’ve been eating out too often lately, but I don’t care. When I come here, I always order dessert because I know that you made it, and it will be great.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “How have things been going for you? Are things still busy at the catering company?” There were so many things I still wanted to ask about that place. I hoped she would volunteer something.

  She nodded. “Oh, yes, it’s been very busy. Della really needs to get someone hired. I don’t know how long Jodi and I can do it all.”

  “Does Della help you out?” It was her business, so I couldn’t imagine her not working alongside her employees.

  She inhaled. “I hate to complain about her, but she doesn’t help out nearly enough. We were already short a person, and now that we’ve lost Richard, we’re really having a hard time keeping up.”

  I shook my head. “I would think Della would step up and help out.”

  “She does help out some, but I guess she’s got paperwork to do.” She shrugged. “I just hope she gets someone hired soon. That’s what we really need.”

  I nodded. “I gave Jodi a ride home the other day, and she said you all were busy. She was carrying two shopping bags, and I couldn’t pass her by and let her carry them home like that.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, poor Jodi. She’s on foot these days. I try to give her a ride to work when I can, but sometimes Della doesn’t have us coming in at the same time.”

  “Oh? Her car must have needed more repairs than she thought it needed. Being on foot is no fun when the weather isn’t good.”

  She looked at me, puzzled. “Car repairs?”

  Now it was my turn to be puzzled. “Yes, she said she had taken her car into the shop to have the transmission repaired.”

  Her mouth made a straight line, and then she sighed. “Between you and me, her car isn’t in the shop. It was repossessed.”

  “Oh. That’s terrible.” I was surprised to hear this, but if that had happened to my car, I wouldn’t volunteer that information to anyone, either.

  She nodded. “It happened about a month ago, and she’s been on foot since then. She’s going to try to buy another car, but I don’t think she has the money right now.”

  “Poor thing. She was probably too embarrassed to tell me that. Well, I won’t let on that you told me what really happened.”

  “I try to give her a ride around town if I can, but she says she’s fine with walking. She’s been trying to lose weight, anyway.”

  “Having to walk everywhere will do it,” I said.

  She nodded. “Allie, has Alec said anything new about Richard’s case? Is he close to arresting someone? I just hate that a killer is running around town.”

  “You and me both. But if he has someone in his sights, he hasn’t mentioned it to me. I wish he would. I need to know these things.” I chuckled.

  She swallowed and paled. “I would think he would have an idea of who did it by now. Don’t you?”

  I shrugged. “Sometimes it takes some time to sort through everything. He has to interview people and look at the evidence. Why?”

  Her eyes widened slightly. “Well, I just hope he finds them soon. So he didn’t mention who he has his eye on?”

  I shook my head. “No, sorry. I don’t know what he’s up to.” I wondered about her questions. Was there a reason she was asking? Besides mere curiosity? “Now that you’ve had some time to think things over, have you thought of anything new? Maybe something you didn’t think about at the beginning that might help the case?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’ve told Alec everything I know. I wish there was something else, but I just can’t think of a thing.”

  I nodded, studying her face. Was she telling me the truth? “I see.”

  She exhaled. “Well, it’s been good talking to you, Allie. I had better get inside and get something for lunch. I will definitely try the German chocolate cake. I can hardly wait.”

  “I hope you like it,” I said. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  I headed to my car, looking over my shoulder one last time as she entered the restaurant. Why was she interested in what Alec knew or if he was getting ready to arrest someone? I shook my head and got into my car. I was getting paranoid.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I tried to do what Alec said and stay away from Jared Thomas, but I was just too curious. And yes, I know what they say about curiosity killing the cat and all that, but I needed some answers.

  I pushed my shopping cart into the frozen foods section of the grocery store, hunting Jared. I wasn’t exactly sure who he was or what he looked like, but I saw a young man putting ice cream into the freezer, so I headed in that direction.

  I pushed my cart to the ice cream section and leaned over so I could get a look at his name tag. I quickly saw that his name was Jared. I smiled at him. “Good morning. How are you today?” I asked as I opened the freezer door next to the one he had propped open.

  He looked at me and smiled. “I’m doing all right. I hear we’re getting some more rain tomorrow though. I’m not looking forward to that.” He was friendly, and that surprised me. I was expecting a dark, angry drug kingpin.

  I turned to look at him. “Are you kidding me? More rain? We’re going to float off into the ocean if this keeps up.”

  He chuckled. “I was thinking the same thing. I guess we don’t have a choice about it though. Mother Nature seems to have a mind of her own these days.”

  I shook my head and looked over the car
tons of gourmet ice cream on the freezer shelf. Tutti Frutti. That sounded good. “I guess we don’t have a choice about it. No use complaining about it if we can’t change it, right?”

  He nodded and put two cartons of ice cream into the freezer. “Nope. No use complaining about it.”

  I took another look at him. His blond hair was cut short, and he was clean-shaven. He did remind me of Richard a little. “How are you doing today?”

  He shrugged and put another carton of ice cream into the freezer. Fudge brownie. “I guess I’m doing all right. I’m at work, so I can only be so good, right?” He smiled at me.

  I laughed. “That’s true. Say, you look so familiar. Have you worked here long?”

  He nodded. “I’ve been here for about a year now. I saw you in here the other day, getting some vanilla ice cream.”

  He remembered me?

  “That’s because I love to bake apple pies, and if you bake an apple pie, then you need vanilla ice cream to put on top of it. This store has the best Granny Smith apples for making apple pie.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t know there was a difference in apples. I thought a Granny Smith apple was a Granny Smith apple.”

  “Now that’s where you’re wrong. You obviously don’t bake.”

  He shook his head. “No, I don’t bake. Apple pie sure does sound good, though.” He was wearing a heavy coat and gloves to handle the ice cream, and he had what looked like a new pair of expensive name-brand shoes on his feet.

  I nodded. “Say, did you hear about Richard Thomas? You remind me of him just a little bit.”

  His eyes went wide, and he nodded. “Richard was my cousin. I still can’t believe that he’s dead.”

  I made a clucking sound and shook my head. “How awful. I’m so sorry. He got sick at my house, and I feel terrible about it.”

  He stopped what he was doing, a carton of ice cream in one hand. “At your house? So it was your wedding reception?”

  I nodded. “I felt so bad for him. We did everything we could until the ambulance arrived. I really hoped that he would pull out of it at the hospital.”

  He shook his head. “Wow. Messed up your wedding, didn’t it?”

  I shook my head. “I was really only concerned about him, and I wish it had turned out differently.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I feel sorry for my aunt. She’s broken up over it.”

  “I know his mom, and she’s a sweet woman. I’m so sorry that she lost her son. I know his brother Skip, too, and I also feel bad for him.”

  He put the carton of ice cream into the freezer and looked at me. “You know Skip? I know a whole lot about Skip.” He shook his head and picked up two more cartons of ice cream, and put them into the freezer.

  “That sounds ominous,” I said, picking up a carton of vanilla bean ice cream.

  He nodded. “Yeah, Skip and Richard didn’t get along. They were always at each other’s throats.”

  “I hate to hear that. I’m sure it upset their mother.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, poor Aunt Mary was always worried about those two. But sometimes you just have to let people handle their own issues.”

  “Sometimes that’s best.”

  The thing that struck me about Jared as I stood there and talked to him was the fact that he didn’t remind me of somebody that was a drug user. He seemed clear-eyed, and his mood was good. If he was the drug dealer that people were saying, I would have expected him to be a little nervous, or maybe his thought process wouldn’t have been clear. This surprised me. But even Alec had said that he was a drug dealer, so he had to be, right?

  I looked over the ice cream on the freezer shelf. “Did you hear what he died of?”

  He stopped and looked at me. “They’re saying it’s a murder. I don’t know, maybe it is. But it just seems weird.”

  “Weird? What do you mean by weird?” And hadn’t he told Jodi, Lisa, and Della, that he died of a diabetic coma?

  He shrugged. “That medication they said he OD’d on isn’t something that people usually use recreationally.” He glanced at me, and now he seemed a little nervous. Like he had said too much, and his knowledge of recreational drugs was showing.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know much about recreational drug use, but kids are trying all kinds of crazy things on the Internet these days. I’ve heard about so many different things, and maybe this was one of those kinds of things.”

  He picked up two more cartons of ice cream and put them in the freezer, then turned to me. “I suppose it’s possible. But I really can’t imagine Richard playing with something like that. I mean, you’ve got to be pretty stupid to be doing some of the things that those people on the Internet are doing. Richard wasn’t that kind of person.”

  “I can’t imagine him doing something like that, either.”

  I hesitated, putting the vanilla ice cream back on the shelf and picking up a mint chocolate chip, and putting it into my shopping cart. There were so many things I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t know him, and I knew he wasn’t going to be that open with me. I was surprised that he was saying as much as he was now. “I hope that Richard wasn’t doing drugs recreationally.”

  He nodded without looking at me and put three more cartons of ice cream into the freezer. “You never can tell about some people. I don’t know what he was into, but he sure got himself into a mess this time.”

  “This time?” I asked, letting the freezer door close.

  He nodded and glanced at me and then put two more cartons of ice cream into the freezer. “Sure, when he was a kid in high school, he got into all kinds of drug problems. Went to juvenile hall for it. But I thought he was past that. Apparently, I was wrong.”

  I couldn’t get over the fact that he didn’t seem like a drug dealer. Not at all. How could he be when he needed to be able to show up to work on time every day?

  “I heard about that. It caused his mother a lot of heartache. She was sure that he had moved beyond that phase of his life.”

  He nodded and put two more cartons of ice cream into the freezer, then let the door shut. “Like I said, poor Aunt Mary sure went through a lot with those two boys of hers. I would never have imagined Richard ending up dead like he did, though. He had gotten his life back on track as far as anyone knew, and now he’s dead.”

  I nodded. “It sure is a shame. You say that both of the boys caused their mother trouble. Did Skip do drugs while in high school?”

  He hesitated. “Let’s just say that Skip got into his own kind of trouble.” He gave me a lopsided grin. “And like I said, he and Richard never got along.”

  I wasn’t sure how to read that. “I guess teenage boys will do that. I hate to spread rumors, but I heard someone was saying he died of a diabetic coma. Did you hear that?”

  His eyes widened, and he looked away, picking up a carton of ice cream and putting it into the freezer. “I never heard that.”

  If I wasn’t mistaken, his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. “Well, you know how rumors are around here.”

  He nodded. “Well, it was nice talking to you. I’ve got to get back to work. The frozen dinners won’t restock themselves.” He chuckled.

  “No, they won’t,” I said. “It was good talking to you, too. And I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  Don’t mention it? I watched as he pushed the cart the ice cream had been stacked on toward the back room. Was he lying about telling people Richard had died from a diabetic coma? It looked like it to me. Maybe he had been trying to spread that rumor around to take people’s eyes off of him. And maybe, he didn’t want that rumor attached to his name now. Jared Thomas was an interesting character, and I was now sure that he played a bigger role in Richard’s death, regardless of how clean-cut he appeared.

  I opened the freezer door and picked up the carton of vanilla bean ice cream again. I was going to make Alec an apple pie for dessert tonight, and he loved vanilla ice cream on his pie. I also needed to pick something up
for dinner in case Lucy and Ed showed up.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “So do you think Della will hire you to make some of her desserts for her catering business?” Lucy asked me as we jogged slowly down the running path. Last year Alec and I had competed in a marathon, and it had worn me out. Since then, I had never quite gotten back into my running routine. I wasn’t sure what the reason for that was. The marathon had been amazing. Well, amazing that I had actually completed it. But it was hard work. All those miles that we ran to work up to it, and then the marathon itself was incredibly hard. I was proud of myself for following through on both the training and finishing the marathon, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to do another one. Alec had been hinting that we might run another marathon this year, but I didn’t have any interest in that.

  I glanced at her. “I don’t know if she will. And honestly, it doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m still making the desserts for Henry’s Home Cooking Restaurant, and that keeps me busy enough. I just wanted to see whether she would eat any of my sugar-laden desserts. And she did.”

  She nodded as we plodded along. “It was interesting that she and Jodi are both diabetics,” she said.

  I nodded and breathed out hard. “Isn’t it, though? Either of them could have been prescribed that medication.”

  “And even if that medication isn’t prescribed as often anymore, they could have had some sitting in the back of their medicine cabinet.”

  Lucy had a point. Either one of them could have given Richard that medication. But how had they done it? Did they tell him that it was something else? Was he looking for some drugs? Maybe he had run out of whatever it was that he normally used and couldn’t get a hold of his supplier. That supplier most likely being his cousin Jared. And maybe Della had told him that it was something similar to what he wanted, and so he took a chance on it. Della, after all, hadn’t been as bothered by him selling drugs behind her business as she should have been.