“No. I thought as much. That’s why I brought you this, and I don’t want to hear any arguments about it.”
He held out a bulletproof vest and, as he helped me put it on and checked that it was secure, I was touched by his thoughtfulness. Logan’s always been a really great guy.
We nodded at each other, and I gripped my rolling pin tighter as Logan pulled out his service gun. As we crept into the building together, I knew that I had fallen entirely too deep into a murder investigation. Again.
I couldn’t decide if this knowledge excited or terrified me. Maybe both?
“This place is a little...creepy, don’t you think?” Logan whispered from the sitting room. I followed him in and, despite my best efforts to show that I was brave and ready for anything, I shuddered slightly.
The whole house was like a blast from the past. The tiny TV set, the trays of cookies on the kitchen surfaces, the magnolia walls and yellow kitchen cupboards. Everywhere was spotless, as though an immaculate housewife had taken great care to create this immaculate 1950s house. Which would have been lovely in the 1950s, but something about this was far too eerie.
Logan was right. Creepy was the right word for it.
I heard a noise behind me and whirled around, but it was just pristine white lace curtains fluttering in the breeze. “Hey Logan? Think we’ve stepped into the Twilight Zone?”
I heard him laugh from the next room. “Let’s get this over with and get back to modern civilization, huh? You go that way, I’ll take this door.”
I heard the shout and a heavy thud and froze. Logan’s voice floated through the room towards me, soothing but with an edge. I wanted to run but my legs were firmly fixed in place.
“And you. Get over here.”
I swallowed as I felt the tip of the gun on my neck. Sensing mortal peril, my legs unfroze and I slowly walked over to where Logan was sitting next to a tied-up Clive. I sank to the ground beside Logan, and finally looked up.
“Why are you doing all this, Doris?”
She laughed wildly, keeping the gun trained on Logan. I noticed that she had disarmed Logan but didn’t seem to have noticed my rolling pin. Or maybe it was just not as intimidating as a policeman’s firearm.
“Do you know what that slug of a man did to my family?”
I shook my head, twisting slightly to adjust my position. If I could just get a bit closer to Doris I could try and disarm her. She swung her gun to face me but as soon as I froze she returned it to Logan.
“That rat was nothing more than a particularly charismatic cheat. Do you know how many people he swindled, he convinced to give him everything they had? Their money and jewelry, they remortgaged their houses, or just signed them over to him!”
My mouth was dry. “He was an awful person, but did he deserve to die?”
Doris stared at me. “He took all the money my daddy had, and when he said he didn’t have anything else, Gilbert put the pen in my father’s hand and stood over him while he signed away his business and our home. We had nothing, so when I learned that he was bringing his seminar back here, I wanted to make sure he knew what it was like to have nothing.”
She was breathing heavily, and I swallowed, forcing myself not to speak so that she would go on. “It only took a second to swap out your pretty little cupcakes in your pretty little wrappers for identical ones. Well, identical except for the poison.”
She laughed again. “I switched over the chocolate decorations and no one even noticed the difference. You didn’t, did you Little Miss Village Baker?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t noticed.
Doris smirked at me. “Of course you didn’t. You wouldn’t notice a fly if it landed right on your nose.”
“But why were you trying to frame me, Doris? What have I ever done to you?”
“Another thing you didn’t notice, is it? That I was in love with Rodney, that we would have had such a happy life together if you hadn’t been around to figure out what he did. You destroyed my future just like Gilbert destroyed my father’s, so why shouldn’t you pay too?”
I’d had enough, the fear of Doris and sickness at her words suddenly too much. I clutched at my chest and sat up, then slid quickly to the ground again.
“What’s wrong with her?” Doris’s words mingled with Logan’s shout of “Coco!” and Clive’s muffled “You’re joking!”
Through my narrowed eyes I saw Doris step closer to me, and then I struck. I shoved the rolling pin and the weight of the solid marble made it roll suddenly towards Doris’ feet and strike her ankles hard. She tripped over it and stumbled slightly, her gun arm going slack, and from behind me I felt Logan lunge forward to grapple at her.
I cracked open my eyes in time to see Logan pull her arms back. She dropped the gun and he kicked it away. I breathed a sigh of relief.
We had her.
Chapter 29
Once she was subdued Logan pulled her into the living room and settled her on the floor, before quickly calling for backup. I stood up, dusted myself off and followed them. Doris glared at me and attempted to kick out at me from her position on the floor.
“I should have made sure you were dead last time you meddled,” she hissed.
“Careful, you’re beginning to sound like a bad cartoon villain,” I shot back. I was more confident now I could hear the sirens approaching.
Logan had stooped and picked up the rolling pin on his way out of the back room, and he held it out to me now. “You threw a rolling pin at a woman holding a gun,” he stated flatly.
I nodded. “Yeah, I guess I did. Pretty cool, huh?”
“Cool wasn’t the word I was going for. You know the gun could have gone off? You realize she could’ve shot you and you could’ve been hurt?”
“I didn’t think about it,” I said quietly.
“You didn’t think about it?”
“Well we were in danger. I had to do something.” I suddenly felt like I needed to sit down.
Logan took a deep breath and pulled me in for a hug. “Good thing you were wearing that bulletproof vest then, huh?”
I nodded against his chest, letting his strength and warmth soothe me. As the police officers Logan had called stormed into the building and arrested Doris, Logan asked me how I knew she was the killer.
“Once I thought about it a bit, Doris was really the logical suspect. She knew far more about chemistry than made sense considering she said it was just because her aunt liked baking. I mean, I like baking and I almost flunked high school chemistry. And she was connected to Lyall so he could have easily gotten her the chemicals.”
“But would Lyall have known about the chemicals?”
I shook my head. “He wouldn’t have needed to, this was all Doris’s plan. She had the scientific know-how to come up with a poisonous mixture, and then she just convinced him to get her the ingredients. If they were friends or dating then it wouldn’t have taken much persuading, I don’t think.”
Logan nodded in understanding, and I continued. “One of the other waitresses told me how Doris swapped shifts to be able to work during the seminar. Sure, that’s maybe not suspicious on its own, but the waitress said that Doris was almost frantic in her quest to work that day and kept insisting that she had to work or she didn’t know what she’d do.”
“You’re right, that was suspicious. Man, she went to a lot of effort to kill Gilbert, didn’t she?” Logan agreed.
“I suppose it’s understandable considering what he did to her family. What I don’t understand is what happened when I was shot at and why there was no evidence of the gunshots or anything.”
“Actually, I was back there having another look around when I got your call. When I had no luck, I decided to take down the picture frame in the hall and boom, there was the bullet hole. Doris must have returned when you ran off and tried to fix it. She tried to plaster over the hole but didn’t do a very good job of it, so this time when I looked it was already peeling off. She must have fixed the picture frame
in place to hide the hole, before clearing everything up and making it seem like no one else had ever been there.”
I gasped and my eyes widened. “I told you I wasn’t dreaming. Who’d have thought Little Miss Perfect Housewife here was so shoddy at DIY?”
“Well you know, traditionally that is the man’s role,” Logan teased, and I elbowed him.
“I guess it all worked out well in the end, huh? Well, apart from the amount of paperwork I’m going to have to do tonight.”
I laughed into Logan’s chest at his disgruntlement and was about to reply when a muffled yelling interrupted me. Logan and I looked at each other in confusion before I pulled away suddenly.
“Oh, fiddlesticks and whisks, we forgot about Clive!”
We rushed through to the back room where Clive was sitting, still bound and glaring at the door. Logan untied him and pulled him up.
“Finally. I thought I was going to stay here forever,” Clive muttered, rubbing at his wrists.
“I’m so sorry, Clive. I completely forgot that you couldn’t follow us back out of here.” I insisted.
He rolled his eyes sulkily. Logan brushed his hair out of his eyes and cocked his head.
“C’mon Clive. What can we do to make it up to you?” Logan asked in a coaxing voice.
Clive pretended to ponder the question but, as quick-minded as always, was already pulling his recorder out of his pocket. “I’ll take a statement from you both about how you solved the murder and your near brush with death in order to save the bold young journalist. I’ll be the hero of the piece of course but you’ll come out of it looking pretty good too.Now, about that statement?”
I mimicked his pose, pretending to ponder the question, and then smiled. I leaned forward to meet him halfway, his recorder outstretched. He grinned, his eyes a peculiar mixture of hopeful and impossibly cocky.
“No comment.” I actually wasn't that sorry about leaving him tied up for longer than necessary. Especially after that article he wrote about me. He deserved that.
Logan laughed and grabbed my hand. I waggled my fingers at Clive as Logan pulled me away.
Outside, I shuddered as I looked back at the house. It still gave me the creeps when I tried to imagine living in such a doll’s house.
Logan walked me to my car and leaned down to the window. “Lucky you, getting to go home without any paperwork or debriefings. Take me with you.”
“See this is why you should be the amateur detective rather than the trained cop,” I said, patting his cheek sweetly.
“Yes, seems my job would be much easier if I didn’t have rules to follow,” he replied, deadpan voice not disguising the twinkle in his eyes.
I blew him a kiss before I could think about it and quickly headed back to the bakery, eager to reassure everyone that it was all done and dusted.
I would make it my mission not to think about Logan and his dreamy eyes again. For 24 hours, at least.
Chapter 30
The room burst into applause and I grinned at Scooter and Masie who were standing on the stage either side of their cake. They’d done a fantastic job and I couldn’t have been prouder. Once I told them to collaborate on one stunning cake comprising all their ideas and talents, rather than competing against each other for the chance to enter the competition, they really pulled out all the stops.
They slowly pulled the cake trolley off the stage and back to our position, and I took the opportunity to hug them both. “You’ve done such a good job, guys. Seriously, whether we win today or not, your cake looks fantastic and we’ve already given out most of our business cards.”
Masie nodded and clutched my arm. “Five people have already said they’re going to pop by tomorrow to discuss placing an order. It’s madness.”
“Just look at what we can do when we work together and you stop stifling my creative flair, huh Masie?” Scooter chimed in, before dodging Masie’s elbow aimed at his ribs.
I shook my head at the two of them. What would I do without them.
“Ow, quit attacking me. Help me, I’m dying!”
I rolled my eyes at Scooter’s melodramatic shrieks, deciding not to chastise him for bringing the notion of death into the workplace this time. I was glad they were having a good time and that we all made it out of that whole ordeal in one piece.
Scooter and Masie’s scrap was interrupted by Stella and Vivian’s loud and enthusiastic arrival. They immediately zeroed in on the cake and started taking countless photographs.
“Now then, Scooter will stand that side and Masie you come over here. I want big smiles please,” Stella ordered, and everyone scrambled to obey.
“Perfect. Now what about one where you’re holding piping bags like you’re Charlie’s Angels?” Vivian suggested.
“I’m not sure that’s a solid image for a bakery,” I tried to interject but was drowned out by Scooter’s excited approval.
“It’s perfect, and then after we should do an Indiana Jones one.”
“If you’re doing Indiana Jones then I want to do James Bond. I’ll hold the cupcake like it’s a radio,” Masie added.
I leaned back in my chair and left them to it, watching in amusement as Stella and Vivian came up with more and more outlandish poses for Scooter and Masie to enact around the cake.
“Hey, watch it,” I called in alarm as Scooter teetered dangerously close to falling onto the table. He waved away my concern with practiced ease and stretched his leg into some weird yoga pose. Masie attempted to do the same on the other side of the cake.
“I think I’m in the wrong room. I wanted the baking competition, but I seem to have entered a weird yoga workshop instead.” Rose’s voice came from behind me and I craned my neck upwards to smile at her.
“I saved you a chair. Unless you’d rather go into downward dog with that lot?” I asked, patting the empty chair beside me. Rose promptly sat down.
“Yeah, catch me with my ankles above my shoulders and you know something bad has happened to my joints.”
Vivian’s woeful attempts to get Scooter, Masie and Stella into some form of human pyramid next to the cake was interrupted by the screech of microphone feedback as the judges announced they would now be presenting their ribbons.
I bit my nails nervously until Rose gently pulled my hand away from my mouth and gave me a stern mother look. I smiled sheepishly at her. It was one of my worst habits, and it drove Rose crazy.
“I just hope the judges like our cake,” I said in explanation.
“I know, it’d be such great publicity for you if you won.”
“Not even that, it’s just that Masie and Scooter have put so much work into it and they deserve to be rewarded.”
We broke off when the judges stopped in front of our table and collectively held our breath. My heart was in my throat and when they put the blue ribbon down on the table in front of our cake I squinted, not sure if I had suddenly started hallucinating.
I was brought back to earth by Masie screaming in my ear. “We won a ribbon. Coco look, we won the blue ribbon!”
I hugged her tightly and reached blindly for Scooter to pull him in too. The three of us jumped up and down wildly in glee while Rose clapped and cheered, and Stella and Vivian snapped photos of our greatest success to date.
Congratulations rained down upon us from all sides as people came up to see our cake and shake our hands. I was grinning from ear to ear, hardly daring to believe it was true. Beside me, Scooter looked breathless and sparkly eyed while Masie busied herself with a bottle of sparkling grape juice.
I had to dive for her to stop her from aiming the cork at the cake, but it soon popped and the sparkling, sugary goodness flowed into glasses. I handed them out to my Mad Batter family and raised my own glass in a toast.
“To Masie and Scooter, for their wonderful cake and amazing talent. May we have many, many more successful events to come.”
“To the Mad Batter and all who bake in her,” Masie spoke next, already half done with her champagn
e.
“To Coco. She always lets us bake our little hearts out when she’s busy running around after murderers.” Scooter winked at me as he finished his toast and I pretended to glare back at him.
Our celebration was briefly interrupted by a photographer from the local newspaper, who snapped a shot of the whole Mad Batter family crowded around the cake, grinning and waving flutes of sparkling grape juice. He took another of us all hugging and a third of Masie and Scooter fighting over the ribbon. I wasn’t entirely sure that last one was intentionally posed by my friends, but it seemed right after everything that had happened.
After the ribbons were awarded and the cakes were safely out of the way, the stage was transformed into a dancefloor. Masie wasted no time in spying the cute guy from the grocery store and dragging him onto the stage.
Rose and I laughed as we watched her antics.
“Do you think he looks a bit traumatized?” I had to shout to be heard over the music.
“Not as much as those poor young men next to Stella,” Rose shouted back.
I turned to look and saw Vivian and Scooter dancing a very badly timed rumba while Stella waltzed around them staring intensely at the dancers in their vicinity.
“Congratulations. Everyone at the precinct will be ever so jealous that my muffins are made by an award-winning bakery.”
I smiled as I heard Logan’s voice behind me. “Well I’ll just have to make enough for everyone, won’t I?”
“Maybe you could make some for dessert.”
I frowned, not understanding what he meant. He laughed and gently poked my nose before explaining.
“I’m thinking I could make you dinner. You could bring the dessert. Afterwards we’ll go for a moonlit walk and tell each other secrets under the stars.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ha-ha. Almost sounds like you’re asking me on a date, Logan.”
“I am. Are you in? Saturday night, 8pm?”
I pretended to think about it, but my heart already knew what I was going to say. I squeezed Logan’s arm tightly. “Of course I’m in. Our first date.”
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