Gingerbread to Die For

by Valerie Tate

  Looking down at the prone chef, Alicia said, “I guess no one mentioned my feet.” And thank goodness for that!

  “Are you all right,” Chris asked, straining to get a look at his wife.

  “I am now,” she said gratefully, and then leaned back against the island as reaction set in.

  “I called Marcus,” he said with a grunt, as he fought to secure Magnus who struggled anew at the mention of the police detective.

  The wail of the sirens was now right outside the building. “So I hear.”

  And then suddenly the kitchen was full of police. Chris was relieved of his burden and rushed to hold Alicia. They watched as Magnus was hand-cuffed and led away, protesting his innocence and declaring that Alicia had made an unprovoked attack. Marcus Samuel arrived and the questioning began in earnest.

  It was almost an hour later before they were allowed to leave. They stumbled down the front stairs where Alicia abruptly sat down. Chris joined her and cradled her in his arms.

  “Aftershock taking its toll?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “It’s not that.”

  “Then what?”

  With a huge sigh she said, “Marcus was right, from the beginning.”

  With her head tucked into his shoulder, Alicia couldn’t see Chris’ smile. He should have known. “Yes, he was.”

  “And won’t he love rubbing that in.” She cringed at the thought.

  “He’s too much of a professional to do that,” Chris protested.

  “But he’s thinking it. I could see it when he was questioning us. And he knows I know he’s thinking it,” she said before sputtering to a halt, lost in the tangle of words.

  Despite her convoluted phrasing, he knew she was right. Chris tightened his hold on her.

  “But he also knows that you were the one who figured out what the murder weapon was and who finally flushed out the killer,” he pointed out. “Don’t forget that.”

  “And nearly got myself killed in the bargain.” There, she’d admitted what was really bothering her. How could she have been so stupid!

  He couldn’t deny that.

  “I forgot the first rule of sleuthing,” she went on woefully.

  “What’s that?”

  “People lie.”

  “Not everyone,” he protested, bending to look into her eyes. “Just the guilty ones.”

  She shook her head and said vehemently, “Eric Braxton lied about Davina wanting to get rid of him. And Fiona stole the schedule and the recipes. And Mike Manning cheated. And they both lied, too. But the biggest liar of them all was Magnus Wolff. He didn’t just lie. He lied and then begged us to prove that he was telling the truth. He used us.” The words were a bitter taste in her mouth.

  “That he did.” That thought stung Chris as much as Alicia. It was something he thought he’d left behind when he’d turned his back on the world of big-city corporate law. “I suppose most people will lie if they think it will get them out of a jam,” he admitted. “But it’s usually little lies that don’t really matter, like Eric Braxton’s lie to save face.

  “But,” he paused, eyes twinkling, and raised his finger like a schoolmaster chastising an errant student, “perhaps it wasn’t forgetting the rules of sleuthing that nearly got you killed but the sleuthing itself. Could it be that Marcus has been right about that, too, and you should leave the investigating to the police?”

  She sat up, looking shocked. “I wouldn’t go that far,” she replied. “But next time I won’t believe what people tell me until I’ve checked it out.”

  He hadn’t really thought that she would accept that but it had been worth a try.

  “I suppose a little skepticism isn’t a bad thing,” he said. “Just don’t let it make you cynical. One of the things I love about you is your open heart.”

  She glanced up at him and asked coyly, “One of the things?”

  “Yes, and if you think you can make it to the truck, we’ll go home and I’ll enumerate some of the others.”

  They decided they’d both take the truck and come back for the SUV the next day.

  As they drove down the drive to the road, Alicia suddenly remembered something. “The mayor’s not going to be happy with you for breaking the rotunda window.”

  “I can live with that,” he said with a grin.

  She snuggled closer to him. “Me, too.” The important word was ‘live’.

  Chapter 19

  “I really got it wrong,” Alicia explained to Saanvi the next morning. With the case solved, Marcus Samuel had given the television crew the okay to pack up and go home and she and Saanvi had been asked to supervise one last time. “After I learned that they had been working together, I was sure it was Fiona and Mike Manning until I saw the meat tenderizer in the kitchen shop. Everything just clicked and I knew. I should have called Marcus Samuel right then but I wanted to see if I could find the DMD tenderizer in the kitchen at the community centre. I called Chris to let him know but I got his voice mail. Magnus overheard the message I left. He realized I was onto him.”

  Saanvi had been listening wide-eyed to Alicia’s description of the events leading up to the arrest. Now she shivered at the thought of what could have happened.

  “You’re a very brave woman, Alicia Mallory,” she said fervently.

  “Dunbar-Mallory,” Alicia replied automatically. “When it’s life and death, you do what you have to do. I think we all have resources of strength and courage that we don’t know we have until we’re put in a situation where we or someone we love is threatened.”

  “Like mothers whose children are in danger,” Saanvi said thoughtfully.

  “Exactly.”

  There conversation was halted abruptly by the arrival of the mayor who was clearly in a state.

  “What happened to the rotunda window?” she screeched, pointing dramatically to the opening that had been boarded up by the community centre staff first thing that morning.

  Damn! Alicia had hoped to be gone before the Dragon Lady saw it.

  “Chris had to break it to get in,” she replied. “Magnus Wolff had locked the door.”

  “Well, what I want to know is who is going to pay to replace it?”

  Before Alicia could sputter that it wasn’t going to be her, Saanvi spoke up. “The town will pay and be grateful,” she said in a tone that dared the mayor to dispute it. “Alicia risked her life to bring a killer to justice, something you had asked her to do I might add, and Chris broke in to save her.”

  Alicia bristled a little at the suggestion she’d needed saving. She had been handling things! Although, she had to concede, she’d been awfully happy that Chris had showed up when he did.

  Saanvi’s eyes were flashing as she went on, “They should be commended and I’m going to see to it that they receive a suitable citation from the council.”

  As Saanvi spoke, Mayor Wright’s eyes grew wide with surprise. Her mouth flapped open but no sound came out. With nothing to say, she snapped her lips tight together and then turned and stalked to the door, pausing only once to look back at the deputy mayor in disbelief.

  “Oh, and by the way,” Saanvi called after her. “I’m going to be away from Boxing Day until New Year’s, visiting family in Toronto.”

  Red-faced with fury, the mayor flung the door open and flounced out.

  When she was gone, Alicia threw her arms in the air and shouted, “Whoopee! Finally! You did it! You stood up to the dragon and slew her!”

  Her face registering first surprise and then pleasure at what she’d done, Saanvi told her astonished friend, “You were right before. If I’m going to be a mother, I need to toughen up.”

  “I think you’re plenty tough. You just needed to find that out for yourself.”

  When the last of the television crew was out the door, Alicia and Saanvi locked up for the last time and went their separate ways. Saanvi had assured Alicia that she and Ramesh would be at the farm for Christmas dinner as planned, before heading out to Toronto the follo
wing day.

  On her way home, Alicia decided to stop in at the bakery to pick up a cherry pie for dessert but was shocked to find it closed with a sign in the window that said the shop would be reopening in the New Year with a new name – The Crumbled Cookie. She could see someone she didn’t recognize inside and, worried that Betty had sold the bakery, she tapped on the glass. The woman turned and, seeing Alicia, hurried to open the door. Alicia was stunned to discover that it was Betty.

  Following her inside, Alicia couldn’t believe her eyes. This was a new, fashionable Betty in slim-legged pants and a cowl-necked sweater. “Wow, Betty, you look fantastic!”

  The older woman beamed at the compliment and patted her new, short, feathered haircut where all trace of grey was gone. She was wearing makeup that emphasized her brown eyes and suddenly the old, dowdy, grandmother had been transformed into an attractive, stylish woman who looked a decade younger.

  “How did this happen?” Alicia asked, unable to conceal her curiosity.

  “Well, it was something Chris said when he was here the other day,” Betty began, “and after he left, I decided I shouldn’t give up on the bakery just because Davina Dove wouldn’t be buying it. I told myself, ‘That’s the way the cookie crumbles.’ And that gave me a great idea. I would redecorate the bakery and change the name to The Crumbled Cookie. And then I took a good look at myself and decided I could stand to be redecorated too. I asked your mother where she’d had her hair styled for the competition and, when she told me, I made an appointment for myself. Then I went on a shopping spree and bought a new wardrobe. I’m reinventing myself and I love the new me.” A big smile filled Betty’s face. She couldn’t contain her happiness.

  “We loved the old you,” Alicia assured her, “but the new you is vibrant and beautiful.”

  “And it’s all thanks to Chris,” Betty told her. “Tell him thanks from me and when the bakery is reopened, the cherry pie is on the house.”

  As Alicia walked away, she marvelled at the change in the town’s baker. Who would have thought that Betty had it in her to affect such change? And who would have thought Chris could be a life coach? Then, remembering the changes he’d wrought in her own family when they first met, she realized that shouldn’t surprise her at all.

  Arriving home with a supermarket pie, the first thing she said to Chris was, “What did you say to Betty?”

  Looking confused, Chris said, “I don’t remember. Why?”

  “I was just in there to buy a pie and there’s a sign in the window saying the store is closed and reopening in the New Year with a new name – The Crumbled Cookie. And she’s had a makeover and bought some new clothes. And she says its all because of something you told her.”

  “Ohhhh.” The light went on. “I told her that Deirdre Doyle had reinvented herself as Davina Dove and the rest was history.”

  “Well, she took that to heart and I think it’s going to work. There’s a lot of buzz in town about her revamping the bakery. Some cattiness, too. But, all in all, people are excited about it.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. I don’t know what we’d do without Betty and her bakery.”

  Alicia shuddered. “It doesn’t bear thinking about. I’d have to learn to bake!”

  On that horrific thought, she called the dogs and headed for the barn. After making sure the gate was locked, Alicia let both dogs out in the fenced backyard. It had snowed overnight and the ground was covered with several inches of soft, white powder. Both dogs leaped and rolled in it, glorying in the crystal white blanket. And for the first time since she’d picked Molly up on the road, the sadness in her eyes was gone and she looked happy. Alicia could feel her own eyes filling with tears. She wiped them away and then picked up a handful of the loose snow and threw it at the dogs who leapt in the air, trying to catch it before it hit the ground. Then the canine friends started a game of chase, taking turns at being ‘it’ before collapsing with tongues lolling, the picture of contentment.

  There seemed to be no better time, Alicia thought, and so she opened the gate and led the two dogs to the barn, Molly without her leash for the first time. She held her breath as she looked back to find the big dog close at her heels. Molly had decided she was home.

  Alicia’s heart was filled with joy as she knelt and hugged her. She couldn’t have a better Christmas gift than this. And then Charlie got in the act and the three of them ended up rolling on the ground in the snow.

  When she had finished mucking out the stalls and had filled the water buckets, Alicia took both dogs and set out for Tall Pines Stables, Harley’s winter home. She hadn’t had much time to ride in the past few weeks and promised herself, and Harley, that was going to change come December twenty-sixth.

  The big, grey gelding enjoyed his Christmas treat of carrots and apples and she promised him a special, yummy gift from Santa the next day. He snorted his approval before turning back to his hay.

  The phone was ringing when she walked in the front door of the house. She could hear Chris answer it in the kitchen. With the dogs dancing around him, he walked down the hall and handed her the phone.

  “It’s a Mrs. Turner,” he said quietly, a sad look in his eyes. “She says she saw the signs we put up and that Molly is her dog.”

  Feeling like her heart had stopped, Alicia took the phone.

  “Hello, Mrs. Turner, this is Alicia Dunbar-Mallory. You say you think the dog I found is yours?”

  “Yes. We’ve been away on vacation to Disney World and just got back today. My brother in Port Elgin was looking after Rosie but she slipped her collar and ran away. He’s been frantic, looking for her all over Port Elgin. He never dreamed that she’d come all this way. We live just south of town.”

  “She must have been on her way there when I found her,” Alicia said, remembering Molly’s unwavering southward direction on the highway.

  “I can’t thank you enough for taking her in. My brother didn’t want to spoil our vacation so we didn’t find out she was missing until we got home today. Our son was devastated at the news. He adores Rosie. We were just heading to Port Elgin to start looking ourselves when we saw one of your signs.”

  Struggling to hold back tears, Alicia said, “Well, I’m happy that you did. Molly … or rather, Rosie is a wonderful dog and my husband and I are thrilled that she will be going home to her family.”

  “Would it be okay if we came over now? Billy can’t wait to get her.”

  “That would be perfect.”

  She gave Mrs. Turner directions to the farm and said good-bye then turned and rushed into Chris’ arms, burying her face in his shoulder.

  By the time the Turners drove up the drive, she’d had her cry and then cleaned up her face and applied enough make-up to hide any trace of tears.

  They had agreed that Chris would keep Molly and Charlie in the kitchen while Alicia let the Turners in. There was always a chance, however slight, that Molly wasn’t their dog and she wanted to make sure before handing her over.

  But Molly had other ideas. When the Turners were inside and introductions with mom and dad and little seven-year-old Billy being made, at the sound of their voices there was a loud ‘WOOF’ and the clatter of nails on hardwood as the excited dog burst from the kitchen and raced down the hall.

  “Rosie!” Billy cried and the dog threw herself at him, knocking the red-headed boy to the floor and covering his freckled face with wet kisses. The whole family then got in on the act and Molly or, as Alicia could truly see, Rosie nearly wore her tail out wagging her extreme joy at being reunited with her family.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Mallory,” Billy said, his face glowing. “This is the best Christmas present I could have. I told Santa I didn’t want any other gifts. I just wanted Rosie back.”

  “I guess that makes me Santa’s helper,” Alicia replied, the tight band that had been constricting her chest easing a little. “It has been a pleasure being her foster mom for a few weeks.” She turned to Mrs. Turner. “If you go away on vacation again an
d need someone to look after Rosie, we’d be happy to.”

  The Turners were thrilled at the offer and said it would give them great peace of mind to know that Rosie could stay with people who loved her. They had been afraid they would never be able to go away again.

  Chris brought the bed and toys and the Christmas present they’d bought for Rosie and insisted that they go home with her and then he and Alicia said their good-byes, hugging her and each dropping a kiss on the top of her head. Charlie seemed to understand that his friend was leaving for good and gave a little bark as she walked out the door. She had only been with them a short time, but she would always have a place in their hearts.

  Chapter 20

  Winter arrived in earnest on the afternoon of the twenty-fourth. A major storm blew in with high winds and blowing snow that filled in the driveways and piled up against the barn doors. Drifting on the highway caused it to be closed, trapping travellers and would-be travellers in town. Chris’ family had seen the storm coming on weather radar and his parents and three sisters had left Toronto in the early hours of the morning, arriving just as it hit. Alicia’s friend Melanie and her family had not been as lucky. They were going to have to wait until Boxing Day to head to Toronto for their flight to Florida where they were to board their cruise ship. Holly had also left leaving too late, unwilling to close her toy store while the last-minute shoppers were still out in droves. Alicia happily invited them all to join them for Christmas dinner. She had plenty of food and they promised to bring what they had to add to the feast.

  Christmas day dawned bright and clear. Chris cooked a special breakfast of Belgian waffles with strawberries along with bacon and sausages and freshly squeezed orange juice for everyone, while Alicia ran out to feed and turn out the horses. When they’d eaten every last morsel, they all took their coffee to the living room where they opened the presents that were piled high under the seven-foot Christmas tree. This was the highlight for Charlie who loved ripping off the paper and nosing through the gift bags. Then there was just enough time for Alicia to visit Harley and take him his Stud Muffins, molasses treats that were his favourite, before she had to hurry home to stuff the turkey and put it in the oven. The big day had arrived and she prayed that everything (meaning, of course, the turkey) would turn out the way it was supposed to.