Death and Sweets

by Kate Bell

  “You know what Angela?” Ethan said coming to stand beside me. “I think I’ll take two of those cookies.” Then he looked at me. “How about you, Mia?”

  “I think I’d like one of those too, and I’d like two of those adorable cupcakes over there.” I pointed to the purple frosted cupcakes with little Frankenstein’s faces piped onto them. “I want to take one to Mom.”

  “Why don’t I get you a small box? That way nothing gets smashed and you can fill it to your heart’s content,” Angela said and reached for a box behind her. While her back was turned, I glanced at Ethan. He raised his eyebrows, but I wasn’t sure if he was trying to tell me something or not.

  “How have things been going since you made the changes around here?” Ethan asked her.

  She opened the back of the display case and began putting the items that we had asked for into the box. “Great! I’m so surprised at the increase in business around here.” Her eyes went to Ethan for a moment and then back to the display case. “Would you like anything else?”

  “Can I get three of those orange jack-o’-lantern cookies over there,” I said pointing to chocolate cut out jack-o’-lantern cookies that were liberally sprinkled with orange chunky sugar.

  “You got it,” she said and reached in with a sheet of Halloween print wax paper to pick up the cookies. I glanced at Ethan quickly and then turned back to Angela.

  “Is it getting chilly out there?” she asked while she worked. “The clouds are really coming in this afternoon.”

  “A little bit,” Ethan said. “Have you heard anything new that might help with the investigation into Stella’s death, Angela?”

  “Not really,” she said. “Can I get you two anything else?”

  Ethan looked at me and I shook my head. “That’ll be it,” he said.

  Angela went to the register and began ringing us up. “Can I tell you something?” she suddenly asked, looking at Ethan.

  He nodded. “Go ahead.”

  “If you want to know the truth, I really think that Daisy murdered Stella. Those two fought like cats and dogs.” Her eyes went to me and then to Ethan.

  “Sometimes families don’t get along,” Ethan said noncommittally. “Why do you think Daisy may have killed Stella? Was there something specific going on?”

  Her eyes went to me and then back to Ethan again. She suddenly seemed nervous, and it made me wonder what she knew.

  “I know that Daisy had an awful lot of anger toward Stella and Vince told me that she once threatened Stella saying she would get her back for what she did to her,” she whispered even though there wasn’t anyone else in the bakery.

  “Did that happen recently?” Ethan asked her.

  “It actually happened a couple of years ago I think, but you might have to ask Vince to be sure. Daisy was so angry that she had gone out on a limb to get the business license for her. You know how tight the city council is with business licenses.”

  I nodded. “It’s hard for new businesses to get in. We’re just lucky that my mother’s parents started the candy shop so many years ago, otherwise we would have had the same struggle as everyone else to get a license.”

  She nodded. “Daisy threatened to start her own bakery and put Stella out of business. She thought Stella had no respect for her at all.”

  “Is Daisy a good baker?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “Years ago she used to work here part-time. She knows as much about baking as Stella did.”

  “It’s something to keep in mind,” Ethan said. “It’s certainly worth looking at.”

  Ethan paid for our goodies, and we left the bakery.

  “Tell me you saw that those cookies looked the same as the ones we found on the bakery floor,” I said to him. “She said Stella didn’t make them.”

  “That’s why I bought the cookies to compare them with the ones we have in evidence. There are a few things about the case that I can’t tell you,” he said thoughtfully as we walked back to the candy shop. “But it’s worth having another talk with Daisy.”

  “Daisy really thinks Vince killed Stella, and I have to agree with her at this point. Something isn’t right there and I think those cookies confirm it,” I told him. “But, maybe Daisy has something to hide, too. I want to know if those cookies were made by the same person.”

  I sighed. I hoped Daisy wasn’t the one who killed Stella. I couldn’t imagine sibling rivalry getting that bad, but maybe it had. This was another piece in an ever-widening puzzle.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Saturday dawned clear and bright and Ethan and I decided to take the morning to enjoy the festivities of the Halloween season in Pumpkin Hollow. A light, cool breeze blew as Ethan and I walked hand-in-hand toward the haunted farmhouse. The tourists were milling about buying candy apples, kettle corn, and funnel cakes.

  “What a beautiful day,” I said as Ethan held my hand and we wandered toward the barn. The food smells filled the air and the fall sun shone down on us. It was a perfect day.

  “You can say that again,” he said.

  The horses were in their harnesses, ready to pull wagons full of hay and tourists. I could smell hot cocoa, hot apple cider, and coffee brewing at a nearby concession stand. It was early in the day yet, but there were still a lot of tourists already out and about. The hayrides would run until well after dark when people would cozy up to one another for a romantic night under the stars.

  “We may have to come back this evening and enjoy a hayride,” I told Ethan.

  “That sounds like a great idea, but I don’t think I can get away,” he said. “I’ve got to get back to work this afternoon. But, we can try another evening.”

  “You’re working too hard these days,” I said. “Did you find out anything about those cookies?”

  “They are not the same. The ones in evidence had Halloween scenes painted on them and the ones we bought from Angela had designs piped in icing. But, they did look fairly similar,” he said.

  I thought about this. “Even though they were different, they could have been made by the same person?”

  “Absolutely. It would have been nice if they had been exactly the same though.”

  That was a disappointment. I was fairly sure they looked just like the cookies locked up in evidence at the police station.

  We walked up to two of the horses still in their stalls inside the barn. I reached out and ran a hand over the muzzle of a big red horse with a white stripe down his face. “How would you like to have one of these guys in your backyard?”

  He chuckled. “I’m not so sure the landlord would appreciate that,” he said and reached out and scratched the horse’s nose.

  “I suppose we might have some trouble getting the landlord to agree to allow us to keep one, but it sure would be fun. Maybe someday I’ll be able to buy a small farm and have a horse or two on it.”

  “Really? You want to own a farm?” he asked, turning toward me.

  I nodded. “I’m not talking about a huge farm mind you, but a couple of acres where I could have a horse, maybe a goat, and some chickens. I could plant a great big garden during the summer, and grow my own pumpkins for the fall,” I said looking at him. “Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

  “It sounds like a lot of work, but I guess I can kind of see the charm of doing that,” he conceded. “But, even a small farm would be a lot of work I think.”

  “I have no doubt about that,” I said. I had always enjoyed the idea of farm animals. When I was little girl I used to love to read novels about horses and I had always dreamed of owning one. But we had lived in town all my life and never had any room for a horse.

  “I think the goat tying is going well,” he said as we heard a shout from the crowd and we both turned toward the open barn door.

  “Maybe we should go have a look at that,” I said.

  He took my hand again, and we headed toward the open barn door. “Let’s get some hot cocoa first,” he said, and we headed toward the concession stand that sold the
hot drinks.

  After placing our order, and seeing two great big marshmallows floating on the top of my cocoa, we headed toward the goat tying arena. There were a lot of shouts and laughter from the straw maze as kids ran into people while trying to find a way out of it.

  “It sounds like the straw maze is a success too,” I said to Ethan.

  He nodded. “I’m glad Tom was able to get his hands on so much straw.”

  In the center of the goat tying ring, a little girl who looked to be about five, chased after a red and white goat, trying to pull the ribbon from its tail. The goat was tethered so it couldn’t run too far and it would stop now and then, wag its tail, and move off a few steps when the little girl got close as if the goat knew what the game was. A woman stood on the sidelines, calling to the little girl to take hold of the rope so the goat couldn’t run away and she could get the ribbon.

  I laughed. “I think that goat is having more fun than the little girl.”

  Ethan laughed. “I didn’t know we were getting trained goats,” he said and then thought about it. “Actually, Tom did mention something about the goats being used for this event in the past when the rodeo came to Trukee.”

  We found an empty bale of straw, sat down on it, and enjoyed our cocoa and the show. After the buzzer went off, a young boy went into the ring and gave it his all to remove the ribbon from the goat’s tail. But, it appeared as if actually removing the ribbon from the goat’s tail was going to be an elusive victory today.

  After watching the goat tying for nearly an hour, only two little girls had managed to get the ribbons from the goat’s tales before they got tired and gave up. I suspected the two girls had had some kind of rodeo experience, and given the fact that they were a little older than the other kids, they had an advantage.

  Ethan looked at me. “How about a hayride?” he asked me. “It won’t be moonlit, but it is a nice day.”

  I nodded. “Sounds like fun,” I said. I was glad we were getting the opportunity just to enjoy the festivities of the Halloween season today. And it was a lot more fun with Ethan alongside of me.

  We headed over to one of the wagons and Ethan paid for our ride. No one else was waiting and since we knew the driver, he went ahead and gave us a ride without waiting to fill the wagon with riders.

  We took one of the provided blankets and spread it out on the hay, then lay down beside each other and looked up at the beautiful blue sky. With the rumble of the wagon beneath us and the hay piled thick enough to make us comfortable, we relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

  After traveling in silence for a few minutes, Ethan turned toward me. “It’s really nice to not have to think about work for a while,” he said quietly.

  I turned to look at him. We lay just within a few inches of one another. “I would think investigating a murder could be stressful,” I said to him.

  “I guess it’s something you just have to get used to. Mostly I think I need to set aside my feelings for the victim, and just look at the facts. And it’s not that I’m not doing that, it’s just once in a while I put myself in the victim’s shoes and that isn’t good for me.”

  I studied his face, so handsome and sweet. I hadn’t really stopped to think about the toll this kind of thing would take on a person, but now it gave me pause. “Do you regret saying yes to the position?”

  “No, I really don’t. I just think I haven’t had enough experience yet to know how to deal with certain things. I’ve been thinking of going to visit the police station over in Trukee or South Lake Tahoe to see if I can sit with one of their detectives for a while. I think somebody that has a lot more experience than I do would have a lot of advice to give.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” I said. “Honestly, this is a lot of responsibility for anyone to take on. But I have the utmost confidence in you. You’re going to do a really great job in this new position. And when you take that detective’s exam, I’m certain you’re going to pass it and you’ll make a great detective.”

  I was proud of Ethan for taking on more responsibility, but it made me a little sad as well because it was a lot more work and they hadn’t given him a raise.

  Ethan turned and looked up at the sky again and smiled. “I appreciate the support. Now let’s pretend we have nothing better to do with our lives than lay here in this wagon full of hay and enjoy this beautiful sky.”

  I chuckled. “That sounds like an awesome thing to do. As a matter of fact, I think I can handle that job.”

  “I’ve often wondered how people from a couple hundred years ago managed to do everything without all the machines we have these days,” he said after a few more minutes.

  “I guess they did what they had to do because they didn’t know any differently,” I said. “And as much fun as a small farm would be, I’m really glad that we’ve got grocery stores to go to, and computers to use, and let’s not forget washing machines.”

  “No, we cannot forget washing machines,” he said and chuckled. “Can you imagine banging clothes on a rock in the river?”

  “No, and I don’t intend to imagine that. I’m pretty sure that I don’t want to experience it.”

  We held hands as we lay there and enjoyed the hayride and I pushed all the thoughts of Stella and the killer out of my mind. It was good to just occasionally take time to enjoy being with one another without discussing the murder.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I had to nudge Ethan awake at the end of the hayride. He looked at me, blinked several times and then smiled.

  “The ride’s over, big boy,” I said and laughed.

  “Sorry about that,” he said, stretching and sounding embarrassed.

  “No problem, it’s a beautiful day for taking a nap,” I said as we got up out of the hay and climbed down off the back of the wagon.

  “Thanks, Steve,” I called over my shoulder to the driver as we walked away from the wagon.

  “Where to next?” he asked glancing at his watch.

  “Do you need to get back to work now?” I asked him.

  “No, it’s early yet,” he said and he took my hand as we headed back toward the straw maze.

  “How about we take a stroll through the pumpkin patch and pick out a couple of nice fat pumpkins to carve into jack-o’-lanterns?” I asked him. There would be a carving contest here later in the day, but I wanted pumpkins to carve to bring to the candy store.

  “It’s kind of early to carve jack-o'-lanterns, isn’t it?” he asked as we headed toward the pumpkin patch. The larger pumpkins were at the back of the patch and we headed that way. There were a lot of families walking through the rows of pumpkins, stopping now and then to examine the pumpkins on the vines.

  “It is, but I want them for the candy store. With just over two weeks until Halloween, I want real ones for the customers to enjoy. I’ll have to replace them a few times, but that’s fine,” I told him as we walked along.

  “So you want two of them? You’re going to want the great big ones in the back aren’t you?” he said eyeing the huge monstrous pumpkins along the back of the field.

  “I don’t think they need to be quite that big,” I said looking at those. I imagined some of those must weigh at least thirty or forty pounds each. I had never tried to pick one up, so I didn’t know for sure and they would be much too large to handle easily and turn into jack-o’-lanterns, let alone find a spot to put them at the store. “Let’s look at some of these.” We were in a row that had medium-sized pumpkins and we walked along the row, carefully looking at the pumpkins.

  “How about this one?” Ethan said, squatting beside a nicely shaped, deep orange pumpkin.

  “That looks really nice,” I said and squatted next to it, carefully turning the pumpkin over to see if there were any dark spots on the underside. There were plenty of pumpkins already picked at the front of the pumpkin patch, but I liked the idea of actually picking my own pumpkin and this one looked perfect.

  Ethan took a pocketknife out of his front pocket and cut
the pumpkin free of the vine, leaving a nice little stem on the top. “That looks pretty much perfect to me,” he said holding it up for me.

  “I agree, that one is beautiful.”

  Ethan held the pumpkin as we walked a little farther down the row and I wondered if he would be able to carry another one.

  “How about that one,” Ethan said pointing with the toe his shoe.

  I stopped next to the pumpkin he indicated and looked it over. It was just as pretty as the first one. “Let’s get this one, too,” I said.

  Ethan pulled his knife out again and cut it free of the vine. I picked up the pumpkin, and it was heavier than I thought it would be.

  “You got it?” he asked me, grinning.

  I nodded. “I got it.” We turned around and headed back in the direction we had come from and when we got to the end of the row, I saw Beth Ramirez approaching us.

  She had a big smile on her face and her short curly hair was tied back in a tiny ponytail.

  “Hello Ethan, Mia, I see you’ve got the same thing on your minds that I do. I’ve got my eye on some big pumpkins at the back of the patch. I think I’m going to get one or two of them and put them out in front of my bakery,” she said.

  “I hope you’ve got somebody to help you carry them to your car,” I said, eyeing the big pumpkins. “Even these smaller ones are heavy.”

  “I’ll probably have to wrangle somebody nearby to help me,” she said and laughed.

  I liked Beth, she was a plump, middle-aged woman with short dark curly hair and she always had a laugh and a smile for everyone. She seemed to look on the bright side of things and was always happy.

  “If you’ve got a few minutes, I’ll give you a hand. Let me pay for our pumpkins and put them in the back of my truck and I’ll come back and carry your pumpkins for you,” Ethan offered.

  “Now that is the nicest thing anybody has said to me all day,” she said and laughed. “I’d be thrilled if you’d do that for me Ethan. And for your trouble, if you stop by the bakery later, I’ll give you a dozen cookies.”