Death and Sweets

by Kate Bell

  “Well, that’s certainly a good deal for me. I love cookies. Let us get these paid for and I’ll give you a hand,” he said and we all headed to the front booth to pay for the pumpkins.

  “It sure is nice out today,” Beth said as we walked along. “I told my husband I just needed to get out of the bakery for a little while. I’ve been baking up a storm for the Halloween season and as much as I love it, I needed a break.”

  “Do you get a lot of extra business on your side of town during Halloween season?” I asked her.

  “Oh, yes. I’ve done my best to fill in the gaps where Stella let the town down during the Halloween season. I make lots of Halloween cupcakes, cakes, cookies, and other assorted baked goods. I love the decorating part. I don’t think anyone in town makes cookies and cupcakes as pretty or as tasty as I do. I practice all year long making sure my decorating is perfect.”

  “I noticed you had some really cute cakes in the window the other day,” I said. “I wish I was as creative as you are.”

  “I used marzipan on those cakes,” she said with a chuckle. “You need to stop in Mia, you too Ethan. I bet you’ll be amazed at what I can do with a little colored frosting. I took some sugar cookies to show Stella once, you know, just to give her some ideas, and she just turned up her nose and snarled at me. She said she didn’t have time for that kind of foolishness. Can you believe that? Foolishness? She owned the official Halloween season bakery!”

  “Stella was something else wasn’t she?” I said.

  She nodded. “Oh yes, you know how ol’ Stella was. She wasn’t any fun when it came to the Halloween season, so people have made it a habit to come to my bakery instead of hers. Of course, I saw where Angela and Vince have completely made over the Sweet Goblin Bakery.” She made a disapproving sound in her throat when she said it.

  “They did make a big change there,” I said as I dodged a bee that flew in front of me.

  “Yes, I’m rather shocked that they didn’t waste any time changing everything around. Of course, Stella didn’t have a clue what she was doing with that bakery. It had so much potential and she wasted it.”

  I glanced at Ethan who was watching her, but he remained silent.

  “It’s nice to see them making changes,” I said trying to sound noncommittal.

  She chuckled. “Isn’t it? I’ve got to hand it to them, they’ve done a great job. But, I’m going to say this, and maybe I shouldn’t, but that Angela—she is something else. I think it’s obvious from the changes she’s made that she couldn’t wait for Stella to be gone.”

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Ethan said casually. “It did seem kind of sudden, but maybe it’s just given them both something to do to keep their minds off of the loss of Stella.”

  She glanced over at Ethan and then was quiet a moment. “You’re probably right,” she said. “Except, everyone knows Angela and Vince have been an item for years. I feel that the two of them had something to do with Stella’s death.”

  I glanced at Ethan again, but he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her now as we walked along the dirt path that led up to the booth where we would pay for our pumpkins.

  “Well, I certainly hope it wasn’t Vince that had something to do with Stella’s murder,” I said to fill the awkward silence. It was one thing to say these kinds of things in private, but she was saying them in front of Ethan and not attempting to be quiet when she spoke.

  We got to the booth and set the pumpkins on the counter and waited for our turn so we could pay for them.

  Beth sidled up to me as we waited. “Just between you and me,” she whispered, “I think when the killer is discovered, we’re all going to be in for a big surprise.”

  I looked at her. “I just hope the police find them soon,” I whispered back.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “What I want you to do is carve a kitty into this pumpkin,” I said to Ethan. We had spread newspaper out on my small kitchen table to protect it while we carved the pumpkins.

  He laughed. “I think there's going to be a problem with that,” he said as he drew a face onto one of the pumpkins with a pencil.

  “Why is there a problem with that?” I asked him. Boo rubbed up against my leg and I reached down and scratched his head.

  “Because I can’t draw. The best you’re going to get is some triangle eyes and nose and a half moon mouth on this pumpkin,” he said.

  “I see,” I said and pulled a chair up and sat down. “So in other words, if I want something artistic I’m going to have to look elsewhere?”

  He nodded. “You got that exactly right.”

  “Okay spoilsport,” I said as I looked at the other pumpkin and tried to imagine something a little more artistic than triangle eyes and nose.

  “I really should be down at the police station, and as soon as I get done drawing the face on these pumpkins, I’m going to have to go,” he told me as he eyeballed the height of the triangles he was drawing.

  I was disappointed, but I understood. He had told me he had to go to work today, and it was already two o’clock in the afternoon. “Okay, if you insist. But you’re going to miss out on cleaning out the seeds and yucky stuff from these pumpkins.”

  “Well, I’ll try to get over it,” he said with a chuckle.

  I giggled. “So what do you think about what Beth said today? Everyone keeps pointing out that Vince and Angela are an item and that they must have killed Stella. I think it may have been one or both of them. I mean, how much easier are their lives now that Stella’s gone?”

  “Her death would make things very convenient, wouldn’t it? But we don’t have a lot of evidence for either of them. Their fingerprints are all over the bakery because they both spend so much time there. It’s frustrating me that we don’t know more than we do.”

  “I can imagine that is frustrating,” I said. “What does the police chief say about it?”

  “He says, 'get me a killer',” he said, smiling as he drew the mouth on the pumpkin. He looked up at me and grinned. “Everyone at the police station is doing all they can to find the killer. It’s not like it’s up to just me, and I’m glad of that.”

  “What about Daisy Browning? She seems awfully resentful of Stella and it makes me wonder about her, too. Especially the talk of her wanting to open up her own bakery. Maybe she thought Vince would turn the Sweet Goblin Bakery over to her? It doesn't make sense for Vince to turn over the business to a part-time employee.”

  “It would make more sense for Vince to allow Daisy to run the place,” he said and reached for the pumpkin in front of me. “She’s family. And if he didn’t have something personal going on with Angela, I would think he would want Daisy to take over the bakery. But, that’s off the record.”

  “I agree. Daisy should be the one running the bakery now,” I said. I wanted to know if Daisy was really serious about starting her own bakery and I made a mental note to ask her when I saw her again.

  “Questions, questions, questions,” he muttered to himself as he drew the face on the pumpkin.

  “Beth seemed kind of bitter about Angela taking over the bakery,” I said.

  He nodded. “Didn’t she though? I’ve got my eye on her as well as Vince and a couple of other people. Again, off the record.”

  I nodded, taking this in.

  “My mom is working on a new flavor of fudge,” I said, changing the subject. “She’s calling it cherry chunk chocolate chip fudge.”

  His eyes went to mine. “Really? How is it made?”

  “She’s using a vanilla fudge base and adding chopped up candied cherries along with chocolate chips and chopped walnuts. She’s still tinkering with the recipe, but I have to say, what I’ve sampled so far is pretty darn good.”

  He smiled at me. “You know, as my girlfriend, it seems like you could put in a good word for me with your mom and maybe I could be an official taste tester.”

  “If you play your cards right, that just might happen,” I said and reached
down and scratched Boo’s head again.

  He smacked his lips. “I can taste it now. Your mom has a gift for making fudge, and I might stop in at the candy store on my way to the station.”

  “So what you’re saying is you’re going to go over my head and ask for a sample?”

  He glanced at me as he finished the face on the second pumpkin. “You better believe it.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s so unfair.”

  “I think I’m about done here,” he said, turning the pumpkin to face me.

  I laughed. Ethan had made the pumpkin’s eyes looking to the left, and the mouth was full of long spikey teeth. It wouldn’t win any beauty contest, but it might for being unusual looking.

  “Now that is one heck of a pumpkin,” I told him.

  “Isn’t it though? I’ve got to get going now Mia, I’ve enjoyed our day and I’m glad we had a chance to take in some of the Halloween season activities.”

  He got to his feet, and I stood up, too. “I wish you didn’t have to go, will you be working late?”

  “Since I’m going in so late, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be after dark before I get home. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was really late,” he said. I stepped up close to him and he gave me a kiss and then looked into my eyes. He smiled. “I’m glad you moved back to Pumpkin Hollow.”

  “Me too,” I agreed with him.

  I followed him to the front door, and he gave me a kiss again before he left. I stood on my front step and watched him cross the street and get into his truck. He waved as he pulled away from the curb and I watched him go. Boo stood at my feet, rubbing up against my leg again and I reached down and picked him up and rubbed the side as his cheek with my finger.

  “Boo, I hope Ethan doesn’t have to work such long hours much longer. I miss him, don’t you?”

  Boo purred loudly in agreement. I turned and went back inside my house and put Boo down on the floor. Those pumpkins weren’t going to carve themselves, so I got a small, sharp, paring knife and got to work on them. I decided I would roast the seeds and bring some to Ethan the next day.

  As I carved, I thought about everything we knew about Stella’s death. My wish that the killer had been a tourist that just randomly stopped in and killed her had long since evaporated. The killer had to be one of our friends or neighbors and the thought of it sickened me.

  As I carved, I thought about Stella’s son, Stanley. It was a shame that he didn’t get to spend as much time with his mother as he probably would have liked and I wondered how he really felt about his father. Clearly, they didn’t get along well, but I wondered if he thought his father was capable of killing his mother. I hadn’t thought to ask Daisy specifically if Stanley had any idea who had killed his mother.

  It didn’t take long, and I had the pumpkins carved and the seeds scraped out. I looked at them, satisfied with my work. I would have to get some more pumpkins for my house for Halloween night when the trick-or-treaters came door-to-door.

  I cleaned up the seeds, spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven and wondered how Ethan was going to find Stella’s killer.

  Chapter Twenty

  I was driving down Main Street when I remembered Beth inviting Ethan and I to stop in at her bakery. I was out running errands and hadn’t planned on making another stop, but it was late afternoon and I thought I needed a pick me up. Both of the bakeries in town offered coffee and although it wasn’t quite as good as the coffee I could get at Amanda’s shop, I needed the caffeine boost and I wanted to try some of those sugar cookies Beth had mentioned.

  I parked my car and went into the bakery. There were two ladies at the front counter picking out Halloween cookies, so I waited behind them in line.

  “Now you ladies have got to try these cookies and let me know what you think of them,” Beth said to them. When she spotted me, she waved and went back to waiting on the ladies. “I spent all last week working on perfecting this recipe. And remember, I only use real butter and pure vanilla extract in my cookies. None of that cheap, fake stuff that other bakeries in town use.”

  I smiled at the slight that I was sure was intended for the Sweet Goblin Bakery. I was also pretty sure they used real butter and real vanilla extract as well, but I kept that to myself. I didn’t want to have a bakery war break out before I got my cookies.

  “I just love your sugar cookies,” the woman with the shorter hair in front of me said. “I look forward to getting them every year. I don’t know why that other bakery over near the Halloween shops never has anything as cute as you do.”

  Beth tipped her head back and laughed. One thing you could say about Beth was that she was always happy.

  “Now, we can’t blame other people if they have no natural baking or artistic talents. I happen to know that other bakery had a woman working there that was a Scrooge when it came to Halloween.” She looked at me and winked and laughed again.

  “Oh, you mean that grumpy woman?” the other woman said and snorted. “I’ve been in there several times and she’s always in a sour mood. Plus, hardly anything is Halloween themed and if I’m going to drive all the way over here to Pumpkin Hollow, you can bet I’m going to buy cute Halloween baked goods. I’ll always come to you. Your baked goods are the freshest and prettiest. You’ll always get my money.”

  “That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me,” Beth said. “We’ll just call that other woman grumpystiltskin.” She laughed again. “And because the two of you are so sweet, I’m throwing in a couple of extra cookies, on the house.”

  “Thank you!” they both said.

  Beth was making jokes at Stella’s expense, but I was glad the customers enjoyed Beth’s baked goods. It’s not like anybody could defend Stella on that point, she really had been a Scrooge when it came to Halloween.

  “Can I get you ladies anything else?” Beth asked them.

  “I think I want one of those caramel cupcakes for the road,” the second lady said, pointing to the caramel cupcakes with a tiny marzipan pumpkin stuck on the top.

  “Oh, I want one too,” the other woman said. “Those look tasty!”

  “You ladies are good for my business and my ego,” Beth said and got them two cupcakes and put them in the box with the cookies.

  I waited patiently while she finished ringing the ladies up and when they left, I stepped up to the front counter.

  “Good afternoon, Mia,” Beth said with a chuckle. “I’m so glad you stopped by. Where’s Ethan?”

  “He’s at work,” I said. “I just happened to be driving by and I remembered you mentioning the cookies that you made. I’ll have to pick up a few for him as well as for myself.”

  “Well, that sounds wonderful! Let me get a little box here for you,” she said and turned around to pick up a bakery box behind her.

  My eyes went over the bakery case and I inhaled the scent of all the sweet baked goods. Then I spotted sugar cookies that had been hand-painted with Halloween scenes and my heart skipped a beat. I stared at them, my mind coming to what felt like a complete stop.

  When I didn’t say anything else, Beth looked at me. “Mia? Do you see something you’d like?”

  My eyes went to hers and I felt like everything was moving in slow motion. “Those cookies,” I said pointing to the tray of cookies I had just spotted.

  “That my friend, is a good choice,” she said and chuckled, opening the back of the display case. “How many would you like?”

  I stared at her, trying to process the question she had just asked me. “Those cookies,” I said again, trying to make sense of things. “They look very similar to something Stella had in her bakery. Did you learn to make them from her?” As soon as I said it, I realized I should have kept my mouth shut.

  She looked at me quizzically and tilted her head. “Those cookies? Why no Mia, you know as well as I do that Stella would never make anything that cute or that tasty. What are you talking about?”

  I stared at her. Had I made a mis
take? My mind spun with the memory. “I’d like six of those cookies,” I finally managed.

  The smile left her face as she watched me. “Six?”

  I nodded. “I’d like six please. Just like you said, those are the cutest cookies around. And I’m sure they taste just as good as they look.” I took a deep breath as my heart pounded in my chest.

  She nodded and her eyes went to the cookies again. She hesitated, a printed wax sheet of paper in her hand. “You’d like six then?” she repeated, not looking at me.

  I nodded. “Yes please, six cookies. I want to have enough to take to Ethan. He loves sweets.”

  She cut her eyes sharply to me. “You know what? I just realized these cookies have been sitting in this display case for far too long. They’re stale by now and I can’t sell them to you. It just wouldn’t be right and I would hate for you to get the wrong idea about my baked goods.” She reached in and picked up the tray, turned around, and dumped the cookies into the trashcan behind her. Then she turned back to me, narrowing her eyes at me. “You’ll have to come back another day when I have more of those made.”

  “Why, Beth?” I asked quietly.

  She stared at me a few moments. Then she shrugged. “Sometimes it happens, Mia. Sometimes things sit around and get stale and they have to be disposed of.”

  I shook my head. “Even stale things can be brought back to life. You can breathe new life into them if you’re persistent. I never would have imagined that you would dispose of something somebody else found value in.”

  “Sometimes it just has to be done,” she said through clenched teeth. “I think you need to leave now.”

  I bit my lower lip. “I don’t understand you at all.”

  She nodded looking away from me and reached underneath the front counter. I slipped my phone out of my front pocket, but before I could dial 911, she had a small handgun trained on me.