Coffee Cake & Murder Read online

  Coffee Cake & Murder

  Susan Gillard

  Contents

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  Coffee Cake & Murder

  1. Time to Review

  2. Pacing and Packing

  3. Flight and Ferry

  4. A Mysterious Welcome to Salem

  5. Salem Sips and Sandwiches

  6. The Psychic's Predictions

  7. Questioned by Police

  8. Common Ground

  9. The Sandwich Shop Assistant

  10. Help for the Future

  11. Madame Minerva

  12. Garnet’s Guidance

  13. The Cemetery

  14. Pet Costumes and Photography

  15. More Poison

  16. Almost Arrested

  17. Photo Evidence

  18. Home Again

  Also by Susan Gillard

  About the Author

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  Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright 2017 by Guardian Publishing Group - All rights reserved.

  All rights Reserved. No part of this publication or the information in it may be quoted from or reproduced in any form by means such as printing, scanning, photocopying or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

  Coffee Cake & Murder

  Time to Review

  "This donut combines my two favorite things," Amy said, smiling at the donut delicacy before her.

  "What is it?" Digby asked. "A Sleuthing and Donuts Donut?"

  Heather wrinkled her nose. "I'm not quite sure what a sleuthing donut would taste like. Sometimes our cases lead us down paths that I wouldn't want to taste."

  "My two favorite food things," Amy clarified as she held the donut up in her hand like it was a crown jewel.

  "It's a Coffee Cake Donut," Heather explained.

  "I love coffee, and I love cake, and I love Heather's donuts," Amy said. "What could be better?"

  "Maybe a little company?" Heather suggested. "Digby, why don't you tell the other assistants to come into the kitchen? They can sample the new flavor, and we'll whip up a few batches together."

  Digby nodded. "As soon as I say the word sample, they'll be back here lickety-split."

  He hurried to the front of Donut Delights to deliver the good news to his co-workers. Heather grinned at her bestie who was only just barely avoiding the temptation of stuffing the donut into her mouth before the others arrived.

  "The downside to inviting them to join us means fewer donuts for me," Amy said.

  Heather assured her, "I'll make sure there will always be enough donuts for you."

  "Enough for us too?" Luz asked.

  The rest of the assistants shuffled in and looked at the donuts hopefully. Besides Digby, her assistants included the maternal Luz, the nervous Nina, and the newest addition to her team: Janae, a bike instructor and baker that Heather met after they rode right into a crime scene.

  Heather didn't keep them all waiting. She handed out the new flavors and told them to take a bite as she explained its makeup.

  "The base is a marbled mix of a classic vanilla cake and swirls of coffee flavoring. That way it could be enjoyed if you don't have coffee to dip it into."

  "Not that we have to worry about that," Digby said, passing some cups of coffee around.

  "Then it's covered with the classic coffee cake topping. It's made of cinnamon and sugary crumbs and with a touch of confectioner's sugar," Heather finished.

  "I'll never feel crummy eating these," Amy said.

  After a few more compliments and bad puns, Heather set them to work making more of the Coffee Cake Donuts to put in their display case.

  She was proud of how well her new team was working together. When she opened her second donut shop location in Key West, she was worried that it wouldn't live up to the high standards that had been set by its predecessor in Hillside, Texas. However, she couldn't be prouder of the double Donut Delights. Both shops were serving her up her special recipes and causing her customers to be delighted. Her two staffs were different, but they were both wonderful in their own ways.

  After the donut display case was refilled, Heather took a seat at one of her tables and smiled as she looked around the room. It had been a long journey for her to open both of these shops, but she was pleased with what she had accomplished.

  Her move to Key West hadn't been a vacation, but things were starting to work out. While the locals and some of her neighbors might still think of her as "not from here," they were at least buying her donuts. There was only one neighbor, Mr. Rankle, who never said "good morning" to them because he not-so-secretly hoped they were having a bad time.

  However, overall, Heather and her friends were adjusting to life in the neighborhood. Her husband Ryan had just officially joined the Key West Police Force as a detective, and her daughter Lilly was joining clubs at her new school. Amy's boyfriend Jamie was in the process of opening his own pet grooming business. Their senior friends, Eva and Leila, were becoming involved with community activities and had a male suitor chasing after them. As busy as they had been with the shop, Heather and Amy had also found time to help catch some murderers in town and make sure they ended up behind bars.

  Heather was just thinking that everything was all right in their new world when her bestie joined her at the table. Despite the donut in her hand, Amy was frowning.

  "Does business seem a little slow?" she asked. "Not quite Molasses Donut slow? But maybe Maple Syrup Donut slow?"

  "There's normally a little slump after Halloween," Heather said. "Customers buy up a lot of donuts for Halloween parties, but then need a small break from sweets. And we've still had a lot of customers in the shop, getting snacks on their way to the beach."

  "Yeah," Amy said. "But Nina cleaned that counter three times in a row because she doesn't have anything to do, and I'm pretty sure Janae was doing leg stretches in the back room to pass the time."

  "I guess you're right," Heather said. "We'd needed all hands on deck for the Halloween season, but now there isn't enough for everyone to do today. I guess I didn't notice it because everyone is so happy to be at work."

  "Of course, they're happy here. They get to bake donuts all day!" said Amy.

  Heather thought about it. "We must be slowing down with our online orders. When we're filling donut orders to ship out, it seems busier."

  Heather hurried to her office to investigate. She realized that her other investigations of a more murderous nature must have distracted her from the slump that the online portion of her business was experiencing.

  She would need to uncover the reason for this change and find a way to fix it. It was a different sort of problem to solve. However, she would have to figure it out soon. A major reason for her opening a second location was because of how many online orders, her business needed to fill. If this changed, she was going to have to reexamine her business model. Opening up Donut Delights Key West might have been a bad move after all.

  Heather searched through her records of sales to determine a potential pattern, while Amy searched on the computer.

  "Uh oh," Amy said. "I think I've found out why online sales are down."

  "What is it?" Heather asked, hurrying over to the desk.

  "Some lady has posted a terrible review of our donuts on every review site possible," Amy said. "I thin
k it's scaring new customers away."

  "But how can that be? What could be wrong with our donuts?" Heather asked. "What did she say?"

  "Brace yourself," Amy said before letting her see the screen.

  Heather did have to hold onto the desk for support as she read the review. Its headline was "Donut Disaster – Don't Buy from Them!"

  Pacing and Packing

  The worst donuts I ever tasted! I was embarrassed to serve them at my event. I don't want anyone to make the same mistake as me. Avoid Donut Delights! Or as they should be called Donut Don'ts!

  The terrible review kept repeating itself in Heather's head. She knew that it was impossible to please every single person's palate in the world, but she couldn't think of what had gone so very wrong with this order. How could someone hate her creations so much? How could someone be so unhappy with her donuts that she would smear her name across the internet?

  She paced as she considered how this could have happened.

  Heather was sure that every donut in her shop was made with the utmost care, and she had never had any complaints about her new flavors. There were always a variety of options for customers to choose from, so she would expect that if someone didn't like an ingredient, they would select a different treat.

  She had doublechecked that the descriptions of all the donuts were accurate online to make sure that no one would have selected something they didn't like by mistake. (She had made a festive firecracker donut with jalapeno jelly before, and if someone were expecting a plain vanilla, it could have come as quite a shock.) However, everything was listed as it should be.

  It looked as if the Pumpkin Glazed Donuts had set out from Hillside and traveled to Salem, Massachusetts. While Heather was no longer physically at the Hillside location, she knew and trusted the staff there. They were like family to her, and she knew that they would never let her down by letting the quality of donuts slip.

  When she talked to Maricela, who had been in charge of the Hillside location since Heather left, she said that they followed the usual protocols for making the donuts. She had also followed Heather's lead and was there whenever the donuts set out from the shop in a refrigerated van to their new destinations. Heather had come to trust the delivery company and found them to be reliable. She had checked with them, and they had not reported anything unusual about the trip to the woman in Salem.

  Heather was sure that the terrible review was echoing in Maricela's ears too. Avoid Donut Delights! Or as they should be called Donut Don'ts!

  Amy joined Heather in the sandy yard where she had been pacing. Since the friends moved to Key West, they were in adjoining homes that made meeting up with one another even easier.

  "Careful with all that pacing," Amy said. "You'll dig a hole all the way to China."

  "I can't help it," Heather said. "Someone is besmirching the name of my sugary babies. And I can't decide what would be worse. That someone is targeting us and making false claims to hurt my business, or that we really did make terrible donuts and ruin someone's party."

  "Do you want more bad news?" Amy asked.

  "When has anyone ever wanted bad news?" Heather responded.

  Amy ignored her and continued, "You know how I said I would try and contact her to see what went wrong? I got a response."

  "And?"

  "And it's even worse than the review."

  "How can that be?" Heather asked. "Can I see it?"

  "Are you going to memorize the terrible thing and let it haunt you some more and pace around being upset about it?" Amy asked.

  "I guess I'm not sure I can promise that I won't right now," Heather admitted.

  "Then I'll just give the highlights," Amy said. "She was offended that we asked what was wrong, and thinks we should be ashamed to call ourselves bakers, and hopes our business burns down."

  "This is the nicer version?" Heather asked.

  "I left out some of the colorful language."

  "I just don't understand this," Heather said, abandoning her pacing to sit down. "Everyone I know loved the Pumpkin Glazed Donuts, and they seem like they should have been a hit at a Salem Halloween event."

  "Maybe this is a front from a competitor who wants to get all our Halloween business next year," Amy suggested.

  "I think she's a real person," Heather started.

  "A real angry person," Amy commented.

  "And she really did make the purchase," Heather said. "It was a large order of the Pumpkin Glazed Donuts that arrived right before Halloween. I think this is a real review. I just don't understand how it became so bad."

  "What are we going to do about it?" Amy asked.

  Suddenly Heather was determined. "Follow me."

  She marched into her house and to her bedroom. Heather's dog Dave followed them, realizing that this was a serious moment for the humans.

  "Are we going to get under blankets and cry?" Amy asked.

  "Not at all," said Heather. She pulled two suitcases out of her closet and handed one to her friend. "Pack your bag."

  Heather started throwing clothes into her own bag, and Dave helped her pack by depositing a ball in her suitcase.

  "Are we doing what I think we're doing?" Amy asked. "Or are we going on the run and hiding in shame?"

  "We're going to do what we do best," Heather said. "We're going to investigate."

  "Are you sure about this?" Amy asked.

  Heather nodded. "We're going to Salem."

  Flight and Ferry

  Heather stared out the window of the plane as they approached Massachusetts. Since she had decided to take action and figure out exactly what went wrong with her donut order, she was able to stop the negative review from replaying in her head quite as much.

  Amy had started to watch an in-flight movie but had promptly fallen asleep leaning on Heather's shoulder. Even though her arm was starting to feel tingly, Heather was happy to have her best friend at her side. This might be an awkward investigation, and it was very possible that they might not like what they uncovered. It might turn out that they had done something wrong with the donut order. She felt better knowing she had backup.

  Ryan was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to join them on the trip, but because it was his first official week with his new police force, he felt that he couldn't immediately ask for time off.

  Amy started snoring in her ear, and Heather decided it was time to wake her up. She nudged her friend, and Amy groaned.

  "I just had the worst dream," Amy said. "Someone was telling people that our donuts were terrible and then some witches cast a spell on us."

  "Sadly, it's half true," Heather said.

  Amy shook her head to wake herself up and remembered where they were. "I hope the second part of the dream doesn't come true. We are headed to Salem."

  "Salem does have the history of the witch trials, and I think Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables is said to have been set there," Heather said. "But I think in many ways, it is just like any other town with a history. There are museums and tours. But most of the other witchy stuff is all for show at Halloween. And Halloween is over now."

  "Then why do I still have this feeling of horror?" Amy asked.

  "Because we don't know exactly what to expect when we arrive," Heather said. "I have a feeling Shirley Hunt might not be happy to see us in person."

  Amy nodded. "And if she hated the other batch so much, our conciliatory Coffee Cake Donuts might not seem as quite the treat we think they are."

  "We're starting to descend," Heather said, as she felt the plane around her adjust its position. "Here we go."

  They landed at the airport in Boston and were planning to take the ferry into Salem. They recovered their suitcases from baggage claim, but before they left the airport, Heather noticed a sign.

  "Look," Heather said, pointing at the large letters spelling out "Boss."

  She and Amy walked towards it, and her suspicion was confirmed. Maricela was waiting for them. She had constantly called Heathe
r "boss" when she worked for her in Hillside. It was a friendly teasing because Heather had told everyone to call her by her first name.

  "I had a feeling it was you when I saw the sign," Heather said. "But what are you doing here?"

  They all hugged, and then Maricela was able to answer the question.

  "Apparently, the donuts in question came from my Hillside location. When Digby said that you were coming here to look into the matter, I figured I should come too."

  "I don't know if I like the two staffs communicating our plans like this," Amy joked. "It would be way too easy for them to plan a surprise party."

  "I appreciate the concern," Heather said. "But you didn't have to come all the way out here."

  "Yes, I did," said Maricela. "You left me in charge, and something went wrong. It's my responsibility to help fix it. I just hope you can forgive me for what happened."

  "Your dedication shows me that you were exactly the right person to leave in charge," Heather said. "And I don't know if there is anything to forgive."

  "What can you tell us about the order?" Amy asked. "Was there anything weird about it? Could a spell have been placed on it?"

  "It seemed like a normal enough order," Maricela said. "It was a large order for Halloween. I think it was Emily Potts and Jung and I working that morning."

  "I do want to hear more about the gossip about you and Jung. But after we figure out went down with the donuts," said Amy.

  "Jung and I are fine And I don't remember anything going wrong with our baking. It was routine," Maricela said. "And we do sample our work to make sure it tastes good. We set it on the truck with another similar order headed northeast. There were no problems with the other order."