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  COCONUT FROSTED & MURDER

  AN OCEANSIDE COZY MYSTERY - BOOK 21

  SUSAN GILLARD

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  “Eva's Delicious Mystery: A Donut Hole Spin-Off”

  Copyright 2017 by Guardian Publishing Group

  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.

  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.

  Printed in the United States of America

  CONTENTS

  Coconut Frosted & Murder

  1. The Art Scene

  2. The Blaze

  3. Coconut Frosted Discussion

  4. Interview

  5. Arson

  6. Sweats and Threats

  7. Competing for Clues

  8. Surprise Guest at the Station

  9. The Letter Writer

  10. Sand and Suspicious

  11. The Burning Threat

  12. Making Moves

  13. L’artiste Andrews

  14. Costume Talk

  15. Locks

  16. Proud to Investigate

  17. Undermining the Alibi

  18. Dolphin Tour

  About the Author

  Also by Susan Gillard

  COCONUT FROSTED & MURDER

  THE ART SCENE

  Did I thank you for this?”

  Heather shrugged nonchalantly, but it was mostly an excuse to pause in their heavy task. “What are best friends for if not for lugging around sculptures?”

  "Well, I do really appreciate it," Amy said. "And I am really excited to be a part of this gallery show but why did they have to choose my heaviest piece?"

  “I know. I liked when you did paintings,” Heather teased. “It wasn’t as hard on my biceps.”

  The two friends carefully resumed their task of moving Amy’s statue to the car. They were at an art studio that allowed local artists to use the space and held classes for many different mediums.

  As much as she teased her friend about the weight of her new hobby, Heather was glad that Amy was getting back into the art scene. Amy had always been artistic but had let her work slip to the side as she became involved in other activities. She became Heather's partner-in-solving-crime and together they had solved many a murder case. (At least twenty since they arrived in their new island home!)

  Amy was also a great help at Heather's Donut Delights shop, and she had helped her boyfriend to open up his own mobile dog grooming business. It was because of this business that she might officially have her own four-legged addition to her home soon. Amy and Jamie had been fostering a prissy pooch named Miss Marshmallow for several months, but Heather was convinced that they would be the ones to adopt the dog in the end.

  After feeling that she needed another artistic outlet besides icing colorful donuts, Amy began painting again, though she never gave up eating the delicious snacks. She had begun taking sculpture classes at the studio, and she was creating beautiful work. The piece that they were moving was abstract, but it resonated with Heather. She was sure others would like it, too, and if Amy was asked to show her work at a local gallery, then it wasn't her friendship biasing her opinion of her bestie's talent.

  "I'll make it up to you," Amy promised. "If you ever need anything huge and heavy moved around, like an anvil or an anchor or a hippo, I'll be happy to help."

  “You can make it up to me by helping me figure out what to wear tonight,” Heather said. “I have no idea what one should wear to an evening gallery display in a tropical climate.”

  “I think I’m getting the better end of this deal,” Amy said.

  They groaned and grunted until they got the piece to her car. They opened the trunk but then decided to take a donut break before they maneuvered it inside.

  “What are you doing?” a voice called out.

  Heather and Amy had been stuffing their faces with donuts and turned with frosting still on their lips towardthe voice. They were pleased to see that it belonged to the kind woman, Kendall, who ran the studio.

  “Don’t worry,” Heather said. “We have a donut for you, too.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant,” Kendall said, sighing. “I wanted to be here to help you move the piece. I know it’s heavy.”

  “Yeah,” Amy joked. “From now on I’m not going to make anything bigger than a bowling ball.”

  “It looks like I took my lunch break at the wrong time,” Kendall said, gesturing to her doggie bag from a sandwich shop.

  “Or the perfect time,” Amy teased. “If I could have avoided moving this piece, then I would have.”

  “We know that you have to teach several children’s art classes today,” said Heather. “We wanted to get the piece out of here before the students arrived.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Amy. “It’s so heavy we didn’t want to accidentally teach the kids some words they’ve never heard before.”

  Heather shook her head, and Kendall chuckled at the joke.

  “Well, I do appreciate it,” Kendall said. “There are a lot of classes. Saturday is a busy day.”

  Heather could understand that sentiment. This Saturday was very busy for her, too. It began with a nice family trip to the beach as their weekly outing. Then, Heather was helping Amy move her artwork. Then, she had to go to Donut Delights and make sure that her assistants were prepared to make the new flavor of the week. Then, she needed to figure out what to wear to this gallery exhibit and make sure Lilly was set with the babysitter. Finally, and hopefully not too exhaustedly, she would go to the gallery and support her best friend's Key West premiere.

  Together the three women loaded the sculpture into the car and then took another well-deserved donut.

  “I think you’re brave for doing this,” Kendall told Amy.

  "Showing your work can be nerve-wracking," Heather said. "But I think what Amy did is wonderful. Others will think so, too. And while this is her first piece in a gallery here, her work was shown in Texas before. She doesn't have anything to be nervous about."

  Kendall gave a look that seemed to say that Heather didn’t understand the full picture. Before Heather could ask her about it, Amy said, “We better get going.”

  Kendall nodded. "My students should be here soon. Good luck tonight. I'm planning on coming. This will be quite an experience."

  Amy jumped in behind the wheel and Heather buckled in beside her.

  “Amy, what’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Amy said as she roared down the road.

  “I just lugged this huge sculpture out of the studio. I think I’m entitled to an answer.”

  “Can we stop using the word lug when talking about my art?” Amy said, trying to avoid an answer.

  “Ames?”

  “Don’t use my nickname to try and get me to talk, when really, there’s nothing to talk about. It’s a gallery exhibit. It will be fine. My art will be on display. That’s what matters.”

  “I guess so,” Heather said, trying to let the oddness of the situation go and trust her friend. “We’re all excited to see it. Eva and Leila have been talking about it all week.”

  “Eva and Leila. I forgot they’d be coming. Oh well. I’m sure they’ve seen a lot already in their eighty years or so on earth. And there will be food and drinks.”

  “Food? Why didn’t you say s
o? Donut Delights could have provided desserts.”

  “Well,” Amy said. “I didn’t bring that up because I wasn’t sure that Donut Delights wanted to be affiliated with this.”

  “Affiliated with your art? Of course we’d want to. It’s a little abstract, but I love it.”

  “Not my art,” Amy said, sighing. “I guess I have to tell you. It’s about the gallery. It’s hosting another art display that is premiering tonight. And it’s supposed to be somewhat controversial.”

  “How controversial?” Heather asked, bracing herself. She had seen her fair share of unpleasant sights during the course of her murder investigations.

  “There’s apparently a lot of nudity in the other artist’s work. He goes by the name L’artiste Andrews. He likes to make a splash wherever he goes, and he's making one here. Some people don't like that he's going to be on display. There have been some articles about it in the papers. That's why I've sort of been avoiding telling you the name of the gallery."

  "But why didn't you tell us about this?" asked Heather.

  “Because I didn’t want everyone to think less of my work,” Amy said, glumly. “I think I was only asked to be a part of the art exhibit tonight because more established artists here didn’t want to be associated with L’artiste Andrews. But I thought having my work on display would still be a good thing, no matter the circumstances. Maybe my art will still speak to someone if they see it."

  “This doesn’t take anything away from your art,” Heather said.

  “Not even if the gallery owner, Ernest Norwauld, doesn't think that I'm really good? Maybe he was just desperate for something else to fill the space, and that's why he chose my biggest piece."

  “Ames, I think what you create is amazing. Others will, too. And if the crowd tonight is coming to see this L’artiste Andrews person, then they ought to be somewhat open-minded.”

  Amy laughed.

  “Of course, this means that I’ll need your help more than ever deciding what to wear,” Heather said. “I didn’t know what to wear when it was just a topical gallery exhibit. Now that it’s a controversial one? What does that mean for my outfit?”

  Amy was smiling at her friend’s outfit discussion, but the smile was soon wiped off her face as she began parking.

  “I don’t think you’re going to need help with your outfit after all,” Amy said as her eyes widened.

  “Why not?”

  “Because that’s the gallery over there. And it looks like smoke is coming out of it!”

  THE BLAZE

  Heather and Amy stood back from the building. Even though there was nothing they could do to help, they couldn’t just walk away from what was happening.

  After they saw the smoke, they had run up to the door. However, when Heather touched the doorknob, it was hot. She knew this was a sign that there was a fire right beyond the door. Instead of swinging open the door and risking adding more oxygen as fuel for the fire, she called the professionals.

  After she called them, the firetruck had arrived quickly. The team was led by a redheaded young man that was nicknamed Fire Frank. Heather knew him from an arson case that he had assisted with before, and because he had a crush on her assistant, Janae, that worked at Donut Delights. However, she had never seen him in action before. Fire Frank was valiantly fighting the blaze with his team, and the fire seemed to be abating.

  Some police officers had also arrived on the scene to make sure that no curious bystanders were getting in the firefighters’ way. Heather’s husband Ryan was among them.

  “Never a dull moment around here, is there?” he asked.

  Heather nodded. “I’m just hoping no one was inside.”

  Ryan’s partner, Detective Peters, joined them. He was a young detective who was always eager to help, and this instance was no exception.

  "I think we've secured the perimeter," Detective Peters said. "We've kept everyone back. Is there anything else I can do?"

  “For now, we’ll just provide support to the firefighters,” Ryan said. “After the fire is out, we can investigate and see if this was a crime or not.”

  Detective Peters nodded, but Heather could tell he was disappointed. He liked to do everything he could to help, and now it felt like he was waiting during a time of crisis. He was also another romantic rival for Janae, and Heather was sure that he didn’t like that Fire Frank was acting like a hero while he was on crowd control duty.

  “We better go,” Ryan said. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “I’m fine,” Heather said. “Amy might be disappointed, but we’re not hurt.”

  Ryan gave her arm a supportive squeeze, and then the two detectives moved closer to the scene. Heather turned to her friend, who was pacing.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Amy said. “I don’t even know what to focus on first. How could a fire have started? Is this some sort of sign that I shouldn’t be an artist?”

  “I’m sure that’s not the case,” Heather said.

  “I’m already acting like an absentminded artist,” Amy said. “I forgot to charge my phone this morning. And part of me is thinking about how beautiful the colors are of the flames.”

  “Everyone deals with crisis differently,” Heather reminded her.

  "You jumped right to it and called the fire department," Amy said. "And you've been checking with Ryan to make sure that there's nothing we can do to help."

  “Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do.”

  “Meanwhile, I’m just pacing here and freaking out. And I know I should be focusing on the destruction of the building that just happened, but I keep thinking about myself. How messed up is that? I can’t help being disappointed that my art really won’t be going on display tonight.”

  "I have to agree that it's not going to happen," Heather said. "The walls are still standing, but the building looks like it's taking a lot of damage. They're definitely not having an exhibit tonight."

  “And not only am I not going to have my Key West art premiere,” Amy sighed. “But we’ll also have lugged my huge sculpture around for nothing.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t want to use the word lug when describing your art?”

  “Oh, like it matters now.”

  Heather gave her friend a hug.

  “I need to stop worrying about my problems,” Amy said. “Think of poor Mr. Norwauld. His whole gallery is burned. That can’t be good for business.”

  They heard clapping and realized that the fire must have been extinguished. They joined in the applause as the firefighters finished their work and Fire Frank emerged from the building in his suit.

  He walked up to Ryan and took off his helmet. They spoke for a few minutes, and Ryan frowned. Then, he shook hands with Fire Frank and headed over to Heather and Amy. Detective Peters followed him.

  “What’s wrong?” Heather asked.

  “The fire is out, isn’t it?” Amy asked.

  “That’s right,” Ryan said. “They’re going to wait a few minutes and make sure that there is nothing else to reignite the blaze and that it is safe to enter. Then Peters and I will go in.”

  “Why do you have to go inside?” Heather asked.

  “Because Fire Frank informed me that there was a victim inside the building. By the time they were able to get to him, he was clearly dead. He left the body there so we can process the scene.”

  “Somebody was inside?” Amy gasped. “And here I’ve been complaining about heavy lifting.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Heather said.

  “First, we’ll have to identify the victim,” Ryan said.

  “You don’t know who it is?” asked Heather.

  Detective Peters struggled to find the right words. “It sounds as if the victim was burned pretty badly… He’s not recognizable… We think it’s a man, but he’s charred…”

  “Sometimes I hate my gallows humor,” Amy said. “Peters says the word charred and all I can think of are tasteless jokes a
bout barbecue. I also hate that I called the jokes tasteless.”

  “How many people had access to the building?” Heather asked.

  “That’s what we’ll have to find out,” Ryan said. “That can help us determine who the victim is.”

  “And then we’ll have to figure out what caused this fire,” Heather said. “Because it might have been an accident. Or it might have been arson.”

  COCONUT FROSTED DISCUSSION

  A nd that’s the Coconut Frosted Donut,” Heather said with a smile.

  She had just shown her assistants how to make the newest flavor of the week, and they were eager to try what they had just baked. She handed out the samples, trying not to think about the fire from earlier.

  Sometimes being a baking business owner and a private investigator were parts of her life that fought for control over her time. However, because they were not completely sure how the building had been affected by the fire, Ryan wanted to have as few people as possible inside. He and Detective Peters were going to process the crime scene with some help from Fire Frank, and he promised to let her know everything he learned as soon as he was finished.

  Heather would have liked to search the crime scene with them, but she understood the need for caution. Because she had to wait for the results of their crime scene analysis anyway, this gave her enough time to return to Donut Delights and share her newest recipe.