Chocolate Peppermint & Murder Read online

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were the one who called Linda and asked her to cover the class on Saturday, weren’t you?” asked Heather.

  "Yes. So?" asked Dawn. "I couldn't reach Harmony, and I wanted to make sure that the class would go forward. I wanted to make sure that the class got to practice that morning seeing as we had all traveled in for it."

  "How many classes do you go to?" Amy asked.

  "I normally go to six classes a week," said Dawn. "It's been very good for my back, and I like the exercise. Occasionally I go seven times a week, but I usually like to have Sundays off.”

  “But how did you know that Stone Hendricks wouldn’t be showing up for his eleven o’clock class when it was only ten thirty?” Heather asked.

  Dawn fretted. "That's not so early for someone to call about the possibility of a class not canceling, is it?"

  "It just seems suspicious when a man has been murdered that someone knew his class wouldn't be happening a half hour before the class was supposed to start," said Heather.

  "I see," Dawn said. "I'm looking suspicious, and it's for a completely non-suspicious reason. I just didn't want to say what it was at first. You see, some instructors like to arrive early. And that's what Stone did."

  "That contradicts what his co-workers already told us," said Heather. "They said that he normally wasn't early. He was lucky if he was on time because he was prone to losing his keys."

  "All right," Dawn said. "He didn't usually come early, but he was planning on coming early that day. He was supposed to be in by nine thirty to meet me and to work on a pose I was having difficulty with. He wouldn't have forgotten something like that, and he wouldn't have stood me up intentionally. When he was an hour late, I realized that something must have gone wrong and that he probably wouldn’t be in for his real class that day either.”

  “What did you think had gone wrong?” asked Heather, curious.

  “Not murder,” Dawn said. “But I suspected he might be sick or something like that. Something that made him forget his commitments.”

  Heather decided to get straight to the point. “Were you dating him?”

  “What?” Dawn asked. “That’s crazy talk. Why I must be at least ten years older than him. At least.”

  “If you weren’t dating him, why were you at his house?” Heather asked.

  “What do you mean?” Dawn asked. “I never went to his house. Why would I?”

  "That's interesting,” said Amy. “Because a neighbor described someone who matched your description exactly as coming to his house several times.”

  Heather knew that it was a bit of an exaggeration to say that Beatrice’s vague descriptions matched Dawn exactly, but they were pretty certain that she was the older redheaded woman.

  "Maybe I did go to his house once or twice,” Dawn said. “But for yoga.”

  “We’re not trying to embarrass you,” Heather said. “We just want to find out who killed Stone Hendricks.”

  Dawn nodded and finally confessed. “I was seeing him. I don’t know how serious it was. I know that he was young and handsome and many women liked him. But he made me feel special too. I would visit him at his house. We were supposed to meet that morning too, but he never showed up.”

  “Thank you for telling us,” Heather said.

  “Since I’m being completely honest, I suppose I can elaborate a little more on my alibi too,” Dawn said.

  “What’s that?”

  “I did come home alone after the Friday night yoga class. And this doesn’t account for the whole night. But I did order a pizza that night and had it delivered. I’m sure that there are records of it.”

  “But why lie about that?” asked Heather.

  “Because I’m supposed to be so healthy, but I ordered a large everything pizza all for me,” Dawn said. “And I ate the whole thing!”

  Another Stinky Interview

  Heather and Amy arrived at the next woman’s door. Tiff opened it and frowned. It was possible that she didn’t understand why these women were on her porch.

  Heather also realized another possible reason. When they had questioned Dawn, none of them had showered after the class, and they were all in the same boat. Now, Tiff was freshly showered and perfumed, while Heather and Amy were sweaty from both the exercise class and running around after the suspects.

  “Can I help you?” Tiff asked. She pushed her glasses up her nose.

  “I hope so. I’m Heather Shepherd, and this is Amy Givens. We’re private investigators assisting the Key West Police with their investigation of Stone Hendrick’s murder.”

  “You were at the yoga class today,” Tiff said. “Were you looking for clues then? Spying on us?”

  “We have never taken a yoga class before,” Heather said evenly. “And wanted to see what it was like to help us better understand the victim.”

  "And did you find out everything you wanted about Stone?" Tiff asked.

  “No,” said Heather. “We’re still not sure who killed him.”

  Tiff seemed surprised by her candor. “I guess I can try and help you however best I can. Do you want to come in?”

  Tiff seemed disappointed that they accepted her offer to come inside and barely opened the door enough for them to enter. Amy ended up stepping on her feet.

  “Sorry,” Amy said.

  “No, it’s fine,” Tiff grumbled. “I have big feet.”

  She led them to her couch and sat down with them. She put her foot up on a stool to baby it, which Amy thought was a bit excessive. She did agree with her though that she had large feet.

  “Why do you want to talk to me about Stone?” Tiff asked after flexing her toes to make sure none were broken.

  Amy rolled her eyes.

  “When was the last time that you saw Stone Hendricks?” Heather asked.

  “It was during the Friday night yoga class,” Tiff said. “And I didn’t see him since then.”

  “What did you do after the class?” Heather asked.

  "Pauline and I decided to hang out afterward."

  “Is she the curly haired woman?” Amy asked.

  Tiff nodded. "She was in the class today too."

  “And what did you two do?” asked Heather.

  “We had a girl’s night. We watched Beaches,” said Tiff.

  “I love that movie!” said Amy.

  “And we opened up a bottle of Pinot Grigio, exchanged sob stories and ended up having a sleepover,” Tiff said. “It was fun.”

  “Did you two usually do this sort of thing?” Heather asked.

  “No. This was the first time.”

  “So, what prompted it?” asked Heather.

  “Well,” Tiff said. “If you must know, I had just discovered that my boyfriend was cheating on me and I needed a friend. Pauline was happy to be that friend. We had always liked each other in class. It was a shame that something so unfortunate needed to happen in order to bring us closer together.”

  "Was your boyfriend Stone Hendricks?” Heather asked.

  “Why would you think that?” Tiff asked.

  “Because his neighbor saw a woman matching your description by his house,” Heather said.

  “When?”

  “Several times,” said Amy.

  "Fine," Tiff said. "Yes. I was dating Stone, and I've been to his house before."

  “Did it bother you that his name was Stone?” asked Amy.

  “No,” said Tiff. “What did bother me was that he was seeing other women.”

  “That’s terrible,” Amy said to keep her talking.

  “Do you know who the other women are?” Heather asked.

  “There were probably others I didn’t know about,” Tiff said. “But I just found out that he was seeing some other students in the yoga class.”

  “The Friday night class?” asked Heather.

  “Yes,” said Tiff. “I saw him and Kimber together. And now that I know he was cheating, I think that he was seeing Dawn too. She made some comments bef
ore that now, in hindsight, make me think she was with him.”

  “When did you see him with Kimber?” Heather asked.

  "I arrived at the studio early, and I saw them kissing. Apparently, I wasn't the only person who he told to come to the studio before classes on certain days."

  “But you stayed for the class that night?” asked Heather.

  “I wanted him to know that he didn’t break me,” Tiff said. “And I wanted the others to know what he was up to too.”

  “Dawn didn’t mention that,” Amy muttered.

  “Did you tell everyone that was there that he was seeing the others?” asked Heather.

  “I didn’t yell and make a scene, but I’m pretty sure that everyone knew what I meant based on what I said,” said Tiff.

  “How did everyone react?”

  “There was some tension in the studio that night, but we went through our practice as usual,” Tiff said. “No one did anything that made me think Stone would be murdered that night. Are you sure it was somebody in the class?”

  “We’re just following all leads,” Heather said. “Thank you for your time.”

  She and Amy left the house, thinking about things.

  “Something stinks,” Heather said.

  “Well,” Amy admitted. “We probably should take a shower after everything we’ve been up to.”

  Heather laughed. “We probably should. But I was referring to the answers we’ve been getting from the women in the class.”

  “Right,” Amy said. “Tiff said that everyone should know that Stone was getting around because she told them that night, but Dawn didn’t mention it.”

  "And Tiff is right. We don't know that it was definitely someone in the class who is the killer," Heather said. "But they were the last ones we know of to see him alive. So, I think we should keep questioning them all."

  “Agreed,” Amy said. “But unless we want to torture them with our stinky-ness in the hopes that will get a confession, I think we should take a shower first.”

  Bike Break

  The next morning, Heather and Amy headed over to meet Janae and take a bike ride with her. When Heather had stopped to check on Donut Delights after her investigating the night before, Janae had been working and roped her into taking a morning ride.

  “I’m glad you came,” Janae said. “I felt bad that there was so much competition for a bike ride the day you stopped by.”

  “It’s fine,” Heather said. “We’ve found ourselves pretty busy since then anyway.”

  “Another murder case?”

  “Unfortunately,” Heather said.

  “I don’t know how you two do it,” Janae said. “It makes my skin crawl.”

  Heather shrugged. “We like to do what we can to make sure justice is served.”

  Janae smiled. "I wish I knew about it before I forced you to come in this morning. I just felt bad about the other day, and I didn't want you to think that I didn't care."

  “We would never think that,” Heather said. “And we have just enough time for a ride before we go to question some more suspects. We thought it would be better not to show up on their doorsteps at the crack of dawn.”

  They were selecting which bikes to use for the ride (because Janae’s tour company allowed riders to select creatively decorated bikes to use) when another person joined their group.

  “Oh, hello,” Peters said.

  "Hi,” Janae said with a smile. “Do you want to join the bike ride with Heather and Amy?”

  “I wasn’t really planning on that,” Peters said. “But I did want to explain why I had to run the other day. I mean, run instead of ride. I mean, leave during our tour. And I was hoping to reschedule.”

  "I understand," Janae said. "You're a police officer, and you got a call. I know you didn't run away because you wanted to. You had to."

  “That’s right,” Peters said. “I had to go and uphold my solemn oath to the town to protect it and catch the wrongdoers who would cause others harm.”

  “Heather was telling me a little bit about the murder,” Janae said. “Do you want to bike with us?”

  Detective Peters hemmed and hawed.

  “It wouldn’t take the place of your Christmas present ride,” Janae said.

  “Then I’d love to,” said Peters.

  “I don’t know what is going to be harder,” Amy said. “Keeping up on the tricky trail or keeping a straight face through this awkward flirting.”

  Heather shushed her friend and they all selected bikes to ride on. Peters selected a red bike to match Janae’s. Heather and Amy selected bikes with colorful circle designs on them that reminded them of donuts.

  This work out bike ride was more intense than the leisurely tour that they had gone on at another time. However, they were all able to keep up.

  When they paused for a break, Amy said, “Just tell Mona that I’m not going to be in the wedding. I can’t keep this up for three more weeks.”

  Heather laughed. “I think we’re doing great.”

  Janae told them that they were doing fantastic and asked them to wait a moment while she checked beyond the upcoming turn. Peters parked his bike next to Heather’s.

  “Are you making any progress?” Heather asked.

  “It’s hard to tell,” Peters said. “She’s so mysterious. Sometimes I think she likes me and sometimes I think she doesn't know even now that I'm interested in her. And then there's Fire Frank to consider. He has such big arm muscles."

  “I meant about the case,” Heather said.

  “Though, by all means, continue,” Amy said. “I love gossip.”

  Peters cleared his throat. “I knew you were talking about the case. I was just making a joke.”

  "Did you find anything?”

  Peters shook his head. "I've been trying to see if this drinking problem that Stone Hendricks had could have caused any trouble for him, but so far I haven't found anything. Ryan has been trying too. The only good news is that the medical examiner should be all finished with his report today. Maybe that will point us in the right direction.”

  "Right," Heather said. "Maybe he could tell us what the murder weapon is. If we knew what was used to hit him on the head, it might help us figure everything out."

  Janae returned to them.

  “The path I was going to take us on is a little washed out,” Janae said. “But don’t worry. I found another one for us to take. It’s just a bit uphill though.”

  “Great,” Amy groaned.

  Heather sighed herself. Everything was seeming uphill these days.

  Traveling and Talks

  After a strenuous bike ride, Heather was happy to get into her car to drive to the suspect’s house. She and Amy had cleaned up and were now headed to Pauline’s house. She was the curly haired woman in the Friday night class and was Tiff's alibi for the night.

  As they approached the house, Heather realized that she was frowning. Was it because she was feeling overwhelmed with new co-Maids of Honor duties? Or was this stress all because of the murder case?

  She had to admit that this case was tricky. They were tracking down the women who had seen Stone Hendricks the night he disappeared and many of were romantically involved with him, but did that translate to one of them murdering him?

  Heather looked at her bestie and noticed that she was frowning too.

  “Are you all right?” Heather asked. “This case has got me feeling a bit down.”

  “It’s not the case,” Amy admitted. “I’m feeling sore from all the exercise we’ve been doing and actually I’ve been feeling kind of bad about myself.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “All this talk about how we have to work out to look good in our bridesmaid dresses,” Amy said. “I’m not feeling too optimistic about it. What if I don’t look pretty? And it’s immortalized in Mona’s wedding pictures forever?”

  Heather pulled over and parked the car. “Amy, I never meant for us to feel bad about how we look. I was just talking about th
e extra exercise because of the holiday sweets.”

  “Are you sure? Because it seemed like you thought that we needed a work out to look good for the wedding,” said Amy. “Which means we’re not okay now.”

  "I'm never going to be a size zero. And I don’t really want to be. I love donuts, and honestly, I’m not sure how much you can trust a skinny Minnie pastry chef,” Heather started. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m not beautiful. And you are too.”

  “Sure,” Amy said, rolling her eyes. “You have to say that because you’re my best friend.”

  “It’s because you’re my best friend that I’m not insanely jealous of how gorgeous you are,” Heather said. “I never meant to make you feel insecure. I think you're beautiful. Jamie obviously thinks you're beautiful. And you better think it too. It's true."

  This caused Amy to smile. "Don't tell anyone about my moments of doubt," she joked. "I have a reputation to maintain."

  Heather started up the car again, and they continued driving to Pauline's house.

  “Plus,” Heather continued. “The important thing is that we’re happy and healthy. We normally get enough exercising chasing the killers that we need to track down.”

  “That’s true,” Amy said. “Though I do hope that this suspect doesn’t start running away.”

  The friends giggled but stopped by the time that they knocked on Pauline's door. Heather introduced themselves, and Pauline allowed them to enter.

  “I baked some vegan peach muffins,” Pauline asked. “Would you like to try one?”

  “Sure,” Amy said before she saw them. “Um, why are they green?”

  "There is broccoli in them too," Pauline said.

  Amy hesitated for a moment but then shrugged. She took a bite and said, “Not bad.”

  "Thanks," Pauline said. "I made them this weekend, and I didn't have a chance to share them with anyone."

  “Really?” Heather asked. “You didn’t have anyone over this weekend?”

  “No,” Pauline said. “It was a quiet weekend. I did go to Tiff’s house on Friday night, but I didn’t bring any food.”