The Sweet Dreams Bake Shop (A Sweet Cove Mystery Book 1) (16 page)

“Nice manners.” Ellie scowled.

“It’s only you three. I wouldn’t do this in front of anyone else.” Courtney placed her empty bowl on the coffee table. Euclid stepped onto the table and put his face into the bowl to lick up any residual milk.

“So you feel humming.” Angie wanted more information.

Courtney pulled her legs in close and hugged them. She placed her chin on one of her knees. Her honey colored hair fell forward over her shoulders. “Yeah. Humming. A warmth inside of me. Like something’s calling to me. It makes me feel like I belong.”

Angie didn’t know why, but her eyes filled up with tears. She brushed them away and cleared her throat. “Doesn’t it bother you? Doesn’t it make you feel weird?”

Courtney had a puzzled expression on her face. “Why would it? Nana said it was normal. For us.”

“When did she tell you that?” Jenna’s eyes narrowed.

“I asked her about it one summer. When, I was little. She said it would probably get stronger as we got older.”

“We?” Ellie’s eyes were wide. She shifted nervously in her seat.

Courtney nodded. “Yeah. All of us. Nana said some siblings feel it stronger than others. I can’t believe this is news to you three.”

“Why don’t I feel it?” Jenna asked. She looked like she had been left out of something.

“You probably don’t listen,” Courtney told her matter-of-factly.

“I guess I don’t listen either.” Ellie pouted.

“Did Nana feel it?” Angie asked.

“Of, course. It’s hereditary. But only girls inherit it.”

“Mom felt it?” Jenna asked.

“Well,” Courtney said, “she could have, but she didn’t want to. Nana said Mom didn’t like talking about it and I should just ask Nana questions.”

Angie, Ellie, and Jenna both said, “Really?”

Courtney rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you ever talk to Nana? Ask her stuff?”

“You’re making this up,” Ellie accused Courtney.

Courtney shrugged. “Think what you want.” She patted Euclid who had curled up next to her, purring.

The girls sat in silence, dumbfounded. They wondered what else they didn’t know.

Courtney said to Angie, “So you felt the humming and then you knew Lisa was the killer?”

Angie swallowed hard and shook her head trying to clear away her surprise over Courtney’s revelations. She gazed across the room, remembering what happened. “Not really. I didn’t understand why I could feel the humming since I wasn’t on the point, that’s where I’ve only ever noticed it. Lisa and I were sitting here on the sofa. I felt the humming, and my head felt kind of dizzy. I picked up my mug. That’s when Euclid jumped at me. He hit my hand and I dropped the tea.” She raised her eyes. “And then I knew.”

“Cool. Maybe the humming will turn into special powers,” Courtney said.

Ellie had a look of horror on her face. “What? Special powers?”

“Did Nana have special powers?” Jenna said softly. Her expression indicated she might be afraid of the answer.

“I asked Mom that once. She told me not to talk about it. So maybe that means
yes
.” Courtney chuckled.

Ellie shivered and looked at Courtney like she didn’t know her. “Do you have powers?”

“Not yet, but I hope I will someday.” Courtney sat up and turned to Angie. “Do you?”

Angie’s eyes were wide. She shook her head.

“Well, you’re the oldest. If it’s going to happen to any of us, I bet it will happen to you first.” Courtney lifted her empty cereal bowl from the table and got up to bring it to the kitchen. She stopped and turned around. Her eyes were bright as she said to Angie, “Your baking.”

Angie looked at her with a quizzical expression.

Courtney said with excitement in her voice, “When you bake, when you make the drinks. Some of the customers ask that only you make their orders. You must be able to put something special into the things you make, something magical. Maybe that’s going to be one of your powers.”

Angie opened her mouth to say something, but then she closed it.

The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Courtney said.

“Now, what?” Ellie said. She looked like she couldn’t take much more.

Courtney opened the door and greeted the person. “Oh, hi. Come in.”

Police Chief Martin entered the foyer. He saw the girls in the living room, smiled, and nodded. They invited him in and he took a seat in a chair next to the sofa.

“Doing okay, Angie?” he asked.

Angie smiled. “Yeah. I’m feeling much better now. Now that everything’s solved.”

The chief said, “Lisa Barrows confessed to the murder of Professor Linden. She’s been arrested. She claimed she only wanted to make the professor sick, she said she never intended to kill her.”

“Why make her sick?” Angie asked.

“She said she was tired of demanding old people.” He looked over at Angie. “Lisa said the professor was rude always wanting you to make her drinks. She said Professor Linden was a pain. Lisa actually used stronger words than that but you get my meaning.”

Ellie asked, “Did she use poisonous plants?”

The chief shook his head. “She used her eye drops.”

Angie sat up. “What?” Her jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe that eye drops could kill someone. “She always had her eye drops with her at the bake shop. She used eye drops to kill the professor?”

The chief said, “Lisa had been putting them into the professor’s drinks every chance she got. We talked to the professor’s doctor. Professor Linden had a heart condition. The doc said an ingredient in the eye drops would have played havoc with the professor’s heart rhythm. We suspect that when the professor fell over a month ago, it was due to the eye drops that had been put in her drinks. It built up in her system, and the last time she drank the tainted coffee, it put her heart into arrhythmia and killed her.”

“How terrible,” Jenna whispered. She put her hand over her mouth.

“Lisa’s rantings about old people got us thinking.” The chief rubbed his forehead. “We talked to the authorities in the town where Lisa used to live. There’s suspicion that Lisa may have murdered her mother. In the same way.”

Ellie gasped.

Angie said, “So Lisa wasn’t upset about her mother’s passing at all. We thought Lisa was afraid that she was in danger from Professor Linden’s killer, but her distress actually came from her fear of being caught.” She shook her head, shocked at the news. It was hard for her to believe that the person she worked with almost every day for a year could be capable of such things.

Jenna looked at Angie. “She quit the bake shop because you started asking questions about who the killer could be.”

“She freaked when you talked to her at dinner because she was afraid that you were going to accuse
her
.” Courtney sat back down on the floor and looked at Angie. “So she came to kill you too.”

Angie flopped against the sofa back. The reality of how close she came to dying was just starting to hit her.

The doorbell rang again. Courtney chuckled. “Now, who?”

Betty Hayes, the Realtor, was at the door holding a huge glass vase full of colorful flowers. “These are for Angie.”

Courtney took the vase and Betty came in. She saw everyone in the living room and rushed over, leaned down and gave Angie a hug. “You poor dear. What you’ve been through. But you saved the day. You discovered the murderer.” She smiled broadly. “I brought you some flowers from my garden and greenhouse.”

Angie thanked Betty.

“I must be off to an appointment. You take care now. I’ll see you at the bake shop. Only a few more days until you close and then we’ll have to wait months for your wonderful treats.” Betty bustled to the door and was gone.

“That was nice of her,” the chief said, admiring the flowers.

Angie gave him a pointed look. “She just wants me to sell the Victorian. She just wants the listing.”

The chief groaned. “Oh. I thought she was being nice out of the goodness of her heart.”

Everyone laughed.

Courtney glanced at the bouquet sitting in the middle of the coffee table. “Look. There’s oleander and lily of the valley.”

Ellie’s eyes went wide and her face blanched. The girls smiled at their sister’s reaction.

“What?” the chief asked.

“Those flowers are poisonous,” Courtney told him. “We were sure Betty was the killer.”

The chief laughed at that suggestion, and then his face turned serious. “Well, I guess you never really know someone, do you?”

Euclid sniffed the flowers, and just as Angie was going to scoop him away from them, he pulled his face back from the blossoms, flicked his tail, and started to walk away.

“You know, I think Euclid is smarter than all of us.” Angie gave him an admiring look.

Courtney smiled. “He thinks he is anyway.”

Euclid paused and turned back to Courtney, his green eyes making eye contact with her. He put his snoot in the air and exited the room.

“Well, I guess he told you,” Jenna said.

Their chuckles rippled through the room.

It was moving day at the bake shop. Angie arrived before anyone else. She just wanted to sit there alone in the quiet for a while with the sun filtering in through the window. She was going to miss the little place, the bustle, the customer chit chat, even the early mornings. Moving to Sweet Cove was the best decision she’d ever made and she was happy to be part of the community. Her bake shop had changed her life. Soon she would be the owner of the Victorian, a house she’d always admired whenever she and her family walked by it when she was a little girl. Angie and her sisters were able to live together again and soon would be running their businesses out the house. A wave of gratitude to Professor Linden rushed over her. She still couldn’t believe the professor had bequeathed the house to her, and try as she might, she just didn’t understand why.
Was it simply that I had been kind to her?

Angie heard the rumble of a truck pull to a stop outside next to the sidewalk. She could see Tom jump out of the passenger side as one of his buddies came around the front.

Angie stood and opened the door for them.

“All ready to go?” Tom had a big cheery grin on his face and the look of him helped to push away Angie’s melancholy feelings about leaving her shop. Another truck pulled up and two men removed a couple of moving dollies from the back. Ellie’s van came to a stop at the sidewalk and Angie’s three sisters hopped out and entered the bake shop. They each carried a pair of work gloves.

“We’re ready to get this party started.” Courtney pulled her gloves on. “What’s first to be moved?”

Angie laughed. She pointed to a stack of boxes near the back room. Courtney lifted one. “What do you have in here? Cement?” She lugged it to the back of Ellie’s van.

Jenna gave Angie a hug. “Are you doing okay?”

Angie nodded and gave her sister a smile. “I’m ready. Even though I’ll miss this place, I’m ready to move to the next stage of things. I’m nervous, but excited.”

A familiar voice spoke from the doorway of the shop. “I think it’s going to be great for you.”

Angie turned to see Josh Williams walking into the bake shop. Her stomach did a little flip at the sight of him. She was surprised to see him dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, his broad, strong shoulders evident under the thin fabric. The look in his blue eyes made Angie’s muscles go weak.

“This is a surprise.” Angie ran her hand over the top of her head in a futile attempt to smooth her hair.

“A good surprise I hope.” Josh walked over to Angie. “I can’t very well kick you out of your shop and not expect to help you move.” His smile sent warm shivers over her skin.

“I intend to blame your brother for forcing me out, not you.” Angie’s eyes twinkled.

“I’m glad to hear you tell your sister that you’re excited for the move. I’ve felt badly that our business plans conflicted with yours and you have to move out.” Josh’s voice was warm.

“It’s actually working out for the best.”

“All’s well that ends well, I hope.” Josh leaned against the counter.

“I hope so.” Angie wasn’t only talking about the moving of the shop when she said that.

“Are you two gonna’ yammer all day or give us a hand?” Tom winked at Angie. He and his buddies had gone in and out several times already carrying boxes and furniture while Angie made eyes at Josh.

Angie blushed and turned to pick up a box. She looked over her shoulder at Tom and kidded him. “Okay, Task Master. I’m getting to work. Remember, I’m the one who packed these boxes all by myself.”

Tom chuckled and shook his head. “Boo hoo.”

With all the help, the moving of the bake shop furniture, pots, pans, baking tools, dishes, and appliances was completed in a few hours. Everything was packed away and stored on the first floor of the carriage house behind the Victorian.

The day before the move the girls had made several different kinds of lasagna, one veggie, one with spicy chicken, and a third with meatballs and sausages. They carried a long table to the wraparound porch and brought out the garlic bread, salad, and lasagnas and placed it in the middle of the wooden table.

“This smells great,” one of Tom’s friends remarked.

“It’s the least we can do for all of your help.” Angie and Ellie placed two bottles of wine, some beer, and two jugs of iced tea beside the food. “Come and sit down, everyone.”

The men and women took seats around the table and dug into the hearty meal. Euclid sat on a white wicker table next to them and watched the humans devour the food. The setting sun painted the sky with pink and violet, and Jenna lit candles as dusk settled over them. Anyone who was paying attention couldn’t deny the sparks that flashed across the table between Jenna and Tom, and Angie and Josh.

They spent over two hours eating and talking, and when it was time for dessert, Courtney brought out some treats that Angie had baked for the occasion, a fruit pie and a chocolate cake covered in ganache. Angie carried a third treat to the table. She’d created a cake in the shape of the Victorian and had sculpted four women who looked very much like Angie and her sisters who sat in rockers on the tiny front porch of the creation. There was even an orange cat perched on the little railing of the house. Everyone laughed and applauded the masterpiece.