Chocolate Cream Cupcake & Murder (A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 3) (3 page)

Dana gasped.

There was something next to Mr. Renaldo’s right hand that was unmistakable. Her spine tingled uncontrollably.

A chocolate cream cupcake with the famous Cozy Cupcakes Café bright pink logo on the wrapper that read:
Have a sweet day!

Waves of despair washed over Dana.

Have a sweet day? Yeah, right. Oy, yoy, yoy!
Talk about irony.

There certainly wasn’t anything sweet about
this
day.

What was she going to do? What was she going to say? The creamy chocolate cupcake with a honey dipped strawberry on the side looked as if it had already been half eaten. There it was at his fingertips on the floor beside his body.

Dana’s heart thumped erratically. Her pulse leaped in her chest. Her body felt numb.

“Dana, be calm. Just call the police. Everything’s going to be okay,” she whispered to herself calmly, her breathing shallow and rushed.

Be calm?
In her dreams. This was a nightmare!

Poor Mr. Renaldo. And poor bride to be. Poor Dana. There certainly were a lot of poor people around in this rich mansion right now.

Wait a minute. She had to alert George. Or Molly. They were working there. They should call the police, right? Not Dana. It’s not her house. Then again, neither was it theirs.

Where on earth was the family? Wasn’t there an engagement party that should be started soon? It was already noon. Why was the house so quiet? Wasn’t everybody up yet?

A scream erupted behind Dana, startling her.

“What happened? What have you done?” Molly came running into the back kitchen.

“I…I just saw him there. I…”

“He’s dead!”

“I…I know. I just saw him…I…” Oh, no. This was not looking good. Not at all. What was she to do?

Soon after, George, the butler came in.

“Oh, no. Master Renaldo. He leaned down beside the body. Oh, dear.” George’s voice was raised an octave. His thick British accent even more prominent. He sounded more like C3PO from Star Wars.

Just then there was a loud knock from the brass door knocker that sounded from the front door, which could be heard from the kitchen.

“The police are probably here now,” George said, getting up quickly.

“Oh, you called the police already?” Dana asked, incredulously.

“Yes.” He hesitated for a moment. “When I heard Molly scream.”

“Oh.” But Molly must have screamed only moments ago. That was fast. Did the rich and powerful Renaldos have officers camped outside their gate twenty-four seven around the clock?

Dana sure didn’t think so. But then again what did she know about how the other half lived? Surely, they must have just been in the area when he called. Maybe Master…or Mr. Renaldo hired them for his engagement party this afternoon. Yes, that would make more sense.

*   *   *

Moments later, Dana heard footsteps, the hard heels of authoritative figures marching on the marble floor toward the kitchen.

Soon after, a few officers appeared. But Dana’s heart leaped when she saw a familiar handsome face. A tall muscular gentleman with broad shoulders in a dark unbuttoned blazer and tie. A sexy groomed stubble on his chin and deep, rich ocean-blue eyes framed by long dark lashes and a chiseled high cheek bone.

Detective Troy Anders.

For some strange reason waves of excitement washed over Dana knowing that her buddy, well, sort of buddy, was on the case.

Dana felt her breath stop. Her heart fluttered in her chest.

Gosh, he was so stunning and breathtaking in every way.

Stop that, Dana. He’s here on serious police business, remember? Besides, you’re not into relationships right now, right? Not after what Ramone did to you behind your back with your own best friend and now they’re happily married, or whatever.

Dana drew a deep breath and catapulted right back into reality when sexy Troy Anders called her name.

“Dana?”

“You know her?” Molly said to Troy.

“We’ve met.” His voice was firm and had an indescribable tone to it.

“Hi Troy.”

“What are you doing here?” he said, going over to the body. His men were already hovering over the body and the crime scene.

“I…I was catering. I am catering…was catering.”
Okay, stop being a bumbling fool, Dana. You’re better than that.

Why, oh, why was she always nervous around this hot-looking guy? He’s just a guy, right?

“I see,” Troy answered, coolly. “Dust for prints,” he said, turning to a guy with some special equipment.

A forensic photographer was busy taking snap shots of the crime scene and of the body.

“Can you tell me what happened here, Ma’am?” Troy said to Molly.

Molly then went into details about the events that led to her finding Mr. Renaldo sprawled out by the fridge, stiff as her ironing board, she’d told him.

“That must mean, he’s been dead a while,” Troy observed the body. He carefully touched old man Renaldo’s cheek. “He’s cold.”

“Told you. He’s as cold as the ice cream in the pantry freezer.”

Troy looked up at Molly with a look of disbelief, probably of her casualness about the situation.

“Yes, he is cold,” Troy agreed. “And when was the last time you saw him alive, Miss…?” he said as he got up and took out his notepad and pen.

“Molly. Molly Avacardo. I’m the
head
maid here,” she emphasized.

Dana looked on in disbelief at the situation that was transpiring before her very eyes, her arms folded across her chest herself. This was so not how she had her day planned out. But then neither was it the day Mr. Renaldo had planned out, was it? He was supposed to be having a party later this afternoon.

Still, as she stood there in the grand kitchen, she was ashamed to admit that she could inhale the sweet scent of Troy’s aftershave and it was oddly calming. Soothing.

Stop that, Dana. Focus. This is not looking good, remember? Mr. Renaldo is dead and your famous chocolate cream cupcake is in the picture, too.

She couldn’t wait for Troy to interview her soon. She’d tell him her side of the story.

“Detective,” a man in a suit said. He picked up the delicious half eaten chocolate cream cupcake that was by the body. “Look at this, sir. It looks as if he’d been eating it when he died.”

Dana felt a chill of guilt slide over her.

Oh, no. He was eating it when he died, wasn’t he?

“So do you mind telling me your side of the story, Ms Sweet?” Troy asked Dana as they stood off to the side while the scene investigation was happening.

Ms Sweet?

Shouldn’t they be on a first name basis now? What was going on there?

A light bulb appeared in Dana’s mind. He probably didn’t want to let on how close he knew Dana. Not that they were close, of course. They’d only been sort of involved in two murders already. The first being the horrible critic who’d slammed her grandmother’s café. Then there was her uncle’s late wife who’d been poisoned. Dana was by no means a pro, but she certainly knew a thing or two about solving mysteries since she hosted and created a popular mystery riddles blog.

“Well, there isn’t much else to say, except, I was assigned to cater Mr. Renaldo’s engagement party this afternoon.”

“This afternoon?” Troy said. He paused his pen from writing for a moment. “Why are you here now?” He glanced at his expensive-looking gold watch.

“Well, Mr. Renaldo called and asked me to deliver some more cupcakes.”

“More cupcakes?” Troy scribbled on his notepad.

“Yes, more cupcakes. The café brought some over this morning as per his request.”

“Isn’t that odd.”

“What’s odd about that?”

“Why would he want to have pastries delivered in the morning for an afternoon event? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have it ready for the party so they’re fresh?”

“Yes, you’re right. I was thinking about that.”

“Can I see a copy of the order request?”

“The order request?”

“Yes, a copy of the order verifying his request to bring over the cupcakes early.”

“Well…actually, come to think of it. He just called it in.”

“So you spoke to Mr. Renaldo this morning then?”

“Well, no. Inga did. Inga, the baker.”

He sighed deeply. He wrote Inga’s name down and a question mark beside it to call her later, probably. Troy then let out a yawn. Poor thing. Seemed as if he’d been pulling an all nighter and then some. She knew that some cops did twelve hour shifts at the station, but she figured Troy was probably doing some over time. It looked as if his bed was calling him.

“You don’t think he was…poisoned, do you?”

“It’s hard to say right now until we get the lab results, but we’re going to look at every angle.”

What she wanted to ask him was if he thought there was any sign of foul play. She didn’t have time to properly look around or observe the body too closely.

Just then, a loud scream from behind then interrupted their conversation.

“Oh, my God! Daddy! Daddy?” The voice came from a young woman with sandy blond hair with dark roots and bright, sky blue eyes that were clouded in tears. She ran over to the body.

She had on a shimmering pink satin or was that silk night gown and pink slippers. Her hair looked as if it was disheveled from sleep. 

Dana couldn’t help but notice her attire. It was after twelve o’clock noon hour and she was still in her night clothes?

Not long after that, three men came downstairs along with George and Molly who probably alerted them of the incident.

“Father? Father? No!” The other two men said, over the body. Both man had dark brown hair and looked like twins, but not quite. One had glasses and the other didn’t.

The other man with dark blond hair was hugging the young woman.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay, sweetie. Everything’s going to be okay,”
the blond man comforted the young woman
.
He tried to put his arms around her but she shrugged him off.

“What do you know?” she shrieked. “It’s not going to be okay, you idiot!”

Ouch. 

Dana guessed everyone probably grieved a little differently. Still, she felt terrible for the blond guy. He was only trying to comfort her.

She hovered over her father’s body, kneeling down and touching his arms sleeves and Dana noted she touched the breast part of his jacket.

“I’m sorry about your loss, ma’am,” Troy said. “But I’m afraid you can’t touch the bod…your father, right now. We’re still going over the crime scene.”

“What happened, officer?” the man in glasses with dark brown hair demanded as he stood up.

“And you are, sir?”

“Tierry Renaldo, Jr. I’m his son. And this is my sister, Jackie. Her fiancé, Miles and my brother, Tony.”

Dana noted that the two brunet men were Renaldo’s boys and the blond woman with dark roots, his daughter and the blond guy, was his daughter’s fiancé. Seemed like everybody was dressed, or undressed, in their PJs. Were they up late on a Friday night partying? Or probably not. Dana did think it was odd, though.

“Sorry about your loss, sirs.” Troy’s voice was firm, yet compassionate. Dana admired seeing Troy in action for some reason.

“But we’re still going over some details,” Troy continued. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask all of you some questions, too.”

“We’ll co-operate, officer.” Junior swallowed hard and his Adam’s apple bobbed.

Something was very odd about that whole scene. Dana sensed something but she just couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

But here was the billion dollar question: Where on earth was Goldie, Mr. Renaldo’s supposedly loving fiancée?

“Dana, are you all right?” Katie said, walking into the living area.

“I’m sorry, ma’am but this is a crime scene,” Troy said to Katie before recognizing her. “Oh, you’re Kate Sweet, right?”

“Yes, I’m Katie, Dana’s cousin. I work over at the café.”

“Right. Of course. I will probably need to speak with you later. Please don’t touch anything.”

“I won’t,” Katie said, looking around.

“What are you doing here?” Dana asked, surprised.

“I heard what happened. Are you okay?” Katie frowned.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just a little shaken up. I can’t believe he’s…he’s dead.”

“That’s terrible. How did it happen?” she whispered, her eyebrows furrowed with concern.

“Well, I came into…Hey wait a minute. How did you know about Mr. Renaldo’s death?”

“I came over to bring you the box of golden spoons for the cupcakes…”

“Oh, right. I forgot about the golden spoons.”

“Right. And well, I bumped into Gerdie-Sue…”

“Oh, boy. Gerdie-Sue. The unofficial news bulletin. But how did she know so fast?”

“She told me that she heard sirens going this way and after what she told me at the café about…well, I’ll fill you in later.”

“Fill me in about what? What is it Katie?”

“I can’t tell you here, but there’s something awfully strange going on.”

“Tell me about it. Old man Renaldo is dead. There’s a crazy murderer on the loose out there.”

“Or in here.” Katie’s voice was a hard whisper.

Before long, Dana inhaled a strong scent of a designer perfume. The smell wafted into the room before the source. A woman with white-blond long flowing hair, dangling earrings, a green dress and a Chanel black double flap lambskin handbag came waltzing into the kitchen area.

“Boo? Where’s my boo?” Her voice was falsetto and her lips were red and pouty and looked as if she had one too many Botox injections.

“I’m sorry, ma’am…” Troy proceeded. Before he could finish, the woman flung herself over the body.

“Boo. No, Boo.”

Dana couldn’t help but notice the dramatic eye-roll of the moment-ago grieving daughter and her two brothers.

Junior had his arms folded tightly across his chest and his lips pinched thin together. “Okay, you can stop with the Oscar performance, Goldie,” he said.

Goldie immediately stopped sobbing and a look of disgust slid across her face. She arched an attitudinal brow and placed her hands on her hips. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me? You were only here for our father’s money. Now he’s dead. Satisfied?”

“Satisfied?” Goldie was fuming. “Why you low-down dirty scoundrel. You killed him, didn’t you? You killed your daddy. My boo. I loved him.” She had a strong southern accent that seemed to flow out like a bottle of honey.

“You mean you loved his
money
. You probably had him bumped off,” Junior said.

“All right knock it off now,” Troy interjected.

“I will not knock it off, detective.” Junior was seething now.

The whole room felt like a boiling pot of mixed up soup with a few nuts thrown in.

“You should investigate that gold-digger,” Junior continued.

“Fool,” Goldie shot back quickly. “You three should be the one who should be under investigation. He’s no good to me
dead
, you brats. We’re not even married yet!”

And you never will be now,
Dana thought to herself.

“Ah-ha!” Junior pointed his finger at Goldie. “So you
were
marrying him for his money.”

“I…I want my lawyer!” she said, storming out of the room.

“Why don’t you call him from the beauty parlor. That’s the only place you’ve been going these days. There and shopping, spending our daddy’s money since you came into the picture. You never gave a hoot about our pops.”

“Neither did you three,” Molly said, her hands on her hips. “I’m not going to stand by and watch as you guilty as sin kids try to get away with murder. You never cared about your pappy.”

Pappy?

This whole situation was getting weird by the minute in increments of two parts insanity and one part craziness.

“I’m going to ask you one more time to be quiet, or I’ll take you all down to the station to be questioned.” Troy’s voice was firmer and the tiredness was in his voice.

Dana could feel the heat climb in the kitchen. They said if you couldn’t stand the heat then get out of the kitchen…

But Dana couldn’t very well leave the kitchen now. Besides, the curiosity inside her was bubbling up like a home-made beef stew, cooking up a storm of ideas inside her brain. She was desperate to know what in the Sam’s fortune was going on in here. Which one of them was really guilty? If any of them.

Dana needed to help Detective Troy find out who cancelled poor Mr. Renaldo like a bad check.