Sweets Forgotten (Samantha Sweet Mysteries Book 10) by Connie Shelton Page B

figure out something. For now, go back
inside and do an inventory of our chocolate. Find out how much cocoa we have on
hand. I have a feeling I’ll need to order a variety of supplies.”
    As she passed along the
information to Melissa Masters over the phone, Sam’s mind raced. Should she
invite Jane to stay at their house or simply check her into a motel and hope
for the best. She hung up and called Beau.
    “I don’t have a good feeling
about it either way,” he said, “but I have a hard and fast rule about not
inviting suspicious people into my own home. It has to be a motel. I wouldn’t
pay for more than one night at a time, though. Who knows when she’ll go dashing
off again.”
    Sam agreed, mentioned the big
order for custom chocolates and told him she wasn’t sure what time she would
get home.
    “Tell you what,” he said. “How
about you get Jane settled into a motel room whenever you get to a stopping
point at work? We can meet up for dinner and then you can go back to the shop
if you need to.”
    He was right. With everyone else
gone for the day, Sam could work more quickly without interruptions. She
clicked off the call and went back inside.
    On the worktable sat a bag of
roasted cocoa beans. Jane had found the grinder and was turning them to powder.
    “I think we’ll have enough to get
two pounds of chocolate,” she said. “A bit more if we do part of the assortment
in milks and whites.”
    Sam lifted the bag, guessing at
its weight, and concurred. “Now, I wonder about molding them into cat shapes. I
have no idea if any of my suppliers will have such a thing.”
    “Try Bandenberg Wholesale,” Jane
said. She stopped grinding the beans and stared at Sam. “I wonder where that
name came from? It just popped into my head.”
    Sam caught the look Becky sent
her direction from the other end of the worktable. But when she got online, she
readily found the wholesaler and discovered that they did, indeed, have a large
selection of unusual chocolate molds. One set featured cats and dogs, some
lying down, some sitting. It wouldn’t provide the variety Stan Bookman wanted
but it could be a great start. She placed an order, including cocoa beans to
replenish the shop’s supply, and sprang for overnight shipping. That done, she
made a shopping list of other items—flavorings and herbal essences—and decided
that she could pick them up locally when she went out for dinner with Beau.
    By four o’clock, Jane had ground
nearly the whole bag of beans and Sam had her shopping list pretty well
finalized.
    “We can temper and start molding
the chocolate tomorrow,” she told Jane. “Let’s head out now and get you settled
for the night.”
    “I’m meeting Beau for an early
dinner out, so you can go ahead and lock up at closing time,” she said to Becky
and Jen.
    In the van she suggested to Jane
that they make a stop at Walmart for a few toiletries and another change or two
of clothing, to come from Jane’s first paycheck. Cash pay, Sam mentally amended,
since there was no way she could file all the necessary forms to put Jane on
the payroll without a name and social security number. Technically, this was
illegal as hell but how could she turn down a woman so obviously in need, not
to mention someone with this much knowledge of chocolate?
    “I had a few other ideas for
cat-themed chocolates,” Jane said later, as they walked out of the store with
three shopping bags, “being that there isn’t a great variety of molds
available. How about if I form some from modeling chocolate and we use them to
sit on top of a platform, a slab or a cushion made of one of the exotic
flavors?”
    “If you’re good at sculpting
delicate shapes, I will be forever grateful,” Sam said, her mind flashing again
to the image of Bobul the Romanian making his exquisite pine cones.
    “It’s funny, Sam. I have these
little scenes go through my head. I can’t say where I am at the time but I
distinctly see myself handling