I had to do a lot of walking to be helpful to Nina.
Mochie napped in the sunroom. I nuzzled with him a little bit, taking care not to cover my dress with fur. I added chicken in gravy to his food bowl, locked the door, and left. Mars would bring Daisy to the feast later on. I knew he was grateful to hide out at my house while Natasha was in a baking frenzy.
My phone rang the second I stepped out the door. I hustled back into the kitchen and answered it.
“Sophie!” Nina screeched at someone and returned to the phone, her tone an octave higher than normal. “Thank goodness you haven’t left yet. How can you stand doing this for a living? Natasha makes me so mad. She used robin’s-egg blue icing so everyone would know which cupcakes were hers. And just in case they didn’t know that blue is her signature color, she stuck a big
N
on top of each one. Can you believe her nerve? That doesn’t even match the theme. But that’s not my biggest problem. I can’t reach Joy. After that huge fuss she made, I don’t know if she’s bringing her cheese cupcakes or not. Could you go over to the bakery and see if she’s there? Find out what’s going on?”
I assured Nina I would take care of it. Instead of heading to the park, I drove the few blocks to Sugar Mama’s.
Across the street, people continued to stop at the makeshift memorial to Muffin.
A closed sign hung on the door to Joy’s bakery. I tried it anyway, but it was locked. Two possibilities sprang to mind. Either Joy was inside baking, or she was at Market Square selling cupcakes from her booth. I guessed the latter might be the case.
I looked for a bell to ring and was thinking that I ought to check her booth at Market Square when a flash of blue caught my eye. I cupped my hands around my eyes to see through the glass more clearly. Joy, wearing a blue apron, walked out of sight. I rapped fiercely on the glass.
Joy returned, waving her hands and shaking her head to signal that the cupcakery was closed. I rapped harder. She pointed at the sign. Even at a distance, I could tell she’d been crying.
She must have finally recognized me, because she hurried to the door and unlocked it. “Sophie! I’m sorry, people have been knocking all day, and I’ve done my best to ignore them. I’ll probably lose business as a result.”
Her long brown ponytail had been pinned up into a bun, and she wore a hairnet. Her eyes weren’t just rimmed red from crying, the whites of her eyes appeared bloodshot, too. “And to be honest, I’m a little jumpy after Muffin’s murder.”
“I’m so sorry about Muffin. You must have been close to her.”
She sniffed. “I can hardly bear to look out the window. It’s inconceivable to me that she’s not there anymore, that she won’t come running up to me with a fantastic idea for a new recipe or to tell me about one of her spying excursions to try out the cupcakes of our competitors. She was just like a little sister to me.”
“What do you think happened?”
Staring at the floor, she adjusted the hairnet. “I can’t imagine. Everyone liked her. The cops asked if we had any weird guys who hung around. We had regulars—that creepy Maurice, Humphrey, and I did think it odd that Spenser came by so regularly when he has his own cupcakery, you know?” Her expression changed, and she rested a hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry! Humphrey is a friend of yours, isn’t he? I didn’t mean anything by that, but he came to the cupcakery every day.”
That explained Humphrey’s weight gain. “Did she date anyone? Did anyone seem obsessed with her?”
“You sound like the police.” Joy shook her head. “I’ve been racking my brain about that. So many people come into the shop, you know? And when it’s busy you can’t remember them all. The police were surprised that we don’t have surveillance cameras. I told them if more of them bought cupcakes instead of doughnuts we could afford them. We don’t even have alarm
B. Kristin McMichael
Julie Garwood
Fran Louise
Debbie Macomber
Jo Raven
Jocelynn Drake
Undenied (Samhain).txt
Douglas E. Schoen, Melik Kaylan
Charlotte Sloan
Anonymous