Freshly Ground Murder Read online

  The light knock on the front door of the shop gave me a little jolt. I wasn’t expecting anyone and the darkness outside just added to the fright.

  “What are you doing here?” I opened the door wide when I saw it was Patrick.

  “I rolled over and y’all were gone. I didn’t get my good morning kiss.” He stepped inside, shut the door behind him and curled me in his arms for that kiss.

  He let out a long, deep, satisfying sigh.

  “That’s a good morning kiss.” His deep eyes looked at me with a love that was indescribable. “And if we hurry up and get hitched, you can have one of those every morning.”

  “Is that right?’ I teased, and stepped back.

  “Mmmhhhmmm.” He looked around me at the tree. “Not feeling festive this morning?”

  “Felix isn’t feeling Sassy this morning.” I pointed to where he was hiding. “I thought I’d better keep the lights off in case he was to shock himself.”

  “Poor guy.” Patrick was such a lover of animals. “No one to adopt him?”

  “You know.” I snapped my fingers. “I totally forgot about that guy that came in and he’s staying at the Cocoon.”

  “What guy?” Patrick headed to the back of the coffeehouse with me.

  Before I even asked him to pitch in, he started to refill both the bars and the café tables.

  “Walker somebody. Really good looking, about this tall.” I held my hand a little over my head.

  “Did he have on a wedding band?” Patrick asked.

  “I don’t think so.” I dug deep into my memory to recall.

  “Should I be worried?” Patrick joked.

  “Yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes. “But he and Felix really took to each other. I’ve got to drop the Pralines Liqueur slices to the Cocoon this morning, maybe I’ll see him or leave a message with Camey for him to call me.”

  “You are making the cake?” The way his eyes lit up the room, I didn’t have to plug in the Christmas tree light. “That’s the one dessert I really remember you making that time you came in the summer.”

  “It’s a gift.” I winked and went into the kitchen to retrieve the goodies that needed to go into the glass case and the display platters on top of the counter.

  “What’s this?” I heard Patrick call out after he’d gone into the kitchen to get some supplies like napkins, stirs, substitute sugar packets and all the little items necessary for the perfect added ingredients to the coffee and teas.

  “What?” I moved through the swinging door and noticed he was talking about the chalkboard I’d written Otis’s name on. “That.” My brows rose.

  “You aren’t doing this.” He stared at me. Long gone was the goo-goo eyes he’d just had.

  “I’m not actively doing anything.” I might’ve kept the fact that I might’ve had an ulterior motive in going to see Juanita. “As I hear things, I’m writing them down.”

  I walked over and picked up a piece of chalk.

  “Like Juanita’s always been a diabetic, which doesn’t make sense for Otis to tell me every week that he came in to get Juanita treats.” I wrote that down under Juanita’s name. “Also, Otis had been taking an Uber, which is also weird because he drove.” I made another line out from Otis’s name and put Uber on it with a question mark. “Then there’s Odd Ink.”

  “What about Odd Ink?” He seemed to start taking an interest.

  “Otis was a pretty neat guy with his shop.” I was going to take the opportunity while it was there to go over all this with Patrick while he let me.

  “He was. Even in his walls.” Patrick shook his head. “When we were redoing the boardwalk for the reopening last fall, he wanted to make sure the electrical lines were all zip tied together and neatly laid in the walls.”

  “See,” I sucked in a deep breath. “There were papers all over the floor of his shop. And,” I pulled my phone out of my apron pocket. “I took pictures of his client list so I could just look through them.”

  “What on earth could Otis have that was so secret. He was old and always had the same routine.” Patrick reminded me of what Juanita had said.

  “Juanita said the same thing. She also said that he loved being at church all day on Sunday.” I knew that would get Patrick’s attention.

  “Sunday? Our church?” His brows lowered. “But Brother Mitchell does the service and is off for the sabbath day.”

  “Right. Since Brother Mitchell makes sure we observe the sabbath, no one is at the church. Not even Otis. According to Juanita, Otis was there sun up to sun down.” I wrote that under Juanita’s name.

  Patrick and I stood back and looked at the chalkboard.

  “You have to admit, there’s a lot of unanswered questions here.” I folded my arms and so did he.

  “I can tell that you aren’t going to let this go.” He straightened up his back. “If you are going to snoop around, then I’m helping you.”

  “You’re the best.” I walked over, putting my arms around his neck and kissed him.

  “This is why I came here.” He grinned sending my heart into a tailspin. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” I said giving him another kiss before I had to get the cakes out of the oven.

  “I’ll go see what I can drum up about some clients. I have a couple of guys that get tats from Otis, I’ll poke around and see if they’ve seen anything weird or if Otis had said anything to them that’s odd.” He got up from the stool and looked at his watch. “Your crew should be here any minute. Do you want me to try to get Felix out of the Christmas tree before I go?”

  “Nah.” I’d taken a medium saucepan and brought some butter, water and sugar to a boil, stirring it the whole time. “I’m going to take these cakes to Cocoon and see if I can get Walker in here to see if he can get him out and maybe bond.”

  “You’re so devious.” He winked. “I’ll see you at the parade.”

  “We’ll see you at the parade.” Sassy danced around him. She thought for sure she was going to go with him. She was a very jealous dog and I wondered how she was going to react when Patrick and I got married. A few nights in her territory here and there were okay, but full time. . .

  The morning ritual and all the same people came into the coffeehouse. Bunny was busy feeding the gossip surrounding Otis’s murder while I filled all the fancy coffee orders. It was great to get back to the grind of my happy place and set aside all the happenings with Otis.

  While she took care of the customers in the coffeehouse, I took care of getting the ingredients for my Soul Harvest Chicken Soup in the pots along with some freshly baked bread in the oven to get ready for the lunch crowd. Even though I’d already planned something different for this week’s lunch specials, I knew that the soup was exactly what everyone in Honey Springs needed. Some comfort and the name, Soul Harvest Chicken Soup, said it all.

  I chopped up the onions, garlic, cilantro and tomatoes while I stared at the chalkboard. There had to be something I was missing and knew I needed to find out exactly Otis’s whereabouts before he was murdered. Thoughts of how exactly I was going to do that tumbled through my head as I got out the chicken broth I’d saved from where I’d boiled all the chicken I was going to need ahead of time. There were no ideas of where I was going to start as I opened the cans of tomato sauce, chili beans, corn and threw them in the pot with the other stuff.

  “That sure does smell good.” Bunny pressed through the kitchen door and grabbed another tray of the Santa Kisses before she walked back out.

  The bread was ready to go into the oven and would be ready in a few minutes. I put the pots on simmer to let all the ingredients come together in a slow and timely manner, making it a perfect treat.

  When I headed back into the coffeehouse, the lull of the morning rush had come and gone, and with Bunny refilling the drink bars, it was the perfect time to get the cake slices and the coffee down to the hotel.

  “Good morning,” I chirped with a happy voice and lifted my hands that were lugging arou
nd the industrial coffee carafes and bags filled with pastry treats hanging from my forearms. I looked around and tilted my head near the hospitality room to see if Walker was in there.

  “So happy to see you. Your treats are going like hot cakes.” Camey came out from behind the counter and took the carafes. “I just might have to up my order.”

  “That’d be great, but if you did that, you’ll have to have someone come to get them because I’m having a hard time hauling it all by myself. Though, yesterday I did have help.” It was my lead-in to asking about Walker. “Speaking of yesterday, where’s Walker?”

  “You know, the strangest thing happened.” She walked toward the hospitality room and over to the table she’d already set up with the crystal platters and Christmas greenery. “I’d told him that I would take him to the tree lighting and he was into it. He was late getting back from wherever he’d gone and we made it to the tree lighting just in time to see Loretta Bebe pass out.”

  She gave me a good mental reminder to call on Loretta today to see if the hospital had released her.

  “Then he disappeared.” She gave me the empty carafes she’d used yesterday and replaced them with the full ones.

  “What do you mean disappeared?” I questioned.

  “I sat with Loretta until the ambulance came and when I went back to get him to come back here, he was gone. Disappeared and not come back.” She shrugged.

  “That’s odd.” My brows furrowed.

  “It’s really odd.” There was already a crowd gathering before she could get all the goodies on the trays.

  I gestured for us to head back out of the room. There were more questions I needed answered. It struck me as odd yesterday morning when we’d passed Odd Ink and Otis as to both of their reactions. Then for him to be gone up until the tree lighting. Where had he gone?

  “Did he say where he’d gone and why he was late?” I asked.

  “No. He said that he was exploring and figuring out some things. I didn’t press him.” Camey nodded and smiled as a guest walked down the hall. “There’s some delicious pastries and complimentary coffee in the hospitality room this morning.”

  The guest smiled and looked into the hospitality room.

  “Sounds perfect before we go explore the boardwalk for all the Christmas specials,” the guest nodded happily.

  “Be sure to grab a to-go cup. It’s a little chilly out there.” Camey put her hand on my shoulder. “This is Roxanne Bloom. She’s the owner of The Bean Hive and provides all the tasty treats.”

  “Come on by for some special Christmas coffee bean bark,” I suggested. When the guest left us alone, I started back in on my questioning. “You haven’t talked to him since the ambulance took Loretta?”

  “No. I went to his room and knocked to make sure he was okay. I called the room.” She let out a big sigh.

  “Did you go into his room?”

  She bit the edges of her lip and looked at me as if she were wrangling with telling me something.

  “I did, only because I felt like there was something between us. You know.” She leaned in. “Like chemistry and he’s so cute and so nice.”

  “He wasn’t in there?” I wanted to make sure I got all the details of where he was and where he wasn’t before she went on some romantic tirade.

  “Nope. There wasn’t a thing in there. I don’t even remember him having a suitcase or overnight bag. I did find this.” Her eyes darted around before she put her hand in her back pocket and took out a photo of a woman standing near a train. “It looks really old. But it was left on the nightstand. Technically, I shouldn’t’ve taken it and left it there because he still has a noon checkout time and he might be back.”

  “I have a strange feeling he won’t be back.” I held the picture up. “Can I take this?”

  “Why on earth would you want it?” she asked. She grabbed my arm. “Does this have to do with Otis Peavler?”

  “I’m not sure yet, but you know me. I can’t keep my nose out of a good murder.” I gave a little laugh to break the silence that suddenly hung between us.

  “You think he had something to do with Otis’s death?” She drew back.

  “I don’t know anything, I’m just trying to figure out why I felt strange when we ran in to Otis on the way here yesterday. Both of them looked strange.” I looked at the photo again. There was a faint stamp on the back and I wondered how old it was.

  “Now that I think about it, Otis Peavler came in here yesterday.” Her eyes jumped open. “I.. .I thought it was weird, but he made up some excuse that he wanted to see the Christmas decorations because he’d heard they were so pretty this year.”

  “What were his exact words and where did you find him?” This could be the lead I was looking for.

  “He was in the hospitality room eating one of your Santa Kiss cookies and kinda hanging around.”

  “Wait.” I jerked back. “He was eating a cookie? But he’s diabetic.”

  Her jaw dropped. Both of us stood there in shock and you could’ve knocked us over with a feather.

  “He ate about four cookies and washed it down with a sugary cup of your Christmas Harvest blend.”

  Two things about her statement bugged me. One was the fact that Otis Peavler was obviously not a diabetic, which meant he lied. The second was the fact he’d ruined my special brew by throwing in sugar.

  “I’ve got to go.” I waved her off and darted toward the door, only to run smack dab into Spencer and dropped the photo.

  “Roxy.” His words were flat. His eyes drew down to the floor where the photo had landed face-side down.

  Quickly I bent over, grabbing and putting it in my coat pocket.

  “Hi.” I smiled. “I was just dropping off the pastries and coffee for the hospitality room.”

  “Hi, Spencer.” Camey had a big smile on her face. “Can I interest you in a freshly baked piece of Roxy’s special praline cake and a cup of coffee to warm you?”

  “I’ll leave you two.” I gave a slight wave and ignored Spencer’s glare.

  “If Walker comes back, I’m going to need that photo.” Camey called after me. My heart sank. What on earth was I going to say to Spencer when he showed up at the coffeehouse wanting to see that photo.

  Eight

  Louise Carlton stood at the front of the lit Christmas tree in the gazebo at Christmas in the Park with a clipboard in her hands. The participants of the Christmas Pawrade were to line up along the outside of the park on the other side of the fence once you’d checked in with her.

  Sassy and Pepper looked so cute with their Christmas sweaters on. The parade route was to start at the back of the park and go along Main Street, back around the park before going into the park forming a big circle around the gazebo where Louise would give a speech.

  Most of the animals were dogs. There were a few cats on leashes and some that I’d recognized from them getting adopted from the co-op between the Pet Palace and The Bean Hive.

  “How’s it going?” I asked Mom before I went to check in with Louise.

  “Great. I thought the whole thing with Otis was going to hurt business, but it hasn’t. Though I did hear some rumblings that Otis had been killed in his shop, so you need to be careful.” She used the towel from over her shoulder to clean a table where a couple had just gotten up.

  Mom headed back to the counter and helped a customer while Sassy, Pepper and me stood there for a second. “I love Patrick. I do and I appreciate the fact that he wants to throw me a financial bone and doesn’t want the mother-in-law in your basement.”

  “Basement?” I loved my mom, but she sometimes just confused me.

  “Yeah. He wants me to list the Odd Ink as his realtor and how on earth am I going to sell a business where the last owner was murdered?” Mom reminded me that she just said the police believed Otis was murdered at his shop and placed under the tree.

  My mind reeled with the thought that I was right. Whoever killed Otis wanted the entire community to see that he was
n’t the kind man that everyone thought. I was even beginning to buy into my theory because it was apparent that Otis had lied to me about being diabetic when he went to the hotel and scarfed down some cookies. Why would he lie to me?

  The line in the Christmas booth wasn’t dying down.

  “Do you need some help?” I asked Mom.

  “Nah.” She brushed me off. “I’ve got it. You better go get the dogs registered.”

  I looked at the time and it was about ten minutes until the Christmas Pawrade. We headed on over to Louise.

  “Anyone for Felix yet?” she asked with concern.

  “No. I thought I had a good candidate but I was way off.” I offered a sympathetic smile but didn’t have the heart to tell her that Felix was hiding in my Christmas tree.

  “I couldn’t be more pleased with all the volunteers that are walking some of the Pet Palace residents today. I’m hoping for a big adoption.” She looked over my shoulder. “See all those kids out there.”

  I turned around. The kid booths were filled. There was a face painting booth, another one with a baby pool filled with ducks as well as some other fun games. There were clusters of parents gathered and laughing, all of them with some treat from my booth or a caramel apple from Jean’s booth.

  “All of those families could potentially find a pet for their child as a gift from Santa.” Louise had so much hope in her voice.

  “Even if only one gets adopted, you’re doing an amazing job. Look at that line of animals lined up to walk in the Pawrade. Most of them came from you pairing them with the right family.”

  Louise had a warm heart and a gentle soul. The more I thought about it, I realized most of Honey Springs citizens had that same personality and it was why I loved living here so much.

  “Let’s hope some of these animals get a home for Christmas.” She let go of a deep breath and used her pen to mark on the piece of paper on the clipboard. “You’re all ready to join the rest.”

  “I’ll keep you posted on Felix. Someone is going to love that little guy.” I tugged on the leashes and the dogs hopped to their feet.