Truffled to Death (A Chocolate Covered Mystery) (3 page)

After making coffee, I went out onto the porch. Maybe I let the screen door close a little too loudly, just in case a certain journalist was awake and wanted to join me. Leftover raindrops twinkled on our grass as the sun rose over the trees. A neighbor was baking, and the scent of cinnamon and sugar made my stomach growl.

After wiping water from the two wooden rocking chairs, I sat down and sure enough heard the creak of stairs and then the clink of the coffee mugs. I schooled my face into nonchalance as the screen door opened. It was Erica.

She must’ve seen my expression change. “Bean’s not here.” She took the wooden chair beside me and stretched out her legs. “He left a note that one of the sources for his new investigation was arrested and he had to go take care of it.”

I tried not to let my disappointment show. “That’s too bad. I know he wanted to visit with you.” And me.

Erica got the hint. “I’m pretty sure he’ll be back soon.” She smiled at me. “Any reason you’re asking?”

“No,” I said, my hurried response showing I was totally lying. In defense, I changed the subject. “Where was Bobby last night? Working?”

Erica and one of our local police, Lieutenant Bobby Simkin, had restarted their high school romance over the summer, but from my point of view it was moving along very slowly.

“Bean’s hoping to make it in time for your dinner,” she said, letting me know I wasn’t fooling her at all. She broke eye contact with me. “And I thought it was better if Bobby didn’t attend.”

“Oh.” They were trying to keep their relationship quiet, but she had to know there were few secrets in a small town.
“I’m so glad the reception is over. Do you want to tell me why you were so stressed about it?”

She frowned, her eyes following a blue bird flitting among our oak trees. “Let’s just say I have some unsavory history with Dr. Moody,” she said in a dark tone I’d never heard her use before.

Erica had a complicated relationship with the world of academia. She was the town’s girl genius who got a full ride to Stanford, then moved on to graduate school and a Fulbright scholarship overseas before returning home to West Riverdale. Some people thought she settled for being a bookstore manager, and was capable of so much more. But she loved to match the right books to her customers, and her outside research enabled her to use her vast brain to explore all kinds of topics. Which made her a know-it-all in the best way.

“Okay,” I said, not sure I wanted to know. “Well, now we’ve done what we set out to do and he’s out of our lives. No need to ever see that jerk again.”

“Probably not. Although,” she said, drawing out the word, “the museum asked us to do another event.”

“Not another reception.” My voice sounded a little whiny. I hadn’t recovered from the last one.

“No.” She paused dramatically. “A flash mob!”

“Really?” I asked. “That sounds so, I don’t know, undignified, for a museum.”

“No, it’ll be great.” Her enthusiasm was outweighing her dislike of the professor. “The museum is trying to appeal to a younger audience. I’ll be working with Wink—”

“Wink?” I asked. “That guy who looked like a toy soldier?”

“Yes, my contact at the museum.” She raised her eyebrows
when I smirked in amusement. “His name is William Kincaid but he’s been called Wink since he was a kid.”

“Do you always feel like winking when you talk to him?” I asked and gave her a slow wink.

“No, because I’m not a child,” she said, and then relented. “Maybe a little at first. Anyway, when I heard the museum was attempting to improve their social media presence, I suggested that we work with the high school to do the flash mob. If we can get it to go viral, it’ll help to advertise not just the Maya exhibit but the whole museum. And it’ll be an excellent experience for the students as well. We’re meeting at the store this afternoon.”

“Because your life was so boring, you needed another challenge?” I asked.

She smiled. “I’m going to get the Super Geeks involved. I’ve already shown them how Maya art on ancient artifacts were very early comic books.” Erica had regular meetings at her store with a group of comic-book-loving teens who called themselves the Super Hero Geek Team.

“Will it help Chocolates and Chapters?”

She made a face at my self-serving attitude but then smiled. “I’ll get the store in there somewhere.”

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

L
ast night’s freebies hadn’t hurt our Sunday business, as lots of people stopped in to gossip about the party and buy chocolate. Chocolates and Chapters looked back to normal, with the tall cocktail tables out and our comfy couches and side tables back in. I kind of missed the glass case full of treasures, especially my bowl, but I loved the hum of people talking and enjoying my truffles and picking through Erica’s books.

The reception had been a ton of work, but this surge of business would keep us humming until Halloween, Thanksgiving and then the holidays.

I opened a new bag of coffee beans and fed them into the coffee grinder, appreciating the rich scent, my second favorite smell in the world.

“Can you watch the front for a minute?” I asked Beatrice Duncan after I hit the brew button. I’d told Kona and Kayla to come in late, but Beatrice had plenty of experience working as a cashier at the Duncan Hardware Store.

“Of course,” she said. “I’ll only steal a few of the Raspberry Specials as payment.” She said their zesty infusion of real raspberries made her feel like she was being particularly decadent.

I went out the back door to see if Coco had eaten the Beef Feast cat food I’d left out for her when I arrived this morning, but she hadn’t touched it. Most mornings, she ate breakfast on my porch. Even though I knew every store owner on Main Street fed her, I couldn’t help but worry when she changed her routine. I called her name a few times.

Nothing.

Back inside, a gaggle of single women were speculating about all the available men at the party, particularly the identity of the two sexy strangers. Someone had heard that one of them was staying in Nara’s bed-and-breakfast.

They shouldn’t get so excited. This was West Riverdale. Even if one of the delectable duo was still in town, he wouldn’t be here long.

“I bet ya they were drug dealers,” one of them said. “They looked just like the bad guys on that
Person of Interest
rerun last week.”

“Nah,” another replied. “They didn’t have those tear tattoos on their faces.”

“That’s for gangs,” the first one retorted as if she were some criminal underground expert. “And he could have tattoos under his clothes.”

Beatrice raised her hand. “I volunteer to find out!”

The bells on the front door joined the group’s laughter as Chief Noonan came in with Lieutenant Bobby. One look at their solemn faces and we all went silent.

“What is it?” I asked. It took a lot not to ask if they were here because of my brother Leo, but after these last few months of stability, I managed to stop myself. I had no reason to doubt his progress in his fight against depression.

Of course, he was now riding a motorcycle. My heart started beating faster.

“Can we talk in the back?” the chief asked. His eyes didn’t even go to his favorite Simply Delish Milks behind the glass. This must be serious.

Erica stood up from stocking Harry Potter bookmarks on a display rack. “What is it?”

“You come too,” the chief said.

Beatrice made a shooing motion with her hands. “I’ll handle them both. You girls go take care of whatever it is.”

Erica and I exchanged
what the heck?
looks as she led the way back to my kitchen.

The chief and Lieutenant Bobby stood in the doorway, a contrast in so many ways. The chief, nearly seventy years old, tugged his belt up over his paunch. He’d earned every one of his gray hairs. And Bobby with his brown hair cut short, leaner than he’d been in high school, was totally at home in his uniform.

I braced myself on the metal utility table.

“The Mayan, I mean, Maya art display was stolen on its way to the museum,” the chief said.

Relief flooded through me and I gave a nervous laugh. “Is that all?” I asked. “I thought someone had died or something.”

Chief Noonan scowled. “It’s no laughing matter. Those antiquities were worth over two hunert and fifty thousand dollars.”

My mouth dropped open but Erica nodded as if she knew. Of course. She knew everything about everything. She might have told me that we had such valuable items right in our store. And we
definitely
should have charged the Rivers more for that party. That pottery was only part of what they were donating to the museum.

“What happened?” Erica asked. “Is the security guard okay?”

“Wasn’t much of a guard,” I muttered.

The chief’s jaw tightened but I was surprised that Bobby still looked so grim. Usually he appreciated my sense of humor.

“Since you two are suspects perhaps you’d like to take this more seriously,” Chief Noonan said.

“What?” I said. “That’s crazy!”

He cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. “Someone has made accusations that we need to clear up.”

“Who?” I demanded at the same time Erica straightened and asked, “What accusations?”

Before the chief could continue, we heard loud voices from the front of the store. “Where is she?” It was the professor.

We all moved quickly for the hallway, where we saw Dr. Moody attempting to get past Beatrice at the counter. She
stood her ground with her solid arms sticking straight out to keep him back.

His face was red with rage as he pointed a shaking finger at Erica. “She did it!”

Lieutenant Bobby moved around Beatrice and pushed the professor back with one hand.

Dr. Moody snarled over Bobby’s shoulder. “She’s trying to ruin my life!”

“T
hat’s enough,” Lieutenant Bobby said with enough menace that the professor stopped in his tracks.

Moody glared at Bobby. “So, now she’s sleeping with
you
?” His contempt was unmistakable.

What? Did the professor just imply that Erica used to sleep with him?

I dodged past the chief’s outstretched arm and almost made it close enough to smack that venomous look off the professor’s face, when Bobby stopped me with an arm wrapped around my waist and lifted me off the ground. He’d seen me play enough softball not to underestimate me like the chief had.

The professor took another step back. “Did you see that? She was about to assault me! She obviously has anger issues. She probably helped that spiteful—”

“Watch it,” Bobby growled and then visibly relaxed. I wasn’t fooled. It was the way a kung fu expert prepared for a lightning-fast attack.

Chief Noonan must have been thinking the same thing because he inserted himself in front of Bobby as Lavender rushed into the store, huffing and puffing from exertion. She wound her way through the tables of fascinated customers to stand beside Dr. Moody.

Bobby stared down the professor over the chief’s head. “Why would she want to ruin your life? What did you do to her?”

Lavender’s face filled with vicious anger. “Nothing! He’s done nothing! She’s just jealous!”

The professor glared at her and she stopped, still seething.

“Dr. Moody and Ms. Rawlings,” the chief said in his no-nonsense tone. “I already have your statements. You will both wait at your hotel until I require further information.”

“And if I refuse?” the professor asked, blustering.

“Well,” the chief said, scratching his head as if actually considering the question. “That would certainly move you up on my suspect list. You knew more about the security plans than anyone else. I could arrest you and hold you for twenty-four hours, and given that this is a Sunday and sometimes the judge is playing golf on Mondays, you’d most likely spend a few days in a cell.”

“Bu—” the professor stopped in midword when Bobby shifted ever so slightly toward him. He turned his head toward Erica, trembling with rage. “You will not get away with this.”

Lavender tugged at his arm to get him to leave, glaring at us the whole time. “You all think she’s so smart but she’s
stupid if she thinks we’ll let her do this.” She slammed the door, causing the bells to jangle angrily.

“Lieutenant,” the chief said. “Make sure they get where they’re supposed to go.”

Bobby nodded grimly and followed them out.

Our customers stared at us with rapt attention. Great. No matter how much they loved us, they had to be enjoying the firsthand view of the drama that would be making its way around the West Riverdale gossip train.

Erica stood still, shell-shocked. She’d attempted to keep her relationship with Lieutenant Bobby quiet, hard enough to do in West Riverdale. Would people believe the professor’s accusations? And what had happened between Erica and Dr. Moody in the past?

“I’ll start with you, Michelle,” the chief said with a resigned air. He was still unhappy that we’d “interfered” with his murder investigation a few months before. I called it “helped.”

“You know where to find me.” Erica’s voice was strained. She went quietly back to the cashier stand.

The chief gestured toward the back and I led him to Erica’s office.

He sat down and the chair groaned. “Did you notice anything unusual at the reception last night?” he asked, bringing out his well-worn notebook.

Other than the chief hadn’t been there for the free food? “Nope,” I said. “Just a nice party for a nice cause.” Then I realized something. “Wait,” I said, outraged. “My bowl is gone?”

His bushy eyebrows went up.

“Not, like,
my
bowl.” I stumbled over the words. “It had chocolate in it from centuries ago so I really liked it.”

He made a note. Probably
Unusual attachment to inanimate object
. “What do you know about the security guard?”

I tried to remember. “I barely paid attention to him. I assumed he was hired by the museum or the Rivers.” I thought about how he’d hovered when I was coveting my bowl. “Is he okay?”

The chief ignored that. “Anybody there that shouldn’t have been?” He kept his eyes on me. “It was a fundraiser. You sold tickets, right?”

“Yes, but Vivian didn’t want us checking for them, so I’m sure there were a lot who crashed. It was as much about publicity as raising money.”

“Any strangers there?”

“Plenty of out-of-towners. You know, the upscale city types.” And they’d loved my chocolates. I made a mental note to see if any of them had followed through on their pledges to place online orders.

Then I remembered the sexy strangers. “Did anyone tell you about those two guys who were kinda dangerous looking?”

He straightened in his chair. “In what way?”

I described them as best as I could without sounding like a fan-girl. “The second one’s name was Santiago Diaz. Kona met the first one, but I never spoke to him.”

He made a note. “I’ll speak to her.”

“The professor seemed to know the first guy,” I said. “He looked angry to see him there.”

The chief’s eyes narrowed. Maybe the professor hadn’t told him that detail. Of course, he’d been too busy heaping blame on Erica. “What do you mean? Did they speak to each other?”

“Not right then,” I said. “I was about to ask the professor to start his speech, when the first guy came in. The professor saw him and looked mad for a minute, but then he had to thank everyone publicly. I was too busy to see if they talked later.”

The chief made a note. “Where were you from ten last night to two in the morning?” he asked.

“Is that when it happened?”

He nodded.

“We cleaned up here until about eleven. And then Erica and I went home.”

He wanted detailed answers about who left with whom at what time. And then he asked, “Who was here when the security guard left?”

“Other than us? Just Adam River. He watched him load up at about ten thirty, and then he thanked us and left. We were trying to get Tonya out the door so I’m not sure of the exact time.”

“So Tonya provided a distraction?”

I rolled my eyes. Tonya as an art thief? “Are you kidding?”

The chief pointed to the security camera outside Erica’s office in the back hall. “Do you have your security camera footage from last night?”

“Of course,” I said. “I’ll have Zane get it to you.” Zane West was Erica’s assistant for her rare and used book business, her website designer, and all-around tech guy.

“So, you know we didn’t do it,” I said, “no matter what Professor Bozo said. Can you tell us what happened?”

The chief squinted like he was deciding how much to reveal. “The security guard was drugged but doesn’t remember
how it could have happened. It appears that he was driven in his SUV to a side road near the highway where the items were unloaded into another vehicle.”

I nodded, encouraging him to hand over more information.

“At five this morning, he woke up in his car, in the passenger seat.” Noonan kept his eyes on me. That man would be suspicious of his grandma. “He was very confused and wandered around the area for a while, before he called 911.”

“Wasn’t someone from the museum looking for him?”

He shook his head. “There seemed to be a lack of communication with the museum.”

“So he doesn’t remember having someone else in his car?” I asked. “That’s so weird.”

“The last thing he remembers is getting a to-go bag from the caterer, Juan Aviles,” the chief said.

“I knew it!” I sat up straight in my chair. “Anyone who could leave a kitchen as disgusting as he did has to be a bad guy.”

He looked amused at my reasoning, or maybe at my certainty. “The bag was still in the vehicle, unopened.”

“Shoot,” I said. “Maybe Aviles gave him something to drink? He had these tropical juices that tasted like Hawaiian Punch.”

His face tightened and I realized I might be asking questions he’d also asked, which could either sound like I was pretty smart, or that I was checking up on his work. “There was no evidence of that in the vehicle.” He held up his hand as I sputtered in protest. “I know. It could’ve been removed. We’re exploring every option.”

“You know Erica didn’t do this, right?” I asked. “How
would someone like her even know how to sell stuff like that?”

The chief frowned. “Money is not always the motive.”

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

I
walked the chief over to Erica. My side of the store was buzzing with news of the robbery. They couldn’t resist sending speculative glances my way. The excitement of believing even for a second that Erica and I were art thieves was too much for them to pretend to be polite.

The only good news was that I had a few new customers ordering from my website. I was trying to figure out how to tell if they were from the reception when the chief left. No way could I ask Lavender to hand over the guest list to compare.

Erica sat by the cash register. Even from across the room, I could tell she was in her thinking zone, her mind miles away.

I waited impatiently for Kona to arrive so I could find out what Erica had learned, but Kayla walked in. She’d dropped her job as a yoga instructor and worked more hours for both Erica and me. She still made time for her other job—driving luxury sports cars from sellers to buyers all over the East Coast.

“Where’s Kona?” I asked. “Are you covering for her?”

“Nope. Just came by for this.” She went behind the counter and pulled out her cell phone. “You okay?”

I tried to appear calm and smiled. “However did you survive for twelve whole hours?”

“It was brutal,” she said. “Want me to see where Kona is?”

“Uh, sure. But how?”

“We have this app.” She tapped on her phone. “She’s like a block away.”

“Really?” I asked, appalled. “You keep track of each other?”

“Not, like, all the time,” she said. “Just when we need to find each other. It’s a safety thing.”

“I guess,” I said. “What’s the app called?”

“Find My Friends,” she said.

Then Kona walked in with a box of her specialty tortes. I’d recently promoted her to assistant manager and it was the best decision I ever made. During the summer, when I’d been deluged with orders for X-rated chocolates that I did not want to deal with, she’d taken over. She started a side business, Kona’s Kreations, to make them. And she’d worked with Zane, technical advisor to practically all Main Street businesses, to build a website with everything anyone could want for a bachelorette party—boas of practically any color,
I’m the Bride
crowns, a seemingly endless variety of risqué party gifts, and much more. Luckily, she’d drawn the line at male strippers.

I followed Kona to the kitchen and filled her in while she unloaded the pastries into the refrigerator, out of earshot of our customers. “Do you remember the name of that guy with the accent you were talking to last night? He’s one of the suspects.”

“His name was Carlo Morales,” she said. “But he couldn’t have anything to do with taking those things.”

“How do you know?”

She shrugged. “He was with me.”

I tried not to look shocked. “Until when?”

She smirked and pretended to check a nonexistent watch. “Until an hour ago.”

I thought of and discarded several disapproving statements. My assistant’s love life was none of my business. “Are you sure that was a good idea?” I couldn’t help myself.

“Yes,
Mom
,” she said. “My roommate was home and I used protection.”

I winced at the TMI. “Great. He coulda killed you both.” And in five minutes, we were already down one potential bad guy.

Kona rolled her eyes at me, making me feel old.

“Go ahead and scoff,” I told her. “Don’t come crying to me when your next hookup cuts your head off.” Which made no sense.

“How do you like those pants?” she asked, attempting to distract me. She was wearing the same kind, in khaki.

“I love them,” I said. Kona had bought me a pair of clever cargo pants with tons of pockets and I’d ordered five more. Besides being comfortable and made out of some kind of magic material that even chocolate couldn’t stain, they each had a cell phone pocket in the back waistband. We often wore long aprons, and it was so convenient to grab my phone out of the small of my back rather than trying to move the apron aside. The only thing I didn’t like was when I had it set to vibrate and it rattled my whole spine.

With Kona in charge, I headed over to talk to Erica, who was still staring at nothing.

“He had to have been given an amnesiac,” Erica said. She wasn’t even offering to help the group of PTA moms debating the newest vampire novels in the Young Adult section.

I pulled a stool over to sit at her counter. “Who?”

“The security guard. From what the chief said, he doesn’t
remember the time leading up to the robbery. Which means he was given a drug that caused retrograde amnesia.”

“Retrograde?”

“It affects memory from the time right before the drug is administered.”