A Deadly Delicious Delivery (A Chocolate Centered Cozy Mystery Book 2) (5 page)

“No,” she managed to say.

“Why don’t I make us a coffee and you can think about it?”

Ally nodded as Luke closed the folder and moved it to the corner of his desk. He walked to the back room to make coffee.

Ally wanted to look at the photos again. Maybe if she had more time to look at them or if she could show them to her grandmother she would be able to work out if something was out of place. Ally knew that Luke wouldn’t give her a copy of the photographs. She could hear the coffee machine going. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and slowly slid the folder towards her. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the photo that showed the box of chocolates. The moment she did she felt guilty because she knew that she had just broken his trust. But with the name of the chocolate shop on the side of the box, she wondered how long he would believe in her innocence. If the chocolates were from the shop, if they were poisoned with antifreeze, then all of the evidence pointed at her and her grandmother. She could only hope that the police would need more evidence than that to initiate an arrest. She heard footsteps coming back towards her.

She snapped the folder shut and moved it back to the corner of his desk where he had left it.  A moment later he held out a cup of coffee to her.

“Think of anything important?”

“No.” Ally took the coffee. He sat down across from her.

“I was hoping you might. I’m at a dead end so far.”

Ally shook her head. “All I can tell you is that those chocolates were not poisoned when I made them, or when I picked them up from the shop.”

“Wait a minute.” Luke leaned forward and looked into her eyes. “Are you saying you left the chocolates at the shop overnight?”

“Well, yes. We picked them up in the morning to take with us to the open house.”

“So anyone could have accessed them?”

“Not anyone. Only Mee-Maw and I have a key.”

“But someone could have broken in?”

Ally started to shake her head, but then she recalled opening up the shop that morning. “There were smudges on the window I had cleaned the previous day and I had a difficult time unlocking the door that morning, but I thought it was just because I was tired.”

“I think that you need to consider that someone might have broken in and poisoned the chocolates.”

Ally grimaced. “But the boxes were sealed. They were still sealed when I picked them up.”

“Are you sure about that? Did you check them?”

Ally closed her eyes. “The morning was so hectic, we were running late. I don’t know for sure if I checked them.”

“Okay. That’s a place to start.” Luke reached across the desk and gave her hand a light stroke. “Don’t worry, all right? I’m on this. Everything will work out in the end.”

Ally’s hand tingled where he touched it. Her heart flipped with the determination of his reassurance. She desperately wanted to believe him and his clear gaze, the soft curve of his lips, and the gentle pressure of his touch, all worked together to convince her that he might just be right.

By the time Ally arrived back at the cottage, all the reassurance she had felt from Luke had disappeared. She was in full panic mode as she tried to figure out what could have happened.

“Ally? What did you find out?” Charlotte left the stove and what she was stirring. “Is Luke planning on making an arrest?”

“Not yet.” Ally frowned. “I took a picture of one of the crime scene photos, it shows the box of chocolates. It didn’t come out great, but here take a look.” Ally handed her the phone. While her grandmother looked at the picture Ally paced throughout the kitchen. “It’s not looking good, Mee-Maw. Luke thinks it’s possible that someone broke in the night before the open house and poisoned the chocolates.”

“Luke is wrong.”

“That’s what I thought at first. But then I remembered that the window I had cleaned the day before was smudged and the lock was difficult to open.”

“No, he’s wrong about the entire thing.”

“What do you mean?” Ally turned to face her grandmother.

“I mean that the chocolates in this photograph are not from our shop.” She held up the picture with the three remaining chocolates in the box.

“But it says right on the side of the box…”

“I don’t care what it says on the side of the box. I know my chocolates, and these are not them.”

“How do you know?” Ally peered at the picture.

“Whoever made these walnut, expresso creams used a whole walnut and it’s not caramelized, I only use half a caramelized walnut on these chocolates.”

“Are you sure it’s whole?” Ally raised an eyebrow. “The picture isn’t that great.”

“I’m sure. I know the difference,” Charlotte said emphatically. “You have only made the expresso, walnut chocolates with me so there is no way you could have made that mistake. Could you?”

“No,” Ally said.

“Those chocolates did not come from our shop! Something is definitely not adding up here.”

“What we need to do is find out where those chocolates came from. Maybe if we get into her room we could find some evidence of what happened with the chocolates.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Charlotte quirked an eyebrow. “If we get caught…”

“If I get caught. I will be the one going in, Mee-Maw.”

“I don’t know.” Charlotte frowned. “It seems risky to me.”

“It’s the only way we can get some idea of who did this to Myrtle. If we can figure out where those other chocolates came from, then we might be able to track down the person that poisoned them. It seems pretty obvious that whoever did it was attempting to frame our shop. They made sure the chocolates looked similar to ours and they packaged them in some of our packaging. So, they are clever, and intent on pinning the blame on us. If we just sit on our hands this is only going to get worse.”

“No, of course not, I don’t want us to do that. I just think we need to consider the consequences.”

“I just won’t get caught.” Ally smiled a little.

“Ah, there’s the boldness I remember.” Charlotte laughed. “All right, I guess we don’t have much choice. But if you’re going to do this, I’m going to go with you, to be your getaway driver.”

“Hmm, and you wonder where I got that boldness from?”

“Oh, it wasn’t my fault! You got that from your mother!”

“And who did she get it from?”

Charlotte sighed. “I suppose I might have my moments.”

Ally grinned. “All right, we’ll wait until about midnight, then everyone should be asleep. No one will notice if I slip in for a quick peek.”

“And what if someone does? What if Luke shows up?”

Ally raised an eyebrow. “Well, he did tell me that he wouldn’t arrest me.”

“I guess that’s reassuring, but I don’t think he expects you to break into Myrtle’s room.”

“We can’t think about what might go wrong we just have to be as prepared as we can and go for it. In the meantime we need to get a list of suspects going. I remember that altercation between Ruth and Myrtle. The ladies at the table where I sat were quite eager to talk about their ongoing feud. They said that Ruth was even taking bets about when Myrtle would die.”

“Atrocious. But that doesn’t mean it’s true or that she did it.”

“No, it doesn’t, but it does give us a place to start,” Ally said. “Was she married?”

“Divorced.”

“What about kids, did Myrtle have any?”

“Two I think. A boy and a girl. But they moved away a long time ago.”

“I’ll have to check into that, too.” Ally nodded.

“Let’s just hope that we can figure out something fast enough to be able to get the shop back open before people forget we’re even there.”

“Oh, I don’t think they will forget, but it would be nice if they forgot about this little mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Ally said.

“Who knew that making delicious chocolates could lead to homicide?”

“I don’t know, Mee-Maw, but until we figure all of this out you should be cautious of everyone at Freely Lakes. Anyone there could have been involved in this. As far as I am concerned everyone at Freely Lakes is a suspect.”

“And as far as the police force and the community are concerned, so are we.” Charlotte met her eyes. “We can’t give them any more reason to suspect us.”

“I’ll be careful.”

***

Peaches waited for Ally outside the bathroom door. Ally could hear her plaintive meowing. But for once she did not respond to it. She soaked in a warm bath and closed her eyes. Her nerves were on edge with the thought of breaking into Myrtle’s room that night. She didn’t exactly have the expertise to pull it off well. She would probably stuff it up and not even be able to get in. When she thought about it, her next thought was always Luke putting her in handcuffs. What was it about him that made her think he would stand by his word? After all she didn’t know much about him, and in turn he didn’t know that much about her. So what drove that connection that she felt for him every time she thought of him? It was hard to stay focused on the task at hand if her mind wandered incessantly to his hazel eyes and the subtle curve of his smile.

“Okay, out of the tub with you.” Ally flicked the switch to drain the water and stepped out of the tub. She wrapped herself in a towel and walked out of the bathroom to look in her closet. Peaches swished her way around her ankles.

How did one dress for breaking and entering? She settled on a pair of black jeans and a black turtleneck. She wasn’t sure why, but it seemed appropriate for the activity. She sat down on the edge of her bed to pull on her sneakers. The moment she did, Peaches jumped up into her lap. Ally smiled and pet her.

“Don’t worry, darling, I’ll be very careful.” When she stood up Peaches jumped down. But she left behind a large amount of orange fur.

“Great. I look like a tiger.” Ally laughed at how ridiculous the moment was. She brushed off the orange fur as best she could and then pulled her long, brown hair into a tight ponytail. Her stomach flipped. What if she got caught?

There was a soft knock on her door. “Ally?”

“Yes, Mee-Maw, it’s open.”

Charlotte opened the door and took in the sight of her granddaughter. “Well, don’t you look beautiful.”

“Beautiful?” Ally laughed.

“Black suits you.”

“Okay,” Ally said. “But the goal is for no one to see me.”

“Ally, I want you to know that you don’t have to do this. You are taking a big risk. What happens if you get caught? I don’t think I should let you do this.”

“Mee-Maw, I’m all grown up. I don’t have to have your permission.”

“Ha! That will never be true.” Charlotte’s eyes glimmered. “You will always be my little Ally.”

“Oh, Mee-Maw.”

“I mean it, Ally, if you’re caught this could cause you trouble for the rest of your life.”

“It will be fine, I promise.” Ally hugged her. “Everyone will be sleeping. It will be just fine.”

“If you say so.” She cleared her throat. “I filled the gas tank and your car is ready to go. I also took Arnold out for his walk.”

“Oh good.” Ally smoothed her hair. “Then we should get going.”

Charlotte nodded without a word. The two continued in silence as Charlotte drove Ally’s car to Freely Lakes. Ally could see that most of the apartments in the building were dark. She was able to decipher which one was Myrtle’s with her grandmother’s directions. It was on the second floor, which would require Ally to do some climbing as she couldn’t go through the front door to get in. Luckily, there was a fire escape that led right up to the window.

“Looks like I’ll be in and out in no time.” Ally smiled at her grandmother as she put on gloves.

“I hope so. I’ll be waiting.” Charlotte gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Be careful.”

Ally stepped out of the car. She brushed a bit more of Peaches’ orange fur off her pants. Then she moved towards the building. There was not a hint of movement anywhere on the property. It was clear that the residents of Freely Lakes were not night owls. When she reached the building she counted the windows to make sure that she hadn’t lost track of the right room. She still had no idea what she was looking for exactly, but she hoped that she would be able to find something fast.

As quietly as Ally could she climbed the fire escape towards the window. Ally held her breath each time her shoe struck the metal rung of the steps. Once she was at the top she tried the window. A good part of her had expected that the window would be locked, she would never actually get into the room to conduct her search, and all would be right with the world. But that wasn’t the case. The window slid open easily. Ally’s heart began to race. She knew that the moment she swung her leg over that windowsill she would be committing a crime. She eased the screen out of the frame and set it down on the landing beside her. Then she peered into the dark room. There was no sign of anyone inside.

The door of the bedroom was closed. Ally took a deep breath and swung one leg over the windowsill, then the other. It occurred to her that Freely Lakes was not a very safe place at all, certainly not safe enough for her grandmother, if she could break in so easily. She pushed the thought out of her mind and made her way through the room in search of anything that would reveal where the chocolates had come from. She used a flashlight application on her phone to cast light throughout the room.

The first place she checked was the bedside table. As she had hoped the items she saw in the picture were still there, aside from the box of chocolates. She saw that the business card was for a lawyer. She snapped a picture of it. The greeting card was colorful, with a ‘Just Because’ message on the front. She opened it up and saw that it was addressed to Myrtle, but it just said ‘Enjoy!’ It wasn’t signed by anyone. Ally set the greeting card back down and began to survey the room again.

In the trash can beside the bed she noticed that there was a red and white ribbon. She recognized it as a ribbon that they used on the boxes of chocolates they delivered, unless a different color was requested. So, the ribbon had come from the box of chocolates? Her mind spun as she recalled that she had tied the boxes of chocolates for the open house with green and gold ribbons. She suddenly recalled that the box of chocolates in the photo Luke had showed her had red not gold writing. The chocolates on the bedside table weren’t the chocolates from the open house! So where were they?

Ally’s mind focused in on finding the other box of chocolates. She looked under the bed, in the closet, and even in the dresser drawers. She wasn’t paying much attention to the fact that she had been in the room for quite some time. Then she noticed the air vent. When she pointed her light in that direction, she saw a glimmer of gold. Ally crouched down and popped open the air vent. She reached in and to her surprise there was the unopened box of chocolates. It had gold writing on it with green and gold ribbon just like the box of chocolates that Myrtle had taken on the day of the open house. Ally reached in and pulled it out. Just as she did, a bright light blinded her.

“Don’t you move a muscle!”