Blueberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 2) (4 page)

Later that evening, Dana hummed as she mixed the eggs and sugar and butter together in the cake mixer to start her new batch of creamy cupcakes.

Katie was still at the café and would be home much later. She really appreciated all the help her cousin gave her in carrying on Grandma Rae’s business. But she told Katie to take it easy, too. Long days could take its toll. Katie had told her that she really didn’t want to leave everyone on their own, since Ma Rae was no longer there.

Ma Rae used to pull in crazy hours too, from open till close.

Dana wondered how on earth her grandmother could have the strength to do all that.

My goodness
, she thought to herself. Did working overlong hours shorten her lifespan? But then again, she loved what she did and often said it wasn’t really work because she was hanging out with friends all day.

Hmm
. Katie was very sociable with all the customers, too. Well, Dana was grateful for that. Perhaps, she really needed to unwind more herself. After all, the café was called Cozy for a reason, right?

Dana inhaled the scent of the vanilla extract as it whipped through with the creamy batter. She loved baking to help her to relax. Even in the evening. Just then the lights flickered again and Truffles let out a meow.

“I know, sweetie. That darn old electrical panel. Hopefully, Echo will be here soon to fix it. “

Just then, the power shut off.

“Oh, no.”

“Meow!”

“I hear you, Truffles. I hear you. Talk about bad timing. Now the batter has to be thrown out. No power. No baking.”

She quickly walked over to the cabinet and reached out for the flashlight. Back in New York, especially after the great blackout of 2003, Dana always kept flashlights around her apartment just in case a blackout happened again and she was at one end of the apartment.

One didn’t want to really go searching in the dark for too long, for light. She also had emergency lights that would kick in once the power was out, but she’d forgotten to bring them to Berry Cove. Great. That was one more thing she would have to add to her list.

She tried to flick on the flashlight but nothing happened.

“What? But I just placed new batteries in.”

She could feel the silky fur of her little Truffles curling around her leg, softly purring. “It’s all right, Truffles. I’m sure there must be another flashlight somewhere close by.”

Dana walked carefully, feeling in front of her with her arms stretched out, walking slowly, careful not to bump into anything when…

“Ouch!” her foot struck a heavy wooden object she didn’t realize was there.

Dana reached down to rub her throbbing foot. The ache was unbearable.

She then stumbled over to the side table to try to find another flashlight. Nothing.

Just then, she heard the door creak.

Her heart stopped.

“Who’s there?” she cried out, eyes wide open. Not that it made much difference in the dark.

She then got an idea and moved over to the window and pulled the drapes open to get some street light inside the dark home. She thought she saw a shadow move and someone ran out of the house as quickly as they came in.

Just then the doorbell rang and startled Dana.

She made her way over to the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s Echo.”

“Oh, Echo,” Dana said, opening the door. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“What’s wrong, Miss Dana. Why are you panting like that?”

Dana hadn’t realized she was panting. Her heartbeat raced in her chest like a galloping horse on a racetrack.

“I…I don’t know. It’s nothing.”

“How come it’s dark in here?”

“The power’s out.”

Echo took out his large flashlight from his toolbox and shone the light inside. “No problem. Let me go to the electrical panel.”

He walked to the back and down to the basement. Dana followed him. Truffles was close behind her.

While Echo placed his box down and started working on the fuses, Dana asked him, “Echo, did you see anyone leave from here?”

“No. Why?”

“Oh, nothing. I just…it’s nothing.” Dana didn’t want to sound as paranoid as she had before. “I thought someone had broken into my house.”

“You did? Did you call the police?”

“No. Not yet I…” She thought of what happened the last time when it was a false alarm and the former detective Markson had suspected she was a trouble maker. Of course, that was not true and Troy was at her defence.

Dana’s eyes then swept across a cardigan hanging near the door. It was Grandma Rae’s and Katie had it washed and hung to dry yesterday. She was going to give it to the nursing home that was running a drive for the needy and needed old clothes.

She sighed. That was what she’d seen. A shadow of the cardigan with the arms dangling by the side.

Maybe it was all just her imagination.

Two hours later, Echo had finished up what he was doing and the power was back on. Dana had already tossed out the old batter and was preparing to make a fresh batch.

“Can I get you some coffee and some pastries, Echo?”

“Oh, no ma’am. I’m good, thanks.”

“I really appreciate what you’ve done, Echo.”

“No trouble, Miss Dana. Anything for you and your family. Ma Rae was a good woman. Always looked out for me, she did.”

“Good to hear. Yes, she was kindhearted, wasn’t she?” Dana missed her more with each passing moment.

“Say, you heard anything about that case there with Karla’s death?” Echo asked.

For some reason, Truffles started to hiss. Dana looked at Truffles and scooped her up in her arms. “Hey, what’s wrong, sweetie?”

“Aww, she’s probably tired.”

“Probably. It’s her bedtime. I’m going to get her something to snack on and then get her ready for her nap.” Dana took the kitty to the kitchen and grabbed some cat snacks and placed it in a bowl along with some milk and got Truffles all comfy by her basket by the fireplace.

She then went back to the kitchen to get two mugs of coffee for Echo and herself. “You were asking about the case?”

“Yeah,” Echo said, twisting his hat in his hands. He was often quite confident, but not this time.

“Why? What’s wrong, Echo?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just a shame about that nice lady, you know. She was really nice, that Miss Karla.”

“Yes, she was. It’s shocking what happened to her really. But I believe my uncle is innocent. I think someone’s trying to…”

“Trying to what?”

“Oh, nothing…” Dana didn’t want to say too much.

After she finished pouring a cup of hot steaming freshly brewed coffee for Echo and herself, she held it up for a toast. “Here’s to new power, in the home,” Dana toasted.

“Yes to power. We all want power, don’t we?”

Later that evening, Katie and Dana sat by the fireplace while Truffles slept in her cozy basket lined with cushions.

“So Echo asked about the case?” Katie said to Dana.

“Oh, he sure did. I’m actually going to add that to the…” Dana looked around for her laptop.

“What is it?”

“That’s strange?”

“What’s strange?”

“My MacBook. It’s gone.”

“Gone? Are you sure?”

“Well, I left it right…” she stopped. Her heart fluttered in her chest. Did Echo take her laptop? But why on earth would he do that?

Crap! She needed her laptop to do a mystery riddle for her blog tonight. And talk about a riddle? She couldn’t even solve the mystery of her missing MacBook.

Well, isn’t that great? She would have to scribble her thoughts down on a notepad and then enter it into a computer later.

Okay, she was not going to get herself paranoid right now. It must be somewhere around the house. It had to be.

“Are you sure it’s here? Maybe you left it at the café.”

“You’re right. I’ll go back tomorrow and get it.” Dana stifled a yawn and stretched her arms.

“You know, you should get some sleep. You’re tired, cuz.” Katie yawned, too, as if yawning was contagious and she’d just gotten it from Dana.

“Right back at ya, cuz.” Dana grinned. “You’ve been pulling in some serious hours at the café. You know, you could leave the staff to get on with things after your shift ends.”

“Oh, come on. You know I don’t mind sticking around to help out a bit. Besides, what else am I going to do?”

“Oh, I get it. You’ve got a little crush.”

“I do not.”

“Yes, you do. That cute delivery guy from Haston Supplies. He’s pretty hot,” Dana teased her cousin.

She could see Katie flush.

“Well, okay. Since you mentioned it, yes he is kind of cute. But there’s nothing going on between us.”

“Are you sure, cuz?” Dana teased. Deep down, Dana was thrilled for Katie, who had been through so much crazy hard times in her love life with getting married and divorced so early. Something she rarely spoke about.

Lord only knew they both could use a bit of love in their lives.

“Yes, I’m sure.” Katie rolled her eyes. There was a hint of color in her cheeks. “Anyway, let’s keep on the case, shall we?”

“Fine. We’ll keep on the case…for now.” Dana winked.

The next day on Sunday afternoon, Dana took a jog on one of Berry Cove’s breathtaking walking trails by the stunning blue lake. She was happy that her MacBook showed up the next morning in the kitchen. But why had she missed it before?

Dana shrugged it off. She was not going to let her mind play tricks on her. She remembered studying a case once about how when a person was stressed out, sometimes they could miss things right under their noses. After a relaxing night of sleep, her mind was able to process things better.

Note to self: get plenty of rest all the time.

That had been one of Grandma Rae’s favorite sayings. Dana smiled at the memory and the beautiful morning ahead.

The water sparkled under the sun. The sun shone brightly on this afternoon and the leaves looked golden brown as the fell on the grass. She had one of her head phones plugged in her ear listening to her favorite classical music piece to relax her.

That sexy and gorgeous detective Troy Anders had told her once to never have both ears plugged while walking or jogging alone in case she was ever approached from behind. Good thinking.

Her heart fluttered just thinking about tall, dark and deadly handsome cop Troy.

The guy practically saved her butt, and her life last month. How could she ever repay him? Not to mention she thought she’d seen a spark there in his gorgeous ocean blue eyes of his.

Okay, she just couldn’t resist an opportunity or excuse to meet up with him again. He’d been so busy over at the police district and she’d seen him a few times. He was also quite busy taking care of his mother who was visiting in town. How sweet of him.

She sighed heavily thinking about him. A smile touched the corner of her lips.  She wondered if he was in fact working on the Karla Sweet murder case. Wouldn’t that be something? She could actually work with him to solve this riddle—er, rather, this case.

And speaking of riddles, what a riddle this was turning out to be. Inga had step-daughters? She didn’t even know that Inga was even married. Talk about finding out new things. Inga rarely spoke about her own personal life. In fact, Inga rarely spoke at all. And Uncle Max’s secretary was Inga’s step-daughter? Well, it seemed as if there was certainly no loss of love there. 

Could Inga be right?

Could her step-daughter have had anything to do with it?

Or was Inga having a case of sour grapes and eager to get some sort of revenge on her step-daughter for ruining her marriage?

Bump.

Dana crashed head on into a burly hard chest.

“Are you all right, Dana?” Detective Troy Anders deep, silky voice slid into her ears.

“Oh, no. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

Which was true, Dana was busy thinking of the scenario with Inga’s step-daughter, who didn’t waste any time in spilling the beans to Dana about Uncle Max’s wife. She was looking at the ground while thinking and did not see, Troy, jogging toward her.

Well, duh!

“No worries. Just as long as you’re okay.” He regarded her with a warm smile.

Dana’s heart fluttered inside her chest. Heat climbed to her cheek and it wasn’t anything to do with the warm sun this afternoon.

The water from the lake rolled and crashed against the shoreline and the wind from the water whisked her brown tendrils into her face.

Troy looked positively stunning with his broad shoulders and sexy biceps which were nice and prominent in his light grey T-shirt. He wore blue jogging pants and Nike sneakers. And had a baseball cap on. God, he looked breathtaking. His ocean blue eyes and chiseled cheekbones with his dark skin and short dark hair caused waves of excitement to slide through her.

Oh, great. Now, she really lost her concentration.

Think, Dana. Think. What were you just thinking about? Oh, right. My uncle’s murder case.

“Um, Troy. I’m glad we…er…bumped into each other.”

“You are?” He arched his brow, his blue eyes penetrating her.

“Yes,” she said, trying to still the pounding of her heart. She kept trying to tell herself that she was taking a break from men after what her ex-fiancé did to her by running off with her ex-best friend from college. But, oh well. He’s in New York and she was in Berry Cove and that was her past. This was her future. Or, was it?

“Well, what I mean is,” she continued. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about the arrest of Max Sweet.”

“Oh, right,” he sighed heavily. He panted slightly as he settled down from jogging. She could see mild bead sweats on his face and on his moist skin. He looked stunning but she had to keep her attention focused on her case. Well, it wasn’t officially her case because she was an online mystery riddles blogger not a real life mystery solver, or was she?

“I’m sorry about your uncle Max.” His voice was firm and sincere.

“Thank you, Troy. But you’ve got to believe me. I don’t think he did it.”

Troy arched his brow. “We’ll have to leave that up to the courts to decide, Dana. You know how the law works.”

“I do. But he has a bail hearing coming up. I’m going to ask him a few questions. I think someone is trying to frame him, Troy.”

“Now, Dana. Remember what we spoke about last month.”

“I know. I know.”

“I don’t want you meddling in police business. It’s not a game, Dana. It’s not a riddle on your blog.”

She frowned and placed her hands on her hips. “Do you really think that’s all I’m about? Solving mystery puzzles?”

“Yes, I do,” he said, arching his brow, a grin touched the corner of his luscious lips.

“Okay, okay. So I like to solve puzzles. But this is not a game. I agree with you. It’s my uncle’s life and well, I really know he’s innocent.”

“You do? How do you know that, Dana?”

“Because I…” What was she going to say? That she possessed some sort of newfound psychic ability? “Well, I just have this feeling.”

“This feeling, huh?” He looked dubious.

“Yes, this feeling,” she defended herself. “Besides, I know what it’s like to have fingers pointing to you about a murder that happened.”

“Oh, right. I know it must have been pretty rough on you with what happened to Brad Jackson. But, Dana, this is not the same thing. Obviously, evidence was gathered at the scene.”

“Evidence? What evidence.”

He regarded her with his deep blue eyes and her pulse exploded.

“You know what I mean, Dana? Let the justice system do their job. And you do yours.” His words were soft and his lips curled into a warm smile but Dana could not help but feeling stuck.

She frowned again and bit down on her lower lip. She noticed his eyes dart toward her lips and she immediately stopped. What was he thinking?

“Listen,” he sighed deeply. “I’ll look into every aspect of the situation, as always. I’ll let you know if we come up with anything, okay? We wouldn’t want the wrong person charged. But in the mean while we go by proper procedures, got it?”

“Got it.”