Death by Chocolate Sundae: A Cozy Mystery (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book 2) (2 page)

“Sure,” I said. I brought him a small Dixie cup of water.

“That’s it?” He asked. “I need more than that to take my pills.”

“Oh I’m sorry,” I apologized. “Let me get you another one.”

“Here,” Stormi said as she brought over two more cups and plopped them on the table.

We both turned and walked behind the counter where Paige was standing. “Isn’t he just lovely?”

“Oh well, he’ll eat his sundae and then be out of here and we can all go home,” I said taking money out of the register.

Paige lifted one foot. “I’ve got to get better shoes for working in here.”

“Girl, you need to wear tennis shoes when you‘re working,” Stormi admonished. “Those flats don’t have any arch support whatsoever.”

“I know, but they look cute,” Paige offered.

Stormi pointed at her pink tennis shoes. “I have it all, cute and comfort.”

Right then I glanced over at Mr. Jenkins to see how far along he was with his double chocolate sundae. To my horror, he’d done a face plant straight into the extra whipped cream! I tugged on Stormi’s arm who was still raving to Paige about the benefits of arch support.

“You’ve got to have arch support or you end up with flat feet…ummm…what is it Tara? Stop poking me.”

All I could do was point. The girls followed my finger straight to Mr. Jenkins.

“What the kajirger!” Stormi exclaimed.

“Umm, Mr. Jenkins…are you okay?” I asked from across the Shoppe

“Nope, he’s not,” Paige remarked as she grabbed the phone. “I’ll call 911.”

Stormi and I raced over to Mr. Jenkins. We both stopped, peering down at him unsure what to do next.

“Here, push him back,” I said as I nudged on his left shoulder. Stormi pushed on his right shoulder and Mr. Jenkins’ face came free of the sundae. His face was covered in whip cream and chocolate ice cream and his head continued to droop. Paige ran over with a wet cloth and wiped his face free of the melted gooiness.

“The ambulance is on their way,” Paige announced. “Stormi, you know CPR right?”

Stormi grimaced. “Yeah, I do….but I think we ought to wait for the ambulance.”

“Stormi!” Paige exclaimed. “You have to do something.”

“Ohhh, turd apples!! Get him on the floor!” Stormi barked. “I’ll beat on his chest but no way are my lips touching his withered rims!”

Paige and I laid him gently on the floor.

“You have to do mouth to mouth!” Paige exclaimed.

Stormi started compressions on his chest. “Here, you blow into his pie hole then!”

“Did we even check to see if he had a pulse?” I asked. “We may be putting the cart ahead of the horse.”

Stormi started to giggle uncontrollably as she continued compressions. When she got nervous, she giggled.

“Stop laughing Stormi,” Paige admonished.

“I can’t help it,” Stormi chortled. “Who’d have thought I’d ever be straddling Mr. Jenkins!”

With that, Paige let out a guffaw!

“Oh my Lord, what is wrong with us?” I blurted trying to stifle a hiccup snigger myself.

“Stormi stop it!” Paige chortled, trying in vain to contain it but it was no use.

“I’m (snort) trying! (snort).”

Her snorting made us laugh even harder. It’s not that we were laughing at Mr. Jenkins or the predicament…we were simply nervous, and instead of reacting in a composed adult fashion, we retreated into nervous giggling buffoons. 

Fortunately we heard the sirens, which allowed us to regain our composure. Two police officers entered the Shoppe first, followed by the medics after the ambulance arrived. We were glad to let them take over as we walked behind the ice cream case. A few minutes later Sam came through the door as they wheeled Mr. Jenkins into the ambulance.

“What’s going on? I saw the police cars and ambulance…it scared me!” She said running to her mother’s side.

Paige put an arm around her daughter‘s shoulders. “Mr. Jenkins had a heart attack or something. We’re not sure what happened, but he lost consciousness.”

The two police officers came over to ask questions regarding what happened. One police officer was about Stormi’s age, with short-cropped brown hair and brown eyes. Stormi immediately batted her long eyelashes at him. We explained what happened, minus the uncontrollable fits of laughter. We couldn’t add much as we didn’t actually see the moment he fell unconscious.

“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.

“They’re taking him to Mercy Hospital, but he wasn’t breathing when the ambulance left,” the older police officer said.

“We did what we could officer,” Stormi cooed. “I gave him CPR.”

Paige gave her a look. Well, she did give him chest compressions between snorts of laughter. Funny what stress can do to a person. We didn’t mean to laugh, but the pressure of the situation caused us all to go into fits of inappropriate laughter. I just hoped no one saw it.

“That’s good, ummm Stormi is it?” The young officer asked.

“Yes, Stormi Rogers…ummm officer….?

“Officer Jeff Manning, maam,” he answered.

“Do you have a card officer Manning. I might remember something that could be useful for your report.”

Paige rolled her eyes as Sam and I looked on. We all knew how Storm liked to flirt.

“Of course,” he said pulling a card from his pocket. Stormi took it with delight.

“Well that’s all we need from you ladies tonight so we‘ll be going,” said the older officer.

Stormi watched as they walked out the door. “Isn’t the young one cute? Manning? He must be new around here.”

“Have you already forgotten what just transpired here tonight?” Paige scolded.

“Lawdy, how could I forget,” Stormi answered. “I’ll probably have nightmares for years. I’ll never look at a double chocolate sundae the same again.”

“Well, let’s get out of here,” I said. “Tomorrow is another day.”

And sure enough, it would be a day to remember.

*****

The next day before heading off to work, I received a phone call from the police department. I had a sleepless night of tossing and turning, reliving the previous night’s events and hoping Mr. Jenkins pulled through. It had to be a heart attack. What else could have caused him to drop over like that?

“We need you to come down to the station and answer a few questions about what occurred the previous evening,” Officer Manning said. “We’re having the other two women who were at the Shoppe come in as well.”

Stormi will like that I thought.

“Is everything alright?” I asked as I gathered my keys and purse.

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard or not,” Officer Manning continued, “but Mr. Jenkins died last night.”

“Oh how horrible,” I said. “I knew he was in bad shape last night but I hoped once the medics got there they could help him.”

“He was beyond help at that point,” Officer Manning stated. “So can you come in?”

“Of course, I’ll be right there,” I said as I hung up the phone.

What did he mean he was beyond hope by the time the medics arrived? Possibly nothing but I had a seed of unrest growing in my stomach.

Once I arrived at the police station, Paige and Stormi were already there sitting on one of the old benches within the police station. The station was quite old and dark with only a few windows located high up on the wall. The atmosphere was bleak and it didn’t help the uneasiness I felt traveling to my chest.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Paige asked as I walked up to them.

“No, but maybe they’re simply wanting to know how it all occurred,” I said.

“What else is there to know,” Stormi stated. “He took a face dive into the sundae. Although I am happy to see Officer Manning again.” Stormi had a way of shifting seamlessly from one subject to another without batting an eye.

“I don’t know…something is up,” Paige worried. “Why would they need all three of us in here? Don’t be surprised if they split us up.”

And sure enough, she was right. Three different officers came and took us into various areas of the station to take our statement. Stormi was giddy with delight that Officer Manning escorted her to his desk. I wanted to be happy for her but something was gnawing at my insides.

The older officer from yesterday walked me over to his desk. His name was Officer Jerry Burkle. He motioned for me to sit down in the old wooden chair next to his desk. I was afraid the chair might crumple to the floor with me in it. I gingerly sat down on its seat.

“Ms. Beckley, can you tell me what occurred last night from the time Mr. Jenkins arrived at your store to the time we arrived on the scene.”

I explained to him exactly what happened; leaving out the part about our uncontrollable fits of laughter when Stormi was administering CPR. I didn’t think that tidbit needed included in the statement.

Once I was finished Officer Burkle asked, “Is there anything else you’d like to add to your statement?”

“No, I don’t think so,” I responded.

He leaned back in his chair and said, “A passerby happened to see commotion in your Shoppe at approximately the time after the 911 call came in. This person said that three ladies surrounded a man on the floor and that they were all laughing.”

I knew my face was turning into a ripe tomato.

“So is there anything you want to add?”

“Well, I didn’t think it mattered…I mean…” I stammered. Just come out with it Tara!

“Yes we laughed but it was from nerves,” I admitted. “Stormi gets the giggles when she’s really nervous and well, we were all upset and nervous so her snorting and laughing…well it was contagious. Stormi was performing chest compressions. We were trying to help.”

Officer Burkle nodded his head. “It seemed a little odd given the circumstances and his manner of death.”

“I’m sure it did seem unusual to anyone looking in but we…ummm his manner of death?”

Crap, he didn’t die from whipped cream inhalation I thought stupidly.

“Mr. Jenkins was murdered. Someone poisoned him.”

My hand shot up to my mouth. “Oh my gosh!”

Officer Burkle shifted in his seat. “So you can see we must talk to everyone who saw or interacted with him prior to his death.”

“Yes, I understand,” I gulped. “But you can’t think we had anything to do with it.”

“We took the remaining ice cream and dish and had it tested. There was no poison found.”

“Well I could have told you that,” I said feeling slightly agitated.

“Yes, but someone could have slipped something into the ice cream after you served him.”

“But no one else besides us were in the Shoppe,” I added, then realized maybe I should keep my mouth shut.

“You can have a seat back out front with your friends,” he said motioning me back to the bench where Paige sat waiting.