Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes (Culinary Competition Mysteries Book 3) (8 page)

"Oh, no. You are absolutely correct." Amy draped her arm over Carla's shoulders. The dresses looked perfect together in the mirror. Even the whites were the same shade. "Out of all of the dresses you try on, you never know when
the
one will be in the lineup. I just thought you might really like this dress, so I was hoping if you tried it on last, maybe you wouldn't want to show Shepler. It will be a special surprise. We can just say we hated the last dresses, and the boys will never be the wiser."

"You are such a troublemaker. But this time I'll go along with your devious plan."

"Wonderful!" Amy clapped her hands. "You have to tell them, though. They'll know something's up if I try to lie. My eye will start twitching, or I'll play with my hair. Alex can tell when I'm hiding something, even if I don't say a word."

"I can do that. It's the least I can do since you found this." Carla ran her finger down the row of sparkling buttons on her stomach. "It's perfect. You've changed my mind. Now I want it to be a special moment when Bruce sees it for the first time."

"Good morning," Amy said as she wrapped the white, sweatshirt fabric cardigan tighter around her stomach. The morning air was still very chilly before the sun came up. Even though summer would officially arrive in a few weeks, in the dark early morning hours it was still decidedly sweater weather. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good," Sophie said as she unlocked the back door leading into Riverbend Café's main kitchen. "Let's just hope this week goes better than the last."

The lock tumblers clicked into place, and she swung open the door. No lights were on in the windowless kitchen. It seemed as if they were standing at the edge of a black hole. Amy held her breath for a second as she imagined a sea monster-sized tentacle waiting just out of sight. It was merely her imagination in hyperdrive because of the murder. Sophie flipped the light switch near the door as she passed through the doorway. Amy was right behind her. The goose bumps on her arms were the size of sesame seeds, but heat from the ovens would soon have the kitchen toasty warm.

The reality of what was waiting in the kitchen was far worse than Amy's ocean fantasy.

A hangman's noose hung from the suspended florescent light fixture in the center of the room. A breeze from the open door made the thick rope sway as if an unseen executioner was beckoning for them to fasten the noose around their necks. Its shadow danced like a snake on the tile floor. A violent shiver rattled through Amy as she looked at Sophie. Her friend was frozen, staring at the rope.

A faint thump from outside spurred Amy to action. The person who left the gruesome calling card could be in the café or hiding in the shadows outside. If the macabre intruder was still around she had a 50/50 chance of guessing where he was lurking. Due to the sound, she chose outside. For the moment. So that meant it would be a good idea to stop the person from coming back in. Amy eased the door shut and twisted the lock. She raced to the counter, where the kitchen staff usually prepared the sandwich ingredients each morning, and grabbed two chef's knives. It was like déjà vu, when she had searched the café a few days earlier to find Sophie in the bathroom cleaning her scraped hands. Except now Sophie was three feet away, and she had no idea if they would turn up a real intruder.

Amy nudged Sophie's arm with her shoulder. The contact made her hiss with surprise. "I'm sorry," Amy said as she offered one of the knives. "But we need to see if whoever left this is hiding in the café. I'll call the police, but we can defend ourselves with these if we need to before they arrive."

"No! No police."

The response was almost as startling as finding the noose. Amy shook her head. "What do you mean? Luke was just killed. This is a death threat or a very sick prank. The police need to know about it."

"No…it'll get worse. I can't let the police get involved."

The hairs on the back of Amy's neck bristled. While she was arguing with Sophie, the person who left the noose could be prowling in the shadows of the café, waiting to attack. Making sure they lived to tell the police what happened moved to the front of her priority list. She could figure out Sophie's odd police phobia
after
taking a few minutes to search the café.

"Since you don't want to call the police right now, we need to make sure we're alone. These knives are the best defense we have. Let's go check the other rooms. I'll count to three and then switch on the lights to the next room. If we both rush in at the same time, you can look to the right, and I'll keep an eye on our left. Okay?"

Sophie's eyes glistened as she shook her head. "I can't do that. I'm too scared to move."

Amy closed her eyes to try to mask her frustration. There was something going on with Sophie that went way beyond the foreboding noose. Something that turned the smart businesswoman, who tackled any kitchen snafu with determined gusto, into a terrified statue. Amy held out one of the knives again. "Please take this while I check the other rooms by myself. Alex made me take a self-defense class, so I'll be okay."

Finally Sophie's fingers closed around the handle of the proffered knife. Amy sighed. One small step, but there were many more to come as it was now her responsibility to make sure they were alone in the restaurant. Taking the defense course was one thing. Preparing herself to possibly use the dirty fighting techniques made her stomach cartwheel like a championship-caliber gymnast. She looked Sophie in the eye. "If there is somebody else here, you have to call the police. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Sophie responded in a barely audible whisper.

The change in confident, always capable Sophie was almost scarier than the thought that she might have to face down an intruder. Since Luke was stabbed, she could end up in a knife fight. Amy took a deep breath and began the search. She flipped on the lights to the first dining room and banged through the swinging doors that led into a storage area. A quick search behind the racks of plates and coffee cups revealed no one, so she continued her search through the dining room and coffee shop area. By the time she was done, her fingers ached from gripping the knife handle. She and Sophie were either alone in the café, or the person who had hung the noose was very good at playing hide-and-seek.

Amy tried to banish that crazy-making thought from her mind as she rushed back to the kitchen. Sophie squealed when Amy burst through the swinging doors.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Amy swiped a film of sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. There was nothing like a fear-fueled, frantic search to warm a body up on a chilly morning. "It looks like we're alone."

"Some of the other employees will be coming in soon. I have to get this down so they don't see it. The hacker is coming after me. Nobody else needs to live in fear," Sophie said as she grabbed the rope loop and tried to pull it free from the light fixture. The rectangular box suspended from chains set in the ceiling swayed and twisted. There was a metallic clank, and the noose landed on the floor at Sophie's feet. A piece of wire that must have been holding it skittered across the dark tiles. She picked up the knotted rope and tossed it into a nearby trash can.

"What are you doing? The police will need that for evidence." The change in Sophie from too scared to move to almost ripping down the florescent light box to remove crime scene evidence made Amy's head pound. The hacker was coming after Sophie? "We have to call the police about this. Everybody knows about the murder. You've hired a great crew of employees. They'll rally around you if they know the café is being harassed."

The pastry chef's knees buckled. Sophie crumpled to the floor then sat back on her butt in the middle of the kitchen. "I'm next," she said as looked up at Amy. Dark, mascara-tinted tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm going to be killed. Just like Luke."

Amy dropped to the floor beside Sophie. "What are you talking about? Tell me."

Sophie turned her hands over and stared at the bandages on her palms. "I didn't trip in the parking lot last week. The night before that happened I got an email demanding I transfer $5,000 to a MoneyMover account. To prove that he was able to physically retaliate against me if I didn't obey, the person said there would be a sign. I'm guessing I interrupted him when he was spray-painting the back of the building as the sign. Someone was hiding behind the dumpster and pushed me when I walked up to get a closer look at the paint."

"Why didn't you tell me? Or more importantly, Shepler?"

"Because the email very clearly said not to tell the police that I had been contacted, or I would end up like Luke."

Amy had hypothesized that the police might not be told about any more attempted extortions. When she said that, she'd had no idea how close the next threat would be. "Did the credit card system going down on Saturday have anything to do with the extortionist?"

Sophie picked at a thread that had come loose on the edge of one of the gauze pads covering her palms. "Yes. To show how easily he could affect my business if I don't pay. It's not like I have that much money sitting around, so I was trying to round it up by borrowing from a few friends and family, saying I needed it for the catering expansion." She looked up. All of the color had drained from her face. "Matt and Luke followed the instructions and paid, but Luke was still killed. I'm going to die soon."

"No, you're not." Amy's mind was tripping over itself trying to find a way to rationalize with Sophie, who was beyond traumatized and not thinking straight. "So Matt and Luke did as they were told, and Luke still ended up dead. Don't take the same path by giving the hacker what he wants. You have to turn the tables. Get help from the police."

"No! The email said if I told the police I would be killed."

Amy scrubbed her hands over her face. "Do something differently than Matt and Luke, so this doesn't play out the same way. Please."

"Whoever broke in and left the noose could be outside, watching the café. They'll know I called the police."

Maybe not.
"They don't have to arrive with sirens blaring." Amy untangled her legs and stood up. She plucked the noose out of the trashcan. "I doubt whoever is threatening you is watching closely enough to pick out a detective in regular clothes who just appears to be a normal guy buying a cup of coffee on his way to work."

An hour later Amy's phone buzzed in her apron pocket. She looked at the text message from Shepler as she dumped a measuring cup full of flour into the industrial-sized mixer. A cloud of white dust exploded from the metal bowl. She had forgotten to turn down the beater speed. The plan playing out in texts made her feel like a supporting actress in a Bond movie. No wonder she had forgotten a cardinal rule of bakery technique: always add dry ingredients to a mixer that is running on low speed. She blew the film of powdery flour off the phone's screen and tapped in a reply.

When Sophie walked past, Amy asked if they could talk in her office for a minute. Sophie just pointed at the door to the small room. Once they were both squeezed inside, Amy shut the door. It was surprisingly heavy to close off such a small room. The chatter and noise from the kitchen running at full tilt dulled to a soft murmur. Sophie folded into the battered task chair. The business-as-usual smiling mask she had sported in the kitchen deflated into a scowl.

Amy rested her hip on the corner of the metal desk. "Here's the plan. Shepler will be here in about half an hour. He'll order a coffee and then pretend to use the bathroom, but instead he'll sneak into the storage room across the hall where you and I can talk to him. Unless the extortionist knows who he is and is sitting in the café, nobody will know about the meeting except for the three of us."

The part about knowing what Shepler looked like set off an alarm in Amy's mind. She pulled out her phone and sent him another message. Maybe he should wear a bit of a disguise, just to be on the extra safe side.

Sophie scratched her eyebrow then pressed her fingertips into her temples. "I still don't think talking with him will help, but since you're forcing me to, that seems like a decent plan. Just let me know what I have to do."

"Shepler is the best detective in the department. I promise…he'll help you."

Sophie stood and squeezed past Amy without responding to the comment about Shepler. When the door opened, Amy watched her friend transform from scared and almost defeated back into a confident leader to the employees scrambling around the kitchen. The metamorphosis was rather astounding considering the stress and fear affecting Sophie. Now that Amy knew what was happening, she didn't know how much longer Sophie could keep up the brave charade. The homicidal extortionist needed to be caught before he harmed more innocent people.

The flurry of texts continued as Shepler made his way to the café for the meeting. When he walked through the front door, Amy barely recognized him. If it weren't for his distinctive superhero body shape she would've dismissed him as an anonymous customer. The dark brown wig and fake mustache were surprisingly realistic. She wondered how many times he had gone undercover if he could pull off that good of a disguise on such short notice. Sophie and the noose, hidden in an empty flour sack, were already waiting in the storage room when Shepler walked up to the counter to order his coffee.

Amy was in the small kitchen near the order counter that housed the pastry case and espresso machine. She dabbed fluffy Swiss meringue frosting on lime cupcakes as she kept an eye on Shepler through the swinging doors she had propped open, supposedly to get some fresh air because she was warm. When he set his coffee cup on the fireplace mantel and headed toward the bathrooms, she sprang into action. She abandoned the cupcakes and exited the kitchen, making a beeline to the women's bathroom. The hallway was empty. She knocked once on the door to the men's bathroom then swung open the door to the women's restroom. The hallway was so narrow the open door effectively hid Shepler's journey across the hall and into the storage room.

Once Shepler was safely transferred, Amy went into the women's room. She looked into the mirror as she counted to twenty. Her cheeks were pink with excitement over the cloak and dagger meeting. Then she flushed the toilet, washed her hands, and exited the room. The key chain jingled as she unlocked the storage room's door and went inside, pretending as though she needed more cupcake wrappers.

Sophie looked like a frightened mouse perched on top of a stack of plastic milk crates in the corner. The light cast by the bare lightbulb overhead gave the room a spooky vibe. Shepler leaned against a metal shelving unit. His body language was relaxed, but his face was in serious detective mode. Obviously the conversation had already started while Amy was stalling in the bathroom.