Previously in Niceville: Carrie Cooper discovered her friend and local business owner, Sylvia, dead on Sylvia’s coffee shop floor.
Season 1: Caramel Macchiato Murder
Episode 3: Donut Get Me Started
I looked up just in time to see Becky, Sylvia’s young barista, standing on the corner across from Corner Coffee. She was wearing jeans, a light blue colored sweater, and her hair was pulled up in a bun. She was standing slightly to the side of the other onlookers, but she looked concerned.
“Wait!” I said quickly to Mandy.
She slammed her brakes. “What?”
“There’s Becky. Should we check on her?” I asked.
Mandy groaned as she pulled back into the spot. “Probably. I wonder if she knows yet.”
“I don’t know. Do you think we should tell her something or leave it up to the cops?”
“Probably should at least tell her she doesn’t have work,” said Mandy.
We crawled back out of the car into the crisp morning air. The sun was up by now, but the dew clung heavy to every surface. We tried to wave at her as not to gather everyone’s attention. She was absorbed. Finally, I gave up.
“Hey Becky!” I called out.
Her head jerked my way. Poor thing seemed skittish. To be fair, it was sort of her personality, but I could understand with the unusual circumstances of the morning that it would be amped up. I’m sure she was feeling quite out of her element.
Mandy waved at her in a come here motion. We could tell she didn’t really want to move from her spot, but she slowly turned and sidled our way. Her posture screamed out how uncomfortable she was as she approached us. Her arms were crossed and wrapped around her body, and she reached up and tucked a loose strand of her straw-colored hair behind her ears.
“Hey Carrie, Mandy. What’s up?” she said.
“You okay, honey?” I asked.
“Yeah. I guess. I just can’t believe it. Is she really dead?”
“Ummm… where did you hear that?” Mandy said.
“That’s what Rosie said. She said you found her Carrie. She said she heard it from Missy who heard Chief Jefferson talking on the phone. And Candy said she saw the whole thing go down, but no one believes a word that comes out of Candy’s mouth. She said that Deputy Danny found you with body. No one really knows how you got in there to her though. Everyone is saying something different, but Candy swears you probably had a key being how long you all have been friends.”
Good golly news travels fast in this town. I shot Mandy a look.
“I’m really sorry, but Sylvia is gone. She passed. It’s all really complicated. I can’t tell you anything,” I stammered out.
Becky let out a sad little sob. Tears ran down her rosy, red cheeks. The wind had left her face pink from cold. Now, the tears were adding to it. “Oh Carrie! How could someone do that? She didn’t deserve to die. They should have got stupid old Missy or Candy. No one likes them.”
Mandy choked non-discreetly. I shot her a look. I mean, we might all think that, but we probably wouldn’t say it out loud. Leave it to a 21-year-old girl. They weren’t known for having any tact.
“I’m sure they will find who did it,” I assured her.
“Did they have any leads?”
“Now, I can’t talk about this, but I’m not in the know.”
“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry, Carrie,” she spluttered out.
Much to my surprise, she threw her arms around me. With nothing else to do, I hugged her back. A few uncomfortable pats later, I disengaged myself as gingerly as possible.
“Well, we just wanted to check on you. You know, make sure you knew that work was closed. You be safe now. No way to know what happened,” I said.
“Wait. Do you think I’m in danger?” she squealed out.
I hesitated. “I don’t know. Sylvia seemed upset yesterday. Do you know why?”
“No. I felt awful yesterday. I must have missed it. What if I missed something big? It’s probably all my fault that she’s dead!” Another sob came from her. People were starting to look our way.
“Oh no! Honey no!” I said quickly. I was doing my best to quiet her down.
Mandy’s patience was wearing a little on the thin side. She really didn’t do the whole crying thing well. “It wasn’t your fault. I’m sure it was nothing. Why don’t you go home and get a nice mug of tea. Just relax for a bit.”
“I might do that. Thanks, Mandy.” She managed a small smile around her tears.
She gave me one last awkward hug before turning and walking off down the road. We stood there for a moment and watched until she disappeared from sight.
Finally, we turned and climbed back into the car. Mandy sighed. “I hate criers,” she groaned.
“I know,” I sighed. “So do I. Oh, and don’t let me forget to tell you that I got a glimpse of Sylvia’s ghost. She zipped off before I could talk to her though.”
Mandy gave me a wide eyed look as she put the car in reverse. “You can bet your ass I won’t forget that.”
***
Shortly later, we were finally settled in a booth, coffee in hand and a big box of jelly donuts in front of us and being shoveled into our mouths. The morning’s events had sucked the air right from us, and silence dripped out like the morning dew from the awning hanging outside the window we sat next to. As the silence drew on, I felt both of us growing more antsy. This type of thing didn’t happen in Niceville. And if it did, it was always some bad eggs at the edge of town at the shady hotel where people peddled drugs.
But this was different… it was in the middle of town. It was someone we knew. A local. A friend. For crying out loud, we had a killer walking amongst us! It could be anyone. Fear crept down my spine, chilling me right to the core of my stomach. Suddenly, I wasn’t really hungry anymore. Not even jelly could fix this. Poor Sylvia. I couldn’t even imagine what her final moments had been like. I just hoped it had been fast.
We sat there in pensive silence for what felt like forever, but it was only a short while. The minutes ticked by slowly. Finally, Mandy broke the silence.
“Are you listening?”
“To what?”
“To people talking?”
“No,” I said, suddenly aware of the bustle of people around us. There was whispering and talking and even a little bit of pointing in my direction.
“I think people are hearing about this far faster than I would have anticipated.”
“But how on Earth does gossip actually travel at light-speed? It boggles my mind, Mandy.” I said this through my hands. I’d leaned my head down into my palms out of sheer exasperation. “I love this town, but they need to get something else to do today. I’m not in the mood,” I grumbled.
Mandy chuckled quietly. “Girlfriend, that ain’t happening. Are you really closing up shop for today? I know Chief had his opinions, but he doesn’t run the place. You gotta do what’s best for you.”
I peeked out around my fingers again. “I don’t know, but I suspect he might be right. I may as well go and face the people. You willing to come with me? It won’t be a pretty day.”
“I’m always with you.”
I felt warmth spread out from me. She wasn’t lying. Sister had my back.
“You know, it was weird that Chief was so persistent about me opening up today. I couldn’t figure out what that was about. It kind of bothered me. Did he want to keep an eye on me?”
Mandy shrugged. “I kind of doubt it. He probably just wants some of your pot roast for lunch and to see what gossip drags in later, but it was a little unusual. I’d say we need to keep an eye on it. I’m not too concerned.”
I laughed. “Well, you aren’t wrong about drama and pot roast being his favorite things. I’m probably a bit oversensitive today."
“Girl, you earned a sensitive day today. You can cry me a literal river and I won’t even tell you to dry it up. And you know how I feel about tears. You earned them babies though.”
“Aw shucks,” I said, “That’s really something coming from you.”
“Now, don’t you get used to it.”
We both paused as we heard two men we didn’t know but by sight talking at a nearby table.
The first man said, “I heard she was murdered with an ax.”
“No, no,” said the second man. “It was poison.”
“How do you know?” Asked man one.
“I have it on good authority from Candy.”
Man one laughed loud enough to draw a lot of attention. After people started to look away again, he lowered his voice and said, “Everyone knows not to believe a thing Candy says.”
I grinned at Mandy. She just shook her head sadly.
“Where are they all hearing this stuff from so fast?” she asked.
“By the sound of it,” I said, “The town gossips are calling every single person they know. Probably won’t be anyone who doesn’t know by this afternoon. I’m sure we will be able to tell by all the people that come by to chat.”
“I guess you’re right. I’ve never liked Candy,” Mandy muttered as she got up and walked to get a to go container for our remaining donuts. We were definitely going to need these lovely jelly filled delights if we were going to go and get started cooking for the day. I didn’t see an easy day ahead.
When she walked back up, she said, “Well, they know up there too. They wanted to know if you would come and give them details. I told them no. I think we should get out of here as fast as we can. Little new girl at the cash register seemed real eager to come help clean off our table. I told her we had it.”
Before the girl behind the counter could make her way over, we packed up our leftovers, cleaned off our table of trash, and made a beeline for the door. Nothing like bad conversation in the making to encourage a dine and dash and get you to moving out the door.
Our luck wasn’t fantastic though. A quick escape out the building was easy, but standing right next to the car was Corey, the only local journalist that always wants to ask nosey questions for his own benefit. The other journalists in town were great. Mandy and I gave each other the look.
“If you get in the car, I’ll run him over,” she muttered.
I giggled a little too loud.
“What?” he said in his nasally voice.
I swear. Nails on a chalkboard sound better than that young man’s voice. I admit it. I don’t like him. It’s a bit personal.
“Nothing, Corey. We best be going,” I said.
“I got a few questions for you. You found Sylvia dead this morning, right? People been talking ‘bout it all over town already.”
The audacity he had. The lack of tact. He was such a little punk. And he couldn’t write a sentence to save his life. The oxford comma deserved an apology from him.
“Get out of my way,” I said as I smacked him hard with my car door. He was surprised enough that he didn’t resist. He did stumble though. Mandy was shocked too.
We hopped right in the car. She was quick to pull off before he could regain his nerve and reach for my door handle. She was probably worried I might smack him and get in real trouble.
“You okay?”
“I am. Sort of. I’ve wanted to smack him since he wrote that bad review on my restaurant. So, this was just the last straw.”
We were both quiet for a moment. Then, we started laughing. It was one of those laugh or cry moments that defines life. We chose laugh. And that we did as we drove off towards Carrie’s Kitchen. We laughed the whole drive there. We laughed until the tears streamed steadily down our faces.
Can’t wait to read next week!
Wow, things are heating up in Niceville! Becky seems shaken by Sylvia's death, and the rumor mill is churning out all sorts of crazy theories.
I can't believe Carrie smacked Corey with her car door! That was definitely payback for his bad review. It sounds like they both needed a good laugh after that crazy morning.
I'm curious to see what they find when they get back to Carrie's Kitchen. Will they close up shop for the day, or will they face the curious customers? Can't wait to find out in the next episode!