Previously in Niceville: Carrie Cooper discovered her friend and local business owner, Sylvia, dead on Sylvia’s coffee shop floor. With a request for investigative help from the local police, Carrie and Mandy set out to question citizens of Niceville. Only then, Carrie locked herself out of her home and scored a date with the local locksmith.
Season 1: Caramel Macchiato Murder
Episode 8: Secrets Secrets
The last thing I remember after entering my house last night was being abuzz with thoughts and stumbling to my bedroom. I kicked my shoes off, stripped down, and pulled a nightgown over my head. I didn’t even bother to shower. I was too exhausted.
I assume I made it into the actual bed because I awoke hours later, in the early hours of the morning before daylights earliest rays of sunshine, to find myself shivering as I wasn’t under the covers. I was drenched in sweat and shaking. A nightmare. I’d had a nightmare. Mandy had been on the floor of my bakery, still and lifeless, surrounded by cookies. I’d found her there.
I shook the vision from my thoughts. Nothing but a dream. I could prevent this one from coming true though. I swung my feet from the bed onto the cold floor. Today, I’d find more answers. Today, I’d look for Sylvia’s killer. It was too late to save for Sylvia, but I could save Mandy. I could save others like Ms. Pinky. It was what I had to do.
I started through my morning ritual. A quick shower. Pulled my hair back. Went to make coffee. Crap. I still had no coffee. A sigh seeped out of me.
I clunked down at the table, placing my face in my hands.
‘‘I bet you miss me right now,” a voice I recognized said.
The voice was that of Sylvia. You see, ghosts voices sound like they did when they where alive, except one thing…they sound magical. How so you probably wonder? They sound like the whispers of wind on a cold day. That’s the best way to describe it. The way the wind whistles in your ear…they aren’t making real vibrations on the eardrum. It’s a unique experience.
“Of course I miss you… Coffee or no coffee,” I said back. I looked at her. She was almost translucent in her pearlescent color. She chuckled.
“Are you going to catch my murderer?”
“I’m going to try. Are you going to help me?”
“I can’t. It’s complicated. Just let no one fool you.”
“Point me in the right direction?” I asked.
“Downtown.”
“What? I kind of figured that much.”
She just laughed again. Then, she was gone.
Not helpful at all. That’s what ghosts were. Never helpful. Even the ones you loved as people before death. They swore they were bound by rules. I think they just want to make us miserable for still being alive.
I grumbled a lot under my breath.
I was still working out my coffee problem when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but for some reason, maybe the time of morning, I felt compelled to answer it.
“Hello?”
“This is Glinda. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“Uh…no. I’m awake, but I can’t say I know who I’m talking to…” I trailed off.
“Oh dear. Ms. Pinky?”
“Oh! I guess I didn’t know your first name. I’m sorry.”
“No big deal. Most people just call me Pinky. Well, I discovered your keys on the floor of my office last night. When I went to call you, I realized it was late. I’d been doing paperwork and gotten carried away. I figured you must have had a spare set, so I called this morning.”
“Actually I didn’t. I called a locksmith to let me in. I had no idea where I lost them. I’m so relieved you have them. My house key, car key, and cafe keys are on there.”
“Oh honey. Want me to swing them over?”
“Do you mind? I need to go get coffee something awful. I’m out.”
“I’ll grab coffee on the way. I could use some too. Preference?” She asked.
“Nope. Just make mine black,” I replied.
“Girl after my own heart.”
***
I puttered around the house making it tidy before Ms. Pinky arrived. I needed the coffee so badly that I would have probably allowed her into a my house looking like hurricane, but luckily, my house was in its usual almost pristine condition.
A knock at the door brought me back, and I hurried to let her in. She had two extra large coffees.
“Oh! You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” I said.
She laughed as I led her to the table. She handed me the keys, and when I tried to hand her the money for the coffee, she shook her head.
“No.”
“No what?” I asked.
“Keep the money. I don’t need it. I just wanted to do something nice for you. You have a lot on your plate. Having no coffee was going to make that worse.”
I felt emotional. Not just one emotion, but two million were welling up inside me. “Thank you,” I said.
“Don’t mention it, darling. I have to be going, but maybe i’ll stop by sometime. You have a lovely home.”
“Thank you. I’d love for you to come by. Maybe I can make you dinner sometime?”
I saw some color creep into her face. She was lonely. “That would be fun.”
“Cool! We’ll set it up soon. Maybe we can discuss witch stuff?”
“Of course.”
She made her way outside and to her car.
I followed behind within a moment, climbing into my car. I said a silent prayer as I turned it over. It worked this time. “Yes!” I half shouted.
And I backed out. It was early, but I hoped to catch some people today. I needed to get to my actual job and do some early prep work first though. After all, being the boss meant not letting two days like yesterday happen in a row.
When I got there, Mandy was pulling up too. She’d apparently thought she’d beat me here for prep to ease my burden.
“Why so early?” I asked.
“Probably the same reason you’re here,” she said, grinning at me.
We laughed and just went on in and got to work. This was the type of thing we did for each other. We’d been there about thirty minutes, working silently, when I turned to her and told her about being locked out and my date with the locksmith tonight.
“Girl, it’s about time you have a date. And that sounds so fun. I better get all the details afterwards.”
“You know you will…” I said, teasing and bumping my hip against hers.
Time passed with us working and being too quiet. She eventually broke the silence. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to milk as much info from customers as I can. And I’m going to go from there. I want info about the customer of Sylvia’s. I want info about Becky. I also really want to know who was trying to buy Sylvia out. Any info I can’t get, I’ll see where to dig from there. It’s amazing how much you can learn just by listening and asking around to the right people.”
Mandy nodded. “You aren’t wrong.”
“Hopefully…” I said. “Hopefully i’m not wrong.”
She laughed. “Well, we have to start somewhere. Let me finish up in here. Maybe go prep the front, Ms. Particular.”
I chuckled at her as I headed out front. She was right. I had, in all honesty, diagnosed Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. That’s why my house was so clean. That’s why everything had to be just right. It helped. I never got write ups at inspection time, but when it came to setting the tables or things like that, I had a very specific way I like things.
I started the coffee and was lining up all the essentials when I noticed people started to gather outside. Our major competition existed no longer. We’d received all her business. It felt a bit like a punch to the gut instead of a blessing.
“Another busy morning…” I called back to Mandy.
“Gotcha. I kind of figured.”
She too, must have figured this out.
“We may need to hire someone…” I hollered.
“It’s possible. Imagine if one of us fell ill.”
I shuddered. “We’ll post an ad today, but first, I have someone in mind. Do you mind if I ask my baby sister?”
Mandy’s head popped out of the kitchen. “Clare?”
I laughed. “I only have the one!”
“Sure. I thought she wanted to move.”
“She doesn’t now. And she does have her culinary degree. She’s been working down at the grocery store bakery. She hates it there.”
“Well, I feel like it’s obvious then.”
I looked up. Like a sign, Clare was standing at the door. I motioned for her to come around back.
A moment later, she appeared in the main part where Mandy had let her in.
“Morning,” she said, brightly.
“Morning. I had a question for you.”
“Oh yeah? I wanted to see if you were okay. I heard about yesterday.”
“Yikes. I should have called. It was a long day.”
Her soft features looked so worried and sympathetic. “It’s okay. I just wanted to make sure.”
“Do you want a job?”
“HUH?” She said.
“Like here? I need more help. Mandy and I are always living in fear of a surge of people or one of us needing some time off. It’s well past time, and now, with most of Sylvia’s customers…” I gulped, “Well, I need it more than ever.”
“Yes. I’ll quit. They aren’t even paying me but half the shift. They make me come in for prep and say that isn’t part of my shift. I prep for three hours and work for three. I don’t even care about notice.”
“Normally, I’d discourage that, but that sounds ridiculous,” I said.
“When can I start?”
I looked at the line outside. “Today.”
She giggled with joy as she skipped back to pull her hair up and grab an apron.
I went to the door to let the masses in.
It was a flood.
I learned a lot of things throughout the morning, but three of them were the most important:
First, I learned that if you feed the tab jumper for free, he offers to clean the outside of the shop area up. He was not a suspect in my eyes. He’d made an empty threat. He also said I had his condolences.
Second, when Becky came by, things got ugly. Everyone started in on her. They were asking her why she got fired. What she did? It was like a slow motion car crash. I pulled her in the back.
“Why did you lie to me?” I asked.
“I didn’t. She didn’t fire me. She threatened to, but we talked it all out,” she sobbed.
“You omitted that info when we talked. That doesn’t look good.”
“I’m not a villain,” she wailed.
I just glared at her. She sobbed harder. “You swear you have no secrets?”
“I swear!”
I let her go because I had no choice, but I wasn’t sure I believed her at all.
And the third and final things I learned was quite interesting. A local real estate agent came in. I made a random comment about wondering who would try and snatch up the property that Sylvia owned being what a great space it was.
He lowered his voice. “Well just between you and me, Chief Jefferson has been trying to buy it for about a year. She wouldn’t sell though. He wants to make a big donut and coffee shop. I’m sure he’s thrilled that she isn’t standing in the way anymore.”
I felt nauseous. No wonder he was just so unfazed. He no longer had to deal with it.
“You’re not saying you think?”
“No, no… I’m just saying that he might not mind that much if Ms. Pinky crossed over that pink bridge either, if you get my drift.”
I did get his drift. And I was disgusted. I was living a bad movie. Who was there left to trust when the very person who asked you to investigated a crime just became the most likely suspect? No one. Well, Mandy wasn’t no one, but we were officially between a rock and a hard place. We couldn’t very well just ask him if he killed her. He’d definitely say no. Any old person with a brain would. We needed to find evidence, and in the meantime, we needed to be very careful.
“I’d be careful who I tell that too,” I said. “Sounds a bit dangerous to make him mad.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I just trust you.” He winked at me.
I smiled and walked off. I had no idea what his name was. He was real estate guy in my mind.