A Niceville Paranormal Mystery: Season 1, Episode 4

Carrie’s Crazy Kitchen

Previously in Niceville: Carrie Cooper discovered her friend and local business owner, Sylvia, dead on Sylvia’s coffee shop floor. The word began to spread, and Carrie is feeling the stress.

Season 1: Caramel Macchiato Murder

Episode 4: Carrie’s Crazy Kitchen

We pulled into a spot just behind my little restaurant. I always liked to park in the alley to keep the customer parking free. Our laughter slowly died down, but the air was still thick with lightheartedness shared between two friends that were stressed to the max. 

I sighed loudly. “I’m running way behind schedule. If I’m doing this, I gotta get in there and get going. Nothing is going to be ready by opening time.”

“I hear ya. Worse come to worse, we close up early. No harm in trying to work for a while. We can just play it by ear. Perk of you being boss lady is you make the call, babe.”

“Agreed. Let’s get moving. I have no idea how so many people know so much when it’s been less than two hours.”

We hopped out of the car, and I unlocked the back entrance. We entered through the mudroom that was much like Sylvia’s but smaller. You see, my spot wasn’t prime real estate. She had the best spot in town. Carrie’s Kitchen was smaller, but trust me, it wasn’t shabby. The kitchen was cramped with all the industrial appliances, and the counter out front was where all the coffee drinkers liked to congregate to share their gossip. Now, don’t get me wrong. I had a good twelve tables, but that would have split the gossips up. The tables were for eating. People who were eating cookies, cakes, donuts, rolls, and actual meals of the day used those on the regular. The people that were there just to do the chatting and drinking, well that was another story altogether.

I kept the place ambient with gentle overhead lights, not bright fluorescents, and low music was used to set a laid-back vibe. I liked to foster a homey feel in my place where people could hang out. Everyone knew you could stay as long as you wanted unless there wasn’t anywhere for a paying customer to set, then they’d saunter on out to the parking lot to keep chatting. They minded their manners, and for that I was grateful. I had bills to pay and Niceville mouths to feed.

As Mandy and I strapped on our aprons and washed our hands, we looked around to take stock of what needed to be done on this crappy morning.

“You got the dough I prepped yesterday at close?” I asked. 

“Sure thing,” Mandy replied as she started on the donuts. 

I went out front to start the coffee to brewing in all the pots. The front of the café was still dark, so I flipped on the overhead lights and saw there were already customers out front trying to peek through the glass windows. I checked the time on the wall clock. It was only 7:45 AM. We didn’t open until 8:00 today. This wasn’t a good sign for how nosey people were going to be about Sylvia. 

“Hey Mandy,” I called. “We already have a line out front.”

“Darn it!” she hollered back at me. “Don’t let them in a minute early. “Let them freeze to the sidewalk.”

I snickered. I hadn’t planned on letting them in early. If they were silly enough to stand in the cold, they’d have to pay for coffee to warm up. I went about setting up the counter and tables. By the time I was done, the coffee was finished in all the pots. I headed back to the kitchen to find that Mandy was making fast work of things. She’d popped in several sets of our breakfast cookies and was working on our donuts. Some were already finished. 

“Dang girl! I’m going to let them in and start taking orders. You ready for takeoff?”

“As I’ll ever be today. All right. Let them know we are running a little slow. I have the oatmeal crisps, apple toasties, and chocolate chip snaps coming right up. The classic donuts will be ready in five or so minutes.”

“I’m on it,” I said as I headed into the front and around to open the door.

I’d barely cracked it open when the first customer shoved past me. 

“Morning, Carrie. It’s dang well cold enough out there,” said the man as he all but pushed me out of the way.

The gentleman behind him steadied me as I stumbled. I smiled at him. He was a regular named Simon. 

“I’m sure it was,” I muttered before turning to Simon. “Running a bit slow on those donuts. You can weight five minutes or grab an oatmeal crisp to hold you over.” 

“Oh, don’t you worry about me. I’ll grab a crisp, a large coffee, and a donut when they’re done. Take your time, Sweetie,” he said as he sauntered over to a table and sat down. 

I scribbled his order. “Thanks. I’ll tab it, and you can pay at dinner if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,” he said.

“Simon wants a crisp and a donut when they’re done,” I hollered.

Simon was a long timer with a great attitude. He came every single day, like clockwork, and I was pretty sure he was about 75. I thought of him like a grandpa. 

I turned to the line forming. I went through the motions. Even after orders were taken people were loitering around. I started filling coffee cups and helping Mandy get food out to people. 

About fifteen minutes into opening time, the first question came. The infamous Candy dropped in to check on me and grab a coffee. 

“Hey there, sweetheart,” she drawled out.

“What can I get you?”

“You wanna spill the tea?”

I sighed. “I hope you want actual tea.”

She chuckled. “No, but I’ll take a coffee. What actually happened to her?”

There was a hush that had fallen around the room. 

“I don’t want to talk about this. It’s wrong and it would all be nothing but speculation. We need to let the police do their work,” I said.

“But you did find her, or is that not so?”

I stared at her hard as I slid her coffee across the counter. “Everyone knows that by now. And I reckon that’s your fault.”

She fake gasped for dramatic effect. “My fault? I’m hurt, Carrie. I don’t know why you’d think such a thing. You know I don’t cause no trouble.”

Mandy stepped up. “Carrie, take a break. You’ve had a lot of stress today. I got this covered.”

Before I could turn or even move, Simon said, “She thinks that because everyone in town knows you have a big, old trap Candy. Leave her alone.”

Laughter filled the room. First it was one person. Then, it was two. Three. Four. People like Simon were the reason that I never regretted living in this town. Nice people. 

Candy grabbed her coffee and used a very inappropriate finger at the lot of us, and then she turned and stormed out.

Mandy hollered, “Hey, come back here! You haven’t paid yet!”

People laughed louder.

“Put her coffee on my tab,” Simon said. “It was worth every penny to see the look on her face.”

***

That was far from the end of the questions I received on this terrible Monday. By midday, I’d had no less than every major gossip in town stop in on the pretense of seeing if I was okay or to get a cup of the best coffee in town. Some of these people hadn’t been into my place in over a year, but suddenly they were just dying to have a turn at my counter. It might have been great for business, but it was very bad for my mood. The more people that poked, the moodier I got. It was like none of these people had any respect for my dearly departed friend. 

It was a quarter past noon when I was ushering out another nosey customer that wanted to know what Sylvia had looked like when I found her. My patience was far from thin. It had moved on to nonexistent. Mandy turned to me in the lull of the lunch rush while people chatted around us. She wore her look that told me she was feeling the same strain that I was. 

She whispered, “How do you think they all learned so fast? Think it was really just word of mouth? Or could there be more at play here? Maybe someone was involved and blabbed?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I want to know. That’s for sure. They all seem to be so invested, but not a darn one of them have anything useful to say.” 

“Isn’t that normal?” Chief Jefferson said.

Mandy and I both looked up with a start. We’d missed the chime of a new customer coming in when someone was leaving.

“Well, hello there,” I said. “What can I do for you?”

“Can I get an extra, extra, extra, extra large coffee and a few minutes of your time? Wouldn’t say no to a donut if you have any left.”

I laughed. “Well, the coffee doesn’t come that big, but I’ll see what I can do. We can sure give refills, too. You head on back to my office off the kitchen. I’ll be with you in a jiffy.”

He reached to hand me his debit card. 

“No. It’s on the house. No worries. Long day for a lot of us. It’s the least I can do.”

“Oh, I appreciate that,” he said awkwardly as he sidled around the counter and into the back. Mandy gestured in the right direction.

I grabbed the biggest mug I could find from my personal storage, grabbed a couple donuts, heated them up, and headed back to my little office off the kitchen. I usually only used this room to do paperwork, but it was the private area that was needed for a conversation with Chief Jefferson. 

When I entered, he was setting in the chair across from my desk. I placed the coffee down and handed him the plate with the two donuts. His eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. 

“Gee, thanks. I haven’t had a minute to grab a bite to eat. I’m starving.”

“I thought you might be,” I said, smiling at him.

I rounded the desk to set down as he started scarfing his food. After a moment of silence, I said, “Take your time, but what brings you in to chat? I’m assuming it has to do with this morning.”

He swallowed quickly. His cheeks turned all pink around his mustache where crumbs were clinging. “Oh yes, sorry about that. I just wanted to talk a little more about what happened this morning. Would now be an okay time? Or do you need to setup a different time?” 

“Tell you what, let me go check on Mandy. If she has everything handled, we can chat now. If she doesn’t, I’ll come back, and we can pick a time.”

“That works. Gives me time to finish up your delicious dough,” he joked.

I laughed as I hurried out of the room and back up front. I leaned in and whispered to Mandy. “You have this ship under control? He has some questions to ask me. I can schedule or do it now.”

“Yep. Get it done.”

“Okay, you holler if they get rowdy. I can be here in a jiffy.”

“You know me. I can handle it.”

I winked at her as I left to go back into my office. 

“Okay, let’s get down to business now that I handled that,” I said.

He looked at me seriously over his cup of coffee. “Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news for you. I’m gonna need you to not smack Corey with your door again because he reported you. I’m gonna overlook that because we all want to smack him. I also found some pretty curious things about you at the crime scene. I’m going to need to ask you a few questions.”