Apple Pie With A Side Of Murder Read online

  Apple Pie with a Side of Murder

  Meredith Potts

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter One

  “Here’s to peace and tranquility,” I said.

  I held out a glass of white wine as I proposed a toast. My boyfriend and I had been so busy lately that our typical Saturday date night had fallen by the wayside. Thankfully, we were renewing our tradition that evening. It felt good to be out on the town again. The fact that we were dining at Home Away From Home Cooking restaurant made for an especially delicious treat. The restaurant made a fish and chips plate that was simply to die for.

  As I looked across the table at my boyfriend, I was as smitten with him as I had ever been. David Carlson was more than just a muscular twenty-eight-year-old man with soulful brown eyes, short black hair, and a handsome, square face. He was the love of my life.

  He knew what made me tick. What made me swoon. And what made my mouth water. He also knew that comfort food was the way to my heart. Although, a nice glass of wine never hurt.

  David held his glass out and pressed it gently against mine. “I’ll toast to that.”

  It had been a few weeks since the last murder investigation had wrapped up. I had never been more eager to put something behind me. Getting my life back to normal was my priority.

  “A quiet life is a happy life,” I said.

  I had to admit, settling back in to a daily routine wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Sure, most mornings I got up, took my dog for a walk, headed off to work, then returned home and spent the evening either snuggling on the couch with David, or cozying up with a good book. On the surface, I was the same old Sabrina. But in truth, I was just going through the motions.

  There was a great deal of turmoil inside me. What else could I expect when Treasure Cove had been rocked by three murders in the last three months? Change was clearly afoot in my once-sleepy hometown. Unfortunately, the only changes that seemed to be occurring were disturbing in nature. My mind was struggling to adapt to this new reality, all the while hoping that things would truly return to normal.

  David’s heart was in the right place. He clearly believed that the road back to normalcy was paved with trips to familiar places. So far, his plan was working. I was calmer and happier than I had been in weeks.

  David gazed at me. “To me, being with you is what makes for a happy life.”

  Talk about a delightful compliment. We had been together for over a year, but he still knew how to make me blush. “And I thought I was the mushy one.”

  “I have my moments.”

  I smiled. “You sure do.”

  “It also helps that I don’t have crazy work stuff distracting me. I can just focus on you, and how beautiful you are.”

  “Really laying it on thick tonight, aren’t you?” I replied.

  “With all the wacky dysfunctional stuff that has been going on in town, I can’t help but think about how lucky I am to have such a great woman in my life.”

  I smiled at him. “The luck extends to the other side of the table, too. You’re a wonderful man. A far cry from some of the creepy guys we have crossed paths with recently.”

  “It turns out there’s a fair amount of questionable characters in Treasure Cove. Then again, there’s also a lot of questionable things going on in this town.”

  “Yeah. Who knew we’re surrounded by such a large underbelly of seedy behavior?”

  “I sure didn’t. It turns out our little town isn’t as quaint as I once believed.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. It kind of makes me question how much I really know about Treasure Cove.”

  “The heavy case load on my desk certainly can’t disagree with that, but we have peace now, so we should appreciate it,” David said.

  I talked a good game about peace and serenity, but my brain didn’t always take my cues. Having an active imagination came in handy when trying to solve a murder case, but it also made it difficult for me to quiet my mind sometimes, no matter how much I wanted to.

  While I couldn’t stop my mind from racing, I could at least try to steer my thoughts back to more positive subject matter.

  “You’re right,” I said. “I’m here with some great food and some fantastic company. What more could I ask for?”

  A glimmer came to his eyes. “Dessert would be nice.”

  My mouth watered. “You’re right. You can’t go wrong with apple pie.”

  “I was about to suggest a brownie sundae.”

  A sense of longing took hold of me. “Now I want both.”

  “Talk about an impossible decision. How can you be expected to choose between pie and a sundae?” he joked.

  I held my pointer finger up and took a playful tone with him. “Hey, this is serious business and it requires some serious consideration.”

  “Don’t strain too much. You should save your energy for something a little more important,” he joked.

  “Don’t tell my taste buds that. To them, there is nothing more important in the entire world,” I wisecracked.

  He laughed. “Since you’re letting your taste buds do all the talking, what do they have to say about this delicious dilemma?”

  “That we’ve made this far more complicated than it needs to be.”

  “Does that mean you have an answer?”

  I nodded. “I sure do.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “I don’t think I should have to choose between pie and a sundae. So I won’t.”

  David chuckled. “So your decision is not to make a decision, then?”

  I shook my head. “No. My decision is to have both.”

  David grimaced. “I know a treadmill that is begging you to reconsider that choice.”

  “You can tell that treadmill to mind its own business. You order the brownie sundae and I’ll order a slice of apple pie. Then we can just share.”

  David nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

  “When does getting dessert not sound like a good idea to you?”

  “Guilty as charged,” he replied.

  “That’s it? You’re not even going to bother trying to defend yourself?”

  “If you’re going to commit the high-calorie crime, you have to be prepared to do some serious treadmill time.”

  I laughed.

  David continued. “To me, it’s a deliciously acceptable trade-off.”

  “In that case, let’s not keep your stomach waiting.”

  “That’s right. Let’s make this dessert magic happen,” he said.

  David put his hand up to flag down our waiter, Carl Benson.

  Unfortunately, Carl didn’t even notice David’s raised hand. He was too busy focusing on the kitchen, where a shoutin
g match broke out.

  Chapter Two

  So much for my quiet dinner with David. An outrageous scene began to unfold around me. The crazy part was that David and I weren’t trying to eavesdrop on the argument that was occurring in the kitchen. From the discomfort of our table, we could hear every word that was being said. As could most of the restaurant.

  I began to squirm in my chair as the argument progressed, not just because of the subject matter being discussed, but because I knew the people who were going after each other.

  The first voice belonged to Clarissa Anderson, the owner of the restaurant. In all the years I had been coming here, Clarissa had been nothing but kind to me. Clarissa and I always had a friendly chat when I came in.

  It took me a little longer to identify the second voice. Finally, I realized that belonged to Felix Martin, who was a busboy at the restaurant. I had never engaged in a detailed conversation with him, but during the time he had worked here, he had always been cordial with me when he cleared my used plates from the table. As the argument continued, my image of Felix as a courteous man was blown out of the water.

  David and I sat uneasily at our table while things heated up in the kitchen.

  “You can’t do this to me,” Felix snapped.

  “Will you please keep your voice down?” Clarissa asked. “There’s a room full of paying customers out there.”

  “You think I care? I’m not going to let you silence me,” Felix barked.

  “Stop talking like you’re the victim. You brought this on yourself.”

  “No. This is your fault.”

  “It’s my fault that you were stealing from me? Way to twist the facts.”

  “You have no proof that I stole from you.”

  “So those cases of food that you were supposed to put away in the walk-in fridge just happened to magically disappear?” Clarissa asked.

  “I told you. That delivery never came in.”

  Clarissa scoffed. “I called the vendor. They confirmed that the order was delivered—on time.”

  Felix took a different tact. “Hey, a guy has to eat.”

  “That’s what your paycheck is for. Maybe if you spent a little less money on alcohol and a little more money on food, you wouldn’t feel the need to steal from me.”

  “Maybe you should have paid me more. Do you know how hard it is living on minimum wage?”

  “I didn’t force you to take this job. And even if you think you’re not getting paid enough, that doesn’t give you the right to steal from me. Now get out of here,” Clarissa said.

  “I’m not going to let you get away with this,” Felix snapped.

  “What are you going to do about it?”

  “I’m going to make you pay. That’s what.”

  “For the last time, get out of here!” Clarissa yelled.

  A second later, the kitchen door flung open.

  Felix rushed into the dining room. The bearded, long-haired, muscular, thirty-one-year-old had a head full of steam.

  Clarissa followed behind him. The five-foot-six, lean-bodied, fifty-eight-year-old redhead had a look of outrage on her face.

  “I meant, out the back,” Clarissa said.

  Felix ignored Clarissa and addressed the customers in the dining room. “You don’t even want to know what kinds of crazy things the cooks do in this place to mess with your food. If you were smart, you wouldn’t eat here again.”

  Clarissa pointed back toward the kitchen and shouted at Felix. “Get out of here. Now!”

  Felix didn’t seem to have any intention of backing down.

  David stood up from our table. He rushed over to Felix and flashed his police badge at him. “The lady said you’re not welcome here. I’d advise you to leave—now.”

  Felix saw that David wasn’t messing around.

  Felix let out a groan, then headed for the exit. “Forget this place.”

  Chapter Three

  Suddenly, dessert was the last thing on my mind. All of my thoughts were focused on Clarissa. My heart went out to her. What a terrible thing to have happen, much less in the middle of a dinner rush. I could only imagine how rattled I would be if one of my employees exploded at me like that at my family’s coffee shop. Thankfully, nothing remotely close to that had ever occurred at Daley Buzz Coffee Company.

  David followed Felix out of the restaurant and stood watch on the sidewalk, making sure that Felix didn’t decide to come back in and cause more trouble.

  Clarissa tried to put on a good face and go back to business as usual, but I could tell it was just a front. The natural urge was to hide out in the back, but as a savvy businesswoman, she knew that for the sake of the restaurant, calming down her customer base took priority. Clarissa apologized for Felix’s outburst, hoping to keep customers from having too terrible of an impression of her establishment.

  Before Clarissa had a chance to head back into the kitchen, I got up from my table, approached her, and gave her the most sympathetic look I could muster.

  “Do you want to press charges?” I asked. “Because David can haul Felix into the police station and charge him with theft.”

  Clarissa grimaced and remained quiet.

  My forehead wrinkled. “I’m confused. Do you not want to press charges?”

  “It’s not that I don’t,” Clarissa said.

  “Then what is it?”

  “There’s already enough going on in my life without adding the drama of a court case into the mix. You may not understand, but I’d rather just put this all behind me.”

  I scrunched my nose. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. The amount he stole from me is far less than the level of fallout that would come my way if I pressed charges against him.”

  The vagueness of Clarissa’s answers did not sit well with me. As I looked into her pained eyes, my curiosity grew.

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?” I asked.

  “You don’t understand how short of a fuse Felix has.”

  “Actually, I do. The whole restaurant does after that outburst.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Clarissa said. “All the more reason not to press charges.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “Just say Felix went to jail for a few months. When he got out, not only would he hold a grudge against me, but he’d try to make me pay for sending him to prison. I just know it. And I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder all because I pressed charges over a few cases of stolen food.”

  “All right. It’s your call,” I said.

  Clarissa switched gears. “Anyway, I just want to say I’m very sorry about that outburst. I know that’s not the kind of thing you wanted to hear on a date night with your boyfriend.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “That wasn’t your fault.”

  “Thank you for understanding.”

  “Of course,” I said. “It turns out running a business can get a little stressful sometimes.”

  Clarissa let out a belly laugh. “Yeah. Just a little.”

  “At least you can laugh about it.”

  “I don’t have much choice. I can either laugh about it or cry about it and it’s bad business to cry in front of customers,” she deadpanned.

  She had tried to pass her statement off as a joke, but her tone made it clear that she was speaking at least partially from the heart.

  “Clarissa, is something else bothering you—?”

  She cut me off before I had the chance to finish my thought. “It’s funny, I originally opened the restaurant because I loved to cook. These days, I spend infinitely more time managing the staff and staring down sales spreadsheets than I do around a stove.”

  “That is ironic. But it’s also what it takes to run a successful business.”

  “True. Still, I’m kind of amazed sometimes just how many numbers I have to juggle in a single day,” Clarissa said. “I mean, if I enjoyed math, I would have gone into accounting.”

  “Y
ou’re not alone. Arithmetic doesn’t have many fans. That being said, shop talk aside, I can’t help but wonder how you’re doing.”

  Clarissa tensed up. I waited for her to reply, but her mouth remained shut.

  I reached out to her again. “Are you okay?”

  “It’s safe to say it’s not the best night of my life,” Clarissa replied.

  My eyebrows arched. “There’s an understatement for you.”

  She was doing her best to hold back, but I saw right through her efforts. Frustration was all over her face. To the point where I didn’t see any point in her trying to bottle up her feelings any longer.

  “Clarissa, you don’t have to put on a good face for me. You can tell me what’s going on.”

  “You saw what went on.” She groaned. “The whole restaurant saw it.”

  I stared deep into her eyes. “I’m not talking about what happened with Felix—”

  “Thanks you for the concern, but it has just been a stressful day. You know how it is.”

  She could downplay what was going on all she wanted. All I had to do was look into her eyes to see how much pain she was wrestling with.

  “Anything I can do to make you feel better?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. But thanks for asking.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but stopped when I saw that Clarissa’s attention had been drawn elsewhere.

  She was looking at something that was behind me. I turned around and saw Clarissa’s husband, Ted Anderson, standing outside on the sidewalk. There was a scowl on Ted’s face as he reached for the front door of the restaurant.

  A look of panic came to Clarissa’s face. “You’ll have to excuse me.”

  She didn’t wait for me to respond. Clarissa darted toward the front door and headed outside to speak with her husband away from the crowded restaurant.

  The minute Clarissa stepped outside, her husband began to bicker with her. I watched with concern on my face, but soon lost track of them as they walked away from the restaurant.

  As I took a deep breath, one thought entered my mind—so much for peace and tranquility.

  Chapter Four