One Cup Of Flour Two Cups Of Murder (Winnona Peaks Mysteries Book 2) (3 page)

Chapter 6

Christy did not care that Vanessa ruined day two of her fantasy weekend. No matter what was happening, when the sun pierced the horizon at dawn, Christy relished her favorite time of day.  She didn’t quite keep Vanessa’s baker’s hours, but she still got up before the sun every day to start her first round of chores.  She loved how crisp and brand new the day looked every time her windowsill saw the first light of dawn.  Even though there were no guests in the house, she did have to get around to heavy polishing and deep cleaning that she couldn’t do when she had a house full of people to cook and clean for at Alfie’s Bed and Breakfast.  She never got tired of the old farmhouse after all these years.

All the older women who came to visit were astonished to learn that Christy ran it all by herself and invariably the questions about her husband would come up in a hurry.  She understood they were of another generation, but it still stung a little when they would get a confused look on their face when she said she’d never been married.   For some of them, the news resulted in a quick frown and then a look of pity like maybe Christy was slower in school or had such bad acne as a teenager she could never attract a mate. Once in a very brief while, she would almost tell them about this Marine who broke her heart and that she really thought she was going to have a white picket fence with her war hero. She didn’t know why it ended between her and Gregory.  All she knew was that it took her years to get over him and him showing up like he did a couple of weeks ago didn’t erase those years.

Once in a while, she just wanted to print up a picture of a random guy and put him in a frame and then tell an elaborate story about him dying, maybe being shot down in his fighter jet.  Christy was sure that would get them off her back, but she knew she would never keep the story straight.  That was kind of why she took that extension class down at Winnona Peaks Community College about fiction writing. She decided to dabble in writing stories and one reason she adored the sun coming over the horizon was that it was one of few moments she took for herself during the day.

She would curl up with a banana and coffee and scribble away for a few minutes about the fighter pilots and patients narrowly escaping death at the last minute.  Vanessa was right about her weakness for daytime television, which is why Christy took all the T.V. sets out of Alfie’s when her grandmother died. Her grandmother couldn’t live a day without “her shows” as she called them.  Christy smiled as she came up to the scene in the book she was writing where the girl was saved by a local sheriff and she dropped her pen; looking out the window, she realized that her feelings for Gregory Binks were starting to surface, and she was placing them in her book.  She scratched out the last two lines she was writing, put her tablet in her desk, and decided to finish her coffee while focusing on something else.  Luckily, the phone rang with a call from Susan.

"Hey, I have good news. We have seven rooms booked for this weekend.”

“OMG, I can’t believe it!” Christy yelled.

Susan went into details, “So I called my sister to help me prepare the meals. She's free because she's going to spend the night at the B&B this weekend with me. I didn't want to bother you in your room, so I'll talk to you tomorrow."

“Oh, thanks for everything, Susan!” 

After that, Vanessa called and Christy picked up her cell.

“Good news or bad news.  Which do you want first?”

“Give me the bad news, “Christy sulked.

Vanessa started a rapid-fire monologue that Christy could barely keep up with.  Some days Christy just couldn’t get her little sister to slow down.  “The bad news is that there’s still no word from Lily.  I called her parents last night and again this morning and there is still no sign of her. They’re really worried now.  They say that Lily has never done anything like this and that she doesn’t have a boyfriend that they know of and all her friends are out of school for the summer on internships like she is with me.  Her parents said that all Lily could talk about was baking, so they have no idea where she could be. On
top
of that they just now called the Sheriff’s office to file a missing persons report, but it hasn’t been 24 hours and they said they can’t pursue anything yet without more time involved.”  Vanessa stopped to take a breath.  Even Vanessa had to breathe once and a while.

“Well, first, slow down a bit.  And second, what do you want me to do?” 

“I want you to help me find Lily!  Isn’t that obvious?”  Vanessa was a bit loud and Christy had to pull the receiver away from her ear.

“Okay, okay.  Listen.  I’ll go to Lily’s car and look for clues.”

“Well, it’s probably locked.  You want me to ask her parents for a spare set of keys?”

“I think that might spook them too much.  Besides, it will take too much time to sit in their living room trying to answer questions I have no answers to.  I think the simplest thing for me to do is to jimmy the door with this flat bar I’ve got.”

“Christy!  So now you’re paying the rent by boosting cars in the neighborhood?”  Christy could hear the smile on Vanessa’s face on the other end of the line.

“No.  I’ve just kept locking my keys in the car and figured out how to make this thing the cops use.  Easy peasy.”

“Well, I’m impressed.  You’re the good child.”

“Do you want me to help find Lily or not?”  Christy asked.

“Yes!  Don’t get all hot and bothered.  I’m sure my older, responsible sister hates doing things that could get her arrested.”  Vanessa teased.

“Well, what can I do besides just break into her car?”

“I’ve been up almost all night and I printed off some flyers. The thing is that we are moving forward in the competition and I also need to shop for ingredients for the next round that we’ll be starting around three this afternoon.”

“So, I guess that was the good news you were talking about?” Christy asked.

“Oh, yeah.  We moved forward in the competition, but that’s exactly why I need help.  I can’t pass out all of these flyers around town and shop for everything. Can you help?” Vanessa said.

“Of course I can. Just let me hop in the shower and I’ll be over in just a few minutes.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“You’re―.”  But Vanessa had already hung up.  Christy finished her banana and coffee just to see Alfie stretching out his right hind leg as he came off of his bed and into the living room.  Snowy shivered and shook as she wagged her tail.

“Oh, so you two are awake now?” Christy said to her Pomeranians. They both perked their ears up and got even more excited.  Alfie ran toward her and then toward his dog dish. He repeated the ritual three times to make sure she got the point.  Snowy just shivered and shook, wagging her whole back end.

“So now you think I should feed you breakfast?” Every time she spoke their tails went into overdrive.  Alfie let out a small yip to agree with her. Christy smiled and stood up.  Stretching herself, she went to the cupboard and got them a cup full of food and put it into their dish. 

“You want to help me do some errands today?”  Snowy jumped a bit and went back to shivering and shaking while Alfie was eating breakfast. Snowy broke off from Christy and nosed in beside him at the dish.  Christy smiled, rinsed her coffee cup and put her banana peel in the ceramic compost bin she had on the counter.  She would have to empty that in a bit when she finished the dishes.

~~~

It took a bit of coaxing the bar into Lily’s driver’s window to pop open the lock, but not too much.  She’d had way too much experience breaking into her own car to avoid calling a tow truck just because she’d locked her keys in her car. Careful to put on latex gloves she’d purchased at the restaurant supply store, she pulled out a flashlight and sifted through Lily’s car. Christy remembered being this age once, when you lived in your car half of the time just to get back and forth to work.  Food wrappers, receipts, water bottles—it was a mess.  Luckily, she was a neat freak when it came to the kitchen.  Maybe it would transfer to her car someday. 

Christy pawed through it all and zeroed in on the most recent receipts Lily had in the passenger seat. She tucked two or three of them in her pocket and scooped up a stack of bills she found before pulling herself out of the car.  Careful to lock it again, Christy looked in both directions before returning to her own car and depositing the stack of mail into a specific bag.  Getting back into her car, Alfie and Snowy let out an excited yip.  Christy smiled and started the engine.

~~~

Soon, Alfie, Snowy, and Christy were in Vanessa’s driveway ready to start the day canvassing the town to try and get any information they could about Lily.  Christy left the dogs in the car with the window cracked just a bit to go pick the papers up. When she got up to the front step, there was a box and a note from Vanessa.  “Here are the flyers. I had to get an early start on the market and check on the Pâtisserie.” Shrugging, Christy picked up the box and set it in the front seat of the car.  She knew that some of the townspeople thought she was a little overboard with getting car seats for her Pomeranians, but she didn’t care.  They both sat content in the back, happy to be going along on the excursion.

“Ready to go on a walk?” She chimed, closing the driver’s door and starting the engine. Alfie quietly yipped and Christy took that as consent. She pulled out of the driveway and headed toward Winnona Peaks.

Chapter 7

Gregory Binks loved when the coffee shop was busy and that meant pumping out quite a few orders for early morning commuters who ran out of time to make their own coffee.  He smiled and chatted lightly with the customers, getting on the front line to help the orders along.  To be honest, he didn’t know what he would do without all the high school and college kids working the espresso machines.  They all seemed like they were born to put on the exact amount of whip cream or to steam just enough of the water in the Americano.

He looked up through the golden lettering “Binks” in his window and in the shadows he swore he saw Christy.  Walking quickly around the counter he said, “Hey Estelle, can you cover for me for few minutes.”  Estelle shrugged and nodded, relieved that the boss was getting off the line for little while.  His big muscles got in the way behind the tiny coffee bar anyway. 

Wiping his hands on his blue apron, Gregory stuck his head out the front door of his store and yelled, “Hey stranger!” he waved with a smile. 

Christy was lost in thought, wondering where to put her next flyer and didn’t quite hear him at first.  Alfie and Snowy tugged at their leashes and barked in his direction.  Gregory bent down and pet the dogs.  “So, you finally going to take me up on that offer for free coffee? I’m dying to hear what you think about it.”

Smiling and looking down at the dogs she replied, “Not today.  Vanessa is just really worried about Lily and so she made up these flyers.  I’m helping pass them out in case someone might know anything.”

“Anything I can do to help?”  Gregory said, standing up.

“Well, I am a little busy, but I didn’t want to worry you with it.  I mean, I know that young girls can be a little flaky and so maybe the police are right.  Maybe we should be waiting, but something doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Well, I used to be a cop, you know.  Maybe I could help.”  Gregory offered.

“Let me play around with a few clues. I may take you up on your offer later.” Christy answered.

“I used to be a flaky kid, too.  I bet you remember that.” 

Christy looked at him and gave him crazy look. Gregory kicked himself inside for reminding her of the way they broke up.  He tried to cover as best he could but he knew it was weak.  “I work with kids all the time now.  They aren’t all flaky.  From what you’ve described, it sounds like it was out of the ordinary for Lily to just blow off something as big as this bake-off.”

“Yes, I know.  Her mother said she loves to bake and was really excited about being in her first bake-off this year, so I can't imagine that she would never show up or even call Vanessa, that’s really strange,” Christy said.  Changing the subject, Christy asked him, “So, you mentioned how you are trying to put the cop life behind you.  You said you prefer coffee now. Really?”

“Well, I prefer lots of things now.  Some of them are new like coffee.  Some of them are old like―.

“Old like what?” Christy narrowed her eyes in a mock scolding with a smile.

“Old like―okay so my big muscle brain just screwed up again.  You, I prefer you.  There I said it.  Christy Roberts you are a beautiful woman.  Now, before my stupid muscle brain says anything else, what do you have there on the flyer?” he asked.

Christy couldn’t stop laughing so she handed him the flyers.  Vanessa’s voice echoed in the back of her mind about how hot he was and Christy had to admit to herself that he did look awesome for being 45.

“The flyer just asks people to call Vanessa or Lily’s parents and that she was last seen in the parking lot by the fairgrounds yesterday morning.”

“Did anyone actually see her yesterday morning?” asked Gregory.

“Well, no.”

“Well then, it’s hard to say what happened.  She could have been carjacked in her own driveway at home.” Gregory asked.

“This is Winnona Peaks.  Things don’t happen like that, here.” Christy chirped.

Gregory shrugged.  “You’re probably right.  She’s probably just being young.  Hey, I’ll hang one up and ask the kids if they’ve heard anything and to pass them out at school.  I’d better get back to my customers.  This is our morning rush.”

“Thank you.” Christy managed, handing him the flyers.

“No problem.  Tell Vanessa good luck at the bake off.  I’m sure she’ll be great even if she does make Nanette Wilson tear her hair out.  I can’t wait to see you guys in the next round.”

“You’re going to be there?”  Christy asked.

“Remember, I have a booth there. Selling coffee and getting free cake?  What could be better?  Got to run.” Gregory tossed her a wink and ducked back into his coffee shop.

Christy offered him a small wave through the glass as she continued down the road with Alfie and Snowy a couple of paces ahead sniffing everything in sight. 

Gregory watched her walk down the sidewalk, trying to suppress a sigh.  Well, at least he didn’t have much time to brood about Christy when he was down at “Drinks at Binks.” Gregory Binks was happy he was on Main Street and even happier that his Mom hadn’t thrown out all of his old gear from high school.  Using it to decorate his shop, Gregory had gone down to the local high school to see if he could put up some posters and pictures of the current athletes and teams.  His little coffee shop had the decorating touches of either a man cave or a sports bar, but it seemed to work.