Murder as Sticky as Jam Read online

  The tension between them was palpable. In ten years, nothing had changed, Lacey still treated Mona with contempt, when it should have been the other way around, after all Lacey won the heart of Leo.

  “Fine, have it your way, but I promise you it will be expensive, and I’ll bill you. I don’t care if your shop doesn’t sell a single jar of jelly, I expect to be paid on time,” Lacey snapped as she snatched the card out of Mona’s hand and scribbled the changes to the recipe.

  Silently seething, Mona wanted to tell Lacey that the deal was off, but common sense prevailed, “Lacey, I’ll pay you in advance if that’s what you want.”

  Lacey opened her mouth to answer but was drowned out by the wail of fire-truck sirens.

  Forgetting their argument over gluten-free almond flour, the two women stared at each other before Mona said in a loud voice, “That sounded close.”

  Lacey nodded and walked out of the kitchen followed by Mona.

  Stepping onto the red brick sidewalk, Mona was startled when a fire truck with its lights flashing sped past. The sirens were louder outside the bakery, she could smell smoke which meant the fire was really close.

  A plume of dark smoke rose only a few blocks from the bakery. Slowly, Mona came to the awful realization that the smoke was coming from the direction of her shop.

  Oh God, please no, not Jammin’ Honey!

  Chapter Two

  Without saying a word to Lacey, Mona ran to her car and jumped in the driver’s seat. Jamming the gear shift into drive, she tore out of the parking space, driving like a racecar driver speeding towards Jammin’ Honey. Praying as she drove, she ran a red light and a stop sign. Frantically hoping that it was not her shop on fire, although she had a sinking feeling with each passing block that she’d arrive to find the place, her dream fully engulfed.

  How could this happen?

  Fear gripped her heart as she saw a police barricade surrounding the street where Jammin’ Honey sat. The barricade prevented her from driving any closer to the scene of the fire, but she didn’t need to be any closer to realize the awful truth.

  My shop is on fire!

  Her heart raced, and a wave of nausea broke over her as she parked the car. Flashing red lights, smoke and the crackling of fire consuming her building created a surreal scene that would be etched into her memory for the rest of her life.

  Running down the street toward the fire, she was stopped by a police officer she didn’t recognize. He held her back from getting any closer to the structure fire that was her lifelong dream being destroyed right in front of her eyes.

  “It’s my shop,” she wailed.

  The officer nodded. “Is anyone in there?”

  Mona shook her head. “No. Just my...just...my...inventory.” Her knees felt weak. “And my recipe book, too.”

  Yellow and orange flames climbed into the sky, and the smoke carried the sweet scent of sugar, making Mona think of all the boxes of jam in the kitchen and strewn all over the floor of the shop.

  Tears spilled from her eyes and fell down her cheeks, as she sunk to her knees on the sidewalk. The police officer helped her to a bench across the street.

  “Ma’am, are you going to be alright?” the police officer asked.

  Mona was too stunned to answer, she sat still on the bench feeling the weight of his eyes on her.

  “Ma’am, if it’s any consolation, the fire department is doing everything they can to save it. Is there anyone I can call for you?”

  “No, I mean yes, I mean - “Just as Mona was about to say Vicki’s name, her voice rang out.

  “Mona!” Vicki rushed across the street arms outstretched as she raced to pull Mona into an embrace. “Oh my Lord! I was so scared you were in there! Thank goodness you got out!”

  The police officer nodded, glad to see Mona taken care of. “Ma’am, I’ll be right over there if you need anything.” He walked across the street just as curious onlookers were approaching the scene.

  Mona’s chest ached with the weight of a broken heart as another fire truck approached.

  She gasped as sharp pain assaulted her with a shortness of breath.

  Vicki rubbed her back. “You’re freezing. Let me get a blanket from my car.”

  More flames plumed over the top of the building as Vicki ran to her vehicle.

  I can’t watch this. Mona thought

  She turned the other way and saw a group of people gathered looking at the blaze. It made her nauseous to see everyone staring at the blaze that had just moments ago held so much promise for her.

  Using all her strength, she managed to stand, her hand on the bench to steady herself. Her head was swimming, her breath shallow, she knew she should sit back on the bench before she crumpled into a heap on the ground. She dug deep and found a reserve of strength inside.

  I won’t pass out! She promised herself.

  Summoning all her strength, she willed her legs to move forward.

  She couldn’t sit still. She had to help the firefighters.

  Vicki ran back to Mona. “What are you doing? Get back!” She pulled Mona back to the bench and wrapped the crocheted afghan she’d retrieved from her car around Mona’s shoulders. “Come on, girl. Don’t get all crazy on me. There’s no way I’m going to let you run back inside that building. Is that what you were trying to do?”

  Mona shook her head. “I wanted to help.”

  Vicki grabbed Mona’s hand. “The best help we can offer is to stay out of the way.” Vicki rubbed Mona’s fingers. “Honey, you’re frozen.”

  Mona was stunned that she could be cold with an enormous fire in front of her. And yet, she did feel chilled.

  Shock.

  “When I heard about the fire, I called your cell. But when you didn’t answer your phone, I thought you might have been in the shop when it, the fire, happened. I was so worried”

  Mona nodded numbly, “I was at Lacey’s when it happened. If only I had been in the shop, I could have stopped it. It’s all my fault for leaving.”

  Vicki kneeled down on the pavement by Mona’s side and declared, “Mona, you can’t say that, if you were there you may have been killed. I’m glad you weren’t.”

  “Vicki, everything is gone. It’s horrible,” Mona said, tears running down her face.

  “Not everything is gone. Not you! Not you or me. That’s the important thing. We can start over, honey.”

  “My Aunt Cee’s investment ... it’s ...” A wail bubbled up in Mona’s throat, and she let her best friend pull her to her chest to cry.

  How will I ever repay Aunt Cee now?

  After a moment of release Mona managed to say, “How did you hear about the fire?”

  Vicki motioned over to the crowd of bystanders. “Alexander called me.”

  Alexander Kaas was the owner of Magnolia Falls Wine and Cheese shop, As You Slice It. Mona and Vicki had worked at the shop for many years before Mona left in the spring to open her own store. Mona turned to the crowd and saw Alexander. There was a grim expression on his face, and he gave her a meek wave.

  Mona remembered the day she told him she was leaving to begin her business; he was so mad that he turned bright red. He was furious and told her she had no business experience and her store would fail.

  “He was right,” Mona said.

  “What?” Vicki asked.

  “I had no business trying to run a store. Alexander told me the shop would fail and now look—”

  Vicki rubbed Mona’s back. “Don’t say that! This isn’t your fault—” Vicki’s hand froze mid-way down Mona’s back. “Oh ... gosh, honey. When you left to go to Lacey’s shop ... were you making jam—?”

  “I turned off the burner! Vicki, I swear,” Mona said, a lump forming again in her chest.

  I did turn off the burner, didn’t I?

  <><><>

  The ride home was a blur for Mona, the details hazy as Vicki drove and parked her car in Mona’s driveway. Somewhere on the ride home, the deep pain changed and became a numbness that ma
de the events feel unreal. Turning the key in the lock, she pushed open the front door. Her purse fell from her hand onto the kitchen table, the keys left in the lock and Mona collapsed on the couch.

  Vicki grabbed the keys out of the lock and followed her inside.

  Mona stared up at the ceiling. It was the same as it had been that morning when she left home, the same plain white paint and antique ceiling fan that spun endlessly in circles during the warm months. But so much had changed since the morning she felt somehow offended that the ceiling had the nerve to stay the same.

  Mona lay on the couch, unmoving, until Vicki peered over her, blocking Mona’s view of the ceiling fan

  “Mona!!! Mona, are you in there?” Vicki asked.

  “Yup,” Mona heard herself answer, but her own voice sounded far away.

  “You are seriously as pale as a ghost. Should I take you to the emergency room?”

  “I’m fine,” Mona answered, quietly.

  Vicki kneeled down on the floor beside Mona and declared, “I’m going to make us a couple of stiff drinks. If you don’t look like part of the land of the living soon, I’m going to call an ambulance.”

  “I’m fine,” repeated Mona as she made and effort to sit up.

  Vicki grabbed the remote control off the coffee table and clicked on the TV. “Let’s watch Competition for the Crown; you’ll feel better when you see some people have it worse than you right now.”

  “Competition for the Crown is fiction, Vicki,” Mona whined.

  “Still, how you would like to be beheaded for betraying the crown?”

  Mona smiled in spite of herself. “There is no crown.”

  Vicki giggled as she left the room to fix some cocktails. “Well, if there was, I know you’d never betray the crown.”

  A battle raged on the TV, complete with horse mounted knights slaying each other but Mona could hardly watch her favorite show.

  Vicki returned to the room with two lemon-drop martinis in hand. She put the glasses on the coffee table and sat on the couch beside Mona. She muted the TV and said, “I just got a text from my cousin, Doug. He’s with the fire department; he thinks it wasn’t a total loss, isn’t that good news?”

  Like a light switch being thrown, Mona suddenly woke out of her stupor, “Not a complete loss?”

  Vicki nodded. “See, it’s like I always say, everything is going to work out, somehow.”

  Mona wiped away a tear and said, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to save our shop, all of the stock went up in smoke—”

  “Not all our stock, I made a few batches of lip balm and candles today, and I still have my hives! As long as my Queens are happy ...” She glanced at Mona. “What?”

  Mona felt as if she would pass out. “My recipes.”

  Vicki frowned. “Your recipes? You know those things by heart.”

  “They were mom’s. All I had left of her,” Mona choked on a sob as Vicki squeezed her shoulder.

  Mona’s mother had passed away when Mona was a young girl. Her best memories of her mother were in the kitchen, cooking and laughing. Her mother had taught Mona everything she knew about food preparation, especially making jelly.

  She’d cherished the recipe book that had been written by her own mother’s hand.

  And now it was gone.

  “It’s not all you had left of her, Mona. She’s always going to be in your heart and cooking,” Vicki said.

  Mona pressed her hands to her head trying to quell the pain.

  Vicki straightened. “Anyway, if Doug is right, maybe we can be back in business soon, what do you think?”

  Managing a weak smile, Mona answered, “I hope so. Every dollar of my Aunt Cee’s loan was tied up in the shop. What are we going to do?”

  Mona’s cell phone vibrated on the table, both woman leaned in to look at the caller id. “Aunt Bee,” Mona groaned, sending the call to voicemail.

  Vicki handed her the lemon-drop martini. “Yeah, can’t face talking to her right now, huh?”

  Mona shrugged took a big swig of the martini. “She’s going to give me the, I told you so, speech.”

  The phone immediately buzzed again, and Mona grimaced to see her cousin Stewart’s face light up her screen. Stewart had no qualms about letting Mona know he was furious with her for taking Aunt Cee’s money. Apparently, he’d been asking Aunt Cee for a loan for a while, and she’d refused.

  “You want me to talk to him?” Vicki asked.

  Mona shook her head and pressed the red button on the phone, sending Stewart into silence. She swirled the golden liquid in her glass and said, “Well, this helps calm my nerves, but it doesn’t do anything about our predicament.”

  “Keep drinking,” Vicki said. “Some idea will hit us.”

  After a moment, Vicki suddenly jolted forward and raised a finger in an aha gesture. “You know, Alexander said we could always sell our goods in his store,” Vicki said.

  Mona stiffened. “When did he say that?”

  “Remember? When we told him we were opening up shop.”

  “Because he thought our shop would flop!” Mona said. “I can’t stand him, it’s as if he willed us to fail!”

  “No, he didn’t,” Vicki said. “He offered us a safety net.”

  “I’d like to strangle him with that safety net,” Mona grumbled.

  She found Alexander difficult to deal with. He was temperamental and hot headed, but every time she mentioned that to Vicki, Vicki defended him.

  Probably, Mona thought, the fact that Alexander looks like a Viking stepping off the cover of a Harlequin romance is clouding Vicki’s judgment.

  Mona put down her martini glass and was just about to comment on this when she looked over at the TV and saw Leo on the news. He stood next to a blonde reporter with a microphone thrust under his chin. His dark hair and eyes sizzled right through the screen and into her heart. Behind him was smoky rubble, the remains of what had only this morning been Jammin’ Honey.

  She gasped. “Oh my! Where’s the remote! Turn on the volume! It’s Leo!”

  Vicki jumped to grab the remote and accidently toppled her martini glass across the table. Sticky liquid covered the device as she pressed every button.

  Mona lurched toward the TV, just as the news flash concluded and a commercial for dishwasher soap took over.

  “What in the world?” Mona asked. “Leo was at the fire? Why?”

  Her heart beat a mile a minute as she tried to process what his presence there could mean. He was in a police detective that much was true, but he wasn’t a fire fighter.

  Vicki shrugged. “I don’t know. Let me clean up my mess and I’ll call him.”

  Vicki disappeared into Mona’s kitchen as the sound of car tires crunching gravel on her driveway filled Mona with panic. It was well after sunset, and she hadn’t been expecting anyone. A car door slammed shut and then heavy footsteps on the front steps announced the arrival of an unknown guest.

  Mona peered out the front window just as the quiet of the evening was disrupted by a door bell.

  Vicki came out of the kitchen with a wet rag in her hand. “Who is it?” she asked Mona, who was frozen at the window. When she didn’t get a response, she looked out the peep hole, then swung open the front door. “Hey! Did you come to join the pity party?”

  Mona watched with bated breath as the man she loved, her crush for over a decade, walked into her living room. Instinctively, Mona brushed aside a wisp of hair.

  Of all the days for Leo to come by, I must look awful. I’m a complete wreck!

  “Mona, Vicki, I’m sorry about what happened to your store today,” Leo said as he gazed at Mona.

  Mona stood in an awkward greeting. “Thank you, Leo, for stopping by. That was nice of you, can I get you anything, tea, coffee, a bite to eat?”

  “No, I’m good, I’m still on duty.” Then he glanced around the room. “Whoa. It smells like a distillery in here.”

  Vicki gave her brother a quick hug. “Well you smell like smoke, so I
guess that makes us even. Don’t worry. We’re still sober, but I spilled my lemon drop martini when we saw you on the news.” She proceeded to mop up the table as she asked. “What was that about anyway?”

  “I’ve been assigned this case,” he answered. “Do you mind if I sit down?”

  Mona blushed as she often did any time she was around Leo, “Sorry, I don’t know where my manners have gone.”

  “It’s fine, you have had a hard day,” he said, touching Mona’s hand for a moment.

  A swirl of excitement fired through Mona’s veins at his touch, but she fought to contain herself.

  Leo looked at her strangely for a moment, as if he wanted to say more, but he released her hand and sank down in the leather club chair beside the sofa, instead.

  “What is it, Leo?” Vicki asked.

  “I’m afraid that the news I have for you all isn’t good; your bad day is about to get worse.”

  Mona collapsed onto the couch, tears stinging her eyes. She grabbed a throw pillow and pressed her face into it.

  She felt on the verge of an ugly cry, but that was the last thing she wanted to do in front of Leo. She took a deep breath and then looked up from the pillow and met his gaze. In her steadiest voice, she said, “I know what you are going to say, the building is gone, right? It’s a total loss, isn’t it?”

  “Leo, please tell us that isn’t true, it would take months to rebuild,” Vicki said.

  Leo shook his head slowly and answered their fears, “I wish it was that, but it’s far worse. At first, I thought I would be investigating a fire, but now it looks like arson and homicide.”

  Mona felt the blood drain from her face, and the room seemed to tilt. She reached out to Vicki and gripped her best friend’s hand.

  Homicide?

  Chapter Three

  Mona turned to Vicki and mouthed, “Murder?”

  Vicki was far less subtle, “Leo, that’s not possible!” she shouted. “There wasn’t anyone there today but Mona.”

  “The firemen discovered a body in the shop’s warehouse,” Leo said.

  “A body?” Mona repeated, still in shock.

  Leo nodded slowly.

  Mona frowned. “That can’t be right. The warehouse is all boarded up. We haven’t even had a chance to clean it ...” She shook her head, trying to process her thoughts.