BlueBuried Muffins (Black Cat Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) (2 page)

Leona shrugged. “I wanted you to fall in love with my idea first or you wouldn’t give it a chance. Besides, Roy doesn’t control what we do and I don’t expect him to even come around much. Still interested?” She cocked her head to one side and raised her eyebrows, waiting for a reply.

A big sigh escaped through Annie’s lips. She held the kitten, her new responsibility. “I’m in, with the condition that I don’t have anything to do with him. He’s your problem. Understood?”

Leona stuck her hand out. “That works for me.” Annie shook Leona’s outstretched hand to seal the deal.

“And,” Annie continued, still gripping Leona’s hand, “you promise not to push me to do anything with my mother either. I’ll work through that mess in my own time.”

“You know me too well, but it’s a deal. Now, let’s take a look at that apartment.”

Leona brought Annie to an apartment above a detached, three car garage, next to a luxurious waterfront estate. The apartment was small. One sunny open space for the kitchen, dining and living areas and a bedroom and bathroom. Already furnished. Annie stood in front of the window enjoying the view of the lake. “There’s a lot I haven’t missed about Catfish Cove, but I missed the lake every day I was gone.” She turned around to face Leona. “This is perfect. You knew I would love this place, didn’t you?”

Leona smiled. “The owner is a friend of mine and he’s away most of the time so he likes to have someone living here.” She paused before adding, “In exchange for rent.”

“What? No rent? There must be a catch.”

“No catch. You need to check the main house every day to make sure everything is in working order and call him if you find a problem. That’s it. All the contact information is on this paper on the fridge. I vouched for you so he’s aware that you’ll be here.”

“How could you be so sure I was coming back?” Annie’s eyes narrowed into slits.

“You know me and I know you.” She shrugged. “I had a hunch.”

Annie let the wiggly kitty explore the room and smiled as he sniffed in every corner before jumping onto the blue couch, curling up for a nap. “Smokey says we’ll take it.” She laughed.

“Smokey? I like it. A reminder of why I had to move my business. He’ll be our good luck charm.”

“Speaking of names, what about the name for the café? Is it still Take It or Leave It? Like the one that burned down?”

“I wouldn’t mind a change. You know, new place, new name. Do you have a suggestion?”

Annie glanced at the sleeping kitty. “How about Black Cat Café?”

“Yeah, clever ring to that,” Leona said, nodding. “I’ll call my handyman, Danny Davis, and check if he has time to make a new sign—The Black Cat Café, and underneath, Take It or Leave It.” She motioned in an arc, imagining the sign. “Want to help me get some baking done?”

“Definitely, but first I need to get some food and kitty litter for Smokey.”

Leona gestured in a mock bow. “To the market we go to get his highness set up.”

***

The café was a clean slate for Annie as her mind swirled with ideas to make it unique. “Hey Leona, here’s another idea. How about we build shelves along this back wall and fill them with books. The only rule being that people can take one but should leave one, too. Sort of a book rotation, a freebrary.”

“Freebrary?

“Yeah, free plus library—Freebrary.” Annie waited for Leona to absorb the idea.

Leona’s face was scrunched up before it broke into a big smile. “I can picture it. Fantastic idea. If we pull the tables away from the wall a little, the shelves won’t even take up much space. ”She opened her laptop. “I’ll post on my Facebook page that there is a home here for everyone’s unwanted books.” Her smile was huge. “That fire is the best thing that happened to me in a long time. You, Annie, are the breath of fresh air that I need and Catfish Cove will benefit too. Now, on to the food planning.”

Annie sat at one of the counter stools next to Leona. The laptop was opened to a recipe file. “Here are my ideas in this file and my plan is to make an assortment of muffins, scones, sweet breads and bars ahead of time and we can freeze them. I’d prefer to always serve freshly made items but try to have extra stuff in the freezer for backup in case business is busier than we expect.” She pointed to a multi-level glass case at the end of the L-shaped counter. “All the baked goods will be displayed there, with the coffee and tea selections on a cart at a right angle to the display case. I want to keep the mornings simple and mostly self-serve with the baked goods and beverages.” She checked to see if Annie was following.

Annie added. “What about a few made-to-order items, like an egg and cheese sandwich or wrap?”

“That’s a good idea. I don’t want to start off with that this weekend, though. I’m planning to offer several types of granola and breakfast smoothies, but I don’t see why we couldn’t add a few simple grilled breakfast items once we get a good feel for business.” Leona made a note on her menu. “The homemade granola and various fruit juices will be set up next to the beverages on another self-serve cart. The breakfast smoothies will be made to order.”

“That sounds like a good selection for the mornings. Do you have any idea what the customer numbers will be?”

“This is a better location than where I was before. We’re right on the water now, which is prime real estate and where everyone likes to be. I expect there will be a lot of tourists coming through for most of the year and they can help themselves and do take out if they want to keep moving or they can sit in here and enjoy the view. That’s why simple is best. We’ll be able to handle a lot more people if we don’t have to prepare individual meals.”

“What about lunch?”

Leona opened a new file for the lunch menu. “Lunch will be more labor intensive with made-to-order sandwiches, wraps and paninis. We’ll precut and measure ingredients so customers don’t need to wait too long after they order. And I want a variety of soups but we can make them ahead and freeze them.” Leona leaned back and waited for Annie to process all the information.

“That sounds like a well thought out plan. What are we going to make first? My stomach is telling me to send something down before we get too busy,” Annie said, hands on her rumbling stomach.

“I’ll make strawberry-banana smoothies and an egg sandwich for us if you want to get started making the blueberry muffins. All the recipes are in this folder on my laptop.” Leona opened the folder so Annie could easily find the recipe.

Annie hummed to herself as she pulled ingredients from the big refrigerator and the shelves. The whirr of the blender was soothing and the aroma of fried eggs and toast made her mouth water. When the food was ready, they both sat at the counter enjoying the quiet while they ate the delicious food.

“How’s my mom?” Annie finally broke the silence.

“Well,” Leona wiped her mouth and put her elbows on the counter. “She’s not great. I think something died inside after you left.”

“That’s not fair. Don’t try to make me feel guilty. It’s her own fault that I left and you know it,” Annie said angrily.

“I’m not blaming you, and it may be hard to forgive her, but sometimes it’s harder to hang onto the anger. She was trying to protect you. My guess is that she realizes what a bad choice it was to keep information from you but she can’t go back and do it over. Are you still searching for your birth mother?”

Annie nodded. “Max was helping and I thought he was getting closer, but then the lead disappeared into thin air. I’m still wondering if he found out more than he told me.”

“Max, your boyfriend?” Leona put her hand on Annie’s shoulder. “I know how hard it must be.”

“No you don’t. You can’t imagine what I’m feeling.” Annie quickly wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Let’s get this finished for today so I can go back and check on Smokey.”

“You go ahead if you want. I’ll call Danny and check if he can stop by to get started on the shelves for the books. Get yourself settled into your apartment, I don’t mind baking by myself for the rest of the day. See you tomorrow morning, bright and early?”

Annie swiveled the stool around and slid off. “Sure. Bright and early.”

As Annie walked back to JC’s house to get her car, she called JC to fill her in about the apartment and Annie’s job working at the new café. JC was happy for Annie, and Annie had to wonder if that was because it meant she wouldn’t be crashing on JC’s floor again.

***

The early morning mist hung over Heron Lake like a warm down comforter when Annie walked to her window the next morning. She remembered, from living near the lake for most of her life, that the mist would break up, letting the sun dazzle off the water, and the sky would be bright blue by the time most people were up and about. A few early morning fisherman bobbed in their fishing boats, enjoying the peacefulness of the morning. She checked her phone, finding a missed call from Max from the night before.

“I’m not ready to talk to him yet,” she told Smokey. The kitten rubbed against her leg and meowed before jumping onto the window sill and gazing outside. His tail hung down and twitched as his eyes followed something moving outside. There was a small deck and Annie decided she would hang a bird feeder on the railing so Smokey had something interesting to watch. “I’m heading to work now. See you later.”

It was still early but Annie liked being up before the town woke up. The walk to Cove’s Corner only took about twenty minutes and gave her time to think about what Leona had told her yesterday about her mother. Walking down the slight hill from her apartment nested on the edge of the lake into the center of Catfish Cove gave Annie the comfortable sentiment of returning to an old friend. She walked past the one gas station at the edge of town, the small general store, with newspapers already delivered and waiting outside the door, and a medley of touristy shops selling all manner of souvenirs and locally made crafts.

The new Cove’s Corner building was on the best waterfront in town. The old tour company must have sold out to make room for the new structure, she decided. When Annie arrived at the French door leading inside to the café, she was surprised to find the door open. It is a safe town, so people probably forget to lock up all the time, she thought as she walked in. For some reason, goose bumps traveled up her arm. Something wasn’t right. She got a pot of coffee going, poured herself a cup and walked to the booth closest to the window to watch the fishermen.

The sound of a shattering cup on the shiny oak floor broke the silence. Annie’s hand flew to cover her mouth trying to keep the scream inside as she saw a body slumped in the corner of the booth.

Chapter 3

A slight touch on Annie’s shoulder and the scream escaped. Every muscle in Annie’s body tensed for flight as she whirled around with her hands up, clenched into fists.

“Sorry,” the intruder said as he backed up a couple of steps with his palms raised and open, showing he had no weapon. “The door was open and I wanted to say hello. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Annie looked into deep blue eyes and a kind, but weathered and scruffy, face. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail, clean but scraggly. She quickly glanced over her shoulder to the body, double checking if it was still there and she hadn’t imagined seeing it.

It was still there.

Turning her gaze back to the man standing silently in front of her, she followed his eyes, now staring at the body. All color had drained from his face as he steadied himself on the table.

“What happened?” He whispered.

Annie bent down to pick up the broken pieces of her mug, carried them to the trash, and got out two new mugs. “Would you like some coffee?” Not waiting for a reply, she poured the coffees and put them on the counter, away from the body. Feeling numb, she functioned on autopilot until she could make sense of what happened. If there was sense to be made.

He nodded as he talked into his phone, closed it, and joined her at the counter.

“I called the police.” He held out his hand. “I guess we’ll be neighbors here, my name is Jake. I’m in the shop across the hall, next to The Fabric Stash.” Jake pointed to a sign she hadn’t noticed yesterday, Clay Design.

“I’m Annie. I’m working here with Leonia,” she told him halfheartedly, still distracted by the thought of the body. She walked back to the booth and looked at Max, slumped on the table.

Why did he come here? Was Annie in danger? A piece of paper sticking out of the back pocket of his jeans made her curious. A pink paper, not his color. As she pulled it out, she heard people walking in behind her so she stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans.

Leona rushed to Annie’s side. “What happened? Are you okay?” She turned Annie around and searched her face before looking at the body.

Annie waved her hand toward the booth. “This is what I found when I got here. That’s all I know.”

Roy barged in, took in the scene, and bellowed to Leona. “What trouble did you get into now?”

Leona worked her jaw muscles into a frenzy. With a firm, strong voice, she said, “Calm down, Roy. This has nothing to do with me.” She tilted her head and added, “Maybe you know what’s going on?”

The two stared daggers at each other for what seemed like forever to Annie, but was probably only several seconds, before sirens broke the silence.