As for the rest of his family though, it felt like there was something else going on here. What secrets was Max holding on to about his uncle? Being executor of the will, he must have known Nathan's wishes long before he'd died. Was it possible that Max killed his uncle to get his estate?
* * *
"Okay, I can't stay long. I have two classes tonight," Tara said and sat at Grams' kitchen table, between Amber and me. They were each in their normal wear of black leggings and a tunic for Tara (today's was red) and jeans and a T-shirt (olive green) for Amber. I tried to make my attire always a surprise, and I wore a short beige skirt with embroidered black flowers, and a thin, short-sleeve black sweater.
Amber had brought over tortilla chips and salsa, and I'd prepared a salad of baby greens, avocado, tomato, cocktail shrimp, and feta cheese with balsamic vinaigrette.
I handed each of them a plate and fork and lifted a pen and a pad of paper and got ready to jot down any tidbits of info we came up with to work on later. "Okay, since we're working against the clock, let's get to business."
"Why are we doing this?" Tara asked as she filled half her plate with salad. "I wasn't listening when you called earlier."
Amber snickered.
I laughed. "Thanks a lot."
"Sorry," Tara said. "I had a new customer walk in. A four-year-old little girl and her super hot father. Too bad he had a ring on his finger."
"Yes, it's a shame he wasn't divorced or widowed," I teasingly said with a chuckle.
She waved away my words. "Hush. You know what I mean. So why are we here?"
I stared at my notepad. "We're going to work through the few clues we have and try to figure out who killed Nathan so I can get my business back to normal."
Tara dipped a chip into the salsa. "Normal? What's going on?"
Amber said, "We had more business before Nathan's death. It's been kinda slow."
"Maybe it's just slow now," Tara said, offering her support.
I shook my head. "It's May. This is the time we usually start picking up again. People want to be outside. Grab a muffin and walk down Main Street or take the trolley to the pier. And I don't think this is because Nathan died there. Business was fine until news traveled that he'd died of a peanut allergy. That can't be a coincidence."
Tara and Amber exchanged worried glances. Luckily, neither tried to tell me it would be okay.
"Okay, so let's do this. What do we have already?" Tara asked.
I glanced to the notes I'd previously scribbled. "Black gloves, moccasin with yellow stain, scones, e-mail. That pretty much sums it up."
"So you think the killer sent the e-mail?" Tara asked.
I shrugged. "Well yeah, how else would he get Nathan to the bakery?"
Tara shook her head. "Nah, that doesn't make sense. Nathan stayed in his house twenty-four seven. He probably had someone deliver his groceries, right?"
I nodded, not sure where she was going with this.
"So if the man can't run out for eggs, why would he come to the bakery for a cupcake? Even though they are absolutely amazing cupcakes." She smirked.
She had a point. "There had to be another reason he went there. And it had to be pretty big."
Where should we do this?
I repeated his words to them. "That's what he said to me when he arrived."
"Sounds a bit perverted," Tara said.
I laughed, because we sometimes shared the same brain. "He was definitely there for a specific reason. Maybe something he thought I would help him with?"
Tara and I just stared at one another. I had no clue what that something could have been though.
"Then who sent out the e-mail?" Amber asked and bit down on a piece of shrimp.
I had no clue about that either. "It couldn't have been a coincidence."
Tara stabbed her salad with her fork. "Nothing ever is to you."
True. I believed everything happened for a reason. "Think about it. Nathan is somehow lured to the bakery at the exact same time a fraudulent e-mail goes out to part of the town for free cookies. What's the chance?"
One thought after another entered my mind. I dotted the air with my pen. "Furthermore, think of who was there. I didn't get a good look at every single person, but the ones who stood out the most were PTA mom Mallory Winchester and those Bitty-Batty women."
Amber smiled at my term and immediately understood. "They're some of the biggest gossips in town."
I raised my arm. "And you win a gold star, my dear. Exactly."
"So this was all carefully planned, and probably by the same person," Tara said.
"And who is that person, ladies?"
They looked to one another and said in unison, "The killer."
"Bingo. Now, we just need to know who that is." I grabbed a chip and dipped it into the salsa. All of this munching around me made my stomach growl.
"Who are our suspects?" Tara asked.
I didn't need to glance to my notes for this. "So far, Nathan's sisters, Holly and Gloria, and possibly his nephew, Max. I'm wondering if there's more though. His neighbor is weird."
Tara chuckled. "We're all weird in some way. That doesn't mean any of us would kill a person."
I giggled. "You're right, but someone did it, and since Nathan was such a recluse, who better than his next-door neighbor?"
They both nodded.
"Anyone else?" Amber asked.
I shook my head. "Not yet, but I'm still working on it."
Tara took a napkin from the pile in the center of the table and wiped her chin after a wedge of avocado stuck there instead of going into her mouth. "And as for the actual killer, we tried the cameras at the bank, and we don't know anyone who can enhance their DVD, or if it can even be enhanced. So trying to see who the gloves and shoes belong to isn't possible, is it?"
I was afraid she'd say that. "Okay, what about the e-mail? The name on the account is obviously fake. Unless I have an evil twin I don't know about. Does anyone know how to trace an e-mail?"
Amber smiled. "I may have a friend who can. Hang on." She got up and walked into the living room. In a few seconds, she was talking to someone.
"If her friend can't help, Duncan may be able to," Tara said.
I quirked a brow. "I thought you hated him."
"I guess hate is a strong word. He was just doing his job, even if it's a sucky one." She rolled her eyes. "And I may have overreacted."
I laughed. "Ya think?"
She smiled and set down her fork. "What about you?"
I widened my eyes. "What about me?"
She wiggled her eyebrows. "What about you and Will and Jared? Any threesomes yet?"
It was so unexpected that I laughed out loud. Well, not completely unexpected, considering this was Tara, but those kinds of questions weren't usually directed at me.
"That won't be happening."
She snapped her fingers. "Shucks. I figured I could live vicariously through you, for a change."
"You'll have to look elsewhere for that," I said.
Tara leaned closer. "You and Will still haven't…" She made a circle with her left hand and pushed her right index finger through it.
"How old are you? And no, we haven't. We've only been on four, um, five dates." I fidgeted in my seat, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. It wasn't that Tara and I hadn't shared our intimate details with one another. We'd done it all our lives. For some reason though, this felt different.
She laid a hand over mine. "Honey, why are you dating Will? The chemistry obviously isn't scorching."
"He's a good man. And it's not always about the heat level."
She leaned back in her chair and blew a raspberry with her mouth. "No, but there needs to be something more there than 'he's a good man.' That's a reason to take him on as a doctor, not date him. Don't you want hot and sizzling? You should go on a date with a guy who makes your stomach flutter, whose smile makes your knees weak."
My mind flittered to Jared. "And you think that's Jared? That's crazy."
One corner of her mouth lifted. "Then why are you smirking?"
I forced a blank expression onto my face. "Jared and I are just friends."
"Maybe now, but you obviously still have the hots for him. Just like in high school."
She was crazy. "That was a long time ago."
"Maybe so, but the heart and body want what they want. And I don't believe you ever fully let him go. I'd bet that you compare every single guy and kiss to the kiss you and Jared shared years ago."
I stared down at my notepad but didn't actually focus on any of the words. Was she right? I didn't always compare kisses, just sometimes. But holding on to feelings for a guy over twelve years was creepy and insane.
She pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. "I want you to be beyond happy. You deserve it."
The sentiment in her dark eyes choked me up. Before I could respond, however, Amber returned to her seat.
She set her cell on the table. "I know someone at school who can take a look."
"That simple?" I asked, suddenly hopeful.
She shook then nodded her head. "Maybe. He said he could try to find the sender's IP address or who the e-mail account is registered to, but he'll need access to the original e-mail. And that means he'll either need to get onto Bernie's computer, or I'll have to pull up her e-mail account on his computer. For that I'll need her password."
"Can't you just forward the e-mail to him?" I asked.
She paused, then shook her head. "What if she sees that?"
I assumed being up front and honest about it all was out of the question because that meant Amber would have to confess to snooping.
Tara frowned. "How'd you get the e-mail last time?"
"She always stays logged in to her e-mail account. I went on her computer in the study and saw it. I'd bring him home, but she's always there. She's not going to just let us hang in the study and not check in on us. Unless…" She narrowed her gaze at me.
"Unless what?" I asked.
"Unless I get some help to distract her from my favorite cousin."
I scoffed. "I'm your only cousin."
She smiled wide. "You want to track this e-mail, right?"
Tara giggled. "That is part of the reason we're here."
"Fine. I'll help," I said. "But first answer why you snoop in Aunt Bernie's e-mail." I was actually a little nervous to ask. I didn't need to know about any more family secrets.
She shrugged. "Because I can. Besides, she snooped in my diary for years."
I stared at my cousin, and my chest tightened. She was still so angry that her mother died and her father remarried. She couldn't see that Uncle Doug had married Aunt Bernie so she'd have a mother. He did this for Amber, not against her.
I wished I could've been there for her more as she was growing up. I wished I could take away the rest of her pain now.
Tara must've had similar thoughts, because she squeezed Amber's hand.
Amber pulled away though. Not in a mean way. Color crept into her full cheeks, and it became obvious that she was embarrassed. I changed the subject.
"Okay, so is this all we have?" I asked, no longer as hopeful.
"If we can't figure out what really happened to Nathan, maybe we can brainstorm ways to drum up business," Tara said, interrupting my thoughts.
"That's a good idea," I said. "How?"
"We can offer more free items," Amber suggested.
"And have another dead body on the premises? I don't think so," I said.
She scoffed. "Unless you're giving 'dead bodies' away as a free gift, I don't think that will happen again."
Tara laughed. "What about some type of contest or raffle? They could buy a dozen cupcakes and be automatically entered into a drawing."
Oooh, I liked that idea. "What would they win though? I can't afford to buy someone a car."
"No, but I could give them free dance lessons."
I smiled. "You'd do that?"
"Of course. Just as I expect free cookies if my business starts to dry up too."
"Absolutely."
I jotted down the option. "What do you think of having the customer make suggestions for new cupcake flavors?"
Amber grimaced. "I like that, but what if it's something funky, like a hot dog and sauerkraut cupcake?"
Tara and I laughed. "I don't think I'd want to eat that, but you know me. I like the idea of coming up with some crazy concoctions. Plus, it wouldn't have a permanent spot on the shelf, just a try-it-out thing, and people could vote on their favorites," I said.
They both nodded in rhythm. "That's a good idea. It's fun, and they'd have to buy to participate," Tara said.
"Great." I jotted that idea down too, and then we stared at one another in silence.
Tara shrugged. "I don't have anything else."
None of us did. But I had a place to start, and that was better than feeling useless.
* * *
Shortly after the girls left, Jared called and asked if I wanted to grab some ice cream. Heck yeah! I added black thigh-high boots to my ensemble and a swipe of my red lipstick and was ready to go. The best place to get ice cream in town was Shirley's, a small storefront on the pier. I ordered a cup of butter pecan, and he got the chocolate-vanilla swirl. We sat on a bench facing the water.
I scooped a spoonful of my buttery nutty ice cream into my mouth and softly moaned. If Jared hadn't smirked, I may not have realized I was making sounds.
The corner of his mouth lifted. "Is it good?"
I chuckled. "Maybe."
He held my gaze, and I wondered what I'd said to make him stare at my mouth for a moment. Tara's words about how I still pined for Jared entered my mind. Ever since my dinner with Will, I hadn't been able to get either of them out of my head. And not in a threesome kinda way. Everything I had said to Tara about Will was accurate. He was an awesome guy. But Tara's words kept playing on a loop in my mind. If he and I were meant to be, were some epic future couple, wouldn't the chemistry already be there? Wouldn't I want to confide in him? Wouldn't he be the first person I went to with matters? And if the answers should've been yes, then what was wrong with me? I really liked Will. He was the first guy in a long time who I liked.