In Hot Fudge And Cold Blood Read online

  “Yep,” I said with a nod. “In fact, you’re the key component.” It was a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.

  “The star?”

  “The brightest.” I took the top piece of paper off my stack and handed it to her.

  She looked at it, and then wrinkled her nose.

  “Sarah’s Fudge Emporium—Coming Soon. Come for a delicious free taste of fudge at our pop-up pre-launch event at Blue Moon Bridal...” She looked at the paper again and then up at me. “This is tomorrow! Am I starting a business?”

  “Not exactly—”

  “I don’t even own a suit! Do I need one? I think a pantsuit would suit me—”

  “Hold your horses,” I said holding up a palm. “You’re not actually starting a business. It’s a trap!”

  “Ooh, a trap? I like the sound of that. Will it be dangerous?”

  I shrugged nonchalantly.

  “Only if you think...” I paused, and then raised my voice loud for the last part, “Catching a murderer is dangerous.”

  Sarah clapped her hands together and did a little jump.

  “Fantastic! What do I have to do?”

  “Well, the first thing you’ve got to do is hand out these invitations. We’re only going to invite a few people.”

  “Like who?”

  “Oh, just all of the suspects.”

  “This is so exciting!” Sarah beamed at me.

  “But remember, it could be dangerous.”

  That didn’t seem to put her off at all; in fact, it made her seem even more excited. I wrote down a list of all the people I wanted her to invite, with the understanding that as long as they were there, she could invite whoever else she wanted.

  “Can I go now?” she asked when I’d finished reeling off the list of names.

  “Yep, you’d better. Your opening night is tomorrow!”

  She clapped her hands together again. “See you later!”

  The bell rung as Sarah enthusiastically launched herself out the front door and went to hand out her invitations.

  Invitations to several of Sequoia Bay’s most upstanding citizens... and one murderer.

  Chapter 22

  I spent the bulk of the next day doing everything except working in my shop. Didn’t have time. Most of my morning was occupied preparing fudge samples using the recipe Sarah had dug up on the internet. I went a little overboard and ended up making more than a dozen full trays of the stuff.

  And it wasn’t just plain fudge either. Using the base recipe, I created several variations, including strawberries and cream, rum raisin, walnut, and rocky road.

  Of course I didn’t do it alone. I had Kiwi to assist me. Though irritate may have been a better verb to describe what he did.

  “Can we try it now?” he asked for the dozenth time.

  I shook my head, again. “Nope. We have to wait until it sets. You’ll mess up the whole batch if you start taking it out now. We don’t want it going grainy, do we?”

  “Don’t we?” he said, shaking his little head. “I think we should risk it.”

  “Nope. In fact, no one’s having any until the event.”

  “Is it really a fake event?” he asked me, again.

  “Yep.”

  “But couldn’t Aunt Sarah really start a fudge company? If she did, we’d be fudge rich! We could eat it every day! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

  The mere thought of it turned my stomach. A little square of fudge every now and then was nice, but eating it non-stop for days on end sounded like some kind of torture. From the look on Kiwi’s face, it sounded like heaven to him, though.

  “We’ll let it all cool down, then we’ll slice it into squares, and I’ll let you have a piece or two while we get it put on plates. How does that sound?”

  “I’ll wait, I suppose.”

  “I’m going downstairs to check on Sarah. Are you coming?”

  He shook his head. “No way. I’ve got to guard the fudge!”

  “All right, but no tasting until I say.”

  Kiwi answered with a complaining chattering sound of agreement. I knew the only thing he needed to guard against was himself, but I figured even if he did break his word and eat some, it wouldn’t matter in the end. We weren’t really starting a fudge business after all.

  When I opened the door to the shop, I was pleasantly surprised. Sarah had managed a lot in such a short amount of time.

  Hanging above the counter was a banner which Sarah had made by hanging a piece of string and affixing pieces of letter paper to it. It read:

  Welcome to Sarah’s Pop-Up Fudge Emporium!

  She had moved all the mannequins and dress rails to one side of the shop, where they had been covered in white sheets to disguise and protect them. I didn’t want any excited fudge taster wiping their fudgy hands on one of my expensive wedding dresses, and of course we couldn’t clear out the shop entirely. I did still have a real business to run once this was all over.

  “How many of the invitations did you give out, in the end?”

  I had given Sarah ten of them the day before. There were four people I wanted her to invite, and the other six she could give to whoever she pleased.

  “I’m not sure...” she said, twisting a couple of her braids together while she thought.

  “Was it all of them?”

  Sarah’s tinkling laughter which she gave in response made me nervous.

  “Oh, I’ll say,” she said, the smile on her face not likely to go anywhere soon.

  “So you gave out all ten of them?”

  She shook her head.

  “Nope. Better than that!”

  “Better? How could you do better?” This sounded more and more ominous to me.

  “Easy. You only gave me ten. But I figured if we want this business to be a success—”

  “What!?” I interrupted. “We don’t want it to be a success, remember? It’s a fake business!”

  Sarah shook her head. “I don’t want my name on a fake failure of a business, do I? I want Sarah’s Fudge Emporium to be a success!”

  “A fake success,” I clarified. “So what did you do? Who did you invite?”

  “After I’d given the invitations to the people you told me to, I was nearly out. So, I went to the library and made some more copies!”

  “How many more?”

  “Just a hundred or so.”

  “A hundred!? Who did you give them all to?”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I didn’t give them to a hundred people. I handed out about half of them, and the rest I left in the Black Cat Café. Priscilla said it was okay as long as we weren’t going to start selling pies and coffee and competing with her.”

  I clasped my head in my hands. It was going to be like Sandra’s memorial all over again.

  “I think we might have some disappointed fake customers. I definitely didn’t make enough fudge for a hundred people.”

  Sarah shrugged. “Good. Then we can say we sold out on our first day.”

  “I suppose so. Right, I’m going to get some paper plates, tablecloths, some little cocktail sticks and a few cases of water. Can you think of anything else?”

  Sarah took a moment to think, twisting a braid around her finger and then tugging on it distractedly. Then her eyes lit up.

  “Champagne! We need champagne for a launch party!”

  I shook my head immediately.

  “Unfortunately, the budget for our fake business does not extend to champagne. Maybe I’ll get some generic cola if you really want some fizz.”

  “Really? My first real business, and—”

  “Not a real business,”

  “— and you won’t even get me champagne? That’s pretty mean, Aria.”

  With a frown, I decided to concede. Partly, anyway.

  “I’ll get one bottle. And it’s for us, not the mob. After everyone’s gone, if everything works out like it should, we’ll make a toast to our success together. How does that sound?”

  Her eyes sparkled. “
Fantastic!”

  Leaving her to finish setting up, I headed out to the shops to grab some real supplies for our fake party for our new fake business. I just had to hope that not too many real guests were going to show up.

  Chapter 23

  “Hello?” came a voice from outside the shop, followed by a rattling at the door.

  I checked the clock. There were still five minutes until our 7 p.m. launch time.

  “Please wait outside!” I called, loud enough that my voice would penetrate through the door.

  “But we’re starving!” said the voice.

  “Yeah! Let us in!” chimed another voice.

  “Fudge!” came a third shouted voice. “Fuuuuudge!”

  A ruffling near the store’s rear entrance made me turn around. “Sarah?”

  She was dressed in a long white gown. That, along with her braided hair and the henna tattoos she’d put onto her face, made her look more like a hippie princess than a business owner, but it would certainly be effective at drawing people’s attention.

  She twirled around, sending the dress floating up almost to her waist as she spun.

  “Don’t I look fabulous?” she asked.

  It was impossible to deny that she did. She’d certainly be the talk of the town for days to come. Or she would be—if what I was planning didn’t completely upstage her.

  “You look fabulous, my dear,” I gave her an encouraging smile. “Are you ready to be the belle of the ball?”

  She nodded enthusiastically and headed for the door.

  “You do the honors. It is your business, after all,” I said.

  Sarah unbolted the door, and before she could open it herself, it was pushed open violently from outside. While Sarah jumped backward, I put on my warmest, most welcoming smile to greet everyone. But as it turned out, I ran out of smile before I ran out of guests to greet.

  “Welcome,” I said to the first lady in, a rather angry-looking diminutive woman in her later years.

  “Where’s the fudge?” she said, peering around before spying the tables we set up. “There it is! Out of my way!”

  Slipping out of the way to avoid being pushed, I smiled at the next person through the door.

  “Ah, Aria,” said Mayor Donovan Charlston. “How nice to see you here!”

  “It is my shop,” I pointed out. “It would be strange if I weren’t.”

  “It may be your shop, but it’s your little friend with the business acumen, eh? Fudge is an up-and-coming market in Sequoia Bay. Soon we’ll have three fudge shops!”

  The implied slight had me frowning for a moment, but I quickly managed to fix my smile back in place as the mayor wandered off to taste some of the fudge.

  Next up was the fudge connoisseur herself, Lara Fischer.

  “Hello!” I said to her brightly. “You’ll be pleased to know that we have rum raisin.”

  “Oh! My favorite!” Her head bobbed up and down with excitement.

  “I know! I remembered and told Sarah we just had to have some for you. I don’t want you to be disappointed like you were at Randi’s.”

  “I’ll let you know what I think,” she said as she walked over to the tasting table.

  “She was not disappointed with my fudge,” said a familiar voice.

  Randi herself had decided to come. She was one of the people I had instructed Sarah to invite, but I was still half-tempted to tell her she was barred. Since we weren’t actually starting a real business, I decided to take the high road and allow her to try some of my rather excellent tasting fudge.

  “I’m sure she loved your fudge, but you didn’t have the rum raisin that she was craving.”

  Randi turned her back on me and headed to taste the fudge for herself without another word.

  The stream of people coming in seemed to be constant for the first fifteen minutes, until my shop was packed to the rafters.

  It had never been so busy in here before. The only comparable time was when I’d had a crowd of people waiting outside for a sample sale to start; however, that crowd had never actually made it inside due to the rather unfortunate death of a bride before it all began.

  Sarah was having a grand time, flitting from person to person, draping her arms around them as she greeted them and leaving them wanting more when she left to go talk to someone else.

  “Aria,” said a familiar voice, squeezing my arm to attract my attention.

  “Hi, Jack,” I said, blanching. He was not one of the people I’d told Sarah to invite.

  “I just heard about the new business. It must be very exciting for Sarah.”

  “About that,” I said, pulling him toward me and lowering my voice so that, hopefully, only he could hear. “I’ve got to tell you—this isn’t exactly what it looks like.”

  Jack looked around the room. “So it’s not a free fudge tasting?”

  “Well.” I wasn’t sure how much to tell him. “It is a free fudge tasting, but there are some ulterior motives at play here behind the scenes. I’m planning to clear my mother’s name.”

  He glanced around the room before his eyes settled back on mine. “I’m not sure what you’ve got planned, but I don’t know that it’s going to help. Unfortunately, we found some evidence at your mother’s house that connects her to the death of Sandra.”

  I waved a hand, rejecting his concerns immediately. “Yes, yes, ignore all that.”

  “Ignore it? I can’t do that, Aria.”

  A young man stopped and looked as if he wanted to ask me something. I gave a dismissive shake of my head and sent him on his way.

  “Well, you do what you need to do. But I have a feeling tonight might change your mind.” I looked him right in his gorgeous green eyes. “But could you do me one little favor?”

  “Err, what is it?” He looked nervous as he spoke, and I knew why.

  Jack always did things by the book, a real stickler for the rules, and now he was plainly worried that I was going to ask him to do something against either the official code of conduct, or his personal one. Luckily for him though, I wasn’t.

  “Don’t get mad at me,” I said with a grin. Before he could even ask for more details, I slipped between two young women I didn’t recognize and escaped into the crowd.

  “Sarah,” I said, touching my friend on the arm. “How’s it going?”

  She beamed at me, virtually vibrating with excitement. “It’s wonderful! And they all love my fudge! They say it’s almost as good as Randi’s!”

  “Oh? Who said that?”

  “Randi!”

  That figured. There was no way she’d admit it was better than the stuff she made using Sandra’s recipe. I’d done the best job I could on the fudge, and in my opinion it was at least as good as the stuff Randi was hawking from her shop. I’d even followed Lara’s tip of not stirring the fudge to stop it from going grainy.

  Even Kiwi had declared it passable. It’s no Sandra’s, he’d said, but it’s perfectly edible. He’d then proceeded to eat half a dozen pieces of it, which told me the real truth: it was fantastic fudge.

  CLINK CLINK CLINK!

  “Can I have your attention please?”

  Oh no. It was Donovan, and he wanted to give another of his famous speeches.

  CLINK CLINK CLINK!

  He repeatedly banged a little silver spoon against the whiskey glass he was holding. He must have brought it himself this time too, because it certainly wasn’t something I was offering.

  “Please listen! Listen up! Now, we are gathered here today to remember…”

  I shook my head to myself.

  This party didn’t need a rambling and irrelevant speech from the mayor.

  Nope.

  It needed a little bit of Aria magic instead.

  Chapter 24

  “THANK YOU!” I yelled. “Thank you, Mayor Charlston, for getting everybody’s attention.”

  Donovan was frowning and opened his mouth again. “Aria! Aria? Aria, I was just going to say a few words about—”

&
nbsp; I muttered some words of my own under my breath and then snapped my fingers as if trying to draw everyone’s attention. Wholly a coincidence, the mayor’s whiskey glass shattered into a thousand pieces at the same moment, covering his shirt in the drink.

  “And what fine words they were. Thank you for getting everyone’s attention, Mayor. Are you okay? Did you drop your drink? Someone, please help him clean it up, and be careful not to cut yourselves.”

  I paused for a moment and scanned the room. Perfect. Everyone I’d told Sarah to invite was here: Walnut Wanda, Priscilla, her business partner Nora, Lara Fischer, Donovan, Randi, and me. The only person who I wished could be here but wasn’t was my mother.

  “As fudge lovers, the last couple of weeks have been a very trying time for all of us.”

  The crowd made sounds of agreement, and someone even offered a hear, hear!

  “As you all know, one of the greatest fudge makers in all of Sequoia Bay was sadly taken from us. But there are others who have taken up her mantle, and are even offering up her exact recipe in their shops.”

  I cast my eyes toward Randi, as did almost everyone else. I gave her a smile sweeter than honey.

  “After all, it would be a shame for such a delicacy to be lost forever. Now, you all came here today to taste some fudge. You received, or heard about, an invitation to come and try some samples for a new fudge shop. And here you all are.”

  The crowd reacted with happy noises, and those lucky enough to be holding some fudge either held it up in support or popped it into their mouths when they were reminded of it.

  “But I’m afraid I have you here under false pretenses.”

  A gasp soared through the room like a jet engine firing up. Perhaps it wasn’t quite that strong, but it was nonetheless startlingly loud.

  “Sarah?”

  The hippie princess clapped her hands together to make sure everyone knew where to look before she began. While she was speaking, I slipped away from where I’d been standing and made my way toward the door of the shop.

  Sarah began the speech that we’d prepared. “I’d always dreamed of owning a fudge shop, ever since yesterday when Aria suggested it to me.”