Crunchy Christmas Murder: Killer Cookie Cozy Mysteries, Book 4 Read online

  “Wait — Mr. Townsend… you mean Reid?” Lilah interrupted.

  “Reid Townsend, yes,” Lydia said. “Why? Do you know him?”

  Lilah and Val traded a glance. She knew him, all right. He was friends with both Margie and Val, and had even grown up in the same house that Lilah was renting now. He asked her out occasionally, though she always said no. His life was too fast paced and business oriented for her, but despite that she had come to see that he was a good guy at heart. She couldn’t imagine him laying off his men without good reason.

  “I do,” she replied at last. “He’s an acquaintance. I’m sorry about your husband. At least the two of you have more of a head’s up though, right?”

  Lydia shrugged. “I’m sure John will come around and look at it that way eventually. He’s still fuming right now. Apparently, he and his boss got into a major argument about it — it almost came to blows, from what he said.”

  “Wow.” Val let out a low whistle. “It sounds like there was plenty of drama at the machine shop this morning.”

  “That’s not even all of it. John has… well, he has some issues with keeping his temper under control. I guess one of the other guys heard the argument getting heated and called the police. I don’t blame them, with John’s reputation, but I don’t think he’ll ever get over it. Now he’s mad, worried about losing the job next month, and embarrassed about getting sent home early.”

  “Yikes,” Lilah said. “Will the two of you be all right, though? I’ve never been laid off, but I definitely know what it’s like to have to scramble to make ends meet.”

  “We’ll be fine. I can switch to full time at the florist and start doing deliveries. It’ll bring in enough money to support us until he finds another job.” She laughed dryly. “Who knows, maybe John will drink himself into oblivion before all of this is over, and his life insurance will kick in.”

  Lilah traded another look with Val. Seeing their expression, Lydia quickly added, “I’m just kidding, of course. I love the guy, even if he drives me up the wall sometimes.”

  “My fiancé drives me bonkers sometimes, too,” Val said. “I’m sure I do the same to him, though.”

  As the conversation moved to the topic of significant others, Lilah’s eyes wandered over to the clock. Spending time chatting with the two women had made time pass surprisingly quickly. The minute hand seemed to have jumped forward. In no time at all, she would be clocking out and on her way to go pick up the keys to the sandwich shop. In just over an hour, the next big journey of her life would begin.

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  The deadbolt gave a satisfying thunk as Lilah turned the key in the door for the first time. The last time she had been inside the sandwich shop, she had been attacked by a killer, but she felt safe in the knowledge that the woman responsible was now in prison. She didn’t feel any trepidation as she pushed the door open to the dark, silent kitchen, only excitement. It was hard to believe that the place was really hers now. Everything was final, and the entire process had gone smoothly from start to finish. It felt like a dream.

  With everything shut off to conserve power, the only light in the kitchen was coming in through the small windows up near the ceiling. The room looked peaceful, and Lilah enjoyed the quiet for a moment while she shut the door behind her and put her purse down on the table. When she found the light switch panel on the back wall, it took her a couple of tries to find the right set of switches for the kitchen. When the room was flooded with light at last, it looked bright and cheery; just what she would want for the long hours she planned on spending back here to make cookies.

  The walk-in fridge and freezer had been shut off and left open to air out while the building was unoccupied. They both looked clean, but she wanted to give them a once over before turning them back on. She would have to test all of the appliances thoroughly before she spent any of the extra money she had set aside on decorating. It wouldn’t do her much good to have newly painted walls and a custom sign if the oven ended up breaking down when she fired it up to make her first batch of cookies.

  Trying not to feel daunted by the enormity of the task in front of her, she took one last look around the kitchen, then went back out to her car to bring in the cleaning supplies and necessities, such as toilet paper and bottled water, that she had prepared for the big day. She had clocked out of the diner a few hours ago; now it was time to really get to work.

  “Not bad,” Lilah said to herself. She was standing with her hands on her hips, looking around herself with satisfaction. The freezer and walk in fridge were both humming quietly in the background. She would check the temperatures tomorrow to make sure they were both within the guidelines that she had pulled off of the internet. She was determined to pass the inspection the first time around, and didn’t want to miss a thing.

  The oven and stove top had both been scrubbed and scraped clean and tested, and she had swept out the large pantry after putting a new light bulb in the fixture. She had just finished wiping down the counters, cleaning the sinks, and mopping the floor. She was finally satisfied that the kitchen was clean enough to cook in. Tomorrow, she planned on bringing some ingredients from home to cook the first ever batch of cookies in her new store.

  With the most important room cleaned up, she decided to take a short break and grab a cup of hot soup from the deli on the corner. It was easy walking distance from the store, and she had the feeling that she would be making a lot of trips for soup and coffee during the long hours that she planned on spending at the cookie shop. She wasn’t planning on hiring any employees until she was confident that the cookie shop would be a success. For one, hiring someone else would just make everything more complicated when it came to finances. Besides that, she didn’t even know if the little shop would bring in enough money to support her, let alone a second or third person.

  It was certainly an uncertain path she was taking. She could only hope that things would keep going her way in the years to come. She knew that no matter how well she planned and budgeted, the fate of her shop would ultimately rest in the hands of luck. All she could do was put her best effort forward and hope.

  She brought the soup back to the sandwich shop — she wouldn’t feel right calling it a cookie shop until she had made the first batch of cookies — and settled down at the rickety old table in the front room that had been left behind by the previous owner. The front of the shop had a huge display window that took up most of the front wall. It would be perfect for cookie displays. She made a mental note to do something up for the holidays, but for now she settled with watching the passersby as they went about their business on Main Street as she ate.

  When she had put her empty soup container in the trash bag, she went on to her next task; finalizing the colors she wanted to paint the cookie shop. Ever since she had first seen the sandwich shop, she had been fantasizing about the interior decorating. So much could be achieved with just paint and stencils. The only problem was settling on an idea. She didn’t want to regret her choice a week, a month, or even a year later. She had borrowed an entire book of sample colors from the local hardware store, and was planning on going through it for the rest of her evening at the store.

  It wasn’t until the sun began to set and the natural light began to fade that Lilah put the book down and rubbed her eyes, realizing that it was past dinner time for Oscar and Winnie. The poor things were probably wondering where she was; it was time to get going. She was pretty sure that she had made her final choice for the cookie shop’s color scheme, but wanted to sleep on it before purchasing the paint and locking herself in to a decision. She had spent enough time in the little shop for the evening. It was time to get home and get some rest before tackling the next big project.

  “I’m sorry I was gone so long, you two.”

  Lilah slipped through her front door and nudged her way past the eager cat and dog in an attempt to put some of her stuff down before petting them. Winnie wasn’t having any of that, a
nd jumped up, barking happily. A couple of treats from the owl cookie jar bought her just enough time to put her purse and the paint color sample book down and take off her shoes before the dog needed attention again.

  After she let the beagle outside to do her thing, Lilah followed the meowing Oscar to the end table where his food bowl was. She grabbed the bag of kibble from a high shelf and gave him a scoop, with a little extra as an apology for being so late. Once Winnie was let back inside, she filled her bowl as well.

  Seeing her pets happily eating made her smile. She loved both of them, and hoped that this new chapter in their lives together would still leave her plenty of time to spend with them. She would be working two jobs for a while, at least until the cookie shop took off, which would probably mean a lot of late nights and early mornings. They would make it work, though. She would make sure of it. The dog and cat were like family to her, and she would make time for them even if it meant rearranging her schedule.

  Feeling content, and just a little bit tired as the long day started to catch up with her, Lilah settled down at the kitchen table with a mug of peppermint hot cocoa and her laptop. She needed to write an email to her mom to tell her about her first day getting the sandwich shop ready, and she also needed to save some more recipes for different kinds of cookies. She hoped to get the shop open before Christmas, which meant that she would need some holiday themed cookies to offer her customers.

  She opened up her email and began typing, pausing occasionally to think about what she wanted to say. When she had first told her parents about her plans for the cookie shop, neither of them had been thrilled. Her mother had finally started to share in some of her excitement, but her father was taking longer to come around. She knew that he was hurt that she had left her comfortable job at his company, only to try to start her own business just a couple of years later. A baked goods shop was a far cry from the fast-paced corporate environment that she had left behind, but he just didn’t seem to see that.

  Lilah finished up the email to her mother, covering all of the best points of the day and trying to convey her excitement and hope for the future. This was a huge step for her, and she wanted her parents to be able to share her optimism. She knew it would take time, but she was sure that one day even her father would come around.

  After sending the email, she surfed the internet for a few minutes, checking a couple of websites that made custom signs. All of them had a waiting period of a few weeks, which was longer than she wanted. She knew that she shouldn’t have waited for so long to settle on a name, but she had wanted to wait until she had come up with one that felt just right. Now she was really going to have to crunch to get a sign made in time for the grand opening.

  Deciding to check out the local glass sketching shop tomorrow, she clicked out of the web page and pulled up a news site, hoping that it wouldn’t be too chilly out. When she saw that the temperature would be in the sixties, she smiled. At least she would be able to prop the door open while she painted without freezing. She would have to remember to bring a fan from home to help air the paint fumes out.

  She was about to close the browser when a news story caught her eye. Local Man Found Dead in Pool. Frowning, she clicked to expand it. What she read made her stomach drop.

  John Lopez, 42, was found dead in his swimming pool this afternoon. The police have refused to comment on the cause of death. Earlier this morning, Mr. Lopez had an encounter with the police after a concerned coworker witnessed an emotional outburst on the job. It is unknown at this time whether the two incidents are related.

  “Oh my goodness,” Lilah whispered. “Poor Lydia.” Her heart went out to the woman. How horrible to think that just this morning they had eaten brunch together and discussed her husband. Now he was gone. She wondered if Lydia had been the one to find his body, then had to push the thought out of her mind because it made her eyes prick with tears. This had been one of the best days of her life, but for Lydia, it had become one of the worst. How could the world be so unfair?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * * *

  The next day, after a few hours of shopping and waiting around at the hardware store for her paint to finish mixing, Lilah arrived at the sandwich shop ready for a long day of painting and, between coats, baking. She couldn’t wait to see what the little shop looked like once the walls were painted the colors she had chosen. After a lot of research and comparing nearly identical colors, she had decided to go with a light powder blue in the main room. Blue, she had read, was supposed to be a soothing, relaxing color. She hoped that with the walls the color of the sky on a summer day, the small room would seem bigger. Her biggest concern was the space feeling cramped once she put in a small table and chairs, and a display in front of the window.

  It took another half an hour of taping and laying out plastic — she wanted to update the flooring

  at some point, but wouldn’t be able to afford to do so for some time — before she could begin painting. It was with immense satisfaction that she rolled the very first swathe of coat onto the wall.

  She was just painting over the last couple of square feet of boring white when she heard a soft knock from behind her. Reid was standing at the shop’s front door, which she had propped open with a box fan that was set on low and was blowing the paint fume-infused air out of the building.

  “Oh, hi,” she said, getting down off of her step stool. “Come on in. I was just finishing up the first coat.”

  He stepped over the fan and looked around. “It looks nice,” he said. “I like the color.”

  “Thanks. I think it’s turning out pretty well.” She grabbed her phone and glanced at the time. It was nearly noon. “Are you on your lunch break?”

  “No, I had to leave work early,” he said. She noticed for the first time that his eyes looked more tired than usual, and he had none of the powerful energy that she was used to. Suddenly she remembered that John Lopez, the man who had been found dead the day before, had been one of his employees.

  “I read about what happened,” she said. She set the paint roller down on the tray and leaned against the counter. “I’m sorry. Did you know him well?”

  “John? No, not very well. He came out drinking with me and some of the guys once in a while, but mostly kept to himself at work.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “This whole week has been a mess.”

  “I heard about some of it. John found out that he was going to be fired, didn’t he?” At his surprised look, she explained, “Val came into the diner with his wife, Lydia, yesterday morning before I picked up the keys to this place. She told me about the argument between you and John.”

  “It was more of a fight than an argument,” Reid said. “I think he would have physically attacked me if some of the other guys hadn’t held him back. The whole thing was a mess. I don’t like laying people off at the best of times. I fought hard to get the extension for them until after Christmas, but now they are still going to be worrying about it during the holidays thanks to him. Though of course now that he’s dead, I can’t really hold a grudge against him. I just wish things hadn’t ended on such a sour note with him.”

  “Yeah, I can’t imagine. It’s just terrible all around. I can’t imagine anyone at the machine shop is feeling too good today. Is that why you left early?”

  Reid’s face darkened. “That’s another story. Apparently, the police decided I’m a suspect. They showed up at the machine shop this morning to talk to me. My boss at the corporate headquarters called after they left to ask me not to come back in to work until after I had been cleared of any involvement in John’s death. They’re sending someone else in to take my place temporarily.”

  “Wow,” Lilah said, giving a low whistle. “So, they think he was murdered? The article I read didn’t really have much information.”

  “They must,” he said. “But they wouldn’t tell me much. Poor guy. I keep wondering what I could have done differently. I didn’t kill him, but I might as well have.”
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br />   “What do you mean?”

  “Well, if I hadn’t left that letter from corporate on the desk, then he never would have seen it. We wouldn’t have had our argument, he wouldn’t have gone home early, and then he wouldn’t have been in the wrong place when whoever killed him came by.”

  “You can’t blame yourself,” Lilah said. “Trust me, I’ve been there. It’s horrible what happened to John, but it’s not your fault.”

  “Thanks for saying that.” He gave her a faint smile. “Hey, do you need any help? I’m pretty handy with a paintbrush, and I need something to do now that I’m taking an unexpected vacation from work.”

  “Sure. Do you want to finish up in here? I’ll get started on a batch of cookies. We can eat them while this coat of paint dries.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” he said, picking up the paint roller. “Thanks, Lilah. I needed something to take my mind off of everything.”