Death Is Like a Box of Chocolates (A Chocolate Covered Mystery) (26 page)

B
obby heard the 911 call and was the first to arrive, quickly followed by Leo, Erica, Bean, Kona and just about everyone left at the book signing. I learned later that Zane had been forced to stay back and protect the silent auction items from a few rabid PTA moms who really,
really
wanted to win twelve hours of Saturday night babysitting from one of the town’s best sitters.

Even groggy, the mayor tried to bluster her way out of trouble, but she couldn’t explain the gun in her hand. The chief himself arrested her and charged her with the murder of Larry Stapleton and the attempted murder of Reese and me. Reese was rushed to the hospital, still unconscious.

Coco had made her escape as soon as the crowd arrived. Once word got out that she’d saved the day, that cat would never go hungry again. Not that she did now.

Leo hovered as I sat in the dining area, watching the action. “Worst day?”

I shook my head, smiling. “Not yet.” When he still looked worried, I added, “She didn’t hurt me, Leo. Just scared me.”

Lockett arrived to take my statement.

“I think I deserve a trip to Kennywood for this,” I said after I relayed the whole story.

“Dat’s right,” he said in his strongest Pittsburgh accent. “I’ll take ya back ‘air and we’ll ride the Thunderbolt.”

Bean scowled but I couldn’t stop smiling. Two murderers were no longer on the loose.

• • • • • • • • • 

F
or the first time in weeks, I woke up with no anxiety. The Great Fudge Cook-off and Arts Festival had been a success. And we’d solved the mystery of Denise’s murder and completely cleared the reputation of our store.

I headed to the kitchen, expecting at least a few friends to stop by for all the details before the parade at noon.

Erica was downstairs almost as soon as I had the coffee beans ground. “Feeling better?” she asked, with an affectionate hug before heading to the refrigerator to pull out bacon.

I grinned. “I can’t believe it’s finally over.” The sun was shining, the coffee was ready to brew and I still had a business to run. I pulled ingredients for pancakes out of the pantry just as my phone vibrated with a text message.

“Want me to see who it is?” Erica asked while she poked at the bacon in the pan.

“Sure.” I closed the door with my hip.

“Leo.” She picked it up and squinted. “He wants to know if we’re decent.”

“Tell him to come over.” Erica had barely pressed “send” and I was still throwing together my dry ingredients when we heard Leo letting himself in.

“Smells great,” he said and limped into the kitchen in his full dress uniform.

“Hey, gorgeous,” Erica said, while I stared at him with tears gathering in my eyes.

Leo gave Erica a quick smile before focusing on me. “You doing okay, Berry?”

I bit my lip and nodded, too emotional to talk.

“Then let’s get this breakfast going,” he said. “I have a parade to march in.”

• • • • • • • • • 

T
he morning passed in a blur of grateful neighbors and friends calling, texting and stopping by. Tonya called to tell me that Reese had a concussion, but was already demanding her laptop and cell phone. Never suspecting that Gwen could be so dangerous, she’d agreed to meet her at my shop, but didn’t remember anything after coming in the back door.

I went through pounds of flour and sugar. Bean had filed a story about murder in a small town that was being shared across the country.

“Maybe I’ll stick around West Riverdale for a while,” he told Erica. Was he looking at me when he said it? I stopped mixing the batter to pay attention.

“Really?” Erica said excitedly.

“There’s certainly enough corruption around here to check out,” he said.

I ducked my head to hide my smile and let the warm feeling of happiness rush over me. Maybe he was staying for another reason.

Every chance he got, Bobby called us with updates about the case. First, a teen volunteer who was the daughter of our 911 dispatcher confessed to being Reese’s informant. Reese had tricked her into revealing one detail and then threatened her with exposure—saying it would go on her
permanent record
—if she didn’t cough up more information. It kinda made me wish Gwen had hit her at least one more time.

Even though she’d been right about a few things.

Once Peter learned that Gwen was arrested and wouldn’t be applying any political pressure to get him cleared, he started talking. He’d fallen in love with Gwen and was planning to get a divorce once she was elected. But then the blackmail letters started to arrive.

Larry’s computer was found in Gwen’s attic; she claimed to not know how it got there, but her fingerprints were all over it. It was full of photos of her and the principal having an affair, along with letters demanding money. It also had photos of her and the principal in late-night meetings with the president of the solar company. Maybe Larry had threatened Gwen with exposure of the photos. Maybe he even figured out that the solar company was funneling money into her campaign in exchange for the town council paying five hundred dollar rebates to their customers. Who knew whether the affair or payoffs were worse in Gwen’s mind?

All of the photos on Larry’s computer were taken after Denise’s break-in. We could only speculate, but it seemed like Larry got the idea to blackmail the principal after seeing the original photos when he broke into Denise’s studio, after
she
had blackmailed him. Maybe he realized how suspicious it was for the principal to be driving by that barn so early in the morning, and then had followed Peter himself. He probably thought he hit the jackpot when he got photos of Peter having an affair with none other than the mayor.

Denise had pushed Peter to come to her studio to see her work to prove she was capable of becoming a school photographer. He had gone, intending to give her a polite brush-off, but then he saw the photo of his own car driving in front of a barn. She’d told him how she modified the photo to remove the Gable’s Heating and Plumbing advertisement to make it look timeless, and he had incorrectly deduced that Denise was his blackmailer. He’d made her a senior-class photographer, but it hadn’t stopped the blackmail demands.

When Denise started talking about showing her work in DC, Peter had panicked and killed her before she could meet with the gallery owner. He tried to claim that the whole thing wasn’t planned, but he’d not only planned the murder in detail, he’d also planted evidence and slept with Opal to give himself an alibi. Way premeditated.

The poison had been cyanide. Peter had found a bottle in the basement of the high school years before and held on to it. Who knows what other problems he would have solved with that bottle if he’d gotten the chance.

Fitzy the locksmith felt terrible. His palsy was getting bad, but he never wanted anyone to know he could no longer do his job. When Colleen needed him to change the locks, he’d called Peter to do the work, giving him the chance to plant the needles.

The blackmail letters had intensified after Denise’s death.

Gwen and Peter assumed Denise had an accomplice, and they had to fix that problem too.

Larry had certainly underestimated Gwen. According to Peter, she’d been the one to bash Larry’s head in.

It was all anyone would be talking about in West Riverdale for quite a while. We were able to roust everyone from our kitchen when it was time to hurry over to the parade route.

Steve and Jolene had reserved space for us by setting up camping chairs on Main Street in front of the grandstand. Our neighbors let us through the crowd with some friendly kidding about special treatment, but patted us on the back as we moved by.

Erica, Bean and I folded up the chairs and stood cheering as the floats from local businesses and organizations and the high school bands marched by. I recognized a lot of Erica’s comic book kids beneath the fuzzy hats of the West Riverdale High School Stars. They tried hard not to smile at her and then became completely focused on their performance when the drum major whistled for the music to start for their grand entrance down Main Street. The music swelled and my heart felt like bursting when they played “Stars and Stripes Forever,” even if some of the trumpets had a little trouble keeping up with the fast pace.

Then the West Riverdale Veterans Group approached, their military bearing obvious even with disabilities and age. Leo held a small flag in one hand and grinned at me, and Star walked beside him in her own spiffy uniform. He seemed so happy and hopeful. I bit my lip, but still, joyful tears spilled over.

My cell phone pinged with a message from Hillary Punkin’s assistant. I clicked on it and the slide for her “Yay or Nay” segment appeared on my screen:

• BY ISABELLA KNACK •

Lavender Truffle

12 fresh lavender flower heads

⅓ cup heavy cream

10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Place the flower heads and cream in a small pot. Heat on high until cream starts to simmer and melt the butter in the mixture. Take off heat and set aside to steep for 15 minutes.

Divide the chocolate into two equal 5-ounce portions, and set one portion aside.

Heat up the cream mixture again and, using a fine-mesh strainer, strain the cream into the chocolate in a small mixing bowl; discard the flower heads and bits of lavender.

Stir the cream and chocolate together until smooth. Chill in the refrigerator until somewhat firm, but not hard, for about 1 hour. Melt the other half of the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments until liquid.

Line a baking sheet with a piece of waxed paper. Roll the lavender mixture into 1-teaspoon-sized balls, and dip into the melted chocolate mixture using a skewer or toothpick. Place onto the prepared baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to harden.

Lemon & Thyme

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1½ teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

9 ounces high quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh Meyer lemon juice (this will be about 1 lemon)

1 teaspoon Meyer lemon peel zest (yellow part only)

Cocoa powder

Bring the cream and thyme to simmer in a heavy small saucepan. Let sit for 15 minutes, then bring back to barely simmering.

Remove from heat and strain the hot cream over the chocolate pieces in a small mixing bowl.

Add the juice and zest and stir until all the chocolate is melted.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until ganache is firm enough to work with.

Use a small ice cream scoop (you can also use a tablespoon or two spoons) and shape little balls of chocolate. Roll the truffles in cocoa powder.

Applewood Bacon Truffle

12 ounces best quality hardwood smoked bacon, such as applewood or hickory

2–4 tablespoons turbinado cane sugar (raw sugar)

1¼ cups heavy cream

2 pounds semisweet chocolate

Cut bacon into 2-inch pieces and fry until just crispy. Reserve ⅓ cup of bacon fat, taking care to avoid the little fried bits in the fat. Chop bacon into small granular bits until you have ¼ cup for truffle topping. Combine bacon with 2 tablespoons sugar, doubling these amounts if you are rolling the entire truffle into the bacon-sugar mixture. Save remaining bacon for another (non-chocolate) use.

In the top of a double boiler or in a heat-safe bowl over simmering water, combine the cream and bacon fat. After thoroughly combining, add 1 pound of the chopped chocolate. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate melts. Remove from the heat and stir or whisk until smooth.

Pour into a shallow bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the chocolate and put in fridge overnight.

With a sharp knife, scrape off most of the bacon fat that has accumulated on the top of the hardened chocolate. Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop out chocolate and roll with hands to form 1-inch balls. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

In the top of a double boiler or in a heat-safe bowl over simmering water, heat remaining pound of chocolate, stirring intermittently. Let the chocolate melt completely.

Using two small spoons, dip the truffles, one at a time, into the chocolate mixture, rolling the truffle into the chocolate to cover completely. Lay chocolate-dipped truffle on a sheet pan covered with wax paper or parchment. Sprinkle the bacon-sugar mixture on the truffle while the chocolate is still warm.

Refrigerate the truffles, covered, for at least 1 hour. Can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or freeze airtight for up to 1 month. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving.