Powdered Murder

Franco cleared his throat. I broke eye contact with Patrick and noticed that both Bebe and Lila were studying the two of us. I took another bite of fruit, but I wasn't hungry for it at all. Franco cut into his slice of pandoro and purposely hit the side of his plate with his fork. It made a loud clanging noise and pulled us all back to the task at hand.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Lila carried on. "We have rehearsals later. We can't miss that. Oh and…" She rubbed her forehead before looking down into her purse. She pulled out a shiny tube of lipstick. Probably from her own collection. "Someone needs to box up Do

"Don't you worry about it," Franco said. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure that out later. Or better yet, you let me handle that one."

"The police didn't take care of it?" I couldn't help but ask. Lila ignored my comment and moistened her lips with light pink gloss.

"They looked through her things," Franco said quietly. "But they said they didn't need to take anything as evidence."

"Okay, well I'm ready." Lila smiled and stood up to adjust the hem of her dress. "Let's go meet the minister or whoever that guy is who's marrying us."

"His name is Pastor Tad," Patrick corrected her. "My parents have been attending his services every Sunday since they moved here."

"Right." She grabbed his hand and glanced at me and Bebe like she was publicly claiming her property. "I knew that." She pulled Patrick out of the room and immediately Bebe exhaled. She automatically tugged at the white wristband she'd been wearing yesterday. She snapped it against the inside of her wrist. The simple motions seemed to keep her positive and relaxed.

"Oh Lord," she muttered. "This wedding is going to give me a heart attack. I am so glad you're here, Essie." A tiny smile crossed her face, and she stopped snapping the wristband. She shook her hand until her sparkly te

"Yesterday was a rough one for all of us," I replied. "Maybe today will be different. Lila seems to be doing better."

"I hope she doesn't have a breakdown before tomorrow. I hate it when she bosses me like she does." Bebe took one last gulp of her mimosa and pushed her plate aside.

"Ladies," Franco remarked before leaving the room.

"Bebe." I had an idea, but I wasn't sure if Bebe would play along. "What if we packed up Do

"No, I'll do it," she quickly agreed. "If it'll get me away from Lila for a while, I will do it." She placed a hand on her chest feeling her heartbeat. "I've never met anyone like Lila. It's like the moment we became friends, her stress became my stress. She's a very intense person. Have you ever known anyone like that?"

"My sister," I answered. "Well, sometimes."

Bebe laughed.

"Come on," she said as she linked her arm with mine. "Let's get crackin' on rehearsals. Lord knows what will happen if either of us doesn’t remember where to stand tomorrow."

"I'll be there in a minute." I pulled myself away from her and peered through the doorway towards the kitchen. "There's something I need to take care of first."

CHAPTER EIGHT

Miss Korston, the head baker, was a larger, middle-aged woman, but she wasn't large in the sense that she had flabby extremities and a jumbo muffin top. She was large as in she was robust. She looked and acted like she could whip up an entire Thanksgiving Day spread on her own and then do a hundred pull-ups. Her forearms were thick and she grimaced when she cooked, staring down each ingredient like they were disobedient children. Amazingly, her food turned out superb.

"Stop calling me Miss," she scolded me. "My name is Aggie. And who are you again?"

"I'm Essie," I said loudly over the banging of pots and pans. "Joy's sister."

"Oh." She continued forming honey wheat loaves. I followed her around the kitchen until she finally stopped and took a breath.

"Listen Aggie, I have a couple of questions—"

"Always the questions," she interrupted. "Alright let's hear it. What are you? Gluten-free? Dairy-free? Non-fat? Non-sugar? Low-sodium? I have had it up to here with all the food restrictions. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to put together that wedding menu?" She threw her hands up in the air. "I didn't sleep a wink. My dog Cuddles had to take himself for a walk. That's how crazy it has been in here. Understand?"

"I understand," a voice said from the doorway. Eli, one of the servers and Pinecliffe's self-appointed messenger boy, cut through kitchen on one of his regular errands. He snagged a spare di

"Get out of my kitchen, for the hundredth time boy," Aggie yelled. She was losing her patience. Eli scooted away from her, but he wasn't bothered. In fact, he acted like this exact scenario had happened before. "You can't keep cutting through my kitchen and taking whatever you like."

"I hear you loud and clear," he teased her. Eli was tall and lanky. He had ashy brown hair that he liked to part on the side and smooth down with a comb. Sometimes he wore glasses, but it wasn't because he needed them to see. "You have a dog named Cuddles."

"Ughhh." Aggie shooed him like a stray cat.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going. But seriously. Cuddles?" Eli smirked and hurriedly left with the warm di

"You see what I have to put up with," Aggie muttered. She turned back to her baking. "All hours of the night it is one special request after another. How am I supposed to make a gluten-free vegan shortcake with no nuts?"

I waited for Aggie to cool down and resume kneading. She carried on with her work with her back to me as if I'd left the kitchen. I cleared my throat but over the banging of pots and pans by the rest of the kitchen staff she couldn't hear me. I took a step closer, eager to figure out who ordered the cupcakes that Do

"Aggie," I stated.

"Oh." She jumped when she finally heard my voice. "You're still here, are you?" She stopped and wiped her hands on her apron. "Okay, what'll take to get rid of you?"

"I want to know about some of the food that was sent out yesterday," I replied. "A cupcake order sometime yesterday afternoon?"

"Oh," she huffed. "You'll be wanting the list." She stepped past me and opened a door I had previously assumed was a storage closet or an extra pantry. Inside was an office. It was small and it looked very much like it used to be a closet, but a half smile crossed Aggie's face as she sat at her computer and glanced at a photo of her dog Cuddles. "We keep track of all that stuff here." She opened a file on her desktop and clicked on a list of items that were ordered yesterday. They were categorized and alphabetized. "What are you looking for again?"

"Cupcakes," I answered.

Aggie's mouse scrolled through the list of items and stopped when she got to an order for a dozen specialty cupcakes for pickup. She highlighted the order.