Ganache Goblins and Gunshots Read online

  Ganache, Goblins, and Gunshots

  Book Three in The Witchy Bakery Series

  Naomi Muse

  Copyright © 2018 by Naomi Muse

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Up Next: Apple Pies, Auras, and Acid

  Also by Naomi Muse

  Chapter One

  Things had finally settled down in the bakery. Sally was baking up a storm, Anita was getting so good at pastry decoration that she had moved on to cakes. Angelo was finally starting to loosen up. Best of all, I was able to sample all our wares before the public. Sneak previews of new desserts were the best part of life.

  Somehow, we had made it through several months without any weird deaths. On one hand, it was a relief. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was heading this way. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I heard the jingle of the bell over the front door. Angelo didn’t move from his sleeping spot under my desk. He flicked his ear and sighed in his sleep. That was a good sign. One more day without bad news.

  I was hoping that whoever our newcomer was, they would at least provide me with some distraction from my paperwork. Who knew that spreadsheets could be so dull?

  I pushed back from my desk being careful not to disturb my canine companion. When I came from the back of the store, I was pleased to see that Chief Rowan was our latest visitor. If he wasn't so officious, he could be a lot of trouble. In the best possible way. The longer I stayed in Temperance, the more attractive the chief was getting. Unfortunately, he still seemed to think I should be at the top of the suspect list anytime there was a murder.

  He appeared to be warming up to me, but I can never really tell for sure. It's for the best that he was so short with me. Whenever he was too nice, I found myself developing a schoolgirl crush on him. I was way too old to have a schoolgirl's anything, let alone a crush.

  Chief Rowan was too busy checking out are many desserts displays to pay me too much attention. I can't blame him. I often found myself doing the very same, walking from case to case. The chief never bought anything. When I finished admiring the view, I sidled over to find out if I can be of any more help.

  “Hey, Chief. I see your diet is over.”

  He turned to me in surprise. I'm not sure why. How surprised could you be to see someone in their own building?

  “Ms. Bell, you are right. I love to come look at this stuff. It's not that I can't eat it. It's more than I'm saving myself for that special something.”

  “Are you looking for anything in particular?”

  “I’ll know when I see it. You’ve been getting more elaborate with the cakes, but I haven't seen anything with cannot ship. I have this bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to the chocolate stuff, ganache especially.”

  A warm smile spread across his face. Seeing the chief smile was a welcome sight, but it was almost too much for me to take.

  “I wouldn't have had you pegged for a chocoholic. Interesting. The ladies come up with new menu ideas every day. Someone will make your ganache, eventually.” I said, returning his smiling kind.

  “I don't know. That might make my life too easy. Ganache and lower crime rates? I don't know what does tend to deserve such a good thing.”

  “You are pretty good at your job.”

  “Just pretty good. You think just because you come in here, meddle, and help out with a few cases --”

  “Don't get all worked up. I was actually complimenting you. Sorry I didn’t fall at your feet,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

  The chief burst out laughing. I wasn’t expecting that.

  “I'm still not quite sure what to make of you Miss. Nova Bell.”

  “If you need suggestions, I have a few. I'm amazing. An excellent businesswoman. Nova Bell is a pillar of the community. I can go on.”

  “I think I get the point. I’ll let you know if I need more assistance.”

  “You do that. I should be getting back to work.”

  If I stayed out there much longer, I was going to start flirting. I was never good at flirting. Moving to Temperance hadn’t helped that at all. The number of eligible men in my age group was slim to none. Sure, I could always go to the city, but the thought of actually having to drive to meet someone for a date didn’t appeal to me. Whether I liked it or not, I was becoming a small-town girl.

  Once the last customer left, the girls, and I broke into a new tradition. Work wine. They kept a bottle of sweet wine and the work fridge for our Friday night girl’s night. Every week we lock up the store, breakout a bottle wine, sometimes two, and just catch up and plan the recipe for the next week. At least this week I would have something good to contribute to the plan.

  They grabbed a bottle headed for the front where Anita had already set aside our favorite table. We liked to sit in front of the window, people watching. Temperance didn't have much of a nightlife, but anyone walking around at this time of night was usually up to some kind of shenanigans. To be honest, we rarely ever saw anyone but the idea of catching someone up to no good scratch that the idea of catching up to someone up to some lighthearted mischief was fun.

  “Hey ladies. This week's wine is blueberry. I hope you're ready.”

  “I didn’t know you could make wine from blueberries,” Sally said. Of course, she didn't know.

  “If you can make vodka from potatoes, you can make wine from blueberries,” I responded with a smile.

  “The last time we served blueberries here didn't go so well,” Anita said taking the bottle for me as I sat.

  I kicked her under the table.

  “Everything will be fine. This new flavor will unlock our imaginations and lead to some excellent menu items. I'm sure of that.”

  Anita uncorked the wine bottle. She always did, I didn't have the patience for it. I try not to use magic around Anita even though she knows about it. Not to mention that when I tried to open a wine bottle is magic at home in more or less shattered and soaked my entire kitchen and red wine. Fortunately, magical cleaning spells usually don’t go wrong so was easy enough to clean. But they were good five minutes of wine soaked shock. And Angelo still won't come near me if I have a bottle one in my hand.

  “As you all know, the Chief was in here sniffing around.”

  “Yeah, after you,” Anita said before dissolving into giggles.

  Sometimes I forget just how young she is. As if the Chief would ever be interested in me. It wouldn’t hurt to have a man that good looking interested in me. I usually attracted the crazies though.

  “Not after me. Desserts. It seems that we don’t have the kind he likes.”

  “I make all kinds of things. How could we have nothing that he likes?” Sally asked dejectedly.

  “You’re not doing anything wrong. He just has a super sweet tooth. He was looking for something with Ganache.”

  Sally’s eyes widened.

  “I would have never imagined that the Chief Rowan would be into something so rich,” she said.

  “Makes you wonder what else he’s into,” Anita said wiggling her eyebrows.

  Her glass of wine was already empty. One glass was enough to bring her to the silly side of things. Sally titte
red shyly behind her own glass of wine. I don’t know what I was going to do with the two of them. Thankfully, we would all be walking home together later.

  As we were brainstorming different ganache-based desserts to add to our menu, we heard a commotion at the door. It was Nico from (insert name of Greek start here). I could have just pointed to the closed sign, but something told me he needed help.

  As soon as I unlocked the door, Nico burst into tears. I was surprised to find him so grief stricken.

  I think that's waiting to listen to it so I am going to record a part of the story here to Hoagland and see if it sounds better

  “Nico, what brings you here, is everything okay well obviously it's not okay. Is there anything I can do?

  “It's my nephew. My nephew Constantine. I'm afraid he's been shot.”

  I reared back and alarm. I hadn't met his nephew, but it was unusual for someone to show up to tell me the loved one was hurt. I did have experience solving two murders in here in Temperance. But it still surprised me every time. I don't know when I received the title of honorary sleuth, but I just couldn't seem to shake it.

  I put my arms around him immediately. “Oh Nico, I'm so sorry. Come and sit down will give you some tea.”

  “Thank you, Nova. I didn't know where else to go. The police don't know what to do. And you were so right about Leo. I'm hoping you can help me with this murder too.”

  I bit my lip, I wasn't sure if I could help him, but how could I say no to this poor weeping man. I let him into the bakery and set him at the table. Anita and Sally comforted him while I made him a cup of tea and brought him a chocolate chip muffin. A little bit of sweetness might not solve things, but it couldn't hurt.

  We sat in silence while he sipped just he and regained his composure. Once he had settled down, he was able to give us all more information.

  “I'm sorry to burst in on the like this. I’m just so distraught. My poor sister is beside herself. My nephew was a good boy, I'm not sure any why anyone would do this. To him.”

  “We're so sorry to hear about your nephew Nico. Is there anything else that you can tell us?”

  “Yes, there is more to the sad tale. You would find out sooner or later, anyway. Temperance is such a small town. Someone shot my nephew. They have no suspects and no leads. He was coming back from his job in the city and they found his car on the side of the road.”

  Nico didn't get any more words out before dissolving into tears again.

  Although I have dealt with cases in Temperance before, this one seemed like a clear-cut job for the police. They usually trace things like bullet casings to find out where crimes that occurred. I wasn't sure how Nico knew it was a murder and not a suicide. There was no tactful way to ask him about it. I would definitely ask the chief.

  There was no way I could turn this poor man away. Through his tears, Nico still managed to pull out a few dog treats to feed to Angelo who was laying worriedly at his feet.

  “Nico, don't worry. I'll do everything I can to help.”

  “If you need me to pay you, I have money.”

  “I would never take your money Nico, you’re a friend.”

  That only made Nico start crying all over again.

  Chapter Two

  Once Angelo and I walked Nico home, and made sure he was settled in, I headed for my house. This whole murder business it definitely put a damper on the whole evening.

  Through his tears, Nico had still managed out to pull out a few dog treats to feed to Angelo who was laying worriedly at his feet.

  I was really starting to question my decision to move to Temperance. It was a lovely town full of interesting and amazing people. But there seems to be more murders here than that I had ever experienced. While the townspeople had welcomed me with open arms, the police force was a little more suspicious. I couldn't say that I blame them. I had barely been in town for six months, and three people had turned up dead. Not the best track record. I tried to cut myself a little slack. Although three people were murdered, had burned up dead so far, I had already solved two of the crimes. There was no reason to think that I couldn't solve this one.

  I noticed that Angelo had been keeping up with my brisk pace without complaint. Normally, he stopped to smell every single blade of grass and crack in the sidewalk. But today he seemed lost in his own thoughts too. He had been fond of Nico since they first met. I'm sure Angelo was worried too.

  As usual, our walk home was a quiet one. Temperance was a small town that seemed relatively safe in spite of the recent murders. The previous cases seemed like isolated incidents done by individuals with some sort of grudge. This one felt different. I didn't know anything about the case to base this feeling on. I just couldn't see why anyone would shoot such a young guy. I'll be able to find out from Nico was that is not his nephew was a good boy, and he was attending the local school.

  I felt Angelo's eyes on me. I wasn't sure how to put into words, but the word I felt was judged. Angela was judging me. I wasn't sure what I had done to upset the pooch this time. Yet, here I stood being silently judged by a dog.

  Angelo snorted.

  “What is it? What's the problem?”

  Angelo gave me dirty look and then trotted off to his toy basket. After what seemed like an unnecessary amount ruffling, he came back and dropped a police officer toy at her feet. I stared at him openmouthed.

  “Where did you even get that?”

  Angelo ignored or just pushed the toy toward her.

  “I don’t understand what you want me to do with this. If you want to play fetch, bring me a ball.

  Angelo looked pointedly at my phone and then pushed the police officer toy a bit closer. I came to the startling revelation that my dog was trying to get me to call the police. I wasn't sure when Angelo got so smart, but I didn't like it.

  “I’m not going to tell him to call Chief Rowan. I've been helping the chief solve crimes in this town since I got here and there's no reason that this will be any different. Nico's been nothing but nice to me. I would think you'd want help him too.”

  Angelo's tail drooped and his face look a little sheepish. I felt bad, I knew that Angelo's heart was in the right place.

  Chapter Three

  Then that night I dreamt of Nico's nephew. In the dream Constantine was a handsome young man. He looked like I had imagined Nico would've looked in his younger days mixed with a little something different. And a little more blonde. Seemed like a sweet kid. He is actually whistling as he walked to his car. He settled in and buckled the seatbelt when someone tapped on the window. I couldn't see who someone was. I wasn't even really seeing it from his point of view. He turned the car on them readily rolled down the window.

  “Hi there. To need some help?”

  He even had on a smile on his face when he asked. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I did see the change in his face. The light went out of his eyes. He looked confused and afraid. Then the shot rang out. Just one. Besides went dark. I heard the sound of the car engine being shut off. The killer must've reached inside and done so. I heard the door open and shut. Then, everything went black.

  I woke with a start. I was sure that I had seen the boys last moments. Someone did this to him. But, that meant if it turned off the car and shut the door there might be fingerprints. Without hesitation I dialed the chief number. He answered on the first ring.

  “Nova, I wish I could say was surprised that you’re calling me so soon after a murder.”

  “I'm calling to help.”

  “You always are.”

  “Listen. Check their key to the car and the door handle in the bond that operates the automatic Windows. There might be fingerprints from the killer there.”

  “How exactly would you know that?”

  “Would you believe that I saw in a dream.?”

  “I don't have time to chase around every badgering that you have. The real killer on the loose and we have no leads and I need to get to work.”

  “Listen. Even
if I'm wrong, is interesting for fingerprints a normal cop thing to do?”

  “I'm sure you don't know anything about what normal cop things are but if it will get you up my phone, I'll look into it.”

  “And here I thought your warming up to me you have a good day chief.”

  “You do the same.” The chief practically

  the chief regular slammed the phone in her ear. I was shocked. He had just been in the bakery talking about ganache feel the day now his right back on edge again. Murders probably have that effect on him.

  I am concerned the police have so much trouble with their crime solving rate, at least linking to murders. I heard rumors about a curse placed on the cops and that was definitely something seems to look into further. Why would anyone curse police? That would be in anyone's best interest.

  Once I get this case solve those, I need to look into it further. A tiny spell write now wouldn’t hurt anything. It would probably be quicker to do a bit of scrying

  Chapter Four

  As a matter of fact, my investigation couldn't wait. I couldn't just waltz into the police station and asked the Steve their records. I decided to start at the library. I haven't been back to the library since I saved Anita from a killer there. I like the energy of that place. It gave me a feeling today and that want to let me in on the secret. I was sad that I couldn't bring Angelo with me, he would've liked it. But, they didn't allow dogs, so I had to make do.

  “If you're here to steal more of my employees, you could just go back the way you came.” A voice said from behind me.

  I turned around to see the head librarian, Priscilla peering at me from over her stereotypical horn-rimmed glasses.