It was almost midnight before Dan showed up.
Amelia answered the door wearing the robe and fuzzy hot-pink slippers that Meg had picked out for her mother, herself, and Adam, who only wore them on weekends when he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Did you catch him?” she asked breathlessly.
“We did,” Dan said as he stepped into the house and held her in his arms.
“Oh, I knew you would. I knew you’d catch them both.”
As soon as Dan stepped into the light, she saw that his suit was dirty and tattered. He also had a shiner developing underneath his eye.
“Oh, Dan!” She pulled him inside and shut the door behind him. “What happened?”
“As soon as I heard what was happening on your phone, I got dispatch to get squad cars rolling in your direction. I had you on the phone the entire time I drove, my knuckles getting whiter and whiter as I pushed the accelerator down. I couldn’t get there fast enough.”
“But you did,” Amelia assured him.
“Yeah, he thought he’d be a smart guy. I followed in the direction you said he went. I didn’t think he’d get too far. If you saw how the guy dressed, he certainly wasn’t dressed for running through the alleys. Not only were his shoes not made for it, but if he tried, he’d make enough noise to attract all kinds of attention.”
Amelia looked up at Dan and touched his face.
“So I tried to outsmart him. And it worked.”
“Where was he?”
“He’d hopped into a dumpster. It’s what I would have done if I didn’t think I could outrun the police.”
“Really? I hid in a dumpster once. It was horrible. There were bugs and smells and ooze.”
“Oh my.” Dan smirked. “That sounds like the same one Mr. Hines was in. So when he peeked out to see if the coast was clear, I grabbed hold and dragged him out.”
“Where was your backup? How did he get in a lucky punch?”
“There wasn’t any backup,” Dan said. “After you told me what he said about Meg, I sort of lost my temper.”
“What?”
“It’s one thing to threaten a man. Try and strong-arm a guy. Men do that. We were hunters from the very beginning, and being told to play nice isn’t going to change what is in all of us. It’s in our nature to hunt and to fight.” Dan swallowed hard. He looked down at his shoes and shook his head as he realized they were all scuffed up and dirty.
“But when he threatened Meg, I just couldn’t let it go. Not only did he threaten her, but he did it to her mother. Amelia, if I weren’t here and you were in the same predicament, I know that you’d sell your soul to the devil if it meant protecting those kids.”
Amelia looked at Dan with tears in her eyes.
“I can’t help it, Dan. They are all that matters.”
“Do you think I see it as a bad thing?”
Amelia shrugged.
“No, Amelia. It’s one of the things I love about you. And I love your kids. That’s why I thought it was necessary that Mr. Hines learn a lesson that when he threatens someone’s family, he better be ready for that family to retaliate. He didn’t know who he was dealing with.”
Dan went on to explain how Mr. Hines had suffered a broken nose after falling four or five times on his face. That was before he got in one lucky punch.
“If he hadn’t had that goon with him, I would have had a lot more to say to that Mr. Hines, I can tell you that.”
Amelia wiped her eyes.
“Mr. Lee is like a giant balloon. He looks big and intimidating, but he’s nothing but a bag of hot air. He was caught by Officer Schroder. He acted tough, all right. But as soon as we had them cuffed and in the interrogation room, I started on them one by one. I already knew from listening in on your call that they’d killed Spencer, so I played them against each other. Each one said the other did it to try to save his own skin.”
Dan started to laugh. It was one of those rare occasions that Amelia loved, like spotting a cardinal after the first snow or maybe seeing a UFO.
“Thanks to you, we got them both.” He smoothed her hair back and kissed her forehead.
“Did you see what he did to my oven?” Amelia said.
“Yes. I’m afraid that we won’t be able to recover any money from him to pay for the damages.”
“That’s what insurance is for.” Amelia wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t tell Meg anything about it. The less she knows the better.”
“I agree,” Dan said as they walked in. “But I’m afraid you and I are going to have to have a serious talk.”
Amelia let out a deep breath.
“I know. I should have told you about going to the pawn shop. It was just that it was staring right at me, and I thought hey, maybe the person who took the watch tried to pawn it. Truthfully, I was thinking that it was a hobo or maybe some junkie who would have brought it in. I never would have suspected all this drama.”
“Now you know.” He sat her down at the kitchen table and took the seat next to her. “Look, you are almost as good at sleuthing as you are at baking. And after that soup I made for you, I think I might be as good at baking as I am at sleuthing.”
“What?”
“But there isn’t room for both of us to be doing both. For a while, I suggest you focus on your baking, and I’ll focus on sleuthing.”
“That’s a fair plan.”
She leaned forward and kissed him.
The next day, it was all over the newspapers that Brewster Lee and Sampson Hines had been arrested in connection with the murder of Spencer Randall.
Amelia felt she had one loose end to tie up. With a box full of peanut-butter-and-jelly cupcakes wrapped up as pretty as could be in her signature pink boxes, Amelia drove her beat-up sedan to the wrought iron gate of Florence Carmichael’s home.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to press the buzzer and speak through the intercom. Florence came walking out of the gate wearing a blue-and-white jogging suit with matching Nikes. Before she stuck in her earbuds, Amelia tapped the horn.
Florence’s expression said it all.
“I know,” Amelia started. She left her car running after she had pulled it over and put it in park. “You have every right to be mad at me.”
“Well, let’s see, you accuse me of murder. Yes, I think that warrants a serious dislike.”
“I’m sorry.” Amelia put her hands up in the surrender pose. “I thought I knew what I was talking about, but I didn’t. I was wrong.”
Florence straightened her back and tilted her head as if she had heard something high pitched.
“I brought you a peace offering.” Amelia reached through her open window and grabbed the box. “These are my best sellers. I know you are into eating healthy and exercising and stuff, but I thought if you ever wanted a treat, if you had a craving for something sweet, you might like these.”
She handed Florence the box.
“I’m not supposed to tell anyone this because they might not come back to the truck, but these freeze really well.” Amelia smiled.
“Thanks,” Florence said.
“Maybe you could even invite Candace Rosenbaum over to enjoy one.”
“Did she put you up to this?”
“No, Florence. But if you guys were friends, maybe you could be friends again.” Amelia watched as Florence looked at her as if she were sprouting a third eye in the middle of her forehead. “Or not. You know, what do I know.”
She got back in her car and pulled away slowly, waving to Florence and feeling happy she waved back.
Amelia had one more errand to run before she headed to Food Truck Alley. With the extra money she had, there was a jacket that Meg had wanted. She decided to pick it up for her. It was hot pink, of course, and there was a cute little purse that matched. Amelia got them both. And so the man of the house didn’t feel left out, Amelia went to Adam’s favorite skateboard place. She walked in, took a look around, and had no idea what Adam might want or need.
“You sell gift cards, right?”
With her treasures in hand, she left and strolled down the sidewalk, thinking that maybe she should pick something up for Dan, too.
Stopping in front of a novelty store, she saw a coffee mug that said Police Do It By the Book and was tempted to buy it. It was corny, but how hilarious would it be that the stone-faced Detective Walishovski could be found in his office sipping his coffee from that mug?
Amelia had started to laugh at the image in her mind when she saw the reflection of a man behind her.
She had forgotten that his office was not far from here. What was he doing hustling around during work hours?
Maybe the same thing you are, Amelia. Do you have to be so suspicious of everyone? she scolded herself. No. Not everyone. Just John.
As she watched him, he looked around and ducked into a small but expensive French restaurant. It was one of those places open for an expensive breakfast of crepes or croissants or French toast.
Before Amelia could stop herself, she was crossing the street and pretending to study the menu as she peered inside. He wasn’t anywhere near the window.
“Of course he isn’t,” she muttered quietly. “Everyone knows when you are cheating on your spouse, you sit in the back. How many times had he met Jennifer in this place when he was cheating on me?”
That was it. She decided to go in and see what he was doing. One affair was bad enough, but two was just plain tacky. A man who did this needed help.
Amelia looked around. She told the hostess she was looking for someone. She carefully slunk around the hostess station and saw John.
He was sitting with a woman. A very big, pregnant woman who was smiling and laughing.
Amelia felt something pierce through her heart. Part of her would have liked the scandal of catching John again. But this was better. John and Jennifer looked happy.
As strange as it seemed, that made Amelia happy, too.
As you wait for book 9 in the Pink Cupcake Mysteries, read Harper’s new series, Secret Agent Granny.
In book 1, Granny’s Got a Gun, Barbara Gold, a retired CIA agent, is bored out of her skull in Cheerville, a small town in New England—until a man is poisoned during a book club meeting for seniors. Everyone thinks Lucien had a heart attack, but from his symptoms, Barbara knows someone has slipped poisoned into his cake or drink. Even though she is no longer under cover, Barbara feels as if she’s only playing the part of a sweet grandmother, but this may just be her most useful cover yet.
The clock ticks as she investigates who in the Cheerville Active Readers’ Society would want Lucien dead. It’s only a matter of time before his death is declared murder and the police start hounding everyone.
Suddenly Barbara’s CIA training is useful again, and Cheerville is starting to seem not so dull after all…
Read an excerpt at the end of this book.
Catch up on all the books in the Pink Cupcake series here.
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