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WHEN DANA GOT BACK to the Cozy Cupcakes Café, Her heart stopped. There was a crowd gathered outside the store.
“What’s going on?” she said to a customer as she tried to make her way through the crowd to her café.
“Oh, the cops are here arresting one of the customers!” a bystander said.
“What?” Dana’s heart thudded in her chest. She felt heat climb inside her.
When she managed to push her way through the crowd to the store, she saw Ned being taken away in handcuffs by the police.
Detective Troy was also there.
“Dana, it’s awful,” Katie said, rushing to her when Dana got into the café. “They’ve arrested Ned.”
“For what?”
“For the murder of Chuck Samsfield. You know the guy who rammed his car into Ned’s store!”
“What? But...but that’s impossible! How? Why? Wait a minute, I thought Chuck was arrested and let go last night.”
“Yes, but they’ve found his body a few hours ago and they said Ned did it.”
“What?” Dana’s lungs tightened. She couldn’t breathe. “No. No way! I don’t believe this.” Dana was planning on telling Katie and Troy about the suspicious guy she’d seen at the Antique’s store just now but this news trumped everything else right now.
“But I...I didn’t do it!” Ned said as he was escorted into the police cruiser. Ned looked so rumpled. His jacket wasn’t neat on him. Did he put up a struggle? The officer held his head carefully so that he didn’t bump it while getting into the cruiser. Then he placed Ned’s cane beside him.
Dana felt a lump climb in her throat. “This is crazy! It’s insane. Ned was probably framed!”
“What? Why do you say that?” Katie asked, still dazed from the fiasco that was going on.
Dana always wanted to have a crowd of eager customers coming to their café—but not this way. This was really bad for the store, for them and for poor Ned, a long time friend of Grandma Rae.
“There was this guy hanging out near the Antique’s store and he was there yesterday, too. He looked very suspicious. He’d been watching me and taking pictures.”
“Are you sure this has anything to do with...”
Just then Detective Troy approached them. “Ladies.”
“Hi Troy.” Dana’s heart felt flustered, heat rose to her chest. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Why are you arresting poor old Ned?”
“Where were you between the hours of eight and eleven this morning?”
“I already told you,” Katie pouted to Detective Troy.
He sighed deeply. “I’m asking Dana now. I want to hear what she has to say.”
“I was here. I was in the kitchen, my office, and sometimes in the dining room area, working. Why?”
“Well, I just wanted to confirm that.” He scribbled something down on his notepad.
“Troy, I don’t get it. Why are you arresting Ned?”
“Chuck Samsfield’s body was just found down by the lake near Brock.”
“By the lake? Near Brock Street?”
“That’s right. He’d been struck in the head with an iron fire poker that was left at the scene. We ran some quick prints at the lab and found Ned’s fingerprints...and yours...”
Dana swallowed hard. She felt her head spinning.
“M-my fingerprints?”
Katie looked at her stunned.
“Yes.” Detective Troy’s voice was firm. “Your fingerprints, Dana. Do you mind explaining to me what happened there?”
“Oh, my goodness, Troy...I...wait a minute. If it’s that vintage iron fire poker from Ned’s Antiques, well, yes my prints would be on it. I was looking to buy it for the fireplace at the Victorian. It was a five piece vintage iron tools set for the fireplace.
“I see,” Troy scribbled down some notes on his notepad.
“Well, Dana, please don’t go anywhere far. I will need to speak to you again.”
Dana felt flustered. Not only because Troy was being all professional, which she totally understood, but he probably thought she might have something to do with Chuck’s murder. “Why would I want Chuck dead?”
“I don’t know, Dana. I don’t think you had anything to do with the murder, but you do understand I have to follow procedures. You’re prints are on the murder weapon.”
She swallowed again, but this time the lump wouldn’t go down. Great. This was the last thing she needed.
Troy was called away by another officer and had excused himself.
Katie and Dana then went to the kitchen away from the customers and the noise.
“Now what are we going to do?” Katie asked, looking annoyed more than ever.
“I don’t know...wait a minute!”
“What?”
“I need to go down to the lake.”
“The lake? Why?” Katie asked, alarmed.
“Trust me on this one. Something is just not adding up. Besides, I wonder where Miss Tiffany was all this time.”
“Oh, no. Please tell me you’re not going to go sleuthing around on this case, Dana.”