Raspberry Truffle Murder (A Maple Hills Cozy Mystery Book 1) Read online

  Raspberry Truffle Murder

  A Maple Hills Cozy Mystery #1

  Wendy Meadows

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Be the First to Know

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2016 by Wendy Meadows

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Dipping her right index finger down into a glass bowl, Nikki Bates swooped up a small amount of freshly stirred dark chocolate mix and nervously sampled the taste. "Relax, Mom," Seth Bates told his mother, setting his backpack down at his feet. Leaning against the kitchen counter lined with bowls of different chocolate mixes he shook his head. "Here I am off to college, and here you are making delicious chocolate. Now tell me again why I'm about to waste my youth slaving over books when I could help you run your store?"

  Allowing the taste of the chocolate to settle in her mouth like a child deciding if she liked the taste of a new candy or not, Nikki studied her son's young and innocent face. Seth came later in life than she'd expected. Here she was, a forty-two year-old woman, divorced after twenty years of marriage, starting her life fresh and new in a small town in Vermont. And there stood her son, a skinny, nervous and shy young man who was terrified at the idea of leaving home and venturing off into the powerful tides of college. Wiping her black bangs off her forehead, she sighed. Glancing down at the plain, light blue dress, she felt depressed and bland. Although she had once won the beauty pageant in her hometown in Georgia when she was twenty-one, those years now seemed far away, replaced by crow's feet and sadness. "Seth, you have a wonderful scholarship. It's not every day a young man gets a scholarship to one of the most prestigious colleges in the country."

  Watching his mother examine her outward appearance like a tired bird wondering which feather to pluck next, Seth lowered his eyes. He didn't like to see his mother so sad, but what could he do? His dad had deserted them for a new life in Los Angeles. Looking down at the jeans he was wearing, he felt helpless. "Will you be okay, Mom? I mean...being alone?"

  "Oh, sure," Nikki promised, putting on a brave voice. "Tomorrow is the grand opening of my store, just in time for tourist season. I'm scared but excited. It's good for me to be here, Seth. I needed away from Georgia...from the memories."

  Raising his head, Seth swung his eyes around the kitchen. The kitchen was small but nice, all hardwood. A wooden island with a stove stood in the middle of the kitchen like a welcoming beacon shining from a tall lighthouse. At the end of the kitchen, an oval window hung over the kitchen sink, giving view to a broad backyard with a wide duck pond. The cabin his mother had purchased, Seth thought, was actually kinda cool. He especially liked the stone fireplace in the living room and the smell of pine emanating from the wood. Maybe his mother would be all right? Maybe college wouldn't be all that bad? Maybe life would go on after all. "Well, my bus leaves in an hour. I guess you better drive me into town, huh?"

  "I'm so very proud of you," Nikki told her son. Walking to him, she embraced him. "Someday you're going to become a fine doctor, you just wait and see."

  "I might become a dentist instead. With all of this chocolate around, this town might need one," Seth joked.

  "Maybe," Nikki joked back feeling her spirits lift. "Okay, come on, Mr. College-Man, let's get you into town. Today begins the first step of the rest of your life."

  After dropping off her son in town, Nikki drove back to her cabin, bawling her eyes out. She had been able to withhold her tears in front of Seth, but as soon as his bus pulled away, the floodgates opened. Her baby boy was grown up. Memories of feedings and diaper changes, smiles that were actually gas, first words, first tooth, whispered in Nikki's mind. She knew, from what other mothers told her, that the day she sent her son off to college she would cry an ocean of tears. Now that day had come, and here she was, driving down a beautiful country road, crying her ocean of tears. Nikki knew, though, that she was crying over other things. Her divorce had been messy and cruel. Leaving Georgia to begin a new life in Vermont had been extremely difficult. She felt lost and somehow trapped in a strange new world that she had been thrust into unwillingly. Watching rain begin to tap at the windshield of her white SUV, she clicked on the windshield wipers. "I'll go home and read a book. That's what I'll do," she promised herself. "I'll make myself some hot chocolate and read a good mystery. Tomorrow will be a better day. Life will get back to normal...it has to."

  Overhead, dark gray storm clouds settled in over Nikki's cabin and remained until morning.

  Chapter Two

  Amazed at how many tourists were in her store, Nikki quickly wiped her hands on a pink apron wrapped around the bright yellow dress she was wearing. Expecting opening day to be a flop, she couldn't believe how busy she had become as soon as she advertised her store was open for business. "My, it's so busy," she told Lidia Green.

  "Tourist season," Lidia smiled, watching Nikki quickly tie her long black hair into a ponytail. "Honey, you better pace yourself, or you'll wear yourself down to a nub."

  Standing behind chest-high glass counters displaying every kind of chocolate imaginable, Nikki drew in a deep breath. Her store was small and a little cramped but warm and safe, filled with the scents of delicious chocolate and freshly brewed coffee. The floors, like those in her cabin, were hardwood, and the walls were decorated with signs and posters advertising chocolates from around the world and from different times. "I guess I'd better," Nikki agreed. She liked Lidia Green from the first moment they had met. Unsure how to hire people, Nikki had met Lidia while holding job interviews at her store. Lidia had won her heart over like the way vanilla ice cream melts over warm, freshly baked apple pie.

  Lidia watched an older couple stop and study a tray of chocolate. At the age of sixty-one, she felt happy and content with her life. She and her husband, Herbert, liked living in Vermont. After pitching their RV at Maple Hills RV Park seven years ago, they had settled in and become part of the local population. At first her West Virginia ways didn't click too well, but after a while, the townspeople became used to her. Lidia knew that after a while, Nikki, too, would settle in and become just one of the town's people. "I better go check on Tori," she winked at Nikki. "That young girl can get lost in her own car."

  Nikki smiled gratefully. She watched Lidia walk away toward the back storeroom wearing a plain white dress that somehow brought out every feature of her aging beauty. Sure, Lidia appeared to be plain-looking with short gray hair, but when Nikki looked deeply into the woman's face, she saw a beautiful angel. "Can I help you?" Nikki asked, turning her attention to the older couple studying the tray of dark German chocolate.

  "Yes, can we sample this chocolate?" a woman wear
ing a dark green shirt over a black dress asked in a German accent, that to Nikki, seemed mingled with a hint of an Austrian accent.

  "You sure can," Nikki smiled happily. Her business was going to be a success. She was going to be okay. Everything was going to work out. The gray cloud hanging over her sad heart would not remain forever.

  Hearing the bell hanging over the front door clatter, Nikki looked up from her work and saw a tall, handsome man with dark red hair enter her store. The man, she quickly noticed, was wearing a gray suit and had the appearance of a government agent. He was alone. His face was hard and stone-like. Nikki watched him examine her store, focus his attention on her customers, and then turn and leave. "How strange," she whispered, feeling her chest tighten.

  "What's strange?" Tori Russ asked.

  "Oh," Nikki said, startled, "I was just..." Unsure how to proceed, Nikki placed two small pieces of the dark German chocolate onto a paper plate with a floral design. Handing the plate to the German woman, she smiled. "Please, enjoy."

  "Thank you," the German woman smiled back.

  Turning her attention to Tori, Nikki sighed. There, standing next to her was a delicate and beautiful twenty year-old woman who had the prettiest blond hair and blue eyes she had ever seen. Tori reminded Nikki of a young Lana Turner. The only problem was that Tori wasn't confident in her beauty or herself. The young woman was always holding her head down, barely wanting to interact with customers, always finding some chore to do first. Instead of wearing a pretty dress she wore a long white t-shirt over a pair of baggy jeans. Tori broke Nikki's heart. "Dear, can you please help these nice people?" she asked, hoping Tori would accept her offer.

  Tori nervously eyed the old couple and reluctantly nodded her head. She needed the job and was grateful that Nikki had hired her. Living with her Aunt wasn't the greatest, but a home was a home, and she needed money. "I guess...yes, ma'am."

  Hearing the bells hanging over the front door clang and clatter again, Nikki saw Lidia's husband, Herbert, quickly enter the store, wiping sweat from his face. Herbert hurried to the front counter, braking hard. With shaky hands, he fiddled with the brown toupee on his bald head and then looked around for his wife. "Where's Lidia?"

  "Is something the matter?" Nikki asked, reading the tension and worry in Herbert's face. She knew Herbert was a retired car salesman. The man, she learned, could sell dirt to a worm; his appearance was natural and calm, intelligent and focused. Now, though, he seemed in an outright state of panic.

  Glancing over his shoulder toward the front door, Herbert wiped his sweaty hands on the brown t-shirt he was wearing. "I was walking to your store to see Lidia when I saw a man crossing Cloud Street. And out of nowhere, a black SUV came plowing down the street and ran him down."

  "Oh dear!" Nikki gasped, placing her hands to her mouth. Hearing the bells on the front door jingling again, she looked at the door just in time to see the old German couple leave.

  "Herbert," Lidia said, walking up behind Nikki, "it's not lunch time yet."

  "No time for lunch," Herbert told his wife and explained to her what he had told Nikki. "Just like that, hit and run..."

  "Did you see the driver?" Nikki ventured to ask. Feeling her inner detective waking up, she allowed her eyes to wander to the spot in the store where the old German couple had been standing. The sounds of distant sirens approaching filled the empty space, which caused the remaining customers in the store to hurry outside.

  "That will be Chief Daily," Herbert rolled his eyes. "The man couldn't figure out which end of a ruler to use," he complained.

  "What's happening?" Tori asked walking up to Lidia.

  "A hit and run, it seems," Lidia explained. "Herbert, you saw the SUV, so you better go talk to Chief Daily."

  "Why? All I saw was a black SUV. I'm sure other people saw it. There wasn't a tag. That was the first thing I looked for. The windows were tinted too dark to see the driver," Herbert fussed. "I'm not going to waste my time talking to that old grouch and have him drill me. Oh, he would just love that. No way, no ma'am."

  "No tag--are you sure?" Nikki asked Herbert. Suddenly the smell of chocolate in her store that had once been warm and inviting now became tainted by murder.

  "I'm sure," Herbert said, trying to regain his natural composure, but Nikki noticed the poor man was deeply shaken.

  In Nikki's mind, she saw the tall, handsome man wearing the gray suit enter her store, study her customers, and then leave. "The man who was run down, Herbert... what was he wearing?"

  "Why, a gray suit. Why?" Herbert asked.

  Nikki didn't answer. Instead, she focused her attention on the front door of her store.

  Chapter Three

  Sitting in the back office, Nikki shuffled through a stack of vendor orders, trying to focus. The hit and run in town was distracting her. It all seemed so strange. The killing, obviously intentional, didn't sit well against the backdrop of a small and cozy Vermont town. No, Nikki thought, tossing the vendor orders down onto an antique wooden desk she had picked up in Northern New York at an antique shop. The killing had nothing to do with her new town or its people...or so it seemed at that moment. The killing, Nikki continued, standing up from a white and pink wooden chair, must have been carried out by an outside source. The victim just happened to be in her new hometown, that's all.

  Pacing around the small, cramped office, Nikki walked to a wooden filing cabinet, studied a blue basket holding cinnamon-scented potpourri, and then focused her attention on the burgundy walls. "The man looked straight at the old German couple," she said aloud forcing her mind to walk down paths of logical reasoning. "He looked straight at them and then walked out of the store. Then when Herbert announced the hit and run, the couple left. Is there a possible connection?"

  Hearing the white door to the office open, Nikki watched Lidia walk in. "Well, life in this small town just got a bit more interesting."

  "What do you mean?" Nikki asked.

  Easing the office door shut, Lidia motioned Nikki over to her. "Honey, the man who was killed was Steven Denforth."

  Nikki shook her head confused. "Lidia, I'm new in town, remember?"

  "Oh, yes, that's right," Lidia quickly apologized. Pulling Nikki over to the desk, she asked her to sit down. "I'll explain."

  "Please do," Nikki pressed.

  "One year ago a man from Manhattan bought the local paper here. No one has ever seen him. I didn't even know the paper had changed hands until Tori told me, and she found out from her aunt. Anyway, all of sudden, the paper begins printing these poisonous stories about local people...horrible stuff, but all protected under our First Amendment rights. So what can people do? The stories continue, tempers flare, calls to shut down the paper are made to the Mayor. But nothing is done."

  "Why didn't people stop buying the newspaper?" Nikki inquired.

  "That would have been the smart path to take," Lidia told Nikki, nodding her head vigorously, "but in the defense of the town, no one knew who was going to be Denforth's next target. Now here is where we begin walking in real dirty water."

  Nikki slowly folded her arms. She felt a sudden urge for a cup of coffee and a square of fudge, but she waited for Lidia to continue. "I'm ready."

  "Well," Lidia said glancing at the office door, suddenly nervous, "finally a meeting was arranged at the town hall after someone made threats to run the mayor out of town... who, I really don't know. All I know is our money-hungry mayor realized that votes count, and he had better make an appearance and listen to the concerned voices of those who voted for him. So the meeting took place, and it wasn't long before tempers erupted, and the air became very heated. People were demanding that the mayor give them answers. How was the paper getting personal information on them? Who was Steven Denforth? Oh, yelling matches like you've never seen hit the floor running. And then, out of nowhere, the mayor shouts, 'Maybe it's one of the citizens in town giving the paper information?'"

  "Ah," Nikki said nodding, "he was in the hot seat, so he
conveniently turned the tables. But it also seems like the mayor was protecting Steven Denforth."

  Lidia opened the office door, peeped out into an empty store, and closed the door. "It did seem like the mayor was standing as a wall between Steven Denforth and the people of our fair town. But," Lidia sighed, "that fact was quickly swept under the carpet. When the mayor screamed that it could be one our own feeding information to an outsider, well...let's just say that the shouting stopped and the sounds of crickets began. People began looking at each other; suddenly everyone became a suspect."

  "Divide and conquer?" Nikki asked.

  "Maybe," Lidia explained. "After the meeting, the unity holding the people of this town together in a single cause went down the drain. As I said, everyone became a suspect. People stopped trusting each other."

  "But the stories continued," Nikki said.

  "For a while," Lidia nodded, "maybe a month more, but then, someone set the building the paper was housed in on fire. All in all, the whole incident lasted for about six months."

  "Oh," Nikki sat up in her chair, her excitement running a race with her curiosity, "Any arrests?"

  "Not a one," Lidia said, lowering her voice down to a barely audible whisper, "but word got around that whoever torched the paper was a professional. The fire didn't spread, and let me tell you, that building is squeezed between two other buildings, so the fire should have spread like a virus."

  "I see," Nikki said, evaluating every word Lidia had revealed to her, "but I still get the local paper at home."

  "I guess whoever burned Steven Denforth out got his message across, because Denforth sold out to Benjamin Westmore and, well, that was the last of it...until today," Lidia said, scratching the back of her head. "Town hasn't really ever been the same since. Oh, people aren't at each other's throats like they used to be, but when the trust shared by a small town is broken..."