Birthday Cake and a Murder Read online

  Birthday Cake and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 5

  by

  Kathleen Suzette

  Copyright © 2018 by Kathleen Suzette. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

  Other books by Kathleen Suzette:

  Clam Chowder and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 1

  Short Stack and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 2

  Cherry Pie and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 3

  Barbecue and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 4

  Birthday Cake and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 5

  Books by Kate Bell, Kathleen Suzette

  Apple Pie a la Murder,

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 1

  Trick or Treat and Murder,

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 2

  Thankfully Dead

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 3

  Candy Cane Killer

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 4

  Ice Cold Murder

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 5

  Love is Murder

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 6

  Strawberry Surprise Killer

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, Book 7

  Pushing Up Daisies in Grady,

  A Gracie Williams Mystery, Book 1

  Kicked the Bucket in Grady,

  A Gracie Williams Mystery, Book 2

  Candy Coated Murder

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 1

  Murderously Sweet

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 2

  Chocolate Covered Murder

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 3

  Death and Sweets

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 4

  Sugared Demise

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, Book 5

  Table of Contents

  Chapter one

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  “Can’t you stop that racket? This is a civilized neighborhood!”

  I stared bleary-eyed at the elderly man standing on my doorstep. “I’m sorry. I know she’s loud, but she doesn’t mean any harm. I’ll take care of it.” I could hear my dog, Maggie, barking incessantly at something in my backyard. Maggie was a Bluetick Coonhound, so to say she was barking was an understatement. She was in full hound dog bay-mode. I glanced at the clock leaning against the overstuffed armchair three feet from me. 7:16.

  The man squinted his eyes at me, peering at the cardboard boxes behind me, his red-and-blue plaid shirt unbuttoned to reveal a dingy white T-shirt. “Land sakes, I don’t know what this neighborhood is coming to. You aren’t moving in here, are you?”

  I stared at him, still groggy with sleep. Hadn’t he seen the U-Haul truck parked in the driveway most of the previous day? “Yes, I am moving in here. I bought this house.” He had a head full of white hair that stuck up in places, and he was unshaven, his beard-stubble matching the hair on his head.

  He snorted and looked me up and down. I thought he must be in his early seventies and he was none too pleased to meet me. “It seems like you could cover up before opening the door. This is a decent neighborhood.”

  I pulled my pink bathrobe tighter around me, and he gave me one more disapproving look before turning and heading to the house next door. I glanced down at myself. I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts beneath the robe. If he considered that revealing, he had a funny idea of revealing.

  I shut the door and turned and headed to the back door. The cute little cottage I had seen a couple of months earlier was finally all mine, with a lot of financial help from my mother. I was surprised she had volunteered so readily, but I was grateful. It was everything I had ever wanted in a house.

  I unlocked the back door that was off the kitchen and looked out into the yard. The summer heat hadn’t been kind to the lawn, but I would figure out how to care for it. I thought I’d have it green as could be by next spring. The previous day’s downpour of rain had broken a long dry spell and had made moving challenging and messy.

  “Maggie!” I called from the cement patio. I had rescued Maggie from the county shelter a couple of months earlier after she had helped save me from a murderer. After what we had been through together, there was no way I was leaving her behind. “Maggie!”

  Maggie was digging at the ground along the back fence, and I figured she must have sniffed out a rabbit or squirrel on the other side.

  “Maggie, come here!” I called. She stopped her barking and looked over her shoulder, then went back to barking and digging, a whine escaping between barks now and then. Whatever was on the other side of the fence was tormenting her.

  “Quiet that dog down!” I heard my new neighbor yell from an open window next door.

  I sighed. There’s nothing like getting off on the wrong foot with the new neighbors.

  “Maggie!” She turned and trotted over to me, her tail wagging. Mud ran up her front legs as high as her elbows, and a clump of mud clung to the end of her black nose.

  “You have to hush,” I whispered, bending over and rubbing her head. “We have hostile neighbors. Let’s get some breakfast.” I turned to head back inside, and she turned in the opposite direction and went back to where she had been digging in the mud.

  “Maggie, please,” I said under my breath and went after her. I stopped when my slipper-clad feet sank into the mud. The white bunny slippers I was so fond of soaked up the water and mud, and my feet were suddenly wet. I slipped them off and went to Maggie, taking her by the collar and leading her toward the house. “Come on, Maggie, let’s be nice on our first day in our new house.”

  She whined in protest but complied with my wishes.

  Inside the house, I poured kibble into her bowl and went to the coffeemaker to get the coffee started. I was going to need it. I was exhausted. My identical twin sister Stormy, my mother, and my boyfriend, Detective Cade Starkey, had spent the day before packing and moving. I didn’t have a lot of furniture, but my mother gave me some of hers. She had wanted to buy new furniture anyway, and I was thrilled. It was one less expense for me.

  Maggie inhaled her breakfast and then was at the back door, scratching to be let out. I sighed. “Listen, Maggie. I know you’re technically a hunting dog and I’m sure there’s some tasty varmint on the other side of the fence, but the thing is, we apparently have a grumpy neighbor and all that barking is going to get me into trouble.”

  She whined in response, her forehead wrinkling.
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  “You’re not going out,” I said firmly and went to my bedroom to clean off the mud from my feet and get dressed while the coffee percolated. I would save cleaning up Maggie and the mess she had made on my kitchen floor for later.

  I rinsed my feet in the bathtub, grabbed a clean T-shirt and jeans, and got dressed. I had so many plans for my new house. It was adorable with its vintage accents in most of the rooms and a full-sized basement that I would eventually have made into a second bathroom and two additional bedrooms. That would come later, of course. Funds were currently in short supply. I had lost my job in New York City and now worked part-time at Sam’s Diner while I worked on an Americana-themed cookbook. Without my mother’s financial help, I would never have been able to buy this house. I hated owing her though, so I was working on ways to bring in more money.

  I heard my phone go off, and I grabbed it from the straight-backed chair next to my bed. I would have to buy end tables at some point. There was a text from my sister.

  Good morning, Sis! Hope you slept well.

  I snorted. While it was touching that she was thinking of me, she had left my house at nearly midnight, and I had stayed up another two hours unpacking. I was beat, and I figured she was too. Unpacking could have waited, but I was so excited about the new house that I couldn’t sleep.

  I slept ok, I guess. My charming neighbor pounded on the door complaining about Maggie’s barking first thing this morning.

  Aw, sad face. I’d pick up breakfast for you, but I’ve got to get the kids to school.

  My sister had five kids, the oldest of which had gone off to college in California the previous weekend. Stormy was emotional about the whole thing, and I made a mental note to take her out to lunch soon and cheer her up.

  I could hear Maggie scratching at the kitchen door and becoming more frantic. I sighed, setting my phone back on the chair, and headed back to do damage control.

  “Seriously, Maggs?” I said. I reached for the doorknob to go out and see what had her so interested, then thought better of it. She’d make a mad dash for the great outdoors and start barking again. I already had one mark against me where that neighbor was concerned, and I wondered if the neighbor on the other side of me was grumpy too.

  I put a leash on Maggie and tied her to the knob on the front door, then headed back to the kitchen. The patio was covered and had provided some protection from the rain, but the yard itself was flooded. My shoes sank into the wet ground as I crossed the yard.

  The fence was solid wood, six feet tall, and painted white. The tops of the boards were cut at an angle. It felt very 1950s-ish and made me happy to look at it.

  I looked at the metal latch on the gate and reminded myself to get a padlock for it. Sparrow, Idaho, was a small town, and while we didn’t have the crime that larger cities did, it paid to be safe.

  The gate creaked as I pushed it open and peered around it. The city hadn’t gotten around to paving the alleys on this side of town, and the rain had made it a muddy mess. I wished I had put rain boots on before coming outside.

  The house was in an older part of town, where the houses were built between the early 1940s to late 1950s. I stepped into the mud and winced as my gray tennis shoes sank into it. The big green dumpsters in the alley were shared between neighbors, and I wondered if a cat was digging in the open trash bin that was nearest my fence. I thought the trash people were going to be unhappy when trying to dump that thing. The downpour we’d had must have filled it up at least halfway.

  I waded carefully through the mud, my arms outstretched like a windmill, toward the dumpster. I slipped twice before I got to it, but thanks to my windmill skills, I managed to remain on my feet. There was a blue tarp on the ground on the far side of the dumpster, and I made my way around, thinking a small animal may have found refuge from the storm beneath it. When a gust blew across the alley, the corner of the tarp flew up in the air and flapped in the breeze. A hand lay motionless beneath the tarp.

  Chapter Two

  I bit my lower lip to keep from screaming, and stared at the hand sticking out from beneath the tarp. When the breeze died down, the flap lay almost completely over the hand, covering it. Part of my mind refused to believe what I had just seen, but it was too early for Halloween, so I knew it wasn’t part of someone’s display or costume.

  Against my better judgment, I moved in closer and tucked the toe of my shoe beneath the edge of the tarp and lifted it a bit. There was more than a hand beneath it. There was a whole body. Whoever put this person out here had tucked the edges of the tarp beneath the body to keep it from flying away in the breeze.

  I felt my front jeans pockets for my phone and realized it wasn’t there, so I ran back into the house for it. Maggie whined when I ran past her to get my phone.

  The phone was on the chair in my bedroom and I grabbed it and dialed Cade’s number, doing a nervous little dance while waiting for him to pick up. Maggie whined for me from the living room.

  “Hello, Gorgeous,” Cade said brightly. “You’re up early.”

  “Cade, there’s a body in my alley,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

  “A what in your what?” he asked.

  “A body. A dead body. In my alley. The alley behind my house,” I explained between gulping breaths.

  There was a pause.

  “Are you serious?” he finally asked.

  “Why would I kid about something like that?” I asked him. “You need to come here and do something with it.”

  “I just stepped out of the shower and I need to get dressed. You stay put and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  I nodded and realized he couldn’t see that. “Okay, but hurry,” I said.

  “I will. And Rainey?”

  “Yes?” I said, still breathing hard.

  “Don’t mess with the crime scene,” he said.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. “I wouldn’t do something like that!”

  “Sure you wouldn’t, but I’m serious. I’ll be right there.” The phone went dead.

  Having a dead body right outside my house creeped me out. I went back into the living room, pacing back and forth, and then I realized that one of the neighbors might run into the body out there. I didn’t want someone to have to see that, and I didn’t want someone trudging through the crime scene. As much as I hated the thought, I knew I needed to go back out there. Taking Maggie with me would make me feel safer, but I knew she would try to get to the body to check it out.

  “I’ll be back soon, Maggie,” I said and went back outside. I hadn’t stopped to scrape off the excess mud from my shoes before running into the house to find my phone and I had made a mess of my floors. I would deal with that later.

  The body was where I had left it and the neighborhood was quiet. It was still early for some people to be out and about while others had already left for work. There were wide tire tracks in the mud near the body and I wondered if it was from someone dumping trash in the dumpsters or if it was from the killer’s vehicle.

  In spite of Cade’s warning, I tiptoed closer to the body, keeping an eye on the mud to make sure I didn’t disturb anything that could be evidence. The body was lying face up, judging by the position of the hand. The flap of tarp blew up again, and I saw it was the person’s left hand, palm up. There was no wedding ring on it and it was large enough to be a man’s hand. I lifted the edge of the tarp with my shoe again. I didn’t want to see, but I had to. I wasn’t sure if I could live with my decision if it was someone I knew well, or if there was severe trauma to the body, but I needed to know if I knew who it was.

  The tarp was firmly tucked beneath the body and all I could see was a man’s chambray blue work shirt-clad arm. I would have to un-tuck the tarp from beneath his torso if I was going to get a better look. I considered going straight to where his head would be to see if I recognized who this was, but decided against it and let the tarp fall back. I didn’t want to discover a nasty surprise. Cade would be furious if he knew I was messi
ng with the body, anyway.

  I made my way around the body, looking for another entry point and un-tucked the tarp at the other end to reveal a brown suede boot, similar to what people wore when hiking in the woods. There wasn’t any mud in the waffle soles and I figured he must have been killed prior to it raining, or killed somewhere else.

  My eyes traveled along the ground, hoping to find something else that would help explain what had happened here. Something sticking out of the mud near the tire tracks glinted in the sun. I carefully made my way over to it, and then squatted down. It was a silver ballpoint pen. There was printing on the barrel and I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Cade wasn’t nearby before wiping some of the mud from it. Squinting, I strained to read the green lettering.

  Sparrow Daily News

  There was an address and phone number beneath the name. We only had one newspaper in town and they turned out a ten-sheet paper every weekday evening. There was never much in there, just the local happenings, obituaries, and advertisements for local businesses. I left the pen where it was and stood up and looked over at the tarp again. The pen may have been trash or it may have belonged to whoever was under the tarp.

  I carefully headed back to the tarp and went over who I might know that worked at the newspaper. Richard Price. He was Stormy’s husband Bob’s cousin and worked on typesetting the newspaper. Sparrow’s only paper had never had enough money to come into the digital age and was printed on old typesetting machinery from the 1960s. I hoped it wasn’t him.

  I carefully stepped back from the tarp and looked at the mud. There were a lot of footprints in the area, including mine. I started carefully walking backward, trying to step in the prints I had already made. Cade would notice. Nothing escaped him.