Mock Apple Alibi, page 1
Mock Apple Alibi
Auntie Clem’s Bakery Cozy Mysteries
Book Twenty-Five
P.D. Workman
About
In the picturesque town of Bald Eagle Falls, rich stories are woven as perfectly as a pie's golden lattice top and the alibis are just as fake as mock apple pie. Erin and Vic must cut deep to solve a string of mysterious disappearances.
Welcome back to Bald Eagle Falls, where Erin Price is serving up more than delicious treats at Auntie Clem’s Bakery. This time, the recipe for disaster includes missing persons, clan warfare, and a mock apple pie that’s not as fake as the alibis flying around town!
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What’s on the Menu?
1. A Missing Mother: Mary Lou Cox vanishes without a trace, leaving her son Cam frantic and the whole town stirring up gossip like a bad batch of sourdough.
2. A Vanishing Bookseller: Naomi, the owner of the Book Nook, also disappears, leaving Erin with more questions than answers.
3. A Deadly Intruder: As if that weren’t enough, a masked gunman warns Erin and her friend and employee Vic to stay out of clan business. Talk about a half-baked threat!
4. Clan Chaos: With Willie Andrews trying to maintain peace while navigating loyalty issues that would make a soap opera writer jealous, tensions are higher than a soufflé about to collapse.
5. Culinary Conundrums: Can Erin craft a deliciously deceiving gluten-free mock apple pie to add to the menu of Auntie Clem’s Bakery?
Will Erin cook up enough clues to solve the mystery before someone gets permanently whisked away? Or will she and Vic find themselves on the wrong end of a family recipe for disaster?
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A Recipe for Cozy Mystery Lovers
If you enjoy small-town settings, amateur sleuths, and a dash of culinary charm, you’ll devour “Mock Apple Alibi.” Perfect for fans of culinary cozy mysteries and strong female protagonists, this book is a delectable blend of sweetness and suspense. Dig into another helping of the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series as Erin serves up justice, one slice at a time!
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Knead to Know More?
Join Erin and Vic for a culinary cozy mystery filled with friendship, intrigue, and just the right pinch of danger—because in Bald Eagle Falls, things aren’t always as sweet as they seem! Discover why "Mock Apple Alibi" is the most delicious mystery yet—grab your copy now!
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Praise for the Series
—This lady knows how to write!! I read this during hurricane Irma on my Kindle so I didn’t care the power was out!
—It was very good! But made me hungry!
—Oh my goodness I loved it! The murder mystery was so awesome… I couldn’t put this book down. Props to you again for another amazing read!
—I really enjoyed this book … Would make a great Hallmark movie.
—This very enjoyable story with uncomplicated characters and a sweet and easy storyline was well done.
Mock Apple Alibi
Copyright © 2025 by P.D. Workman
All rights reserved.
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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.
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ISBN: 9781774688762 (KDP Paperback)
ISBN: 9781774688779 (KDP Hardcover)
ISBN: 9781774688793 (Lulu Paperback)
ISBN: 9781774688786 (Large Print)
ISBN: 9781774688809 (Digital)
ISBN: 9781774688816 (Auto-narrated audiobook)
Your First Bite – Cozy Mystery Starter Pack
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Get Your First Taste of Murder and Muffins at pdworkman.com! Start your cozy escape with a free ebook + audiobook, printable recipe cards, and more.
In the memory of those who are absent
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
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Preview of Chocolate Eclairvoyant
Preview Chapter 1
Preview Chapter 2
Also by P.D. Workman
About the Author
Chapter 1
Everything was quiet in Bald Eagle Falls. Erin stood at the front window of Auntie Clem’s Bakery, looking out at Main Street. Trees and flowers bloomed along the road. A gentle breeze carried the light scent of dogwood into the bakery.
It was too quiet.
The town looked just as it had the first time she had rolled into town to claim her inheritance from Clementine after an absence of twenty years. When her mother had taken her away from Bald Eagle Falls that fateful night, Erin had not had any idea that it was the last time she would see the town until she was an adult. Driving by the charming storefronts with their colorful sunshade canopies, she had thought that it was just a trip like any other. They were going into the city. Maybe for shopping or visiting a friend; she hadn’t really had any idea then. Her parents were not in the habit of consulting with her about their plans.
Returning to Bald Eagle Falls had been like coming home, even though it had never been her permanent home. Just where they visited Aunt Clementine and crashed at her place for a while. Much like they had crashed with many other friends and relatives during Erin’s short lifetime, living a somewhat nomadic existence as her parents moved from one short-term job to another.
Erin had loved staying with Clementine and going with her to work in what had then been a tea shop. Erin had been a mature child and enjoyed helping Clementine with the tea orders and baking cookies, but she must have gotten underfoot sometimes. She couldn’t imagine having a seven-year-old working alongside her at Auntie Clem’s Bakery. But Clementine had always been kind and patient with her and Erin couldn’t remember her ever getting angry or impatient about her mistakes or clumsiness.
Main Street seemed to be frozen in time. The cars and clothing styles had changed. Some of the storefronts had changed. Auntie Clem’s was now across the street from the storefront she had inherited from Clementine. But in other ways, it looked and felt just the way it had when Erin had been there twenty years before.
“Is everything okay?” Harold asked. He leaned on the top of the display case, his lanky teenage body relaxed, acne-pocked face curious.
“It’s too quiet,” Erin said, looking up and down the street again. “I don’t like it.”
“You’re worried about not getting enough business?” Harold asked.
“No…” There was a momentary lull in the arrival of customers, but Erin knew it would pick up again as people left work and started to think about what they wanted to make for supper, or for breakfast or lunch the next day. “It isn’t customers I am worried about. It’s… I was expecting everything to change. I thought that with Willie claiming leadership of the Dyson clan, there would be a lot of… unrest.”
“You’re worried that there isn’t a gang war going on in front of the store?” Vic asked as she came out of the kitchen with a tray of muffins. “You were hoping for gunplay?” As usual, her long blond hair was neatly tucked away in a baker’s hat, and Erin’s shorter dark hair was forever escaping bobby pins and getting in her face.
“No!” Erin’s cheeks got hot. If anyone should be worried, it was Vic. She was the one who had belonged to the opposing clan, born into the Jackson family, and whose romantic partner had just claimed leadership of the Dysons.
Maybe because Vic had already been disowned by the Jackson family for being transgender, she thought she was safe from anyone targeting her for her choice of partner. Or maybe she felt that because Willie was now the leader of the Dysons, no one would dare lay a finger on her.
But she was the one who had the most to worry about. The Jacksons could easily target her because she was important to Willie. Or because she had turned traitor and joined the Dysons—even though she hadn’t. Vic didn’t want anything to do with either clan. Raised to hate and fear the Dysons, she had been pretty upset when she had first found out that Willie had neglected to mention his history with the clan to her. It had nearly broken them up for good. But Vic had eventually accepted that Willie had done his time as a Dyson soldier and wasn’t involved in clan business anymore.
Until now. Erin had expected her young employee to blow up when Willie accepted leadership of the clan, even though the only reason he had done it was to prevent Erin and her sweetheart, Officer Terry Piper, from being killed. But Vic hadn’t had much to say about Willie’s claim on the leadership of the Dyson family as a direct descendant of Hannah Dyson.
“Why aren’t you worried?” Erin asked Vic. “Aren’t you concerned about Dyson members gunning for Willie because they don’t like someone who has previously turned his back on the clan suddenly taking over? Or about someone coming after you to hurt him?”
Vic was silent as she arranged muffins in the display case with practiced ease. She looked back over her shoulder at Harold. “Shouldn’t you be doing the washing up back there?”
Harold straightened up and nodded, agreeing that he should get back to his duties.
“Yes, Miss Victoria.” He walked through the door into the kitchen to do as he was told.
“Of course I’m worried,” Vic admitted. “I know that sooner or later, something is going to happen.” She looked out the front window, scanning up and down the street to reassure herself, as Erin had, that it was still quiet. “But I don’t think there is any point in scaring Harold about it. Or saying anything to any of the customers. For now, just… wait…”
“Pretend there is nothing to be worried about?”
“What good is it going to do to fuss about it?” Vic challenged. “Is that going to stop it from happening? Is it going to make you feel better? Make you better prepared?”
“Well, no,” Erin admitted. Vic was barely out of her teens, but she had been raised with clan warfare and politics, and had wisdom beyond her years as a result. “Although, if there is something I can do to be better prepared for what’s coming… I would like to do it.”
Vic nodded her agreement and understanding. “We’ll talk about that later. For now, since there are no customers, why don’t we take the opportunity to talk about your mock apple pie?”
She said it as she turned around and walked back into the kitchen, raising her voice so that Erin could still hear her with her back turned.
Erin left her place at the window. Vic was right, of course. Standing around looking out the window, worrying when something terrible was going to happen, wouldn’t do anything but give her an ulcer and keep her from her work. The actual running of the bakery was her life’s work. A clan war wasn’t going to change that. No matter what happened, people would still need to buy bread. The clans didn’t have any reason to target the bakery. It would stay open and keep running no matter which clan had the upper hand in their ongoing, generations-long feud.
“What exactly is a mock apple pie?” Harold was asking as Erin followed Vic into the kitchen.
“It is an apple pie made without apples,” Vic told him. She took a binder out of the niche under the upper cabinets where they stored several binders of information on procedures, ingredients, and vendors. The slim binder contained copies of the recipes that had been in the vintage recipe book published by the Bald Eagle Falls Women’s League, the original of which was no longer in Erin’s possession.
Vic flipped through the binder to find the recipe for mock apple pie.
“It doesn’t have apples in it,” Harold repeated doubtfully.
“Nope. No apples.”
“Why would anyone make apple pie without apples?”
“Because sometimes, historically, apples were very expensive to ship across the country and spoiled faster than something like crackers, which could sit on the shelf for months.”
“Crackers?”
“Ritz crackers. There was even a recipe on the back of the cracker box.”
Harold looked at Vic, his brows furrowed, then turned to Erin, waiting for her to tell him it was all just a joke.
“It’s true,” Erin said. “During the depression and wartime, women made apple pie with Ritz crackers.”
“And no apples,” he said.
“And no apples.”
Harold shook his head like it was the most bizarre thing he had ever heard, and Erin had to agree with him. When she had first heard of mock apple pie, she hadn’t believed it either. But she had talked to several women who had eaten it and assured her it was a fairly convincing fake.
“It has to do with the spices,” she told Harold, “and lemon juice for tartness. Apparently, the way you prepare the crackers in the filling gives them a texture that is like cooked apples.”
Harold shook his head slowly. “Ain’t that something!” he declared. “And how are you going to make gluten-free mock apple pie? Ritz crackers are not gluten-free, and if you get the gluten-free crackers, won’t they just dissolve without any gluten to hold them together?”
Vic turned and looked at Erin, raising her brows. They’d already had this discussion, and Erin had been researching different approaches to the problem. Make her own gluten-free crackers that would stay together better? She was sure that the texture still wouldn’t be right.
“Okay,” Erin got closer to Harold and Vic so that it was easier to hold the conversation without raised voices and the possibility of anyone who came into the bakery overhearing them. “I’ve been working on it, and I have a few ideas about the direction to go…”
Chapter 2
The bells over the door jingled and Erin hurried out to the front to greet her customer. It was a face that she didn’t recognize, which instantly sent her heart racing. The twenty-something baby-faced young man did not look dangerous, but as with mock apple pie, looks could be deceiving. Young men were recruited as street-level soldiers in both clans, and this fresh-faced stranger could be there looking for trouble. Plenty of people knew Willie’s girlfriend worked at the bakery.
Erin forced a smile to her lips and inquired pleasantly. “Welcome to Auntie Clem’s Bakery. How can I help you?”
The man pulled something out of his pocket, and for an instant, the sun’s reflection off a metallic surface convinced her it was a gun. But before she could react, the young man held a phone out in front of him, and the shutter-click whir told Erin that he had snapped a picture of her. She kept her smile steady.
The customer stepped up to the display case and scanned the rows. The camera tipped Erin off as to what he was looking for.
“Morning sunshine muffins?” she guessed.
His face lit up. “Yes, how did you know?”
The late Gerald Montgomery’s social media followers were still making pilgrimages to Bald Eagle Falls to eat the last thing he had sampled before his death.
It still bothered Erin that the strawberry compote surprise at the center of the morning sunshine muffins had given Montgomery an anaphylactic reaction that had killed him within minutes. But she wasn’t about to stop making them as a result. Not when people traveled across the country and around the world just for the chance to eat one of the muffins.
She took a muffin from the display case and placed it on one of the garish gold paper plates they now stocked for just such an occasion. If people were going to make the purchase of a morning sunshine muffin a social media event, Erin was going to get as much mileage as she could from it. She inserted a toothpick mounted with the words Auntie Clem’s Bakery into the top of the muffin. She set it in the best position for the Instagrammer to take pictures from the most advantageous angles.
