"They said you were a person of interest, but they didn't say you were going to be arrested, right?" I tried to sound reassuring.

  I didn't know what to think about Antwan and Jenna. He had threatened her, if what she wrote in her diary was true, but he seemed so scared. He could've been innocent, but he also might have just been scared of facing the consequences of his actions.

  "That's what I wanted to ask you about," Antwan said. "I was hoping that maybe Tom said something to you about it. I was hoping that perhaps he'd told you that they weren't going to arrest me." Antwan seemed desperate. "I swear, I didn't kill her, Cathy. I yelled at her once, and yes, I threatened her. But Cathy, she was stalking me. Jenna was scaring me, and she was scaring the woman I'd started dating. I had to do something. I wasn't sure what would work. I'd asked her nicely so many times to leave me alone. She just kept following me everywhere."

  I wanted to believe him. It had to be scary to have someone following you around like that. I couldn't even imagine what it was like to tell them to leave you alone and have them keep showing up at your home and work. How would Antwan have known that she wasn't deranged or something?

  "I didn't really talk to Tom last night," I said, and all of the fight went out of Antwan. "He sent me a text saying he had to help his father with something after work. I'm sorry, but I don't have any news on that."

  "Maybe no news is good news," Antwan said.

  "That could be true. I mean, if they wanted to arrest you, they would have, right? If you didn't do anything to her, then they're not going to have any reason to arrest you."

  "You're right,” he said and relaxed a little more. "Thank you."

  "You're welcome, and you know I'll see you at the studio today because it's Thursday," I offered. "I'm sure it will be okay."

  "I think I'm going to hang out here for a while if that's all right. Since you're opening. Could I purchase another coffee and one of your pecan caramel rolls? I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday."

  "Sure,” I said. “Come on up to the counter, and I'll get that for you."

  I got Antwan a fresh coffee and a pecan roll. He took them over to a corner table and pulled a newspaper out of his bag. He sat there quietly eating his breakfast and reading until it was time for work.

  Since I knew he wouldn't steal anything, I went to the back to pull another batch of the pecan cinnamon rolls out of the oven.

  I turned the rolls out of the pan onto the counter and then arranged them on the cooling racks. Once they were cool, I would frost them, but that would have to wait.

  That put me at about opening time, so I went back out front to unlock the door and turn on the open sign. I went back behind the counter to wait for my morning customers to arrive or for Camille to show up. She's take the counter when she got in, so I only had to handle customers until then.

  Of course, I got an unwelcome guest right away. Through my door waltzed Roberta Roberts.

  "Hello, Roberta," I said as cheerfully as I could.

  She just grunted at me in return while looking over the offerings in the display case. She checked out my selection of rolls, breads, buns, and cupcakes. Then she made her way over to the chalkboard to look at the daily special.

  "Tortilla soup and churro cupcakes. How quaint,” she snarked before turning on her heels and leaving the store abruptly.

  I was used to it by that point. Roberta came in at least once a week and did the same thing. Roberta was my main competitor and owned a bakery on the other side of town. She wanted to check to make sure I hadn’t added any new items to the menu that she could copy. I probably should have done something about her trying to steal my ideas, but it didn’t hurt my business any, so I left it alone.

  If the best she could do was copy me, then I was already more successful. I wished she would chill out and stop coming in just to snipe at me. It made me feel bad for her.

  Camille came in around seven thirty, and I was happy to have her in time for the morning rush. I stayed up front and helped her fill orders as much as I could and dashed into the back to put things in or take things out of the ovens whenever I had half a free second.

  Just like clockwork, Ralph, Ann, and Dwayne came into the shop to order breakfast before they went into work at the television studio. Ann and Dwayne got their breakfasts and went to sit with Antwan. I was happy to see that his friends hadn’t abandoned him. That made me want to believe him even more.

  Ralph lingered at the counter for a moment. “Have you heard anything more from the police after the interviews yesterday?” he asked.

  Even if Tom had told me something, which he hadn’t, I wasn’t going to spill the beans to everyone. People knew I was dating a police officer, but that didn’t mean I had to indulge their need to gossip. Still, I was polite about it. I understood their curiosity.

  “No. I didn’t talk to Tom much last night, so I don’t know any more than anyone else,” I said with a shrug.

  “That’s okay,” Ralph said with a smile. “Have a great day, Cathy.”

  “You too, Ralph.”

  He joined the others at the table with Antwan. I got back to helping Camille with the morning rush.

  At 11:30, I had to leave for the television studio. The lunch rush would start soon, but it was nothing like the morning rush. I hoped Camille could handle it.

  I got everything I needed for the tortilla soup ready to go. Most of it was ready from when I'd done prep that morning. I'd saved a little of the ingredients back because I knew I'd need them for the show.

  When I arrived at the television studio, I took my ingredients to the set and arranged everything for filming. Since there wouldn't be time to actually cook the soup on the segment, I had a container full of the finished product that I dumped into the pot I used for display.

  Most of the veggies were chopped, but I left some corn on the cob so I could do the kerneling on the show. I also left the red sweet peppers to chop because that always looked nice on camera. The rest was in containers, including the chicken I'd already pulled that morning.

  Filming went well. I usually did cupcakes on air because people loved to watch me frost them, but I did like to mix it up from time to time. I managed to kernel the corn with the little scraping tool I had for the job, and cut the peppers into tiny pieces without cutting my fingers. That was one thing I dreaded. I was always afraid I was going to cut myself on film. It would be a totally embarrassing, and painful, moment. But I made it through without maiming myself.

  I put together the soup base of stock, cream, and various herbs and spices before adding the veggies and meat. Everything went onto the little stovetop they had for me on set, and then the camera cut to the faces of the news anchors. That gave me time to swap out the pot of uncooked soup for the completed recipe while they ooohed and ahhhed over the smell of the cooking soup.

  Once the segment was wrapped, I headed down the hallway to the dressing room. As I got closer to the door, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was like someone was watching me, but when I stopped and turned around, no one was there. The hallway was completely empty. I chuckled at myself for being paranoid, and went to the dressing room to grab my things.

  On the way out of the studio, I spotted Ralph sitting on a bench writing something down in a notebook. He looked up from whatever he was doing as soon as I walked out the door and waved at me with a smile. "Hey, Cathy."

  "Hi, Ralph." I returned his wave and made my way to my car.

  Chapter Seven

  I left the television studio and headed home to get Gracie. It was time for our usual walk around the lake. Somehow, Gracie knew what day it was, and she was waiting for me by the door. On days we weren't going to the lake for a walk, I'd find her lounging on the sofa whenever I came home, but on walk days she was raring to go.

  "Hi, Gracie," I said as I walked into the apartment.

  For a moment, I considered not going on the walk. I was spooked thinking about discovering Jenna's body behind those bushes, and I couldn't get the image out of my mind. I thought that perhaps it was time for me to find a new place for our walks, but we both loved the lake so much. It had been our little ritual ever since I could get Gracie to walk in public without being aggressive because she was terrified. Plus, it wasn't like there were a ton of other places for us to do our walks.

  I had to steel my nerves. I would not give up our favorite spot because of fear. Besides, it's not like I had anything to worry about. Surely, there was nobody out there who wanted to kill me.

  Gracie and I arrived at the lake, and she bounded out of the car with joyful exuberance. I'd made the right call coming to the lake and was glad I hadn't taken the experience away from Gracie. She'd worked so hard to overcome the struggles she'd had in early life, and I loved giving her every little bit of happiness I could. Thankfully, she didn't try to run off, but instead did her carefree little butt waggle dance in between jumps. I couldn't help but laugh.

  We were just about to begin walking to the path when Tom's car pulled up. He waved to me as he got out. "Cathy, hi,” he called out in case I hadn't seen him.

  "This is a pleasant surprise," I said as Tom approached.

  "I knew you would be spooked by what happened. I didn't want you to have to give up on your lake walks with Gracie,” he said and took my hand. "I'm just here for moral support."

  Much to Tom’s delight, Gracie started her little dance all over again for him. She got going to the point where her ears were doing a little flappy dance all of their own. He chuckled and gave her a scratch behind the ears when she finally calmed down.

  As we walked, Tom brought up the case again. I was hoping he would, but I was glad I didn’t have to ask.

  “So the interviews at the studio yesterday were interesting,” Tom said.

  “Oh, yeah, I was wondering how those went.”

  “I was impressed by how much people’s demeanors changed once we started asking them questions.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “People who I didn’t expect to be nervous at all got anxious once we got past the initial questions. Some of them I didn’t expect to get so tongue-tied, but they wound themselves up to the point of practically being in tears,” Tom said. “There were some others who were super friendly at first, but they weren’t once we got started. I’m always amazed by how people are around the police.”

  I wanted to ask him who he was talking about, but I knew he and Mack had interviewed a ton of people.

  “Anyone stick out to you?” I asked.

  “Not as much as I would have liked,” Tom said. “This morning I had a follow-up interview with Ginny Graham. She had been seen walking very quickly out of the woods and into the parking lot at the time of the murder. She jumped in her car and peeled out. No one ever got the chance to talk to her the day of the murder.”

  “How did that go?” I asked.

  “She told me that her boyfriend had broken up with her. He’d done it in the park to prevent a scene. She was really embarrassed and didn’t want anyone to see her crying. She’d thought he was going to propose, so she’d been a mess,” Tom said. “I got in touch with her ex-boyfriend, Greg Johns, and he verified her alibi. Since I have no reason to suspect that they both killed Jenna, I’ve taken her off the list.”

  “I guess it’s good to cross someone off the list. Even though it would be better to find the killer,” I mused.

  “Every person off the list is one step closer,” Tom said optimistically. “After I spoke with Ginny, I met with Harry Hanover. I needed to find out why he’d left in a hurry.”

  “Anything interesting?” I asked.

  “Depends on what you mean by interesting. He had to go because his wife had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon. Harry needed to get home and help her get ready. His wife had a mild stroke recently, and he has to take her to all of her appointments. It was easy enough to verify, and I didn’t really think he’d done it in the first place,” Tom said.

  On the way back to the parking lot, Tom asked me to dinner. “Would you let me take you out tomorrow night? It’s Friday,” he said.

  “I think that would be nice,” I said.

  “I want to set Camille up with my good buddy, Carl Woods. I think you’ve met him before. Do you think she’d be up for a double date?”

  “I’ll ask her this afternoon when I go back into the bakery, and I’ll call you later,” I said.

  “Cool. I’m thinking we should go to that rib joint in Salisbury. No better way for people to find out if they’re going to get along than over a huge plate of messy ribs,” he said with an impish smile.

  “Sounds good to me,” I said and stood on my tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  When I took Gracie home, I pulled a surprise for her out of the cupboard. I had a brand-new chew bone for her, and she’d been such a good girl, I decided to let her have it.

  “I’ll be back after work,” I said and gave her a kiss on top of the head.

  Mark was on his way out of his apartment at the same time as me. I knew then for sure that he was planning it.

  “Hey, Cat. You look good today,” he said with a smile that gave me butterflies. “How’s Gracie?”

  “She’s good. We just got back from our walk, and she’s going to town on a new chew bone. She’ll be happy this afternoon until I get back.”

  “I’m on my way to the gym,” he said. “I’ve got to stay in shape to impress the ladies. Especially the cute neighborly ones.”

  “You are too much,” I said with a chuckle. “I’m heading into the bakery. Have a good time at the gym.”

  “You have a good afternoon too,” he said as I walked away.

  I could have stayed there and flirted with him a lot longer, but I did need to get into work. Plus, I didn’t want to give Mark the wrong idea. He was devastatingly attractive, but I got the feeling he flirted with all the women he knew that way. I refused to read too much into it and mess up the good thing I had with Tom.

  Still, the flirting put me in a chipper and confident mood as I headed back into the bakery. I was so confident, in fact, that I decided to stop by Roberta Roberts’ shop and give her a little poke. Was it petty? Maybe a little, but she needed a dose of her own medicine.

  Roberta's shop was called Roberta's Sweets and Meats because she had a deli as well as her bakery. I hadn't decided yet if I thought the name was creepy or cute.

  I walked into the bakery and called out "Hello."

  Roberta emerged from the back and stared disapprovingly down her long, bird-like nose at me. "Hello, Cathy."

  I walked slowly around the shop looking at everything in her display cases. Her specials board was just a plain white board. Nothing like the chalkboard I used and the pretty colorful pictures Camille and I did.

  Once I'd looked everything over, I decided to give Roberta a good zing. "Is everything... fresh?" I asked skeptically.

  Roberta gave me a withering scowl followed by a huge sigh. She didn't respond but instead, turned on her heels and went into the back of her shop. I couldn't help but laugh as I left. She could certainly dish it out, but Roberta could not take it.

  Back at the bakery, Camille and I waited on customers until it was time to close. Once the last one was out and the door was locked, I had to get cracking on a large sheet cake that was due at five. Camille wanted to stick around and help because she was looking forward to helping me with the intricate frosting design. While we worked on drawing the delicate flowers with silver and lavender icing, I brought up the double date.

  "Hey, Camille. I need to ask you something."

  "Oh, no,” she teased.

  "It's nothing bad. It's just that Tom has this friend named Carl, and he wants to set you two up."

  "Cathy, that sounds super awkward," Camille said.

  "It won't be. He wants us all to go on a double date tomorrow night. I'm pretty sure Carl is a good guy. Especially if he's friends with Tom, and you'll have me there with you. So, no awkward first date."

  "You think he's a good guy?"

  "I mean, he is friends with a cop."

  "That's a good point," Camille said. "I don't know. Dating has not been good to me. I'm not sure I'm ready to dive into another horrible situation."

  "I don't think it will be horrible. We can eat ribs and drink margaritas. Patron margaritas with extra salt?" I tried to tempt her with our favorite cocktail.

  "Ribs, Cathy?"

  "Yeah, they are delicious, and you'll know right away if the guy is a stick in the mud or not. Bonus, you'll know what he expects from the relationship," I said.

  "How will I know that?" Camille asked.

  "Because if he gets all bent out of shape over you eating some messy ribs, you'll know he has way too high of expectations."

  "That's a good point," Camille said.

  "But I doubt he's like that. Tom wouldn't try to set you up if he was. He's just not like that."

  "All right, fine. I'll go," Camille said. "If nothing else, it's free food, right?"

  "That's the spirit," I said with a laugh.

  Once we were done with the cake, I boxed it up and carried it out to Camille's car. The client was on her way home, so she agreed to do a delivery. I put the cake in her trunk and told her to drive carefully. I would have died if the icing work on that cake had gotten messed up because she'd slammed on her brakes too hard, but I trusted Camille.

  I headed for the grocery store to grab something for dinner. I probably had stuff to eat at home already, but I wanted fresh salad greens. Gracie and I had a date to sit on the couch and veg out in front of Netflix, but I at least wanted to eat something healthy. That was our usual evening routine on work nights.

  At the store I grabbed bagged butter lettuce, green pepper, a fat, perfectly red tomato, radishes, kale, some mushrooms, and a rotisserie chicken for protein. Gracie would be happy because I'd share the chicken with her. She liked a little of the green pepper too, but she was mostly in it for the chicken. I already had carrots at home and everything I needed to whip up a quick dressing. I figured homemade mayonnaise with some additional herbs and spices would make a delicious and easy dressing.

 

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