11. Jayne
My dreams had been weird, and I was pretty sure it was from all the chocolate I’d consumed, but I didn’t care. It had been delicious. And worth it.
I yawned as I opened my eyes. I did not smell coffee. That was odd. I turned my head to see Sin still in bed next to me. He hadn’t been there at midnight, when I’d first gotten up to pee, but he had been at 3 a.m., when I made another trip to the bathroom.
He’d mentioned going to see Matt when he got home, so I assumed that’s what had happened. They must have stayed up late talking. Had Sin learned anything? I was eager to find out but not so eager that I was going to wake him.
I snuck out of the bedroom and went toward the powder room instead of the master bath so I wouldn’t wake him. Both cats trotted past me to their empty food dishes, where they sat and made Puss in Boots eyes at me. “Guys, I know you’re hungry, but I have a bowling ball pressing down on my bladder, so you need to wait a few more minutes.”
As usual, Spider came into the bathroom with me, slipping through the door before I could close it. “Mama, Spider hungry.”
“Spider, I’m … using the litter box. Do you mind?”
I think he actually sighed. I finished up, served them their breakfast, then got a pot of coffee brewing for Sin. I doubted he’d sleep much longer.
The bedroom door slid back, proving me right. I smiled at him. “Morning, sleepyhead.”
“Good morning to you, my beautiful wife.”
“I take it you saw Matt last night?”
“Yep. We stayed up talking quite a bit.”
“Did you learn anything?”
“I did.” He glanced at the coffee that was just about ready.
“You don’t have to tell me right now. Get your coffee, your shower, whatever, then we can talk over breakfast.”
“Does that mean you’re cooking?”
“I can. What are you in the mood for?”
His eyes narrowed. “Those giant cinnamon buns. And an omelet.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’d be up for that.”
We arrived at Auntie Mae’s Diner about half an hour later. Our Ryde dropped us off right in front. The place was busy, but a lot of the customers were in the takeout line, so we managed to snag a booth in about five minutes.
A server brought us menus and glasses of water. “Morning, folks. I’m Anita, and I’ll be taking care of you. Can I bring you some coffee?
Sin nodded. “Coffee would be great.”
“What about for you, honey?”
I shook my head and leaned back so she could see my belly. “I have to watch my caffeine.”
“Oh, bless your heart. How ’bout a little chocolate milk?”
I liked Anita. “That would be all right.”
“Comin’ up. No specials today, but it’s all special, you take my word.”
She left, and I smiled at Sin. “I like her.”
“She’d fit right in at Mummy’s, wouldn’t she?”
“She would. Wow.” Another server walked past with a cinnamon bun that covered nearly the entire plate. “Speaking of Mummy’s, I know what I’m getting.”
His brows rose. “Just a cinnamon bun? I know it’s big but?—”
“With a side of bacon.”
Anita came back with the coffee and chocolate milk and took our order. A bun and bacon for me, a kitchen sink omelet with grits and a biscuit for Sin.
I sipped the chocolate milk, which came in a tall glass with a red-and-white striped straw. It was very chocolaty, so naturally, I was all about it. “Okay, tell me what you learned.”
“According to Matt, Charlie was happy, loved life, and had no obvious reason to do what the police suspect her of doing. However, he said she’d been jumpy the last month or two.”
“Jumpy?”
Sin nodded. “He attributed it to her being in a not-so-great relationship. He claims she and her boyfriend broke up and got back together at least once.”
“Breaking up is hard, but it doesn’t seem like a big enough reason to end it all.”
“I agree. Matt also told me that he bought those chocolates for Charlie. They were supposed to be very intensely flavored, something he thought would appeal to Charlie because she’d suffered damage to her olfactory nerves as a child when she was kicked in the head by a horse.”
I grimaced. “Wow. I can’t imagine what that would be like. So she couldn’t taste or smell anything?”
“He said her senses were limited, not that they were completely gone. She liked big flavors, spicy things, anything that might be a little over the top for some.”
I thought about what I’d seen in her fridge. All those bottles of hot sauce. And all those spicy foods. “That jives with what was in her refrigerator. Except there was also a container of vanilla protein powder by the blender. That seems about as bland as can be.”
“Maybe it was more like a supplement. A way to get calories without having to think about it too much. A way to get calories, period. You saw how thin she was.”
“Yep. It was probably something like that.” After another sip of chocolate milk, I sat back. “I feel even sorrier for her now. I can’t imagine going through life with an impaired sense of taste and smell. That would suck.”
Sin’s expression said he agreed. “Poor Charlie.”
The words came out of his mouth as Anita returned with our food. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but did you say, ‘Poor Charlie?’”
“I did,” Sin answered.
Anita set our plates in front of us. The cinnamon bun looked pretty close to the ones I’d had at Mummy’s. “Are you talking about Charlie Frett, by any chance? Did you folks know her?”
“Very briefly,” Sin said. “She took care of our friend’s cat when he traveled. We just met her the other night.”
Anita shook her head, sadness in her eyes. “That poor woman. She was the nicest. Used to come in here with her friends once or twice a month. She even looked after my dog, Bean, when I had to go up north for a funeral.” She let out a sigh. “Guess I’ll be going to her funeral next.”
That got my attention. “Do you know when it is? We’d like to go, and I’m sure our friend Matt would, too.”
“I haven’t heard yet.”
Another table waved at her for coffee. Anita gave them a nod. “I’ll tell you one thing: I don’t believe for a hot second that she killed herself. That’s what they’re saying, you know. Charlie wasn’t the type. Now, I better scoot. You folks enjoy. I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.”
I looked at Sin. “We should go to that funeral. Not just to pay our respects but to see if we can talk to some of her friends, maybe figure out who this on-again, off-again boyfriend was.”
“Anita might know about the boyfriend. We can ask her when she comes back by. Maybe we could even give her our number and see if she’d share the funeral information when she gets it. I’m sure Matt will want to know.”
“It’s worth asking about.”
Sin sliced through his omelet, which was enormous.
Of course, my cinnamon bun wasn’t small. Easily the size of the ones served at Mummy’s Diner in Nocturne Falls, it looked pretty similar. But how would it fare in a taste comparison? I would soon find out.
Knife and fork in hand, I cut a bite-size wedge and had at it. The frosting on top stood out right away. The frosting on the Mummy’s cinnamon rolls was pretty straight-up vanilla. This had a little something extra in it. Rum or rum extract, was my guess. It was also super creamy.
The pastry part of the roll tasted comparable. It was yeast dough with that slight stretchiness that gave it some chew. The layers were slathered with a mixture of cinnamon, sugar, and butter. There were other ingredients in the filling, but I wasn’t sure what they might be. I picked up a hint of citrus.
Whatever was in there, it was delicious. I was a third of the way through the cinnamon bun when Anita swung by, coffeepot in hand.
“Top you off?” she asked Sin.
“Sure.”
“How’s everything?”
“Really good,” I said. “There’s a diner where we used to live that makes a cinnamon roll pretty similar to this one, but your frosting is different. The stuff inside might be a little different, too.”
“The frosting is cream-cheese based,” Anita answered. “Maybe that’s what you’re tasting?”
“And is there a little rum in it?”
She grinned. “A little. I know the filling has cinnamon, obviously, but our recipe includes some cardamom, nutmeg, and a hint of clove.” She glanced at my plate. “Should I bring you a box?”
“I’m not going to need one.”
Her brows rose.
Sin laughed. “Trust me, she’ll finish it.”
“If you say so.” Chuckling, Anita went on to her next table.
I scrunched up my face. “Sorry. Too much talk about the cinnamon bun and not enough about Charlie.”
“She’ll be back.”
We were nearly done when she returned, but the restaurant had gotten busier, so it wasn’t Anita’s fault.
“How are we doing? Can I get you anything else?”
“I’d like another cinnamon roll to go, please.” I sat back, proud of my clean plate.
She looked at it. “By gum, you did eat it all. I’ll have one boxed up for you right away.” She checked on Sin. “Would you like a box?”
“Yes, but we have another request. If we gave you a phone number, would you text us when you find out about Charlie’s funeral?”
Anita nodded. “Absolutely. I think it’s sweet you want to go.”
“Just curious,” I started, “but did Charlie have a boyfriend? Did you ever see her in here with someone special?”
Anita pursed her lips and lifted her gaze for a moment before looking at us again. “There was a guy. Dark hair. I can’t remember his name. Actually, I’m not sure I ever knew it. She was only in here once with him that I can remember. And the only reason I remember it was because I didn’t like him. She went to the ladies room, and he flirted with Sandy while Charlie was gone. Sandy’s a cute little blonde who works weekends.”
“Doesn’t sound like much of boyfriend,” I said.
“That’s what I thought.” Anita’s eyes narrowed. “You’re asking a lot of questions. Not that I mind. But what are you, detectives or something?”
“Not really,” Sin said. “But something about her death doesn’t seem right to us.”
Anita nodded. “Yeah, I’d have to agree on that with you. Such a shame.” She tapped the table. “Be right back with that box.”
We left, having exchanged numbers with Anita, who Sin had tipped handsomely as an extra incentive to remember us. I carried the bag with Sin’s leftovers and my cinnamon roll while he called a Ryde to take us back to Matt’s.
We were waiting for it to arrive when my phone rang. I handed Sin the bag and dug it out of my purse. It was Birdie. “Hey, there.”
“Hi, Princess. I have a little news.”
“Great.”
“I don’t know if it is or not, but toxicology came back on the cat sitter. There was nothing in her blood.”
I frowned. “How can that be? Are you saying she died of natural causes?”
“No, definitely not saying that. Just saying there was no evidence of any unusual substances in her blood, which does seem odd for someone who supposedly committed suicide. Now, bear in mind, the autopsy hasn’t been done yet. Hopefully, that will reveal cause of death. If not, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“That is weird. Based on the photos, there were no external wounds.” I was stumped. “What do you think happened?”
Birdie let out a soft sigh. “I really don’t know. Is there any chance that there was magic at work here?”
“Nothing I could detect, but I’m not exactly an expert in all things magical. My skills lie strictly in the winter elf department.”
“Hmm. Any chance you could get into the morgue and let Sin use his particular set of skills?”
I glanced at him. He had enough silver streaks in his hair. “I don’t know how we’d make that happen. That feels like a last resort kind of option. A very last resort.”
“Got it,” Birdie said. “Well, fingers crossed the autopsy gives us more information.”
“Yes, definitely. Oh! Sin found out that Charlie had damage to her olfactory nerves from a childhood incident with a horse kicking her in the head. So we know she didn’t have a very keen sense of smell or taste. I don’t know if that means anything yet, but I just wanted to tell you. Something to think about.”
“For sure. Poor thing.”
“I know. Thanks for the update, Birdie.”
“You bet. Talk soon, Princess.” She hung up.
I gave Sin the update.
He frowned. “Nothing in her blood? How can that be?”
“I have no idea. Are there poisons that don’t show up in the blood?”
“I don’t know about real ones but probably magical ones.”
I nodded, my thoughts racing as our Ryde arrived. I knew what I was doing this afternoon. And if Sin was game, I had work for him, too.