Banana Muffins & Mayhem - Culinary Competition Mystery #5

Chapter 17

(Amy)

Amy transferred the red gift bag to her left hand and pulled open the front door of The Inkwell. She had an advantage over Detective Foster, and she was going to make use of it. Baked goods were always a good tool to set people at ease. Especially loaded brownies filled with everything from gooey caramel nougat candy bar chunks to mini marshmallows. Who could resist a treat like that?

Behind the counter, Chuck had his arms wrapped around his wife. They were both smiling and laughing. When the front door thumped shut behind Amy, the couple turned in unison to look at her. "Hello," Aubergine said as she wiggled out of her husband's embrace. "What a nice surprise. What can I help you with?"

"Hi." Amy swallowed as she came to a stop on the other side of the checkout counter. She felt as though she had interrupted them in an intimate moment. The store had odd hours, often stretching late into the night for classes or computer gaming group meetups. How often did the couple get to spend time alone, away from the store? "I just wanted to thank you for being such a wonderful calligraphy teacher. I have learned so much over the last few weeks."

Aubergine rolled her eyes. "Really? Because I am so far off from my usual teaching style. Knowing Detective Foster is there checking us out is completely unnerving. I hate that I keep losing track of what I want to say because I'm constantly on edge."

"I think we should just give her a full refund and kick her out of class." Chuck stooped slightly and kissed Aubergine's cheek. "But somebody is too nice to do that."

"I believe a little kindness can go a long way. Sometimes I guess that doesn't work though." Aubergine placed her hand on Chuck's wide chest. "Why don't you get going? I'm sure Luca is waiting by his food dish by now."

"You're more important to me than feeding our overweight cat," he said as he slipped out of the opening in the counter.

Aubergine pressed her fingertips to her lips and blew a kiss to her departing husband. Once he disappeared through the door into the backroom, she leaned closer to Amy and whispered, "There's no sense in getting upset over something we can't do anything about. That detective can be as suspicious as she wants. We aren't the killers, but I don't know how to convince her of that so that she'll leave us alone. I think kicking her out of the class, like Chuck wants, would just make her more determined to dig up dirt on us."

"How very frustrating. Maybe this will help a bit," Amy said as she held up the gift bag. "Candy store brownies. A little thank you for teaching me how to do calligraphy."

"Awww...thank you." Aubergine peeked into the bag. "They look delicious. I just wish you were in a class where I wasn't so distracted. Chuck's been a rock. Really more like a stone fortress, but he can't sit beside me and hold my hand through each class to protect me from my own thoughts and that witchy detective. I'm thinking about running the class a second time, free of charge, for everybody except her. I feel terrible about how it's going."

Not the information Amy had been hoping to hear, but she would take any pieces of the puzzle that she could get. The rookie detective was as much of a riddle as the murder case. Amy reflected on the classes filled with instructions and helpful hints. She thought they were going well. In fact, until that moment, she hadn't even been sure the artist knew one of her students was the detective in charge of Phoebe's murder case. What had been going on that was unnerving Aubergine? "I think everybody has been more than satisfied with your teaching, so I don't believe that would be necessary. I certainly didn't realize you were having issues with anybody. What has Detective Foster been doing?"