Banana Muffins & Mayhem - Culinary Competition Mystery #5

Chapter 22

(Amy)

An obnoxious noise woke Amy. Again. At least she recognized it this time. And it wasn't the middle of the night either. The beeping was from the alarm Alex had set on his phone to go off in the middle of the afternoon. Instead of shadowy darkness, the bedroom was filled with cheerful sunshine. She took inventory of her aching body parts as she rolled on her back. Ouch! The laceration on her head still brought tears to her eyes. The weight of the blanket on her ankle wasn't exactly a comfortable sensation either. All of the pains that had become familiar over the past couple of days were still there. Unfortunately.

Alex grunted as he sat up in bed beside her. "I'm going to head back to the office."

Amy placed her hand on top of his thigh. "Are you sure you don't want to just stay here? If you work in your home office, I promise I won't fire up my stand mixer, and I'll try to keep Pogo quiet if he spots any squirrels."

"I would love to stay, but I don't think it's a good thing to do. I want to see if anything has been discovered by the police or the security company. Plus answer questions if any of the employees have concerns about what is going on. I don't want to leave my business ship adrift without a captain, not when the company is under attack. For their own safety, I had to tell all of my employees about the email threats. Everybody is on edge."

She couldn't argue with that. What did the employees think? She didn't know how many details of the emailed threats Alex had shared, but they all knew about the attacks. There were plenty of reasons for people to be nervous. Her husband's presence would surely steady some of the frayed nerves. He was like that. The cooling sour cream when life turned into a too spicy burrito.

"Okay." She stared at the closet door. Her mind superimposed the familiar man from the security company onto it. She knew who he was! The mattress wobbled as Alex stood. A burst of excited energy propelled her out of the comfy tangle of sheets too. She met her husband as he came around the end of the bed. "You mentioned the new security company had thought there might be an issue with some equipment before we found the bullet holes? Do they use all of the latest technology?"

"They started installing everything about a week before the body was found in the Dumpster, so they may not have been able to test everything yet. The system is state-of-the-art though—that's why I went with that company. Why?"

"I just wanted to make sure you and everybody there are as safe as possible."

Amy made a chicken and apricot chutney wrap for Alex as he showered. She was wrapping it in waxed paper, to make a portable meal, when he walked into the kitchen. "I have to get going," he said as he filled his travel mug with coffee.

"I know. That's why I made you a chicken salad wrap that you can eat as you drive." She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. "You need some better food fuel than potato chips from the snack stash in the break room." And she needed to cook to try to figure out if the security company employee could have any significance in regard to the murder or threats. She did her best thinking while in the kitchen.

"I don't know what I would do without you." He placed his hands on her cheeks and kissed her forehead. "I wish I could stay here with you right now, but I can't, and I know you don't want to hang out in the spare office for the rest of the day. If you notice anything that doesn't seem right, promise you'll call the police immediately."

"I promise."

When he was gone, Amy sat down in the breakfast nook to eat a salad made from the same ingredients she had put into Alex's wrap. Usually, she loved the panoramic views through the arc of windows jutting from the side of the house, but she felt like a sitting duck for the marksman who had taken aim at Alex's office. "How about lunch in the den?" she asked Pogo as she gathered up her salad bowl and glass of iced Earl Grey tea.