Assaulted Caramel Read online

  I lifted the board that separated the main room from the work area and stepped behind the counter. I pushed the swinging kitchen door in, but something stopped it. Frowning, I pushed harder, and again it wouldn’t budge. Frustrated, I hip checked the door, and the something on the other side gave. I stumbled through and had to grab the edge of the door to stay upright. The floor was sticky with some kind of liquid. Perhaps a jar had fallen off one of the white shelves lining the wall and shattered.

  I hit the light switch, half-expecting to find an overturned crate of jam or chocolate syrup at my feet. Instead, I saw Tyson Colton lying in the middle of the floor, still wearing the suit I had seen him in when I arrived in the village. I didn’t pay much attention to his suit though, because my eyes were zeroed onto my grandfather’s chocolate knife sticking out of his chest.

  I screamed.

  So much for not waking up my grandparents.

  Chapter 5

  When I finally stopped screaming—which seemed a long time but was probably only seconds—I heard a commotion above me. My grandparents were awake. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the neighborhood had been frightened out of their beds by my screech.

  I pushed back against the door, planning to run up the stairs to tell them what I’d discovered. A sickening sticky sound stopped me. I stood in blood, Tyson Colton’s blood. I couldn’t move without tracking it all over the store.

  I covered my mouth with my hand, physically holding back a second scream. I spotted my cell phone sitting on a milk stool next to an electrical outlet, just as I had left it only a few hours ago. Its green notification light blinked at me, telling me I had a new message.

  I closed my eyes. “White chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, sweet chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, cocoa, couverture, vermicelli.” When Jean Pierre had chosen me as his first chocolatier, he made me memorize the different types of chocolate and recite them back to him every day for an entire year. He said the first order of business of being a chocolatier was knowing chocolate and all it was capable of, and before I could discover that, I needed to know the chocolates.

  Of course, I knew all the types of chocolate from visiting my grandparents’ candy shop and from my years in culinary school, but Jean Pierre had made me list the chocolates so many times, it was a mantra I fell back on whenever I was stressed. And nothing was more stressful than finding a dead body in my grandparents’ kitchen.

  “Bailey?” my grandmother called from behind me.

  I opened my eyes and pivoted in place. A second later, my grandmother stood behind me in her plain blue nightgown and bare feet. Her usually bound hair fell all the way down her back in a silver wave. “Bailey, are you hurt? We heard such a terrible scream. It scared us so.”

  Fear gripped me, and for a moment, I forgot Tyson lying at my feet. “How is Daadi? Did my screaming startle him and hurt his heart?”

  “Nee, do not worry about that. I’m worried about—” She gasped. “What has happened?”

  My grandmother gaped at my feet, which brought me right back to the reality of my situation.

  I began to shake. “I came down to check my phone for messages, and I found him like this.”

  “What is he doing here?” Maami sounded like she was talking to herself, so I didn’t bother to answer. “And why are you still standing there next to him?” She directed this question at me.

  I grimaced. “I don’t want to track blood all over.”

  My grandmother straightened her back. “Then give me your arm, and I will help you step out of your shoes.”

  I did as my grandmother instructed and was freed. My white tennis shoes remained in the kitchen. Their laces fell onto the floor near Colton’s head. They were as much a goner as Tyson himself.

  I stumbled into the relative safety of the main shop and away from the kitchen. Since I was no longer holding it open with my body, the kitchen door closed after me, sparing us the view of the gruesome scene.

  “Ya,” my grandmother said into the telephone at the counter. “Come as quick as you can.”

  Daadi hobbled into the shop holding onto the wall. I ran over to him. “Daadi, you shouldn’t be out of bed.”

  He scoffed. “I cannot stay in bed when it sounds like the two people I love most on this earth are in trouble. What has happened?”

  I shared a look with Maami. There was no point in hiding it from him. He would learn when the police arrived. “I found Tyson Colton in the kitchen.”

  Daadi’s face flashed red. “What is that scoundrel doing in my shop? I knew he wanted this place, but I never thought he would stoop so low as to break in. Where is he? I want to tell him what I think.”

  The muffled sound of approaching sirens filled the air.

  I put my arm through my grandfather’s to support him. “Daadi, you can’t tell him anything. He’s dead.”

  My grandfather, in his simple pajamas, blinked at me. “What? How is that possible?”

  I took one of the wooden chairs, which was turned upside down on a round table, and set it on the floor. “Please sit down, Daadi.” I helped him into the chair.

  Maami wrung her hands. “What are we to do? Should we call the bishop?”

  Daadi held onto the end of his long beard as if it was some sort of lifeline and he needed it to steady himself. “Nee. Let’s not involve the bishop just yet.” He released his beard. “The deacon will learn about it soon enough. It’s best first to talk to the police.”

  As if on cue, banging shook the store’s front door. Maami moved to open the door. Two uniformed sheriff’s deputies marched inside. One was the bald, middle-aged man with ruddy features who had briefly stepped into the candy shop the afternoon before while Aiden collected the treats for his mother’s knitting circle. The other was Aiden himself.

  “We got a call that you’ve discovered a body in the building,” Aiden said, directing his comment to my grandfather.

  I stepped forward. “Yes, I found him.” I pointed to the swinging door on the other side of the counter. “He’s in there with my shoes.”

  The deputy gave me a strange look. “You talk.”

  Terrific. He had thought I was a mute.

  I bit the inside of my cheek. I pointed at the door again. “There is a dead man in there.”

  “Right,” he said, all business now.

  Maami touched her hair and whispered something in Pennsylvania Dutch, as if she’d just realized her hair was down, and she didn’t have her prayer cap on. She spun around and headed for the stairs that led up to the apartment.

  “Where are you going?” the middle-aged deputy asked. “No one leaves the scene until we say so.”

  My grandmother froze in the doorway leading to the back stairs.

  Aiden bumped the other man in the upper arm with his fist. “Relax, Carpenter. Mrs. King is only going to get dressed. Go ahead, Mrs. King.”

  My grandmother nodded and disappeared into the short hallway that led to the stairs.

  I dropped my grandfather’s arm and glared at Deputy Carpenter. “You should be more respectful of the Amish who live in your county.”

  The older deputy glowered back at me. “A man is dead. He’s the one who deserves respect.”

  “I know that,” I said. “And I’m sorry for Mr. Colton.”

  “Mr. Colton?” Aiden asked. “Tyson Colton?” His eyes darted to the closed kitchen door. “In there?”

  I nodded.

  The two deputies shared a look, and I got a feeling that this case had just become a whole lot more complicated.

  Aiden cleared his throat. “Miss King, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Deputy Aiden Brody, and this is Deputy Gordon Carpenter.”

  I didn’t say anything in response. “Nice to meet you” didn’t seem appropriate under the circumstances.

  After a beat, Aiden added, “Miss King, why don’t you take your grandfather upstairs? We can talk to him and your grandmother there. There is no reason for them to be
uncomfortable down here while we investigate the scene. However, since you found the body, I would like you to come back down once they’re settled, if you don’t mind.”

  Daadi braced his hand against the wall. “Now, this is my business, Aiden. You know that as well as anyone. I should stay down here with Bailey. I have a right to know what has happened.”

  I took my grandfather’s arm again. “Don’t worry, Daadi. I’ll tell you everything just as soon as I can.” I led him to the doorway at the base of the stairs.

  “Don’t be long, Miss King. We have many questions to ask you.” This came from Deputy Carpenter.

  I felt my grandfather bristle at the sound of the man’s voice, but he made no more attempts to argue with me about going back upstairs. He was wobbly on his feet without his walker, and surely he would have fallen over if I hadn’t been there to support his arm. It seemed that he had expended all his energy to come down the stairs to make sure Maami and I were all right. I refused to let myself think about what all of this upset must being doing to his already failing heart. Even in the dim light, I could see that there was a gray cast to his lined face. “Daadi, should we call your doctor?”

  He grunted. “My doctor? Why?”

  I helped him up another step. “You have had a shock. Your heart.”

  He shook his head. “Just don’t let them misplace that knife you got me. I love it so.”

  I winced. There wasn’t much chance of the police losing the knife since it was sticking out of Tyson’s chest. I decided Daadi didn’t need to know that particular detail.

  I helped him to the second step. “How about I set you up on the sofa in your sitting room? If the deputies want to speak to you, they can do it there.”

  “Ya, that would be all right. I don’t want the police speaking to me while I’m in my bed like an invalid.” His arm quivered as he gripped the railing.

  After I got Daadi settled into the tiny sitting room at the far end of their apartment, I stopped in my own room to find a new pair of shoes and throw on a hoodie over my pajamas. As I headed back down the hallway, I ran into Maami as she came out of her room, fully dressed with her hair up and prayer cap firmly in place.

  I reached for her hand and squeezed it. “I put Daadi in the sitting room. The police said you could stay with him. They’ll talk to you up here.”

  She shook her head. “Nee, I should go with you. You will need me.”

  I placed a hand on her arm. “Maami, let me take care of this for you. Daadi needs you.”

  Her eyes darted back in the direction of the sitting room where Daadi was. “I suppose that it will be all right with Aiden here,” she relented.

  I frowned and wondered at some of the comments that both the young deputy and my grandparents had made. They seemed to know each other better than a county deputy and an elderly Amish couple normally would.

  Maami squeezed my hand even more tightly. “But you will come and fetch me if you need me, won’t you?”

  “I will,” I promised.

  I waited until she disappeared through the doorway that led into my grandfather’s sitting room before I went downstairs.

  In the short time that I had been upstairs, more police and several crime scene techs had arrived. The flashing lights of an ambulance reflected off the shop’s front window, illuminating the glass candy jars on the wall.

  I was about to enter the front room when I heard the two deputies speaking about my grandfather. I slid back into the shadow of the stairway.

  “That old guy killed the richest man in the county,” Deputy Carpenter said, sounding exasperated.

  “Gordon, there is no way Jebidiah King had the strength to stab anyone. You saw him. He can barely walk across the room,” Aiden said.

  “I’ll give you that. The old man does look like he could drop dead at any second,” the older deputy replied, as if he were discussing the weather.

  I balled my fists at my sides and repeated the kinds of chocolates in my head again.

  “But,” Carpenter said. “That doesn’t mean he didn’t put someone else up to it. His granddaughter, for example. She looks scrappy. I bet she could have stabbed Colton if challenged.”

  “Why would any of the Kings want to kill him?” Aiden sounded angry now, and I liked him a little bit better for it.

  “Everyone knows Colton wanted to buy this place. He’s bought every other Amish business on Main Street, and Jebidiah King was the last holdout. Maybe Colton pushed the old man too far. Maybe he even threatened King’s family. You know Colton would do whatever it took to get what he wanted.”

  “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Aiden said.

  “I’m not jumping to anything,” Carpenter said mildly. “I’m only pointing out the obvious.”

  “Let’s see where the evidence leads,” Aiden replied. “The evidence is what’s going to solve this case. Not wild speculation. If Bailey King killed Tyson Colton, the evidence will show that.”

  My former approval for the deputy dissolved in an instant.

  I tiptoed halfway back up the stairs and called over my shoulder as if my grandmother could hear me, “Don’t worry, Maami. I’ll take care of everything.” Then, I walked the rest of the way down the steps and into the front room of the shop like I had just come down the stairs.

  The two deputies stood about three feet apart from each other. If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, there would have been no way for me to know that they had just been discussing the possibility that my grandfather and I were killers. I had no intention of letting them know that I was eavesdropping on them either.

  I folded my arms over my chest. “My grandparents are in the sitting room upstairs. They’ll wait there until you’re ready to speak to them.”

  “Thank you, Miss King,” Aiden said with a kind smile, but after overhearing his conversation with his fellow deputy, it wasn’t a smile I trusted.

  “I’ll go consult with the crime scene boys,” Deputy Carpenter said and walked around the counter into the kitchen.

  Aiden gestured to one of the café tables in the front of the shop. The chairs had been flipped over onto the tabletops for the night. He removed two chairs off the top of one table. “Why don’t we sit down to go over what happened?”

  I slid into one of the chairs, and he took the other.

  The deputy studied me with his dark brown eyes. If I were asked to identify their chocolate color, I would say milk chocolate. It was a standard in any baker’s kitchen, but I preferred dark chocolate. With dark chocolate, I could better control the amount of sweetness.

  “Can you tell me what happened?” he asked.

  They think I did this, and Daadi put me up to it. The thought crept into my head. Even silently listing the types of chocolate didn’t make it go away.

  “Bailey? May I call you Bailey?”

  I nodded dumbly.

  Aiden leaned forward in his chair. “Are you all right?”

  I wasn’t all right, but I wasn’t going to admit that to him. I looked into his milk chocolate eyes. “I’m fine.” I sat up straighter in my seat. “Ask me whatever you like.”

  He nodded, all business again. “Tell me how you found Tyson Colton, from beginning to end.”

  I took a deep breath, and told him about waking up in the middle of the night and going downstairs for my phone in the kitchen. I ended with what I found when I got there. The image of Tyson Colton’s body lying on the floor crossed my mind, but two details seemed to stand out to me the most, my grandfather’s knife sticking out of his chest and my shoes in his blood. I shook the memories from my head. “I never got my phone. It’s still in there.”

  “Depending on how close it is to the body, and if it could be related to the crime, we might have to hold onto it for at least a day or two.”

  “But—” I began to protest. I couldn’t imagine getting through an hour without my phone, let alone a day or two.

  “Brody!” Deputy Carpenter poked his head out around the side of
the open swinging door.

  Aiden turned to see what the other deputy wanted.

  Deputy Carpenter carefully stepped through the doorway, avoiding the blood just as I had. “The tech says the murder weapon is some type of curved knife. He’s never seen one like it before.”

  Aiden’s dark gaze fell back to me. “I have.”

  Chapter 6

  The police started to pack up just as dawn broke over the gazebo on the village square, and I was still in my pajamas. Fatigue seeped into every muscle of my body as I watched the officers and techs carry their equipment out the front door of Swissmen Sweets, but as much as I wished for it, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep after they’d gone. One of the crime scene techs cut long strips of crime scene tape and crossed them in an X over the doorway leading into the kitchen. Tyson’s body had been carted away two hours ago, shortly after the coroner arrived and did his preliminary examination.

  Aiden approached me. “Here.” He handed me my cell phone.

  I balanced the phone in my hand. “I thought you needed to keep it for a few days.”

  He smiled, and a dimple I hadn’t notice before appeared in his right cheek. “Do you want me to take it back?”

  I closed my fingers around the phone and pressed it to my chest. “No.”

  “Didn’t think so.” The dimple flashed at me again. “Excuse the powder on there. We had to dust it for prints to make sure neither the victim nor anyone else had touched it.”

  “Were there any prints on it?” I asked.

  “Just one set. We assume they’re yours. You and your grandparents will have to come to the station to be fingerprinted for a process of elimination.”

  I swallowed. Fingerprinting sounded a lot more serious than just a process of elimination. “My grandparents won’t want to go to the station. It would make them uncomfortable.”

  “I understand. As police, we’re used to dealing with the Amish in the county. I can send an officer over later this morning with a portable fingerprint kit.”