Criminally Cocoa Read online

  “Let’s go after him!” Juliet cried as she tore down the path shouting the pig’s name.

  “Won’t she scare him by crying and calling his name like that?” Todd asked me as we followed her.

  I frowned. “I don’t think it will help much to tell her that. Juliet really loves that pig.”

  “I can’t imagine loving anything that much,” Todd said in a quiet voice.

  I glanced at him but decided not to make a comment on his statement. I barely knew him. I bit my lip.

  “Charlotte.” Bailey called my name as she and Cass ran down the path. “We heard that someone spotted Jethro over here?”

  “Mac saw him,” Todd answered for me.

  Cass nodded. “Then it must be true. Mac sees everything that happens in his section of the park.”

  “His section of the park?” I asked.

  Cass laughed. “The park is too huge to see what’s happening in every corner, so different eccentrics have different spots and see different things.”

  My forehead crinkled, and Cass patted my shoulder. “It’s okay if you don’t get it. This city can be quirky even for people who have lived here their whole lives, but I wouldn’t change one thing about it. It’s my home. Not everyone will get it or love it, but I do.”

  As she said this I felt a pang of homesickness for Harvest, not just for the village but for my family. In my mind’s eye, I could see my mother in the kitchen and my father in the barn as they always would be this time of day. Just as not everyone understood New York City, not everyone understood the world I’d grown up in either. It made me think that I was more like Cass than I’d ever thought possible.

  Cass stared. “What is Juliet doing?”

  Juliet was standing in the middle of the wide path crying to anyone who would listen about her missing pig. She yanked on their sleeves as tears ran down her face. More and more people gave her a wide berth.

  Cass nodded at Bailey. “This is you, girl. I think you’re the only one who will be able to calm her down this time, Bailey. You’d better go.”

  Bailey sighed, walked up to Juliet, and put her arm around the older woman’s shoulders. Juliet cried and buried her face in Bailey’s shoulder. Juliet and Bailey spoke quietly beside the path for a moment, and Juliet seemed to calm down.

  Cass shook her head. “Bailey does have the magic touch when it comes to Juliet. I’m sure that will come in handy for both her and Aiden.”

  Bailey and Juliet walked over to us. Bailey’s arm was around Juliet’s shoulders while Juliet’s head drooped down in defeat. “We have to find him,” she whimpered.

  “Todd said someone spotted Jethro on this path,” I reminded her. I glanced around for Mac or Todd and didn’t see either. Where would Todd have gone? Why had he left without saying anything? My brow wrinkled.

  “Where’s Todd?” Cass asked.

  “I—I don’t know,” was all that I could say.

  Bailey patted Juliet’s upper arm. “We will find him.” I couldn’t ignore the fear etched on her face, though. Bailey was worried, and I was too.

  “That little bacon bundle couldn’t have gotten very far,” Cass said. “I mean, how far can he run on those little legs? Don’t forget. Someone did see him running this way. He’s probably passed out from exhaustion by now. He doesn’t strike me as an animal that gets much exercise.”

  “Oh,” Juliet moaned. “I think I’m going to be ill.”

  “Not helping, Cass,” Bailey said.

  “Did someone say something about a lost pig?” A young man in a silver jumpsuit and in-line skates cruised up the sidewalk with Jethro in his arms. I had to blink twice to make sure that was what I was really seeing because it was such a strange image.

  “Oh my Lord!” Juliet cried and ran up to the man. She grabbed Jethro from his arms so quickly, she almost sent the man reeling on his skates. He was able to regain his balance just in time for Juliet to throw her arm around his neck. “Thank you, thank you so much. You don’t know what a hero you are for reuniting me with my Jethro!” Tears streamed down her face, making black rivulets of makeup drip off her chin.

  Cass handed her a tissue. “Clean yourself up, Juliet. We are still on a publicity shoot.”

  Juliet dropped her arm from the man’s shoulders and dabbed at her face with the tissue. “Yes, right. Thank you for the reminder, Cass.”

  Cass shook the man’s hand. “Thanks for finding the little sausage. You stop by JP Chocolates sometime, and you get a box of our famous truffles on the house.”

  The man grinned. “I love chocolate. I’ll stop by today.”

  Cass nodded. “You do that. Tell them Cass sent you. I’ll call ahead and let them know you’re coming. What’s your name?”

  “Nole.”

  “Okay, Nole. I’ll take care of your chocolates. Just pop in the shop and they are yours.”

  He pumped his fist and skated away.

  Tears continued to stream down Juliet’s face, and she kissed Jethro on the head over and over again.

  “Juliet, please, get a grip,” Cass said. “You’re making a scene. One big enough that New Yorkers are staring.”

  Juliet sniffed. “If it hadn’t been for that awful loud sound, Jethro would never have run away. He’s a very good pig. So obedient.”

  Cass snorted and Bailey sighed at that comment, but I couldn’t help thinking that just maybe Juliet was right. Jethro had been fine walking next to me on the grass. It was only when the sound came that he bolted. Also, I couldn’t forget that the sound happened just as Maria left. Could she have done it? I shivered. She was also on the set during the explosion, but so were a lot of people, including Bailey and myself, and we were the only two I could be one hundred percent certain didn’t do anything to cause all the problems that we’d been having.

  I glanced at Bailey as the four of us—well, five, if you counted the pig who was cradled in Juliet’s arms—walked back to the lawn where we had left Linc, Raymond, and the rest of the team from Gourmet Television.

  Should I tell Bailey my suspicions? The thought ran across my mind. I knew if I did, it would distract her from her work, but shouldn’t I warn her that something odd was going on during the production of her candy-making show? Doubt crept in. What if I was wrong and Bailey started accusing people or snooping around the set? She might lose this opportunity because Linc and Raymond would think she didn’t trust them.

  No, I wouldn’t tell her yet. Two odd things happening did not mean someone was trying to make trouble.

  Chapter Eight

  “Charlotte, this way.” Bailey pulled on the sleeve of my coat the next morning as we made our way back to Gourmet Television Studios. The night before, Linc had called Bailey and said that the set was as good as new. Since the show was behind schedule from the lost day and a half, the call time—another new Englisch TV term—was just as the sun was coming up over the giant buildings. Bailey groaned when it was time to get up, but rising early was no trouble for me. Back home on the farm, I had always risen before first light to feed the chickens and let the sheep out into the pasture. Now at Swissmen Sweets, I woke up at four o’clock to make candies for the day. Bailey rose early too to make the candies, but she still didn’t like it.

  I tripped forward on the uneven sidewalk. The toes of my black sneakers caught on the cracks. I might have fallen on my face if Bailey hadn’t been holding my arm so tightly.

  She looked over her shoulder and smiled nervously at me. “Sorry, I’m just in a rush. I want to get there early. We can’t have any more mess-ups with the show.”

  I knew what she meant.

  I watched in amazement as the sun poked through the buildings and its beams reflected off the countless windows, making a kaleidoscope of light sparkle in front of my eyes. Growing up on a farm, I had seen a thousand beautiful sunrises in my life. Ones that burned the dew off the f
ields and painted iridescent colors on the clouds, but I had never seen a sunrise like this. I wasn’t sure I could go back to Holmes County at all after seeing this. The city was more than I could ever have imagined, and it just a small piece of the whole world. If I stayed Amish, I would only see a very small portion of it. If I became Englisch, I could see it all. It was one of those moments when I was most torn. It would be hard to leave my culture, but there was a yearning inside me to do and see more. I couldn’t describe it, and not many in my community truly understood; the ones who did left.

  “Charlotte, we have to keep moving.” Bailey tugged on my arm again.

  “Right,” I said dreamily and let Bailey pull me along the sidewalk around the many people making their way to work. None of them seemed to be as mesmerized by the sunrise as I had been. Maybe, I thought, my sunrise back home, the one they didn’t know, would be the one to stop them in the middle of their tracks. Perhaps, I thought, everyone grew numb to the beauty that surrounded them; only when something is different does it stand out.

  I followed Bailey to the building where Gourmet Television was filmed. On the first day we were on the set, I was surprised to learn that there were many businesses in this one building, maybe even dozens, including lawyers, other television networks, and more. On that first day, I stared at the building directory by the elevator and was overwhelmed by all the business names. That was so different from back home where each business seemed to have its own much smaller building. Bailey told me it was because New York didn’t have open land like Holmes County did for its many businesses. New Yorkers might not have room to spread out, but that didn’t stop them from building up. Story upon story straight up into the air. I’d never seen anything so tall as the buildings there.

  That first day was over three weeks ago now, and I had learned so much since, I was surprised that my mind didn’t just stop working. I now knew words like director, filming, and playback. None of those words were part of my Amish life. And I knew how to get from Cass’s apartment, where Bailey and I were staying while we were in the city, to Gourmet Television. I never would have believed I would know that when I arrived at the airport.

  I followed Bailey through the glass door. The floor was polished, and there was a man stationed there every day with a little hat who bowed at us. There were so many people around us, walking at a fast pace. Their shoes made a tap, tap, tap on the marble floor. My own plain black sneakers didn’t so much as squeak.

  For the most part, the fancy-shoed people didn’t pay any attention to Bailey and me.

  “This way, Charlotte.” Bailey’s voice was as sweet as ever, but I heard the hint of nervousness in it. She wanted today to go off without a hitch. In Bailey’s words, she “had one more shot at getting this right.” Television wasn’t very forgiving and didn’t give second chances, or so she said.

  The elevator opened, and half a dozen people got out before Bailey and I could get in. There was no one else waiting to go up, and we were alone. I could feel Bailey’s anxiety. She made me nervous with all her fidgeting.

  We stood in the elevator, and for the hundredth time Bailey pulled out her recipes for the candies she would be making. It was what she had been doing all night. Her mouth moved as she quietly recited her ingredients.

  “I can’t have anything go wrong on the set today. The network is putting a lot of money into producing these episodes, and I have to be on top of my game.”

  I held my simple black purse in my hands. It was my first purse. Bailey had bought it for me before we came to New York. She said I would need something to carry my things in on the airplane, and she gave me the purse as a gift. She said it was the plainest one she could find.

  Even though it was black, it seemed so much fancier than the cloth tote bag that I carried. The zipper had a black leather tassel on it. I loved that tassel. Throughout the flight, I played with braiding and unbraiding the individual cords. The activity seemed to keep me calm. I had never been on an airplane before, and takeoff and landing felt so strange. Bailey let me sit by the window to look at the clouds, but I spent more time playing with my tassel than looking outside. I didn’t need to be reminded how high up we were.

  The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. We were in the hallway that was just outside the soundstage area.

  “Bailey, there you are! Come, come, we have to get you into makeup.” Linc stormed toward the elevator. He wore a V-neck sweater over a white button-down shirt and appeared to be uncomfortably hot.

  “What’s the rush?” Bailey asked. “Charlotte and I are here a whole hour before I’m supposed to be in the makeup chair.”

  “That was the original call time. Didn’t you get my text? Right now is the call time.”

  She looked at her phone. “I’m sorry. It must have come when we were in the subway.”

  He pressed his lips together. “It doesn’t matter now. Just get to hair and makeup. Stat. The reason for the earlier time is I have had the most wonderful idea.”

  “Ohh-kay,” Bailey said and waited.

  He rubbed his hands together. “What’s coming up in a few weeks?”

  “Ummm,” Bailey said.

  “What candy event is coming up in a few weeks?” he emphasized, barely able to contain his excitement.

  Bailey was still blank faced.

  “Easter?” I asked.

  Linc pointed at me. “Bingo. Easter. Easter is one of the biggest candy holidays of the year, so we need to get you on the air.”

  “But the show doesn’t air until the summer,” Bailey said.

  “I know that, but this is the time of year when we should let people know that the show coming. Last night, I realized that this would be the perfect time of year to start promoting your show and getting your name out there. That’s why I made the earlier call time. We want you to have a five-minute recipe that we can sprinkle in between programming during Easter week. It will be a great way to introduce you to our audience. We want you to be plastered all over the network, so that by the time the show begins, the viewers will already feel like they know you and want to tune in. I just know Bailey’s Amish Sweets will be the breakout hit of the summer. I can barely wait to see the ratings roll in.”

  “That is a great idea,” Bailey said.

  I couldn’t have agreed more. Easter candies were some of my very favorites to make. I wondered which one Bailey would choose—there were so many. My favorite was fudge eggs filled with marshmallow cream.

  “Do you have an Easter recipe that you can do for the camera from start to finish in five minutes?” Linc asked.

  The chocolate basket was definitely out in that case, I thought.

  Bailey thought for a moment. “It doesn’t get much easier than a bird’s nest. Do we have some pastel-colored candy-covered chocolates, the small ones that look like birds’ eggs, and pretzel sticks?”

  He clapped his hands. “I knew you would think of something. I will send Todd out to pick up the ingredients you need straightaway. And I have even better news. We are going to have a special guest for this demo.”

  “Please tell me it’s not…” Bailey trailed off.

  The elevator door opened, and Juliet floated through with Jethro in her arms.

  “Jethro,” Bailey murmured.

  Chapter Nine

  Juliet beamed. “We came as quick as we could. It took the bellhop ages to hail a taxi in front of the hotel. A man stole the taxis the bellhop called in right out from under me. Of course, I was beside myself when he did that. The nerve! And here I’m standing on the side of the street with this terrified little pig in my arms.” She shook her head as if trying to dispel that bad memory.

  “If I’m cooking on the counter, how is Jethro going to be in the shot?” Bailey asked.

  “I’ve already thought about that,” Linc said, “and we brought in a high bench for the pig to sit on. Charlotte ca
n be with you on the set to make sure the pig stays in line. You won’t mind doing that, Charlotte, will you?”

  I shook my head.

  “Great. Now off to the makeup chair for both of you.”

  Before I knew it, I was in a makeup chair between Jethro and Bailey. Juliet circled about the pig. “Can you put a little powder on his nose to take off the shine?”

  The makeup artist didn’t seem to be the least bit surprised by Juliet’s request and brushed powder on Jethro’s snout.

  “My life is so weird,” Bailey groaned on the other side of me.

  I wasn’t going to argue with her about that. Her life was weird, and mine was weird by association.

  The makeup artist was quick about her work, and before I knew it, she was packing up her kit. I looked in the mirror. “I can’t even tell I have makeup on.”

  “That’s the point,” the artist said. “We want you to look Amish.”

  I frowned a little and felt a twinge of jealousy at how big Bailey’s blue eyes looked with mascara and eyeliner on. I wasn’t going to admit that to anyone other than myself, though. I followed Bailey back to the set with Jethro in my arms.

  I gasped. The set looked just as it had before the double boiler incident. The only changes were the addition of a high bench that was level with the counter for Jethro to sit on and the Easter decorations. Decorating a working kitchen for Easter was something neither Clara nor any other Amish woman would ever bother to do. It wasn’t practical.

  Bailey stared at the stuffed bunny on the spice shelf. “Ummm, this isn’t really Amish.”

  “It will be fine,” Linc said. “The viewers need to know that this is an Easter spot.”

  “Won’t they know that from what I’m making?” she asked.

  “We need to drill it home to them.”

  Bailey looked around at all the pastels and flowers in the space. “I’d say you have accomplished that.”

  Maria was at the counter putting the last touches to Bailey’s cooking setup. Todd was there too. It was the first time that I had seen him since the park. He caught me staring and smiled.