Death by Chocolate: a Candy Land cozy mystery

Chapter 1

"Jill, you won't believe what's happened."

She burst into my office like Jack nimbly jumping over a candlestick. A blue dress, one size too small, hugged her lithe figure. Her signature white feather boa draped over her shoulders.

"What's the problem, MG?" I asked, leaning back in my chair, which gave a flatulent creak.

MG peered down at me, a frown pulling at her plump red lips. "I'm going to pretend that was your chair." She waved one end of the boa in front of her delicately powered nose. "It's Knave. Something terrible has happened."

Knave? What trouble had that sorry piece of rabble gotten himself into this time? "Take a seat, MG, and start at the beginning." I gestured to the cushioned chairs opposite my desk. MG eyed them with distaste. A long rip ran the length of one from when Bo Peep's crook had caught the fabric. Her constantly eloping sheep made her a frequent client. The other chair had a large stain of curds and whey from when Muffet hired me to tail Spider. She suspected he had another girl on the side he was scaring. I'm not one to kink shame, but those two are odd.

"I'll stand," she said with a dismissive flip of her boa as if she could magic away all the grim from my office. "Knave is dead," she declared.

"Dead? When? How?" Knave and I went way back. We had grown up together, frolicking in fields, fetching buckets of water, tumbling down hills, stealing baked goods from unsuspecting Queens. It was a different time.

"Well, see, that's the thing. Knave went over to Candy Land to procure supplies for the Pat-a-Cake Bakery and wound up murdered," MG replied, her heavily rouged cheeks growing flushed with anger.

"Murdered?" The word lodged in my throat like Little Jack Horner's thumb in his infamous plum pie incident.

MG's head bobbed emphatically. "They're calling it death by chocolate, which is utterly ridiculous. Knave preferred tarts."

I rapped my fingers on the desk. Indeed, Knave never touched chocolate. He was a strict baked goods kind of guy. "You said he was in Candy Land for bakery supplies?"

"Yes, he worked for Simple Simon and the Muffin Man. They regularly sent him on errands. He came into work this morning, and then Sheriff Licorice called me this afternoon to report his accidental death." MG made air quotes around accidental and put on a voice that told me exactly what she thought of Candy Land's sheriff. "As the mayor of Nurseryville, I need to ensure Licorice and his incompetence don't botch this investigation."

I nodded, grabbed my notebook, and jotted down all the information MG had given me. "I'll find out all I can and get to the bottom of this mystery, Mayor Goose." I stood and extended my hand.

MG stepped forward, and we shook. "Thank you, Jill. If anyone can solve this caper, it's you."

The phone rang then, and I released MG's hand. "Jack and Jill Detective Agency, Jill speaking," I said into the mouthpiece. "Humpty's fallen? I'm sorry, but I've just taken a case. King and his men will have to sort this one out."

MG shook her head. "Jill, when will you drop Jack's name from the agency? He ran off years ago."

I place the earpiece back into its cradle. "Jill's detective agency just doesn't have the same ring."

MG raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I think it sounds amazing." Then, with a flourish of her boa, she swished out of my office, all hips and wiggle. I swung into my gabardine and grabbed my few remaining business cards. I needed to order more. I rubbed my thumb over the raised ink announcing the business's details. Maybe MG was right. I should drop Jack's name from the agency. I'd heard that he and Mary had opened a flower shop near the seashore and were getting on quite well despite Mary's contrary personality. I brushed aside the pang of a still broken heart and stuffed the cards into my coat pocket.