Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes - Culinary Competition Mystery #3

Chapter 9

Finally, Sophie's fingers closed around the handle of the proffered knife. Amy sighed. One small step, but there were many more to come as it was now her responsibility to make sure they were alone in the restaurant. Taking the defense course was one thing. Preparing herself to possibly use the dirty fighting techniques made her stomach cartwheel like a championship-caliber gymnast. She looked Sophie in the eye. "If there is somebody else here, you have to call the police. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Sophie responded in a barely audible whisper.

The change in confident, always capable Sophie was almost scarier than the thought that she might have to face down an intruder. Since Luke was stabbed, she could end up in a knife fight. Amy took a deep breath and began the search. She flipped on the lights to the first dining room and banged through the swinging doors that led into a storage area. A quick search behind the racks of plates and coffee cups revealed no one, so she continued her search through the dining room and coffee shop area. By the time she was done, her fingers ached from gripping the knife handle. She and Sophie were either alone in the café, or the person who had hung the noose was very good at playing hide-and-seek.

Amy tried to banish that crazy-making thought from her mind as she rushed back to the kitchen. Sophie squealed when Amy burst through the swinging doors.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Amy swiped a film of sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. There was nothing like a fear-fueled, frantic search to warm a body up on a chilly morning. "It looks like we're alone."

"Some of the other employees will be coming in soon. I have to get this down so they don't see it. The hacker is coming after me. Nobody else needs to live in fear," Sophie said as she grabbed the rope loop and tried to pull it free from the light fixture. The rectangular box suspended from chains set in the ceiling swayed and twisted. There was a metallic clank, and the noose landed on the floor at Sophie's feet. A piece of wire that must have been holding it skittered across the dark tiles. She picked up the knotted rope and tossed it into a nearby trash can.

"What are you doing? The police will need that for evidence." The change in Sophie from too scared to move to almost ripping down the fluorescent lightbox to remove crime scene evidence made Amy's head pound. The hacker was coming after Sophie? "We have to call the police about this. Everybody knows about the murder. You've hired a great crew of employees. They'll rally around you if they know the café is being harassed."

The pastry chef's knees buckled. Sophie crumpled to the floor then sat back on her butt in the middle of the kitchen. "I'm next," she said as she looked up at Amy. Dark, mascara-tinted tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm going to be killed. Just like Luke."

Amy dropped to the floor beside Sophie. "What are you talking about? Tell me."

Sophie turned her hands over and stared at the bandages on her palms. "I didn't trip in the parking lot last week. The night before that happened I got an email demanding I transfer $5,000 to a MoneyMover account. To prove that he was able to physically retaliate against me if I didn't obey, the person said there would be a sign. I'm guessing I interrupted him when he was spray-painting the back of the building as the sign. Someone was hiding behind the dumpster and pushed me when I walked up to get a closer look at the paint."

"Why didn't you tell me? Or more importantly, Shepler?"

"Because the email very clearly said not to tell the police that I had been contacted, or I would end up like Luke."

Amy had hypothesized that the police might not be told about any more attempted extortions. When she said that, she'd had no idea how close the next threat would be. "Did the credit card system going down on Saturday have anything to do with the extortionist?"