“But how…” Sassy shook her head. “I had those chocolates made up the night before. They were all laid out in a specific order for the seating because I did have a few nut allergies to contend with. I used markers to indicate the specific plates.”

  “What was Mark’s marker?” Henrietta asked.

  “I just used an M. I had to write it out on a spare card because he was an add-in.”

  “She had no way of knowing he was coming,” Henrietta said to Abe.

  “That’s not the way it looks to us.”

  “I…I think I might need a lawyer,” Sassy said, swallowing hard. “I’ve told you the truth but…it doesn’t seem like it’s enough.”

  “I’ll go get you that lawyer,” Abe said, standing up. He left them and Henrietta reached over and placed her hand on top of Sassy’s.

  “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  “Henrietta, I honestly don’t know what happened. I mean, did someone come in and add that chocolate to the mix? Someone who knew he was coming?”

  Henrietta though back to Sassy’s kitchen. There was a backdoor and it was possible…it just seemed so improbable.

  “I don’t know, but like I said, we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  Sassy met her gaze and nodded. “Thank you.”

  Henrietta didn’t respond, knowing that there was nothing else to say, but she knew for a fact that she and Ralph would have more on their plate than just searching for Calvin. Henrietta thought of what her sister had said and felt her stomach clench. She couldn’t tell her friend she wouldn’t help her, but she also didn’t want to let her sister down. She was confident in her own abilities to multitask, at least with regard to the two cases she now found herself mixed up in, but could she convince her sister of the same?

  “Pastrami on rye with the works,” Ralph said to the man behind the sandwich counter.

  “You got it,” he replied then looked to Henrietta.

  “Turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and cheddar cheese on wheat, please.”

  “These’ll be up in a few minutes.”

  Henrietta and Ralph walked over to where a rack of chips was set up and made their selections and then Henrietta grabbed an unsweetened iced tea from the fridge before they went to sit down awaiting their sandwiches.

  “So, she’s under arrest on suspicion of murder, huh?” Ralph asked.

  “It looks that way.”

  “That’s crazy. Sassy couldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “You and I both know that, but someone’s doing a good job of making it look otherwise.”

  “Who?” Ralph asked, munching on a crunchy chip. “I mean, does Sassy even have enemies?”

  “I asked her that actually, but she couldn’t think of one person.”

  “Odd.” Ralph leaned back in the bench seat and rubbed at his jaw.

  “Are you ever going to shave again?” she asked, indicating his jaw.

  “What? You don’t like the rugged look?” he said with a grin. “I guess I got used to it in Virginia.”

  She rolled her eyes and then waited for her next comments until the man had delivered their orders.

  “Ralph, I’m worried that there is more to this than meets the eye.”

  “You don’t say.”

  His sarcasm rubbed her the wrong way. “No need for that,” she said with a disapproving look.

  “Sorry, it just irritates me that it’s obviously a set up but facts are facts. As a detective you have to go with where the clues lead and right now they are a neon sign pointing to Sassy.”

  Henrietta bit into her sandwich and nodded in reply.

  “I’ve got Scott running with this guy—Mark Wharton—and that might give us some insight.”

  “I talked to him this morning,” she admitted.

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, Scott,” she said, realizing he thought she meant Mark, “I asked him to look into Wharton as well.”

  Ralph grinned. “Great minds.”

  “He hasn’t come back with anything yet?”

  “Nope,” Ralph admitted. “Still hacking—er, looking into it. I think there’s some heavy encryption which bothers me.”

  “It does seem a little too much for an underhanded, womanizing realtor.”

  Ralph’s eyebrows went up and she filled him in on how he’d treated Sassy.

  “Sounds like the guy got what was coming to him.”

  “Careful,” she admonished, “or Abe will think you’re a suspect.”

  He chuckled. “But it doesn’t sound good for Sassy. There’s got to be more to this guy then. The encryption, the double accounts, the sleaziness of him. Yeah, this stinks.”

  She agreed and took another bite of her sandwich.

  “Say, what about Calvin?” Ralph asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “We promised your sister we’d look into it.”

  “And we will—are. I mean, isn’t Scott looking into the email and phone number you got?”

  Ralph looked sheepish.

  “What is it?”

  “I kind of got him working on the Wharton guy and then the police needed his help on a few other cases and...he’s booked.”

  Henrietta leaned back with a sigh. “I promised Clementine that we were working on it.”

  “Well, I did go to Virginia on her behalf.”

  “And on my dime,” Henrietta pointed out with a smirk.

  “True. But what about the kid?”

  She frowned. “Which one?”

  “Jacob. Why don’t we get him on the email and number?”

  Henrietta considered this. While she had come to trust the notes, she’d received from A Concerned Fellow Sleuth, even though they were written in anonymity, now that she knew he was behind it all she had started to view him slightly differently. He was young, a kid as Ralph said, and there was something of arrogance about him at times.

  He wanted to join the private investigation team they had, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. She’d had to promise quite a bit to him in order to get him to share what he’d found. But still, as much as she wasn’t certain he could handle full-time investigative work, she did know that he as gifted with computers—almost to Scott’s level.

  “I suppose we could ask him.”

  “You think he’ll help without blabbing about it to his online buddies or whatever?” Ralph said.

  She grinned. “That I can’t be sure of. I do feel like he’s got to learn a bit more about the private investigation ethic, but we’re up a creek without a paddle if we can’t have someone look into the email and number.”

  “And he was able to trace the previous email.”

  “True. I’ll talk to him today—he’s working this afternoon.”

  “Good, keep me posted about what he says. I’ll put a little muscle on him if he refuses.”

  Henrietta laughed. “You will not, but thanks for the offer, even if it’s lip service.”

  Rather than deny it, Ralph merely grinned and took a too-large bite of his sandwich.

  Henrietta slipped into thought. She needed a better fix on Calvin’s location, if nothing more than to tell her sister they were close, but she also needed to make sure that Jacob didn’t have some ulterior motive. It seemed unlikely. He’d been very straightforward about what he wanted. He wanted in on the action, as he put it, and he wanted to be part of their team, but she had to lay the ground rules. He had to do the leg work.

  Still, there was only so much she could require of the young man before she started using him instead of training him.

  Rummaging in her purse, she pulled out the slip of paper that Ralph had given her. It held Calvin’s new telephone number and email address left at his former place of employment. It could all be fake, but they wouldn’t know until someone looked into it and she wasn’t willing to wait until Scott was free.

  She had to prove to Clementine that she really was on the case and that it was going to have results. She had to find her nephew before whatever bad news that was following him caught up to him.

  6

  Jacob sat at the desk behind the computer when Henrietta came back from lunch.

  “Hey Henrietta,” he said with a smile.

  “Good afternoon, Jacob.”

  “Have a good lunch?”

  She nodded, then trailed her finger along the countertop where the computer sat. Part of Henrietta wanted to trust Jacob. After everything they’d been through, finding out that his father was actually one of Henrietta’s close friends who had died, and now knowing that he lived with his grandmother in an estate that Henrietta used to consult with for antiques purchases—there was a lot of history between them.

  And yet Jacob was still only twenty-three and acted his young age at times. He was arrogant about his skills and determined to ‘work with’ Henrietta on a case, or several if he was allowed.

  As she tried to understand her feelings toward the young man, he spoke up.

  “Henrietta,” he began, his gaze downcast. “I wanted to apologize.”

  “Oh?” She waited for him to explain.

  “Yes. I think—no, I know—that I was out of line to make the demands I did and to overexaggerate the truth. I mean, to be fair, we do call it ‘meeting up’ online, but I should have realized Clementine would take that to be literal. And, perhaps if I’m even more honest, I wanted you all to think I was crucial to this case.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Ever since I was young, I wanted to become a detective. Because of wanting to find my dad. I read cheap crime books and even a lot of The Hardy Boys,” he chuckled. “A sorry excuse for a true education but we didn’t have much, mom and I.”

  “It must have been difficult.”

  “I don’t say it for that,” he was quick to assure her. “I just meant that, along with those books I relied on I was very perceptive. I caught things that others didn’t, and I thought, I have a gift for this. You know?”

  “I understand,” she said, and she did. She too was extremely observative and had used those skills for solving crimes in her recent history.

  “I just thought that I could help. When I started helping you as the Sleuth, I thought this was my chance to prove to you I was worth working with. I see now I went about it the wrong way.”

  “You were helpful,” she admitted. Her words brought a small smile to his lips.

  “I’m glad for that, but I don’t want to get in the way. I just…I wanted you to know I’m sorry and that I’ll do whatever I can to help with Calvin, but I’m not going to demand anything.”

  Henrietta allowed a genuine smile to emerge. While she still thought he had much to learn, she appreciated his honesty and willingness to apologize. It also made what she had to ask that much easier.

  “I’m glad you feel that way. I have a job for you.”

  “You do?” His shock was evident.

  “Yes. You see, I’ve found myself involved with something a little more local and—”

  “The murder at the tasting?” he blurted.

  “I see you’ve read the papers.”

  “Well, they speculated it was murder and I only assume, since you were there, that there’s more to the story.”

  “There is.”

  “Do you need help with that?” he asked.

  “No, not yet at least. I do need help with a new email and phone number we got for Calvin when Ralph was in Virginia.”

  “A new email?” he asked.

  “Yes. I know you’ve communicated with him before, but I’m going to ask you to refrain from that at this point. I’d like to send an email to my nephew, something we haven’t tried yet, and see if we can get a response. Is there a way to trace my email to him or his back to me?”

  He thought for a moment. “There’s a way, but I don’t know that I’d call it a trace exactly. I can look into it though. But the phone one could be trickier. Without police involvement it’s hard to gain access to phone records and such.”

  “Does that mean you can’t?”

  He grinned. “I didn’t say that.”

  “Then I don’t want to know,” she said with a laugh. “Here.” Handing him the paper with the phone number and email on it. “Please let me know when I can send the email to him.”

  “You got it! And Henrietta?”

  “Yes?” she said, turning to him before heading up to her rooms on the top floor of the large Victorian that housed her shop.

  “Thank you. For understanding but also for still, you know, using me.”

  She smiled. “You’re doing us a favor so thank you.”

  He ducked his head just as the front bell rang out. They both turned toward the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the hallway toward them. When Ralph appeared Henrietta couldn’t hide her surprise.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Thought we might go down and look at the scene of the crime,” he said with wagging eyebrows.

  “You got us in?”

  “I did,” he said.

  “Then by all means,” she extended a hand. “Lead the way.”

  The scent of chocolate still hung in the air even a few days after the tasting.

  “Mmmm,” Ralph said.

  “No, you can’t eat the evidence,” Henrietta chided.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, but I could go for some hot chocolate right about now.”

  The day had turned colder than Henrietta had anticipated as well, but her focus was on the crime scene and what they could find there. They wouldn’t be allowed to touch anything, naturally, but Ralph’s cop buddy let them in and said they had ten minutes to look around.

  “Should we start in the kitchen?”

  “Yep.” Ralph followed her through the front of the shop, through the area where they’d all sat, and to the kitchen. “Did you notice anything when you came back to talk to Sassy?”

  Henrietta thought back to that night. Sassy had been in the corner. She turned to stand exactly where she had been and closed her eyes to remember. Sassy had been facing away from Henrietta and turned quickly when she entered. Her back had stayed to the corner, but was that due to her hiding something or had she merely stood there?

  Then Henrietta turned her head, eyes still closed. She saw the back door as it had been when she came in. The blinds were drawn and the lock had been turned vertical. Her eyes popped open. She walked toward the door now and noticed the lock was horizontal.

  Using her sleeve to cover her hand she gently pressed down on the handle.

  “What are you—”

  “It’s locked.”

  “I’d hope so. This is a crime scene.”

  “I distinctly remember glancing at the door when I came in. I’m positive the lock wasn’t engaged.”

  “You’re saying someone could have come in and changed out those chocolates?”

  “When I came in, Sassy had the chocolates all out as she’d told me. They were in a specific order so she wouldn’t give someone something they were allergic to.”

  Ralph made a sound that was a mix between a laugh and a cough. “Not funny, but that’s exactly what happened.”

  “I know, but it would have been so easy for someone. I mean, she had them laid out and they even had little cards.” Henrietta pointed to the cards that were still on the stainless-steel counter near the door.

  Ralph bent low. “Huh. Here’s Wharton’s card right here.” He indicated the card with a finger and Henrietta bent down.

  “What’s that behind it?”

  “Looks like an A?”

  “But the M is written over it. Odd.”

  A cop moved into the doorway. “You two almost done?”

  “May I open the back door?” Henrietta asked.

  “Uh,” he looked between her and Ralph. “Why?”

  “I’ll cover my hand,” she said, showing him how her sleeve could go over her hand. “I just wanted to see something about the door.”

  He looked to Ralph this time who said, “She’s harmless, I promise.”

  Henrietta shot Ralph a look but then turned back to the policeman.

  “Fine,” he said, “but don’t touch it or rub it with your sleeve. I’m sure it’s been dusted already but I don’t want to take any chances.”

  “Thanks Charlie, appreciate it,” Ralph said.

  The man shrugged. “Come out when you’re done.”

  “We’ll be there in a minute.” Ralph turned to Henrietta. “What are you doing?”

  She gently unlocked the door with her sleeve covered hand and then opened it. It swung inward soundlessly. Then she stepped to the side and examined the hinges.

  “Oiled,” she said, frowning.

  “You think someone oiled the hinges because they knew they’d come in to switch out the chocolate?”

  “It looks that way,” she said, closing and locking the door. “Come on, we need to go talk to Sassy.”

  He followed her outside before asking his next question. “Hold on though, you’ve forgotten one thing.”

  “What’s that?” she asked, waiting for him to unlock his truck.

  He did and they climbed inside. “No one knew about Sassy’s plan for the spicy chocolate at the end.”

  Henrietta nodded. “I’ve thought of that.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t have an answer.”

  “Well then,” Ralph said sarcastically as he pulled away from the curb.

  Henrietta shrugged. “I’m not saying I know how all this happened, but I think I can safely assume Sassy did not poison her former boyfriend and realtor, no matter how badly he treated her.”

  “I can agree with that. Sassy’s a good person, but we need evidence, not character witnesses.”

  “I agree,” Henrietta said, slipping into silence as they drove toward the police station.

  She couldn’t account for how someone could have known about Sassy’s chocolate tasting plans nor could she pinpoint who had oiled the hinges on the back door, but she was fairly certain it was all an elaborate plan to frame Sassy.

  Now, the question wasn’t so much how but why? Why Sassy?

  7

  “Oiled?” Sassy leaned back in the stiff chair of the interrogation room. “I have no idea. I mean, they were really squeaky a few weeks ago, I just remember because it was near silent in the front room but a woman and her small baby had come in to be out of a sudden downpour. I told them to have a seat and relax and the baby fell asleep, so when I went to take the trash out, I remember cringing it was that bad.”