Chocolate Caramels and Conmen (A Chocolate Centered Cozy Mystery Series Book 12) Read online

  “Arnold, Arnold, I have num nums!” She shook the bag again. Arnold tried to force his snout under the door. He huffed and snorted as he smelled the food in the bag. She grabbed a few pieces out of the bag and slipped them under the door right near where she assumed the chair legs were. Arnold squealed and shoved his way towards them. She tried the knob again, and this time the door opened a few inches. It was just far enough for her to reach around and grab the leg of the chair. She jerked it free of the knob and tumbled out of the closet as the door fell open.

  For just a second, she savored the sensation of freedom that washed over her. She wasn’t sure that her plan would work. As she lay there, Arnold nudged his snout against her cheek.

  “Aw thanks, Arnold.” She smiled as she thought he was giving her kisses. Instead, he dug his snout through her hair to get to some scattered treats. “Ugh.” She pushed herself up into a seated position as Peaches rubbed the length of her body along her side. “Sorry, Peaches, I don’t have time for snuggles. I have to get to the shop.”

  She jumped to her feet and ran for the door. When she saw that her grandmother had taken her car, she groaned. Luckily the shop wasn’t too far away. She could take the back streets and get to it quickly. Before she broke into a full force run she sent a text to Luke about the situation. If she couldn’t get there in time, she hoped that he would.

  Her legs burned as she pushed herself to run faster than she had ever run before. Despite her speed, it still seemed to take her forever to get to the shop. As soon as she reached it, she grabbed the handle of the door and rushed inside.

  “Mee-Maw!” Ally shouted across the shop. When she saw Carl at the end of the counter her heart lurched. “Don’t you touch her!” She barreled towards him.

  “What?” He threw his hands into the air and took a step back, but not fast enough.

  Ally plowed towards him and pushed him back into the shelving against the wall. One of the small wooden statues fell off the shelf.

  “Ally!” Charlotte gasped and covered her mouth.

  “Get off me!” Carl shouted.

  “Don’t you move, the police are on their way.” Ally tried to hold him against the wall.

  “You’re crazy, both of you are, this whole town is nuts!”

  The door burst open a second time. Luke charged in with his gun drawn.

  Charlotte cried out at the sight.

  “Freeze!” Luke aimed the gun at Ally and Carl.

  “Don’t shoot!” Carl shouted and raised his hands in the air.

  “What’s going on here?” Luke demanded.

  “She’s attacking me,” Carl snapped.

  “He was going to attack Mee-Maw!” Ally took a few steps back.

  “Don’t move!” Luke aimed his weapon at Carl as he slowly advanced. “Keep your hands in the air.”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong!” Carl’s voice remained low in tone, but it was strained.

  “Stop where you are!” Luke released the safety on his gun and took a step forward.

  “All right, all right!” Carl held his hands up high in the air. “I’m not moving, but I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Can someone please tell me what happened here?” Luke looked Ally over from top to bottom to ensure she wasn’t hurt. She could see the concern in his eyes. When he was satisfied that she was okay he looked back at Carl and put his gun back in his holster. “Carl?”

  “They invited me here,” Carl explained. “They said they wanted to return the vacuum they had from me. Then I show up, and it’s all a trick. This one might have even drugged me, she forced candy on me. Then this one.” He tipped his head towards Ally who stood close to Charlotte, her eyes wide. “Attacked me out of nowhere.” He shook his head. “I want to press charges against her for assault.” He tipped his head towards Ally, again. “I’m sure my back will have bruises on it, and you saw her when you walked in here. Unless you’re planning on lying about that? Small town justice?” He snapped each word as he turned his furious gaze back on Luke.

  The more Carl spoke the more Ally realized that maybe she had been a bit too hasty to protect her grandmother. Maybe there was nothing to protect her from. When she walked in it looked to her like he was about to go after her, but she couldn’t be sure of that. She certainly couldn’t prove it.

  As Luke’s gaze turned slowly towards Ally, she shivered at the thought of him placing her in handcuffs. Would he really place his girlfriend in handcuffs? How had she let things get so out of control?

  Chapter 11

  The weight of Luke’s eyes on Ally was enough to make her want to sink into the floor. Unfortunately, it was quite solid, and she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Ally, is this true? Was Carl threatening Charlotte?” Luke glanced over at Charlotte, who appeared to be unharmed. “What made you go after him?” He looked back at Ally with narrowed eyes.

  “Luke, I—”

  “Wait.” Charlotte took a step forward, away from Ally. “Carl? You don’t really want to press charges, do you? Clearly this was all a misunderstanding.”

  “I wouldn’t call getting pushed against the wall a misunderstanding.” He smirked as he looked between them. “No, Ally is going down for this one. I want her charged for assault.”

  “Carl, that’s not a wise decision.” Charlotte took another step towards him.

  “Charlotte, you should stay out of this. I have back-up on the way. Then I’ll take your statements.” Luke looked briefly at Ally, before his eyes darted away.

  His face was considerably paler than it had been when he walked in. She could only imagine what he was thinking about having to arrest her. It would be terrifying for her, but she knew it would be awful for him, too.

  Charlotte couldn’t stand by and let all of this happen. She knew that she’d created the mess in the first place by locking Ally in the closet, and it would take a lot for her granddaughter to forgive her. She couldn’t be responsible for her going to jail as well.

  “I’m not staying out of anything, unless Carl agrees to not press charges.” She boldly walked right up to Carl as she spoke. When Luke put his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to stop her, she brushed it off and ignored his look of warning. “I know what was in that case, Carl. The police don’t, but I do, and if you don’t walk out of here without a single complaint against this fine, young man or my granddaughter, then I will make sure that the police know exactly what you and your partner were up to. Is that what you want?” She held her breath as she wondered if he would take the bait. Did he even know about the gun? If he didn’t, then all of this would blow up in her face.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His voice shuddered as he spoke, and his cheeks reddened.

  “Yes, you do. You know exactly what I’m talking about, and this is your last chance.” She stared sternly into his eyes. “Who do you think they’re going to believe, Carl, an old lady and her sweet granddaughter, or a criminal?” She quirked an eyebrow. “It’s our word against yours.”

  “Charlotte.” Luke’s voice grew sharper as he spoke, though it was edged with restraint. “Please, you’re just going to make this worse. Just wait until my back-up gets here and then we can proceed.”

  Ally held her breath as she stared at Carl. She knew that the only way this would work was if he knew about the gun, and if he did that might make him very dangerous, and possibly guilty of at least one thing, if not murder.

  “Fine.” Carl rolled his eyes and sighed. “You win. I can’t believe Marcus gave you the wrong vacuum cleaner. I didn’t realize what he had done until this afternoon. This is all his fault.” He shook his head. “I’ll be on my way.”

  Ally’s eyes widened as she realized what Carl’s statement meant. He did know about the gun and it further proved that he might just be the killer. So, Marcus had given them the wrong vacuum, at least that made some sense as to why the gun was in there.

  “I can’t let you go, not until I figure out what actually happened he
re.” Luke narrowed his eyes. His shoulders straightened, and the light that hung from the ceiling above him glinted off the badge on his hip.

  “It was all a mistake, Luke, I’m sorry.” Ally grimaced. “I thought that he was going after Mee-Maw, but I didn’t know that for sure. I saw him move towards her, but he didn’t raise his hand, he didn’t have a weapon. I rushed in and everything happened so fast, I really didn’t think things through. I was just trying to protect Mee-Maw. Please, it was all just a big mistake.”

  He looked over at her, his eyes dark behind thick lashes as he studied her. Was he imagining what it would be like to take her down to the station, to charge her with assault, then close the door on the jail cell. She knew he was conflicted. His role was to enforce the law, and she had broken it by shoving Carl.

  “And you don’t want to press charges against her, Carl?” He kept his eyes on Ally as he spoke.

  “No, I don’t. I just want to get out of this dump of a town.” He held his hands up again. “Just let me go, and I’ll forget it all happened. All right?”

  Ally saw Luke’s jaw ripple with tension. She guessed he had hundreds of thoughts running through his mind, and she had no idea what he would decide to do. She was the one that put him in this unfair position, and knowing that weighed heavily on her. He might not want anything to do with her after all of this, but she hoped that he would at least spare her the humiliation of being handcuffed and processed. His expression gave no hint of what his decision might be.

  Charlotte took Ally’s hand in hers, and they both waited to see what Luke would do.

  He hesitated a moment longer, then pulled out his radio. He stared at Ally as he pressed the button and spoke into the device. He canceled his request for back-up and stated the scene was clear. Then he tucked the radio back into its holster. He gritted his teeth as he pointed to the door. “You can go, Carl, but I don’t want to see you anywhere near this shop. Do you understand me?”

  “Sure, pal, whatever you say.” He shot a glance at Ally and Charlotte. “If I never see these two again, it’ll be too soon.” He bolted right past Luke and out the door of the shop.

  For a brief moment, silence filled the shop as it seemed no one knew what to say. Then Ally wheeled around to face her grandmother.

  “How could you lock me in a closet?”

  “What possessed you to put your hands on that fool?” Charlotte shot back.

  “Excuse me!” Luke clapped his hands sharply. “How about one of you explain to me why there was an emergency call from Charlotte’s cell phone, and I showed up here to find you restraining someone, Ally?” He locked his eyes on her. “From the beginning.”

  “There isn’t time for that.” Charlotte waved her hand. “Now we know that Carl knew about the gun—"

  “Enough!” Luke shook his head, then stared at both of them. “Ally, you should be in jail right now, and Charlotte, you might have just cost Mainbry PD their investigation by tipping Carl off. Now he knows that the police know about the gun hidden in the case and they can’t use that as leverage to get more information.”

  “Well, I had to do something, didn’t I?” Charlotte’s body trembled with anger as she looked him straight in the eyes. “You were about to put Ally in jail, so I had to protect her, didn’t I? You certainly weren’t going to.”

  “Mee-Maw, it’s not his job to protect me!” Ally sighed and held up her hands. “Listen, please, we’re not going to get anywhere by arguing. Luke, thank you.” She looked at him as her cheeks reddened.

  “Please, tell me exactly what is really going on here.” His expression softened just enough to remind Ally that he of course did care about her.

  She did her best to explain the situation, with Charlotte adding in a few details here and there. By the time she was finished Luke’s expression was even graver than before.

  “So, you’ve been meddling in a murder investigation. That doesn’t surprise me. Charlotte, you locked Ally in a closet, which is by the way against the law. Not only that, but Ally you pushed someone you think might be guilty of murder?” He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “You’re right, Ally, I did take a risk by not reporting any of this. I’m not sure if it was the right choice. Maybe you would have been safer if I had put you behind bars instead.”

  “Ah, it sounds like something interesting happened here.” Detective Jenkins slipped through the door that he had managed to open without the bell ringing.

  Luke spun on his heel to face the detective, his eyes wide.

  Charlotte and Ally stared as the two men met eyes. Luke took a protective stance between Ally and Charlotte, and Detective Jenkins.

  “It was a misunderstanding,” Luke said softly.

  “Is that so?” He looked over at Ally. “What’s this about?”

  Ally sensed that the detective wasn’t going to be satisfied with a simple answer, but she still tried. “Just a bit of an argument. It’s all straightened out now.” She cleared her throat. “What are you doing here, Detective.”

  “I’m here because I heard a call for back-up go out over the radio. I was already in the area, so I thought I’d come by and see if I could help out.” He swept his gaze over the shop, then briefly studied Charlotte.

  “I canceled that request.” Luke crossed his arms as he watched the detective pace the length of the store. “I gave the all clear.”

  “Which I find very interesting.” Detective Jenkins bent down and picked the statue up off the floor. “Since something clearly took place here. So why would you cancel the request? Maybe you don’t want the rest of Blue River PD to know what happened?” He placed the statue on the shelf.

  “He canceled the request because we didn’t actually need the help. Carl was here, and I thought he was attacking my grandmother, and I pushed him against the wall to stop him. I jumped the gun. He hadn’t done anything to harm her, and I interpreted the situation wrong.” Ally returned his gaze with as much confidence as she could muster.

  “Carl decided not to make a complaint against Ally,” Charlotte said.

  “Okay.” Detective Jenkins focused his full attention on her. “What I want to know is why?”

  “Because I knew there was a gun in that case, and I led him to believe that the police didn’t know that, yet. He said that we got the wrong case by mistake.” Charlotte shrugged. “Which means, I’ve actually helped your case, Detective.”

  “Is that so? How do you figure?” He held back a chuckle.

  “Now you know that Carl knew about the gun. He was willing to withdraw the complaint against Ally, because I told him I wouldn’t reveal that there was a gun in the case. He had no idea that the police were already aware of it. It sure indicates guilt to me.”

  “Clever.” He smiled. “So, it looks like they might have both been involved in something criminal or at least dodgy. I was going to interview Carl again today. I’m going to get him brought in as soon as we can locate him. In the meantime, whatever kind of team the three of you have going here, you need to stay out of my case. Got it?”

  “We will.” Luke nodded, his jaw still tense. “Good luck on your investigation, Detective Jenkins.”

  “Thank you.” He pulled out his wallet, and withdrew a business card. He pressed it into Ally’s hand. “Do me a favor, the next time you have a hunch, call me about it. Okay?” He met her eyes.

  “Sure.” Ally closed her hand over the card. She couldn’t figure out if the detective was staring at her in an attempt to unnerve her, or to see deeply enough to believe in her innocence. Either way, she couldn’t wait for him to leave. As he retreated through the door, she heard him bark orders into his radio. Carl would hopefully be found soon. When she turned back, she found Luke a few steps behind her.

  “We need to talk about this, Ally.”

  “Luke, I’m sorry. I messed up. I shouldn’t have brought you into the middle of all of this, but I honestly thought that Mee-Maw was in danger.”

  “That was my fault.” Charlot
te raised her hand. “But neither of us intended to cause you any problems, Luke.”

  “I know that.” He took a deep breath, then let it out all at once. He reached out to take Ally’s hand. “I know telling you to leave it alone won’t work, but I hope you can consider it at least.”

  “I can.” Ally squeezed his hand. “Again, I’m really sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry for. If you’re ever in danger or think you are, I don’t want you to ever hesitate to call me. Ever. Just keep in mind that if you involve yourself in this, you’ve got to be careful about it.” He kissed her quickly. “I need to get back to the station and clear this up before too many questions get asked.”

  “Thanks, Luke.” She walked with him to the door. “I love you.”

  “Love you, too.” He brushed her hair back out of her eyes and leaned in for a long, lingering kiss that made it clear that he still loved her even though she could feel the tension in his shoulders. “I’ll speak to you later.”

  He hurried to his car. Ally turned back to face her grandmother, who had walked up behind her.

  “What a crazy afternoon.” Ally shook her head.

  “At least we found out something new about Carl.” Charlotte offered a half-smile.

  “Yes, we did. The problem is, he’s going to take off now.” Ally looked back out through the glass front door.

  “Not if Detective Jenkins has anything to say about it. Now he knows that Carl knew about the gun, I’m guessing he’s going to push him on that and make sure that he can’t leave the area.” She walked around behind the counter and busied herself making a pot of coffee.

  “Mee-Maw, what are you doing?” Ally sighed as she watched her.

  “I think we both need clear heads. And I know the smell soothes you.” She glanced over her shoulder at her, then looked back at the coffee pot again.