Pies & Peril - Culinary Competition Mystery #1

Chapter 4

(Amy)

Amy glanced at her laptop and plunged a measuring cup into the flour canister. She scraped off the excess with the flat edge of a butter knife. A white cloud puffed from the deep, ceramic bowl when she dumped in the flour. An electric hand mixer sat on the counter, armed with beaters, plugged in, ready for muffin mixing duty. She shook her head. It would be too loud to use at 6 a.m. Not because anybody else was asleep in the house. Because she had a pounding headache from once again barely sleeping. If, like the note hinted, somebody wanted to kill her, giving her a case of severe insomnia might do the trick. No incriminating murder weapon necessary if the victim spontaneously falls asleep at the wheel of her car and drives off a bridge.

The question of why someone would want her to die in any way was what had kept her awake. That and anticipating Alex's reaction to both the threatening note and the fact that she didn't tell him about it immediately. It was after 10 p.m. when she made it home from the town hall after giving a statement and turning over the note to Detective Shepler, the officer in charge of Mandy Jo's murder case. Amy had made the decision not to worry her husband. He was already booked on a red-eye flight from Atlanta. He wouldn't make it home any sooner, so there was no reason to make his flight even more miserable as he worried about her. Every time the air conditioner kicked on during the night she almost jumped out of her skin, but even if she had told Alex about the note he still wouldn't have been home. She was being a good wife and saving him a bit of stress. That's what she kept telling herself as her shoulder muscles tightened into marble, from tension and dread, during the long night alone.

She sighed as she retrieved a whisk from a utensil crock near the stove. Every muscle in her body ached from the lack of sleep. Mixing the muffin batter with a wooden spoon was bound to make her arm feel like overcooked asparagus, but shaky muscles were preferable to escalating her headache with the electric mixer. She cracked an egg into the bowl, poured in the milk and started the mixing process. Her arm muscles immediately protested the whisking by cramping, but the culinary exercise was mercifully over quickly. Then she scooped up the mounds of sundried tomatoes and diced salami with her pastry scraper, dropped the intensely flavored nuggets on top of the batter, and gritted her teeth. Just a bit more arm torture to fold in the flavorful additions. The less taxing task of transferring the batter into the wrappers with an ice cream scoop was something she could probably do in her sleep after thousands of times practicing the technique.

When the muffins were safely in the oven, Amy poured the last splash of coffee into her mug and refilled the machine with water and freshly ground Kona coffee so Alex could have some with his breakfast. She sat down on the bench in the nook and then laid back. The thick cushion actually was a comfortable substitute for a bed. She wiggled backward until her whole body was on the long bench. Insisting the upholsterer use thicker than standard foam had been a very good decision when the kitchen was remodeled four years earlier. She congratulated herself on the foresight and promptly fell asleep.

The frenzied, robotic bird chirp of the timer woke Amy. She sat up and whacked her elbow on the edge of the table. The zing of a direct hit on the funny bone jolted her fully awake. She scrambled out of the confines of the breakfast nook and sprinted to the oven. While she'd power napped, the kitchen had filled with the mouth-watering scent of the savory muffins. If it had taken her a while to wake up after the timer began going off, the aroma could develop smoky campfire overtones at any moment. After taking 2 seconds to silence the blaring timer, she opened the oven. Mercifully, the muffins were golden brown, not even close to becoming charcoal briquettes. Alex was going to love her welcome back meal. He preferred savory breakfasts, instead of fruit-filled muffins or maple syrup-drenched French toast. She deposited the pan onto a cooling rack. According to the airline's website, Alex's flight should've landed 40 minutes earlier.