Pancakes & Pandemonium - Culinary Competition Mystery #6

Chapter 21

(Amy)

By the time Alex arrived home, she had made four steamed cakes. The encounter with the detective had rattled her so much—she couldn't stop cooking even if she tried. Measuring, mixing, and writing recipe notes were the diversion that kept her from going insane over the missing red knife. It looked really bad for her mom, as far as the murder investigation was concerned. And not so great for herself either.

The biggest thing that was turning Amy into a hot mess was the fact that the detective had been keenly interested in the set of knives that may have once included the murder weapon. But he didn't know that—not unless he had X-ray vision or was as sneaky as a lightning-quick cat burglar. As she was trying to avoid looking directly at him so that he wouldn't see how nervous she was, she hadn't let him out of her sight long enough that he could've opened the knife box without her noticing. Had she?

If the detective decided to charge her mother with murder, what could Amy do? While she wasn't positive her mom wasn't a killer, there didn't seem to be a big enough motive for her mother to have turned into one. An old high school grudge that had ended at graduation shouldn't be reason enough to end someone's life. At least for most people. She had to admit that her mother looked at life through a different set of lenses—very distorted lenses that often warped reality and judgment.

When Alex walked in the door, she didn't greet him with a hug or even a hello. Instead, she said, "Can we deliver a cake to Milo's house tonight?"

Her husband froze as Pogo spun and twirled around him. It looked as though the dog was doing a tribal dance...maybe invoking the gods of electricity to bring it back.

"Why?"

It was a perfectly good, short question. She would've been puzzled if she had been in his shoes. "I think there is a lot of evidence right now that points to Mom killing Catherine. I don't want that to be true, so I figured I would check out the next most logical suspect, in my book...Milo. Who doesn't like cake, especially after a week like this? I have chocolate, applesauce spice, vanilla, or strawberry cornmeal cakes. Which one do you think he'd like?"

So the nervous babbling side effect of dealing with Officer Chaucer hadn't worn off yet.

Alex stared at her for a few seconds then shrugged. "I think the vanilla one would be a safe bet."

"Good. I was thinking the same thing. That's why I already have it packed up." She pointed to a disposable aluminum pan sitting on the island. "I'm ready to go whenever you are. Maybe, if we stop by unannounced, we'll catch him off guard. That is if we can figure out where he lives. I hadn't thought about that."

He ran his hand over his hair and down the back his neck. "Please take a deep breath and tell me what's going on. What happened while I was helping the Elliots?"

Alex knew her well. She pointed at the box of knives. "The set of knives that Mom gave me the other day isn't complete. They're all different colors, like a rainbow, and the one that is missing has the same color of handle as the one that killed Catherine. Red. I discovered that disconcerting fact while you were at the Elliots' house. Right after Detective Chaucer left. He is trying to find my mom."

"So he knows we have in our possession a set of knives that the murder weapon was a part of?"

"May have been a part of. Chaucer knows we have a set of Always Sharp knives that I said were a gift from someone. I can't be positive the knife that killed Catherine was that brand, but he would know. And other than the whereabouts of Mom, the knives were the only thing he talked about. Not a good sign. At least he doesn't know this set is missing a red one. Or, at least, I don't think he knows it's gone."