Halloween Cupcake Murder by Carlene O'Connor

Author:Carlene O'Connor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Band rehearsal dragged on longer than usual that afternoon. Luther Partridge, our conductor, had trouble maintaining order. Even with a big performance looming, the elves had a hard time concentrating on music when there was so much chaos in Christmastown. Everyone had heard about the cupcake attack at the Silver Bell Bakery.

Between numbers, Bobbin, our piccolo player, kept piping up about all the mayhem, straining Luther’s patience. After we had struggled through another run-through of “Danse Macabre,” the final piece in our program, he said, “What should we do if ice zombies show up at the festival?”

This was too much. I stepped out from behind my bass drum. “Ice zombies don’t exist.”

Bobbin blinked. “That’s not what Constable Crinkles says.”

Good grief. Had Crinkles done anything besides set off a zombie panic today?

“As if worrying about poisoned candy corn wasn’t bad enough!” a trombone exclaimed.

“According to Doc Honeytree’s nephew, Wink wasn’t poisoned,” Juniper announced from behind her euphonium. The instrument was almost as big as she was.

The news electrified the room.

“So it’s safe to eat candy corn again?” Bobbin asked, hopping to his feet. “Now everyone will be trying to buy some.”

And that was the end of rehearsal. While Luther called out final instructions for the concert, elves rushed for the door to get to the candy stores before they closed. Even Smudge and Juniper ducked out before I could catch up to them—although I assumed their business had more to do with investigating candy theft than candy buying.

Dark had descended during rehearsal, but the downtown streets were lit up in orange and white, making the city almost as bright as day as I made my way to the sleigh bus that would take me up Sugarplum Mountain to Castle Kringle. On Festival Boulevard, there was the usual business at the Silver Bell Bakery, but I was surprised to see a light on at Chestnut’s Cake Emporium across the street. Given that the proprietor had been taken into custody and the only other employee was dead, what could be going on in there? Then my eyes focused on the elf in a red Cake Emporium smock behind the counter. Sugar?

What was the only remaining employee of the Silver Bell Bakery doing in Chestnut’s Cake Emporium? I had to find out.

Not much had changed in the shop since this morning, except that there were cupcakes in the glass display cases, Ella Fitzgerald’s Christmas album was playing on the speakers, and a murdered elf no longer lay on the floor.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Sugar.

“You saw for yourself what Bell’s like. She’s so crazy, I didn’t feel safe working there anymore. Not if she killed Wink just for leaving.”

If Bell was really crazy enough to kill ex-employees, Sugar had just put herself in more danger. I didn’t want to alarm her by pointing that out, though.

“I just saw you a few hours ago. How did you get this job with Chestnut in jail?”

“I visited him at the constabulary and offered to help him.

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