Murder Gone A-Rye (A Baker's Treat Mystery) by Nancy J. Parra

Author:Nancy J. Parra [Parra, Nancy J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-05-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Friday morning, there was a knock at the back door of the bakery. I peeked out the peephole, my right hand ready to grab the bat. Aunt Phyllis stood outside. I unlocked the two locks on the door.

“Auntie, it’s four in the morning. What are you doing here, again?”

“The same thing you’re doing here,” she said and stepped inside. The tip of her nose was blue and she had frost on her eyelashes. She wore her fringed leather jacket and a pair of blue pajama pants with white fluffy sheep scrawled on them in a random pattern. Her feet were covered in long, white, fluffy fur slippers with bunny ears on them.

“I’m making pies,” I said, and went to close the door while she rushed over to the coffeepot.

“Open the door.” Grandma Ruth’s grizzled voice barreled through the cold night air. Her big, square hand slapped on the door, pushing me and it aside. The woman was strong, considering she was in her nineties. I tried not to squeal as she brushed me aside like yesterday’s news.

“I told you she’d have coffee. Two pots, from the looks of it.” Grandma rolled her walker forward as if it were a battering ram. Today she wore a black stocking cap and a black hoodie with the word HOODLUM painted across the chest in yellow. Under that was a pair of men’s corduroy slacks in a dark green. Grandma wore Elmo slippers. Her hands and fingers were tipped with blue as well.

A quick glance at my indoor/outdoor thermometer told me it was a chilly thirty-two degrees outside. “How did you two get down here from the house?”

“Shank’s mare,” Grandma called over her shoulder, and took the thick mug of coffee Phyllis offered her.

“What?”

“We walked,” Aunt Phyllis said as she blew on her mug and took a sip of the thick brew.

“It’s too cold to be walking out there. With the wind chill it must be—”

“Freezing,” Grandma interrupted. “We know. Just like Kansas weather to sucker you in with eighty-degree weather one day and slam you with frost advisories the next morning.”

“It is the end of November,” Phyllis pointed out. “If you wanted better weather you’d have gotten out of the Midwest.”

“You walked?” I was shocked by the idea. “That had to have taken you—”

“Almost an hour with the walker.” Grandma grabbed a chair and lowered herself into it. “When we planned this excursion yesterday it was still seventy degrees out. I would have gotten Bill to bring us if I’d have known it was going to be this cold.”

I checked out the peephole for any lagging relatives before I locked the deadbolts. “Why did you plan this excursion?” I asked. “I know you like my gluten-free donuts, but there has to be a better reason.”

“We want to know what you found out when you dropped the box off at Brad’s office.” Phyllis said, and sipped some more. “A few pastries wouldn’t hurt now that we’re here and half frozen.”

I tried really hard not to roll my eyes.

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