A Pinch of Sea Salt and a Dash of Murder (Outer Banks Baker Mystery Series Book 1) Read online

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  Phoebe T. Eggli

  Dedicated to my supportive friends and family.

  Life delivers punches along the way,

  But I’m grateful for the amazing people in my life

  Who’ve helped me get back up; who believe in me.

  May you also have similar people in your life;

  And be one as well!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Bonus Chapter

  Sample Chapter from Book 2 of the Outer Banks Baker Mystery Series

  Recipes:

  Chapter 1

  Melissa awoke this morning much like every morning in the last four years – long before the sun peeked over the Atlantic Ocean. No alarm clock was needed. She hadn’t always been a morning person. Even throughout her twenty year marriage to a test pilot who was up and out the door before 4:30 every morning, she had always gone back to bed as soon as he kissed her goodbye for the day – at least for an hour or two. Since his death four years prior in a tragic plane crash of an experimental Cessna Citation X jet, her eyes would open of their own accord almost to the minute Kevin would’ve been softly planting a kiss on her lips. Sometimes she imagined she still felt his kiss and would waken with a smile. This was such a morning.

  Tiptoeing through the hallway so as not to awaken her nephew Logan snoring in the guest room, Melissa began her day by starting the coffee pot to brewing – the strongest blend she could find at the local corner market. Breakfast, for her at least, consisted of cut-up apples, bananas, and cantaloupe. With Logan here for the summer, there was only one way to wake him up – the smell of turkey bacon being nuked in the microwave. Surely the newly crowned teenager would prefer to sleep the day away, so she decided to wait another hour before disturbing his slumber.

  Melissa’s brother John David and his wife had sent the boy to her every summer since an early age. Following her husband Kevin’s death, they used the excuse that he was to keep her company so she wouldn’t be so lonely all the time. They also said Logan needed to learn responsibility by helping her out with the bakery. Logan had a different opinion – they wanted to get rid of him for the summer so they wouldn’t have to take time away from their hectic careers to take care of him. Sadly, his take on the situation was closer to the truth.

  Regardless, he was incredibly helpful in the bakery and had even shown an interest in learning to bake sweets such as pastries and tea cakes since he was little. He wasn’t really enthused about his Aunt Mel’s specialty – artisan breads. What teenage boy would be? She tried to minimize his time at the bakery so he could still enjoy being at the beach for the summer. Logan loved fishing off the municipal pier for hours on end and had even tried surfing last summer. He hadn’t been successful in the latter activity, but at least he wasn’t afraid to try. It was better than having the boy sitting in front of a television playing Xbox all day long, which would’ve been his fate if he stayed in Charlotte with his folks.

  Without children of her own, not for a lack of trying for many years and throwing money down the infertility treatment route, summers spent caring for Logan were a real blessing. At 44 years of age, and now single, Melissa had resigned herself to never becoming a mom herself.

  Melissa filled her coffee mug and went to enjoy the last remnants of the darkness and watch the sunrise from the second-story wooden deck. This was her favorite time of day, before the crazy hustle bustle of operating her own bakery in town, the “Kill Devil Delicacies”. When she moved back to her hometown four years ago she took the miniscule amount she had in savings and the proceeds from her husband’s life insurance policy to open her own bakery, which had always been her dream. Melissa liked to think her bakery was unique in that she didn’t create traditional birthday cakes and cupcakes. Her specialty was artisan breads and hers was the only shop in town that provided them. There were two other bakeries in town. One, owned by her Italian friend Maria and her husband Antonio, cornered the traditional sweets market such as cakes, cupcakes, pies, and donuts.

  The other bakery was owned by her long-time rival since high school, Linda Stevenson who designed and created the most gorgeous and unique wedding cakes to be found anywhere on the North Carolina coastline. Her business was called “Heavenly Creations”. Melissa had thought, wrongly, that when she came back to town things would be different with Linda. For whatever reason it seemed Linda was not going to let jealousies and misunderstandings from high school simply go. Every once in a while, like this particular morning, she would attempt to puzzle out why Linda still treated her with hostility. Realizing it was a lost cause, Melissa sighed and finished her first cup of coffee. With the sun starting to peer out from the horizon she knew it was time to wake Logan with the scrumptious smells of his breakfast.

  After feeding the bottomless pit that was Logan’s stomach, she kissed him on the top of his dusky brown head – something he acted as if offended his teenage boy tendencies but secretly he relished – and finished getting ready for work. A few minutes later, with her light auburn hair tied up in a ponytail for the day, they were both out the door and ready to enjoy the day. The weatherman had called for clear skies all week and temperatures in the low 90s. Despite the sun being up for just a short while, the humidity had already set in and beads of perspiration sprung up on their foreheads as they walked the seven blocks from Melissa’s beachside cottage to the bakery.

  On their walk they passed other locals starting their day. A few dedicated runners – Melissa had tried running when she was younger but her shin splints kept her to a brisk walk these days – and other shop owners readying for the first official week of the summer tourist season. It wasn’t until the duo rounded the corner to enter the back entrance of the single story building that housed the bakery that Melissa noticed something was wrong. The grey heavy metal door was slightly ajar. Upon closer inspection she could see where the lock had been jimmied. Her first thought was the shop had been robbed. Being a small town, crime was a rare event but tourist season seemed to bring in a bit more than the usual. “Great,” Melissa thought, “first week and we’re already having issues! Should be fun summer!”

  Logan took things into his own hands and before Melissa could stop him, he threw open the door and ran inside with his aunt close on his heels. Her initial concern was the crooks were still in the shop and could hurt her nephew. She was not prepared for the sight that she beheld. Logan had stopped right inside the door and was frozen in place. It only took a moment for her to take in the situation and forcibly turn him away from the scene. Pulling him back out of the building, he turned towards the dumpster and hurled his turkey bacon and clementine breakfast back up. Melissa was torn between kneeling beside him and running back into the shop. With shaky hands, she dialed 911 from her cell phone as she walked bac
k in to see if there was anything she could do for the bloodied body lying perfectly still on the floor of her bakery.

  Chapter 2

  A couple hours later, Melissa and Logan were seated in the town’s tiny police department waiting area. The paramedics had shown up at the bakery within a few minutes of her call and had taken the dead body of her greatest competitor, Linda Stevenson, away to the county morgue. The entire block had been cordoned off by the police as they investigated the crime scene. Two officers had initially checked that Melissa and her nephew were okay. Later the same two officers escorted them to the department’s headquarters for questioning. Jason Payne, the younger but still approaching middle age detective, had reassured Melissa it was just procedure. Since they had found the body, the police needed their statements. However, his older and stouter partner Larry Reynolds, had cast more than one suspicious glance in her direction during the short ride over.

  Sipping tepid water from a paper cup, Melissa couldn’t make sense of anything and she was worried about Logan’s emotional state. Finding a dead body was frightening for anyone but she imagined more so for a young impressionable teenage boy. Questions raced through her mind: What happened to Linda? How did she end up in her shop? Why was she in her shop? Who would want to hurt her competitor and why do so in the Kill Devil Delicacies bakery? Nothing about this situation made any sense.

  Melissa had known Linda since elementary school. They had been good friends until junior year of high school. They both loved cooking and planned to attend culinary school after graduation. Their friendship became strained when the hot shot jock quarterback Brian Webber asked Melissa out on a movie date. She wasn’t aware until later that Linda was crushing on the big guy. By that time, the damage was done and Melissa was equally infatuated with him. She was unable to step aside to give her taller, leggier blonde friend a chance with him and Linda was unable to forgive her. The friendship had declined rapidly from that point. The situation was only made worse when the following year Melissa won the coveted title of Homecoming Queen. Twenty-something years later when she returned to Kill Devil Hills a widow, their friendship had still not recovered. Melissa remembered the day Linda found out she was opening her own bakery just a couple blocks away from her own. The now somewhat plump box-colored platinum blonde had exploded in a tantrum unsuitable for a five year old, much less a 40 year old woman.

  None of that mattered now, of course. Melissa questioned why it had ever mattered. Her thoughts turned to all the times she could’ve reached out to reconcile with Linda. She hadn’t done so. The other woman had been so spiteful when Melissa returned to town. She had made not very well veiled comments about how it served her rival justly to not have children since she didn’t have a real heart anyway. There had been other gossip, she suspected originating from Linda, which had been hurtful. Reeling from the death of her husband, Melissa had simply written off any reconciliation with her former friend as not being worth the effort. Regretfully, it was too late now.

  It didn’t take long for the police to get around to questioning them. Melissa watched with concern as they led Logan away to an interview room alone. The tall one, Detective Payne, reassured her that they had waited so long because they couldn’t question a minor until a social services representative arrived. “Terrific,” Melissa thought with even more anxiety, “my brother sends his only child to me for the summer for safe keeping and now the boy needs social services and probably a shrink!”

  She wasn’t left waiting long for her turn. The older, rounder in the middle, detective ushered her to another interview room. He gruffly told her to take a seat and he would be right back. Melissa assumed he was going to the adjoining room to consult with whoever was observing behind the two-way mirror before questioning her. She had watched enough “Law and Order” and “Castle” to know there was always someone behind the mirror. The question in her mind was “Why am I being treated like a suspect?” She had simply been the one to find Linda’s body. Her uneasiness grew the longer the detective held off coming back into the room.

  A few minutes later the door opened and both detectives entered the room. By the expressions on their faces Melissa guessed it was time to play Good Cop/Bad Cop. The tall, muscular looking man with a short, military-style crew cut and kind brown eyes was Detective Jason Payne. He carried in two Styrofoam cups of coffee and set one down in front of her. The older, barrel-chested gentleman was Detective Larry Reynolds. He plopped down in the metal chair directly across from her with a scowl. “Yes,” she thought, “this is more than taking my statement. This is an interrogation.”

  Thankfully Detective Payne began by kindly asking how she was holding up under the ordeal and commiserating that it must have been awful to find the body. Bad cop chimed in, “Yeah, in your own shop. Not hers,” with emphasis on the word “your”. Detective Payne gave his partner a sideways warning glance as if to check the old man’s enthusiasm to convict before even getting the facts. Melissa couldn’t help thinking they were professionals at the good cop/bad cop game.

  The interview proceeded with “good cop” asking most the questions and the “bad cop” jotting down notes along with scowling at her. He even rolled his eyes a couple of times as if he did not believe a word she said. After the drama of the morning, Melissa’s emotional state was under duress and this guy was not helping.

  She answered every question the best she could and repeated her story at least five times. She and her nephew had left her house that morning to go to work at her bakery. They walked there – approximately seven blocks. Didn’t see anything out of the ordinary until they reached the back of the building housing her shop. The door was slightly ajar and it looked as if the lock had been tampered with. Logan was the first to enter the building with her closely on his heels where they found Linda in a pool of blood on the floor midway between the counter housing the cooling racks and the back door. No, she had no idea why Linda would be in her shop or how she got in. No, Linda did not have a key to the Kill Devil Delicacies bakery. Yes, Melissa knew Linda ever since high school. Yes, she and Linda were indirect competitors since Melissa specialized in breads and French pastries while Linda was the queen of wedding cakes. She couldn’t recall the last time she saw Linda alive. They didn’t cross paths too often.

  Detective “Grumpy” jumped on the idea that despite being in the same business in a very small town that the two ladies seemed to stay out of each other’s orbits. He leaned his head on his hands as he stared intently at her as if waiting for her to cave with some earth-shattering confession. Despite warning glances from his partner, he continued his line of questioning. Detective “Soft Brown Eyes” gave Melissa an apologetic look.

  An hour and a half later, with Melissa’s patience worn thin by the aggravating detective, she turned to Detective Payne to ask if someone could please check on her nephew as she was worried about the boy. Surprisingly, he asked his partner to fulfill the request and stayed with her. As the door shut behind the other cop, he leaned back in the metal chair that creaked under the weight of his 6’3” frame. “Mrs. Maples, please accept my apologies for my partner’s manners, or lack thereof. I know you must be exhausted after this entire ordeal. Larry’s just anxious to wrap up his last case before retirement. He means well, really.”

  Perturbed, Melissa replied, “Well, I hope he’s not planning on pinning this on an innocent person just so he can get his retirement watch from the department and go fishing.” The last thing she needed was an overzealous cop with his eye on the door instead of the evidence. Detective Payne attempted to reassure her that was not the case at all, but she still had doubts as the older man re-entered the room.

  “Your nephew is fine. He’s watching television in the main lobby. The social worker has called his parents to notify them of the situation.” He appeared down right gleeful that she had been ratted out to her own brother by the social worker instead of giving her a chance to explain what had happened. John David would probably understand sh
e hadn’t “intended” to subject his son to the dramatic sight of a dead body, but she also knew his wife, Kathleen, would be livid.

  Taking a deep breath, Melissa looked the detective in the eye and asked if there was anything else they needed from her. If not, she needed to take Logan home to see to his needs. She had answered their questions over and over. Going over it again would not add anything to the case since that really was everything she knew. Sensing her frustration, Detective Payne apologized again and agreed they had all the information they needed from her. His partner added the caveat, “If you DO remember anything else, please contact us immediately.” She agreed and was allowed to leave the interview room. Finding Logan with eyes glossed over staring at the overhead television set showing reruns of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, Melissa took his hand and they walked out the precinct doors and towards home.

  Chapter 3

  Waiting on the wooden steps outside Melissa’s cottage was a petite young woman with strawberry blonde hair hanging down to the small of her back. Britney Williams was her assistant at the bakery. Britney had gorgeous, long flowing strawberry blonde hair and a flawless complexion that was the envy of every woman, young and old, in town. Dressed in her usual work attire – Capri pants and a tight, white cropped t-shirt – Melissa could read the concern in her face. The young woman was trying to hold it together but it was clear by the tears threatening to overflow her sky blue eyes that she was about to lose that fight.

  Melissa, trying to remain calm herself, invited Britney inside the house and sent Logan to get a shower and rest a while in his room. He hadn’t said much on the walk home which worried her. Hopefully after they both had time to process the day’s events individually, they could console each other. Watching the young man retreat to his small bedroom at the back of the house, Melissa let out a long sigh and turned to her assistant.