Murder By Muffin (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 3)

“Hey, Lucy!” Viola Pantini waves from a table by a window overlooking Main Street. Seated next to her is Gus Pappas and a few other members of the Gray Flamingos. They’re all munching on doughnuts and looking quite happy. Too happy, as a matter of fact. I need to solve this case and get things back to normal in Whispering Bay.

I wave back.

“Thanks for letting us bring Paco inside,” I tell Heidi as she shows us to a table. “I hate to keep him in the car unless I have to.”

“Not a problem.” She hands us menus. “How are you holding up, Lucy?”

While her question seems innocent enough, what Heidi really wants to know is what happened during my little visit to police headquarters. I could play a game of dodge and evade, but that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to get answers.

“As well as can be expected considering someone is trying to frame me for Tara’s murder.”

Heidi sucks in a breath. “Is that what the police think?”

“It’s the truth. Someone laced my muffins with cyanide. That wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”

Will hides his face in the menu. “Uh, what’s good here?”

“Everything,” Heidi snaps. She turns back to me. “Did you just accuse me of killing Tara?”

“Lucy is joking,” says Will.

“Well it’s not funny.”

“We just came back from seeing Gilly,” I tell her. “Interestingly enough, she told me that a few of the other contestants wanted to quit the show.”

“Why would anyone want to quit the show?”

Oh boy. Things just got good.

“I suppose if they didn’t think their restaurant would be shown in a good light … ” I leave that thought dangling in the air.

“Personally, I think I had a great shot of winning. Not that your place isn’t fabulous, Lucy. But you have to admit, there’s nothing like a homemade doughnut.”

Good to know there’s nothing wrong with Heidi’s ego.

“Can I get an order of the cinnamon pancakes?” asks Will.

Heidi nods curtly. “How about you, Lucy?”

Originally I wanted a doughnut, but just looking at this menu is making my mouth water. Good grief. Everything on here is either laden with sugar, flour, butter or all three. No wonder it all smells so good. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything low-cal, would you?”

“This is a bakery, Lucy,” Heidi deadpans.

“Right. I’ll have the pancakes too. Oh, and one of your crumb cake doughnuts to go.”

She plucks the menus from our hands and marches back to the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” asks Will.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t think you were being a little aggressive?”

“I’m trying to catch a killer, not make friends.”

He shakes his head. “So? What’s the verdict?”

“I’m pretty certain Heidi didn’t kill Tara. She was genuinely shocked by my insinuation. But she definitely thought of quitting the show.”