Pastry Mystery: Cheesecake Mistake

Chapter Ten

*

“Hello Sheriff Curtis,” said a man on the telephone. The Sheriff couldn’t identify the caller’s ID.

“Who’s this?” asked Sheriff Curtis.

“Don’t you remember me?” teased the voice on the other side. Sheriff Curtis recognized his voice but he just didn’t know who he was. He gave a signal to one of his subordinates to track the caller’s ID and location.

“What do you want?” challenged Sheriff Curtis. “Last time you told me that Libby Vanderbilt was the killer but she wasn’t. Is this a prank? If you play a joke on me one more time, I will throw you in jail when I catch you!”

The caller guffawed instead listening to the Sheriff’s threat, “Very funny, Sheriff. Oh, tell Lindsay not to waste her time trying to track me. About Libby Vanderbilt… I just wanted to see if you really listened to me or not. And you did. Good job, Sheriff.”

“Good job, my foot! I almost put an innocent woman in a cell, you know,” said Sheriff Curtis.

“Oh come on, Sheriff. You’ll be completely clueless without me. You’ll never know that Eleanor, Dan, and Jessica were killed by rat poison. I’ll give you another clue. You better keep an eye on Toby Pettigrew,” warned the unknown caller.

“Toby Pettigrew? From Pastry Mystery?” clarified Sheriff Curtis.

“The one and only Toby Pettigrew. You will find something interesting in his backpack. Oh, I have a small gift for you. I’ve sent it to your email.”

“What’s in his backpack? Hello? Hello? Darn, it!” shouted Sheriff Curtis as his anonymous informant hung up his phone call. “Lindsay, did you get his location whatsoever?”

Lindsay shook his head—no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find him. Unfortunately, the unknown caller wasn’t just bluffing when he warned the Sheriff about it. He had been calling the police station for the last two weeks since to inform him everything about the killer in Amaranth Creek who took three lives. He was the same person who tipped the police about Libby’s whereabouts when she was arrested in Jessica’s house. Without him, Sheriff Curtis wouldn’t learn that Eleanor and Dan were also killed by the same poison that took Jessica’s life. He also wouldn’t be able to find Jessica’s dead body as quick as possible. However, the nameless caller gave him a wrong information last time and led him to catch Libby who was proved to be innocent. Sheriff Curtis wasn’t certain whether he had to listen to him once again and interrogate Toby or just ignored him this time. He didn’t want to arrest a wrong person again, but his reputation was also at stake if he couldn’t catch the killer.

Sheriff Curtis opened his email right away—the unknown caller didn’t lie. He did send an electronic mail to him and there was a video attached to it.

“Lindsay, can you find me where Toby is?” ordered Sheriff Curtis.

*

Today was the quietest day in the history of Pastry Mystery—there were only two customers coming. Even though Libby and Toby had decreased the numbers of pastries and cakes that they baked, at the end of the day, they still had a lot to throw away. It was surely frustrating for them but they couldn’t do much about it. They tried to make a new advertisement in a local newspaper and she even gave some discount on many bakery goods, but it didn’t change the fact that Pastry Mystery had lost their loyal customers. Today, Libby closed down the shop at six p.m. since she believed there would be no more customer coming. Normally Toby would oppose her but he knew that she was right this time. Besides, they needed to leave as soon as possible if they didn’t want to miss the beginning of Tommy Olsen’s new movie in the cinema.

“We will miss the movie if you’re not coming down in one minute!” warned Toby as Libby was still busy doing her makeup.

“One second!” she yelled from upstairs.

Toby sighed and he grabbed the car key, “I’ll wait in the car!”

“I’m almost done!”

And no, Libby was remotely close from ready. She still couldn’t decide what to wear even though she kept telling herself it wasn’t a date. She didn’t even put any effort to look pretty when she went to the cinema and dinner with Russell last time.

“What do you wear?” called Libby on the telephone, since Toby was in the car already and she was still not sure whether she had to wear her blue skinny jeans and dusty pink pullover. She thought it might look too casual for her and maybe Toby didn’t like it. Wait a second? Why do I even care if he likes it or not?

“Clothes,” answered Toby uninterestedly.

“Seriously!”

“For Pete’s sake! I’m wearing blue jeans and grey pullover. Would you like to know my underwear as well?” asked Toby who began to lose his patience. “I’ll go to the movie by myself if you’re not coming in ten seconds. One, two…”

“Okay I’m done!” shouted Libby on the telephone.

In a blink of an eye, Libby sat in the car next to Toby already and they headed to the cinema.

“Look, this isn’t a date, okay?” warned Libby. She didn’t want Toby to misunderstand her invitation to go to the movie with her.

“Believe me, that’s the last thing I think about tonight,” replied Toby casually.

Libby was somehow a little bit annoyed at him. Yesterday he ignored her the whole evening and this morning she found out that he didn’t like that she kissed Russell’s cheek. Does he like me? she thought. If he does, why didn’t he say anything about me? Like, oh Libby, you look so beautiful tonight. He barely laid his eyes on me. I wonder if he even notices that I put on different lipstick tonight. What- what am I thinking? It’s not a date, I’ve said it myself. Then why do I care if he sees my lipstick or not? Oh god, why did I even put on lipstick for him?

They didn’t talk much in the car and Toby mostly just hummed along with the music on the radio. Libby was having a dialogue with herself until she didn’t realize that they reached their destination already. As expected, the cinema was very crowded and tickets to Tommy Olsen’s new movie, Blue Tomato, were all sold out.

However, before they even got to the entrance, two police officers stopped Libby and Toby. One of them was Sheriff Curtis again.

“Good evening, Sheriff,” greeted Toby. Libby didn’t say a word. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to the guy who mistakenly accused her as a killer and caused a big damage to her father’s bakery business.

“Good evening, Toby, Libby. I’d like to ask you both something. It’s about the murder case again,” explained Sheriff Curtis. “If you don’t mind, can we take a look in your car?”

“Do you have a warrant for it?” challenged Libby.

“No, but…”

“Then no. You can’t just search stuff in our car,” stated Libby firmly.

“It’s okay, Libby. Yeah, sure Sheriff. This way,” said Toby leading them to their bakery pick-up truck.

The two police officers wasted no time and began to search whatever it was they looked for as soon as Toby unlocked the car. The police found a blue backpack in the back passenger seats. Toby claimed it to be his and allowed the cops to open it if it was necessary. Everybody was surprised that they found a box of rat poison in Toby’s rucksack.

“It’s the same one as what the forensics found in the three victims body,” whispered Officer Lindsay even though Libby and Toby could still hear it loud and clear.

“It- it’s not mine,” stated Toby. “I don’t even know how it could be there.”

“Toby Pettigrew, you’re under arrest for…” said Sheriff Curtis.

“Oh, you got to be kidding right? You just found a box of rat poison and you make him a suspect already?” protested Libby, but she couldn’t do much since the cops even cuffed Toby and took him away.

“Don’t worry, Libby. I’ll be fine. Just watch the movie by yourself,” Toby assured her but she followed the police car instead.

Libby was now on her own—the police arrested Toby since they found more evidence against him. She didn’t know who steered the cops but they had a short footage video from Jessica’s surveillance camera in her house that showed Toby went to see Jessica just a few hours before she died. They appeared to have a heated argument before he forced himself to go inside. The video though never showed that he went out of the house shortly after. Libby thought it was all just fabricated but she was surprised that Toby admitted seeing Jessica that night. She remembered that Toby went home earlier that day after she and Jessica had an argument in Pastry Mystery. He indeed had to deliver some cakes that one of their customers order that time. It turned out that Toby also came to warn Jessica not to treat Libby rudely and that she had to apologize to Libby.

“I didn’t force myself to get inside. She let me in but the door was almost closed because of the strong wind. I had to push it harder,” explained Toby. However, nobody could also prove his alibi and the poison rat that the police obtained in his backpack only worsen his situation.

Libby believed him—she didn’t know much about him but she had no doubt on every single word he said. The fact that her father chose him to take care of Pastry Mystery and she after he passed away was enough for Libby to put a trust on the guy she just knew around a month ago. However, she didn’t know much about Toby, not even where he lived. That very evening, after she came back from the police station, she searched for Toby’s address in her father’s office. She thought maybe she could find something in his house that would help to prove his alibi and innocence. She went there immediately and she was lucky that the landlord of the apartment where Toby lived happened to be there. There was a newly-wed couple who came to pick up a key to the apartment number twenty from the landlord.

“Doesn’t Toby Pettigrew live here?” asked Libby to the landlord, a woman in her sixties, showing her the address that she wrote on a piece of paper.

“Toby moved out two weeks ago. He said he couldn’t afford this place anymore,” informed the landlord. Oh my god! screamed Libby in her heart. She felt very stupid when she realized that she still hadn’t paid Toby’s salary until now.

“Do- do you know where he lives now?” she asked again desperately, but the landlord only shrugged her shoulders. Unlike most of her tenants, Toby never really talked to her unless there was something necessary.

Libby went back to Pastry Mystery since she couldn’t find anything about Toby. Maybe I can find something here, she thought. She searched in her father’s office thoroughly once again hoping to find at least Toby’s parents address. She yet found a fact that Toby lost his parents three years ago and he had a brother in Honeydew Bay. She tried to call his brother’s number but the number wasn’t registered.

By midnight, she had combed out almost every nook and cranny in Pastry Mystery beside the storage room. She thought it might be useless to look up for things there since she would only find some big sacks of flours and other ingredients. Libby yet still looked inside to make sure she didn’t miss a thing. The storeroom was locked when she tried to open it. She didn’t know that it was always locked—she never really went inside it since she moved back to Pastry Mystery. Libby tried to open it with the same key as the front door and it worked.

“What in the world…” Libby was stunned as soon as she opened the storeroom and Toby had turned it to be his dwelling place.