Pastry Mystery: Cheesecake Mistake

Chapter Six

Libby opened a box packed with stuff from her youth that her father still kept in the attic. She picked up a photo frame that was almost at the bottom of the box. It was a picture of Libby and Jessica when they won as the first and second place in their high school essay writing competition. Libby was always the first in everything and followed by Jessica. Libby though didn’t give a care at all about it and Jessica was the one who always saw it as a fierce competition between them. Nevertheless, they used to be best friends in freshman year, until Jerry Mitchell became Libby’s puppy love.

Jerry was Jessica’s crush and Libby acknowledged that. However, the ex-football captain of Amaranth Creek High School thought Libby was cuter and nicer than her best friend. The baker’s daughter wasn’t really interested in him until they got to know each other well. They became a couple on a prom night in Libby’s tenth year. As if it wasn’t bad enough for Jessica, Libby and Jerry were crowned as prom king and queen of the year.

Jessica felt betrayed—she didn’t expect that her best friend would stab her in the back. In Libby’s defense, Jerry was single and she didn’t steal Jessica’s boyfriend. Besides, Libby also knew that Jessica wasn’t entirely in love with Jerry but she was also after his money. However, she respected Jessica and told her as well when their handsome and rich senior started to get close to Libby.

“Oh, please Libby. He isn’t interested in you. He’s just using you to get to know me,” proclaimed Jessica confidently that time. She even created a rumor about herself dating with Jerry. She was outraged when Jerry proudly announced that Libby was his new girlfriend, even though their relationship only lasted for less than twelve months. They were even crowned as the prom king and queen competition that year.

Jessica hated Libby since then. To save her face from embarrassment, she created a new rumor that she broke up with Jerry as Libby stole him from her. Libby knew everything about it but she pretended not to. She didn’t want people to see how pathetic Jessica was. However, Jessica created a lot of gossips about her former best friend and there was even a time that almost everybody ghosted Libby at school. Not that Libby cared about it at all, but she couldn’t deny that things were quite tough for her in high school thanks to Jessica.

Libby smiled mirthlessly thinking about her younger years. She felt very juvenile that she was still triggered by Jessica’s jealousy over Russel. She was though still couldn’t forgive Jessica for spilling her father’s ashes even though she had let go all the problems between them. Her father’s ashes were the only thing that remained of him and now half of it was scattered and gone. She wanted to move the urn in their main house but she knew her father would be happier to be in his bakery, so she let it be there.

Knock! Knock! Suddenly someone knocked on her door. It must be Toby, she thought.

“Hey,” greeted Toby carefully, “when you’re done here, could you help me at the store?”

Libby nodded, “I’ll be there in a second.”

Toby simply gave an okay sign and went downstairs immediately since his customers had been waiting for him. Libby put back the photograph where it belonged to and put the box back to the attic. She shortly followed Toby to the store and she could tell that he indeed needed her help to serve their loyal customers. As expected, their signature Danish pastry and other cakes were sold out in no time, but her cotton cheesecake.

It wasn’t a surprise that nobody wanted Libby’s cotton cheesecake. Besides, it didn’t look very appetizing and it had the smell of raw egg in it. Inappropriate baking time was the very reason for it this time. At the end of the day, she had to throw it away in the waste container as usual. Toby was there when she was going to throw away her cotton cheesecake and he frowned lightly at her.

“What did I do now?” challenged Libby. She was more than ready to get scolded by Toby.

“I’ve told you countless of times to throw away your cheesecake in the black container, not the brown one,” said Toby.

“I know and I always throw it away in the black one. Look,” clarified Libby while disposing of her cotton cheesecake in the correct waste container. But Toby pointed inside the brown trash can and asked her to look at it. “I didn’t do that!”

“Who else then? A ghost?” asked Toby annoyedly heading inside. He wasn’t entirely wrong, it was only the two of them in the bakery. Who else could it be?

“I swear it wasn’t me,” insisted Libby, “I don’t even remember throwing it away yesterday. As I know I just put it here on the kitchen table. Since I assumed you’d do it for me.”

Toby didn’t reply her anymore. He continued cleaning up all the kitchen and formulating the ingredients for the bread, pastries, and cakes they were going to sell tomorrow. Libby just stood there awkwardly because she wanted to help but she didn’t know what to do. Toby peeked a glance at her who began to prepare the ingredients of cotton cheesecake she was going to make the next morning. He shook his head lightly. That kid is hopeless, he thought. He still wasn’t going to beg her to start doing the right thing, which was making Danish pastry and another kind of bakery goods they normally served.

Libby thought she woke up earlier than usual but Toby was already there when she showed up in the kitchen. She wondered if he ever went home or even got a little bit of sleep. As usual, Toby had prepared a breakfast for her. This time it was a chicken club sandwich.

“Thanks,” said Libby out of politeness but Toby only responded with a smirk. Libby was still too sleepy to be annoyed at everything he did. She grabbed her smartphone to surf her social media world. It had been a couple of days since she checked on her Scrapalbum and she wanted to know how it was doing in the cyber world.

The first picture that popped up on the timeline was Jessica’s selfie—Russell uploaded. All of the sudden she remembered about Russell. Since the death of Jessica, she wasn’t in touch with him at all. He must be busy, she assumed. Jessica was one of his closest friends in town and also his most trusted secretary. He didn’t know many people here in Amaranth Creek and losing Jessica must have been tough for him. Libby planned to call him later but she didn’t have to. Speaking of the devil, he was calling her right now at half past seven in the morning.

“Hey, I was thinking about you,” greeted Libby. She realized how cheesy she sounded a second later. She could hear him chuckling a little bit. Toby turned his head towards Libby to see to whom she talked. He was blushed when he thought she’d possibly say it to him. He coughed nervously to get rid of his ridiculous idea out of his mind.

“That’s sweet of you,” replied Russell on the other side, “Anyway, how are you holding up?”

“About Jessica? I thought I’m the one who supposed to ask you that.”

“But she was also a friend of yours.”

“I know. Well, I’m doing fine I guess. I just still can’t believe she’s gone.”

“Yeah, me too. I know about your quarrel with Jessica lately. But I’m glad that you guys made up before she was killed,” sympathized Russell.

“Made up?” asked Libby confusedly. “The last time I met her, she created a ruckus in my store.”

“Really?” Russell sounded surprised. There were two seconds of silence on the telephone.

“Hello?”

“Yeah- yeah, I’m here,” Russell stuttered, “I thought you did.”

“What made you think that way?” Libby was puzzled. The last time she met Jessica she said that she was going to kill her.

“Because when the cops found Jessica, your cotton cheesecake was still on the dining table,” surprised Russell.

“Wait a second. What do you mean my cotton cheesecake on her dining table?” questioned Libby further. She really didn’t understand the situation that Russell talked about. However, there was another incoming call on his line and Russell excused himself to pick it up. It was an important call, he said.

Libby felt nervous all of the sudden—she didn’t understand how could her cotton cheesecakes ended up in Jessica’s house. She ran immediately to check on the waste container. Toby followed her as he was baffled to see her.

“What in the world are you doing?” questioned Toby while Libby was rummaging through the black and brown trash cans.

“Looking for my cotton cheesecake,” she said hastily.

“You’re not planning to present a once-disposed-cotton-cheesecake to the customer, are you?”

“Toby, I’m not in the mood for your stupid joke right now!” she cried helplessly. “Did you know how many slices of cotton cheesecakes that you saw in the brown container?”

“I- I don’t know. All of it, I guess? Why?” Without he realized it, Toby joined her looking for it. They found it, but they could hardly tell whether the cheesecake was still a whole or not since it was squashed by the other garbage on top of it.

“What’s wrong?” asked Toby who still wasn’t able to grasp the situation, “Who called you just now?”

“Russell,” Libby whimpered, “He said- he said when the cops found Jessica in her house, my cotton cheesecake was served on the table.”

“Your cheesecake? Are you sure?”

“I don’t know. That’s what he said. I mean, who else makes cotton cheesecake in Amaranth Creek but me?”

Toby shrugged, “But how is that even possible? She threw away that cheesecake the last time we saw her.”

“Who called you that morning when Jessica was found dead?” interrogated Libby.

“Sheriff Curtis, but he didn’t mention anything about your cheesecake,” assured Toby.

“Look, I- I got to go. Can you please take care of the store for me?” asked Libby unimportantly. The store would definitely be safer with Toby instead of her. He nodded lightly. Toby wasn’t being a jerk that morning since his mind was too busy grasping the new truth he and Libby just learned about Jessica’s death.

A heavy shower started to pour down from the sky of Amaranth Creek when Libby parked her father’s pick-up truck in front of Jessica’s house not far from the town hall. Libby didn’t even bother to get an umbrella to keep herself dry and she ran towards the wooden porch in front of the house. She wasn’t sure whether she had to knock the door and expected someone to let her in since Jessica lived all by herself. Maybe her parents would be here, she thought, but it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning yet. Libby stood on the veranda thinking how to get herself in—she was dying to see whether her cheesecake was really there. Even if it really was, Jessica’s mother might have cleaned up everything.

Libby tried to open the door and it wasn’t locked.

“Hello?” said Libby as soon as she got inside. She looked around the living room and she could tell that nobody had cleaned up this place since the found Jessica’s body. The same turquoise trench coat that Jessica wore the last time she went to Pastry Mystery was still laying neatly on the couch. In front of it, there was a glass of red wine that she didn’t drink up yet—Jessica was alone when she died. Who found her body actually? she questioned. Maybe her parents came and they found their daughter laying cold and stiff on the ground? Libby was terrified with her own speculation. If her theory was right, it wasn’t odd if Mr. and Mrs. Medley still didn’t step their feet back to this place. It must have been pretty traumatic for them.

Libby investigated further and she found a piece of cake on the dining table. She was taken aback—it was indeed her cotton cheesecake but Jessica seemed to only have a bite of it. She knew very well that it was the same cheesecake that Jessica smashed when they had a huge fight last time.

“But how could it be here?” she mumbled. Who brought the cake for her? Did Jessica even come back to Pastry Mystery that day? Even if she did, Toby would’ve told her and he wouldn’t even serve and let Jessica buy such a big failure that was smashed on the ground and sprinkled with some of Jimmy Vanderbilt’s ashes.

Suddenly she heard someone opening the front door. Libby didn’t know who it was, but she had a bad feeling about it.

“Sheriff Curtis?” said Libby as soon as she recognized the familiar face that came close to her. He was one of Pastry Mystery customer and he knew her father very well. He normally would greet her kindly but his face looked way too serious this time.

“What are you doing here?” asked Sheriff Curtis.

“I- I just wanted to see whether it’s true Jessica ate my cotton cheesecake before she died,” explained Libby.

“So you admit that it was your cotton cheesecake?” interrogated Sheriff Curtis further.

Libby nodded, “Yes. But- but I don’t understand how…”

“Libby Vanderbilt, you’re under arrest for the murder of Jessica Medley. You have the right to remain silent…” said Sheriff Curtis quoting the rest of the Miranda Rights that sounded vague for Libby.