Pastry Mystery: Cheesecake Mistake

Chapter Twelve

Libby took the longest road to get back to Amaranth Creek without she realized it. There was a box of X-Rat laying on the dashboard of her pick-up truck. While she was still at The ProFarm, she saw nobody else but herself and Barth purchasing the rat poison that time. The Italian rat poison didn’t seem to make a name for itself yet. It should’ve not been difficult to track the customers who had bought X-Rat. Libby yet didn’t see any reason for The ProFarm to give up their clients name to a commoner like her.

Before she left The ProFarm, she made a quick call to Sheriff Curtis to tell him she had found the store where they sold X-Rat poison. The police officer yet refused her request to issue a warrant to get the customer list from The ProFarm.

“Honeydew Bay isn’t my territory and there’s no way on this planet I’d ever ask for Bingham’s help!” announced Sheriff Curtis before hanging up the phone call. Everybody in Amaranth Creek and Honeydew Bay knew the rivalry between the two police officers. Detective Bingham was the one who gave a ‘Sheriff’ nickname to Detective John Curtis because of the hat that he always wore. Since then, everybody in town always called him Sheriff Curtis and now it had become natural for the sleuth to address himself in his moniker. Their competition started as Sheriff Curtis was always one step behind in catching criminals when they were still working together at Amaranth Creek Police Department. Nobody ever really took Sheriff Curtis seriously and Libby was not an exception. She yet really needed his help and was upset when the sleuth turned down her request due to his personal matter.

Barth Smithson was now her only hope to get a link to the real killer and to prove Toby’s guiltlessness. Libby knew Barth would never lie to her, although now she couldn’t help hesitating every word that came out of the old man’s mouth. It was the second time for Barth to purchase X-Rat and he was ordered by Russell, his boss.

“Have you heard about Toby?” asked Libby when they were still at The ProFarm.

“No, not really. I’ve been too busy lately since Russell wanted to rebuild the garden and he also just bought a new property in town,” stated Barth. “Why?”

“The cops have set him up as the prime suspect in the recent murder case,” announced Libby.

“The one who killed Eleanor, Dan, and Jessica? That’s ridiculous!” cried Barth. “I’ll talk some senses to Sheriff Curtis tomorrow. What was his reason to capture Toby?”

Libby stared at the X-Rat box that he held in his wrinkled hands. She didn’t have the heart to tell him the real reason because she didn’t want Barth to think that she accused her father’s best friend. Libby just shook her head and excused herself to go. She lied that she had to get back to Pastry Mystery as soon as possible. There was barely anything to do in the bakery—nobody came to the legendary pastry shop anymore since three people were killed after tasting her Japanese cotton cheesecake.

After nearly two hours of driving, Libby finally got back to the place where she was born and grew up. She yet didn’t feel like going inside but she saw a man standing in front of the shop in the dark. It was obvious that Pastry Mystery was closed but that guy kept on peeking inside through the window. Libby’s heart raced as she thought it might be someone who wanted to hurt her—or the killer. She grabbed a wrench that her father always put under the driver seat for an emergency case. She planned to defend herself with it if that person tried to attack her. While she was ready to get out of the car, suddenly her smartphone rang loudly—it shocked her until she dropped the wrench on her toes.

“Ouch! He- hello?” said Libby picking up the phone call. She didn’t even get to see who the caller was.

“Hey, Libby. Are you home?” asked the friendly voice that Libby immediately recognized. “I’m in at your door but you didn’t seem to be there.”

“Russell?” confirmed Libby as she got out of the car. The man in the dark spun around and waved at her—it was indeed Russell as he hung up the call abruptly after he saw Libby from afar. Libby yet still didn’t put back the wrench and instead, she hid it in her handbag. “What- what are you doing here?”

“I just got back from my business trip and I came here as soon as I heard about Toby,” said Russell. “How are you holding up? How is he doing? Is there something I can do to help?”

“I’m fine, I guess…” said Libby as she opened the door. Normally, she would let Russell get into the kitchen of Pastry Mystery for them to talk. After what happened to her deli lately, however, she just grabbed two chairs in the shop.

“Should I call Tim Avery again? I’ll make sure they’ll release Toby by midday tomorrow,” offered Russell. “Just let me know if you need something.”

“Thanks, Russell. Anyway, do you know this?” Libby took out a box of X-Rat from her handbag and put it on the table. She tried to study Russell’s face as he checked the rat poison out. His expression didn’t change at all or he just put a great poker-face.

“It’s a rat poison from Italy. What about it?” asked Russell sounded confused.

“The cops found the same rat poison that killed Eleanor, Dan, and Jessica in Toby’s backpack. The one that contaminated my cotton cheesecake” told Libby calmly. “The real killer framed Toby up.”

Russell hurriedly gulped down a can of cold coffee that Libby served to him. He seemed to be taken aback to hear the breaking news in Amaranth Creek.

“Li- Libby… You- you are not the real killer, are you?” stuttered Russell, standing up from his seat.

“What? NO!” cried Libby who didn’t see that coming at all. “Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m- I’m sorry. Because you sounded very calm when you told me that. I’m sorry, Libby,” apologized Russell as he returned to his chair.

“In fact, I met someone who might know who can help find out the real culprit. I bumped into Barth Smithson at The ProFarm in Honeydew Bay today. He said you ordered him to buy this particular rat poison for your garden,” stated Libby. “Is that true?”

Russell scoffed to hear Libby’s story. He looked somehow offended at her very last question.

“Does that make me the killer then?” challenged Russell.

“No. That’s not what I mean. I just…”

“Yes, I asked Barth to buy a poison because I found some nasty rats in my garden and I hate it. But I never asked him to buy this certain brand. I mean, it’s just a rat poison,” denied Russell.

“Are- are you saying that Barth lied?” sized up Libby.

“I don’t know. Possibly,” answered Russell annoyedly. “Look, I’m sorry when I asked you whether you really were the killer or not. It was just a joke, you should know that. But honestly Libby, I didn’t expect you to accuse me like this. I mean, after what I’ve done to help you…”

“I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t accuse you anything. I just wanted to confirm something to you…”

“If I really am the killer, Libby, aren’t you supposed to be scared? It’s just the two of us in this place. Nobody could hear you if you cry for help,” said Russell getting his face closer to Libby who sat in front of him. Libby’s gulped as she was nervous. She squeezed her hand into her bag to grab the wrench just in case if something bad would happen.

“Russ- Russell…”

“Oh my god. You really think I’d hurt you, don’t you?” asked Russell breaking the tension. He excused himself from their conversation and left Pastry Mystery immediately. Libby seemed to have hurt his feeling even though it wasn’t her intention. She yet didn’t expect Russell to be an easily butt-hurt person at all. Maybe he was tired from his business trip, she thought.

The sun shone brightly on Libby who was laying fast asleep on the couch in the living room. She thought she’d make it to her own bed but she dozed off while watching some late night shows on the television last night. Libby usually woke up to the sound of the chirping birds outside her house, but today, she got up to the noise that she perceived from Pastry Mystery kitchen. The police still held Toby up and she was all alone. Nobody else had the key to her bakery shop but them—and the killer. It might be the killer! she thought. She tried to find the wrench that she hugged to sleep last night but it wasn’t near her anymore. She hurriedly looked for a new weapon to protect her from whoever it was that turning on a mixer in her patisserie kitchen. Now, her life depended on a small saucepan that she used to make ramen last night.

Libby tiptoed quietly downstairs, approaching the source of the noise.

“Ahem!” Libby’s heart dropped to hear a man’s voice clearing his throat loudly out of fear. She held the saucepan tighter as she was ready to hit back if someone attacked her out of the blue.

“AAAHHHH!” screamed Libby slamming the saucepan to the guy in front of her. They bumped into each other in the kitchen door and Libby just instinctively struck him with her emergency armament.

“Ouch! Libby!” cried Toby who managed to dodge, even though Libby still hit his left arm.

“Toby?” shrieked Libby out of surprise. She shortly realized that she just hurt him with a saucepan. “Oh gosh! I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Don’t worry,” said Toby casually as if there was nothing happened at all. “Anyway, brunch is ready. I was about to wake you up.”

Libby pinched herself over and over again to see if it was real or not. She must have missed him so much until he appeared in her dream like this.

“Ouch! That hurts!” said Libby as Toby pinched both of her cheeks.

“I’m real and it’s not a dream. Open your mouth,” added Toby feeding her a bite of waffles. Libby who was still unable to grasp the situation just did as she was told. It wasn’t a dream for sure—the buttery waffle just melted softly in her mouth.

“Toby… what are you doing here? Aren’t- aren’t you supposed to be in…”

“In jail?” interrupted Toby still feeding Libby nonchalantly. “They let me go early in the morning. And I went here right away. I thought you’d be so happy to see me again.”

“Of course I’m happy, silly! I just… How?” asked Libby with her mouth full of food.

“Sheriff Curtis found the culprit who framed me up and he captured them last night. I- I still couldn’t believe it though,” stated Toby.

“Couldn’t believe in what? Who is the culprit then?”

“It’s Barth Smithson. They said they found an evidence of Barth buying the rat poison somewhere in Honeydew Bay. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous? Why would Barth do that to me? To all of us?”

Libby couldn’t answer anything at all. Apparently, Sheriff Curtis did listen to Libby’s idea but this wasn’t the result that she expected at all. She didn’t mean to give up Barth’s name to the police.

“But it’s not enough to make him a suspect, isn’t it?”

Toby shrugged, “Do you know that he works as Russell’s gardener? Barth claimed that he just did what his boss asked him to do. But Russell denied that he ordered him to buy that rat poison. There was no evidence that proved it too.”

Another shocking news that Toby revealed to her was that they found a key to Pastry Mystery in Barth’s wallet. Barth was surely someone that her late father trusted, but Jimmy never handed his key to his bakery and house to anybody else but Toby. Even though Libby and Toby refused to believe it, they couldn’t do anything to change the fact that Barth was most likely to be the one who came and went out of Pastry Mystery.

Libby was relieved to have Toby back in her deli, but there was an unfinished business between them. She went upstairs and returned quickly with three pieces of paper. She put them neatly on the table for Toby to see—it was the handwritten Japanese cotton cheesecake recipe that he made to prove her innocence to the cops.

“Where- where did you get this?” asked Toby who was taken aback as Libby just revealed his secret.