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Author of books for discerning readers
Category:
Mystery/Suspense
Type: Fiction
Pages: 186
Copyright: August 17, 2024
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Love, friendship, and justice are tested as Yolanda races against time to find the missing captain, clear her name, and protect her yummery. Will she be able to help unravel the truth?
The successful launch of Yolanda’s Yummery in the trendy Brentwood area of Los Angeles has Yolanda Carter working seven days a week. Her delicious desserts are garnering many repeat customers and in just a few weeks the adjoining Beverage Bar will be opening. She’s involved in a budding romance with sophisticated British tea baron, Nigel Garvey.
The mystery involves Captain Angus, a regular homeless customer who disappears. Clues point toward Yolanda being involved in foul play. Lead investigator Detective Churchill thinks she’s a murderer, along with her best friend, Teagan Mishkin.
Will Yolanda’s name be cleared, and can those bestselling Magical Cakes of Love save her and the yummery?
Includes two new recipes!
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Tuesday, early June
“I still can’t tell whether it’s the middle of the night or the middle of the morning,” said Yolanda Carter, the owner of Yolanda’s Yummery. She was addressing BB Gustafson, the plump young assistant pastry chef who had just been let inside the bakery’s front door. Beneath the cupcake shaped clock that read 3:01, the younger employee was smiling, and the froth of curly ash blonde hair was tied back with a pink ribbon that matched her T-shirt. Her heart-shaped face was aglow with the warmth of her upbeat personality as she giggled at Yolanda’s statement.
“You’re right, I can’t tell either!” In the parking lot behind her were a few cars and trucks beneath one of the tall light poles. Mist glistened on the vehicles surfaces and kept the asphalt shiny in the three-hour-old Tuesday morning. Inside the bright and warm yummery, the mixing of the ingredients would commence, and the Magical Cakes of Love would be baked along with dozens of cookies, brownies, and cupcakes.
All wasn’t quiet in the yummery as next door the empty storefront was three weeks away from being turned into the Beverage Bar. The nonalcoholic assortment of drinks would range from imported coffees and teas to smoothies, malts, shakes and ice cream sodas. From ten at night to six in the morning, the once quiet store to the west was now a-clatter with whining buzz saws, lots of hammering and pounding, and assorted construction noises. The man in charge was Gil Resnick, general building contractor, and his team of two younger carpenters: Lance Norton and Pepe Menendez.
Gil strode into the yummery through the open area the size of a large double door and called out, “Morning, ladies! Nice of you sweeties to join us!”
“Morning, Gil. Coffee will be ready in a minute.” Yolanda hid her grimace at the loud noises and voice she encountered the instant she arrived every morning after her twenty-five-minute drive from her home in Sherman Oaks. She was of average height and had extra weight on her hips that wouldn’t go away, even when she was working in the kitchen over twelve hours a day. The young woman had warm hazel eyes and long chestnut brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.
BB’s smile was unwavering as she greeted the boisterous chief of construction. “Hey, Gil,” was her meager contribution to the conversation as she was shy around men, especially such a tall, rangy man with leering indigo eyes. A man old enough to be her father and wearing a wedding band. Off limits, BB’s mama would have said.
BB went into the small employee’s lounge at the back of the kitchen. Eight lockers lined part of a wall, and a perky yellow table and four matching chairs were on the opposite side. Colorful pegs stuck in the wall sported the employees’ aprons and jackets. BB always found the room quiet as it was the furthest spot away from the hubbub of a busy bakery, or as it was always referred to as the yummery due to all the sugary goodies found within the new Brentwood store.
BB looked at the large two-burner commercial coffee maker and the glass decanter was dark with the rich Fair Trade roast Costa Rican coffee guaranteed to wake up any sleepy employee or customer. Oops, she had better not even think the word customer as Yolanda called anyone who walked through the front door an appreciated guest. BB liked that term the instant she heard it, which happened to be last Monday. She was interviewed on Monday, began work on Tuesday, and today began her second week on the job. It was a whirlwind for the teenager who had only arrived in Los Angeles in mid-May. The big city was a two-day drive from Clarktown, Oklahoma.
After putting her purse and knapsack in a locker, she pulled out her notebook and pen, tied on her pink apron, and went into the back of the store where the current beverage area was wedged between the curved glass cases that showed off the colorful array of baked goods. Everyone had his or her own coffee mug with the logo. It was part of the welcome package each employee received. She had been delighted to open the pink canvas tote bag and find the mug along with two T-shirts, an apron and some lotion and soap made by Heather Hathaway’s Lotions & More. Heather Hathaway was a friend of Yolanda’s who also got her start in the kitchen making lotions from scratch.
BB took charge and poured everyone’s coffee. Chubby Pepe with the incredibly thick jet-black hair and a goatee, shyly approached her; she felt her face flush, her arm shook, and she concentrated on keeping the pot steady. He sniffed the steaming hot contents and gave her a big toothsome grin. “Thank you amiga,” he said. “You make very good coffee.”
“Thank you but I just added it to the machine,” she patted the surface. “It does all the work.” She smiled; her dimpled chin and cheeks making her look even younger than her eighteen years.
“Speaking of which,” said Yolanda as she added a sugar cube to her morning coffee. “Let’s get bakin’!”
She and BB gave each other a high five. “You learn fast, sister,” said Yolanda. “Just like Rita.”
BB smiled and nodded. “Thanks. From what you told me, Rita sounded really neat.”
“She was – and a natural baker like us. She learned to bake when she was a kid. She never went to culinary school. Too bad her husband was transferred to Germany. But that’s life in the army--never know where you’ll be stationed.”
Yolanda sighed, remembering how much fun it was to work with Rita, who was in her mid-thirties and had a daughter in high school. Rita had a maturity that allowed her to effortlessly give and take orders. Even in the three months she worked there, she had relied on the woman’s common sense in helping run the yummery from dealing with appreciated guests to the vendors and staff members.
While BB was brilliant in the kitchen, she was so naïve about people that she almost gave Captain Angus her last dollar when he showed up, reeking of cheap booze mixed with tobacco and Eau de Body Odor. The thought of slipping him some cupcake shaped soap, the only kind Yolanda carried in the Gift Corner, was tempting but she didn’t want to alienate him. After all, he was a paying appreciated guest. Even if he picked coins out of fountains and off the street and panhandled the paper money. Although impoverished, he had feelings. Old Captain Angus was “bad off,” as Teagan Mishkin, her longtime friend and the yummery’s perky part time counter girl, had once commented. The captain had a crush on Teagan, who worked a few evenings and weekends as an exotic dancer at the Wicked Fun Gentlemen’s Club. Teagan was extremely interested in being seen and went out to auditions for acting and modeling parts. Her biggest goal was to marry or live with a rich man, but she was currently between multi-millionaires.
The hammering and banging noises began as soon as the three men returned to the future Beverage Bar, but the commercial Hobart mixers that mixed and whipped the day’s sweets and treats would drown out the annoying construction sounds. Yolanda opened her recipe box that she kept locked in her office and pulled out an old-fashioned lined index card with the penciled in recipe for the new energy bars. It was the second day of the energy bar debut and yesterday’s batch of the gluten-free energy-based bars had sold out before noon. There were only two varieties, plain and chocolate chip, but she’d debuted with the right flavors.
They diligently baked until six o’clock, making the batters for the Magical Cakes of Love including the featured flavor of the week: Valencia orange. The crate of Valencia oranges in the corner of the kitchen was reserved exclusively for the Valencia orange cupcakes, cookies, and Magical Cakes of Love. The juicer was being worked hard, and BB was getting very adept at zesting the peels for the topping.
“Nothing like a citrusy way to start the day!” said Yolanda, gazing at the baked goods that would soon fill the cases.
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