Fireworks, a Firecracker & Foul Play Read online

  “You’ve got five minutes,” Ben shouts before walking out. He shuts the door and it clangs shut. Fudge! I’m locked up!

  Logan reaches through the bars and pets my hair. “It’s fine, Pixie. He’ll be back in five minutes to let you out.”

  “But what about you?” I nearly whimper. I don’t want him in here. It’s dark and cold. And scary. Basements are scary. Add in bars and steel doors and they’re downright terrifying.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Fine? For the love of fig newtons, you are not fine. What idiot put you in here?”

  He shakes his head. “I know better than to tell you. You’ll go find them and badger them until they agree to release me.”

  “Not necessarily. I could bribe them with my cupcakes.” Don’t knock it until you try it. My cupcakes can solve murders. Seriously. Just ask Callie or Kristie, they’ll tell you all about it.

  When he doesn’t say anything, I ask, “When will you be home? How long will this take?”

  He shrugs. “I’m not sure but not long.”

  “We’re getting married in two weeks. Two weeks! I need you out of here now.”

  He holds my left hand and fiddles with my engagement ring. Not a diamond. No boring diamonds for me. Instead, Logan bought me a vintage sapphire ring. He claims the sapphire matches my blue eyes. See? My man is not some scary killer. He’s a closet romantic.

  When he drops my hand and grips the steel bars, I notice his knuckles are bruised. “Oh no! What happened?” I try to grab his hands, but he steps back and I can’t reach him.

  “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  I narrow my eyes. “You’re a liar is what you are.”

  “Now, about our wedding, you told me all I had to do was show up at the right time on the right day in a tux.”

  I place my hands on my hips and scowl at him. The effect is probably diminished by my stature, but I’ve never let a little thing like my height get in my way before.

  “Do you not understand anything about women? Of course, I need you. Who is going to approve the cupcake cake I made? Which looked totally awesome by the way. Good thing Callie drove me here or she’d have eaten the entire thing by now.”

  “Describe it for me.”

  “Well…” I shake my head when I realize what he’s doing. I will not be distracted. “Stop it. We need to talk about how to get you out of here.”

  The smile drops from his face. “You are not going to run off half-cocked and try to solve this murder. I forbid it.”

  My eyebrows raise as I take a step away from the bars. “You forbid it? And how are you going to enforce this order, huh? Since you’re behind bars and everything.”

  “Did you forget I’m a member of the police force? My brothers will have my back.”

  I growl. “Have your back? Like they have your back now, for example?” His so-called brothers can eat rotten eggs for all I care.

  “Don’t get involved.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who did you supposedly kill anyway?”

  “No. I’m not telling you anything about this murder. The less you know the better.”

  “Fine then.” I huff. “Why don’t you tell the stupid detectives where you were during the murder? Then, we can get you out of here.” You can’t tell me he doesn’t have an alibi. His caseload is through the roof. I barely get a chance to see him some days.

  “He’s in here because he refuses to tell anyone his alibi.” At the sound of Ben’s voice, I nearly jump out of my skin. I grasp my chest to keep my heart from galloping straight out of it. Ben holds up his hands and mouths sorry.

  “Why won’t you tell anyone your alibi? Where were you?” I hold up a hand to stop his response. “Never mind. If you were off doing something super-secret, I don’t need to know. I’m sure there’s some way to ensure the information isn’t put into the murder case file.”

  I get he’s worried about information from his cases leaking, he does work for the gang squad after all, but I’m fairly certain I saw something about how judges can keep sensitive information out of a case file on a television show once. Don’t laugh. Those shows must have some basis in reality.

  “Super-secret?” Logan smiles and shakes his head at me.

  “Confidential. Whatever.” I shrug. “Figure it out and get your butt out of there. I need you home.”

  His smile drops from his face. “I’m sorry, Pixie Girl. I can’t.”

  Ben clears his throat. “Sorry, guys, but I need to get Pinkie out of here before anyone realizes she’s down here.”

  “You snuck me down here?” How cool. Just call me the Invisible Woman. Does Sue Storm bake? Never mind. If she didn’t before, she does now.

  Logan nods at him before motioning for me to come closer. “I’m serious. Stay out of it. I don’t want you getting hurt. You’ve got a wedding to get to.”

  “Assuming my groom isn’t locked up in the slammer.”

  He squeezes my hand before kissing my forehead. “Everything will be fine. Promise.”

  I don’t get a chance to tell him it better be before Ben is escorting me out of there. I have to practically run to keep up with him as he sprints up the stairs and then down a hallway. He opens the door to the outside and pushes me through it. “You were never here, you got me?”

  Yeah, yeah, I got it. The thing I don’t get is how I’m going to get Logan out of that cell. Our wedding is in less than fourteen days. I will not be a jail bride. I refuse.

  Chapter 3

  Keep your hands off a pixie’s cupcakes or suffer the consequences.

  “Well?” Kristie pounces the moment I open the door to Callie’s Cakes. “What did Logan say? Did you spring him from jail?” She looks around me, but there’s no one there except Callie. “I guess not.”

  I collapse at a table near the counter. “I can’t believe he’s in jail. He’s not—” I stop explaining when I notice the cupcakes in the display case. “Those are my wedding cupcakes! Why are you selling my wedding cupcakes?”

  “They’re a huge hit.”

  “Of course, they are.” Not bragging. Just being honest. “But I was working on the design of my wedding cupcake cake. I wasn’t finished.” I’m not pouting. I’m not. But I didn’t tell her she could touch my cupcakes!

  “It’s fine.” Kristie waves away my concern. “I took tons of pictures. It’s not like those cupcakes will keep for two weeks until your wedding, anyway.”

  “Sheez ‘ight,” Callie mumbles around the cupcake stuffed into her mouth.

  Fine. I let it go. I’ve got bigger things to worry about now anyway.

  “Tell us what Logan said,” Kristie demands as she joins us at the table. I glare at the cupcake she’s holding. She shrugs before shoving the chocolatey deliciousness in her mouth. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t make such yummy cakes if I don’t want them to get eaten.

  “Anyway,” I begin and then quickly tell them what little information I gleamed from Logan.

  “Let me get this straight,” Callie says. “He has an alibi, but he’s refusing to tell the detectives what it is?”

  I nod.

  “You can’t blame him,” Kristie pipes in. “It’s not like the homicide detectives in this town are always the most competent.”

  No argument from me there. Still, we need to clear Logan’s name. I can practically feel a clock in my head ticking faster and faster as the date of our wedding approaches.

  “Why don’t we find out where he was during the murder?”

  “Um.” Kristie raises her hand. “Because we shouldn’t be investigating the murder. It’s dangerous. Besides, Anna promised her fiancé to keep her nose out of it.”

  As if I’d stay out of it when it’s my fiancé’s life in danger. And I didn’t exactly promise. But we do have a problem. Several, actually. “We don’t know who was murdered, let alone when.”

  “Have you no faith in me?” Callie wiggles her eyebrows.

  A smile slowly spreads across my face. “Tell me you learned s
omething at the station while you were waiting for me.”

  She nods. “Those men gossip like a bunch of old women.”

  Kristie interrupts before Callie can get to the good stuff, “I still think we shouldn’t be investigating the murder.”

  She’s beginning to tick me off. “Are you kidding me?” I glare at her. “My fiancé is in jail! I can’t sit here and do nothing. What would you do if it were Tyler? You can’t tell me you’d sit on your thumbs because I won’t believe you.” Tyler is Kristie’s boyfriend. He’s a hot fireman. If I didn’t have Logan, I’d drool all over him. Who am I kidding? I still drool over the man.

  Callie interrupts our stare-down. “Do you want to hear about this murder or not?” I drop my glare and nod at her. “The leader of Angel Band, Alastor Drake, was found dead of a drug overdose in his apartment yesterday at 4 p.m. He was last seen at Lucky’s Dinner at 1 p.m. The detectives assume he was killed sometime between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.”

  “Wow. You weren’t kidding about those cops being gossipmongers. All we need to do now is figure out where Logan was during those hours.” I drum my fingers on the table. I certainly didn’t see him then. He often stops by for lunch, but he didn’t yesterday.

  “Well, if you two insist on running off to find Logan’s alibi, I may have an idea.” I motion to Kristie to continue. “How did Logan find you that time you two got into a big fight and you stormed off?”

  I can’t help the growl from escaping my throat. I still get mad at Logan when I think about what he did. I clear my throat. Now is not the time to get my panties in a twist about the distant past. “He tracked my phone.”

  “But he didn’t track your phone using police resources, did he?”

  “No, he used some app on his phone.”

  Kristie grins. “An app you have on your phone as well.”

  “I do? I’m sure I didn’t download any app to track Logan.”

  “You must have. It’s a reciprocal app. Logan can see where you are, and you can see where he is. Haven’t you ever checked to see where Logan is?”

  “No. Of course not. Why would I? I trust Logan. Unlike Ms. Insecure over here.” I point to Callie.

  Callie throws up her hands. “I’m not insecure. I trust and love Ben.”

  “Yeah, right. If you love Ben so much, then why aren’t you married yet?”

  I watch as Callie’s face turns red. It is entirely too much fun to tease her. She falls for it every single danged time.

  “Children!” Kristie shouts. “You need to stop letting her get to you,” she admonishes Callie.

  “Easy for you to say. She doesn’t try and get your goat.”

  “Because my goat is securely locked up where no one, let alone the pink-haired pixie, can get to her.”

  “Goats are cute. I’ve always wanted a billy goat, because how cool are they? Wait. Why are we talking about goats?” I shake my head and get back to business. “Anyway, this app. Even if it shows where Logan is right now, who cares? I know where he is. He’s in jail, which is the entire fudging problem!” I’m practically screeching when I finish.

  “I’m almost positive you can check where Logan has been with the location history.”

  I narrow my eyes at Kristie. “How do you know this much about tracking phones? Are you stalking Tyler?”

  She rolls her eyes. “Are you serious? You want to talk about me stalking Tyler right now?”

  Oops. Got off track again. “No, I guess not?”

  She sticks out her hand. “Give me your phone.”

  I unlock my phone and hand it to her. She fiddles with it for a few minutes. I watch over her shoulder, but she swipes and clicks too fast for me to follow.

  “There.” Kristie hands me the phone and points to a location. “That’s where Logan was yesterday at 1 p.m. According to his history, he stayed there for at least two hours.”

  My eyes widen as I concentrate on the map. “Which conclusively proves he was nowhere near Drake when he died.” My shoulders fall, and I release the breath I was holding. Sure, I knew Logan was innocent, but it’s nice to have proof.

  “All we need to do now is give this information to Ben and he can make sure the proper authorities are informed. Logan will be home lickety-split,” Callie says as she dials Ben.

  I raise my hands to start cheering but freeze when I realize we’ve forgotten one very important factor here. “Hold up a second. There’s a reason Logan didn’t want the police to know where he was. Maybe he was investigating whoever lives at the address.”

  “According to Google, it’s a travel agency.” Kristie shows me her phone with the Google Map entry.

  “Capitol European Travel Agency,” I read. “That doesn’t prove Logan wasn’t working. For all we know, this travel agency is into some nefarious activity.”

  “Maybe they traffic drugs? Angel Band is the biggest seller of drugs in the city after all.” I’ll take Kristie’s word for it. She knows entirely too much about gangs considering she works at a Youth Center for troubled youth when she’s not working here or studying.

  “Alright then.” Callie nods. “You know what we need to do.”

  “There’s only one thing we can do.” I stand. “We need to go check out this travel agency.”

  “Not without me, you don’t., Kristie insists.

  I raise an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want to get involved.”

  “Oh please,” she huffs. “As if I can let Lucy and Ethel go off on their own. I don’t have enough bail money.” Is it wrong I’m secretly delighted she refers to me and Callie as Lucy and Ethel?

  “Then, it’s decided. As soon as we close up, we’ll head over. In the meantime, cupcakes!” Baking will take my mind off the fact my fiancé is in jail. But not for long. Not if I have anything to do with it.

  Chapter 4

  Go ahead. Try to arrange a surprise for a pixie. Not possible.

  As soon as the bakery’s closed, I rush everyone out of the building. I don’t bother letting Callie and Kristie clean up the café. It can wait. We have a travel agency to visit.

  “How are we going to do this?” Kristie asks after we’ve parked and are walking towards the building where the agency is located. “We can’t come out and ask if they are drug dealers.”

  “Of course not,” I respond although my plan was to do precisely that.

  “I got this,” Callie declares. “I do need to plan a honeymoon after all.”

  Lucky her. Logan and I aren’t taking a honeymoon as he can’t get any time off work. The joys of being the low man on the detective totem pole. Since it’s my fault he’s low man on the pole – I may have accidentally blown his cover when he was undercover in Angel Band – I don’t complain. At least not out loud.

  The travel agency is small with only two desks, one of which is empty. The rest of the space is taken up by a waiting area with two chairs and racks and racks of brochures. Besides the one worker, the place is deserted.

  Callie and I take seats in front of the occupied desk while Kristie roves around the place pretending to be fascinated by the various vacation possibilities. We wait as the woman finishes her phone conversation. She’s wearing sunglasses inside, which is not normal, but who am I to judge what’s normal? My hair is currently dyed pink and I already have the red, white, and blue dye ready for my wedding. You can’t have a July 4th wedding without red, white, and blue hair. At least, not if your name is Anna.

  “Can I help you?” she asks after she gets off the phone.

  “Yes.” Callie smiles. “I need help planning my honeymoon.”

  “I’m Linda. I’d love to help you. Do you have any idea where you’d like to go?”

  “Hawaii?” Callie shrugs. “It’s where everyone goes on their honeymoon, isn’t it?”

  “Not everyone. In fact, yesterday I had a gentleman come in here to plan a honeymoon through Europe.”

  “I’d love to go to Europe. Germany preferably.” Considering Callie’s position as an adjunct profe
ssor in German Lit at the local college, she’d total geek out if she went to Germany. “Unfortunately, my fiancé nixed the idea.”

  “What a shame. Too bad he’s not like the client I had in here yesterday. He planned this whole trip for his future wife who is a baker. Get this. He researched all the best bakeries in Europe and arranged the entire trip around seeing the top ten of them.”

  Holy cannoli. She has to be talking about Logan. After all, we know he was in here yesterday. My eyes tear up. The man is a total romantic. Why anyone would think he’s a murderer is beyond me. Callie reaches over and squeezes my hand.