Fat Cat Takes The Cake

SEVENTEEN

She hurried toward home, hoping she could intercept Eddie and send him on his way quickly. He was too fast for her. His bright yellow Smart car was idling outside the door, the exhaust plumes swirling in a mad dance with the lazy snowflakes. For a moment she contemplated turning around and disappearing until he left. As she was formulating the thought, the car door opened. He’d spotted her.

“Hey, Chase! You started without me?”

She waded through the deep accumulation as fast as she could, out of breath by the time she got to him. “I tried to tell you,” she said between pants. “I’ve already walked today. You hung up too quick.”

“Aw, gee, that’s too bad. Why don’t we go over to my shop for a drink?”

She suppressed a shudder at the vision of a glass of green, viscous goo. “I can’t. Really. I have too much to do.”

“No problem. I’ll call earlier in the day next time. You gonna be open tomorrow? Maybe we could meet up then.”

“We should be open. The roads are being plowed and the snow is stopping.”

“I gotta be getting back anyway. It’s been busy today.”

With all this snow? Maybe his roads had been plowed earlier than hers. She breathed out a sigh of relief as he ducked to tuck himself into his tiny car. Then he straightened up.

“I forgot. I was gonna tell you that Monique Byrd came into the shop today. That woman is crazy.”

“How so?” She talked a lot and stuck with Dickie, which made her halfway crazy already as far as Chase was concerned.

“She has a weird thing about not touching people. She won’t let anyone touch her skin.”

Chase remembered that from high school, but it had seemed worse the few times she’d seen her lately. “She has a germ phobia.”

“And that means she’s crazy in my book. Normal people don’t mind touching each other.”

He put his ungloved hand on her cheek. Startled, Chase pulled away. The gesture seemed too intimate. She did get giddy in his presence, but there was all that emphasis on health food and he didn’t seem to like Quincy very much.

“Different people have different obsessions,” she said. Some are obsessed with quinoa sprouts. “Look, I have to get going.” She resisted glancing at the time on her phone.

“Sure.” He shrugged and got into his car again. “See you around.”

Was that a brush-off? After his car disappeared, she lifted her hand and felt her cheek, tingling and warm where his hand had been.

She was still standing with her ratty glove to her face when Mike’s extended-cab pickup came around the corner. He pulled up to where she was standing—after she had whipped her hand down to her side.

“Are you waiting out here to meet me?” His grin, with his raised eyebrows, was curious.

“I’m returning from a walk.”

“In this weather?”

“What can I say? I love shuffling through the snow.”

He got out of the truck holding a plastic bag. “You love shuffling through leaves, too. Is it shuffling you like? You’ll make a great old person.”

She had to laugh. “Do you know anything about your power?”

“The phone message says there’s a major failure in the western suburbs that includes the Minnetonka Mills area. They didn’t promise it will be on any sooner than tomorrow when I called the recording. The condo might get power earlier. They’re not saying. It’s so close to here, you’re lucky yours didn’t go out.”

Chase led the way inside. She paused halfway across the kitchen floor when she heard voices out front. No one should be there now. The shop was closed and everyone had left.

“I thought you had closed,” Mike said, echoing her thoughts.

She held a finger to her lips to shush him so she could listen before she went out there.

“I could get you disqualified, you know.” That was Grace Pilsen, she was sure, her voice dripping with vitriol. How did she get inside the Bar None? “You’ll get thrown out of the Minny Batter Battle.”

“You just now said this isn’t the recipe you’re using.” Anna was here! And she was angry.

Chase motioned for Mike to follow. He stuck his bag into the fridge first. Together, they pushed through the swinging doors.

Anna and Grace were standing at the front door. Grace waved a piece of familiar-looking paper in Anna’s face, but Anna stood her ground, her arms folded and her chin out.

“What’s going on?” Chase asked.

When Grace whirled toward her, the venom she shot at Chase was so virulent that Chase was very glad Mike was beside her.

“I suppose you helped her steal my recipe.”

Chase shrank away involuntarily. As Chase feared, she held the copy that Patrice had made.

“I had nothing to do with taking that,” Chase said. “And neither did Anna.” She felt her own anger rising. Who did this woman think she was, attacking Anna that way?

“I don’t believe that for a minute,” Grace said with a sneer. She gave a mighty sneeze and Chase noticed how red her nose was. “How did this get into the bag of dessert bars my assistant bought here Thursday?”

How did it? Chase frowned, trying to puzzle it out. She had put it into the pocket of her smock. Then she had gone out front to work. “What does your assistant look like?”

“What does that matter?” Grace took a threatening step toward Chase. She sneezed again, this time in Chase’s face.

Chase could feel Mike close behind her. “I’m trying to figure this out. It was in my pocket. Do you have a cold? Would you like a tissue?” She felt like washing her face immediately, but that wasn’t possible.

“What’s important is how did you get it?” Grace’s red nose was almost touching Chase’s. It was raw, probably from wiping.

“A well-meaning person thought we would like to see the recipe,” Chase said, taking a step away from Grace’s germs. She wasn’t going to drag Patrice into Grace’s sights. “That person brought it to me. I scolded her for doing it and never showed it to Anna. If you’ve shown it to her, that’s the first she’s seen of it.”

Grace squinted at Chase, probably not buying any of her story. Mike stepped up beside Chase.

“Wait a minute,” Chase added. “Didn’t everyone have to turn in their recipes already? A week ago, wasn’t it?”

Grace nodded.

Anna gave Chase an appreciative smile. “I see what you’re saying,” she said.

“It doesn’t make one bit of difference who knows what now,” Chase went on. “The ingredients are finalized. You can’t make any changes now.”

“If you want me to,” Anna said with a smug grin, “I’ll show you my recipe.”

“I could easily deconstruct all your recipes from our samples. They’re not very complicated.” Grace gave a huff and stalked out the front door. She climbed into her car, which sat at the curb. Anna’s blue Volvo was parked behind it.

“What just happened?” Chase asked. “What are you doing here and what was she doing here?”

“I forgot to bring home Inger’s smock. I told her I’d make the ties longer to accommodate her baby bump as it grows. When I got here, I saw that Grace Pilsen’s car out front and—big mistake—let her in when she followed me to the front door.”

“Maybe she didn’t know we closed today for the snow,” Chase said.

“No, she thought we were open. She waltzed in right behind me.”

“You have a sign on the door,” Mike pointed out. “It says you’re closed.”

“Who knows what goes on in that woman’s mind?” Anna picked up Inger’s smock, which was sitting on one of the round display tables where she had set it when she opened the door. She stuffed it into her purse and headed out. “I’ll see you later, Charity,” she called with a wave.

Mike shook his head. “What was that all about?”

“Besides being exposed to a nasty cold? I can’t figure out how her assistant got the recipe. It had to have made its way into a bag of dessert bars somehow.”

“Why was she—or he—here buying your products?”

“Probably wanted to see how good they are. I don’t think Grace has ever had anything from our place.” Chase leaned against the glass case. It was empty and the lights were off, the glass polished, waiting for the shop to reopen on Monday. “I must have fished something out of my pocket, a pencil or even a tissue, and didn’t notice that the recipe copy came out of my pocket. I’ll have to ask Mallory and Inger if they remember anything about it.”

At least Mike didn’t ask any more questions. She didn’t want to tell him his cousin was pilfering for her and Anna.