Fruitcakes and Fatalities

Book 5: A Sweetwater Springs Southern Mystery

by S.C. Merritt

Genres: Christian Suspense; Small Town & Rural; Amateur Sleuth; Cozy Mystery; Culinary Cozy Mysteries; Female Sleuths; christian cozy mystery; Cozy Mystery; amateur sleuth; culinary cozy; cozy series; senior sleuth; southern humor

Synopsis

‘Tis the season for last minute shopping, twinkling trees and holiday baking . . . all these add to the joy of the season, right? But, as baking contestants from six states descend on Sweetwater Springs, peace and joy are in short supply. The town has been selected to host the south's biggest fruitcake baking competition and Momma and Glory have everything under control until two feuding bakers turn up the heat and someone decides one of them would be "batter" off dead. Can Glory solve the crime and save Momma's moment in the spotlight? Celebrate Christmas with all the folks in Sweetwater Springs and find out!

Release date: October 22, 2020

Print pages: 212

Sample

ONE

The lights went out and I could barely see an inch in front of my face. The place was almost pitch black, but it only took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the glow from the streetlight outside the bakery window. There was just enough light for me to make my way over and stand next to the love of my life. Hunt took my hand and laced his fingers through mine as we gazed expectantly into the darkness. With the flip of a switch and a collective gasp, the room lit up with one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen. The tree was truly magical, like stepping back in time. A fourteen-foot, flocked tree stood near the front window loaded with hundreds of bubble lights intermingled with strings of old-fashioned, big bulbs, antique mercury glass ornaments and icicles. A lighted star topper finished off the nostalgic look.

“Oh, my stars and garters!” my sister-in-law Kelly exclaimed. “It’s just got to be the most beautiful tree I’ve ever laid eyes on!” She grabbed her husband’s hand and pulled him over next to her. My brother Jake looked at her with a sparkle of love and I was reminded how blessed they were to have each other.

Macy squealed in delight and I saw her plant a big kiss on her fiancé, Tony’s lips. Not to be left out, I took the same opportunity to sneak a kiss from my boyfriend Hunt Walker as I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a peck on the lips. Hunt was Chief Detective for our little town and Jake was his right-hand man. Hunt and I had officially been dating now for a few months, and I had fallen hard for the former Texas lawman. After losing my husband almost three years ago, I never expected to feel like this again.

The six of us had been working for the last five hours, helping my daughter Macy get her bakery decorated for the Christmas holidays. The Sweetwater Springs Ladies Club, of which Macy, Kelly and I were members, was kicking off its first ever Christmas Celebration tomorrow, and she was excited to be part of it.

Several months ago, there had been plans for a huge town-wide event for Christmas, but club members admittedly had gotten a little carried away in our planning for the fall and winter. We raised way over our goal in the annual purse auction in early fall for the local park playground, but the one that almost did us in was the Harvest Festival in October. The celebration itself went off without a hitch, but that wasn’t the problem. The monkey wrench was the fact that we piggy-backed that festival on top of the filming of a Hollywood movie here in town. Throw in a murder or two, and the media circus that followed, and that was a recipe for disaster.

Thankfully, the town had come out relatively unscathed, but it inspired us to put the brakes on another huge event so soon afterward. That’s when Kelly suggested that we start small with a window decorating contest. The committee agreed that it was a wonderful idea, and the theme “Christmas Wishes” was selected. Each business along both sides of Main Street that chose to participate would decorate their storefront window any way they wanted as long as it fit the theme. Macy’s on Main had two huge picture windows. The tree was featured on one side, while the window on the coffee shop side of the bakery had been decorated with a display of vintage toys.

“Macy, I just can’t get over how creative you’ve been with your ideas for the window display. Where did you get all these vintage toys?” Hunt asked as he inspected the pedal cars, wagons, and trains. “Trains were always a favorite of mine. Since I was raised in Texas, anything to do with the Old West brings back great memories.”

“Most are on loan from the Water Valley Flea Market. Some I found digging around in Nana’s back bedroom closet. She didn’t even remember having half of them.” She laughed.

“The dolls, antique board games, and Momma’s old metal play kitchen are perfect,” I exclaimed. Everything was painstakingly arranged in the window, with wrapping paper and ribbon strewn about like the gifts had just been ripped open by squealing children on Christmas morning.

“Well, I don’t know about y’all, but I’m ready to get this mess cleaned up and collapse!” Macy said. Grabbing a broom, she began sweeping up stray glitter and pieces of fake snow underneath the tree.

Kelly and I gathered all the boxes and the guys carried them upstairs to the storage room until we needed them again after the New Year.

After making sure everything was spic and span for business tomorrow morning, Hunt reached for my hand and walked me to my car which was parked in front of the bakery on Main Street. It was usually a crapshoot with the weather in north Alabama for the month of December. You could get freezing rain or just a cool breeze on any given day. It was beginning to get colder, and the wind cut through the sweater I was wearing like it was lingerie.

“Wow! This wind is whipping up. I should’ve checked the forecast a little more closely,” I said, rubbing up and down my arms.

“Here, let me warm you up a little.” Hunt wrapped me in his arms as we leaned against my car. “Better?” He pulled me in for a long kiss.

“Mmmm, much better,” I murmured, my lips still against his as I felt the heat rise all the way from my toes.

I laid my head against his chest and felt his heart beating. He kissed me again, then opened my car door. “The next few weeks will be busy with the Main Street window display contest, your momma’s fruitcake bake-off thing and the church Christmas presentation.”

I laughed. “You’d better not let Momma hear you call it ‘that bake-off thing.’ She’ll have your head. That ‘thing’ is the biggest event in her world right now. I’ll be glad when it’s over and maybe she can quit being so stressed out and actually enjoy the holidays.”

He kissed me one last time and I slid into the car and buckled in, turning the heat full blast as soon as I started the car.

****

I slipped on my cozy pajamas and got ready for bed. I walked out of the bathroom to find Izzy, my miniature Schnauzer, curled up on my pillow. “Izzy, that’s my pillow. You have your own bed on the floor.” I nudged her, and she reluctantly moved to the other side of my bed, gave me a very annoyed look, and plopped down, snuggling into the blanket. I reached for my cell phone and opened the Bible app to do some reading before I called it a night.

“Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in all the earth!” Psalm 46:10

Hunt was right. We had a few busy weeks ahead of us and it was going to take a conscious effort on my part to slow down and enjoy it. The Christmas season had always been and will always be my favorite time of the year, but it seemed that these last few years it had flown by way too fast. When I was a little girl, the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to crawl by. But even now, I could remember days of baking and nights watching Christmas specials with Momma, Daddy and Jake that would be forever etched in my memory. Every year about this time, I made a promise to myself that this year would be different. I wouldn’t let it race past me in a blur. I would relax and enjoy the season. I wouldn’t over-commit this year. Well, we were only a few weeks into December, and I had already broken that promise to smithereens. I had less than two weeks left till Christmas and as I dozed off, I vowed to enjoy them if it was the last thing I did.

The phone vibrated in my hand, jarring me fully awake. It was Momma. Why was she calling me this late? She’s never up at this time of the night. Panicking, I answered. “Momma, is everything alright?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, things are going to hell in a handbasket around here. You are not going to believe what Lavender Twist has done.” 

“Momma, you scared me to death. Who in the heck is Lavender Twist?” 

“She is the reigning champion of the Fruitcake Society Bake-Off and the self-proclaimed Queen of fruitcake. Everyone reads her blog, and she posted the tackiest comments about the fact that Sweetwater Springs was selected for the competition. She called it ‘Podunk, Alabama.’ She also made some less than flattering comments about yours truly. Calling me a wannabe baker. I’m telling you, Glory, I’m so mad, I could spit nails.” 

The Southern Fruitcake Appreciation Society was made up of mostly women and a few men from every state across the Southeast. Well, except for Florida. Everybody knew that no self-respecting Floridian would eat candied fruit. Only fresh fruit for those folks. And Momma had been elected as president of the Alabama Chapter this year. She had worked really hard, lobbying with the powers that be to promote Sweetwater Springs and the Alabama Chapter of the Society. When she got the phone call that the Society had selected Sweetwater Springs to host its Annual Holiday Bake Off, I thought she was gonna have a complete come-apart. 

“Momma, just calm down. It can’t be as bad as all that. Maybe nobody will even see her stupid blog.” 

“Glory, everybody that’s anybody reads it. She has over five thousand followers.” 

“Five thousand followers! I had no idea there were that many people who even liked fruitcake.” 

“I’ve already gotten three phone calls from other bakers in the state that are steaming mad, too. They are all threatening to ban her from the competition this year for the comments. They have called a meeting of the society board. It’s made up of the chapter presidents like me.” 

“Can they do that at this late date? Isn’t the competition next weekend?”

“Friday, Glory! It starts Friday! People will be coming into town by Wednesday. It’s just like Lavender to stir up all this mess right before the contest.”

“Would they really tell her she can’t participate just for making some disparaging comments online? Seems a little harsh.” 

“I don’t know if they’ll go that far. They may just give her a warning to play nice. I’ll let you know what they decide. We’re all doing a conference call tomorrow.” 

“Well, let me know when you hear something. I’m sure it’s all gonna be fine.”

I shook my head and smiled to myself. The crazy things some people get all worked up about.