Sweet Ginger Poison

Chapter 21

“Looks like Navy had a lot of friends,” said Ethel.

“They’re not friends,” said Barb. “They’re just curious.”

“Like us,” said Jane, surveying the room.

Ginger was curious too. But she had a legitimate reason to attend Navy’s funeral: one of her coffee cakes had killed him.

She spotted Bull Crawley way in the back left corner, sitting by himself. Then his brother, Cash, walked in with a beautiful young busty blonde. Bull stared at them. The blonde returned Bull’s stare. Cash ignored Bull altogether. They sat on the right side.

“It’s almost time for it to start. We’d better go sit down,” said Ginger.

Just as the women started to move, Ginger said, “Wait just a second.”

Manny Monet had walked into the room. He sauntered up the aisle to the casket and peered in.

Ginger thought surely he wouldn’t come to Navy’s funeral if he had been the one who killed him. She saw Manny give Navy’s corpse the once-over, and then almost start to cry—before quickly regained his composure.

But wait. She replayed it in her mind. She had thought she’d seen him almost cry because that’s what would have made sense to her. But that’s not what he did. It hadn’t been a cry that Manny had stifled—it had been a laugh. He thought it was funnythat Navy was dead.

Perhaps Elijah was right in thinking that Navy borrowed money from Manny and didn’t pay it back. Now Manny was having the last laugh. Ginger would look into it. But she’d have to proceed with caution. He looked dangerous.

Ginger heard a door open in the front, and then saw Ellegora and another woman being escorted to the seats located to the right of the podium. It was the area reserved for family members. Ginger recognized the woman as the servant she’d met at Ellegora’s house. Apparently Navy had no other family. Or maybe they just didn’t care enough to show up.

“Let’s go,” said Ginger. She led her friends to the pew where Addie and Cheryl were sitting. Ginger had decided at the last minute that Coreyville Coffee Cakes would close for the funeral. Lacey, the prime suspect for Navy’s murder, had understandably decided to skip it.

Ginger was not surprised that Danny was also absent. Yesterday he had asked to be off today. He had not told Cheryl why he needed the day off. But everybody knew it certainly wasn’t so he could attend Navy’s funeral.

No sooner than they sat down, Elijah walked out to the podium. Ginger knew that neither Navy nor Ellegora were members of Corey Acres Baptist Church. But she wasn’t surprised that Elijah had been asked to officiate. Some ministers try to use the death of a man like Navy as a lesson to everyone in the congregation. Get right with God or you’ll end up where Navy is—in Hell.

Ginger thought those ministers were way out of line. How much could they really know about a person’s relationship with God? Elijah wouldn’t do that. He had told Ginger that when he led a funeral service his job was to comfort the family and say something positive about the deceased.

Ginger knew it would be a struggle to find something good to say about the man in that casket. But Elijah managed to put a positive spin on Navy’s life. Ellegora seemed to appreciate it.

After the service, as Ginger and the other women were getting up to leave, she saw Chief Foenapper walk in through the family entrance and start talking to Ellegora. What was so important that it couldn’t wait until a more appropriate time?

Ginger said goodbye to her fellow Domino Girls and told Addie and Cheryl she would see them at the bakery in a little while. Then she got into her car and drove to Cash & Carry Donuts.

It was time to confront Cash Crawley. Ginger was fairly certain that he was in possession of her fake coffee cake recipe book, and that Navy was the one who stole it for him.

She parked her car and walked into the store. It appeared there was only one employee on the job. There weren’t many donut customers at 11:00 a.m.

As she approached the woman standing behind the counter, the blonde from the funeral home walked out from the back hallway, saw Ginger, and said, “May I help you?”

“Yes, I hope so. I’m Ginger Lightley, and—”

“—glad to meet you, Ginger. I’m Silvy Knox. I’ve heard great things about your coffee cakes.”

Ginger smiled. “Thanks. You should try one.”

“I want to. I just haven’t got around to it yet. I’ve only been living here in Coreyville for a couple of months.”

“I see. Well, come by and have your first coffee cake on me.”

Silvy smiled warmly. “Oh, that’s so sweet of you, Ginger.”

“Just tell them I sent you.”

“Great. I’ll do that,” said Silvy. “Now, what can I do for you?”

“Well, I was hoping to speak with Cash.”

“Are you two friends?”

“No. Actually, we’ve never been formally introduced.”

“I can take care of that. Follow me.”

Silvy led her up the hallway to Cash’s office.

“You have a visitor,” said Silvy.

Cash looked up from the paperwork on his desk. “Oh, uh—”

“—this is Ginger Lightley,” said Silvy. “Ginger, meet Cash Crawley.”

Cash stood up and hurried around the desk to shake her hand. “So glad to finally meet you, Ginger,” he said, and then quickly added, “Is it okay if I call you ‘Ginger?’”

Ginger smiled politely. “Oh course.”

“And you can call me ‘Cash.’”

Silvy walked away.

“Please have a seat.” Cash closed the door and walked back to his desk and sat down. “I have to say that I’m a long-time admirer of your work.”

“Well, thank you.” Should she jump right in, or make some more small talk first? She noticed the potted plant in the corner. “What a beautiful plant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before. What is it?”

“I really don’t know. Silvy gave it to me. She’s the blonde who introduced us.”

“Yes. Nice young lady,” said Ginger. “I notice you’ve started selling muffins.” Here we go.

“I call them cupcakes, but yes, I just added them to the menu yesterday.”

“One of my regulars tried one, and then shared a bite with me.”

“Oh, really?” He looked worried.

“Yes. It was…interesting.”

“You didn’t like it.”

“It tasted…fine.”

“Great.” He grinned.

“But there was something that bothered me about it.”

“Too much cinnamon?”

“No. I’m not sure whether you’re aware of this, Cash, but I have a keen sense of taste and smell.”

“I guess you’d haveto—or you couldn’t create such wonderful recipes.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“So, I’ll bet you found something about my cupcake that could be improved with a few tweaks. Please—tell me what I need to change.”

“No, the real issue is that I recognizedthe recipe.”

“You mean it was similar to one you’ve tasted before?”

“No. I mean it was a recipe I created.”