THE SWEET SHOP-CHAPTER 3

Hi and hope everyone is great. Here is the latest chapter to the cat cozy. Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 3

 

Sophie jolted out of bed. “What?” Then she smelled smoke through her open window. She rushed out of bed and to the window where Gingersnap was watching intently.

“Another fire?” Sophie opened the window a bit more to get a better look. Through the dark she could see someone climb into a van. She wasn’t sure but it sure looked like Mr. Grant. Gingersnap let out a low growl when he saw the van.

Sophie closed the window as the smoke got thicker and now they could hear sirens. The van sped off just before the firetrucks got there. Sophie patted Gingersnap’s head. “That van looked familiar didn’t it? I’m wondering about the new garden shop owner. Maybe he is up to no good.” Gingersnap let out a mew. “You think so to?”

Sophie picked up Gingersnap and brought him back to the bed. There was too much noise outside now to go back to sleep. He curled up beside her and snuggled down. By the time the trucks cleared out it the sun was starting to come up. Sophie could see pink rays showing through the haze of smoke that still hung in the air. She could not figure out what Mr. Grant was up to and where was Mr. Fiefer? The more she thought about all this, the more anxious she got about this large order that Mr. Grant had placed. Gingersnap was now gently snoring but Sophie was very good at sliding herself off the bed without too much complaint from the big orange guy.

She went downstairs to her office and dug out the order from Mr. Grant. As she was reading through it, James came in the back door. Sophie glanced up at the clock. It was 5:30 am, time to start the breads up. He got quite a surprise when he saw her. “What are you doing up so early?”

Sophie sighed. “We had some excitement in the middle of the night. It appears our dubious Mr. Grant came back to the tool shop and perhaps set another fire.”

“Really, I wonder if the authorities have any clue about any of this.” He tapped his chin. “You know when he made that order, I was a little suspicious to what he was wanting in the first place. Do you think that he is going to do something with the garden shop?”

Sophie’s eyes went wide. “You don’t think he is some arsonist do you?”

James shrugged as he got his apron on ready to start the breads. “I would keep an eye on him. Is that the order from him?”

“Yes, it is. I was going over it and I was actually considering phoning him about it.”

James nodded. “Good, before I start cutting out templates for these cookies, it would be good to know where we stand with our Mr. Grant.”

“Oh, I agree. I will contact him this afternoon.”

James nodded and headed to the kitchen to get started on the breads. Sophie continued to go over the order form to see if there was anything about the delivery.

Gingersnap stretched out and got up and walked over to the nightstand and then from there to the dresser to a quick leap over to the windowsill. He looked out over the whole back alley and saw the old tool shed that was still smouldering here and there. All the trucks were gone now. The sun was up and the day was started already. Neighbours were looking over the damage and talking to one another. Something caught Gingersnaps attention. It was something shiny that the sun was catching. Gingersnap had to know what it was. He hopped down and went downstairs to the back door. Sophie was in the kitchen with James. He slipped out his cat door and went padding across the back alley to the old tool shop. The neighbours were still talking away about what had happened. Gingersnap spied the shiny object and ran over to it. It was a piece of metal that was once a part of a furniture piece. Gingersnap sniffed it and backed off. It smelled like smoke. Then he heard something in the rubble. He wasn’t too sure if it was just the people talking or if there was something in the rubble. He continues on his searching and then he heard the noise again. His ears perked. Gingersnap surveyed the entire area and could not see much of anything but broken bits of charred wood and tools that were scattered about blackened from the smoke.

Everything was once again quiet. The people talking had come around the burnt wall to see what Gingersnap was doing. “Be careful be boy, this isn’t a good place to go exploring for a cat.”

Gingersnap looked up at the lady who spoke to him. It was the flower shop owner next to their bake shop. Gingersnap liked Marley. She grew cat nip in the back yard because she liked cats and had a cat of her own, Molly who was a grey tabby girl.

Suddenly something from the corner made noise. They all looked in the corner where they could see movement. A hand popped up.

 TIP JAR:

paypal.me/VeraSoroka

 

Also check out the PATREON !! Click on the tab above.

SWEET SHOP-CHAPTER 2

Hello to everyone on this cold day. Today we have chapter 2 for your enjoyment. Enjoy and if you want to check out my patreon, go see another cat flash fiction and some art. Maybe you will consider joining.

 

Chapter Two

 

 

The thing about the little town of Pepperlane is that when a fire breaks out, it’s a big event and everyone comes to check it out. The tool shop owner, Mr. Fifer, had not been found and the community was fearing the worst. But then they discovered his truck was gone.

Sophie had brought in Gingersnap right away when the sirens blasted and all the other onlookers arrived. Gingersnap was very happy to be away from all the noise and the smelly smoke. It was a black oily smoke that bellowed out of the building. Fire trucks and emergency vehicles were on sight trying to put it all out but it was proving to be challenging.

Sophie and Gingersnap watched along with everybody else but from the safety of inside the shop. Gingersnap remembered what he saw and he was thinking that the fire was not an accident. All those round boxes that they were loading up, what was in them? Gingersnap did not like either one of those men. Mr. Fifer was always grumpy and he didn’t like cats.

Sophie sighed. “Well, I hope everything is okay but it appears they have the fire undr control now. Time to go back to work and figure out this order from the new garden shop owner, Mr. Grant. I’ll talk to James and see if he has come up with a solution the cookie shapes.”

She patted the top of Gingersnap’s head and left to go to the main kitchen. Gingersnap continued to watch the firefighters put out the fire. It was more black smoke than flame now. His nose twitched at the smell of all that oily black smoke.

Suddenly the building caved in. Everybody ran for cover. Gingersnap ducked even though he didn’t have to. When he peeked over the window ledge, the building was now flat. Hmm, thought Gingersnap that was meant to happen. That was they loaded everything up. But why those boxes? None of this made sense to Gingersnap. He hopped down and ventured to where James and Sophie were. Most of the time he was not really allowed in the main kitchen when James was baking. But they were both talking about those cookies and James had drawn on hard paper to make templates out of them. Sophie said it might work.

Sophie started to help James mix up the cookie dough. It was all going to be mixed up in a very large mixer. Gingersnap didn’t like that contraption so he went back out to the office and hopped up on Sophie’s desk. He laid on the order forms that she had spread out on her desk. He had a good view out the window across the street. Everything was put out now and Men were carrying some things out of the tool shop that had not caved in. He was sure that they would some evidence that would explain things. But he saw one fellow scratch his head. He was holding in his hand a charred round box.  One of the firefighters came up to him and they both were looking it over.

They walked off with it anyway. Gingersnap hopped off the desk and onto his cat hammock. This was enough excitement that would leave the town gossiping he knew. The vehicles were all gone down. Just as Gingersnap was going to doze off, a van came rushing up to the old tool shop. Gingersnap’s ears perked. It looked like the garden man’s van from earlier. It had stopped where the door they used to be. It was now half crumbled from the fall in.

It was him. Gingersnap saw him get out and look things over. He stood there for a long time and rubbed his chin. He was up to something. Sophie came in at that point and noticed Gingersnap looking intently out the window. “What is going on out there?”

She made a face when she saw who it was. “What is Mr. Grant doing there?”

They watched him walk around the charred remains of the building and then he hopped in his van and took off. “That was interesting, why was he looking the building over for. He just bought the garden shop.”

Gingersnap made a muffled mew sound. She grinned down at him. “You think something is up don’t you and you know what? I think you are right. We will have to keep an eye on what is going on for the next couple of days. Might be interesting.

That night when Sophie was closing up shop, she noticed something across the street at the tool shop. Someone was over there with a flash light. “How did they get in there?”

The town had put fence around it for now to keep people out. She looked again and could see they were looking for something. There was something going on. She slipped out with her binoculars through the back door and sat on her porch. Sophie peered through them and was shocked. It was Mr. Grant. “Gingersnap is right about you. You can’t be trusted. Then she thought about her cookies. That large order and all the fuss it was causing. Would he even want them? She was not happy at watching Mr. Grant sneak about the tool shop. And no one had seen Mr. Fifer either.

Finally Mr. Grant came out and he didn’t look happy. She was hoping that he would not notice her spying on him. But he was too upset to notice her. He got in his van and drove off.

Sophie went inside and made herself some tea. What was she to do with this order? She didn’t want James going to all this work on these cookies. She nodded to herself that she would contact him in the morning.

She took her tea upstairs and Gingersnap was already on the bed in his basket waiting for her. “Well, Gingersnap, that Mr. Grant man was back again with his flashlight snooping around. He is after something that Mr. Fifer had. Something is up with that man and where is Mr. Fifer in all this. He has not turned up yet.”

They both went to bed and Sophie made up her mind in the morning to find out from Mr. Grant what was going on. Gingersnap snorted and knew it wouldn’t be good.

It was in the middle of the night when Gingersnap was awakened. It was something going on out there. So he hopped down and leaped up onto the large window ledge to look. There was a truck parked at the tool shop. Gingersnap knew it was Mr. Grant. With his keen cat eye he could see him dressed all in black. It framed his large body and made him look like a black blob. It looked like he was trying to load something up and whatever it was, it was heavy as Gingersnap saw him struggling with the large item. Somehow he managed to load it up on his truck. Then he saw him drag something long out of the back of the truck and take it inside.

Gingersnap mewed loudly when he saw Mr. Grant light a match.

 

TIP JAR:
paypal.me/VeraSoroka

SWEET TREAT SHOP-CHAPTER ONE

Hello everyone! Today is the start of the first serialization of my cat cozy mystery. Chapter one is here for you to read. I hope you enjoy. Each Friday I will post the next chapter. When the story is finished I will publish this to all retailers for you to purchase. The chapters here will come down. So make sure you read them here. Of course you can purchase it to have it all together!
There will be some other releases soon. So watch for that.
Also my Patreon  is live to the public now. I hope you will consider joining the community. You can read what I have put up so far. Just click on the tab page above. I will do the month of January and see what happens. I think I have to get some patrons first before the tiers are locked. Not sure but it appears that way. So I might have to work had building my platform as an author to build a community of patrons. So hope you will join me. I promise there will be lots of content. More in works. So hope we can get going on this!
In the meantime, for you cat lovers here is the first chapter of my Sweet Treat Shop Mysteries.
Enjoy!!

SWEET TREAT SHOP

 

The Missing Ingredient

 

Chapter One

 

 

Sophie rummaged through her grandmothers recipes. She could still remember making these special cookies with her and it was the most memorable moments of her young life. And for the most part she could remember most of the ingredients that went in this delectable cookie. But something gnawed at the back of her mind. There was something special that went into these cookies. But what was it?

Something brushed against the bottom of her bare leg. She looked down and smiled. “Hello Gingersnap. You wouldn’t happen to know that ingredient grandma put in those cookies do ya?”

He looked up at her with big golden eyes and let out a little mew. “Didn’t think so.”

Sophie sighed. “Well, I will have to create my own special ingredient but I sure wish I could remember what that ingredient was. Gingersnap mewed a little louder this time.

Sophie chuckled. “Talking about cookies has made you hungry I bet? Let’s go, I shall feed you. Gingersnap raced to the back kitchen to his bowl even before Sophie left the shop area.

She opened up his favourite can of tuna cat food. He danced around the bottom of her legs purring as loud as he could manage. He drove right into face first into the large ceramic bowl. Sophie shook her head. The bell suddenly rung from the front desk. “Oh must go, customer.”

Gingersnap didn’t pay any attention, he just continued to enjoy his lunch. Loud laughter erupted from the front desk. Gingersnap sat up washing his paw keeping an eye out at the front desk to see what all the noise was about. The noisy one finally left and then Sophie came back into the back kitchen. “Well that was interesting. That is the new owner of the garden shop down the street. An odd fellow I would say. He doesn’t appear to be the garden type. Anyway he bought some cinnamon buns and wanted to say hi.”

Gingersnap snorted. He wasn’t even in the room and he didn’t really like him. He hopped onto his cat hammock and laid in it looking out the window. His ears picked up as he saw the individual crossing the street. The garden shop was not in that direction. Gingersnap continued to watch to where he went. He had his bag of buns under his arm. He knocked on a door that was a back door to a tool shop. The door opened and the man looked both ways before letting in the garden shop man.

Something was up thought Gingersnap. He would keep an eye on the situation. But right now was time for a nap. Sophie continued to look over her recipes and try and see what she could create. She always liked to take recipes and add or change ingredients in them. When the little Sweet Treat Shop came up for sale, Sophie couldn’t believe her luck. She had just graduated from baking school and wanted to have her own shop right away. There would be hard work involved but that was okay. Sophie was not afraid of hard work.

She did most of the work at the beginning, getting up very early to make the fresh sweet buns for the day and her special breakfast cookies and muffins. She also brought in special coffees and teas to go with them. That proved to be a hit. Now she was getting orders all the time and of course she needed staff now. She found some pretty good bakers and front desk people to run her shop while she took care of the business end. Of course she still baked and tested recipes. She would never leave her baking skills behind.

Gingersnap got interrupted by a banging noise outside. It was across the street. He perked up his ears and took note of what was happening. The place where the garden shop owner had come out of was now loading up the back of a van. It didn’t look like tools to Gingersnap. These were odd looking round boxes. They looked like hat boxes. What would a tool shop have boxes like that, in pastel shades, no less?

This was worth investigating. Gingersnap got off of his hammock and went through his cat door. He went up on the back of an old wicker chair to see them clearer. The tool shop man was always looking around. That made him look guilty Gingersnap thought. The garden man who was huffing and puffing got into the van. He was heavy set so he was sweating at whatever they were loading up.

Gingersnap sniffed the air but could not smell anything. The van took off and the tool man once again looked around before retreating into his shop. Gingersnap went back inside to see what Sophie was doing. She was going over order forms. Gingersnap leaped up onto the desk to help her. She sighed and petted his orange tabby fur. “This new order to the garden shop is going to be a bit of a challenge. He wants cookies the shape of garden tools. These are for his open house he is having. He also wants them out into bags with his shop stickers on them. Sophie shook her head. Not sure how James is going to go for all this. He’s pretty inventive but not sure what he will think of this. I have not found any cookie cutters the shape of garden tools. Maybe I could convince him to make flower cookies instead?”

Gingersnap huffed and laid across her order forms and purred. He rather doubted that the garden shop man would care. With that shady tool shop character across the street, he was more concerned about other things. He rolled over on his back hinting at a possible belly rub. He purred even louder when he got rewarded with just that.

“My sweet boy gingy boy, how am I going to get my orders done?”

Suddenly there was loud noise outside. They both jumped. Sophie and Gingersnap went to the back door and went out to investigate.

There was smoke coming out of the tool shop.

 

TIP JAR:

paypal.me/VeraSoroka

NEW YEAR & CHANGES!

Hello everyone! Hope everyone had a great holiday and that it  is not too cold where you are. So, as you can see there have been some changes happening here. I have finally after over six years of doing Short Stories & Stuff have made the move over to PATREON!
I hope some of you will join me over there and get even more content. Click on the above page and read about it.  The archive will still be here for those to read.
This sight now will be dedicated to cat stories! I am a huge cat lover and I do enjoy cat stories. I have written over the years quite a few stories involving cats. My plan is to start next Friday, Jan. 11/19 to start my first cat cozy detective novel. I will serialize it until it is done. It will go up for sale at all retailers and all the posts will be deleted. Not sure if I will do the next one or not. I have other plans as well. Once a week I will post a short story and then it will come down but you will be able to buy it at any retailer. I will let you know when that takes place. Hopefully in the near future I will have a newsletter for those who are interested to sign up for.
I also as you have seen here, written more than just cat stories. I love Faerie, fairy tales and in general fantasy. I am in the process of building an official website for all my stuff. I will post about that when it is done. Lots of stuff coming up the pipeline this year. 2019 is going to be good year I hope.
That is it for now. I hope you will go check out my Patreon page. I will make one public post there at the beginning of every month.
Take care everyone!!