SHORT FICTION

Friday, 11 January 2019

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.

 
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