The Chocolate Magic Cozy Mystery Box Set Books 1 to 7 Read online

  “Mmm,” Branston said, “coconut.”

  “And rum,” Sam added.

  “And something else but I can’t place it. Lovely and moist.” Rula joined in.

  “Trade secret.” Magda smiled.

  “It is wonderful, whatever it is. Another good one, I think,” her friend told her. “Well, we are eating chocolate in this place now. It seems like a good omen,” Rula added.

  “One more and we could toast the success of the venture,” Sam suggested, eyeing the box she still held in her hand. He was rewarded, for once, with a genuine grin as she handed the box around.

  “To the chocolate shop,” she said and held up her own truffle.

  “To success,” Sam said and popped the whole truffle in his mouth in one go. The other two echoed the sentiment, and there was a sudden mood change between them as if the start of something. It was a good feeling.

  Branston suggested they make the entrance from the street mysterious and inviting: like stepping into a bygone age with lanterns strung across the courtyard.

  “Complete with cowboys, I supp—” Magda screamed and her hands flew to her mouth. She grabbed at the nearest arm, which happened to be Sam’s and realized that he was as transfixed as she was. All four of them were staring at a point on the stone wall. Magda was actually shaking.

  2

  There was a silence as everyone was speechless.

  “Did you—did you—see what I saw?” Magda quavered after a few seconds and Rula nodded.

  “This sounds crazy, but I just saw a cat walk through the wall and disappear.”

  “Me too,” Sam said. “I saw that as well. Thank the Lord it wasn’t just in my head if you saw it at the same time.” He shook his head as if to wake up from some sort of dream. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”

  “You do now. I saw it as well,” Branston added with a bit of shakiness in his voice. He took off the Stetson and flapped at the air with it. “That is some sort of thing to discover. You could make it the theme and attract all the paranormal investigators.”

  “Oh no. I don’t want loads of nutty folks trying to record paranormal voices.”

  Magda realized she was still holding on to Sam and straightened up.

  “I saw a black-and-white cat.” She looked at the others.

  “More white than black,” Rula added and the others agreed.

  “We all saw the same thing,” Branston observed, ”so it must have been real.”

  Sam pulled himself together and walked cautiously over to where the cat had disappeared. He knelt down and ran his hand over the wall.

  “Once upon a time there was a small opening here. It’s been filled in at some point.”

  “So, the cat thought it was going through an opening,” Branston said as he walked over to look at the area Sam indicated.

  “Does it change things, Mags?” he asked. “Can you live with a resident ghost?”

  “Well it is a cat ghost,” Rula put in. “Magda loves cats.” Magda thought about it.

  “I think it was just the shock. I never saw a ghost before that I know of.” She smiled and made a practical suggestion to banish the fright from her mind. “Let’s just check everything out.”

  Sam did one or two measurements and a few sketches as they walked right around the outside of the building. Branston suggested one of those climbing walls against the rock face.

  “You would break your neck trying it out. No thanks,” Magda told him.

  “I’ll buy everyone a coffee if you like,” Sam offered, “and show you what I think.”

  When the heavy doors were locked, Magda took out her phone and took a photo.

  “The doors are special. I would like to make them noticeable, I think.”

  “Good point,” Sam admitted and took a photograph himself.

  They settled in at a local diner to go over what had happened.

  “Would anybody believe that we saw a ghost?” Branston wondered out loud.

  “Should we just keep it to ourselves anyway?” Magda asked. “I don’t want people poking around and asking questions.”

  Rula agreed with her. “It would be a nuisance, as we would be in the middle of building and getting the place worked out.”

  Sam sketched as they talked, and when he turned his sketchbook to let her see, Magda actually gasped because he had captured everything as if he could see into her mind, exactly what she had envisaged. She looked at him and back at the sketch.

  “Go on; admit that you like it,” Sam demanded with a half smile that told her he knew that she would like it.

  She nodded slowly and took the sketch back to have another look. It was an effort but she agreed with him.

  “Okay. You are right. It is exactly what I had in mind. How much will it cost? Aunt Gertie left me some money to do something with my business but—” She left the sentence hanging in the air.

  “I can roughly cost it out for you.” He did a few figures and showed her the result. Magda looked up at his face and back at the paper.

  “Can I really do it for this?”

  “That is me doing the plans for free but charging for the work,” he answered. “Think about it and give me a call.”

  “Don’t need to think about it. Let’s give a it a go,” Magda decided and lifted her coffee cup. “To my new chocolate shop.”

  “Woo-hoo,” Rula called which made everyone in the diner look their way.

  “To success,” Branston added. “Lord, I forgot about this,” he added, and dragged a crumpled leaflet of Magda’s out of his jeans pocket. “Merle, at the ranch, has a shop to fleece the customers out of even more cash, and she wants to know about bringing in some truffles.”

  Magda took the crumpled leaflet and smoothed it out.

  “Does she want to have the truffles loose to sell herself or does she want little boxes already wrapped?” Branston didn’t know but said he was off for there after he finished his coffee. “Tell her I’ll drive over in the morning with samples, and she can decide what would be best,“ said Magda.

  “About eleven thirty is best” he suggested. “The riders have all gone off on the guided tours.”

  “And you would be one of the guides?” Rula asked as she answered her cell phone. Branston didn’t get the chance to answer because Rula stood up and said that the hotel needed her urgently. Then she remembered that Magda had come with her and wouldn’t have a ride home.

  “My truck is down the street,” Sam offered. “Not elegant, but it will get you home.”

  “Thanks, Sam,” Rula answered for Magda and left at a run.

  “Wonder what that was about,” Branston said and told them he was off to the ranch.

  Magda smiled and told him to behave himself.

  “No chance of anything else with Merle. She’s a tyrant.” He waved the enormous Stetson and put it on his head as he walked through the door.

  “I wouldn’t mind just having another look at the stable,” Sam said. “Do you mind?”

  “No. I would like another look myself.”

  They walked back down toward Mikey’s climbing shop and were just about to turn down the alleyway when Sam suddenly grabbed her by the arm.

  “Pretend you are enjoying this. I will owe you big time,” he hissed into her hair and pressed her back against the wall before wrapping her in his arms and taking her lips with his own. He was doing a very good imitation of somebody being passionate with a girlfriend.

  Magda put her arms around his neck to prevent herself slipping onto the ground and started to giggle against his lips. It had the effect of making him deepen the kiss, which suddenly turned from a desperate maneuver on his part and curiosity on hers, to something very different.

  Gradually Sam reduced the pressure on her mouth and glanced cautiously sideways before releasing her from his grip.

  “Come on, you two,” Mikey called out. “You’re putting off my customers.”

  “Has Loretta gone?” Sam asked before releasing Magda completely. Mi
key laughed out loud and told him she had crossed the street and disappeared.

  “Now I need to know why I have been pushed against the wall and kissed in full view of everybody . . . and who is this Loretta?” She sounded annoyed, but in fact, was feeling just a bit shaken. The kiss had done something unexpected to her, and she hoped it didn’t show.

  “You don’t know?” Mikey was amazed. “The men are all terrified of her.”

  “I was having a perfectly innocent drink and watching the world go by one evening, and she just walked up and ran her hand up my leg and . . .” Sam explained without actually explaining.

  “She really does that?” Magda asked.

  “Oh yes,” Mikey answered. “I have been known to put up the closed sign and hide.”

  “I guess some guys are flattered and take what’s on offer,” Sam pondered, “but I am not afraid to admit that I don’t know how to get rid of the woman.”

  “I have never known you be frightened of anything before.” Magda smiled. “Just give me a call. Other women aren’t frightened. I only caught a glimpse of her but the words ‘older’ and ‘tart’ do spring to mind.” She laughed. “Whatever happened to the teenager who had girls hanging on his every word?” He grinned.

  “I was a bit of a hit when I played basketball.” Then thought to himself that the one girl he asked out when she was fifteen had turned him down. He took her hand.

  “I owe you, Magda. Let’s look at this chocolate shop.” They walked down to the stable and stopped to look. “Those doors should be sandblasted. I am betting there is some really nice wood underneath all the years of weathering.”

  She opened the doors and they went inside.

  “I wanted to take another look at this floor.” He dropped on his knee and took out a small knife to scrape at the surface. Then he looked up at Magda. “These are fantastic. I thought maybe they would be. Look. This is not local stone. It had to be imported, expensive, and it’s beautifully laid. It will give you an amazing floor when the cleaning is done.”

  Magda dropped down beside him and scraped at the soil.

  “How can you tell?” she asked. He scratched at more of the stone and revealed a very neat join that hadn’t moved despite almost a hundred years of horses’ hooves.

  “It is the sort of stone that slices into slabs like slate does. We can polish it. It will look superb and it is original. I think you might have a little gem here, Magda.”

  “Wow,” she said and visualized it as a gleaming kitchen. He took a few more measurements and photos and they locked up.

  The truck was behind the buildings out of the way, and she managed to climb into the cab despite the heels.

  “For the work and the lift, would you like a coffee?” she asked and he followed her up the path. Truth to tell, they had always been comfortable together, and the banter had become their normal conversation over the years. The door opened into the big kitchen that was her workplace, and the five hundred truffles were as she left them. He saw them and smiled but then was drawn like a magnet to the two pieces of edible art that were under glass domes.

  “Is this what food in heaven might look like?” he asked and it was not done for effect. He was almost drooling.

  3

  “You spotted my prototypes,” she said and lifted the cover from the first cheesecake.

  “I have never, ever, in my life seen cheesecake like that,” he told her. “It is a work of art.” The cheesecake base was fairly normal with chocolate and vanilla flavoring but it was the decoration that took away his breath.

  It was quite a deep cheesecake. The entire top surface was covered with chocolate items of almost every sort. There were shards of chocolate standing straight up, lattice work pieces which had been made and then broken, truffles of course, medallions of white chocolate mixed with milk and dark fingers. Everything was pushed into the cheesecake topping which covered it completely. The effect was an edible city skyline. It was finished with grated chocolate and wisps of spun sugar dripped from item to item to crown the effect.

  Magda peeled away the transparent plastic that she had used to support the sides.

  “Apart from Rula, nobody has seen them. What do you think?”

  “I am actually speechless. How long did it take to make?” Sam asked and gasped as she took a knife and sliced through the cheesecake. She placed a piece onto a plate and handed it to him with a fork.

  “It’s a crime to eat it,” he said, and then took a forkful and did just that. “Absolute perfection,” he murmured. Magda ate some herself, and she had to admit that she was pleased with the result.

  “I am just trying it out to see if they would sell as special orders but because of the time to make each one, they would cost a lot.”

  “You could sell by the portion in the café though,” he added, as he demolished the entire piece.

  “I hadn’t thought of that. Good idea.” She handed him a coffee and led the way into the living room. There was a loud meow from the bedroom.

  “Oh Lordy,” she said. “Their ladyships are not pleased at being locked away. Whatever you do, don’t let them into the kitchen. My five hundred truffles would be wasted, and I have to deliver them first thing in the morning.” She opened the bedroom door, and Abigail and Crystal trod their elegant and slightly huffy way into the room. “Meet Abigail, the darker one, and Crystal is the lighter one. Crystal is a bit cautious about meeting people, but Abigail loves everybody.”

  Then, just to prove her wrong, as cats often do, Crystal went over to Sam and jumped onto his knee purring loudly and rubbing her head on his chin.

  “The little hussy,” Magda said.

  “This little lady is a pleasure, and thanks again for helping me out with Loretta.” The memory of the kiss that he had used to escape the man-eater did something to his insides and he pushed it to one side.

  “Not a problem,” she said. “What is the timescale for this work?”

  “If you have planning permission, we can start immediately.” She went and found the paperwork that showed her aunt had applied for and been granted, planning permission to convert the stable into a workplace. “I’ll do the basic ground plan tonight, and the foundations can start as soon as we can book the men to do it.”

  “That is just wonderful. I thought it would take weeks.” Magda took the papers back. “I have so much work on hand that I have no time, but you wouldn’t need me to do anything.”

  Sam was agreeing with that when her cell phone rang. It was a very upset Rula on the other end.

  “Slow down, Rula. What has happened?”

  “The hotel was phoning because the police were searching for me. My mom had an accident. She was run over.”

  “Oh no.” Magda gasped and put her phone on speaker.

  “Her legs are broken and she’s in shock. I have to go and see what she needs,” Rula told them.

  “Just go. We can manage here, and the hotel will cover for you,” Magda said.

  “Is there anything we can do?” Sam asked, but Rula said she would call when she had seen how her mom was doing.

  “Don’t kill each other, you two,” she added. “Sorry I can’t help you to box up, Magda.”

  “Don’t worry. Just go and drive carefully yourself,” Magda said. “Give your mom a hug from me.” She hung up and looked at Sam.

  “Lord, I hope she is all right.”

  He nodded. “Will you manage whatever Rula was going to do?”

  “I’ll just stay up until it’s done,” she answered with a shrug. “I guess when it’s your job, that’s what you do. In the end I’ll have to take on someone to help, but I am such a perfectionist about the stock.“ She lifted her hands and made the "what can you do" gesture.

  “I can hold the boxes and carry them for you,” he offered. “Don’t suppose I’d be a lot of use though.”

  “Actually, that would be a help,” she said and shook her head at her own foolishness. “Whatever am I doing letting Sam Barnes help in the
kitchen?” she added. “The cats will have to go back in the bedroom.” She picked up Abigail and called to Crystal who sat on Sam’s knee and refused to move. “You little madam,” she added. Sam picked up Crystal and brought her over.

  “Well I never did,” Magda said. “She normally scratches anybody who tries to pick her up. You are definitely very favored.” She put Abigail in the bedroom and then took Crystal from him. He looked into the bedroom as the cats climbed onto the bed and stretched themselves out.

  “Magda Caraganic,” Sam said, “there is a modern side to you after all. You have been keeping that very quiet.”

  She had the grace to look a bit embarrassed.

  “Okay, okay. I stayed in a hotel and loved the room so much, that I copied it.” He laughed out loud and pushed aside, very firmly, the thought of Magda in that very modern and hotel chic bed.

  “Let’s do the packages and then I can go and draw the plans.” He suddenly became very businesslike.

  They washed their hands, and she told him which boxes were to have which truffles. He watched her for a few moments and then did the same thing himself. The boxes were already labelled, and she kept an eye on him in case things got mixed up, but Sam was quite meticulous and the job was soon finished.

  “That was a real godsend. Thanks,” she said. “I’ll put them in the trunk of the car, and I can just drive off tomorrow.”

  “Lead on, Boss,” he said and picked up the first two packages. Then he paused. “Remember little Katie Welling?”

  “Yes, of course,” Magda replied as she steadied the packages in the trunk.

  “She is a great artist but struggles to make enough at it to live. If you wanted a trainee, I’m sure she would be interested.”

  “She must be twenty-one or so now,” Magda added as they went back for more boxes. He told her that Katie’s dad was his foreman on building sites.

  “He’ll be really interested to have a go at this new building of yours.”

  “She might be what I need,” Magda said thoughtfully. “Would you mind sounding her out for me.”