A Dash Of Mystery

The weather was cold and gloomy when the detective stepped foot outside of the precinct. Of all the cases stacked up on his desk, he had to be stuck with the least interesting one. You would think during the holidays, when crime is usually thriving, he would get a more interesting one but alas he was tasked with solving this one in the near future.

For the second time that week the detective drove through the familiar streets until he was parked outside the bakery. Little Rainbow's Bakery. The owner, an old couple stood waiting inside.

"Mr. and Mrs. Williams, I'm detective Holden I believe you were out of town when the incident happened?" He offered his hand for a handshake and was met with the wrinkly hand of Mr. Williams. But it wa evident over the years the man's strong grip had not weakened with age.

The elderly couple answered Holden's standard questions as his men scoured the place once again. Why anyone would want to break and enter a small bakery was beyond him, but it was his job and despite collecting g no evidence of the perpetrator whatsoever, Holden had never once had a case go unsolved. And he'd be damned if his first ever cold case was a break-in at a small bakery where nothing was stolen from.

"We asked your employee, Ms. Grant if anything was stolen but everything was accounted for, but we did find a note." As he said that one of his officers handed him a plastic bag with the note as evidence inside. "It basically says they were looking for the secret.

At that old Mrs. Williams gasped, coughing her pearls. Literally. "The safe!"

"Safe?" No that, Holden found interesting. "My men never found a safe."

"Well yes I imagine they wouldn't, it's hidden." Mr. Williams said with a satisfied smile.

"Show me." The detective said. "And what's this secret you have hidden in your safe Mr. Williams?"

"The secret ingredient to my cookies of course."

"Cookies?" Holden asked, unbelieving that such a crime was committed for baked goods.

"Yes."

"You're telling me someone broke in to steal an ingredient for a cookie?"

"Not just any cookie Mr. Holden." Mrs. Williams came to her cookie's defense.

"Defective Holden please." He corrected the woman.

The safe was indeed hidden, behind a wall in the freezer and as suspected something was amiss. A sealed box containing the secret ingredient apparently.

"That Trevor Whitmore was always jealous of our cookies, tried to buy the recipe for years."

"Great, a suspect, finally." Holden readied his pen, flipping his notebook open to jot down the name. "Where can I find him?"

"There will be a Christmas baking competition, there is a cash prize, if that man stole our secret ingredient then he will use it to win." Mrs. Williams explained.

Detective Holden sighed, his patience wearing thin. He punched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes in frustration for a second. He used to solve murders and robberies, bring down drug cartels and now his days consisted of going to a Christmas baking competition to chase down a cookie recipe bandit.

"Did anyone else know about the whereabouts of this box? Ms. Grant for instance?"

"Not a soul."

"Thank you for your time, I'll be in touch."

The drive back to the precinct, the detective thought about the case over and over in his head. Such a peculiar case, easy on paper, and yet he didn't have a clue of how to solve it. Getting comfortable in his chair, he did a little digging on Trevor Whitmore. The man seemed the farthest thing from a suspect. A scrawny little man, glasses bigger than his head, and he was the owner of his own bakery. Which was doing quite well. But sometimes looks can be deceiving and this man could really be the perp.

Holden let out a chuckle, shaking his head. All for a damn cookie.

"How's the case going Holden?" His fellow detective, Bianca, asked. Getting comfortable as she sat on the edge of his desk.

"You mean the cookie bandit?"

"That's what you're calling it?"

"The owners seem to think a competitor broke in fo steal the secret ingredient of a cookie recipe."

"And you don't?"

"Actually doesnt seem too far fetched. No money was gone missing, nothing is stolen except for the box that contains the recipe with the secret ingredient. The thing is it was in a safe, and the safe was hidden. And nobody knew about its existence but them."

"You think it's an inside job?"

"Nah they were both out of town, airtight alibis. I just wanna get this over with."

"You used to love solving mysteries." Bianca crossed her arms. "You don't think this case is good enough for Todd Holden?"

Holden gave her an angry glare. "I used to solve murders, catch killers."

"And now you catch cookie bandits Holden, stop being arrogant."

"I'm not being arrogant." He argued like a petulant child.

"Aren't you? Just because they used to call you Golden Holden does not mean you get to act so entitled. A case is a case, no matter what, you taught me that." She pointed a well manicured finger at his face.

"I can't help it, I used to-"

Bianca interrupted him as she abruptly stood up. "So help me if you utter the words 'I used to' one more time I will sack you over the head. Give yourself a break Holden this is your first case after what happened. Soemthing bad happened, you went away and now you're back and you're changed. It's gonna take some time. Even heroes get hurt." She squeezed his shoulder.

Holden sighed, closing his eyes as flashbacks haunted him now in his wake as well as in his sleep. "You wanna go to a Christmas baking competition with me?"

***

The competition was as you would expect. Red and green everywhere, lights and Christmas trees all around, tents with warm drinks and delicious food as people with smiles on their faces enjoyed the day. The baking competion was underway as participants prepared their baked goods, Trevor Whitmore was among them, as expected. As were Mr. and Mrs. Williams. The judges came to a decision after testing all the cookies and the winner wa declared, Mr. and Mrs. Williams.

Holden kept a every close eye on Whitmore and as expected the man threw a tantrum, being escorted off he premises by security. Seeing an opportunity, he followed.

"Mr. Whitmore, detective Holden may I ask you a few questions down at the precinct?"

"What for?"

"A break-in at the Little Rainbow's. Please, don't make me cuff you."

"Fine." The angry little man nodded agreeing to follow him back to the precinct.

After the standard procedure of an investigation, Holden was still unconvinced that this man was innocent. It seems after losing everything in that incident, he hadn't lost his instinct. And his instinct was telling him Trevor Whatmore was guilty. His alibi was sketchy and if he knew anything from his years of experience, the fidgety hands and sweary forehead indicated he was lying.

"Mr. Whitmore I know you have offered to buy the Little Rainbow's cookie recipe for years."

"Yes, they never sold."

"Perhaps it's a family recipe that they don't wanna share."

"Maybe. Have you tried it detective? It's delicious, you'd wanna know too."

"So you're saying you would do anything to get your hands on it?"

"Not steal it! That's preposterous, besides how would I even get into that safe?"

"What safe?"

"The safe the recipe was kept in."

"I never said anything about a safe Mr. Whitmore, in fact the only people who had any knowledge about the existence of that safe are Mr. and Mrs. Williams."

To say Trevor Whitmore was flabbergasted was an understatement, the man confessed to his crime, telling how he and his girlfriend Ms. Grant had concocted the plan to steal the secret ingredient. Two officers escorted him out of the interrogation room, while he yelled profanities at the unfairness.

"Just tell me." He begged Mr. Williams as he was being ushered to the holding cell. "What is it? What is the secret ingredient?"

"It's love."

"Love?"

"The secret ingredient is love my dear boy, but you are such a hateful man. You could never perfect it."

Ttrevor Whitmore screamed in anger while Biance came and stood next to him. "I guess I was right, it was an inside job. Ms. Grant was an employee wasn't she?"

"She was. You were also right about everything else. Thank you Bianca."

With a smile his colleague walked away.

"Detective Holden. Thank you for all you did." Mr. William's said shaking his hand as Mrs. Williams offered him a plate of cookies.

"For you." Holden smiled at the elderly woman accepting the cookies.

"Love huh?"

"Oh no there is definitely a secret ingredient, but we wouldn't be so foolish as to write it down." The old man said with a chuckle. "I just said that to mess with him, serves him right."

"May I ask what it is?" Holden asked.

The couple laughed as if he had just told a joke. "That secret my dear, I'm afraid will die wit us."

As detective Holden watched Mr. and Mrs. Williams leave the precinct, he took a bite of the cookies from the plate in his hands. Curious to see how a cookie would drive a man to commit a crime. And as the cookie crumbled in his mouth, its rich and sugary taste exploding, he finally understood.

Holden too, would risk it all for these cookies.