Free Soft Serve Secrets: A Cozy Mystery (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book 3) by Constance Barker

 
     
    “Ahhh, what a gorgeous day,” Stormi exclaimed as she waltzed through the door of my store, The Frozen Scoop Ice Cream Shoppe. She stopped and looked in the huge mirror on the back wall of my Shoppe. “Without the humidity, my hair is bulletproof.”
     
    When fall settles into the Caesars Creek, Georgia region, it’s met with sighs of relief. Georgia is known for its humidity; lofty molecules that hang in the atmosphere ready to zap you of energy and good hair days. Stormi cursed many a day when her fine blond hair would look limp and lifeless as an overcooked noodle. I think what really got her was the fact that Paige’s hair always looked like she’d walked out of a hair salon. How could someone have a perfect hairstyle all the time? Even in a monsoon! “It’s not fair,” Stormi would whine during the summer months as she attempted to repair the frizzes that occurred 10 seconds after she walked out her front door.
     
    Now the days were filled with clean, brisk air and brilliant blue skies. A welcome retreat, although my store would likely take a hit. That’s what’s good about an ice cream shoppe in the summer; everyone wants a treat to cool down with. However, once the temperature plummets, my sales take a decline as well. Fortunately, I had my custom ice cream cake ordering business that more than made up for any lost sales due to cooler weather.
     
    Today I was making three custom order ice cream cakes for the weekend. Two yellow cakes, one with raspberry sorbet and the other with Irish crème. The third wanted a devil’s food cake with coffee ice cream and roasted almonds mixed in. I loved making the custom cakes as it gave me time alone in the back of my store. Not that I didn’t love my customers, or my helpers, Stormi and Paige, but sometimes I needed a break from all the hustle and bustle. While I enjoyed owning my shoppe, the pressure of keeping inventory, placing purchase orders, and insuring I was making a good living while paying Stormi a good wage could take its toll. So I loved the chance I had at making my custom ice cream cakes so my mind could rest and simply focus on the task at hand.
     
    However, today would be the start of a new adventure. At least no one was dropping dead in my ice cream shoppe or confessing to murders like in the not so distant past. But there would be a commotion of the Stormi kind. After helping the last few customers, Stormi marched into the back to see if she could help me with the custom cakes. “What can I do?” Stormi asked as she walked through the swing door into my makeshift kitchen.
     
    The back of my store held three giant freezers and two long stainless steel countertops. The counters are where I worked my magic on the custom ice cream cakes. The counters also held many of my mix-ins, such as crushed Oreo cookies, almonds, jellybeans, chocolate chips and bananas.
     
    I looked up from my cake batter, which I was pouring into my sheet pans. “You can peel and slice a couple of those bananas over on the counter. I want to layer them inside the ice cream cake I have ready to prepare.”
     
    Stormi grabbed a knife and headed over to the several bunches of green bananas I had lain on the stainless steel counter. As she picked up one bunch, she let out an ear-splitting scream!
     
    “What the heck Stormi!” I cried, gripping my chest, the spatula dripping cake batter onto the countertop.
     
    Stormi dropped the bananas back on the counter and scampered back to me. “A huge (huff) hairy (huff) spider!” She pointed back to the bananas. I could see one black leg sticking out between two bananas. We clung to one another. Since we were little, both Stormi and I were frightened out the wazoo of spiders. Didn’t matter if they came big or small, brown or black, we were having none of it. Now we were trapped by what looked like a gargantuan mutant spider.
     
    Stormi danced from one leg to the other. “That sucker’s as big as my hand! Oh lawdy, I