Free Ganache with Panache: Book 2 in The Chocolate Cafe Series by Valley Sams

couldn’t help but smile. When she turned the key and the car roared to life, that nervous feeling was quickly replaced by excitement.
    “I’ll text you. Get back to work”
    “Yeah, you too, Sherlock.”
    ***
    Mac’s instincts were screaming as she pulled up in front of Vanessa’s boutique. The neighboring stores had closed for the night and their dark windows were in stark contrast to the light coming from the backroom of Vanessa’s shop. Why would she leave the showroom dark but the back room’s light on? More importantly, why was the front door unlocked when every thing else was locked up tight?
    Holding her phone in her hand like some sort of weapon, Mac opened the front door and walked into the shop. The bell above rang out into the empty space, echoing up throughout the store.
    “Vanessa?” Mac called, waiting for her eyes to adjust. The racks of clothes were unnerving in the dim showroom, like juries of ghosts, judging her from their orderly displays. “Vanessa, are you okay?” Mac raised her voice only to hear it returned to her like the sound of the bell.
    Her heart beating harder, Mac made her way into the backroom. The light illuminated the narrow steps that led up to Vanessa’s apartment, but little else.
    No broken glass. No signs of struggle. Mac calculated the risk as she began to walk up the creaking steps.
    “Vanessa!” she called out before her. “Are you up there?”
    When she turned the corner on the first landing, her stomach clenched again into a sickly knot. The apartment door was open, but no light spilled out from her rooms.
    Mac stepped into Vanessa’s apartment, holding her phone at her side. She squinted into the dark, searching in the bright spots of moonlight that flooded in from the large window.
    There. By the computer.
    On the floor, half caught in the silver light, was an arm.
    “Oh no, Vanessa,” Mac raced across the room, pushing aside the computer chair that had fallen in an apparent scuffle. Vanessa was sprawled across the wooden floor, practically covered in papers that had been thrown across the room. Her back was to Mac who turned her over carefully. Please let her be okay. Please let there be no blood.
    Mac breathed out in relief when Vanessa stiffened at her touch and rolled over by herself. Groaning, she pushed her long dark hair from her eyes. Mac was relieved to see she was relatively unharmed.
    “Thank goodness,” Mac said, helping to push the hair away from Vanessa’s face so she could check for injuries. “No cuts, no bruises. What happened?”
    Vanessa’s eyes went blank for a moment as she tried to remember. In the half-light, Mac could see them suddenly fill with tears as her memories reknitted themselves.
    “Mac. I… She took the drawings. I was about to call you when two of them attacked me.”
    “Can you sit up?” Mac asked. Vanessa nodded and slowly pushed herself to a sitting position. Patting the back of her head gently, she looked around the paper-strewn mess that was her apartment.
    “Did you get a look at them?” Mac asked.
    “No—they came up from behind me,” Vanessa said ruefully, “I’m such an idiot, I didn’t even hear them come in. There was a man, for sure. And a woman, too. I only saw her arms, though.” Vanessa grimaced as she found the tender spot on the back of her head.
    “Did they take the drawings?”
    Vanessa got to her feet, despite Mac’s yelps of concern. She moved some of the paper strewn across the desk. “It looks like it, they were right here, beside me, while I was searching.”
    Mac watched as Vanessa steadied herself at her desk, rolling her neck gently side to side.
    “You okay? You’re not dizzy or anything are you?” Vanessa turned to her, wiping a tear off her cheek.
    “No, I’m furious. Those weren’t his sister’s drawings, just like the last one. It took me forever, but I finally found them. Those were Lau’s drawings, really, really early ones, but they were his.”
    “Whoever took