Death by Chocolate Cake: A Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery by Stacey Alabaster Page B

her all the time. She graciously posed for a photo while the girl, practically bouncing up and down with excitement, aimed her smart phone at the two of them, her arm around Dawn. "Thank you so much!" she squealed, before running off.
    "I suppose you get that quite a lot," I said, taking a sip of my latte before scanning the room. I hadn't noticed it when we'd first walked in, but now I saw that half the people in the shop were casting furtive glances in Dawn's direction and whispering to each other to check amongst themselves if it was really her, wondering if they had the nerve to come over and ask for a photo like that one brave girl had.
    Dawn waved her hand and picked up her cappuccino. "Oh, it's all just part of the job. I've been at this a long time, dear. It's become second nature over the decades. I've come to expect the constant interruptions. Water off a duck's back now."
    I nodded but I was trying not to frown. I knew that Dawn had been baking for a long time. She was one of those faces that occasionally turned up on morning TV shows when I was little. She had also published dozens of cookbooks over the years, but it wasn't until she'd been cast as a judge on Baking Warriors five years earlier that she'd actually gotten truly famous.
    Anyway. I supposed she knew better than I did when it came to her own experience.
    "You were asking me something, right before that young lady came over?"
    I was suddenly too embarrassed to ask if Dawn knew anything about the rumors about me and Pierre. I was sure that if she did know about them—and surely she did—then she would be discreet about it.
    I cleared my throat. "I was just wondering, Dawn. Not that I'm not thrilled to be having coffee with you, but why did you want to meet up with me? Does it have something to do with the show?"
    Dawn chuckled a little. "You are anxious to be on the show, aren't you, dear?" She reached over and placed a hand on mine and it felt warm and leathery. "But take if from me, dear, fame isn't all it's cracked up to be." She took a sip of coffee and ended with a heavy sigh. "Take it from Pierre."
    "Right." She still hadn't answered my question though. "I'm sorry about Pierre, by the way. I know the two of you were close friends." They were always in magazine features together, raving about how they couldn't live without the friendship and support of the other while they were filming. "It must be tough for you right now."
    Dawn stared down into her coffee cup. "Yes," she whispered. "To be honest, though, it still hasn't quite hit me. Maybe once we're all out of this town. Nothing really feels real at the moment while we are all in limbo." She lifted her eyes and I caught sight of tears sitting in the bottom of them. "By the way, dear, I don't believe any of those salacious rumors about you and Pierre. I was there. I know you only met him the one time. But, you know, people do talk."
    I could feel my face redden.
    "Don't worry, sweetheart. They've gotta have something to fill the magazines and websites with. It's only because you did so well at the audition. People were jealous, I guess." She settled back in her seat. "If Pierre hadn't been killed, then you likely would have been the one to go through to the next round. And you didn't even use that sad backstory about your grandma!" She must have caught sight of my face because she looked immediately stricken and hurried to apologize. "You must forgive me. Years of working in reality TV have rubbed off on me. I'm starting to sound like a producer. All this talk about backstory, like the events aren't real things that have traumatized people. Please, you must tell me a little about your grandmother."
    I nodded and told her about how she started to teach me how to bake when I was just three years old. "My mother had me when she was very young. She was single and had to work full time to support me, so we moved back in with my grandma. Nana was the person who looked after me full time from when I was