Short Story #5: Bakery!

Prompt from The Write-Brain Workbook: The building where the bread bakery from my childhood used to be... (Word count: 256)

* * * * * The Meyers Brothers Bakery had been an elementary school field-trip favorite for what seemed forever. Every year, dozens of fourth graders made the trip to see “How Sandwich Dreams Are Made.” Detective Ed Collins still remembered the tour he’d had as a nine-year-old. The mixing room had captivated his interest then. It did so now, thirty years later. Of course, this was strictly off-tour stuff.

Then, “Don’t touch” and “Keep your farkakte mitts away from the equipment” were the watchwords of the day. Someone hadn’t listened. How else do you explain graveyard shift supervisor Emil Greene winding up dead inside a 50-gallon mixing bowl?

“Murder,” Collins said. “Yo, Hayward, whadda we know?”

Collins’ deputy inspector filled him in: messy divorce proceedings, two employees fired in the last month for—“loafing?” Collins suggested. “Yeah, too much of the wrong kind.”—possible gambling debts.

“Not a loan shark,” Collins said. “They break your legs, not every bone in your body.”

“Start with the wife or the ex-help?”

“Wife. Get fired for laying down on the job, how’re you gonna muster the energy to wrestle a guy into a blender?”

“Mixer,” Hayward corrected. “I remember from the tour....”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna close up with forensics. Meet you at the car.”

“Gimme five minutes. I’m going to pick up some pumpernickel in the gift shop. Stuff’s to die for.”

Collins scowled.

“Too soon?” Hayward asked.

“Yeah, but you’re right. Grab me a couple loaves, too.”

–30–