On Saturday, it was a typical morning in town. It was so hot you could see steam rising from the pavement, everyone was rushing around trying to get inside away from the blazing heat. Sunshine Bakery was just starting for the morning and was already getting crowded, it’s typically the towns hangout. Many spend all day there. The new bakery a couple of blocks down was starting to give Sunshine Bakery some competition but most of their products came off of a truck versus handmade like Pablo makes. Holly knows everyone by their first name and what they typically order, and Pablo makes fresh and delicious baked goods from scratch every morning, they make the experience at Sunshine so worth it. Around 9:30, a new girl came into the bakery, a short and quiet brunette. Holly was intrigued she doesn't typically meet a ton of new faces.

Holly greeted her, “Hey there I’ve haven't seen you around are you new to town?”

She responded “oh yeah, I’m Meredith, I just moved here a couple of weeks ago”

“Oh great! What can I get for you? Our cranberry scones are fabulous with a cup of our fresh coffee” Holly said with excitement. Meredith asked for a carrot cake cupcake, which was a little strange for this early in the morning but Holly didn’t object she’s had few cupcakes before noon before. Meredith sat down at a small table in the corner across the room, she took a large bite, then minutes later she was on the floor. Holly grabbed the phone and dialed 911, paramedics arrived 10 minutes later. Holly rushed everyone outside and grabbed Pablo, who was in the very back of the store taking inventory. No one knew what had happened. Nothing like this had ever happened at Sunshine Bakery, it was always a safe and enjoyable place to go. The local precinct though it was strange too, they set Detective Brown to check it out. As soon as he got there he went straight up to Holly and asked “ What happened? Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, it was just a new customer Meredith. She took a bite of the cupcake and then a couple minutes later she was on the floor.” Holly reassured him. Detective Brown went inside to go see what was happening, as soon as he gazed across the room, he saw Meredith on the floor foaming from the mouth and passed out. One of the paramedics came over and told him that they don't think she was allergic to anything, they gave her epinephrine but it hasn't helped.

“John!” yelled another paramedic.  He rushed away, Detective Brown walked around the store to find anything else that might lead him to the answer.  As he reached the kitchen he saw that everything was pretty normal, everything was clean, their wasn't any rodents or anything strange. He decided to go talk to Pablo, but Pablo didn't understand what was happening;

“I baked the cupcakes last night and frosted them this morning. Maybe they went bad. Oh no this is my fault! That poor girl.” Pablo cried.

“How is this your fault?” asked Detective Brown

“Because I baked the cupcake and obviously something went wrong”

“No I don’t think that that was it, she was to sick for the cupcake just to be rotten. Was there anything else you baked last night?

“No, the carrot cake cupcake takes a while so it try to bake it before I get in the morning.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Do you think there is anyone that would want to sabotage you.”

“No I don't think so, that new bakery is starting to be competition but if people want great baked goods and good service then they know to come to us.”

“Okay I’m gonna go talk to them”

Detective Brown reached the new bakery at the peak time of service, it took 10 minutes for someone to come and talk to him.

“Hi how are you?” said the owner

“Oh I’m good, it looks busy” said Detective Brown

“Oh yeah you know how it is when you open a new business”

“Ok well this won't take long, I’m Detective Brown and I’m running an investigation on what happened at the Sunshine Bakery this morning. Where were you from 8pm last night to 7am this morning?” he asked the owner
“Oh well I’m Steve by the way and last night we closed early because we ran out of stuff so I went to my boys soccer game and got ice cream down the road, and after we went home and watch the new disney movie.

Which by the way I totally recommend if you have children. Then this morning around 3:30 me and my staff got here early to unload a large truck and for all their hard work I treated them to breakfast burritos.” he said.
“Ok, well I’m just gonna ask your staff a few questions if that’s alright?”

“Yep that’s totally fine”

Detective Brown went and talked to the staff and all of them commended his story. He decided to head back to Sunshine Bakery to check up on Meredith. When he got there the ambulance had already pulled away, but Pablo and a larger aging man were fighting. The larger man looked like a giant in comparison to Pablo. He asked Pablo if he was ok.

“This between me and him, not you. Get lost.” said the larger man.

He started to get suspicious of him, he nodded toward Pablo and headed inside the bakery to check the cameras. When he got to the camera room he saw Holly already there going through the tapes, she was focused on the front of the store.

“Check the back alley camera” he stated causing her to jump a bit.

“Oh yeah you're right” she said

He took over after seeing her struggle a little bit, he went back to 8:30 last night and he saw the larger man sneaking into the back door of the store. Holly told detective Brown that the man was Oscar their landlord. Oscar came out of the store about 10 minutes later and ran back down the alley. Detective Brown decided that this was enough to bring him in for questioning. He headed out to the front of the store and since Oscar was still out there he went up to him and told him to come down to the station for questioning and he refused and started yelling at the Detective. Since he was refusing to come on him own, the detective decided to arrest him. When they get to the station Oscar confessed immediately.

“I only did it so they would feel the pain I did when my business came down. I owned a bakery in the same  building and nobody ever came so I had to close it and rent the building out. It's not fair they shouldn't have this much success there stuff isn't even that good.”  He cried bitterly.

He was formally charged and sent to holding. When Detective Brown finished the giant load of paperwork, he decided to visit Holly and Pablo and tell them the news. When he got there, it was starting to wind down for the night. He told Pablo that nothing he did was his fault and he shouldn't feel bad. Pablo felt so relieved and gave the Detective a dozen cupcakes to take home to his family. Ever since then they have taken the carrot cake cupcake off of the menu and Meredith has since been by the bakery and loves the cranberry scone.