Run: 2026-09-02-01M1GV2N960FBC77D5R95CY94B

The ovens had been warming since five, and the whole shop smelled of cardamom and butter. "Tell me again why we're whispering." "Because the footprints start behind the flour bins and end at the walk-in freezer." "Maybe Ted left them. Ted is roughly the shape of a flour bin." "Ted's in Sarasota. I checked." "You checked? On whose authority?" "Marjorie's. She saw everything from her kitchen window." "Marjorie sees UFOs from her kitchen window." "She also saw someone in a yellow raincoat carrying your grandmother's recipe box." The proofing rolls had risen into soft domes beneath their tea towels. Somewhere in the back, the freezer hummed its low, steady note. "Grandma's recipes were locked in my office. In the drawer. I turned the key myself." "Then explain why the drawer's hanging open and the box is sitting between the wedding cake tiers. In the freezer." "That's absurd. Who steals recipes and then hides them in the victim's own freezer?" "Maybe nothing was stolen. Maybe something was returned." "...I haven't opened that box since she died." "I know. That's why I didn't touch it. It's still in there, waiting." Outside, the first rain of October tapped at the bakery window, and somewhere down the lane, a yellow raincoat went walking by.