Run: 2026-09-02-01M1HHAA1FEVN1TGSQQ8J45JJ2

The brass bell above the door jingled, muffled by the sweet, heavy scent of proofing yeast and almond paste. A dusting of powdered sugar hung suspended in the morning light. "Lock the deadbolt. Quickly." A wooden rolling pin froze mid-stroke, sending a pale cloud across the marble counter. "At eight in the morning? We haven't even glazed the morning buns." "Leave the buns. Did you hear about the mayor?" A pair of oven mitts dropped onto the butcher block. The kitchen timer ticked, relentless and rhythmic. "Fell down the cellar steps, they said. Tragic, of course, but the man was eighty." "He didn't fall. Martha found blue elderberry seeds on his cardigan." A sharp intake of breath mingled with the smell of caramelized cinnamon. "Elderberry? That only grows along the ravine behind the rectory." "Precisely. And look what just rolled under the display case when the delivery truck rattled by." A heavy brass key clinked against a glass cake stand, flecked with dried mud. "Is that from the church archives?" "The very one. Now why would our dearly departed mayor lose that five minutes before dying?" A long shadow blocked the sunlit front window. "Don't look up. Just keep kneading."