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“Where did you get those?” Amanda nearly shrieked at him.
“Got ‘em out of your trashcan by table ten—I happened to see them when I was looking forthis!”
Grath held up the other item in his hand, which was a very familiar looking food processor.
“My food processor!” Mattie exclaimed. “Where was it?”
“Under table ten—Amanda’s table,” Grath growled. “Couldn’t find the powdered sugar though—I’m not surewhatshe did with that.”
“Ms. Hutchinson.” Mrs. Kranst’s voice cracked like a whip. “If these allegations are true, they are a serious breach of our Bake-off rules! All contestants must make theirown dough—store bought dough isnotacceptable. And didn’t I clearly state at the beginning of the contest that there was to be no meddling with other contestants’ ingredients or equipment?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about—this is all lies! Just a pack ofliesandIshould be the winner!” Amanda shouted. In a fit of rage, she stamped her foot and slammed her designer handbag down on the judges’ table —which turned out to be a mistake.
The handbag—which was partially open, let out a huge puff of white powder whichwhooshedup like a mushroom cloud. Mattie jumped to one side quickly and avoided most of it, but the judges, who were seated, got fully saturated in the white stuff, which settled on their hair, clothes, and skin in a thick layer.
There was a moment of dead silence in which the PA system could be heard in the background cheerfully playing,
“Let it snow, let it snow, let itsnooooow…”
Then everyone started talking at once.
“On my gracious, is thatcocaine?”Grandma Thelma exclaimed. “Did that horrible Hutchinson girl bring a bag full ofcocaineto theBake-off?”
“Maybe she was trying to get the judges high,” someone suggested. “If she’s been lacing her cookies with drugs, that wouldcertainlyexplain how she keeps winning the Bake-off with cheap store-bought dough!”
“Nah—her uncle was just a bully,” someone else said. “He was forcing the other judges to vote for her—you know he runs the local bank, right? They hold the mortgage on Carmichael’s donut shop. And Judy Owen’s Catering business took a loan from there to get started.”
“I still say it’s cocaine!” Grandma Thelma exclaimed, in a surprisingly loud voice for such a little old lady. She shook her cane in the air at Amanda. “That Hutchinson girl has been getting those judges high as a kite andthat’swhy they’re voting for her!”
At last Mrs. Kranst—who was doing her best to wipe white powder out of her eyes and off the lenses of her spectacles—finally spoke up.
“This isnotcocaine!” she said in a loud voice which carried over the murmurs of the crowd. “This ispowdered sugar.”
“Yes, it is—alotof it,” Judy Owens agreed. She frowned up at Mattie. “Didn’t you say that your powdered sugar had gone missing, Ms. Porter?”
“Yes, it did,” Mattie said, frowning. “It was a large bag with a blue and yellow label on it,” she added.
“Let’s just have a look at that powdered sugar, shall we?” Mr. Carmichael said. And before Amanda could snatch back her handbag, he had reached inside and pulled out a plastic bag half full of powdered sugar with a blue and yellow label on it.
“That’s it.” Mattie crossed her arms over her chest and nodded grimly. “That’s my powdered sugar. I opened it and left it on my table but the next time I reached for it, it was gone—along with my food processor.”
“And I notice that it has a blue and yellow label on it,” Mrs. Kranst said dryly. She looked up at Amanda. “Would you care to explain yourself, Ms. Hutchinson?”
“That…that doesn’t proveanything!”Amanda exclaimed, pointing a trembling finger at the half-full bag of powdered sugar. “She…she planted that in my handbag, which isruinednow! She ruined myGuccihandbag!”
“I’d say you ruined it yourself,” Mrs. Kranst said, frowning sternly. “Along with any chance you had of ever entering this contest again.”
“What?” Amanda shrieked. “What are you saying?”
“Amanda Hutchinson, you have been caught breaking almost every rule of the Bake-off—you didn’t make your own dough and you stole another contestant’s ingredients and equipment,” Mrs. Kranst said. “Then you covered the judges in powdered sugar—which isnotas pleasant as one might think. I believe I speak for all the judges when I say you willneverbe welcome at the Christmasville Christmas Cookie Bake-off again!”
“I second that,” Mr. Carmichael said.
“And I agree too!” Judy Owens snapped, trying to get the powdered sugar out of her hair.
“Motion carried,” Mrs. Kranst said, slapping the table which caused another white puff of powdered sugar to rise into the air. “Amanda Hutchinson, you are never welcome at this event again. I am hereby instituting alifetimeban against you.”
“You…you oldbitch!”Amanda spat at her. “You can’t get away with this! My uncle’s bank holds the mortgages of half the people in this town. You’re all going to be sorry!”
