Blueberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery Book 2) (5 page)

Later, that afternoon, Dana stopped by Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia’s house to see Aunt Mary, whom was released from the nursing home on a weekend pass visit.

“So how are you feeling today, Aunt Mary?” Dana said at the dinner table.

Aunt Mary was in her wheel chair at the table and had been accommodated by Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia.

Aunt Mary slowly looked up from her plate of mashed potatoes with gravy and sliced chicken, just as she’d always liked it from what Dana could remember or heard about through her grandmother.

Dana immediately felt sorry for her. Her lips were wrinkled and her face looked frail. Her blue grey eyes looked tired and weary.

Dana’s heart squeezed in her chest. She knew she had to help Aunt Mary and Uncle Max by helping to solve the murder.

“I’m fine, thank you, darling,” Aunt Mary said, her voice delicate and frail. “Of course, I’m worried about my dear Max. He wouldn’t harm an ant, you know…a fly, maybe, but not an ant.”

Okay
.

“I know. I know, Aunt Mary.”

“It’s sad for me to lose another daughter in law, but now I feel as if I’m going to lose my son, too.” Her voice quivered.

“We’re going to do all that we can do to help him.” Dana’s voice was warm and assertive.

“Thank you, Dana. Please do. Your dear Uncle Max needs our support.” Tears watered her eyes and Dana felt her pulse stop. “You know there was a time that your dear Aunt Mary was up and about and could do things for herself. I used to do some dangerous adventurous work back in my day. Nothing could stop me. But now…look at me? I wish I could do more.”

Dana got up and moved closer to Aunt Mary. She picked up a clean serviette from the table and dabbed her eyes. “It’s okay, Aunt Mary. We’ll get down to the bottom of this. I promise.”

“I don’t for one moment think that Max had anything to do with it.” Aunt Nia dropped her fork on her plate. Her voice was defiant. “This is absolutely absurd.”

“I hear you, princess,” Uncle Merv chimed him. He held Aunt Mary’s hand at the dinner table as he was seated beside her. “It’s going to be all right, Aunt Mary.”

“Aunt Mary, I don’t mean to pry but is there anything you can tell us about…well, Uncle Max’s wife? Did she have any enemies?” Dana asked softly.

“She was a nice girl,” Aunt Mary said. “You know, all the girls he brings home are nice. They are kind to me. Although,” she hesitated for a moment. “I know Max and Karla were having some sort of trouble in the marriage in the beginning.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, you see,” Aunt Mary paused thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t want to say too much.”

“Aunt Mary, we know that Karla was cousins with his first wife, Lucy. It’s all right.”

“You know that?”

“Yes, we do,” Uncle Merv added.

“Well, then, I guess I should tell you everything.” Aunt Mary sighed heavily. “I know Lucy’s friends weren’t too happy about Karla marrying Max—and neither was the family come to think of it. She had a fight with one of them.”

“She did? With who?”

Aunt Mary swallowed hard. “He wouldn’t kill anyone. He’s a good man. Max always takes care of his mother,” Aunt Mary stared off into space. She ventured off into a different direction with the conversation... She sometimes would get off course in conversations. Her age was something she would blame it on when she realized.

Something rose up on the inside of Dana. She believed Aunt Mary. Of course, she didn’t think Uncle Max killed his wife. But Aunt Mary’s words were ringing true—a confirmation of what she’d already believed. It resonated with her like a bell on the inside.
He wouldn’t kill anyone. He’s a good man. Max always takes care of his mother….

This gave Dana more ammunition to want to fight to get to the bottom of the truth.

Dana didn’t want to stop her right now. She wanted so desperately to find out who had a fight with Karla. Was that person the murderer? Did the police know this?

But Dana couldn’t probe further right now. Aunt Mary was grieving. The loss of her daughter-in-law and now her son charged with the crime. It must all be too much for her to bear.

Dana just couldn’t imagine how she must be feeling right now?

“He takes such good care of me. He’s always there for me, you know?” Aunt Mary continued, a smile touched her lips. “What a wonderful son. Always there for me…”

She kept repeating it.

Dana felt so sorry for her. She knew what it was like to lose her parents and caregivers. Though this was a different situation. Max was his mother’s caregiver now. The roles had been reversed. And he’d done such a good job of it, too.

The horrible question was, what if Max’s bail got denied tomorrow morning?

“So we’re no further to the truth then?” Katie said later that night as she and Dana sat in adjacent Parisian armchairs with quilted pink and peach-colored cushions curled up by the fireplace in Grandma Rae’s Victorian home. They each had a warm ceramic mug of hot chocolate piled high with whipped cream and marshmallows. One of their favorite comfort drinks—just like in the old days when they were little and Grandma Rae would make it for them.

Truffles, their ginger haired Persian kitty, was curled up by the warm fire in her basket. She’d just been pampered and had her evening snack and was cozy. It appeared that she might even be listening in on their conversation. Which was fine by Dana, since she believed that Truffles had some sort of psychic trait. Weird to think about. But Dana had seen Truffles in action before. Besides, whenever there was danger, Truffles hairs would stand up and she would hiss loudly. She was a lovely companion and one of Dana’s closest friends. But that was something that Dana kept to herself, of course.

It was Truffles that had alerted the neighbors to Grandma Rae’s ill health scare before she passed away and it was Truffles who helped Dana, well inadvertently helped Dana by showing her a sign on her laptop, to solve the Brad Jackson murder last month. It was as if there was a positive energy that lingered between them. Some sort of a protection. She would do anything to protect her little kitty that she’d inherited from Grandma Rae and she knew deep down in her heart, Truffles felt the same way.

“It sure looks that way, cuz. I wish all the pieces of the puzzle fitted together like the riddles on my blog but they just don’t add up.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Dana said as she flipped open her MacBook that was laying on the side table, “it seems as if we have a few more possible suspects now.”

“Such as?”

“Such as, according to Darlene, any one of Lucy’s friends. I mean, Karla was the bridesmaid at her wedding and Darlene said something like she feels Karla had something to do with Lucy’s suspicious death. Because as soon as she was out of the way, she ended up marrying the groom herself before Lucy’s body was cold in the grave.”

“Yikes! That doesn’t sound good. Okay, who else do you have?” Katie asked while Dana typed the notes into her laptop.

Truffles purred gently beside her, his fluffy fur rubbing against her skin. “Well, I’m not sure what that means Truffs, but I’m going to add Lucy’s friends as a possibility though I’ll need to find out who they are.”

Truffles looked away. Dana wished she could read her little kitty’s mind sometimes.

“Okay,” Dana said, tapping on her keyboard. “So, there’s also Darlene. I mean, Darlene knew that Karla was messing around with Uncle Max’s finances and gambling.”

“It could be one of the casino boss’s.”

“Yes, that’s right, Darlene did mention that she saw the credit card bills and she racked up a lot of debt in gambling. She could have been bumped off. But then there’s Darlene, too. She doesn’t seem like an easy to get along with humble secretary. Was Karla trying to fire her? Did Darlene knock her off before Karla got a chance to get rid of her?”

“True. That is a possibility. But then again, Inga did say that Darlene’s not to be trusted, too.”

Dana took a deep sigh and closed her laptop. “I guess we really are further from the truth. The list of possible suspects could be endless.”

“But who had a motive and an opportunity?” Katie added.

“True. Darlene was close enough and then I thought it weird for some reason that she was on Heparin.”

Truffles hissed loudly.

“Thanks Truffs. I do hope you’re on to something. But for now, we have a long way to go because I have a feeling that whoever killed Karla is going to cover their tracks really carefully.”

The following morning, Uncle Max was released on bail bright and early on the Monday.  He was very tired but happy to be back at his own house and not the jailhouse.

They had gone over to Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia’s home to pick up Aunt Mary to bring her back to her home where Max would be able to look after her.

Not that Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia minded taking care of Aunt Mary, but it was a lot of work seeing that she was practically helpless and bedbound. Aunt Mary also was a strange lady that loved to order her favorite warm milk with honey and cherry biscuits around the clock. She also loved to lock her door a lot because she had fears of someone attacking her.

Uncle Max and Dana went into the kitchen of his Victorian, not far from where Dana lived and not far from Aunt Nia and Uncle Merv. Aunt Mary was currently resting upstairs in her room after receiving her medication from the day nurse before who had dropped by for a quick visit.

“I’m so glad you’re out now, Uncle Max. Trust me. We’ll make sure that the real murderer is caught.” Dana’s voice was confident. She grabbed two cups from the cupboard and proceeded to make some coffee. She put the coffee maker on and soon after, the fresh roasted coffee started to percolate.

Before long, she poured the coffee into the two mugs.

“Thank you, Dana. You’re a real sweetheart, do you know that?” Uncle Max hugged his cup of coffee while sitting in the kitchen of his home.

“You’ve always been there for me, Uncle Max and I really appreciate that. I’ll never forget the days after my mom and pops passed away.”

“Hey, that’s what family’s for, darling. No one wants to be alone.”

“What did you just say?” The hairs stood up on Dana’s neck. Something in his words resonated with her and she just didn’t know why.

“I said no one wants to be alone.” Uncle Max gave Dana a confused look. “Is something wrong?”

Just like the riddles on her blog. Something was beginning to make sense. The puzzles were beginning to fit together.

“Uncle Max, I was going to ask you about your late wives.”

“What about them?”

“Well, did they get along with…Aunt Mary?”

Now Uncle Max was looking more dazed than ever. “Of course they did. Why?”

“Hmm. Nothing.” Dana picked up her coffee cup and took a long sip while pondering.

No one wants to be alone.

She had an eery suspicion who the murderer could be. But then again, she had been wrong before.

“Did she have any enemies that you might have known about?”

Uncle Max drew in a deep breath. He placed his cup of coffee down on the table and shifted his eyes toward the window, his lips pinched. Was that guilt in his eyes?

“What’s wrong, Uncle Max?”

“Oh, nothing. I just…nothing.” He picked up his coffee again and took a sip but she could see the wheels turning in his head. What was he thinking? What was on his mind?

“Uncle, I know this is very difficult for you but right now things aren’t looking very well for you. This is really serious, you know?”

“I know.”

“Uncle, I’m not sure if you really do know. Just who are you protecting?”

“Dana, listen. I’ve got everything under control. I’ll be meeting with the lawyer later this afternoon.”

“But uncle, you’ve been charged.”

“They held me on suspicion of murder, Dana.
Suspicion
. They had to let me go on bail. They had nothing solid. It’s a technicality.”

Dana rolled her eyes and placed her cup down on the table.

“Uncle this is still very serious.” Dana knew all too well how frightening it could be to be suspected of murder. Just the thought alone caused her spine to tingle. Not that she’d been arrested, thank heavens for that.

“I know it is.”

“Uncle, is there something I should know. I really want to help you and Aunt Mary.”

Just then a loud bang and crashing sound came from upstairs and caused both Uncle Max and Dana to jolt.

“Oh, no!” Dana cried out. “What is it?”

“Ma!” Uncle Max jumped out of his seat and took off flying up the stairs.

Dana followed him climbing two steps at a time to keep up with him. Her heels making a clunking sound on the hardwood of the floor. The stair well was very narrow as was common in most Victorian homes.

By the time she reached up to the stairwell, she turned left to the landing and went into the room where Uncle Max had gone. He was kneeling down at the bedside. “Ma! Ma, are you all right?” He reached over and picked her up.

“Oh, no,” Dana said, assisting him. “Did she fall out of bed?”

“Oh, dear…” Aunt Mary moaned. “I think I broke something.”

“We’ll call Doc Cromwell.”

“No dear. I think I broke my favorite pair of reading glasses.”

“Oh is that all? I’ll get you another pair, Ma.”

“Doc Cromwell? I thought her doctor was Dr. Samson.”

“Not for a while.”

Dana and Uncle Max managed to get the very frail and lightweight Aunt Mary back into bed.

Dana observed the place.

It seemed as if the loud sound that crashed was the old Victorian side table on four wooden legs and all the glasses and tray of biscuits and pitcher of water that was on it. Thank goodness Aunt Mary was all right. She had apparently tried to reach over to grab something with her long stick that was beside her on the bed. Luckily, the floor had some cushions on the side. Uncle Merv and Aunt Nia said they often put cushions on the side of the bed in case Aunt Mary fell out of bed at night. That was a good thinking and a good habit to have. The cushions seemed to have cushioned her fall. The Victorian side table, however, didn’t fear to well as it now had three little legs instead of four.

“Ma, what were you doing?” Uncle Max’s tone was anxious.

“Sorry, dear. I just wanted to reach over to get my funny book.”

“Your funny book?” Dana echoed.

“Oh, Ma. You should have told me.” Uncle Max went over to the dresser to retrieve Aunt Mary’s book of comics. “It’s her favorite book. The comics.” Uncle Max explained to Dana.

“I see,” said Dana.

“Next time, ring for me, Ma. Don’t try getting out of bed yourself.”

Dana noticed a brass antique hand bell at the bedside.

“I’m sorry dear. I just don’t like to be a bother.”

“Where is Suzie? She should be here by now.”

“Who’s Suzie, uncle?”

“The care worker. She comes in once in a while to help out and to get Ma ready for bed and personal care.”

“I see. Aunt Mary, is there anything I can get you?” Dana went over to the bed and hugged her dear old auntie.

“I’m all right dear. I would like some warm milk with honey and a few cherry biscuits if that’s all right?”

“I’ll get it, Ma.”

“Are you sure, Uncle Max. You’ve had a very stressful morning.”

“It’s the least I could do.”

Uncle Max left the room after picking up the tray from the floor and putting the contents back on the tray.

Dana sat on the side of the bed with Aunt Mary. “It’ll be all right, Aunt Mary. Don’t you worry about a thing.” Her voice was soothing and soft.

Aunt Mary sighed deeply. “I wish, I could stop worrying, dear Dana. But it isn’t easy you  know. Everyone sees me as helpless, but I wasn’t always that way.” She looked out the window. “You know I used to work for the military back in the day. After the war.”

“My goodness, Aunt Mary. That’s fantastic. I know they needed a lot of women back then when all the men went off to fight. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you, dear. I only wish I could help poor Max out.”

“But you can. You can just be supportive as you always are, Aunt Mary. You’ve helped me out back when my parents died, too. I’ll never forget that.”

“IT was no trouble, dear. You’re family and like my own child.”

Dana smiled.

Aunt Mary’s eyes seem to have a shadow of sadness slide across them.

“What’s is it?” Dana asked softly.

“Oh, it’s just that…well, I’m worried about Max.”

“I know you are. But he has one of the best lawyers around.”

“It’s not that. He’s loyal to a fault, that one.”

“What do you mean by that?” Dana was puzzled.

“His late wife. God rest her soul.” Aunt Mary sighed again.

“His late wife?”

“Yes. You see,” Aunt Mary leaned in closer. “She was unfaithful to him, Dana. Even though we got along, she wasn’t good to him. I bet it was one of those misters she was dating.”

“You do? Well, that’s something,” Dana said, taking mental notes.

“Many times when she thought I was asleep upstairs and when Max was out on a business trip, she would sneak around with her…her men.” Aunt Mary’s lips were pinched.

“Her
men
? Plural?”

“I’m sorry to have to be so blunt, child. But he should have told the police this information. One of her lovers even threatened her.”

“Well, why didn’t Uncle Max say anything?”

“Because that would have given me a motive for murder, don’t you think?” Uncle Max’s voice caused Dana and Aunt Mary to jump.

“Oh, Uncle Max, you’re back.”

Uncle Max stood at the bedroom door with a tray of refreshments for Aunt Mary. A cup of warm milk and honey, some biscuits and a scone and a pitcher of water. He calmly walked over to the side table and placed the tray down beside his mother.

“Son, you must understand I think you’re making a big mistake by not telling them about her other men. They could have a motive, too.”

“I thought about that. But it’s best we don’t say anything, mother.”

“But Uncle Max, Aunt Mary’s right. It could be any of them.”

“And how do you think it would look if I found out she had other men? It would make me look like a jealous husband.”

“Which you’re not, son. You’re a forgiving husband. I’m surprised you stayed with her after all the heartache she’d caused you, son.”

“Mother!”

“Sorry son, I don’t know what got into me.” Aunt Mary picked up her warm milk and honey and took a long sip. “The milk is wonderful, son. Thank you. It’s just the way I like it.”

              Dana couldn’t help but wondering how terrible it must have been for Uncle Max to have found out that he wife was cheating on him with not one but many lovers.

Could it be?

Could Dana have gotten this whole situation wrong? Did Uncle Max have a crime of passion? Could he have really killed his wife in a fit of jealous rage?