Dead Men Don't Eat Cookies (21 page)

“Because Heights Hardware is the best hardware store ever,” Maddie said. “And you know everything there is to know about construction and . . . related stuff.”

Lucas grinned at his bride. “It’s the only hardware store nearby,” he said, “and we’ve been around for generations, so we know lots of suppliers and construction companies.”

“That, too.” Maddie hiked herself up onto the kitchen counter and wrapped an arm around Lucas’s broad shoulders.

With the merest show of pink on his cheekbones, Lucas said, “This might not mean anything, but I witnessed an argument between Robbie and Kenny that happened shortly before Kenny disappeared five years ago. I was delivering a load of lumber to a construction site Robbie was overseeing. Robbie and I were unloading when Kenny showed up. He was red in the face, really angry. Robbie can be hotheaded, too, but this time he held back and tried to keep things under control. Kenny was so mad he didn’t care who heard him. He threatened to kill Robbie if he didn’t stay away from Crystal.”

“I’ll bet Robbie lost it right about then,” Maddie said.

“Nope,” Lucas said. “I expected a fistfight, maybe worse, so I signaled my guys to back away. Robbie was mad, I could see that, but he just stood there and stared at Kenny. Finally, Robbie said, ‘The booze is making you imagine things. Now go away and don’t ever come near me again.’

“Kenny said, ‘Or what? You’ll kill me? If you come near my wife and daughter,
I’ll
kill
you
.’ Then Kenny turned around
and walked away.” Lucas slumped against the edge of the counter as if reciting his story had worn him to the bone.

Maddie gave her husband a quick squeeze around his shoulders. “You remembered that really precisely, honey,” she said.

“Yeah, I guess it made an impression,” Lucas said, apparently to the floor. “Only I totally forgot about it until just now. Mom always said I could remember really well when I paid enough attention, but sometimes my memory needs a jolt to wake it up.”

Maddie caught Olivia’s eye and raised her pale eyebrows, conveying a message that Olivia understood perfectly—
Robbie stays on the suspect list
.

*   *   *

F
or
the next hour, a steady stream of visitors kept Olivia, Maddie, and Bertha busy on the sales floor. Chatterley Heights Elementary School had freed their prisoners early for a teachers meeting, so clusters of giggly girls used the free time to drop by their favorite stores on their way home. In The Gingerbread House, their preferred activities included playing with the cookie cutters in the cookbook nook, poring over cookbook photos of luscious desserts, and eating the free cookies.

When the girls had all left the store, Olivia took the opportunity to straighten up the cookbook nook before actual customers returned. She had to use one of their large Gingerbread House bags to collect all the cookie cutters strewn around the nook. This time, Olivia also found several small containers of nonpareils, jimmies, and sparkling sugars left on the seats of the two large armchairs. One jar of sapphire blue sparkling sugar had been opened and its inner seal broken. Olivia wondered how Del would react if she asked him to pull fingerprints and identify the little culprit. She decided to swallow the loss as part of the cost of doing business. Next time, she would ask Bertha to keep an eye on those little budding criminals.

Maddie poked her head into the cookbook nook, and said, “Okay, Livie, before the next herd arrives, tell me instantly what you learned from Del during lunch. I figure he must have told you something interesting about those bones, or your date wouldn’t have lasted so long.”

Caught off guard, Olivia hesitated. Maddie would hear her discomfort and know she was hiding something. Olivia grabbed a pile of cookbooks and began to shove them back on the shelf. “Maddie, if we don’t get busy and
do
our actual jobs, we won’t have jobs at all. I’ve been going over the books, and they aren’t pretty.” Olivia hadn’t planned to say that; it just popped out. And she wasn’t exactly lying. She really had been looking over the books.

“Oh,” Maddie said. “Is it really bad?”

The alarm in her best friend’s voice sent a bolt of shame through Olivia’s heart. Terrific, she thought, now I’ve kept my promise to Del by frightening Maddie. “Nothing we can’t weather,” she said. “It was a tough summer, that’s all. Remember, there were days when hardly anyone was willing even to think about heating up the kitchen to bake cookies.” She peeked out at the sales floor, where Bertha was trying to help three women at once. The after-work crowd had begun to arrive. “See, Maddie? We have customers again. And Bertha needs us.” Olivia charged out to the sales floor, vowing she’d never again promise Del to keep information from her best friend since age ten.

Once the influx of customers had slowed to a crawl, Olivia sought out Bertha and Maddie and asked them to mind the store long enough for her to take Spunky outside for a bathroom break. In fact, Olivia wanted to make a private phone call, but she kept that to herself. With luck, she’d return with her unbearable burden lifted.

“Come on, Spunks.” When Olivia dangled his leash, the little Yorkie leaped off his chair and raced toward her. “Good boy,” she said as Spunky followed her into the empty foyer. She closed the store door behind them. “An extra treat will be
available for cooperative dogs who refrain from yapping at squirrels while I’m talking on my cell phone.” Before heading out to the front porch, Olivia felt in her jacket pocket to make sure she had, in fact, remembered to bring her cell phone. It was there, fully charged.

While Olivia followed Spunky around the side yard, she punched Del’s speed-dial number with her thumb and held her breath, willing him to answer. He did, on the second ring.

“Livie, I’m glad you called,” Del said. “I need to set up a time when you, Anita Rambert, and Maddie, if she’s interested, can come to the station and look at those cookie cutters I mentioned. I did get permission to bring the actual cutters, by the way, though my life will be forfeit if anything happens to them. They didn’t yield much in terms of forensic information, so we’re hoping for insight at this point. How about we all meet right after your closing time? Anita said she could come then.”

“Anita would skip her mother’s deathbed to see those cutters,” Olivia said.

“Are you aware that you said that out loud?” Del asked with a chuckle.

“I meant to. Could we make it later and meet at Aunt Sadie’s house? She knows a lot about vintage and antique cookie cutters, and she won’t have a vested interest in underestimating their value.”

“Good idea,” Del said. “Frankly, I’ll feel safer with Aunt Sadie around to keep the peace. I’d hate to have to use my gun. See you then.”

“Wait,” Olivia said. “I’m the one who called you, remember? I have a couple things to say to you, starting with . . . Don’t ever again ask me to lie to Maddie. I mean it, Del, I can’t take it.”

“To be fair, I didn’t ask you to
lie
,” Del said, “merely to keep certain information to yourself. So I—”

“I’m serious, Del. Maddie is my best friend. We’ve always shared important information with each other. When the topic
is as serious as . . . Hang on a sec.” Olivia led Spunky to the backyard, which was farther from the windows. “When the topic is really important,” she said in a more subdued voice, “Maddie naturally expects me to be open with her. It wouldn’t occur to her that I might hide information from her. She asks questions, and if I refuse to answer or try to change the subject, she’ll know I’m hiding something. So I end up lying. It’s the only way I can avoid making her suspicious. I hate lying to Maddie. Can you understand what that feels like?”

There was a moment of silence on the line before Del said, “You’re right, Livie. I shouldn’t give you important information and then order you not to share it with Maddie. And I can understand your feelings, because I have them, too. I hate keeping important information from you. Frankly, it gets harder every day. And anyway, in this case, silence is creating problems rather than preventing them. The rumors are worse than the truth.”

“Really?” Olivia almost lost her balance as Spunky lunged toward a squirrel. “Stop that,” Olivia yelled.

“Livie? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Del. Although I’m glad Yorkshire terriers are little critters. If Spunky were a Labrador, I’d have a dislocated shoulder. Now, what were you saying about rumors being worse than truth?”

“I’m referring to the items the crime lab extracted from the boarding house wall. The whole town knows we found more than we’d expected, but, miraculously, the details haven’t become common knowledge. Believe it or not, the rumors are even more incredible than what we actually found. I can tell Ida has been talking, because the satanic ritual theory has made the rounds. Some versions include human sacrifice. The most recent speculation I heard involved a serial killer who kidnapped random strangers and walled them up alive.”

“Yikes.” With her free arm, Olivia grabbed Spunky around his middle to keep him from leaping toward another
squirrel that appeared to be taunting him. “You’re right, the rumors are worse than the truth. So may I tell Maddie what you really did find?”

“You may,” Del said, “though I’d appreciate it if you waited until you’ve closed the store. And please don’t tell anyone else.”

“That goes without saying.” Olivia checked the time on her cell phone. “Del, I need to get back to the store, but I wanted to let you know that Alicia has gone off somewhere. She left a note for my mom and Allan saying she was going to talk to someone about her father’s death. Mom is really worried that she’s putting herself in danger. Apparently, there’s a man at the homeless shelter who told Polly he came back to town because his stepdaughter lives here. His name is Jack.” Olivia repeated Jack’s description as best she could recall. “Mom thought the stepdaughter might be Alicia, so she called together a rescue posse that met in the Gingerbread House kitchen. They hope to find Alicia through this man.”

“Sounds like quite a long shot to me,” Del said, “but let me know if it leads to anything. If you have reason to believe Alicia is in danger from this man, let me know. Otherwise, there’s not much I can do. Alicia is nineteen. She can go off anywhere she wants. And I really can’t declare her missing after only a few hours. I’d rather she didn’t try to investigate her father’s death on her own, of course. That can get dangerous. I can’t stop her, though. If Cody were here, I’d have him talk to Polly, get a full description of Jack, hunt down his full name, see if he has a record, and keep an eye out for him. On an unofficial level, all I can do is keep my eyes and ears open. That’s the best I can offer at this point. But if anything changes . . .”

“I’ll let you know if mom’s posse comes up with anything,” Olivia said, “especially if it appears that this homeless man did know Kenny Vayle.”

“And definitely inform me if Alicia disappears altogether, particularly if the homeless man never returns to claim his belongings,” Del said. “Meanwhile, I can share with you one more tidbit about the evidence we took from the boarding
house. In fact, I’ll need your help. We didn’t find another cookie cutter necklace. However, underneath the bones, cookie cutters, and dust, we found a fair amount of detritus, all of which we scooped up and carted back to the lab. I just got a call from the lab folks to tell me that they found a bullet. Not just any bullet, either. This one was old, certainly from well before Kenny Vayle disappeared. The lab techs are pretty excited. They think it might have been fired from an early twentieth century pistol. Also, the bullet appears to be a decent match to the hole we found in the second skull.”

“That’s fascinating.” Spunky squirmed to escape Olivia’s arm, so she lowered him to the ground and began walking him around the backyard. “In other words, it’s true that the owner of the skull was murdered. Is it possible he shot himself?”

“I doubt it. The bullet hole was in the back of his skull. I’ll let you know what the forensics reveal . . . if they can learn anything. Anyway, they should be able to determine how old the skull is. DNA testing could prove difficult without more clues.” When Olivia didn’t answer him, Del said, “I should let you go back to work. I’ll call Aunt Sadie and arrange the meeting this evening at seven.”

“Wait, Del.” Olivia hesitated a moment, thinking back to Tuesday night. “When you mentioned Aunt Sadie, it made me remember a story she told us yesterday. I wonder . . .”

“Now I’m curious,” Del said.

“Well, you know how knowledgeable Aunt Sadie is about Chatterley Heights history, not to mention cookie cutters, life, death, and the universe. Anyway, the other evening Maddie and I brought her dinner, and we talked about finding those bones. Aunt Sadie began reminiscing about the boarding house itself . . . you know, its history. She told us a marvelous story about Horace Chatterley, who actually built that boarding house at the behest of his mistress-of-the-moment, whose name was Imogene Jones. Aunt Sadie told us that Horace lost his fortune in the stock market crash
and ended up living in his own boarding house. I’m sure she said Horace simply ‘disappeared,’ some years later.”

“Interesting,” Del said. “It’s a place to start, anyway. I’ll mention the story to the crime scene techs and see what they say. They might have some leftover Chatterley DNA.”

Olivia knew he was referring to a previous murder in Chatterley Heights that had occurred after she had moved back to town. “Thanks for keeping me in the forensic loop,” she said, “and for releasing me from best-friend purgatory. Speaking of which, I’d better get back to the store, or Maddie will be assembling a second search party. I’ll keep you posted.”

“See you tonight,” Del said. “I wish it were under more romantic circumstances.”

“Romantic is nice, but it isn’t every evening I get to look at potentially antique cookie cutters. I’m glad we’ll be able to see them up close and personal. I know Aunt Sadie can tell a lot more from actually holding a cutter in her hands.”

With a light laugh, Del said, “I aim to please. I also aim for the most accurate information I can get.”