Death of a Cupcake Queen (15 page)

Chapter 28

The tears streamed down Hayley's cheeks.

She swore to herself that she wouldn't cry.

In fact, Gemma made her promise.

But she just couldn't help herself as her daughter descended the stairs in her Princess Sweetheart floor-length tulle dress. It was gorgeous.

But it was Gemma who made the dress truly beautiful.

Her hair was styled in a classic up do with decorative bobby pins, her makeup flawless thanks to detailed instructions from her Aunt Liddy.

Her smile was radiant.

She was like one of those Disney princesses she worshipped as a child.

At the foot of the stairs, her date Oliver was dashing in a black peak lapel tuxedo jacket right out of
The Great Gatsby
.

If Hayley ever thought Oliver was slightly goofy, that myth was instantly dispelled by his miraculous transformation into a male model with his slicked back hair, confident posture, and handsome face, which glowed at the sight of his date taking his hand as she landed next to him.

Dustin, in far more casual attire, a
Family Guy
t-shirt and ratty shorts, circled the couple with his GoPro camer. His original plan was to follow the couple around all night and edit together a short film he could submit to film festivals, but his sister quickly nixed dhis lofty plans, not wanting her porm night judged by a committee.

Leroy, unimpressed, lifted his head long enough to inspect the dress, before going back to sleep in the corner of the couch where he was not ever supposed to be, but there was too much going on for anyone to notice.

Gemma grimaced at the sight of her mother's embarrassing waterworks, so Hayley fished a Kleenx® out of her pants pocket and blew her nose, honking so loud Dustin felt hte need to swing the camer around and get the action on camera.

Hayley, wiping the tears away, motioned for him to stop recording her breakdown, but he didn't listen, keeping the GoPro trained on her to capture every dramatic sniffle. The budding director instinctively knew the heightened emotion was gold.

After Gemma patiently waited for Hayley to regain her composure, she gently asked in a soft, feminine voice, “How do I look?”

Hayley lost it all over again.

And a gleeful Dustin recorded every mortifying second.

“You know what, we should probably just go, ” Gemma said, giving her sobbing mother a quick hug before walking out the door which was held open by Oliver.

Dustin followed close behind nearly tripping over the welcome mat to make sure he got Gemma's reaction because he knew what was coming next.

Gemma stopped suddenly on the top step, her eyes wide with surprise at the sight of a silver stretch limousine waiting in front of the house. Standing next to the limo, in a gray chauffeur's uniform and black gloves, waiting to usher the young couple into the back of the limo that was stocked with snacks and non-alcoholic beverages was Aaron, beaming from ear to ear.

Aaron asked Hayley if he could treat the kids to a first-class ride to the prom as a graduation present for Gemma.

Hayley of course agreed, touched by the gesture.

This guy certainly was a keeper.

“Wow, this is so much cooler than going in my beat up Ford Focus!” Oliver said, squeezing Gemma's hand.

She smiled and gave Aaron a tight hug before joining Oliver in the back. Aaron shut the door and winked at Hayley before jumping behind the wheel and driving off with Dustin running out in the middle of the street to get the action shot of the limo disappearing down the street.

Hayley walked back inside for more Kleenex®, happy her daughter was going to the prom with a real gentleman and not that now notorious player, Nate Forte.

Before she had a chance to wipe the last tear from her face, her cell phone rang and she picked it up off the kitchen table where she left it to see who was calling.

“Sis, it's me,” Randy said.

“You will not believe how beautiful Gemma looked, Randy. I was overcome. She's all grown up.”

“I'll see for myself at the premiere party your son JJ Abrams is planning. Now you wanted me to call you if I ran into this Charles McNally guy you want to talk to, right?”

“Yes, did you see him?”

“I'm looking at him right now. He's sitting here at my bar.”

“Keep him there! I'm on my way.”

“Oh, honey, I don't think he's going anywhere. He just ordered his third bourbon on the rocks.”

With the phone still clamped to her ear, Hayley grabbed her bag and raced out the back kitchen door to her car parked in the driveway.

When she arrived at Drinks Like a Fish, a quick five-minute drive from her house, she instantly spied Charles McNally planted on a stool, hunched over the bar. He was bleary-eyed and swayed a bit as he swallowed the last of his now fourth or fifth bourbon.

Hayley sidled up to him and slid on top of the stool next to him. “I certainly hope you're not driving, Charles.”

He jerked his head in her direction and squinted at her trying to focus before frowning. “Oh, hello, Hayley. Thank you for your concern, but I am perfectly fine. Life's many disappointments have trained me to be very good at holding my liquor.”

“Well, I'd be happy to drive you back to your hotel if you want.”

“Have you forgotten? I designed the Designated Driver app. Only problem is we have no drivers all the way out in this backward town. But I'm staying with my parents. I can call my Dad to come pick me up. So I don't need a babysitter.”

“How long will you be in town?”

“I'll be getting out of Dodge just as soon as I can change my flight. I thought coming back for this reunion would be just what I needed to turn things around, make a fresh start, but it's just made things worse.”

“Sounds like you're taking Ivy's rejection pretty hard,” Hayley said, signaling to Randy who stood behind the bar to bring her a bottled water.

Charles stared at her. “What are you talking about? Ivy didn't reject me. I never even got the chance to talk to her. I went into the kitchen to tell her how I felt and found her dead on the floor. My whole life crashed after that. I can't believe she's gone.”

Charles' eyes welled up with tears.

He stared into the bottom of his empty glass.

“So you never professed your love to her?” Hayley asked.

“No. Now I'll never know if she felt the same way.”

Hayley studied him closely.

He could be lying.

He told Hayley at the reunion he hadn't seen his beloved Ivy yet and lit up when he saw the altercation between her and Nigel. He could have then gone into the kitchen and spilled his guts to Ivy. After she rejected him, he may have walked outside in despair. He could have seen Nigel's golf clubs in his rental car and stolen one while Nigel was distracted by the dogs. He had plenty of time to whack Ivy over the head several times, return the club to where he found it, and slip back inside the main room with his former classmates before going into the kitchen to discover the body.

This could all be a ruse to deflect suspicion off him.

But Hayley had known Charles McNally since they were kids.

In fourth grade when he wrote a dirty word on the chalkboard it only took Mrs. Olsen four minutes to squeeze a confession out of him.

He couldn't live with the guilt.

People don't change that much.

“Charles, the police found a bloody golf club in Nigel's bag. He's been arrested for Ivy's murder.”

“I hope they fry him!”

Lucky for Nigel, Maine didn't have the death penalty.

“It's just that he swears he didn't do it and I'm inclined to believe him. And if that's the case, then that means someone used his golf club to kill Ivy and then planted it in his bag to frame him . . . and you did play golf with him right before the murder.”

Charles slammed his glass down on the bar, startling a few nearby patrons as well as Randy who had just dropped off Hayley's water and was walking back to the kitchen.

He spun around ready to kick Charles out.

Hayley waved him off.

“How could you possibly think I would touch a hair on Ivy's pretty little head? I worshipped her! And I didn't know Nigel was even her husband until I saw them at the reunion together. He never mentioned his wife when we played golf.”

“Well, I know how deeply you cared for Ivy and if she rejected you . . .”

“I just told you I never spoke to her about anything that was going on with me, the feelings that came rushing back when I heard she was coming to the reunion, how my heart sang when I learned her marriage was in trouble . . . I never even got a chance to see her before . . .”

Charles burst into tears, tapping his empty glass on the bar, desperate for another bourbon.

Randy chose to ignore him by pretending not to hear.

“I was so hoping we might be able to resolve the nasty business that happened on the last night I saw her all those years ago . . . when she broke my heart . . . perhaps start anew . . . but then I walked in and saw her lying there in a pool of blood . . . it was so awful . . .”

“Wait. What nasty business are you talking about?” Hayley asked.

“It was a long time ago, Hayley. I'd rather not relive it.”

“Charles, it's only a matter of time before the police zero in on the fact that you had an opportunity to pilfer one of Nigel's golf clubs and you wind up on the official suspect list.”

“But I didn't do it!”

“Then let me help you. Tell me everything. The more we know the easier it will be to put all the pieces together and clear you.”

Charles raised an eyebrow. “Are you working with the police?”

“Let's just say I'm an unofficial consultant,” Hayley lied.

Charles nodded, softening. He stared at his empty glass again. “I remember it as if it were yesterday . . .”

Hayley leaned in closer, and put a comforting hand on his arm, encouraging him to open up.

Charles sighed. “It was the summer after graduation. I was college-bound in the fall. Ivy had ended things right after prom. She said she didn't think a long-distance relationship would work since she was going to college in New York and I was going to be at Wesleyan in Connecticut. But I couldn't leave without trying one more time to convince her we could make it work. I showed up at her door with a bouquet of flowers and I told her how I was convinced our relationship was worth fighting for and she just laughed in my face. She had no intention of staying with me once she got to college. She wanted to keep her options open. A light shut off inside me at that moment. It was such a turning point. I had been student council president. Big man on campus. And she just crushed my heart and obliterated my confidence. I became hopelessly insecure and that's what led to the cheating scandal at college. There was so much pressure to succeed and make the Dean's List and I just couldn't hack it. Ivy did such a number on me. Of course it wasn't her fault. I let her get to me. I should've been stronger. And to think after twenty years, I was ready to let all that go, try again with her . . . God, I'm pathetic.”

Hayley squeezed his arm. “You are
not
pathetic, Charles.”

“I sure was that night. After she dumped me, I gave her a ride to Sabrina's house. Can you believe that? After all the drama on her doorstep, I still acted like her lap dog. I just did what she told me. I was in a trance like it wasn't even happening. She was going to a party and didn't want her parents to know. So two minutes after she laughed in my face over the idea of us staying a couple, I was dutifully driving her across town like her own personal sad sack chauffeur.”

“Did you go to the party with her?”

“Are you kidding me? The second we pulled up to Sabrina's house she was out the door without even a thank you. I was clearly not invited.”

“I'm surprised Sabrina didn't invite you.”

“Sabrina wasn't the one having the party. It was at Julian Reed's house.”

Hayley's eyes widened. “Julian Reed, the actor?”

“Yeah. She mentioned in the car that earlier in the day they ran into him on Main Street and he was so handsome and charming and after chatting with him for a few minutes he invited them up to the mansion he was renting for the summer that night, which is why she couldn't tell her parents. They never would have let her go even if she went with Sabrina and Nykki. I never saw her so excited. She was going to party with one of her favorite movie stars.”

Julian Reed.

The movie star who so famously drowned in his pool the summer after Hayley's high school graduation.

She was fuzzy on the exact date.

It was so long ago.

But she was certain it was around the same time.

And the fact that Sabrina, Ivy, and Nykki, two of whom were now dead at the hands of a vicious killer, met Julian Reed at his house around the same time he died was just too much of a coincidence.

Was all of this somehow connected?

Randy, feeling sorry for Charles, who was now just a puddle of tears, filled his glass with more bourbon, which Charles gratefully accepted.

“On the house,” Randy said.

Charles smiled weakly and then downed it in one gulp.

Hayley gave Charles a gentle pat on the back and then jumped off the stool and ran out of the bar.

Chapter 29

“Hayley, we're very busy today, we're hosting a local mystery author's book reading and signing tonight, and I don't have time to indulge all of your whimsical questions,” Agatha Farnsworth sniffed as Hayley stood at the reception desk of the Jesup Memorial Library.

Agatha Farnsworth was in her eighties and had been the chief librarian at Jesup since the mid-Sixties. Whenever she laid an eye on Hayley it was if the two were frozen in time, and Hayley was still the loud and chatty thirteen year old who was constantly shushed and scolded whenever she went to the library to check out a book.

“Agatha, I just asked if your newspaper archives have been converted from microfilm to digital files.”

“Such big words, Ms. Fancy Pants. Why do you need to know?”

“Because I'd like to do a little research and I just wanted to make sure I'd find what I'm looking for on the library computer.”

“You're going to be the death of me. Always coming in here and making life difficult.”

Hayley bit her tongue.

She hadn't been in the library since an ill-fated bake sale that ended in a food fight.

It wasn't her fault, but she had still been too embarrassed to return.

But that was another story.

Agatha lowered her wire rim granny glasses to the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Fine. Yes. All the
Island Times
and
Bar Harbor Herald
files are on the computer and we have one available right now, but please, remember to keep your voice down.”

“I'm here alone, Agatha. I don't even have anyone to talk to,” Hayley said through gritted teeth.

“Well, in my experience, that has never stopped you before,” Agatha scoffed.

Hayley thought of a few responses she could throw back at Agatha, especially since her kids weren't around and she wouldn't have to worry about setting a bad example. But she knew she couldn't be rude for fear of being ejected from the library by the Crypt Keeper. Plus she knew Sergio would never agree to allow her to read through the police reports pertaining to the Julian Reed case twenty years ago, so she had to rely on newspaper articles from that summer.

Hayley whispered as softly as possible. “Thank you, Agatha.”

Agatha, eyes blazing, puckered her lips and with spittle forming at the sides of her mouth, let out a long, reprimanding “Shhhh!”

Hayley opened her mouth to apologize, thought better of it, and just headed for the stairs that led down to the basement room where the computers were stored. She knew Agatha was finally satisfied because she was able to scold Hayley at least once while she was in the library.

At least Hayley never felt old when she was around Agatha. She was still a young school girl. Albeit one with a big mouth and behavioral issues.

Hayley sat down in a hardback wood chair in front of a large clunky desktop computer from the nineties. The library's budget had been slashed so many times they had yet to invest in some newer sleeker models. Hayley tried a quick simple Google search first on Julian Reed's death but mostly just the conspiracy theories popped up.

It was his ex-wife who was caught cheating and got nothing in the divorce.

It was a disgruntled fellow actor who Julian got fired because he didn't want to be upstaged by the young stud.

It was the nut job girlfriend he dumped who bad mouthed him incessantly in the press and accused him of being physically abusive.

But there was no hard evidence connecting any of them to any kind of foul play.

Hayley then used a password Agatha had scribbled on a notecard for her to enter the library's archive and pulled up the actual articles printed in both local papers in 1995 documenting the case.

She scanned the paragraphs from the first report in the
Island Times
.

The police were called to the scene by the housekeeper who had discovered the body floating face down in the pool around three in the morning.

Blood contaminated the swimming pool from the victim's head wound.

Hayley jumped ahead to an article printed a few days later after the official autopsy report was released.

Drugs and alcohol were found in his system.

The police concluded that Julian Reed was impaired from the vodka and barbiturates enough that night that he probably tripped and hit his head on the side of the pool as he fell in.

The official cause of death was accidental drowning.

But since Julian Reed was such a big movie star an official conclusion wasn't nearly enough to stop the cottage industry of conspiracy theories that grew out of what really happened that night.

And perhaps all those fans and conspiracy enthusiasts were right.

Maybe the Bar Harbor Police Department got it wrong.

Was there more to the story?

So many years had passed.

Could fresh eyes find something the investigators missed at the time?

Hayley pored over all the articles printed about the investigation.

At the end of one written just a few days after Julian Reed's drowning, the last paragraph included a list of people questioned by the police at the time of the incident.

One name jumped out at Hayley.

A young handyman in his early twenties who had been on the estate earlier that day fixing a leaky faucet in the master bath.

Lex Bansfield.

Hayley's ex-boyfriend.