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Authors: Lee Hollis

Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries) (11 page)

BOOK: Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries)

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Chapter 18

After posting bail, Hayley got a lift home from Randy, who insisted they have breakfast and decide on a course of action for mounting her defense. Hayley couldn’t believe she was living in some
Law & Order
nightmare, and that she actually had to think about a defense. But Randy was insistent.

Hayley knew Gemma and Dustin were fully aware of their mother’s predicament when she picked them up at Mona’s and drove them home earlier and they wanted to hear all the gory details. But Hayley wasn’t about to share her harrowing night behind bars.

Okay, it wasn’t that harrowing. She was in the cell alone. The fried clams she had for dinner were actually not bad. And the cot wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable to sleep on as she had feared. In fact, her lower back always ached after falling asleep watching the Lifetime Movie Network on her lumpy couch. But this morning, after a good night’s rest on that jailhouse cot, her lumbar was feeling just fine.

“If you go to prison, are we going to have to go live with Dad in Iowa? Because I don’t want to start over at a new school,” Dustin sighed.

“No one’s going to prison,” Hayley said.

“Isn’t that what Martha Stewart said?” Gemma asked.

“She only had to go for five months,” Hayley said.

“So prison is a real possibility?” Gemma asked, gasping.

“Don’t be so dramatic, Gemma,” Hayley said, laughing. “Martha Stewart was convicted for investment fraud. What I’m dealing with here is ...”

“Murder!” Gemma cried. “You could seriously get the death penalty! Wait. Does Maine even have the death penalty?”

Hayley realized she probably should have thought more carefully about what she was going to say before she opened her big mouth.

“Everything’s going to be fine because your mother didn’t kill anyone,” Randy said, putting a pot of coffee on the burner and turning up the heat.

“Your uncle’s right,” Hayley said calmly. “I’m completely innocent. Now, I see the bus coming up the street, so get your butts in gear, or you’ll miss it.”

“You’re not driving us?” Dustin said, frowning.

“Court made me really late. No time. Now go. And stop worrying, because there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Hayley gave both her kids quick pecks on the cheek and they grabbed their backpacks and headed out the door.

The second the door shut behind them, Hayley spun around to Randy.

“Holy crap, do you really think I could get the death penalty?” Hayley wailed.

“Of course not,” Randy said. “Maine doesn’t have the death penalty. Besides, you didn’t touch a hair on Karen Applebaum’s head. And neither did any self-respecting stylist in a hundred mile radius.”

“Randy, don’t speak ill of the dead!”

“It’s a nervous joke. You know I make nervous jokes when I’m upset. And thinking of you showing up on one of those weekend
Lockup Raw
shows is scaring the hell out of me.”

“You just said I had no reason to worry!”

“I was just putting on a brave face in front of the kids! The poison was in your bag, Hayley!”

“I appreciate your calming influence,” Hayley said. “Is nine in the morning too early for a cocktail?”

“It’s happy hour somewhere in the world.”

“No, I’m not going to get all worked up over this,” Hayley said as she grabbed a half-eaten donut from an otherwise empty white box. “I don’t need alcohol to deal with stress.”

Hayley took a big bite of the donut.

“Especially when sugar is so readily available,” Randy said.

Hayley threw him an irritated look and then went to the cupboard to get two coffee mugs. “Look, I can’t explain how that vial of cyanide showed up in my bag. I didn’t put it there. Someone else did.”

“Whoever killed Karen.”

“Right. So all we have to do is find out who, besides me, hated her guts,” Hayley said, taking another bite of the donut.

“That’s most of the town.”

“Let’s face it. Karen was kind of a bitch when you get right down to it,” Hayley said. “I’m sure she had no shortage of enemies.”

“Yeah, but you were the only one who got caught with the same poison that killed her,” Randy added helpfully.

“I’m trying to remain upbeat and positive and constantly repeating observations like that are really starting to bring me down, okay?”

“Got it,” Randy said, a sheepish look on his face.

“We need to look for clues, anything that might suggest someone in Karen’s circle who had a concrete motive to get rid of her.”

“Too bad the police have cordoned off her house,” Randy said. “I’m sure if we got a chance to poke around in there we could turn something up.”

Hayley didn’t answer Randy. She was too busy thinking.

Randy looked at her and suddenly felt queasy. “But obviously it would be foolish of you to try and get in there, because it is an official crime scene, right?”

Hayley’s mind was still racing.

“Right?” Randy said, a bit louder.

“We should probably wait until after dark to go over there. I mean, Sergio doesn’t have the manpower to watch the house all day and all night.”

“Hayley, you’re not serious.”

“What? All it will take is a pair of scissors to cut through the yellow tape and ten minutes tops to go through the place. It’s really not a big deal. She lived alone. And it’s not as if Karen will come home and find us.”

Randy just looked at her, aghast. “Us? What
us?
I’m not getting involved in this.”

“Somebody needs to keep watch in case there’s a patrol car in the area or a neighbor walking a dog who could tip off the police that we’re there.”

“Stop staying
we
! I can’t go with you. Quick reminder. My boyfriend is the chief of police. If I got caught breaking and entering, do you know what that would mean?”

“Yes, I wouldn’t have to spend the night in jail alone next time. You’d be there as moral support.”

“No, I’d be there as a codefendant!”

“You’re overreacting, Randy. Sergio would never arrest you,” Hayley said.

“That’s what we all said about you, and look how that turned out. You’re out on bail, Hayley. If you do anything illegal, it will be revoked and you will be tossed right back inside, and there will be no getting out the next time.”

“Randy, listen to me. Karen’s house is set off from the main road. You drive by there all the time. The closest streetlight has been busted for months. There is no way anyone will see us enter if we approach from the woods behind the house.”

“No!”

“Can we stop playing this game? We both know you’re going to cave and go with me.”

“Well, see, that just proves you don’t know me so well anymore, because I’ve changed over the years and I’ve developed a very strong backbone and I will no longer automatically do everything you say just because you’re my big sister.”

Hayley just stared at him, waiting for him to break.

It took another minute of his hand-wringing before she knew she had him.

“Promise me we won’t get caught,” Randy said quietly.

“We’re not going to get caught. I promise,” Hayley said.

“You also promised me when we were kids that N Sync would never break up!”

“Trust your big sister,” Hayley said, pouring a cup of coffee and handing it to him.

Randy took a big gulp of the hot coffee and eyed Hayley warily.

She knew she just had to wait him out.

Once, when Randy was four years old, she convinced him her mud pies were really made of Godiva chocolate. This breaking and entering scheme was a breeze in comparison.

“You in?” Hayley said, handing him the last bit of her donut.

Randy nodded and tossed the piece of donut in his mouth.

Hayley smiled.

Their secret raid was officially set in motion.

Chapter 19

As it turned out, Randy had very little to fear when it came to breaking into Karen Applebaum’s house after dark. Everything Hayley had predicted turned out to be true. The nearest streetlight was broken. The woods behind the house provided the perfect cover for the brother and sister team of would-be investigators to approach. And they effortlessly slipped under the yellow police tape that cordoned off the property. They were at the back door within seconds.

Neither of them really expected the door to be unlocked and it wasn’t. Hayley jiggled the handle a couple of times before giving up.

“Should we break a window?” Randy wondered.

“No,” Hayley said. “Nobody can know we were ever here.”

“Then how are we going to get inside?”

Hayley pulled a flashlight out of a side pocket in her dark blue sweat jacket and clicked it on. She waved it around and caught something in the darkness.

“What’s that?”

“What? I don’t see anything,” Randy said, squinting.

“Over there.”

Hayley steadied the flashlight and moved closer to the object to get a good look.

It was a little bearded man, no more than a foot tall, in a green jacket and red pants with a matching cap, standing on the lawn, waving at them.

Hayley jumped back from fright, nearly losing her balance.

Randy steadied her. “Relax. It’s just a gnome. Karen has a whole collection of them.”

“I had no idea Karen was so ... tacky,” Hayley said.

“I think he’s kind of cute. Look at him waving. Like he’s welcoming us,” Randy said, waving back.

Hayley thought about this for a moment. “Right. He’s Karen’s version of a welcome mat. And what do some people keep hidden under a welcome mat?”

Randy looked at her blankly for a second before the lightbulb in his head snapped on. “A key!”

Randy bounded over to the gnome and turned him over. Sure enough, there was a silver key sticking up just enough from the dirt for him to see. He brushed it off with his hand and ran over to the back door. He slipped it in the lock and turned. The bolt retracted and he pushed open the door.

“When did you become such a good detective?” Randy asked.

“I had a good teacher,” Hayley said, smiling.

“You went to school to become a detective?”

“No. My imaginary boyfriend Mark Harmon. You know I never miss an episode of
NCIS.
”

“Okay, the next mystery we need to solve is ‘The Case of Your Missing Life,’” Randy said.

Hayley smacked him on the shoulder and then pushed past him and went inside.

Randy was close on her heels.

They were in the kitchen. Hayley flipped on a light. There was a chalk outline of a body drawn on the floor.

“Is that where you found her?” Randy asked.

Hayley nodded.

“I had no idea she was so thick around the middle. She was tasting too much of her rich sauces, I guess,” Randy said.

“Randy!” Hayley said, smacking him again.

“I know, I know, don’t speak ill of the dead. These are my nervous jokes,” Randy said. “And right now I’m a bundle of nerves.”

Hayley put the flashlight back in her pocket and looked around. “Okay, you look around down here and I’ll go upstairs.”

“Okay,” Randy said, as he began opening drawers in the kitchen searching for clues.

Hayley walked down the hall and ascended the creaky steps to the second floor. She started with Karen’s bedroom. It was neatly appointed, but had a musty odor. And there were a few more smiling gnomes on top of her dresser. Hayley noticed the bland yellow paint peeling from the wall. Karen was such a perfectionist, she was surprised Karen hadn’t repainted. There were other signs that perhaps Karen was distracted lately, and not so fastidious about everything. There was a pile of bills on her dresser, a few of them late notices. That was so unlike Karen. The
Herald
paid her a decent salary. Enough to cover her cable bill, at least.

Randy called from downstairs. “Did Karen have a cat?”

“Yes,” Hayley answered. “Why?”

“There’s a small maid’s quarters off the living room with a litter box, bowls for food and water and a little round bed with a paw print design. So what happened to it?”

“I heard Karen’s cousin took him in after she died,” Hayley said.

“Spoiled cat had his own room! Didn’t even have to leave for his meals!”

“No self-respecting chef would ever allow pet food in her kitchen,” Hayley said.

Hayley continued going through drawers, then turned to the closet, sorting through the clothes. She wrinkled her nose at an ostentatious fur coat draped over a plastic hanger. Leave it to Karen to wear roadkill.

Hayley pushed it aside, but the coat slid off the hanger and dropped to the floor. She picked it up and noticed something nestled in a pocket inside the lining. It was some kind of card. She pulled it out. It was a Mother’s Day card. It had to be from her son, Bradley. He was her only child.

Hayley opened it. Inside were the words,
Get out of town now or you’re going to die.
It was scrawled in red ink. And it wasn’t signed. But it was a Mother’s Day card, so who else could it have been from but Bradley?

Why was Bradley threatening his own mother? What had she done to him?

Hayley stuffed the card in her pocket and cased the rest of the bedroom. There was a copy of the
Island Times
crumpled up on the floor next to the bed. Hayley picked it up and thumbed through it and noticed that the page with her own column had been ripped out. She searched some more and found the missing page wadded up and thrown into the adjoining bathroom’s trash can. No big mystery there. Karen was definitely not a fan of Hayley’s new cooking column.

Hayley was just about done searching the bedroom when she noticed a cordless phone on the opposite night table. She decided to see if there were any messages that came in right about the time Karen was killed. She knew the police wouldn’t have erased them. That would be compromising the crime scene.

Hayley pressed the button for voice mail and there were three messages. The first was from her dentist confirming an appointment next Wednesday for her six-month cleaning. The second was a hang up. And the third was from a woman whose voice Hayley thought sounded familiar.

“Karen, it’s me. I know you’re there. Pick up right now! You cannot avoid me forever. I know what you’ve done and it’s despicable. Do you think I’m going to just stand by and let this happen? You’ve destroyed me! And believe me, I’m going to make sure you never do anything like this to anybody else ever again. Do you hear me, Karen? You’ve crossed the wrong woman!”

End of messages.

Why did this woman’s voice sound so familiar? And what had Karen done to make her so upset?

Hayley checked the caller ID. Dentist’s office. Private number. Albert Cornbluth.

Whoa.

Hayley knew exactly why the voice was so familiar now. Albert Cornbluth ran the local pharmacy and his wife was Winnie Cornbluth, who just happened to be Karen Applebaum’s dearest friend. Or at least, she was. They power-walked together, shopped together, and even took vacations together. But apparently they were on the outs and Winnie was now threatening her.

There was one more interesting fact about Winnie Cornbluth that was to prove useful to Hayley. Winnie worked at the local middle school.

And she also happened to be Dustin’s homeroom teacher.

“Hayley! Get down here now!” Randy called from the first floor.

Hayley pounded down the steps and joined Randy in the living room where he sat on the couch with a stack of papers spread out on the coffee table.

“I found this inside a filing cabinet in Karen’s library,” Randy said. “It’s a life insurance policy she took out years ago when she first started working at the
Herald
.”

Hayley sat down next to Randy and studied the papers.

“Look here. Martin is the beneficiary,” Randy said.

“Of course he is,” Hayley said. “They were married at the time. I’m sure she’s changed it since then.”

“No,” Randy said. I went through her mail and found an annual statement the insurance company sent her just a few weeks ago. Martin is still listed as the beneficiary.”

“But Karen loathed Martin,” Hayley said. “She would never have left his name on the policy after they divorced. Unless she just forgot about it.”

“And maybe Martin found out he was still the beneficiary of a million dollar payout if anything ever happened to Karen. Like a rival kitchen diva poisoning her clam chowder.”

“Don’t call me a kitchen diva,” Hayley said. She began pacing back and forth in the living room. “But wait a minute. Martin is loaded. What’s a million dollars to him?”

“Maybe not so loaded. I had breakfast at Jordan’s coffee shop the other day and I heard his new girlfriend saying the only reason she couldn’t quit waitressing was because Martin’s investments had taken a big hit lately. He could be overextended and just making it look like he’s financially secure.”

“Which would be a strong motive to knock off Karen,” Hayley said, suddenly excited.

Hayley ripped the life insurance policy out of Randy’s hands, folded it up, and put it in her pocket along with Bradley’s Mother’s Day card.

A treasure trove of clues.

And they were just getting started.

A passing light flashed across both their faces, and Hayley and Randy dropped to the floor to avoid being spotted.

The light disappeared and it was dark again. Hayley lifted her head and peeked out the window. She saw the red taillights of a car driving down the road past the house.

“It was just a car going by,” Hayley said. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

They slipped out the back door again, secured the bolt, and placed the silver key underneath the waving gnome.

As they made their escape into the darkness of the woods, Randy turned to Hayley and smiled. “You were right. No one will ever know we were there. Maybe Older Sister does know best.”

“You’ve just got to learn to trust me,” Hayley said.

Famous last words.

BOOK: Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries)

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