When the Cookie Crumbles (33 page)

Olivia felt her phone vibrate. That would be Maddie, faking a call from Del. Olivia would pretend to hear that Hermione was out of danger and ready to talk to the police. Time to boogie. Without bothering to look at her caller ID, Olivia flipped open her phone and said, “Hi, Del.”

“Hi, Livie, glad I caught you.”

“Del.” Olivia couldn’t come up with more words, given she’d expected it
not
to be Del.

“I believe we established my identity,” Del said. “Livie,
are you okay? Is something wrong at your end? Just say ‘yes,’ and I’ll get an officer over there right away.”

“Everything’s fine. Really. So what’s up?”

“I called to give you an update on Hermione,” Del said. After another pause, he asked, “Are you absolutely positive you’re all right? This isn’t your normal sparkling dialogue.”

“I’m sorry, Del, I guess I’m tired. Yes, tell me, how is she doing?”

“Worse,” Del said. “The docs decided to risk surgery. They said she won’t make it otherwise. All we can do is wait. Nothing I can do here, so I’m heading back to Chatterley Heights. We could still have that dinner. How about if I stop by the community center and pick you up? It shouldn’t be long.”

Six months ago…

When Olivia didn’t respond, Del said, “Livie, what is going on?”

“Del, I’m sorry, it’s sort of chaotic here. Yes, dinner would be great. See you soon.”

Olivia looked around for Maddie but didn’t see her. She called Maddie’s cell.

“Hey,” Maddie said, “I’ve been trying to call your cell, like you asked me to, but the call kept going to voice mail. So I figured I’d check on Spunky. He’s fine, just waking up.”

“Can you come back to the meeting room right away? And bring Lucas.” Olivia flipped her phone shut without waiting for an answer. Her mind was on overdrive.

Karen had said Paine suddenly changed his mind and decided to claim Chatterley Mansion about six months ago, which implied he knew about the renovation. The Chatterleys’ arrival in town was perfectly timed. Someone had told him when to show up.

Hermione wouldn’t have known about the renovation. Karen? The celebration was dear to her heart; she would never have risked losing access to the mansion. Matthew hadn’t moved back to town yet. Rosemarie had every reason to avoid contact with Paine. It was hard to believe Quill would ever want to see Paine again. There’d been some coverage of the birthday event on the Internet, but the mansion renovation hadn’t rated a mention.

Nothing makes sense.

Maddie waved at Olivia from across the room. She took Lucas by the hand and pulled him along as she headed toward the gingerbread village. Rosemarie stopped Maddie halfway across the room and spoke to her. Olivia instinctively turned to the Chatterley Mansion gingerbread house, which proudly displayed the lovely renovation work Lucas’s team had accomplished in a mere six months. She stared at the little boy in the window…the little boy who had bubbled with excitement when he showed Aunt Sadie the treasures his mother had secreted in the coal bin.

The Chatterley cookie-cutter collection.
Olivia stood in front of the mansion gingerbread house, oblivious to anything else. That little boy…aside from Aunt Sadie, there was only one person Olivia could think of who might have known about the antique cookie cutters Paine had found. Someone Paine might have confided in, if for no other reason than to make him jealous.

Maddie was poking Olivia in the side to get her attention. Except she could hear Maddie’s voice, and it sounded far away. Whatever pressed against her ribs was much harder than a finger.

“Were you aware you’ve been muttering to yourself?” Quill’s voice was soft but far from gentle. “When you stared at the mansion, you whispered something about
‘Chatterley cookie cutters.’ I suspected you’d figured it out. I was afraid you might, so I came prepared.”

Olivia looked down at her side and saw something tubelike and metal. “So there
is
a gun,” she said.

“Paine asked me to get it for him. For protection,” Quill said with a derisive snort.

“How did you get Hermione to fire it when Matthew came to the mansion?”

“That was almost too easy. I told her she killed Paine with those sleeping pills, that I was just trying to help her by making it look like he’d drowned. She believed me. Paine had mentioned how Hermione desperately wanted to reconnect with her daughter, so I told her she’d go to prison and never see her daughter again if she didn’t help implicate Matthew in the murder. I even hinted I could convince the police that Karen put Paine in the bathtub to protect her long-lost mother. Hermione is a very stupid woman.” Quill spoke quietly, but his voice snarled with anger and arrogance.

Hoping to keep Quill talking, Olivia asked, “Did you know about Paine’s early relationship with Karen?”

“Oh yes, Paine couldn’t resist bragging that he’d seduced Karen when she was sixteen. He enjoyed torturing me with his sexual conquests and his superior breeding. Even after I told him about the mansion renovation and when it would be finished, he showed me nothing but disdain. Sure, he let me look for the Chatterley cookie-cutter collection with him. Only, if I admired an antique for its historical significance, Paine would smash it before my eyes.”

Olivia could hear the rage and the hurt in Quill’s voice. She almost felt sorry for him. Except he had all but admitted he’d murdered Paine. If she could only get him to tell her how…She felt the gun poke her hard, as if Quill were taking out a lifetime of rage and frustration on her.

“But if you could prove that Hermione—”

“No more questions.”

Olivia took a deep breath and made one more attempt. She tried to sound admiring as she asked “How did you even find Paine?”

“That was an accident,” Quill said. “I traveled to London several times to research Chatterley family history.” For a moment, he sounded like his old pedantic self. “I followed him back to his flat. He was using a different name, so I deduced he was in hiding. I devised the plan that enabled him to return here, and in exchange, he let me search the mansion for the Chatterley cookie-cutter collection. It had always been my dream to find that collection. The historical significance…I doubt there is a collection any longer, but it was worth the risk. If I’d found those cookie cutters, I’d finally have gotten the respect I deserved, that was stolen from me.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Olivia saw Maddie watching them, looking puzzled. Olivia didn’t dare try to signal.

“But I didn’t find the collection,” Quill said, “and now it’s too late. I must, as they say, get out of town fast. You are going to walk me out of here, very casually, and then you’re coming along for the ride. For a while, anyway. I think you know what I’ll do if you scream. I have nothing left to lose.”

Shifting the gun so it was hidden by Olivia’s shawl, Quill guided her down the gingerbread village street. Maddie was talking with Lucas and Matthew, now paying no attention to Olivia. Rosemarie, Karen, and Ellie were having an animated conversation near the coffee urn. Of all times to be ignored. She could try screaming, but she’d heard the despair in Quill’s voice. He might shoot others as well.

As Quill forced Olivia toward the end of the gingerbread village, Maddie called across the room, “Olivia Greyson, what makes you think you can get out of cleanup duty?” Lucas and Matthew had disappeared.

Olivia Greyson.
Maddie had used her full name. Since becoming best friends at age ten, Maddie and Olivia had reserved the use of their full names to communicate distress, danger, a warning…or a question:
Is anything wrong?

Olivia said nothing. If Maddie approached, Quill might panic. Ellie was watching them, too, her face puckered with concern. She started toward them.

Quill squeezed Olivia’s arm hard, pulling her in front of him, like a shield. She felt the gun in the small of her back. “Stay away, Mom” Olivia said. “He has a gun.”

Every head in the room swiveled in their direction. Olivia’s heart quivered as she saw her mother’s face blanch.

“There’s something I don’t understand, Quill,” Olivia said, desperate to distract him. “You had an alibi for the night of Paine’s murder. Your friends said you were too drunk to do anything when you left them.”

With a mirthless laugh, Quill said, “You’d be surprised how easy it is to fake inebriation, especially when everyone around you is imbibing with abandon.”

“So you knew you didn’t have a solid alibi,” Olivia said. “Is that why you made Hermione wave the gun at Matthew, to throw suspicion on both of them?”

“The opportunity presented itself, and how could I foresee the happy accident that my antics would frighten Hermione into a heart attack?” Quill said. “Now stop trying to slow me down.” Quill prodded Olivia past the gingerbread mansion. She could feel him twist around behind her as he checked that no one was following. The pressure
from the gun barrel lightened, but she couldn’t break away. Quill’s grip on her upper arm was tight enough to bruise. He was moving faster now, as they prepared to leave the relative shelter of the gingerbread village. The door to the staff area was a few steps beyond. Quill could lock it behind them and take one of several ways out of the building.

In the gingerbread village, each house stood on a separate platform, leaving open space between the buildings. As Quill and Olivia reached the joint gingerbread church of St. Francis and St. Alban’s, the business end of a wet mop sloshed across the floor in front of them. A moment later, Matthew appeared, having followed his mop through the open space between the church and the gingerbread cottage at the end of the village. Matthew and his mop stood between Quill and escape through the door to the staff area.

“Move aside or I shoot Olivia,” Quill ordered. “I’m deadly serious. Move away or—”

From behind the staff door, a ferocious yapping drowned out the rest of Quill’s threat. Spunky. Olivia’s heart rate took off at a gallop. If Quill aimed his gun at Spunky…Olivia heard a thud as Spunky hurled himself against the closed door.

Startled by Spunky, Quill shifted sideways. In that split second, Matthew shoved his wet mop between Quill’s and Olivia’s feet, separating them. Olivia yanked her arm away from him and succeeded in breaking Quill’s hold on her. As Quill let go, another strong arm grabbed her wrist and spun her out of Quill’s reach. It was Lucas, who’d stepped from between the gingerbread mansion and the church. Lucas hurried her to a safer distance and ran back to the gingerbread village.

Olivia turned back to see Matthew flip the heavy mop straight up in the air, knocking the gun out of Quill’s hand. Instead of letting the mop drop to the floor, Matthew whipped it over Quill’s head and down behind him. Before the soaking fibers reached the floor, Matthew whacked them against the backs of Quill’s knees. With a yelp, Quill lost his balance and crashed into the combined church of St. Francis and St. Alban’s. Lucas kicked the gun aside, grabbed Quill under his arms, and dragged him away from the gingerbread village. Quill didn’t resist.

Once Quill had been subdued, Maddie opened the staff door, and Spunky shot through. As he skidded on the linoleum floor, Olivia ran to help him. When Spunky spotted Olivia, he yapped his joyful yap and leaped into her arms. As she held her panting pup close, Olivia had a thought that made her giggle. In a sense, Chatterley Heights Catholics and Episcopalians had joined forces to defeat evil. Quill Latimer had been defeated by one grand ecumenical event.

The community center’s front door flew open, and Del rushed inside, his gun drawn. He took in the scene and slid his weapon into his holster. Behind Del, a tall, skinny, boyish figure wandered through the open door. His dark eyebrows lifted high as he took in the smashed gingerbread church. “Wow,” he said. “You guys sure know how to party.”

“Jason! You’re home!” Ellie ran to greet her son, Olivia’s younger brother. “I thought you’d be arriving earlier.”

“Me, too,” Jason said, “but the bus had a leaking fuel line. The driver wanted to call for help, but I patched up the leak with duct tape. Otherwise, we’d still be out there by the side of the road. You okay, Olive Oyl?” Assured that his sister was fine, Jason inspected the remains of St. Francis and St. Alban’s. “I’m starving,” he said. “Would it be sacrilegious of me to eat this?”

Olivia awakened at dawn on Monday morning. She had fully intended to sleep in, but Spunky had other ideas. He trotted back and forth across her stomach like a pooch who needed to go out. Now. Olivia hoisted herself up on one elbow. “Young man,” she said, “I distinctly recall that we went on a late walk last night to calm our nerves. Go back to sleep.”

Spunky jumped off the bed, ran to the open doorway, and looked back at Olivia. “You had too much sleep yesterday,” she said. “That’s your problem.” Spunky whimpered.

Olivia curled in a ball underneath her covers and took a deep, relaxing breath. Spunky jumped on top of her. Olivia whipped the covers off and said, “What the…Oh.” She heard the faint whir of a mixer. A moment later she smelled the sharp sweetness of orange oil. Maddie was baking cookies.