Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries) (15 page)

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Authors: Lee Hollis

BOOK: Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries)
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Chapter 25
 
Hayley paced back and forth in her kitchen, debating with herself over what to do with this crucial new piece of information. There was a small part of her that wanted to call Bruce and let him in on Sabrina’s findings. He could write about it in the paper and she would essentially be cleared of all charges.
Or so she hoped.
But Hayley still didn’t trust Bruce. She knew he didn’t mean her any harm. But he was first and foremost a reporter and her precarious predicament wasn’t exactly his top priority. He just wanted the scoop.
Hayley had just slipped into some sweats and began washing the makeup off her face in the upstairs bathroom when her phone rang.
It was her brother, Randy.
“Hayley, I need you come to over to the house,” he said, an ominous tone in his voice.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I’ll explain when you get here.”
“Tell me now. You’re making me nervous.”
“I can’t,” Randy said, lowering his voice. “He’s standing right here.”
“Did you and Sergio have a fight?”
“You might say that.”
“It’s getting late. Can’t we deal with this tomorrow?”
“No. You need to get over here now.”
Hayley sighed, resigned. Randy was like a hound with a steak bone. He would just never let it go. “Fine. Give me fifteen minutes.”
Hayley could’ve walked to her brother’s house, but it was late and she was tired, so she fired up her Subaru wagon, and drove over.
The wheels crunched on the gravel driveway as she steered down the path to the two-story colonial house on the Shore Path set back a mere two hundred feet from the Atlantic Ocean.
Hayley breathed in the salty air and heard the waves clapping hard against the rocks as she walked across the lawn to the back porch and knocked on the door leading into the kitchen.
She could see Randy bent over in the refrigerator, scarfing down some leftover corn on the cob from a barbecue last weekend.
Uh oh.
Randy’s food binges were almost always brought on by stress. This must have been some fight.
Randy opened the back door and ushered Hayley inside. Bits of corn and a little butter grease were sprinkled across Randy’s concerned face.
“You have me so worried,” Hayley said, grabbing a dishrag off the counter and wiping off her brother’s face.
“You should be.”
“This sounds really bad.”
“It is.”
Hayley’s stomach began to churn. Randy and Sergio rarely fought. She just hoped whatever set them off could be fixed.
“Where is Sergio?”
“In the living room. Waiting for you.”
“You told him I was coming over?”
“He insisted.”
At least Sergio was open to a mediator.
Hayley took a deep breath, and then followed Randy into the main living room.
The area was expansive, decorated with plush antique furniture, and the walls were adorned with tasteful paintings by various New England artists. The picture windows looked out on the breathtaking Maine coast. But now, it was dark, and you could barely make out the ocean and surrounding islands nestled throughout the bay.
So Hayley had no choice but to focus on the scenery inside the house. And her heart sunk as her eyes came to rest on her brother’s boyfriend, Sergio, sitting on the couch, stone-faced, his hands folded on his lap.
“Hi, Sergio!” Hayley said, a bit too upbeat and perky.
Sergio met Hayley’s gaze and for the first time ever, Hayley saw anger in his eyes. He was usually so good-natured, so easygoing, so sweet and lovable. This was a whole new side of him.
And it scared the hell out of her.
“Whatever is upsetting you, Sergio, I am confident you and Randy can work through it, and I will stay for however long it takes to help you.”
“This isn’t just about Randy,” Sergio said, calmly and evenly.
“Oh?”
“No.”
“Did I do something?”
Sergio stood up.
Hayley instinctively backed away.
Sergio was a puppy dog. But he was also a hot-blooded Brazilian, and she wasn’t exactly sure what might happen if he lost his temper. She never thought she would live to see the day he actually got mad over something.
“Yes, Hayley. This is as much about you as it is about Randy.”
At this point, Hayley was pretty sure this was not going to end well. “Okay. I’m listening.”
Randy stepped between Hayley and Sergio as if to shield his sister from his boyfriend’s wrath.
“You know what a busy schedule Karen had when she was alive. Well, it turns out she was paying the teenage boy next door, Bennie Taylor, to look after her cat, Puff, when she wasn’t home,” Randy said.
Sergio gripped Randy’s bicep with his large hand and moved him aside so he could confront Hayley face to face. “Bennie came over twice a day to check on him and feed him.”
“So do you think Bennie might have seen something, like the killer fleeing from the scene?” Hayley asked.
“No,” Sergio said, shaking his head. “Karen suspected that Bennie was ignoring her expletive instructions on how much cat food he should give Puff.”
“Explicit,” Randy offered, gently squeezing Sergio’s shoulder from behind.
“What?”
“Explicit instructions. Not expletive instructions. Expletive means a swear word.”
Sergio just stared at Randy. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to be correcting my English right now?”
Randy quickly took two steps back. “Sorry.”
Sergio turned back to Hayley. “Puff was growing morally obese.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Hayley asked.
“Morally obese!” Sergio said, losing patience.
Morbidly obese.
Hayley was about to correct him when she saw Randy standing behind Sergio, waving his arms frantically and mouthing the words “Let it go!”
Hayley remained silent.
Sergio continued. “Bennie denied overfeeding Puff, but Karen refused to believe him.”
“Puff was tipping the scales at a whopping twenty-five pounds. That’s like Rosie O’Donnell in cat weight!” Randy piped in before retreating again.
“Anyway, to prove the kid was lying, Karen installed a hidden camera to catch him in the act of giving Puff too much cat food.”
“A Kitty Cam!” Randy said.
Hayley couldn’t help but laugh.
Sergio didn’t crack a smile. “She set it up over the fireplace where it had a clear view of the room where she kept Puff’s food bowl.”
“Too bad she didn’t put it in the kitchen. It would’ve caught the murderer on tape and cleared my name.”
“Yeah, too bad,” Sergio said.
“So don’t keep me in suspense,” Hayley said. “Was Bennie guilty or not?”
“Oh, yes. He wasn’t carefully measuring out the food as Karen instructed. He was just filling the bowl to the rim and Puff was woofing it down twice a day and packing on the pounds,” Randy said.
“Case closed,” Hayley said, still a little confused as to why she was hearing this story.
“Yes, the Kitty Cam did its job. It caught Bennie in the act. But that’s not all it caught. After Karen’s death, I intentionally left it on so I could monitor the crime scene and see if there was any suspicious activity that might pop up.”
Suddenly Hayley had a sinking feeling as Sergio walked over and picked up the DVD remote and pressed the PLAY button. On the television, there in plain view, recorded by Karen Applebaum’s Kitty Cam, was Hayley and Randy casing her house and searching for clues.
“Sergio, I can explain,” Hayley said softly.
“Don’t bother,” Randy said. “I already tried.”
As Hayley watched herself pounding up the stairs to search Karen’s bedroom and Randy going through the drawers in her parlor, she couldn’t believe how stupid she had been.
She finally had to turn away.
“I can’t watch anymore.”
Sergio turned off the DVD player.
“Breaking and entering is a violation of your bail, Hayley,” Sergio said solemnly.
Hayley felt sick to her stomach. She braced herself, prepared to have her butt tossed back behind bars.
Chapter 26
 
There was an uneasy silence. Hayley waited for Sergio to slap his cuffs on her and drive her directly back to the jail cell. Do not pass Go.
If only she had implemented her better food for inmates plan before getting thrown back in the slammer.
Oh well.
Randy cleared his throat to break the tension. Both he and Hayley kept their eyes focused on Sergio, who stood in front of them, contemplating his next move.
Finally, he sighed deeply. “I might let you stay out of jail ...”
“Oh, thank God!” Randy cried.
“If ... ,” Sergio said, folding his arms. “You tell me everything you know.”
Hayley wasted no time bringing Sergio up to speed. She shared everything she and Randy had found at Karen’s house that Sergio’s officers missed. The life insurance policy that still listed her ex-husband, Martin, as the beneficiary. Karen’s secret lover whose identity still remained a mystery. Sabrina Merryweather’s timeline that basically cleared Hayley as a suspect.
Sergio was especially surprised by that one. He didn’t think Sabrina had even concluded her autopsy as of this evening. He was duly impressed with Hayley’s findings, but made sure not to show a hint of admiration. He didn’t want Hayley believing he was condoning her playing Nancy Drew.
“Okay,” Sergio said. “Anything else?”
“No. I think that’s it.”
Satisfied, Sergio nodded.
“So you’re not going to arrest her?” Randy asked.
“No. She can remain out on bail. But this doesn’t mean you’re off the list of suspects, Hayley.”
“What do you mean? You can check my computer. Karen e-mailed me at 10:15. She was already dead. I couldn’t have killed her.”
“Yes. It makes perfect sense. But how do I know you didn’t go over to Karen’s house and poison her clam chowder, and then send that e-mail to yourself to cover your tracks?”
Hayley hadn’t thought of that.
“Oh, Sergio, now that’s just ridiculous,” Randy scoffed.
“Is it? Do you have any witnesses to corroborate your claim that you were home the whole time?”
“Yes, my kids were there.”
“So they saw you?”
“Of course. It was after the bake sale and I made them macaroni and cheese for dinner. Then they went upstairs to their rooms to watch TV and play video games.”
“Were you upstairs with them?”
“No. I went out on the deck and had a cocktail and ...”
“And what?”
“I fell asleep.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. Twenty or thirty minutes. When I woke up, I went inside to check my e-mail and that’s when I got the message from Karen and decided to drive over to her house.”
“So you went upstairs and told the kids you were leaving?”
“Um, no. I thought I would only be gone a few minutes.”
“You mean they never actually saw you from the time they finished dinner, which was what time?”
Hayley’s face flushed.
She was suddenly nervous again. “I think it was around eight-thirty.”
“So no one saw you between eight-thirty and the time you called 9-1-1, which was approximately ten forty-five.”
“I did! I saw her!” Randy cried.
Sergio gave him a questioning look.
“I dropped by to catch up, remember?”
Hayley knew her brother was just covering for her, and she loved him for it. But she couldn’t let him lie. “No, Randy. You didn’t.”
“Yes, of course I did! I had read your column about the clam chowder and was dying to try some so I came over and we hung out for an hour or so and we made some.”
“Randy, that’s impossible,” Sergio said calmly.
“How do you know?”
“Because you were with me. Here. And I don’t have to remind you what we were doing,” Sergio said.
“Oh, right,” Randy said, blushing. “Sorry, Hayley.”
“Well, I know I’m innocent even if nobody else does.”
“Then let me do my job and find the real killer, okay?” Sergio said.
Hayley nodded.
Sergio walked over and hugged Hayley tight. He whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry. We’ll find who did this.”
Sergio turned and gave Randy a peck on the cheek. “It’s late. I’m going to bed. Don’t be too long.”
Sergio smiled one more time at Hayley, and trudged up the stairs.
Hayley wanted to believe him. She really did. But leaving her fate in someone else’s hands made her extremely uncomfortable.
She still felt the urge to clear her name.
“You need to just put all this out of your mind. Why don’t we go on a shopping trip to Boston this weekend?” Randy asked.
“Maybe. Let me think about it,” Hayley said, kissing her brother and heading for the door. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Sergio may have trouble with certain words in the English language, but he’s a damn good cop,” Randy said. “You can trust him.”
“I know,” Hayley said. “Good night.”
When Hayley got in her car to drive home, she remembered one clue she forgot to mention to Sergio. The threatening Mother’s Day card from Karen’s son Bradley. She was about to go back inside when she stopped herself. Bradley was a walking freak show. Kind of wild eyed and crazy. A big-time conspiracy theorist. He was a natural suspect. But was he capable of murdering his own mother?
Hayley knew she should march right back inside and tell Sergio all about the card. But Sergio was probably already asleep, and it would be a shame to wake him. Besides, Bradley despised cops. He’d never tell Sergio anything.
No, this needed a lighter, more delicate touch, and Hayley convinced herself she was the woman for the job.

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