Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries) (18 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 30
 
“Was it a man or a woman?”
“Man. Definitely a man.”
Sergio began jotting down some notes on a pad of paper.
Hayley thought about it and then raised her hand.
“At least I think it was a man. It might have been a woman in bulky clothing. I’m not really sure.”
Sergio stopped writing and looked up at Hayley.
Hayley shrugged. “It was dark. It all happened so fast.”
Sergio nodded and scribbled over what he had written down.
“I’m so sorry, Sergio,” Hayley said, reaching over and touching his hand. “I know this isn’t really helping.”
Sergio smiled and took Hayley’s hand in his big bronze paw and squeezed it. “As long as you’re safe. That’s the main thing.”
“At first I thought it might just be a deer hunter sneaking around illegally in the park when the first shot whizzed past me. But by the second and third one, I knew I was the target. And the whole thing of him driving ahead and waiting for me. Like he was setting a trap. It was terrifying,” Hayley said, shivering as she relived the events.
Hayley had wasted no time driving over to Randy and Sergio’s house the moment she dropped Leroy off with the kids and instructed Gemma to take the lasagna out of the oven at the top of the hour. She didn’t mention her ordeal to them. Why scare them? But Gemma did notice that Leroy was out of sorts, racing around, a bundle of nerves, barking at the slightest movement.
Even more than usual.
“Let’s move on to the car,” Sergio said gently, poised to finally write some pertinent information down.
Hayley wracked her brain, desperately trying to come up with something useful. She was determined to help Sergio out somehow.
“I think it was a four-door sedan,” she said confidently.
“Good. That’s good,” Sergio said, writing on his pad. “Color?”
“It was too dark.”
“Could you tell if it was a light or dark color?”
“No.”
“I don’t suppose you saw the license plate number?”
“No.”
Sergio nodded, trying not to give away his disappointment. “Did you happen to notice if it was an out of state car?”
“I don’t know,” Hayley said, feeling awful.
Here she was running around the island like some amateur sleuth, gathering up clues in a murder mystery, but when it came to offering insight into her own attack, she was completely useless.
Sergio sighed, put down his pen and paper. “Well, if you do remember anything, Hayley, be sure to call me.”
“There is one thing I definitely remember. One of the bullets shattered the rearview mirror on the driver’s side.”
“That’s good!”
“It is?”
“Yes,” Sergio said, relieved. “I can call all the auto shops in the area to be on the lookout for anyone who brings in a car with a busted mirror. It’s a long shot, but it’s a start.”
The front door burst open, and Randy stormed dramatically into the living room interrupting the calm discussion between his sister and his boyfriend, who were sitting in front of a crackling fire with two glasses of wine.
“Are you okay?” Randy wailed as he shot over to Hayley, hauled her to her feet, and enveloped her in a tight bear hug.
Hayley could barely breathe.
“I’m fine, really, Randy, not a scratch on me,” Hayley said, trying to calm him down while simultaneously squirming out of his firm grip.
Randy spun around to Sergio.
“I have to hear what happened to my sister from Doofus Donnie who came into the bar to get hammered once he was off-duty?”
“I wanted to question Hayley while the details were still fresh in her mind,” Sergio said, a defensive tone in his voice.
“So do we know who it is?” Randy asked.
“I’m a washout as a witness,” Hayley said. “I totally choked when it came to noticing anything that might help identify the shooter.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Randy said. “The guy was shooting at you. Not the most opportune time to study his face.”
“I do know one thing. This was no random shooting. Whomever it was who took those potshots at me wanted to see me dead. Which is why it has to be someone related to the Karen Applebaum case.”
“How do you know that?” Randy asked, shoving Hayley down on the couch and then sitting next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her so close to him; it was as if he were afraid to let her go.
“The people at work, the people who read my column, everybody knows I’m the number one suspect in Karen’s murder. And it’s no secret I’ve been running around town questioning people and trying to find the real killer. Maybe someone’s afraid I’m getting too close to finding out the truth.”
“That makes sense,” Randy said, nodding vigorously at Sergio. “Doesn’t it?”
Sergio half shrugged, not entirely convinced.
“Why aren’t you agreeing with me?” Randy asked, his voice betraying a slight irritation with his boyfriend.
“Because the whole town is related to the Karen Applebaum case. Everybody knew her. And those people we thought could have done it have air-tight alibis.”
“There’s still one mystery person out there we haven’t found yet,” Hayley said.
“Who?” Randy asked.
“The man Karen was dating. The one who sent those flowers to her funeral. Find him. And I’ll bet anything we find Karen’s killer.”
“How can you be sure?” Sergio asked.
“Call it a hunch,” Hayley said, her mind racing.
“A hunch won’t help me build a case against anyone,” Sergio said softly.
“Would you please stop being such a Debbie Downer?” Randy scolded as he squeezed his sister tighter. “I swear, Sergio, if you let anything happen to my beloved older sister I’ll never forgive you.”
“Younger sister,” Hayley said, making another futile attempt to wiggle out of her brother’s grasp.
“What are you talking about? You’re two and a half years older than me.”
“But I stopped celebrating my birthday three years ago, so now you’ve gone past me and you’re officially my older brother. At least that’s what I tell everyone who didn’t go to school with us.”
They both laughed.
“I’m not worried about anything happening to me,” Hayley said. “I’m more scared of you suffocating me to death if you don’t let go.”
Randy loosened his grip and Hayley was finally free.
She stood up and gave Sergio a hug.
“Thank you, Sergio. For everything.”
“Don’t worry, Hayley. You just go home and rest and don’t think about it anymore. I’ll find who did this.”
Hayley smiled, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
Poor Sergio.
Not only was he going to have Randy riding him every second to clear Hayley’s name and keep her safe, but he also believed that Hayley was actually going to go home and not think about this anymore.
But the truth was, it was all she could think about.
And now that she was both a murder suspect and a potential murder victim, she wasn’t going to rest until she found all the answers.
Chapter 31
 
Sergio had no choice but to write a police report about the attempt on Hayley’s life. So by the following morning, the entire staff of the
Island Times
was aware that someone had used Hayley for target practice the night before.
Sal asked if Hayley wanted to take the day off. She didn’t.
The upside was nobody wanted to ask her to do any menial tasks for them because of the trauma she had just gone through.
And that suited Hayley just fine.
She basically just wanted to put her time in at the office, get her work done, and resume investigating the case.
On the down low of course.
The only person not around to talk about the incident was Bruce Linney. Hayley presumed he was out covering some local crime story, but she couldn’t imagine it was more dramatic than an attempted murder. She was surprised he wasn’t hounding her for details, or spitballing suspects, and generally just hanging around annoying her.
Hayley checked the clock on the wall. Four-thirty.
Another half hour and she would be set free. She began answering the last of her e-mails, one from Liddy about a new house listing on School Street, a fan letter for her strawberry and spinach salad recipe, and one of her mother’s mass mailings to friends and family regarding another conspiracy theory involving Elvis still being alive and hiding out on an Indian reservation outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. She deleted that one without reading it.
Hayley was just about to shut down her computer and sneak out a few minutes early when Bruce threw open the door to the front office, and a gust of wind rushed through, blowing papers out of Hayley’s inbox. He just as quickly slammed it shut while using a briefcase he was carrying to block out the wind.
He approached Hayley’s desk.
Hayley gave him a sweet smile.
Bruce didn’t smile back.
In fact, he had a very serious, very grave look on his face. He just kept staring at Hayley, but didn’t say a word.
She shifted in her seat. He was making her uncomfortable.
“Everything all right, Bruce?”
“We need to talk.”
“Okay, what’s on your mind?”
Bruce looked around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation.
“We better do this privately. In my office. Now.”
“You don’t have an office. You have a cubicle. And everybody can hear you because you’re always using your outside voice no matter where you are.”
Bruce tapped his foot impatiently.
He was obviously in no mood for one of Hayley’s playful insults.
“Then let’s go get a drink or a cup of coffee. This is important.”
“Is this about what happened to me last night?”
“It very well could be.”
He had succeeded in stirring up Hayley’s curiosity, and she quickly grabbed her bag and followed Bruce out the door, calling back on her way out, “’Night, Sal!”
She thought she heard Sal grunt a reply, but she wasn’t sure, as Bruce gripped her by the arm and hurried her out and up the street. She had no idea where they were going, but she decided to allow Bruce to be in charge since he had such a grim look of determination on his face.
He steered her up a side street called Firefly Lane and past Mount Desert Island Ice Cream where Hayley shook him off.
She turned back and pulled open the door to the shop.
“Forget coffee. I want some salt caramel ice cream!”
Bruce sighed in frustration as he watched Hayley excitedly order from Linda, the pretty blond owner, who was wearing a white T-shirt stained with various flavors, and a blue bandanna tied around her head.
Bruce gave up and followed her inside, ordering a pralines and cream.
After Linda served them both, Bruce and Hayley sat at a small round table outside so no one in the shop could hear them talking.
“So I’m sorry to spring this on you. I know you’ve had quite a day, but... ,” Bruce began.
“Oh, God, this is so good,” Hayley said, shoveling the ice cream into her mouth with a white plastic spoon. “Did you know the president had the coconut when he was here with his family on vacation a couple of years ago?”
“Yes, I know,” Bruce said. “Hayley, focus, please. This is important.”
He reached out and grabbed Hayley’s hand, preventing her from finishing her ice cream, which Hayley likened to sticking your hand into a lion’s cage after poking him with a stick. The end result would be the same.
But she could see Bruce was agonizing over something, and since it obviously concerned her, she decided to sit back and let him talk.
“How much do you know about Lex?”
This caught Hayley off guard.
“Lex Bansfield?”
“How many men named Lex do you know?”
“Don’t be smart, Bruce. It’s just that you said what you wanted to discuss might be connected to the person who shot at me last night, so you can appreciate the fact that I wasn’t expecting to hear Lex’s name.”
“No, I suppose not.”
“You’re not suggesting that Lex was the one who shot at me last night, are you? Because if you are, we’re done talking.”
Bruce lifted up the briefcase he had been carrying, placed it down on the table, and snapped it open. He pulled out a folder, then closed the briefcase, and handed the folder to Hayley.
“What’s this?”
“Police reports.”
“I already have these. I downloaded them this morning for the next issue.”
“These aren’t from Bar Harbor. They’re from Burlington, Vermont.”
“I’m not following you, Bruce.”
“Burlington. Where Lex lived before he moved here.”
Hayley studied Bruce for a moment, and then opened the folder and began flipping through the pages.
“Aggravated assault. Illegal weapons possession,” Bruce said grimly.
“I don’t believe this.”
She skimmed through the reports.
Sure enough, Lex’s name was all over them. A bar fight. Failure to register a handgun.
And most troubling, a domestic dispute.
She poured over that one to see if Lex had threatened or harmed a woman he was dating, but the details in the report were vague.
“Obviously there is a pattern of violent behavior,” Bruce said.
“Okay, so he’s been in trouble with the law. Big deal. I remember you spent a night in jail after getting so drunk watching a Patriots game, you busted a pool table at my brother’s bar.”
“Ancient history. And I didn’t hurt anyone.”
“How do you connect a few incidents in Vermont to whomever it was who shot at me last night in the park?”
“I can’t. But I think you should stay away from him until we find out more about why you were targeted.”
“What possible motive would Lex have to hurt me?”
“You tell me.”
“Why are you even checking into his background? What business is it of yours?”
“I told you, I just don’t trust the guy.”
Hayley felt her face flush. She was getting angry.
She polished off the last of her salt caramel ice cream and crushed the empty paper cup in her bare hands.
She stared daggers at Bruce.
“You know, Bruce, you make a very convincing argument. This certainly doesn’t make me feel good about Lex. And I probably need to talk to him about this. But I also don’t feel good about you and what you’re doing.”
“Trying to protect you.”
“Is that what you’re doing? Or is this some ploy born out of jealousy to keep me from finding someone who can make me happy?”
“Did you look at these papers? How can a guy like this make you happy? Are you that deluded?”
Bruce was only half-finished with his cup of pralines and cream when Hayley snatched it from his grasp and upended it in his face.
Bruce howled, surprised, as the store owner popped her head up from behind the counter to see what the commotion was about.
Hayley stood up, grabbed her bag, and said, “Stay out of my business, Bruce.”
And then she stalked off, as Linda came running out of the shop with a fistful of napkins to help Bruce clean the sweet praline bits and sticky cream off his face.
Hayley’s head was spinning as she charged down the paved sidewalk to her car, which was parked back at the office. She was furious with Bruce and his obvious attempts to scare her away from Lex.
But there was also a small feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was trying to ignore.
One she knew she would have to confront eventually.
Maybe Lex Bansfield wasn’t the all-around great guy she had thought or hoped he would be.
Maybe he was, as the police reports from Burlington suggested, a very dangerous man.

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