Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries) (21 page)

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Authors: Lee Hollis

BOOK: Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries)
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“It’s on the fin,” Sergio said, a serious look on his face.
“What fin? How did we get onto the topic of fish? Oh, you mean
fritz
. It’s on the fritz. The dishwasher is broken.”
“Yes, that’s what I said. According to Mr. and Mrs. Rivers, they have a very voluptuous and passionate relationship and sometimes fighting is an afro conditioner.”
Okay. Hayley didn’t need a translator for this one. Sergio meant the Rivers have a volatile and passionate relationship. And sometimes fighting is an aphrodisiac. She wasn’t about to correct him. She was in enough hot water as it was.
“Okay, Sergio, suppose they’re telling the truth. Suppose Ted Rivers wasn’t sleeping with Karen. And he’s completely faithful to Sissy. If all that’s true, then what was he doing at Karen’s house on the day before she was murdered?”
“It was a business meeting.”
“What kind of business meeting?”
“She wanted legal advice.”
“About what?”
“Karen was going to get married and she wanted to discuss the ins and outs of a pre-natal agreement.”
Pre-nup agreement.
“I don’t believe this,” Hayley said, slack-jawed. “Karen was going to tie the knot? To whom?”
“She didn’t mention a name to Ted and he didn’t ask. He said it wasn’t any of his business. He just gave her information on what kind of financial considerations there should be.”
This floored Hayley. Karen Applebaum was by no means a rich woman, but she was certainly comfortable. Her father had left her a nice chunk of change when he died, and she certainly made out well in her divorce settlement with Martin. She probably had a nice little nest egg collecting interest at the First National Bank. So whomever she had fallen in love with might have been of lesser means, and she wanted to protect her portfolio if the marriage went south. If the mystery man wasn’t Ted Rivers, then who was it?
Chapter 34
 
As Hayley drove home from the police station—luckily for her, a free woman—she thought about the facts and was certain of only one thing. The man who sent that big bouquet of flowers to Karen’s funeral most definitely had to be the man she was planning to marry. But, according to Sergio, he had already spoken to the owner of the local florist, and the flowers were not from her shop. And there was no company logo on the card. It was plain white. All she had to go on was the handwritten inscription on the card.
Hayley blew through the back door of the house to find Gemma and Dustin polishing off the last remnants of a macaroni and cheese casserole, leftovers from a few days ago, having already polished off the pizza they ordered earlier. Hayley suddenly felt like a bad mother. Her kids were eating scraps, while she was out tracking down a killer.
Gemma reassured her. “If you made us a homemade meal every night the way you’d like to do, we’d just be another statistic for the childhood obesity epidemic.”
This made Hayley feel a bit better.
“Where have you been all night?” Dustin asked.
“At the station. Visiting with Sergio. We never get any one-on-one time anymore, what with Randy always around, so I thought I’d go hang with him for a bit tonight.”
Gemma and Dustin exchanged dubious looks.
“What?”
Gemma pointed to the police scanner Hayley kept plugged in on top of a shelf above her stovetop to keep abreast of all the goings-on in town. “We heard everything. Two women prowlers on West Street. One wearing a lavender blouse. I said to Dustin, didn’t we give Mom a lavender blouse for Christmas last year? And wasn’t she wearing it when she went out tonight?”
Dustin laughed. “And the other woman with auburn hair? That has to be Aunt Liddy!”
“Where was Aunt Mona?”
“In the car,” Hayley said, giving up. “She was the lookout.”
Hayley wasn’t the only amateur sleuth living at this address.
“I’m not even going to ask what you were doing,” Gemma said. “Are you going to be in the Police Beat? Is the whole school going to know you were arrested for trespassing?”
“Nobody got arrested. Okay, I was in handcuffs, but only for fifteen minutes. They took them off as soon as Sergio saw me.”
“Our mother, the role model,” Gemma said, cracking up.
“You’re right. I screwed up. Again. I never said my strong suit was leading by example. But you know why I’m doing this. If they arrest me ...”
“We’ll have to go live with Dad,” Dustin said. “Believe me, none of us wants that!”
“So did you find any helpful clues on your little adventure tonight?” Gemma asked.
“Not really,” Hayley said, sighing. “Well, we did learn that Karen was planning to get married.”
“Who would marry that old hag?” Dustin asked, scrunching up his face and looking disgusted.
“Dustin, please, we’ve already talked about this,” Hayley said, folding her arms. “The poor woman has died. Show some respect.”
“You hated her!” Dustin cried.
“You’re right. I did. When she was alive. But now she’s dead. So I can’t anymore. I think it’s a sin or something. We have to be nice.”
“Fine,” Dustin said. “I’ll start over. Who was the fine upstanding gentleman who was going to carry Karen off into the sunset to live happily ever after?”
“Well, don’t overdo it,” Hayley said, grabbing a can of Diet Coke from the fridge and popping it open. “We actually don’t know.”
“Do you at least have any idea?” Gemma asked.
“I thought I did, but I was wrong. Dead wrong. The only thing I have to go on is an unsigned card that came with a bouquet of flowers sent to Karen’s funeral. It said,
I will miss you forever. Today. Tomorrow. And always. With all my heart.
Oh, and whoever it was dotted their ‘i’s’ with little hearts.”
“Kendra Mitchell,” Gemma said, not even blinking.
“Excuse me?” Hayley asked, confused.
“That’s Kendra Mitchell. She’s in my class at school. Her parents own Mitchell Florists in Ellsworth. She works there on weekends taking orders over the phone and she always dots her i’s with little hearts. It’s, like, her signature.”
Hayley couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her daughter had just produced the most solid lead yet. She reached out and grabbed Gemma by the cheeks and planted a big wet kiss on her. “I don’t tell you how much I love you nearly enough!”
“It’s okay, really,” Gemma said, wiping her mother’s spittle off her cheek.
“Will Kendra be there tomorrow?”
“Yes. She’s there every weekend.”
Hayley’s mind was racing. “How about we go shopping in Ellsworth tomorrow, Gemma, and I’ll buy you that new Land’s End jacket you’ve been squawking about for weeks?”
Gemma was onboard immediately.
“We can have lunch, buy your jacket, and, if we have time, we can pop in and say hello to your friend Kendra,” Hayley said, grinning.
“Like I’m dumb enough not to know this is all a bribe to pump Kendra for information. But who cares? I’m getting a new jacket!”
Gemma began dancing around the kitchen.
“What do I get?” Dustin said.
“A mother’s undying love,” Hayley said.
“I’d rather have my Xbox 360 back,” he said, wandering out of the room.
“Once you’re caught up with your schoolwork, you’ll get your wish,” Hayley said before ushering the kids to their rooms for the night, as it was getting late.
She then crawled into her own bed with Leroy snuggled into her side. Finally, she thought as she drifted off to sleep, she could see a little progress just off in the distance.
The following morning, Hayley roused Gemma out of bed shortly before eight, and gently pushed her to take her shower and eat some breakfast as she wanted to hit the road to Ellsworth. By the time Gemma dragged herself downstairs, rubbing the sleepy seeds out of her eyes, it was going on nine. After throwing some frozen waffles in the microwave for Dustin (she wouldn’t mention that in her next column), she steered Gemma toward the car and they were finally on their way.
Hayley and Gemma arrived fifteen minutes before the shop opened, so Hayley parked the car across the street. She saw some movement inside, but wasn’t about to arouse suspicion by forcing her way in before store hours and hammering Kendra with a barrage of questions. This situation demanded diplomacy and a light touch. Hayley thought she and Gemma could enjoy some mother–daughter quality time while they waited, but Gemma was too busy texting her friends. So Hayley turned on the radio, a soft-rock station, featuring a classic from Air Supply.
Gemma groaned. “Really, Mother? Must we?”
Hayley shut off the radio. Normally, she would have told her daughter to just deal with it, but she needed her help when the store opened and couldn’t risk starting an argument.
Hayley checked her watch. Two minutes after ten. She tapped her right index finger on the steering wheel impatiently.
Gemma looked up from her cell phone. “Relax, Mother. It means Kendra is the only one working today. She’s always late for school and getting written up. She has no sense of time.”
Good sign. It was better if Kendra was alone.
Finally, at ten after ten, Hayley spotted a young girl around Gemma’s age, with long stringy brown hair, spindly arms and legs, and an expressionless, can’t-be-bothered face, unlocking the front door of the shop and flipping the CLOSED sign over so it read OPEN.
Hayley was out of the car in a flash and raced into the store. Gemma had to run to catch up. Inside, Kendra had already moved back behind the counter and was immersed in one of the
Twilight
novels.
“Gemma, look who it is!” Hayley said in a booming voice that startled Kendra, who jumped back slightly on the stool where she was sitting.
“Dial it down a notch, would you, Mom? You’re going to scare her,” Gemma said under her breath. And then she turned to the still somewhat shaken girl. “Hey, Kendra, how’s it going?”
“Oh, hi, Gemma,” she said, eyeing Gemma’s hyperactive mother warily.
“We’re here because my mother’s birthday is next week, that’s Gemma’s grandmother ... ,” Hayley said with a big smile.
“Yeah, I kind of got that,” Kendra said, glancing at Gemma as if to say, “Your mother’s weird.”
Hayley had a single focus. She knew she was close to finding out who sent the flowers. She had to calm down. Take things slow. She was happy Gemma was there with her to help. She decided to pull back and allow Gemma to take the lead.
“We were thinking a spring bouquet, lots of different colors. You have anything like that?” Gemma asked.
“Oh, yeah, we’ll put together something real nice,” Kendra said. “What do you want the card to say?”
Gemma turned to Hayley. “What do you think, Mom? Something like ‘Happy Birthday, Gram! Have a wonderful day and we wish we were there to help you celebrate. Love, Hayley, Gemma, and Dustin’?”
“That sounds very nice,” Hayley said.
They both watched as Kendra grabbed a card and started writing it all down. Sure enough, Kendra dotted all her “i’s” with little hearts.
“What a nice touch, drawing those little hearts,” Hayley said.
Kendra stopped and looked at the card. “What? Oh. Right. I’ve been doing that for so long, like since the third grade. I’ve stopped thinking about it.”
“Well, it’s very sweet,” Hayley said.
“My mom told me about the flowers at Karen Applebaum’s funeral and I knew it had to be you who had written the note,” Gemma said.
Kendra looked up at Gemma, a bit confused. “Who?”
“You know, that lady who died from eating the poisoned clam chowder?” Gemma said.
“Oh, her! Yeah, what a way to go. And I read they think your mom ...” Kendra caught herself.
“For the record, dear, I’m one hundred percent innocent,” Hayley said.
“Of course,” Kendra said. “Now will that be cash or charge?”
Hayley slapped down her credit card. “Those were lovely flowers at Mrs. Applebaum’s funeral. Did you put together that bouquet?”
“No, my mom did. I just took down the order and ran the credit card.”
“I see,” Hayley said. “Everyone at the service wanted to know who sent such a beautiful arrangement, but unfortunately there was no name on the card.”
“That’s because the guy didn’t want us to put his name on it,” Kendra said.
“Why not?” Hayley asked.
But Kendra just shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Well, who was it?” Hayley pressed.
“My parents told me never to share customer information with anyone,” she said.
“Good rule. Completely understandable. Your parents are absolutely right,” Hayley said, giving Gemma a quick nudge.
Gemma looked at her mother, not sure what she wanted her to do.
With a quick move of her head, Hayley tried to indicate to Gemma that she should try to keep Kendra distracted.
Gemma knew what her mother planned to do and shook her head vigorously.
Unfortunately, Kendra was watching the whole scene. “Is something wrong?”
“No, everything’s fine. We’re just having a little disagreement. Gemma really wants a brand new Land’s End jacket, but I told her she should get a job after school and pay for it herself because in the end, it will mean so much more.”
Gemma sighed. Checkmate. Her mother just scored big-time. And Gemma knew what she had to do if she was going to get that jacket.
“Kendra, have you done your trigonometry homework yet?”
“Yeah, I finished yesterday.”
“I’m stuck on question ten. Can I see how you did it?”
“Sure. But I left my laptop at home.”
“Mine’s in the car. Can you come outside and I’ll show you where I got hung up?”
“My parents said never to leave the store,” Kendra said.
This kid was so responsible, Hayley thought. It was starting to get annoying.
“Well, I’ll go get it and you can help me in here,” Gemma said.
And then Gemma bounded out the door. Hayley offered up a fake smile, which Kendra ignored. In a few seconds, Gemma was back in the shop with her knapsack. She pulled out her laptop and fired it up on the counter. She positioned herself between Kendra and her mother, and kept Kendra focused on the computer screen.
“I’ll just browse and enjoy all these beautiful flowers,” Hayley said, casually walking away, disappearing into the forest of plants and roses and daffodils and lady’s slippers, before reemerging from the other side and slipping around behind Kendra and into the back office of the shop.
She knew she only had a couple of minutes, as Kendra was already rattling off how Gemma could reach the right answer to the problem. Hayley went behind the desk and quietly opened a few drawers, rifling through the hanging file folders until she came to one labeled RECEIPTS. She pulled it out and opened it on the desk, flipping through the stack of credit card receipts at a clip, hoping a name would pop out at her.

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