Sweet Ginger Poison (16 page)

“Don’t you touch her!”

“You’re in no position to give
me
orders.”

“Well…then just give me my money.”

“So, you’re going to stand there and tell me you
killed Navy.”

“Yes.”

“You chickened out on shooting him, so you laced his
coffee cake with fish oil.”

“Right.”

“Do you have any idea how much I hate being lied to?”

“I’m not lying!”

“I followed you Saturday morning. I watched you park
your car down the road and then walk back and hide in the woods. So, you
couldn’t have been the one who put the fish oil in his coffee cake since you
were nowhere near the bakery Saturday morning until after he died.”

“Uh…”

“I suppose you could have gotten your girlfriend to do
it for you.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“But if
she
was going to poison his coffee
cake, why would you bother to drive out to the nursing home?”

“I…uh…don’t know.”

“In fact, I would think you would have wanted to stay
as far away from there as possible.”

Danny didn’t have a response. The rain was now coming
down in
sheets
rather than drops. He was standing in two inches of
water, about to be shot in the head—if the lightning didn’t get him first.

“I don’t allow people to cheat me out of my money.”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

“Yes, you were. You expected me to pay you for a job
you didn’t do.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t accept your apology. Goodbye, Danny.”

“No, no.” Danny held his hands in front of his face
and closed his eyes.

A deafening boom of thunder shook the ground. It was
more than enough to mask the gunshot. But how was he able to still think with a
bullet in his brain? He opened his eyes. He was standing alone in the rain.

Then he felt something and looked down. There was a
bird pecking at his stomach. He tried to shoo it away. Then he realized it
wasn’t a bird—it was the handle of a knife.

He pulled downward and outward with both hands and it
came out two inches. He pulled again and now he could see four inches of steel.
One last yank, and it was completely out. He held it up and stared at the
seven-inch blade in disbelief.

Blood gushed down the front of his pants. His knees
gave way and his body began to topple.

“I’m so sorry, Lacey.”

He hit the ground face first. Mud squished into his
mouth and up his nostrils. It would have been enough to suffocate him if his
heart had not already stopped beating.

“Looks like Navy had a lot of friends,” said Ethel,
scanning the church auditorium.

“They’re not
friends
,” said Barb. “They’re just
curious.”

“Like us,” said Jane, surveying the room.

Ginger was curious too. But she had a legitimate
reason to attend Navy’s funeral: one of her coffee cakes had killed him.

She spotted Bull Crawley way in the back left corner,
sitting by himself. Then his brother, Cash, walked in with a beautiful young
busty blonde. Bull stared at them. The blonde returned Bull’s stare. Cash
ignored Bull altogether. They sat on the right side.

“It’s almost time for it to start. We’d better go sit
down,” said Ginger.

Just as the women started to move, Ginger said, “Wait
just a second.”

Manny Monet had walked into the room. He sauntered up
the aisle to the casket and peered in.

Ginger thought surely he wouldn’t come to Navy’s
funeral if he had been the one who killed him. She saw Manny give Navy’s corpse
the once-over, and then almost start to cry, before quickly regaining his
composure.

But wait. She replayed it in her mind. She had thought
she’d seen him almost cry because that’s what would have made sense to her. But
that’s not what he did. It hadn’t been a cry that Manny had stifled—it had been
a
laugh
. He thought it was
funny
that Navy was dead.

Perhaps Elijah was right in thinking that Navy
borrowed money from Manny and didn’t pay it back. Now Manny was having the last
laugh. Ginger would look into it. But she’d have to proceed with caution. He
looked dangerous.

Ginger heard a door open in the front, and then saw
Ellegora and another woman being escorted to the seats located to the right of
the podium. It was the area reserved for family members. Ginger recognized the
woman as the servant she’d met at Ellegora’s house. Apparently Navy had no
other family. Or maybe they just didn’t care enough to show up.

“Let’s go,” said Ginger. She led her friends to the
pew where Addie and Cheryl were sitting. Ginger had decided at the last minute
that Coreyville Coffee Cakes would close for the funeral. Lacey, the prime
suspect for Navy’s murder, had understandably decided to skip it.

Ginger was not surprised that Danny was also absent.
Yesterday he had asked to be off today. He had not told Cheryl why he needed
the day off. But everybody knew it certainly wasn’t so he could attend Navy’s
funeral.

No sooner than they sat down, Elijah walked out to the
podium. Ginger knew that neither Navy nor Ellegora were members of Corey Acres
Baptist Church. But she wasn’t surprised that Elijah had been asked to
officiate. Some ministers try to use the death of a man like Navy as a lesson
to everyone in the congregation.
Get right with God or you’ll end up where
Navy is—in Hell
.

Ginger thought those ministers were way out of line.
How much could they really know about a person’s relationship with God? Elijah
wouldn’t do that. He had told Ginger that when he led a funeral service his job
was to comfort the family and say something positive about the deceased.

Ginger knew it would be a struggle to find something
good to say about the man in that casket. But Elijah managed to put a positive
spin on Navy’s life. Ellegora seemed to appreciate it.

After the service, as Ginger and the other women were
getting up to leave, she saw Chief Foenapper walk in through the family
entrance and start talking to Ellegora. What was so important that it couldn’t
wait until a more appropriate time?

Ginger said goodbye to her fellow Domino Girls and
told Addie and Cheryl she would see them at the bakery in a little while. Then
she got into her car and drove to Cash & Carry Donuts.

It was time to confront Cash Crawley. Ginger was
fairly certain that he was in possession of her fake coffee cake recipe book,
and that Navy was the one who stole it for him.

She parked her car and walked into the store. It
appeared there was only one employee on the job. There weren’t many donut
customers at 11:00 a.m.

As she approached the woman standing behind the
counter, the blonde from the funeral home walked out from the back hallway, saw
Ginger, and said, “May I help you?”

“Yes, I hope so. I’m Ginger Lightley, and—”

“—glad to meet you, Ginger. I’m Silvy Knox. I’ve heard
great things about your coffee cakes.”

Ginger smiled. “Thanks. You should try one.”

“I want to. I just haven’t got around to it yet. I’ve
only been living here in Coreyville for a couple of months.”

“I see. Well, come by and have your first coffee cake
on me.”

Silvy smiled warmly. “Oh, that’s so sweet of you,
Ginger.”

“Just tell them I sent you.”

“Great. I’ll do that,” said Silvy. “Now, what can I do
for
you?
”

“Well, I was hoping to speak with Cash.”

“Are you two friends?”

“No. Actually, we’ve never been formally introduced.”

“I can take care of that. Follow me.”

Silvy led her up the hallway to Cash’s office.

“You have a visitor,” said Silvy.

Cash looked up from the paperwork on his desk. “Oh,
uh—”

“—this is Ginger Lightley,” said Silvy. “Ginger, meet
Cash Crawley.”

Cash stood up and hurried around the desk to shake her
hand. “So glad to finally meet you, Ginger,” he said, and then quickly added,
“Is it okay if I call you ‘Ginger?’”

Ginger smiled politely. “Oh course.”

“And you can call me ‘Cash.’”

Silvy walked away.

“Please have a seat.” Cash closed the door and walked
back to his desk and sat down. “I have to say that I’m a long-time admirer of
your work.”

“Well, thank you.” Should she jump right in, or make
some more small talk first? She noticed the potted plant in the corner. “What a
beautiful plant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those before. What is it?”

“I really don’t know. Silvy gave it to me. She’s the
blonde who introduced us.”

“Yes. Nice young lady,” said Ginger. “I notice you’ve
started selling muffins.” Here we go.

“I call them cupcakes, but yes, I just added them to
the menu yesterday.”

“One of my regulars tried one, and then shared a bite
with me.”

“Oh, really?” He looked worried.

“Yes. It was…interesting.”

“You didn’t like it.”

“It tasted…fine.”

“Great.” He grinned.

“But there was something that bothered me about it.”

“Too much cinnamon?”

“No. I’m not sure whether you’re aware of this, Cash,
but I have a keen sense of taste and smell.”

“I guess you’d
have
to—or you couldn’t create
such wonderful recipes.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“So, I’ll bet you found something about my cupcake
that could be improved with a few tweaks. Please—tell me what I need to
change.”

“No, the real issue is that I
recognized
the
recipe.”

“You mean it was similar to one you’ve tasted before?”

“No. I mean it was a recipe
I created
.”

“Oh, that couldn’t be.”

“Where did you get your recipe, Cash?”

“I made it up myself.”

“No, you didn’t. You got it out of
my
book, didn’t
you?” Did she really expect him to just admit it?

He hesitated, bit his lower lip, and then said, “Yes,
you’re right—it was
your
recipe. I’m sorry.”

“And it came out of my
stolen
recipe book.”

“Yes. But
I
didn’t steal it.”

“I know. Navy Newcomb stole it for you.”

“No. I got it from him. But he just
gave
it to
me. I didn’t pay him for it.”

“Let me guess. You didn’t pay him because he was
already dead.”

“Okay, Lady, I’ve tried to be nice. I’ve been honest
with you. I’ve apologized. You can have the stupid recipe book. I don’t want
it. But if you think I had anything to do with Navy Newcomb’s death, then
you’re just crazy.” He stood up. “I’m through talking. Goodbye.”

“Keep the book. Those are not my real recipes anyway,"
said Ginger smugly, as she got up and left. On the way out of the store she
passed Silvy, who smiled at her.

By admitting he had the recipe book Cash had convinced
Ginger that he was not the murderer.

**********

Chief Foenapper appeared in the doorway of the
kitchen. “Addie Barneswaller, I need you to come with me to the station.”

“What for?” said Addie.

“I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Well, can’t you do it here? I’m working.”

“Oh, you don’t want
that
—believe me.”

Addie turned to Lacey. “Honey, you’re gonna have to
take over.”

“But—”

“—I’ll be back in a little while—hopefully.”

“Let’s go,” said the chief.

Lacey was nervous about taking over. But she had
trained long enough. She knew what to do.

It would be a few more minutes before the next batch
of coffee cakes was ready to come out of the oven. She took out her cell phone
and called Danny’s number again. Yesterday, when Lacey had asked why he was
taking off today, he wouldn’t tell her.

They would never make it as a couple until he was
willing to be open up and be honest with her.

Why won’t he answer his phone?

When Addie got back from the police station, Ginger
called her into the office.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Ginger.”

“Come on, Addie. How long have we been friends? You
know you can tell me anything. I won’t judge you. Now what’s going on?”

“You can’t say a word about this to anyone.”

“I won’t,” said Ginger. “You
know
I won’t.”

“Okay.” Addie took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
“It happened when Navy was 15 years old. Bobbie was at the movies with a couple
of girlfriends.”