by Cat Chandler
“Who is he?” Nicki asked.
“That’s Robin.” Brad’s voice was hoarse and barely above a whisper. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “Robin. This is his office.”
“Oh no!” Nancy gasped from behind Nicki. “That can’t be Robin. Who’s going to make the cake while he’s in the hospital?”
Nicki sighed as Alex scooted around the desk and hurried to put her arms around her wide-eyed mother. The petite blond chef and food blogger grabbed her cell phone from a side pocket in her purse. Nicki punched in the three numbers and waited.
“Nine-One-One, what is your emergency?”
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Nicki glanced up when the tall man dressed in jeans, with a baseball cap pulled down low on his forehead, strode into the room. He didn’t look right or left but made a straight line for the desk where an officer, who’d earlier introduced himself as Darren Tucker, was standing and talking quietly with Alex.
“What have we got, Tucker?” the deep voice had a quiet authority to it.
“Looks like a dead body, Chief.”
Alex caught Nicki’s eye and rolled her own toward the ceiling. Nicki couldn’t blame her. They’d already had to deal with a hysterical receptionist, a thoroughly shocked mother, and a dumbfounded part-owner of the business, not to mention keep several of the employees from recording everything to post on social media. Nicki could only imagine the furor that would cause in such a small town.
Luckily it had only taken a few minutes for the police officers to arrive. When Alex had identified herself as a doctor, and led them to the dead cake maker, Nicki had been quick to turn the still-sobbing Karen over to Nancy’s motherly sympathy and follow the small entourage of Alex and two deputies down the hallway. While the other three had looked over the body, Nicki had quietly wandered about the rest of the room.
It was tastefully decorated, in the same accent shades as the front lobby, confirming Nicki’s impression that they were the signature colors for the catering company. And everything in the office appeared to be in place. Not really messy or tidy, files were stacked in piles on the floor, but Nicki could clearly see the tracks left by a vacuum cleaner here and there, and the wastebasket was empty.
She barely heard the deputy introducing Alex to the man he’d called “Chief” as she slowly walked along the back wall of the office. There was a grouping of five paintings, each with a white cardboard tag under it, as if they were hanging in an art gallery. Each tag identified the name of the painting and its artists. Several were quite striking, capturing the beauty of the bay as well as the still mostly wild Olympic National Forest that stretched out for miles behind it.
Since the conversation behind her showed no signs of letting up, Nicki moved on toward a tall display case. She’d noticed the wine bottles on the three long shelves as she’d ushered Nancy Kolman out of the room. Now she made the most of her opportunity to get a closer look at them.
Just like the paintings, each bottle had a white tag in front of it, giving the type of wine, where it was from, and the year it was bottled. Her eyes opened to the size of a saucer when she saw the ornate La Grande Rue label on a bottle of burgundy. It was considered a “Grand Cru” vineyard, which was the very highest rating in the wine world, and Nicki was certainly impressed that Robin Boral had one of their wines. The other bottles were also impressive, but it was the stand in the middle of the display that caught her attention. She was leaning in closer when a deep voice sounded close to her ear.
“Are you looking for something?”
Nicki managed to stifle a small cry of surprise as she quickly straightened up, only to crack the top of her head against something very hard. She yelped and jumped back away from the display case and bounced off what felt like a solid wall that had somehow appeared behind her. A large hand shot out and wrapped around her arm, steadying her before she plunged headfirst into the shelves of wine bottles.
As soon as her feet were solidly beneath her, she whirled about and came nose to a wide chest covered in blue denim. She tilted her head all the way back and glared up into eyes that were an unusual shade of light gray, with a band of green surrounding each center.
“You startled me, Mister…?”
He lifted one eyebrow and ran a hand along the bottom of his chin. “Thomas. Clayton Thomas. I’m the police chief here in Henley Bay. And you almost knocked me out, Miss…?”
Belatedly realizing this was the man whom the deputy had identified as the chief, Nicki forced her shoulders to relax and curved her mouth up into a smile. “Connors, Chief Thomas. I’m Nicki Connors.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgment before his gaze shifted to the display case behind her. “Well, Miss Connors, I know why I’m here, since it’s my job, but I’m not sure why you’re here. Do you have a fascination with wine? Or maybe dead bodies?”
“Both, actually.” Alex walked up and linked an arm through Nicki’s. “She’s a close friend and in my wedding, which is why we’re both here. To see about a cake.”
“Congratulations on your upcoming marriage.”
Seeing the skeptical look on the chief’s face, Nicki grinned at the tall man wearing the baseball cap with “Life is Good” embroidered across the front. Widening her smile, she stuck out her hand. “I’m one of the maids-of-honor.”
The chief removed his hat and smiled, which had both women gaping at him. When he wasn’t studying everything around him with the flat stare shared by policemen no matter where they worked, he looked like he could grace the cover of a romance novel. Nicki blinked. Broad shoulders, dark-blond hair, classic good looks, and a killer smile. Yep. He’d be perfect on the front of a steamy novel. From the corner of her eye, Alex looked just as stunned as she was.
“You say that as if you’re confessing to something.” Chief Thomas’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he studied Nicki. “What did your friend, the bride, mean when she said you were interested in wine and dead bodies?”
Nicki shifted from one foot to the other. Since she really didn’t want to answer the second part of that question, she stuck to the first. “I’m a trained chef, and I write articles for an online magazine.”
He nodded. “Which one?”
Feeling as if she were being interrogated, Nicki’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Food & Wine Online. Have you heard of it?”
“I subscribe to it.” The chief’s forehead puckered for a moment. “Nicki Connors. Yeah. I tried that baked green pepper thing with the shrimp. It was pretty good.”
“Pretty good?” Nicki laughed. “So not a recipe you’d brag about?”
“I’m not a good enough cook to brag about anything.”
Ever loyal, Alex looked the chief directly in the eyes. “Before you start up your questioning again, Nicki only arrived last night and came in on the airbus from Seattle. I met her in the lobby and we both went straight to our rooms and to bed.”
“I’m sure her alibi will check out just fine.” The chief smiled when Alex glared. “She isn’t a suspect, Dr. Kolman.” He looked back at Nicki and his smile disappeared. “How about dead bodies? I’m still trying to figure out why you’re wandering around my crime scene?”
“Oh, she’s fascinated with those too.” Alex spoke up before Nicki had a chance to open her mouth. “She’s helped Chief Turnlow solve several murders.” Alex sighed as she glanced back at the group crowded around the desk. “And I see the medical examiner has arrived. If you’ll excuse me, Dr. Hanson and I go all the way back to elementary school.” She absently patted Nicki’s arm before hurrying across the room.
“So, you cook up gourmet meals and solve murders?”
Nicki wasn’t sure she appreciated the underlying current of humor in Chief Thomas’s voice, but she politely nodded. “Just a few times. Soldoff is a small town with a two-man, one-woman police department, so Chief Turnlow is happy for the help.”
Nicki put her hands behind her back and crossed her fingers. She doubted if her hometown police ch
ief would say the same thing, but fortunately he wasn’t here to deny it either.
“Is that so?” Chief Thomas glanced over his shoulder at Alex and his ME before turning back to Nicki. “I’m always happy to get any help I can, especially when one of our upstanding citizens is lying dead in his office.”
“Was Robin Boral an upstanding citizen?” At the sudden sharp look from the chief, Nicki shrugged. “Alex is the one who grew up here, not me. All I know about Mr. Boral is that he was part owner in a catering business, and his specialty was baked goods and making cakes. His partner concentrated on the food side.” She paused for a moment before adding, “and Alex’s mom wasn’t too happy with the baker’s customer service.”
“Oh? Why is that?” Chief Thomas pulled a smart phone out of his shirt pocket and gave it several taps.
“Nancy is a very organized party planner, and Mr. Boral was a little late in finalizing the cake order.”
The chief’s eyebrows beetled together. “And being a little late agreeing on whether to serve vanilla or chocolate cake is enough to annoy someone?”
“It is if that someone is the mother of the bride,” Nicki noted.
He shook his head as he tapped away on his phone, entering notes into an application he’d downloaded there. “Do you have anything else to report, or have you noticed anything about the crime scene you’d like to point out?”
Since he didn’t sound as if he was making fun of her, Nicki slowly shook her head. “Nothing.”
The police chief frowned. “Nothing? As in you didn’t notice anything unusual?”
“As in there was nothing to notice,” Nicki corrected. “The whole space is pretty tidy, and everything on his desk was perfectly lined up. If it weren’t for the body and the blood, and the files on the floor place looks pretty much like any other.”
The tall man looked around. “You have a point there, but that doesn’t seem surprising.”
“Except for that.” Nicki turned and pointed to the empty stand in the locked display case behind her.
Chief Thomas followed the direction of her finger. “Looks like a wine bottle is missing.”
Nodding, Nicki moved closer and read the small white tag in front of the empty stand. “It says ‘Dad’s Wine’. I wonder what was there?”
The chief leaned over with her. “A bottle of wine his father gave him?”
Nicki took a long last look before she straightened up and frowned. “But look at the rest of the wine.” When he only shrugged, she snorted. “Those are all very high-end wines.” She pointed at the bottle she’d spotted earlier. “That one’s from a vineyard in France that’s one of the highest-rated vineyards in the world.”
He nodded his understanding. “So you’re wondering why a gift from Dad had the main display spot?” The chief did a quick glance down the length of the case. “Could be for sentimental reasons. Or maybe he intended to swap it out since it’s missing.”
“Or maybe someone stole it?” Nicki suggested.
“Or maybe he took it home, gave it away, or sold it?” The chief shrugged. “A special anniversary might have come up and he drank it. There’re a hundred reasons it could be missing.”
“Or maybe the killer took it and left that ribbon and pin behind,” Nicki said, pointing at the wide blue ribbon with the angular pin attached to it.
“Chief,” Deputy Tucker called out. “Your family here wants to talk to you.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Nicki glanced from the ME standing next to Alex, back to the chief. “Your family? Is Doctor Hanson any relation to you?”
“Cousin,” the chief answered. He tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Look, Miss Connors. I’ll check into the wine when I have a chance. But right now I have a list of people I need to talk to first, and I still have to notify Mr. Boral’s next-of-kin.”
Nicki felt an instant pang of sympathy for the tall good-looking chief. Knocking on someone’s door and telling them a loved one was dead wasn’t something she’d wish on anyone. “I’m sorry. For his family and for you having to tell them what happened.”
The chief sighed and ran a hand through his thick mess of blond hair before settling his ridiculously cheerful cap back into place. “Thanks. If I need any more information, I’ll get hold of you at the St. Armand.” He smiled. “Alex told me where the bridal party is staying. In the meantime…”
“Yes, I know,” Nicki interrupted. “Enjoy the wedding and stay away from your murder investigation.”
“That sounds like a good plan.” The chief lifted two fingers to his cap before heading over to talk to his cousin, the ME.
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Thirty minutes later, Nicki sat in the lobby of the St. Armand, cradling a cup of coffee in her hands as she waited for Alex. The doctor had taken Nancy up to her room but had silently mouthed “wait here” to Nicki before she’d disappeared into the elevator with her arm firmly around her mother’s shoulders.
Having no idea how long Alex would be, Nicki looked for a more private place to sit. She wanted to make a phone call or two, and knowing how fast news traveled in a town the size of Henley Bay, she didn’t want them to be overheard.
Spotting a cozy alcove, tucked off to the side but in view of the bank of elevators, Nicki tapped a text message into her cell phone as she walked across the lobby. Settling into one of the deeply cushioned chairs, she decided to make a call while she waited for an answer to her text. Picking out a name from her contact list, she held the phone up to her ear and mentally crossed her fingers.
“Hi, this is Matt. I can’t pick up right now but leave me a message and I’ll get back to you soon.”
“Hi. It’s Nicki. When you get a chance, please give me a call.” Nicki sighed as she disconnected. She’d really wanted to talk to Matt, but he was off at a conference in Florida, which was about as far away from Washington as he could get without leaving the country. Or at least the mainland part of it.
In the last year, the tall, dark-haired editor of Food & Wine Online had become a good friend, and made it clear to her and, well, just about everyone else, that he wanted to be more. Nicki certainly wasn’t opposed to the idea. But after a two-year relationship that had fizzled into nothing, she wasn’t in a hurry to take a head-long leap into something else. There isn’t anything wrong with taking it slow, she thought. But that didn’t keep her from another deep sigh as she stared at her phone and considered calling Jane, Matt’s very efficient and very scary admin assistant, to find out what Matt’s schedule was.
After a full minute of weighing the pros and cons, scary won out and Nicki put her phone down on the table in the center of the small group of chairs and pretended not to see Sally waving frantically at her from behind her coffee cart. But she wasn’t surprised when the young woman deserted her post and sprinted across the lobby, her short, blond pixie haircut bouncing up and down as she made a beeline for the alcove.
Sally skidded to a halt right next to Nicki’s chair, windmilling her arms to keep herself from tumbling headfirst into Nicki’s lap.
“Hey, Nicki! I just got a call from my brother, who heard from Justin, who was talking to Tiff, who said that there’s a dead man over at Robin’s Catering, and that she thinks it’s Robin. And Tiff said that some customers were there and one of them was a doctor, and the other a really cute chef that the police chief was talking to for a long time. Tiff heard that from Karen.”
Nicki blinked,ec trying to follow what the fast-talking Sally was saying. “Um… Justin, Tiff, and…?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah.” Sally lifted a hand and started to count off on her fingers. “My brother is best friends with Justin, who’s Tiff’s boyfriend. Well, her name is really Tiffany. And she got a text from Karen, who’s…”
“The receptionist at Robin’s Catering.” Nicki smiled. “I’ve met her.”
“Because you were there this morning talking to the police chief?” Sally prompted.
“I was there... But only b
ecause we had an appointment about Alex’s wedding cake.”
“She’s the bride?” When Nicki nodded, Sally did too. “Right. And she’s the doctor, isn’t she? I heard her mom call her that when they stopped at my cart a few days ago. They were arguing about something.”
No surprise there, Nicki thought. Probably about the wedding cake.
“Alex is a doctor,” Nicki confirmed. “But we were at Robin’s to talk about a wedding cake.”
“And that makes you the chef,” Sally went on as if Nicki hadn’t said anything. “And you’re certainly cute, so you’re the one Karen said was talking to the chief for a really long time.”
“What?”
“You and Chief Thomas. Karen said you were talking together a long time.”
Nicki frowned. “Only about five minutes, and I’m not a suspect if that’s what Karen thought.”
“Of course not,” Sally hastily assured her. “Karen said the two of you looked great together.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “You are soooo lucky. He’s a real hunk.”
Fixing a smile on her face, Nicki did a mental roll of her eyes. Trust the local gossip chain to be more interested who the “hunky” police chief was talking to than the man lying dead on the desk.
“I wasn’t flirting with him, Sally. We were talking about the murdered man in the room.”
The thin blond’s eyes almost popped out of her head as her hand flew to cover her mouth. “Murdered? Karen thought he’d had a heart attack or something. At least that’s what Brad told her.”
Nicki inwardly groaned. She hoped she hadn’t blurted out something the police were trying to keep quiet. If she had, she was sure to get a not-so-pleasant visit from Chief Thomas.
“I have a great imagination,” Nicki said, adding a little laugh that sounded forced even to her own ears. “I really wasn’t to hear exactly how he’d died.” Which was technically true. No one had actually said that Robin had been murdered, so it could have been a heart attack. Except for the blood. But she saw no need to mention that to Sally.
