Book 42 - Cotton Candy Fluff Murder_KDP

by Gillard, Susan

  “Thank you,” Col said, and heaved a sigh. “I don’t know why I was so nervous about that.”

  “What else did you want to ask?” Ames scooched forward a little.

  Col blushed this time. “It’s not my place to ask this, actually. It’s just a pre-warning. I want everything to go smooth as a jelly for Mona, you see? I know she’s going to ask you and Heather to be her maids of honor. She can’t pick which of you she’d prefer.”

  “Oh!” Amy sat bolt upright. “Really?” She loved weddings. Amy’s adored anything romance related, though she’d try to hide it at all costs.

  “Really. She’ll ask you in her own time, but I just wanted to test the waters first. I don’t want her to get upset if you can’t do it. You know, if you’re too busy or something?”

  “I’m never too busy for a wedding,” Amy said.

  “I’d be happy to do it, too.” Heather rose from the wrought iron chair and spared a wave for Eva, who’d just bustled through the front door for her morning donut. “I’ll get us some coffees and donuts to celebrate.”

  “I really appreciate this,” Col said.

  “You’re a good guy, Col.” Amy clapped him on the back. “You and Mona deserve each other.”

  A crash rang out from one of the tables near the front of the store and a group of girls nearby shrieked and spun around. Stillness fell in Donut Delights.

  “Clean up on aisle 3?” Amy’s joke fell flat.

  Kate Laverne stood in the corner, hauling in unsteady breaths. Two cups lay in pieces at her feet, coffee spreading between the shards. The vase – one of the antiques Heather had sourced for the store – had been shattered on the golden board, flowers scattered far and wide.

  “There’s a bug in my donut,” Kate yelled. “A bug baked right in.”

  “Juvenile,” Amy muttered and palmed her face.

  “That’s enough, Kate.” Heather rounded the table and pressed her fists to her hips. “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” How she’d managed to conjure up a donut and two coffees were – wait, two coffees?

  A man rose beside Kate and Heather went cold as ice from head to toe. She knew that man. She’d seen him in enough New York papers to recognize him from across the street, let alone across the room.

  Lyle Clarke.

  Big time contractor, suspected mafia links, definitely not a good guy if the newspapers were to be believed. The police, the courts, and even the FBI had never been able to trace him back to any of the crimes supposedly connected to his organization.

  “You’ll refuse me service?” Lyle asked, in gravelly tones. He swept thick fingers over his oiled-back hair. “That right, Mrs. Shepherd?”

  How did he know her name? Oh heavens, Kate was out of her mind to bring this man to their town. Or had he come of his own accord?

  Amy looked from Heather to Lyle and back again. “Who’s this guy?” She whispered.

  “Trouble,” Heather said, out of the corner of her mouth. She raised her voice. “Yes, I refuse you and Kate service. If you don’t leave, you’ll be escorted out. I won’t have you disturb my customers any more than you already have.”

  The table of girls applauded. A few of the other customers joined in.

  Lyle’s gaze tore through Heather. He nodded once – not an acceptance of her wishes, but an acknowledgment. It said, “This isn’t over.”

  “Let’s go, Laverne,” he grunted.

  Kate followed him out without a word. Without a scene. That alone made the hairs on the back of Heather’s neck stand up.

  Chapter 13

  “Who is he?” Amy asked, and switched the end of Cupcake’s magenta leash from one hand to the other.

  “Who’s who?” Lilly sat on the park bench with Dave at her feet, wagging his tail a mile a minute, gaze fixed on the tennis ball in her hand. “Mom?”

  “Don’t worry, honey. It’s nothing important,” Heather said, then nudged her bestie.

  Ames rolled her eyes and put Cupcake down on the grass. They’d decided to take a walk together this afternoon and enjoy a mini-picnic in the park. Eva had brought the donuts, Ames and Lilly had the animals, and Heather had brought the sense of constant worry.

  She couldn’t shake the confusion over the case or Lyle’s presence in Hillside or Kate’s behavior. The concerns amalgamated in her mind and tossed her thoughts from one problem to the next.

  One second, she obsessed over Suzanne’s potential involvement in the murder and the argument she’d had with her father, and the next Kate Laverne cropped up in her brain, her new and supremely dangerous friend beside her.

  “Donut, dear?” Eva asked, and offered her one of the Cotton Candy Fluffs.

  Heather shook her head and sat down on the bench.

  Lilly hopped off it and hurried to the side of the small lake nestled between the trees. She tossed the ball for Dave. Cupcake chased after it too and she clapped her hands and laughed.

  “All right, now can we talk about it?” Amy asked.

  “I guess,” Heather said. “Yeah, it would probably help. I think Suzanne –”

  “No, not the case.” Amy widened her stance and accepted a donut from Eva. “I’m talking about that dude who was with Kate in Donut Delights. What was that about?”

  “He’s from New York,” Heather said. She’d have preferred to leave it at that. Amy’s intrigue new no bounds. If she found out the guy was probably a Mafioso she’d want to research.

  Not that Heather could blame her for the curious streak.

  “Lyle Clarke,” Eva said.

  They both looked at her.

  “I read the newspaper,” she said. “His name is always in it, these days. A big contractor and a new addition to Hillside. He’s partly responsible for all the expansion around here. They're calling it Hillside’s industrial boom.”

  “Heavens,” Heather said. “He lives here now?”

  “Yes. You really should read the news once in a while, dear,” Eva said.

  That wasn’t good news. If Kate had gotten involved with Clarke, things could only go south. The woman already had superiority issues.

  “So, he’s some big wig.”

  “He’s also got crime family connections,” Heather said, at last. “They’ve never made it stick, but he’s a bad guy.”

  “Like ‘sleep with the fishes?’ That kind of bad guy?” Amy asked.

  “Basically.”

  “Oh shoot,” Amy said. “No wonder Kate was brave enough to come into the store. What do we do?”

  “Nothing. There’s nothing to do. We focus on the case and our donuts and that’s that.”

  “But –”

  “That’s that,” Heather reiterated. Gosh, when had she started sounded like Ryan? He’d forbidden her from involving herself in his cases back in the days before she’d gotten her private investigator’s license. “Let’s focus on what we know about the case.”

  “Fine,” Amy said and took a bite of her donut.

  Lilly laughed and tossed the ball again. Dave jumped up, caught it, then flopped down on the grass – that tail didn’t stop wagging once.

  “We don’t have enough evidence, as usual,” Heather said. “And I feel like we’re not going to get anything out of any of our suspects. Dr. Ford has an alibi. Ryan’s checking out Delilah’s right now. That leaves the family.”

  “And they definitely won’t talk, right?” Amy asked.

  “Yeah, we’re past the talking phase. We’ll have to follow them. A stake out, maybe,” Heather said. Though, what would it prove?

  “What would that prove?” Amy asked. “We know that Suzanne’s crazy jealous. There’s no real evidence she tampered with anything except for what Delilah told us about the cabinet.”

  “What was in the cabinet?” Heather drummed her heels. “What could she have wanted in there?”

  “We could ask.”

  “Yeah, and have a trophy thrown at our heads,” Heather replied. Not that the prospect put her off. She wasn’t scare
d of Suzanne, but she wanted to maintain a modicum of professionalism, at least, and taking a Taser to one of the suspects probably wouldn’t go down well at the station.

  “Who’s that?” Eva asked.

  They looked to where she pointed – a shaded spot beneath the trees on the other side of the lake. A figure hovered beneath the trees, dressed in a hoodie and pale green pants which matched the kind Nurse Delilah had sported that morning.

  “Are you kidding?” Heather blinked. “Eva, please stay with Lilly.”

  “Heather, wait,” Amy said.

  But it was too late for waiting. She took off toward the other end of the park, pumping her arms back and forth.

  Chapter 14

  The hooded figure sprinted out from under the trees and ran toward the gate at the far end of the park.

  “Hey, wait!” Heather yelled. Nothing doing. “Hold it right there.” She didn’t have the authority to stop someone in their tracks. Her tote slammed against her side and a stitch slowed her steps.

  Ugh, she definitely should’ve joined Amy for those ‘leg day’ exercises. Her thighs were on fire!

  The mystery person hit the waist-high shut gate at the other end of the park and jangled the latch.

  Heather’s heart leaped. It was locked. She’d reach them before they got a chance to get it open. She ignored the burn in her muscles, the tha-thump of her handbag, and quickened her pace. “Stop,” she said. It came out sounding like a hiss of air from a deflating balloon.

  The runner bowed their head and looked back over their shoulder, but Heather couldn’t make out any distinctive features apart from a flash of pale skin. Mystery runner vaulted over the fence and their backpack hooked on one of the palisade spikes.

  They flopped onto the sidewalk on the other side, scrambled upright, then tugged on the bag’s straps.

  Heather thundered toward the gate, ears clogged with the rush of her own blood. Two seconds more and she’d have them.

  The runner gave up on the backpack and sprinted down the sidewalk instead, practical white shoes clapping on the concrete.

  “No!” Heather sucked in breaths. She slowed her steps just in time and stopped in front of the gate. “No. no. Ugh.” She bent over and braced her hands on her knees. Would her lungs ever stop burning?

  Gosh, she’d need two donuts to make up for all the spent calories. Hardly, accurate, but the disappointment of losing whoever that’d been had already set in. No way could she vault the fence and take off after them. She was dead on arrival.

  Amy jogged to a halt beside her. “What happened?”

  “I made a – public – arrest,” Heather wheezed.

  “Huh?”

  “They got away, genius.” She wiped sweat from her brow and shook out her hands. “Ran so darn fast. I did not see that coming.”

  “And they left a bag behind. So it’s not a total loss. If you hadn’t given chase they wouldn’t have panicked and left it.” Amy struggled with the straps, then finally ripped them free from the spikes. “Oh my,” she said. “Oh me, oh my.”

  “Can’t tell if you’re singing or you found something.”

  “Take a look at this.”

  Heather pushed herself upright and sucked in another deep breath. This time it wasn’t because of the lack of oxygen. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Amy grinned and handed the bag over. “Sure looks like it.”

  The black backpack bore the insignia of a horse and white, bold lettering beneath it: Hillside Equestrian Center.

  “Now, who do we know who hangs out at the equestrian center?” Amy asked, and wiggled from side to side on the spot. “I bet it’s hers.”

  “Let’s find out,” Heather said. She opened the backpack’s flap and rummaged around inside. She brought out a compact, a tube of lipstick and a pack of wet wipes. Nothing else.

  “That’s hardly enlightening.”

  Just when she’d thought they’d wrap this one up for good. Heather traipse back toward their bench, blinking sweat. Had the chase been worth the payoff? Maybe not. They had no real indication that the person who’d seen them had been the killer.

  “This is good,” Amy said, ever the optimist. “We can cross reference people who are nurses who are horse enthusiasts. Think about it. We’ve just narrowed down the suspect pool.”

  “Maybe,” Heather replied. She had a point.

  What were the odds that a random nurse in a hoodie would run away from her and had a bag from the Hillside Equestrian Center? Parsimony was the key here. The path of least resistance.

  The evidence pointed toward Suzanne on every count. She had the motivation to murder her brother – the competition and her jealousy of him – and she’d had the means since she’d proved she could sneak into the hospital after visiting hours.

  Her fingerprints were obviously in the room and Ryan had said the ventilator’s equipment and switches had been wiped down.

  This was the closest they’d get to solid evidence.

  “Everything all right?” Eva called out and shaded her eyes with her hand.

  Lilly hurried over, Davey and Cupcake in tow, both more focused on the tennis ball in her grip than the situation. “Mom? What happened?”

  “I felt like a jog,” Heather said.

  “That was a sprint, dear.” Eva lifted the Donut Delights box. “Have something sweet before you pass out.”

  “You’re all enablers.” Heather grabbed a donut and took a big bite. Oh yeah, that was much better. The sweet flavor spread across her tongue, the mild tang of raspberry elevated her mood and she huffed out a breath through her nose.

  “Mom, are you okay?” Lilly held the tennis ball aloft. Dave and Cupcake sat at her feet glued to it.

  “I’m fine, honey,” she replied. “Go ahead and play. We’ll go home a little later.”

  Lilly wandered off again but cast a worried glance back in the bench’s direction.

  “What on earth happened?” Eva asked.

  “Well, we didn’t catch the killer,” Amy replied.

  “Not yet.” They hadn’t caught her but Heather had a good idea of who she was. It was high time they paid Miss Suzanne Nolan a private visit and asked her a few pressing questions.

  “You think it’s the sister,” Amy said and took the scarred backpack from Heather. “It’s the only explanation.”

  “Yeah. The only part I can’t figure out is how she got hold of a nurse’s outfit.”

  A nurse’s outfit. There was something in that. Something missing. Could that be what Suzanne had been after in the supply closet?

  The answer to that question would have to wait until the morning.

  Chapter 15

  “Oh boy, oh boy, I can hardly wait for this.” Amy’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Hopefully, the dad isn’t home. I think we could handle the mom’s presence but that dad was a total meanie.”

  Heather knocked on the front door of the Nolan home, then dropped her arm to her side. She clutched the Hillside Equestrian Center backpack in her left hand. She’d gotten permission from Ryan to take it with for the purpose of this interview.

  He was one call away, he’d said, but he had to follow up on another lead in the case. Something about a disturbance at Hillside Manor.

  Heather blinked and doubt tickled her brain. Why did that bother her?

  The front door’s latch scraped back. Suzanne Nolan appeared, dressed down in yoga pants and a black shirt which bore that same Hillside Equestrian Center logo on the breast.

  One step closer.

  “What do you want?” Suzanne sneered. “Come back to torture my family some more? My mom and dad almost got divorced after the last time you were here.”

  “It’s a sunny day,” Amy said and looked up at the blue sky overhead and the few wispy clouds which swirled through it like puffs of cotton wool or, no, like puffs of flavorless cotton candy. “Shouldn’t you be out in the park?”

  “Huh?” Suzanne’s top lip tugged upward at the corner. “What are y
ou talking about, weirdo?”

  “Miss Nolan, is this your backpack?” Heather asked, and raised her arm. That smooth motion rammed facts into her mind, doubts too. This didn’t feel right. Nothing about this felt right. She’d missed something along the way but she couldn’t place what it was.

  “Yeah, that’s mine,” she said and snatched it from Heather. “Where did you get it?”

  “I think you know where we got it,” Amy replied.

  Suzanne’s puzzlement increased tenfold alongside her disdain for them. Joe the spitting stable boy hadn’t been wrong about that whole ‘born with a silver spoon’ thing. “Uh, what?”

  Heather opened her mouth to accuse the young woman then snapped it shut again. That overwhelming sense of wrongness stalled her.

  Amy had no such qualms. “We know it was you in the park yesterday. Why were you there, Suzanne? Are you plotting your next attack?”

  “Easy, Ames.”

  “My, what now? Wow, it’s true what they say about senile old women,” Suzanne replied. “You’ve clearly lost your marbles, grandma. I’m sorry I don’t have time to help you find them.” She mushed up her face and spoke as if Amy had transformed into a toddler.

  “There’s no need for that,” Heather said. “Miss Nolan, where were you in yesterday afternoon?”

  “At the salon getting my nails done. Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “You weren’t in the park yesterday.” Amy narrowed her eyes.

  “Seriously, you should get that checked out,” Suzanne said. “There are people at the hospital who can help you.”

  “Miss Nolan, would you care to explain how your backpack wound up in the park yesterday afternoon?” Heather asked. That much she had to know. “And after we chased a suspect through said park to get it, for that matter.”

  Suzanne’s jaw dropped. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying you need to explain how your backpack was there and you weren’t, Miss Nolan,” Heather replied.

  “How did you get the nurse’s uniform, Suzanne?” Amy asked.

  Heather placed pressure on the tip of her bestie’s shoe with her boot. She had to calm down or she’d spook the suspect and no amount of questions would make the woman talk.