Death of a Wedding Cake Baker

by Lee Hollis

  POMEGRANATE COSMO

  Ice

  2 ounces citron vodka

  1 ounce Cointreau

  2 ounces pomegranate juice

  Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

  Add all of your ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake really well to make sure it is nice and cold. Strain into a chilled martini glass and serve.

  RANDY’S ASIAGO, BACON,

  AND CARAMELIZED ONION DIP

  2 tablespoons olive oil

  6 to 7 cups chopped onion

  4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

  4 ounces shredded Asiago cheese, divided

  4 tablespoons chopped chives, divided

  ⅔ cup real mayonnaise

  ⅔ cup sour cream

  ½ teaspoon kosher salt

  ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

  Preheat your oven to 425°F.

  Add the two tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat. Add your onion to the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes, then bring your heat down to low and sauté the onions, stirring occasionally, until golden brown—about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

  Add your crumbled bacon, half of your Asiago cheese, half of your chives, and the rest of the ingredients, stirring to combine.

  Spray a one-quart baking dish with cooking spray and put your onion mixture into the baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the rest of the Asiago cheese.

  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Remove and sprinkle with the remaining chives.

  Serve with your favorite crackers and enjoy!

  Chapter 36

  Hayley found some Advil in the medicine cabinet of her bathroom, popped two pills into her mouth, and then chased them down with a cup of water.

  She stared at herself in the mirror.

  Despite the makeup and styled hair, she looked drawn and tired.

  It was undoubtedly the stress of having to break her best friend’s heart on her wedding day.

  She straightened up and steeled herself, mentally preparing for the awesome responsibility that she was about to carry out.

  If one of Liddy’s wishes were to come true, it would be that this day she had been planning for, ever since she was a little girl would be remembered for years to come.

  Always be careful what you wish for.

  Hayley grabbed her phone. She still didn’t want to drive herself to the church in her bulky dress, which already looked wrinkled. Since Dustin was already there wrangling Poppyseed the ring bearer, and Gemma was at the reception hall putting the finishing touches on the wedding cake, she knew who was left to recruit as her personal driver.

  She picked up her phone, brought up her contact list, and pressed the screen. After a few rings, he answered.

  “I was just going to call you,” Bruce said in a more serious tone than Hayley had expected.

  “Where are you?”

  “At the office.”

  “What are you doing there on a Saturday?”

  “I’ve been researching a story, and I got a little delayed.”

  “Please tell me you’re already in your suit for the wedding.”

  “Sorry, I still have to swing by my place first and get dressed, but I have a good excuse. Something that has come up . . .”

  Hayley wasn’t sure she could take any more bad news.

  “At least tell me it has nothing to do with Liddy and Sonny . . .”

  “It has to do with Liddy and Sonny . . .”

  Hayley had to hand it to Bruce. He was a damn good reporter when it came to investigating a story. He was only one step behind Sergio.

  Hayley sighed. “I already know, Bruce . . .”

  “You do?”

  “Sergio was just here. He told me all about Sonny’s other wife.”

  There was a long pause on the other end of the call.

  “I’m sorry . . .” he said quietly.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to tell Liddy.”

  “Well, you better do it fast. She’s supposed to walk down the aisle in less than an hour . . .”

  “How did you find out?” Hayley asked.

  “I did a little digging, called a few of my journalist contacts in the Boston area, and located a guy who knew Sonny. He’s a fellow lawyer. He and Sonny used to blow off steam together in a bar in the Back Bay once a week. Sonny kept pretty mum about his private life, but he once said he couldn’t meet for drinks because he was going on a trip with his wife.”

  “Key West?”

  “No, a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Virgin Islands.”

  “He certainly gets around, doesn’t he? Poor Liddy had to beg him to take her to a crafts fair in Northeast Harbor last month.”

  “The guy had been surprised to hear he was married, because Sonny had never mentioned a wife before. Sonny told him they had to live apart because of his job.”

  “Yes. She lives in Revere. That’s only fifteen minutes outside the center of Boston.”

  “Sonny said she lived in Woonsocket,” Bruce said.

  “Rhode Island? But that can’t be . . .”

  “It’s true. I found her there. A Mary Beth Lipton.”

  “No, Bruce, her name is Nancy Malone . . .”

  “I’m telling you, Hayley, I’m one hundred percent right about this. I double-checked my information. Three times, in fact. It’s all true. Sonny is married to Mary Beth Lipton. She is in her midforties and works at a chemical lab just outside Woonsocket. Her maiden name is Capshaw. Her family’s been there for generations. She has a son in his early twenties named Anthony from a previous relationship just after college. They met at a Red Sox game four years ago . . .”

  Hayley felt her heart skip a beat. “There’s more than one . . .”

  “What?”

  “He’s already married to two women and he’s about to marry a third . . .”

  “Are you saying our Sonny Boy is a genuine, card-carrying polygamist?” Bruce asked, obviously having trouble believing it himself. “But why?”

  “Who knows why someone’s a polygamist? If there is one thing we know about Sonny, it’s that he loves women! I guess one just isn’t enough! Maybe he’s addicted to marrying them!” Hayley said.

  “Oh my God,” Bruce cried. “He could be like one of those creepy religious sect lunatics who hide out in the woods with nine or ten wives!”

  “This is so much worse than I just thought two minutes ago . . .” Hayley’s voice trailed off.

  Liddy’s whole life was about to be upended. She was already in an emotionally fragile state. This could smash it into a million pieces. Hayley cared deeply for her, was willing to do anything to protect her, but she feared Liddy might not survive a betrayal on such a dramatic and inconceivable scale.

  “Bruce, don’t bother picking me up, I’ll drive myself. Just meet me at the church. And don’t breathe a word about this to Liddy. Let me do it. This should come from her best friend so I can offer the kind of support she’s going to need.”

  “Okay, I promise. But I don’t have to go home and change anymore, right? I mean, there’s no way this wedding is going to happen now, right?”

  “Yes, Bruce, just meet me there!”

  She ended the call and rushed down the stairs and out the back door to her car, which was parked in the driveway.

  Once she managed to stuff herself behind the wheel, the enormous and cumbersome fabric of her dress bunched up around her threatening to completely engulf her, she turned the ignition key and fired up the engine. Suddenly her hand froze on the gear before she could push it in reverse and back out of the driveway.

  A name was stuck in her head.

  Capshaw.

  Where had she heard that name before?

  Capshaw.

  Hayley gasped.

  AJ.

  Mona’s summer help and Sabrina’s current boy toy.

  His last name was Capshaw.

  His sister in Brewer, the one getting married, casually me
ntioned it on the phone. She was keeping her maiden name to maintain her own identity.

  Which meant AJ’s last name was Capshaw.

  Lisa had said she was meeting with a Tony Capshaw in her appointment book.

  Sonny’s wife, Mary Beth, had a son in his early twenties, according to Bruce.

  His name was Anthony.

  Maybe AJ was short for his first and middle name.

  Anthony James or Anthony John.

  Tony!

  If that was true, then AJ was Sonny’s stepson.

  But Bruce never mentioned that Mary Beth had a daughter too.

  So who was Adele, with whom she spoke on the phone?

  What if it was Mary Beth herself?

  AJ’s cheery sister Adele on the phone; the strange tourist from Rhode Island asking questions about Liddy; the attacker who tried to strangle Liddy on the front lawn; all of them could have been the same person—Mary Beth Lipton.

  And according to Bruce, Mary Beth worked at a chemical lab. She could have easily gotten her hands on the poison that killed Lisa.

  Hayley’s mind continued to race, desperately trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

  Sonny was never present when AJ was around. Perhaps AJ made sure he kept his distance from Sonny, so he wouldn’t have the chance to recognize him.

  AJ had shown up in town, a penniless college kid claiming to need extra money. He was young and strong, the perfect fit for a job at Mona’s lobster shop.

  But what if his reasons for coming to Bar Harbor were far more nefarious?

  AJ and his mother, Mary Beth, if they had somehow found out about Sonny’s polygamous ways and then discovered he was about to marry a successful real estate agent, well that would certainly be a strong motive for them to try and stop the wedding from ever happening!

  Hayley’s mission was no longer about finding Liddy and gently breaking the bad news about Sonny before she walked down the aisle and married him.

  No, she had to warn her right now that her life was in imminent danger!

  Chapter 37

  Hayley took her hand off the gearshift and quickly called Liddy.

  After three rings, a cheery voice sang, “Liddy’s phone!”

  It was Celeste.

  “Celeste, it’s Hayley. I need to speak to Liddy right now!”

  “I’m afraid that’s impossible, dear. We are desperately behind schedule. Liddy hasn’t even put on her wedding dress yet, and we’re due at the church in ten minutes. We don’t want poor Sonny to think he’s been left at the altar.”

  “Celeste, this an emergency, please, just put Liddy on—”

  Celeste didn’t give her a chance to finish. “I’m sorry, but without the matron of honor here helping us, it’s all hands on deck, and I’m dealing with a number of emergencies myself, like the bridal bouquet not being what we ordered . . .”

  “Celeste, please, just tell Liddy—”

  She heard a click, and the line went dead.

  Celeste, after managing to get a personal dig in about how Hayley wasn’t helping Liddy in her time of need, like a good matron of honor is supposed to, had just hung up on her.

  Hayley slammed her phone against the steering wheel and cried, “No!”

  She frantically tried calling Liddy’s phone again, but this time, the call went directly to voice mail.

  She was starting to hyperventilate as panic overcame her. If she couldn’t get anyone on the phone to warn them about AJ and Mary Beth, Liddy might wind up dead.

  Hayley sat in her car, white-knuckled as she gripped her steering wheel with one hand while clutching her phone in the other. She tried calming herself down, taking in deep breaths, until she was clear-eyed and focused again.

  She could do this.

  She would find another way to warn Liddy.

  Sabrina.

  Sabrina must be with her at the moment, helping her into her dress.

  Hayley called Sabrina’s number.

  “Hi, this is Sabrina, I can’t take your call right now—”

  Hayley ended the call without leaving a message.

  She sent a text to Sabrina instead. Sabrina, this is an emergency! Liddy’s life is in danger! AJ is not who he says he is. He wants to harm Liddy! Please stop her from going to the church!

  Hayley hit send.

  She wasn’t going to wait for a reply. She jammed her car into reverse, backed out of the driveway, and squealed away down the street, heading in the direction of Liddy’s house. She kept glancing down at her phone as she drove to see if Sabrina had replied to her text yet, but saw nothing.

  She was half hoping she would get pulled over for speeding so she could enlist the help of the police to back her up as she raced to keep Liddy from leaving her house. She also wanted to call 911, but she knew the local cops were tied up with the accident on the Trenton Bridge and would take too long to respond, given there were only a handful of officers on duty and all of them were probably fifteen minutes out of town at the bridge.

  She prayed that Liddy and her entourage had not left for the church yet.

  When Hayley swerved off the main road and plowed down the gravel path to Liddy’s house, she let out a horrified gasp as she noticed that the limo Celeste had rented to take them to the church was already gone. Parked near the garage was another car, however, which she instantly recognized as Sabrina’s rental. Sabrina had mentioned earlier she was not going to ride in the limo, but take her own car to the church so she could get to the reception early to make sure everything looked perfect before the newlyweds and the rest of the wedding party arrived.

  Unless she had changed her mind, there was a chance Sabrina was still inside the house.

  Hayley jumped out of her car. The hem of her dress was a little too long, so it dragged across the dirt and gravel as she made a mad dash for the front door.

  Suddenly a voice from behind her stopped her dead in her tracks.

  “Looking for Sabrina?”

  She didn’t have to turn around.

  She knew it was AJ.

  Hayley slowly turned around to face him. He looked rather handsome in a light blue sports jacket, open white dress shirt, and black jeans.

  “Where is she?” Hayley asked, keeping her voice steady.

  At first she had no idea where he had suddenly come from, but then she spotted the driver’s side door of Sabrina’s car hanging wide open. He had been sitting in the front seat, and she hadn’t even seen him because she was so panicked to find Liddy.

  AJ had a strange smile on his face. It wasn’t natural. He was a very good-looking young man, but this sneer just made him look off-putting and menacing.

  “I volunteered to be Sabrina’s chauffeur today so she wouldn’t have to drive in her pretty dress. We were just on our way to the church. We left a few minutes before Liddy and her mother, but then Sabrina got a text that Liddy had left her veil behind, so we volunteered to come back and get it.”

  “I see . . .” Hayley said, forcing a smile, trying not to give away anything that was roiling over in her mind.

  “Sabrina’s inside. She’ll be out in a minute.”

  Hayley nodded.

  They stared at each other for a few seconds, until Hayley was unable to stand the building tension any longer. “I’m just going to go inside . . .”

  She slowly backed away from AJ, toward the house, and was about to turn around when he suddenly pulled a gun from the back pocket of his jeans.

  “What are you doing with that?”

  “Sabrina was in such a rush to get the veil, she left her phone in the car, and I just happened to see your text come through. You certainly have a low opinion of me, Hayley. That I’m not who I say I am. That I want to harm Liddy.”

  “Am I wrong about that?”

  “No, not really. You pretty much got the gist of it,” he said with that smug, scornful sneer. “Now stay real quiet and get in the car.”

  Hayley put her hands up and walked toward her car.
r />   “Not yours. Sabrina’s. Where are your keys?”

  Hayley reversed direction, back toward AJ, who snatched her car keys out of her hand and threw them into the grass near a thicket of trees. He then ordered Hayley behind the wheel. He slid in next to her from the passenger’s side.

  “Okay, start the car.”

  She sighed but complied.

  Once the engine was running, she turned to AJ. “Where are we going?”

  “Just drive. I’ll direct you.”

  Hayley shifted the gear in drive and pulled away, back up the dirt driveway toward the main road.

  Through the rear view mirror, she saw Sabrina running out of Liddy’s house, in her beautiful cream-colored bridesmaid dress, the one so much nicer than Hayley’s, clutching Liddy’s veil flying behind her. She was shouting at them to come back, a confused look on her face.

  As they turned onto the main road, the last thing she saw was Sabrina running for Hayley’s car, but unaware that with the keys nestled in the grass near the woods, out of sight, she wasn’t going anywhere.

  As they continued toward town in silence, AJ’s gun resting in his lap but the barrel pointed directly at Hayley, her phone began to light up with calls from Sabrina—calls she was never going to be able to answer.

  Chapter 38

  Hayley gripped the steering wheel with both hands, her eyes fixed on the road, not sure where they were going. AJ stared out the window, agitated and upset at the realization that everything seemed to be falling apart.

  Hayley finally glanced over at him. “You came to Bar Harbor to kill Liddy, didn’t you?”

  He didn’t answer her at first. He just kept staring at the passing trees outside the passenger’s side window.

  “You must have discovered some evidence back home in Rhode Island that your stepfather, Sonny, was marrying another woman, is that it?”