Pies, Lies and Murder

by Patti Benning

  * * *

  The next morning, before leaving for the beach, Moira, Candice, and David packed all of their most valuable items into the car. Chances were, the burglar wouldn’t return, but none of them wanted to take that risk. Moira toyed with the idea of asking if the others would be alright with cancelling their final day and leaving that morning, but decided against it. If they wanted to spend one last day at the beach, she wasn’t going to stop them.

  After settling down on a blanket in the sun on the beach, she was glad that she hadn’t asked to leave. It was a beautiful day, and the beach was empty enough that they could let the dogs off leash to run. When Moira got too hot from lying in the sun, she joined her daughter and the dogs in the lake. The water was cool, but it felt wonderful after the heat of the sand.

  When they got back to the cottage, Candice and David took the pontoon boat out again. Moira opted to stay at the cottage and begin packing. She wanted to get out of there bright and early the next morning, and knew that would never happen if they left the packing to the next second.

  It wasn’t until she emptied out her nightstand drawer that she realized that something had gone missing. She had put the medal that she and Candice had won on the table next to her bed, but now it was gone. She spent a good half hour searching high and low for it before giving up. It seemed like an odd choice of item to steal, and hardly worth reporting.

  She was zipping up her suitcase when Keeva padded into the bedroom and whined. Moira stroked the dog’s head. “What is it, sweetie? Do you have to go outside?”

  She followed the dog out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where she grabbed the leash from the counter. Maverick had gone with Candice and David on their fishing adventure, but she had asked for them to leave the wolfhound with her. After the chaos of the last few days, she wouldn’t have felt safe staying there alone.

  Once they were outside, Keeva continued to act strangely. She tugged at the leash, and Moira followed her around the back of the cottage. Keeva whined once more. This time, Moira followed her gaze to see a man standing on their dock.

  At first, she was surprised but not too concerned. There were quite a few other cottages nearby, and she thought someone might have wandered onto the property that they were renting by mistake. Then the man turned his head and she saw the bruise on his face. It was Austin.

  Moira was frozen to the spot. What was he doing here? Had he come to return to the scene of the crime? As far as she was concerned, he was just as much a suspect as Theodore was, even though he wasn’t in police custody. That bruise on his face certainly seemed suspicious, and he had seen them in the woods yesterday – he would have known that they were out of the cottage and that he would be free to break in. But what could he have been looking for? Moira began to retreat, hoping that she could get back inside before he noticed her. Keeva, however, had other plans, and let out a low woof.

  Austin turned to face her, looking surprised for an instant before the expression was replaced with one of annoyance. “You’re the renter, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said. “We’re renting the cottage until tomorrow. Can I help you?”

  “Grant hired me to work on the dock. I thought he said you’d be gone today, but I had my doubts when I saw the car sitting in the driveway. I’ll come back tomorrow so I don’t disturb you guys.”

  “We’re leaving…” Moira hesitated. Was he trying to figure out when the house would be empty so he could break into it again free from the risk of discovery? What could he possibly hope to find in an empty cottage? “We’re leaving tomorrow morning, but I’m not quite sure when,” she said at last.

  “Thanks. Sorry to disturb you. I’m just stressed because I really need the money. My car was totaled a couple of days ago, and I’ve got to buy a new one. I guess I shouldn’t complain — Grant’s paying me more than fixing the deck is worth. I can stand to wait one more day.”

  Moira breathed a sigh of relief as he began walking away. She didn’t know what to think. Was he telling the truth? Was she just being paranoid and connecting the dots where there weren’t any? Regardless of what the answer was, she was glad that they were leaving tomorrow morning. She had had more than enough of Bearpaw.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  * * *

  David and Candice got back just in the nick of time to pick her up and drive to town for dinner. Linette lived in a petite little house with a gorgeous, well-tended yard. Moira paused to admire the flowers as they walked up to the front door. She would love to have a garden like that, but she knew that she could never keep up with it.

  Linette welcomed them in and led them to the dining room. The table was set already, and whatever was cooking in the other room smelled delicious. Their host invited them to sit down, which they gladly did. They sipped homemade raspberry lemonade and talked about inconsequential things as Linette worked on dinner. Moira offered to help her, but the other woman declined.

  “You really didn’t need to go to all of this trouble,” the deli owner said. “This is so kind of you.”

  “I felt bad, knowing what the three of you had been through. Besides, I could use the company. My husband is out of town until the end of the month. You wouldn’t believe how lonely it gets around here.”

  “Well, thank you. It’s very much appreciated.”

  A few minutes later, Linette brought a casserole dish out of the kitchen. Moira could tell by the scent alone that it would be delicious. She was glad that they had accepted the woman’s invitation. At least they would be able to end their trip on a good note.

  “So,” David said as he served himself a heaping spoonful of the casserole, “I was wondering what all you know about the Dunkers. Why does everyone in town seem to know their name?”

  “Because they were trouble,” the other woman said matter of factly.

  “What do you mean? What sort of trouble?”

  “Oh, it was always one thing after another. Greg and Melissa called themselves activists, but really, they just liked causing problems. Have you seen that tiny little library of ours? Well, the town was planning on building a new one a few years back, but Greg Dunker tied himself to a tree for a week to stop it from getting built.”

  “Why?” Candice asked. “He can’t possibly be against libraries.”

  “I think that part of the land that they were going to use for the development had some rare species of bird nesting on it,” Linette said. “It ended up not getting built, and the project lost funding. And don’t even get me started on Melissa. She was a vegan, the sort of vegan that gives other vegans a bad name. About six months before they left, she cut through a fence and let about fifty of the Feldman’s cattle go free. They caused a car accident and the driver ended up in the hospital, and I think about a third of the cattle ended up dying before they could be caught.”

  “Wow,” Moira said. “I can see how they might not have been very popular. I’m starting to think that they didn’t move away because of the issues their daughter was having.”

  Feldman? She thought. That’s Grant’s last name, isn’t it? Was it possible that the man they were renting the cottage from was the killer? If he had lost a lot of money from the cattle, that could be a motive. Maybe he had broken into the cottage hoping to steal something of value to make up for it. Or maybe he killed Jillian out of revenge. The thought made her shiver. To kill someone’s child was an unimaginable crime, and anyone willing to do that deserved a lot worse than having their cows stolen. She was glad that they only had one more night to get through.

  “Jillian was probably the most normal out of the three of them. I do think that she must have been having problems with bullying in school, but not because of her boyfriend. Everyone knew that her parents were crazy, and they made her life terrible because of it.”

  “If so many people disliked them, why would they want to come back?” David asked.

  “I don’t know,” the woman said. “But knowing them, they must’ve had some sort of agenda.
They always liked being at the center of attention.”

  “The whole thing still seems odd to me,” David said. “I can see there being a motive for murder, but why would the killer also ransack the house?”

  “For all I know, the Dunkers could have stolen something, and the killer wanted it back. Like I said, they were trouble.” She said the last sentence firmly, almost as if she was trying to convince herself of that.

  The conversation petered out after that. Moira sifted through all of the knowledge that she had just gained about the family, but nothing seemed to standout other than the Feldman name. From the sound of things, however, the pool of potential suspects was much larger than just Austin and Theodore.

  “The casserole is amazing,” Candice said. “Did you make it yourself?”

  The deli owner was thankful to her daughter for changing the subject. It would probably be good to talk about something other than the murder for a while.

  “Yes, I did. I try to make everything myself.”

  “Well, it’s great. I’d love to get the recipe from you. “

  “I’ll write it down before you go.” The woman smiled. “I have to admit, after winning the pie contest three years running, I was surprised when the two of you appeared out of nowhere and blew my sister and I out of the water.”

  “Sorry,” Moira said with an apologetic grin. “We won’t be here next year, I promise.”

  “Unfortunately, neither will we.”

  “What you mean?”

  “My sister has a brain tumor,” Linette said simply. “Inoperable. The doctors gave her until January. This was supposed to be one of our last big competitions together.”

  “I – I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  The meal lapsed into an awkward silence. Moira cast about for something else to say, but, well, what could she say after that?

  When their plates were cleaned and no one had room left for second or third helpings, Linette began to clear the table. Once again, she waved Moira away when she offered to help. “I want to do this,” she said. “You three sit tight, I’ll bring the dessert out soon.”

  Moira excused herself as Linette was leaving the room and got up to find the bathroom. She was glad that the meal was almost over, and she wanted to get out of there as soon as they were done with dessert. She wished that Regina’s medical condition hadn’t been brought up, but there was no way that she could have known about it. All she wanted just then was for the three of them to be in the car and headed back to Maple Creek.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  * * *

  Moira took her time washing her hands before returning to the table. She wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, but she was stalling. She had absolutely no idea how to react now that she knew about Regina’s brain tumor. Nothing that she said would be right.

  As she gazed at herself in the mirror, she realized just how tired she looked. After nearly five days of vacation, she would have expected to be slightly sunburnt and happy. Instead she looked drawn and pale. Her family’s last trip together before Candice got married had ended up being a disaster. She had really wanted this trip to be something they could all remember and cherish.

  Maybe next year, she thought. Candice was right; they needed a family tradition. Next time, however, they would not be coming to Bearpaw.

  She frowned, watching the lines form on her face. Something about this case bothered her deeply. The murder and ransacking of the Dunkers’ house, and the subsequent break in to their own cottage couldn’t be a coincidence. She shut off the water and sighed. With luck, one day they would learn who the killer was from the news. That was probably the best that she could hope for.

  She left the bathroom and turned down the hall towards the dining room, pausing at a cluster of photos hanging on the wall. She recognized Linette and Regina together. There were multiple photos of them cooking and baking. By the looks of it, they had entered many contests over the years. Next to the photos, quite a few medals and awards were hanging. Moira glanced through them, then froze, feeling the hair on the back of her neck rise.

  There, next to the medal from the previous year’s pie contest was the cherry-shaped medal from this year’s contest.

  It all clicked in an instant. Everything had started after that pie making contest. She remembered the sour look on Linette’s face as the judge called out her and her sister’s names for second place, and the vehicle that had followed them home after. In the dark, it would have been easy for the person who had followed them to mistake which driveway they had pulled into. If she was right and Linette was the killer, then the Dunkers had never been the target.

  Her family had been.

  “No,” Moira whispered. She didn’t want to believe it, but it made too much sense. There was no other way that medal could have vanished from her bedroom only to reappear on Linette’s wall. She had been the one who had broken into both houses, and this was what she had been looking for.

  Moira hurried back to the dining room, where she found David and Candice both waiting at the empty table. “We have to go now,” she said. “Right this instant.”

  “What’s going on?” Candice asked, half rising from her seat.

  “I don’t have time to explain. We have to — “

  At that instant, Linette came out of the kitchen carrying four plates of pie. She looked from Moira, who was still standing by the table, to Candice, who was half out of her seat.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Moira hesitated. She met Linette’s gaze. The woman’s face gave nothing away. David and Candice were both staring at her like she was crazy. Slowly, she sat down. Was it possible that she was wrong about all of this? Had the contest given medals out to the second-place contestants? She didn’t remember.

  “Sorry, I was just coming back from the restroom.”

  David frowned, but didn’t question her, which she was grateful for. Even if Linette was innocent, nothing good would come out of accusing her.

  “I made a fresh cherry pie just for the three of you.” She smiled brightly as she put the plates down in front of them. “I think this one might beat yours.”

  Moira watched as Linette sat down and raised a forkful of pie to her mouth. She swallowed the bite without hesitation. The deli owner looked down at her own pie. The filling was steaming and had begun to ooze into a red puddle around the crust. She looked at Linette’s plate again. There was no steam rising from her piece of pie, and the filling looked as if it had already cooled and congealed. It was almost as if Linette had made two pies. Moira reached over and slapped the fork out of her daughter’s hand just and instant before the first bite of pie touched her lips.

  “Mom! What the heck?”

  “You poisoned the pie, didn’t you?” the deli owner said, her gaze fixed on Linette.

  Silence fell. Moira heard her husband make a small noise of comprehension, and heard the sound of his plate sliding across the table as he slid it away from himself. Candice still looked puzzled, and was looking from her mother to Linette and back again.

  “We deserved that medal,” Linette said, breaking the silence. “Regina and I worked so hard for it. She flew all the way up here just for the contest. One last competition, just like old times, before she’s gone. We were supposed to win!”

  Linette jumped up, and Moira jerked backwards, but it wasn’t her the other woman was reaching for. It was her daughter. She grabbed Candice by the hair and pulled her off the chair. Candice shouted in pain as her knees hit the floor.

  “No one move,” Linette said. She grabbed a fork off the table and pressed the tines to Candice’s neck. It wasn’t much in the way of a weapon, but it was enough to make Moira freeze. The table jolted as David shot to his feet.

  “Please let her go,” Moira said. “She had nothing to do with any of this.”

  “She’s the reason you won,” the other woman snarled. “I looked you up online after the contest. You both own restaurants. That’s not fair. This was supposed
to be a casual contest. Having a candy maker make your pie filling is cheating.”

  “There was nothing about that in the rules,” Moira said. “I promise, we didn’t mean to take anything from you. You have the medal. Please, just let my daughter go. You already killed one innocent girl over all of this.”

  “You stole something important from me, and from my sister, so now I’m going to take something important from you.” Linette frowned. “Jillian… she was a mistake. I didn’t know – she came out of nowhere, she must have heard me searching through the house. I panicked. I hit her with the fireplace poker, but I didn’t mean to kill her. I thought I was in your house, I thought she was your daughter. Then when I saw her the next morning in the store, I realized my mistake. But enough is enough. You stole one of my sister’s last happy memories, and you made me kill an innocent woman. It’s not fair that I’m the only one that has to suffer.”