Charlotte sighed. "She was in such a hurry to get dressed when I walked in on her seducing my son, she neglected to put her underwear back on."
"So you had Isaac hide her panties while he was working on the security system."
Charlotte shrugged. "It worked like a charm to distract that clueless detective."
"If Isaac liked Phoebe, why was he helping you cover up the murder?"
"Since you've decided not to have children, you'll never know how strong the bond between a mother and child can be. He's such a good boy. Isaac does whatever I want."
Amy's vision tunneled, completely focused on Charlotte, whose words cut deeper than the knife she was brandishing ever could. A loud bang snapped Amy out of the tractor beam of hate.
"You selfish old hag!" Tommy screamed as she barreled at her sister. She lowered her head and tackled the startled interior designer. Charlotte's arm smacked the edge of the countertop. The knife cartwheeled into the air. It landed on the bar top then spun around in a lethal game of spin the bottle. Amy held her breath as it whirled to the edge of the counter. The two women slammed into the back side of the cabinets that formed the base of the breakfast bar. The knife dropped onto the kitchen floor. Out of reach of the murderess.
Amy called 9-1-1 as she and Geri helplessly watched the brawl. The fight was even more vicious than the one Amy had witnessed in the shoe store at the mall on Black Friday. Maybe all of the playful insults at the whine and wine evenings weren't just for fun. Chuck and Aubergine would probably be impressed with Tommy's fighting prowess.
"You've always had to get your way," Tommy yelled as she delivered a lightning fast series of punches to her sister's face. "Now you've destroyed Isaac's life too!"
"Should we try to stop them?" Geri asked as she twisted her hands together.
The sound of sirens cut above the grunts, snarls, and crashes as the wrestling match veered toward the living room area. Charlotte pushed Tommy, who landed on her butt on one end of the coffee table. The slender wood legs snapped. As the tchotchkes on it slid down the ramped surface, Tommy deftly reached over her shoulder, grabbed a thick hardcover book, and smacked it on the side of her sister's shoulder, propelling Charlotte backwards into an easy chair. The muscular pottery artist found her linebacker alter ego and plowed into Charlotte. The chair tipped backwards and landed with a loud thud. Amy shook her head. "The police will be here any minute. They can figure out how to separate them. I'm not getting in the middle of this fight."
It took four male officers to pull apart the feuding women. Since the most pressing need was to break up the fight, not learn who was good or bad, both sisters ended up in handcuffs. Even then, Tommy landed a solid kick to Charlotte's kneecap when one officer lost his grip on her arm. Both of the sisters' faces were bloodied and bruised. The battle had been brutal.
Shepler and Foster walked into the apartment as the enraged Tommy was being dragged to the other side of the living room, out of striking distance to her homicidal sister. He watched the struggle for a few seconds then turned his attention to Amy and his mother-in-law. For once, his expression was easy to read. He was not impressed. "So…which one of you thought it was a good idea to confront a killer?"
"We didn't come here to do that." Geri leveled her own exasperated look at her law-upholding son-in-law. "I thought I had spotted blood on the candle pedestals a few days ago. We came to see if it really was blood. I thought Charlotte was my friend. I didn't want to cause a ruckus accusing her son of murder if I was wrong. And I was. She's the one who killed Phoebe."
He ran his hand over his buzz-cut hair and then furiously scratched the back of his head. "Safety comes before politeness."
"Says the man who got shot knocking on a door." Geri took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. That was rude of me."
"Point taken."
Amy took a step forward to stand next to Geri. "Besides," she looked at Foster, who was conveniently ignoring them by examining a picture of the lethal mother and son duo. "We figured our ideas would be ignored again. So why say anything until we had solid facts to back us up?"
Shepler sighed. "At least you're both safe."
"And we solved two criminal cases that were related after all." Amy couldn't help herself. She was being vengeful, and she knew it. But she couldn't forget the pain and fear she had seen in Alex's eyes so often over the past few weeks. The rookie detective's mistakes had almost destroyed their lives. Her emotions were too raw and bruised to show any compassion for someone struggling against a steep learning curve. She looked at Shepler. "Can I go tell Alex it's over?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
"So she's going back to the narcotics division," Carla said as she broke a corner off of the hazelnut brownie. "Which is a good move on her part. I don't think the chief was going to keep her in homicide, no matter what. I can't remember ever seeing Bruce so disappointed in someone. He trained her to do better than what she did. Right up until they were called to the apartment after the fight, she insisted that she had no solid leads or suspects."
"I'm sorry that he's upset," Amy said. "I had to tell him about all of the things Foster refused to take into account for whatever reason."
"You and Alex were almost killed. You have every reason to criticize her methods. I guess she had a serious case of second-guessing herself to the point that she basically thought no clues or leads were pertinent, even though many of them were."
The new detective's icy-personality veneer had melted in Charlotte's apartment after the brawl as the connections between murdering mother and her blindly obliging accomplice of a son were explained. Foster began fidgeting more and more as Amy and Geri took turns explaining the puzzle they had solved. She flitted around the apartment looking at pictures and examining stylish knickknacks. When the tag team story came to a conclusion with a recount of the familial smackdown, the detective's pale face was mottled with red blotches. After another officer pulled a rifle out of a closet, Foster bolted out of the apartment. Shepler explained that because the gun was fitted with a silencer, the shot wasn't as loud as a firearm without one. Even if the gunshot had woken anybody up, they most likely had no idea what the sound was. That was why no gunshots were reported the morning that Quantum's motion detectors went off. Amy had watched Alex moving around his office the night she had been on the building's rooftop deck with Geri. It was a straight line from the corner of the roof to his office.
Amy looked out the breakfast nook window at the garage. She didn't have to wonder anymore whether someone had tampered with her beloved Mini or Alex's new, even bigger and burlier, black Jeep. On many days during the time the bomb had been set to detonate, he would've been home enjoying a dinner that Amy had made—just like Charlotte had pointed out. Cooking had changed her life for the better in so many ways, from winning contests to meeting people from around the world through her blog. It was a sour spoonful of irony that not cooking had almost killed them. Ever since Charlotte was arrested, Amy had been on a cooking marathon, which had produced a pile of new recipes. Too bad none of them would ever end up being demonstrated on a TV show. Nigel and Ginny admitted that they were only pretending to find new talent as a way of looking for the murderer because they hadn't had any confidence in Foster's skills either. The home improvement show was as dead as its former host.
"I'm just so happy that life is getting back to normal. Thanks for going with me to get my stitches removed."
"No problem." Carla ran her fingertip around the rim of her glass of iced coffee. "I think it was a sign from the universe that you insisted on having the doctor do it instead of letting me take them out for you."
"It's not that I don't trust you. Because you know I do." Carla had said she could remove the sutures with sterilized cuticle scissors and tweezers. Amy had no doubt that she could, but she had insisted on keeping the appointment with her doctor. "I didn't want the twenty-five-dollar charge for canceling an appointment at the last minute."
Carla leaned forward. "Really? Or
did you know about the job opening?"
"I had no idea the nurse was retiring." Amy held up her hands. "Honest. So since you were talking with her and Doctor Hampstead about the job, does this mean you're thinking about going back to work?"
They had chatted with the nurse who ushered Amy to the exam room then got her set up for the stitch removal. Connie mentioned that she was retiring in a month, and the practice was looking for someone to take her place. Amy had almost fallen off the exam table when Carla began asking questions about the nursing position. She didn't even mind that her friend abandoned her to do an impromptu interview with the doctor while an intern removed the stitches.
Carla nodded. "I am. I can't seem to convince myself that I don't miss nursing."
"And working in a doctor's office is much easier and less stressful than an emergency room."
"Exactly. Plus, it's part-time, so I'll still be able to spend plenty of time with Macy."
Amy clapped her hands. "Wonderful! Do you have to go back for another interview or anything?"
She shook her head. "Nope. They've already offered me the job."
"Congratulations!" Amy blinked. The unexpected job was a good thing, but she had heard horror stories of waiting lists to get children into daycare. "But what are you going to do with Macy?"
"I'm not sure. I'll need your help in figuring that out."
"Help—as in you want me to babysit for you?" That would be a recipe for disaster.
"No, I mean help as in asking other parents who you know who their babysitters are." Carla smiled sympathetically. "The job would be infinitely more stressful if I had to push you into something you are uncomfortable with. Coming home to both you and Macy in tears wouldn't make the job worthwhile."
"Did I hear you need a babysitter? I would be happy to do it," Geri said as she walked into the kitchen. She had come to Amy's house to watch Macy while Carla removed the stitches then stayed to babysit while they went to the doctor's office instead.
"But you have a job too, Mom."
Geri sat down on one of the stools beside the kitchen island. She bounced her giggling granddaughter up and down on her knee. "Tommy is going to expand the studio into the space where Charlotte's shop was. She's planning on hiring more employees to help customers paint, while I'm going to just be making the pottery. So I'll have even more flexible hours and can also work after the studio has closed for the night. I moved back here to be close to you and Macy. Please let me take care of her." She raised an eyebrow at Carla. "You know you want to go back to work, and this will make it even less stressful. It's in your nature to help people. Don't fight it."
That was the first Amy had heard of the pottery studio's expansion plans. She didn't have a sibling, so she really couldn't imagine what it would be like for Tommy to know her sister was a cold-blooded killer who also ruined her son's life in a crazy quest for revenge. Over a house. Perhaps closing down the home decorating store was a form of psychological closure. Or a payback.
"Thank you, Mom." Carla smiled. A big, happy smile that Amy hadn't seen in a very long time. "I can't wait to start the new job."
* * * * *
RECIPES
Malted Chocolate Banana Muffins
Streusel:
4 tablespoons butter
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
⅓ cup sugar
¼ cup vanilla malted milk powder
Muffins:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup vanilla malted milk powder
1 cup mashed ripe banana (2-3 bananas)
1 large egg
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place liners in or lightly grease 12 muffin cups.
Prepare the streusel by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When completely melted, remove pan from heat and add rest of ingredients. Stir with a fork until crumbs form. Set aside.
Make the muffin batter. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, stir together the malted milk powder, mashed banana, egg, butter, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix together until completely combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
Fill each muffin cup ¾ full with batter (use an ice cream scoop to make this task easier). Sprinkle streusel evenly on tops of muffins (there will be a little extra—see note below). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Makes 12 muffins
Note: Use the extra streusel topping on ice cream, in yogurt, etc. Put it on a small baking sheet and spread into a thin layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Let cool and break apart into crumbs.
Brown Sugar Tapioca Pudding
1 egg
⅓ cup packed dark-brown sugar
3 tablespoons instant tapioca
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan, beat the egg until frothy. Stir in the sugar, tapioca, and milk. Let sit for 10 minutes. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly until it comes to a full boil and is slightly thickened. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla. Let sit for at least 30 minutes to thicken. Serve warm or chilled.
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
¾ cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
¼ cup light brown sugar
Zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated or demerara sugar, for topping
Combine everything, except sugar for topping, in a large bowl. Using your fingers or a pastry blender, cut butter into dry ingredients until well blended and a firm dough forms. If dough is too dry, add more lemon juice. There should still be bits of butter in the dough. Form into a flat rectangle, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least ½ an hour, up to overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until about ½-inch thick. Sprinkle with topping sugar, and gently roll again to adhere sugar. Using a pizza cutter or long knife, cut into 2x½-inch rectangles. Arrange cookies on ungreased or parchment paper covered baking sheet. They don't spread much so can be arranged close together. Bake for 18-23 minutes or until edges just begin to brown. Remove from oven when done. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Quick Posole
(Green Chile & Hominy Soup)
1 lb. ground pork, turkey, or chicken
1 small onion, finely diced
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 - 29 oz. can hominy, drained and rinsed
1 - 28 oz. can green chile enchilada sauce (any heat level)
1 - 4 oz. can chopped green chiles, drained
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Topping Suggestions (optional):
Tortilla chips
Shredded cheese
Minced cilantro
Sliced radishes
Chopped onion
In a soup pot, brown the meat and onions over medium-high heat, breaking the meat into bite-sized chunks. When the meat is cooked, drain any fat. Add the broth, hominy, enchilada sauce, green chiles, and cumin. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve with toppings, if desired.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janel Gradowski lives in a land that looks like a cold weather fash
ion accessory, the mitten-shaped state of Michigan. She is a wife and mom to two kids and one Golden Retriever. Her journey to becoming an author is littered with odd jobs like renting apartments to college students and programming commercials for an AM radio station. Somewhere along the way she also became a beadwork designer and teacher. She enjoys cooking recipes found in her formidable cookbook and culinary fiction collection. Searching for unique treasures at art fairs, flea markets, and thrift stores is also a favorite pastime. Coffee is an essential part of her life.
To learn more about Janel Gradowski, visit her online at: http://www.janelgradowski.com/
* * * * *
BOOKS BY JANEL GRADOWSKI
Culinary Competition Mysteries:
Pies & Peril
Chicken Soup & Homicide
Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes
Christmas Canapés & Sabotage (holiday short story)
Barbecue & Bad Juju (shorts story in the Killer Beach Reads collection)
Fudge Brownies & Murder
Banana Muffins & Mayhem
The Bartonville Series:
Must Love Sandwiches (novella)
* * * * *
SNEAK PEEK
If you enjoyed this Culinary Competition Mystery, check out this other funny, romantic mystery from Gemma Halliday Publishing:
AMARETTO AMBER
by
TRACI ANDRIGHETTI
Banana Muffins & Mayhem Page 19
