Till Death Do Us Bark (Happy Tails Dog Walking Mysteries Book 2)

by Stella St. Claire

  “No, but I suppose things still worked out in her favor.” Her eyes fell to the binder on the table, and she stiffened. “Olivia, I know I’ve given you some tips in the past, but I’m still not sure that I can help you.”

  Despair settled over Olivia. “You don’t really believe in this curse!”

  “It doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is that I maintain a reputable business with the vendors, and if they’re scared of you, then I need to be cautious. Did you call the places in Lowell?”

  Olivia nodded. “I did, but I grew up here. I want my wedding to support Lexingburg.”

  Tina sighed and reached over and pulled out a packet of brochures. “I did hear that the sheriff has someone in custody, so maybe that will help everything blow over. If you want to go ahead and look through these, maybe there’ll be enough time to get everything together. But until I know that the vendors will support you, I’m afraid I can’t help.”

  “I understand.” Feeling dejected, Olivia took the information from her and grabbed her notebook. She could almost feel Tina’s pity as the woman watched them walk out.

  “Did you hear what Tina said?” Janelle said excitedly when they were outside. “I bet Rachel went to Lacy’s to ask to work for her again, and when she declined, Rachel got her revenge.”

  Olivia nodded. “We can go talk to Nick, but I’m afraid that without evidence, it’s not going to be enough.”

  “Hey.” Janelle reached out and touched her elbow. “This wedding plan that you have is nothing like you wanted. Why did you let a perfect stranger take everything over?”

  “Because you weren’t there, Janelle.” Her sister stepped back in shock, and Olivia plunged ahead. “You’re so concerned about the brownstone, and I get that. It’s important, but whenever I brought up the wedding, you sidestepped the idea. Mom tried to help, but in the end, I felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions, and I want this wedding to be perfect for Andrew. I just thought that Lacy knew best.”

  “Olivia, I do care about your wedding,” Janelle argued.

  “Really? Since I asked you to do the cake, you haven’t asked me a single question about it. Not colors or flavors or design.” Olivia shook her head helplessly. “What was I supposed to think?”

  Her sister reached over and hugged her. “I’m so sorry, Olivia. The truth is that I was so scared about doing your wedding cake that I didn’t even want to talk about it. I’ve never taken on such a big project before. I’ve actually been meeting with Patricia to talk about ideas, but I didn’t want you to know that I was getting outside help. I had no idea that you thought I didn’t care! I just didn’t want to stress you out!”

  Janelle’s confession relieved Olivia, and she hugged her sister back. It was so good to know that she could still count on her sister, and she felt like at least one piece of the wedding puzzle was falling back in place.

  They separated, and Janelle smiled. “Now, how about we get back to Happy Endings and look over these brochures together. It won’t be such a bad thing, starting over. At least now you know that you’ll get the wedding that you want!”

  “I would love that, but first we need to talk to Nick. Even if he can’t arrest Rachel, maybe he’ll release Patricia, now that we can offer him a pretty solid alternative.” It made her anxious to think of starting over again, but as much as Olivia wanted to plow through the wedding, she could not stand by and let an innocent woman sit in jail for a crime that she didn’t commit. After all, it seemed like Lacy McBride had hurt enough people.

  15

  To Olivia's surprise, the lobby at the sheriff's station was far from empty. People were lined up at the desk, and those who weren't standing were sitting in chairs, hunched over clipboards. Was some kind of crime spree happening in Lexingburg that Olivia wasn't aware of?

  As they pushed their way to the front, everyone started to give them dirty looks and to mutter about rude people who cut.

  “What is going on?” Janelle whispered as she looked anxiously around her.

  Derek looked almost haggard as he handed out another piece of paper to the person in the front of the line. “Fill this out, and I’ll take your statement when I can.”

  “Derek,” Olivia hissed. “Why are all these people here?”

  He stood and motioned them to the back. There was a collection of groans, but he ignored them. Pulling them into the hallway, he shook his head. “These are all people who ate at Patricia’s bakery in the past couple of days. They think they’ve been poisoned as well.”

  “They think?” Olivia raised an eyebrow. “I think they’d know if they ingested cyanide.”

  “As far as I know, none of them went to the hospital, so it’s highly unlikely that anything will come of this. Just more hype and mass panic. He sighed. “What are you two doing here?”

  “We want to talk to Nick. Is he in?”

  He frowned. “Is this about the murder investigation? He’s got too much going on without you stopping by and plying him for information.”

  Olivia gave him her most innocent look. “Deputy Jameson, didn’t you hear? Someone tried to poison me last night! I’m just here to get an update.”

  “Fine,” he grumbled. “But he’s on the phone with the mayor, so you’ll have to wait in the hall until he’s done.” He went back out to deal with the people in the lobby, and Janelle started to pace nervously.

  “Patricia is going to be ruined if we can’t prove her innocence,” she whispered anxiously. “What are we going to do?”

  Olivia pointed to the chair. “Her reputation isn’t going to matter if she’s in jail. Once Rachel is behind bars, everyone here is immediately going to recant their story and feel like idiots. Don’t worry.”

  She felt sorry for Janelle. She’d never really paid attention to how close Janelle and Patricia really were. Olivia had never really had a mentor, but she could see how much Janelle loved the older baker. Hopefully, when they sorted all this out, everything would go back to normal, and she and Janelle could go back to fighting about the brownstone again.

  With a start, she realized how bad things were if she was hoping to jump back into the real estate nightmare.

  “Olivia,” Nick called out in a low voice through the open door. “What are you doing here?”

  Janelle raced in ahead of her. “Nick, we found the real killer! You have to let Patricia go. She’s already lost work because that dreadful wedding fiasco, but now this? You’ve got to arrest Rachel. She’s the real killer!”

  “Whoa!” Nick put up his hand. “Slow down. Take a deep breath, and tell me what’s going on.”

  Olivia slowly pulled her sister back and shot her a warning look. Hysterics weren’t going to free Patricia. “We went to Candlelight Farms this morning to talk to Tina about Rachel. And my wedding,” she added hastily. “We weren’t look for information about Rachel.”

  “Sure you weren’t,” he grumbled. “Go on.”

  “As it turns out, Rachel left Lacy’s employment because the one-stop-wedding shop was all her idea, and Lacy took credit for it. The only reason she was trying to patch things up with Lacy was to take her down from the inside. Now that Lacy is dead, Rachel doesn’t have to put in the work. She and Tina are going to get all of Lacy’s clients. She has motive, and she delivered the murder weapon.”

  Nick shook his head. “I know you want Patricia to be released, but delivering the cake and having a feud doesn’t mean anything. What you need to do is prove that Rachel had access to cyanide.”

  “Did you prove that Patricia had access?” Olivia asked.

  “Well, no,” Nick hedged. “But Patricia’s manager has already admitted that they keep rat poison on hand. We just couldn’t find it, but we can still prove that Patricia did have access to it.”

  “At least bring Rachel in for questioning again.”

  The sheriff leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Olivia, I’m sorry. I’m already put in for the arrest warrant. Patricia will be formally
charged tonight.”

  “No!” Janelle burst out. “You can’t do that!”

  Olivia reached out and put a steady hand on her sister's arm. "Have you found any evidence on the package that was delivered to me last night?"

  "No discernible fingerprints," Nick said, avoiding Janelle's gaze. "We were able to determine that there was cyanide in the frosting. We're fairly certain that it came from Patty Cakes."

  "If there are no fingerprints, then it stands to reason that the killer delivered it and not some messenger? Right?"

  The sheriff shook his head. "I know where you're heading with this, but it's still not enough to go on. I'm sorry, Olivia. I really am. I don't want to arrest Patricia any more than you do."

  “Can we see her?” Olivia asked calmly.

  Nick looked as if he was about to say no, but then he shrugged. “I guess it won’t harm anything. Come on.” He grabbed his keys and led them to the back where there were two holding cells. Normally they were only for the drunk and disorderly, but lately it seemed that Lexingburg was getting more and more dangerous.

  Patricia looked miserable as she sat against the wall on the bench with her legs curled up under her. She’d pulled at her hair until her waves had straightened and hung down her shoulders. Tears had tracked her mascara down her face, and her eyes were bright red. The flickering fluorescent lights showed every blemish on her pale skin.

  “Oh, Patricia!” Janelle cried.

  Nick nodded his head to the sisters. “I’ll give you five minutes.”

  Janelle and Patricia murmured quietly to each other, but when Nick was gone, Olivia got down to business. “Patricia, you need to think. Someone sent me a red velvet cupcake with buttercream frosting from your bakery last night. It was laced with cyanide. How easy is it for someone to get their hands on that flavor?”

  Patricia wiped at her cheeks and shook her head. “I usually make a dozen in the morning unless I get a special order. Anyone could have gotten their hands on it.”

  That wasn’t helpful. “A dozen isn’t all that many. You hang on to all of your receipts, right?”

  Patricia nodded. “Sure, but unless they paid with a credit or debit card, it won’t have their name on it.”

  “That’s okay,” Olivia said as the wheels in her head turned. “Even if we find one that’s been paid for in cash, maybe your employees will remember who bought it. Nick is going to press charges against you tonight because we don’t have the evidence that we need, but if we can prove that Rachel bought that cupcake, that’ll go a long way to help clear your name.”

  Janelle’s and Patricia’s faces brightened at the same time. “Olivia, do you really think so?” Janelle breathed.

  “I do. Patricia, is there anything else that you can think of that might help your case? Maybe Rachel said something that could throw more suspicion on her?”

  The baker shook her head. “Honestly, I barely even remember that night. I just remember thinking how it was ironic that a slice of my cake was going to be used to help smooth things over between Rachel and Lacy. I was still working with Lacy when Rachel was there, and believe me, those two were thick as thieves until Lacy stole Rachel’s idea.”

  Olivia pursed her lips. “What’s ironic is that someone used a poison to kill Lacy that smelled like almonds, and you were nearly ruined because of a nut allergy. Someone is going to great lengths to set you up. Did Rachel order the cake ahead of time, or did she just stop by and pick it up?”

  “I don’t make mini-cakes anymore unless they’re special order. She requested it that morning and picked it up that evening.”

  “When did you finish it?”

  “Maybe a couple of hours before. We were running a buy-one-get-one-free special on cupcakes, so I wanted to make sure that it was finished before the rush hit. And it was a good thing, too, because I was out front the rest of the evening.”

  Olivia narrowed her eyes. “Where did you put it?”

  “In the office.”

  “Was your door locked?”

  Patricia laughed. “Oh, Lord, no! There isn’t a lot of space in the back, so we use the office as a storage area, as well. It’s never locked. I’m not even sure who went to retrieve the cake when Rachel got there.”

  “Wait,” Olivia said sharply. “You didn’t hand the cake to Rachel?”

  “She paid for it with a credit card when she ordered it,” Patricia said with a shrug. “I just know that when things died down, the cake was gone.”

  Excited, Olivia stared at the baker. “Did you tell Nick this?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Patricia! Of course it matters! That cake sat unattended for hours, which means that anyone who worked for you that day had access to it.”

  “Actually,” Janelle said softly. “Anyone in the bakery at all had access to it. The office is right next to the bathrooms. It’s clearly labeled, but anyone who wanted to get in, could.”

  Olivia took a deep breath. “All right, it’s not the evidence that we need against Rachel, but it will help your case. You need to tell your lawyer this when they get here, okay? Don’t leave anything out.”

  Patricia nodded. Olivia glanced at the clock and realized that their time was almost up. “We’re going to get you out of this,” she promised. “Just hang in there, okay?”

  The door opened, and Nick cleared his throat. “Time’s up, ladies.”

  Janelle squeezed Patricia’s hands through the bars and hung her head as she followed Olivia out.

  Nick looked almost sorry. “I know you want to help her, but you need to stay away from the investigation, Olivia. I don’t want to see anything happen to you.”

  “The only way that’s going to happen is to put the real killer behind bars,” she reminded him. “And as you can see, I’m not alone.”

  “It’s true,” Janelle piped up. “In fact, we’re going to Happy Endings now so I can hand her over to Jackie until Andrew gets off work.”

  “What?” Olivia frowned. “I have dogs to walk. I can’t hang out at Shelfie.”

  “You don’t have to. Jackie swapped shifts, so someone else is closing. She’ll walk with you.”

  “Fine,” Nick grunted. “Just try to stay out of trouble.”

  Olivia grinned. “I’m never in trouble!”

  Even Janelle snorted.

  Nick rolled his eyes. "Do you think you could stop by and pick up Tucker? Mary's out running errands, and I promised her that I'd walk him today."

  Olivia cocked her head. "It's going to cost you. A favor in the future."

  For a moment, it looked like Nick might prefer to face the wrath of his wife, but he finally waved his hand and nodded. "Fine, but it has to be within reason. I still have to uphold the law."

  "Don't worry, Sheriff. I'm sure we can come up with something."

  16

  Olivia felt ridiculous as Janelle dropped her off at Shelfie. Jackie was counting the money in the register before handing it over to a bored-looking blonde teenager. “Danielle, are you paying attention?”

  “Yes. Geez, I’ve got it,” Danielle whined and rolled her eyes.

  Shaking her head, Jackie sighed and grabbed her purse. “When did we get so old that we’re the unbearable bosses?”

  “When you started hiring teenagers to work for you,” Olivia laughed. She glanced down at the kitten heels that Jackie wore. “Please tell me that you have tennis shoes in your car.”

  “I don’t. I didn’t realize that I’d be walking dogs tonight. Can’t I just borrow a pair of yours? We’re close enough in size.”

  “My feet are two sizes bigger than yours,” Olivia pointed out. “But I guess we can use some Band-Aids to put on your heels to keep from rubbing blisters. Oh, and before we head back home, we need to make a stop.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Patricia’s bakery. I want to get a look at those receipts from yesterday, to see if I can find out who bought the cupcake that someone dropped off at my house.”

&n
bsp; “You mean the cyanide-laced cupcake that someone tried to kill you with?” Jackie said dryly. “May I remind you, this is the second time in several months that someone has tried to kill you?”

  “How many times do I have to say it? It was clearly meant as a warning and not an actual death attempt. You guys get all worked up over nothing.” Olivia tried to make a joke about it, but she still had nightmares about the time Samantha had tried to run her over with a car. She couldn’t help but wonder if Janelle and Jackie were in danger just by being near her.

  “How did Andrew react?”

  “Not well,” Olivia admitted. “I thought that we were going to have a huge fight last night, but he was strangely quiet. I explained that I’m solving this case so we can have the wedding, and he just kissed me on the forehead and told me to go to sleep. He was gone before I woke up this morning. There’s something off with him, but I just don’t know what it is.”

  To save time, they took Jackie’s car to Patty Cakes. Jackie hummed along with an obnoxious song in the car before Olivia finally reached over and shut the radio off. "What's going on with you? You never hum."

  "Maybe I'm just in a good mood," Jackie teased.

  Olivia stared at her. "Oh, my God, you met a man. Did you go on a date with Derek?"

  "God, no," Jackie laughed. "Although the truth is probably just as absurd."

  "Explain."

  Her friend ducked her head. "I went to dinner with Brett."

  "Brett? Andrew's Brett? A-new-woman-every-week Brett? Jackie, what were you thinking?"

  "What?" Jackie said defensively. "I was thinking that I'm your best friend, and he's Andrew's best friend. The least I could do is get to know him a little better, and before you even ask—no. I did not invite him home with me. Although I was tempted, I decided just to have dinner and talk. It was actually really nice."

  "You're humming, so it must mean that you're planning on seeing him again."

  Jackie smiled mysteriously. "Maybe. If he meets my challenge, then maybe we'll see how things go."