by ML Michaels
By 12:55 PM, and there still was no sight of Chad. The people waited, many of them chomping into one of Suzie’s apple pies, which had turned out even better than usual. Kids ran around the seafront wondering what all the fuss was about, and a soft breeze caught the bright decorations that adorned the lampposts and facades of the buildings on the street.
Then the cheering started. Way back at first, rippling along the crowd like a wave. The crowd parted as a brightly colored red sports car made its way past the onlookers; it was the only car allowed on the street. Suzie didn’t need to look twice. Without seeing the driver, she knew it was Chad. Bold, brash, confident as always.
Everyone, except Lisa, applauded. She just stood looking straight ahead. But not at Chad as he emerged from his car. She looked out to the sea, deep in thought.
Suzie felt something deep down as soon as she caught a glimpse of him. His chiseled good looks remained, even after all those fights. Even his stylish brown hair was unruffled by the years and the sea breeze. It was as if she were back in her teens looking at Chad with longing—a forbidden fruit that could never be touched.
Suddenly, the mood shifted. The crowd quieted with some covering their ears as a screeching sound filled the air. It was feedback from a microphone. The mayor stood at the end of the street on a small platform, just high enough so that everyone could see him. The stage behind him had been set with a banner proclaiming: Welcome Home Champ!
“Come on, champ! Come on up here and let everyone get a good look at you!” the mayor yelled over the microphone. He beamed, clearly proud that the town had a real world champion of its own. Those who knew him well also suspected that he was reveling in how wonderful the entire day was going, something that would stand him in good stead come re-election time.
Chad made his way through the crowd, which opened before him like the Red Sea, and climbed onto the stage next to the mayor. He waved at the people, and they all cheered back in delight. Suzie smiled to herself, happy for Chad. He’d always had nervous energy when they were growing up and wanted nothing less than to get out of their small town and conquer the world. She was glad that he had done so and hoped that he’d found the sort of contentment he needed. He’d most certainly found adoration at least.
The microphone screeched once more as the mayor spoke into it. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are all thrilled, absolutely thrilled, to have our one and only Chad Hanson back home! Let’s give him a big hometown welcome!”
Again, the crowd cheered, and with each pause—a sign of a veteran public speaker—the audience was whipped up into further frenzy. After a few too many words, the mayor finally concluded the presentation. “Chad, we, your fellow Danvers Bay folk, your extended family, want to present this plaque to you for all you’ve done, and to say…Keep knocking them down, Champ!”
The mayor handed over an ornate looking plaque that had been made right there in Danvers Bay. Suzie couldn’t read the writing, but she was sure it was something corny—You’re a Knockout! Or something to that effect.
For the rest of the day, townsfolk and visitors alike milled around and enjoyed themselves. A little too much it seemed; someone had been sick drinking one too many of Janice Sterling’s ciders—the special adult-only version that she stored in the back.
Suzie was looking down at the last slice of one of her apple pies when she heard the voice: “Now that looks like home…”
There he was. Chad, in all his glory. All 6 foot 2 inches of him. He smiled.
“Nice to see you still have your teeth,” said Suzie, not really thinking the words through.
But Chad laughed. “Ah, Suzie, I’ve missed you!” He walked around the stall and lifted Suzie up into his arms. Her feet left the ground, and for a moment, she was happy. Memories came flooding back, and in that brief embrace, she realized just how much she had missed him.
“Put me down, you big goon!” she laughed.
Chad put Suzie back down gently. “It’s great to see you. I heard you’d set up a bakery. How about a nice slice of apple pie?”
“Of course, on the house,” Suzie scooped up the last slice in front of her, placed it on a paper plate and handed it to Chad with a smile.
“Oh, Chad? Chad!” The mayor came running, his wife in tow. He looked panicked, and it was easy to understand why.
Lisa worked at the stall with Suzie, and if she decided to get into an argument with her brother, then the entire day could be ruined. But Lisa was nowhere to be seen.
“Chad!” The mayor arrived, out of breath and sweating in his suit. “There are a few people over here I’d love you to meet…”
“I’m quite fine here, mayor. Just catching up with Suzie. We go way back.”
“Yes…I understand that. But really, there are a lot of people who want to speak with you…Fans, you know?” the mayor said, his voice agitated.
“Well, they can wait. I’m enjoying some of Suzie’s excellent apple pie. You should try some. Two more slices please, Suzie,” said Chad, finishing off the last bite of his own.
“Looks like we’re out,” she said. “I’ll see if I’ve got any in the back.”
“Here you go…” a voice said.
It was Lisa. She plopped a large apple pie down on the stall and cut it up into several pieces.
“Chad, perhaps we…” the mayor was absolutely besides himself now with worry. His wife looked around nervously as well. He must have shared his fears with her.
“Hey, Sis…” Chad said.
But Lisa didn’t say a thing, she just handed the two slices of apple pie to Chad on two plates.
“Okay, then…” said Chad. “Suzie, I’ll catch up with you later.”
They smiled at each other. Chad then left with the mayor and his wife heading towards another group of revelers
“Are you okay?” said Suzie.
“I’ll be fine after today,” replied Lisa, coldly.
What happened next was so shocking that the events blended into each other like an ill defined nightmare.
Suzie couldn’t be certain when the screaming started. First, three seemed to be a commotion and sense of confusion. And then, just as waves of applause had rippled through the crowd on the sunny seafront, gasps and panicked pleas for help soon transformed the happy day into a tragic one.
Suzie pushed through the crowds to find the source of the trouble. That was her way. She always wanted to fix things, to help. That was one of the reasons why people thought so highly of her. She made her way to the source of the commotion as people were moving away from the horrible sight. Two bodies were lying on the ground. Their eyes were glassy, with empty stares that saw nothing. A disturbing froth was dripping from their mouths.
A local doctor administered CPR as a local man assisted. But there was nothing they could do.
The mayor and his wife were dead. The crowd gazed at the bodies in stunned silence. Some people started crying, and children were ushered away to safety, as the bright sirens of an ambulance and police car filled the air.
Suzie kept her eyes on Chad. Not out of love. Or lust. But out of a cold, terrifying realization. Chad stood over the bodies, his imposing figure casting a long shadow on the ground; but unlike the other residents of the town, he was not staring at the bodies, but instead at two paper plates on the ground, dropped as death had taken hold. Two plates that held the remains of two pieces of Suzie’s apple pie, and the poison that they likely contained.
Nothing like this had ever happened in Danvers Bay before. At least, according to Mrs. Rogers, no one had ever been murdered in her lifetime, however long that stretched back.
Certainly, Suzie had never dreamed that such a terrible thing would happen in her hometown. It was her sanctuary. Her little perfect bubble where the troubles of the larger world seemed distant. Yet here it was. A cold hard fact. A murder had been committed, and in some way, Suzie was implicated.
When the police arrived, they quickly cordoned off the bodies of the mayor and his wife. Furthermor
e, they refused to let the large crowd leave, although several people had already taken their children home before they arrived.
The only thing worse for Suzie and the other residents of the town—other than two of their own being murdered—was the very real possibility that someone in their town was the murderer.
Sammy Twain, the local barber and hairdresser, refused to believe it. He led a loud chorus of dissenting voices: “not here” or “not one of us!” Chad’s arrival hadn’t just sparked interest inside Danvers Bay; many “outsiders” were there as well. Common refrains ran through the town. It had to be one of them. It had to be an outsider. It couldn’t be one of our own.
The man in charge of the investigation, Detective Grant Lawson, was a greying, diminutive figure who was unkempt but carried an air of intelligence with him. It wasn’t long before his questioning led straight to the apple pie slices, Suzie’s stall, and Suzie herself.
“We’ll have to run tests, Miss…”
“Brewer, Suzie Brewer…”
“Miss Brewer, we’ll have to run tests on the pie you served, but it does appear as if something in it has killed the mayor and his wife.” The detective looked intently at Suzie, as if appraising her.
“I…Oh, this is terrible…” Suzie sat down on a small wicker chair behind the stall. She was absolutely numb. She’d never seen a dead body before, never mind two. And these were two people she knew, people she liked. People she had served moments before they died.
“I have to ask you Miss Brewer, when you were baking the pies, was there anything nearby which could have contaminated them?”
“No. I’m very strict about anything dangerous like that. You have to be when you’re running a business.”
“I appreciate that, Miss, but nonetheless, you can understand why I have to ask these questions. Both victims eat some of your food and then die from poisoning within minutes, whether accidental or otherwise…”
“Wait a minute, detective, are you insinuating that I killed them!?” Suzie raised her voice, something she rarely did. “Why would I— “
“Detective, detective!” a police officer in uniform rushed over to where Suzie sat. Chad’s tall body lumbered behind him.
“Yes, Charlie?”
“The champ…Uh…Mr. Hanson here…has some important information about the poisoning,” Charlie said, with exuberance. He could be forgiven to a degree for his enthusiasm. Nothing this exciting or grisly had ever happened in the sleepy town of Danvers Bay, or the wider countryside for that matter.
The detective stretched his hand out and shook Chad’s. “Pleasure to meet you Mr. Hanson. The wife’s a big fan…”
“And you’re not, detective?” Even in such a terrible situation, Chad still kept his humor.
“No, not really. I see enough trouble in my work to satisfy those sort of needs. Now, Mr. Hanson, what is it you wanted to tell me, hmmm?”
“I see you’re questioning Suzie?” Chad said.
“Yes, I am.” The detective eyed Chad suspiciously. “Does this disturb you?”
“Well, I may be a fighter, but it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that you suspect that Suzie poisoned the apple pie the mayor and his wife were eating.”
“Sherlock Holmes indeed… You can rest easy for now. I’m not accusing anyone or anything yet. I’ve seen cyanide poisoning before, however, and this has all the hallmarks of it. Of course it could have ended up in there by accident, and that’s what I’m trying to assess. If not by mistake, then…”
Chad’s face flickered with concern. “Then you want to know if someone like Suzie did it on purpose?”
“If that is indeed the truth, then yes,” the detective turned to face Suzie. “Tell me, Miss Brewer, a few people saw you talking to the mayor earlier today. They say he looked concerned. Did you have any kind of argument or disagreement?”
Suzie’s head began to spin. What was happening? Why was she a suspect?
“Detective! You’ve got this upside down…” Chad interjected.
“Have I now? Miss Brewer bakes an apple pie and gives it to the mayor and his wife, who then die shortly after of apparent poisoning. It’s not out of the question to consider foul play.”
Both men stared intently at each other before Chad broke the silence. “The pie wasn’t for the mayor and his wife; it was for me!” he said.
And so the truth was out.
“How so?” the detective asked.
Chad looked reluctant. It seemed to Suzie that he didn’t want to go on, as if he could see the bumps in the road up ahead, desperate to take another route. But continue he did; there was no other way.
“If someone poisoned that pie, it was to kill me. I gave it to the mayor and his wife, and now they’re dead…”
The detective scratched his chin in thought. “That still doesn’t change much. You and Miss Brewer here don’t have any issues do you?”
“No!” Suzie said loudly. “Detective, Chad and I…” She looked at Chad for a moment and smiled. “Chad and I are friends, we have been since we were kids. I can’t even bear to watch his fights in case he gets hurt. I would never try to kill him!”
“Then let me ask,” the detective pressed, “was anyone else involved in baking or serving the food?”
There was a silence. That something Suzie had felt on the horizon, the weight of her premonition of a terrible storm. She knew what was coming, could now see it coming apart in front of her. At first, Suzie didn’t answer.
“Miss Brewer, please. I understand that you might want to protect those who work with you, but in order to get to the bottom of this, and to ensure you are not falsely accused of anything, I need to know who who else has been working with you at the stall today?”
Tears began to fill Suzie’s eyes; she didn’t want to say the name.
“Lisa…” Chad trailed off, apparently thinking out loud
“Who is this Lisa? Is she still here?” the detective asked.
Suzie pulled it together. “Lisa is a friend of mine, and she’s Chad’s sister… I haven’t seen her since I ran over to where the mayor and his wife died.”
“And your sister, Mr. Hanson, does she hold any ill will towards you?”
Suzie and Chad stayed silent for a moment before answering the detective’s questions. They stood motionless in the sun, and to Suzie, it was as if the world melted away leaving only the two of them for the briefest of moments. How she just wanted to be held by him, to be told that all of this would be okay; but it wasn’t okay. Two people were dead, and the implication was clear.
Soon it became apparent that the police considered Lisa a suspect. Her absence seemed strange for someone innocent in their minds. And quickly, the people in the town who had shunned the idea that one of their own could have committed the murders, quickly started hurling accusations about Lisa.
Where was she?
Why did she run?
Then the gossip spread, mingling fact and fiction. Some knew of her animosity towards her brother, and it quickly became known that it was Lisa who had given Chad the food. The police knocked on doors, they asked around town, but they could not find her.
That was until Suzie had an idea. A place where she knew her friend would go in times of difficulty. Night was approaching, and as the sun threatened to dip once more beneath the bay, Suzie headed up Montague’s Peak, a large hill that sat at the rear of the town. She walked through iron gates, along a graveled path, a silent figure among the dead.
Near an old oak tree, Suzie stopped, looking towards a gravestone now tinted red by the darkening sky. Sitting there crying was a girl Suzie had known and loved for many years.
“Lisa!” Suzie shouted, as she rushed over to her friend on the grass.
Lisa sobbed into Suzie’s shoulder, and for several minutes, neither of them spoke. No accusations. No words of fear or hurt; just two friends who loved each other, one comforting the other.
“Why did you run, Lisa?” Suzie finally said.
<
br /> Lisa looked up, but before she had time to answer, another form walked through the gravestones.
“Lisa Hanson. You’re wanted for questioning…” It was Detective Lawson. He and one of his men had followed Suzie to this quiet place where not even the dead stir.
“What’s going on?” Lisa said, clearly distraught.
“Don’t say anything, Sweetie, until you have a lawyer…” Suzie let go of her friend’s hand as the police took her away. “I know you didn’t do it, Lisa! We’ll get all of this sorted out, I promise. Be strong!” Suzie’s words blended with a loud wind now coming in for the night, and she couldn’t be sure that Lisa had heard them.
Turning to the gravestone, Suzie read the name and understood.
When she got back to the bakery, Suzie rushed up the stairs to her apartment and picked up the phone. She didn’t have Chad’s number, but considering that there were only two hotels in town and one of them normally closed during the off season, it didn’t take long for her to track him down.
He was staying at the Two Pines Inn, a cozy little family run hotel, that was welcoming to those staying and those passing through in equal measure. Maw and Paw were the affectionate names for Sally and Patrick O’Hara who had been a cornerstone of the local tourist trade since the 60s.
When she called the hotel, Maw and Paw put Suzie in touch with Chad,
and within ten minutes she was walking at top speed to the Two Pines, where Chad was waiting at the bar, which was open to guests and passersby alike.
It had been a while since Suzie had been there. Three falls previously, she’d had a plumbing issue and after a flood had to camp out at the Two Pines for a week. It was a pleasant stay, but it felt strange staying in a hotel in her hometown. Suzie wondered if Chad felt the same way.
