“What is it?” Heather asked.
“Saying Cupcake’s name reminded me that I forgot to tell you something yesterday. My school wants to have a bake sale to raise money for a new swing set. I told them that you make the best donuts ever, so I thought you might be able to make some for it.”
“Of course I can.” Heather started running through a checklist of supplies and what would need to be done. “How many do you think you’ll need? Right after the walk, we’ll head to Donut Delights. I can prepare a whole medley for tomorrow.”
“No, it’s not tomorrow,” Lilly said. “It’s not until next month.”
“And you were worried because you forgot to tell me yesterday?”
“I wanted to make sure you had enough notice. I know how busy you get solving murders.”
Heather kissed her daughter on the head and assured her that she would be able to make a whole assortment of colorful donuts for the bake sale. She smiled thinking about the fun Lilly could have on the swing set if the school raised enough money.
Then a thought occurred to her. She suddenly stopped walking. Her friends realized, and all turned around to face her, except Dave who was still sniffing something intriguing.
“I just had an idea,” Heather said. “A bake sale.”
“For Lilly’s school?” Eva asked.
“For you,” Heather said. “To raise money to fix your house.”
“I don’t know if a bake sale could raise that much. Where are you planning on setting up the table?”
“At Donut Delights. It will be a variation on a bake sale. I’ll come up with an Eva and Leila themed donut, and the profits from it can go towards your house.”
“Will that hurt your business?” Eva asked.
“I don’t think it will,” Leila said, enjoying the idea. “It might get more people in the door, knowing that they are supporting someone in the community. And they might buy other donuts while they’re there. I can’t get enough of those Mint Crème Donuts.”
“I don’t want to cause any more trouble or extra work for you,” Eva said.
“Stop thinking you’re being a bother,” Heather instructed. “You’re one of my favorite people, and I want to do something to help. I can’t rebuild a wall, but I can make donuts.”
“Delicious donuts!” Leila seconded.
“I think this can work,” Heather said, smiling. She finally felt like things were on track. She had finally thought of a way to help her friends with their house. Even if Eva was nervous about its success, Heather felt confident. She also felt like she was getting close to solving the murder case. Maybe her last interview with Tiffany’s client would provide the missing puzzle piece so she could catch the killer.
Chapter 15
“What do you want?” Bonnie Calvin asked when Heather and Amy appeared at her door. It looked like Mrs. Calvin had her arms full, both metaphorically and literally. She had an impatient look in her eyes and was balancing a toddler and a plate of lunch in her arms.
Heather explained that they were private investigators and that they needed a few minutes of her time to ask some questions. Amy offered to lend her a hand with what she was holding. Mrs. Calvin gratefully accepted. Amy expected to take the sandwich but was handed the child. Amy was uncomfortable as the toddler poked her in the ear.
They followed Bonnie Calvin into the kitchen and sat down. Two other children were running around the room, having finished their lunch. Mrs. Calvin started feeding the child on Amy’s lap, so Heather took out the tablet to take notes this time.
“Did Tiffany Turner remodel your house?”
Bonnie Calvin nodded. “We needed another bedroom after this one was born. We hired Tiffany to expand and to make everything a little more child-friendly.”
The toddler was trying to ignore the food from his mom and was bouncing on Amy. She was terrified the child was going to fall, but his mom seemed confident in Amy’s ability to keep him on the chair.
“Were you pleased with her work?” Heather asked.
“Her work? Yes. I had to rein her in on several projects. She had this idea for a barnyard theme in one room, but I put my foot down and said no hay in a house with children.”
The toddler started waving his arms, and Amy compensated to balance.
“Overall the house looks nice,” Mrs. Calvin said.
“What did you think of her prices?”
“They seemed a little high. But all the reviews online said the Turners were honest.”
Heather looked around the room. Besides some jelly smears on the counters, the room looked nice and updated.
“Did she redo this kitchen too?”
“Yes. Nice new cabinets.” Mrs. Calvin looked around the room too. “They’re a little sticky today.”
Amy was feeling the stickiness too as the toddler rubbed his hand on her arm.
“And did Tiffany Turner give you a set of signature knives?”
“She did. She wanted us to display them on the counter. Can you believe that? With kids in the house. She wanted us to put sharpened blades out where they could grab them. I locked them away in a cabinet.”
Heather asked to see them, and Mrs. Calvin acquiesced. She showed the set that she kept locked up. The knife matching the murder weapon was still there.
Amy was being climbed on by the toddler who didn’t want his mom to leave his sight. Mrs. Calvin sat back down, and the toddler plopped down on Amy’s lap again.
Heather figured she better still ask about Bonnie’s alibi.
“Monday night is pizza night. My husband was home, and we have pizza as a whole family.”
“One more question,” Heather said. She heard Amy give a sigh of relief from under the child. “Did you notice Tiffany going through any of your personal papers when she worked here?”
“No, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she tried that with someone else after what she pulled with me.”
“What was that?”
Mrs. Calvin directed her attention to the children running around the room. “Boys, go play in the other room for a minute.”
They chased each other out of the room, playing their own version of tag. Mrs. Calvin waited until they were gone and then said, “She tried to blackmail me.”
“What?”
“She saw that the family hamster had died and that I replaced it with a new one. She told me she wanted an extra thousand dollars or she would tell the kids what I did.”
“What did you do?” Amy asked before closing her mouth as the toddler tried to stick his fingers inside.
“I laughed in her face. I told her that no hamster was worth a thousand dollars. If she wanted to break a child’s heart, she could go right ahead. But there was no way I was paying a conniver like her.”
“Thank you for talking with us,” Heather said. “You’ve been very helpful.”
Mrs. Calvin saw them to the door and accepted the child back from Amy. As they started towards their car Amy said, “I love Lilly, I do. But I am not ready for children. And I can’t believe Tiffany tried to blackmail her over a hamster.”
“That’s it,” Heather said. “Blackmail!”
“What? You think Mrs. Calvin is the killer?”
“No, not her.” Heather said, “Someone else who was being blackmailed.”
She nodded to herself. She was sure of it. It all made sense. She just needed to find more proof.
Chapter 16
Heather had to admit that it was nice to talk business at Ryan’s desk at the police station. It had been a while since she had been there. So often they worked at crime scenes together or discussed the case at home. She was pleased to see the new picture of her and Lilly that sat on his desk.
However, she had more important matters to discuss and updated Ryan all about their latest interview. “That’s when I realized that if Tiffany tried to blackmail Mrs. Calvin, she might have blackmailed other clients too.”
Ryan looked at Tiffany Turner’s financial records again. “Y
ou’re thinking John Wallens?”
“He paid her a huge amount of money after all the work was done. He said it was because she didn’t include add-on projects to the original bill and that he wanted to avoid a lawsuit. I think it’s more likely that Tiffany waited until after she was finished her work to begin her blackmail.”
“That does make sense. But what was she blackmailing him for?”
“I don’t know. But if she was pawing through other client’s personal papers, she could have done the same with him and found something he didn’t want anyone to know about.”
“How’s his alibi?” Amy asked.
“He did send over proof of his emails. It shows that he was working that night and that emails were sent. However, it doesn’t completely clear him. There wasn’t anything sent right at what we think the time of death was. He could have prepared an email earlier and then hit send when he returned from his murderous deed.”
“He also couldn’t account for the knife,” Heather said. “I think he’s guilty.”
“Everything we have is circumstantial though,” Ryan said. “He could be our guy, but we don’t have enough to prove it right now.”
“I think this calls for another talk with our suspect,” Heather said.
***
Heather, Ryan, and Amy pulled up to John Wallens’ house. Wallens was outside and washing his car with a hose. Ryan let out a noise of annoyance.
“What’s wrong?”
“It was a long shot anyway,” Ryan said. “I had just been thinking that maybe we could look at his car to see if anything from those trees at the Turner office could be traced to it.”
Heather shook her head. John Wallens had been one step ahead of them before, coming up with the perfect answers to their questions. Now he was removing what little physical evidence there was.
Based on what they had now, they would need to get a confession to have the case stand up in court. They braced themselves for a tough interview.
John Wallens waved at them as they approached and turned off the hose.
“What can I do for you, officer?” He asked as they approached. “Did those two tell you how helpful I was to their investigation?”
“It’s always helpful when you find the killer,” Amy muttered to herself.
“They did,” Ryan said, pleasantly. “But some new information has come to light, so we have some more questions.”
“Of course. Anything I can do to help,” he said evenly. “You got those records of my emails, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Thank you for that. There was no activity at the precise time she was killed, but it does show how busy you were that night.”
“I wouldn’t know the precise time she was killed,” Wallens said. “But I was busy working that night as those emails show. Now, what are your questions?”
“We’ve discovered that Tiffany Turner wasn’t just a designer. She was also a blackmailer,” Heather said.
“Is that so?” Wallens said. “Well, that person who told you about the blackmail must surely have a motive for murder.”
“This blackmail wasn’t successful. But I think her extortion with you was.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wasn’t being blackmailed. What could I be blackmailed for?”
“I don’t know exactly, but Tiffany discovered something while she was working on your house. That’s why you paid so much after the work was done.”
“I told you that she charged me extra after the fact. She’s obviously a criminal all around.”
Heather stared at John Wallens. He was a tough nut to crack. It seemed like he had rehearsed his answers and had no intention of admitting anything.
“You expect us to believe that you were willing to pay almost double for your renovations after you had already paid?”
“I do. Because that seems to be all the evidence you have.”
“We know that you paid a blackmailer,” Heather said, trying to keep her cool.
“But it doesn’t look like you can prove there was blackmail. It doesn’t look like you can prove murder. Am I under arrest, officer?” He asked Ryan.
“Not at this time.”
“Then I suggest you get off my property,” John Wallens said. He turned the hose back on as they left and continued showering his car.
“That was a bust,” Amy said. “I thought when he knew we knew about the blackmail he might break down.”
“We don’t know what he was being blackmailed for,” Heather admitted. “He knew that, and so he knew we didn’t have physical evidence for it beyond his large payment.”
“He was right,” Ryan said.
“Okay. But what do we do now?” Amy asked.
“We find the evidence of blackmail,” Heather said.
Chapter 17
“I thought the police already went over this place with a fine tooth comb,” Amy said as they entered Tiffany Turner’s office.
“That’s true,” Heather said. “But sometimes their combs miss some knots.”
“What?”
“Okay. Bad metaphor,” she admitted. “But last time they looked, they were searching for a knife collection and DNA.”
“And they struck out on both accounts.”
Heather nodded. It wasn’t unusual for no DNA to be found at the crime scene if the killer was careful, and they already knew that this crime was planned and premeditated. Tiffany Turner also had potential clients and contractors coming in and out of the office that could muddle any potential DNA clues.
She looked around the office again. She felt like she was missing something, but what? It was such an open space that it would be hard to hide anything here.
Ryan and Hoskins were searching Tiffany’s home for evidence of the blackmail, but Heather had a gut feeling that it was hidden somewhere in the office.
They searched in the places they thoughts things could be hidden. There were no bumps in the carpeting to suggest something hidden underneath and nothing incriminating in any of the drawers. They checked couch cushions and under chair seats. Then they got creative, searching the decor on the walls.
“Nothing is hidden in the painting frame or behind the canvas,” Amy said. “Do you think she wrote something in black light ink on the painting? I saw that in a movie.”
“I don’t think a message she wrote would be enough to make John Wallens pay so much. I think she was holding on to the evidence that he wanted. It’s either a document or photos.”
“Maybe Wallens took it with him when he killed her. He stabbed her and then took the evidence away with him,” Amy suggested.
“I hope that’s not the case,” Heather said. “I don’t really think it is. When he said ‘that seems to be all the evidence you have.’ I think he was also testing the waters. Making sure that we didn’t actually find the evidence.”
“Great. But where is it?”
“We need to look at this with fresh eyes,” Heather said. “If you were Tiffany—“
“Let me get into character,” Amy said. She pulled her hair up high on her head and started walking around the space, examining areas to redesign. “We should definitely install a skylight right here.”
Amy paused. “I should stop. I feel like I’m mocking the dead and that’s not what I meant to do.”
“It’s all right. I think you’re on to something. What seems out of place here?”
They tried looking at the room with Tiffany’s design standards in mind. She thought back to everything Tiffany had said while making estimates for Eva’s home and what she had said about decorating on the failed TV show. What was she forgetting?
Heather let her eyes drift to the natural focal point. Then she smiled.
“Do you remember the Turner Sisters TV show we watched? What did Tiffany say in it?”
Amy groaned. “That terrible catch phrase about turning your home around?”
“About the focal point of the room.”
“Um. Don’t use a lighting fixture as th
e focal point because it’s like asking people to look at the sun.”
“And what would you say is the focal point of this room?” Heather asked.
“The light bulbs above our heads are turning on,” Amy joked as she figured it out. “That boxy lighting fixture draws the eye.”
Mint Creme Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 47 Page 6
