Lucas arrived, followed by Mr. Willard and Bertha with more wine and a sweet potato pie. “My mother’s recipe,” Bertha said. “And sweet potato is so good for you, too.”
“I’m not much of a cook,” Lucas said as Maddie took his offering of potato chips and a carton of onion dip.
“I love a man who can shop.”
Two pizzas and a bottle of wine later, Olivia had shared what she’d learned from Del. Ellie was emerging from the kitchen bearing a third pizza when the front door opened and Del poked his head inside.
“We have someone we want you to meet,” Del said. He held the door as Hugh and Tammy entered. Hugh had one arm in a cast. In his good arm, he carried a lovely little girl with sapphire blue eyes and black curls falling loosely to her shoulders. She looked sleepy and a bit dazed. Hugh and Tammy didn’t appear to have slept much, either.
“We won’t stay for long,” Hugh said, “but I wanted all of you to meet Lily Chamberlain. My daughter. And while I’m at it, let me introduce my new wife, Tammy Deacons-Chamberlain.”
Lily hid her face against Hugh’s shoulder as well-wishers stampeded toward them. Olivia went right to Tammy. “I’m so happy for you,” Olivia said. “But when . . . how . . . ?”
“Oh, Livie, I wanted to tell you, but Clarisse was so against us being together. We thought if we got married and then told her, she’d have to accept it. But Clarisse died at the very worst moment. . . . I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Hugh was worried about how it might look if we announced we’d gotten married the same day his mother died.”
“The same day?” So the argument she and Maddie had heard from Tammy’s bathroom when they’d announced their “engagement” had really been about revealing their marriage.
“Looking back,” Tammy said, “I wish I had told you. It would have cleared everything up more quickly and without . . .” She nodded toward the ruined antiques cabinet, lying splintered on the floor like the body in a murder mystery game.
“What you’re saying,” Olivia said, “is that you and Hugh had alibis?”
“Ironclad. Some of Hugh’s friends in Baltimore witnessed our marriage and then gave us a party. We stayed with them that night. We’ll have a real honeymoon later, of course.” Her eyes strayed toward Hugh. “We’re thinking we might take Lily with us. She has lost too many mothers; she needs stability.”
Our little Tammy is growing up. Olivia could almost hear those words coming from Maddie’s mouth.
Hugh, Tammy, and Lily left a few minutes later, followed by Mr. Willard and Bertha, then Ellie and Jason. Maddie and Lucas retired to the kitchen to clean up. Which left Olivia and Del. They settled into the nook armchairs.
Del refilled their wineglasses and answered her last few questions. “Roberta traced the disconnected phone number on Faith’s note. It led her to a small apartment, rented up until a month ago by Faith Kelly. She’d never reported Jasmine missing, probably to avoid losing Lily. Faith must have lived in fear while she raised Lily as her own.”
“But how exactly did Edward kill Clarisse?”
Del paused before answering. “He snuck into the house after rushing home from Baltimore and was careful to make sure that Bertha didn’t see him. He found his mother’s pills before heading up to her study. He confessed that he was trying to convince her not to go to the police with what she knew but he was sure it was useless, so he’d begun crushing up her pills into the wine he was pouring for her. Clarisse was pacing and too upset to notice.”
“Poor Clarisse. At least now her granddaughter is back with her family and Clarisse can be at peace. Thanks for keeping me in the loop.” Olivia sighed as the weight on her chest and the knot in her stomach began to dissipate for the first time since her friend was killed. “I know you didn’t have to. Oh, but wait, what about Sam? And my car?”
“Edward was checking in at Chatterley Heights pharmacy, which is owned by Chamberlain Enterprises, when Sam dropped off the mail. He heard Sam boast about knowing what was in the letter Clarisse received from the private investigator she’d hired to search for Jasmine. Edward claims he only wanted to put Sam out of commission for a while, not kill him. Edward had dropped off a check for the bequest his mother had left the food shelf, and he had seen the decorated cookies Olivia delivered earlier. He moved fast once the whole idea occurred to him. He managed to swipe some cookies from the food shelf without being seen, then laced them with a high-powered insulin enhancer he’d taken from the pharmacy. He just wanted Sam to back off.” Del leaned toward Olivia. “On the other hand, I think he was trying to do some serious damage to you when he punctured your brake line. He recognized your car while you were gathering those cookie cutters from the Chamberlain house. He really viewed you as an outsider meddling in ‘family affairs.’ He was also still resentful of your close relationship with his mother.”
Del stretched out his legs and yawned. “So have I answered all your questions?”
“Actually,” she said, “I do have one more.”
“Fire away.” Del leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
Olivia drained her glass in one large gulp. The loss of her friend and her own near-death experience combined with all of the chaos she had endured suddenly made Olivia realize that she wanted something more in her life, maybe someone . . .
“So,” she began and then paused to clear her throat. “Maybe, when our respective injuries have healed, we should go on a real date sometime.”
Del’s face reddened a bit as he sat up and said, “Livie Greyson, it’s about time you asked me a question I can gladly say yes to.”
FB2 document info
Document ID: 648cfa9e-c08d-42c0-82d9-f9059d6fb177
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 20 April 2011
Created using: FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 software
Document authors :
frenky_m
Document history:
1.0 — создание файла
About
This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.
(This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)
Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.
(Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)
http://www.fb2epub.net
https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/
Cookie Dough or Die accsm-1 Page 26
