Éclair Case of Murder: A Culinary Cozy Mystery (A Rosie Kale Culinary Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Leigh Selfman

  But if I didn’t, it would mean letting Violet get away with murder.

  Diane looked at me and I saw a flash of worry cross her face. “I can’t tell you what to do,” she said seriously. “But I hope you’ll be careful. And that you’ll call me if you need anything at all.”

  She was looking at me intently.

  I nodded and swallowed hard, then I started walking towards the door.

  “And Rosie,” she called out. “Whatever you do don’t get caught. Not only could you get arrested, but Chuck Wright has a gun safe. Do not let them see you.”

  Chapter 37

  To my relief, the key was right where Diane said it would be. I removed it from the fake rock with a shaky hand and put it into the front door lock of the Wright’s house. Then I slowly reached for the doorknob.

  But instead of turning it, I hesitated.

  I knew this was one of those choices that could change my life forever. And not in a good way.

  My inner voice was screaming at me to turn around and run; that it wasn’t too late. I hadn’t really done anything illegal yet. I could just put the key back in the rock and go home.

  But instead of listening to its words of wisdom, I did what I always tended to do in these situations. Ignored it completely and threw caution to the wind.

  I turned the key in the lock. Then I turned the doorknob and walked in.

  As soon as I dealt with the alarm, I paused to let my eyes adjust. Everything was dark inside but I didn’t even consider turning on the light. Instead I walked slowly through the darkened foyer.

  “Ouch,” I said under my breath as I knocked right into a console table. I steadied myself and walked on more carefully.

  Making it to the living room entrance, I saw that there was some light coming in through all windows. Not much light, but some. I was able to move more quickly as I crossed the room, spotting the portrait of Helen over the fireplace in the dark.

  As I headed across the room, I glanced in the opposite direction…and saw someone in the dark, looking right back at me.

  My hand flew to my mouth as I gasped in shock and

  And the other person’s hand did the same thing.

  Which is when I realized I must have been looking in a mirror.

  I rolled my eyes at my own overreaction and paused to let my heart rate come down from the stratosphere. Then I continued on through the living room and down the hall until I came to what appeared to be the den.

  Inside the small, book-lined room, it was so dark that there was no way I’d be able to search without more light. I considered turning on the overhead light but decided it would be safer to use the flashlight app on my cell phone instead—I figured that with the blinds closed, no one would be able to see inside the room anyway.

  Then, in the span of a few minutes, I searched through every drawer in the desk as well as behind the TV cabinet and the mini bar. I was pretty confident that there was no tape machine hidden anywhere in the room.

  I had to check the kitchen, next.

  I hurried back out of the room and down the hall then cut back through the living room. Halfway through, I was again startled by my reflection in the mirror. I told myself not to be such an scaredy-cat as I started moving again, but to my horror the reflection stayed put.

  For a moment anyway…then it lifted an arm and pointed a gun right at me.

  Chapter 38

  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t shoot you right now,” Violet said pointing her gun in my direction.

  If only I could think of a good reason. If only I could think of any reason at all. But I couldn’t, I was literally paralyzed with fear—all words and thoughts forgotten.

  “Why shouldn’t I kill you right now?” she said, flipping on the light and allowing me a better view of the gun. It was aimed at me with a shaking hand.

  I backed up towards the fireplace, my hands up, my heart pounding furiously.

  “Please…don’t,” I said. It was the only thing I could think to say.

  “Please, don’t,” she mocked, moving closer to me.

  I was staring at the gun’s barrel as though it was the only other thing in the universe. It was all I could see, even as Violet’s shrill voice made its way into my consciousness.

  “All I have to do is shoot you right now,” she said. “I just have to say that you broke in--which you did. So I grabbed Chuck’s gun and shot you. I’ll just say that you were coming after me!”

  I forced myself to look her in the face. She looked scared, her pale blue eyes wild as she pointed the shaky gun at me.

  I was trying desperately to think of some way out—I kept going over and over all of the options in my mind. But none seemed promising. I could beg for my life—but somehow I didn’t think she’d have much compassion.

  I could make a run for it—after all she probably wasn’t any kind of expert shot. The gun belonged to the Chuck and it was twitching so nervously in her hand that she just might miss me.

  But then again she might not. With my luck, in her nervousness she’d accidentally hit me.

  Glancing back, I tried to see the fireplace mantle behind me. I remembered there was something heavy there, something I could hit her with. But the only thing on the mantle was the big, metal, numberless captain’s clock.

  “Don’t even think it,” Violet smirked. “That thing is metal and weighs like thirty pounds.”

  I turned back around, desperate. “Please. Please, Violet. Don’t do this. You can’t…”

  “I can’t? Really?” she said in a mocking tone, moving closer to me. “Give me one good reason why I can’t. I happen to know you’re here trying to plant evidence to prove I killed Helen!”

  “What? No I’m not! Please Violet…”

  “You are never going to be out of my hair unless I get rid of you. You’ll just keep stalking me and spreading rumors and lies. You’ll get more and more obsessed and dangerous and…”

  “No, please!” I interrupted, backing away from her as far as possible. I was right up against the fireplace mantle. “Please…”

  She was inches away and the gun was aimed right at my chest.

  In a flash of bravery, or maybe it was idiocy, I reached for the gun and held it tight, pushing it off to the side in case it went off.

  But Violet didn’t let go. Neither did I, as we struggled and fell over the top of the sofa. We were both screaming as we rolled over the base and onto the floor, the gun flailing dangerously in both our grasps.

  “Just stop! Just let me leave," I cried breathlessly. “I promise I’ll leave you alone. Please!”

  “Liar!” she screamed and got on top of me, twisting the gun around until I had to let it go.

  I looked at her terrified as she glared at me.

  “Please, Violet! Please don’t! You won’t get away with this! Please! Diane knows it was you that made that phone call to the suicide line! I told her about it tonight! If something happens to me, she’ll tell everyone it was you!! All they have to do is look at that photo you took. It proves you were here at almost 1:00 that day! Right at the time the call was made!”

  She looked at me puzzled. “You really are delusional,” she said with what almost seemed like pity. “I wasn’t here at 1:00 that day. I was here at 11:00am.” She shook her head and cocked the gun, but she hesitated.

  And in that moment of hesitation I was able to reach up and pull the gun safely away. Or at least I thought I did.

  Just when I grabbed it from her hand, I saw her finger get caught in the trigger and accidentally pull it back.

  It was as though the whole thing were happening in slow motion…but I couldn’t stop it.

  “Nooooo!” I screamed as the gun went off with a deafening bang. I stared dumbstruck and horrified as it fell to the floor, smoking.

  Violet lay nearby, unmoving.

  Chapter 39

  I dialed Diane’s number but I could barely talk.

  “Diane. Oh my gosh, please come.” I was sobbin
g into the phone.

  “Why? What happened?” her voice suddenly sounded panicked.

  “I... I shot Violet,” I said in a shaky whisper. “I think she’s dead.”

  “Oh my goodness,” Diane whispered. After a few seconds of silence she said, “Look…just hang tight. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

  Diane appeared less than ten minutes later. Her usually calm, elegant demeanor appeared frayed around the edges.

  “Rosie, how did this happen?” She was looking around, her fingers raking through her hair in agitation.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged tearfully. “Violet came in. And…she had a gun and…and we struggled and it went off.” I wiped the tears from my eyes as I looked over towards the couch behind which lay Violet’s unmoving body.

  “Should I call the police?” I asked her. “I guess I should just call the police and tell them what happened, right?”

  “I don’t know,” Diane said, shaking her head regretfully. “It just looks so bad for you. Your being here, in this house. What with everything that’s happened.”

  I nodded, swallowing hard. I knew just what she was saying. “But what choice do I have?”

  She sighed and looked around. “Did you at least find the evidence you were looking for? The tape of Violet making phone call to the hotline would really help you right now. It would prove that she killed Helen. And that she was coming after you next.”

  I shook my head, miserably. “No. It wasn’t there. At least I didn’t see it.”

  Diane frowned, thoughtfully. “Maybe we should look again. At least if you had proof that Violet killed Helen, it would bolster your story.”

  I shrugged. “I’m not even sure she did kill Helen,” I said softly.

  “What?” Diane’s eyes grew wide as she stared at me in disbelief. “Why on earth not?”

  “I’m not sure…it’s just…when I confronted Violet she said something weird. She said she wasn’t even here at 1:00 that day, like I thought. She told me I was looking at everything backwards.” I shook my head. “I mean, it’s too horrible to think about, but I think that maybe she was telling the truth the whole time.”

  Diane turned to me horrified. “You mean…Helen really killed herself? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “No. I think someone else may have killed her. Someone else who was here that day.”

  Diane came slowly towards me. “What makes you say that? Do you have some kind of proof?”

  “I might,” I said with a shrug. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and showed her the selfie that Violet took of herself in the Wright house that day.

  She looked at it, frowning. “But the clock says it’s almost 1:00 o’clock. And that’s around when the call was made, right?”

  “No,” I sighed. “That’s what I thought. But the clock is numberless. And I didn’t realize it before, but the photo was printed in reverse. Which means that Violet wasn’t looking out the right window, she was looking out the left one.

  “So?”

  “So that means the clock didn’t read 1:00pm. It read 11:00am.

  “I still don’t get what that proves.” Diane was staring at me, clearly frustrated.

  “Well I was sure that Violet was here at 1:00 when the phone call was made. But now I realize she was here hours earlier. I think that someone else was here at 1:00 making the phone call. And it wasn’t Helen. She was still at the spa. It was someone else altogether.”

  Diane nodded and stared at the photo, intrigued.

  “It’s strange,” I said, vaguely as I studied the selfie photo. “I didn’t realize that the vase in her photo was the same one Helen donated to your charity. It’s that same one I saw today, right?”

  Diane looked at the vase in the photo. She nodded.

  I stared at it for a moment too. Then I looked at Diane. “When did Helen give it you?” I asked. “I mean…the day after this photo was taken, she was dead.”

  She glanced at the photo again, then she looked at me, an odd expression on her face. Then, her eyes moved to the gun on the coffee table.

  I followed her gaze and before I knew it, she’d run over and grabbed it off the coffee table. And was now pointing it at me.

  “Diane. What are you doing?” My voice was barely above a whisper.

  She sounded exasperated. “Please, Rosie. Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I’m doing. And exactly when I picked up that vase. It was the day of the anniversary party.” She sighed and looked at me, irritated. “Yes I could lie and say I got the vase from Chuck after Helen died…but I know you. You won’t drop it. You’ll never drop it until you get the truth.”

  I stared at her, my eyes wide. “Diane…what…what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that I made the phone call when I came that day to get the vase. Helen told me to just use the spare key to come in and get it. So I did. And once inside… I saw that no one was home. Not even Mrs. Pond. I saw my opportunity and I took it.”

  “Your opportunity?” I was backing away from her, my hands up.

  “My opportunity to set up Helen’s suicide,” she said, impatiently. “I made the call to your hotline, pretending to be Helen. Then I ground her pills into her smoothie.”

  I looked at her horrified and took another step back.

  “If only you’d dropped this whole thing,” she said. “But you were never going to. I sensed it that first time we met. Which I why I have to get rid of you.”

  She pointed the gun at my head and clicked the safety off.

  Chapter 40

  I took a step back. “Diane. Please. Please don’t…”

  “Now hush. Let me think.” She looked around as though she were staging a play. “Now… you shot Violet over here….”

  She walked over near the couch, all the while, making sure to keep the gun pointed at me

  “Then, you felt so bad about it that you had to shoot yourself too.”

  I looked at her in disbelief.

  She didn’t acknowledge me as she went over and picked up my cell phone. “In fact, I think a phone call to suicide hotline would be perfect. Don’t you? Something to the effect of: ‘‘I knew Violet killed Helen so I went to confront her. But she got her gun and we struggled for it. And now…I can’t live with the guilt.”

  I was staring at her dumbstruck.

  “You’re nuts!” I finally said. “I’m not going to say any of that into the phone.”

  “No? Oh well,” she shrugged. “Then maybe I’ll just do it. They don’t tape the calls after all.”

  “But…Diane,” I said, taking another step back. “Why did you even do it? Were you in love with Chuck? Or…”

  “Please,” she rolled her eyes. “It was for the money. What else? I’d insured Helen as my employee when she came to work for me so I got millions of dollars when she died. And believe me, I needed it. When I said times were tough, I wasn’t kidding. If not for that money I could have gone to jail for ‘borrowing’ some of my client’s funds.”

  “So you’re a thief and a murderer,” I said, unable to stop my anger from surfacing. “You’re not going to get away with this. They’ll figure out you did it. That you killed Helen. No one will believe this whole…setup. My Nana. Casey. They’ll all know something’s not right.”

  “Oh but they already do know it,” she smirked. “They know that something’s not right with you. You’ve been stalking Violet all over town. It’s been on the news endlessly.” She came towards me. “You’ve already told everyone who would listen that Violet did it. I’m sure you even told your Nana and Casey and the detective. So…enough talk. Time to say goodbye.”

  I looked at the gun. Then I looked past her shoulder out the window. “Casey?” I whispered aloud.

  She turned her head and looked but there was no one there. “Oh please. I’m not falling for that old ploy,” she smirked. “There’s no one outside.”

  She pointed the gun at my head. Her finger was on the trigger.

  It felt
like slow motion as I watched her pulling it back.

  “No!” Casey screamed as he burst into the room and ran towards her. She turned, aiming the gun at his heart.

  Just as he tackled her, it went off.

  Chapter 41

  “Casey!” I screamed as I ran to him.

  He lay on the ground holding his chest and moaning. He’d been shot from a foot away, right in the heart.

  “Casey! Are you okay?” I screamed, putting my arms around him.

  As I hugged him, I looked up to see Diane running off, out towards the French doors behind the sofa.

  “Stop her! She’s getting away,” Casey screamed as he struggled to get off the floor.

  But before he could go after her, Diane was tripped. She fell to the ground with a loud thud and then moaned in agony as Violet crouched on top of her, pulling her arms behind her back.

  “Ha! Gotcha!” Violet screamed as she gave Diane’s arm another painful jerk. Then she tied Diane’s wrists behind her back with a roll of duct tape. “We got her, Rosie,” Violet said to me with a smile.

  “You’re alive?” Diane groaned, looking at Violet.

  I walked over, smiling. “Yup. She’s alive. Thank goodness. Even though you sent her here to confront me. Even though you told her to use Chuck’s gun on me because I was a crazed stalker who would never stop unless she shot me. Luckily, when we struggled for the gun and it went off, it just nicked her arm.”

  “Surprise!” Violet said, as she snapped Diane’s photo with her phone. “Yup. The bullet just scratched me. Which gave Rosie and me a chance to really talk. And guess what we found out when we compared notes?”

  Diane looked from Violet to me, seething.

  “We figured out that you set us both up,” I said to Diane. “First you got me to break in here by lying about the phony phone evidence. Then you told Violet that I was a crazy nut who was planting evidence to make it look like she killed Helen.”