Hot Cider and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “That sounds good,” Sam said. “And Rainey?”

  “Yes?” I asked, turning to him after putting the mixing bowl onto the stand mixer.

  “Don’t let it get out that I’m gossiping. Tell Cade what I said if you need to, but I prefer to mind my own business. Most of the time, anyway.”

  I nodded. “Cade’s the only one I intend to tell.”

  He nodded and plated the eggs and pancakes he had been cooking.

  I turned the mixer on. Poor Daphne may have bitten off more than she could chew, and it had ended in her death.

  Chapter Eight

  There was a knock on my door. I turned the heat off under the skillet of pepper steak I was making for dinner and went to see who it was.

  “Hey, Cade,” I said, smiling when I opened the door. “I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to get to see you for a few weeks.”

  He grinned and shrugged. “I couldn’t let that happen. You’d miss my smiling face.”

  I laughed and stood up on tiptoe to kiss him. “I can’t argue with that. Come in. Are you hungry? I was just making dinner,” I said and led the way back to the kitchen. I tried not to be a pest when he was busy, but I missed him.

  “When am I not hungry? I’d love to stay for dinner,” he said. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and looked for all the world like someone’s big brother. He looked good in the suits he normally wore, but I liked this look better.

  I turned the heat back on under the skillet. I filled him in on what I had learned from Mark and Jack. “So, tell me what’s going on. How is the investigation going?”

  He shrugged and took a seat at the small kitchen table. “Not a lot. We got a preliminary report of her physical examination back from the medical examiner. He reported that there’s every indication that it was a poisoning, and we are conducting our investigation as if it is.”

  I turned to look at him. “Any ideas what kind of poison?”

  “Not yet, we’re waiting on the blood screen. But someone wanted her dead, and they got what they wanted,” he said, and then a funny look came over his face.

  “What?”

  He frowned. “You know, I can’t remember smelling alcohol on her when I was giving her chest compressions.”

  I turned the meat over and then looked at him. “What do you mean? She acted like she had a lot to drink. She was arguing with both her sister-in-law and Jack Farrell. It seemed like she was having trouble walking and her words were slurred.”

  “I know,” he said, still thinking. “But I’m sure I would have noticed the smell of alcohol since I was in close proximity to her.”

  “Like maybe she only had one drink?”

  He nodded. “Maybe if it was earlier in the evening, but that wouldn’t have been enough to make her behave as if she were drunk.”

  “From the sound of it, Daphne was a pretty severe alcoholic. I would think having even one drink would be enough to push her over the edge and she’d want to drink more. A lot more.”

  “I agree with that,” he said. “Maybe she wasn’t drinking at all. I think it was the poison making her behave erratically, just like the employees at the lodge said.”

  “Ron White from the diner said he saw her at a bar a few months ago and, for being a small person, she could really put the alcohol away. He said it took a lot of it to have any effect on her,” I said.

  He nodded. “That doesn’t surprise me if she was as severe an alcoholic as people are saying.”

  “Between you and me, Sam stayed at one of the cabins a couple weekends ago and said she and her brother Mark were fighting. He said it sounded like something about a job. And then the next day she was fighting with her father. He wanted her to go to AA or rehab, and she was mad at him for telling her that.”

  He considered this for a minute. “I ran a check on her and she recently lost her license due to a DUI.”

  “Heard that too. If she was stranded at the lodge, maybe she didn’t have any alcohol in her system at the party,” I pointed out and turned back to the pepper steak. “This is done and we are ready to eat.”

  “Good, I’m starving,” he said, going to the cupboard and taking two plates out. “Her behavior was odd that night. I really thought she had been drinking.”

  “Me too. If she wasn’t, then the logical explanation is that the poison was making her act that way.” I took the baked potatoes from the oven and put one on each plate. “Did her parents say much about her drinking?”

  “Just that she did too much of it. Her father was so angry about it, he threw out all the alcohol he could find in the house. He also said he threw out the rum I had given him to spike your hot cider punch with.”

  I chuckled. “Bummer for you.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t drink much, just once in a while. It does make me wonder how she was handling things if she had no access to alcohol.”

  “So we’re back to wondering who spiked her drink and why didn’t she taste it,” I said and we sat down at the table. Then I remembered the iced tea, and I got up to retrieve the pitcher and put it on the table with two glasses.

  “Maybe the poison wasn’t strongly flavored. Or maybe someone took advantage of a nice, hot drink at the party. Say, hot cider punch?”

  I looked up at him, eyes wide. “No! Don’t say someone spiked my cider punch!”

  He shrugged. “It had a lot of spices in it, plus the cranberry juice. I think arsenic has a strong fruity taste. It could hide nicely in there.”

  I sat back in my chair, suddenly feeling sad. “I hope it wasn’t put in my cider. I’d hate to have helped a murderer out. Do you think it was arsenic?”

  “I don’t really know if it was arsenic. And besides, it’s not like you actually helped kill her. I mean, you didn’t plan it. Right?”

  I looked up at him with his cocked eyebrow and the smirk on his lips and narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t you start with that. I had nothing to do with Daphne’s murder.”

  He chuckled and poured some tea into his glass. “You’re so easy to tease.”

  “I’m glad you find that funny. Just get to work finding Daphne’s killer.”

  “I will,” he said with a chuckle.

  It was stupid to think I had any part in killing Daphne only because the killer had used my punch. But I didn’t like the idea of it, no matter how innocent I was.

  Chapter Nine

  I drove out to Stedman Security the next day. Seeing Alex Stedman at the party had been a surprise. Finding out Daphne had worked for him was a lucky bonus. I might be able to get some information out of him about Daphne’s life and possibly about her death.

  “Good morning,” the cute blond receptionist said brightly when I walked through the door. She wore dark-framed glasses, and her hair was perfectly straight and went to the middle of her back.

  “Good morning, Sydney,” I said, glancing at the gold nameplate on the reception desk. “My name is Rainey Daye. I don’t have an appointment, but I’m a friend of Alex Stedman’s. Do you think you could let him know I’m here and ask him if he has a couple of minutes to see me?” Alex had made himself scarce at the party, disappearing somewhere around the time of Daphne’s death. I didn’t know if he knew anything about what had happened, but I was going to find out.

  “I think he might be in a meeting, but let me message him and see if he’s available.” She typed something on her computer and a moment later looked up at me with that bright smile. “Isn’t the weather lovely out?”

  I nodded. “It is. I love the fall, and it’s been so nice lately.” It hadn’t turned too cold yet, and the weather was perfect for working in the yard. The holidays would be here before we knew it, and I was excited about that.

  “Alex said for me to show you back,” she said, glancing at her computer screen. She got up and led me down a hallway.

  The office was bright and modern, its furniture high-end and comfortable. It looked like Alex was doing well for himself.

  Alex met us at his
office door. He had blond hair and now wore gold-rimmed glasses. He had filled out since high school and was quite handsome now. He smiled. “Thanks, Sydney. Hi, Rainey! It’s good to see you again.”

  “Hi, Alex,” I said, and we hugged briefly. “I was in the neighborhood so I thought I’d stop in.” He led me into his office and closed the door behind us.

  “Have a seat,” he said and went behind the desk to sit down. “It was good to see you and Stormy at the party the other night. It’s been too long. We need to get together for dinner one night.”

  I nodded. “We do. I was surprised to see you at the party. Do you get back to Sparrow often?”

  “Not as often as I’d like,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “But I remembered the annual fall party and thought I’d stop in. It supports a good cause.”

  I nodded. “It’s a shame what happened to Daphne Richards.”

  He looked at me wide-eyed and shook his head. “It really is. Shocking, really, but she did like to party. I can’t help but think that she took the drinking too far.”

  “That may be,” I said, nodding. “But I heard it was poison.”

  “What? What do you mean, poison?” he asked looking at me wide-eyed again.

  “Rumors. But I’m also dating the detective on the case,” I explained. I thought I might as well come clean about that. He’d met Cade at the party and he’d figure out he was the detective on the case anyway. “Someone poisoned her. They’re still waiting on the toxicology report to know exactly what killed her, but they’re sure she didn’t die of anything natural.”

  “Wow. That comes as a surprise. I can’t imagine who would want to kill her,” he said. “She was a nice girl, in spite of her propensity for partying.”

  “It’s terrible, isn’t it?” I said. “I seem to remember that she worked here for a while, didn’t she?”

  He nodded slowly. “She worked here for three years.” He looked at me. “To be honest, I had to let her go back in June. Her drinking was getting out of control, and she wasn’t completing assignments on time. I hated to do it, but I felt like I didn’t have a choice.”

  “I had heard her drinking was something else,” I said, nodding.

  “You know how it is. Some people just have a thing for alcohol, and it gets the better of them. It’s a shame. She was a bright girl, and I really thought she was going places. I hated to let her go, but I had no choice,” he said again.

  “It’s certainly understandable,” I said. “If she couldn’t get the job done, you couldn’t go on paying her and keeping her on staff.”

  He nodded. “The funny thing is, her brother applied for a job after I let her go. I interviewed him, but I just didn’t feel right about hiring him after letting his sister go.”

  “Which brother?”

  “Mark. He didn’t have quite the work experience his sister had though, so that was another reason not to take him on. Still, it bothered me.”

  I considered this. Daphne might have thought it was a slap in the face for him to apply for the job she had just been fired from. It struck me as odd that he did it too.

  “Did you happen to see Daphne and her sister-in-law argue the night of the party?”

  He nodded. “I did. Let me tell you something about those two. They were like the proverbial oil and water. They argued all the time. Daphne would come into work on Monday mornings complaining about Gina. They fought all the time, and she said Gina was trying to sabotage the family.”

  “Sabotage the family how?”

  He shrugged. “She said she would pit one family member against another. I don’t know all the details. After a while, I kind of tuned it out. Her complaining was pretty excessive. I do remember her saying that Gina would complain that her husband didn’t get enough credit for the work he did at the lodge and campgrounds and that infuriated her. Daphne said Gina was afraid he wouldn’t get his fair share of the inheritance when their parents died—Gina thought Tim deserved more than either Daphne or Mark.”

  “Really? I guess the campgrounds, cabins, and lodge have to be worth a pretty penny. They seem to do really well with the tourists.”

  “I’m sure it’s lucrative. To tell you the truth, with the trouble those two seemed to have, it wouldn’t surprise me if Gina had something to do with Daphne’s murder.” He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “I just can’t get over the fact that she was murdered. I feel really bad about that.”

  “It’s a shame. She was so young; she had a lot ahead of her,” I agreed.

  “If I were Cade, I’d keep my eye on Gina. I’ve heard other things about her,” he said knowingly.

  “Oh? Like what?” I asked, trying to sound innocent.

  “That she’s had multiple affairs. She seems to be restless and not very happy in life. She had an affair with another employee at the grocery store when she worked there and broke up his family. I know because he was the brother of a woman I was dating at the time. After his wife left him, Gina left him. She told him she was bored and needed a change. He was pretty devastated. He thought he was in love. It was a shame; he lost his wife and then he lost her,” he said and snorted. “Don’t get me wrong, it was his fault for getting involved with her. But she just discarded him like he was nothing.”

  “Well, I’m not sure I’d feel too bad for him since he did have an affair,” I pointed out.

  “Oh, I agree completely. He should have stayed away from her.”

  There was a slight smile on his lips and that bothered me. An affair and a broken marriage are nothing to smile about. “Can you think of anything else about Daphne that might be helpful in the investigation?”

  His eyebrows furrowed. “Are you helping with the investigation?”

  I shrugged. “No, not really. I’m just concerned. My family and Daphne’s family have been close for years, and it breaks my heart that she was murdered. I’d like to know who would do something as terrible as murder an innocent girl.”

  He nodded. “I hear you. I hate to hear that she died, but I don’t have a clue, other than that she had a terrible time with her sister-in-law. I’d ask her a question or two, if I were Cade.”

  He was right. Cade needed to talk to Gina and see what she had to say. It was common knowledge that the two couldn’t get along, and with them arguing at the party, she was a prime suspect.

  Chapter Ten

  After I finished speaking to Alex Stedman, I headed to my second job at the newspaper. I hadn’t had the job for very long, but I was enjoying it. I’d gotten to write an article on the new furniture store that had recently opened in Sparrow, another on relationships, and I was currently writing an article on favorite fall dishes. This article was right up my alley, and if I could get enough room in the paper, I was going to add a couple of recipes. I hoped to be able to do this kind of article more often, even though I really did want to expand my repertoire of different types of articles.

  I turned on the computer at my desk and waited for the computer to boot up. There were six desks in the front of the newspaper office, three on either side of the room for the writers. There wasn’t any privacy, but I found that I had adjusted to it rather quickly. I had the day off from the diner, and it was nice to give my feet a rest from the constant pounding they took there.

  I looked up as Karen Forrest walked through the front door. She glanced at me and looked away. She was still a little sore that I had asked her if she had killed her boyfriend, Silas Mills. Apparently, people don’t like that kind of thing. I hoped she would get over it soon because as it was, things were a little chilly when she was around.

  When Karen got to her office door, she turned and looked at me and I gave her a smile. She looked away and made a motion like she was going to go into her office, then turned back.

  “Rainey, can I see you in my office for a minute?”

  My heart jumped in my chest. Karen wasn’t exactly my supervisor, but she had been at the newspaper for a long time and had conducted my interview and helped
me to get the job. That, of course, was before I asked her if she had killed her boyfriend.

  “Sure thing,” I said, getting to my feet and following her into her office. The office smelled of vanilla from her favorite candle that she burned most days. She was getting a late start today, but the scent still lingered in the closed room from the previous day.

  “So I heard there was another murder,” she said casually, going around to the far side of her desk and bending over to put her purse in a bottom drawer.

  “Yes, it’s so sad. Daphne Richards. Did you know her?”

  She nodded and took a seat and then motioned to the chair in front of her desk. I sat down. At least she was trying to be civil to me today. Most days she simply ignored me.

  “I guess I kind of knew her. Actually, I really know her parents. But I knew her well enough to say hello to her in passing,” she said, reaching down and pushing the button to start her computer. The newspaper was a little behind the times. She still had one of those behemoth monitors from 2002 on her desk with the computer itself beneath it.

  “I guess most people know the Richardses; they’ve lived here forever,” I said. “I still can’t believe Daphne’s gone.”

  “Does Cade have any idea what happened?” she asked, eyeing me as she took out a tin of breath mints from her desk drawer and offered me one.

  I shook my head to the offer of the mints. “Cade says they only know that she was poisoned. They’re still waiting on the toxicology report to know what it was.”

  She popped a mint into her mouth. “What a shame. I don’t know what’s become of Sparrow. It used to be such a quiet little town. Things have really been shaken up lately.”

  “I was just telling Cade the same thing the other day,” I said. I wasn’t sure what she was getting at here, but I wondered if she had any information on what may have happened to Daphne.