Hot Cider and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  Lana’s lower lip trembled for just a couple of seconds, then she recovered. “I know, but some things just can’t be changed,” she said and turned to me. “I don’t know if you know it, but Gina had a rough childhood. When her parents got a divorce, she ended up in a foster home for nine months. Gina doesn’t say a lot about it other than it was pure hell. That just breaks my heart. A little nine-year-old girl going through whatever it was that she went through.”

  That might explain things, I thought. Gina may still be bitter over what she went through as a child and now it was spilling out in her frustrations with Daphne. “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. “But I can kind of see Mark’s viewpoint. She shouldn’t take her anger out on the rest of the family. Have you suggested she get some kind of help?”

  “Yes, we’ve all suggested it. Tim has begged her to go to a therapist, but she refuses, saying she’s fine.”

  “She can get all the therapy she wants once she’s put away in prison for life,” Mark said bitterly. “Personally, I don’t care one way or another about her. I know what she did, and she is going to have to pay for her crime.”

  “Have you discussed what you know with Cade?” I asked him.

  He nodded. “I talked to him about it. But he insists that until there’s some kind of evidence, there isn’t much he can do. And I understand that, but I’m telling you, I know Gina killed my sister.”

  At this point, after all I’d heard, it wouldn’t have surprised me if Gina did kill Daphne. But I agreed with Cade. Until there was some real evidence, there wasn’t much he was going to be able to do. We would just have to wait until Cade could come up with more proof. I decided I wouldn’t bring up the issue of the punch if Cade hadn’t already told them. No use muddying the waters.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What are you going to order?” I asked Cade as I looked over the menu. We were at a little steakhouse out on the highway about halfway to Boise. It was an out-of-the-way place that people came to from miles around. It gave off a real country vibe that was kind of fun and very casual.

  “I’m staring down a T-bone steak right now,” he said without looking up. “Are they good here?” He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and in spite of the fact that he normally wore business suits, he looked like he fit right in.

  “Everything they serve here is good. Very good,” I said. “I think I’m going to go with the avocado bacon burger. I’m in the mood for avocado and bacon, in case you couldn’t tell.”

  He nodded and chuckled. “Wise choice.”

  The waitress brought out our drinks we had previously ordered and then took our food order. When she left, we sat and just looked at one another. It was all I could do to keep from giggling. I finally had Cade to myself for a few hours.

  “Okay, I want to hear it. What do you know?” I finally said.

  He chuckled. “Aren’t you going to give me a minute to relax? Sometimes I think you only want me around for my murder case information.”

  “You relaxed on the way over here,” I said. “I thought I showed an awful lot of self-control by not grilling you while in the car.”

  He chuckled again. “I guess I have to give you bonus points for that. I already told you about the Styrofoam cup with the punch, your punch that most likely covered up the taste of the poison nicely, and I’ve questioned most people of interest.”

  “Stop bringing up that it was my punch that was used to cover up the taste of the poison,” I said.

  He grinned. “I’m just sticking with the facts.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Fingerprints?”

  He shrugged. “We couldn’t get anything besides Daphne’s and a few smeared prints off of the cup.”

  “What else?”

  “I have my feelers out right now, and I’m feeling that Jack Farrell is a suspicious character.”

  I nodded. “That wouldn’t surprise me. But I talked to Lana and Mark Richards, and they feel very strongly that it may be Gina Richards who did it. And I have to tell you, I’ve got a really strong feeling about her. She’s incredibly bitter and angry. It sounds like she and Daphne argued all the time.”

  “She is a bitter person, isn’t she? She was spewing a lot of venom when I talked to her,” he said. “But here’s something that you may not know. Jack knows how to get ahold of cyanide.”

  I looked at him. “How?”

  “Jack still likes to develop pictures the old-school way. Those sepia-tone prints require a chemical mixture that includes cyanide. He claims he doesn’t want to use software to duplicate the effects of sepia-tone pictures and that he likes creating the real thing.”

  I sat back and thought about this. “So did you ask him about it? About the cyanide?”

  He shook his head. “I just found out about it this afternoon when it came up in casual conversation with another detective in Boise. Seems he’s a photo buff himself. I will be going back to ask Jack about it tomorrow.”

  “Interesting,” I said carefully. I picked up my iced tea and took a sip and put it back on the table. “But what about the other poison? The wolfsbane? How would he get ahold of it?”

  “Health food store.”

  I stared at him a moment. “Health food store?”

  He nodded. “It’s easy to get ahold of. You can grow it in your garden if you want, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

  I took this in. “And if it’s not Jack, what about Daphne? How are you going to be able to prove that she did or didn’t do it?”

  “Since there isn’t a lot of evidence at this point, there’s not a lot we can do except wait and see if she, or somebody else, trips up and maybe admits to something, or we find more evidence.”

  “Let’s hope that happens quickly,” I said. “Bryan and Lana are such nice people, and I hate that they’re going through this.”

  He nodded. “What about that flower shop that Gina is opening up? Did you talk to them about it? I think your mother is more bothered by it than she’s letting on.”

  I nodded. “I do too. Lana is not happy about it. Apparently, Gina put a lot of pressure on them to loan her the money. They weren’t going to do it at first, but it sounds like she pressured them into it. After they gave her the money, they found out that Tim wasn’t going to be involved in the business and nothing was going to be in his name.”

  His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Really? Did they find this out afterward? I can see where that would make them angry.”

  I nodded. “It would make me darned angry too, especially since she put a lot of pressure on them. Gina is bitter and angry toward them for some reason. Lana said Gina spent time in it a foster home when she was nine, and she thinks that’s where it stems from.”

  “So she’s taking out her anger on them? Maybe because they’re all such a happy family?” he asked and picked up his water and took a drink.

  “That’s what Mark seems to think,” I said. I picked up my glass of iced tea again and then stopped. “Wait, a minute. Maybe Gina bought some wolfsbane for the flower shop.”

  He grinned. “That would be one deadly delivery for someone. It is a beautiful purple flower, but I doubt you could order it through a legitimate florist supplier.”

  He was right, of course, but it gave me chills thinking that she had access to all sorts of plants and that it was at least part of what killed Daphne. “One more reason to look at her closely,” I said.

  He sat back in his chair and looked around. “This is a busy place on a Saturday night.”

  “It’s a busy night every night,” I said. “I can’t believe you didn’t know about this place while you lived in Boise.”

  He shrugged. “There are a lot of nice places in Boise to eat, and I guess I just hadn’t traveled out in this direction before.”

  “You’ve lived such a sheltered life,” I teased.

  “That I have,” he said. “How about next weekend you rent a sander for your floors? It’ll probably take me a while to get them finished, but maybe if I wor
k on them a little every evening, we can get it done before the holidays.”

  I got excited. “Really? That makes you the best boyfriend ever!”

  He shook his head and laughed. “Don’t you ever forget that, either.”

  I sat back in my seat and smiled to myself. If Cade hadn’t been persistent in asking me out, I never would have said yes. I didn’t trust him at first, but I was glad I finally had. And as much as I hated to admit it, if my ex-husband hadn’t shown up in Sparrow and made peace with me, I never would have been able to move beyond my failed marriage.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The day of Daphne’s funeral dawned dark and gloomy. It matched my mood. Mom, Stormy, and I went together for support.

  The Baptist church was filled to capacity, with people milling about before the service. I looked around and saw so many familiar faces. Daphne would be sorely missed by a lot of people.

  Mom reached over and squeezed my hand, and when I looked at her, she nodded at the open casket at the front of the church. I didn’t want to see Daphne, but I knew we had to pay our respects, so the three of us headed down the aisle of the church.

  When we got to the casket, I looked in at Daphne, who looked just as beautiful in death as she had in life. It broke my heart even more. She had had so much potential, and it had been wasted.

  “Poor thing,” Mom murmured.

  “I can’t believe she’s gone. She was so young,” Stormy said.

  Lying in that coffin, Daphne’s youth and beauty were wasted. I shook my head sadly. It just didn’t seem possible. After a few moments we turned around and came face-to-face with Daphne’s grieving family on the front pew. I hesitated as Lana and Bryan sat stoically on the pew, not making eye contact with anyone. Mom took my hand and led me back up the aisle. There would be time for paying our respects to them after the funeral.

  We sat at the back of the room, squeezing in next to the Oliver family on the last pew. This gave me an opportunity to see who all had shown up. Would the killer be here? I thought they just might be.

  Sometimes the atmosphere at a funeral can be one of restrained happiness. Not that anyone is happy that someone has died, but the person being celebrated brought such happiness into other people’s lives and there’s the knowledge that they had lived life to the fullest. But when someone young dies, it’s a different situation. The atmosphere at the church was subdued. Everywhere I looked, I saw tears and sadness. And that was the way it should be. People who were young shouldn’t have their lives cut short. They should go on to marry, have children, and fulfill whatever purpose they were put on this earth for.

  “I don’t know how Lana is going to survive this,” Mom whispered. “I don’t think I could go on if I lost either of the two of you.”

  Mom sat between us. I put my hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, and Stormy did the same on her side. Mom could be sharp-tongued at times, but she never meant any of it to be unkind.

  “You’d have to lock me up in the loony bin if I lost one of my kids,” Stormy whispered back. Stormy had five kids, and I knew what she said was true.

  I didn’t have any children, but I understood completely what they were saying. Losing somebody so young and so dear to you was unimaginable. If we lost any of my nieces and nephews, it would be devastating for me.

  I looked up as Alex Stedman walked in the church. He was the last person I expected to see since he had fired Daphne.

  I watched as he headed across the back of the room and stood behind the last pew at the end and looked toward the open casket. I wondered if he would go up and pay his respects to Daphne and her family. I also wondered what her family’s reaction would be since they knew he had fired her. I leaned forward in my seat slightly and looked at Stormy, giving a slight nod of my head toward Alex. She turned to look and narrowed her eyes at him, watching him for a moment, then turned back to me and shrugged.

  I sat back against the pew and wondered about this. As far as I knew, he hadn’t had any interaction with Daphne after he had fired her, other than at the fall party. Or at least that’s what he had implied when I spoke to him. His presence here at the funeral gave me pause and made me wonder exactly why he was here. I was suspicious. Maybe he was feeling guilty for something he had done. And maybe he was the reason Daphne was in that casket.

  Just as the pastor stood and took the podium, I saw Jack Farrell walk in the door. He glanced in Alex’s direction and frowned, hesitating. Then he headed in the opposite direction and took a seat. The people on that pew had to squeeze over to make room for him. I was also surprised at his presence since he and Daphne had broken up. But maybe he was grieving her death because of the time they spent together as a couple. Maybe he had regrets or wanted closure.

  When my ex-husband eventually passed away from his brain tumor, would I feel the same way? Would I go to his funeral? I had been asking myself these questions for several weeks now, and I still didn’t know the answers. Our marriage had ended terribly, and he had hurt me in ways I didn’t think it was possible to be hurt. But there had been times that we were happy. We had had a beautiful, lavish wedding that he paid for and a wonderful honeymoon in Paris. Somewhere in my basement was a box that contained pictures from that trip. I had intended to dispose of them, but somehow never got around to doing it. My wedding book was also in that box. I wondered why I had hung onto them.

  On the front pew, Bryan’s shoulders shook as he broke down, and I felt a stab of pain in my chest. I could hardly stand the thought of what the family must be going through. At the end of the pew, next to Tim, Gina sat stoically. Did she feel guilty about the arguments she had had with Daphne? Did she feel regret for being unable to get along with her? It was a shame that they couldn’t put their differences aside and at least have peace for the rest of the family’s sake.

  As I watched, I saw Gina look over her shoulder at the crowd. She gave a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head as if she couldn’t believe all these people had shown up for Daphne’s funeral. She turned back around and slouched down in the pew, looking for all the world like she was bored out of her mind. Her husband glanced in her direction and put a hand on her arm. She shook it off and looked up at the ceiling, shaking her head again. Anger rose up inside of me. She should at least have the decency to understand that her husband’s family was hurting and give them some respect, if not sympathy. Once again I thought that maybe their arguing wasn’t as superficial as she would have it seem.

  When the service was over, we stood to walk past the casket and speak a word to the family. Stormy moved next to me. “I feel funny about Alex being here,” she whispered.

  I nodded. “I was thinking the same thing,” I whispered back. “If what he said about letting her go from her job is true, then I can’t imagine why he would be here. But maybe he really does feel terrible about having to fire her. Maybe he had some good memories of Daphne and just wanted to say goodbye to her.”

  She nodded and looked in Alex’s direction. He was hanging back from the line of people that were headed down the aisle of the church. I wondered if he would go and speak to her family or take one last look at Daphne. Then I glanced over at Jack. Both of them seemed to be out of place here. I wondered if I would be out of place going to my ex-husband’s funeral.

  Mom looked back over her shoulder at us. “I don’t know if I can speak to her parents. It’s breaking my heart.”

  “We’ll all go together, and it’ll be okay,” I said, reassuring her.

  She nodded hesitantly. “Okay, as long as the two of your with me, I can do this.”

  I reached forward and put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Mom was a softy at heart.

  Chapter Sixteen

  While I was working at the paper one afternoon, Gina Richards walked through the front door. Most of the staff was at lunch, and I was covering the front counter, helping out with subscription requests, advertisements, and anything else the public might need to come into the office for. Much of t
he work was done online, but Sparrow was a small town. Many people still preferred to do things the old-fashioned way by walking in and talking to someone face-to-face.

  I got up from my desk and headed to the front counter to greet Gina. “Hi, Gina,” I said, trying to sound chipper. “How are you today?” It had been a week since Daphne’s funeral, and I hadn’t seen anyone from the Richards family since that day.

  She smiled back. “Things are going great! I think we’re going to open the flower shop on the first of November. I know it’s a little way off yet, but I wanted to take out an ad in the paper to announce the upcoming grand opening. I’m thinking I may put a little tease in the paper to get people excited.”

  “A tease? What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Oh you know, I’m thinking about running an ad that says something like ‘look what’s coming to Sparrow soon,’” she said and giggled. “I want to stir up the public’s interest with a little mystery, and by the time we get around to actually opening the shop, people will be champing at the bit to come in and see what we’ve got.”