“You made it my business when you left a bag of my shop’s bonbons at Stan’s feet. You made it look as if Bixby was the intended victim.”
“Your bonbons?” He shook his head. “It was my campaign literature the police found at the bonfire.”
“Did you place it there, or did Stan fish the bonbons out of the trash in some desperate attempt to be more like Bixby?” Althea asked.
He swung the gun toward Althea. I pushed her behind my back.
He huffed. “I put them there. I’m going to be this state’s next senator, and I wasn’t about to let anyone, especially not a washed-up loser like Stan, stop me. The two of you won’t stop me, either.”
I held up my hands. “Of course, we aren’t going to stop you,” I said in a desperate attempt to keep him from shooting us. “You have been so clever. First, you made Bubba look guilty by making sure he didn’t have an alibi for Stan’s murder.”
A sinister smile tugged at Ezell’s lips. His gun lowered just a bit. “He had just as much motivation to kill Stan as I did. I was sure he’d think I was doing him a favor. That’s why I had to frame him. I didn’t want him thinking someone was out there helping him sell that cursed song to Bixby.”
If I wanted to stay alive, I suspected I needed to keep him talking. “And then you made Candy look guilty. Did she rig the grill to explode, or was that you?” I tapped my chin. “It must have been you. Candy couldn’t pull off something that almost fooled even the experts into thinking the explosion was an accident.”
The tension in his expression seemed to ease a bit. “Thank you. That was my handiwork.”
“Who were you targeting? Bixby or one of The Embers?” Althea asked, her voice usually subdued.
“Didn’t matter, did it? Bixby wanted to buy that stupid song. With him out of the way, it would reduce the urgency to find the missing score for ‘Camellia Nights.’ But after Bixby expressed interest in buying it, I knew getting rid of him wouldn’t stop the band members from wanting to find it and try to sell it to another singer. Killing off one of The Embers would have slowed them in searching for it.”
“And you needed to find the score before they did?” I asked.
He nodded slowly. “I’d thought Bertie had taken it. I thought I was going to have to take care of her.”
At his mention of Bertie, I could feel Althea behind me starting to get agitated. I felt agitated too. Yet it would be dangerous to let our agitation show. So I said quickly, “How did you convince Candy to come to the Chocolate Box the morning of the shooting? Setting her up to take the blame for that was inspired.”
“Inspired, yes. But I needed more time at the shooting range with my handgun. Or perhaps I should have practiced on your fat partner first.”
“That’s my mother you’re talking about!” With a growl. Althea charged Ezell. I grabbed her arm, but, dang, my friend had anger-fueled strength, which seemed to be the same kind of super-strength that allows upset mothers to lift cars off their babies. As I struggled with Althea, I saw out the corner of my eye Ezell shifting his gun’s aim from us to the doorway and back to us. I closed my eyes, sure my body was about to feel the sting of a bullet.
“The police are on their way,” Harley shouted as he pushed me to stand behind him. I jostled with Harley in an effort to get him out of the line of a fire. He was a father, for goodness’ sake. “Drop the gun. It’s over. You’re not going to be our next senator. Not after this.”
Ezell looked at the gun in his hand and then back at us. For a moment I thought he’d toss his weapon to the ground and give up. He couldn’t kill all the witnesses. The boys and Tina had already gotten themselves to safety.
Besides, Tom had the song. When the old-timers on Camellia Beach heard it, they’d start to remember. It wouldn’t take long before one (or many) of them came to the same conclusion I had—that Ezell had killed Carolina Maybank.
What choice did he have other than to surrender?
But I was wrong. He did have other choices.
He fired his gun.
Chapter 40
“Taste this.” I handed Tina one of my latest attempts at making the perfect bonbon fire.
She gingerly held the chocolate treat between her thumb and index finger and sniffed it. “Have you eaten one yet?” she asked.
“No. They just came out of the fridge.”
She placed the bonbon on the shop’s kitchen counter between us and gave it a finger-shove in my direction. “No way. You taste it.”
“Mama said I could find you back here,” Althea said as she entered the kitchen. “What are you talking about?”
“Chocolate. Penn finished her latest attempt at making a spicy bonbon.” Tina picked up the bonbon we’d been pushing around and held it out to Althea. “Would you like to be the first to taste it?”
“Really?” She looked at me. “You wouldn’t mind?”
I shook my head.
Tina smirked.
“I’m honored.” Althea took the bonbon and held it as if it were her most precious possession.
Guilt overtook me. “Althea, wait.”
But it was too late. She’d already taken a bite. A large bite.
I jogged to the sink to fill a measuring cup with water.
“Milk is a better antidote for heat. Water just makes the burn hotter,” Althea said, then put the rest of the bonbon in her mouth.
“Why’d you do that?” I dumped the water back into the sink while Tina grabbed a milk jug from the fridge.
“Because you made it,” Althea said. “It’s pretty dang hot. The heat hit my palate right away. But the cream cheese filling cools things off nicely. The cheese probably has a similar effect to drinking a glass of milk.”
“It didn’t set your mouth on fire?” Tina asked.
“Should it have?” Althea raised a brow.
“My last attempt was a disaster. Tina was my taste tester. After I set her mouth on fire, I gave her several measuring cups of water to drink, which I suppose only made matters worse.”
“Probably,” Althea agreed. “If someone doesn’t like spicy food, this would probably be too much for them. But I like spicy food. The hotter the better. It’s good.”
“Really?” I asked.
Althea beamed as she nodded. “Really. Try one.”
With the measuring cup filled nearly to the brim with milk clutched in one hand, I took a tentative bite. Chocolate heat flooded my mouth. Tears were about to spring to my eyes when the cooling power of the cream cheese touched my palate.
It wasn’t a candy you’d binge on, eating one after another in quick succession. But it could work as a specialty item.
“A crisp white wine would pair nicely with this,” Tina said. She’d braved a taste as well. “It’s definitely a chocolate for adults.”
“It is,” Althea agreed. “What are you calling them?”
“Bonbon fires.” I winced as I realized how inappropriate the name might be after everything that had happened over the past few days. “You don’t think it’s too soon, do you? I mean, after what happened to Stan?”
Althea thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. “In a week or two, everyone will be talking and thinking about something else.”
Tina took another bite of the bonbon she’d lifted from the cooling tray. “This doesn’t taste anything like that fireball you had me try. What did you do differently?”
“I rolled the dark chocolate shell in hot pepper powder and not with the filling. That way the first taste is hot and then the cream cheese can counteract the heat,” I said. “I’m so excited that it worked. It did work, didn’t it? I mean, do you really think I can sell these?”
Both Tina and Althea nodded their approval.
“I suspect they’ll be insanely popular,” Althea said. “People around here certainly enjoy having their food on the spicy side.”
“Really?” I was afraid to believe it.
“What’s wrong with you?” Tina punched me in the arm.
“Why are you acting as if you accidentally came up with the formula for world peace or something?”
“Because that’s what it feels like to me. This is the first time I’ve managed to make any kind of chocolate without Bertie standing over my shoulder, correcting me as I made mistakes.”
It was Tina’s turn to ask, “Really?”
“I’ve been struggling,” I admitted.
“So all the chocolates out there for sale,” Tina asked, “you didn’t make them?”
“Not without someone helping me. Bertie has been doing most of the work. Althea has been helping when she can. And I’ve been grateful. But this is my shop, and I want to feel as if I can handle the work.”
“You’ve been doing a wonderful job,” Althea protested. “And you know Mama loves working here. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t do it.”
“Thanks.” I loved having Bertie and Althea’s support. But I was still glad I was finally making progress. I’d made those bonbons on that tray. And they were edible.
It all felt like a dream, a wonderful too-good-to-believe dream. I’d finally mastered the art of crafting the perfect bonbon. Clearly, it was the act of following a recipe that had been holding me back.
“Someone pinch me,” I said.
Tina obliged.
“Ouch, not so hard.” I rubbed my sore arm. I wasn’t dreaming, nor had I died and gone to heaven.
Three days had passed since the confrontation up in the lighthouse. I wasn’t dead.
A remorseful Tom Ezell had returned the sheet music to Bubba. Bixby had taken one look at the full score and asked to buy the rights to it.
I placed the bonbon fires on a hand-carved wooden platter and carried it out into the shop. Bertie, who’d been sprung from the hospital just that morning, was holding court from the sofa in the corner. A cast that looked as if it belonged in the space age hugged the leg she’d propped up on the sofa’s cushions.
Although we hadn’t opened the shop, that hadn’t kept the residents from coming by. Despite the boarded-up front window, the cracked plaster ceiling, broken floorboards, and complete disarray of the place, the sitting area was full.
Bubba ran up to me and gave me a bear hug that nearly tipped all the bonbons onto the floor. When he pulled away, he took the platter from me and set it on the display case.
“I’m just back from seeing Bixby off at the airport. He’s going to put Camellia Beach on the map with our song. Did they tell you? He’s going to buy ‘Camellia Nights.’ I can’t thank you enough for the weekend you gave us. Having a big star like him sing with The Embers—it was a dream come true for us.”
“I’m glad you didn’t get rained out.”
“Rain wouldn’t have stopped us.” He put a hand to his heart. “We were jamming on that stage like the angels were singing with us. I’m sorry you missed it.”
“So am I.” I tried to pick up my tray.
But he wasn’t ready to let me go. He bent down to whisper in my ear, “I saw how Bixby looked at you. Are you tempted? Do you see the two of you becoming an item? Do you fancy yourself living a life on the road with him in the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs?”
“Gracious, no!” The words flew out of my mouth with such force that everyone in the room turned to stare at me. “I mean”—my cheeks flamed—“I’d have been flattered if Bixby had been interested in me, but he wasn’t. I’m just glad your concert went off without anyone getting hurt.”
“Speak for yourself.” Harley came up and took a bonbon from the wooden platter.
“The bullet only grazed your shoulder,” I said.
“And you cried over me as if you thought I was a dead man,” he reminded me while dramatically hugging his left arm, which was bound in a sling.
“Only after she tackled Ezell,” Althea said.
“All in a day’s work.” I picked up the platter Bubba had set aside.
“You tackled a killer with a gun and pinned him to the ground until the police arrived,” Harley said. “You’re lucky you didn’t get shot too.”
“She knows how to take care of herself.” Tina came to my defense. “She was one of the best students in the self-defense classes we took together. You don’t mess with my sister because she can kick some serious butt.”
“Don’t I know it,” Harley said. His eyes widened with surprise after he took a bite of the bonbon fire he’d taken. “Wow, that’s good, Penn. I can’t remember Mabel ever making these.”
“It’s my own recipe.” I felt all fluffy with pride.
We were all having fun while eating chocolate and sharing stories when Gibbons came in, tracking mud all over my broken floorboards. The hum of happy conversation came to a sudden stop.
It was as if reality had just crashed into the shop. “Detective,” I said and offered him a bonbon fire from the tray.
He frowned at the bonbon sprinkled with red hot pepper powder. “I’ve heard talk about your attempts to make spicy chocolates. I like hot food like the next Southerner, but I don’t think I have the iron stomach required to survive these.” He tried to give back the bonbon.
I refused to take it. “Taste it. I think it’ll surprise you.”
His enjoyment of the chocolate didn’t erase the pall his presence had cast over the shop.
“Has Ezell admitted to anything?” Harley asked.
“No, he’s only talking with his lawyer, but there’s no fighting the evidence or the fact that he shot you.” Gibbons took another bonbon from the tray. “He’s not going to get out of jail for a very long time.”
“So Stan had been blackmailing him for forty years?” Tina asked. “There must be some kind of record of the payments.”
Gibbons nodded. “Once we knew to look for them, they were easy to find. He must have given Stan several million dollars over the years. My guess is that with Bixby’s interest in buying ‘Camellia Nights,’ Stan went to Ezell and demanded a large lump sum of money.”
“But Ezell wasn’t able to pay, was he? His finances had to be carefully documented for the election commission,” I said.
Gibbons took yet another bonbon fire from the tray. “That’s what we think. So instead of agreeing to pay, Ezell killed him. But then he had to get his hands on the copy of the damning song. He probably would have gotten away with Stan’s murder if his nephew hadn’t stolen the sheet music before he could.”
“And Ezell thought Bertie had stolen the music,” I surmised.
“He’s the one who kept sending me those nasty notes?” Bertie asked. “I thought it was someone warning me they’d tell Althea about what had happened between me and her daddy unless I gave Bixby the song. That letter had me chasing my tail, trying to find the missing sheet music so I could protect my Althea.”
“Mama”—Althea rushed over to her mother’s side—“you should have told me. I know you love me. Nothing from your past could change that.”
Bertie patted her daughter’s hand. “I was so ashamed.”
“Because you loved him?” Althea asked. “Because you were tempted to cheat?”
Bertie gasped. “Hush, child. I wasn’t saying anything like that. I was ashamed that I let a few ugly words chase me away from doing what I loved to do—sing. My leaving the band wasn’t what caused me to have you. I was already pregnant with you before all that unpleasantness happened.”
“You were?” I couldn’t remember having ever heard Althea sound so pleased.
“Why did you tell me to go to the lighthouse?” I asked while Althea hugged her mother. “Had you heard about the boys singing the song over there?”
She nodded. “I heard the boys singing while I went searching for the music. The one boy sounded like Harley’s boy, so I was extra concerned. Tell that detective to leave a few bonbons for me. I haven’t tasted them yet.” I hurried to Bertie’s side and handed her the last one on the tray. She smiled as she bit into it. “Penn, I’m mighty glad you did as I asked and went over there for me. You saved those boys’ lives.”
Harley nodded. His eyes suddenly looked misty.
Detective Gibbons cleared his throat. “Yes, well. While this is all very … touching. Penn, I came here to talk to you.”
“You did?” I waited, half expecting to endure yet another sharp dressing down for sticking my nose into his investigation.
“She was there,” he said softly, instead. He placed a hand on my shoulder. “She was exactly where the song said he left her. She was buried deep in the sand around the lighthouse. The dental pattern is an exact match.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
“How would Stan know about what Ezell did?” I demanded, refusing to face my disappointment at hearing that the woman I’d thought was my mother had been murdered five years before my birth.
“It’s in Stan’s lyrics. He was out night fishing, which around here means drinking on a boat. He saw Ezell with Carolina and followed them.”
“He saw the murder?” I was shocked. “If Stan loved Carolina as much as he said he did, why didn’t he turn Ezell in? How could he be so cold?”
“Greed makes people do ugly things,” Gibbons said.
“Have you told Mabel’s children?” Bertie asked.
“I have. Edward seems to be taking it the hardest. I am sorry, Penn. I know you thought she could be your mother.”
“Yes.” Oh, how I’d hoped it was so. “But she died years before I was born.”
Gibbons nodded. “I did want to tell you something else.” His voice sounded thicker than usual. “While Ezell isn’t going to confess to anything, he did make one big mistake.”
“What’s that?” Tina asked before I could.
“He left his fingerprints on Bubba’s car keys. We know he drove the car through your shop. I’m sure he also tried to burn the shop down when he was searching for the sheet music in your office. After all, he was convinced Bertie had taken it. You should be able to sue him for damages,” Gibbons said.
“It would take years to get any money out of him.” Harley moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with me. “Penn can’t wait that long to fix up her shop.”
Playing with Bonbon Fire Page 28
