“How many donuts was she asked to make?” Lottie asked.
“About sixty. Jayne said if we told anyone about them we’d be fired,” Craig said.
“Sixty donuts would have certainly caused a lot of damage,” Lottie reflected. “Didn’t you think it was strange? All this secrecy over some donuts?”
Craig’s eyes looked hungrily at Abner’s wallet. “You know, I’m taking an awful big risk talking to you. Jayne’s sure to sack me if she finds out.”
Abner opened his wallet again and took out another fifty. “Don’t worry. We’ll make it worth your while.”
Craig snatched the money and it disappeared into his baggy jeans to join the first fifty. “Like I say, we were told not to say anything about them.
Jayne had Tommy look after them until we got to the house. He took them to whoever had made the order and had to slip them on the table with all of your stuff. I forgot all about them until all this happened.”
“You should have gone straight to the police with this information,” Lottie said sternly. “Two people are dead because of those donuts, and Tommy was probably killed by the same poison!”
Craig shrugged his shoulders. “Not my problem. You tell the cops what I said and I’ll just deny it. I’m not getting involved.”
Lottie scowled at him. By rights, she should call the police right now, but she didn’t relish having to explain to Detective Gable what they were doing coming over to Jayne’s place of work when he’d ordered them to stay out of trouble.
They couldn’t make Craig tell him what he’d just told them, and chances are Gable wouldn’t believe it and arrest Lottie and Abner instead.
“So, Tommy knew the poisoner,” she said. “You weren’t surprised he had been killed. Why was that?”
Craig scratched at one of his spots. “You ask a lot of questions lady.”
Abner grunted and opened his wallet for a third time. At this rate, he’d have nothing left to pay off his tab at the Sleep Fox. Craig quickly relieved him of another fifty dollars.
“You know, this is not what I usually pay young men for,” he grumbled.
Lottie ignored him and focused on Craig. “What do you know about Tommy?”
“I know he’s a wuss,” drawled Craig, “and can’t keep a girlfriend. His chick didn’t need much persuasion to hook up with me. He was real cut up about that, he cried for like a week. It was kinda cool.”
“It wasn’t his love life that got him killed though,” Lottie replied, despising Craig more and more.
“No,” said Craig.
“He was a loser in love and in money. Tommy liked to bet on the horses and play poker games that were way out his league. He owes a lot of money to a really bad guy. That’s why he did this job with the donuts for Jayne. He was desperate to make as much cash as he could before he got his lungs cut out.”
“Who does he owe money too?” Lottie asked.
“He’s not someone you want to get on the wrong side of,” warned Craig. “His name is Argus Loome.”
“Argus Loome?” Lottie repeated the name. Where had she heard that name before? She racked her brains until she finally remembered that the person Orlando had been talking to on the phone was called Argus. “Where do we find this Argus guy?”
Craig cleared his throat and glanced at the wallet. Abner gave Lottie a withering look and she knew that his tab at the Sleepy Fox would stay open forever after this. Craig pocketed another fifty and went back to his work.
“Argus owns a bar on Kiegan Street, a couple of blocks from here. It’s called the Bisque. That’s where he conducts his ‘other’ business activities. You should find him there,” Craig replied. “Now get lost before Jayne gets back.”
“Thanks, Craig, you’ve been very helpful,” Lottie said and left the kitchen, with Abner muttering under his breath trailing behind her.
“The things I do for you,” he moaned as they headed across the street to the SUV. “I’m almost cleaned out.”
“It’s for a good cause, Abner,” Lottie said. “Clearing my name, remember?”
“At these prices it can stay muddied,” the old man huffed. “Are we going to this Bisque place?”
“It’s the only lead we’ve got,” Lottie said. “We have to ask this Argus Loome guy what he knows.”
Abner made a face. “It sounds like he’s not the kind of guy we should be messing with. Do you think we should do this?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t want to turn back now. I’m getting more and more worried about Doris and this Argus guy might be linked to Orlando. Orlando was talking to someone called Argus when I found him in the summer house.”
“That proves he’s no good,” Abner said promptly.
“True, but do you want to go back to Lincolne Bay and just sit around, and if we don’t take this further we’ll have to let Detective Gable know what Craig’s told us,” Lottie pointed out.
Abner made an even worse face. “We’ll go see this Argus,” he said abruptly. “The less I have to do with that sour policeman the better. Besides, I’m virtually ruined now thanks to our enterprising young friend back there. I might have to ask this Argus for a loan.”
Chapter 7: The Curious Collector
They found the Bisque where Craig said it was, on Kiegan Street. It was tucked out of the way of the main foot traffic, a long low building with a dark blue shop front awning and a black façade.
The front window was darkly tinted and a white porcelain doll’s face was painted on the front door. The doll’s large blue eyes seemed to be staring at Lottie as they stood outside and looked up at the bar.
“Well, this place is worse than I expected,” Abner said. “Are you sure it’s wise to go into a creepy bar and put the pressure on a dangerous gangster?”
Lottie knew full well it wasn’t wise, but she was not going to turn back now. Ignoring the doll’s eyes, she grabbed the brass handle and opened the door. “Come on, where’s your spirit of adventure?”
“I left it at home, cowering under the bed,” replied Abner sourly.
Lottie shook her head and entered the bar. It was dimly lit, with a wooden floor painted black and walls decorated with purple Damask wallpaper.
Private booths of dark red leather chairs and polished black tables occupied the borders of the main space and a wide bar of black marble and glittering crystal glass dominated the far end of the room.
The place was more or less empty, with a couple of patrons hunched low at their tables, not speaking or moving. It was as still and as eerie as a tomb and as she and Abner moved with hesitant steps deeper into the dark room, a huge bald man in a white shirt and black trousers and a black skull tattoo on his neck, glared at them from behind the bar.
“Members only,” the barman growled.
Lottie tensed up and wanted to run straight out of the door, but she fought down the impulse and completed the journey to the bar. Abner was a fretful presence next to her.
“Hi,” she said, smiling at the glowering brute. “We’d like to speak to Argus Loome if he’s here please.”
The barman stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language. “Members only,” he repeated. He reached under the bar and picked up a metal crowbar. He placed it meaningfully onto the polished surface. “Members only,” he said again.
Fear clenched round Lottie’s throat. It had been a mistake coming here and suddenly all her confidence leeched away. “We get the message,” she said, backing away. “Come on, Abner.”
“Orlando!” Abner suddenly called out at the top of his voice. “Orlando, buddy, I thought it was you! How you been keeping?”
Abner’s bellow shattered the sepulchral silence, making the few patrons jerk their heads up. As Lottie looked round she spotted Orlando huddled in the corner. He was wearing a hooded top along with a pair of khaki pants, and Lottie would have walked straight past him in the street, he was so unobtrusively dressed.
He still looked gaunt from his recent bout of food poisoning bu
t seemed to be recovering. He stared in alarm as Abner strode over to him.
Lottie glanced back at the intimidating barman. He was staring at Abner with a look on confusion on his brutish face. He didn’t move to interfere. Lottie decided to seize on this unexpected development and hurried over to join Abner.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Abner was now saying. “It’s a bit high class for you, isn’t it?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Orlando hissed.
“We could ask you the same thing, Orlando,” Lottie said. “Are you feeling better?”
“No thanks to you,” Orlando said sourly. “Why haven’t you been arrested? That useless Detective says it was your food that caused the poisoning after all.”
“Things have developed since then,” Lottie said. “That’s why we’re here.”
“You’re so stupid,” Orlando said. “Do you know who runs this place?”
“Argus Loome,” Lottie said. “I take it he’s a loan shark.”
“He’s a lot more than that,” the young man scoffed. “You have no idea who you are messing with.”
“No, I don’t,” Lottie said, “but I want answers and I want to clear my name. Why don’t you tell me?”
“Why don’t I just call the barman over and get you escorted out?” Orlando retorted, leaning his head to look over at the big man. He was staring balefully at all three of them, his large arms folded across his tree trunk chest.
“All I have to do is call him over and say that you’re bothering me. If I do, you’ll leave here with at least several broken bones. Why don’t you just turn around and scurry out of here while you have the chance?”
“Why Orlando, what have you got in this pretty little box?” Abner said reaching down and snatching up the dark wood box that was sitting on the table next to Orlando.
“Put that down!” Orlando yelled and made to grab the box from Abner’s hands. Abner was too fast and kept it out of his grasp.
“Too slow,” Abner chuckled, thoroughly enjoying himself. “What have you got in here? Naughty pictures? Shame on you.”
“Put it down,” Orlando snarled. His outburst had attracted stares from the other patrons and he lowered his voice. “Put it down, if you know what’s good for you.”
“Unfortunately I don’t know what’s good for me,” Abner said cheerfully. “I really don’t know how I’ve survived this long, really.” He opened the box and a surprised look spread across his face. “Well, what do we have here then?”
Lottie watched as Abner removed the small doll that had been nestled in the velvet interior of the box. The doll looked very old and delicate, with a porcelain white head, curly black hair graced with a petite straw bonnet, and clad in a puffy, saffron coloured Edwardian dress replete with frills and tassels. Both Lottie and Abner gave him quizzical looks.
“Aren’t you a little old to be playing with dollies, Orlando?” Abner said dryly. “Though I always thought you were a big sissy pants.”
“Put the doll back in its box,” Orlando said, his face going even paler, if that was possible. “It’s extremely expensive and fragile.”
“Fragile, eh?” Abner said, a devilish look gleaming in his eyes. “So if I were to do this,” he wrapped his hand around the doll’s neck, “I might snap its head clean off?”
“Don’t!” Orlando’s voice was a terrified whisper. “Please! You don’t know what you’re doing! Just put it down gently and I’ll give you anything you want.”
“What we want is information,” said Lottie, emboldened by Orlando’s fear. “You ready to talk to us?”
“Yes, yes, just be very careful with that doll,” hissed Orlando. “What do you want to know for heaven’s sake?”
“Detective Gable said that a poison had been added to the powered sugar on my snowball donuts,” Lottie said. “A poison that made a lot of the wedding guests sick and killed your grandmother and new wife only the donuts weren’t made by me, were they?”
Orlando scowled up at her in confusion. “What are you drivelling about?”
“Jayne Merriot was instructed to make up a batch of donuts the same as I was preparing and to slip them in to the reception buffet to make it look like they were made by me. These were the ones that were poisoned,” said Lottie. “What’s more the poison contained foxglove, so somebody went to great lengths to make it look like I was responsible.”
Orlando shrugged. “So, what do you think I know about it?”
“She was hired by somebody up at Mayleaf, I know that much,” Lottie went on. “So unless it was the housekeeper, that very much leaves you and Genevieve. I very much doubt Genevieve would want to sabotage a wedding she spent so hard planning or end up getting herself killed. That just leaves you in the frame.”
Orlando gave her an incredulous look. “Are you crazy? I got poisoned too, do you really think I’d put myself through that hell, especially when it would cause me so much trouble with my other business arrangements.”
“Yes, I heard you talking to Argus on the cell phone,” Lottie replied, sliding into the chair opposite Orlando.
“You sounded pretty frightened talking to him and I don’t think you faked your illness. Also whoever developed this poison had a huge grasp of toxicology. They either created it themselves or obtained it from somebody who’s a genius in the field.”
She saw a shifty look enter Orlando’s eyes and he stared down at his hands. “I loved my grandmother,” he said.
“Despite what people think, I do have feelings. Yes, I’m selfish and I should have done more for her, but I’d never kill her. She was my only family and I’d do nothing to harm her. I know I was mean to you when we were kids, but do you really think I’d do something so terrible?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” cut in Abner. “We know you have money problems, even being here is proof of that and we know Genevieve refused to help you.”
Lottie scrutinized him, wanting to believe he was innocent despite how badly he’d treated her. “You had an argument over the phone and Genevieve refused to help you. Maybe this was the only way to get what you needed. I take it you stand to inherit?”
“Of course I do, but I didn’t need to murder my grandmother to get money,” Orlando retorted. “Yes she refused to help me at first, though how you know about that I don’t know. Yes I do, it was Yelma. I’ll fire her as soon as I get back.”
“You do that, and this little lady will lose her head,” Abner threatened, twisting the little doll’s neck.
Orlando stiffened with fear. “Don’t do that. I promise I won’t fire her.”
Abner nodded. “Genevieve refused to help you at first. Does that mean she changed her mind?”
“Yes,” replied the younger man. “I won her round. I was the centre of her world, there was nothing she couldn’t deny me sooner or later and to be brutally honest she was more useful to me alive than dead, so now do you believe I wasn’t the poisoner?”
“I do,” Lottie said, gazing into his gorgeous blue eyes. “But I think you know more about this than you’re letting on as well.”
He gave her a guarded look. “I don’t know anything more,” he said flatly. “Can I have my doll back now?”
“Why’s it so important to you?” countered Abner. “Not sentimental value surely? You know I believe this belonged to Genevieve. She had it in a glass case in her study. Didn’t it belong to her own grandmother and get passed down the generations?”
“Just give it back!” snarled Orlando. “If you don’t you’ll be sorry!”
“Why, Orlando?” asked Lottie, eager to get the truth out of him. “What’ll happen to us if we don’t?”
“You’re about to find out,” Orlando replied grimly, staring past her.
Lottie and Abner turned to see a fierce looking man in an expensive business suit stalk towards them from the direction of a room marked private. He wasn’t as brutal as the barman but he exuded a sense of menace as equally as intimidating.
“The boss will se
e you now,” the man said to Orlando. He glared at Lottie and Abner. “You better put that back in its box. The boss don’t like his merchandise handled.”
“By the boss I assume you mean Argus Loome, we wish to see him at once,” Abner said haughtily.
The mean looking man gave him a double-take. “You what?”
Lottie got to her feet just as the barman began lumbering over to them. He was holding the crowbar in one meaty hand.
“Abner, I really think we should go,” she said.
“Not until we get some answers,” Abner said. “Take us to Loome, or dolly gets it.”
The suited man’s hard little eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. “Is this meant to be funny?” he said to Orlando.
“Charlie, this has got nothing to do with me,” Orlando said quickly. “They just turned up and snatched the doll. They’re both crazy.”
“Yes, we’re crazy,” said Abner, “crazy enough to rip this doll apart if we don’t get to see Loome now.”
Charlie looked at the barman and shook his head. “Man, you just made the biggest mistake of your pointless little life. Smash them up, Lug.”
Lottie let out a startled cry as Lug the barman advanced, crowbar held aloft in his hand. Suddenly, a man’s voice boomed out over an unseen loudspeaker. “Thank you Lug, there’s no need for that. Lower the crowbar please. Charlie, kindly bring our three guests through to the office.”
Everything froze in place for a moment. Lug was the first to move. He lowered the crowbar and walked back to the bar as if nothing had happened. Charlie brushed down his suit and shot the three of them an irritated look. “Come on then,” he said gruffly.
With Abner still holding onto the doll, Lottie and he followed Charlie while Orlando trailed behind like a kid being made to go to the dentist against his will.
Charlie went to the door marked private and opened it, stepping through without bothering to check if the other three were following.
Donuts And Dead (Sleepy Fox Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 2) Page 8
