“It’s Dillon, isn’t it?” Nora asked.
Mutely, Joe nodded.
“We’d better call the police, Harvey,” Nora said. “Sean really needs to know.”
“Wait,” Joe said, as Harvey dialed Sean. “The safe, I have to show you the safe.”
“Save it for when the police get here,” Harvey said.
“No. Now,” Joe said. He walked into the bathroom, and walked out with a bottle of Clorox.
“What is this?” Harvey looked very annoyed now. “Have you lost your mind, Joe?”
But Joe shook his head. “You can buy this off Amazon. It’s a dorm room safe, disguised as a bottle of Clorox. You need a key to open it, but I’m betting the lock isn’t very strong. A bobby pin would open it just as well.”
Nora handed him one, and watched as he fiddled around. With a click, the bottom of the bottle suddenly popped out. Joe moved to a desk, unscrewed it, and a roll of papers fell out.
“These are just mementos,” Harvey said. “Her most personal possessions. Nothing to incriminate the killer.”
There were photos of Tiffany as a youngster, photos of the house as it had been back then. There were even photos of Tiffany and Sergio together as a couple. Then, there was a picture of Sergio, Tiffany, and their baby boy. Nora felt tears well in her eyes as she looked at them. Harvey moved away, to call Sean. Beside her, Joe sniffed too, as he clutched that photo. There was also a birth certificate in there. Nora looked at it, and suddenly gave out a gasp.
“Of course!” she exclaimed. “I was a fool not to see it before! We all were… of course!”
“What is it?” Harvey rushed back into the room. “Are you all right?”
“Sean,” Nora said. “When will Sean be here?”
“He was very angry, but he told me he’d be there in five minutes. Also said if I touched anything, he’d personally lock me up for tampering with the evidence,” Harvey said.
“I don’t think he will,” Nora said. “If I’m right, then there’s only one person Sean will want to lock up when this is all over.”
“Who?” Harvey asked. “Am I missing something?”
“Look at this.” Nora thrust out the birth certificate at him. “Now, now do you see?”
Harvey took it, and looked up at Joe, and then Nora. “If I’m reading it right, this means we’ve found our murderer, doesn’t it?”
Joe nodded. “It does.”
“There’s only one question more,” Harvey said. “Why didn’t you tell Sean about the safe earlier, Joe?”
“I did,” Joe said. “He just never believed me because they didn’t find anything at the house she rented. Today… I followed you all day,” he said. “That’s something I didn’t have the guts to tell you even earlier. But I’ve been following you since you got that call from Dillon, Nora. I don’t know what I thought I would do. I just wanted to do something.
“Tell you the truth, I’ve been blaming Dillon for her death for a while. I wanted to… maybe I wanted to kill him myself. I saw you go into the bar, I saw Chase follow you in, and nearly came to your rescue, only you handled yourself well. Then later, I saw you and Harvey talk to Sean. I followed you when you went to Tiffany’s rental house, expecting a dead end. Then, you tore off in a hurry, and here you were, it suddenly clicked for me, where Tiffany probably stashed her safe.”
“Makes sense,” Harvey said.
Twilight ebbed, and darkness took hold of the world, just as screaming sirens shot up Oasis Street.
Bursting into the house, Sean asked, “Where is it? Where’s the body?”
“Upstairs. I’ll lead you to it,” Harvey said. “Afterwards, I think we can lead you to the murderer, too.”
*****
Chapter 21
Simone and Bernard were in the backyard, sipping on some wine. Will was already tucked into bed, and the two of them were looking forward to watching a movie together on the TV, when they heard the sirens.
“The police! What do you think they want now?” Simone asked, looking bothered.
“Hopefully, they’re just here to tell us they’ve caught the killer,” Bernard said. “I don’t think I’ll get to have a moment’s rest until they do.”
Sean entered, his hat in his hand, Deputy Ellerton next to him. Behind him, Harvey and Nora walked in too. Joe came in last.
“What is this?” Bernard gasped. “Why are you all here?”
“We’re here to arrest you,” Sean said. “Bernard Cabot, you’re under arrest for the murder of Tiffany Jones. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...” As he completed the miranda, Sean cuffed him.
“No!” Simone screamed. “No! How can you!”
“You’re under arrest too, Simone,” Sean said, moving to cuff her as well.
“Hush, Simone,” Bernard said. “Sean, leave her out of it. I’m the one you want.”
“Are you?” Sean asked. “I don’t see how you could have done it all without her knowing.”
“Actually, I just want my lawyer,” Bernard said. “Let me make a quick phone call.”
“Sure, buddy.” Sean smiled. “Lawyer up, that’s just fine. You can’t talk your way out of this.”
“You can’t prove it’s me,” Bernard said.
“Actually, I think there’s a lot of things linking you to her murder,” Nora said. “You were actually the obvious choice, though you tried framing Harvey. You owned the factory. You had access to the keys. It makes no sense, if Harvey had wanted to kill Tiffany, for him to steal your keys, drug her at his house, drive her all the way to the factory, then inject her with ammonia, and then drop the keys and run?
“No, I always knew it wasn’t Harvey. Partly because I loved him, and partly because that just didn’t make much sense. So then, it was either you or Joe. Joe was the obvious suspect because I’d heard Sergio talk about wanting to find him even that first day at the diner,” Nora said. “Speaking of which, that first day at the diner, Sergio had a fake gun. That always confused me. Why a fake gun? He could surely get a real one.”
“Why?” Sean asked. “That one confused me too.”
“It was a present for the son he hadn’t seen in years,” Nora said. “The son that Tiffany named after her real father, Joe. That son is still alive. Only you chose to name him Will. Sergio came here when he saw a photo of Will and Tiffany together at the ribbon cutting function. He recognized him at once, because Will looks exactly like Sergio did at that age. I know, because Tiffany had kept photos of young Sergio with her.”
Bernard bit his lip. “No,” he groaned. “This isn’t happening.”
“You killed Dillon, too, didn’t you?” Nora said. “You destroyed all the photos in Tiffany’s house, because some of them had Will in them. Dillon might have seen, and pieced it all together. So you killed him.”
Bernard didn’t say a thing.
“Why kill Tiffany, though?” Nora asked. “Is it because she was trying to blackmail you? Or is it because she wanted her son back?”
“I’m a little confused,” Deputy Ellerton said. “How did her son end up with Bernard and Simone anyway?”
“Bernard bought him from Tiffany,” Nora said. “Sean checked the hospital records. Tiffany had come back here briefly when she wanted to give birth. At the time, she was a mess. Simone was pregnant too. Only her child was stillborn, while Tiffany gave birth to a healthy baby boy. I think Bernard, knowing how desperate Tiffany was, offered her a large sum of money to swap the boys.
“They might have bribed a nurse, and everyone might have been convinced it was the right thing to do. Take away the drug addict’s child and give him to a couple who would appreciate him. Of course, I should have guessed Will wasn’t biologically theirs a long time ago. Both Simone and Bernard have blue eyes, while Will has his mother’s chocolate brown eyes.”
“It was the right thing to do!” Bernard screamed, unable to take it any more. “It was! I love Simone, and I love Wil
l. I was ready to do whatever it took to save them both from heartache. I still am. Sean, arrest me. But don’t hurt my wife. She had no part in this. She never had any idea.”
“Bernard.” Simone sounded heartbroken. “How could you!”
“It’s no use, Simone. I have to confess. Once the DNA results come out, everyone will know Will isn’t ours.” Bernard sighed. “But I’m his real father, and Simone is his real mother. We’ve given him a lot more love than Tiffany or Sergio ever could have. So what if they produced him. We’re the ones who love Will.”
Simone nodded. “I love Will, but oh Bernard, I would never murder an innocent woman!”
“She wasn’t so innocent - she was a devil in disguise!” Bernard exclaimed. “As soon as Tiffany came back to town, I knew it would eventually lead to her death.” Bernard sighed. “I gave her a job at the factory because she blackmailed me into it. I never dreamed that Joe was her father. I thought they were having an affair, like everyone else did.
“I was hoping she’d die via overdose, so I told Dillon to seduce her, and to start feeding her drugs. I told him that I’d pay him whatever it took. Only Dillon ended up falling in love with her, and trying to get her clean. The thing is, she started borrowing money to get high, and ended up blackmailing me all the time.
“I knew I couldn’t let this keep happening - sooner or later someone would find out. Then I found out Harvey had paid her money. I overheard Harvey talking to her on the phone the night we invited you over. I panicked. I messaged her, asking her to come meet me at the factory.
In the meanwhile, Sean came and told us that Sergio had escaped. I was so glad. I thought that this was a golden opportunity. I slipped a sleeping pill into Simone’s drink, and put her to bed before slipping out.
“I was determined to kill Tiffany, to get rid of her once and for all. I was thinking, if she dies tonight, everyone will blame Sergio. How was I to know that Harvey would shoot Sergio and kill him that very night?
I sneaked in through the backdoor. She came to meet me at the factory. She told me that very soon, Harvey would know everything, unless I paid her a million dollars. I let her talk. I let her drink the whiskey I’d drugged. Then, I injected her with ammonia, and carefully wiped down my office. I dragged her outside.
“My plan was to tow her car behind mine, and drive her somewhere far away and dump the car there. Before I could, though, I heard the guards coming. I panicked. I dropped the key and the syringe, dumped her body in the nearest barrel, and ran. I towed her car far away and dumped it in the woods.”
“I wondered about that,” Sean said. “I wondered how Tiffany had come to the factory in the first place. Makes sense.”
“Everything I’ve done, has been because I love Simone and Will,” Bernard said. “Loving them has been the greatest thing I’ve done in my life, so I’ll ask you this, Sean, please don’t let this touch them. Simone is a good mother. I beg you let her keep Will.”
“That’s not up to me,” Sean said, dragging Bernard to the car.
“Wait!” Harvey cried. They both turned around.
“Tiffany kept telling me that Sean was involved too,” Harvey said. “Why did she think that?”
Sean blushed. Bernard laughed. “Oh, she was right, Sean was involved. When Will was three, he fell very sick. He needed a blood transfusion. Sean is a regular donor, and tests showed that he was the only one who matched. Sean donated the blood. Afterwards, though, Sean asked me why neither I nor Simone matched Will. I told him that it was because Will was Simone’s child with another man. I persuaded him to keep it a secret. Sean’s a decent man, so he did. But once, Tiffany overheard me and Sean speaking about our little secret. She assumed that there was some grand conspiracy.”
“What a mess!” Simone groaned. “What a horrible mess. Oh, Bernard! How could you?”
“I did it for you, Simone,” Bernard said. “I love you. I’d die for you.” He moved towards her, but she shrunk away.
“Don’t.” She shuddered. “Just take him away, Sean. I can’t bear this anymore.”
*****
Epilogue
A year passed, and the shock of Bernard’s arrest had slowly faded. To the credit of the sheriff’s department, none of the details were ever leaked out, and so the public assumed that Bernard had killed Tiffany because he had an affair with her.
As Will’s grandfather, Joe had a legal right to raise him. Initially, Nora was sure that he’d exercise that option. But he’d agreed to do what was best for Will instead, and let Simone keep him. His only condition was that he wanted to spend as many weekends as possible with Will, a condition Simone was glad to accept. When the time was right, and he had grown enough, they planned to tell him the truth.
Joe’s own marriage dissolved after he confessed to Jennifer that Tiffany was his daughter. He’d repented sincerely, and confessed to her each and every one of his transgressions. She told him that she could not bear to look at his face anymore, and he accepted her request for a divorce.
He’d also sincerely apologized to Simone for the way he behaved at the factory. He vowed to be a good example for Will. He’d promised Simone that he’d never behave badly with women again, and she’d agreed to give him back his old job on the condition that he didn’t. After a year’s separation, Jennifer had agreed grudgingly to go on a date with him.
Maybe, Nora thought, just maybe, he’d eventually get his life back on track, this time, with an honest foundation.
As for Simone, life was especially tough for her. Many times, she debated simply closing up her factory and leaving the town forever. Rumors followed her everywhere she went in town, after all. But in the end, she decided that Will deserved to be near Joe. She stayed on for his sake, and found some solace in the fact that she had true friends like Nora in town.
Nora herself found herself back at the diner, working harder than ever to make it the best place in town. As always, Tina was an amazing partner to work with, while Lincoln was fast becoming an integral member of their team.
One Sunday, Tina insisted that Nora let her take the first shift.
“I need to learn how to handle it all by myself, so that when you’re out of town on vacation, things still run smooth,” Tina said.
“Don’t worry, Tina. I’m not planning to go on vacation anytime soon.” Nora had laughed.
“Well, I still want to handle first shift tomorrow,” Tina insisted.
Nora had let her, enjoying the opportunity to sleep late, and reaching the diner at noon. She paused even before she entered. Something was out of place. Something was different. The diner was far too full for this time of the day.
Suspecting something, she walked in, and let out a gasp.
In the corner, the high-school orchestra started up a romantic rendition of Mozart’s Nachtmusic. The diner was decorated with steamers, and Tina was grinning broadly behind the counter, a large cake next to her.
Every single one of her friends was gathered there, each with a balloon in their hand, each smiling broadly.
Harvey walked up, dressed in a suit, and got to one knee.
“Oh, my God,” Nora said, her hands rising to her face. “Oh, my God.”
“Nora.” Harvey smiled. “Excuse me while I do my laces.”
The entire diner burst out laughing.
“Harvey Nathaniel, I will murder you if you tease me so!” she exclaimed.
He winced. “But I haven’t even begun teasing you yet,” he said. “I want to tease you every day for the rest of my life, Nora. For as long as you’ll tolerate me.”
“Is that a question?”
“Nora Newberry,” Harvey said. “Will you do me a favor and marry me?”
The End
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Please continue for a delicious recipe…
A RECIPE FOR YOU!
Nora’s Cardamom Buttermilk Pie
Total Time: 1 Hour 25 Minutes
Serves: 8
Ingredients
Unbaked, deep-dish pie shell
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1. PreHeat the oven to 325° F.
2. Combine all ingredients and thoroughly mix together.
3. Pour mixture into pie crust and smooth.
A Murder In Milburn , Book 4: Death By Ice Cream Page 13
