Pumpkins, Peril and a Paella (A Charlotte Denver Cozy Mystery Book 4)

by Bryan, Sherri

  ººººººº

  “I felt for a pulse, but there was nothing.” A distressed Charlotte explained as PC Farrell took notes. “I think he was dead long before I came along - I don’t think I could have saved him.”

  “Don’t feel guilty about it.” Nathan came over from where he’d been speaking with the coroner. “It’ll have to be confirmed but, if early indications are anything to go by, it was cyanide poisoning. That smell of almonds you noticed on his breath? That’s most likely what it was. That being the case, I strongly doubt there was anything you could have done to save him.”

  Charlotte frowned as the police investigation gathered momentum with the arrival of the forensics team.

  “This is awful. The very person I thought was the murderer turns up dead. Why would he have taken cyanide? He’d only just got of prison. You’d think he’d want to have lived a little, wouldn’t you?”

  “Well, if it’s definitely a case of cyanide poisoning, he might not have taken it himself, of course,” said Nathan.

  “You think someone might have given it to him? Why? Who would do that?”

  Despite Richard Slade’s unsavoury past, Charlotte found it hard to understand that someone would want to murder him for it and her thoughts immediately turned to his mother.

  “Oh my goodness! Poor Mrs Slade! In spite of everything, I feel awful for her. Whether Richard took his own life or was murdered, how on earth is she going to cope with the news so soon after Samuel’s death?”

  Nathan shook his head. “I have to say, in all the years I’ve known the Slade family, I’ve never felt sorry for any of them but I dread to think how the loss of another son is going to affect Maureen. I’ll tell you one thing for sure, though, she isn’t going to want to get the news from me.

  “After the last time I paid her a visit, I think it’d be best if someone else went round this time. I don’t want to add to her upset.” He beckoned to PC Farrell. “Right, PC Farrell, would you and PC Dillon make arrangements to call at the Slade house, please, and call me when you leave to let me know how things went?”

  “Right you are, Chief.” PC Farrell made herself scarce.

  “If someone poisoned him, how on earth did they get the cyanide into him?” Charlotte breathed into her hand to warm up her nose as she pondered the answer to the question. “And why on earth did he get out of his car in weather like this?”

  “’No idea’ would be my answer to your first question,” said Nathan, “but if there is cyanide in his system, chances are he’ll have been feeling nauseous. Maybe he stopped to throw up.” Nathan speculated as he peered through the misted windows of the car. “Hang on, what’s that?” He pressed his face close to the glass before taking a handkerchief from his pocket and opening the door.

  On the passenger seat was a wicker condolence basket which had once been filled with a variety of sweet and savoury items. An empty cake box, a mountain of chocolate wrappers, apple cores, banana skins, a cheese selection tray and the leftover crumbs of a packet of herb biscuits littered the seat and the footwell.

  With his hand inside an evidence bag, Nathan picked up an apple core and held it to his nose before doing the same with a morsel of cheese that had fallen between the two front seats.

  “What is it?” asked Charlotte.

  “I think I just found out the answer to your question. Seems that everything in this basket was laced with cyanide. If Richard’s been eating it over the past few days, that explains how it got into his system. The question is, where did it come from?”

  He leaned forward to look at the label on the basket. With our sympathy on the loss of your brother. You are always in our thoughts.

  “Who’s it from?” asked Charlotte.

  Nathan shook his head. “Doesn’t say.”

  The nagging doubt he’d had for the past few days suddenly became more intense. Something troubled him. It had been troubling him for a while but he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it.

  “And another thing,” said Charlotte. “Where on earth would you get hold of cyanide, anyway? I mean, it’s not like you can just go into a supermarket and buy it, is it? I wouldn’t have the first clue where to get it from.”

  Nathan was grim faced. “If I told you that cyanide is a key ingredient in certain poisons, some rat poisons for example, would that give you a clue?”

  Charlotte’s expression was blank. “No. I’ve never bought rat poison. Where would you buy it from? A chemist?”

  Nathan shook his head.

  “A hardware store.”

  Chapter 10

  “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe the Halls are involved in this. I really can’t.” Charlotte’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “D’you think they killed Samuel, too?”

  Nathan pulled her to him in a hug. “I don’t know what to think. Look, you go home. Go and get warmed up and I’ll see you later, okay? And I know you will, but please try not to worry.”

  She nodded, her imagination already filling her mind with images of cyanide-wielding maniacs, and she quickened her pace towards home.

  ººººººº

  Nathan pulled up outside the home of Lionel and Heather Hall. He was about to get out of the car when his phone rang, the display telling him that PC Farrell was calling.

  “What’ve you got, Fiona?”

  “Chief, there’s no one at the Slade house. We’ve rung the bell and looked around but there’s no sign of anyone. No lights on and all the doors and windows are locked.”

  “Okay. Look, I’m round at Lionel and Heather Hall’s place. I’m pretty sure they’ve got something to do with Richard Slade’s death, possibly Samuel’s too. I hope to God I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. Anyway, I’ll speak to you in a while, okay?”

  He sighed heavily as he walked up the path. Why did they do it? He rang the bell and Lionel Hall opened the door almost immediately.

  “Evening, Lionel. Can I come in?”

  “Of course.” The old man stepped aside. “We knew you’d come, sooner or later.” With a sad smile, he shuffled along the hall to the living room where he joined his wife on the couch. He took her hand and held it between his.

  “Hello, Heather.” Nathan sat down in the chair beside them.

  Heather was calm, all signs of the stress which been so evident at their previous meeting gone.

  “Nathan, I know you won’t understand, but I had to do it. As soon as I heard they were coming out of prison, I knew I was going to do it. I was always going to do it - it was just a matter of when. I’m so sorry I lied to you. And now you have to take me away, don’t you?”

  Nathan had never been so disappointed at the prospect of arresting someone for murder. “Yes, Heather, I do. And I have to ask you officially, did you kill Samuel and Richard Slade?”

  She looked confused. “No, I’ve already told you I didn’t kill Samuel. Only Richard.”

  “You’re sure?” Nathan had to be certain.

  “Of course I’m sure! I think I’d remember whether I’ve killed someone or not.” Heather smiled briefly.

  “For God’s sake, why did you do it?”

  She looked directly at him, a look of resignation on her weary face. “I couldn’t face knowing that Richard Slade was going to be back here, in St. Eves. Walking the same pavements as me, going to the same shops. That man was pure evil. I couldn’t deal with knowing that I could bump into him at any time. Not after what happened.”

  “And what did happen?”

  Heather put her head in her hands. “Oh Nathan. It’s such a mess. It’s been a mess for years ... and it’s all my fault.” She blew her nose and began her story.

  “Years ago, I had an affair with Bill Slade. We hadn’t long been married, me and Lionel, and we’d just started up the hardware store. Bill came to us, demanding protection money but we just didn’t have it back then. The business hadn’t been going long enough to generate enough to pay him every week.

  “Anyway, for some reason, he took a shine to
me. He told us that if he could see me a couple of nights a week, he’d let us off the payments until we had the money to pay him.

  “As you can imagine, Lionel went crazy. I had to hold him back from flying at Bill. He told him to keep his hands off me and that he’d find the money to pay him if it killed him. We ended up borrowing some money from his parents to make sure we had enough to keep Bill off our backs for a couple of months.”

  She glanced at Lionel and he squeezed her hand as he encouraged her to continue with her story. “Go on, love.”

  “I should never have been so stupid, but I was naive and flattered that a powerful man like Bill was interested in me so I began seeing him secretly. It was all very hush-hush, of course. No one knew anything about it to start with. Not Lionel, not Maureen, not anyone.

  “Anyway, when I fell pregnant, I didn’t know if the father was Lionel or Bill. I was petrified but when I told Lionel, he was amazing. He said he’d stand by me regardless and always treat the child as his own.

  “Bill, on the other hand, cleared off so quickly, you couldn’t see him for dust. He wanted nothing more to do with me. After that, it was one of his heavies who came to the store to collect the money from us.”

  Heather took a sip of water from a glass on the table in front of her.

  “I didn’t see Bill again in a social capacity until years later when I was much older - just after the first robbery, in fact. Of course, at that time, we had no idea it was the Slade brothers who were responsible. We were closing up the store one evening when three men in balaclavas burst in.

  “One of them hit Lionel over the head so hard, we thought he’d lost his hearing. And then the same man held a gun to my face. He tormented me and told me what he was going to do to me if I didn’t tell him the combination for the safe. He seemed to take pleasure in knowing he was hurting us. He was evil. We found out later that the man was Richard Slade.”

  She stopped again and took another sip of water.

  “I was a wreck after that. I just retreated into myself and lost all my confidence. It wasn’t until I went to my first Ladies Association meeting that I began to recover. They helped me so much.

  “You can imagine my surprise when I found out that Bill Slade had strong connections to the Association. By then, he owned a successful property business and he had the money to donate very generously, which he did.

  “I met him again when the Treasurer of the Association couldn’t get to an appointment she’d made at Bill’s home to discuss his donation for the Easter fair. She asked me to go in her place - I never planned for anything to happen, but one thing led to another, and, well ... you know.

  “We kept our relationship secret for months. It was easy to get together at his house - I’d always say that I was there on Association business. It was the perfect guise.”

  She turned to Lionel and stroked his cheek. “I know I’ve said I’m sorry so many times, but I really am so, so sorry, my darling.”

  “It’s okay, my love.” Lionel dabbed at his eyes. “It’s yesterday’s news. Go on, finish the story.”

  Heather turned back to Nathan. “One day, the boys came home unexpectedly and caught their father and I in a rather compromising position. As you can imagine, all hell broke loose.

  “It wasn’t until Bill threatened to cut them out of his will that they agreed not to tell anyone what they’d seen but they weren’t happy about it. I will never forget the way Richard Slade looked at me. It was as if he wanted to kill me there and then.

  “I never saw Bill again after that, but that’s when the problems really started. Those boys of his bore grudges. They bided their time and a year later, they came back and robbed the store again. That time, though, it was personal. They were doing it out of spite - for revenge.

  “Just like the first time, they came back just as we were closing up. They all had balaclavas on and they pulled a bag over Lionel’s head, tied his hands and feet to a chair and pushed him over.

  “One of them emptied the safe and one of them emptied the till. I was cowering behind the counter, pleading with them not to hurt us and Richard crouched down beside me and threatened me. I didn’t need to see his face to know it was him. As soon as he spoke to me, I knew.

  “I can’t repeat what he said he was going to do to me, Nathan, but it put the fear of God into me. Thank God you came in when you did - I don’t know what he would have done if you hadn’t. The stress of that second robbery almost killed me - when I was lying in the hospital, I knew I would never be at peace while Richard Slade was alive.”

  The strain of telling the story and resurrecting old emotions finally proved too much. Collapsing in a heap, Heather sobbed in Lionel’s arms.

  Lionel rocked his wife to calm her. When her sobs had subsided to faint whimpers, he said, simply. “And that’s why we had to kill him. He came into the shop last week, you know. Just to taunt us. Even after all these years, he couldn’t leave us in peace. Heather was at breaking point. We had to get rid of him for the sake of her sanity.

  “Don’t be too hard on her, Nathan. It was my idea to make up the condolence baskets. We sent three to the house - one for each of them - but there was cyanide in Richard’s. We had to do it. You do understand, don’t you?”

  Lionel hugged his wife tightly and kissed her forehead.

  Nathan sighed heavily.

  “I really wish I didn’t have to do this, I really do. Heather Hall, I am arresting you for the murder of Richard Slade. You do not have to say anything ...”

  He read Heather and Lionel their rights before calling PCs Farrell and Dillon to come to the house and take them down to the police station.

  “What about Samuel Slade, Chief? Did they kill him too?” Ben Dillon spoke quietly as he entered the house.

  “No. They say they didn’t and I believe them.”

  “So we’ve still got a murderer on the loose?”

  “Looks that way, I’m afraid. I’ll get the team together first thing in the morning for a briefing but right now, I’m going to look for Maureen and Trevor. I assume they’ll be together - I can’t imagine that Maureen would get too far on her own in weather like this.

  “Anyway, I don’t want them finding out about Richard’s death from anyone else. They’re hostile enough as it is - they certainly don’t need anything else fuelling their animosity towards the police at the moment.”

  “I thought you were keeping a low profile with Mrs. Slade, Chief?” PC Farrell raised her eyebrows.

  “I was, but I’m not going to pander to her every whim forever. You two have already been on duty for too long today, so she’ll just have to put up with me. You both get yourselves home when you’ve finished with the Halls and I’ll see you in the morning.”

  ººººººº

  Nathan turned up the heater in his car as he spoke to Charlotte.

  “Hi. Look, I’m going to be a while yet. The Slades weren’t at home when Ben and Fiona went round so I’m going to take a drive around town and see if I can find them. I’ll start off at the marina - Will was telling me the other day that the brothers have been in The Bottle of Beer a few times, so that’s where I’ll start.”

  “So were Lionel and Heather Hall involved in Richard’s death, do you think?”

  “Unfortunately, they were. But not Samuel’s.”

  “So there’s still a killer on the loose?” Charlotte’s voice went up an octave.

  “Yes, but I won’t rest until we have someone behind bars. You know that, Charlotte.”

  “I know, I know. It’s just terrible to know that the killer’s still out there.”

  Nathan looked at his watch. “Look, I’d better go and get this over with. I’m not looking forward to breaking the news about Richard to Maureen and Trevor and, as I’m not their favourite person, I’ve no idea how it’s going to go.

  “I’ll see you later, okay, but don’t wait up. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a late one.”

  ººººººº


  Brrrrrrrr, brrrrrrrr, brrrrrrrr.

  Charlotte woke abruptly and looked at the clock. The digital display flashed 01:07 AM.

  She threw her arm out but Nathan’s side of the bed was still empty. Must be him calling.

  She reached for the phone and saw Harriett’s smiling face beaming at her from the screen.

  She could count the times that Harriett had called her on two fingers and on both occasions, it had been an emergency - once when she’d come home from bingo and realised she’d left her keys inside the house and the other when Ava’s husband had accidentally reversed the car over her foot.

  Charlotte had no idea why the ladies always rang her when they found themselves in sticky situations, but she was glad they did and she always dropped everything to help them.

  “Hi Harriett. What’s up?” She grinned as she clearly heard Leo’s muffled voice in the background and Harriett’s urgent whisper.

  “Sshhh, be quiet or she’ll hear you ... oh, hello Charlotte dear. I was just on my way back from a Ladies Night at the Masonic Lodge with, er, a friend, and I think your café’s being burgled. I didn’t think it would be you in there at this time of night, but I wanted to be sure. Hence the call, which confirms I was correct. Anyway, we didn’t wait around outside for too long, or go in, but I wanted to let you know as soon as possible.”

  “Oh my God!” Charlotte’s blood ran cold. “Are you sure? Why do you think there’s someone in there?

  “Well, there are no lights on but we heard knocking noises as we passed by and when we listened against the wall, we could hear voices and people moving around. I’m sorry to worry you, dear, but I had to let you know.”

  “Oh yes, of course - thanks.” Charlotte’s mind was in a whirl. “Okay, um, I’ll let Nathan know right away. Thanks again, Harriett. Yes, of course I’ll let you know what happens. Right, bye.”

  Knocking noises? She dialled Nathan’s number. It rang before switching to answerphone.

  She pulled on the clothes she’d taken off two hours before and ran downstairs for her jacket and boots, Nathan’s number on constant redial. Still no answer.