Killer Caramel Cookies: Book 1 in the Killer Cookie Series

by Patti Benning

  “Lilah, I just got off the phone with Greg. You’ll never believe what he told me.”

  “What did he say?” she asked, sinking back into the bathwater. She had the feeling that this was going to be a long conversation — Val was one of the biggest gossips that she knew.

  “Well, I called him to see how he was doing, you know, since he and Ellen were dating. I was worried, because he always seemed so devoted to her. You know, I thought he must have been totally smitten with her, otherwise why would he put up with so much? Anyway, he told that he was sad, but not as sad as he expected. He felt really guilty about this, but he told me that he felt like her death had freed him somehow.”

  Lilah frowned. “What? Did he really say that, Val? That’s horrible.”

  “Well, I guess she was never very supportive of him. You know, he gave up everything so she could live her dream.”

  “Still, to say the death of someone you loved is freeing…” She shook her head. “I mean, she only died a few hours ago. Who even says something like that?”

  “I’ve known Greg for ages. I think he feels just terrible about not being sadder about her death. Don’t tell anyone what I said, all right?”

  “I dunno… don’t you think it’s a bit suspicious, Val? His girlfriend is found dead, and he’s relieved? I mean, they had just had an argument. I heard them in the diner. Shouldn’t we tell someone at the police station about all of this?”

  “Greg wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Val said firmly. “He’s a good guy.”

  “If you say so,” Lilah said, unable to hide the doubt in her voice.

  They hung up, and Lilah was left with a sour feeling in her stomach. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that Greg could have had something to do with Ellen’s death. His mother, Marie, had worked at the country store for years, and it would have been easy enough for him to get the keys off of her, lure his girlfriend into the back, and kill her. Maybe he was tired of dating someone who pushed him around all the time.

  She toyed with the idea of going to see Officer Eldridge with this new information, then decided against it for now. Val had asked her to keep it quiet, and her friend knew Greg much better than she did. She would just have to trust that her old college roommate knew best… for now.

  The rest of her day was as relaxing as could be. She finished her bath, put a frozen lasagna in the oven for dinner, then curled up on the couch with Winnie and Oscar to watch old movies on television. She fell asleep early, halfway through a plate of Margie’s cookies and an old western. When she woke up the next morning, the TV was still on, but the plate was empty. Winnie gave her an innocent, pumpkin-scented lick on the face, then rushed to the door to be let outside.

  Covering her mouth, Lilah gave a huge yawn and blinked in the early morning sunlight. She must have been tired last night, to fall asleep so quickly. She was usually something of a night owl. At least she had an early start on the day, though she had no idea what she was going to spend her time doing. She didn’t have to go in to the diner, which would have been nice if she didn’t so desperately need a paycheck.

  “I guess it’s as good of a day as any for some spring cleaning, right, Winnie?”

  The dog wagged her tail at the sound of her name, evidently agreeing. Lilah let her back inside, fed her and Oscar, then decided to tackle the mess that she had left behind the night before.

  It wasn’t long before she was thoroughly bored with cleaning. Throwing her rag into the sink with the remainder of the dirty dishes from the night before, she considered heading into town, or maybe stopping by the boutique to see Val. Thoughts of her friend reminded her of the conversation from the evening before. She thought of Greg, and wondered if he really had killed Ellen or not. It was true that a lot of people hadn’t liked the woman, but was there anyone else who held a grudge against her that could be motive for murder? She just didn’t know. She hadn’t grown up in Vista, like so many of the residents had, and she just didn’t know enough of the answers to the questions that she had, but she knew who would. There was one man in this town who knew everything about everybody, and was almost as much of a gossip as her friend Val. Levi.

  Levi Hayes was many things, and one of them was predictable. He almost always went to the diner for lunch, which meant he should be relatively easy to find. He had lived in Vista his whole life, so he would probably know plenty about Ellen, and he was always happy to talk to a friendly face.

  “You want to talk about Ellen?” Levi stirred a pack of sugar into his coffee, then tapped his spoon against the edge of the ceramic mug before setting it down. “Join the club. That’s all anyone in town is talking about.”

  “I didn’t know her very well. I was hoping you might have some insight on who else would have had motive to kill her, since you know pretty much everyone in town,” she explained.

  “Oh plenty of people. Wait… you said who else. Do you have someone currently in mind?”

  “Well, me,” Lilah said, not wanting to betray what Val had said about Greg just yet. “Officer Eldridge questioned me yesterday. He seemed to think that since the incident with her at the salon cost me my job, I might have had motive to do it.”

  “Did you?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

  “No! I can’t believe you’d even say that, Levi. You’ve known me for how long? A couple of years, at least? I would never hurt anyone. Besides, what happened at the salon was completely my fault, not hers.”

  “I was just asking,” he said. “I’ve known you for a couple of years, sure, but that’s nothing compared to how long I’ve known most of these people. And I can tell you right now, plenty of people had reason to dislike Ellen. But I don’t know if any of them had it in them to kill her.”

  “Well, obviously someone did. And chances are, it wasn’t some drifter.”

  “You’ve got a point,” he admitted. “Tell you what. I’ll keep my ear to the ground. If I hear anything suspicious, you’ll be the first to know. Consider it thanks for all that free coffee you’ve given me over the years.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Her conversation with Levi hadn’t exactly panned out any juicy hints at who the murderer — or murderess — might be, but despite that, Lilah had thoroughly enjoyed her first taste of detective work. An idea occurred to her as she walked back towards her house. Maybe she wasn’t suited for the world of hair care, or voice acting, or countless other things, but she was positive that there was something out there that she would be a natural at. What if that something was detective work?

  She envisioned herself dressed in a long, dark trench coat solving mysteries for the citizens of Vista. She wouldn’t join the police force, no, she knew that she would never get through the long weeks of physical training — she loved running, but had always hated the gym and the pressure of having people judge her. But maybe as a private investigator, she could find her niche.

  Lilah made a deal with herself then and there. If she could find out who had murdered Ellen before the police did, then she would take whatever classes she needed to become a private eye. She wasn’t going to jump into her new career path with no idea what she was getting herself into, like she had done with the world of hair care. She figured that solving this case would be a good first step, to see if she was really suited to being a detective.

  If she was serious about her potential new career, she knew that it meant she would have to suck it up and do something that she would rather not; question Reid. She didn’t think he was the killer, but he had grown up with Ellen, so he might have some idea of who would have the motive to kill her. Lilah entertained the idea of asking him to meet her at the diner, but the last thing that she wanted was him thinking she was asking him on a date. No, Margie’s house would work just fine for her purposes.

  Her friend was all too eager to be of help. The older woman told Lilah that she was free to use her porch — with its freshly repaired step — for as long as she wanted, and she would even provide as much lemonad
e as they could drink. For once, Lilah was glad that she had let Reid pressure her into giving her his number; for the first time since he had put it in her phone, she used it to call him. He agreed to meet her as soon as he got off of work. As executive officer of the local machine shop, he worked long hours and was practically married to his job, which was just one more good reason for Lilah to keep spurning his advances. In this case, though, his devotion to work was a good thing as it gave her some time to get ready and figure out exactly what she was going to say to him.

  “The two of you just let me know if you need anything else,” Margie said, every inch the mother hen as she laid down the tray of cookies and lemonade. Winnie, whom Lilah had brought along for moral support, thumped her tail against the wooden slats of the porch. She was a fan of Margie’s cookies, and had been begging her owner for more ever since she had finished that plate of them.

  “You said you needed to ask me something about Ellen?” Reid said after the older woman went back inside.

  “I was just, you know, wondering about her,” Lilah said, suddenly forgetting everything she had planned on saying. Reid was looking especially handsome today, in a charcoal grey button up shirt. The top two buttons were undone, and she caught a glimpse of his muscular chest. She had the sneaking suspicion that he had changed before coming over, and had purposely picked out something that would show off his body. She doubted Reid ever did anything by accident.

  “What about her?” he asked, arching an eyebrow and taking a sip of his lemonade.

  “Well, did she have any enemies that come to mind? Anyone that might have wanted to hurt her?” She was on a roll now. It was easier to focus on her questions if she looked down at the cookies instead of up at him.

  “Are you thinking of joining the police force next?” he asked with a chuckle. “Why do you want to know all of this?”

  “Just curiosity,” she said, giving him her best winning smile. He considered for a moment, then evidentially decided that his chances of actually going on a date with her at some point would be better if he complied.

  “One person does come to mind,” he said, fiddling with his glass. “Teri Moran. They never got along, and always seemed to have it out for each other from grade school onward.”

  “Why?” she asked. “What did Ellen do to her?”

  “It wasn’t one thing, exactly,” he said. “But they always were into the same sort of stuff. They both tried out for all of the same plays, they entered all of the same contests… and Teri always came out on top. Ellen hated her with a passion. She tried to rub her limited success as an actress in Teri’s face whenever she came back to town, but Teri never seemed to care. It just made Ellen even more angry.”

  “Teri was at the salon the day I messed up Ellen’s hair,” Lilah said. “She was laughing at her. Ellen accused her of setting it up somehow, switching the bottles of conditioner and dye?”

  “Were they?” She stared at him blankly, and he added, “Switched. Were they switched?”

  “Oh.” Lilah thought back to that horrible day that she had tried so hard to block from her memory. “No, I don’t think so. Is that something that Teri would do?”

  Reid shrugged. “They were constantly at each other’s throats back in high school. I can’t imagine that much has changed.”

  “It’s been, what, nearly twenty years since they’ve graduated?”

  “Those two woman would still have hated each other if it had been sixty years,” he said. “Some things never change.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Lilah’s alarm woke her bright and early the next morning. She was bursting with energy, her thoughts still on her new plan to have a career as a private investigator. With two hours to spare before work, she decided to go for a run. It was early enough to be cool out, at least, and she wasn’t likely to run into too many people that she knew.

  She grabbed her headphones and her cell phone and started her favorite running playlist. Bouncing on her toes to the beat of the music, she spent a moment deciding which way to run, then decided to head towards town. She took off down the sidewalk, feeling light and free, focusing on nothing but the music and the ground beneath her feet.

  Running had always been one of her favorite ways to clear her mind. Her thoughts seemed to wander, coming up with solutions to various problems without any actual effort on her part. So when she passed by the police station and the thought popped into her mind to go and tell Eldridge about Greg and his less-than-crushed attitude towards his girlfriend’s death, she decided to go along with it. She was ninety-percent certain that withholding important information from a police officer was a crime, and she couldn’t very well start off her career as a private eye with a black mark on her criminal record.

  She let herself in the doors of the police station and told the woman behind the desk that she was there to see Officer Eldridge. Asked to wait, Lilah sat down in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, looking around the room in hopes of seeing a water fountain. No such luck. Maybe Eldridge would offer her a drink while they spoke.

  After a few minutes a door on the other side of the room opened and Eldridge poked his head out. When he saw her, he gestured for her to get up and follow him, which she did. The hallway they walked down was windowless and smelled strongly of coffee. When they reached his office, he told her to take a seat.

  “How can I help you, Ms. Fallon?” He was watching her closely, and the thought entered her mind that he was expecting her to confess.

  “I know someone who might have had a motive to kill Ellen,” she said. “Her boyfriend, Greg Motts.”

  He steepled his fingers and raised his eyebrows. “Tell me why you say that.”

  “Well, he told my friend that he was sad that Ellen was dead, but that it also felt freeing. And I saw them arguing not long before she was killed.”

  Eldridge nodded slowly. “I see. Who is this friend that you mentioned?”

  “Oh, um, Val. Valerie Palmer.” She hoped that her friend wouldn’t be too mad about her giving this information to the police. It was a matter of safety, after all. If Greg was the killer, then he deserved to be in jail.

  “Val. She runs the boutique store, doesn’t she?”

  Lilah nodded. “That’s all I wanted to say. I should get going now. I’ve got work in a little while, and I jogged here.”

  “Wait just one moment,” he said, holding up a finger. “I have to ask, did you really think coming in here and telling me all of this… this hearsay, would help you?”

  “What?” she asked, shocked.

  “If anything, this just makes you look more suspicious. Redirection is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done so clumsily.”

  “I’m not trying to redirect anything,” she said, aghast. “I’m just trying to help.”

  “If that’s the case, then I’ll give you some advice. Back off. Don’t get involved in police business unless you want to be slapped with an obstruction of justice charge. What we do can be dangerous, and we definitely don’t need civilians getting in the way.”

  With that, he dismissed her. Lilah trudged back out of the building feeling defeated. She had only been trying to help. She wasn’t trying to get in the way, or mess up their investigation. Was this what she could expect if she tried to break into the field of private detection? Would no one take her seriously? She began to jog slowly back towards home, the bounce in her step gone.

  She had just let herself in her front door when her cell phone rang. It was Levi, calling to ask her to meet him.

  “I’ve got news,” he said. “I found out something about why somebody might want to kill Ellen.”

  He wouldn’t tell her any more than that over the phone, though, so she offered to meet him at the diner before her shift began. It would mean getting there a few minutes early, but she didn’t think that Randall would care if she used the place to meet with Levi before opening.

  He looked excited when she saw h
im. He waited impatiently while she unlocked the doors, then led the way through the empty diner to a booth in the corner. She sat across from him.

  “All right, what is it?” she asked. “I’m on the edge of my seat.”

  “Well, I did some digging, like I promised,” he said. “Okay, being honest, I kind of stumbled onto this accidentally. I drove my niece to get her hair cut, and happened to overhear Gwen Foley talking to that assistant of hers… Kristie, I think it is. Anyway, they were talking about Ellen’s death. Kristie was saying how horrible it was, but Gwen told her that she wasn’t sad at all — in fact she was relieved, because it meant that Ellen couldn’t sue her.”

  “She did tell me how worried she was about being sued and having to close down the salon,” Lilah said. “She said that only a few hours before Ellen’s body was found.”

  “And that’s not all,” Levi said grimly. “When she went into the back, I got on her computer, just to take a quick look through her files. The day of the festival, she canceled her last appointment of the day. I did some quick calculations, and it all adds up — with the appointment canceled, she would have had enough time to kill Ellen before setting up her booth for the festival, and no one would be the wiser.”