Alice remembered that a family member had come for Jamie’s body. She wasn’t able to meet him when he did since she was already in the custody of the police. The next day after Morgan had come to bail her and take her home, Alice had been informed that Jamie’s body had been taken away from the morgue and has been taken home to his family.
Alice had been confused and afraid to ask who the family member was and how to contact them. When she finally saw the small house that firmly stood on the farmland she found out Randy Green stays, she inhaled and exhaled with anxiety as she climbed the stairs that led to the porch of the house.
Her hands were almost on the door when it opened, and a beautiful pregnant woman appeared with a smile.
“I am sorry. I was wondering if this is the house of Randy Green”, Alice rushed to explain. The woman’s smile lessened, but she nodded. “Oh, I am sorry again. My name is Alice, and I used to be a friend to Jamie, Randy’s brother.”
Alice stretched her hand in greeting, and she noticed an expression of understanding on the woman’s face before she took it. The pregnant woman finally spoke.
“Come in. My name is Petra, and I am Randy’s wife, but he is not at home as of present”, Alice nodded as she went into the house. The house might look small and old from the outside but the way Randy and his wife had arranged their home, it looks exquisite on the inside. There were a lot of artistic paintings and porcelains arranged in the hallway that led to the sitting room and the sitting room itself was laden with beautiful colouring and flowers. Alice noticed the flowerpot beside the passage that obviously leads to the inner rooms was designed with patterns that suggested the face of a happy child and remarked that it was beautiful. This put the smile back on Randy’s wife.
“Thanks”, she said, “I made that when I realised I was pregnant. It reminds me every day how much our child will be happy as he grows.”
“How many months?” Alice asked.
“Pardon?”
“Your pregnancy. How many months until delivery?”
“Oh! The Doc said two more months and I should have Michael tearing the roofs of our house with his healthy baby cries.” The young woman stared at Alice briefly and asked suddenly.“You said you knew Jamie. Might I ask how you knew him?”
Petra’s question came all of a sudden and Alice’s only response was a raised eyebrow as she thought of how to explain to the sweet young lady that she was a friend to Jamie and that she is currently a prime suspect, or the only suspect, in his murder. Randy’s wife saved Alice the trouble as she spoke again.
“You see, Randy and his brother were not that close. They are brothers alright and it was always obvious one loved the other, but they contacted themselves only once in a while. You know, Jamie and I go way back before I married his brother. He was like a brother to me and was very happy for us when he heard I got pregnant. In fact, I was planning to name him Michael’s Godfather.” Petra stopped to stare at Alice again. Alice wanted to ask how Petra went way back with Petra but decided against it. A lot of people who grew up in the town know each other way back. Instead, she asked whether Randy would be back soon.
“Not sure”, his wife said, “he went out with one of his friends, and they took one of the wounded horses with them. It usually takes hours whenever they go out to treat one of the animals.” Petra had stopped staring and kept smiling. “Alice, you can talk to me about Jamie. Besides, I know you are currently being blamed for his death.” Well, the woman is not only beautiful and heavily pregnant, she sure knows things and appears very smart, Alice thought.
Better her than Jamie’s brother, Alice suddenly realised. Well, a brother that had to come a long mile for his brother’s corpse might find it hard to entertain the presence of the woman that is being blamed for his death. But his wife knows about this too and is smiling at me as if I was as close to her as Jamie was. Alice was curious, but she quickly assumed Petra had seen her on the news. She asked Petra how she knew about her involvement in Jamie’s murder case though and was surprised to hear that Jamie had told Petra about her.
“Excuse me? Did you say Jamie spoke about me?”
“Yes, we spoke on the phone some weeks ago and he told me about an Alice Clifford he was getting close to. I guess that was you? Anyways, he spoke highly of you and how you were making waves with your cooking skills. In fact, he asked that I see you while the local TV station featured you, and I did. You were good like he talked about.” Jamie sure had spoken high of her for Petra’s expression was bright as she spoke of what they talked about on the phone. Petra concluded that it seemed Jamie had been happy spending valuable time with Alice, and she had been happy to know that he at least liked one woman.
“Well, Jamie is dead now and you are in the news.” Petra finally said. “I don’t believe you did it anyways. You both like each other and with the kind of love I have for Randy, I understand no woman would kill the man she has gotten used to…”
Alice had to cut her short. “Petra, I came here to find clues to who could have wanted Jamie dead. And yes, I didn’t kill him. Can you tell me anything about Jamie or anything about his past that might point me to the right direction?” This didn’t shock Petra, but she was quiet for some time. Alice thought the woman had nothing else to say and was already deciding to excuse herself and leave when Petra stood up lazily and spoke.
“Jamie was a good man. Trust me; he had no enemies that I know of. Hell, he had no enemies at all. He was always as right as a trivet and worked himself hard to become a journalist. If you ask me, I would say if he was poisoned and you weren’t responsible, then no one from his past poisoned him either. He had few friends, well, I cannot say much about how many he might have made since he met you, Alice.”
Alice stood up as Petra started moving. Petra started walking towards the hallway and said, “I am sorry, I wish I can help, but the truth is what it is. It is almost time for my siesta and Doc advised that I shouldn’t stress myself.” She stopped when she was almost at the door and faced Alice, “If only both of you had had enough time, I am sure Jamie would have found the right time to express how much he likes you”.
At the door, Alice thanked the nice young woman and left with a good wish towards her safe delivery. Alice walked down the stairs and proceeded slowly towards the car she had driven to Randy’s farm. Few minutes later, on the road, Alice found herself thinking about what Petra had said. The possibility of someone Alice does not know wanting Jamie dead was starting to give way to the possibility that Jamie’s killer is someone both of them had known. What if Jamie had indeed been poisoned by someone he knew through her within the past few weeks they had known each other?
Alice found herself thinking about the possibility that one of her neighbours or new friends had done it. It was no longer secret that many of them do not like her and that some simply were indifferent towards her since that have only known her for the short period she has been in the town. It dawned on Alice that she had started off on the wrong foot. What she needed to do was to find out everything about everyone that was present at that opening.
She had ten guests that day, and all of them had access to the pies the instance it was served on the long table. Only Alice and Jamie had baked them before the morning of that day, and no one else had stayed there with them. Alice stared out of the front glass of her car and saw the sun coming down for the day. It was almost dark, and she was almost home. She drove past her shop and saw the board with the inscription of her business name and sadness overtook her for the tenth time in the day.
She saw some of the shop owners she knew preparing to close for the day and drove past them too.
Alice had only one thought to consider now. She had ten guests that day, and one of them had poisoned Jamie to hurt her. She wanted to know who had done it and why. She started to plan how she was going to learn about everyone and a smile enveloped her face. She knew where to start.
Alice found Kelly the next morning in her store. Kelly Wellington owns
a clothing store that sells fashionable women clothes and common jewellery. Her shop, beside Alice’s, is located at the centre of the street and Kelly had made sure it was one shop no eyes could ever ignore. Situated in front of her store, where no one could ever miss it, is a big poster of her superb model body in a fabulous gown.
There are more than nineteen shops in the store area with different services or goods. The street that housed the whole shops contains only seven blocks in a row but the small street became a very business-oriented commercial area since almost everything you needed could be found there. Alice imagined her trouble would have been over if one of the shops had “Know the Killer of Your Friend in Fifteen Seconds” on its door.
Since the incident, Alice had not been to her new shop. She could give a hundred and fifty reasons why she didn’t apart from the fact that she kept imagining Jamie’s body lying lifeless on the tiles whenever she thought of visiting her pie shop.
Well, today she had eventually convinced herself to open her shop regardless of what she imagines or what people imagine about her or her pie shop. The truth is that not many people would think to patronise her now since someone had died through her pie and pie is the only thing her shop was cut out for.
Remember what you are here for, Alice reminded herself as she dropped her bag on one of the tables in her shops. She switched on the lights and the whole room brightened to reveal dust and lack of care. Alice stared at the spot Jamie laid dead some days back, and a sob started finding its way to her throat.
She ignored any emotional urge to cry and focused on cleaning the shop instead. It was hard not thinking of how bad things were since Jamie’s death.
After an hour’s cleaning, her shop was back to being kept and clean. She rearranged the seats and tables and found herself placing a table over the spot that kept tormenting her mind.
When she was through, a table and a chair was over the area Jamie had a collapse, and this partially helped Alice to get the image of that moment off her head for a while.
She was facing the glass that separates her shop from the sunny street when she noticed someone was hurriedly advancing towards her door. It was Nova.
Nova also makes pastries and owns a pie shop across the street. To Alice, Nova was just a nice older woman who stammers once in a while. Thanks to Kelly’s occasional gossip, Alice knew that Nova had been married once, but her husband had left her.
His excuse was that he couldn’t cope with his frigid wife, but Kelly had quickly added her opinion that it was more of Nova being barren than Nova being a solid rock in the bedroom. Either way, the older woman was already at her door, and Alice smiled as Nova entered her shop.
“Good morning, Nova. Good to see you.” Alice could think of nothing else to start the day than the pretence that she does not know what the older woman might be thinking. But Nova smiled back and took Alice’s hands.
“Oh dear, I am sorry about what you have been through. I couldn’t find you around, and almost everyone here knew nothing about the apartment you stay. It must be hard coming back here.”
Nova’s compassionate words were starting to bring out the tears Alice had been forcing back. “Tell me, how have you been holding up?” The older woman dragged her to one of the chairs and asked her to sit while she kept holding her hands sympathetically.
“It is okay”, Alice could only say, “Everyone think I did it, don’t they?” Alice asked with a straight face and was surprised when Nova returned one too.
“No! Alice, a lot of people in this town only talk and listen to other people talk. It is a daily business in small towns like this one. People feel indifferent about you, and it is only because they know little about the lime pie princess.” Both Nova and Alice smiled at this. “Anyways, I for one do not think you killed Jamie, and trust me, there are others like me. What is the police saying about your involvement? It’s been four days now?”
Five. Alice had been counting the days ever since she had it in mind to find out the killer as soon as possible before the police come back for her. When Morgan left with her, the police had told both of them they would be in touch. An agreement Morgan signed for her was that she wouldn’t leave town. As if Alice would anyways. She wasn’t betting on leaving here until she found a way to prove her innocence.
“The police are almost convinced I did it too. I baked the pie; I served everyone, and a man died after eating it. I am surprised they let me off. It makes me wonder if they lack the last clue to have me in jail forever and releasing me for a time will surely get them exactly what they want.” Alice stood and maintained a confident posture. “I didn’t do it and I will prove it!”
“How do you plan on doing that? Maybe I can help. I love solving puzzles!” Nova was sure happily curious, but Alice wasn’t sure the woman could help with anything.
“I don’t know”, she said instead, “I guess the police will come up with the right plan to get the killer. They always do. I have seen movies where this happens all the time.” Alice noticed Nova was disappointed, but the older woman seems to remember something and raised an index finger.
“Of course. Uhm…I came here to see if you are up for business again. I have to say, I could use your help with a little customer demand.”
This caught Alice’s attention, and she sat beside Nova back.
“What demand?”
“Well, the Walkers are back to their small estate after their seven years travels upcountry. The oldest wants to stage a ball and invited the whole town. I spoke with a few people and heard he might want to order for lots of pies. Well, I made a few advertising move, and I was offered the job.
The only complication…is…is that Molly, one of the Walkers, had heard about your lime pies, she ordered specifically that I make those.”
Alice cannot say she is shocked. Someone had asked for her pies after everything that had happened? But Alice focused on Nova’s words and thought she heard something about a recipe.
“Pardon?”
“I was wondering if you could give me the whole recipe for the pie. I have tried baking one and have some people examine the taste in comparison to yours. You must know that making it exactly like yours has been unsuccessful. The Walkers’ ball is in four days!”
“Oh Nova, there is no complete recipe beyond what I wrote on the tabloid. I am sure anyone could bake those pies if they got every item on the list and mixed the right quantity. You know what, how about I help with the pies whenever you want to start with them. And I promise no one will know I helped. You will surely take the whole credit, the whole money too.”
At first, it seems Nova was not happy to hear that there was no extra item on the recipe but when Alice suggested that she secretly help, a smile crossed the older woman’s face.
“You would do that? Oh, perfect! Per…just perfect. I will definitely come back to discuss when to start and the numbers we are making!”
Alice was happy to know someone is at least willing to accept her help with her business. Making those lime pies is something Alice suddenly was good at. Nova stood and walked towards the door. She thanked Alice and promised to be back. When the older woman had left, Alice sighed and stared at the chairs and tables she had carefully rearranged this morning.
It felt good that something encouraging had at least walked through her door this morning. She thought about finding the killer again and remembered why she had come to the store area in the first place. The woman next door would sure be glad to tell her everything she needed to know. All Alice needed to do was to start a conversation.
Kelly was in her shop as Alice had expected. Anyone who knew Kelly for an hour would know she was a woman of exquisite taste. The floors of her shop are designed with fine marble and her shelves and clothing stands speak of finely shaped woods and plastics. Kelly glanced up from a book she was reading as Alice stepped into her shop and gasped.
Kelly Wellington, it would seem was sincerely surprised to see Alice in her shop.
�
�Alice! Where have you been since Jamie’s uhm…?” She paused for a while and later decided against finishing the question. “I called your cell yesterday. It went on voicemail. You okay?” She beckoned Alice to come sit in one of her cushions. Alice nodded and took a seat.
“I cannot say I haven’t been home brooding. And I haven’t checked my voicemails. Anything particular you were looking for me for?” Alice feigned ignorance.
“Well, the police have been asking a lot of questions regarding that night. Even Big Joe got on their radar. We wanted to be sure they weren’t laying their heavy fingers on you.” Kelly smiled. Alice wanted to tell Kelly to stop pretending to care about her since Alice definitely knew the opinion Kelly had shared with the police but Alice had come to the woman with a different plan in mind.
“Regarding that…” Alice started “I told them everything I knew and they let me out. They are still continuing the investigation though and the killer will be caught soon.” A sullen ‘ugh’ escaped Kelly’s lips but Alice continued. “And I was hoping you could remind me the names of everyone present that night. I have a list here with me but I wanted to be sure I made no mistake when I said I told the police everything. The day happened so fast I might have missed something. I don’t want to forget anything when and if I am being questioned again.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 59
