Well, you died for nothing Jamie, a voice in her head was starting to tell her she was dying. The only opening in the dark room that allowed the passage of air was the tiny opening beneath the door. The room seems to be an abandoned store that has no window. Nova had chosen the perfect room to kill me but how did Simon get her? As if Simon read her mind, his hand finally found her hand and he held it softly.
“I am sorry Alice. I could have reported this to the police but I am a felon on the run and I finally found somewhere no one knows anything about me. I have lived her happily, with Harry, for a long time. Being involved in the case would have gotten me the attention I do not need. Somehow, Nova had found out about this and kept singing it into my ears to keep my mouth shut after Jamie died. She knew I wasn’t stupid, I knew Jamie died after eating her pie…and today…today, I confronted her at the hall and promised to tell everyone what she had done. I don’t know how she did it but one moment she convinced me to walk down the hall so we could talk about it, then the next moment, I was in this god forsaken room.”
Simon ended his last sentence with a sneeze and Alice noticed his grip was becoming loose. She was starting to feel dizzy and felt her legs failing her. She reached out her hands for Simon and touched space. She fell sideways and hit solid wall.
The images on her head were becoming hazy. The day she met Jamie at the over-head bridge went by and it was replaced with his body lifeless on the floor.
Then quickly, she remembered that Nova had come to ask for her recipe before she offered to help with her order, then it was her who ransacked her home looking for it. A revelation came to Alice before she fell unconscious. Nova is planning to poison someone again with my cake tonight!
Suddenly, the door opened and a voice shouted her name. It was Officer Ray. The bright light directed towards the room blinded Alice but she knew she could recognise the voice that had interrogated her for days anytime.
Hands took her off the floor and a plastic tube was placed over her nose. Alice felt pain in her lungs as oxygen rushed into it. She pointed towards the hall that was becoming visible as she was carried up the stairs that led to the room Nova had locked her.
Then she pointed towards the room down the stairs and tried to mutter the words, “No…vaa….Nova….Sim…Sim…Sim”.
The last thing she saw before darkness took her again was Morgan’s worried face and Big Joe holding a dead dog in his hands.
EPILOGUE
Few days later, Alice took in the sight of her shop quite well as she opened it in the morning. She inspected the way she had designed the profile of the lime shop and smiled. She no longer imagined Jamie’s dead body on the floor. She suddenly realised that she couldn’t really place her finger on the spot his body had fell. A lot had happened since the Walkers’ ball and right now Alice was ready to start all over again.
Jamie had been her bedrock then but now, Alice suddenly realised he was more than that. He was her saviour and the only person that had loved her genuinely. She was going to make everything work in order to honour his sacrifice for her. He didn’t know the pie was poisoned but he had eaten it just to make her opening as perfect as they had both planned it.
When Alice woke up in the hospital the next morning, the attending nurse had explained to her that she had been locked in a compartment that housed little or no oxygen at all. The nurse expressed surprise that Alice had survived more than five minutes in the room, especially since she shared the available oxygen with another person. The estimated suffocation should have been in a minute or two. It was then Alice realised Simon had controlled his breath in order that Alice might get more dose to survival. Why do people make sacrifices for me, I don’t deserve it! Alice wept.
The police came in the morning too. Officer Ray and Officer Bill came in with Morgan and explained what had happened at the ball. Officer Ray explained that from the day the results on the tested pies’ plate had come back to them, some things were just not adding up. The rest of the pies had large doses of lime and just unnoticeable spice of orange, but the one Jamie had consumed was the opposite. The pie Jamie took was completely orange pie and Officer Bill had come up with the theory that someone else had brought in another pie that night. That’s true, Alice thought, my pies was special for its complete lime and a drop of orange flavour. I am sure no one ever thought of that!
“But when you insisted that all the pies consumed that night was yours, it got us more confused”, Officer Bill explained “We had to release you to continue our investigations but no one was giving useful information. Nova was top on the suspect list though. When you mentioned that your recipe might have been what the person that ransacked your room was after, our best bet was Nova! But we had to be sure. She was the only one with good knowledge about your business. So we kept tabs on her.”
Surprisingly, Big Joe had been helping the police with their investigation. His window could see everything that went on in Nova’s house and the police have been using his house as their stakeout for almost seven days. Officer Ray explained that they had found out that Nova had been inquiring about poisons from Mary which they suspected was part of her move to find the perfect one to use. So, Mary had just been keen on keeping her affair secret and nothing more, she didn’t even know Nora was gaining horrible knowledge from her! Alice thought.
Big Joe had been asked to watch over Alice throughout the night of the ball and he must have been really good at it for Alice was very sure she had not caught sight of him at the Walkers’ house at all. Officer Ray eventually explained that one of Big Joe’s dogs had found its way to a pie and had eaten it before the guests entertained themselves with it. When the dog started to shriek and choke, Big Joe had gotten distracted and didn’t know what happened to Alice. Officer Ray and Officer Bill with a unit from the station had been lurking in the neighbourhood with suspicions that Nova would make a move again that evening. They rushed in the moment Big Joe called them on his cell but Alice was nowhere to be found.
It was Mrs Greenheart who told the Officers that Alice had went down the hall after Nova and Nova had come back alone instead. Nova was arrested by Officer Bill before she escaped through a passage that led through the back door of the Walkers’ house while Officer Ray had arranged for a medical unit in case Alice had been hurt. “They found you just in time.” Morgan finished for Officer Ray.
Morgan had questioned the tactics of the Officers since it involved risking Alice’s life, not to mention the rest of the guests that could have eaten the poisoned pie. But Officer Bill said they had made a calculated guest that Nova would have targeted only one person and that was Henry Walker. Henry Walker was the one that ordered for the pies. In fact, he had wanted Alice’s pie but Nova had convinced him that she and Alice were doing business as partners and it would be no problem getting the exact Alice’s pies he wanted by ordering from her. If she poisoned Henry and told the police Alice had made the pies, then the whole Walkers would have to spend their fortune making sure Alice rots in prison.
“So, we told Henry what could go on that night and warned him to stay off the pies. In fact, his whole family was really glad to help us out. Alice wasn’t the bait, Henry was.” Officer Bill said with his usual raise of an eye brow.
Morgan, satisfied with their reply, asked if there was an investigation against Alice and nodded with satisfaction when Officer Ray told her “not anymore, there isn’t ma’am.” If Alice wasn’t really finding hospital rooms rather uncomfortable, she would have teased Morgana that Officer Ray was hitting on her after the Officers left. Alice left the hospital that same morning after the doctor confirmed that she would be fine if she got enough rest at home. Hell, I only almost suffocated, I didn’t swallow poison!
Alice remembered how fast days had gone by since she got home from the hospital. First, Mrs Greenheart told Alice she was filing for divorce and was over Richard. And a lot of people had called and visited Alice’s home to check up on her. Even Kelly came with Rhoda, Sally and the res
t of the women. They started one gossip or the other the whole time and Sally told Alice that she could begin work on her delivery whenever she was healthy enough. “No rush Alice. I can have them anytime. No rush at all”, Sally said before she left Alice’s apartment.Randy, Jamie’s brother, and his wife Petra had heard about everything on the news and they called the next day, promising to visit.
Alice inspected the shop she had procured with her life savings again that morning and promised herself she wasn’t going to give up. Jamie’s killer is in bars already. I am free to actualise my goals. As if the universe was listening to her, two young men came into her store and Alice smoothed her skirts as she welcomed them with a smile. “Hi, welcome to Alice and Jamie’s Lime Pies, care to order the best pie in town?”
Death By Lemon Meringue
Chapter 1
Sally looked at Mary-Ann. Mary-Ann looked at Sally. “It’s so unusual it could work.” Mary-Ann nibbled her bottom lip. “We’d need to have a chocolate base, which shouldn’t be too hard to create, although it will take a bit of trial and error to get it it combine well with the brownie inside.”
“I just want to do something different.” Sally sighed. “My cakes sell well, and they always have done, but I miss having the time to experiment.”
“So do I.” Their eyes met. “We’re going to have to work on it when the shops are closed, because keeping it a secret that the two of us are working on something new is going to be almost impossible as it is, especially as I’m now a star.” Mary-Ann laughed. Her episode of Debra’s Cooks had been shown and Max was working on getting someone else to take Debra’s place as the hostess, so there was a chance she might even go back to the show. “It has been great for business.”
“You haven’t spoken much about it.”
“My memories aren’t that great, to be honest, because of the whole mess I found myself in the middle of. If it hadn’t been for Alex I’m certain I would have been seen as nothing more than someone who was sticking their nose where it wasn’t wanted, but he had to go telling his old colleagues I was someone who could help with a murder investigation, due to the way people are willing to talk to me.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “I can understand why he did. People are more willing to talk to someone who isn’t a cop. I just… being involved in it all wasn’t something I wanted.”
“Of course it wasn’t.” Sally gently touched Mary-Ann’s arm. “It’s been a bit of a roller coaster for you recently, hasn’t it?”
“Hopefully that’s all over and I can go back to life as normal. Well, as normal as it gets when the two of us are working on a chocolate fudge brownie pie.”
Laughing, Sally nodded. “If it doesn’t work we’ll have to try something else out, but I think it will, especially as everyone loves chocolate. How about we get together tomorrow to put something basic together? Then we can go from there.”
“How badly is it going to work out?”
“If we’re really lucky we might create the perfect chocolate fudge brownie pie the first time we make it.”
“Which we both know isn’t going to happen, because we’ve been cooking for too long to be that hopeful.”
“True.” Sally smiled. “I’m looking forward to it.”
For a few seconds Mary-Ann let her uncertainties fade away. “I am too.” She stood. “I have work to get done, Sal, so as much as I hate to have to kick you out…”
“You aren’t the only one with work to do.” Sally looked at the clock. “Fortunately I don’t have too much prep to get done this morning.”
***
Mary-Ann yawned. “You okay?” Rob studied her and she knew from the look in his eyes he was worried about her. “You haven’t been sleeping well.”
“I’ve had a lot on my mind recently.”
“Do you want to talk about anything?”
“I do and I don’t.” She sighed. “I’m worried about the way people in Green Springs are talking about my relationship with Alex.”
“There’s nothing more than friendship. I know that. You know that. Alex knows that. No one else matters.”
She tired to work out how to word her worries in a way that he’d be able to understand, even though she wasn’t certain he would. “Being someone everyone knows makes it harder for me, and I think it might make things harder for Alex as well.” The two of them hadn’t talked it out, but there were times, and it was becoming more regular, when Alex didn’t seem as comfortable around her as he had. “I don’t want to lose Alex as a friend, Rob.”
“You aren’t going to.”
“Have you spoken to him about this?”
“No, but I will if you’re worried.” Rob took her hand. “Mare, we both love you. Alex views you as the sister he never had, which is something that means he will never cross any boundaries, but the rest of Green Springs don’t know Alex as well as I do. They’ve also been watching far too many television shows.”
“Life is not a soap opera.”
Laughing, he nodded. “Exactly. Just because people in those shows hop from one bed to another doesn’t mean that’s the way things work in real life. I trust you, and I trust Alex.”
“Thank you.”
“You’ve never given me a reason not to trust you. For a little while I was worried, although I’m not certain that’s exactly the right word, because it’s not unheard of for someone to fall for their significant others’ brother. Then I realised I was thinking about things the wrong way. Whenever Alex talked about you it was obvious how much he admired you. I think that comes from standing up for yourself when you were suspected of being a murderer. It’s never been anything more than that, though. He thinks we’re going to end up getting married, and having children, and he’s already talked about how much he’s going to enjoy being an uncle.”
“An uncle?” Mary-Ann raised an eyebrow. “Weddings and children?” She shook her head. “You have told him we’re taking things slowly, right?”
“Yes, I have, but he thinks we’re perfect for each other.”
“I’m going to have to have a long talk with your brother.” For a few seconds her relationship with Kevin was in the forefront of her mind. “I’m not saying he’s wrong, but I’m still dealing with my past, Rob, and marriage isn’t going to happen for a while.”
“I know. He knows. He just… I don’t think he ever believed I’d find the right person.”
“We need to find him someone to love.”
***
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t need a reason to say no to this stupid idea, Mare.” Alex made a face. “I’m not going on a blind date.”
“How else are you going to find a girlfriend?”
“You’re assuming I want a girlfriend.”
“Are you saying you want a boyfriend?”
There was a long silence. “I’m saying I’m not interested in having a relationship with anyone.”
“Is that a right now thing, or a permanent thing?” Mary-Ann studied him, wondering if there was another reason Alex was single. “You can talk to me.”
“Honestly, I don’t know. My work takes up most of my life and I don’t think there’s any woman who’d be willing to put up with that. Not even you.” He laughed. “I’m happy. I have my brother in my life. I have you. I’m beginning to make friends with people who don’t look at me like I’m doing my best to steal my brother’s girlfriend, when we all know that’s not going to happen.”
Nodding, she smiled. “I love you, Alex, but I’m not in love with you. Not the way I am with Rob.”
“Good.” Their eyes met. “I love you too.” He shrugged. “I think people have forgotten there are different kinds of love.”
“It does seem that way.”
“I do appreciate you thinking about me, even though I’m sure it doesn’t seem that way, but right now I don’t think I’m in the right place to be a good boyfriend to anyone.”
“I’m not going to push you into anything you aren’t
ready for. I don’t think you’re right, however. I think you’d make a wonderful boyfriend to anyone who could understand who you really are, although that is going to be the hard part. Finding the right person is always difficult.”
“When the time is right they, whoever they may be, will appear in my life, the way you did in Rob’s.”
“You believe in fate?”
“Fate, and hard work. It’s entirely possible to circumvent some fateful happenings with hard work, but I don’t think that’s the case with death, or love, or friendship. You were lucky when you came into the money you needed to open the pie shop. I still think you would have made it happen, but it would have taken a lot longer, and by then you wouldn’t be the young woman you are now and able to experiment with your cake making friend.”
“People already know.”
“They’ve seen Sally entering your shop through the back door, and everyone’s getting excited. They wanted to know what you’re creating, but they’re patient enough to wait until you’re ready to unveil it, because they know whatever it is will be wonderful.”
Mary-Ann couldn’t help laughing. “It might be wonderful. At the moment all we have is a puddle of goo in a pastry base that’s always far too dry. We both believe we’ll get there, but it’s going to take a while.”
“Take as much time as you need.”
***
Sally looked at Mary-Ann. “Do I dare take it out the oven?”
“If you don’t it will burn and then we won’t know if this is the one.”
Nodding, Sally opened the door, and pulled out what looked to be the pie they’d been trying to make. “We need to let it cool.”
The last one they thought was the one had collapsed after five minutes, which meant it was a case of going back to the drawing board. “The pastry is definitely right. It’s just the filling.” Mary-Ann stared at it, willing it not to collapse, because she was certain they’d got everything right. “Why did we decide this was a good idea?”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 63
