Apple Assassination

by Stacey Alabaster

  “Are you an idiot?” she hissed. “Because Claudia poisoned Valerie when she thought Valerie was only flirting with Blake. What do you think she has planned for the woman he married?”

  “But I’m not—” I stopped. I wasn’t actually married to Blake…but Claudia thought I was.

  I suddenly felt my head go dizzy and I felt like I was going to throw up. I tried to stand up, but my legs collapsed underneath me. On the other side of the room, Claudia had locked the door. The sugary sweet smile had been replaced by a bitter one.

  “She needs to go to a hospital!” Blake screamed. “Claudia, you’ve got to let us out of here. Right now!”

  “No way,” Claudia said. “You and your wife are not going anywhere until you give me an explanation.”

  “Rachael and I are not actually married,” he spat. I was feeling less and less tethered to the world. I was about to slip out of consciousness. “It was all a rouse to get inside Extreme Employment so we could get information on Valerie’s killer.”

  Claudia turned white. “And did you get that information?”

  “We sure did, Claudia. You are going to prison for a long time,” Blake said.

  Claudia shook her head. “Not if no one ever finds out. And you three are not going anywhere.”

  “Please,” I said, laying on the ground and groaning, clutching at my stomach. “I need to get to a doctor.”

  Pippa stood up and tried a different approach. “How could you do this to Alex? Are you just going to let him take the blame for this? The one who baked the pie. You must have known he would look guilty. Don’t you have any feelings for him at all?”

  Claudia laughed in an eerie way. “I originally bought that pie for myself,” Claudia said, turning back to Blake. “And do you know what would have happened to me if I’d eaten it, Blake? I would have wound up dead.”

  “What are you talking about?” Blake asked.

  She shook her head and crossed her arms. “Your favorite little cook Alex uses corn syrup in his baking.”

  Blake’s face turned as red as a fire truck.

  “Oh, you didn’t know? I just got lucky I guess. Feeding it to Valerie instead. Better her than me. ”

  I was still writhing on the ground, but I could hear Blake pleading with her. “Please, Claudia,” he said gently. “I do want to be with you. Why do you think I made up that story about Rachael and I being married?”

  She folded her arms in a furious manner. “You already told me. To sneak in here.”

  Blake shook his head and placed a hand on her shoulder. “No, Claud. It was to make you jealous. Just like you were trying to make me jealous by dating Alex.”

  Claudia’s face brightened. “Really?”

  Pippa was whispering to me, telling me to stay awake and that we’d get to a hospital soon. “Alex must have found out about Claudia and Blake. And he must have known about her allergy. He was going to let his girlfriend eat the pie with the corn syrup, even though he knew she was allergic!”

  I nodded. I understood—why was she trying to explain this all to me? Couldn’t she see that I was laying on the floor, just about dying?

  I was about to slip away, but I could see Claudia staring up at him with mooning eyes. She was actually buying it. “And did it work?” she asked gently. “Were you jealous?”

  “Yes, it did,” Blake replied softly. “I don’t even want Alex working for me anymore. I am going to fire him for his betrayal.”

  “You are?” She wrapped her arms around his neck.

  Blake nodded. “But you have to promise me one thing, Claudia. If we are going to be together, you have to let Rachael and Pippa free. Okay?”

  She threw herself fully into his arms. If I hadn’t been laying on the floor, about to sink into unconsciousness, I would have rolled my eyes. “I would do anything for you, Blake.” She ran to her desk and unlocked a drawer on the right before pulling out the key pass to open the door.

  Blake was still playing along. “Don’t worry, babe. They aren’t going to tell anyone. I will make certain of that,” he said, grabbing her hand and leading her outside. He glanced at Pippa and I over her shoulder. “GO,” he mouthed.

  Pippa placed one of my arms over her shoulder and dragged me toward the exit.

  And after that, everything went black.

  Epilogue

  The entire room seemed to be covered in a thick layer of fog. It was all white. There was the buzzing of machines and I could feel a needle sticking into my arm.

  Right. I’d been poisoned.

  There was a familiar face sitting by the side of my bed. “So,” he said, sheepishly. “Do you know how cyanide is made?”

  I shook my head a little. “No,” I groaned.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Using apples.”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head. I couldn’t deal with the irony right then. Blake cleared his throat and told me that after I’d blacked out, he’d taken Claudia directly to the police station.

  “How are you feeling, anyway?” Blake asked.

  I nodded and tried to sit up, but the effort took too much strength.

  “You only swallowed a tiny bit of the poison,” he said. “But they’re keeping you over night anyway.”

  I groaned and sunk back into the bed.

  Blake was looking sorry for himself. “Maybe I was too hard on everyone. I haven’t been a very good employer.”

  “You can’t blame yourself for what happened to Valerie,” I said. “And you can’t blame yourself for what Alex did either.”

  “Yeah, but I can blame myself for the fact that both my employees wanted to leave. And that they lied to me, took shortcuts, and stole.”

  Blake was in the clear now. But even though I knew he wasn’t a killer, I had to double-check something before I made the offer. “Alex is fired, right?” It was too bad that criminal charges couldn’t be pressed. I certainly hoped he’d never be able to work in a kitchen again.

  Blake nodded.

  “But if we work together, Blake, you’ve got to learn to compromise a little. You can’t have the employees under so much stress that they are stealing apples in the middle of the night.”

  He smiled at me. “Deal.”

  The Bakery Bunch was back on. Just with one less stepchild.

  “You should come and recuperate at the farm,” Pippa said as I climbed into the passenger seat of her truck. “The fresh air will do you the world of good.”

  “Pippa, your farm is only ten minutes from my house. How much different can the air quality possibly be?”

  “I want you to see the new security I’ve got for the apple orchard,” she said, starting the engine. “With the paper printing their apology this week, I am going to be back in business by next week. So you’re coming with me, whether you like it or not.”

  “All right then,” I said, before falling into a nap for the rest of the journey. When I next opened my eyes, I was staring up at Pippa’s new ‘security.’ I’d expected there to be barbed wire and security cameras, but it was just a stick figure, hanging from a branch with an old basketball for a head.

  “Pippa, that’s a scarecrow. It will scare the birds away, and that’s about it.”

  She climbed out of the truck and helped me inside, smiling to herself.

  “Well, hopefully that’s all we have to worry about from now on.”

  Thanks for reading Apple Assassination. I hope you enjoyed the story. If you did, it would be awesome if you left a review for me on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

  If you would like to know about future cozy mysteries by me and the other authors at Fairfield Publishing, make sure to sign up for our Cozy Mystery Newsletter. We will send you our FREE Cozy Mystery Starter Library just for signing up. All the details are on the next page.

  Lastly, at the very end of the book, I have included a couple previews of books by friends and fellow authors at Fairfield Publishing. First is a preview of Up in Smoke by Shannon VanBergen - it’s a fun (and funny) story about v
igilante grannies in a retirement home who solve crimes and stir up all kinds of trouble. Second is a preview of Croissants and Corruption by Danielle Collins - it’s the first story in the popular Margot Durand Cozy Mystery series. I really hope you like the samples. If you do, both books are available on Amazon.

  Get Up in Smoke here:

  amazon.com/dp/B06XHKYRRX

  Get Croissants and Corruption here:

  amazon.com/dp/B06X9C3G5T/

  FAIRFIELD COZY MYSTERY NEWSLETTER

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  After you sign up to get your Free Starter Library, turn the page and check out the free previews :)

  Preview: Up in Smoke

  I could feel my hair puffing up like cotton candy in the humidity as I stepped outside the Miami airport. I pushed a sticky strand from my face, and I wished for a minute that it were a cheerful pink instead of dirty blond, just to complete the illusion.

  “Thank you so much for picking me up from the airport.” I smiled at the sprightly old lady I was struggling to keep up with. “But why did you say my grandmother couldn’t pick me up?”

  “I didn’t say.” She turned and gave me a toothy grin—clearly none of them original—and winked. “I parked over here.”

  When we got to her car, she opened the trunk and threw in the sign she had been holding when she met me in baggage claim. The letters were done in gold glitter glue and she had drawn flowers with markers all around the edges. My name “Nikki Rae Parker” flashed when the sun reflected off of them, temporarily blinding me.

  “I can tell you put a lot of work into that sign.” I carefully put my luggage to the side of it, making sure not to touch her sign—partially because I didn’t want to crush it and partially because it didn’t look like the glue had dried yet.

  “Well, your grandmother didn’t give me much time to make it. I only had about ten minutes.” She glanced at the sign proudly before closing the trunk. She looked me in the eyes. “Let’s get on the road. We can chit chat in the car.”

  With that, she climbed in and clicked on her seat belt. As I got in, she was applying a thick coat of bright red lipstick while looking in the rearview mirror. “Gotta look sharp in case we get pulled over.” She winked again, her heavily wrinkled eyelid looking like it thought about staying closed before it sprung back up again.

  I thought about her words for a moment. She must get pulled over a lot, I thought. Poor old lady. I could picture her going ten miles an hour while the rest of Miami flew by her.

  “Better buckle up.” She pinched her lips together before blotting them slightly on a tissue. She smiled at me and for a moment, I was jealous of her pouty lips, every line filled in by layers and layers of red.

  I did as I was told and buckled my seat belt before I sunk down into her caramel leather seats. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally, from the trip. I closed my eyes and tried to forget my troubles, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly to give all my worry and fear ample time to escape my body. For the first time since I had made the decision to come here, I felt at peace. Unfortunately, it was short-lived.

  The sound of squealing tires filled the air and my eyes flung open to see this old lady zigzagging through the parking garage. She took the turns without hitting the brakes, hugging each curve like a racecar driver. When we exited the garage and turned onto the street, she broke out in laughter. “That’s my favorite part!”

  I tugged my seat belt to make sure it was on tight. This was not going to be the relaxing drive I had thought it would be.

  We hit the highway and I felt like I was in an arcade game. She wove in and out of traffic at a speed I was sure matched her old age.

  “Ya know, the older I get the worse other people drive.” She took one hand off the wheel and started to rummage through her purse, which sat between us.

  “Um, can I help you with something?” My nerves were starting to get the best of me as her eyes were focused more on her purse than the road.

  “Oh no, I’ve got it. I’m sure it’s in here somewhere.” She dug a little more, pulling out a package of AA batteries and then a ham sandwich.

  Brake lights lit up in front of us and I screamed, bracing myself for impact. The old woman glanced up and pulled the car to the left in a quick jerk before returning to her purse. Horns blared from behind us.

  “There it is!” She pulled out a package of wintergreen Life Savers. “Do you want one?”

  “No, thank you.” I could barely get the words out.

  “I learned a long time ago that it was easier if I just drove and did my thing instead of worrying about what all the other drivers were doing. It’s easier for them to get out of my way instead of me getting out of theirs. My reflexes aren’t what they used to be.” She popped a mint in her mouth and smiled. “I love wintergreen. I don’t know why peppermint is more popular. Peppermint is so stuffy; wintergreen is fun.”

  She seemed to get in a groove with her driving and soon my grip was loosening on the sides of the seat, the blood slowly returning to my knuckles. Suddenly I realized I hadn’t asked her name.

  “I was so confused when you picked me up from the airport instead of my Grandma Dean that I never asked your name.”

  She didn’t respond, just kept her eyes on the road with a steely look on her face. I was happy to see her finally being serious about driving, so I turned to look out the window. “It’s beautiful here,” I said after a few minutes of silence. I turned to look at her again and noticed that she was still focused straight ahead. I stared at her for a moment and realized she never blinked. Panic rose through my chest.

  “Ma’am!” I shouted as I leaned forward to take the wheel. “Are you okay?”

  She suddenly sprung to action, screaming and jerking the wheel to the left. Her screaming caused me to scream and I grabbed the wheel and pulled it to the right, trying to get us back in our lane. We continued to scream until the car stopped teetering and settled down to a nice hum on the road.

  “Are you trying to kill us?” The woman’s voice was hoarse and she seemed out of breath.

  “I tried to talk to you and you didn’t answer!” I practically shouted. “I thought you had a heart attack or something!”

  “You almost gave me one!” She flashed me a dirty look. “And you made me swallow my mint. You’re lucky I didn’t choke to death!”

  “I’m sorry.” As I said the words, I noticed my heart was beating in my ears. “I really thought something had happened to you.”

  She was quiet for a moment. “Well, to be honest with you, I did doze off for a moment.” She looked at me, pride spreading across her face. “I sleep with my eyes open. Do you know anyone who can do that?”

  Before I could answer, she was telling me about her friend Delores who “claimed” she could sleep with her eyes open but, as it turned out, just slept with one eye half-open because she had a stroke and it wouldn’t close all the way.

  I sat there in silence before saying a quick prayer. My hands resumed their spot around the seat cushion and I could feel the blood draining from my knuckles yet again.

  “So what was it you tried to talk to me about before you nearly killed us?”

  I swallowed hard, trying to push away the irritation that fought to come out.

  “I asked you what your name was.” I stared at her and decided right then that I wouldn’t take my eyes off of her for the rest of the trip. I would make sure she stayed awake, even if it meant talking to her the entire time.

  “Oh yes! My name is Hattie Sue Miller,” she said with a bit of arrogance. She glanced at me. “My father used to own most of this land.” She motioned to either side of us. “Until he sold it and made a fortune.” She gave me a look and dropped her voice to a whisper as she raised one eyebrow. “Of course we
don’t talk about money. That would be inappropriate.” She said that last part like I had just asked her when she had last had sex. I felt ashamed until I realized I had never asked her about her money; I had simply asked her name. This woman was a nut. Didn’t Grandma Dean have any other friends she could’ve sent to get me?

  For the next hour or so, I asked her all kinds of questions to keep her awake—none of them about money or anything I thought might lead to money. If what she told me was true, she had a very interesting upbringing. She claimed to be related to Julia Tuttle, the woman who founded Miami. Her stories of how she got a railroad company to agree to build tracks there were fascinating. It wasn’t until she told me she was also related to Michael Jackson that I started to question how true her stories were.

  “We’re almost there! Geraldine will be so happy to see you. You’re all she’s talked about the last two weeks.” She pulled into a street lined with palm trees. “You’re going to love it here.” She smiled as she drove. “I’ve lived here a long time. It’s far enough away from the city that you don’t have all that hullaballoo, but big enough that you can eat at a different restaurant every day for a month.”

  When we entered the downtown area, heavy gray smoke hung in the air, and the road was blocked by a fire truck and two police cars.

  “Oh no! I think there might have been a fire!” I leaned forward in my seat, trying to get a better look.

  “Of course there was a fire!” Hattie huffed like I was an idiot. “That’s why Geraldine sent me to get you!”

  “What?! Is she okay?” I scanned the crowd and saw her immediately. She was easy to spot, even at our distance.

  “Oh yes. She’s fine. Her shop went up in flames as she was headed out the door. She got the call from a neighboring store owner and called me right away to go get you. Honestly, I barely had time to make you a sign.” She acted like Grandma Dean had really put her in a bad position, leaving her only minutes to get my name on a piece of poster board.