Gluten-Free Murder

by P. D. Workman

  Vic looked puzzled. She shook her head slowly, not believing it.

  “What did you say to her?” Officer Piper asked.

  “I made a comment about her being there to see someone.” Erin looked over at Vic, reminding her. “They’d been having a very close conversation and they hugged goodbye. Gema didn’t see us until afterward; she didn’t know she’d been seen until then. And then I brought up how Angela knew everyone’s secrets and used those secrets to get her own way…”

  Piper chuckled. Vic was a little slower to understand; then her face got a little pink.

  “She thought you were telling her that you knew her secret now so you were going to blackmail her?”

  “Yes. She thought I was just being subtle, in front of you. But I wasn’t being subtle… I was completely clueless that I’d just seen her…”

  “You think they were lovers?”

  Erin shook her head. “Good guess, but I don’t think so. I didn’t think anything of it when she said the girl was her cousin, because they had similar features. So, I’m thinking she wasn’t a cousin, but maybe… her daughter.”

  “But I thought Gema only had boys. Isn’t that what she said?”

  “That’s what she said. She and Roger only had boys. She must have had the girl out of wedlock.”

  “And she went to church with those other Christian women. If they knew she’d had another child…”

  “She was willing to kill to keep that secret from them.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “Did she say anything to you about Mrs. Plaint’s murder?” Piper inquired.

  Erin sighed. She put her fingers over her ears for a minute, as if she could block out the words that kept replaying in her mind.

  “She said it was so easy. That’s what she kept saying. Angela’s allergy made it a piece of cake.” Erin laughed humorlessly at her turn of phrase. “Gema went down to the basement. She knew Angela would go down there because… she liked to snoop into other people’s business. She’d go down there to have a look around. She’d go up to the kitchen, if the door was left unlocked, have a snoop around there too. But Angela never got that far. Because Gema was waiting for her.”

  “How would she poison Mrs. Plaint?” Piper asked. “How would she convince Mrs. Plaint to eat something that had been contaminated? I’d be pretty suspicious of someone who laid in wait for me and then offered me food. Especially if I was deathly allergic to something like wheat.”

  “She didn’t convince Angela to eat anything.” Erin swallowed her disgust. It was difficult to describe what Gema had told her. Gema had thought that Erin would die in that passageway. She was injured, already drifting in an out of consciousness, bound hand and foot. It wouldn’t take her long to die in the cold, rarefied air of the deeper caves. No one would find Erin. She would die of exposure, if not from the head injury. “She was so proud of herself. She just put a little flour in her hand. And when Angela got close, blew it in her face. Angela gasped and breathed it in, straight into her lungs.”

  “And that is as effective as eating it?” Piper asked.

  “Probably more so. She took Angela’s purse when she started to react, saying that she would use an autoinjector to save her… and then just stole the autoinjectors. Wiped Angela’s face so that she didn’t have flour all over it. And walked back out. Left her there to die.”

  “What a horrible thing to do!” Vic said, outraged.

  Erin nodded her head the tiniest bit. “I agree.”

  Officer Piper was writing notes in his notepad and didn’t look up at them for a couple of minutes. Then he became aware of their attention and raised his brows.

  “Now will you tell us what happened with Gema?” Erin asked. “Did you arrest her? Did she confess?”

  Piper shifted to get more comfortable in his seat, giving Erin a little smile that showed the dimple in his cheek. “Vic was pretty quick about getting help, once she took a closer look around and saw the bloody shovel on the ground. She drove out to the highway and called me as soon as she could get a signal. I scrambled whatever help I could get from Bald Eagle Falls and the city and got out there. Gema was still in the caves when we got there. I arrested her in connection with your assault and kidnapping when she came out… but she wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t say where you were. Said that we were just mistaken; she was out there to explore just like any other day. If something had happened to you, she had no idea what it was. And the cave system is pretty complex… you can have several parties down there and never run into each other. We couldn’t prove what she had done unless we could find you, get you out safely, and get your story.”

  “But now you can. Because I’m telling you she’s the one who hit me and put me down there.”

  He nodded. “We’ll proceed with formal charges. For that and Mrs. Plaint’s murder.”

  “Thank goodness,” Vic breathed.

  “Thank you,” Erin told them. “Without both of you, I don’t think I would ever have gotten out of there alive.”

  “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have been there in the first place,” Vic said miserably.

  “Don’t talk like that. If it hadn’t been there, it would have been somewhere else. Maybe somewhere that she had to make sure I was dead right off, instead of just leaving me to die, which seems to be her first preference.”

  “She’s got a point,” Piper agreed. “As far as my part in this… I credit Willie and K9.” The dog raised his head to look at his master, then put it back down when he decided he wasn’t being addressed. “Willie knows those caves better than anyone and it was K9’s nose that led us to you.”

  “I was so glad to see him,” Erin said. “Or hear him.” She was feeling drowsy again. Pleasantly tired though, rather than the crushing fatigue that had made her feel like she was never going to wake up again if she let herself succumb. She closed her eyes. “I thought he was a coyote.”

  “Well, be glad he wasn’t. A coyote would have made short work of you in that condition.”

  “I am glad.”

  “I heard you,” Piper said. “Just that one time. I took a turn down the wrong passage and I heard you call out.”

  “Your light disappeared. I was scared.”

  “Without you shouting, I don’t know if we would have found you in time. So you saved yourself too.”

  “Hmm.”

  “I prayed that they would find you,” Vic confessed.

  Erin opened her eyes and looked at her employee. Vic ducked her head and swept her hair back over one shoulder, getting red.

  “Well, I did,” she said. “I know you don’t believe in God, so I’m sorry, I know I probably shouldn’t have, but… it was the only thing I could do.”

  “You can pray about whatever you like,” Erin said. “Even if it’s me. I would never dream of interfering.”

  “Okay.” Vic scratched her jaw, still looking embarrassed, but giving Erin a smile. “Thanks.”

  “I thought you and God weren’t on good terms, though.”

  “Well… that doesn’t stop him from answering when I call. And I’ve decided… to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe just because people say that he hates me because of something they say is a sin… maybe he doesn’t.”

  Erin shrugged. “You’re okay in my book.”

  “Thanks.” Vic looked down again. “I’m going to go look for coffee. Anyone else want one?”

  “Sure,” Piper agreed. “I could really use something.”

  Vic looked pleased. She left the room, giving Erin a wink.

  After she was gone, Erin looked at Piper. “I guess you must be pretty tired too. You must have been searching for me for hours.”

  He nodded. “I’ll get some sleep before long.” He gazed at the door, checking to be sure Vic was gone. “So, your young friend… she seems to be coming to terms with her… transition?”

  Erin’s jaw dropped. “How long have you known about that?”

  “It is my job to investigate a suspect�
��s background.”

  “But you never said… she was so worried about you finding out.”

  “She obviously didn’t want me to know, so I didn’t feel the need to mention it. Once I figured out her identity, I knew why her aunt had turned her away. I wasn’t sure if you knew…”

  “No, not to start with. It took a few days.”

  They both just looked at each other for a minute.

  “Well, she had the luck to find the two people in town who could keep a secret,” Piper said. He straightened up and squared his shoulders. “She has to understand, though… she won’t be able to keep her past a secret forever. Not here. It’s easier for you, because you’re from further away. But Vic’s from just a couple of towns away. It won’t be long before people start to figure it out.”

  “I know.” Erin’s eyes were drooping. She wasn’t going to be able to stay awake much longer. She blinked, trying to stay awake just a few more minutes. “And for the record, I’m not trying to hide anything about my past. Just… trying to start fresh.”

  #

  It was a few days before Erin was up to reopening the bakery. Even then, she had to allow Vic to help with more than usual. The girl was happy to have more of a hand in planning the specials and helping to pull them together. Erin needed to rest often. A high stool beside the counter helped her to keep up even when she was sitting, mixing batters and filling cupcake wrappers or forming cookies. When they opened, Erin found one of the wrought iron chairs normally at the customer tables waiting for her behind the register so that she could rest between orders. It wasn’t quite tall enough for her to use while using the register and the stool in the kitchen was too tall, but she could at least stop to rest there as she needed to, and Vic could run a few of the orders through the till. Vic was flourishing under the increased responsibilities, looking for all the world like she was the owner of the shop rather than Erin.

  “Will you be staying, then?” Mary Lou asked, as Erin rang up her order for a blueberry muffin. “I was worried that with all this business and your injuries, that you would decide Bald Eagle Falls wasn’t for you.”

  Erin leaned against the counter. Was it madness to consider staying after she had been attacked and kidnapped? She had been the suspect in a murder investigation and she had nearly been killed. Was that really the kind of place she wanted to live? She could sell the business and the house and whatever else was of value in Clementine’s house, move to another small town where the cost of living wasn’t too high and start over.

  But she wasn’t sure she was ready to do that. She glanced over at Vic, who was watching her for her answer. Erin had an employee to consider, now her friend and housemate. And there was Orange Blossom. From what Erin understood, cats didn’t like moving. He could run away at the first opportunity, if she tried to take him somewhere else and start anew.

  “No,” she said to Mary Lou. “I don’t think I’m going anywhere. I like Bald Eagle Falls and Clementine’s old shop… it’s one of the only places I have any childhood memories of.”

  Mary Lou nodded, smiling. “I’m glad,” she said. “Don’t let all of this nastiness scare you off. There really are a lot of nice people here, once you get to know us.”

  “Besides,” Vic contributed. “What are the chances that you would ever get caught in the middle of another murder in a little place like Bald Eagle Falls?”

  Epilogue

  ERIN TOOK HER TIME locking up.

  The lock turned into place with a satisfying snick. All the locks had been replaced and she knew where all the keys were. There was no one squatting there at night and no ghost.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Officer Piper’s question brought her back to the present. She turned to look at him, giving him and K9 a smile.

  “Hi. On your rounds?”

  “You should be home by now. Your doctor won’t like you doing so much on your first day.”

  Erin was tired after a long day of work, but was still feeling steady on her feet.

  “I’m on my way, as you can see. Vic’s already gone to get dinner on, so I’m going to eat and hit the sack. If that meets with your approval.”

  “Are you okay to drive?” He nodded to the Challenger.

  “Yes. The doctor said as long as I’m not feeling dizzy or lightheaded, I can drive.”

  “Okay.”

  He watched her walk from the door to her car.

  “I’m okay, Officer Piper.” She assured him, aware that he was watching her gait to make sure that she wasn’t impaired by her concussion.

  “Terry,” he corrected.

  A smile tugged at the corners of Erin’s mouth. She ducked her head a little, self-conscious. He had called her Erin during the search, but he couldn’t very well have called ‘Miss Price’ for hours on end. It just wasn’t done that way.

  “Terry. You don’t need to worry about me. Thanks to you I’m just fine.”

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  Preview of Dairy-Free Death

  ORANGE BLOSSOM NO LONGER howled at night, as long as Erin or Vic were around and the cat could snuggle with one of the two young women when they went to bed. Usually with Erin, but sometimes the traitorous feline chose Erin’s eighteen-year-old housemate instead, for no discernible reason. Erin would lie awake, waiting for him to come in, and he simply wouldn’t come. She would fall asleep eventually, but those were always restless nights. She got up very early to go to the bakery, and it was those mornings that it was hardest and felt like just throwing in the towel and finding some line of work that kept office hours of nine to five, so she could be a normal person instead of a zombie by evening and an early bird chasing down the worm in the morning.

  Orange Blossom no longer kept the neighbors awake, but he still knew how to use his voice, and as soon as Erin stepped into the kitchen following her wake-up shower, he would immediately be winding himself around her ankles, meowing chattily, making sure she couldn’t forget to feed him.

  Vic laughed as she followed Erin and Orange Blossom into the kitchen. She hit the button on the coffee maker while Erin tripped three times over Orange Blossom trying to get to his food bin in the pantry. Victoria’s pink flannel jammies were wrinkled and she smelled warmly of sweat. Her hair was as blond as Erin’s hair was dark
. Erin’s hair was not quite black, but as dark a brown as you could get without being black.

  “Why does he still act like that?” Vic asked. “Like he’s starving to death and you might forget to feed him? I mean, he’s been fed every day. It’s a routine now. Shouldn’t he be settling down about it?”

  Despite the facts that there was only ten years between them and Vic topped her by a head, Erin often felt like she was in a parental role to Vic. She emerged from the pantry with her scoop of kibble and filled Orange Blossom’s bowl. Her kitten plunged his head into the bowl that was still too big for him, wolfing the food hungrily, making little yipping noises between gulps.

  “I don’t know, Vic. I assume that sooner or later… he’ll at least dial it back a bit. But you have to remember, he’s still just a kitten, and he was a starving street cat when I brought him home.”

  She remembered how hard he had been to catch, how skittish and slippery he had been. No problem with that now. He was always underfoot. And when she did pick him up, he immediately snuggled against her, purring warmly and bumping the top of his head under her chin. No one would ever guess that he’d once been such a frightened stray.

  The first cup of coffee was done and Vic handed it to Erin before putting the second pod in.

  “You look tired this morning,” she offered by way of explanation, since the first cup was almost always for her.

  “I didn’t sleep very well. Where was that silly cat? In with you?”

  “Yes.” Vic giggled. “Right under my chin. Kept getting fur up my nose whenever either of us moved.”

  Erin shook her head and took a sip of the coffee. It was still too hot to drink, so she held it there, smelling the rich, dark comforting scent. The smell itself was almost as good as the caffeine boost. She sighed and put it down on the counter to cool for a few minutes.