The Sweet Baked Mystery Series - Books 1-6

by Katherine Hayton

  “Wendy?” This time, Holly waved her hand in front of the woman’s face, hoping that would provoke a reaction.

  Nothing.

  “I’m just going to search through your pockets and see if I can find some keys to the house, okay?” Holly hesitated before leaning over and starting to pay Wendy down. “I won’t hurt you,” she added when the woman flinched back from her touch.

  “Here we go.” Holly felt the outline of keys in Wendy’s pocket. “I’m just going to reach in and pull them out. I’ll be quick.”

  She grabbed the keyring and tugged it free, accidentally snagging another set that fell onto the ground.

  Car keys. Holly bent over and picked them up, then noticed that the set of housekeys already had a vehicle key and fob on it.

  A spare set?

  The emblem for William’s car manufacturer was on the second keyring.

  “Wendy? What are you doing with William’s keys?”

  The woman gave a gasp, jerking as she inhaled as though just that small breath was a physical battle.

  “Never mind. I’ll open the house and set the kitchen up, okay? I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Holly retraced her steps to the house and breathed a sigh of relief as the key slid into the door and turned. She opened the home up, letting out a blast of stuffy air in the process. The light in the sky was falling into twilight, so Holly flicked on the lights as she walked through, searching for the kitchen.

  “There we are.” Holly crossed over to the sink and filled up the kettle before switching it on. In the cupboard above she found a tray of different teas. A cup of Rooibos would go down nicely, and not have caffeine to keep either Holly or Wendy awake at night. When everything was set up, the kettle boiled, and the tea steeping, Holly turned to head back to the car.

  Wendy was standing in the middle of the entranceway, hands hanging limply at her sides.

  “I hid them,” she whispered.

  Holly walked closer to Wendy, touching her hand then pulling back when the woman jerked away.

  “What did you take?”

  “I took the car keys. I told William that I’d lost them. I was scared that if I handed them over and let Sheila follow Derek to the hospital, she’d finish him off.”

  A wave of gooseflesh traveled down the length of Holly’s arms like the world’s tiniest Mexican wave.

  “You knew that Sheila tried to kill Derek?”

  Wendy nodded, a tear slipping off the bottom eyelid to splash down on the floor. “She told me when I took her upstairs. I never thought… I didn’t want to believe…”

  As Wendy trailed off, Holly nodded. What mother would want to believe her child—her own flesh and blood—would be capable of such a heartless act.

  “I already suspected. That’s why I hid the keys and told the paramedic to take the body. He said that Sheila could travel beside Derek to the hospital, but there was no way I could allow that to happen.”

  “That was a courageous thing to do,” Holly said. The words may have sounded like appeasement, but they were meant from the heart. What an awful decision to have to make. Holly couldn’t imagine the pain that the actions must have caused Wendy.

  “I wanted to make sure he was safe.”

  “You did.” Holly stepped forward and grasped Wendy’s hands between her own, and never mind if the woman winced at the touch. “Derek is safely in the hospital, and the staff thinks that he’ll make a full recovery.”

  “She stole the plants out of my garden. I always told Sheila, ‘You stay away from those. They’re dangerous.’ Here I thought she never listened to me.”

  Wendy broke down then, sobs tearing out of her chest like they were flesh being ripped from her bones. As Holly pulled her into a hug, her own tears started. The fear from earlier in the day was still there, lingering on like a ghostly stain.

  Behind them, the kettle whistled to a stop. Holly pulled Wendy through to the kitchen and sat her down on a chair. “Wait there. I’ll fetch you a cup of tea with far too much sugar. I’ll feel better when I know you’re not about to go back into shock.”

  She poured the tea and stirred four heaping teaspoons of sugar into it. When Holly had been little, that was pretty much the only medicine she and Crystal ever received. If she had something far worse, then maybe half a tab of aspirin might be doled out under watchful supervision. but for the most part it was tea. Tea. And more Tea.

  For the moment, it did the trick. The warm brew seemed to loosen up the knots in Wendy’s shoulders and dull down the trembling in her hands. As the color came back into her cheeks, Holly’s body edged into calmness. Perhaps that was the tea working its magic on her, too.

  “I made so many mistakes with Sheila growing up,” Wendy said after she was well into her third cup. “I know that everybody thinks they’re ruining their child—there are so many ways it can all go wrong—but I think now I have conclusive proof that I was right.”

  Holly felt her irritation start to rise. “I don’t believe that. Sure, if you’d beaten her black and blue each night, or left her alone for days on end I could believe that your behavior might have turned her a bit screwy, but…”

  For a second, Holly’s voice trailed off and her frown deepened. “You didn’t do anything like that, did you?” she whispered.

  Wendy’s eyes stretched wide, and she gave a bark of laughter. “No. I did not!”

  “Good. Just checking. Where was I?”

  “Somewhere between insisting that everything was my daughter’s fault and having the nerve to outright imply that I might ever have treated her that badly.”

  Holly rubbed her upper lip with her finger to hide the ghost of a smile. That sounded more like Wendy—a bit on the defensive side but also ready to fight her corner.

  “Well, as I was saying, unless you were the sort of mother who turns up on Sixty Minutes, I think you can put aside your claims to be the sole cause of everything that’s ever gone wrong with your daughter. I know that Sheila’s young, but not so much that the consequences of her actions are beyond understanding.”

  “But she did it because of my complaints,” Wendy protested. “For years, I’ve whined on about how the people in town don’t like me or respect our family. I told her that Brian Masters was by far my worst critic.” Her finger started to wag in Holly’s face. “There’s no way that I’ll be drawn on that last point. Sheila picked on that poor boy Derek for one reason only—because of me.”

  “Did you whine on about how you wished they were dead?”

  “Probably.” Wendy shook her head, even as she agreed with the question. “I’m sure I’ve blurted out that I wished Brian Masters was wiped off the face of the earth, more than once.”

  “I’ve done that too,” Holly said. “That man is an arrogant pain in the behind. Does that mean I’m also responsible for Sheila making the bizarre and awful decision to try to murder her husband?”

  “Don’t be silly.”

  “Ditto.”

  Wendy crossed her arms over her chest and bent forward as if in pain. She rocked back and forth a few times, shaking her head. “I don’t understand how she thought that doing something like that was okay.”

  “I don’t know, Wendy. Whatever the reason, it was her decision, and she should bear the consequences alone. If you want to do something to lessen some of the harm done, then I would approach Arnold’s family and offer to help them in whatever way they need. They’re the ones hurt most by your daughter’s actions. Derek had a lucky escape.”

  At the mention of Derek’s name, Wendy burst into tears. “Do you know what Sheila said to me, down at the station?”

  Holly shook her head. She was shocked that the sergeant had given the two women the opportunity to speak together at all.

  As if she’d read her mind, Wendy said, “I slipped back past Sergeant Matthewson when he was showing me out and ran back to the cell. Sheila didn’t even look upset. When I told her she’d better pray that Derek didn’t die, she just laughed and s
aid she’d be better off if he did. That way she could use his money to pay for better lawyers and get off the charges.” Wendy shook her head. “I feel like I never knew my daughter. Not at all.”

  Although Holly tried to put herself in Wendy’s place, she didn’t have the capacity. It was beyond her imagination to think of what it would be like just to have children. To have a daughter who grew up and turned into a complete stranger? It would take a stronger mind than Holly’s to imagine how that scenario felt.

  Suddenly, she remembered what Aidan had told her. At the thought of him, a smile played across her lips, and then Holly looked again into Wendy’s stricken face, and solemnity pulled her back across the line.

  “If it helps, Sheila wouldn’t get any money, even if her plan had worked out perfectly.”

  Wendy looked up, a suspicious frown carving lines on either side of her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “The marriage license was left behind in the church. Even though Minister Woodfield performed the wedding ceremony, there was no legal marriage. Not until they both put their signatures on that piece of paper. Whether or not Derek died, the circumstances would be precisely the same. Sheila never stood to get a penny of his money.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  As Holly drove the car down the long bends of the road back home, she thought about the dreadful situation. The day had done nothing to perk up her ideas about marriage. Instead of thinking back to her and Simon, though, the disaster today would always be the first to spring to mind when people spoke of their wedding day.

  Crystal had waited up, even though the yawn she sported spoke volumes about how tired she was. “At least I got a start on the day tomorrow,” she said after giving Holly a hug. “I’ve got two batches of cupcakes ready and cooling on the counter.”

  Holly tipped her head back and groaned. Often, working at the bakery didn’t actually feel much like work. The prospect of tomorrow, however, was about as welcome as the thought of punching in at a factory or dropping down into the mines.

  “Go to bed,” Crystal said, pushing at Holly’s shoulder. “Once you clock up a few hours’ sleep, you’ll be as right as rain.”

  “As welcome as a good sleep would feel right about now, I think you’re placing too much faith in its restorative facilities.” Holly peered at the clock over the kitchen counter. “Especially since, by my reckoning, I’m only giving it five hours to do its job.”

  “So, you can nap during the slow times.” Crystal laughed and shook her head. “It’s like living with you as a teenager all over again. We can’t afford to close the bakery for two days running. We could only do that yesterday because the commission was so high.”

  At that, Holly’s eyes snapped wide open. “About that?”

  “Yes? What about that?” Crystal stared at her sister for a few moments, then tipped her head back and groaned again, even louder. “Let me guess. As if it wasn’t bad enough that her daughter tried to kill the poor boy that I’m sponsoring through AA, you don’t want to charge her for all the effort that we put into today.”

  “To be fair,” Holly said, shifting from one foot to the other, “we really didn’t provide the full service, after all. Not to mention, I accused her of murder when she was completely innocent.”

  Crystal rolled her eyes. “Not completely, if you ask me. She did cover for her daughter, so she must have had a fair idea of what was going on.”

  “I don’t think she could let herself believe it,” Holly said. “And by the time she knew anything, it was far too late for Arnold or Derek.” She shivered. “I’m just grateful that the timings worked out so well with the paramedic. I hate to think what would have happened if he’d just been a few minutes later.”

  “Don’t think about it then, that’s my advice.” When Holly started to open her mouth, Crystal put a finger up to her sister’s lips. “No. No more talking tonight and no more thinking. Get to bed”—she leaned over and gave Holly a peck on the cheek—“and I’ll see you in the morning.”

  As Holly slipped between the sheets, she expected to fall asleep the moment her eyes closed. Instead, a replay of events from the day spun through her mind, the same scenes scrolling over and over.

  The look on Wendy’s face when she said, “It’s all my fault.” The instinctive drive to protect her daughter leading her first to confess to crimes she didn’t commit and then accept the blame for the decisions her daughter had made alone. Esmerelda stepping in front of Elvira to protect her great-niece from attack.

  Holly had never really wanted children. Once upon a time, she and Simon had given it a lackluster try, both of them sighing with relief when the effort bore no fruit. Now, however, she stroked her abdomen and wondered how it would feel to swell up like a bowling ball, to explore the movement, kicks, and punches as another human being moved inside her.

  Foolish thoughts for a silly old woman. Holly turned over onto her other side to stare blankly at a different wall. Even if she wanted to have kids now, she’d left it too late. With no husband, no partner, and a biological clock that she couldn’t ever remember ticking, it wasn’t something that could happen just from her wishing it into being.

  Besides, did she really want that dreadful love if it could cause the pain that Wendy was no doubt going through tonight? Even putting aside that, how must Brian feel as he waited to hear news about whether his son would live or die?

  And yet… Wouldn’t that pain and worry be counterbalanced by love?

  Holly kicked out at the covers as her legs became tangled. She’d started off with only enough time to get five hours sleep and she’d easily worn that down to four by now. Maybe even three.

  Children. At her age. What was she thinking?

  She turned over again, looking out the window at the rising moon. As the rays bathed her face in silver, Holly closed her eyes again and fell into a dream where babies giggled, and children ran around her feet.

  “Tell me again,” Meggie said. Her face was red with laughter from the events that Holly had recalled. While purposely shying away from the dreadful things that had occurred, Holly managed to package up the rest of the day for her friend’s general amusement.

  “I feel cheated that I didn’t get to attend and see all that!” Meggie dried her eyes and reached for the cup of coffee that she’d let get cold. “There I was, stuck in my hair salon still getting ladies ready for the big day, and the news comes on the radio about the roads being blocked. If I’d have known that such a bundle of misfortune waited on the other side, I’d have made more of an effort to get across.”

  “Just be glad that you missed out on some of it,” Holly said. “It wasn’t all fun and games, as I’m sure you read in the paper this morning.”

  “I’m trying to avoid thinking about that bit,” Meggie admitted. “I can hardly get my head around how somebody could do such an awful thing. I guess that’s the last we’ll see Wendy around the township.”

  “Why?” Holly was genuinely taken aback. Sure, she knew that the townspeople would gossip—the tidbit was too juicy to refrain—but she hadn’t expected Meggie to be leading the charge.

  As the kind woman read her face, her own expression changed to one of horror. “I don’t mean that I’d say or believe anything horrible about her. Goodness knows she’s had a bad run of luck and that was before all this happened. I just meant, with the gossip…”

  Meggie waved her hand about in the air. The color rose in her cheeks as her voice trailed off.

  “Well, I, for one, am not going to let that happen.” Holly smacked her hands together for emphasis. “Wendy will always be welcome in this shop and anyone who tries to say otherwise, they’re invited to stay away.”

  “Okay.” Meggie stood and strode over to the counter, sticking her hand out. “I pledge allegiance to the same cause. Though you know if I turned ladies away for a bit of gossip, then my seats would stay empty all day long.”

  Holly shook her friend’s hand, sealing the pact. “I don’t mind the
ir gossiping, just so long as they’re not vocal enough to drive her out of town and we step in to correct any misinformation being spread.”

  “Oh, I’m always happy to correct my customers. I’m what my elder ladies use instead of Google.” Meggie waved goodbye and walked out of the store as a trio of youngsters walked in.

  Holly recognized all three of them. Elvira walked straight up to the counter while Winter and Midnight sat at the one table inside the bakery, ignoring the vast choice of options outside.

  “Could I have a strawberry surprise, a chocolate delight, and a banana bonanza?” Elvira asked. Her eyes were circled with so much dark makeup that would raise a chill if Holly ran into her on a dark night. “Also, did that lady have a coffee?”

  “That lady did but that lady wasn’t a customer, she was lending me a hand.” Not strictly true, but Meggie had helped Holly out so many times that it felt true even when it wasn’t. “Does your auntie let you drink coffee?”

  Elvira raised her nose up into the air, a gesture probably meant to indicate it was none of Holly’s business but the turn of her head and purse of her mouth mimicked Esmerelda so closely that Holly had to hide a laugh.

  “There’s a café opposite if you want to have a coffee,” Holly said, pointing across the courtyard to Bean There, Done That. “They’re delicious.”

  The teenager turned to look then shook her head. “I’d rather stay in here. My cousin is coming to pick me up in half an hour, and I don’t want to confuse him any more than necessary. He gets distracted at the best of times.”

  “Fair enough. Take a seat, and I’ll bring your order over.” Holly busied herself with picking up the cakes with tongs and arranging them on plates, so she didn’t have to query why her cheeks were flushing red, or her heart was beating faster.

  “There you go,” she said a minute later as she placed the cupcakes down in front of the girls. The strawberry she put in front of Elvira, the chocolate in front of Midnight and the banana in front of Winter.

  “Hey,” Elvira said with a frown. “How did you know who wanted what?”