The Sweet Baked Mystery Series - Books 1-6

by Katherine Hayton

  “I don’t usually,” Holly said. “But I just had a bit of food in my hand, so it seemed mean not to. Why aren’t you sitting on the sofa, resting like you’ve been told to?”

  Efficiently having turned the tables on her sister, Holly hounded her good-naturedly back to the lounge.

  Just as they were finishing up, a knock came at the door.

  “I’ll get it,” Holly said, pointing a warning finger at her sister. “You need to stay lying down.”

  “It’ll just be Alec. You’ll give him a fright, you always do.”

  “What?” Holly was almost at the door, but now she turned around, feeling a tiny stab of hurt. “Why?”

  “Because you teased him mercilessly the first time he came around here, that’s why. Now, he gets all flustered.”

  “He’s a grown man.” Holly nodded decisively as she continued to the door. “I’m sure he can handle himself.”

  But it wasn’t Alec. Holly’s smile died away as she saw the grave expression on Sergeant Matthewson’s face.

  “I need to talk to you and your sister.” The sergeant preemptively stepped through the door. “There’s been a grave allegation made.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Holly’s pulse began to race. “An accusation? Against whom? For what?”

  “I need Crystal to come down to the station,” Matthewson said, ignoring Holly’s questions. That along sent an extra spike of adrenaline into her system. For all that the man annoyed her, he usually took care to explain everything that was happening.

  “My sister just got out of the hospital,” Holly said in a low voice, wondering how much of the conversation Crystal was privy to already. “Surely, you can’t expect her to make the trip into the station in her condition.”

  “The doctor was perfectly happy to let me interview Bethany the same way, and she hadn’t been discharged. I doubt very much whether Dr. Allende would have a different opinion about your sister.” After a minute, the sergeant sighed and shook his head. “Although, of course, you’re welcome to ask.”

  “I’m fine to come down,” Crystal said from the doorway. From the flush on her face and the way her body sagged against the door frame, Holly thought that her sister was stretching the truth a little.

  “Thank you, Miss Waterston. I have the car here to drive you down.”

  Crystal seemed relieved, and Holly nodded in gratitude. However, when she tried to follow along behind the duo, the sergeant turned around to stop her. “I only need to speak to Crystal,” he said kindly, “but it might take some time. Why don’t you just stay at home and I’ll return her when we’re done?”

  As Holly opened her mouth to protest, Crystal added her agreement. “It’ll be easier for me if I know you’re relaxing at home rather than sitting out in the lobby, worrying yourself to death. Besides, you need to ring Alec and tell him what’s happening.”

  Holly agreed and did as the two were asking. However, after a half hour of trying to sit still and concentrate on the television program she was meant to be watching, and instead was staring straight through, she made the decision to go back to the surgery center again.

  Although Holly told herself as she put on her coat that she was going there to thank them for the extra effort the staff had put in to nurse her sister back to health, in reality, she knew that it was to pump them for information. Something had changed to make it necessary to drag her ill sister out of her comfortable home.

  If she could, Holly was determined to find out what that change was.

  At the last minute, Holly decided to bring along a freshly baked tray of cupcakes as a peace offering. Or a bribe. She could whip up another batch that night—there was still plenty of time to get things organized for tomorrow.

  They paved her reentry into the surgery center with more ease than Holly could have hoped. Bethany’s parents were happy to accept one each, and then returned for another when she urged them to.

  Between them, Richard—also stealing one for Zach—Dr. Allende and the nurse, the offering quickly diminished down to a few lone soldiers.

  “Are you getting close to checking out?” Holly asked Bethany who beamed and nodded in return.

  “I was beginning to think they’d never let me out of this place.” When her mother shot her a tired expression, Bethany hung her head forward a little. “Sorry. They’ve been very kind to take care of me as well as they did, but I’d still much rather be at home.”

  “I’m sure that everybody would feel the same way in your position.” Holly leaned back in her chair, trying to appear casual. “Have your fellow patients said anything more about what happened? Crystal said that you were a bit murky on the details.”

  At that, Bethany’s eyes opened wide, and she nodded. “I completely lost the memory of the meal for a few days. It’s only been this morning when I found out Zach was here, that I started to piece things back together.”

  “What can you remember about the day?” When Bethany shot a frown her way, Holly hastened to add, “I’m just wondering for my sister. She’s had a few memory slips herself. It’s a frightening thing, to lose track when you’ve had such a traumatizing experience.”

  “Hey now,” Bethany’s mother said, leaning over to pat her daughter on the knee. She’d been into the hospital room and retrieved all of Bethany’s belongings. Now, she sent her husband an expression crammed full of meaning. “I think it’s best we don’t rehash those events. My daughter’s already had to go through it once with the police officer, I think that should be enough for today.”

  Holly’s cheeks flamed with sudden heat. “Of course. I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t need to be sorry,” Bethany said. “I don’t mind talking about it now that I’ve started to remember. Besides, Mom, if I hadn’t talked about the day then everybody would still be blaming Samuel.”

  For a second, Holly’s breath caught in her throat. “You don’t think Samuel poisoned you?”

  “Oh, no.” Bethany waved her parents outside, with a breezy assertion that she’d be there in a minute. “It couldn’t have been Samuel who did it because we were all watching him just before we sat down to eat.”

  “He was standing on the opposite side of the road, staring at you.” Holly put the thoughts together in her mind while Bethany smiled and nodded.

  “That’s right. Did Crystal say that, as well?”

  Holly shrugged. “She must have. So you don’t think there was any way that he could’ve gotten into the restaurant earlier to do it?”

  Bethany burst out laughing and caught Richard’s eye. He joined in with a chuckle.

  “What?” Holly asked, gazing from one to the other. “What’s so funny?”

  “Zach would never let anybody near his kitchen.” Richard broke off to utter another small burst of laughter, rubbing at the side of his face with one large hand. “He didn’t even like to let the wait staff in there. They had to stand at the service counter, and woe betide them if he found them on the other side.”

  “Yeah,” Bethany agreed, looking like she’d been on the wrong side herself once or twice. “Even when it got busy enough to need a sous chef, Zach could barely stand to have the man in there. I think he fired him and worked all hours just so he could go back to doing everything alone.”

  Holly shared a quick glance with Richard. She thought from his conversation the other night and his expression now that it was a different reason that drove that particular decision, even if the end result had suited Zach’s personality. Staff weren’t cheap. If you were searching to cut costs by working harder, there was always someone who could be let go.

  Then Holly frowned. “If Samuel didn’t have anything to do with the restaurant poisoning, then why on earth would he break in here to kill Will?”

  There was a quick rap on the glass window next to the door. Bethany’s mother pointed to her watch and raised her eyebrows. Bethany giggled. “Sorry, I’d better go.”

  As she walked out the door, Holly could see how frail t
he girl still was. No wonder her parents were anxious to get her home and away from the distressing questions of a virtual stranger.

  “It’s going to be funny when this is all over,” Richard said.

  Holly turned around and glanced at him, curious. He patted the chair next to him, and she joined him, helping herself to one of the last cupcakes.

  “They must be good if the cook eats them.”

  “Of course.” Holly took a large bite. “From the Waterstons, you only ever get the best.”

  He laughed and then sighed. “We’ve all been sitting here and keeping each other company for a couple of days. In that time, we probably talked more than we normally do with our loved ones. But as soon as Zach checks out, that’ll be the last patient gone and that bond will go away with it.”

  “It’s not going to be all bad,” Holly said. “We didn’t know each other before, now we do. It’s not as though I’m going to snub you on the street, we just won’t be hanging out together much.”

  “Yeah.” Richard leaned back against the wall.

  “In the spirit of closeness, what else happened here? My sister was just dragged down to the station by Sergeant Matthewson, and he wouldn’t tell me why. Just hinted ominously at allegations being made.”

  Richard snorted. “That man needs a lesson in civility. I haven’t had many dealings with the police since I was a teenager, but the model of the pleasant small-town cop seems to be broken.”

  “I’ve had far too many dealings with him of late. I thought it was just me he’d started to dislike.”

  “Nah.” Richard's shoulder bumped her. “You’re not so special. Maybe his missus isn’t keeping the bed warm at home or something.”

  Holly couldn’t think of whether the sergeant was married. In all her dealings with Matthewson, it hadn’t been something that warranted asking, or been appropriate.

  “Anyway,” Richard said, stretching and shifting on the chair to make himself comfier. “To answer your question, I think he’s scrambling. Ominous overtones aside, they had a perfect suspect, and all anyone here has done for the last day is chip away at the evidence.”

  Holly smiled. “Good old Bethany, waking up and remembering stuff that put a spanner in the works.”

  “Not just that, although it didn’t help.” Richard leaned over and snagged the last cupcake, a reward for the long conversation perhaps. He slowly peeled down the fancy paper from the outside, then just held it, ready to bite. “Dr. Allende pointed out that Samuel couldn’t have fallen the way he did if he were breaking out of here. She took him through the actions piece by piece until even the sergeant had to admit he was breaking in.”

  At that, Holly’s mouth dropped open. “We’d just chased him out of the building, and he skipped around the side and broke back in? What on earth is going on with that kid?”

  “Hardly a kid.”

  “Depends on your definition, I suppose. He’s only scraping twenty, if that.”

  “Twenty-five, if he’s a day.” Richard shrugged. “Why don’t you go and ask him yourself if you’re that curious? Now that he’s not suspect number one, the police don’t have a guard on him twenty-four seven. The doctor popped him into Bethany and Susan’s old room since that’s actually set up for patients.”

  After a moment’s consideration, Holly did precisely that.

  Samuel was sitting up in bed, his face half hidden by an enormous bruise that spread out from a giant egg in the center of his forehead. It made Holly think of her childhood, where even the slightest head bump delivered a large lump that would fade away over the long afternoon. Samuel’s didn’t seem like it was going anywhere, though. When he tilted his head further into the light, and she saw the full extent of the bruising, Holly winced.

  “It’s not that bad. Just a knock on the head.”

  “More like a knock on the entire face,” Holly retorted. “I can barely see your eyes for the bruising.”

  “It’ll heal. What are you after?”

  Holly dragged a chair from the side of the room and plonked herself down. “I guess I’m just curious. Why were you trying to break in through the back window here, when I’d just seen you leave?”

  Samuel turned his battered face to the wall. “I had my reasons.”

  “Obviously, or you wouldn’t look like you’d just gone four rounds with David Tua.” Holly’s voice and posture softened as she leaned closer in to the young man. “You can tell me to go away and I will, or just tell me to shut up about it, and I won’t say another word.” She sighed and laid her hand on the bed covers close to his, not touching. “But to me, you seem like a man who’s desperately searching for something and isn’t getting it. I don’t know if I can help with that—I probably can’t—but I’m a good listener if you want to get something off your chest.”

  For a long time, Samuel lay staring at the wall. Slowly, his shoulders relaxed from their stiff posture, and he moved around to face Holly. “I’ve lived in Christchurch my whole life. That’s where my parents and all my extended family were from. It was great. Growing up, I had sixteen cousins all within cycling distance from home—like a ready-made playgroup. I always knew exactly where I fitted in.”

  Samuel sighed, and his eyes wandered toward the wall again. His hand inched out from under the covers and gripped hold of Holly’s, clutching tight. She rested her free hand on top and patted him gently, unsure of where his story was leading but happy to stay there until he reached the end.

  “When I turned twenty-one, almost four years ago to the day, my parents told me that I wasn’t part of the family after all. They adopted me as a baby when the IVF treatment wasn’t working. My mom called me her magic charm because the next round, they got my sister and then my brother another two rounds after that.”

  Dr. Allende’s footsteps came along the corridor, and Holly wanted to scream at her to stay away. She glanced at the doorway from the corner of her eye and saw the doctor standing there, peering in. With a nod, the doctor moved on, and Holly’s full attention shifted back to Samuel.

  Meggie had told her the story. Enough of it for Holly to piece it together a second before Samuel managed to say the words. A girl that had gone to the same school as Meggie but left at fifteen to have a baby. A scandal until something juicier came along to talk about.

  Samuel turned back to face her, and Holly saw the truth of it staring her in the face. The shape of his almond eyes, the curl of his dark hair. Even the stubborn set of his jaw—jutting out slightly as though inviting the world to a fight. On his mother, the features were muted, softer, but still recognizably the same.

  “I just wanted to talk to the woman, but she won’t let me in the house. She won’t meet me for a coffee and conversation. She won’t sit down with me at her work.”

  All the frustrations that must have been building up over the long months of rejection culminated in a cry that tore at Holly’s heartstrings.

  “Susan Bruntwell is my mother.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The chairs in the lobby of the police station were already full up. Holly waited beside the reception desk as the young constable on duty ran to fetch her another. Unlike the atmosphere in the waiting room of the surgery center, here no one wanted to talk.

  Kendra sat nearest to the door. When the PC bustled back with a collapsible director’s chair—probably left out back from some long-ago work picnic—Holly maneuvered herself close to the woman.

  “How are you holding up?” she asked in a soft voice. “Do you need anything?”

  After a small jerk away in response to being talked to, Kendra shook her head. “I’m waiting for the all clear to take Will’s body home. Unless you can somehow help with that?” Her expression turned hopeful, then retreated back into sadness as Holly shook her head.

  “I can help out with travel arrangements, though, if you want someone to call up the airlines and organize things. Or, I could talk to the hotel you’re staying at if you need to stay longer?”

  “
I might need help with the airline,” Kendra said, nodding. “Once Will is back with me. I hate this country.”

  Holly stiffened in her chair, automatically defensive, then she shook her head. Of course, Kendra wouldn’t like it here. She’d come over on holiday, and someone killed her husband. What’s to like?

  Then Kendra continued, “Even when I was telling Will that I didn’t want to stay here, he kept insisting on investing in that place.” She waved her hand in the direction of the hot pools. “Until he got into the argument with that horrible cook, I thought he was just going to buy the place outright. I stood there gagging because of the smell of rotten eggs and Will is making arrangements that would tie us here forever.” Kendra stopped talking as she dissolved into a pool of tears. “Then that horrible man killed him.”

  Holly raised her hand, intending to give Kendra a comforting rub on the back, then hesitated. Would it be welcome? When the woman’s shoulders shook with the force of her crying, Holly ignored her fears and went ahead, stroking her rhythmically while making soothing noises. Kendra turned and pressed the side of her wet face against Holly’s chest.

  “I just want to go home.”

  “Of course, you do.” Holly pulled the woman even closer, beginning to rock back and forth. “You have family back home?”

  Kendra nodded, Holly feeling the gesture against her skin, rather than seeing it. “My parents and my oma are there, waiting. They’ll be devastated, as well!”

  “Miss Waterston.” Matthewson appeared out of nowhere and stood before Holly. “I thought I told you to stay home.”

  Crystal was right behind him, appearing tired and pale. With her arms tied up with comforting Kendra, Holly had to settle for giving her sister a nod.

  “I was at home, then I thought of something that might be pertinent to the investigation. I can always go back home and wait for you to come to me if you prefer.”

  Matthewson squeezed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and finger. “Are you okay waiting out here for a few minutes, Crystal?” Matthewson took his hand away to shoot an inquiring glance at Holly’s sister. Crystal nodded. “Fine. Come through, Miss Waterston, and let’s get this over with.”