“And catch our clothes or hair on fire? No, thank you.” I looked around. The room was filling fast with smoke. Shouts could be heard outside. Thank God! Someone noticed the fire.
“Piper!” Sam’s shriek ended in a cough. “We can’t stay in here. There’s too much smoke.”
I dashed to the bathroom and soaked two rags with water. “Here, put this on your mouth and nose,” I said handing one to Sam. Maybe binge-watching Chicago Fire will pay off after all.
“God, please, please get us out of this cabin,” Sam prayed through the rag as tears rolled down her face.
My eyes burned from the smoke and were watering as well. “The window!”
“What?”
“The window; we can go out the window,” I pointed to Sam, lowering the rag for a split second so she could understand me.
I knelt to give Sam a boost. I ached for my friend as she gasped in pain, the sharp sill digging into her burnt hand. There was no room to pull a leg over, no chance for a graceful exit. Sam toppled out headfirst and rolled to the side.
My turn. I inhaled through the wet rag and dropped it, holding my breath against the burning in my lungs. I pulled myself up and wriggled my hips through the window. It was a tight squeeze since this tiny cabin came with an equally small window. Sam reached up to me and tugged. We crashed into the ground below and lay there panting. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air.
I heard voices and then felt hands on my elbows. Opening my eyes, I found Chaplain Moore and Roy trying to help Sam and me to our feet.
“Is Alice in there?” Roy’s voice shook. “She said she was meeting you two and I can’t find her; is she still in there?”
“She wasn’t inside,” Sam patted Roy’s arm reassuringly.
“We never saw her,” I told him. Something in the back of my mind bothered me, besides my cabin being set on fire, something small that I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Thank heavens and the Almighty for that. Nobody was harmed.” Chaplain Moore bowed his head. “We will find your wife,” he spoke to Roy.
“Sam’s got a pretty bad burn actually,” I said.
“Let me see that.” Roy turned her wrist over and took in the sight of the angry red skin. “Come on, I’ll take you to get this patched up.” He led her to the golf cart parked on the trail just a few feet away where he pulled out a first aid kit.
Back on my feet, I walked with Chaplain Moore to the front of the cabin.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Officer Campbell sighted in on me right away. “Burning evidence, Miss Rivers?”
I couldn’t respond. My breath caught and my gaze locked onto the charred and blackened front of our cabin. Most of the porch had burnt through, leaving yawning holes. The front wall itself had sustained damage about three-quarters of the way up to the roof but still stood erect.
“Now Officer,” Chaplain Moore’s voice next to me was startling. I hadn’t realized he stayed with me. I turned my face back to the two men.
“I witnessed these young ladies escaping out the back window. You can’t possibly think they could have set the fire on the porch and purposefully trapped themselves inside? That’s preposterous.”
“So, the fire was set?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine any other way for it to start, but the thought still disturbed me. “Why did it burn only part of the front? Oh my gosh!” The niggling feeling finally burst through in a complete thought. “Officer Campbell, we heard someone knock on the door right before we saw the smoke. Was anyone hurt?” I glanced on the porch and bent to look under the porch at the ash and debris on the ground.
A small crowd was gathering. “We didn’t find anyone out front.” Officer Campbell gestured for me to walk with him. “I need to ask you some questions and I’d rather not do it with an audience. You say you heard someone knock?” he asked as we separated ourselves from the group. I watched as Chaplain Moore poked around the burnt areas, moving debris with his shoe, sniffing the wall.
“Mmhmmm,” I mumbled. “Officer, shouldn’t you stop him from contaminating the scene or something?” I didn’t like the idea of one of our top suspects messing around with the evidence from the fire.
“Who? Moore? He’s a licensed fire inspector.”
“I thought he was the chaplain?”
Officer Campbell just nodded. “He is. He also showed me his license as a fire inspector. Worked for a fire department for years before becoming a chaplain, evidently.” Pulling out a notebook, he snapped his fingers at me. “Back to my questions.”
Chapter 24
“You mean Officer Grumpy thinks that whoever knocked on the door set the fire?” Sam asked.
“Yep,” I sipped my lemonade and leaned forward to rest my elbows on the cold work island in the kitchen of the dining cabin. We had one more round of desserts to make, a killer to catch, and no cabin to call home-away-from-home for the rest of the day. “Though I think he was disappointed he couldn’t pin this on me somehow.”
“That reminds me! Griff was going to talk to Mother and see if she knew what was in that little black canister. Call him and let’s see.”
“Right now?” I asked. “Oh no!” I rolled my eyes upward. “I completely forgot to tell you that I slipped up and asked Griff who Kendra was.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t get to…we were interrupted…by Landon!” I snorted remembering the look on Griff’s face.
“No, he didn’t!” Sam slapped the table. At my nod she burst into laughter but sobered quickly. “Uh-oh. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to leave them alone.”
I finished my lemonade and put the glass in the sink. “You want to walk the beach? I think better when I’m moving. I can call Griff while we walk.”
“Yep, let’s go.”
“Hello?” Griff answered on the first ring.
“Hey,” I said. “Sam’s with me; I have you on speaker. She said you were going to see if Deidra knew what was in the canister that the police used as cause to arrest me.”
“Yep. She knew. Piper, I have to tell you something though. You know my mother never does a favor for free.”
I gulped.
“Do you have to go to the country club dinner, too?” Sam leaned over my phone to ask.
“Worse.”
“Why do you people always say worse?” My voice rose an octave as bad feelings unfurled inside of me. “Just tell us, what did your mother require of you?”
“That I escort Kendra to the Independence Day Parade.”
“Good grief!” Sam’s eyes rolled upward. “The woman is diabolical.”
I heard Landon in the background over Griff’s phone saying, “I have really got to meet this woman. The way y’all talk about her, I keep getting flashes of Cruella Deville.”
I snickered. He had a point, though Deidra would rather be dead than have any white in her hair.
“I’m sorry, Piper. This doesn’t change a thing for us, I promise.” Griff’s voice rumbled low.
I swallowed. It could have been worse; I had fully expected Deidra to tell Griff to stay away from me, but I guess the woman knew she had a few limits after all. “It’s fine; it’s done,” I snapped. “Tell us what the canister contained.”
“Cyanide. Arthur Cole was poisoned and the cyanide in the container is a match to what was found on the Peanut Butter Pie and in Arthur Cole’s system.”
“But I’d never seen that container before in my life!”
“That’s the only thing keeping you out of jail right now, besides mother of course; there were none of your prints found on the container. In fact, there were no fingerprints whatsoever.”
“Still, if that cyanide was used by the murderer, then someone is actively trying to set me up.” I shook my head. “Landon, I forgot to ask you, who all sat at your table that could have easily reached the pie with the cyanide?”
“Let me think.” A few seconds of dead air passed before he startled. “Two of the people on my suspect list
timeline sat at that table. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before!”
“Who?” Sam grabbed my wrist and pulled it and my phone closer, listening closely for the names.
“Both Chaplain Moore and Regina sat at the table with us.”
Sam gasped. “Piper, are you sure we should stay here instead of going home? The police can figure this out. With the canister and then the cabin fire, plus Chaplain Moore poking around the burnt areas – it’s just getting really dangerous, you know?”
“What cabin fire?” Griff asked.
By the time we hung up the phone, Griff and Landon were demanding we leave and go home. Landon apologized for getting us involved and told us to forget all of it.
“Let me guess, they’re on the way here?” Sam asked after I gave the guys our answer. No way were we leaving. Our catering contract wasn’t up, plus we had to be close if we were making the killer this nervous.
“Yeah. It’ll be a miracle if Griff doesn’t get multiple speeding tickets heading back out here. I figure we have two, maybe three, hours max before they show up beating their chests and trying to drag us away.” I rolled my eyes and grinned. The mental image of Griff as Tarzan wasn’t too bad.
“Talking about the fire reminded me: I sure hope Roy finds Alice.” Sam interrupted my daydreaming. “I’m worried about her,” she chewed on her bottom lip. “What if, on her way to see us, Alice saw whoever set the fire and they took her?”
“Maybe we should go visit Roy and see if he’s had any news.” I looked at my phone. “We still have forty-five minutes before we need to start baking anyway.”
We turned back to the direction we had come from. The wind, no longer at our backs, whipped sand and salty spray into our faces. I shielded my eyes. “I hope there isn’t another storm coming this weekend.”
“The skies look clear all around,” Sam scanned the horizon. “I don’t think I can take any more excitement of any kind either.”
Mere minutes of walking brought us to the larger cabin that Roy and Alice shared on the property. We had seen his golf cart parked there in passing several times, as the cabin was near the main entrance.
“His golf cart is here,” I pointed. “Maybe Alice is home with him; I think I hear voices.”
The voices grew louder, raised in shouting. Sam cringed. “Maybe we should come back later?”
I stood, hesitating, I really wanted to be sure Alice was okay. At the same time, if they were fighting, they probably would be embarrassed to have an audience.
All of a sudden, the voices stopped. The door of the cabin was thrown open and it was too late to leave. Sam and I gasped. Alice was not the woman who appeared in the doorway.
“Hello!” Regina’s smile stretched wide. “I was just visiting with Roy here about how to fix a leaky faucet. Are you having problems, too?”
“Nope,” Sam squeaked.
Regina narrowed her eyes. Grasping at straws for a plausible reason to be at the maintenance man’s cabin, I blurted, “We just came to see if Alice wanted anymore Watermelon Pie.”
“Oh? I’d love to try some of that.”
“We don’t have it right now. We were checking in so we knew how much to make.”
“Pity.” Regina sniffed. “I’ve got to run. Roy, thank you for your help. I really hate leaky faucets.”
Roy remained silent, only nodding from the doorway and not quite meeting Regina’s gaze.
“We don’t need anymore pie,” Roy said to us as we attempted to squeeze our way inside. The door shut in our faces and I swear Regina smirked.
“I guess I didn’t miss out on anything fabulous after all. Watermelon in a pie does sound strange.” Regina smiled and waved. “Bye ladies.”
Chapter 25
“I wonder where Landon and Griff are,” Sam mused as she licked the last bit of chocolate off her fingers.
Our arrival back at the dining cabin had interrupted the cleaning crew; Alice had not been among them. By now, the dinner crowd had come and gone and there had been no sign of the guys.
“I really expected them back by now,” I agreed. Sam and I sat in lounge chairs up amongst the dunes, staring at the ocean as the sun began its descent toward the waves.
“Did you try calling them?”
“Yes. Straight to voicemail on both phones.”
“Maybe they stopped for gas. Or to eat.” Sam tossed out options but we both knew it didn’t feel right.
“Come on,” I stood up and grabbed my flip flops from beside the chair, holding onto them as I marched back through the cluster of cabins and up the trail.
Sam, God bless her, didn’t even hesitate. After keeping stride with my determined pace in silence, she finally asked. “You want to tell me where we’re going in such a hurry?”
I slowed and she took the opportunity to slide her shoes onto her feet. “We are going to talk to Alice. She has to be home by now, surely.”
Knock, knock, knock.
Nothing. No answer.
“There’s a light on inside,” Sam stood on tiptoe and tried to peer through the gingham curtains.
Bang. Bang. Bang. I beat on the door harder. Come on Roy, Alice, open up. The knot of worry in my stomach was expanding like bread left to rise.
At last, the door opened and Roy hustled us inside. Locking and sliding the bolt behind us, he glanced out the curtained window before turning to us.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” he demanded in a whisper. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble?” Gone was the kind tour guide we met yesterday morning. Roy was angry. His hands shook.
“Roy, we need to talk to Alice.”
“Is she here?” Sam added, looking around.
Following Sam’s gaze, I took stock of the cabin’s interior. A haphazard stack of dishes filled the sink. How they hadn’t toppled over already I couldn’t guess. Dirt and sand dotted the floors. Either the woman in charge of the cleaning crew didn’t believe in bringing work home with her, or she hadn’t been back home this afternoon.
“Roy. Where’s Alice?” I asked again.
His face crumpling, Roy stumbled to the well-worn couch and sat down, burying his face in his hands. “I don’t know,” came his muffled reply.
“What?”
We moved closer to Roy and Sam took the seat next to him. After scooting down a plethora of magazines and knickknacks, I perched on the coffee table directly in front of Roy.
Reaching out a hand to his arm, I said in a quiet but firm voice, “Roy, you have to tell us what is going on. Who has who? Is Alice okay? We never heard from her after she was supposed to meet us. We want to help.”
“You can’t help.” His shoulders shook as he took a deep breath. “Alice is in danger if I tell anyone.”
“Who is she in danger from?” Sam’s eyes grew alarmed. “Roy, who has Alice. Is she okay?”
“Who threatened you? If you tell us, we can try to help.”
He pulled away and shook his head. “I can’t.”
I decided to try a different tactic. Pulling out my phone, my fingers sped over the keys until I found what I wanted. Turning the screen to Roy, I showed him the first photo. “Was it this man?” I bit my lip, waiting.
Roy’s response surprised me; I had been so sure. “No,” he said matter-of-factly.
Disappointed but determined, I closed the profile picture of Chaplain Moore and scrolled through Breaking Chains’ website until I found the next photo. “Was it her?” I asked, flipping the phone back to face Roy.
This time he didn’t speak; he didn’t need to. Roy flinched backwards and color drained from his face.
“Roy,” Sam spoke, “Regina wasn’t here to talk about leaky plumbing today, was she?”
“No. That woman came here furious, wanting to know if Alice had told me what she wanted to talk to you two about today.”
“Did she?” I leaned forward.
“No. No, she didn’t tell me a blasted thing, though I tried to get her to. Alice has been nervous a
ll weekend though, ever since that poor man died.”
“That’s understandable,” Sam said. “Death makes many people uncomfortable; murder is even more frightening to consider.”
“Back to Regina,” I licked my lips. “Roy, did she say where Alice is at?”
Shoulders slumping, Roy swiped at a tear on wrinkled cheek. “No. She just said that if I wanted Alice back, I better keep my mouth shut. Leaky faucets, she said, get plugged.”
“We have to go to the police,” Sam didn’t get the words from her mouth before Roy jerked violently.
“No!” He stood and glared at us. “Don’t you dare. I don’t know how you figured things out about Regina, but don’t you dare tell the police and put my Alice in danger. Get out. Get out!” He waved his hands at us and advanced.
Sam nearly overturned the coffee table in her haste to get away from the shouting maintenance man. We hurried from the cabin and down the trail, at last stopping to catch our breath on a small bench.
“How did you know?”
“Huh?” I leaned back on the bench, my mind reeling.
“How did you know it was Regina? We had so many suspects.”
“I didn’t know. I honestly thought Chaplain Moore to be the guilty party. He sat at the table where Arthur Cole died, he was present at the beach when Coco’s body was found. Heck, he dug all around our porch and I just knew he must be burying evidence.”
“Then why Regina?”
“When Roy had no visible response to Chaplain Moore, I tried Regina because she had been at the cabin earlier and it felt odd. Plus, she and Moore were both around right before the police searched the grocery bag and found the poison.”
“You think Regina dropped it?”
“She either dropped it or put it in my bag on purpose.”
“Wow. What now?” Sam fiddled with the hem of her t-shirt.
“Now we find Griff and Landon,” I stood and stretched. “Maybe they are back and went to the dining cabin.”
A trip to the dining cabin proved fruitless, as did a walk to the cabin the guys had shared last night.
“Nobody is here,” Sam said as I pounded on the door for the third time.
Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery Box Set Page 27
