The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  Faith nibbled on a chocolate digestive, feeling the worst she’d ever felt. “But that’s too much of a coincidence,” she said. “Why would she choose to do that on the same night as we had that argument.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand. When I saw her after the meeting she was just fine. But now everyone’s going to think I… Look, there was no one else there as a witness. How can I prove I didn’t do it?”

  “Stop thinking all murder-ish,” Laura said. “Nothing like that ever happens around here. She was a woman with a lot of issues, I’m sure. You just happened to get caught up in it because of the cupcake thing. That’s all. That doesn’t make it your fault.” Faith was about to protest, but Laura was already speaking again. “Now, why don’t we find a movie and eat these…” – she looked at the plate – “weird cookie-like things, and chill out with the cats?”

  Faith sighed. “All right.” She reached down the side of her chair to pick up the bag she’d brought with her from Minnesota that contained a bunch of her favorite comfort DVDs she always reached for when she didn’t feel so good. She flicked through Legally Blonde, Miss Congeniality, her childhood favorite Aladdin – which she still felt a little embarrassed about and stuffed back in the bottom of the bag before Laura could see – a boxset of Friends and a very silly movie called White Chicks that she must have watched a hundred times.

  “A binge marathon of Friends?” Faith suggested.

  Laura’s face lit up. “Yeah!”

  Soon Faith did feel quite a bit more relaxed. She made a hot chocolate drink with marshmallows for each of them, and they sipped quite comfortably. When they were halfway through the first episode, the rain began to lash down outside, making it all the more cozy. It spattered heavily on the windows and little Nimbus tucked his furry head underneath Faith’s arm like he was frightened.

  “Aww, you silly little thing,” Faith said kindly, pushing her thumb gently over the top of his head. He always squeezed his eyes shut with purring pleasure when she did that. “You don’t have to be scared. Everything’s all right.”

  She had her feet curled up under her, with her fluffy slippers still on. It was an uncharacteristically cold day for May in Florida, and she’d even had to put on a sweater. But she felt just right in her leggings and sweater and slipper combo, sipping her blissfully creamy hot chocolate, laughing at the antics of the Friends cast and snuggled up with Nimbus. She glanced over at Laura and smiled when she saw she’d nodded off, her head tipped sideways on the couch. Little Cirrus had even picked up on the relaxed, cozy vibe, as he was curled up at Laura’s feet, making weak flicks with his paw in a half hearted attempt to pretend to chase his mouse. Soon he’d be asleep, too, Faith knew. It was so adorable when he was so sleepy but trying to keep playing.

  Even though Faith knew something dreadful had happened, it seemed out there, in the world. But she was wrapped up in some little bubble in her apartment, like they’d floated out of everyday life altogether and entered a lovely reality where nothing bad ever happened and everything was always cozy. Where the very air smelled of sweet hot cocoa and the atmosphere was like a warm fuzzy blanket, wrapping around everything. Faith took a sip of her warm drink and wished this blissful bubble would never burst.

  But a firm knock on the door made Laura jerk awake. Her mug of hot chocolate had been resting against her leg, and her violent movement tipped it over. It splashed before anyone could stop it, all over the upholstered armchair, the cream carpet, Faith’s favorite white fluffy socks that Laura had borrowed, and Cirrus, who bolted, terrified.

  “Oh, my gosh!” Laura said, scrambling to pick up the mug, though it was too late. “I’m so sorry, Faith, I must have fallen asleep.”

  “It’s all right.” The truth was Faith felt like bursting into tears. Telling herself she should be tougher, she went over to the kitchen area and threw some kitchen paper over to Laura. A quick glance over to Cirrus told her he would be all right. He was staring back at Laura but in a couple minutes he’d be chasing his own tail. “Someone’s at the door. One sec.”

  “I am so sorry,” Laura said again, peeling off the soaking socks, which now looked like the coat of a wet dog. “I’ll get all this cleaned up, and I’ll wash your socks. I promise you won’t even know what happened.”

  “It’s all right,” Faith said again, and gave her a smile from where she had gone over to answer the door. She didn’t blame Laura, though her chest felt heavy near her heart area and all she wanted to do was get in bed, throw a blanket over her head and pretend the world didn’t exist. “Accidents happen.” She leaned forward to take a look through the peephole, and it was the last person she wanted to see. Her pulse leapt into overdrive. Deputy Sheriff Valdez. Faith had never been a religious person, but found herself sending up a quick ‘Help me!’ to any benevolent power that would listen. She opened the door and managed to find a smile for him. “Hello, Deputy.”

  “Hello, Miss Franklin,” he said in clipped tones, shaking out an umbrella. The part in his black hair was startlingly white, the light above her doorway shining down upon it. It was still morning, and yet Faith could see over his shoulder that the gray cloud banks had cast a hazy veil over the block. “May I come in?” he asked.

  “Of course, of course,” Faith said, getting out of the way so he could come in.

  He tried to close his umbrella at the same time as coming in and ended up getting stuck in the doorway. It took some maneuvering and wiggling about to get both himself and the umbrella through, and with the rain spitting on him, he ended up coming in with raindrops on his face. He closed the umbrella with a stern face, like it was a criminal he had to apprehend.

  Faith closed the door behind him. Since her heart was racing and she could barely close the latch her hands were shaking so much, she thought she might as well come to the point. “This is about Joanne, isn’t it?”

  He looked her directly in the eyes, his look piercing almost to the point of being invasive. “Yes. It is.”

  *****

  Chapter 9

  Faith dived in to help Laura clean the floor and the armchair. Anything so she didn’t have to face Deputy Sheriff Valdez and those eyes of his. It wasn’t that she found them attractive – not in the slightest. She found them suspicious and accusing, the blue as cold and piercing as ice. She took the socks from Laura and headed over the sink to wash them out. “I hope you won’t mind us cleaning up while we talk to you,” Faith said, careful not to look at him. “We’ve just had a spill and we don’t want it to set into the carpet.”

  “To be honest with you, Miss Franklin, I don’t think the carpet is of the most importance right now.”

  “All right,” Faith said, bustling around the kitchen unnecessarily, even getting out a sponge to start wiping down the already clean sides.

  “Please look at me, Miss Franklin,” the Deputy said, his voice terse. “This is very important.”

  “All right,” Faith said a little too forcefully, then turned around and looked over his shoulder. “What is it?”

  “As agreed in the meeting yesterday, you took cupcakes over to Miss Joanne Cobb’s cupcake vending place, Cupcake Heaven, is that correct?”

  “Yes,” Faith said quickly. “Why?”

  Reality seemed to close in around Faith as Valdez spoke. “Poison was found in the half-eaten cherry on top of one of these cupcakes. One that had a peanut butter type frosting.”

  Laura gasped. Faith was too deeply shocked to do anything but freeze to the spot, feeling her blood run cold.

  “So she didn’t commit suicide?” Laura said quietly. “She was… killed?”

  “The autopsy will be done tomorrow,” he continued, “but we expect to—”

  “I never put any cherries on the top,” Faith blurted out. “In fact, we ran out of cherries earlier in the day, didn’t we, Laura?”

  Laura looked flummoxed. “Um… yes, I think so. I can’t really remember. Um… maybe?”

  “Remember!” Faith said, feeling desperate. �
��We ran out yesterday morning. And you said you should have bought some at the store when you bought all the other things.”

  “Oh, yes!” Laura cried out. “That’s true. I remember now. Sorry.”

  Valdez looked between them both, not even hiding the suspicion in his eyes. “Is that really the truth, Miss Edwards?”

  “Yes, absolutely.” Laura nodded and sounded much more convincing.

  “All right,” he said eventually. “In any case, we’re putting a warrant through to search your tea room, which we will do this afternoon.”

  “That’s totally fine,” Faith said quickly. “We’re completely and utterly 100% innocent.”

  “I sincerely hope so,” he said. Faith was watching him quite intently in her desperation for him to believe her, and noticed that as he spoke his eyes flickered over Laura for a moment and seemed to soften. She was back cleaning the carpet, staring at it, quite stunned, and didn’t notice. But Faith picked up on something – the attraction was clearly mutual.

  But as soon as that thought popped into her head, it was replaced with another, then another, then another, of how by some crazy accident they might link the murder back to her. “We didn’t do anything, I swear,” Faith said.

  “Okay,” the Deputy said. “But you’ll both still need to come down to the Department with me for questioning.”

  “What?” Laura said, putting her hand to her chest.

  “It’s a formality more than anything, Miss Edwards.” His voice took on a slightly softer tone when he spoke to her.

  Faith was doing everything in her power not to feel panicked. She began to clean the sink with a sponge, scrubbing for all she was worth even though it was already sparkling. A surge of worry still built up in her chest, then she burst out, “But who’s going to look after the kittens?”

  Valdez suppressed a chuckle. “You’ll be out in less than an hour.” Then he became serious. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me?”

  “No!” Faith said, feeling a heavy ache in her chest and a sting in her eyes. “Sorry, sorry,” she said quickly. “No. There’s nothing. Let’s go then.”

  But then the door knocked.

  “Who’s that now?” Faith said, beginning to despair. She had images of reporters, or of Joanne’s family coming to accuse her, or the Sheriff storming in and demanding she be charged with murder right away. Thankfully her imagination was just running wild, as when she opened the door she found Ellis standing there, a Tupperware box tucked under his large arm. It had stopped raining. “This was left on the doorstep of your tearoom,” he said, looking rather disturbed.

  Faith took the box, feeling in a daze. “Thanks, Ellis. Do you want to come in?”

  “No, no, thank you. Bye.” He turned and left, and Faith felt a sinking in her chest. Did he believe she killed Joanne? He was certainly acting like it. Pushing away a curling tendril that had fallen over her face, she looked down at the box, where it read:

  To Faith,

  A peace offering.

  From Joanne

  “It’s from Joanne. See!” Faith said. “I didn’t kill her, look! That wasn’t there last night when I went back to the café. She must have put it there since then, which means I couldn’t have killed her when I went over there. See?”

  Her desperate eyes scanned over the Deputy, hoping his deadly serious expression would lighten just a little bit, but he merely gave a stiff nod. “Well, I’ve already told you it’s just questioning. I am not charging you.”

  Faith felt like she was speaking to a brick wall. All his words made sense, but the way he said everything was so cold and expressionless. She ended up feeling rather vulnerable and stupid. “Well, I’m ready to go,” she said, picking up her umbrella from the side.

  “And the carpet’s done,” Laura said with a sigh. She stood up, up cradling a huge bundle of paper towels dripping hot chocolate onto the layers of clean ones that she’d rested against her arms. “So I’m ready, too.”

  Nimbus padded over to Faith and wound himself around her ankles, mewing like he knew she was going and he didn’t want her to. She stooped to give him a stroke under his chin and hear his comforting purr. How she’d survived without cats her whole life she’d never know. “I’ll be back soon, Nimbus. Don’t you worry now. Just curl up in a ball and by the time you open your eyes I’ll be back.” She looked up at Cirrus, who was now jumping up against the doors that led onto the balcony. He was trying to catch a fly on the other side of the glass, batting it with his paw, oblivious to everything that was going on. That made her grin in spite of the situation. She bounced up to her feet, pulled back her sandy frizz-wave-curl into a quick messy bun and tried a smile. “I’m ready as I’ll ever be.”

  *****

  It turned out that Faith and Laura weren’t the only ones who had been called in to give their account of the previous day’s events. Faith was so deeply relieved she almost gave a huge sigh as she came into the Sheriff Department’s waiting room to find Merlene Garcia and Tonya Tate waiting stony faced, half-watching the muted version of Judge Judy that was playing on the old-fashioned boxy TV. At least she and Laura weren’t being singled out.

  Laura went with Deputy Sheriff Valdez first, and Faith walked up to Merlene and Tonya tentatively, hoping against hope they weren’t going to burst out with accusations as soon as she sat down. She took a seat on one of the ripped leather chairs opposite them. “Hi,” she said nervously.

  “Hey, Faith,” Tonya said wearily.

  Merlene didn’t say anything, just gave a little wave, but neither of them looked hostile.

  “What a tragedy, huh?” Tonya said. The day before she’d looked quite glamorous. She was a very large woman, but she sure knew how to dress for her figure, with bright colors and flattering cuts, and the gold jewelry flashing against her dark skin gave her a sheen that matched her smile. But now she’d scraped back all her tiny little braids into a rough topknot, just like Faith’s, and she had on a tracksuit. She shook her head. “Terrible. Really terrible.”

  Merlene was in her regular suit and her red hair was in its regular bobbed style, just like normal, but all the light and energy had gone from her face. “Joanne’s was no one’s favorite person, but—”

  “Merlene!” Tonya said. “You mustn’t speak ill of the dead.”

  “If you’d let me finish,” Merlene said a little testily, “I was going to say that no one would have wanted to see her go this way.”

  “Of course not,” Faith said. “It’s just awful.” Neither of them seemed to be giving any hint they suspected her, and the buzzing sensation zipping around her body was easing slightly.

  “I wish she’d reached out.” Tonya shook her head. “Maybe someone could have helped. She was such a private person. I had no idea she was capable of suicide. Or that she was even thinking about it.”

  Faith’s heart sank. That’s why they didn’t suspect her. She sighed, bracing herself for them to turn on her.

  “She didn’t commit suicide,” she said, looking anywhere but in their faces. “Deputy Valdez said she was poisoned.”

  Merlene gasped.

  “Poisoned?” Tonya said, incredulous. “How?”

  Faith knew she had to tell them everything, or risk them suspecting her all the more later, when more information came out. “A cherry, he said. She ate half a cherry that was poisoned, and they found the other half. It was on top of one of the cupcakes I took to her, but I swear I never even put a cherry on it. Laura will tell you, I promise.”

  A stunned silence followed.

  “That’s…” Merlene shook her head, unable to finish her sentence.

  Tonya’s eyes flashed wide with alarm. “Don’t worry, honey,” she said to Faith. “I know it wasn’t you.”

  Merlene looked at her scornfully, and Faith’s heart sank – she could tell Merlene suspected her. “How do you know?”

  Tonya stared straight ahead. “Because I’m pretty sure I know who did it.”

  “Who?�
� Faith said, her heart racing.

  “I… I shouldn’t say,” Tonya said, “because I might be wrong. I’ll tell the Sheriff and the Deputy what I know, and they can follow it up.” She puffed out a long breath. “Whew. I never thought it would go this far.”

  Faith dared to breathe a little easier. At least she knew Tonya wasn’t talking about her. But who was she talking about? Josiah was the first person that came to mind, since there had obviously been some tension between him and Joanne. But what about Ellis? Lula? Nathan? Merlene herself? Every single one of those possibilities sounded ridiculous, but who else could it have been? Maybe those young boys pelting rocks who thought they were gangsters?

  Merlene and Tonya went back to watching muted Judge Judy telling someone off, and Faith took covert glances at them now and then. Tonya’s body language did seem to have changed. She had angled her legs and body away from Merlene, so she was having to turn her head to see the old TV set. Faith wondered if she was reading too much into it, or if Tonya really knew something about Merlene. But of course there was no way to know. All she could do was sit there and try not to bounce her knees and bite her nails. She did allow herself to keep pushing her cuticles down, though, which she often did when she was nervous.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the Sheriff, a strapping older man with a thatch of gray hair and an intimidating stature, called in Merlene. Without a glance back, she went into the interrogation room, and Nathan came out through the doorway. He looked stressed, and was in the middle of stretching his neck from side to side when he spotted Faith. He froze in an awkward position, his head tilted to one side, then smiled a wide, genuine smile that lit up his eyes. “Hey.”

  *****