Jingle Buried Cookies (Black Cat Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 9) Page 15

  Even with the added hardship of a winter storm, Leona was all smiles. “At least one customer made it in.” She smiled at Paul. “Thanks for making the effort.”

  Paul fixed himself a hot chocolate at the drink cart and added two mounds of whipped cream. “How about a couple of your blueberry muffins to go with this. Can you heat them up for me?”

  “Happy to,” Leona replied.

  “It takes a lot to maintain this physique of mine.” Paul patted his stomach and laughed. “I do love to eat.”

  Paul made himself comfortable on one of the stools at the counter.

  “A man I can relate to,” Leona said. “What more is there to life than food, food, and more food? What’s your favorite?”

  Annie busied herself filling the pastry display while she listened to Leona and Paul chatter about food.

  “You expect me to pick only one?” He stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Besides your fantastic blueberry muffins, I’d have to say right now I’m enjoying the mushrooms I harvested last summer.”

  “You dry them?” Leona paused in her mixing.

  “Yes. I’ve got quite a supply so through the winter I make quiches and soups and the mushrooms give my meals that summery, earthy quality that I crave once the snow starts to fly. Of course, I have a good supply of all the root vegetables—carrots, beets, and potatoes— and tons of canned tomatoes from my garden.” Paul turned around and looked at Annie. “Tomatoes are one of Jason’s favorites, right Annie?”

  She chuckled. “I think you gave him a life-long appreciation for that juicy red specialty of yours. And what about John Elmwood? Didn’t you tell me he was interested in your gardens, too?”

  “Oh yes. John spent a lot of time wandering the woods. He’s the one who educated me on mushrooms, as a matter of fact. He really knows his plants. Have you gotten any news about how he’s doing?”

  Annie put some broken cookies on a tray at the top of the display. It reminded her of Cookie’s samples and how stingy she was to hide it from kids coming into the shop. She helped herself to a reindeer head. “John should be going home soon. He’s not handling being in the hospital very well so the doctors have had to keep him sedated. I’m sure his mother will be relieved to get him home.”

  “I didn’t see her when I dropped off my gift yesterday but I did notice that there were a lot of items piled up for John. That should help her, too.” Paul sipped his hot chocolate and cream covered his mustache when he set his cup down.

  Annie tapped her upper lip, hoping Paul would understand her signal.

  “Oh, something in my mustache? It’s definitely one of the hazards.” He used a napkin to pat the cream away. “There. Is that better?”

  Annie nodded. “I spoke with John’s mother and she told me that John wouldn’t eat any of the food that was left for him.”

  Paul swiveled his stool around to face Annie. “Why on earth not? People are trying to help.”

  “Of course, and Judy understands that, but John thinks someone might be trying to poison him.”

  Paul’s mouth fell open. “What a shame. I was planning to bring over some more food for him since he told me how much he loves anything homemade. How about you and Jason help me eat it instead?”

  “Jason doesn’t expect to be home until late but I’d love to join you. Me and Roxy?”

  “Perfect. How about I bring it to your house and then Jason can have the leftovers. If you and I don’t finish it,” he added with a grin on his face.

  Paul finished the last bit of hot chocolate. His blueberry muffins were already long gone.

  Leona slid the bill under his plate and Paul left a twenty. “That should cover it. I’m heading home before the roads get any worse. Be careful ladies. This storm looks like it has set in for the long haul.”

  “I’m glad I’ve had a chance to see the human side of Paul,” Leona said. “After hearing how merciless he can be in divorce situations, I didn’t hold him in very high regard.”

  Camilla stomped into the café, brushing snow off her coat and flicking her hair from side to side. “I even wore a hat today. Does my hair look all matted down?”

  Leona rolled her eyes. “My only customer just left so you won’t have to worry about your looks. But thanks for coming in to keep us company. To be honest, I’m surprised you’re here.”

  Camilla rubbed her hands together. “It’s nasty out there. A big cup of hot coffee will help take the chill out while I tell you what Officer Reynolds let slip.”

  “Don’t leave us in suspense, Camilla.” Annie said. “Start talking and I’ll get the coffee for you. A muffin, too?”

  Camilla smiled and made herself comfy on the counter stool where Paul had been. “I knew that would get your attention. The only problem I have now is figuring out how to let Officer Reynolds down easily. I hate to break his heart.”

  “That line of broken hearts is so long, he’ll have plenty of company.” Leona laughed.

  Camilla wrapped her fingers around the hot mug and held it close to her chest. “Well, you know how he’s been in charge of researching the poisonous plants and how John told him about all the native plants including the poisonous ones?”

  “Uh-huh.” Annie made circular motions with her hand to get Camilla moving along faster.

  “The good news is that all the tests on Leona’s food from the café came back clean. I guess you know that since you’ve been allowed to open up for business.”

  “And he didn’t freeze to death, right?” Annie wanted to make sure nothing had changed in that department.

  “Right. He was definitely poisoned. Mark is focusing on the flask that Nelson was drinking from and he has eliminated all the common poisons that they could think of.”

  “So what poison did they find?” Annie’s mind raced. Who had access to the flask? Charlene seemed to be the likely candidate unless someone else met Nelson before he came inside the café.

  Camilla sipped her coffee. “Mark hasn’t figured that out yet, but don’t you think that gets Leona off the suspect list?”

  “My fingerprints are on that flask,” Leona said. “From when I took it away from Nelson. Unfortunately, there’s no way to prove when I touched the flask. Did Mark have any idea when they would be able to identify the poison?”

  “All he told me is that they are getting closer. I think John Elmwood is still on the suspect list because he was seen at Nelson’s house so he could have given that flask to Nelson before he came to the café for the party.”

  “I wonder about Cookie and Daryl. Until we know where they were before the party, I’d keep them as suspects.”

  “Mark told me that Cookie was at her shop and they are still looking for Daryl as a possibility in the hit-and-run based on your description of the truck being black.”

  Annie worked through this new information before responding. “So, if the hit-and-run and Nelson’s poisoning are connected, that puts a lot of weight on Daryl being the murderer. If that was only a random event, then I would say Charlene is guilty because she had the biggest motive and she had plenty of opportunity to give him the poisoned flask.”

  “And don’t forget that empty gin bottle in her car,” Leona added. “Also, with my fingerprints on it.”

  “Oh,” Camilla’s eyes lit up. “It was gin in the flask.”

  Chapter 24

  With the storm building, the snow falling fast and furious, and not much chance of any customers coming in, Leona decided to close the café so they could get home before the roads got any worse.

  And the roads were already awful.

  Annie was confident that her Subaru would get her home as long as it didn’t bottom out in the deepening snow. She gripped the steering wheel and leaned close to the window. Her eyes stared without blinking, trying to keep her car on the road instead of slipping off into a ditch. Headlights appeared in her rearview mirror giving her a small sense of comfort. At least she wasn’t alone out here.

  At her slow speed,
the drive that normally took five minutes dragged on closer to ten but the light marking her driveway shone through the snow like a beacon. Without needing to slow down, she turned into her driveway and let out a long thankful sigh.

  Until the lights that had been following her turned in behind her car.

  She got a glimpse of a black truck in her rearview mirror and her heart stopped mid-beat.

  Annie opened her car door and made a dash for the house, but her weak ankle betrayed her and sent her head first into the deep snow. A hand grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet.

  “We need to talk.”

  Annie tried to shake loose from Daryl’s grip. “I don’t have to do anything with you.” She hoped her confidence, at least on the outside, would be enough to get rid of him.

  It didn’t work.

  He pulled her toward her door. “Open the door. I don’t want to be out here with you.”

  Annie unlocked the door and went inside. Her mind raced for an escape but nothing made any sense. She couldn’t outrun Daryl. Her car was blocked in by his truck even if she could get to it before he grabbed her arm again. And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the lights flickered and went out. At least it was early afternoon and not midnight so the house wasn’t plunged into complete darkness.

  “Sit down.” Daryl shoved Annie onto the couch. “Cookie called and warned me that the police were looking for me. Thanks to you.”

  In her haste to get information from Cookie, she never thought about the fact that Cookie would warn Daryl. She mentally slapped her forehead. Stupid. And careless.

  “You’ll never get away with your plan. The police have figured out what killed Nelson, and the damage on your truck will prove you hit John Elmwood.

  Daryl sat opposite Annie with his legs crossed. “Is that a fact? You know, I’d like nothing better than for you to get lost in this storm and freeze to death. That unfortunate accident would get you off my back, wouldn’t it?”

  A loud banging on the door made Annie jump and then laugh. She jumped up from the couch. “Sounds like company.”

  Annie rushed to the door and almost fell into Paul Ames’s arms when she yanked it open.

  Paul glared at Daryl who stood behind Annie. “We’re not through,” Daryl said to Annie as he left the house and disappeared in the falling snow.

  “Did I interrupt something?” Paul asked.

  “Yes. No. Daryl followed me home and you came at just the right moment.” Annie pulled Paul inside and let his big body shield her.

  Paul handed Annie a canvas bag. “Here’s the quiche that I promised. I’d rather not stay since I think I can make it home if I don’t wait any longer. Plus, I need to keep my woodstove going since the power is out. Will you be all right until Jason gets home?”

  “Sure. Thanks, Paul. At least now I have something to eat.” Annie took the bag.

  “It will never be better than now. You know, fresh from the oven.”

  “Right.”

  “You seem distracted. Are you sure everything is okay?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be fine. You better get going before the snow gets any deeper.” She wanted nothing more than to lock the house up tight and figure out what to do about Daryl.

  With Paul gone, Annie piled wood on the fire and called Jason.

  “When do you think you’ll be home?” she asked when he answered her call. She focused on making her voice sound normal.

  “I was planning to surprise you. Because of the storm, I left earlier than I originally planned and I’m almost to the driveway.”

  “The power’s out.” All the tension in Annie’s body drained away knowing Jason would be with her any minute.

  “I picked up Chinese food for us so we can have a romantic dinner by candlelight. How does that sound?”

  Jason’s voice enveloped Annie’s body like a warm down comforter. “Perfect.”

  She busied herself by getting out plates and silverware, feeding Roxy and the cats, lighting candles, and opening a bottle of wine. She poured two glasses and didn’t wait for Jason before she settled back on the couch and sipped from her glass, hoping to settle the butterflies fluttering in her chest.

  When lights from Jason’s car swept across the windows, Annie headed to the door and had it open by the time he reached it.

  “That’s the kind of greeting I like, especially in this kind of weather.” He shrugged out of his coat and let it fall in a heap. “I’m surprised I made it home.”

  Annie took the containers of food and set everything on the table with the plates and the wine. “Paul dropped off a quiche but I’m sticking it in the fridge for tomorrow. The Chinese food smells delicious and is making me drool.”

  “That was nice of Paul.”

  “Yeah. He said he was going to bring it over to the Elmwoods but when I told him John wasn’t eating any of the food people left at the hospital, he offered it to us.”

  “Is Paul still on your not-a-nice-guy list?”

  “He’s moved to my I-don’t-want-to-be-on-his-bad-side list. It’s hard not to like him with all the effort he keeps making to win me over. I’m a sucker for good food. You know that.”

  They settled in with their plates filled with vegetable fried rice, vegetable delight, and shrimp with cashew nuts for Annie. The wine glasses were refilled and she finally felt like her blood pressure was settled back to normal.

  “Daryl followed me home earlier,” Annie said.

  “What? To tell you he’s off the suspect list as the hit-and-run driver?” Jason finished his wine and refilled his glass. “I need to catch up with you.”

  Annie’s wine glass stopped midway between the table and her mouth. “How do you know he’s off the suspect list? He didn’t tell me that. He scared me to death.”

  “Tyler called me. He said you didn’t answer your phone. Daryl stopped at the police station and there was no damage on his truck. Plus, he was out of town since early yesterday morning so it couldn’t have been him. What do you mean he scared you to death?”

  “He forced me to come inside with him.” She rewound the conversation she had with Daryl and tried to remember each detail. “He didn’t tell me he already stopped at the police station. But he did say he wouldn’t mind if I got lost in the storm and froze to death. Doesn’t that sound like a threat?”

  “It sounds like someone who doesn’t like you very much. How did you get rid of him?”

  “Paul arrived to drop off the food and Daryl left. I was so positive that Daryl hit John. So the hit-and-run driver is still out there.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I have to talk to John. Do you think we can get to his house?”

  “In the morning. This storm is supposed to wind down overnight. And we’ll talk to Tyler about Daryl scaring you. Just because he has an alibi at the time of the hit-and-run doesn’t mean he’s not still a suspect in Nelson’s poisoning.”

  And he has a violent streak, Annie reminded herself.

  Chapter 25

  Just like Jason predicted, Thursday morning glistened with sunshine reflecting on the snow. It was definitely a sunglasses kind of day. Well over a foot of snow blanketed the ground. The power was back and the world didn’t seem to be such a scary place to Annie.

  At least until they stepped outside and she relived falling in the snow with Daryl’s hand gripped around her arm. She shuddered. What was his agenda? Scare her to stop asking questions?

  Annie had called Judy Elmwood and was happy to hear that John was home and doing so much better. Judy relayed to Annie that John was ready to talk to the police and he would also like Annie to visit. And would she please bring Roxy along? That made Annie smile. Maybe it was easier for John to talk to Roxy than most people, she thought.

  “What do you think about dropping in on Charlene before we visit John?” Annie asked Jason.

  He lowered the newspaper and looked at Annie. “You can’t let this go, can you?”

  She sighed. “Now that Daryl has an alibi for the hit-and-run
, which makes me think maybe it’s not connected to Nelson’s murder, Charlene could be holding back with some crucial pieces of the puzzle.”

  “I suppose it won’t hurt, but you’re not going alone.”

  “No, you’re definitely invited. I’d ask Leona but I’m sure she’s busy at the café.” Annie cleared the breakfast dishes and finished the last bit of her coffee. “I’m ready to go if you are.”

  Charlene lived on the opposite side of town. Snowbanks towered next to the road and silenced the road noise as they drove.

  “What’s your plan?” Jason asked. “Are we a tag team or am I the strong, silent partner?”

  “I’m not sure. I want to get Charlene talking and see where it goes. The important missing link is who gave Nelson the flask of gin, and when?”

  As they approached Charlene’s driveway, Paul’s car swung out and raced back toward town.

  “Interesting,” Annie said. “There’s another avenue toward information, and maybe the ice breaker we need to get Charlene’s defenses lowered.”

  Annie rang the doorbell and heard footsteps approaching from inside. The door flew open.

  “What do you want now?” Charlene’s nostrils flared and her chin was held high.

  “Is everything alright, Charlene?” Annie asked.

  “Oh, I thought it was Paul coming back to twist the knife a little more. What do the two of you want?” She glared.

  Annie glanced quickly at Jason. “Can we come in?”

  At first Charlene didn’t budge, but after a long pause, she stepped aside, waited for Annie and Jason to enter, and closed the door.

  Without a word, she led the way into her living room and gestured for them to sit.

  “Paul almost sideswiped our car. What was his big hurry?” Annie decided a little bit of exaggeration might help to loosen Charlene’s tongue.

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but he came here with a threat.” Charlene’s lip quivered. She blinked her eyes. “It doesn’t matter anymore. The stress of what I did is killing me.” A big tear ran down her cheek and plopped onto her lap. She quickly wiped her cheek dry.