Jingle Buried Cookies (Black Cat Cafe Cozy Mystery Series Book 9) Read online

  Annie leaned forward. She couldn’t believe her ears. Was Charlene about to confess to killing her husband? “Charlene, what did you do?”

  Charlene’s eyes darted between Annie and Jason. “It was an accident. You have to believe me.”

  “What was an accident? Did you accidentally poison Nelson?”

  “What? Nelson? No, I didn’t do anything to Nelson. Why would I? I was going to divorce him, I didn’t need to kill him. Is that what everyone thinks?”

  “What did you do then?” Annie inched right to the edge of the couch cushion.

  Charlene’s head dropped down and her voice lowered to barely a whisper. “I was driving the truck that hit John Elmwood.” She finally looked up at Annie. “Honestly, I didn’t know he was hurt. I was planning to talk to Cookie about the land, let her know that Paul made me an offer.” She began to ramble. “You know, I thought it was the fair thing to do since Nelson had indicated he would sell to her, but I chickened out and left. I never saw John on his bike. Maybe the sun was in my eyes. I don’t know. I think I’ve just been too distracted to focus on the moment with everything that has happened—the Christmas party, Nelson, my mother in the nursing home, and Paul putting pressure on me to sell him the land. All I know is that I can’t go another day hiding this secret.”

  “The truck I saw was black. How could it have been you that hit John Elmwood?” Annie’s mind raced to process the information but it didn’t make sense.

  “Nelson’s truck is dark blue.”

  How could Annie have made that mistake about a simple color to lead the police on a wild goose chase?

  “In the right light it looks black,” Charlene explained as if she read Annie’s thoughts.

  Charlene’s explanation made her feel a little better, but so much time had been wasted while the police looked for a black truck instead of a dark blue one. “Is that why Paul was here? He knew? And he threatened to go to the police with the information?”

  Charlene nodded. “He gave me until today to sign the sale papers promising the land to him or he would expose me as the hit-and-run driver. I said no. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering what he’ll threaten me with next. My house? My bank account? There’s a side to Paul Ames that you don’t want to be on.”

  Annie flopped back against the couch. She looked at Jason. He raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He was playing the strong, silent partner. “The police are questioning John Elmwood right now. I think you should call and explain what you just told us.”

  Charlene nodded. “Can you call for me? You know Detective Crank and the Police Chief better than I do.”

  Annie nodded. “We’ll take care of it.” She turned to Jason. “Will you call? I want to talk some more to Charlene before the police arrive.”

  Jason walked to the front door and left the two women alone.

  “The police still don’t know who poisoned Nelson. They’re focusing on the liquor flask. Who could have given it to him?” Annie asked Charlene.

  “I don’t know. John Elmwood was hanging around the house when I left to pick up the Santa outfit.”

  “I don’t believe John had anything to do with it. It’s possible he saw someone, though, or maybe Nelson got the liquor at the party.”

  Charlene pursed her lips. “I brought the Santa outfit here and told Nelson to meet me at the Black Cat Café. I left ahead of him to meet Leona early and help set up.” Her shoulders bobbed up and down. “Maybe he bought it for himself. I suppose someone could have slipped it to him after he got to the Black Cat Café.”

  “But who wanted him dead? To be perfectly honest, I thought it could be you, Cookie, or Daryl. Cookie was at her bakery until she left for the Christmas party, giving her an alibi, Daryl is still a possibility, and, well, unless you’re lying to us now, that only leaves Daryl.”

  “Daryl has a mean streak a mile long but I don’t know why he would want Nelson dead,” Charlene said.

  “What about the bottle of gin you asked Leona to buy for you? What happened to that?”

  Charlene ran her fingers through her hair. “I’m so embarrassed. When Nelson stopped drinking, I promised to stop, too, but I really wanted a drink so I asked Leona to get the gin for me. I took one sip and realized I was making a terrible mistake so I dumped it all out and threw the empty bottle back in my car. Nelson didn’t get any gin from me. That’s the truth.”

  “Detective Crank will be here shortly,” Jason said, coming back into the living room.

  “Listen, Charlene, you need to tell the police exactly what you told us. It’s the only way to get it behind you.” Annie stood. “We have to go. I promised to visit John Elwood.” She placed her hand on Charlene’s shoulder. “You are doing the right thing now; for yourself and John Elmwood. Is there anything you want me to tell him for you?”

  Charlene’s shoulders drooped and her whole body sagged. “Tell him I’m so sorry. I hope he understands it was an accident. And Annie?”

  Annie waited.

  “Thank you for believing me and I hope Nelson’s murderer is found soon before anything else happens. I feel like I’m floating inside a nightmare.”

  Jason and Annie headed toward town. “Do you believe her?” Jason asked.

  “I think so. All the little details matched. If she is lying, she’s one heck of an actress.”

  Annie twisted sideways in her seat. “Something is nagging at the back of my brain.”

  “And I should be surprised?”

  “No, I guess not. Here’s what I think: Now that the hit and run is cleared up, it doesn’t matter that Daryl has an alibi for that accident. But he doesn’t have an alibi, as far as I know, for the time between when Charlene left her house and when Nelson arrived at the Christmas party. And, he definitely had something planned last night when he followed me home. If it wasn’t for Paul showing up, I don’t know what Daryl would have done to me.”

  “I suppose you want to go to Cookie’s house next to talk to Daryl?”

  Annie smiled. “We make such a good team.”

  Chapter 26

  Jason drove past the driveway for Cobblestone Cottage, past Thelma’s house, Paul’s driveway, the empty lot, and continued toward Cookie’s driveway.

  “I’m nervous about talking to Daryl,” Annie admitted as Jason pulled into Cookie’s driveway.

  “We’ll make it short. I’m not happy that he thinks he can scare and intimidate you, and we have to end that before it gets worse.”

  “And find out if he could be Nelson’s killer?”

  “I don’t think he’s the type to give us any scrap of information to implicate himself. My goal is to put him on notice to leave you alone.” Jason’s voice held a controlled but angry element which made Annie feel safe. Or at least, safer.

  Daryl had his hand on the door of his truck, but paused to see who pulled in. He scowled and stomped to the driver’s door of Jason’s car.

  “What are you doing here? Hasn’t she,” Daryl pointed at Annie, “caused me enough problems already?”

  Jason got out and stood close to Daryl, towering over him by several inches. “I’m here to warn you to stay away from Annie. She could press charges that you harassed her yesterday and forced her against her will to let you in our house.”

  Daryl’s shoulders sagged. He looked away from Jason’s angry glare. “I’m sorry about that. When Cookie told me that the police were looking for me in connection to that hit-and-run accident and she said Annie accused me of being the driver, I guess I lost it. I’m tired of all the suspicion and accusations being thrown at me and Cookie. Cookie was at her shop and I was out of town before the Christmas party. Neither of us were anywhere near Nelson until we saw him at the party.”

  Jason and Annie shared a look. Could they believe him? Someone had to be lying.

  “Listen, stay away from Annie.” Jason got back in his car and slammed the door. As he backed out of the driveway, he said, “Daryl has shifty eyes. I’m still not sure about hi
m.”

  “And that violent streak.” Annie was determined to avoid running into Daryl Hansen. His behavior still had her on edge “On to visit John?”

  Jason nodded as they turned out of the driveway.

  Annie pointed when they approached the turn into Paul’s driveway. “There’s Paul, pull in here first so I can thank him for being my knight in shining armor yesterday. Especially after our short chat with Daryl, I’m even more thankful for Paul showing up when he did.”

  “And what about his behavior toward Charlene?” Jason asked. “I know my opinion of him couldn’t be much lower at the moment. You don’t think it was despicable how he tried to blackmail her?”

  “Yes, but it forced her to do the right thing instead of living a lie. I’ve decided that Paul is a complicated person with many sides. I won’t ever be able to completely let my guard down with him.”

  Jason stopped behind Paul’s car. The trunk of his car was up and Paul was loading something inside.

  Annie got out. “Hi, Paul.”

  He turned around and his hand flew to his chest. “You startled me. I guess I was thinking about something else and didn’t hear Jason’s car drive in.”

  “Thanks for showing up yesterday when you did. Daryl was angry and I’m not sure what he was intending to do.” Annie leaned on her open car door.

  “Angry at you?”

  “That’s what it seemed like. I also want to let you know that John is finally home. We’re heading over to visit him now.”

  “That’s great for John. Sorry, but I’m in kind of a rush.” He slammed the trunk closed. “You didn’t try the quiche I dropped off last night, did you?”

  “No, Jason brought home Chinese food. I’ll heat up the quiche for tonight.” Annie got back in the passenger seat.

  Jason backed out onto the road.

  “Swing into our driveway. Judy asked me to bring Roxy along on our visit to see John.”

  Roxy wiggled happily as Annie led her to the car. “Ready for a visit to see John?” Roxy jumped into the backseat and sat in the middle, ears perked and eyes forward. “I guess that’s a yes,” Annie said to her four-footed friend.

  Jason was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel when Annie got back in the front seat. He looked at her with his eyebrows scrunched together. “How did Paul know you hadn’t eaten his quiche? Did you have some kind of guilty look on your face?”

  “Huh. I don’t know. Unless—”

  Their eyes met and Annie knew Jason was thinking the same thing she was.

  He slammed the transmission into reverse and raced back to Paul’s driveway, pulling in behind Paul’s car.

  Paul was nowhere in sight.

  Annie popped the trunk of Paul’s car open. The Santa outfit lay in a heap.

  A sudden cold hit her core before adrenaline coursed through her body.

  “Paul was shocked to see you today,” Jason said. His breath warmed her cheek as he leaned close to her ear. “But he covered it pretty well by saying he didn’t hear the car.”

  An understanding flooded her like a tidal wave. “He was shocked all right. Shocked to see me standing and breathing and alive. Call Tyler to get over here. We have to find Paul before he tries to poison anyone else.”

  Annie looked at Jason, her cheek muscles tight. “It was Paul all along. Poor sick Paul that had to cancel being Santa at the Christmas party so he could be home when Nelson died and no one would suspect him of being the murderer.”

  “But how did he do it?” Jason asked, reaching for his phone.

  Before Annie could answer or Jason had time to slide his phone from his pocket, Tyler’s police cruiser roared into Paul’s driveway. He was out of the cruiser and next to Annie in seconds. “Where is he?”

  “He can’t be far,” Annie said, surprised to see Tyler when they hadn’t even had a chance to call him yet. “We were talking to him maybe ten minutes ago. You were already on your way over here?”

  “John was right about someone trying to poison him and he told me what to look for. I’m going inside to look for Paul.” Tyler headed to the front door, his long strides chewing up the distance in no time.

  Roxy had been sniffing around Paul’s car and suddenly darted over the snow bank, leaping from footprint to footprint through deep snow into the vacant land next to Paul’s house. She barked with every leap.

  “We have to see what she’s after,” Annie told Jason.

  Jason trudged through the snow, following the footsteps as best as he could with Annie close behind, leaning against his back with one hand to help keep her balance.

  “Hurry. We must be getting closer. It sounds like her barking has stopped in one spot.”

  Jason pushed through low hanging cedar branches. Roxy darted toward Paul, then jumped to the side when Paul tried to hit her with a shovel.

  Annie screamed.

  Paul turned away from Roxy, giving her the opening she needed to launch her muscular body at the big man and knock him off balance.

  With the snow so deep, Paul floundered on his back, unable to get his feet underneath himself to stand. The best he managed was to sink deeper in the snow.

  “It’s over, Paul,” Jason said as he kept his body between Paul and Annie.

  Paul grinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Police Chief Johnson is scouring your house. It’s over,” Jason repeated.

  Paul pushed and heaved his body. He gasped for a breath. “He won’t find anything.”

  Annie saw an empty canning jar lying in one of Paul’s footsteps. The handle of his shovel stuck out of the snow where he’d dropped it when Roxy knocked him over.

  “I’m sure all the evidence the police chief needs is still in my refrigerator. Your face registered shock when you saw me standing behind you ten minutes ago. Me not eating your quiche wasn’t part of your plan, was it?”

  The smirk on Paul’s face vanished. He stopped struggling to stand up. “Nothing will connect me to Nelson. I made sure of that.”

  “You made sure to tell Charlene you were sick and couldn’t be Santa for the Christmas party at the last minute so she couldn’t find anyone but Nelson to fill in. And, of course, she had to pick up the Santa outfit from you. That’s what links you to Nelson.”

  Paul’s mouth fell open. “I knew you were going to give me trouble. You and John Elmwood. When Charlene hit John, it was my perfect opportunity to get him out of the way and finally get this land for myself.”

  “Except Charlene refused to let you blackmail her. Instead, she is doing the right thing by confessing to the accident; and John refused to eat your food. Did you bring him a quiche, too? One for John and one for me?” Annie’s stomach twisted in knots at the thought of how close she—and Jason—came to eating Paul’s poisoned food.

  Tyler arrived, followed by Detective Christy Crank. Tyler yanked Paul to his feet, cuffed him, and read him his rights.

  The path was well trampled by the time everyone trudged back to Paul’s driveway. Annie, Jason, and Christy stood behind Paul’s car and watched Tyler leave with Paul in the back of his cruiser.

  “I figured it all out except one thing,” Annie said to Detective Crank.

  “Oh?”

  “What poison did he use?”

  “Amatoxin—found in the destroying angel mushroom growing right there where we found him. John will explain it all to you. He’s anxious to see you,” Christy explained. “But there’s one link I haven’t figured out. How did a sick guy at home get the poison to the victim?”

  Annie popped the trunk of Paul’s car.

  Christy’s eyebrows scrunched to match her frown. “The Santa outfit?”

  “Paul had it here and must have put the poisoned flask of gin in the pocket before Charlene picked it up. He knew Nelson, an alcoholic, wouldn’t be able to resist temptation. I suspect that with all of Paul’s premeditated planning, he was sure Charlene or Cookie would take the rap for Nelson’s murder.”

  “Exc
ept for John Elmwood connecting Paul to the mushrooms.” Christy shook her head.

  “If you need more evidence, there’s a mushroom quiche in my refrigerator that Paul left last night. I won’t be surprised if more of that amatoxin is found in the quiche.”

  “You certainly know how to cut it close, don’t you Annie?” Christy patted Annie’s back. “I’m glad you didn’t eat any of that quiche.”

  “Me too,” Annie said as she looked at Jason.

  He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “I don’t think I can ever eat mushrooms again.”

  Roxy whined.

  Annie laughed. “Okay. Let’s get over to see your new best friend.”

  Judy met the threesome—Annie, Jason, and Roxy—with a big smile when she opened her front door. “You are a sight for sore eyes. John refuses to lie down for a nap until he sees you alive and well.”

  Roxy streaked past Judy straight to John’s chair.

  Annie followed.

  “John is happy to see you.” A big smile filled his face as he met Annie’s eyes for a brief moment. His hand rested on Roxy’s head. She wasn’t sure if he was talking to Roxy or herself. But it didn’t really matter.

  Annie knew this was the luckiest day of her life.

  This is the end of Jingle Buried Cookies. I hope you enjoyed the story. Click here and start reading my next book today!

  About the Author

  Lyndsey Cole lives in New England in a small rural town with her husband who puts up with all the characters in her head, her dog who hogs the couch, her cat who is the boss, and 3 chickens that would like to move into the house. She surrounds herself with gardens full of beautiful perennials. Sitting among the flowers with the scent of lilac, peonies, lily of the valley, or whatever is in bloom, stimulates her imagination about who will die next!

  Also by Lyndsey Cole

  The Hooked & Cooked Series

  Gunpowder Chowder

  Mobsters and Lobsters

  A Fishy Dish

  Crook, Line and Sinker