Death of a Cupcake Queen (11 page)

Chapter 19

“Vanda, wait! Slow down! I need to talk to you!” Hayley screamed, nearly out of breath, as she chased down Vanda on the sidewalk of Ledgelawn Avenue after the Ivy Foster memorial service was over.

Vanda pushed her grocery cart as fast as she could, huffing and puffing, apparently going nowhere in particular since she didn't seem to have a home as far as Hayley knew.

Hayley finally managed to catch up to her. She grabbed a fistful of Vanda's tattered gray wool sweater that was way too warm to be wearing in the June heat.

“I have nothing to say to you, Hayley Powell!” Vanda spit out, blasting a wave of putrid breath into Hayley's face.

Nauseated, Hayley tried to ignore it. “Vanda, you know I'm not like those other women. I was never in their league in high school.”

“But you wanted to be and that makes you just as bad in my book,” Vanda said, shaking free of Hayley's grip and then fingering a large moth-eaten hole in the arm of her sweater before swatting at the imaginary fly buzzing around her.

“We all wanted to fit in when we were younger,” Hayley said. “You can't still blame me for that.”

Vanda sniffed and then wiped her nose with her forefinger before brushing the snot off on her stained flower skirt. She then reached into one of the paper bags that filled her grocery cart and retrieved a crushed box of Snackwell's creme sandwich cookies, tearing through it for a half eaten one that Hayley feared she had fished out of someone's garbage.

“Want one?” Vanda asked.

“No, thanks. I'm good.”

“What is it you want, Hayley?”

“I saw you talking to Sabrina outside the church before Ivy's memorial service and she seemed very upset and then of course I was there when you heckled her during her eulogy.”

Vanda cackled, enjoying the fact that she had caused such a ruckus. “That was so great, right? I mean, I just love seeing that bitch squirm.”

“Vanda, what kind of dirt do you have on Sabrina and Nykki? Why are they so frightened of you? What's this big secret?”

“You really want to know?”

“Yes,” Hayley said, leaning in toward Vanda despite her stomach churning body odor.

“It'll cost you five thousand bucks!”

“You know I don't have that kind of money. I'm raising two kids on my own and one is going to college in the fall.”

“Then we got nothing further to talk about.”

“You seriously have a secret that's worth that much?”

“I sure as hell do!” Vanda said, chomping down on the creme sandwich cookie and then licking her fingers clean.

Or relatively clean compared to what they were before.

“I can't tell you how satisfying it is having something so big over these rich stuck-up princesses who were so mean to me in high school. There really is such a thing as karma. Back then they made my life miserable. And now, now when I say jump, they jump. It's a beautiful feeling!”

And with that, Vanda Spears spun around and pushed her cart across the street.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hayley spotted a car approaching.

A red sports car of some kind.

The driver hit the accelerator and sped up just as Vanda reached the middle of the street.

The car wasn't slowing down as it barreled right for Vanda, who by now, realized she was about to be mowed down.

She threw her arms up in the air, surprised.

Without thinking, Hayley raced into the street, tackling Vanda. They both hit the pavement with a thud, and with all her strength, Hayley hugged Vanda tightly and rolled to the right. They tumbled over each other until Hayley's back slammed into the curb, nearly cracking it. Vanda was on top of her, pinning her to the ground, her noxious breath a relentless assault on Hayley's nostrils.

Hayley cranked her neck in time to see the red sports car smash into Vanda's shopping cart, hurling it high into the air. It landed on its side, bags and snack food and dirty blankets flying everywhere.

Hayley caught a glimpse of the driver as the car screeched past.

A woman with thick blond wavy hair and dark glasses.

The car sped away leaving a cloud of dust but Hayley managed to catch a quick look at the license plate before it rounded a corner and disappeared, the roar of the engine finally fading away.

She tried memorizing the number.

Maine plate.

27D 3GG.

27D 3GG.

“Vanda, are you all right?” Hayley gasped, her lungs nearly crushing beneath the weight of Vanda's body.

Vanda pushed off Hayley, and used the support of one knee to stand up. One of her smudged nylons she was wearing was torn open and a small trickle of blood ran down a scraped knee.

“Look at what you did to me, Hayley!” Vanda screamed.

“What?”

“I'm bleeding here! How dare you manhandle me like that! I could press charges!”

“I saved your life!”

“There you go again making such a big deal about everything! Just like in high school! No wonder nobody liked you.”

“Excuse me?”

Vanda inspected her cart and kicked it, frustrated. “The back wheel came off my cart! I suppose that's not your fault either!”

“Actually I was going to blame the car that came out of nowhere and almost ran you down before I pushed you out of the way.”

“So what do you want, the friggin' Medal of Honor?”

Vanda trudged over and sifted through her belongings, which were scattered all over the street.

“Would you like some help picking your things up?” Hayley asked.

“I got it. You've done enough for one day!” Vanda sneered.

Hayley headed back to the church where she hoped Liddy and Mona were still waiting for her.

Vanda's lack of gratitude didn't concern her.

But the license plate of the hit and run car certainly did.

27D 3GG.

27D 3GG.

27-Dustin-3-Gemma-Gemma.

Chapter 20

“The car is registered with a local rental company. I called them and they told me that particular vehicle was rented to Ivy Foster,” Sergio said as he handed Hayley the printout in his office at the police station.

Hayley checked the information and then looked at Sergio, who sat behind his desk with his hands clasped behind his head looking very official in his police chief uniform.

“Well, obviously Ivy didn't return from the dead and try to take out Vanda Spears with her rental car, so who was behind the wheel?”

“Her husband Nigel is listed on the rental agreement as an additional driver. Might have been him,” Sergio said.

“No. The driver was definitely a woman,” Hayley said.

“What about Sabrina?”

“I saw her outside the church with her boy toy Mason when I went back to meet Liddy and Mona. He was consoling her. There would be no way for her to try and run down Vanda, ditch the car, and make it back to the church before I did.”

“What about the other friend?”

“Nykki. When Liddy and I first met Sabrina, Ivy, and Nykki at the golf club to plan the reunion, I remember Ivy letting Nykki borrow her rental car. They're all staying at the same summer house so it makes perfect sense that Nykki would know where Ivy kept the car keys and would have access to the car.”

“I should bring her in for questioning.”

“But the woman driving the car had blond hair. Nykki's a redhead.”

“That's still enough to at least bring her in.”

“Let me talk to her first, Sergio. Nykki's a little high strung. To say the least. If you drag her in here, even if she's innocent, she'll probably lawyer up and never talk. Maybe I can find a way to get her to open up. Give me a couple of hours before you send your deputies over there to pick her up.”

“Okay. You have until five o'clock. I don't want to be interrogating a suspect too late. It's date night and Randy will kill me if I have to cancel.”

Hayley left the police station and drove straight over to the summer rental house in Seal Harbor.

There was no sign of a red sports car.

She parked her Kia in the gravel driveway and crossed to the front door, knocking on it several times.

No answer.

Instead of slinking around back like last time, she chose to simply try the door.

It was unlocked.

Hayley poked her head inside. “Nykki? Sabrina? Anybody home?”

The place was deserted.

Hayley poked around until she came upon what she assumed was Nykki's room because of the Louis Vuitton luggage and a couple of pressed business suits hanging behind the bathroom door.

She surveyed the room for anything out of the ordinary.

She checked the drawers.

Linens.

Towels.

Ladies underwear.

One drawer was locked.

That was odd.

Why was this one particular drawer inaccessible?

Hayley scooted to the living room and found a gold letter opener on a wooden desk next to a small statue of Paul Bunyan, the mythical lumberjack with a double-sided ax slung over his shoulder. It was an exact replica of the 31 foot high version that stood atop a stone pedestal in front of the Bangor Civic Center in Bass Park. The city, claiming to be the birthplace of the lumber industry, boasted that it was the largest statue of Mr. Bunyan in the world. This trinket, however, was roughly the size of an Academy Award but felt almost as heavy as the real one when she picked it up. Hayley silently scolded herself for taking the time to look at a funny little statue when someone could walk in on her at any moment. She set it back down, scooped up the letter opener and returned to Nykki's room where she used it to jam open the lock. It was an old antique dresser so it wasn't difficult.

She slid it open and gasped.

A blond wig and dark sunglasses.

It was Nykki.

Nykki was definitely the mad driver who tried to run down Vanda Spears in Ivy's rental car.

She stepped back, her mind racing.

Then she sat down on the unmade bed to consider her next move.

Call Sergio and let him know what she found so he could arrest Nykki.

A pang of guilt gnawed at her.

She was never a fan of Nykki Temple.

But to be the one who uncovered the evidence that would undoubtedly put her away for a long time was sobering.

She was about to stand up and pull out her cell phone when she noticed something on the crinkled white bed sheet.

A hair.

A black hair.

And not just one.

There were tons of them.

Spread out everywhere.

Could it be one of Ivy's toy poodles?

No. They wouldn't shed that much.

It was more like a man's body hair.

A very hairy man.

Was Nykki sneaking a man into her room at night?

The hair certainly didn't belong to Nykki.

She was a redhead.

Suddenly, without warning, the whole house filled with an incessant cacophony of high-pitched barking.

The dogs were in the house.

And it took them less than ten seconds to sniff out Hayley's presence before they charged into Nykki's room and surrounded her, yapping and jumping and nipping at her ankles.

Hayley tired to make a fast getaway out the window but only managed to pry it open halfway before Sabrina and Mason entered the room to investigate what was upsetting the dogs so much.

“Hayley, what are you doing here?” Sabrina demanded to know.

“I'm looking for Nykki,” Hayley said.

“Well, she's not here,” Sabrina said, eyeing her suspiciously. “Did you break into the house?”

“No. Of course not. The door was unlocked. Where were you?”

“Nigel asked us to take the dogs out for a walk while he went on a hike to clear his head after the service,” Mason offered, a lascivious grin creeping onto his face as he folded his muscular tattooed arms.

“Well, where's Nykki?”

“I don't know,” Sabrina said, “I haven't seen her since she ran out of the church when that awful Vanda Spears started shouting her foolishness. Why? What's going on, Hayley? What aren't you telling us?”

Hayley took a deep breath.

How do you tell someone that her best best best best friend in the whole world was about to be booked for attempted murder?

Chapter 21

Dustin sat at the dining room table, tapping away at his computer when Hayley walked in with a bag of groceries and set them down on the kitchen counter. He looked up, stopped typing to acknowledge her with a slight wave, and then instantly went back to what he was doing.

“What's that you're working so diligently on? A History makeup test, I hope.”

“I'm editing the footage I shot at your reunion. I must have uploaded three hours of stuff, but most of it's boring. Just a bunch of old people drinking and dancing. We'll be lucky if I end up with fifteen minutes that are kind of watchable.”

Hayley had completely forgotten she had asked Dustin to record the reunion for posterity. At the last parent–teacher conference she had been warned that Dustin was barely passing a couple of his courses, so she strong-armed him into doing some extra credit for his Audio–Visual class to up his grade and do a little damage control for his overall lackluster GPA.

Hayley unpacked the groceries that needed to be stored in the refrigerator and left the rest of the unperishable items in the bag. She then joined her son at the dining room table.

“Dustin, would you play back all the footage you recorded that night so I can see it?” Hayley asked, staring at the computer screen, which was frozen on an image of Mona guzzling down a bottle of beer.

“All three hours? Are you kidding me?”

“I want to make sure there was nothing I missed that night.”

“I already screened it for Uncle Sergio and he didn't see anything out of the ordinary watching it. Come on, Mom. I know you're mad I haven't cleaned my room in over a month but there are laws against torture.”

“Fine. I won't make you watch it again. But I've got a great idea. Why don't you let me screen the footage for the next three hours and during that time you can go and clean your room?”

“I should have kept my big mouth shut,” Dustin sighed, tapping a key on the computer and bringing up the raw footage he shot at the reunion. He pressed another button and Hayley watched as the first few reunion arrivals wandered into the main room of the golf club and made a beeline for the bar.

Dustin hauled himself to his feet, sighed again to make his displeasure crystal clear, and then stomped up the stairs, resigned to the fact that he was going to be stuck straightening his room for the time being.

Hayley sat there for almost an hour, glued to the computer screen, as more former classmates poured into the room and hugged and kissed and laughed. At the bar, she spotted Ivy's husband Nigel nursing a bourbon and making polite small talk with Sabrina and Nykki and Sabrina's boy toy Mason.

What was Nigel doing there so early?

Hayley distinctly remembered him arriving with Ivy and her cupcakes shortly before the murder.

Then it dawned on her.

Nigel had driven Nykki over to the reunion first since Ivy was still back at the summer rental kitchen putting the final touches on her cupcakes. Sabrina and Mason had gone to dinner first and were just going to meet them there.

Hayley remembered Nigel hanging around for a bit before he left to drive back to Seal Harbor and pick up Ivy, who texted him when her cupcakes were boxed and ready.

Nigel was so unassuming Hayley had completely forgotten about him being there earlier. She studied him closely in order to detect any unusual behavior or clue that he might have had murder on his mind, but Nigel seemed rather non-plussed and unengaged with the whole reunion until the DJ started spinning Gloria Estefan's 1995 dance classic, “Everlasting Love”. Hayley watched as Nigel swayed from side to side to the beat and tapped his foot, looking around for some unsuspecting dance partner to pass by who he could grab by the arm and sweep out onto the dance floor. Most of the women were already on the arms of other men so his pickings were slim.

Hayley saw herself in the background, mercifully out of his reach, as she huddled with Mona by the bar.

Nigel couldn't help himself anymore. His arms shot up in the air and he began violently swiveling his hips as he slid out into the middle of the crowd dancing like some white disco suited John Travolta wannabe from circa 1977.

And he was gone.

Shaking his head from side to side.

Bumping into anyone who unwittingly invaded his personal space.

He was caught up in the moment.

Lost in the beat.

A few of Hayley's former classmates watched him in awe, impressed by his utter lack of self-consciousness.

Good for him for being completely and blissfully unaware of how silly he looked.

Sweat poured down his brow and he quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand. The song then segued into a thumping beat and Nigel was about to slink off the dance floor but he stopped midway when his foot tapped the floor, suddenly finding the rhythm of the next song as it rose in volume just as Gloria Estefan's iconic voice faded.

Nigel's eyes popped open as he identified the song.

Madonna's “Deeper and Deeper”.

And he was back at it.

Gyrating and tossing his head back.

Screeching along with the Pop Princess.

Unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt to let some air in so he didn't sweat so much.

Hayley let out an audible gasp.

Underneath his rather staid plaid dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up was a mat of chest hair.

Black.

Thick like a forest.

Hayley hadn't noticed it before because being the uptight English gentleman he was, his shirts were usually buttoned up to the neck.

The hair in Nykki's bed.

Could it be Nigel's?

It was possible that the mysterious phone call Nigel received at the funeral home when he was picking out a casket with Ivy's sister Irene was Nykki.

Further proof the two actually were having an affair.

Hayley paused the footage and grabbed her cell phone.

She immediately called Sergio.

“This is Chief Alvares,” Sergio said on the other end.

His voice was scratchy and kept cutting out.

Hayley could barely hear him.

“Sergio? It's me, Hayley, can you hear me?”

Nothing.

Just more crackling.

“Hayley, I'm behind Dorr Mountain in the park. Near the South Ridge Loop. I have terrible phone reception out here,” she could make out him saying.

“What are you doing all the way out there?”

More crackling.

“Hiker took a bad spill off a lookout point.”

“Oh no. Was he hurt?”

“. . . dead . . .”

“Sergio? Oh god, did you say the hiker died?”

“Hayley, can you hear me?”

His voice was finally clear for a few seconds.

“Yes, Sergio, I can hear you. Was it a tourist?”

“Your friend . . . killed . . .”

His voice cut out again.

“Sergio? What friend? Who are you talking about?”

He was talking but she couldn't make out anything he was saying.

Hayley was growing frustrated and more panicked with each passing second.

“Who, Sergio? Who? Can you hear me?”

And then the cell reception gods gave Sergio a few last seconds of clear reception before dropping the call entirely.

“Nykki Temple.”