Fudge Brownies & Murder (23 page)

"You are denser than a field of potatoes. When I first got sick with Addison's disease, Esther Mae came and stayed with me for a few weeks. She must've found my grandmother's notebook in my bookshelves when she was cleaning then copied everything out of it. I never thought twice about all of the recipes she was saying she found in her family's cookbooks…because I was stupid enough to believe her. That was until I ran across grandma's book while I was boxing up some books to give to charity. There they were, all of the recipes that were supposedly passed down for generations in
her
family." She slammed her fist on the table. "She always made me feel like a dumb country bumpkin, saying she was the brains and I was the muscle of Southern Gals because our partnership wouldn't work any other way. So I ran myself ragged cooking while she
researched
family recipes. Turned out about the only work she did was looking through the copies she made of my grandma's notebook."

Stolen recipes were behind the murder. Amy hadn't guessed that, even though she knew how valuable good recipes could be for restaurants or in competitions. Although, in this case, it sounded more like a matter of pride than profit that spurred the revengeful murder. "I was wrong. I thought you and Buck were having an affair, so that's why you killed his wife."

"We are together, but we weren't before she died. He's lonely. I'm lonely. Hookups happen between lonesome people." LeighAnne explained the affair as though it was a math story problem. Add
A
and
B
to equal
C
. Simple. She flicked the knife blade at the china cabinet. "Why don't you start picking yourself out some of my pills to take?"

"What?"

"You look pretty healthy. I'm sure I have some kind of drugs that will do you in, though, especially if you take a nice, big handful of all kinds of them."

OD'ing on a prescription potluck was
so
not how Amy planned on leaving the world. "Wait. It looks like you have quite a variety of drugs to treat your disease. Did you slip some to Rayshelle last Friday?"

LeighAnne's cackle would've been a great audition for a cartoon evil villain. "I have a prescription for marijuana, to ease my arthritis pain. I used up my entire stash in the zucchini bread I asked her to sample for me, but it was worth it. Figures Esther Mae would've gotten revenge on me from the grave by saddling me with her dipstick of a niece hell bent on helping me because I was her aunt's best friend. I decided it would be better, from a legal standpoint, if I had a good reason to fire her, other than just letting her go because I was tired of looking at her and that freak show of a sister."

So Rayshelle had been right about what had happened to her. She just got the person who gave her the marijuana-laced food wrong. "I'd say Esther Mae didn't give you enough credit for your business smarts and creativity. How did you get her to take the wrong medication?"

"I love that new pharmacy. They'll make drugs in any form I want. A bit of reshaping with a nail file, some food coloring…voila. Esther Mae always took her pills before putting her contacts in, so she never noticed the difference."

"Yup, you are definitely the smarter one between the two of you." Would ego boosting throw her off track? At least it was keeping her talking.

"Maybe so, but it's too late for her to become wiser now." She smiled sweetly. "Too late for you now too, honey. Start taking the pills."

"But I don't have anything to wash them down with."

LeighAnne slid the mug of coffee that she had been drinking from across the table closer to Amy. "Problem solved."

A loud knock on the front door made Amy's heart beat as though she had already taken some of the potent medications.

"Who is it?" LeighAnne called while keeping her gaze and the tip of the knife focused on Amy.

"Police. Open up, ma'am."

A mask of sheer rage contorted LeighAnne's face. "You stupid bitch," she screamed.

Amy scrambled backward as the furious murderess charged around the end of the dining table. The corner of another chair back scraped the side of Amy's arm. She grabbed the heavy piece of furniture and shoved it as hard as she could. The chair tipped as its leg caught in the pile of the rug. The top crossbar caught LeighAnne in the ribs as she slashed the knife through the air, decapitating several silk roses in the table's centerpiece. The force of the collision redirected her away from Amy and into the china cabinet. Her head slammed into the edge of a shelf.

"Help!" Amy screamed as she bolted around to the far side of the dining table. There were loud thuds coming from the kitchen, which was only a few feet away. She hoped it was a police officer trying to break down the door. As she spun around the corner into the kitchen, she could see she was correct. A burly man in blue looked at her through the window in the top of the heavy metal security door. He backed away from the window. A shower of wood spikes pelted her when the door exploded open. The first officer rushed in while a second one set his metal battering ram down onto the porch. Amy held up her hands. "The woman who killed Esther Mae Bates is in the next room."

"Are you Amy?"

She nodded. "Stay right here," the officer commanded as he charged into the dining room with his pistol drawn. There was another crackling boom from the direction of the living room. Shouts of "Police! Come out!" bounced off the walls. Amy crept forward until she could see through the doorway into the dining room. It was empty.

She snatched her phone off the dining table and then retreated to the corner of the kitchen, where LeighAnne couldn't sneak up on her from behind. With her back pressed against a wedge-shaped knickknack shelf, she looked at the phone's screen. The call was still live. "Hello? Shepler?"

"I'm here. Are you okay?"

"I feel like I may explode from the adrenaline rush, but I'm okay. Did you hear everything?"

"Yes. Please tell me you didn't go there to try to bust her on your own."

Amy shook her head even though he couldn't see the gesture. "No. Cross my fingers and hope not to die at the hands of a crazy old woman. I came to get the banana pudding I ordered for Carla's baby shower. I didn't figure out LeighAnne was the killer until after I got here and saw her medication stash." She smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Please, please, please don't say anything about the shower to Carla. Geri and I want it to be a surprise."

There was a crackle as he sighed loudly. "Don't worry about it. There's not going to be a shower today. Carla and Geri are with me. We're on our way to the hospital to have the baby."

Amy peeled the top off another tiny container of Irish cream-flavored creamer and added it to the end of the line of the other five she had already opened. She dumped them two at a time into the foam cup filled with steaming, black coffee. The white liquid sunk, leaving behind only a wisp of lightness on the dark surface. The hospital didn't mess around with weak coffee, at least not during the night. The cafeteria workers must figure anybody looking for coffee at 3:00 a.m. needed it strong. The first sip she had taken of the beverage to judge how much sugar she would need to add nearly rolled her eyes back in her head. It was the sledgehammer of coffee meant to keep tired visitors and staff awake. A brisk stir with a plastic spoon lightened the hue of the black-as-night coffee a bit as the faux cream mixed in. After stirring in a couple packets of sugar, she snapped a lid on the cup.

She had no idea that having a baby could be like driving a car. Carla's labor had stalled an hour earlier. After struggling through three hours of intense contractions, the labor just stopped. The doctor's said it wasn't a big deal and suggested they all take a break during the lull. So she, Shepler, and Geri were taking turns visiting the cafeteria for food and caffeine while Carla napped.

Since Shepler and Geri had already been on their breaks, Amy had a few more minutes to try to glue herself together. Some bracing, cold air would help snap some clarity into her tired, overwhelmed brain. The only exciting thing she had planned for the day was the baby shower. Unwittingly uncovering the murderer was not on her to-do list. Neither was becoming an honorary auntie. The police had searched LeighAnne's house, but somehow she had disappeared between the time Amy ran from the dining room and the police officer busted into the kitchen. The officers had even moved the china cabinet and a couple bookshelves in the living room at Amy's suggestion, in case they were covering entrances to secret passageways. They weren't.

Shepler had gotten Amy excused to leave the scene. After arriving at the hospital, he let her know that tracking dogs had been called in, but LeighAnne's trail went cold when it reached the road that cut through the woods a half mile behind her house. That indicated that someone had picked her up. There was no way to know if the driver knew they were transporting a murder fugitive or not.

Alex came to the hospital for a while to check on Amy. But watching Carla in excruciating pain was more than he could handle, so he excused himself. "Carla and Shepler are our friends, but I don't think it's appropriate for me to be here."

After exiting the cafeteria, Amy followed the yellow line on the floor that led to the main entrance of the hospital. She shrugged on her coat as her footsteps echoed through the empty lobby. Outside, the weather was on the downright cold side of brisk. At least there wasn't any wind. A slender twist of steam rose from the opening on her coffee cup as she set out to make a lap around the small parking area nearest the entrance. The hospital complex was made up of a crazy quilt of building wings and parking lots, but she didn't want to get too far away from the lobby elevators that led to Carla's sixth floor room. Or get too cold.

Her phone binged in her coat pocket, indicating she had a new text, as she rounded the corner formed by the main hospital and an attached parking garage. She pulled it out and saw it was from Shepler. Amy inhaled a huge puff of cold air which in turn made her throat spasm. Tears percolated in her eyes as she tried to cough up a lung. The blurry text message read:
Labor started again. Need your help. Come back.

Amy spun on the toe of her boot. A bony arm snapped around her neck, instantly choking off her coughing fit. The phone was slapped out of her grasp. It clattered onto the sidewalk. Shards of plastic from its shattered case tinkled over the cement. Time seemed to slow as she struggled to pull air into her oxygen-deprived lungs. The warmth of coffee, spilled from the opening in the lid of the cup, oozed through her glove then instantly turned cold. She was jerked backward toward the dark parking structure. The coffee cup joined the lineup of dropped things on the sidewalk.

"What a surprise finding you here," Buck whispered into her ear as his bloated potbelly pressed into her back. "You've caused me a lot of trouble."

She dug her heels into the sidewalk, but the rubber-soled boots couldn't combat the power of a pissed off man on a mission. "What are you doing?" she rasped as his forearm pressed harder into her neck. "LeighAnne is the killer. Why are you hurting me when I didn't do anything to you?"

"I greatly appreciate LeighAnne getting rid of my old bag. I owe her. I was so tired of Esther Mae bossing me around every second of every day. So now you are going to pay for sending the police after LeighAnne. Not to mention, I just had to take her to the emergency room since you hurt her so much."

On the sidewalk, Amy's phone screen glowed white. It was still working and another text message had arrived. Her purse, and the pepper spray she always carried in it, were in Carla's room since she had opted to just carry money in her coat pocket when she went to the cafeteria. She would just have to fight back the old-fashioned way.

Amy reached behind her back, grabbed Buck's crotch, and squeezed as hard as she could, pretending his private parts were a lemon that didn't want to give up its juice. His cry of pain echoed through the parking structure. The choke hold he had on her loosened. She used her free hand to claw at his arm wrapped around her neck while simultaneously stomping on his foot over and over. He howled again when she wriggled free. She took two steps and screamed in frustration when he grabbed the back of her coat. Buck was tenacious. She wasn't free of him yet. He yanked her toward him.
Go for the neck.
The voice of her self-defense instructor echoed through her mind. Amy used the momentum of being pulled toward Buck to help deliver a solid punch to his Adam's apple.

He dropped to the pavement, choking and gasping for air. The darkness in the middle of the lower level of the parking garage lit up with flashes of orange light. A security vehicle squealed to a stop in front of her. Two men in dark-blue uniforms emerged from the vehicle and pointed Tasers at Buck, who was still writhing on the floor. One of the security guards said, "The police are on the way. We won't let this guy get away. Go help your friend have her baby."

Amy froze for a few seconds in reaction to his last statement. How did he know she was there to help with Carla's labor?
Whatever.
She didn't have any more time to ponder the weirdness. Carla needed her.

Carla's legs were in stirrups when Amy rushed back into the room. Sweat streamed down her friend's face as she grabbed the back of her thighs and leaned forward to push. Shepler glanced at Amy as he swiped a wet washcloth over his wife's forehead. "I'm glad I looked out the window when I did."

Mystery solved. Buck had tried to abduct her right below Carla's room. "Thank you," she said as she moved beside the bed to stand next to Geri. "Do you know that LeighAnne is in the emergency room right now?"

He nodded as he stroked Carla's hair and said, "You're doing great. Almost there, honey."

"I love you," Geri said as she touched her daughter's shoulder. She looked at Amy and they both backed away from the bed. Carla was completely focused on her husband, and he was doing a fantastic job coaching her through the last stage of labor. They were working together as a team like only a husband and wife who truly love each other could.