Maddie's Recipe Of Mysteries (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 1) (3 page)

“You know as well as I do that I didn’t have the money, and I couldn’t get a loan.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” She said. “I forgot.”

“If I’d had the money, I would’ve been able to beat you at that competition.”

Maddie understood what she was referring to. The annual Baker’s Competition sponsored by their alma mater had been the turning point in her life. Her winning first place in the competition got her the recognition she needed to get the backing for her new store. Had she not won the competition, the conversation she and Emma were having at that moment would have been very different.

“Well, thank you for coming in second place.” Maddie smiled. “You changed my life.”

“I know,” Emma replied. “I should’ve been the one to win. After all, the recipe was my idea.”

Maddie recoiled for just a second.

“If I recall, we all developed the recipe together, but you and Evan decided to pull out at the last minute and reenter as singles.” Maddie thought for minute.

“As I remember, I found the final ingredients that gave the cupcakes the unique flavor that won the competition. Had you stayed with us, we could’ve all shared in the glory.”

Emma’s eyes rolled back in her head, but Madeline didn’t see it.

“Well, I swore that day that I would beat you at the next baking competition.”

Maddie turned away from her desk where she had been organizing bills.

“Why didn’t you?” She asked. “I mean, I know you were good. Why didn’t you enter the competition the next year?”

Emma’s face turned red and she didn’t answer. She didn’t want to give Maddie the satisfaction of knowing that she had been sleeping with one of the professors at school and didn’t want the news to come out.

“Well, there’s another competition coming up in three months. Why don’t you enter then?”

“Maybe I will,” Emma finally replied.

“Maybe I will,” she said a little more slowly, as an idea was beginning to form in her head.

“By the way, whatever happened to Evan? Weren’t the two of you pretty close?”

“Yes, we were,”

Emma answered, thankful for the change of subject.

“And his sister, Rachel. He does private catering. You know, weddings, private parties, and stuff like that. He’s doing quite well.”

“And his sister?”

“Well, you know. Rachel is Rachel.”

“Yes, I do,” Maddie said.

She had never really liked Rachel. Wherever the girl went, it seemed like trouble would inevitably follow. There was never really anything specific she could put her finger on, but she knew that something was not good about the trio. She was glad they were no longer together. Maybe Emma would rise to her potential without that negative influence.

The doorbell rang and Maddie was back in the present. She saw Bailey fly from the kitchen to the living room to answer the door. She looked just a little too eager to get to Kyle. I wonder what’s going on with those two, Madeline thought, but that was all the time she had to debate the possibilities. She had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. She got up from her relaxing position on the sofa and went in to greet her new, young attorney.

Chapter Four

Once again Madeline found herself back at the dreary looking police station. This time it was her choice. Kyle had encouraged her to go in and make an official statement about what had happened the morning she discovered Emma’s body. She was relieved when she arrived and discovered that Nolan had not yet come in. She wanted to get through the statement and be gone before he arrived, but luck was not on her side that day.

With Kyle on one side and Bailey on the other, she sat at the dinky little table with a microphone in front of her. Deputy Martin, who had been at the store on that morning just three days ago, was asking the questions. Things were going quite well and she felt relaxed and a little more herself until the door flung open with a loud, banging noise as it slammed against the wall. Nolan’s mighty bulk entered the room and seemed to suck all of the oxygen out of it.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded.

“We’re just taking Mrs. McDougal’s statement, sir,” Martin replied.

“We don’t need a damn statement,” he said. “We need a confession.”

“Why would I confess to something I didn’t do?” Maddie protested.

Nolan gave her a look of derision. He’d had a chance to mull over the case in the few days since he’d seen her and was more convinced than ever that Madeline had committed the crime. He only needed to prove it.

“Sir,” Martin added, “this is standard procedure when investigating any case. We have to get a statement from everyone involved.”

“She’s more than involved,” Nolan commented.

Kyle got up from his seat. “If that’s the case, chief,” he started, “then why are you so opposed to her making a statement?”

“It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Nolan complained.

Not that he particularly cared about the taxpayers. He just didn’t have anything else to say that would justify his argument.

“Well, chief,” Kyle continued,

“if you insist on denying my client’s rights, if and when you do find any evidence, you won’t be able to build up a case against her. But all of that is really moot, since my client is innocent.”

“How can you say she’s innocent?” Nolan shouted.

“She was the only one at the scene, they had a life-long rivalry, and she was seen by witnesses standing over the body.”

“Standing over the body, at her place of business where she has worked for years. Chief, you don’t have any evidence to charge her.”

“But I will,” Nolan stated. “Just give me time.”

“May I ask”—Kyle spoke again—“are you pursuing any other possible suspects?”

“Why should I?” Nolan said defiantly.

“That’s all I need to know,” Kyle said as he reached his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small recorder. He held up the recorder to the Chief.

“That’s all I need to know.”

He turned to Bailey and Madeline. “This procedure is over. Ladies,” He said and opened the door for them.

The two ladies silently stood up and walked out of the room with Kyle following them.

Outside, the three of them met on the steps of the police station.

“The man is an incompetent boob,” Maddie complained, clearly irritated by the stubbornness of the old chief.

“That he is,”

Kyle agreed as he steered the women in the direction he wanted them to go.

“It doesn’t sound like he’s going to even try to find the real killer,” Bailey whined. “What are we going to do?”

Maddie had had just about as much as she could take. “I know what I’m going to do,” she said.

“I can do a better job of investigating a murder than that idiot.”

“Gran, what are you saying?” Bailey asked, concerned.

“I’m saying that if I don’t want to be the one and only suspect in this case, I have to deliver them another suspect. I have to investigate the case myself.”

A bit of her spirit was finally returning, and both Bailey and Kyle could see that the old Maddie was back.

Kyle looked a little concerned. “I’m not sure it’ll be safe for you to get into this yourself, Maddie.”

“I know what you’re saying, Kyle,” she agreed.

“But I don’t think I have a choice. That man is out to get me, and unless I do something about it, he’s going to find a way to charge me for Emma’s murder.”

“There’s no way he can charge you with the murder, Maddie. He has no case,” Kyle assured her.

“Yes, but as long as he believes I’m the killer, he has no reason to look for anyone else either,” she countered.

“And the real murderer gets to go free.”

Kyle looked at his watch and knew he didn’t have the time to debate the issue at the moment.

“Why don’t we meet later to discuss it?”

“Well, the shop is cleared to reopen. But now it’s empty. Why don’t we meet there this afternoon?” Maddie suggested.

“Fine with me,” Bailey said. “I have class soon anyway.”

“All right, this afternoon. Three o’clock?” he suggested.

The three said their good-byes and went their separate ways.

Maddie was busy cleaning up the bakery when Bailey arrived. She had hardly noticed the time had gone by so quickly. The police had done a thorough investigation, but they weren’t that good about cleaning up after themselves. They had gone through everything in the store and had left nothing untouched. She was beginning to worry that she wouldn’t have everything back in order to reopen the next day.

When Bailey arrived a little before three, she found her gran bent over inside one of the display cases, trying to clean the glass from the inside. She chuckled a little to herself as she watched the older woman try to extricate herself from her awkward position.

“Oh, Bailey,” she said. “Is it three already?”

“Almost,” Bailey replied. “I’m a little early.”

Maddie straightened and stretched her stiff back and mopped her brow with her forearm.

“I’m afraid the police left me with way too much work to reopen for tomorrow.” She made a sweeping gesture with her arm.

“Look at this mess.”

Indeed it was a mess. A line of dirty footprints that lead from the front of the store all the way to the back door was apparent. In the kitchen, things had been moved and analyzed. There was a fine dusting of flour over everything, and the equipment and tools were all out of place.

“I don’t know what they did with all of these ingredients; they left the containers all open so I can’t use them,” Maddie complained.

“I have to toss it all and reorder fresh supplies.”

Bailey gave a sad sigh for her gran. “I’ll help,” she said as she rolled up her sleeves. “What do you want me to do?”

Maddie gave her granddaughter a gentle smile. She could always count on her when she needed help the most.

“Well, Kyle will be here soon…”

“So you better give me something to do before he gets here. No need to waste time,” she said. “Chop, chop.”

Maddie grinned at the girl. “That line belongs in a Chinese restaurant, not an elite bakery.”

They both laughed together and set about restoring the store back to its original glory.

They hadn’t made much progress when they heard the chimes over the door. Kyle arrived in a rush of activity. He seemed much more excited than he had been earlier that morning.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said while he busied himself by pulling up a table and a few chairs.”

“Wow. You seem excited,” Bailey noted.

“Indeed, I am. Come have a seat. Let me tell you what I discovered.”

Kyle carefully pulled his small laptop from his briefcase and set it on the table so that both of the women could see.

“I started thinking after I left you that we need to know more about Emma in order to find out why anyone would want to kill her.”

“You should’ve asked me,” said Madeline.

“I’ve known her for years, and I can assure you that there are a lot of people that hated her. She was an arrogant, pushy little thing, and it was hard to stomach her sometimes.”

Kyle gave Madeline an appraising look. The words that came from her did not match the Madeline that Bailey always talked about.

“Humph,” was all he said at that time, but he made note in his mind to check into the relationship Madeline and Emma had had. Apparently there was no love lost between them. Instead, he directed his attention back to his laptop.

“Well, I did some checking and I found out something.” He started clicking away at his keyboard.

“Do you know anyone named Evan Foster?”

Madeline’s face revealed instant recognition.

“Yes, I know Evan. He, Emma, and I all went to the same school together.”

“Really,” Kyle said as he continued to click through his keyboard.

“Why?” Madeline asked.

“Do you think that Evan had something to do with Emma’s death?” she asked, surprised.

“Well, read this and tell me what you think.”

He pushed his laptop closer to the two women even though neither of them really needed it.

Both women leaned in to see a press release about Evan Foster opening up his own bakery on the other side of town. Madeline’s eyes visibly dilated as she read the article, and an obvious spark of recollection appeared across her face for a brief second.

“Oh my,” she said.

“What?” Kyle asked. “Did you remember something?”

“Oh, nothing,” Madeline covered.

“It’s just been a long time since I’ve heard anything about Evan. Just brings back some old memories, is all.”

Kyle eyed her cautiously but he didn’t pursue it for now. He had a strong hunch that Madeline was holding back, but he wanted to be sure before he pursued it any further.

“Did you know that Evan had his own bakery across town?” Kyle asked.

“No.

The last I heard he was running a successful catering business after we all finished school.

How did this come up in connection to Emma?”

“Interestingly enough, look who it says was his partner.” Kyle pointed at the line in the article.

“His partner was Emma?” Bailey asked in disbelief.

“When did this open?” Madeline asked.

She had the urge to grab the paper and rifle through it, but these modern computers took that privilege away from her.

“Two years ago,” Kyle answered.

“Two years ago!” Bailey resounded. “She was still working for you?”

Madeline sat silently, thinking to herself. There was more going on than she had originally thought. Could it be? Were they that envious that they would have conspired against her that way? She resisted the urge to tell Bailey and Kyle what she was thinking until she could be absolutely sure of her doubts. She was not about to accuse anybody of such a heinous crime unless she had absolute proof.