MYSTERY: BRITISH MYSTERY: Missing Hearts (Amateur Sleuth Suspense Thriller) (Cozy Crime Detective Short Stories) (12 page)

H
annah had been watching
her supplies much more closely, and she noticed that Nick never went into the pantry or refrigerator even if he came to the kitchens. That left Alaina and she was determined to find out if she was responsible, but if she wasn’t, she’d at least know what staff member had been in there most. While many had access, not many would actually go in there. When the news came of another death, Hannah just sighed and went back to work, not sure if she wanted to find out who it was. She had a bad feeling that it was somehow connected to her, and it worried her as perception was much more important than truth when it came to keeping her job. If guests even thought she might be responsible, they would never eat her food again even after it had been proven someone else had really been responsible after all.

Nick came into her kitchen, which wasn’t entirely unusual but the look on his face was solemn and almost sad, which worried Hannah. “Hannah, could you stop for a moment?”

“Hold on, I need to finish this part or it will be ruined,” Hannah replied, before knocking the entire bowl off the counter, splattering both of them with the mixture. She looked at it in horror before turning to Nick. “Well I guess the bowl thought we were done. What’s going on?”

“There was another death.”

“I heard. I’ve been in here though.”

“I know. It was the police officer who interviewed you yesterday.”

Nick was watching her expression and she knew it, and she also knew her face was showing absolute horror. She had liked the guy and he had been very nice to her, but it also once again connected a death to her kitchen and to her and that meant all the focus would be on her. She had to find out who was responsible and she had to find out soon before catching them in the act. At this point, the officers wouldn’t accept just her word, they’d want proof and nobody would be stupid enough to admit to a triple homicide just because she said they did it.

“I can tell from your facial expression that you are shocked. I need you to pull out the chocolate cake you served him. He was bragging about it, saying it was amazing, but it was also the only thing he had eaten in a long time. His partner said he had been interviewing people and hadn’t taken a break yet, which he apparently tended to do when involved in a case. His partner is just outside the door, waiting to take the cake and get it tested.”

“It’s the one right there, feel free to take it. I honestly didn’t do this and if my cake comes back with something, I will be hell bent on finding out who messed with my ingredients. I take pride in the work I do and poisoning people is definitely not on my list of things to do.”

“I’m not accusing you Hannah, but we have to figure this out. Don’t worry, we will catch whoever is responsible.”

Hannah just nodded and waited as Nick got the officer to bag the cake and take it with him. It saddened her as she had worked so hard on those cakes, and she took pride in each one she made. She also wondered why only some people were affected and not all of them, but that wasn’t nearly as important as finding out who was responsible to begin with. The rest of the day she tried to focus on her work, but every time she turned around something else went wrong. When trying to break eggs into the mixer, she accidentally dropped the whole egg in and had to throw out the entire mix because of all the shell pieces.

Next she knocked over the whipped topping she had made for several of her cakes before she was able to put it in bags, having to start over on that as well. She ended up taking almost an hour longer to do everything that day, simply because of all the mistakes she was making and it was making her even more irritated. By the time she was done she sat down on a stool, her head in her hands, glad to finally be done. She knew it wouldn’t take long for the cake to come back, but she didn’t want to know the results, dreading what would happen. If it came back positive for poison, she was fairly certain she’d get arrested quickly or at least taken in for more questioning. If it came back negative, they were still as far away from the truth as they had been which wouldn’t be what they wanted either. She wanted to get this figured out, but no matter what the test results said, she wasn’t going to like it.

Hearing a noise coming from the store room, she looked around the corner to see who was there to see Alaina going in with a small packet in her hand. When she came back out, she no longer had the packet which Hannah thought was suspicious. She knew she couldn’t be seen from where she was sitting, and after leaning back she thought about how she should probably get a simple poison test to make sure nobody else died from eating her cakes. Not sure how to get that, she made a mental note to ask the officer when he came back and got up to go to her room. She just wanted to relax on her bed for a bit before going to sleep, needing the time to relax. It had been a while since she had read a decent book, and now seemed like as good of a time as any, knowing it was hard enough to get time to herself that she should take the opportunity. She was thankful that she didn’t encounter anyone when she walked through the halls to her room, and when she got there she quickly changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. Grabbing a book she slid under her blankets, letting her head fall back on the pillow with a sigh.

The following morning she decided to come up with a plan. She was going to use Nick, as he seemed to be everywhere anyway and he seemed to look kind of hurt whenever she brushed him off. If he saw her testing her dark chocolate, then saw Alaina going in, and then saw her testing it again it would be proof. She could be completely wrong but at least Nick would know she was serious about not being responsible for all of this. First she had to find a way to test the chocolate though and for that she needed the officer, assuming he would be able to help her. After grabbing a quick sandwich in the common area, she went in search of the officer which ended up being easier than she thought it would be. He had just finished breakfast in one of the smaller restaurants when Hannah saw him coming down the hall straight at her, clearly looking like he wanted to talk to her. “Do you have a moment?”

“Yes, I was actually looking for you,” Hannah said with an easy smile.

“Let’s go into the kitchen, since we were relatively private there before. I promise this won’t take long.”

Hannah easily led him to her kitchen, where she was able to close the doors even though they didn’t have locks, which meant they had some privacy. Once there, she started the coffeepot like she always did when first getting there in the morning before turning to the officer and waiting for him to start talking, which she was glad he did quickly as she knew why he wanted to talk to her.

“I will just get right to the point. Your cake came back positive for poison, but only small traces in some parts. Our best guess is that some ingredient that is only used in some parts of the cake was poisoned.”

“I actually have a suspicion of one ingredient, which is dark chocolate. This is the only cake I use it in, and I use a different supply of dark chocolate for the decorations than I do in the rest of the cake. I did not do this, I would never do this and I’m determined for this to end and the real culprit to be caught. I know you have no reason to believe me, and I know everything points at me.”

“Unfortunately, it does. We will be watching everything closely and I ask that you check all your ingredients before using them.”

“That’s actually why I was looking for you. Is there a way for me to test my ingredients to ensure they don’t include anything else?”

“Yes. I have a few kits right here, which will test any ingredients you use. Simple put a small amount in this vial, and it will turn purple if poisoned or green if safe. I have more kits coming, but especially focus on your chocolate.”

“Thank you. I will test everything I use. Are there any other suspects?”

“I can’t discuss that with you, I’m sorry. Also, you can’t be in the kitchen by yourself so make sure you have someone with you when you are baking. As you can see there are labels on the vials, make sure to label them especially if they come back purple. Any questions?”

“No thank you. The kitchen help should be here soon and I need to get to work. Thank you for the kits.”

As Hannah walked to the pantry to get some of her ingredients, she saw Nick and knew he had been waiting for her while she was talking to the officer. Seeing an opportunity, she smiled at him. “Good morning Nick.”

“Good morning. Everything alright?”

“Yes, it’s fine. There was some poison in one of my ingredients so he wanted to give me some testing kits. Would you like to walk with me while I get my ingredients so I can test them while you're there? I’m not supposed to work by myself so you can be my extra set of eyes.”

“Sure. I have to be up on deck to supervise the zip lining crew in a bit but I have a little bit of time. Which ingredient?”

They had arrived in the pantry and the door had shut behind them so Hannah knew nobody could overhear them. “Chocolate.”

Nick nodded as she took the chocolate she needed from the shelf before putting a little bit in the vial. She labeled it while they waited and smiled when it turned green. “Excellent, no poison. Looks like I can make my chocolate cake and it will actually be safe to eat this time. Let me get the rest of the ingredients real quick,” Hannah said as she pulled one of the small carts towards her, which would make taking the heavy bags of ingredients easier to move. As she moved a bag of flour onto the cart, it started moving and she stumbled, dropping the flour before stumbling into Nick who caught her easily. Thankfully, the bag of flour had landed on the cart instead of the ground, but as she tried to catch her balance, she tried not to appear to be too embarrassed at the fact she was currently leaning against Nick who still had his arms around her.

She quickly stood back upright, knowing exactly how this would look if anyone walked in and without another word returned to what she was doing pretending like nothing had happened. It didn’t take her long to finish and Nick followed her back to the kitchen, where she realized she had forgotten the vanilla. She had run out in the kitchen the day before, and with a sigh she started back towards the pantry, seeing Alaina going into the pantry. “Nick, could you walk with me? I need something else.”

Nick followed her to the pantry, where they watched Alaina coming out empty handed and heading towards her kitchen. Hannah looked at Nick, before going into the pantry and straight for the chocolate. She pulled out another vial, ignoring Nick’s raised eyebrow, and tested some of the chocolate.

They both stood and watched the vial turn purple and Nick’s mouth dropped open. Hannah turned to Nick and held up the vial. “This can only mean one thing and you know it. Let’s go see that officer.”

“Hannah, that is a big accusation you are making.”

“And you can’t deny it. You watched me test it, you watched her come out with empty hands which is unusual when going into the pantry, and you saw me just test the same bag of chocolate positive. I didn’t take the full bag earlier, you know that. We need to tell him, she is sabotaging my work and I want to know why. Three people have died because of it and she clearly thinks more will die,” Hannah said as she closed the bag and picked it up, starting out of the pantry. She almost dropped it when Nick grabbed her arm, whirling her around.

“Hannah, see some sense. You are about to accuse someone.”

“She has already accused me and you know it. Now either you are in on it or you will let me leave.”

“I’m not in on this and you know it! I’ve known Alaina for a long time and she wouldn’t do this.”

“Are you sure? She’s had something against me from the start and you know it. Now let me go, I’m going to see the officer and he can figure it out. If I’m wrong I’m wrong but I want to figure this out.”

“Fine, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I will go with you and I will tell him what I saw but that’s it.”

Nick followed Hannah to the officer’s room, hoping he would be there. They were in luck as he was there working on paperwork and he let them into the room. Hannah immediately handed over both vials and the chocolate. “You can see the time I wrote on each vial. I tested the chocolate when I went to get some, but realized I had forgotten a new bottle of vanilla so I went back to the pantry, asking Nick to come with me. He did, understanding why I wanted someone else there to verify I didn’t do anything and we saw Alaina coming out of the pantry empty handed. That’s not normal, as you usually don’t go in there unless you need something. I went in there and decided to check the same bag of chocolate again. It came back purple this time.”

“Thank you for bringing this to me immediately. Nick, do you confirm the story?”

“Yes, but I don’t think we should have rushed to you. Alaina would never do this.”

“I’d hate to disappoint you but she is our prime suspect. You are not the only one who has seen her coming out of the pantry empty handed and on two occasions she had something small with white powder in her hand. When it comes to murder investigations, you can’t just rule someone out because you know them. You had no problem suspecting Hannah.”

Hannah turned to Nick and gave him an accusing look. “That’s why you were following me!”

“Look, you were the only new person here but I figured out quickly it wasn’t you. I didn’t know you and a lot of people were saying it was probably you. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions but it was originating from your kitchen.”

“Stop following me around and maybe try to actually get to know someone before accusing them of murder. What is next? I’d love to know why she’d do this,” Hannah said, turning back to the officer.

“She is actually being arrested as we speak. We found traces of the poison in her room early this morning, this evidence will just help. Thank you for your help.”

Hannah smiled and left the room, Nick right behind her. Once in the hallway he pulled her to the side. “I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry. I didn’t accuse you, I just said you were the head of the kitchen this came from and it was a logical conclusion. It wasn’t anything they weren’t already thinking but I should have defended you. I wasn’t following you because of that, I was following you because I’m interested in you.”