Another hour went by. With everything wrapped up, Hayley balanced a tower of boxes in her arms. She reached toward the light switch by the back door with her elbow, attempting to turn it off without having to put the boxes down. She nearly lost the whole kit and caboodle, but managed to shift and slide, catching the boxes before they plummeted to the ground.

  “Can I help?”

  She couldn’t see the man behind the mound of cookie boxes, but she knew that voice. “Yeah. That’d be great.”

  Peter relieved her of the vast majority of her load in one scoop, leaving her with a short stack she could see over. Together they walked to her van in silence. With a practiced hand, she unlocked the back. Peter helped swing the double doors open and secure the boxes in the specially designed compartments in the delivery van, which also served as her personal vehicle, because who could afford both?

  Once the doors were closed, they turned to each other. Tall, dark, and handsome staring down at short, pale, and pretty cute. “So?”

  “Dan Springs is dead.”

  “I figured. I’m sorry to hear that. Heart attack?”

  Peter’s lips twisted up. “That’s up to the medical examiner.”

  “Oh, right.”

  Something odd hung in the air between them. Conversations usually flowed through them like the smoothest river. Even when something was happening in town that Peter couldn’t talk about, they bounced around the subject with ease as she attempted to tease out the truth, and he successfully resisted her efforts. Joshua and her mother had both claimed that it looked a hell of a lot like flirting. But they didn’t understand; she and Peter were just friends, no matter what Hayley might want deep down inside.

  All of that easy conversation was gone now, though. Each breath was thick with tension. Eyes boring into each other, Hayley felt herself squirm. “Crazy day, huh?”

  “Yeah. So, um. We need to go downtown, Hayley.”

  “What? Like to the police station?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Like for an interview?”

  Peter nodded brusquely.

  “What could I possibly know? I was with you when we heard the scream.”

  Peter rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Yeah. I know. But, um, we have to talk.”

  Hayley laughed. “Am I under arrest or something?”

  Peter’s face was intensely serious as he said, “Not yet.”

  Chapter 5

  Yolanda Perkins and Janelle Waits were excellent detectives. Peter had always found them to be fair, unbiased, and fantastically funny. But that was when they were his employees chatting it up in the break room. As interrogators, they were so good at their job they were downright diabolical.

  Watching Hayley being grilled by these two hurt his heart. He wanted to be in there with her. But he had recused himself. All he could do was tell Hayley to get a lawyer, but she’d innocently frowned at him. Why would she need a lawyer?

  Peter’s mind flashed to the call he’d gotten from the lab in San Francisco a few minutes ago. Arsenic in the cookies, no doubt about it. The lab had done one better. They’d used a simple test to confirm that the cookies were gluten free.

  Peter ran his hand over his hair. He knew Hayley wasn’t a murderer the same way he knew he wasn’t a murderer. But he was out of it now. He couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly as Yolanda and Janelle circled around Hayley like sharks.

  “Tell me about your morning?” Yolanda spoke as if they were discussing a shopping list. She took a casual sip of her coffee just after asking. This question wasn’t vitally important. Not at all.

  Hayley cradled her own cup of coffee in her hands, her dismay at the environmentally disastrous Styrofoam cup still lingering on her features. “I got up at three, like always. Fed my cat, brushed my hair, teeth, that kind of thing, and ate a quick breakfast.”

  “What about a shower?” Janelle didn’t look at Hayley. She kept her eyes on her notebook as she spoke in quick, harsh tones.

  “I shower at night.” Hayley let her answer sit there, waiting.

  “So, after breakfast, what then?”

  “I walked to work.”

  Janelle’s head shot up. “Walked? I thought you lived in Mill Valley, with your parents.”

  Hayley sighed. Peter couldn’t help but let out a small snort. He looked around the tiny observation room as if he’d been caught, even though he was alone. Hayley had abandoned her apartment in Sausalito and moved into the apartment above her parents’ garage to save money while she and Joshua, who lived in their parents’ basement, opened up the new store in the city. Hayley was pretty sensitive about it.

  “It’s not a long walk. A couple miles. It wakes me up and gets me ready to bake.”

  “But it’s dark,” Yolanda said.

  Hayley just shrugged. She didn’t bother to tell them that the last person who’d attempted to mug her got kicked in the teeth and had to have his jaw wired shut. Peter let out a breath, thankful Hayley didn’t mention her exceptional martial arts skills, something he was directly responsible for teaching her.

  “So, what time did you get to the bakery?” Janelle stared hard at that notebook.

  “About 3:45. Same as always.”

  “Did you stop anywhere on the way?” Janelle’s eyes bored into that paper.

  “Nope.”

  “Okay, so it’s about a quarter to four. What happens next?” Yolanda pushed her hand across the table, reaching toward Hayley in a friendly gesture.

  “I started baking. I spent the next five hours baking.”

  “So you didn’t see or hear anything?” Yolanda asked.

  Hayley shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

  “Until when?” Janelle actually looked up from the notebook this time, her deep brown eyes boring into Hayley’s bright blue ones.

  “Till Joshua showed up. He came in a little before nine.” Hayley took a sip of her coffee, peering over the cup. Her eyes hit Peter’s, even though the mirrored glass on her side of the window made it impossible for her to see him. His gut clenched nonetheless.

  “And what happened then?” Janelle took another pull from her coffee, exuding the feeling of a quiet drink with a friend discussing the weather.

  “We had a short conversation. Then Joshua opened the store, and I worked on some chocolate sculptures. It was around ten that Peter, I mean Chief Merritt, came in. It was like fifteen minutes later that we heard the scream from next door.”

  “Let’s back up a minute,” Yolanda said. “What did you and Joshua talk about? He’s the help?”

  “He’s my brother. We co-own the bakery. We talked about Dan Springs actually.”

  “Really? What about him?” Peter’s stomach clenched as Yolanda asked the question.

  “Well, here’s the thing.” Hayley spoke like a complete innocent. Like someone who had no idea they were being set up. He wanted to rush into the room and stop her. “We have kind of a tense relationship with Dan. We’d been in business for five years, and he shows up two months ago and sets up shop right next door selling the same product.”

  “Cookies.” Yolanda’s one word was flat.

  “Yeah. And he sold a lot of the same cookies except that…”

  “Yours are all gluten free,” Yolanda finished.

  “Yes. So I let it go. He has one specialty, and I have another. I had to let my product speak for itself. I knew it could compete. But then…” Hayley bit her plump pink lip.

  “What?” Yolanda asked.

  Hayley pushed out a deep breath. “We found out he was selling our signature cookie, the macaroon. Only his had wheat flour in it. Which is stupid because macaroons are naturally gluten free. And the real kicker was the way he was advertising. He called his cookies ‘real cookies made with real flour.’ I won’t lie. It was infuriating.”

  “I’m sure it was.” Yolanda’s sympathetic voice rang through the room while Janelle remained completely silent. “Is this what you and your brother were discussing this morning?”

  Hayley nodded.

  “Did either of you talk about killing Mr. Springs?” This abrupt question came from Janelle, her gaze practically boring a hole through Hayley’s head as she asked.

  “I mean, jokingly,” Haley admitted.

  Shit. Dan rubbed his closed eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

  Only seconds went by before the speaker in the observation room blared with the static sounds of a voice. “Chief. I’ve got some people in the lobby here demanding to see you,” Officer Helm said.

  “I’m kind of busy right now.” Peter couldn’t believe he was being interrupted at this moment.

  “Yeah. Well. They’re kind of insistent. It’s um…a Mr. Cutter and a Mrs. Cutter, and their son as well. All three of them are yelling at me, sir.”

  Peter emptied his lungs on a long exhale. “ ’Kay. I’ll be right there.”

  He took a last glance at Hayley with her interrogators. It was all over now. They were like sharks in the water, asking her for exact details of what was said between her and Joshua earlier that morning. Hayley would tell the truth, Peter was sure of that. He was also sure that it would sink her.

  Peter left the tiny room and headed down the long hallway. He kept his eyes pinned to the checkered linoleum floor that created his path. That three-minute walk from the very back of the station to the very front gave him too much time to think. His mind roamed over his life since he’d met Hayley. They’d been kids. She’d been an actual child. He’d thought of her like a little, irritating cousin for a long, long time.

  But that had changed a few years ago. Abruptly and unexpectedly, Peter began to think of Hayley as the most intriguing, beguiling woman he’d ever known. Every word dripping from her mouth, every smile on her lips, every time the light hit her eyes just right—all of it created chaos in his heart and head.

  About a year ago, he’d come to grips with it. One night, while sitting on his bed, unable to sleep, just weeks out of an inexplicable breakup with his last girlfriend, he said it aloud. The words echoed through his bedroom, hitting him in the face after leaving his lips, like a slap. What he poured into the four walls of that space told a truth he could not deny. He’d fallen in love with Hayley Cutter.

  Now, as he marched away from her interrogation and toward her family, any denial of those feelings dropped away on the grey and white checkered floor. Recusing himself was undeniably the right thing to do, but it was all the more painful given his feelings.

  No amount of time would have been enough to fully process the jumbled mess in his heart. But the fleeting moments alone in that hallway were nowhere near enough.

  Ben Cutter loomed large standing just a few feet away from the long wooden desk in the lobby. His light eyes remained pinned on the officer behind that desk, an expression designed to wilt and terrify painted on his face. Tilly stood behind him, small and perfect in every way. Tilly was no less intimidating, the definition of strength and resilience emanating from every part of her body.

  Then there was Joshua, Peter’s friend, bowling partner, and fellow volunteer on the town’s Christmas decoration crew. He stood beside his mother, holding her hand. His gaze remained focused on the narrow hallway, meaning it met Peter’s own as soon as he made his way into the lobby. All three moved his way simultaneously, descending on him like a swarm of bees.

  He greeted them before they could speak. “Hi, guys.” His tone, quiet and intense, projected his own pain easily.

  “Peter. What’s going on?” Ben’s deep voice dripped with concern.

  “She’s being interviewed about Dan Springs’ death.”

  “Yeah. So was I.” Joshua poked his chest with two fingers. “And I was out two hours ago, Peter. Why’s she still back there? She doesn’t know any more than I do.”

  Peter let out a long, measured breath. “They have more questions for her, because she was at the shop a few hours before you got there.”

  All three Cutters stared at Peter. Silence penetrated the space between them like a bullet slicing through paper.

  “So…what are you saying, Peter?” Ben asked.

  Peter’s back stiffened. His lungs squeezed tight, but he managed to speak. “I’m saying…you need to get her a lawyer, now.”

  Chapter 6

  Everyone in town knew about Tyra Henley. Widely known as the scariest, most terrifying lawyer in Marin County, she was also the highest paid. Seeing her walking through the doors of that little interview room had Hayley’s anxiety churning. No way could her parents afford this woman.

  But before Hayley could address this concern, Tyra had them both out of the room and walking down a slim hallway toward the lobby where her family awaited her.

  Hayley didn’t get a chance to flip out about the money her parents had laid out for the top defense lawyer in the county when it wasn’t even necessary until they were all crammed into the car on the way home.

  “Why on earth would you hire Tyra freaking Henley? Do you think I murdered the dude? My own freaking family!” She was pretty proud of herself for keeping it all together during the six-hour interview in the police station, but now all that pent-up anxiety and fear was exploding in the backseat of her parents’ SUV.

  Tilly Cutter twisted her body so she could look back at Hayley from her place in the passenger seat. “Of course not.”

  Hayley opened her mouth to vent more of her uncontainable emotion when her brother, from the seat beside her, clamped his hand over her lips. “Hayley, calm down a second.”

  Never, in the history of ever, had telling someone to “calm down” actually calmed them down. Especially not when it was your little brother sitting in the back seat of your parents’ car with you like you were twelve and on a family vacation from hell. Ribbons of intensity slid up Hayley’s spine threatening to cause her destruction.

  She shoved Joshua’s hand away and took in a deep breath. Closing her eyes, Hayley tried to picture every raw nerve vibrating through her body suddenly dropping like tiny dead flies. She took another deep breath, letting it out slowly and allowing the air to soothe each space within her.

  “We aren’t paying her at all,” Joshua said.

  Another cleansing gulp of air and she was ready to listen. “Tell it.” Hayley looked at her brother, knowing from a lifetime of experience that his tale would be less convoluted than their mother’s and more complete than their father’s.

  “She came out of nowhere. I swear. She marched into the police station about an hour after we called Clay. Do you remember Clay?”

  Hayley wasn’t anywhere near capable of remembering some random name from Joshua’s past. She just shook her head.

  “He was a college buddy of mine. He’s a tax lawyer in San Rafael. Anyway, he promised to find someone. Then she came walking in.”

  “Yeah, but she has to cost a fortune.” Hayley internally cheered at how calm her voice sounded.

  “That’s what I thought, too,” her father chimed in from the front seat.

  “But it turns out,” Joshua quickly interjected, “she’s taking the case pro bono.”

  “Why? And why is it even a case? I haven’t done anything.”

  Joshua shrugged. “Peter said you needed a lawyer. Do you know why?”

  Hayley’s mind was still sorting through all that had happened in that tiny room in the police station. Over that time one thing had become abundantly clear: Dan Springs had been poisoned with a gluten-free macaroon. That made her the number one suspect.

  But Hayley didn’t poison any macaroons, and she certainly didn’t kill Dan Springs. So there was no way they could come to that conclusion, right? Someone else had made macaroons and poisoned them. And of course, they were gluten free. They all were. A lawyer from the city probably had plenty of enemies. Hayley had heard he had three ex-wives. Surely, they were higher on the list than her.

  Hayley explained all this to her family during that short car ride back to their home. They all wholeheartedly agreed with her. When they left the vehicle, Joshua promised to head right to his computer and cyber stalk Dan and his ex-wives. Hayley spent an hour drinking tea with her parents before escaping to her apartment over the garage.

  Finally alone, completely exhausted, and dismayed at the darkness pouring through the bay windows of her neat little studio apartment, Hayley collapsed on the loveseat.

  Her mind refused to be still. She tried meditation. When that didn’t work, she cuddled with her tabby, Tito, binged on ice cream, and watched a cooking show. Finally, she gave in to the pinging thoughts bouncing off the walls of her brain and strapped on a pair of tennis shoes, determined that a long run would at least exhaust her body enough to bring relief in the form of sleep.

  She lured her protesting cat away from the door with treats and reached for the knob at the exact moment a fist pounded on the wood. Hayley leaped back, hand clutching her heart.

  “Hayley.” Peter’s muffled voice from behind the thin door flooded her with a sense of relief and terror at exactly the same moment.

  Hayley swung the door open, keeping her eyes on the badge pinned to his chest and away from a face that more often than not created a swarm of butterflies in her stomach. “Am I under arrest?”

  “Stop it.” Peter moved into her apartment fluidly, almost as if he wasn’t a giant and she weren’t standing in his way. “I am completely out of this one.”

  “I heard.” Hayley closed the door just as Tito made a leap for it. She scooped him up and carried him to the couch. “The scary detective ladies told me.” Hayley settled on one end of her two-person sofa and tucked Tito into her lap. He gave up the fight, curled into a ball, and began to purr.

  “They are scary.” Peter ran a hand over his chin, which she couldn’t help but notice had an amazing dark shadow. “That’s why I hired them.”

  “Good work.” If sarcasm were a contest, Hayley would get first prize.

  Peter slowly sank into the space beside her, his long legs folding up, one knee brushing against hers. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

 

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