Murder over Macaroons, page 6
Hayley kissed the corner of his mouth. “I like it.”
Their little slice of romantic reprieve was ripped apart by Joshua’s shaking voice. “Hayley, there are some police here to see you.”
Hayley bit her lip, her eyes filling with tears she’d never let drop. “I guess I have to go.”
She tried to pull away from him. But Peter held onto her. “Wait. I have one thing to say.”
Hayley waited, her heavy breaths hitting his neck.
“I love you, Hayley. I have for a long time.”
Hayley’s throat worked as she swallowed hard. A single tear dropped from her left eye and landed on his upper arm. “Peter—”
Whatever she was about to say was lost in a whirlwind of fear and confusion as Yolanda and Janelle walked into the kitchen with a stricken Joshua. Calm and kind, they waited in the entryway quietly.
Hayley wiped at her eyes and stepped away from him. Helpless, Peter let her go, his arms empty and cold without Hayley in them.
She turned to Yolanda and Janelle. “Okay. I’ll go.”
Chapter 13
This position was unusual for Peter. Head in hands, hunched over his desk was definitely not how he ever planned to be seen by his staff. But they were no doubt looking. He hadn’t closed his door, and they could peek in as they pretended to walk by casually, sneaking looks at their distraught leader.
“Chief.” Yolanda’s usually strong voice was barely a whisper.
Peter didn’t bother to raise his head. He preferred staring at the worn metal between his elbows to facing anyone just now.
“Merry Christmas, sir.”
Three days until Christmas and it had none of the usual cheer this year. Each time one of his employees said the words to him, Peter sunk a little lower. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to file our full report, sir.”
“Thanks.”
A folder slid beneath his gaze. The light beige paper appeared innocuous. But he knew it held all the evidence against Hayley. The reason the woman he loved sat behind bars in the back of the building was in that folder.
Peter sat up and rubbed his face. By the time he lifted his head, Yolanda was gone, the door closed behind her. He silently thanked her for the privacy she’d given him.
Peter stared at that folder for a long beat, his head swimming. He knew no matter what was in there, he would never believe Hayley had done this. So it shouldn’t be so hard to simply turn over the cover and peer inside.
But it was. No matter how wrong they were, words on paper that implied his Hayley could harm someone were too painful to ingest. But if he didn’t look, he’d never know why this had happened. He’d spoken to a handful of people before he’d had to back away. He’d gotten little to nothing done. Then he’d handed it all over to Janelle and Yolanda. Now they were giving him the rest of the story.
Just as his hand reached for the folder, his office door opened again. This time it was the other half of the dynamic detective duo. Far less careful and quiet, Janelle marched in, shutting the door behind her. “Did you look at it yet?”
Peter scrubbed his face with his hands and sat back, putting more space between him and the offending folder. “No. I don’t think I want to.”
Janelle approached his desk, her frame towering over it. “You really, really should.”
Peter cocked his head to look at her. Something was off. “Why?”
“Because we arrested the person the DA thought did this. But there’s a second suspect, Peter. We just don’t have any proof.”
Peter nearly fell out of his chair, the wheels careening back as he involuntary kicked forward with his feet. He managed to steady the seat beneath him and shoot up. “What?”
Janelle leaned over his desk, hands planted on the desk. “There is a second suspect. But all the evidence at this time points to Hayley. We wanted to delay Hayley’s arrest to give us more time to investigate, but we were told by the DA to make the arrest. Do you understand what I’m saying, Chief?”
Peter nodded slowly.
“And now that it’s over and the arrest is made, we can give you the file, and you can look at it. So look at it.” Janelle stood and marched out of the office, practically slamming the door closed behind her.
Peter didn’t bother to sit back down. He simply leaned over his desk and plunged himself into the pile of papers.
****
Laney’s face was covered in tears. Peter could see the pressure she was putting on Joshua’s hand as she squeezed it.
Joshua didn’t seem to care; he merely looked over at his friend with pure concern plastered on his face. “It’s okay. I understand.”
“No. You don’t. I let Hayley get arrested for a crime she didn’t commit.” Laney swiped at a pool of tears beneath her right eye. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“You were afraid,” Joshua said.
Peter tried to hang onto his patience. He felt for Laney, but they’d spent every one of the twenty minutes since the three of them sat down in the interview room going over Laney’s guilt about not having shared what she knew earlier. But she hadn’t actually shared it yet.
“You’re doing the right thing now,” Peter told her for the millionth time.
“Only because you called me with what you have.” Laney sniffed and gestured to the folder perched on the table in front of Peter.
Peter let out a deep sigh. “Tell me what you’re afraid of.”
“Being next!”
Joshua cradled Laney’s head against his shoulder and whispered words into her ear.
“I’m not going to let that happen, Laney,” Peter said.
She peered at him, her eyes wide and wet. “Of course not. I guess not, right?” She pulled away from Joshua’s shoulder. “I heard…Someone told me something.”
“Someone? Who?” Peter asked.
“The killer.”
****
“I want the truth.” Peter had never employed his intimidating stare so intently on any other investigation.
Jill’s hand shook as she replaced the now half-empty glass on the table between them. “What do you mean?”
“I mean.” Peter leaned over the table, his elbow brushing Janelle as he did. “We know you know exactly who killed Dan Springs.”
“And it’s time to come out with it,” Yolanda said from his other side.
“I already told you. It was Hayley Cutter. It had to be. He was poisoned with a gluten-free macaroon. You said so yourself.”
“We did,” Janelle agreed. “But that doesn’t mean Hayley made it.”
Jill’s eyes bounced between them, and she leaned back in her chair, the shaking suddenly gone. “Who else then?”
“Lots of people had motive,” Yolanda pointed out. “We sat in this very room and went through a huge list of people.”
“Yes. And I told you everything.”
“Not everything.” Peter pulled a crisp, white piece of paper from the folder that lay between his hands on the table. He flicked his wrist, sending the paper sliding across the smooth wood toward Jill.
Jill, her hand steady now, picked up the paper and took her time reading it. Her eyes followed the words across the page, going from left to right over and over until she reached the bottom of the page.
Finally, she lifted her eyes and stared directly at Peter. Her cool exterior failed her completely. She was terrified. It was all right there in her wide, hazel eyes. “Oh.”
“See, that.” Peter tapped his finger on the paper. “Looks like motive to me.”
“I mean…It’s just…So what?” Jill’s voice broke. “So he left the bakery to me. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Doesn’t it?” Peter’s eyebrows shot to his hairline.
A tear dropped from Jill’s eye. Her mouth formed a deep frown. “He was such a jerk to me. It was all I had, that I would get the bakery someday. It’s the only reason I kept doing all the work and letting him take all the credit.”
“It makes perfect sense.” Yolanda reached over the table to take Jill’s hand.
“I didn’t have the capital to get my own bakery. But he offered me a way.”
“You just had to wait for him to die,” Peter said.
Jill nodded. “It was hard to wait. He was such a jerk.”
“But you couldn’t get blamed, could you?” Peter said. “You needed a scapegoat. And Hayley was the perfect one. All you had to do was put the poison in a gluten-free cookie and make sure everyone knew it was gluten free, and all eyes would automatically turn to the woman who was being publicly screwed over by Dan, rather than the one being privately screwed over.”
Slowly, so slowly Peter nearly died in the wait, Jill nodded.
Chapter 14
Yolanda’s look of pure satisfaction was overshadowed by Hayley’s hollowed cheeks and the dark circles rimming her beautiful eyes as she walked out of the back hallway beside the detective.
“Hey.” Peter nearly kicked himself. How stupid could he sound?
Hayley stopped in front of him, her head tipped up. “Hi.”
“You look tired.”
“Haven’t slept much. Are my parents here?”
Peter couldn’t resist the vision of scooping her up and kissing her silly right there in the back room of the police station. But it didn’t happen that way. She was worn out and wanted her parents. Not him.
“Yeah.” He turned, placing a hand gently on her lower back and pulling her with him. “They’re in the lobby waiting for you.”
Hayley let out a long sigh. “Thank God. I missed them.”
Peter longed to hear her say she missed him, too. “Yeah. I think they will probably swarm you. You feeling up to that?”
Hayley nodded, her eyes lacking their usual spark. She looked close to tears. Peter’s heart ached. He spun to stand beside her. Placing his hand on her elbow, they walked quietly through the dark hallway. When they reached the door, Peter turned to her. He had one moment left with her. Yolanda had gone. He could say what he needed to right now.
But Hayley wasn’t paying any attention to him. She shoved open the heavy metal door, plunged out into the lobby, and straight into the arms of her family.
****
Christmas sucked. Not a call. Not a text. Nothing. He’d tried to reach out to Hayley a few times but with no response. He’d come to accept that she blamed him for all she’d been through. She might never forgive him.
Peter took a sip of beer. He remembered his father warning him that drinking alone was a bad sign. He glanced at the space beside him on the sofa. “But I’m not alone am I, Gertie?”
The tan and black mutt cocked her head at him. He gave her a little scratch under the chin. “How did you end up in that cell, sweetheart?” He’d been asking the calm, gentle dog that question since he’d rescued her from the shelter yesterday. A “Christmas Eve Special,” the shelter staff had called her. They’d taken his picture with a Santa hat on his head and Gertie on his knee before they’d left to start their life together.
Gertie licked his palm and placed her head on his thigh. “At least I have you, girl.” Gertie already held a place in his heart, but no matter how much he wished it, she couldn’t fill the hole left behind by Hayley.
Peter stared at his phone, willing it to tell him something other than the truth, that Hayley was most likely lost to him forever. But while the phone stayed silent, the doorbell did not.
With Gertie’s confusion over the sound of the bell and his own surprise, they nearly tripped over one another as they made their way to the door. Eventually, Peter was able to get the door opened, and Gertie settled behind him.
And there she was. Hayley.
Eyes brighter, skin glowing, Hayley looked like her old self again, complete with a stunning smile.
Peter struggled to make his jaw work. “Hi.”
“Hi. Who’s this?”
Peter stepped back, taking Gertie with him and making a space for Hayley to enter the house. “Gertie.”
Hayley stepped inside and immediately fell to her knees on the tan carpet. “Hi, Gertie.”
The dog, who’d been incredibly shy at the shelter, practically threw herself into Hayley’s arms. A thorough tongue bath ensued as Hayley laughed and cooed to the dog. Peter was jealous as hell of Gertie.
Hayley looked up at Peter, an expression of sheer joy on her face. Her beauty hit him in the gut. “I love her. When did you get her?”
“Yesterday. She’s my Christmas present to myself.”
Hayley stood and walked purposely to the couch, where Gertie dropped all thirty pounds of herself into Hayley’s lap. Peter moved slowly across the carpet, cognizant of each step he took toward her. When he reached the couch, he sat beside them, as close as he could without actually touching Hayley, though Gertie’s long, skinny tail lay over his lap.
“I missed you,” he blurted out.
Hayley pulled her attention from the dog and turned to smile at him. Gertie lay down, allowing Peter to see her clearly. “I missed you, too.”
“Yeah? I was afraid you were mad at me.”
Hayley shook her head. “No. Not at all. I was just a little…messed up. Being arrested was hard, Peter.”
He nodded, swallowing hard. “I’m sorry.”
Hayley lifted her hand from Gertie’s back and placed it gently on his cheek. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
“I recused myself.”
Hayley rolled her eyes. “Of course you did. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t be the man you are, Peter.”
Afraid of what that meant, Peter stayed still and quiet.
Hayley’s thumb roamed gently over his cheek, leaving a path of fire in its wake. “And I love the man you are.”
Heart exploding, Peter grappled to keep himself together. Had she really just told him she loved him? Did she mean it the way he did? Or was he about to get the “friend lecture”?
“Peter? Do you have anything to say?” A crease formed just above her eyes.
Peter willed himself to pull enough air into his lungs to speak. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“I love you. So much. I have for so long.”
Hayley sighed. “That’s better.”
“Can I kiss you?”
She smiled. “Yes.”
Peter leaned toward her, but she stopped him by placing her finger over his lips. “But only if you are willing to do it again and again and again.”
Peter smiled. “Absolutely.”
Macaroon Recipe (makes 24 cookies)
For a soft-on-the-inside, crispy-on-the-outside, ooey, gooey coconut-y cookie, you will need:
1 lb sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
To make the cookies:
1) Preheat oven to 325 F.
2) Line baking sheet with parchment paper (not wax paper—they will stick!).
3) Mix together coconut, milk, vanilla extract, and salt. Set aside.
4) Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
5) Gently fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture.
6) Place heaping spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
7) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top.
8) Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.
9) Melt chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly.
10) Dip the bottoms of the cookies in chocolate and place back on parchment-paper-lined cookie sheets. Optional: pour chocolate in decorative lines across the top of the cookies.
11) Refrigerate for 10-20 minutes or until chocolate sets.
A word about the author…
Kay Harris has had a diverse career with jobs ranging from college professor to park ranger. Now she adds author to her repertoire. Kay writes romance novels that contain a little bit of sweet, a dash of sexy, a touch of heartbreak, and a whole lot of fun!
Kay grew up in the Midwest and has since lived all over the western United States including Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California. She loves to hike, is obsessed with museums, and enjoys taking her extremely tall and very handsome husband on adventures.
http://kayharrisauthor.com
Thank you for purchasing
this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
For questions or more information
contact us at
info@thewildrosepress.com.
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
www.thewildrosepress.com
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