As we were about to pass city hall, I put my hand on Mathew’s arm. “Stop. There’s Don Johnson. He’s going into city hall.”
Mathew cocked his head. “That’s strange, what does he need in there?”
“Maybe we’d better see what he’s doing.”
Mathew pulled the truck to a stop in front of the building. “I’ll let you out here and go park, but wait just inside the door for me.”
I slid out of the front seat and began to walk toward city hall. I hoped the front door was unlocked. I was actually surprised when it opened. I pushed with one hand, because before hopping out of the truck I had, without realizing it, grabbed the bag with the boots.
The sack crinkled in my hand as I stepped inside. I saw Don down the hallway, heading in the direction of the mayor’s office. Ignoring Mathew’s instructions, I began following him at a distance.
When I reached the mayor’s office, I saw the door was ajar, so I slowed down and glanced inside. No one was in the outer office, but through the other door that led into the mayor’s office, I could see a figure bent over near the desk.
Could Don Johnson be going through the mayor’s papers?
I moved closer, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. When the person straightened, I gasped.
“Helen! What are you doing?” I was actually dumbfounded to find her in the office, and not Don. I scanned the room, wondering if he was in the office as well, but aside from Helen, the room was empty.
She straightened, pulling something out of the garbage can. Her eyes locked with mine, but there was no smile on her face.
“What are you doing here?” she growled, which surprised me. The last time I saw her she wasn’t exactly nice, but she didn’t seem angry.
I held up the bag with a smile. “I bought you some boots. I wanted to stop by your place, but I saw Don Johnson come into the building, and well, I followed him.”
She placed a hand on her hip. “He isn’t here.”
As my eyes adjusted to the dark office, I realized Helen was holding something. My legs began to tremble.
“I was coming to see you at your home,” I murmured. My eyes froze on the red folder in her hand.
A bitter laugh bubbled from her lips as she held up the folder. Across the top, in bold black lettering, it read, SUNSET APARTMENT DEMOLITION PLAN. “My home! My home! Did you know the mayor wanted to destroy my home?” She shook the folder.
My mouth dropped open at the sound of her spiteful words.
“I’m sorry.” My words sounded flat and untrue.
“But I couldn’t let him do that, now could I? Not my home!”
I wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell me. She was obviously very upset.
“I heard the mayor was going to find homes for all the residents of the apartments. I’m sure it would’ve been a nice upgrade.”
“How can anyone find a home for someone who doesn’t want to move? I grew up in those apartments. I didn’t want to move, but they said I would have to. But now without a mayor, without these plans, they’ll forget all about it. Only His Majesty wanted to tear down my home. No one else cared.”
Helen took a step toward me. I wasn’t sure why, but her movement frightened me.
“Why did you have to stick your nose into my business?” Her voice trembled with raw emotion.
“Your business? I haven’t …” My voice faded as I suddenly realized what she was talking about. Helen was the one who’d called me on the phone, the one who’d sent the letter, and the one who’d killed the mayor. My investigating was definitely getting into her business.
I took another step backward, but her eyes were locked on me.
“I see you understand me now.” She looked down at the desk, picked up a letter opener, and held it in her hand.
I gulped. “Helen, I’m sure you didn’t mean to kill the mayor. It was an accident.”
She chuckled. “Poison? Not many people have accidents with poison. Oh, I thought about using this letter opener, but I’d just finished washing the floors in here and didn’t want to get any blood on them.” She glanced around the room. “After his son left, I tried to talk to His Majesty about my home. I explained how much it meant to me, but the sot just laughed at me. He dared to tell me my home wasn’t worth a wooden nickel. So I went home and got my bottle of herbicide. It’s very poisonous. I waited for him to go to the men’s room, then I slipped into his office. I’d overheard the secretary tell him the samples from the tea shoppe were on his desk, so I opened the sample tray and stuffed the poison in the bottom of one of those little cakes. I stayed near the office and waited. I wasn’t sure if he’d eat that one first, but as luck would have it, when he returned from the men’s room, he opened the tray and tossed the thing into his mouth. I had the satisfaction of watching him die, begging me to get him help.”
My stomach turned. For a moment, I thought I was going to throw up, but I took a few gasps of air. I needed to get out of the office and away from Helen. If I could slip out of the room, I could run for help, but she kept moving closer with the letter opener, poised to strike.
For a moment, I was paralyzed with fear. I had no weapon, and she looked crazed. I moved slowly, not wanting to alarm her. I was just barely able to slip out of the mayor’s private office before she caught onto what I was doing and rushed straight to the door of the outer office before I could reach it.
“Poor little tea shoppe girl. Everyone believes you were the one who poisoned the mayor. Once I kill you, I’ll tell everyone you admitted it. I’ll say I had to kill you in self-defense because I figured out how you murdered him. All I have to do is hide the poison in the tea shoppe pantry. I’ll make sure to press your fingers on it after I wipe my fingerprints off.” She kept hooting with laughter as if what she was saying was a funny joke.
“Now, just stand still, Missy, and I’ll be real quick about it.” She lifted the letter opener once more and lunged at me. The only thing I could think to do was throw the bag with the boots in it at her. The bag hit her in the face. She let go of the letter opener, but she lunged at me, knocked me to the ground, and got on top of me.
I squirmed under her weight, but with a strength I would never have guessed she had, she grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. I saw her reaching behind, feeling for the letter opener. I was trying to get out from under her, and I kept praying, Lord Jesus, help! My heart was pleading, although I was too frightened to speak out loud. She had the advantage over me, and I wasn’t able to get up.
I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting to feel the letter opener slide into my heart or slice my neck. Instead, I felt the heavy weight of Helen’s body lifted off of me. I opened my eyes in surprise and saw Mathew holding Helen in a tight grip.
“Are you all right, Georgina?” Mathew’s voice was grim.
“I—I think so.”
Mathew had already kicked the letter opener farther away. “Get up and call Detective Rawls.”
I stood up, stumbled across the room, and sat on a chair against the wall. I began to press the numbers on my cell. My entire body was shaking, and I couldn’t keep tears from slipping down my cheeks. I quickly informed the detective of the situation then put down the phone.
I wanted Mathew to comfort me, but he remained standing across the room holding the outraged Helen.
I noticed Mathew’s lips moving and realized he was praying, which brought back the reality that God had answered my prayer. By sending Mathew into the office at just the right time, God saved me from what could have been my death.
“What’s going on in here?” I turned at Don Johnson’s voice.
I pointed across the room. “She … she tried to kill me.”
The man’s eyes opened wide.
“She killed the mayor,” I gasped.
Don stepped farther into the room. “Need any help, Pastor?”
Mathew shook his head.
Although the room seemed to be spinning, I looked at Don and asked, “What were you doing here?” The words came out in a tremble. “I followed you in and found her …”
“I wanted to walk through the whole building, spend some time praying about whether God wanted me to become the mayor or not. Even though I said I was going to run, I wanted to assure myself it was what God wanted. I was passing by here again when I heard your voices.”
I slunk further down as I felt the fear leave my body, replaced with exhaustion. I felt as if I could just lay down my head and sleep.
Within minutes, the room was filled with police officers, and Detective Rawls was barking orders. One officer was trying to get my statement, but my teeth were chattering so hard, I wasn’t able to speak clearly. Rawls called out, “Leave her alone, Daniels. We can get her statement later. Can’t you see she’s in shock?”
I was grateful, but when I turned to thank him, his lips were thin and stern, which meant I had a lot of explaining to do.
When two officers got Helen Cranz onto her feet, balanced between them, she wobbled slightly but then turned and faced me. I could feel the hate emanating from her. It was hard to feel pity for her at this point, knowing she’d murdered a man and would have murdered me too if she could have, but I knew I needed to forgive her.
I walked across the room, picked up the bag with the boots, and moved back to stand in front of her. “Helen, I’m sorry the mayor was going to tear down your house, and I forgive you for trying to kill me.” I handed the bag to the officer who’d handcuffed her. Then I turned and walked out of the room.
Mathew wasn’t far behind. He took my arm and supported me all the way out to the parking lot. Once more he drove me home. I didn’t try to talk. The events of the day had been too overwhelming. I just needed sleep.
When Mathew pulled up to my apartment, he slid out of the truck, jogged around the front, opened the passenger door, and helped me down.
“Want me to walk you in?” His eyes searched my face.
“No. I’ll be fine.” My words were curt, although I didn’t mean to be rude.
Mathew pulled me close for a moment, pressed a small kiss on the top of my head, and whispered, “Thank God you’re okay, Georgina.”
I mumbled something incoherent and shuffled away from him. All I wanted was the warmth and comfort of my bed.
On the following Monday, I tied the green-, pink-, and yellow-striped apron on over my yellow polo and blue jeans. I slipped my feet into my new warm boots, shrugged into my cozy thermal coat, grabbed my purse, and headed out the door.
I rushed down Main Street, wanting to get to the tea shoppe as early as possible. Detective Rawls had his men take down the Temporarily Closed signs, and he had called me on Sunday to say the shop could reopen on Monday.
The Sunday paper’s article had cleared up any question about whether the mayor had been poisoned by anyone or anything from Tea by the Sea, giving explicit details about Helen Cranz’s part in the murder and her attempt on my life. Needless to say, I expected a fairly large Monday morning crowd, even if they came just to satisfy their curiosity.
Our baker had to quit by the end of the month and had handed in her notice, so now I was going to have to do more of the baking and a lot of the sandwich making.
I opened the front door, thrilling at the sound of the bell jangling overhead. I would never take that sound for granted again. Gran was already in the shop, leaning over a cookbook and sipping on her mug of coffee, as if the murder had never happened.
I hung up my coat, poured myself a cup of tea, and joined Gran at the counter. She leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear, “Thank you, love, for saving the shop.”
I scanned the room, feeling a real warmth and fondness for the place.
“Nothing Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Watson wouldn’t have done.”
Just then the front door opened, the bell jangled, and I glanced up as Mathew walked in.
Gran snickered. “Speaking of …”
I slapped her arm lightly. “Gran!”
She laughed, grabbed her mug, and headed into the kitchen giving me one last wink.
Mathew moved across the room and sat on the stool across from me. “Good morning, Georgina. Are you happy to have the shop open again?”
I poured a cup of Earl Grey and pushed it across the counter to him. “Of course, but I’ll miss the excitement of sleuthing.”
Mathew reached over and covered my hand with his. “Well, I can’t offer any more detective work, but there are many fun and exciting things to do in this town. I’d love to be the one to share them with you.”
Our eyes met, and I felt a blush creep up my neck. I’d wondered if Mathew would even want to see me again once the murder was solved. I had my answer.
“That sounds really nice.”
He stood and smiled at me. “I’ve enjoyed sleuthing with you and can’t imagine ever wanting to play detective with anyone else. Promise to always be my sidekick.”
I stared into his eyes. They weren’t laughing. He was serious.
“Always,” I whispered.
With a gentle hand, he reached out and touched my face. “You know, Georgina. I believe I may be falling in love with you. Do you think, perhaps, you are falling in love with me?” His words were spoken quietly, so only I heard.
I lifted my head with a smile and sighed as I leaned into his arms. “Indubitably!”
Mathew held me for a moment. I finally stepped back and searched his face.
His eyes never left my eyes until he leaned forward and pressed his lips on mine.
The sound of Gran’s cackles caused us to pull apart, but Mathew kept his hand on mine.
Gran came out of the kitchen, walked over, and patted my shoulder. “Well, that’s one good thing that’s come out of all this.” She nodded at Mathew, who gave her a sideways grin and a wink. “But let’s just hope we don’t ever have another murder here at Tea by the Sea.”
In unison, Mathew and I both said, “Amen!”