Chapter 17
“The strawberry scone looks delicious. I’ll take one of those,” Bruce said, pointing his finger at the last one sitting invitingly on a plate inside the glass case. Bruce’s eyes scanned the other baked goods on display. “And the blueberry muffin . . . and the banana walnut bread.”
Hayley sighed. “We just came from lunch.”
“I had a salad. I’m going to be starving by four o’clock,” Bruce reasoned.
Helen Fennow smiled as she picked up a pair of metal tongs and withdrew the scone from the display case and carefully placed it in a brown paper sack with her bakery’s logo on the side, which was a half-eaten cookie with the name of her bakery, The Cookie Crumble, below it.
Hayley sighed again. “Yes, but we didn’t come here to—”
“And one of those peanut butter cookies . . . Wait, make it two . . .”
He glanced at Hayley. “You want one?”
Hayley shrugged. “Sure.”
“Make it three—no, four . . . what the hell, just make it a half dozen.”
Helen happily nodded and got to work fulfilling the suddenly large order by pulling a bigger bag with handles out from underneath the counter.
Hayley refrained from commenting any further on Bruce’s sudden sweets binge, even though his doctor had warned him about his rising glucose numbers, which were teetering dangerously close to pre-diabetes levels. She had already lectured him at lunch, forcing him to order a salad, which hadn’t sat well with him at all.
She was also still sore about his impulsive, ham-fisted decision to break the story of how Lisa Crawford was poisoned despite Sabrina’s direct request that they keep mum about the revelation until after the coroner had had the opportunity to release his final autopsy report. Hayley knew deep down that Bruce was a reporter first, and a reporter never ignores a scoop. That was just part of the package, and she had come to accept it. And as a small consolation, she hadn’t heard one word from Sabrina about ignoring her condition of not revealing the information, which made Hayley feel a little bit better about breaking her confidence.
In fact, a small part of her suspected that Sabrina knew Bruce would never keep his word about not sharing it, because on some level Sabrina actually wanted to get the news out there somehow. At least that’s what Hayley hoped. In any event, Hayley was inclined to forgive Bruce and let the whole matter go. His utter lack of healthy food choices, however, not so much.
While at lunch, Bruce had eagerly tried to change the subject of his eating habits by discussing possible suspects in the Lisa Crawford murder. One name that kept coming up was that of Helen Fennow, Lisa’s former assistant. If Lisa had done any of what she was accused of, planting rotten food and mice in Helen’s brand-new bakery, then that would certainly be a motive for Helen to commit murder.
Helen finished filling the bag with her baked goods and rang up the order on the register.
Hayley noticed that the glass display case was at this point nearly empty, in desperate need of some restocking. “Looks like you’ve been busy today.”
“I had a line out the door this morning. I’m going to have to hire extra help. This week’s been crazy, and every day seems to get even crazier than the last. Business has been booming ever since I became the only game in town!”
The moment she said it, Helen obviously regretted it. She instantly wiped the big grin off her face and struggled to adopt a more reflective and somber tone. “I just meant that there’s been a small silver lining in the midst of this horrible tragedy. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to be callous.”
“Of course not,” Bruce said softly, attempting to put her at ease.
“Lisa was very good to me; she taught me everything I know. We were the closest of friends until . . . until I decided to break out on my own.”
“And then she turned on you,” Hayley said.
“Yes, and with such a stunning viciousness. I was so taken aback. I didn’t expect her to go to the lengths she did to hurt me.”
“By trying to wreck your new business?” Bruce asked.
“Yes. She didn’t know I had installed a security camera the day before she broke in and planted the mice and spoiled food. It recorded everything. In fact, I was at the police station delivering the evidence to Chief Alvares the day you discovered her body in her bakery. I was standing right there in front of him when he got the call. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Did you see Lisa after we saw you in her shop a few days before she died?” Hayley asked.
Helen shook her head. “No, I knew it was probably best to keep my distance. And after I got the call from the health department acting on an anonymous tip, I knew it had to have been her who called them. But I still didn’t want to confront her or engage her in any way after that, because I finally realized what a vindictive person she was, and what she was actually capable of doing to exact her revenge.”
Hayley studied Helen, who was acting calm, cool, and collected.
Helen noticed Hayley staring at her. “I know what you’re thinking. You want me to say Lisa was a conniving, despicable, poor excuse for a human being, and the world is a better place without her, and that I refuse to shed one tear over the fact that she’s gone for good. Is that what you want me to say? Because that would give you sufficient cause to keep me on your list of suspects. But I won’t do that. I am grateful to Lisa. Without her, none of this would have ever been possible. And now I am a successful businesswoman. I owe it all to her.”
“We believe you,” Hayley felt the need to say, even though she was not entirely one hundred percent convinced Helen was being sincere.
“Look, let me save you a lot of time investigating me. I did not kill Lisa. I’m simply not capable of it. I can’t even pronounce the name of the poison that killed her.”
After running Bruce’s credit card and handing it back to him along with the big paper bag of goodies he had purchased, Helen’s smile returned. “Now, let’s please put all this ugly chatter aside and talk business. Now that Lisa’s out of the picture, is her cousin Liddy looking for a new wedding cake baker? I know a spectacularly talented one who might be available!”
“You?” Bruce guessed, already fully aware of the answer.
“Yes! I promise I will do a bang-up job. She won’t regret it. And as for references, all Liddy has to do is check out all of the glowing testimonials on my Yelp page before she makes a final decision,” Helen said, driving the sales pitch home.
“Will do,” Hayley said.
She didn’t want to reveal to Helen that Liddy had already made her final decision about who was going to design and bake her wedding cake and it was Hayley and Gemma. Because if there was even the slightest chance Helen did get rid of Lisa, Hayley feared she wouldn’t hesitate bumping off Hayley and Gemma in order to get the job baking Liddy’s cake. Although Helen put on a good show, there was still a nagging suspicion in the back of Hayley’s mind that it was all an act. Behind the fake smile and fawning compliments and protestations of innocence quite possibly lurked the mind of a cold-blooded killer.
Helen Fennow was right about one thing.
She was staying on Hayley’s list of possible suspects.