“I can send someone out to question him, if you’re that sure,” he said. “I’ll have to run a search, see if I can get his address.”
“No need,” Candice said, her voice almost a whisper. “He's here.”
Candice walked into the kitchen, her hands shaking. Her cell phone was gripped in her right hand. Detective Jefferson was still on the line, and according to the plan they had agreed upon, he was going to keep listening while she stalled until he got there to question Theodore. She was glad; she didn’t feel safe with the man in her house.
“Are you okay?” Eli asked, looking at Candice in concern. She wasn’t surprised that he had noticed something was off. She was terrified. Luckily, she had a very valid excuse.
“That was Detective Jefferson,” she said, taking a deep breath. She noticed Theodore stiffen. He didn't take his eyes off the screen, though, where Moira was looking annoyed as David sketched something on a piece of paper and held it up to the camera, apparently trying to explain one of the machines in more detail to his friend. “The brewery is on fire.”
Her words traveled through the room like a shockwave. Theodore and Annabelle looked around at her, and through the computer she could hear her parents say, “What? What did she say?”
“The brewery is on fire,” Theodore repeated, loudly enough for them to hear through the computer speakers. “How unfortunate. Did they say what happened?”
“The firetruck is on its way now. I don’t know any details yet.”
David and her mother started talking at the same time, neither of their voices understandable as they tried to speak over one another. Candice hurried over to the computer. “Detective Jefferson said he would call me once they had the fire under control.” That was a lie; the detective was on his way over to the house right now. Still, someone would call once the fire was under control, and she didn’t want to tip Theodore off that Detective Jefferson was coming to the house. “He asked us to keep our distance until the fire’s safely out, so I think our best bet is to stay here.”
“We should have come back long before this, the money be darned,” David said, his eyes flashing. “We will be on the next possible flight. I promise. As soon as we land somewhere with an airport, we are heading back home.”
“Good,” Candice said, no longer wanting to convince her parents to stay on the cruise ship longer. “I don’t know how much more of this I can handle myself.”
“I told you one of the machines was acting up,” Theodore said. “I hope that’s not what caused the fire. Perhaps there was an electrical fault somewhere.”
Eli was being strangely quiet. Candice glanced at him and saw that he was frowning at Annabelle, who was acting very strangely indeed. She kept shuffling from foot to foot, glancing alternatively at Theodore and at the front door. Her fingers were clenched tightly around the pastry tin.
“Are you all right?” Eli asked after a long moment. Candice’s stomach swooped as she realized that him questioning Annabelle could be a recipe for disaster. She didn’t dare try to get his attention and have him stop, though.
“Me?” Annabelle asked. She blinked, visibly forcing herself to settle down. “I'm fine. Perfectly fine. Why?”
“You just seem nervous or something.” His frown deepened. “Do you know something about the fire?”
With the way Annabelle was acting, Candice didn’t blame him for jumping to that conclusion. The woman hid her nerves very poorly.
“Me?” Annabelle repeated with a squeak. “No. I don't know anything about it.”
“And what about the break-in?” Eli asked, his eyes narrowing. Theodore had a calculating look on his face, and was staring at Annabelle as well.
“I don’t know anything,” Annabelle said. It might have been more effective if her voice hadn’t broken halfway through.
Eli just looked puzzled. He looked between Theodore, Candice, and Annabelle. “I feel like I’m missing something.”
“You’re not missing anything!” Annabelle said. It came out loud enough to almost be a shout, and she clapped her hand over her mouth.
“What's going on?” Moira asked from the computer.
“Nothing, Mom –” Candice began. She never got to finish her sentence, because someone dropped something that clattered across the floor. Candice turned to see what had happened. Theodore had stood up, and if she had to guess, that was what had caused Annabelle to drop the pastry tin. She had her hands clamped over her mouth. She was staring at Theodore with wide, terrified eyes.
Chapter 13
He looked shocked, at first, by her reaction, but slowly realization dawned over his face. “I'm guessing the gig is up,” he said. “Somehow, between the two of you, you figured out what happened.”
“What are you talking about?” Eli asked, though Candice was relieved to see that his suspicion now seemed to be turned on Theodore.
“It was the car,” Annabelle said, her voice shaking. “I saw his car. He was coming here the night of the break-in.”
The room fell into silence. Eli looked shocked, and Theodore seemed to be digesting the information. She wasn’t sure what her parents were doing; she wasn’t even sure if they could hear them clearly. She didn’t want to focus on the screen when she was waiting to see what Theodore would do. Her cell phone was still clutched in her hand. She hoped Detective Jefferson was listening.
“The police are on their way,” she said, deciding to pretend to be brave. “You’d better leave.”
Theodore stared at her for a long moment. She saw something flicker in his eyes. He seemed to be thinking rapidly. “I don’t think I’ll be leaving just yet,” he said.
“You don't have a choice,” she said. “You leave now, or the police will get here and arrest you.” She didn’t want him to get away, but now that he knew what they knew, she had the feeling that they were all in danger. She would rather the man escape than hurt one of them in retribution.
He gave her a tight smile, then turned and slammed the laptop shut, ending the video call. “Oh, I’ll be leaving. Just not yet. A couple of weeks ago, David very proudly told me about a new safe he had gotten. I know he was planning on storing some cash in it, in case of emergencies. I’d say this counts as an emergency. Go get it for me.”
Candice blinked. “Honestly, I have no idea where the safe would be, let alone how to get into it.”
“In their bedroom closet. It’s biometric, but there’s a password backup. It’s probably something inane and easy to guess like your birthday.” He smirked at her surprise expression. “I did spend an evening rifling through this house, or did you forget?”
When she hesitated, he pulled a gun out from a concealed holster that had been tucked into his belt. He held it like he knew what he was doing with it. It wasn’t quite aiming at her, but the threat was obvious. His finger was off the trigger, but she knew that could change in a second.
“Upstairs, now. The two of you, stay down here.” He gestured at Eli and Annabelle. Eli's face was pale, but he caught Candice's eyes and she nodded. She wanted him to do as he was asked… for now.
Her heart pounding, she made her way upstairs, very aware of the man with the gun behind her. She went to her parents’ bedroom and pulled open the closet doors. She had to move a few clothes aside, but sure enough, there was a small, heavy safe with both a place for someone to place their hand and a number pad. “Start trying to figure out the password,” he said.
She nodded and crouched down, but the numbers she started to enter were random. She wanted to stall.
“I have to ask… why? I don't understand why you did any of this.”
He sighed and leaned back against the bed frame. “Since I plan on making a clean getaway, I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you. I’ve always dreamed of opening a distillery, but it’s very expensive to get started up. The cost of the licensing alone is insane. When I met David and started becoming friends with him, I realized partnering with him might be a good idea. But I never wanted to be seco
nd best. When my father passed away I came into some money, enough to get started myself… But by then I’d realized how skilled David is at coming up with new brews. I decided having a distillery alone wasn’t enough for me. I wanted a microbrewery too. And I knew just where to look for some good recipes to get started. So I came up with my plan; steal David’s recipes and wreck his operation so I could get started without competition. When he told me he was going on a cruise with his wife, I knew that would be the perfect time to strike. I got my nephew on board; he was a locksmith and eager for some extra cash. Unfortunately, David failed to mention that you were going to be staying at the house with the dogs.” She looked up and saw that he was glaring down at her as if it had been her fault. “The dogs started barking as soon as we showed up. We decided to break down the door, since picking the lock would take time and by then the neighbors might have been alerted that something was wrong. Once we were inside, my nephew managed to calm them down long enough for us to slip into the office. It didn’t take him long to unlock the drawer, and I took pictures of all of the recipes and notes David had in there.”
“Then you shot your nephew?” Candice asked, horrified.
Theodore shook his head, looking pained. “That stupid cat tripped us up. Jimmy stepped on its tail while we were leaving and the cat freaked out. It got the dogs going again and this time that German Shepherd of yours seemed to mean business. We decided to make a run for it, but that giant black beast wasn't letting up. He was nipping and biting at us as we tried to run out of the house. I shot at him, but I hit Jimmy instead.” He closed his eyes for a moment, as if in pain, then snapped them open again. “At least the gunshot scared the dogs off.”
“You set the fire too, didn’t you?”
He gave a curt nod. “I used paper to block the vents and set up a short fuse with some pure alcohol as well. I was hoping that the evidence would get burned up in the resulting fire and no one would be able to point fingers at me, but my bad luck seems to have held. It would have been perfect. With David’s microbrewery destroyed, and with his recipes on my phone, I would’ve been able to start my own business with next to no competition. But now, I’m going to have to start over somewhere else.” He shifted, pointing the gun at her. “Now, do you have the safe open yet? My time is running short.”
Candice had to guess a few times once she started working on the safe in earnest, but eventually landed on her parents wedding date. The code opened the safe. There was some cash and jewelry inside, and Theodore pushed her aside to shove everything into his pockets.
“Thanks for your help. I won’t be seeing you again.”
He strode over to the bedroom door and opened it, only to be met by a face full of what looked like… mashed potatoes?
Candice jumped up when the gun went flying across the floor as he began scraping at the steaming potatoes that were coating his skin. In the same moment, Eli tackled him around the middle and dragged him to the floor. Behind them, Annabelle dropped the now empty pot that had held the mashed potatoes to the ground and hurried forward, a cord in her hands. Candice managed to grab the gun, then backed up, not wanting to get in the way of what seemed to be a coordinated attack on Theodore. Eli and Annabelle managed to get the potato covered man tied up with the cord, then the three of them traded looks. It was hard to believe it was really over.
Epilogue
Four perfect chicken pot pies were steaming on the counter. The scent rising from them made Candice's stomach growl, but she did her best to ignore it. Any moment now, her parents would be home, and she wanted everything to be perfect.
She had asked Allison to cover her shift for the day so she could make sure her parents’ house was in tip-top shape for them. It was a welcome break from the hectic activity of the day before, which had gone by in a flurry of questioning at the police station and a tour of David’s somewhat singed brewery.
When the dogs started barking, it was with a different tone then they’d had when other guests arrived, and she could tell by the excited sounds the animals were making that her parents had just pulled into the driveway. She hurried toward the front door and pulled it open, hurrying out to help them bring their bags in. Eli was close behind her.
After pausing to pet the dogs, Moira rushed forward to hug her daughter. “I'm so glad you're all right,” she said. “These past two days have been the most stressful of my life. I hated not being here for you.”
“Everything's fine, Mom,” Candice said, squeezing the other woman tightly before pulling away. “We’ve got dinner ready, so I hope you’re hungry.”
Once the suitcases had been stored in the master bedroom, the four of them made their way to the kitchen, where the pot pies were waiting, along with a green salad and homemade bread, which Eli was very proud of.
“It smells great,” David said. “This is nice to come home to; we were thinking we were going to have to get pizza for dinner.”
“We wanted to do something nice to make up for everything that happened.”
“None of it was your fault,” her mother said. “You don't have to make up for it. If anything, we should be the ones making up for leaving you with all of this mess. “
“You couldn’t have known what was going to happen,” Candice said, shrugging. “And you deserved a nice vacation.”
They sat around the table and began to eat. A few bites in, Moira spoke up again. “How are the both of you really doing? Dealing with the break-in, the murder, and the fire can’t have been easy.”
“It was terrifying,” Candice admitted, putting her fork down. “But thanks to Eli and Annabelle, it turned out all right. I still can’t believe it was all Annabelle’s plan. She really came through in the end. I’ve got to admit, I didn’t like her much at first, but she has grown on me.”
Moira smiled. “She can be overwhelming at first, but she's got a good heart. I’m glad she was there to help you guys.”
“I want to do something to thank her.” Candice smiled. “Maybe sending her some pastries would be nice.”
All four of them chuckled at that, then returned to their meal. It had been a busy couple of weeks, but this meal with her family was helping Candice relax at last. It was over. The people she cared about the most were safe. As far she was concerned, things had turned out all right.
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Rock Candy and Robberies Page 6