End of the Line_Maple Syrup Mysteries

by Emily James

  Henry had seen Grady bringing us the file as well as Rigman. Grady might have even told him what he was doing, thinking Henry was safe.

  Queasiness washed over me, and I rested my head on my arms on the edge of the desk. Bernice, the woman who cleaned Mark’s house, was Henry’s wife. She cleaned the police station, too. Because as a dispatcher’s wife, she was automatically trusted. Henry wouldn’t have needed to break in and risk leaving signs of forced entry at Mark’s house. He could have used Bernice’s key.

  “Zacharius didn’t make that call,” Mark said. “He couldn’t have.”

  I brought my head up. Mark had released some of the pictures and paperwork from the case file and had it turned them around toward Dillion.

  Mark pointed to the diagram that noted the deceased’s injuries, to a spot on the written report, and to one of the pictures. “The medical examiner’s report shows exactly what the bullet damaged as it passed through. Assuming the injuries were recorded correctly, Zacharius couldn’t have called in his own accident because he wouldn’t have been able to speak.”

  24

  Detective Dillion placed a call to the medical examiner who’d been brought in to temporarily replace Mark.

  “We need confirmation,” he said.

  While we waited for the medical examiner to arrive, I walked Dillion through the connections I’d made about Henry. Dillion brought the file across the table to himself and turned to the statement given by the dispatcher who took the call.

  “Henry McCloud.” He kept staring at the paper like he couldn’t believe it. “It’s a good thing I’m not a gambling man. When you first started on about this file, I would have bet my house that you were blowing smoke up my a—”

  A knock rattled the door.

  Dillion rose to his feet. “That’ll be my second opinion. You two might as well head home and rest. If he confirms that Zacharius couldn’t have made that call, I’ll bring McCloud in for a little chat.”

  Mark and I rose to our feet as well. If we’d been dealing with Chief McTavish, I would have angled to stay, and maybe even listen in, as they questioned Henry. But I got the impression that I shouldn’t push my luck with Dillion. “Will you give me a call as a courtesy? It’d be nice to know if you make an arrest so I can stop jumping every time a shadow moves.”

  Dillion inclined his head just enough that I took it as agreement.

  Given recent events, Isabel and I decided we’d both feel better if we camped out in my living room overnight with the dogs loose. I gave her the couch since she rarely had the luxury, and I took a sleeping bag on the floor.

  I woke up the next morning to my cell phone ringing and Toby breathing his doggie breath in my face. At least he wasn’t snoring.

  The caller ID on my phone listed the Fair Haven police department. I grabbed it up.

  “We’ve arrested McCloud for the murder of Chief Zacharius,” Detective Dillion said. “Unfortunately, he’s not confessing to anything, and we don’t have enough evidence to charge him with the other crimes.”

  I shifted position so Toby wasn’t breathing on me anymore and stroked his ear. He let out a happy groan.

  I couldn’t quite bring myself to ask Dillion directly what this meant for Mark. Hopefully he’d understand what I meant. “So what happens next?”

  “Well, for what it’s worth, you’ve won me over. I’ll call the district attorney and see what I can do about getting the charges against Cavanaugh dropped. I can’t make any promises. I made a convincing case the first time around, and the DA might still want to take it to trial.”

  That’s exactly what I’d been afraid of. I thanked Detective Dillion, and he told me that he’d lift the suspension of the regular Fair Haven officers. He promised to call if anything else changed.

  Once Elise was back on duty, I was sure I’d be receiving regular updates anyway.

  Isabel stretched on the couch behind me. “Good news or bad?”

  “A little of both.”

  I caught her up on what Dillion had said. Last night, I’d told her what we’d figured out about the old case and who we suspected was behind it all. Normally I wouldn’t have shared so much with someone outside the police force or my law firm, but her choice to stay or go before my wedding depended on who’d run Mark and me off the road. We could safely say now that it hadn’t been Isabel’s husband.

  Isabel planted her feet on the floor, and both Velma and Toby hopped up. As soon as a human moved around in the morning, they took it as their signal that it was time to eat and go for a walk.

  I shifted myself into a sitting position, and every muscle in my body screamed at me. Sleeping on the floor after the accident probably hadn’t been the best choice. But at least I’d slept.

  “I can take them out if you want,” Isabel said.

  “That obvious I’m hurting?”

  “Not really. I’m just familiar with how bad second-day injuries can feel. Besides”—she scrubbed Velma in the spot that made her back foot come up off the ground and beat the air—“I’ve always loved dogs, and I can’t exactly have one in my food truck. Not even a small one. I’d like to take the chance while I have it.”

  Part of me wanted to argue with her again about leaving, but she’d made it clear she wasn’t going to change her mind.

  I crawled to my feet. “I’ll get their jackets and leashes if you can feed them.”

  Isabel retrieved their bowls and filled them. “Jerrod brought home a German Shepherd puppy a few years after we were married. Duke, he named him.”

  She set the bowls into the custom stands I’d gotten for them so the dogs could eat at a comfortable height.

  “I don’t know why he did it,” she continued, “except he expected a dog would give him complete adoration and obedience. I’d always wanted a dog, so I really didn’t care what his reasons were.”

  She paused, and the slurpy noises of my dogs eating filled the gap.

  She watched them with obvious sadness. “It was a mess right from the start. Jerrod got jealous when I paid any attention to Duke. Then around the time Duke was six months old or so, Jerrod hit me and Duke growled at him. Jerrod packed him up in the car and took him to the pound. I wasn’t even allowed to cry.”

  She told the story now without tears, too, but there was an underlying note that let me know it still hurt her and that she still loved and missed that puppy who’d tried to defend her.

  I wish I’d known her then. Maybe I could have convinced her to press charges against her husband for his abuse. Maybe she wouldn’t be stuck into the life she had now.

  “Anyway,” Isabel gave a little shudder like she was trying to shake the memory off, “I’ll happily take care of your dogs for you while you rest and recover. You’ll actually be doing me a favor.”

  “It’ll more likely be while I try to figure out a way to still link Henry McCloud to my accident, the police officer’s murder, and our missing police chief.”

  “And getting ready for your wedding.”

  “That too.”

  Once the dogs finished eating, I snapped Velma’s jacket on.

  Isabel pointed at Velma’s orange vest. “Interesting fashion statement.”

  I really was a better-safe-than-sorry type of person. “I put them on for deer-hunting season so they couldn’t be mistaken for deer while running through the bush. Everyone keeps telling me that all the hunters have gone home now, but I’m waiting another few weeks to be safe.”

  I expected her to make a comment on how there weren’t any black-and-white deer so Velma should be safe no matter what.

  Instead, Isabel fingered the edge of the vest. “The past case. The police chief died in a hunting cabin, didn’t he?”

  I bent over to put Toby’s jacket on, and he tried to lick my face. I dodged. His first owner had basically let him smooch her whenever he wanted, but I wasn’t as big a fan of doggie drool all over me. One time he’d caught me in the lips.

  “Yeah,” I said. “The man who was
arrested tried to stage it as an accident.”

  I wasn’t following her train of thought. Was she afraid Jerrod might be out there and try to kill her with a rifle, like she’d been accidentally shot?

  He didn’t strike me as a man who’d kill from a distance. Besides, hunting season was over. There’d be no faking an accident this time of year.

  I probably should stop worrying and take the orange vests off the dogs’ jackets. They were goofy-looking.

  “And the hunting cabins are empty this time of year?” Isabel asked.

  Oh, wait. She’d said she couldn’t even lease an apartment for fear Jerrod would locate her. Maybe she was thinking of squatting in a hunting cabin over the winter rather than in her truck. Some owners might even give her permission to stay for free and without signing a lease. It wasn’t like they’d be renting them out again until the summer tourist season.

  I strapped Toby in. I hadn’t given up on convincing her to stay as much as I liked to tell myself. “I’ve heard the cabins only have wood stoves for heat, but if you’re okay with that, I’m sure we could find you one.”

  “It’s not that. I was thinking that people are creatures of habit. If the guy behind all that’s been going on used a hunting cabin once, he might have used it again to either kill or hold your current police chief. They’re isolated, right? It’s not like anyone would hear someone calling for help.”

  Toby caught me with his tongue, but I almost didn’t mind. It was a long shot, but her logic was sound.

  If Henry were following his past patterns, Chief McTavish might even still be alive. Henry had worked hard to win key people over to his side. He had to know that killing McTavish would only bring more investigators in, and his chances of keeping his clandestine business running would fall to almost zero.

  But if he could turn Chief McTavish to his side the way he had former Chief Wilson, he could be assured of being able to continue. Even if he planned to kill McTavish, he would have wanted to strategically choose and place the man who’d become chief instead. That could take time, and as long as Chief McTavish were only missing, not dead, they wouldn’t replace him.

  “I need to call Detective Dillion.”

  25

  We found him.” Static made Erik’s voice cut in and out like he was in an area with poor cellular reception. “He’s alive and already named Henry McCloud as the one who kidnapped him. Henry wanted him to implicate Quincey in the corruption investigation and then join him in continuing the underground deals he’d made.”

  I squeezed Mark’s hand and smiled at Isabel. We’d all been waiting together at my house for news since Mark and I were barred from traipsing around in the woods on the search teams due to our injuries.

  They found him, I mouthed.

  I put Erik on speaker. “Where was he?”

  “The old Zacharius cabin. Quincey figured we’d be looking for someplace close enough that Henry could easily get to it and back to town, but that was still isolated. He remembered Chief Zacharius’ cabin fitting both those requirements.”

  It felt fitting somehow that Quincey had been the one to find Chief McTavish. He’d been on the list of suspects, but this would help clear his name.

  “I’ll text you when I know more,” Erik said.

  Mark and I went to separate ends of the room to work on writing our vows, while Isabel played with Velma and Toby to give us some peace.

  I’d finished my first draft when my phone dinged.

  Henry has confessed to everything and is naming names in exchange for some accommodations when he goes to prison. Claims he took his wife’s keys for Mark’s place without her knowledge.

  Henry could be lying to protect Bernice, but I preferred to think it was the truth. She’d always seemed like a nice lady. While she likely hadn’t been completely naïve about what her husband had been doing—she’d have known their bank accounts were fatter than they should be—hopefully she had been ignorant of the murders.

  Rigman also under arrest as accomplice.

  “You were right,” I called to Mark. “About Rigman.”

  I flipped the paper I’d been writing my vows on face down, and Mark and Isabel came over. I laid my cell phone down so they could also read the texts as they came in.

  He’s claiming he wanted out. That’s why he wanted to leave town. Henry wouldn’t let him go unless he did this last job for him.

  The “last job” could have been killing Troy, or it could have been running us off the road. I didn’t feel the need to have Erik specify exactly what role Rigman had played.

  All changes against Mark are being dropped.

  I turned my face up and smiled at Mark.

  He leaned in and stole a kiss. “I guess we get our honeymoon after all,” he whispered.

  Our wedding, our honeymoon, and the rest of the life we’d planned.

  “Do you have flour and sugar?” Isabel asked.

  My brain reeled, trying to make the jump from honeymoon to flour. “I’m not sure.”

  Isabel took a sheet of paper off the notepad Mark and I had pulled paper from for our vows. “I’ll pick some up just in case.”

  Mark raised an eyebrow at her the way I wished I could.

  She grinned. “You two still haven’t picked your cake flavors. I figure we can do two things at once—taste test flavors and celebrate.”

  “It’s my honor and great pleasure,” our pastor said, “to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Mark Cavanaugh.”

  The recessional music rolled out from the piano, and Ahanti quickly moved the train of my dress aside so I wouldn’t trip on it while Mark and I headed down the aisle. Two more failed attempts with the seamstress had left Mandy up until midnight last night making what alternations she could. The bodice was still a little loose and the hem a little long, but none of that mattered.

  Mark and I were finally married.

  As we turned to walk about down the aisle, I got a look at all the people who’d come to celebrate with us. We hadn’t separated the church into bride’s side and groom’s side. How could we? So many of the people were here for us both.

  Russ sat up front with my parents, in the place I would have given to my Uncle Stan. Erik was with the rest of the Cavanaughs and Elise’s children—who were his children now too.

  Tony Rathmell and his wife and little Noah dressed in a tiny tuxedo, Dave and Nancy and all the rest of the Sugarwood staff took over two rows. Across from them were Chief McTavish and his wife and the other Fair Haven police officers, including Grady Scherwin—my last-minute invite. Even Sheila had come.

  Liz, my hairdresser, and her little boy, Derek. Clement and Darlene Dodd, Anderson Taylor and the other members of our law firm, the friends I’d made volunteering at the Fair Haven animal shelter and in the lost pets’ group, and so many others filled out the rest of the church.

  I’d come to Fair Haven feeling like I’d lost one of the few people in the world who truly cared about me and in the process gained more than I could have imagined. In giving me Sugarwood, Uncle Stan gave me a chance to figure out what I was good at and who I wanted to be. I’d never consider losing him a good thing, but it brought so much good into my life that I knew he’d have been happy for me.

  I came to Fair Haven feeling alone.

  I wasn’t alone any more.

  Bonus Recipe: Nicole’s Wedding Cupcakes

  CAKE:

  1/2 cup granulated sugar

  5 tablespoons butter, softened

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1/2 teaspoon maple extract

  2 large eggs, at room temperature

  1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

  1/4 teaspoon salt

  1/4 cup 2% milk, at room temperature

  1/4 cup maple syrup

  ICING:

  1 cup maple syrup

  2 egg whites

  1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

  TO MAKE THE CAKE:

  1.Preheat oven to
350 degrees, and line 12 muffin cups with cupcake liners.

  2.In a large bowl, use the medium speed of your mixer to beat together sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and maple extract for about five minutes.

  3.Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each. (Make sure it looks smooth before you move on.)

  4.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

  5.In a separate bowl, mix together milk and ¼ cup maple syrup.

  6.Alternating, add flour mixture and milk mixture to the sugar mixture. Start and end with the flour mixture, and mix well after each addition.

  7.Divide the batter evenly between 12 muffin cups.

  8.Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

  9.Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move cupcakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.

  TO MAKE THE ICING:

  10.While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the icing by bringing 1 cup maple syrup to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat on the stovetop. Cook until a candy thermometer reads 120 degrees C, then remove from heat.

  11.In a bowl, beat the egg whites until they become frothy and start to turn white. Add cream of tartar and continue to beat until it forms soft peaks.

  12.On the medium speed of the mixer, gradually whip the maple syrup into the egg whites. Beat for 3-4 minutes, until stiff peaks form.

  13.Ice the cooled cupcakes.

  MAKES 12 CUCAKES

  Letter from the Author

  Thank you so much for coming along on the journey of this series with me. I know many of you have grown to love Nicole, Mark, and Fair Haven as much as I do.

  This is the end of the series for now. I say “for now” because Nicole does still owe Grady Scherwin that favor...

  In the meantime, I’m hard at work on my next series, and you’ve already met our new heroine.