Allison Janda - Marian Moyer 01 - Sex, Murder & Killer Cupcakes

by Allison Janda

  I heard her phone clatter to the floor. “I’ll be right there,” she hollered and then the line went dead.

  Thirty minutes later, I was giving yet another statement to the police when Addison came barreling out of the elevator. “Out of my way,” she growled, shoving her way through the small throng of personnel that now littered the hallway. Most of them were neighborhood gawkers, but there were a few police and crime investigators that were milling near my front door. And what a sight Addison was. Her normal sleek locks were gnarled rat nests that gave her a slightly homeless appearance. Her eyes were bright and wild, red lipstick slightly smudged. To top it off, she was practically swimming in a large fur coat that clearly wasn’t hers. “Where is she?” she called, glancing around the apartment. When we locked eyes, she stalked over to my side and threw her arms around my neck. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” I promised. Gently shoving her away, I pointed to her coat. “That thing stinks. Like a 90 year old woman died in it.”

  “Close, I’m told that she was 93.”

  “Who does that even belong to?”

  “Rory’s grandmother,” she answered nonchalantly.

  That wasn’t the answer I was expecting. Perhaps in my tired, crazy haze I’d hallucinated. “Why the hell do you have Rory’s grandmother’s fur coat?”

  “I was in a rush. I couldn’t find my jacket.”

  “So Rory invited you to take his dead grandmother’s coat? Which, for some reason, he kept stored at our office?”

  “His apartment.”

  “What the hell were you doing at Rory’s apartment?”

  “Can we talk about this later, 20 Questions? Your night has clearly been more eventful.”

  I scanned suspiciously over her ratty hair and smudged lipstick. With a gasp I shouted, “You’re sleeping with Rory!”

  The entire room went silent as everyone turned to look at us. The detective who had been questioning me cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m just going to let the two of you talk for a minute-”

  “No!” Addison cried. “We’re done talking.”

  “We’ve so just started talking.”

  “We’re finished.”

  “For now,” I added. She stuck her tongue out at me before sidling up next to Barry as I continued to answer the detective’s questions. The chaos that had hushed around us eventually whirred back to full volume.

  “I can’t believe I interrupted you and Rory having sex,” I told Addison once we were sitting inside her car. “When did that happen? How? Why? Oh, God, are you taking me to his apartment?”

  “He does have a secure entry.”

  “Addison!”

  “Oh, come on!” she cried. “You’re going to have to fill us both in, anyway. Besides, I’d personally feel a lot safer with a guy around. Not that I can’t take care of myself.”

  “Rory doesn’t strike me as the protective type. And you’re not allowed to have sex while I’m there.”

  “But-”

  “Not. Allowed.”

  “Fine,” she groused as we pulled out onto the main street. We sat in silence as Addie navigated the back roads towards Rory’s apartment.

  When we were close, I asked, “But really, how long has this been going on?”

  Her cheeks grew pink but she kept her eyes on the road. “A while.”

  “Addie…”

  “Since Alec died.”

  “That’s almost three weeks! Peter came out to see you! Peter was in your apartment the day we drove to my parents’ house. Oh my God, Rory was Pete. Rory was naked upstairs! That’s why you were already waiting for me outside! You were worried I was going to come up to get you and find Rory naked.”

  “Great, can we change the subject now?”

  “You don’t want to talk about it? That means it must be serious,” I teased. “You always love sharing all the dirty details.” She didn’t respond and a sobering thought washed over me. “Holy crap, it’s serious?”

  “Is there something wrong with my being serious about someone?”

  “Nope.”

  “Excellent,” she said, staring straight ahead. “Now let’s focus on the bigger issue at hand.”

  “Mika?” I asked hopefully. I felt a flutter in my stomach when I thought of our kiss and closed my eyes, relishing the memory. It seemed like it had happened so long ago when, in fact, it had only been a few hours.

  “No, although I want to hear all about that later. Right now I want to know why someone would break into your apartment.”

  I shrugged and sank back into my seat. “In case you haven’t noticed, someone has been trying to kill me off. While I am a young, moderately attractive female, I’m not a virgin. If this were a movie, people would probably be screaming at the screen, telling me I’m next. ” I paused, turning to look glumly out the window. When Addison didn’t respond, I felt my heart begin to race.

  Was I with the killer? Gulping, I continued to let fear prickle at my neck, refusing to make eye contact with her. She continued to say nothing, which only enhanced by heart rate. My circumstances were fairly dire. We were on an interstate. There was no way I could leap out of the vehicle. Addison was one to drive well over posted speed limits. Then again, she knew every cop in town and never seemed to acquire a ticket. No one would pull us over. No one would hear me beg for help. I always figured myself to be the type who could be rather cool in the face of death. I figured wrong.

  When I couldn’t take the tension any longer, I whispered “Addie?”

  “Hmm?” She asked. “Oh, sorry, darling, I was daydreaming. What were you saying?”

  The air rushed out of my lungs and tears stung at the corners of my eyes. My throat was growing thick with emotion. I really was going crazy if I thought Addison was out to kill me. “I just said someone is after me” I muttered, embarrassed by my crazy imagination.

  “But if they just wanted to kill you, why would they ransack your apartment? Why not just wait until you walk in, shoot you and leave?”

  “Maybe someone is trying to shake me up a little bit first. Keep me on my toes.”

  “Signs of forced entry?”

  “Nope. I have that key taped in the top of my door frame.”

  “Yeah, but the tape blends with the wood so well that only the people you’ve told would know it was there, right?”

  I shrugged. “I thought so. Maybe it’s not hidden well, when you consider that someone is a killer for hire, though.” I stared glumly out the window. “Once they’ve messed with me enough, they’ll kill me.” I looked at my friend sideways and could see that she was thinking hard. “What?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “James just doesn’t strike me as the type of individual who would do the dirty work.”

  “You think he has help?”

  “Yup. But if killing really is his line of business, the cops can kiss fingerprints and DNA goodbye. We’re on our own.”

  “They can’t possibly still think that we’re behind this. My apartment was ransacked!”

  “Your building doesn’t have cameras. Your last sexual escapade was years ago. The only DNA in that apartment will be ours from this afternoon,” Addie told me, seriously. “We need to get ahead of the curve on this case because James is about to cross the finish line and we’re looking nothing but guilty. It doesn’t help that your first responder was Barry.”

  “I know,” I groused. “I didn’t ask for that to happen. So what’s the plan?”

  “I have an idea, but it’s not going to make us many friends,” she said, pulling off the road into Rory’s parking lot.

  “I don’t really care about making friends right now.”

  “It could potentially cost you your job with the department.”

  I sucked in my breath. “Well,” I said after a beat, “that might just be the risk I have to take.”

  True to her word, Addie refrained from sleeping with Rory that night. Then again, I’m a heavy sleeper. Still, I woke up before the sun the ne
xt day and was unable to fall back asleep. I tossed and turned on the sofa, eventually flipping on the television. Once the volume was lowered, I channel surfed until settling on my favorite comedy reruns.

  When Addison emerged from Rory’s bedroom about three hours later, she looked much the way she had when she picked me up the night before. However, she was dressed in only a men’s long-sleeve button down and little else. She scratched her head sleepily and yawned a “good morning” my way. “How long have you been awake?”

  “Few hours,” I told her as she made her way past me. I held up my hand to shield my eyes. “Girl. Put on some pants.” She ignored me and began pulling items out of cabinets for coffee. I flipped off the television and moved to a barstool in the kitchen. “Well, if you won’t put on pants, are you at least going to fill me in on your plan?”

  “Not yet,” she said as she filled the coffee pot with water. “I don’t want you to have any more information than you absolutely need right now. You’re terrible at hiding things.”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “And you’re even worse at keeping secrets.”

  “That’s true.”

  “But trust me when I say that I will take good care of you. Okay?”

  I took her hand across the counter and smiled. “I know that.” How could I have ever thought last night, even for a second, that she was out to get me? This entire experience was making me paranoid. It was turning me against the people that I loved and relied upon most in the world. Perhaps that’s what the killer wanted.

  “In the meantime, we’re back to trying to figure out why you’re a target. Your car explodes. Someone breaks into your apartment. We need to figure out what happens next or we may not get another chance.”

  “There’s a cheery thought to start the morning,” Rory said as he made his way into the kitchen. “Morning, kiddo,” he said, squeezing my shoulder. “Morning, love,” he said to Addie, slipping up behind her and brushing her cheek with his lips. Thankfully, he was wearing not only pants, but also a shirt. I loved Rory, but I wasn’t ready for him to bare as much as Addison was this morning.

  “I still don’t understand how this happened,” I told them. They smiled at me but said nothing. “Anyway, I know I’m not going to be privy to the plan,” I said with a hint of sarcasm. “But is there anything I can do to help in the meantime?”

  “Staying alive would be a start,” Rory replied, pulling eggs, milk and blueberries out of the refrigerator. “Pancakes?”

  “Please.”

  “So we’re sure that James is in on it,” Addie mused as she placed three mugs on the counter. “But we’re pretty sure someone else is in on it with him.”

  “Maybe. But given the timeline, he could be the one who rigged up my car,” I suggested.

  “It’s possible but, when that didn’t work, why didn’t he finish the job of killing you when you were out cold on the sidewalk?” she mused.

  “Because in that scenario, the cops could pin the whole thing on him,” I supplied. “But for some reason, the cops still think we killed Alec. James knows it. And he’s going to use that to his advantage until I’m dead.”

  “Is he trying to kill all of us or just you? Maybe killing Alec was an accident,” Rory offered nonchalantly as he began to whisk ingredients together.

  The three of us pondered this possibility for a few moments. Addie poured three mugs of hot coffee and prepared each the way their taker liked. Then she came and sat next to me as Rory poured pancake batter onto the hot griddle. He had all the coolest kitchen gadgets despite the fact that his wardrobe was clearly lacking in latest and greatest. Priorities, I suppose. Men. “We haven’t even had a chance to review the bakery,” I said, reminded that we hadn’t worked on the writing for the bakery project since before Alec had died.

  “I don’t know how we’re going to,” Addie said. “I’m not eating what they sent over for this last shoot. They probably doubled the arsenic in the second batch. No way. If I can’t see where it has been, it’s not going in my mouth.” She took a sip of her coffee as Rory and I snickered. “Real mature,” she murmured into her mug. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Wait a second!” I shouted, slamming my hand on the counter in eureka. “Maybe James really is the hit man!”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Addie responded. “I was just joking about that last night. He couldn’t be. He’s too attractive. It’s such a dirty line of business. Plus, he’d own it, not be it. Don’t you think?” Rory just flipped the pancakes and looked at us both quizzically. Still, my brain was alive, wrapping itself around the possibility.

  “Exactly! It makes sense!” I told them both eagerly. “James suggested that he was in a shady line of business. We’ve determined that he has a partner. What if James is just the puppet master who ultimately takes the orders and passes them down to his man? He doesn’t need a reason to kill people, he just needs someone else who does. He makes a lot of money doing the dirty work for other people.”

  “Then he creates a plausible scenario,” Addie added.

  “And whoever his assistant is pulls it off!” I finished.

  “So we were all supposed to die,” Rory said, placing a plate of blueberry pancakes in front of us. Addie stood to retrieve syrup and butter as Rory counted out plates and cutlery.

  “Poisoning the food of the food critics,” I mused. “The only question is, out of all the people you and I have pissed off, who would be angry enough to try to kill us?”

  “I’d start with the places that have shut down following a negative review,” said Rory.

  “Great idea,” Addie replied, nodding. “Marian, do you have access to our full list of clients?” I nodded. “Great. After breakfast, we’re going to start comparing those against a list of who is no longer in business.” She rubbed her hands together gleefully. “Maybe we won’t have to execute my original plan after all.”

  Following breakfast, Addie and Rory went to go use the shower in his master suite. Meanwhile, I locked the door to his guest bath and showered all by myself. Relaxing my tense shoulders under the spray of warm water I tried desperately to turn off my busy mind.

  Dressed in a slightly too busty outfit Addie had loaned me from her overnight bag, I went to clean up the kitchen. I had just begun to wipe down the countertops when Addison and Rory stepped out of the bedroom, hanging all over one another like lovesick teenagers. I’d never seen Addie so into a guy. Sure, she and Peter had made a movie star quality couple but, while she’d loved him, it never seemed like she relied on him for much outside of the obvious.

  The three of us piled into Rory’s SUV and we made our way slowly to the warehouse. It had snowed again the night before and the roads weren’t fully plowed. Traffic crept along slowly and the three of us maintained cheerful chatter about everything except our potential demise.

  We entered the office through the back alley and greeted Betsy, who simply nodded to us in acknowledgement. “She’s coming up on the end of her quarter,” Addie muttered as we walked up the stairs to the main office. “After that she’s gone.”

  “Any chance of getting her out of here prior to Thanksgiving?”

  “No shot.”

  I sighed. “After all this is over, remind me to look over her application so that I know exactly what not to choose for spring.”

  Upstairs, Addie checked messages as I turned on my computer and waited for it to buzz to life. Once I was logged in, she handed me a yellow sticky note. “Think you can return these calls today? I have to run to the Journal.”

  “It’s Sunday,” I protested. “I thought you were going to help me compare lists.”

  “There’s something I need to do there while it’s quiet,” she told me, hitching up her purse. “I’m going to take Rory. Can you hold down the fort for a little while?”

  “I guess,” I grumbled.

  She gave me an awkward hug promising to lock me in and then raced out the door. Sighing, I pulled up the list from our
database of every business Food Porn had ever reviewed. It was longer than I’d thought. Pulling it to one side of my computer screen, I brought up a search engine and painstakingly began to research every single one of them. If the place was still open, I made a note of it. If the place had closed, I made a note of it. If the place re-opened or if the owner had gone on to own another business, I made note of that, too.

  I was so lost in my research that I didn’t notice when Addie walked in carrying a gorgeous vase filled with huge white lilies. Nearly falling out of my chair when she plunked them down on the table next to me, I moved my hand to my chest. “Jesus,” I panted. “You scared me half to death.”

  “Sorry. Rory and I just got back and there was a delivery guy from the florist shop out front. These are for you but I went ahead and signed for them.”

  “Who are they from?” I asked suspiciously.

  She shrugged. “I have no idea. But chances are good that they’re from someone still reeling from a hot date last night.”

  Finally locating the card, which was tucked deep in the bouquet, I pulled it out with a flourish. “Maybe you’re right,” I told her with a grin. I paused, taking a moment to indulge in their beautiful scene before ripping into the envelope and yanking out the card.

  “Eager, are we?” Addie teased.

  I read the cursive black scrawl on the plain white card. Blinking hard, I squinted and read it again. Suddenly, the room around me went hazy and I felt blood pounding in my ears as I struggled to breathe. I dropped the card as though it were on fire and pushed myself roughly out of my chair. Backing away from the desk, I pressed myself against the cool window and felt a sob rising in my throat as hot tears stung my eyes.

  “Breathe,” Addie was saying. It was as if I were hearing her voice from underwater. “In through your nose, out through your mouth.” I felt my knees giving out and sank heavily to the floor, where I curled my arms around my knees and quietly began to rock back and forth.

  Addie was rubbing my back and screaming for Rory, who came barreling into the office holding his gun. “What the hell are you doing?” she cried when she saw it.