Wedding Cake Killer: A Fresh-Baked Mystery

by Livia J. Washburn

  Chapter 20

  Before Phyllis could figure out where to begin the next morning, the telephone rang and took care of that decision for her.

  “This is Jan Delaney, Mrs. Newsom,” the voice on the other end said. “We have everything Eve and Roy left here packed, anytime you’d like to pick it up.”

  “Already?” Phyllis asked. “I thought it might take a few days.”

  “Well, there really wasn’t that much,” Jan said. “Clothes, mostly.”

  “In that case, thank you. I’ll come out this morning, if that’s all right.”

  Even though there had been a chance of snow in the forecast overnight, none had fallen. The sky was still overcast, but the temperature was above freezing, so even if there were a few flurries, they wouldn’t stick.

  “This morning is fine,” Jan said. “I’ll see you later.”

  Phyllis went out to the garage. Sam had headed for the workbench as soon as he finished breakfast. He was sanding some boards to make more bookshelves. He had built a couple of sets for his room already and planned to add a couple more at least. It wouldn’t take him long to fill them up with the paperback Westerns, thrillers, and science fiction novels he read voraciously.

  “Jan Delaney just called and said that she had Eve’s things packed up,” she told him. “I could tell that she wanted us to go ahead and come get them, so I said that I’d come on out there this morning.”

  “And you want me to come along and give you a hand?” Sam asked.

  “Do you mind?”

  “Nope, not at all.” He smiled. “That’s one good thing about bein’ retired. Whatever I do now, it’s on my own schedule.”

  Phyllis understood that. She didn’t miss having to live her life according to which bell had just rung. That structured environment had never really bothered her, but she was just fine without it, too.

  They took Phyllis’s car. She knew they would be able to carry everything in the backseat and the roomy trunk. Eve and Roy hadn’t had all that much with them, after all, since they’d come back from their honeymoon and moved right into the country bed-and-breakfast.

  There were several cars in the graveled parking area when Phyllis and Sam arrived. It appeared that Jan and Pete still had customers. Maybe what had happened to Roy wouldn’t cost them too much business.

  Jan must have been watching for them. She came out onto the front porch and smiled and waved. Phyllis wondered whether Pete was here. He was the one who had stepped in at the cemetery to remind Jan that they weren’t supposed to discuss the case, by order of the sheriff’s department investigators.

  Maybe if Pete wasn’t around, Jan might be more willing to talk.

  Phyllis felt a little bad about thinking that, but not too much. Now that she had made up her mind that she was going to find out who killed Roy, she was willing to do whatever it took. Eve’s freedom was at stake, after all, not to mention her reputation. It wouldn’t be enough just to create reasonable doubt, as Juliette Yorke had talked about. That might keep Eve from being convicted, but it wouldn’t stop some people from being convinced that she was guilty anyway. The only way to make sure everyone knew she was innocent was to positively identify the actual murderer.

  “Hello, you two,” Jan said as Phyllis and Sam approached the porch. “My, it’s still gloomy, isn’t it?”

  “Looks like those gray clouds have settled in for a while,” Sam said.

  “Well, it is winter, after all.” Jan waved them onto the porch. “Come on in. Would you like some coffee? I have plenty of doughnuts, too.”

  Sam grinned. “I have a long-standin’ rule about not turnin’ down doughnuts.”

  “Good! Maybe we can visit for a few minutes before you load up Eve’s things.” As they went in the house, Jan motioned for them to follow her. “Let’s go back to the kitchen.”

  She led them into a large, rustic, farmhouse-style kitchen. The maple cabinets gave the kitchen an inherent glow and warmth. The cabinets matched the kitchen table, which had four chairs with cushions. There was also a counter area with stools that had cushions matching the ones in the chairs. It was a room that encouraged people to visit with the cook. There were plenty of homey decorating touches as well, with lacy curtains, plants on the windowsill, and vintage knickknacks, including a glass bowl full of fruit. She took the cover off a plate of doughnuts sitting on the counter. “Help yourself,” she told Sam with a smile as she rested a hand on his arm for a couple of seconds.

  “Thanks,” he said. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  Jan poured coffee for all of them, herself included. They sat on the stools around the big counter, and Jan asked, “How’s Eve doing?”

  “As well as can be expected,” Phyllis said. She didn’t mention Tess Coburn’s arrival in Weatherford or the startling revelations about Roy that the private investigator had brought with her. “She was able to eat a little last night, and Carolyn took a tray up to her this morning and said her appetite seemed even better.”

  “Oh, I’m so glad to hear that! Eve’s just the sweetest thing in the world.” Jan took a sip of her coffee, then added, “Of course, I thought Roy was, too.”

  Phyllis wondered what she meant by that, but she decided to pass it over for the time being. Instead she said, “I believe I’ll have one of those doughnuts, too.”

  “Sure, help yourself. I like those chocolate ones with the little sprinkles. How about you, Sam?”

  “Ummm,” Sam said. That was all he could manage since his mouth was full at the moment.

  Phyllis picked out a doughnut with a caramel glaze on it, since she knew the sprinkles on the chocolate ones were full of artificial food coloring and sometimes that bothered her. As she sat down again, she asked, “Is Pete here this morning?”

  “No, he’s gone into town to run errands. He had to go to the bank. I’ve told him we can do nearly everything online now, but Pete’s an old-fashioned guy in a lot of ways.” Jan flashed another smile. “Not that I mind. That just makes him more romantic.”

  Phyllis heard people moving around on the second floor of the old farmhouse and glanced toward the ceiling. “You have people staying here,” she commented.

  “Yes, only a couple of guests canceled their reservations when they heard about what happened. I didn’t blame them, of course. But I’m glad the others decided not to cut their visits short. We have two couples and a single lady staying with us right now.”

  Sam said, “Kind of unusual for somebody to stay at a bed-and-breakfast by themselves, isn’t it?”

  “Well, it’s certainly not as common as couples, but it’s not unheard of,” Jan replied. “Alice is widowed and likes to travel around antiquing. When she’s checked out all the stores in Weatherford, she plans to move on to Ranger, Eastland, and Cisco. That’s Alice Jessup, by the way. She’s from Louisiana.”

  “How long has she been staying here?” Phyllis asked.

  “Oh, goodness, about a week now, I guess. She’s leaving tomorrow.”

  “Then she was here when . . .” Phyllis let her voice trail off.

  Jan grew solemn and nodded. “Yes, she was here while Eve and Roy were. They were friendly but not particularly close. Alice was gone a lot, hitting the antique stores.”

  “What about the others?” Phyllis asked in apparently idle curiosity. She knew that Jan liked to talk, and the woman was also the sort who was everybody’s friend as soon as she met them, calling them by their first name and touching their arm or shoulder. Phyllis had wished sometimes that she was that outgoing, but it just wasn’t her personality.

  “We have Frank and Ingrid Pitt and Henry and Rhonda Mitchum, all of them newlyweds.” Jan smiled. “Although Frank and Ingrid are like Eve and Roy were. This isn’t the first marriage for either of them. They’re in their sixties, I’d say. For that matter, Henry and Rhonda are a little older than a lot of newlywed couples, too, although they’re just in their thirties. A lot of people wait longer to get married these days, don’t they? They like
to be settled in their careers first, I guess. I can’t say that I blame them for that.”

  Phyllis ate the last bite of her doughnut, washed it down with a sip of coffee, and then asked, “How long have they been here?”

  “Henry and Rhonda just got here last night. Frank and Ingrid came in several days ago.”

  “Well, I’m glad you have enough guests to keep you busy,” Phyllis said.

  “So am I,” Jan said. She shook her head. “If I was here by myself, I’m not sure I could stop myself from thinking about . . . about . . .”

  Phyllis did some touching then, resting her hand on top of Jan’s where it lay on the table. “That must have been so awful, finding him like that.”

  “Oh, you just can’t imagine!” A look of horror came into Jan’s eyes. “When I heard that big thump upstairs, I just thought somebody must have dropped something, so I didn’t go up right away. But then I got to worrying that one of the guests had fallen down and might be hurt, so I thought I should go check. Roy didn’t answer when I knocked on the door, and honestly, I try not to be nosy, but I couldn’t stand the thought that he might be in there unconscious or dying of a heart attack or something, and the door wasn’t locked . . .”

  Jan had to stop to gather herself, and Phyllis’s nerves stretched taut as she worried that the woman might realize she was talking more than the sheriff’s department—and her husband—wanted her to.

  But then Jan went on in a hushed voice, “When I saw all that blood, though, I knew it wasn’t a heart attack, and then I stepped into the room and saw Roy lying there on the rug beside the bed with that letter opener sticking in his throat . . . I’ll bet they heard me screaming all the way over in Dallas.”

  “It must have been terrible,” Phyllis said.

  “Think I’ll get another one of those doughnuts,” Sam said, a comment that seemed inappropriate at first, but Phyllis realized what he was doing. He was keeping Jan off balance, distracting her so she wouldn’t start thinking about how much information she was revealing.

  Either that or he just really wanted another doughnut.

  “Who was here at the time?” Phyllis asked.

  “Pete was out back working on the well. Frank and Ingrid were in their room. They were the first ones to get to me. I didn’t know where Eve and Alice were.” Jan frowned a little. “Although come to think of it, I heard a car leaving just a minute or two after that big thump upstairs. You can hear it pretty easily when somebody pulls out on that gravel.”

  That thump Jan had heard had been Roy falling to the floor to bleed to death, Phyllis thought. If she had gone upstairs as soon as she’d heard it, instead of waiting for a few minutes, would she have been able to save his life?

  Probably not, Phyllis decided. From the way Jan had described the scene, the blood and the fact that Roy had been stabbed in the throat, it was likely the letter opener had severed an artery. It was unlikely that Jan would have been able to slow down the bleeding enough to keep him from dying.

  “You didn’t see anyone coming or going?” Phyllis asked. “You just heard a car pull out?”

  “That’s right. I was busy back here in the kitchen.”

  “And Pete wouldn’t have seen anything if he was out back in the well house.”

  “No, but he heard me carrying on and came running,” Jan said. “He wanted to know why I was screaming bloody mur—” She stopped and put a hand to her lips as her eyes widened.

  “You really were screamin’ bloody murder,” Sam said. “No need to be ashamed of that. Anybody would have, if they’d walked in on what you did.”

  “I suppose so. All I could think about was Eve.”

  “You didn’t think about Roy?” Phyllis asked.

  Jan’s lips tightened. “Of course I did, but I was more worried about Eve.”

  This was the time to bring up that earlier matter, Phyllis thought. “You said that at first you thought Roy was sweet, too. What changed your mind?”

  “Nothing, really. I’m not going to speak ill of the dead.” Jan waved a hand. “Anyway, it’s not that unusual for an older man to sometimes say or do things around a younger woman that aren’t really that appropriate—”

  “Roy made a pass at you?” Sam burst out as he turned away from the plate of doughnuts with a jelly-filled one in his hand.

  For a second Phyllis wished he hadn’t been quite so blunt about it, but then Jan said, “Oh, Sam, I didn’t mean any offense to you when I said that about older men! I’m sure you’re an absolute gentleman.”

  “But Roy wasn’t?” Phyllis asked.

  “He was a little free with his hands,” Jan admitted with a shrug. “And he said some things that were a little . . . questionable. Always whenever Eve wasn’t around, you know. I just ignored it as much as possible and didn’t really think anything about it.” She paused. “He was hardly the first guest to hit on me, you know. Goodness, plenty of the female guests flirt with Pete, too. Even some of the, uh, male guests have been known to do that. I just tell Pete not to let it bother him.”

  “Maybe so, but I’m really surprised to hear that about Roy,” Phyllis said. “I thought he was so much in love with Eve.”

  Phyllis wasn’t actually surprised. A man who would marry a woman just to swindle her out of her money wouldn’t draw the line at some racy talk or a little fanny patting with another woman. But Jan didn’t know anything about Roy’s background, so she didn’t have any idea what his real plans had been.

  “Just because he flirted a little doesn’t mean he wasn’t in love with Eve,” Sam said. “Some fellas are just that way.”

  “I suppose,” Phyllis said.

  Jan glanced at the clock on the wall and said, “Goodness, you’ve let me blather on for nearly half an hour, when all you came out here to do was pick up those things.” She had a worried look on her face now, as if she had realized at last that she was talking too much. “Once I get wound up, it’s hard to stop me.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Phyllis said. “I always enjoy visiting with people.”

  “Yes, but I, uh, wasn’t supposed to talk about what happened.”

  Phyllis held up both hands. “Don’t worry, Sam and I are both very discreet.”

  “Good, because Pete wouldn’t be happy with me if he found out.”

  “We don’t have any reason to tell Pete anything,” Sam said.

  Jan looked relieved. “You go ahead and finish that doughnut, Sam,” she said, “and then we’ll load up those boxes.”

  It didn’t take long to put the handful of boxes in the Lincoln’s trunk and lay Eve’s clothes across the backseat. All of Roy’s clothes were in the boxes, Jan explained.

  “But I left Eve’s on the hangers to keep them nicer,” she added.

  “That was very considerate of you,” Phyllis said. “I’m sure Eve’s not going to want to deal with any of this for a while, but I’ve got plenty of storage space in my house, so we’ll just leave everything in the boxes.”

  “You’ll give Eve my best?”

  Phyllis smiled. “Of course.”

  “And tell her that if there’s anything I can do . . .”

  “I’m sure she knows that.”

  Jan hesitated, then hugged both Phyllis and Sam. “She’s really lucky to have friends like you two and Carolyn. I feel like I’ve known all of you for years.”

  They said their good-byes, then got into the Lincoln; Phyllis pulled out, hearing the crunch of gravel under the car’s tires and remembering what Jan had said about hearing someone leaving just before she found Roy’s body. Phyllis wondered if she had told the sheriff’s men the same thing. She probably had.

  Sam cleared his throat and said, “Friendly woman.”

  “And you enjoyed that hug she gave you, didn’t you?”

  “I’d be lyin’ if I said I didn’t.”

  “Well, you don’t have to grin quite so big about it. But I’ve been thinking,” Phyllis went on. “What if things went a little further with Roy than
Jan was willing to admit?”

  Sam’s grin disappeared. “Are you sayin’ that maybe the two of ’em . . . well, you know? That doesn’t seem likely to me. Gals like Jan sometimes get a mite touchy-feely themselves, but that doesn’t mean they’re lookin’ to play around.”

  “No, but what if Roy got more aggressive than she told us? What if she was trying to fend him off and things got out of hand and . . .”

  “And she grabbed that letter opener and stuck it in his neck?” Sam thought about it and nodded slowly. “Could’ve happened that way. All we’ve got is her word for it that she heard somethin’ fall upstairs.”

  “And that she heard a car pulling away,” Phyllis said. “She could have said that just to throw suspicion on someone else, most likely Eve.”

  Sam rubbed his chin. “Here’s another one for you. Maybe ol’ Pete knew what Roy was tryin’ to pull. From the way Jan was talkin’, he can be a little hot tempered. She said he was old-fashioned in some ways, too. An old-fashioned sort of fella might confront a lounge lizard like Roy and tell him to stay the heck away from his wife. Then Roy says somethin’ that makes Pete even madder, and like you said, things get outta hand . . .”

  “Did you just call Roy a lounge lizard?”

  Sam laughed. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

  “You’re not old enough to be using terms like that.”

  “Oh, but I am,” he said. “Heard fellas called that many a time when I was growin’ up.”

  “Anyway,” Phyllis said, “there’s two more possible suspects right there.”

  “Reasonable doubt,” Sam said.

  Phyllis shook her head. “No, I don’t want reasonable doubt,” she said, putting into words the thought that had gone through her head earlier. “I want Roy’s killer . . . signed, sealed, and delivered.”

  Chapter 21

  When they got back to the house, it was almost time for lunch. Sam volunteered to take the boxes in while Phyllis fixed something to eat.

  “Put as many of the boxes as you can into that back hall closet,” she told him. “The others can go in the cabinets in the utility room. I think between those two places, there’s plenty of room for everything.”