A Fatal Finale

by Stacey Alabaster

  “It’s seriously not the same without you,” Sue said as I showed her the photos of the bridesmaids’ dresses. Sue was a lot more olive in skin tone than Carine so she wasn’t put off by the pink. She hadn’t had a chance to try hers on yet, but I had her measurements and I already knew that the color would suit her.

  “I’m sure you’re the only one who feels that way,” I said as my phone rang and I ignored it. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I felt like Jackson would just know that I was in Belldale if I actually answered it. I had told him that I was spending the weekend with Carine, that we were having a mini-break to do the last of the bridesmaids’ tasks.

  Another call. This time, Blake. He briefly apologized for his rudeness earlier and said we could meet up to talk, and suggested my place, which was no longer really my place. “Why can’t we meet at the bakery?” I asked, wondering why he wouldn’t even let me come inside. It seemed cruel.

  He sighed on the other end of the line. “Is that such a good idea?”

  “Can’t I come and say good-bye to the place, one last time?”

  It was strange to step back in after months of being away. Somehow, it didn’t quite smell the same. Maybe Blake had changed some of the ingredients.

  Not only had some of the purple walls been painted over with white and covered in artwork, half of the kitchen fittings had already been stripped. That was because Bakermatic didn’t actually need any of the cooking equipment. They didn’t need the mixers, or the ovens, or even the stovetop. They only needed space for a few microwaves.

  Blake crossed his arms. “If you’re here to change my mind, Rachael, it’s not going to work. Since you’ve left town, a lot of things have changed. I need the money from the sale. It is final. I am not going to change my mind on this one.”

  “Blake, can’t we just talk about this?”

  He sighed and agreed to sit down with me in the front of the bakery so that I could at least make my case.

  “Why didn’t you let me come inside before?”

  Blake admitted that he and Simona had been having an argument.

  “Right.”

  I sat down and prayed that we would be able to put our differences behind us for this important decision. I knew that Blake would agree with me if I could just explain what Bakermatic was really like.

  “Bakermatic is against everything you stood for when you were running Dough Planet,” I pointed out. “They are a nationwide franchise. All their stuff is frozen and reheated. None of it is organic. Even the stuff they claim is. And I don’t think they have a single vegan item on their menu.”

  Blake leaned back a little bit and listened. I could tell that I was getting through to him—Blake’s whole vibe was vegan and organic and locally-sourced.

  “That may all be true,” he said quietly. “But it’s not like I’m going to be running it. It’s up to Bakermatic how they want to run their own business.”

  “But you will be the one selling the store to them!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t believe everything I’d just said had rolled right off.

  Blake just stared at me. “And tell me, is refusing to sell to them really going to change anything? They will just set up shop in another location, Rachael. We may as well make the most of it and take their money while we can. Before someone else does.”

  “Please, Blake, at least consider it.”

  He sighed and rubbed his temples. “I’ll sleep on it, okay. No promises.”

  “How is Simona anyway?” I asked, standing up.

  He stared up at me. “I suppose you haven’t heard the news then.”

  I shook my head. “What news?”

  “We’re expecting our first child in a few months.”

  “Simona is pregnant?” I asked, my mouth agape. Then I remembered the belly that Simona had been sporting, and realized it wasn’t just because she had been overeating. I certainly didn’t want to reveal to Blake that I’d actually seen Simona several times recently. For one, Simona didn’t know that I’d seen her, did she? And I wondered if Blake even knew what Simona had been up to. If they had been fighting that morning, I didn’t want to add any fuel to the fire.

  I considered for a moment inviting them to the wedding. Then I remembered the way that Simona had unceremoniously dumped me from hers and I changed my mind.

  “I’ll be in contact,” Blake said, before he showed me out of the now strange-looking shop that still had my name above the door.

  I had done all I could. The following day, after a restless night’s sleep on Sue’s sofa, I returned home. To my real home. Lakes Entrance.

  Just walk past, just walk past, I told myself as the yellow building approached. Not only had I failed to stop Bakermatic from opening back up in Belldale, I was taunted daily by the yellow monstrosity in Lakes Entrance. Blake had emailed me the evening before to tell me that, as far as he was concerned, the sale was still going ahead. I didn’t even want to see the color yellow. I told myself I was going to buy my ham and then walk the three miles home.

  But I slowed down, just a little bit, on my way to the supermarket. Inside, I could see a familiar mop of long, brunette hair. Two of them in fact. And it wasn’t just the girl who worked behind the counter. It was also Simona.

  Oh, this was just great. I closed my eyes and thought about what Jackson would say to me now if he knew what I was going through. He’d say something like, just let it go. What does it matter now? I opened my eyes. And he would be right. What did it matter now?

  I knew I shouldn’t go inside. But this was for the greater good. I had to find out what Simona was doing.

  It was more than just idle curiosity about what she was doing in my new home town. There was still that thought in the back of my mind that refused to die, no matter how hard I tried to squash it down.

  If I could just prove to Pippa that it wasn’t me who killed Rogan, then maybe we could be friends again.

  There were a few reasons that thought was so uncomfortable to me. For one, it meant admitting that I didn’t want to stay enemies. That I wanted our friendship back. Sure, Carine was fine, and Sue was great, but nothing could replace a best friend who you’ve known for half your life. Someone who knows you like a sister.

  But it also meant confronting another uncomfortable truth. If I cleared my name, and Pippa suddenly wanted to be friends again, didn’t that mean that her friendship was conditional on me being innocent?

  Oh well. I would take it.

  “Simona.”

  She spun around, one hand on her belly as her eyes grew wide. “Rachael?” she asked, leaning forward like she was genuinely shocked to see me.

  “Oh, come on. Surely you knew this is where I had moved to…”

  She shrugged. I realized that it was entirely possible she’d barely paid attention to what had happened to me. She was self-absorbed enough that she could have heard the news a dozen times and not retained it.

  The girl behind the counter started to look a little nervous. “Can I get you anything to eat or drink today?” she asked me.

  Simona stepped to the side a little and I noticed that underneath her brown coat, she had a yellow t-shirt on.

  I shook my head as it all dawned on me.

  So, this is why she had quit the bakery. She was working for Bakermatic. Had she ever even quit, or had she been secretly working for them the past three years, like some kind of deranged double agent? I thought about all the shifts where she had needed to finish early, and all the shifts she had called in sick for.

  I took an angry step toward her. “This is what you wanted all along, isn’t it? For my bakery to fall back into the hands of Bakermatic…”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I am talking about the night that Rogan died.”

  She gave me a look like I was being crazy. Paranoid. “That is laughable,” she said, rubbing her already bulging belly. I did feel a little bad about getting into an argument with a pregnant woman, I had to admit. I felt less bad considering
that she might actually be an evil genius. I nodded to the girl behind the counter.

  “If you don’t work for Bakermatic, then how come you are so chummy with this girl then? And why are you here, visiting the store, several times a week?”

  Simona rolled her eyes. “This is my sister,” she said, pointing to the woman working behind the counter with the same long, brown hair as she had.

  “Oh.” I was taken aback for a moment. Had Simona really just been visiting her sister all this time?

  “My name is Suzy,” she said, but she said it like it was a question, glancing around unsurely.

  Simona put her hand on her hip. “Now that Suzy is going to be an auntie, she wants to get to know her little niece or nephew.” She rubbed her belly. “So, I come in to visit.”

  I nodded a little. But then I remembered that the woman—Simona’s sister—had claimed to barely even know her when I’d first asked her about her relationship to Simona. Although, if Simona was my sister, I probably wouldn’t shout it from the rooftops either.

  She was still hiding something from me. And I was starting to think I knew what it was. “I heard you talking to someone on the phone, the night of the party,” I said. “You told them that you were waiting to see how things panned out that night. That you would get back to them in the morning.” I had to pause for air because I was starting to breathe too quickly. “And something very interesting panned out that night, didn’t it?”

  She shook her head and lowered her eyes. “What are you trying to say, Rachael?”

  I stood up straight. She may have been pregnant, but I wasn’t about to back down or go easy on her. She always had a way of slithering out of things. This time, I wasn’t going to let her get away with that.

  “Well, there was one foolproof way to make my bakery fail, wasn’t there? A murder on site, with the owner made to look guilty. That would ensure that we lost all our customers. Then all Bakermatic would need to do is swoop in and buy up what was left of our crumbling business.”

  Simona let out a haughty little laugh. “Are you really accusing a pregnant woman of murder?”

  “You weren’t pregnant at the time,” I pointed out. Poor Suzy looked like she didn’t know where to look.

  Simona took a step closer to me. “Why would I kill Rogan just to get Bakermatic to move back into Belldale? You really have lost your mind,” she said. She shook her head and looked down on me with pity while she rubbed her belly again. “Maybe it’s just hard for you to accept that Blake and I are happy together and starting a family while you are all alone.”

  I scoffed. “Actually, Jackson and I are together now,” I said. “We just got engaged. The wedding is next week.”

  She raised her eyebrows and laughed at me. “Well, good luck with that,” she said, looking me up and down.

  “Maybe you ought to worry more about your own marriage, and less about mine,” I couldn’t stop myself from saying.

  The haughty looked dripped off Simona’s face and for a moment, she looked slightly hurt. “Well done, Rachael. You know what? I always had your back. Even though everyone in Belldale thinks that you killed Rogan, I was the one defending you. I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore.” She turned her back and swanned away.

  It was the first time I had been back at the house since returning from Belldale and I was a little nervous. Jackson was tired but seemingly happy from another long shift at the veterinarian’s office. But he talked less and less about how much he loved his job these days and more and more about how annoying the management was and how ridiculous his shifts were. I knew it was hard for him to go back to being just an assistant after the authority he’d held as a detective.

  “How was your trip with Carine?” he asked me as he poured himself a drink. He had his back to me so I couldn’t see the expression on his face.

  I let out a laugh. “Oh, you know Carine. She was anxious the entire time, worrying that we were going to miss our bus and all our appointments. She had to get her eyebrows in shape. They were a bit of a worry. But in the end, we managed to have a good time. Once she’d stopped worrying and learned to relax.”

  Jackson turned around and took a sip of his gin. “That’s funny,” he said. But he didn’t say ‘funny’ like it was amusing funny, but more like there was something strange about the story I was telling him. Something suspicious.

  “What is?” I asked, feeling uneasy. I started unpacking my bag but stopped before I removed the blue gift that Sue had given to me for the wedding day, my something blue.

  “Well, I ran into Carine while I was down at the bank yesterday,” he said.

  I closed my eyes and groaned inwardly. I’d forgotten all about the bank. Something told me that Carine had not been quick enough on her feet to invent a good cover story. Or maybe even realize that she needed one.

  “I—I—” I didn’t know what to say.

  “Where were you really, Rachael?” he asked, leaning back against the kitchen counter. He didn’t sound angry. He didn’t even sound sad. He just sounded flat. Disappointed in me. But almost like he had been expecting it, which hurt even more.

  I looked at the ground. “I went to Belldale,” I admitted quietly.

  He didn’t sound surprised. I supposed part of him knew that was where I had been. “I asked you to leave all that in the past…” His voice was low and he couldn’t look me in the eyes. He tried to take another sip of his drink but couldn’t, so he just poured it down the sink. He had his back to me again. “When is all of this going to be over?”

  “I don’t expect you to understand,” I said quietly. “I just couldn’t let it all go that easily. This is the bakery that I started from nothing. I couldn’t just sit back and watch it get devoured by Bakermatic.”

  It took a while for Jackson to turn around, to look at me again, but then he said something that surprised me.

  “Do you want to go back to Belldale?” Jackson asked finally. His voice was gentle. It was a real offer. “Is that what you need to do?”

  I wiped the tears away from my cheeks with the back of my hand. I had to think about my answer, but not for long. “No,” I whispered.

  He leaned forward and took my hand in his. I had missed him while I was away. I didn’t want us to fight like this. I just couldn’t let go of the past. “Because if you really, really wanted to, we could. We’re not trapped here.”

  But I didn’t feel trapped in Lakes Entrance. I loved it there. I loved Jackson. I felt like I had been saved, and given a chance to really start again. I needed to let him know that.

  “Even if none of this had happened…I would still want to be here with you,” I replied honestly.

  He nodded. I was sure that he believed me. “But there is something you can’t let go?” he said gently.

  Yes, there was. It was one thing to say that I was leaving the past behind, but at the end of the day, someone I’d worked with was killed, and I knew the killer. The fact that I couldn’t prove who did it was not something I could just easily shrug off or put to the back of my mind.

  “I just know that Simona had something to do with it…” I said stubbornly. “No matter how much she tries to play the pregnancy card, I’m not buying what she is telling me.”

  Jackson nodded a little. “Then the police in Belldale will figure it out. Believe me, it is tough for me to take a step back from it all as well.”

  I was surprised to hear that. Surprised and relieved. We were finally speaking honestly with each other. If only we had done that from the start.

  “Really? You never told me that.” I had to laugh a little as I took a seat on the sofa in the living room. “I’m sure it is hard for you to just walk away from the force after dedicating your whole life to it. You don’t have to pretend that it’s easy. I understand.”

  He leaned back and started rubbing his temples. “I am starting to think this whole going back to college thing is something of a midlife crisis,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh.
/>   “You’re a little young for a midlife crisis, aren’t you?” I asked. Jackson was only thirty-one.

  He laughed again and shook his head, opening his eyes and staring up at the ceiling as he lay back on the couch.

  “Maybe not,” he said. “Come on, admit something to me, Rach. You think it’s a little crazy that I want to go back to school to become a vet surgeon, don’t you?”

  I paused for a moment to make sure I was saying the right thing. “Not if it’s something you really want to do.” I chose my next words carefully. “But it did seem to come out of nowhere. I’d never heard you mention it before.”

  Jackson nodded. “I guess I’ve been trying to run away too. It’s not always that easy.”

  “So, what do we do now?” I asked.

  “Run away together?”

  I reached for his hand. “Or maybe we don’t run away at all. How about we stop running, and just stay here for a while?”

  Jackson had a surprise for me. There were butterflies in my stomach as I stepped out of the car, walking toward the mystery location. Jackson was not usually one for surprises, but recently, he had been full of them. Was this next surprise going to be one I liked, or one I hated?

  Jackson pulled his hands away from my eyes so I could see at last. The first thing that hit me was sunlight. Then I saw the building slowly come into focus.

  “What do you think?”

  There was a dilapidated cottage in front of me. The front door was off its hinges. Uh oh. He didn’t want us to move already, did he? Were our finances really so bad that we needed to downsize to a place that looked like this?

  “What is this place?” I asked him, still worried that this place I was looking at was our new home sweet home. I turned around to see his reaction. What was going on?

  Jackson was grinning from ear to ear. “I was thinking it could be an office.”

  I stared at the cottage with the moss-covered front and peeling paint. “An office?” I asked. I was trying to remain optimistic. It didn’t look much like an office to me.