A Fatal Competition (A Rose Harbor Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Ella White

  She rushed down the alley and made it to the main road, where she was now in broad streetlight. She looked around and realized that Gwen must have taken the car they had come in. Lydia knew she had to get to the police station as quickly as she could. Gwen had the wrong bottle, and she absolutely had to get the correct one to them so they could prove that it was Maura who had murdered Meredith.

  Lydia ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the street, frantically looking around for a taxi or something she could flag down. A few blocks away she spotted a car heading towards her, and she began to wave her arms desperately in an attempt to get whomever it was to stop.

  Unlike earlier that evening, luck was on her side, and the car pulled over to let her in. She jumped into the front passenger’s seat and turned to the driver. She was a little shocked to see who it was.

  “Nancy?!” she yelped, panting a little to try to catch her breath.

  “What in the world happened, Lydia?” the other florist asked. Her brow was furrowed with worry. “You look terrible! Are you all right?”

  “I’ll explain later,” she stated. “Please, I need to get to the police station now!”

  “What is that? PestBeGone?” Nancy said, looking at the bottle Lydia held and ignoring what she said. “What?”

  “The police station first!” Lydia persisted. “I’ll explain everything there! It’s about Meredith’s murder!”

  Nancy’s eyes widened, but she said nothing more as she shifted the car into drive and took off down the road. Lydia, meanwhile, reached into her pocket and pulled out the tape recorder, which she had been going since she’d begun her conversation with Maura. She finally allowed herself time to catch her breath.

  Thank goodness for Plan B.

  Chapter Nine

  Nancy drove to the police station as quickly she could, flying over curbs as she turned corners. She didn’t ask Lydia any questions or try to comfort her as she rewound the tape recorder and held the green PestBeGone bottle out with one hand. Nancy had no idea what was going on, but if it had something to do with Meredith’s death, then she wanted to know about it. Meredith was no friend of hers, but she couldn’t help but be curious about how she had died and why.

  She pulled up to the police station parking lot, and Lydia practically jumped out of the car and ran into the station. Nancy followed her as quickly as she could, although she clearly didn’t have the adrenaline flowing through her system that Lydia did.

  Once inside, Nancy spotted Lydia heading up to the front desk, where multiple officers were gathered around Gwen. She was shouting and waving her arms, apparently trying to get someone’s attention.

  “I’m telling you we need to get to The Purple Petal! Right now!” Gwen yelled. “Who knows what Maura might be doing to Lydia right now!”

  “I think Maura is the one who is in danger from Lydia,” Chief Wyatt declared, his arms crossed and his dull eyes narrowed. “After all, she killed Meredith. Why not go after the cousin now?”

  “Chief Robert Wyatt!” Lydia announced as she approached the group. ”For the last time, I did not kill Meredith Blake!”

  Everyone turned to look at Lydia, who was slightly wet from spraying Maura with the water hose. The only things that weren’t wet were her gloved hands and the PestBeGone bottle she carried. Lydia walked up to the group and presented the bottle to one of the officers.

  “We were wrong before.” She addressed her friend. “This is the bottle used to poison Meredith. This is the murder weapon.”

  “Oh for god’s sake…” Chief Wyatt muttered.

  “There is blood on the nozzle,” Lydia explained. “And you’ll find saliva and pieces of her skin inside.”

  “Are there any fingerprints on it?” Gwen suggested.

  “That’ll be for the chief’s forensic investigator to say,” Lydia said, presenting the bottle to Chief Wyatt.

  The chief just sighed and shook his head, not taking the bottle from her. She patiently waited for him to move, and when he didn’t, she sighed.

  “Chief Wyatt, I’ve had enough,” she proclaimed, holding her chin up and looking him right in the eye. “Your job is to protect the residents of Rose Harbor. Do you understand what that means?”

  “Miss White, you—”

  “It means not ignoring someone when they claim they are assaulted, when someone breaks into their bookstore, or when they’re looking for a missing family member,” Lydia listed, recalling all the incidents Gwen had mentioned to her earlier that evening. “And it means not ignoring evidence when it is right in front of your face.”

  He stared at her for a long time, and Lydia was hoping that the twitching of his eyelids was an indication that he was thinking. His expression looked more exasperated than anything, but Lydia did not break eye contact. After hearing from Gwen how he had been pretty much ignoring the needs of the town, she’d had enough of this man’s foolish actions.

  Finally he sighed and put his hands in his pockets.

  “Okay. I’ll do you this favor and hear you out.”

  Lydia didn’t even pause. “No. This is not a favor. I’m asking you to do your job.”

  Chief Wyatt was so taken aback by this response that he didn’t notice his forensic investigator come out from the back of the station with the bottle of pesticide that Lydia presumed was the one Gwen had brought. The man walked over to the chief and handed him the bottle.

  “Nothing here, chief,” he informed, setting down his suitcase. “This bottle’s clean.”

  “Try this one,” Lydia offered, handing the bottle over before Chief Wyatt could respond. “It came from The Purple Petal. There’s blood and bits of skin on the nozzle.”

  “Let us do the investigating, Miss White,” the chief interrupted, but the forensic investigator took the item anyway.

  “Yeah, because you’ve done such a great job of it lately,” Gwen commented.

  The investigator opened up his case, which Lydia soon realized was a case for all of his forensic equipment. There were latex gloves, a camera, evidence bags, barricade tape, regular scotch tape, multiple flashlights with extra batteries, tweezers and many other things that Lydia couldn’t see unless she dug through the bag.

  The investigator put on a pair of fresh gloves before grabbing a container with cotton swabs in it and taking one out. He inspected the opening at the nozzle, squinting at the red spots before dabbing a bit of the area with the cotton swab. He then took out a smaller spray bottle and squirted a little bit of the clear liquid on the end of the swab. After a few seconds it turned light purple, and the investigator nodded.

  “Yep, that’s blood all right,” he confirmed. “Let me check this for prints. I’ll be right back.”

  Lydia let the smile break across her face as she watched Chief Wyatt’s expression transform from irritation to surprise to confusion. She decided that she would need to get his forensic investigator’s name and send him flowers as a thank you once this whole case was over.

  At that moment Maura rushed into the station. She took one look at both Lydia and Gwen before addressing the chief.

  “Chief Wyatt, these women broke into my flower store tonight,” she informed him. “I demand that you arrest them for breaking and entering!”

  “I wouldn’t be so quick to throw accusations around,” Gwen warned her. “You need to have evidence after all.”

  “Lydia White stole a bottle of PestBeGone from my store,” Maura continued. “I know she brought it here. That’s proof enough.”

  “Then I’ll admit to that crime,” Lydia said suddenly.

  Everyone turned to stare at her, but Gwen was the one to speak. “What?”

  “If I go to jail for breaking and entering, then fine,” Lydia confessed. “If it means bringing Meredith’s killer to justice, I will take that punishment.”

  “Since when do you care about Meredith?” Maura accused her.

  “Since killing anyone is wrong!” Lydia declared. She paused to slow her breathing before she
continued. “And besides, the bottle is not the only evidence I got tonight.”

  “What do you mean?” Chief Wyatt asked her.

  Lydia pulled the tape recorder out of her pocket. Gwen smiled brightly as Maura looked at the item and her jaw dropped.

  “I have a very important conversation recorded here,” Lydia informed the entire station. “I think you’ll all want to hear this.”

  She pressed play on the recorder, and everyone was silent as the entire exchange between Lydia and Maura rang through the building. One by one, each of the officers looked over at Maura as her monologue went on. Gwen made sure she wrote down as many notes as she could in her notebook. It seemed like Lydia didn’t even have to lead her with any of her own questions. The recording barely had anything coming from Lydia, except for the very beginning when she had yelled to get Maura to admit to the crime. It wasn’t Lydia’s best moment, but once Maura’s soliloquy got going, pretty much everyone forgot about it.

  Once the tape ended, Maura looked around at all the glares from the police officers, with the exception of Chief Wyatt, who just looked disappointed. Maura decided that she didn’t want to be in the station anymore, and she turned to flee. She was stopped, however, by Nancy, who had placed herself in front of the only exit. She crossed her arms and glared at her. Maura just gulped.

  It wasn’t long after that the forensic investigator returned.

  “The bottle’s got two sets of prints on it, chief,” he announced. “And with the blood, I’m confidant that this is the murder weapon…so to speak, with Meredith Blake’s cause of death being by poisoning.”

  “Do you know if it’s Meredith’s blood?” the chief asked, his voice uncharacteristically quiet.

  “No. That will take a few days at least,” the investigator declared. “But I did find a match for some of the prints.”

  Chief Wyatt’s eyebrows rose. “Who is it?”

  “Maura Blake.”

  “What?” Maura shouted. “Are you serious? How can you match my prints?”

  “I lifted the fingerprints from the bottle and compared them to your prints that are on file,” he explained.

  “What prints on file?” she asked. “My prints aren’t on file!”

  “The record is from a DUI you got about six years ago.”

  “And there’s that solid evidence I wanted,” Gwen commented to Lydia.

  “But I handled that bottle today! This evening!” Maura protested. “My prints could just be from that!”

  “Some of the prints are a little older,” the investigator went on. “They are at least twenty-four hours old. There are fresher prints, but there are others that I found which are older.”

  “And with this taped confession…” Chief Wyatt sighed again. “Maura Blake, you have the right to remain silent…”

  As the chief continued to read Maura her Miranda Rights, Lydia took a deep breath. Her name was cleared! She was off the hook!

  She glanced over at Gwen, who was still frantically jotting down information. The journalist looked up, as she sensed that Lydia was staring at her, and she smiled.

  “Lydia White?” she asked rather professionally. “Do you have time for an interview regarding the murder of Meredith Blake by her own cousin?”

  “I think I have all the time in the world,” Lydia joked.

  The forensic investigator interrupted everyone. “Actually, she wasn’t killed by just Maura. There was actually a second set of prints…”

  It took an entire week to get all the evidence sorted out for Maura Blake’s trial for Meredith’s murder, and it was probably the most excitement Rose Harbor had seen in a long time. Lydia, in contrast, just wanted to relax after everything that had happened. She hadn’t dealt with that much craziness since her divorce, although she would say this was far more stressful.

  The following week Lydia opened up The Scented Blooms Flower Shop again, after taking a short vacation she felt she deserved. She also didn’t want to have too many reporters come knocking at her door. The interview with Gwen was the only one she had given, and she intended to keep it that way.

  Lydia unlocked the front door of the shop and began to set up for the day. Melvin rushed inside as well, jumping through the leaves and stems of some of the larger plants.

  “Be careful, Melvin!” she admonished him. “Don’t ruin any of the displays!”

  The cat glanced at her and meowed before ignoring her instructions and continuing to play in the pots. Lydia just shook her head.

  She heard the bell on the door ring. She already had a customer this early in the morning?

  It wasn’t a customer though. It was Gwen, someone Lydia was always happy to see. She held a newspaper under her arm, and she rushed over to give Lydia a hug.

  “Good morning!” she declared, her tone a bit too perky for this early hour. “I’ve got good news for you!”

  “Oh, what is it?” Lydia asked.

  “Literally good news,” Gwen explained, lifting the paper to her face. “Check it out! It’s my first story that’s made the front page!”

  Now she understood why her best friend was so enthusiastic. That would get any journalist excited after all. The story was of course about Meredith’s murder, but due to Gwen’s connections with Lydia, the prime suspect for a long time, she was allowed to cover the story.

  Lydia read the headline. “‘Florist Murder and Family Matters.’ Nice title.”

  “Not my idea. It was my boss,” she explained. “But your interview is in there, my interviews with Maura and Bethany are there and I got some background info for the forensic evidence.”

  “Bethany? What does she have to do with it?”

  “I forgot you don’t know! The second set of prints was hers!”

  Lydia was only slightly shocked by this. “So it really was two people who did it, huh?”

  “So our theory was only half right at first,” Gwen said with a shrug. “We got the killers in the end.”

  “And news on the trial?”

  “Next month is the preliminary hearing. And guess who gets to cover the trial?”

  “Harper?”

  “No, you jerk!” Gwen yelped playfully. “Me of course!”

  “I know. I just had to tease you,” Lydia admitted. “So basically a happy ending?”

  “I think so,” she replied. “I’ve got to get to the office. You up for dinner tonight?”

  “I’m going out with Nancy, but I can ask her if it’s okay if you join us,” Lydia informed her.

  “Sounds good,” Gwen said as she headed to the door. “Call me with the details!”

  Gwen left in a flurry, and just as Lydia was heading to the safe to fill the cash register with some money, she heard the sound of a crash. She jumped a little at the sound and spun around to see Melvin looking at her rather sheepishly. Next to him was a broken cactus pot.

  “Are you trying to tell me something, you little cat brat?” she asked him. He just meowed in response.

  ~~~

  Find out what Lydia discovers in part two of the Rose Harbor Mystery! Coming Soon!