Oh, God. Ever since I’d proved that Ernie couldn’t have poisoned the lobster roll, a formless worry had hovered at the edges of my mind. What had Aunt Gully been doing while everyone else trooped out to the stage? She was alone with the lobster rolls. With dread, I remembered a word I’d read in Aunt Gully’s mystery novels: opportunity. Aunt Gully had had opportunity.
My phone vibrated. Keeping it on my lap, I lowered my eyes. BRONWYN. It vibrated again. VERITY. HILDA. Hilda had called twice. I clenched my hands around the phone, willing them to stop shaking.
“Oh, that.” Aunt Gully smiled. I forgot my apron and ran back to get it.
Detective Rosato gave a barely perceptible nod, her eyes wide and unblinking, like a cat ready to pounce.
Lorel twisted her hands. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Shouldn’t my aunt have her lawyer?”
“Would you like a lawyer, Mrs. Fontana?” Detective Rosato asked.
Aunt Gully shook her head. “No, I’m happy to help.”
“Aunt Gully,” Lorel said.
“Lorel, I have nothing to hide. I want to be helpful.” That explained Aunt Gully’s serenity. She was in helper mode.
“So you were the last person in the room with the lobster rolls?” Detective Rosato didn’t miss a beat.
“No leading the witness!” I jumped to my feet.
Detective Rosato threw a glance at me. Dismissed. I sank back into my chair.
“I’m not sure if anyone went in after me. Lots of volunteers ran out to see Cameron Kim,” Aunt Gully said slowly. “When the cooking was done, the network people told us time was up. We put our plated rolls on a large tray the counter.”
“Each chef put four plates on their own tray?” Detective Rosa asked, Aunt Gully nodded. “Then each tray was covered with a cloche to keep the lobster rolls warm. We went to the green room. Well, they called it the green room. It’s the kindergarten classroom by the exit to the playground. We started to go to the stage. But then I remembered I left my apron in the kitchen. I ran back to get it.”
My heart dropped. Detective Rosato didn’t change expression, but Chief Brooks swallowed hard.
“Was there anyone else in the kitchen when you went back?” Chief Brooks said.
“No, everyone else had left. Everyone rushed out to see Rick and Rio and Cameron and Contessa and get to the stage for the judging.” Aunt Gully’s eyes widened. “Wait, there was one volunteer leaving the kitchen as I went in.”
“A volunteer,” Detective Rosato said.
Aunt Gully straightened. “Someone, in black. Baseball cap. Maybe a woman, well, someone slight. Maybe a teen boy? I’m certain of one thing. She or he had a badge like everyone else. I didn’t really look. I was in such a hurry.”
Detective Rosato maintained the same expressionless expression, but something had shifted. Sure, lady, a volunteer in black. How many volunteers in black had worked at the food festival? Dozens.
“You were alone with the lobster rolls?” Detective Rosato pressed.
Aunt Gully swallowed. “Yes.”
Lorel closed her eyes.
The police chief tugged his collar.
My heart dropped as it sank in. Aunt Gully was the last one with the lobster rolls. All alone with the lobster rolls right before they were served. Right before they poisoned four judges. Right before Contessa Wells died.
Chapter 23
The silence deepened in the dining room, a silence so deep that over the hum of Aunt Gully’s refrigerator I could hear the ringing buoy off Seal Rock. It was a melancholy, lonely sound, a warning for mariners sailing too close to unseen danger.
Detective Rosato left the room to take a call.
I took a deep breath, trying to quell the panic surging through me. “You cannot believe for a single moment that my aunt—”
“This is ridiculous,” Lorel said.
“Are you suggesting that I tampered with the lobster rolls? That I put poison in them?” Aunt Gully’s voice rose to a shriek.
Chief Brooks reared back. “Now, now, Gully—”
Aunt Gully’s normally pink cheeks reddened. “Oh, now I’m Gully! You’ve known me for how long? You coached Lorel in softball! I’ve been in the Ladies’ Guild with your wife for thirty years!”
Chief Brooks hunched his shoulders. “Gully. Nobody thinks you did anything. We just have to check everyone.”
“Are you questioning Paul Pond and Chick Costa and the Moss—” I bit my lip. I knew they’d questioned the Mosses.
Chief Brooks blinked. “We have to investigate everyone.”
Aunt Gully looked stunned, like someone slapped her.
The chief’s words tumbled. “We’re still interviewing people who were at the food festival. Some remembered seeing you go back to the kitchen after everyone else left.”
Detective Rosato returned. “That’s enough, Chief.”
Chief Brooks stood, clutching his hat.
“Why do you have to search? What’re you looking for?” Aunt Gully seemed to have reached a limit. I put an arm around her.
“You’d better have a good reason.” As soon as I said it, I realized how stupid I sounded. Murder. Murder was the reason.
“Now, I know it’s upsetting. But I’m sure everything’ll be all right.” He looked to Detective Rosato for confirmation. She kept her gaze leveled on Aunt Gully.
“Kahuna’s is still closed,” Chief Brooks said. “Everyone’s being interviewed. Everyone’s lobster rolls were tested.”
Detective Rosato shot Chief Brooks a withering look and he pressed his lips together. Of course he had no idea what to do in a murder investigation. Nothing ever happened in sleepy Mystic Bay.
My phone vibrated with a text from Verity. WHY ARE THERE COPS AT YOUR HOUSE? THEY WONT LET ME IN. I hurried to the front window, ignoring the way Detective Rosato moved her arm, the slightest bit, toward the bulge under her jacket.
A Mystic Bay police cruiser was parked in front of the house. Verity stood by the Tank, which had recently been full of the dead woman’s clothes. Good grief. What day was it? Tuesday? We were going to Contessa’s funeral this afternoon.
Chief Brooks joined me at the window. “Verity.” He winced. “I’ll tell her to go home.”
“Can I tell her?” I said.
“Please come back to the table, Ms. Larkin,” Detective Rosato said. I complied.
She turned to Aunt Gully. “May we search the house and garden?”
“Yes. I’ve nothing to hide.” Aunt Gully raised her chin.
“Can it wait?” Lorel put her arm around Aunt Gully. “My aunt’s very upset.”
“It’s best if we do it now,” Detective Rosato said.
Chief Brooks joined us.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Chief Brooks, did you get my call? My aunt’s been getting anonymous letters from the lobster liberation group. For three days before the competition. And they posted a sign by the Mermaid and by Kahuna’s. Maybe they had something to do with this.”
“Sorry, Allie, I’ve been awfully busy. Is that true, Gully?” Chief Brooks said.
Aunt Gully’s brow furrowed. “Yes, but I thought it was just kids playing a joke. They were letters saying ‘Stop before we stop you’ or something like that. Signed, the ‘Lobster Liberation Group.’”
“Did you report it? Where are the letters?” Detective Rosato flipped open her notebook.
“I threw them away,” Aunt Gully whispered.
Detective Rosato flipped her notebook closed with a movement that said, Nice try.
Great, now the police would never take the letters seriously.
“There was a poster, too. I brought it to the Plex,” I said. Detective Rosato’s eyes flicked from me to Chief Brooks. “We’re looking into it,” he said.
Police techs swept into the house. They let Aunt Gully make a cup of tea and herded us into the living room. Aunt Gully clutched her mug until it went cold, sitting between Lorel and me on the couch. Poor thing looked beyond tired. We all flinched
whenever a bang came from the kitchen. What on earth were they looking for? Voices floated in the open windows from the direction of the garden.
A police officer set a dining room chair by the doorway, sat down, and scrolled on her phone. Our keeper.
I texted Verity.
I’LL CALL AS SOON AS THEY ARE GONE.
WE HAVE A FUNERAL TO GO TO TODAY, she texted back. If only Verity knew how bad things were.
Anxiety tightened my muscles like trip wires.
My body ached to stretch. Dancers don’t just like to move, we need to move.
Lorel must have been stunned since she didn’t say anything when I slipped to the floor and started stretching on Aunt Gully’s braided rag rug. The police officer glanced up, but after a moment turned her attention back to her phone.
Aunt Gully’s head fell upon her chest and she snored softy. Lorel took the cup of tea from her hands and set it on the coffee table.
A few minutes of stretching helped me calm and focus. Sound helped me keep track of the searchers: heavy footsteps crossing the bedrooms above. The banging of the back screen door. The rumble of the garage door. Detective Rosato’s voice floated through the open dining room window.
“Can I get my aunt’s sweater?” Aunt Gully had left hers on the back of a dining room chair. The officer looked up from her screen and nodded.
As I retrieved the sweater, I glanced out the dining room window. Aunt Gully’s backyard was small, but lushly landscaped. Well, “landscaped” sounds intentional. It was full to bursting. An officer and Detective Rosato poked around the colorful flags and statues that were interspersed in the overflowing beds, trellises, pots, and plants in old coffee cans. They conferred, then the tech shook his head.
With a jolt I remembered what Aunt Gully’d told me about Leo Rodriguez. I squeezed next to Lorel on the couch.
“Monkshood.” I whispered. “It’s a plant, right? That’s why they’re searching the garden.”
Lorel’s eyes widened. “Did they find anything?”
“Of course not. Leo Rodriguez was poking in the garden this morning. That snake! Admiring the lilacs, my—”
Detective Rosato and Chief Brooks came into the room. Aunt Gully jerked awake.
“Mrs. Fontana, I’d appreciate it if you’d come down to the station later today and answer a few more questions. Say one P.M.?” Detective Rosato said.
Chief Brooks kept his head down.
Aunt Gully raised her chin. “I’m happy to help, but—” her voice wavered—“I have to open my lobster shack. Are they done searching there?”
Detective Rosato’s phone rang. Once more she stepped into the kitchen.
My phone vibrated with a text from Hilda.
POLICE FOUND SOMEONE IN THE SHED. BADLY INJURED.
I gasped and showed the screen to Lorel and Aunt Gully. Chief Brooks’s phone buzzed and he stepped into the dining room to take the call.
Detective Rosato came back, her erect posture radiating command. “There’s been a development.”
“A development?” Aunt Gully whispered, her eyes huge behind her glasses.
“Who is it? Who’d they find at the Mermaid?” I said.
Chief Brooks came back into the living room. “Gully, I’m real sorry—”
Detective Rosato cut him off. “I’d like you to accompany us to the police services building for further questioning. You should call your lawyer.”
Chapter 24
As Detective Rosato led Aunt Gully from the front door of Gull’s Nest, Aunt Gully squeezed my arm. “You girls keep an eye on things at the Mermaid, okay? Everything’ll be fine.” Aunt Gully squared her shoulders but still looked so small getting into the Mystic Bay Police SUV.
“This isn’t real,” I whispered.
Lorel and I clung to each other and watched them leave.
“What do we do?” Lorel’s eyes brimmed with tears. I shook my head.
“My God,” Lorel said. “Leo was going to the Mermaid. He probably saw the police—”
“Is that all you think of!” I pushed her away. “What things look like? Aunt Gully’s going to jail.” Breathe, Allie, breathe. “Call Aunt Gully’s lawyer. Have him meet her there.”
Lorel shook herself. “John Dombrowski. Right.”
“And let’s get to the Mermaid. Right away.”
After Lorel spoke to John Dombrowski, we hurried to Lorel’s car and my sister sped—really sped—to the Mermaid.
A string of yellow police tape blocked the entrance. We couldn’t pull into the parking lot, so we angled into a spot farther up Pearl Street. Then we ran back to the Mermaid, ignoring passersby craning their necks to get a better look at the police and emergency vehicles parked by the shed that housed the lobster tanks.
“Allie! Lorel!”
Hector jogged over to us, leaned across the police tape, and threw his strong arms around us. “How’s Aunt Gully?”
We ducked under the tape. Hilda joined us and, sobbing, hugged us hard.
“The police took Aunt Gully in for questioning,” I said.
“No!” Hilda clasped the small gold cross around her neck. “Anyone with a brain can see that she’s innocent.”
“Who is it?” Lorel said. “In the shed?”
Hector shook his head.
“We started prep work but we were mainly in the kitchen, not the shed with the lobster tanks. Then the police came and made us sit outside. Took them a while to get started. Then.” He took a deep breath. “They found him. Some officer said ‘body’ but they took him away fast. They wouldn’t do that if he was dead.”
“So somebody was hurt badly?” I said. “How?”
Hector shrugged. “Cops won’t say. They made us wait here. With our keeper.” He looked back at the officer relaxing on a pink Adirondack chair, sipping from a thermos.
“Officer Petrie!”
Officer Petrie joined us, swaggering a bit with his hand on his utility belt. “You girls okay? I heard about your aunt.” He shook his head. “That’s messed up.”
“Who was in the shed?” I swallowed.
Petrie jutted his chin toward the police vehicles. “No way to know yet. Got a bunch of the staties here and they don’t talk. Especially that one.”
A Mystic Bay SUV stopped by the entrance to the parking lot and Detective Rosato got out. She ducked under the tape and crunched across the gravel into the lobster shed without a glance at us.
She must have just dropped off Aunt Gully, I thought. “I’m going to walk up to the Plex and see if I can wait with Aunt Gully.”
“Save yourself a trip. They won’t let you. You can sit in the waiting room or at one of the picnic tables between the park and the Plex.” Petrie settled back into his chair. “Hope she has a good lawyer.”
“I called Aunt Gully’s lawyer. He’s headed to the Plex now,” Lorel said.
I rested my head on Hilda’s shoulder and squeezed my eyes shut. I was not going to cry. I had to keep it together, find a way to help Aunt Gully. When I opened my eyes, my gaze settled on a red convertible sports car parked across the street.
Suddenly, I knew who’d been found in the lobster shed.
Chapter 25
A crowd milled just outside the yellow police tape. I scanned their faces, then tugged Lorel’s hand. “I have to tell you something.” To Hector and Hilda I said, “I’ll bring you some coffee from the Tick Tock.”
“No, thanks, hon.” Hilda slumped into a blue Adirondack chair.
“Extra large black with two sugars,” Hector said.
“Officer Petrie?”
“No, thanks.”
I pulled Lorel with me into the crowd. To my horror, I saw Leo Rodriguez emerge from the Tick Tock Coffee Shop down the street. No doubt he’d soon be writing his story about Aunt Gully, the sweet little old lady murderer of Mystic Bay.
“Maybe I should talk to him,” Lorel said.
“Are you nuts?” I tugged her arm. “What on earth can you say to him? Oh, don’t you worry ab
out another little old body dropping near Aunt Gully! Let’s just get over to that red car.”
Lorel followed me. She took the monogrammed navy blue silk scarf she’d tied to her purse and looped it over her hair, managing to look even more glamorous and noticeable.
I circled the red sports car. Scrapes marred its front end. A “Chick’s World Famous Lobsters” bumper sticker was on the dented back bumper. It had to be Chick’s sports car.
Sidling up to the car, I slung my leg over the side and angled myself into the driver’s seat. My body slid along the rich leather. For a moment the embrace of the car’s ergonomically designed seat made me forget the craziness of what I was doing.
“Allie! Allie!” Lorel clenched her teeth in a smile as a couple with cameras nodded and passed her.
I patted the steering wheel, admiring the picture of a rearing horse in silhouette in bright yellow at its center.
“Get in,” I said. “You’re more conspicuous standing there than sitting in the car. I’m not going to hot-wire it.”
Lorel’s eyes darted side to side, but she obeyed. Her eyes went wide as she slid into the seat. “Whoa!”
A jogger stopped and ran in place. “You got room for one more?”
Lorel waggled her fingers and he ran on.
“Allie. Are you nuts!” Lorel hunched down in the seat, her hand shielding her face. “What are we doing here, Allie?”
“One, hiding from Leo.” I slid down so the leather headrest hid me. I hoped. “Two.”
I took a deep breath and told her what I’d seen last night at Edwards Inlet.
“That’s horrible. So Chick’s an even more disgusting human being than we thought. It sounds like he wanted Megan to throw the lobster roll contest. But to use poison? Do you think she did?”
“No,” I said slowly. “Well, she said she didn’t. She seemed hysterical and furious with him. Like she hated him. But the weirdest thing was what else he said. ‘Stop. I’m the only one who can help you. The only one who knows.’”
“‘The only one who can help you? The only one who knows?’” Lorel repeated. “That she poisoned the rolls? Do you think Ernie found out that Chick was using Megan to poison the lobster rolls? Why use poison? If he wanted her to throw the competition, she could’ve just used a lot of hot pepper.”
Curses, Boiled Again! Page 13