Salami Murder: Book 8 in The Darling Deli Series

by Patti Benning

  “Go on in, boy,” she said, unlocking the door. She followed him inside, lost in thought. There must be something she could do to help the investigation, but what? I could call her friends, she thought. Maybe she said something to one of them about someone following her or threatening her. She knew it was a long shot, but she was determined not to leave any stone unturned. Now the only question was, who should she call first? Now that Candice had her own place, Moira was no longer up to date on details of her daughter’s social life. She didn’t know who her daughter considered a close friend these days. I’ll start with Allison, she decided. At least she knew that the two young women had seen each other recently, and besides, she already had Allison’s number in her phone.

  She sat down at the kitchen table and closed her eyes, resting her forehead against the palm of her hand for a moment. She was finding it hard to focus; her thoughts kept returning to worse and worse images of what would happen to Candice if she wasn’t found in time. Now was the time that she needed to think clearly, more than ever. With a sigh, Moira opened her eyes and grabbed her phone. She had work to do. Her brain would just have to keep up.

  “Hey Ms. D, what’s up?” Allison’s bright, cheery voice was like a punch to the gut for Moira. The blonde-haired young woman was so like her daughter, it almost seemed like she was talking to Candice.

  “Allison… Candice is missing,” she managed to get out after a moment. “She’s been kidnapped.”

  She related the events of the evening quickly, managing to keep her voice steady as she spoke to her stunned employee. But as she asked the young woman for help, her voice broke in fear. “I don’t know where she is or what’s happening to her, Allison. I know she and you are friends. Can you think back to anything she might have said over the last few weeks? Was there anyone following her around, or anyone that had made her uncomfortable?”

  “Oh my gosh, Ms. D. I’m so sorry. I can’t believe this is happening. No, I can’t think of anyone. Except… well, she has been seeing Eli a lot. He always seems to be on his way over or his way out whenever I get to Candice’s. He calls her all the time, too. She doesn’t seem to mind, but it seemed a bit excessive to me—I mean, they just met,” Allison said.

  Eli, Moira thought. I should have listened to my gut about him. He had motive to want Candice’s shop to fail, and her daughter trusted him enough to have given him access to the shop and to trust him when he came over unannounced.

  “Thank you,” she responded distractedly to Allison. “I have to go now.”

  She hung up, feeling oddly detached. She felt as if she were trying to run in water, but her mind was working a mile a minute as she searched for any hint that Eli might have been planning something like this. She wished that she had told Candice about her suspicions about him a few days ago, during the fiasco with the cut water pipe.

  Pull it together, she told herself firmly as her mind wandered, her imagination coming up with more and more unlikely ways she would have, could have prevented her daughter’s kidnapping. I’ll have time to freak out later, after Candice is safely home. Right now, it was time to buy some ice cream.

  She got off the phone with the police moments before she pulled into the ice cream shop’s parking lot. After telling them what she knew, they had agreed to send some men out to track Eli down. Moira was hoping she could speed up the process by questioning the employees at the ice cream shop. They might have an idea of where to find him, and could perhaps shine light on any suspicious behavior in the last couple of weeks.

  Ready to do whatever it took to find her daughter; Moira strode purposefully into the ice cream shop and stopped short when she saw Eli himself at the counter. He was handing a chocolate cone to a toddler whose mother held her up so that she could easily take the treat. When he heard the bell on the door jingle, he looked up.

  “Ms. Darling,” he said with a smile. “It’s nice to see you. Can I get you a cone?”

  Shaking off her shock, Moira steeled herself and approached the counter. She waited until the girl and her mother left, reluctant to cause a scene now that she had doubts about Eli’s guilt. If he had kidnapped Candice and had her stashed away somewhere, would he really be working the counter so nonchalantly? She had imagined that wherever her daughter was, the kidnapper would be there too, watching her.

  “Where’s Candice?” she asked him once they had privacy.

  “She’s not here, we weren’t going to get together until later.” He must have registered the worried expression on her face because he added, “Is everything all right?”

  “No, it’s not. Candice is missing.”

  He paled.

  “What happened? Is there anything I can do to help?”

  She scrutinized him. He looked concerned, and there wasn’t a trace of guilt in his eyes. Either he was an excellent liar, or she had the wrong guy.

  “Where were you earlier today?” she asked at last.

  “You don’t think I…” he blinked and shook his head. “I was here, working. You can ask anyone. My buddy Keith was here too, until about an hour ago.”

  Moira closed her eyes as disappointment rushed through her. Her guess had been wrong; she was even farther from finding Candice than she was before, since she had just wasted half an hour driving all the way back to Lake Marion and talking to Eli.

  “Do you have any idea, any at all, of who might have taken her?” she asked desperately. “Has anyone been following her?”

  “The only person I can think of is her ex. Adrian,” he said. “She told me that he won’t leave her alone; he comes over at all hours, and keeps calling her. She’s even found him in the candy shop before; she thinks he made a copy of the key.” Eli paused, his gaze drifting over her shoulder. Moira looked back to see a trio of police cars, lights flashing, pull into the parking lot. Embarrassment reddening her face, she apologized to Eli, then faced the door, ready to explain her mistake to the officers. How could she have been so foolish? Each officer looking for Eli at her request was one less officer looking for her missing daughter.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  After the debacle with Eli, she doubted the police would listen to her if she set them on Adrian’s trail. Besides, David was right. They certainly knew how to do their jobs better than she did. She knew that her daughter’s kidnapping was the focus of the police right now, and she didn’t want to waste their time with yet another false accusation. But she couldn’t ignore her gut, either. I’ll go find Adrian myself, she thought. I know where he lives, at least. If he isn’t there, I’ll contact David and then the police and let them know what Eli told me after they left.

  She checked her phone for what felt like the thousandth time in hopes that Candice had managed to send her some sort of message, then put her car into gear and left the ice cream parlor. Adrian lived in an apartment complex partway between Lake Marion and Maple City, and the drive had never felt longer to her. She wished that she hadn’t dropped Maverick off at home; if she did find the kidnapper, he could be a help.

  Pulling into Adrian’s apartment complex, the first thing she did was look for his car. If he wasn’t here, this was all a waste of time. But there it was, parked between a red pickup truck and a green sedan. He was here… but was Candice?

  Clutching her phone tightly in her hand, she entered the apartment building and made her way slowly up the stairs. Her heart was in her throat, and the coffee that David had made her drink had turned into a cold sludge in her stomach. Part of her knew that this was likely a waste of time; while Adrian was not her favorite of Candice’s recent boyfriends, he wasn’t necessarily a criminal. Chasing after a lead made her feel slightly better though. Doing anything was better than sitting in silence at her home or at David’s office and imagining the terrible possibilities of what might be happening to her daughter. Anything was better than that.

  When she reached the top level she paused, unsure. Had it been apartment 3A or 3C? She had only been there once to drop off some papers back when
Candice and Adrian were a couple in the planning stages of starting up her business. I’m pretty sure it was 3A, she thought. There’s only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, she raised her fist and knocked sharply three times. She waited a moment, then knocked again. The door opened and a familiar red-haired young man looked out.

  “I said come back later, I’m busy—” Adrian broke off when he realized that the person standing in the hallway was Moira, and not whoever he had been expecting. “Oh. Hi, Ms. Darling,” he said cautiously.

  “Adrian.” She kept her eyes fixed on his face. Was that a nervous twitch by his lip? Did he look paler than normal? Was she imagining guilt on his face because she didn’t like him?

  “W-what are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Candice is missing,” she said shortly. “Have you seen her?”

  His eyes met hers, then slid away. He looked thinner than she remembered, and had dark circles under his eyes. Whatever was going on with him, it wasn’t good.

  “No,” he said. He moved to close the door.

  Acting on instinct, Moira shot her foot out, wedging it between the door and the frame just in time.

  “Candice?” she called out, not caring if she disturbed the neighbors. Adrian was definitely hiding something.

  There was no answer at first. Adrian, his eyes wide with panic, was still trying to shut the door but to no avail. Her foot wouldn’t budge. Moira was beginning to think it would be a good idea to call the police when she heard a loud thump and a groan from the other room. Adrian whipped his head around, cursing. Taking advantage of his distraction, she shoved the door open and pushed her way inside.

  Adrian grabbed at her, but she twisted away, wincing as his nails scraped against her skin. She hurried into the living room and fell to her knees in relief next to her daughter, who was zip-tied to a chair with duct tape across her mouth. The thump that Moira had heard came from a TV tray that her daughter had managed to knock over. The microwave dinner that had been sitting on it was slowly bleeding gravy across the carpet.

  Putting her phone down, Moira reached over, and with shaking fingers gently removed the duct tape from Candice’s mouth. As her daughter took a deep, shaky breath, tears filled her eyes.

  “I knew you would find me,” she whispered.

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” Moira told her. “And then Adrian is going to prison for a very, very long time.”

  Candice’s eyes widened suddenly and Moira spun around to see Adrian standing at the entrance to the living room with a large, sharp hunting knife in his hand. The hand that held blade was shaking, but the look in his eyes was fierce and desperate.

  “You weren’t supposed to find her,” he whined. “I just wanted the money.” He shook his head almost regretfully

  “Adrian,” Moira said slowly, rising to her feet. “Put the knife down. No one needs to be hurt. I’m sure this is all just a misunderstanding.”

  “You’re wrong.” He took a shuddering breath. She realized, to her surprise, that he was on the verge of tears. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He obviously wasn’t a cold-blooded killer, but she had the feeling that his emotional state might make him even more dangerous and unpredictable. “I killed him.”

  “Killed… who?” she asked. The sick feeling in her stomach intensified.

  “That guy, Matt, or whatever his name was, I killed him.” He took a step backwards and darted his eyes towards the door as if trying to gauge how quickly he could make a run for it. “I didn’t mean to, though. Do you think that will count for anything?” He looked almost hopefully at her.

  “Of course,” she said, trying to sound reassuring. “If it was an accident, I’m sure they’ll be understanding.” She risked a glance back at her daughter, whose wrists were still zip-tied to the chair.

  “I didn’t hurt her,” Adrian said suddenly. “Go ahead, ask her. I was a perfect gentleman.”

  Candice nodded. “That’s true. You didn’t hurt me, Adrian. Thank you for that.” She forced a smile onto her face. Moira felt a surge of pride for her daughter. Even though she had been kidnapped, gagged, and tied to a chair, she could still think quickly enough to realize how important it was to keep Adrian from getting upset.

  “That’s good,” Moira said, turning her attention back to Adrian. He still clutched the knife, but he no longer raised it as if he would attack. “Why did you kidnap her in the first place? She’s your friend, isn’t she?”

  “I needed the money,” he said simply.

  “He’s the one that’s been stealing stuff, Mom,” Candice said from behind her. “He hid that bag of jewelry in the freezer, thinking that no one would look there for it.”

  “I thought you had plenty of money,” Moira said to the red-haired young man. “I don’t understand.”

  “I… lost it. All of it.” he blushed. “I made some bad choices gambling. Then when Candice said she didn’t want me to help at the candy store… I freaked. I mean, I couldn’t even afford to pay rent.”

  “So you stole? And kidnapped my daughter for ransom? I don’t understand what poor Matt had to do with any of this.” She took another step forward, keeping her eyes on the knife. Adrian didn’t notice. His gaze was fixed on Candice.

  “Like I said, that was an accident. He saw me stashing the stuff in the freezer. He started saying he was going to call the cops, that there was some sort of reward out for the stolen jewelry. We grappled and I… I shoved him. He hit his head against the sink pretty hard. He was still stumbling around when I left though, I swear. I didn’t know I had killed him until I saw the news the next day.”

  Moira believed him. eventually, she would feel sorry for him, but kidnapping Candice was deliberate, premeditated. He had made bad decisions, then had complicated the situation by making even worse ones.

  “Wait,” Candice said. Her voice had a dangerous tone of anger in it. “Are you the one that cut my brake lines? And flooded the candy shop?”

  “I was hoping you would take me back,” he said, his eyes earnest. “I thought if things got too hard, you’d see that you needed me.”

  “I could have died!” she exclaimed. “My car hit a tree. If I had been going any faster, I might have been killed.”

  To Moira’s surprise, Adrian actually looked ashamed.

  “I never wanted you to get hurt, Candice, I promise. I was desperate though. I hope you understand, one day. I really do like you.”

  He raised the knife and glanced at Moira. She tensed.

  “I’m so sorry,” he told her. “I really wouldn’t have hurt her, even if you didn’t give me the money. I was just so scared that I was going to lose everything. I didn’t see that I already had lost it all, but I see that now.”

  He twisted his grip and instead of lunging at her he aimed the knife at his own midsection. Just as his arm tensed, Moira rushed forward, tackling him. She’d caught him off guard and the knife flew from his hand. She kicked it towards Candice, who managed to pick it up and start sawing at her plastic bonds. Moira stood by Adrian, worried that he might try to hurt himself again, but he seemed to have given up totally, lying curled up on the floor, tears streaming.

  It wasn’t until Candice had gotten her zip ties off and was on the phone with the police that Moira began to realize that the ordeal was over. Her daughter was alive, and miraculously uninjured.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Life returned to normal for Moira quickly after her daughter was home. Candice, who continued to surprise her mother with her resilience and positive attitude, seemed determined not to let the kidnapping affect her journey towards independence. Moira was glad that her daughter hadn’t been too traumatized, but she found herself wishing that the young woman would reconsider living alone, at least for the time being. Moira encouraged her to at consider a roommate, if she wouldn’t move back in with her mother. She was disappointed but not surprised when her daughter refused. Candice had a stubborn streak a mile wide, not unlike her o
wn.

  Ironically, Moira seemed more affected by the kidnapping than Candice had been. She was plagued by nightmares to the point where she let Maverick sleep on the bed with her, bad habits be darned. She believed that she had come close to losing her daughter for good, and moving on easily just wasn’t possible.

  “Detective Jefferson says Adrian is safely locked up, where he can’t hurt himself or anyone else,” David said, perching on the edge of his desk. It was another beautiful day in Lake Marion, but Moira was so sleep deprived that she hardly noticed it. Despite Maverick’s comforting furry presence, she couldn’t rest when her dreams were full of her daughter getting kidnapped over and over.

  “That’s good,” Moira said dully. “I really don’t think he meant to kill Matt.”

  “I don’t either, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s in jail,” she told him. “He kidnapped my daughter. Not only that, but he cut her brake lines, which could have killed her and did injure her.”

  “But you still saved his life,” he said.

  “It was reflex,” she said. “I just saw him with the knife and tried to stop him.” She closed her eyes, trying to forget the hours of panic when her daughter had been missing. “I’m just glad all of this is over. Hopefully the candy shop can open successfully now. Plus, your clients are getting back all of the stuff he stole.”

  “Yeah, though I don’t know if I can accept any payment from them. After all, I’m not really the one who solved the case; you are.”

  “Accidentally. I didn’t know Adrian was responsible for the missing items or the bad luck that had been following Candice around. I thought he was just upset that she broke up with him.”

  “Well, luckily for both of you, he turned out to be a criminal with a conscience.” David shook his head. “You shouldn’t have confronted him alone. That could have ended very badly for everyone involved.”