Pumpkin Pie Brulee & Murder

by Susan Gillard

  Heather looked at her attempt at yams and stuffing on her kitchen counter. They both looked a bit like goo.

  “It’s okay though,” Amy said. “You’re so good at making donuts that you don’t need to be good at anything else.”

  "Did we hear the word donuts?" Lilly asked, poking her head into the kitchen. She was followed by Nicolas, Dave, and Cupcake. It seemed as if the whole house was interested in what there was to eat.

  Dave started dancing around, moving from four feet to two, excited for the prospect of donuts. Cupcake climbed up onto Lilly's shoulder to get a better view of the room.

  Nicolas looked at what was on the stove. “What is that?”

  “It’s an excuse to have some donuts,” Heather said.

  She made sure to always have some donuts in her home and brought some out for the kids. Nicolas’s eyes lit up.

  “I’ve missed these,” he said.

  Heather joined them, enjoying the Pumpkin Pie Brûlée Donuts and listening to the plans that the kids had for the week. They were excited about a movie night that night and were planning on going to the beach with Eva and Leila the next day.

  Heather gave a grateful Dave a piece of the donut and then gave Cupcake a piece as well. She knew that donuts would be high on her pets' list of what they were thankful for.

  Eva and Leila knocked on the door and then joined them. Heather thought that they had a sixth sense of when donuts were being served. She happily gave them each a snack as they joined them at the table.

  “We were just talking about you,” Heather said.

  “Were you anticipating the wonderful turkey we’re going to cook up on Thursday?” Eva asked.

  “My mouth is watering already,” Nicolas assured them.

  “Mine will be,” Amy said, avoiding eye contact with the failed side dishes.

  “We were actually talking about how you’re going to take these two to the beach tomorrow,” Heather said. “They’re very excited.”

  “I’m very glad to hear that,” Eva said.

  “There’s nothing quite like feeling the sand between your toes in November,” Leila agreed.

  “I’m just happy to spend some time with you all,” Nicolas said. “Though the beach will be nice.”

  “It will be so much fun,” Lilly assured him. “But why don’t we go and choose a movie for tonight? That will give the adults a chance to either discuss dinner or murder.”

  The kids thanked Heather for the donuts again and then ran off. Once Dave and Cupcake were thoroughly convinced that they would not be receiving any more donuts at the time, they skipped away after their young friends.

  “Dinner or murder,” Amy chuckled. “That might really sum up most of our discussions.”

  “As long as you consider donuts a dinner,” Eva said.

  “And sometimes I do!” Leila agreed.

  Eva laughed, and then said, “If we are going to discuss dinner, then we might as have an update. How are plans going?”

  “My side dishes so far are a failure,” Heather admitted. “I think we might have to do Amy’s idea of a potluck.”

  “Never fear, my dear,” Eva said. “There’s no shame in admitting you need some help in the kitchen. I’m sure everyone will pitch in.”

  "There's a little bit of shame," Heather said with a laugh. "I am a professional donut baker, and I'm having trouble with this."

  “We’ll let you stick to donuts,” Amy said.

  “But please do stick to donuts,” Leila said. “We love them.”

  “Now besides the turkey and gravy that we’re in charge of, I think we can make something else,” Eva said.

  “Potatoes,” said Leila. “My family has a wonderful recipe for making creamy mashed potatoes.”

  “Perfect!” said Eva.

  “And I’ll still do the yams,” Amy said. “And Jamie and I will whip up some stuffing and biscuits too.”

  “And we can ask Ryan to make the vegetables,” said Eva. “He’s pretty good with them.”

  “What about me?” Heather asked. “Is there anything I can contribute to the main course instead of only dessert?”

  “You can make the cranberry sauce,” Eva announced.

  Heather laughed. “And you suggest that I get the type where I only have to open a can?”

  The other women nodded and then everyone broke out into giggles.

  “Oh. I’ve been meaning to ask,” Heather said. “Has your friend Vincent figured out his Thanksgiving dinner plans yet?”

  “I don’t think so,” Eva said.

  “Is there a reason that you didn’t want to invite him over here?” Heather asked.

  “I was just afraid that it might seem too intimate,” Eva said. “Inviting someone to a family holiday.”

  “Intimate?” Amy asked. “Do you know how many people will be here?”

  "She's right," Heather said. "If you want to invite him, you can let him know that it will be a big, eclectic group of people here. It includes an employee, an investor, and a detective partner."

  “I’ll consider it,” Eva said. “If you update us on how your case is going.”

  Heather sighed. “It’s a tricky one.”

  “There are more suspects than guests we’ll have at Thanksgiving dinner!” Amy said.

  “That is a lot of people,” remarked Leila.

  "The victim's family had access to his equipment in order to tamper with it, and the motive is money," Heather said. "But what has been tricky is that they have been lying about their alibis."

  “Well, what do you know for sure so far?” asked Eva.

  “The thermometer for the oil had to be sabotaged in the two-hour window between when Craig Caulfield took it out of his locked room and when it killed him,” said Heather.

  “And who could have been there?” Leila asked.

  “Let’s see who we can rule out,” Amy suggested.

  “I don’t think was Kiki,” Heather said. “The granddaughter. Besides the fact that she wouldn’t directly inherit the money.”

  “Her father would inherit it,” Amy said.

  “Right. She was also making videos inside the house at the time of the sabotage,” said Heather.

  “Sparky has those receipts that put him out of town at the time,” Amy said. “And I bet it’s easy to doublecheck that he was there. I don’t think it was him.”

  “And it couldn’t have been Kevin or Rachel,” Heather said.

  “Did Ryan follow up on Kaitlin’s alibi about meeting a friend that morning?” asked Amy.

  “Yes,” Heather said. “And it appears to be true.”

  “So, who do we have left?” Amy asked.

  “That leaves us with Chris the son who had been injured, the new wife Jocelyn, the daughter who hates her stepmother Bonnie, and Kiki’s father with the false alibi Riley,” Heather recapped.

  “Well, getting down to four isn’t bad,” Amy said.

  “Let’s see if Ryan had any luck digging into all of the Caulfield’s financials,” Heather said. “And then let’s figure out where everyone was at the time.”

  “Good luck,” Leila said.

  “Let us know how it goes,” Eva said. “And we’ll start defrosting our turkey.”

  More Caulfield Questions

  “We’re getting closer,” Ryan said.

  “I think what you dug up on these four suspects financials is going to lead us to the killer,” Heather said.

  They were looking through the paperwork at Ryan's desk of the police station and were impressed by what they found.

  “It looks as if both Riley and Bonnie Caulfield were pressed for cash,” Amy said.

  “And Chris Caulfield just bought a house,” Heather said. “That’s a large investment to make.”

  “We haven’t found anything fishy about Jocelyn’s finances,” Peters said. “In fact, it does look like she’ll have less spending money after her husband’s death.”

  “That makes sense,” said Heather. “If she had kille
d her husband, I don’t know why she’d be the one trying to convince us it was murder and not an accident. It would have been much easier for her if we accepted it as a terrible accident.”

  “Unless you buy Bonnie’s theory that she wanted to throw one of the other heirs under the bus and get their share of the money,” said Amy.

  Ryan shook his head. “It looks like Jocelyn Caulfield’s inheritance is for a specific amount. It was calculated to take care of the house and her basic expenses for the next sixty years. Then the rest of the sizable wealth is divided up among the children. Her portion doesn't change unless something were to happen to all of the children."

  “So, we should focus on the three siblings with money problems and weak alibis,” Amy said.

  “Let’s make a hospital visit first,” said Heather.

  “How are you feeling today?” Heather asked Chris Caulfield as she and Amy entered his hospital room.

  “All right,” he said. “They think they’ll release me today so I’ll be home for Thanksgiving tomorrow. But I’m much less excited about the holiday than I was when I thought my whole family would be there. It won’t be the same without my dad. And then to think that somebody at the dinner table might have killed him? It won’t be any fun. Actually, I’m not feeling all right.”

  “We have a few questions we’d like to ask you,” Heather said.

  “Do you think that I could have committed this crime?” Chris asked. “I could have been killed myself.”

  “You could have,” Amy said. “But you weren’t. You’re going to be released tomorrow. That might have been your plan all along to divert suspicion.”

  “I ran in there to try and save my dad. I wouldn’t have run into fire just to make me look less suspicious. That’s crazy,” he said.

  “We want to ask you about a large purchase you made,” Heather said.

  “The house?” Chris asked.

  “Yes,” said Heather. “Why did you make that purchase now? And did it put you in financial strain? It was expensive.”

  “I purchased the house because I wanted to move closer to my dad and it’s just a street away. I bought it now because I was going to announce it at Christmas like a gift. I wanted to surprise him with my move, and I needed time to get the house ready. I guess now it doesn’t matter,” Chris said sadly.

  Heather thanked him for talking to them and then turned to her partner. It looked as if they had crossed one suspect off of their list.

  “I don’t know why you’re bothering me. You should be arresting Jocelyn,” Bonnie said with her hands on her hips.

  “Jocelyn had access to more money when Craig Caulfield was alive than she does after his death,” Heather pointed out.

  “So?” Bonnie said. “Maybe she just wanted the money all to herself and didn’t want to have to deal with him anymore.”

  “It looks as if you were having some money troubles of your own,” Heather commented.

  “No. I wasn’t,” Bonnie said. “Who said I was?”

  “A bookie named Barney,” Heather answered. “We noticed erratic amounts of money being withdrawn from your accounts. Detectives Shepherd and Peters figured out the connection between it and certain horse races.”

  “So?” Bonnie said. “I’m rich. I can gamble if I want.”

  “But were you willing to gamble on whether your father would shrink the size of your inheritance by giving more to charity?” Heather asked.

  “I think you should leave,” Bonnie said. “I don’t like these accusations. I loved my father. And unless you have some evidence that I did anything wrong, I don’t want you to bother me again.”

  “We know that you weren’t at breakfast with your wife and Kevin and Kaitlin,” Heather said to Riley, who was still puttering around his lavish hotel suite. “And yet you were the one who started that alibi.”

  “That’s right,” said Amy. “You were the first one to say that you were all together. And everyone else just backed you up.”

  “Your wife didn’t want to say where she really was and so she agreed to your story, and then she texted Kevin to have that couple say the same thing,” Heather said. “So why were you lying about where you were?”

  “Was it because you were sabotaging the turkey fryer to kill your dad?” Amy asked.

  “Absolutely not,” Riley said. “I also didn’t want to say where I was. Even though I wasn’t carrying on an affair with an in-law.”

  “You know about the affair?” Heather asked.

  “Of course, I knew,” Riley said. “Try as she might, Rachel isn’t the most subtle woman. And when the mail arrived from the wrong hotel, I knew where it would happen on this trip.”

  “How can you stay with her if you know this is going on?” Amy asked.

  “It’s complicated,” Riley said.

  “You don’t want to hurt your sister by revealing her husband is also involved?” Heather suggested.

  "That," Riley said. "And there's my daughter to consider."

  Heather nodded. “What we really want to know is where you were at the time of the sabotage.”

  “And why you lied,” said Amy.

  "I knew that Rachel and Kevin were together, and so I figured that they weren't involved in the murder. I thought it would be all right to include them in the alibi because we were all innocent."

  “You thought wrong,” said Amy. “We wasted a lot of time tracking down the inconsistencies in your story instead of finding real clues to catch the killer.”

  “Mr. Caulfield, where were you?” Heather asked.

  “Nobody in my family needs to know about this, do they?” he asked.

  “Not if it doesn’t relate to the murder,” Heather assured him.

  “If he having an affair too?” Amy asked.

  “No,” Riley said. “I was on the phone. In fact, I was here on the phone. And there’s probably phone records to prove it. But I was speaking to creditors and making excuses.”

  “You’re not as rich as you would like everyone to believe?” Heather asked.

  “Correct,” said Riley. “I suppose sometimes I show off to overcompensate. But I’m borrowing from one person to pay another.”

  "Robbing Peter to pay Paul?" Amy suggested. "But would you consider killing Peter too?"

  “I didn’t kill my father. I was here all morning on the phone,” Riley said. “I was just embarrassed about it. I didn’t want anyone to know that I wasn’t a success.”

  “Being considered a murderer is better?” asked Amy.

  “I thought the alibi we came up with would work,” Riley said. “And I just don’t want Rachel to know about our money problems. I was considering divorcing her after I found out about the affair. But I couldn’t get divorced when money was so tight. I was afraid that I wouldn’t get custody of Kiki if I was broke.”

  “Of course, now that your father is dead,” Heather said. “You don’t have these money problems anymore.”

  “Check the phone records,” Riley said.

  Traps

  Heather handed donuts out to her customers with less pep in her step that afternoon. It was busy because they would be closed the following day for Thanksgiving and people were eager to get their boxes of donuts while they could. Heather should have been pleased, but she was distracted from the interviews of the morning.

  She finally found her smile when Eva, Leila, Lilly, Nicolas, and Vincent entered Donut Delights. She brought some donuts over to their usual table and sat down with them.

  “How was the beach?” she asked.

  “It was so much fun,” Nicolas said.

  "We went swimming and flew a kite, and Mr. Vincent even let us bury him the sand," Lilly said.

  “Luckily, they unburied me too,” Vincent said.

  “So, tell me,” Heather said. “Have you figured out your Thanksgiving dinner plans yet?”

  “I probably will head over to the senior center,” Vincent said. “I wish I had some family that I could gather with, but I wasn’t b
lessed in that way. I’ll spend it with the walking club instead.”

  Eva set her jaw and said, “If you’d like to join us for dinner on Thanksgiving, you’d be welcome to join.”

  “I wasn’t expecting an invitation,” Vincent began.

  “If you don’t want to come, you don’t have to,” Eva said.

  “No,” Vincent said, quickly. “I want to come. I’d love to come.”

  “But just so you know, it is going to be a huge group there. It will the three usual houses of friends, and some coworkers, and children and animals,” Eva said.

  “If it’s these children, I couldn’t be more pleased,” Vincent said. “And I always love spending time with you.”

  “Lies,” Leila joked. “He just wants some of the turkey.”

  “Speaking of turkey,” Eva said. “How is your case going?”

  “Well,” Heather said, trying to sift through it in her mind. “There were so many suspects at first.”

  “A whole family of suspects,” Eva explained to Vincent.

  “I think I did narrow it down to one,” Heather said. “I think I know who did it, but I don’t know what to do about it. There’s not a lot of evidence. In fact, it’s the lack of alibis and evidence that makes me think I know who the killer is.”

  “I’m lost,” Vincent said.

  “You’ll get used to it,” Eva said. “This is part of her process for solving a case.”

  "I wish there were some way to trick the killer into confessing, but I don’t see how,” Heather said. “Everyone knows that all the evidence was burned outside in the fire. We don’t know exactly what was in the fire. We were lucky that we were able to determine that the thermometer was sabotaged.”

  “If half the stories that these ladies told me about your cases are true, I’m sure you’ll figure this out,” Vincent said.

  "Thanks," Heather said. "If only there were some evidence that wasn't involved in the fire."

  Her cell phone rang, and she saw that it was Ryan calling. However, instead of answering, she stared at the phone.

  “Mom, is everything all right?” Lilly asked.