“I didn’t murder anyone, Bert. I’m telling you.”
His deep tone wasn’t convincing her. “Did you put that snake in there tonight? Were you trying to finish the job you started?”
“I didn’t do it, Bert. I’m promising you.”
“Then why are you even here?”
He shrugged. “I came to find Peter, not to kill him but to talk to him.”
Somehow, she doubted that. “To talk to him? About what?”
“About his womanizing.”
Bert blinked, completely shocked. “Excuse me? What do you mean?”
“His womanizing. He made a pass at my wife last week, tried to convince her to go to bed with him.”
Bert shook her head. “I’m not sure I can believe that.”
“Well, it’s the truth. He’s made passes at multiple women in the church, and I assume Talia was one of them. When she flat out turned him down, I’m sure he was the one who started spreading rumors about her.”
Bert tilted her head and looked him in the eye. “You’re serious?”
“Dead serious. Boka won’t even come to church anymore because of him.”
“Is that why you had a falling out, because he tried to seduce Boka?”
He hesitated, his stone expression growing angry. “Of course, it is.”
“And that’s why you tried to kill him? Twice?”
“I told you, I didn’t try to kill him at all.”
“Then how did the snake get out?”
Stepping forward and revealing himself completely from the shadows, he glanced back toward the office. “I’m betting tonight was all a setup to take any suspicion off himself. If someone attempted to kill him, the detective would stop looking his way.”
“You’re saying he’s the one who killed Talia?”
“Maybe he was afraid she was going to talk, tell everyone the truth about what he’d been doing.”
Bert didn’t find this to be a real threat. “Who would believe her, Kay? After all, she was new to the congregation, and Peter has been a staple here for years. Unless—” Then it hit her. A light turned on in her mind and all the pieces began to fall into place. She’d been so wrong this whole time.
“What?”
“Unless she had proof that he’d done this? Say, a tape recording of one of his advances.”
Kay cocked one eyebrow with intrigue. “You think that’s the case?”
“The night Talia died, I noticed she had a small tape, like you use in a micro recorder, in her hands. She slipped it into her pocket before going out and talking to Peter at his car.”
“Blackmail,” Kay agreed.
Bert’s mind was reeling with possibilities, but something still bothered her. “There is just one problem with that theory. Why would he put himself in the path of danger? Why risk getting bitten, not once, but twice?”
“Perhaps, because I was immune to the venom,” came a declaration from the dark hallway.
Bert and Kay whipped around to face Peter, who was standing there at the end of the hallway—a shorter, younger looking black mamba in his hands.
CHAPTER 15
* * *
The small snake wriggled and squirmed, but Peter held it tight, his hand on his head to keep it from biting.
“Of course. I’ve been such an idiot,” Kay sighed, shaking his head.
“Wait, what? Immune? How is that possible?” Bert proclaimed, still unable to believe that good wholesome Peter could be a murderer. Unfortunately, her view of him was becoming more and more tarnished by the second—what with him standing there with a very deadly looking snake in his hands.
“After I got bit in Africa, I had an extreme fear of the black mamba,” Kay admitted quietly. “I started doing significant research into ways to build up an immunity to the bite of a mamba. I realized, that by injecting non-lethal amounts into your bloodstream over a period of years, you could eventually become completely immune to any bite from one.” He paused, looking over at Peter. “I shared all those facts with Peter over the years.”
“Where did you get that second snake?” Bert asked, her voice nervous and shaking.
“I bred it, of course. I didn’t have total access all the time to the black mamba at the zoo, so I was forced to find a way to illegally purchase some eggs.”
“You’ve been raising black mambas? Where? At your home?”
“In my basement, as a matter-of-fact. At first, it was just a very strange hobby of mine. I was so fascinated by everything you taught me, from your stories, that I knew I had to have one of my own.”
“And your wife never knew about this?”
“When is the last time you saw my wife?” he smirked.
Bert realized, it had been some weeks since she’d seen the woman. She was always too busy or too sick.
“She found out what I’d been doing, cheating on her. I’d made a game out of it to see just how many women I could sleep with while still acting the part of a pure saint.”
Bert felt her heart racing at top speed. “Y-You killed your wife?”
“She went away on a little trip, a vacation to my basement, in fact,” he replied with a wicked smile. “In a pine box with one of my babies in it.”
“You, sadist. You buried your wife alive with a deadly snake?” Kay exclaimed.
“This is the same guy who released a full grown black mamba at an event for families and children,” Bert grunted, her stomach turning at the amount of lies and manipulation he’d presented for so long.
“I can’t decide which was more entertaining, her screams as I released the snake, or her screams while the dirt was being shoveled on top of her.”
Kay, stepped in front of Bert. “Go. Get out of here. I’m immune to the snake venom.”
“But are you immune to a baby bite? You know they don’t have any control over how much they release, right? They always pump their victim’s as full as they can go. Do you think your years of immunity can stand up to that?” Peter asked.
“You’re really going to try and kill us with the detective outside?”
“The detective? He’s long gone. He went to your house, in fact, Kay. I think he has a few more questions for you. If you don’t die from the bite, you’ll likely go to jail in my place. I think I can see to that.” His smile was so wide, it looked like his face might just split in half. His complete lack of regard for anyone else was disturbing. Even more disturbing was how he’d hidden his true self all this time. “When I realized you were pulling the detective aside tonight, away from where I could hear you, I wondered if you had some sort of information on me.”
“I didn’t.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. But I couldn’t take any chances.” He waved his pet in the air.
“What happened to that tape?” Bert asked.
“In the chaos last night, I easily took it from her pocket without her even noticing.” Slowly, he started walking toward them.
“What are you doing?” Bert exclaimed.
“Let’s just see how well you both do with a proper injection of venom, shall we?”
Suddenly, another figure moved out of the shadows. A familiar voice cried out as a metal folding chair was lifted in the air and came crashing down on Peter’s head. Like a rock, he dropped to the ground, the snake escaping his grasp.
“Run. Don’t let it bite you,” Carla screamed, dashing the opposite direction.
Kay didn’t listen. He leapt forward and grabbed a hold of the snake, letting it bite him once before finally getting a grip on its head. “Ladies, you better call animal control and that detective back right away.”
CHAPTER 16
* * *
“I’m just saying, I don’t need free pie. I’m fully capable of paying like any other customer.”
“You saved my life, Carla. How else am I going to repay you?” Bert asked, setting a steaming jack-o’-lantern pie in front of her. There was a bustle outside the shop window, thanks to it being late in the afternoon on October t
hirty-first.
A brisk wind carried dry leaves across the cobblestone streets all while shop owners and customers alike bustled back and forth. Freshly carved pumpkins were popping up all over the place, glowing with warm candlelight.
Carla had come over to help Bert set up for the evenings trick or treating event.
“I just happened to come in at the right time, that’s all,” Carla commented, picking up the fork that Bert had given her.
“How did you come to be back there?”
She shrugged. “The detective left and I said I was going to wait around in my car for you to come back out. Peter told me he was leaving. I watched him drive off down the road, but realized he hadn’t actually left because I saw his headlights come to a stop on the next street over. He’d just parked in the neighborhood.”
“You noticed that? You must be very astute.”
“I probably never would have seen if the streetlights weren’t all off from the power outage. When I saw a shadow of someone walking back, I thought it must be Peter. I decided to follow along and see what he was doing back at the church again.”
“Lucky for me, you have an attention for detail.”
“When I realized exactly what he was confessing too, I did the first thing that came to mind. I grabbed the nearest object and whacked him with it.”
“And, you happen to have quite the arm, it seems,” Bert complimented, unable to hold back the laughter as she remembered the way Carla had clobbered Peter with the folding chair.
“Hey, he stayed down, didn’t he?”
“He sure did,” Bert smirked, sipping from her fresh cup of coffee. She had added a few shakes of pumpkin spice, the same blend she used for the jack-o’-lantern pies, to help put her in the Halloween mood for that evening.
Carla shook her head as she stared off at the far wall.
“What is it?”
“You know? I just still have a hard time believing it was Peter who caused all these problems. Peter was always the perfect man, volunteering and taking care of business.”
Bert sighed. “To think, it was all a coverup for who he really was underneath.”
“I heard the cops searched his house.”
Bert nodded. “They did. They found a whole little farm of snakes in his basement. He was breeding them after he bought the initial set of eggs.”
Carla visibly shuddered. “Ew. So creepy.”
“And they dug up the floor too. Found his wife.”
“Poor Heidi. I can’t believe it.”
“Heck, I’m not even sure she knew about her husband’s secrets until it was too late. He was a very good actor.”
“It just goes to show you. Psychos can be hiding anywhere,” Carla declared.
“I’m just grateful that Kay is safe, too. I mean, that snake bit him pretty good.”
“I guess it was true. His immunity held out.”
“That’s right,” Bert nodded, removing a hot tray from the oven. The third that evening.
“What are these?” Carla asked, pointing at the cardboard box sitting next to her on the table along with the trays of mini-pies, all ready to be handed out.
“It’s children’s books. Little easy readers all about Halloween. I thought some kids, or even their parents, might prefer to have a book over candy or a pie.”
“Brilliant. You think of everything,” Carla praised, scooping another bite into her mouth.
Bert glanced through the window and spotted a few little ghouls and goblins walking about. “Looks like it’s almost time to start. We better get the table set up out there.”
Eating the final bite of her pie, Carla stood up. “On it.”
“Trick or Treat, baby,” Bert laughed.
Killer Halloween Pie (Pies and Pages Cozy Mysteries Book 3) Page 7