Donuts And Dead (Sleepy Fox Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Tart, Cynthia

  “Perhaps she heard it from Genevieve,” said Lottie. “You know how muddled up she gets.”

  Lottie thought back to the morning before the wedding. Doris had been talking about a beautiful girl then, but Lottie hadn’t really been listening. She wracked her brains but couldn’t remember what Doris had actually said.

  A lot of what Doris said went in one ear and out the other. Lottie felt a stab of guilt. If she’d paid more attention to the sweet old lady, then maybe she wouldn’t have gone missing.

  The ringing of the doorbell brought her out of her broodings. When Abner made no move to get up, Olga bustled across the sitting room and headed out to answer it.

  Lottie listened as the door opened and grimaced when she recognised the terse male voice of their caller. She and Abner shared a look as Detective Gable stormed into the sitting room.

  “Miss. Foxglove, Mr. Kelley, recovered from your little adventure?” Gable asked gruffly.

  “We’re both on the mend,” Lottie said politely. “Would you like some coffee?”

  “We’re all out of éclairs though,” Abner said snatching up the last cream cake on the plate.

  “This isn’t a social call,” Gable snapped. “You better mind your sass Abner, I’ve still half a mind to charge you for breaking and entering, and with what I’ve found out today it might just extend to murder as well.”

  Lottie looked at him intently. “What do you mean? What have you found out?”

  Detective Gable smiled at her coldly. “What’s wrong, Lottie? Guilty conscience bothering you? Would it be better for us to discuss this down at the station house?”

  “Ignore him, Lottie,” Abner said. “I’ll call my lawyer if he tries taking you anywhere.”

  “Stow it you,” Gable said sharply, rounding on Abner. “You’re on very thin ice.”

  “Detective, what did you want to tell us?” Lottie asked, trying to bring things back to some kind of order. “Is it about the food poisoning?”

  The Detective nodded. “I just got the toxicology reports back today. Everything we tested came back fine, both yours and Miss. Merriot’s food.”

  Lottie sighed with relief. “Oh thank goodness,” she said. “You can’t know how much that’s a weight off my mind.”

  “Mine too,” said Olga. “I knew nothing you would make could have been the cause of the trouble. You’re too conscientious.”

  “Everything came back fine except one thing,” Detective Gable said, a cold smile spreading across his face.

  Lottie froze and a sick feeling stirred up in her stomach. “What thing?”

  “Your snowball donuts, or more correctly, the powdered sugar that were on them was tested and showed signs of a highly sophisticated poison which caused people to get sick.

  It was in incredibly small quantities, which is why the symptoms were not as aggravated in the people who ate them as they could have been, but the autopsy on Genevieve and Mercedes showed that they had far larger quantities of the poison in their system. Enough to kill them, in fact, swiftly and painfully.”

  “I said those donuts tasted weird,” said Abner unhelpfully. “Where on Earth did you get that sugar from, Lottie?”

  “Detective, what was the poison used?” Lottie asked, ignoring Abner.

  “That’s the question on everybody’s lips,” replied Gable grimly. “The lab team have never come across anything like it before. It’s synthetic and lethal in the right dosage. It’s real lucky not more people died.”

  “Detective, surely you don’t think Lottie would deliberately poison the wedding guests?” Olga asked, an incredulous expression written large on her face.

  “I’m making no assumptions,” Gable said, giving Lottie a scrutinizing look. “One thing that struck me as odd is that one of the ingredients used to make the poison is Digitalis purpurea.”

  Lottie frowned. “Foxglove?”

  “You’re aware of it,” Gable said. “Strange, isn’t it?”

  “Detective, why on Earth would Lottie poison her own donuts and use something that shares her surname?” Abner said testily. “I know she’s a bit weird, but she’s not a maniac or stupid.”

  “Thank you Abner,” Lottie said sourly. “That’s a great help.”

  “I admit it is pretty obvious,” Gable said. “But people who kill don’t always think straight, or are so arrogant they don’t think they’ll get caught. You might be surprised to learn that quite a few murderers think cops are too dumb to catch them.”

  “I can’t think why,” Abner said in a scathing tone.

  “Shut up, Abner,” Lottie said impatiently. She massaged her temples as she tried to figure all of this in her head. “This is just too incredible for words. I mean, what would my motive be for a start?”

  “You tell me, Lottie,” Gable replied. “Maybe you used the food poisoning to cover the fact that Mercedes was your target.”

  “Mercedes? Why?”

  The detective shrugged. “Jealously, perhaps. It seems to be common knowledge that you had a childhood crush on Mercedes’s husband to be, and on the Friday before the wedding you were heard in your coffee shop bemoaning the fact that you had never been able to attract Orlando’s attention. Perhaps that rejection has been festering all these years and you decided that you wanted revenge.”

  “What? Are you kidding me?” exclaimed Lottie. “Who told you that?”

  “I’m not at liberty to disclose my sources,” Gable replied smoothly.

  “I bet it was that Regina Taspenduffer,” Abner thundered. “I saw her stuffing her porcine face on strawberry and cream squares at the table next to us. She’s a notorious eavesdropper and gossip.”

  “As I say, I can’t reveal my sources,” the Detective said, “but I’m not taking the jealously angle too seriously. Whoever developed this poison possesses knowledge of toxicology that’s borderline genius, and neither you nor Mr. Kelley here strikes me as having that level of intelligence.”

  “How dare you!” Abner bellowed.

  “Shut up, Abner!” Lottie said in exasperation. “He’s telling us we’re too stupid to be considered suspects.”

  “Oh, well that’s all right then,” Abner replied, cooling down again instantly.

  Detective Gable gave them both an unimpressed look. “I’m glad that meets your approval, but you’re not off the hook yet. I have other lines of enquiry to follow and I suggest that neither of you leave town. Also, no more housebreaking unless you want to end up in jail.”

  With a start, Lottie suddenly remembered Tommy. “Detective, this poison, was it used to kill Tommy as well?”

  “I haven’t received the autopsy report back on Mr. Londen, but judging by the expression of agony on his face, I wouldn’t be surprised. Both Genevieve and Mercedes had the same look on their faces too.”

  Lottie’s heart clenched as she imagined poor Genevieve writhing in pain as she slipped into death. There was Betsy as well to consider. She’d been laid low and Lottie had no idea what she would do if she ever lost her friend.

  Whoever had done this was evil beyond words. They had to be caught and punished, but she had the bad feeling that Detective Gable was not the man for the job.

  “Thank you for coming and telling us all this,” Lottie said politely to the unfriendly policeman. “If there’s anything we can help with, just ask.”

  “Stay out of trouble,” Gable said flatly as he headed out of the room. He and Abner exchanged glares of mutual loathing. “Try not to poison anyone else either,” the Detective added. “Scratch that. Do poison someone then I can get this case off my desk. I’ll see myself out.”

  “What an unpleasant man,” Olga said when he had gone.

  “He’s actually growing on me,” Abner replied, “rather like an unpleasant mould.”

  “Forget him, we need to work out who would put poison on my donuts,” said Lottie. “Was it just an act of malice or outright murder?”

  “Maybe both, I’m not sure,” Abner said. “Who would gain fro
m Genevieve and Mercedes’s deaths?”

  “Well, Betsy told me Orlando wanted money off Genevieve and she refused him. With her gone, he stands to inherit everything,” replied Lottie.

  “Good point, but he’s just as dumb as us, so could he have developed this fancy poison Gable was going on about?” Abner countered. “Also, he’s always struck me as being too much of a drip to have the guts to kill someone.”

  “I don’t know,” Lottie said, thinking back to their encounter in the summer house. It felt like it was a million years ago now. “I found out he can be very vicious.”

  Abner and Olga looked at her curiously, and she quickly related what had happened between them when she’d gone out into the garden to get some fresh air and recover from her shock.

  “Little worm,” Olga said darkly. “I never liked him, even when he was a child. But why would he kill his own wife? They’d only just got married.”

  “Maybe he didn’t mean to,” Abner said. “Perhaps she had too much of that poison.”

  “She did eat a lot of those donuts,” Lottie agreed. “But surely Orlando would have taken precautions to make sure only Genevieve ingested enough to die, not his own bride to be.”

  “I don’t peg Orlando as doing it,” Abner said. “Perhaps we should focus on Jayne. She knows this would ruin you and maybe she didn’t mean to kill Genevieve and Mercedes. It could have just been an accident.”

  “That’s possible too,” Lottie said. “I wouldn’t put it past her, but could she have developed such a sophisticated poison? Or maybe she or Orlando hired someone to develop the toxin? Orlando could have offered a lot of money to anyone with those skills to help him.”

  “So what do we do? Have a look for evidence at Mayleaf?” Abner said. “Let’s go now while it’s quiet.”

  “Abner, that Detective warned you no more house breaking,” Olga warned.

  “What does he know?” Abner said dismissively. “We need to clear Lottie’s name and fast. What do you say Lottie? Do we start doing some sleuthing of our own or what?”

  “Not on Orlando,” Lottie said. “Not yet. He threatened to cause big trouble for me the last time we met, and he’s got the connections to do it. I want to be very careful when handling him.”

  Abner nodded. “Okay, then we’ll try Jayne. Let’s head over to her restaurant first, see if we can find out anything and then maybe go to her home.”

  “I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” exclaimed Olga. “You can’t go tearing off on your own investigation. You have to leave these things to the police.”

  “In other circumstances I would agree with you,” Lottie said sympathetically, “but three people are dead and Doris is still missing, and I’ve got a hunch they are all linked together. I just can’t sit here and do nothing.

  This poisoner could have killed Betsy or made her seriously ill as well, not to mention causing so much suffering to all those other wedding guests. They need to pay for what they’ve done and I’m going to do all I can to bring them to justice.”

  “And I’m going along for the cheap thrills,” Abner added. “Grab your jacket Lottie. Olga, you hold the fort. If we’re not back by tonight send in the marines.”

  “I can’t let you go!” Olga retorted. “I forbid it! You could be putting yourselves in serious danger. At the very least you’ll be giving Detective Gable an excuse to throw you in jail. Please, just stay here.

  “We might hear some news about Doris or she might be found safe and sound. For my sake stay here and stay out of trouble. You’ve already risked your lives once, don’t tempt fate.”

  Lottie nodded. “You’re right Olga,” she said. “We should not be tearing off. It’s too dangerous of course.”

  Olga gave a satisfied nod. “I knew you’d see it my way,” she said. “You were always a sensible child.”

  * * *

  “Is she asleep yet?” Lottie asked in a subdued voice a couple of hours later.

  “Out like a light,” chuckled Abner peering at Olga’s sleeping form. The older lady was sprawled out in the armchair, snoring gently. “A couple of glasses of Doris’s sherry can bring down a rhinoceros.”

  “I don’t feel good about it,” Lottie said as she slipped on her jacket. “I promised her we wouldn’t go off sleuthing on our own.”

  “We can’t just sit around and do nothing,” Abner countered. “You know that as well as I. Besides, we’ll be back before she wakes up.”

  “I hope so,” said Lottie. “I don’t want her to be disappointed in me.”

  “You’re not fifteen anymore,” grumbled Abner.

  “You can’t spend your life pleasing people. We need to clear your name. It’ll be all over town now that it was your donuts that caused the poisoning. You’ll be run out of business if we don’t catch the real culprit.”

  Lottie nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

  “Okay, but where?”

  “Jayne Merriot,” Lottie said firmly. They crept out of the hotel as quietly as possible, closing the door behind them and headed to the SUV. “I can’t figure out how the donuts got poisoned,” she said as they drove off. “I doubt they were tampered with when they were at the shop, so it must have been at the house when we were getting ready for the reception. Jayne would have had ample time to put the poison on them.”

  “Jayne and Orlando had ample time,” Abner reminded her. “Orlando more so, he’s staying there.”

  “We’ll try our luck with Jayne first,” Lottie said firmly. Despite how horrible he had treated her, Lottie couldn’t bring herself to think Orlando was a killer.

  Genevieve doted too much on Orlando to deny him anything, including money, so she still didn’t think he’d resort to murder. Jayne had more to gain if Lottie was ruined and sent to jail, and she wasn’t half as frightened of confronting Jayne either.

  An hour and a half later they were on the freeway heading into Scottfield. Jayne’s restaurant was a cosy little establishment just off the city centre.

  It gave out the same kind of vibe that Lottie strove to create in the Sleepy Fox, and that made Lottie think that was another black mark against Jayne. Not only did she hate competition she hated Lottie for trying to run the same kind of business as her.

  They parked up and headed toward the restaurant. “It’s closed,” Abner said. “Let’s take a look round back.”

  “Okay, but no more breaking and entering,” Lottie warned him. “There are CCTV cameras everywhere and we can’t afford to land up in jail.”

  “Don’t fuss so,” Abner said. “You’re like a fearful old woman.”

  Lottie ignored him and they headed round the rear of the building. The back gate was unlocked and they entered a wide backyard lined with crates. The back door into the restaurant was open and music was blaring out at high volume.

  Abner made a face. “I don’t care much for Jayne’s musical taste.”

  “It’s not Jayne,” Lottie said peering through the back door. “Look.”

  Standing by one of the work surfaces was one of the teenage members of staff Jayne had been lording over on the morning of the wedding. He was chopping vegetables and looked utterly miserable.

  “Well he’s a happy chappy,” drawled Abner.

  “Hello,” Lottie called out as they approached the back door. “It’s Craig isn’t it?” she added, suddenly remembering his name.

  “We’re closed,” Craig said without looking up from his work. “Come back later.”

  “We haven’t come to eat,” Lottie said as she and Abner entered the kitchen. “We wanted to talk.”

  “Jayne’s not here,” Craig replied bluntly, still not bothering to look at them. He paused in his chopping and let out a raspy cough. He didn’t bother to cover his mouth. “Go away.”

  “Actually, it wasn’t Jayne we wanted to see,” Lottie said, putting on the charm. “You were working the day of the wedding weren’t you? There’s been some crazy stuff going on what with the food poisoning a
nd the deaths.”

  Craig finally stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. “You’re the baking woman that poisoned everyone,” he said bluntly. “Jayne’s going sue you.”

  “Lottie didn’t poison anyone!” Abner snapped. “If anyone is responsible for all this mess it’s your evil witch of a boss!”

  Craig gave him a nonplussed look and shrugged. “Could be.”

  Lottie and Abner exchanged looks. “You know something, Craig?” Lottie asked carefully.

  “Could do,” Craig said unhelpfully.

  “If you know something you have to speak out,” Lottie insisted. “Three people are dead because of this. We have to find out the truth.”

  “Yeah, I heard Tommy was dead,” Craig said with about as much compassion as if he were discussing the weather. “I’m not surprised.”

  Lottie frowned. “Why? What do you know?”

  “I know lots of stuff lady,” Craig replied, “despite what Jayne thinks.”

  Lottie ground her teeth in frustration. “You care to share some of your vast knowledge, Craig?”

  “Might do,” replied Craig. “What’s it worth?”

  “Here, let me,” Abner huffed, bustling forward. He reached into his jacket pocket and took out his wallet. “How about fifty dollars?” he asked, taking out a couple of bills.

  “It’s a start,” Craig said, taking the money and shoving it into his pocket. “Shoot.”

  “Do you know if Jayne tampered with my donuts?” Lottie asked. “The police said they were the source of the food poisoning.”

  “Don’t think so,” Craig said, “but she did get an order to make a load of donuts for the reception, but they weren’t to have any powdered sugar on them. They were left plain.”

  Lottie frowned. “But I was responsible for all the baked goods. Genevieve wanted me specifically to prepare all that sort of food, while Jayne handled the rest.”

  “Don’t think it was the old woman who ordered the batch, but it was someone from the house. Jayne was talking to them on her phone lots and she was told to keep it secret,” Craig replied. “She got paid really well for it, she bragged about that, but we didn’t get a bonus, the stingy old crow.”