Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries)

by Lee Hollis

  Today he was wearing a tangerine jersey underneath his black sports coat. Hayley chalked it up to Martin just wanting everyone to know he was the president of the Kebo Valley Golf Club going on fifteen years now. A position that didn’t pay much, nor garner any real benefits outside of a free cocktail on the nineteenth hole. But Martin flaunted his title as if he were the CEO of Chevron.

  Ever since the divorce, Martin had dated a lot and Hayley knew it was mostly because of his bank account. His father had made some wise investments in the stock market when Martin was a boy, and when he died, Martin inherited a few million that he immediately began throwing around town to make himself look like a big shot. In reality, he hadn’t worked a day since he was in high school.

  Martin not only dated a lot post-divorce, he dated a lot during his marriage to Karen, which might explain the acrimonious alimony fight. He spent so much time with so many women the locals recently began referring to him as the “Jewish Tiger Woods.”

  Martin was clutching the sleeve of an attractive older woman in her forties sitting next to him, who Hayley recognized as a waitress from Jordan’s coffee shop on Cottage Street. Probably Martin’s latest paramour. At least for this month.

  Mona leaned in to Hayley. “Don’t see why Martin’s so upset. You should hear some of the names he’s called Karen when he’s drinking at your brother’s bar.”

  “She got half his fortune in the divorce,” Hayley said. “He knows he’s not getting a penny of it back in the will.”

  “He’s such a fake, crying his eyes out with snot running out of his nose like that. Why is he pretending to be so upset?” Mona said, craning her neck around to watch the spectacle. “Unless he’s trying to cover something up.”

  Liddy was busy fastening her grandmother’s dragonfly brooch to her lapel. “Everyone knows they loathed each other. All the local restaurants knew to seat them in separate rooms if they showed up to eat on the same night.”

  “Liddy, please,” Hayley said, ripping the brooch off her lapel and stuffing it back inside Liddy’s handbag. “Could you at least wait to wear this until after the funeral? I’m humiliated enough.”

  Liddy threw up her hands, surrendering, and then said in a whisper, “I’m not going to have my funeral here. Too small. I need a much bigger space. I mean, I’m sure I’ll draw one or two heads of state.”

  “How about friggin’ Westminster Abbey?” Mona asked, a bit too loudly and with a snort.

  “Shhhh,” Hayley warned, gesturing to Reverend Staples, who was eyeing all three of them with a stern glare.

  Liddy lowered her voice. “You know, I’m less surprised by who is here than who isn’t here.”

  “Her son, I know,” Hayley said solemnly.

  “The Unabomber?” Mona asked, shaking her head. “What a freak.”

  Karen’s only son was Bradley Applebaum, who was the polar opposite of both his parents. Martin and Karen enjoyed socializing and engaging in the community, but there was always something off about Bradley, even when he was a boy. He had a violent temper and was removed from his school for a semester after setting a girl’s hair on fire on purpose in chemistry. His IQ scores were through the roof, but he was never able to adapt socially.

  After high school, his father bought him a rundown cabin out in the woods on the other side of the island, hoping he wouldn’t have to see him much. Bradley, who was now in his mid-twenties, lived like a recluse, with no electricity or running water, and he occasionally would write letters to the Times passionately exhorting his radical antigovernment views. Really, the only person who didn’t think he was nuts was Hayley’s mother, who always had a soft spot for Bradley before she moved to Florida, which wasn’t much of a surprise given how close their political ideas were.

  Bradley had been in trouble with the law a few times. Mostly for hunting deer out of season with a nonregistered shotgun. He was just trying to store extra meat for the winter since he refused to shop at the grocery store out of fear the government was poisoning the food supply.

  Hayley knew Bradley’s conspicuous absence would certainly get tongues wagging. There was no love lost between Bradley and his mother. She was supremely embarrassed about how he had turned out, and he knew exactly how she felt. Whenever anyone asked Karen about her son, she would deflect the question, mumble something about him being fine, and then quickly change the subject.

  Hayley was curious to find out just what he thought about his mother’s murder.

  If she could find him.

  Hayley shifted in her seat wondering if the service was ever going to end, when Reverend Staples led the congregation in singing one last hymn before finally inviting everyone for tea and coffee in the church parlor prior to driving out to the cemetery for Karen’s burial.

  “About time. I think my butt fell asleep,” Mona groaned, standing up and rubbing the back of her jeans.

  “You’re using your outside voice, Mona,” Liddy sighed. “Everyone can hear you.”

  “Anybody want to grab something to eat? I’m starving,” Mona said.

  “No, I better get back to the office. I’ve been gone the whole morning,” Hayley said, suddenly distracted by something. “Wait for me. I just want to apologize again to Reverend Staples.”

  “Forget it, Hayley. Let’s just go,” Mona said.

  “I can’t let him think I tried to steal jewelry off a corpse,” Hayley said.

  “But you did try to steal jewelry off a corpse,” Mona said.

  “No, she didn’t. The brooch didn’t belong to Karen,” Liddy piped in.

  “I’ll just be a second,” Hayley said, pushing her way through the crowd that was trying to file out in an orderly fashion.

  Reverend Staples stepped down from the podium, and started to walk out through a side door to another room where the tea and coffee were to be served.

  “Excuse me, Reverend Staples?” Hayley waved her hand, trying to flag him down.

  But he either didn’t hear her or was trying to get away from her. Hayley couldn’t be sure. He didn’t stop.

  Hayley raced to catch up with him, and didn’t see a large flower arrangement blocking her way. She crashed right into it, toppling the whole thing over, sending spring carnations flying everywhere.

  This was just getting better and better.

  Oh well. At least she didn’t knock over the coffin.

  Hayley began frantically picking up the strewn flowers and stuffing them back into the arrangement that was done up in the shape of a heart. That’s when she noticed the card.

  It was unsigned. But the sentiment was clear. I will miss you forever. Today. Tomorrow. And always. With all my heart. Whoever wrote the card dotted all of his or her “i’s” with little hearts.

  Too cute.

  Hayley put the card back inside the plastic holder. She decided not to chase down Reverend Staples and embarrass herself any more.

  No, she would join Liddy and Mona for lunch after all. The office could wait. She was too curious to see if she and her two BFFs could figure out if Karen Applebaum had a secret lover nobody in town knew about, and who it might be.

  Chapter 15

  When Hayley finally got back to the office, a little tipsy from the two Manhattans she had with Mona and Liddy at lunch, there was a message from Lex Bansfield.

  Hayley debated whether or not she should call him back. Maybe he was going to tell her he had finally decided to sue her for plowing into him with her car. It might be better if she dodged him for as long as she could, or at least until she found herself a good lawyer.

  On the other hand, he didn’t seem all that put out when she last saw him at the hospital. In fact, he still seemed rather smitten with her. Smitten? Why did she think with words like that? It was as if she were trying to live in a Jane Austen novel.

  Hayley picked up the phone and started to return the call.

  And then she hung up.

  No, after what she had been through today at Karen Applebaum’s funeral, there w
as just no way she could possibly deal with whatever Lex Bansfield had to say.

  Hayley began checking her work e-mail, but her mind soon drifted. What if Lex was calling for a professional reason? What if he just wanted to sell his jeep and was simply calling to place an ad in the classified section? It would be wrong for her not to respond.

  Hayley picked up the phone again and started to return the call.

  And then she hung up again.

  Why was she so nervous? What was preventing her from just getting him on the line and finding out what it was he wanted? She began to feel foolish. This was ridiculous. Of course she should call him back. She had already turned him down for a date, so obviously he wasn’t calling to ask her out again. A man has his pride.

  No, Hayley’s gut was telling her there had to be another reason why he was calling her at the paper, and so finally, with no more hesitation, she picked up the phone and called him back.

  Lex picked up on the first ring.

  “Hi, Lex,” Hayley said, as casual as she could. “Hayley Powell at the Times. I see here you called me earlier.”

  “Yes,” Lex said. “Why did you refuse to go out on a date with me?”

  So much for her gut.

  “I ... I ... Well, when you asked me ... I was so flustered ... because, well, in case you forgot, I ran you down with my car.”

  “Oh, I remember. There’s no chance I’ll ever forget that fun little memory,” Lex said.

  “Again, I’m so sorry ...”

  “You already apologized more than enough times. I just find it mind-boggling that even after you sent me flying onto the hood of your car, and injured me enough that I needed multiple stitches, you still, even after all that, turned me down for a date.”

  “I ... I really didn’t think you would be this upset about it,” Hayley said.

  “I’m not upset. Do I sound upset?”

  “A little bit, yes.”

  “Well, I wasn’t at first. But the more I thought about it the more it ticked me off. And then it hit me. You owe me.”

  “I ... what?”

  “You owe me. You owe me at least one date after what you did.”

  “I really don’t think we should discuss this while I am at the office,” Hayley said.

  “Oh, yes we should. The boss gives me one fifteen-minute break a day when he’s in town and according to my watch, I’ve got five minutes left, so I need to wrap this up pretty quick. You going out with me or not?”

  “Can I think about it?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Hell, no! You hit me with your car! You should be scrambling to make it up to me! And if you’re too thick in the head to see that, then maybe I should sue you for damages in order to drive some sense into you!”

  Hayley was speechless. She had really gotten to this guy without even trying. She had no idea how to play this.

  Bruce wandered into the bull pen. “Hey, Hayley, you got any candy bars around? I got a hell of a craving for something sweet.”

  Hayley shook her head and then went back to her phone conversation. “Are you blackmailing me into going out with you?”

  “Yes. Is it working?” Lex said.

  “Who’s that? Who’s blackmailing you?” Bruce asked.

  Hayley covered the mouthpiece. “None of your business. I don’t have any candy. I’m sorry.”

  “Oh,” Bruce said, disappointed. “I’m out of cash. You have any money I can borrow so I can run across the street and buy some?”

  Hayley sighed. “In my purse. Now leave me alone.”

  Bruce picked up her bag and began rummaging through it.

  “Who are you talking to?” Lex said on the other end of the phone.

  “I’m sorry, but I am at the office and it’s kind of busy and now is not a really good time to have this conversation,” Hayley said.

  “Fine. Say yes and we can both hang up,” Lex said.

  “Yes. Okay. Fine. When?”

  “Tonight,” Lex said. “I already made reser va-tions at Havana.”

  “Tonight? Why so soon?”

  “Because if I give you any wiggle room, you’ll just come up with an excuse to get out of it. Man, I’ve never had to work this hard for one lousy date!”

  Hayley looked up to see Bruce drop her bag on the desk. He was holding something in his hand but she couldn’t see what it was.

  “Did you find any?” Hayley said.

  “Any what?” Lex asked on the other end of the line.

  “I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to Bruce,” Hayley said.

  Bruce’s face was ashen.

  “Hayley? Are you still there?” Lex asked.

  Hayley was now suddenly more concerned for Bruce. His face was pale and he looked as if he was about to pass out.

  Hayley went back to her phone conversation. “Yes. Tonight. Pick me up at seven o’clock. A simple dinner. I can’t stay out too late. It’s a school night.”

  “Understood,” Lex said. “Thank you. I’m exhausted from this conversation, you know that?”

  Hayley couldn’t help but smile. “See you tonight.”

  She hung up and looked at Bruce again. “What is it, Bruce? What’s wrong?”

  Bruce showed her a small glass vial with a colorless liquid in it. “What’s this?”

  “I don’t know. Where did you get it?”

  “Your purse.”

  “It’s not mine.”

  “I found it in the bottom of your bag.”

  “Well, it’s not mine, Bruce. I don’t know how it could’ve gotten in there.”

  Bruce examined the vial more closely and popped it open. “Has an almond odor. I’ve seen enough true detective shows to know this could be cyanide.”

  Hayley couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re out of your mind. I had an Almond Joy earlier. You’re probably smelling that.”

  “Do you mind if I keep this?”

  “Knock yourself out,” Hayley said. Her mind wasn’t really on Bruce’s big discovery. She was more concerned with what she was going to wear on her date with Lex that evening. And did she have enough time to get her hair done? If only there was someplace that offered walk-in liposuction. She would have to try and slip out early to get everything done.

  Bruce took the vial of liquid in the back and she heard him pick up the phone in his office and call someone. He talked very low and she couldn’t make out what he was saying or with whom he was talking.

  Hayley e-mailed Sal and asked if it would be all right for her to leave early, and once she got his okay, Hayley raced to finish up her work so she could get out of there.

  As Hayley drove over to the hair salon, she did stop to think about the mysterious vial Bruce had supposedly found in her bag. Where did it come from? What was it? But then she pulled into the driveway of the salon and that unpleasant thought was immediately replaced by her wondering if Jessica would have time to do her face while her hair was under the dryer.

  In retrospect, Hayley probably should have paid more attention to Bruce and the vial. Because she had no idea at the time that Bruce had called Police Chief Sergio Alvares at the station, and that Sergio picked up the vial, got in his car, and drove to Bangor to have the liquid tested. It turned out the substance in the vial was definitely cyanide.

  The same poison that had killed Karen Applebaum.

  And Hayley was also completely oblivious to the fact that Sergio then called two of his officers, Donnie and Earl, to drive over to Hayley’s house and place her under arrest for murder just as Lex Bansfield pulled into the driveway to pick her up for their first date.

  Well, looking on the bright side, it was one of those first dates neither party would soon forget.

  Chapter 16

  Hayley sat alone in the jail cell at the police station wondering how she had gotten to this point.

  A murder suspect?

  She had raised hell in high school, bought beer with a fake ID, bounced a check once at a local boutiq
ue when she needed some new lip gloss. But never in her thirty-five years had Hayley Powell ever come close to killing anyone.

  But now it seemed like the whole town, even the police, were convinced she had gotten her hands on some arsenic and added a few drops to Karen Applebaum’s homemade New England clam chowder. The recipe she apparently stole from Hayley.

  Hayley stood up and brushed the dust off the back of her dress. The cell rarely got used except by an occasional drunk or teenage vandal so cleaning it was usually an afterthought.

  Hayley walked over and grabbed ahold of the bars separating her from Donnie and Earl, who were eating sandwiches they had bought at a sub shop down the block.

  “Excuse me, guys, don’t I get to make a phone call?” Hayley asked.

  Donnie and Earl looked at each other, waiting for the other to speak first. When Earl took another bite of his sandwich, Donnie figured he should probably say something. “Uh, I don’t know. Do you?”

  “Yes, it’s the law, I think,” Hayley said, unsure whether this was actually true or not. “I mean, I see it done on TV all the time.”

  No one except Lex knew she was in jail. Her kids were home and upstairs, oblivious, doing their homework. Scratch that. They were probably chatting on Facebook or playing with the Xbox. But, in any event, they had no idea their mother had been arrested. They might get a little worried tomorrow morning when no one was there to scream at them to get out of bed and ready for school.

  “Can one of you give me my cell phone so I can let my kids know where I am,” Hayley said, trying not to cry.

  Donnie and Earl looked at each other again.

  “Think we should call the chief?” Donnie asked.

  “Yeah, see if it’s okay,” Earl said, nodding.

  Hayley stepped away from the bars and sat back down, putting her head in her hands. She could only imagine the gossip mill tomorrow when word spread about her arrest.