The Blackmail Flour Trail: A Culinary Cozy Mystery (Slice of Paradise Cozy Mysteries Book 3)

by Nancy McGovern

  “Yes, you are,” Faith said. “You are, you are, you are. You might even get the death penalty. And Chad, too. How do you feel about that, Tamalynn?”

  “Stop this!” Chad bellowed. He lowered Tamalynn to her seat, then leapt up onto the stage and toward Faith.

  He swiped the microphone from her hand, and Faith let him, which he seemed surprised at. In fact, he’d put so much energy into the defensive move he’d expected to have to make that he almost toppled over.

  Once he’d righted himself, he stood in the middle of the stage with the mic in his hand, looking bewildered. After a second of silence, he brought it up to speak. “I don’t know what this all is, or what this woman is doing. But I have to clear my wife’s name. I have to clear my name. Neither Tamalynn or I have anything to do with any death. We’re just people who enjoy baking, that’s all. Why would we want to kill people?”

  Faith felt the most horrible sinking feeling in her gut.

  She swallowed, knowing she had to carry on, but now terrified, not knowing whether she was making a dreadful mistake or not. Then she stepped forward. “If that’s true, how do you explain this?” She whipped out the little bag with the fake nails and polish in, and watched Tamalynn closely. Tamalynn gasped, her eyes wide.

  Chad’s brow creased. “What is that?”

  “Don’t pretend,” Faith said, butterflies doing a chaos dance in her stomach. “You know exactly what it is. Fake nails, and Polynesian Sea nail polish. Found in your luggage.”

  Marigold gasped.

  Chad’s mouth opened, then closed again, then opened, then closed again. “I… I don’t know how that got in there.”

  Faith gave a grimace. “That’s what they all say.”

  “Someone needs to get the Deputy Sheriff up here,” Grandma Bessie said. “Oh, and the cakes are going to burn!”

  She rushed to the oven and took out the Slice of Paradise creations. Nico realized what was going on and followed suit.

  Laura was on the phone to the Deputy within seconds. The contest was being manned by security guards instead of local authorities, so they didn’t have anyone on site.

  “Seriously,” Chad said, coming close to Faith, desperation in his eyes. “I don’t know what that is, or how it got in there. I swear.”

  Faith’s heart felt like it was going to burst. “I know,” she whispered to him. “I know.”

  Chad looked even more confused. “I don’t… what?”

  “Just wait,” Faith said. “Please.”

  “Stop attacking my wife,” he said. “Why are you doing this?”

  Faith hated what she had to do, but she grabbed the microphone from Chad’s hand and ran to the other side of the stage, close to Grandma Bessie but not near enough for her to try and wrestle the mic out of her hand.

  “Tamalynn, give it up,” Faith said. “Confess. Or are you going to try and pin it all on your husband? You know that won’t work, right?”

  Then, in that moment, Faith got the confirmation she’d been waiting for. Tamalynn’s eyes didn’t flick over to her husband in that deep moment of anguish. They flicked over to Nico.

  Faith seized her moment. “Tamalynn, I know this is hard for you right now. It should be, considering you were complicit in two murders. Being found out isn’t fun. But that’s not the only reason you’re hurting right now, is it?”

  Tamalynn looked up, her eyes wide with fear.

  Faith knew she was right. “You’re hurting because you’ve been betrayed.” Faith spun around. “Isn’t that right, Nico?”

  Faith saw the quickest flash of terror pass through Nico’s eyes. Within a split second, he was nonchalant. Faith knew then just how deep his dysfunction went. He found it so easy to hide who he really was, what he really felt. He must have been terrified, like a mouse chased into a corner by a huge cat. But he laughed. “What?” he said.

  “Sorry, everyone,” Faith said. “Chad is actually innocent.” She looked over at him and said, “Sorry. I’m really sorry, Chad. I had to do that.”

  “And Tamlynn,” he shouted. “Tamalynn’s innocent, too.”

  Faith’s heart was heavy in her chest. She turned off the microphone, and came over to him. He made a jerky step back, like she was the devil incarnate, but she had to continue. “I’m afraid not, Chad. To be honest, your wife’s been fooling you. She’s been having an affair with Nico. I’m not sure for how long, but at least since last year. You know that move you made to New York? Who else lives in New York?” Her eyes tracked over to Nico. “Your wife’s been going to the gym a lot? Who has a personal gym at home?” She’d found that out from Nico’s blog, where he bragged in the ‘About Page’ about his amazing NYC penthouse apartment with private gym and huge sparkling kitchen.

  “No,” Chad said, shaking his head. “You’re wrong. No.”

  “I’m so sorry,” said Faith.

  Just then, Nico marched up to them. Faith hurriedly switched the microphone back on.

  “You’re slandering my name!” Nico said. “I’ll sue you!”

  “You’ve got some nerve,” Faith replied. “You and Tamalynn worked together to kill Wilhelmina and Karen. And you framed Chad. And now you’re just marching up to me, telling me you’re going to sue me?”

  “Prove it!” Nico hollered in her face.

  Faith took a smart step back, and smiled right at him, which she could tell infuriated him. “I’d be glad to,” she said.

  Deputy Valdez came sprinting up onto the stage, his hand on his gun. He pointed it at Chad. “Sir, you are under arrest for the murders of—”

  “No!” Faith shouted. “It’s not him!”

  The deputy didn’t waver his aim an inch. “What?”

  “It’s Nico!” Laura hollered at him. “And Tamalynn!... I think?!”

  Faith knew she had to explain. “Nico and Tamalynn have been having an affair. I don’t know if it was just… physically… or otherwise.”

  “It wasn’t!” Tamalynn shot to her feet. “I was in love with you, Nico! And yet you’re willing to let me go to jail, and say nothing?”

  Faith sighed. Her plan had worked so well. She knew Nico wouldn’t say anything, the horrible, pathetic user that he was. And she knew that Tamalynn was so emotional and needy she wouldn’t be able to keep quiet about it.

  Nico’s eyes narrowed. “This woman is crazy,” he said, flicking his hand in Tamalynn’s direction.

  Tamalynn positively wailed. “How can you say that? You said you loved me. That we would be together forever.”

  “She’s nuts. She’s making all this up,” Nico said.

  But Deputy Valdez was already frowning, and had the gun set on him. But then he changed his mind and went back to Chad. Then he totally lost the plot, flicking between Tamalynn, Chad, Nico, Faith herself, and even Grandma Bessie.

  “Give it up, Nico,” Faith said. “You killed Wilhelmina with the apple corer Tamalynn took from her husband. Then you dropped it at the scene of the crime to make it look like he did it. Only because Deputy Valdez was so stubborn and wouldn’t tell me what it was meant Chad didn’t get suspected right away.”

  “This is crazy,” Nico said to Deputy Valdez. “You need to lock her up. Why in the heck would I kill Wilhelmina Roby?”

  “To get in the final, of course!” Faith said. “Tamalynn told you the aggregated scores, and you knew that if she was out the way, you would get through, not the Baking Babes. So you killed her.”

  “No, I didn’t!” Nico cried. “Why would Tamalynn tell me that? Why would she give me something her husband owned? None of this makes sense. Tamalynn’s come to my gym once or twice, but she’s a friend, that’s all.”

  “I hate you!” Tamalynn screamed. She was certainly one for hysterics, and it really had helped Faith’s case.

  “Then Karen saw you two together,” Faith said. “That’s what she meant when she saw something. So you two knew you had to get her out of the way, too. Because Karen would latch onto that and spread it everywhere, to get her bel
oved Baking Babes in the final. So you hatched a plan to kill her. But even worse, Tamalynn, you framed your husband. Again.”

  Faith couldn’t even bear to look at Chad’s face. She couldn’t imagine the devastation he must have been feeling right then.

  “I don’t know who came up with it, you or Tamalynn,” Faith said to Nico, “but it was a very clever idea. Tamalynn knew that Chad had bought Marigold a beauty set. I figured that must have been in town, so I went down to check. And yep, in the drug store, I found the Polynesian Sea gift set. And I asked the lady at the counter if they were popular. And she said actually, yes, two men had come in to buy it and she assumed it must have been for their girlfriends. But it wasn’t, in either case, actually.”

  “Lies,” Nico said.

  “Shut up,” Faith said, annoyed. “You went and bought it right after, and some fake nails, too. Marigold must have told Tamalynn and Chad that she’d change her nail color right away, or something.”

  “I did!” Marigold said, stunned.

  “So you painted the nails,” Faith said to him. “Or Tamalynn, whichever. And you left one at the scene of the strangling. That made it look like Marigold was responsible. But then, to cover your tracks one step further, Tamalynn put it in Chad’s luggage, just in case it was found.”

  “Oh, my God,” Chad said, and lost the strength in his legs. Faith was just close enough to catch him, and Marigold and Laura dashed forward to help. Nico just stood there, making some kind of signal to someone in the crowd.

  *****

  Chapter 20

  Faith helped Chad down into a chair, adrenaline pumping throughout her body.

  Then a shot rang out. Faith turned to see Deputy Valdez on the ground, clutching his leg. Just about everyone screamed, and people in the crowd started running in every which direction. Then a booted foot kicked his gun out of the way.

  Faith looked up to see who she had dubbed the Queen Teabag standing up behind Deputy Valdez, a gun in hand. She pointed it right at Marigold. “Give us the entire prize money, or I’ll shoot. I’ll need a check, right now. And if it bounces, I’ll hunt you down and kill you. And before I do that, I’ll ruin your reputation everywhere. Let’s call it blackmail, all right?”

  Deputy Valdez called into his radio, “Back up, back up! Ambulance! Officer down! I’ve been shot!”

  Marigold put her hands up, shaking. “Anything, anything, just please, don’t shoot.”

  Faith cast a worried glance at Laura and Grandma Bessie, but they were the furthest away from Queen Teabag, behind the baking station, and unlikely to get hurt. She herself was more in the thick of it.

  Nico laughed. “This is what you could call Plan B.”

  Tamalynn shouted, “Nico!”

  Queen Teabag snapped her head in Tamalynn’s direction. “Don’t think you’re special. Nico was just using you to arrange everything. I’m Nico’s girlfriend.”

  Tamalynn burst into renewed tears, flopping down at the judging table and burying her head in her arms.

  “So, come on, Marigold,” Queen Teabag said. “Where’s your checkbook?”

  “But why are you doing this?” Laura shouted out, very bravely. “Nico, I thought you had a six-figure blog. What’s $100,000?”

  “He exaggerated his figures,” Faith said. “I got an SEO guy on the case to find out the truth. He doesn’t even get that much traffic. He just has a core of these crazy followers.” Queen Teabag shot a daggered look in Faith’s direction, but Faith was feeling bolder than bold. “Yes, crazy followers, I said it. You people are crazy, willing to kill so many people for $100,000. I know that’s a lot of money, but no amount of money is ever worth killing for.”

  “Touching speech,” Nico growled. “You think you’re so clever, Faith. But actually, you got a lot of the facts wrong. I’ve been ‘with’ Tamalynn for three years now. She actually helped me to win last year and beat that Wilhelmina.”

  “Why?” Faith said. “Why do you want to win so bad that you would kill people? That doesn’t make sense to me.”

  Nico looked at her with cold eyes. “Don’t you have any ambition? You know, to succeed in life?”

  “This is succeeding in life?” Faith exploded. “What the heck is wrong with you?”

  She looked like she actually made Nico think for a second, but Queen Teabag said, “Marigold, I’m not seeing a checkbook!”

  Then she pointed the gun upward, and shot through the plastic temporary roofing that made up the stage area. The boom was followed by a sinister tearing sound as the plastic ripped open.

  Faith looked into Queen Teabag’s eyes and didn’t see any fear at all. She saw stone cold determination, and it shook her to her core. Faith hoped the backup would hurry up, but there were so many thousands of people hurrying through the exit of the park, Faith knew, that it might be impossible. It would be like a stampede. As she looked out over the park there were still people trying to get out.

  Suddenly it was difficult for Faith to catch a breath.

  But then, all hell broke loose.

  Nathan, out of nowhere, was up at the side of the stage, the long mango picker in his hand. Before anyone had registered him being there, he’d swung it right up against Queen Teabag’s head. Since it was from behind, she was caught by surprise, and the gun dropped to the floor.

  Nico stooped to pick it up, but when he did he met a huge clang across the face. Grandma Bessie held the frying pan up, looking pleased with herself as he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. She kicked the gun out of the way toward Nathan. “I always knew that boy had a bad attitude.” Then she peered down at his arms. “Nice tattoo art, though.”

  *****

  “Are you sure, Miss Bessie?” Nathan said. “Are you really sure? You can still change your mind. It’s not too late.”

  Faith could barely believe what Grandma Bessie had agreed to. She was going to buy the land and let Nathan work on his plan he’d told her about, but wanted to keep as a secret from everyone else until it was all unveiled. Faith’s mouth had clean dropped open when she’d first heard Grandma Bessie had agreed. But as she looked over at her grandmother, stoic and strong in the client’s chair in the lawyer’s office, she could see she’d thought it through and was determined.

  Grandma Bessie looked annoyed. “Stop bleating, boy, and hand me that paperwork to sign. I’m getting hungry and looking forward to our celebratory cakes.”

  Nathan, who had been looking through the papers, placed them on the mahogany desk. Grandma Bessie read through it all, and the office went so quiet that Faith could hear the clock ticking, and a car horn blaring far away somewhere.

  Eventually Grandma Bessie picked up a pen from the desk and signed on the dotted line.

  Everyone was beaming, and pretty soon Nathan couldn’t contain himself. He jumped up out of the seat and went, “Yes!”

  The lawyer flinched back in shock, then pushed his glasses up his nose and started laughing. That set Laura off giggling, then Faith laughed along, and even Grandma Bessie was smiling widely as she stood, hooking her purse over her shoulder.

  “I can’t believe it,” Nathan said, so happy it looked like he might cry. “Ah, Miss Bessie, thank you so much. Thank you, all of you. I swear I’m going to make you so proud.”

  Grandma Bessie gave him a side hug. Faith wondered if he knew how privileged he was – Grandma Bessie was certainly not a hugger. “The only thing I ask for is a nice wide path,” she said to him. “My knee’s going to be just fine and I’ll come hiking there with Arthur and Viola and the gang all the time.”

  “We’ve sorted the right of way with the other land owner,” the lawyer said. “So no problem there.”

  Nathan turned to him, his face bright with pleasure. “Nothing else to do, then?”

  The lawyer smiled and patted the paperwork on his desk. “All taken care of. Go enjoy it.”

  Nathan was so happy he hugged the lawyer, too. Faith smiled so much her cheeks hurt, and when they got out on the street, she li
nked her arm in with Nathan’s and they skipped down the street until they laughed at all the people staring at them like they’d lost their minds.

  “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” Faith said, hurrying to the van.

  They all bundled in, Nathan diving into the back, while Laura and Grandma Bessie rode alongside Faith as she drove.

  “I know I said some stuff before,” Laura said to Nathan as Faith started the engine. “But I’m really glad you got that land.”

  “It’s awesome! Thank you so much, all of you guys. Seriously. You didn’t have to do that. I swear I’m going to get it all paid back, twice over if I can. My next paycheck will be your first installment.”

  Grandma Bessie patted her bag. “Don’t you worry, my boy. I’ve got plenty left over from the contest money.”

  “Talking of which,” Faith sighed, “I sure hope Marigold’s all right.”

  Grandma Bessie nodded. “She will be. For all her faults, that Cynthia was a tough cookie going through what she went through, being a poor single mom and all. Marigold’s cut from the same cloth. She’ll do fine.”

  “I still don’t get that, though,” Laura said. “Why did Chad say that Cynthia had money when she didn’t?”

  “Oh! I forgot to tell you that!” Faith said. “Apparently Cynthia started saying all sorts of things that didn’t make sense towards the end. It’s common with Alzheimers. Marigold said that because Chad adored his aunt so much, he ended up believing in a whole lot of stuff she said.”

  “Oh,” Laura said.

  They were all silent for a moment.

  Grandma Bessie cleared her throat. It was clear she didn’t want to think about it. “Anyway, Nathan, I’ve got plenty of money left over. Some for Faith and Laura, some for the tearoom. Some for my operation, though Arthur’s insisting on paying. And some for Kenya, though he wants to pay for that, too.”

  Faith smiled. “So you and Arthur are really an item, huh, Grandma?”

  Grandma Bessie couldn’t keep a smile off her face and looked out the window. She put a scolding voice on, but Faith could hear the joy lurking underneath it. “Oh, Faith, don’t be so silly. He’s just a good friend. I don’t know why you young people always have to assume that friendship means more.”