“There hasn’t been a single customer all day,” said Dianna.
“I even tried to get some of my friends to come in when they took a break from the waves, but they refused,” said Jeff.
Kelsey took a step closer to her. “Did you have any luck at Atwater Realty?”
“I’m not sure,” Lydia admitted. “It seems like he had a motive, but I didn’t get a chance to find out about his alibi before the police wanted to talk to me again.”
“Again?” asked Dianna. “They must really be considering you a suspect.”
“I think most people in town are now,” said Jeff. “I couldn’t even get my friends to come in here with the offer of free candy.”
Tears began to fall from Kelsey’s eyes, and she began apologizing. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to cry. I just thought that we were making a difference when we were looking for the man in the suit. But now it doesn’t seem like it helped at all. That poor man is dead, my boss is going to be blamed, and it’s all so unfair.”
“Tell me about it,” Jeff said. “I’d hate to have to look for a new job.”
“I just can’t compute how someone can be alive and well one minute, and then someone comes along and murders him,” Kelsey said, having trouble stopping her tears. “It’s just awful.”
Lydia searched for a tissue and handed it to her employee.
“It is awful,” she agreed. “I had just spoken to him before it happened.”
Kelsey wiped her eyes. “If only he hadn’t eaten that taffy.”
“If only he hadn’t have come back for that lucky pen of his,” said Dianna.
“If only life weren’t as fleeting as a wave upon the ocean. Here for a brief time and then pulled back into the sea,” said Jeff, sounding very profound for a moment. The others all looked at him, and he shrugged. “Or something like that.”
Lydia rubbed Kelsey’s arm affectionately and then took out her keys. “We might as well close up. It doesn’t seem like we’re going to have any customers today.”
“Should we come in tomorrow?” asked Dianna.
“We were going to finish training,” Kelsey said.
“I’m going to talk to my brother again tonight,” Lydia said. “Why don’t I tell you if it’s worth coming in tomorrow afternoon after I speak to him?”
“Good idea,” said Jeff. “There’s no point in us all being here if it’s going to be dead. I mean, well, not dead like Mr. Holmes. But… you know what I mean.”
Lydia assured him that she did. She ushered her employees out and locked the door behind her. However, she made sure to taste-test one of the pineapple salt water taffy pieces that they had made. It was made precisely according to her specifications and tasted wonderful. She hoped customers might consider trying it someday.
15
Home, Sweets, Home
“I don’t think I’ve been here since Aunt Edie left on her trip,” Leo said, standing on the front porch.
“I think you’re right,” Lydia said. She decided not to mention that the dinner before Aunt Edie’s departure had been the last time that he had been cordial to her. After that, he had only ever spoken to her when he was discussing how she was progressing with selling the house or was accusing her of murder.
Instead, Lydia said. “Come inside. There’s someone I’m sure will be happy to see you.”
Leo walked inside and then was almost immediately greeted by an enthusiastic canine. Sunny wagged her tiny tail and then flopped onto her back so that her tummy was exposed. Leo knelt down and began rubbing the happy pup’s belly.
After a few moments, Leo asked, “Did you tell her about the murder?”
“Sunny?” asked Lydia confusedly.
“Aunt Edie,” Leo said, rolling his eyes as he continued to lavish attention on the dog.
“Oh. No, I didn’t tell her. I guess I could have. I do know how to contact her, but I guess I just didn’t want to ruin her travels. I know she’d worry.”
Leo nodded.
“So,” Lydia said, trying to figure out what to say when she wasn’t quite sure where they stood. “Would you like a piece of taffy? I made sugar cookie taffy yesterday, and I think I might still have some raspberry swirl in the kitchen. That was your favorite, wasn’t it?”
“No thanks.”
“Why?” Lydia put her hands on her hips. “It’s not poisoned, you know?”
Leo stood up much to Sunny’s chagrin, but he was able to look Lydia in the eyes.
“I know. And I didn’t mean anything by that. The truth is that the only thing I want right now is a cup of coffee. It’s been a long day.”
She smiled. “I understand that sentiment. It’s been the same for me. I’ll go make some coffee now and then I’ll get those papers you want.”
“Thanks.”
Lydia headed to the kitchen, ready to make some conciliatory coffee. She really hoped that she and her brother could make peace, and not just so he wouldn’t consider her his prime suspect. It had been difficult coping with the loss of her uncle and she thought it might be easier for both of them if they could deal with it together.
Lydia chewed on one of her sugar cookie taffies as the coffee brewed. She opened the cabinet and took out the mug that had been Leo’s favorite growing up and a second one for her.
However, then, Sunny walked into the room. She let out a little bark and tapped her paw on the floor.
“What is it, girl?”
Sunny looked over her shoulder, and Lydia frowned. Why wasn’t Sunny staying with Leo and getting more attention from him?
She started down the hall with her dog at her heels. She found Leo in her bedroom, digging through one of the cardboard boxes she had stacked there.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
Leo froze like he did when he was a kid and his hand had been caught in the cookie jar. However, he soon recovered.
“Well, you invited me inside. And some of my belongings are still in this family home, so I don’t need a warrant.”
Lydia felt as if she had been knocked over by a powerful wave. She was afraid her knees might give out under the storm of emotions she was suddenly feeling. She felt angry, hurt, and betrayed all at once. Her brother hadn’t come here trying to make peace.
“You’re checking to see if I hid cyanide here.”
He shrugged. “I’m doing my job.”
“You really think I might have killed him,” Lydia said as Sunny began to growl.
Leo looked down at Sunny, seeming confused by the change in her behavior. However, Lydia was grateful for the show of loyalty.
“I was surprised to see packed boxes,” he said instead of responding to anything else.
“I told you I was trying to sell the house,” Lydia said. “And based on your behavior, even before you started trying to arrest me, I didn’t expect any help packing up.”
Leo looked down at his feet, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“I think you should go.”
Her brother didn’t argue. He headed towards the door. Lydia grabbed the paperwork that she had gathered before he arrived and thrust it into his hands before he left. She made sure not to slam the door, but she did close it firmly and locked it.
Then, she headed over to her couch and flopped down onto it. She felt like crying out of frustration and despair. She took a few deep breaths to try and calm down.
Sunny tried to pull herself up on her couch but had trouble because of how Lydia was laying. Realizing this, Lydia sat up and helped the dog onto the couch. She was immediately rewarded with doggie kisses. Sunny must have realized how upset she was and was trying to cheer her owner up.
“Thanks, Sunny. You’re a good dog and a good friend. I just wish I knew how to fix this problem. I wish I knew who the real killer was so I could tell Leo to go after him instead.”
Sunny made a noise that sounded like she agreed with her.
“But I don’t know who did it. Maybe it’s Daniel Brine. Maybe it’
s Walt Atwater. Maybe it’s someone I haven’t even considered. All I know is that Leo thinks that I did it and I bet he wants nothing more than for me to sign a confession. Well, I’m not going to do that.”
Lydia got to her feet, thinking that she deserved another piece of taffy for all the hardship she faced. However, as she walked, she began thinking about signing confessions, and that turned to thoughts about Randall Holmes’s pen. Lydia stopped cold as a thought occurred to her. Suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together.
“Sunny,” Lydia said, turning to face her dog. “I think I know who might have done this.”
16
Realizations and Danger
“How did she know about the pen?” Lydia asked her dog.
Sunny tilted her head as Lydia looked for her copies of the local newspaper that had reported on Randall Holmes’s murder. She was pretty confident that she had memorized every negative word, but she had to be certain. Finding the articles confirmed what she thought. They were reliant on what the medical examiner had told the reporter about the body but didn’t give any extra facts from the police. There was no mention of why Randall Holmes was at the taffy shop that night.
Lydia thought back. She hadn’t mentioned the pen to her employees either. She had been discouraged when they had learned about the murder from the paper and hadn’t added extra facts. Later when they were discussing the suspects in the case, she had focused on who had access to the taffy. She was sure that she had only mentioned the lucky pen to the police and Trina.
However, when they were lamenting how sad the situation was, Dianna had brought up how unfortunate it was that Randall Holmes had come back for his lucky pen.
Once she started down this train of thought, Lydia realized something else. She knew that the killer needed to have access to the pineapple salt water taffy that she made that day. However, the reason why she thought her suspect list should only consist of Amber Allen, Daniel Brine, and Walt Atwater was because she thought all the other pieces of taffy were accounted for. However, part of this count was due to how many pieces Dianna had said were still in the trashcan. Later, Dianna had been the one to throw out these candies and destroy the evidence.
Lydia raced to the door to see if Leo was still there. He wasn’t in sight. She took out her cell phone to call him but then paused.
“It’s all circumstantial, isn’t it?”
She sat down next to Sunny who was still paying attention to her ideas. Lydia bit her lip as she considered it. Right now Dianna’s involvement in the murder was based on two things: something that Lydia had heard and some pieces of taffy that had already been gotten rid of. This wasn’t something that the police could base a case on. It wouldn’t be able to clear Lydia’s name.
Lydia picked up her phone again but made a different call first.
“Hello, Dianna?” she said. “Would you mind coming into work early tomorrow?”
Lydia tried not to fidget. It would have been a prime time to pull some taffy to work off some nervous energy, but what she needed to focus on was too important.
She needed to get Dianna to confess to her crimes and time it so Leo would overhear it. She wasn’t sure that she could get Dianna talking, but she hoped that presenting her with what she had learned would do the trick.
Thunder sounded outside, and Lydia shook her head. That had not been a good omen the last time she heard it. It also meant that there would be fewer witnesses outside in the rain.
Dianna entered the taffy shop, looking as calm as she did every other time.
“Is everything all right?” Dianna asked. “Should we wait for Jeff to begin training? Or did you want me to come in early so we could discuss something privately?”
“I actually thought that we could do a more thorough search for Randall Holmes’s pen this morning.”
“What’s that?”
“Randall Holmes’s lucky pen,” said Lydia. “The reason why he asked me to come back to the taffy shop that evening. I hadn’t found it. But you mentioned it yesterday. I thought we might find it together.”
“All right.” Dianna took set down her purse and began looking around the shop.
Lydia started searching too, but all the while kept an eye on Dianna. “I’ve been wondering where you heard about that lucky pen, and how you knew that’s what Randall Holmes was coming to get.”
Dianna’s spine stiffened, but then she smiled. “You must have mentioned it.”
“No,” Lydia said. “I didn’t.”
“Oh dear. Well, I suppose it’s my word against yours, isn’t it? I wondered what it was that made you ask me in early. I thought you might have figured out something. That was my one mistake in this matter, wasn’t it?”
Lydia stopped pretending to search and stared at Dianna. She was leaning on the counter, looking unconcerned. However, it sounded like she had almost admitted to murder.
“Not only that,” said Lydia. “I realized that you got rid of the taffy in the garbage because you wanted to hide how many there really were there.”
“You weren’t convinced by my model employee act?”
“For a while, I thought that you cared about the taffy shop.”
“Oh, but I do,” Dianna said showing her teeth. “I care very much very about the taffy shop. I just wanted to be the one to own it. Not you.”
“I guessed that’s what your motive was,” Lydia said, taking a subtle step towards the door. “Walt Atwater said that he knew people that wanted to buy this shop.”
“But you outbid me,” said Dianna. “And Randall Holmes let you because he also wanted to sell your house. Well, I couldn’t let you both get away with that. I decided I would find the right moment to kill him and frame you for the crime. It worked out even better when I was able to do it right in front of the taffy shop. I’d been tailing him after I got a piece of the taffy, waiting for the perfect moment. I saw him outside the locked shop and heard him call you. Well, then I only had to tell him that I had left something inside the shop too and offered him a piece of taffy while we were waiting.”
Lydia took another step towards the door as Dianna continued, “The rain kept people away so I could watch the effects of my work, which made it even more satisfying. There was a wrinkle in my plan when I found out your brother was a detective, but it sounds like that’s not going to save you. The best part is that by having the murder take place here, the property value is sure to go down. Many people will be turned off by the killing and won’t want the place. I’ll be sure to get it this time. And at a lower price.”
“I don’t think things are going to go according to your plan,” Lydia said. She finished the distance to the door and opened it wide. She called for her brother but got no reply.
Dianna began to laugh, and Lydia felt a sinking sensation in her stomach.
“Did you think I was an idiot?” Dianna asked. “Do you think I would have admitted this all to you if there was a chance it mattered?”
“It does matter,” Lydia said, trying to act as if everything was still going the way she planned. “The police are just outside.”
“No, they’re not. I intercepted your brother and told him that you ran off to talk to some realtor. He seemed more than willing to believe that you would have changed plans without telling him. He seems to think the worst of you, doesn’t he?” Dianna taunted. “And, of course, now I’ll just have to get rid of you before he comes back looking for you.”
Dianna went to reach for something in her purse, but Lydia didn’t waste any time. She picked up some of the pineapple taffy on display and threw it at Dianna. Then, she ran out the door as Dianna shielded her face.
Panic began to set in as Lydia looked around the empty boardwalk. The rain was coming down, and it was keeping the beachgoers away. The nearby shops had also elected not to open early on a rainy Monday morning. There was no one there to save her.
The moments she paused to examine her options were enough for Dianna to catch up wi
th her. Dianna wasted no time and rammed Lydia into the railing along the boardwalk. Lydia felt the wind knocked out of her and had difficulty fighting back as Dianna pushed her over the railing onto the beach.
Lydia was definitely dazed as she hit the sand, but she knew that she had to keep moving. She couldn’t let Dianna catch her. She needed to find a way to escape.
She got to her feet and began running. She would try and outpace Dianna until she came across someone who could help her. She felt like she was slipping on the wet sand, but she knew she couldn’t stop.
Pineapple and Poison Page 7