“Why would I have saved all the pies, for you to test if I was the one to poison them?”
“You’re very clever and knew it would put the majority of people off the scent. I, however, know a murderer when I see them, and there is no doubt in my mind you are a murderer, Miss Lennon.”
“I hate to say this to you, Detective Inspector, but your murderer detector’s faulty. I did nothing to Paul. I have no reason to do anything to Paul. You can believe what you want, but I know, and there’s no doubt in my mind about this, that someone else in the room murdered him. With or without you I will find out who it was.”
For a moment, he was silent, studying her. “I wish I could believe you weren’t going to frame some innocent for the terrible crime you’ve committed, but I think you are. I think you’re going to do something any murderer would do if they had the chance.”
***
Hannah was waiting for Mary Ann when she got back. “D.I. O’Connor dropped by here, asking to see you, and I told him you were still at the shop. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You did the right thing, Han. Lying to him would just make everything harder than it already is–and it’s not as though he doesn’t already believe I’m the person who killed Paul. Even the CSIs have told him to look for someone else, but he believes it was me, for whatever reason, and there’s nothing I can do to change his mind about that.” Mary Ann sighed. “He thinks I’m going to frame someone for the killing.”
“I don’t understand him.”
“Neither do I, but I’m not entirely surprised he’s focused on me. I had the best opportunity to poison the pie and anyone else doing it would have had to have made certain they weren’t seen. I’m not certain how that was possible.”
“Working out the why, for the moment, isn’t the important thing–it’s working out the who. We need to know who the murderer is.”
“We?” Mary Ann shook her head. “You aren’t getting involved in this. It’s far too dangerous. What happens if the murderer does decide the best thing he can do is murder me? I want to know you’re safe.”
“Yes, and I want to know you’re safe.” Hannah’s eyes met Mary Ann’s. “I can understand why you’d want to keep me out of this, but I’m your sister and I’m not going to let you go hunting for a murder by yourself. The whole time you’re doing this I’m going to be right by your side.”
“Hannah, you are the only person I trust to continue this investigation if something does happen to me. I need you to stay out of it all for as long as possible, otherwise we both might end up dead, and then who’s going to make sure our murderer is put in prison for both of the terrible things he’s done.”
“I wish you hadn’t used that argument against me.”
“What other argument could I have used?” Mary Ann smiled. “I love you. You are my only sister. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, if I have any other choice in the matter, and I know you’ll find the murderer if he hurts me.” The smile faded. Finding herself the next victim was one of her greatest fears, but she wasn’t going to let that get the better of her. “I’ll leave a couple of all the notes I made in my bedroom. That way you’ll know what I’ve done each day, so you’ll be able to start off where I left off.”
“Okay.” Hannah brushed a hand through her hair. “I’ll keep my distance, for now, but I’m not going to promise you I’ll stay out of it all if I think you’re in danger from someone. I will step in then.”
“The best thing you can do then is call D. I. O’Connor.”
***
Mary Ann went through the list of guests invited to the party, and their plus ones. Hannah had chosen not to bring anyone, which wasn’t a surprise. Ever since her last relationship had fallen apart,she’d been different, but that wasn’t something Mary Ann was going to focus on because she needed to put her own life back together first. Then she could start working on Hannah’s. Darren was there with his sister Jessica, and they were both on the wrong side of the table. Mary Ann was certain whoever had managed to slip the poison into the pie was on the same side of the table as Paul. Was anyone walking around at the time? She sighed. She’d been so focused on what she was doing she hadn’t paid enough attention to the people around her, but then she hadn’t expected someone to be murdered right in front of her.
A tear trickled down her cheek. Paul was dead. She was the main suspect. When she woke there was a chance her dreams would all fall apart, because someone had used her pie as a weapon and the D.I. in charge of her case was certain she was the one who’d done it. Mary Ann wiped it away as she wrote down the eleven guests she thought it was most likely to have been. Cassie. Paul was her friend, and it seemed like she was truly hurting, but could that all be an act? Lisa and Thomas, a couple who’d been invited together. Both of them had been friends with Mary Ann for a while, although she was closer to Lisa than she was to Thomas. From the waythey’d been acting it didn’t seem like either of them knew Paul. There was a chance one of them did and was doing their best to hide it. Gregory. He was alone, the way he normally was, and she was certain he didn’t know Paul. Probably not the murderer, but still someone she needed to talk to. Rebecca, Kelly, and Luke, who’d all been invited and chose not to bring plus ones when it was obvious they’d be spending all the time together. All of them knew Paul. She definitely needed to talk to them, probably sooner rather than later, because if anyone would know who the murderer might be it was one of the three of them.
Talking to Cassie again would be useful as well. Mary Ann underlined that. Maybe there was something new for them to talk about, something Cassie had thought of it the time since the murder, something that might point at who the murderer was. Julie had introduced Mary Ann to her plus one, a new boyfriend named Marco, who’d seemed far shyer than Mary Ann expected. Normally Julie went for the larger than life characters, but it had seemed like the two of them were really close. Neither of them seemed like the type to murder, neither of them seemed to know Paul, and yet both of them were still suspects. Until she’d spoken to people, there was no chance of her being able to scribble any names off her list. Then, the last two people on her list, were Ben and Violet, two of Mary Ann’s oldest friends, and she hated the thought of it being them. She didn’t think it was possible. She didn’t want it to be possible. As she thought back to what had happened, she didn’t think either of them knew Paul, so it seemed unlikely they had anything to do with the murder.
Looking down at the list made it obvious how much work Mary Ann would have to do in order to find the murderer, around spending time at the shop, because there was no chance of her being able to stop working in order to spend all her time searching for a murderer. Unlike D. I. O’Connor, who was being paid to do a job he wasn’t actually going to do, because he was too certain she was the murderer… for no reason whatsoever. That was the most difficult thing of all. Why did he believe she was a murderer? It didn’t make sense. She’d never been in trouble with the law before. She’d never met him before, and that she was certain of. Sighing, she put her list down, making the decision to work on it in the morning, having had more than enough of thinking about a man who should have been thinking of all the possibilities. Focusing on one suspect was a stupid thing to do.
Chapter 4
Hannah put the paper on the counter and looked over at where Mary Ann was. “Paul’s murder is on the front page.”
Mary Ann nodded. “That’s to be expected.” She turned her attention back to her pastry. “How bad is it?”
“The journalists, fortunately, haven’t mentioned D. I. O’Connor’s obsession with you. It seems like there won’t be any major problems for the shop, apart from the fact people are going to know someone was murdered here.”
“I can deal with that.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Mary Ann smiled. “People are going to ask me questions about what happened and I’ll do my best to tell them as much of the truth as I can. I know there ar
e things I can’t tell them, and things I shouldn’t tell them, so I’ll be very careful of what I do and don’t say. I’m not going to do anything stupid, Han. I’m also not going to let this affect my work too much. I need to make this work.”
“I know you do. I saw your list.”
“Writing that wasn’t easy. Knowing those people makes it all so much harder, because one of them, and I don’t believe it was Marco, used me.”
“Marco did seem a little too quiet, but there’s no way of knowing for certain what he’s capable of. He could just have been acting last night.”
“Anything’s possible… unfortunately.” Mary Ann studied her pastry. “Everyone else on that list I know. I think of them as friends. I don’t understand how anyone I called a friend could have done that to me.” She sighed. “They did, though, and that’s why I need to find out the whole truth. I need to do it as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the media might start thinking I did it, and if the media think I did it then we’re going to have problems.”
“Let me know if you need anything, okay?”
“I promise.”
“I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll see you tonight. If there’s anything you need to talk about I’ll have some time to go over things.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
The bell rang as Hannah left the shop. Mary Ann thought about going over to lock the door, so people couldn’t walk in, but the sign was normally enough. It didn’t matter too much if anyone did. All they’d see was her making pastry in the kitchen, the way she always did first thing in the morning. The fillings could be made in advance. Pastry, as far as she was concerned, had to be made on the day, or the day before, because otherwise it wasn’t as good as it could be. The puff pastry was donefirst when her hands were still cold, and then she moved on to the shortcrust. She was still alive to do that and she was going to make the most of every moment, no matter how boring it might have seemed to anyone else.
***
3pm was normally the point when Mary Ann got to eat something and she’d just sat down with her sandwich when the bell for the door rang. Sighing, she put it down, wiping her hands on her apron as she made her way back into the shop. For a moment, she studied the man in front of her, certain he wasn’t there to buy a pie. “You’re Mary Ann Lennon, right?”
“That depends on who’s asking.”
“You don’t have to be afraid of me. I’m not going to write anything about you don’t want me to.”
Mary Ann laughed. “I don’t care how believable you think that line is–it’s not going to work on me.” Their eyes met. “I’m not talking to you.”
“Why not? Don’t you want to get your side of the story across?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Even when D. I. O’Connor is going around saying he believes you’re the murderer?”
“He can say what he likes. It’s not going to change the facts. I had nothing to do with Paul’s murder.”
“He says otherwise. He says you look like a murderer.” The journalist looked her over. “You don’t look much like a murderer to me, but then I’m not a D. I. There has to be a reason he has the job he does.”
“Unfortunately that doesn’t mean he’s right all the time, and he wasn’t right this time.” Mary Ann ran her tongue over her dry lips. “Now, if you aren’t here to buy a pie, I really am going to have to ask you to leave. I have things to get done before the evening rush.”
“Like eat the sandwich I dragged you away from.”
“Yes, and make some new pies to replace the ones that have sold out.”
“Do you make them here?”
“Of course I do.” She shook her head. “Where else would I make them?”
“I assumed you got them shipped in.”
“For a start I don’t have the money to be able to do something like that and even if I did, I wouldn’t. This is a homemade pie shop. Everything here is made from scratch. I can show you if you’d like me to.”
Saying that was one of the most stupid things she’d ever done. He nodded, smiling. “I’d like that. I’d like to get to know the woman my brother is so determined is a murderer when he doesn’t have any evidence.”
“D. I. O’Connor’s your brother?”
The journalist held his hand out. “I’m Robert O’Connor. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lennon.”
As she took is she wondered if he was there for his brother. “I wish I could say the same, but right now I don’t believe I can.” She took a step towards the kitchen. “If you’d like to come this way I’ll show you my kitchen. That’s where I make my pies.”
Nodding, he stepped around the counter. “You sell both sweet and savoury pies.”
“The sweet are where I started, but I knew I’d be able to make a better income from the shop if I made both. A lot of the office workers stop off here to pick up something to eat, either early in the morning or at lunchtime. I don’t normally get to stop until around now, which is when I have a couple of hours to work on making more pies before the evening rush, which is when I sell the sweetest pies. They also sell well on Saturdays.”
“You work here six days a week?”
“I can’t afford to hire anyone, so I do what needs to be done. From the beginning I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.”
“A murder probably didn’t help matters, did it?”
“So far it doesn’t seem to have been much of a problem, but that, I believe, will change when it’s reported that the D.I. in charge of the case thinks I’m a murderer.” Breathing deeply she glanced at her sandwich. “What would you like me to show you first?”
“The fake back you created for the fridge.”
Mary Ann laughed. “I should have known. I can’t show you the actual one I used, but I can show you what I did if you really want to know.”
“I’m intrigued. You did it to hide your lemon meringue pie?”
“I had several guests who would have eaten the entire thing by themselves. The only thing I could think of doing was hiding it and I didn’t want it to become inedible in the time everyone was trying the other pies.”
“Hadn’t they already tried them?”
“Some had and some hadn’t. My pies are well thought of by my friends, but that doesn’t mean everyone I know eats them, although that would make things simpler. The party was for two reasons. Firstly I wanted people to try the pies, because some of the people invited had never tried them before, or had only tried a couple of flavours, and the second was to celebrate the end of my first week being open. I thought it would be an enjoyable evening. Unfortunately, it worked out otherwise.”
“Do you think someone at the party would have been able to get at your pie before you did?”
“It doesn’t matter if they did or not, Robert, because it had to have been that one slice that was poisoned. None of the others got ill. That leaves us with two explanations–I was the person who kill Paul or someone else managed to slip the poison in before he ate the pie.”
“Unless they used a slow acting poison.”
“Did they?”
“Alex hasn’t had the full tox screen through yet, so I don’t know what was used, but I don’t agree with him. I don’t think someone who would make their own pies is the sort of person to screw their own life up by committing murder.”
***
Cassie walked into the shop. She looked down at where the body had been and then at Mary Ann. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” Mary Ann smiled. “How are you?”
“Things could be a little easier to deal with. Seeing the report in the paper hurt. Paul, now, is a murder victim.” Cassie shook her head. “I don’t understand how this happened.”
“Neither do I, but I’m going to find out.”
“The D.I. came to talk to me again today. He kept asking me how well you knew Paul, and he wouldn’t accept it when I told him the night of the party was the first night the two of you m
et. For some reason he’s come to the conclusion you’re the one who killed Paul, even though you had no motive, and he thinks the two of you must have known each other for longer than I was willing to say. I wanted you to know because he’ll be talking to everyone else as well. There is a chance the murderer might try to lie about you.”
“I know. If he does, it won’t correlate with everyone else’s story, though, and by then I hope to have found the murderer.” Robert’s offer of help was unexpected. Mary Ann hadn’t accepted it, but he seemed to believe she wasn’t the sort of person who’d kill someone. “It’s just not that easy to do. Whoever did it was someone who knew me and chose to use me as a scapegoat.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. Paul was your friend.”
“So are you, and it’s obvious how much this is affecting you. If you need anything at all let me know.”
“Last night I was wondering if you’d noticed anything I hadn’t. I wasn’t focusing enough on what was going on around me to notice what was happening on your side of the table.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 49