“Honestly, I wasn’t paying enough attention to know. I was talking to Paul, and putting some cream on my lemon meringue pie, when he dropped to the floor. To begin with I had no idea what had happened. I thought he was ill, or something, but he wasn’t–he was dead.” Cassie shuddered. “I still can’t get over the fact he was alive one minute and dead the next. D. I. O’ Connor said they don’t have the full tox screen in yet, so they don’t know exactly what killed him.”
“No, they don’t. I don’t even know if they’re certain it was in the pie.”
That was something Mary Ann should have thought to ask Robert. If anyone would know it was him. “I’m assuming it was in the pie, considering the direction the D. I. is taking his investigation in, which means it must have been a fast acting poison, rather than a slow one, so I need to work out what it was that might have killed him and how someone would have done what they did without any of us noticing.”
“We were too focused on enjoying ourselves to be watching out for something like that. No one could have expected it.”
Chapter 5
Mary Ann’s phone rang. She stared at the door of the apartment for a second, knowing she should go in to talk to Hannah, but she had a feeling she knew who it was. As she took it out of her pocket, she saw she was right. “You have the tox report?”
“Alex does, so it’s the same thing, really. I was told this in the strictest confidence, so I’m not meant to be telling anyone about this. You, however, deserve to know, because he’s planning on shutting down your shop so he can search it.”
“They already searched it and didn’t find anything. When they search it this time, they aren’t going to find anything.”
“Honestly, that’s not going to stop him. He believes you’re the one who killed Paul, even though I don’t understand why. Sometimes, unfortunately, my brother doesn’t accept the truth when it’s right in front of his face.”
“Cassie told me he was pushing her to say I knew Paul far better than I did.” Mary Ann looked at the door again and then decided the best thing she could do with her evening was talk to the people who did know Paul. “I’m not going to let him put me in prison for something I haven’t done.”
“Good.” Robert sounded like he was smiling. “That’s the right way to see things. Whoever it was used arsenic, which was what the coroner expected, but he wanted to be certain.”
“Nothing showed on the tox screen.”
“Exactly. Alex said you’d watched a lot of police procedurals, so you put the pies in the fridge in case they needed testing. That was quick thinking.”
“I had to do something. Someone had died in my shop and the only thing I could think of doing was focusing on something else. Has anything come back from the pies?”
“So far they’re all clear, but they still have the lemon meringue to test. Considering it was arsenic poisoning it had to be in that one slice.” Robert sighed. “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“Why do you want to help? Your brother is the D. I. who’s in charge of the investigation.”
“He’s also wrong. He can spend his time focusing on the wrong person all he likes. I want to find the person who killed Paul, the same way you do, so I think the best thing we can do is work together on this. You want to question people about what happened so you can find the killer, and with me by your side it will be easy enough to pretend you're helping me with my report–because you want to make certain I don’t write too much about the wrong things.”
***
As Mary Ann walked into the coffee shop she was meeting Rebecca, Kelly, and Luke in she wondered if she’d made the right decision when she told Robert she didn’t want his help. She was going to be asking her friends a lot of questions and they were going to know exactly what she was doing. Pushing away her worries she made her way over to the table. Kelly took her hand when she sat down, squeezing it gently, and her eyes met with Luke’s.
“You already know what I want.”
“The three of us have been friends with you for too long not to know, Mare.” Rebecca pushed one of the mugs closer to Mary Ann. “Plus we’ve all been visited by D. I. O’Connor, who wasn’t willing to listen to any of us when we told him you didn’t know Paul until the party, so it’s obvious what you were going to do about it.”
“What can you tell me about Paul?” Mary Ann sipped her coffee. “I need to know everything you do.”
“Paul was a good guy. I liked him, and I know both Kelly and Luke did. We had a lot in common. I met him through my brother when I was about 10. There was a time when I thought about dating him, but things never worked out, and now I wish they had because I loved him.” Rebecca blinked away tears. “I introduced both Luke and Kelly to him.”
“How come, if so many of my friends knew him, I didn’t?”
“I’ve thought about that, and it’s because you were never around at the same time. After high school Paul spent some time travelling. You went across the country for college, to get away from everything, and then when you came back, you seemed to be working all the time.”
Mary Ann laughed. “I was working all the time. College…” That wasn’t something she’d talked about to anyone, not even Hannah, even though she probably should have done. “I left after a year. I wasn’t an academic. I didn’t want to spend all my time learning. I stayed away because I met someone there, and for a long time I didn’t want to come back, but then it all fell apart and I knew where I wanted to be. Coming back home was one of the best choices I’d made. I didn’t have any money, though, and I wouldn’t rely on Hannah. She told me it would be fine, she’d be able to cover everything, but I wasn’t willing to let her. I don’t think she was happy about that. I think she wanted to look after me. She knew something had happened when I was away, something I wouldn’t talk to her about, and her urge was to protect me. When I wouldn’t let her it annoyed her.”
“You would have got on well with Paul. The two of you were very alike. He was incredibly self-sufficient as well.” Luke shrugged. “I don’t remember him having enemies. It seemed like everyone liked him and don’t know why anyone would kill him. You definitely wouldn’t have done it so I can understand why you suspect everyone who was close enough to poison his food.”
“Knowing the D.I. isn’t actually investigating the murder doesn’t help. He’s so certain I did it…”
“Having the best opportunity is one thing, but what reason do you have to murder a man you don’t know?”
“That’s why he’s trying to get someone to say I knew Paul better than I did. Nothing we say is going to change the way he thinks and there’s a chance he might find something planted at the shop if someone really does want me to take the fall for this.”
“Who’d want to?”
“I don’t know.” Mary Ann sighed. “Almost everyone at that party was a friend or family, and that means someone I care about is setting me up for murder.” She sipped her coffee. “I can’t believe anyone would be willing to do that, even if I have done something to them.”
“Find out who did it for me, Mare, and for Cassie. She cared about Paul as much as I did.” A tear trickled down Rebecca’s cheek. “Not having him in my life any longer is hard, although there have been times when I haven’t thought about it, and then I go to ring him, only to have to remind myself he’s not here anymore. I don’t know where he is.”
***
Robert was walking into the coffee shop as Mary Ann was walking out of it. He grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her into an alley. “You have problems.”
“What do you mean?”
“Alex went back to the shop.”
“He can’t have a warrant yet.”
“Unfortunately he doesn’t need one to search the bins outside the shop. He found something that might have contained arsenic and he’s sending it for tests. If it shows your prints, and there’s arsenic in it, that’s enough circumstantial evidence to get you arrested.”
“Gre
at.” Mary Ann brushed a hand through her hair. “What do you suggest I do?”
“Move faster. Don’t go back to the shop or your apartment for a couple of days.”
“Where, exactly, am I meant to sleep?”
“I have a sofa if you want it.”
“The rest of my friends also have sofas, but he’s going to expect me to be with them.” Mary Ann studied Robert. “I don’t understand you. Why are you doing everything you can to help me? Your brother is the man who’s trying to get arrested for a murder I didn’t commit.”
“Let’s just say I’m a better judge of character than he is. Being a D.I. has changed his life in ways he never expected it to and I know he suspects everyone, even when he shouldn’t. You were the easy target. Not having a motive doesn’t mean anything. He’ll try to find one, the way he has been, or he’ll try to make you confess to a murder you didn’t commit.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Sometimes he sees evil in the wrong places. For some reason, he’s come to the conclusion you’re evil, even though I can’t understand why, so the best thing you can do is find the real killed. Obviously that’s what you are doing and I shouldn’t be stating the obvious.”
“State the obvious all you like. At least you’re able to look at me and see a person, rather than looking at me and seeing a murderer.” Mary Ann got her phone out of her pocket. “If I’m going to be staying with you I’ll need some things. Hannah will be able to bring them to me.”
“Be careful. If he’s watching you…”
“A rucksack isn’t going to make him think I’m leaving town. I hope it won’t anyway.”
“It shouldn’t. Get her to put enough clothes in for a week. If it takes longer than that you’re more than welcome to use my washing machine, but if you’re anything like me that’ll be the last thing you want to do.”
Mary Ann smiled. “You’re right about that. Normally I’d go to a laundrette, which I won’t be able to do because your brother’s going to be looking for me.” Her smile faded. “I don’t understand how things got this bad. I…” She shook her head. “I don’t understand why he’s going after me.”
“Neither do I, and I wish I did, because if I did I might be able to get him to understand why he’s making the worst decision possible.” Robert sighed. “I’m sorry about this. I’m sorry he’s making your life so much harder than it needs to be.”
“You don’t need to apologise for your family. None of this is your fault.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I condone the choices he’s making. You deserve so much better than this. He should be treating you like a human being, instead of seeing you as a murderer straight away. I believe the phrase he should be using is innocent until proved guilty.”
“Has there been a time when he made a mistake? Is this something that might be taking him back to a past case?”
Robert stared at her. “Now I get it. There was a case, about ten years ago, when Alex first became a D.C. His D.I. was involved with a woman who was suspected of murdering her husband and the problem with that was the fact the D.I. kept that from everyone, while doing his best to prove the woman couldn’t possibly have done it, because of his feelings for her. I’ve seen a picture of her and she looked remarkably like you, so there is a chance he’s back then. I know he believed, from the beginning, she was the one who killed her husband, and no one would listen to him. His D. I. made certain of that.”
“Then I can understand why he’s doing the things he is now. It doesn’t make them right, or acceptable, but in his position I think I might be doing the same thing he is.”
Chapter 6
“Are you sure about this?”
Mary Ann couldn’t stop herself from laughing, even though it wasn’t the reaction she should have had, considering the circumstances. “Right now, Han, I’m not sure about anything. Robert’s kindly offered me a place to stay where D. I. O’Connor won’t be looking for me, so I’m going to take it. That might end up being a huge mistake. I won’t know until something goes wrong and when it does it will be too late.”
“Do you think whatever was found will have your fingerprints on?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. If they used something they took from the shop it will, so I have to be careful about this, because not having a motive, this time, isn’t good enough. He wants me to be arrested for this. He truly believes, for whatever reason, I’m the person who killed Paul.”
“I don’t understand how he could, but then I’ve known you my entire life. You aren’t the sort of person who could hurt someone, no matter what they did to you, although there is a chance that might change when you finally find out who it was.”
“One thing I’m certain of is that it wasn’t Rebecca or Cassie. Both of them are too badly affected by Paul’s death to have done it. Luke and Kelly, as much as I hate to say it, are still possibilities. I’ll know more when I talk to everyone else, which I’m going to do tomorrow. I think I’ll start with Greg. If anyone noticed anything, usually it would have been him.”
“Unless he was the one who killed Paul.”
Sighing, Mary Ann brushed a hand through her hair. “I hate this. I hate now knowing which one of the people I think of as friends were willing to use me as a scapegoat. This is something that should never have happened, and that doesn’t change anything. I’m still the person who has to deal with having someone ruin my life.”
“Whoever did it might not have thought about how all this was going to affect you.”
“I know, and that’s why I don’t want to hate them. Hopefully, my fingerprints won’t be on the container that held the arsenic and then we can go from there. Robert will let me know as soon as he knows.”
“Is D. I. O’Connor meant to be telling his brother all about the case?”
“Probably not, but I’m not going to complain. It means I have someone who can tell me what’s going on, which means I actually have a chance of finding the killer, instead of finding myself in a prison cell in the next couple of days.”
“Keep in touch. I want to know that you’re safe.”
“I will.” Mary Ann pulled Hannah into a hug. “I’ll be home soon, I promise.”
***
“You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.” Robert stepped into his apartment. “Telling Hannah you’ll be home soon could have been a mistake.”
“It’s not. I’m going to find the true killer before your brother can arrest me. The people involved in this are my friends, so if anyone knows the truth, they’re going to tell me.”
“Can you be certain of that?” He studied her as she put her rucksack down on his sofa. “How do you know their priority isn’t someone else?”
For a second Mary Ann wanted to say she could be certain, but she couldn’t. “That’s possible. I know it is, but I want to believe none of my friends would be willing to see me go to prison for something I didn’t do, which is a possibility right now.” She sighed. “I don’t know for certain what happened at the shop the night Paul died. I wasn’t watching for something like that and I know no one else was, so there’s chance only the murderer really knows what happened.”
“They’re willing to see you go down for this. Getting them to tell you the truth might not be possible.”
“Unless they want to brag about what they did.”
“Possible.” Robert shrugged as he wandered into what appeared to be the kitchen. “Murderers do sometimes get to that point, but the most sensible of them would know to keep their mouths shut, instead of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. Do you want something to drink?”
“No, thanks.” Mary Ann didn’t feel comfortable enough around him to accept anything he offered her. Even sitting on his sofa was more difficult than she wanted it to be, because she couldn’t help thinking he was going to want something in return for what he was doing. “I’m going to focus on getting everything that needs to be done finished. The last thing I want is for your brother to
catch me off guard.”
“I offered you help for one reason–you needed it. I hate what Alex is doing to you. It’s not fair, and that’s why I want to help you find out who truly murdered Paul. Then you can get back to your normal life.”
“Is that really going to happen? Your brother is talking about what he believes I’ve done to at least two of the papers, because he wants me to be arrested for this, and that means there are going to be people out there who believe I am a murderer no matter what. There is nothing I can do to change that. Nothing I can say will convince them I didn’t frame an innocent person for a murder I committed.”
“Those people are idiots. Anyone who looks at you can see you’re not the type to murder someone… apart from Alex.” Robert wandered back into the living room, holding a mug of something that steamed. “I hate not making coffee for my guests when I’m having one, but you aren’t going to trust me yet, are you?”
Mary Ann smiled as she looked down at her notebook. “No, I’m not.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 50