Well, if Alice wasn’t sure of anything, she very well knew Mary had not bought into her excuses and she definitely knew she had seen her making love with her neighbour’s husband. Way to go Alice, you just found yourself in the rabbit hole.
The day was starting to have more events than Alice could comprehend. When Mary left Alice’s shop that afternoon, Alice had started to think whether she needed to call Officer Ray again but was discouraged sue to the way both of them had received her suggestions the last time they were at her place. It was as if they thought she was only finding ways to get the attention off herself. So, Alice had dialled Morgan’s number instead and told her everything. The older woman only sighed and Alice noticed she wasn’t really surprised at Alice’s behaviour.
“Well, it is good to know you are still safe after everything you have done. I really wish I could tell you had done everything I asked you not to do but I expect you wouldn’t listen to me in the first place. Your parents were never good with following counsels as well.
Anyways, I think it is high time I came over there and check with the investigating police whether your name is still on the suspect list. Besides, Mary might really be serious with her threat; I should file for security measures from the police to that effect too.”
Morgan always knew what needs to be done and Alice was glad to know someone is left in her life that could trust her and believe in her anytime. She thanked her and asked when Morgan would be coming over.
“It is too late to start planning to leave immediately dear. I will be in town tomorrow evening. Make sure you stay out of trouble till then and please stay away from the poison lady.” Morgan had started calling Mary that since Alice told her what Kelly had said about Mary’s hobby as a child. Alice smiled at Morgan’s sense of humour despite the tension in her body.
Tomorrow evening was fine, Alice thought as she remembered the Walkers’ ball would be happening that same evening.
When she hung up the call with Morgan, Alice went about cleaning the shop for the rest of the afternoon. It wasn’t as if she would have visitors or customers showing up in her shop but Alice preferred always to have her shop neat and kept, with the hope that everything would return to the way they had positively started. Well, with the exception that Jamie was coming through the door at her with his usual big smile, Alice reminded herself. Be candid with yourself Alice, will everything ever go back to the way they are? A voice in her head couldn’t stop saying.
Alice couldn’t believe it when a woman walked into her shop and asked if her shop was the famous lime pie shop. At first, Alice thought it was one of those pranks where some people had planned to make jest of her but the sincere expression on the woman’s face spoke otherwise.
“Yes, welcome to Alice’s Lime Pies. I am Alice Clifford, the shop owner.” Alice said with a big smile and an outstretched hand. The other woman shook the hand and introduced herself simply as Sally.
“Well, good to have you here Sally, what can I help you with?”
“Uhm, I came all the way from the neighbouring town asking for direction for where to get the best pies and most people seem to have their fingers pointed at your shop.
The astonishing young woman next door spoke highly of you too. She said your pies superseded others. Guess I told myself I should see for myself.” Sally explained with absolute happiness and wasn’t aware of the uniting confusion and surprise that got plastered on Alice’s face. But Alice really wanted to believe this was happening and she forced the usual professional act she had trained herself over the years she trained as a chef.
“Oh yes Sally, my pies are astonishing but only you can decide if they are really the best. How about I get a piece out of the microwave for you and we can decide if you want more or not?”
The day really was having a chain of events Alice couldn’t comprehend. Sally finished the piece Alice had microwaved for her and left after ordering for the delivery of twenty plates of pies every weekend for her book club meetings which she holds at her library many miles away. Sally was the only librarian in town and “was starting her own book club to educate the towns’ people.” Her words, not Alice’s.
Apart from Mary’s visit and Sally’s order, something in her shop got Alice confounded more than ever. When she had gone to the kitchen in her store to get the piece of pie for Sally, she had noticed that another pie was covered in a flat tray on the microwave. It smelt foul but Alice calculated the pie had only been six to eight days old.
Alice was sure the only pie that could be that old in the kitchen and without being noticed was one of those she had made for her opening some days back. The same day Jamie was poisoned. But Alice quickly dismissed the idea; the police had taken every plate that housed the pies that were consumed that day. They wanted to test if any plate apart from Jamie’s was poisoned too. At the end, only Jamie’s was tested with poison.
Mary decided the pie must have been one of those she and Jamie had made during their time together, probably the time they were painting the shop and getting ready for the big opening of Alice’s Lime Pies. She threw the pie into the waste bin and focused on becoming the good cook she always wanted to be. Besides, she still has sixty more pies to help Nova with.
Simon was having a lot on his mind these past few days. Even Harry had noticed and he kept asking if something was wrong with his health. But it wasn’t his health that was failing him, it was his conscience. Since Jamie had died, Simon wasn’t finding sleep very easy and most time when he does close his eyes, he could remember the way Jamie kept grasping for breath as he bled and died. It shouldn’t have been Jamie. It should have been Alice!
But Jamie had been the one to eat the pie. Jamie was the one that welcomed him and Harry to Alice’s opening and had taken the pie from Simon’s hands to the table. Simon really wanted to argue with himself that the pie that killed Jamie wasn’t the one Jamie took from his hands but there was no mistaking the plate that was seating horribly on in front of the chair Jamie fell from. It had happened so fast that Jamie wasn’t sure how to react.
I am going to end everything this evening. The cops haven’t even discovered who the killer was! Simon adjusted his bow tie in the large mirror that reflected his handsome features. Harry hates big gatherings and excused himself from the ball tonight but Simon had big plans that really must be put into action at the ball. He smoothed his torso with his hands and examined how presentable he appeared in the mirror. All he had to do was to present everyone present with his best smile until his hands were on his target.
Simon convinced himself he was doing the right thing. Yes, he had done some bad things and going to jail was one of the consequences he faced as he grew up.
But continuing in this vein wasn’t his style anymore. Simon wants a happy life with Harry, one that involves good night sleeps instead of the horrible ones he has been having for over a week now. And a way out of those horrible nights was to finish what he had started. Tonight, Harry was going to confess his sins to Alice.
The Walkers spent a lot of money over the years their name had existed. Alice quickly came to this conclusion as her car approached the massive castle the Walkers called their home.
The enormous structure could as well be described as monstrous because it took over acres of lands and cut across from one field to another. Alice sincerely was impressed with the wealthy appearance. Viewing the tinted glasses of the countless windows of the house, Alice calculated fifty rooms and was so sure the Walkers would have secret passages and underground chambers beneath the multimillion-dollar structure.
Alice adjusted her hair as she double-checked her profile in the rear-view mirror of the car. She wasn’t actually wearing any make up but she guessed her appearance was appealing as usual.
Her dressing too was simple; she had decided against a lemon silhouette short gown and had chosen a longer one instead. The gown was white and it brought out her mature shape quite well. Satisfied with what she saw in the mirror, Alice got out of her car and advanced
towards the house.
The inside of the Walkers home surely got Alice more awestruck than the massive compound did. The walls were covered with a lot of relics and ancient paintings. In fact, any desperate thief could grab only one painting from the house and would make good profit by selling it.
The ground floor was the dance hall and every guest was already having one conversation or the other. With the amount of groups there were involved in one conversation or the other, Alice calculated that the Walkers were hosting more than a hundred guests, and every one of them stared at Alice as she advanced towards the ball room.
Kelly was the first to walk towards her with a smile. She hugged Alice and dragged her towards the group of people she was drinking and talking with at the left corner of the hall. “Ladies, I bet y’all know Alice, she owns Alice’s Lime Pies; the shop beside mine.
Alice, meet Rhoda, Mrs. Reeves, Morgana and cheerful Sally said she met you yesterday already.” Alice said hi to the group of women who smiled back at her as she sat amidst them. Sally started a conversation about Alice’s lime pies almost immediately.
“Kelly, I have to repeat that you were right about Alice’s cooking skill. Just a taste of her pie confirmed it all. Did you know her pie kind of melts into lime sauce when it meets your tongue?” Everyone laughed at this and it was Mrs Reeves who made the first remark about Sally’s comment.
“Come on Sally! We all know that’s pure exaggeration but you were right about Alice’s cooking skills. We all must agree that she makes those pies as if she cannot make anything better than better. You know Alice; the only shop that can compete with your pies is Nova’s. She used to be quite popular with her orange pie taste before you arrived in town.” Mrs Reeves said as she took a gulp of wine from the wine glass in her hand.
“Yes.” Morgana, one of the women, interrupted. Morgana obviously wasn’t fashionable since she came only in a shirt-like top and a long skirt with an old scarf over her head. She patted her cheek as she spoke, “I remember Nova’s pies. She sometimes combines orange sauce with others and most times, the combination usually resulted in an unacceptable taste. I remember Alex, my late husband used to recount how horrible her combo-pies tasted. Yea, combo-pies was what she called them.” The women laughed again.
“Oh, I haven’t met Nova, is she here?” Sally inquired.
Kelly, the all-knowing, spoke immediately. “Oh, she got the order for the pies for tonight’s ball. I am sure she is top on the list of invited guests.”
“Oh”, was the only words that came out of Sally’s mouth and this got Alice worried. Sally was the only customer she had procured since Jamie’s death and Kelly who had helped her direct the woman to her shop is the same woman that is getting Sally interested in her only competitor. Alice had never thought of Nova as a competitor and wasn’t really comfortable with the whole conversation. She was about to excuse herself and go in search of Mrs Greenheart who had left for the ball before Alice left home when Rhoda chirped in her comment on the issue.
“One thing that got me surprised was how well Nova took the rise of your pies over hers. I have known the woman for long and she doesn’t really do well with competitions. I am sure she took this Walker’s order just to prove a point and….” Rhoda kept on talking but Alice was no longer listening. It is impossible, she told herself but the truth was becoming too obvious to be discarded. Everything was rushing back on her and she was starting to see that night differently. The night Jamie had died came back to her with full force and she stood up leaving the women puzzled with her sudden reactions.
Alice started for the door she saw upstairs. She needed the fresh air to get everything that was getting its way into her head out as fast as possible. It was impossible, she kept telling herself. As she advanced towards the stairs, Mrs Greenheart came rushing towards her and Alice motioned that she wasn’t really interested in a conversation but Mrs Greenheart stubbornly followed her up the stairs whispering words Alice almost couldn’t figure out.
“Alice, can you hear me?” She seems to have said something and expected Alice to react.
“What?” Alice asked, trying to concentrate on the woman words.
“It is that woman that owns the pie shop across yours. You introduced her as Nova to Richard and me the morning of your opening” Oh this isn’t good. Alice concluded.
Nova’s name was becoming an unavoidable one in the ball. And it was getting hazy images into Alice’s head. Images and ideas she doesn’t want to accept to be true.
“What about her, Mrs Greenheart?”
“I just told you”, Mrs Greenheart was seriously whispering, “I saw her leave your apartment the night I told you about I and Richard. I woke up and saw that you had left. Thanks for the blanket dear….anyways, I woke up and took to locking my door. Then I noticed someone was whispering down the hall, I peeped and it was Nova. The way she carefully closed your door was suspicious!”
Alice wanted to tell the woman she was mistaken but the truth was more than obvious and it was choking. Alice ignored Mrs Greenheart’s continued explanation as she caught sight of Nova down the hall. Nova was glancing left and right and seems to be up to something. Alice left Mrs Greenheart at the stairs and rushed over to the end of the hall where it seemed Nova was after something. But Nova was nowhere to be found by the time Alice got to the end of the hall.
Alice was about to leave for the larger hall and pick up her bag where she had left it with the women when she noticed there was a small staircase beside the hall. It led directly to a ground floor that wouldn’t be visible to anyone that looks at the house from outside the compound. It must be the stairs that Nova had gone through and Alice found herself climbing down the stairs without thought.
As she went down the stairs, everything was becoming darker and Alice couldn’t see anything. She had to keep her hands on the wall to keep trail of where she was going. She bumped on a door at the end of the stairs and thought she heard movements inside. Someone is inside there; she told herself and opened the door to reveal utter darkness.
Everything happened so fast, one moment she was trying to see through the darkness in the room and another moment a strong hand behind her forcefully pushed her into the room and a clicking sound followed. It took Alice only two seconds to figure out she had walked into a trap. And she wasn’t the only one in it, for a groan followed a voice that called her name in the dark. It sounded like Simon.
The first instinct Alice had was to reach for her phone or the pepper spray she had kept in her bag in case of emergency such as this. But her heart almost failed her when she remembered she had left her bag with the other women before going after Nova. The whole truth had dawned on Alice rather too late and there was no getting out of it.
The voice that called her name seems to be lost in the darkness of the room too and Alice could hear the exasperated breath the person took at every second. It was as if Simon was managing every breath he took and Alice was starting to feel she should do the same. The air in the room was starting to become thin.
“Is that you, Alice?” Simon’s voice sounded like his this time around, though it seems Simon was starting to find it hard to talk too.
“Simon?” She wanted to be sure.
“You should never have trusted her Alice. You obviously didn’t notice everything that went on that day.” Alice wanted to say she could remember hoe everything had happened that day but it was better to allow Simon speak about it.
“I and Harry arrived about the same time Nova was at the door. It was Jamie who came to receive us. You must have seen him done that. But what you didn’t see was that before he came to the door, Nova had arrived with a plate of her own pie. When Harry went back to the car to get the gift we brought for your opening – Harry always does forgot something – Nova told me how she wanted to surprise everyone present that her pie was better than yours.
She asked that I took it in and made sure you ate it. The image she presented with her explanations was as if
you would eat the cake and realise it wasn’t yours. She perfected the whole image of how everything would happen I had no choice but to accept just to see how best her cake could beat yours. It was a wrong decision.” Simon stopped talking to catch his breath but Alice continued the whole story in her head.
That morning, Jamie had met Nova, Harry and Simon at the door. He had collected the gifts they brought with them and saw the pie. He didn’t want to offend the guests by not serving the hot pie they brought along with the rest of the pies. So, he kept one of the pie Alice had made for the guests in the kitchen and replaced it with the one Simon had brought in. The pie Jamie replaced was the one Alice had found on her microwave yesterday.
“I told Simon the cake was especially for you. I don’t know why he never gave them to you. He was bleeding choking in his own blood before I realised Nova had used me.” It felt as if Harry was crying and Alice felt like hugging him and telling him it wasn’t his fault. He had only been a pawn in Nova’s horrible scheme. What Simon and Nova didn’t know was that Jamie couldn’t have given Alice the cake for he knew how much she wanted her pie to be the only thing everyone would consume at her opening. So, he had made the horrible choice and he had died for her.
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 62