“Yes, but I’m not usually so gullible. I can usually smell a con game a mile away.”
I grinned at her. “Em, between you and me, I can. He’s very charismatic. It would be easy to get swept away in all that charisma and sexiness, never mind the looks and buildface it, the guy’s hot.”
She sniffed then smiled a little. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I know I am.”
She ran her bottom lip through her teeth. “I thought about it, Moll. Sleeping with him, I mean.”
“For heaven’s sake Emily, there’s nothing wrong with a woman thinking. I’d be doing the same thing in your shoes. As a matter of fact, and I feel stupid saying this, when he and I took a walk outside the night of his winery opening, there was a moment I thought he was going to kiss me.”
She burst out laughing. “Would you have let him?”
At least she was laughing now. “I don’t think so, but I’ll never know. I adore Sean, but Rocco has a definite appeal that’s rather hard to ignore. The point is, we’re human. Stop beating up on yourself and move on. Next time he comes to town, ignore him if he tries contacting you.”
She sat up straight. “I plan to.” She paused for a second and grabbed a tissue. “Is Alex still interested in a date? I mean, I wouldn’t blame him if he wasn’t. I wasn’t very nice to him after I met Rocco.”
“I’m sure he is.” I didn’t mention him bonding over archaeology with Meg. “At least you won’t find yourself on the cover of a major newspaper. The Destiny Trumpet maybe, but that’s not a big deal, more of an annoyance. Hey, I just had a wonderful thought. You know if you guys get married, your kids will be my second cousins.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but she blushed a little. “Married? We haven’t even gone on a date yet.”
“There’s only one way to remedy that. Why don’t you call him? I think he’ll be happy to hear from you.”
“At least he’s on the right side of the law. And he is nice. Not to mention handsome. You know, Poe never did warm up to Rocco. He loves Alex, though. I should have paid attention to my cat. I’ll call Alex. What about you? Have you talked to Sean about that woman he’s been seen with?”
I was sure my surprise registered on my face. “I didn’t know you were aware of her. You and I haven’t talked much lately between me and murders, and you and Rocco.”
“Jane saw them together somewhere and asked me if she should say anything. I told her no, to please not say anything at all. I was sure it was nothing. And Emmaline mentioned it to me as well.”
“Jane saw them? I don’t even want to know. It’s getting comedic.”
“I figured it was police business, or whatever. But I did see the picture of them in The Destiny Trumpet, along with Rocco and me, ugh! She doesn’t look like Sean’s type. You’re definitely his type.”
“Thanks, I think. No, I haven’t said anything to Sean. We’re both annoyed at Bobby for putting him and the mystery redhead in the paper. I’m not exactly thrilled with the picture of Rocco, Olivia, and me. But the man has a right to talk to whoever he wants to. Sean, I mean.”
“Besides, he was involved in a murder investigation too, until recently. I don’t want to burden him with being silly about a woman. I trust him. If he doesn’t want to talk to me about her, then that’s fine, too.”
Emily gave me a sly smile and her nose wrinkled. “Don’t you wonder a little bit, though? There’s nothing wrong with that.”
She had me there. “Kind of, but I don’t want to be ridiculous about it. Let’s talk about something else. Like what are we reading for the next Mystery Monday? Sorry, I’ve been so absent.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re a crime-fighting diva now. Yes, enough about men, at least Rocco. I haven’t thought of a book yet. Don’t worry, I’ll pick one before Monday. You must be so relieved the Melanie and Rachael’s killer has been caught.”
“I am. Olivia and Kendra had to manage by themselves while I was out with Alex. I’m determined to be more of a presence at Bread and Batter from now on. I hate not pulling my share.”
“I’m sure they understand, Molly. I think they kind of like that you’re a crime-solving doyenne.”
Emily and her big words. “Thanks, but I’m hardly notable, and it’s not fair to them. I’m a baker, not a murder-solver…um…helper.”
“No reason you can’t bake and help solve murders. You’ve got quite a reputation as both, you know.”
“I’m done with the murder thing. I hope Destiny is quiet for a few hundred years as far as murder. Just when I think I’ve seen the worst of humanity, humanity shows me I’m wrong. These two were tough. I can’t wrap my head around a mother killing one daughter, never mind two, and then trying to pin it on another daughter!”
“I can’t either. How awful. Is Zoe, that’s her name, right? Is she going to prison?”
“I imagine so. Alex and Sean are taking care of all that. I’m out of it now, which is just fine.”
“The news said all the evidence against her is circumstantial. Can she still be arrested?”
“They had enough to bring her in for questioning. Once she sees all the evidence against her, she can’t very well refute it all. It all points to her.”
“Then what? She goes to trial and if she’s convicted she goes to prison for murder?”
“That’s the plan, I think. I would certainly hope for the rest of her life. Of course, her attorney could go for an insanity plea and she gets locked up in a psychiatric hospital. I don’t care where she goes, as long as she goes and isn’t allowed out. Let’s talk about something else.”
Emily pushed away from her desk and got up. “I’d love to, but I’d better go downstairs and help Jane. It’s too much to let her unpack books and wait on customers. I admit since the Rocco ordeal business has picked up a lot. I guess people are curious about me.”
I laughed. “A perk of living in a small town. Admittedly, having Rocco here did stir up some excitement.”
“Yeah, it did. I’m glad he’s gone, though. I’m so happy you came by.” She dropped the paper in her trash can. “I have to apologize to Serafina. I gave her a hard time when she delivered that other New York City newspaper the other day. And the time before when she came by and tried to warn me away from Rocco.”
“She’s from the city; she has a thick skin, I’m sure you’re already forgiven.”
She gestured toward the trash can. “I was tempted to go to Belden’s drugstore and buy all their New York City papers after Serafina brought me this one. I just hate having people read about me.”
“Don’t worry. People will move on to something else soon.” I linked my arm with hers. “I’ll walk you downstairs.”
CHAPTER 32
* * *
The rest of the day passed in quiet, thank goodness. The bakery was busy, and despite my desire to put Rachael and Melanie’s murder behind me, lots of people just wanted to talk about my part in solving the murders, which I could understand in a way. I wanted to get busy with my blackberry buttermilk cupcakes.
I finally escaped to the kitchen and was sighing in bliss as I worked on my cupcakes when Kendra rushed in. “Your cousin, Detective Alex is here. He says he has to talk to you immediately. Ok to send him back?”
“You’re kidding, right?” I looked up at her in disbelief.
“I’m not. That’s definitely him. A little frazzled looking, but it’s him.”
This was curious. Why would he have to see me now? I was looking forward to concentrating on baking, and hopefully having some time with Sean later tonight, but of course I wasn’t going to refuse to see my cousin.
“Molly?” Kendra’s voice stuck a pin in my rant-filled balloon. “Did you hear me?”
“Sorry. I did. Give me a sec or two to get my hands clean, cover this dough, and put it in the fridge, then send him on back.”
“You got it, boss.”
I was a little less miffed at the interruption when Alex appeared in the kitchen. His
white dress shirt and khaki pants were wrinkled, like he’d slept in them. And the dark stubble on his face, while attractive even in my annoyance, told me he hadn’t been home to shave. There were dark circles under his eyes. “Molly. Sorry to bother you.”
I looked up from my hand drying. “Are you okay? You don’t look like you’ve slept lately.”
“Sean would tell you himself, but he’s doing a presentation with Dusty to a cub scout troop. He okayed me to give you the news.”
That’s right, he had mentioned the presentation to me. It’d slipped my mind. Cupcakes forgotten, I was all ears. “What news? You have enough to charge Zoe Rydell, right? Don’t tell me there’s another murder.”
“No, not another murder, just let me talk and I’ll tell you everything. We’ve got the killer. It happened late last night.”
He interrupted my cupcake euphoria for this? “Um, I know. I was just asking about her. You must really need some sleep.”
“No. I mean the real killer.”
“Hey! I just got her back,” Olivia poked her head in looking none too happy with Alex. She waved a plastic spatula at him. “You are not taking her again. She needs to stay here. She promised. No more murder solving.”
Alex held his palms up. “Don’t worry, Olivia. She’s not going anywhere. I just need a few minutes with her.”
She didn’t look convinced. “Ok, I’m holding you to your word,” she called over her shoulder as she went back out front.
Real killer? What was the man talking about? I noticed the chatter up front had died down, and Alex wasn’t exactly whispering. “Come on. Let’s go in my office. We have an audience out there, I fear. Destiny loves its gossip.”
“Good idea. We aren’t releasing anything to any of the press until at least late this afternoon and I sure don’t want Bobby Crandall printing anything about this in The Destiny Trumpet yet.”
This sounded serious. “Ok.” I closed the office door and sat at the desk. “Talk. I’ve got cupcakes waiting.”
He got right down to business. “Late last night I got a call from Edward.”
“Zoe’s chauffeur?” I asked unnecessarily. A shiver sizzled down my spine. “What about?”
“He asked me if I would come over, that it was very important. He and his wife had to speak to us immediately. Naturally I told him fine, I’d be here, then I called Sean.
“Okay, so what about Edward and his wife?” I realized my hands were cramping from gripping the chair’s armrests so tightly, and I tried relaxing, but my heart was beating away at a hundred miles an hour.
“Dena confessed to killing both Rachael and Melanie.”
CHAPTER 33
* * *
I stared at my cousin, dumbfounded. I hadn’t seen this coming at all. “What?” My voice came out in a squeak. “She’s the killer?”
“Yes, she’s the one.”
I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. I got up and paced. Well, as much as I could pace in my small office. “Seriously? You are serious. I can’t believe it. What made her confess? Why now? Are you sure? I don’t get it. Okay, start from the beginning.”
“Calm down. I’ll tell you everything. Sean and I go to their house. They let us in and we followed them into the living room.”
“Then what?” My cupcakes faded to the back of my mind. I had a feeling he was going to reveal something big. I was thrilled that he’d come in person to tell me.
“Dena confessed to Edward that she killed Rachael and Melanie, and then asked him to call the police.”
That was certainly important. I thought for a moment I might pass out. I focused on Alex’s face. “Are you kidding? Why on earth did she kill them? I take that back. Because of Edward and Zoe, naturally. Right?”
He nodded. “Apparently, she suspected they were having an on-again-off-again relationship, she just never told Edward she knew.”
I stopped pacing. “Why didn’t she leave him? Why would she put up with him, knowing he was probably having an affair all these years?”
“According to Dena, she had no proof. Neither Zoe or Edward were about to tell her the truth. And there’s the fact that she never stopped loving her husband.”
“But she didn’t know Meg was Edward’s in the beginning. How did she find out?”
“She suspected that Meg was Zoe’s all along, but she didn’t confront her. She wanted to believe the Rydells’ story that one of their friends’ daughters was pregnant. She accepted Meg as her own right away since she couldn’t have any children herself. I think she kinda talked herself into believing Meg was hers, legitimately, all along. But when Dena’s suspicions about their relationship were confirmed, and it had been going on all these years, she lost it.”
I had to take a minute to think about what Alex had just revealed. “That has to play with your mind, raising a child that your husband fathered with his lover.”
“I would imagine. Soon all these resentments inside Dena that she tried hard to bury, bubbled to the surface.”
“What made her suspicious that their relationship was still going on?”
“She caught them, in ‘a heated embrace,’ as she put it, a couple of times right before the murders. She heard Edward tell Zoe that he still loved her and always would, but he belonged to Dena and wouldn’t hurt her.”
“And Dena didn’t leave him after hearing that? She thought murder was a better alternative?”
“Where would she go? He was her lifeline. She was humiliated and frightened. She wanted to hurt Zoe. What better way? She thought by killing the sisters, she’d break the tie between Zoe and Edward.”
I digested what he’d said. “I have to say this really makes me angry.”
“What’s that?”
“When a woman’s husband, or boyfriend, or whatever, strays, she goes after the other woman. Why? Edward was as much at fault as Zoe, yet Dena stayed with him and raised his child! All the while nurturing this evil resentment toward Zoe alone.”
“I agree with you. I think she was angry and upset at both of them, but channeled it all toward Zoe.”
I commenced pacing. “As far as Edward, why didn’t he just leave Dena and marry Zoe? Especially since her marriage to Graeme had been a farce for several years.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious, Molly? Zoe would never have agreed to that. Marry the chauffeur? Tsk, tsk, my dear woman, that just isn’t done.”
“But he’s good enough to have an apparent long-term relationship with? That makes no sense. And why did Dena suddenly confess to Edward?”
“The guilt got to her. He noticed that she was acting strange; agitated, teary and jumpy, since the murders and asked her last night what was going on. It was then she confessed to him.”
“Revenge,” I whispered to myself.
“What?”
“Revenge,” I repeated a little louder. “I ran into Sergeant Jacoby, he’s in Rigby, at Bubby’s Diner recently. He said there are four reasons for murder. Revenge, sex, greed, and jealousy. Well, in this case revenge. I guess you can throw in jealousy, too. How did Edward handle all this?”
“I think he was in a state of shock. He was pale and shaky. Honestly, I think he was scared to be in the room with her without Sean and me there.”
I stopped my pacing and sat back down. “Darn it! I can’t believe I missed all this. So, Dena confessed and just agreed to call the police out of the blue?” I couldn’t imagine that. But who am I to guess what goes through a murderesses head? I can’t, which I should know by now.
He shrugged one of his shoulders. “Like I said, the guilt got to her, big time. She couldn’t live with herself. Her intent to frame Zoe for the murders pretty much worked. We were about to issue a warrant for Zoe’s arrest based on the evidence at her house. I was pretty confident she’d confess. It’s a gift to us that Dena confessed.”
I thought about the Rydells. Not the sweetest people I’ve ever met, but Zoe certainly didn’t deserve to spend her life in prison fo
r a murder she didn’t commit. “Where’s Dena now?”
“She’s in jail. Sean’s wrapping everything up with Chief Carly. I’m on my way home.”
I drummed my fingernails on my desk. “So, she was the woman dressed like a housekeeper. She must have tried to frame Zoe by dropping the keychain with the girls’ pictures in it that belonged to her,” I deduced.
“That’s it exactly. And remember the license plate?”
“The one we saw on the security tape that matched the one in Zoe’s garage?”
It Cannoli Be Murder Page 23