“Wait,” I said. “What?”
Lucy rummaged in her purse and then came up with a gun, which she pointed directly at my chest. “There you go with the stupid questions again. That’s right, Rebecca. I got rid of Melanie. I altered the blow-dryer. I had it ready and waiting. She used to summon me to her room to discuss production issues all the time while she soaked in the bath. She had no more shame than a cat.”
“So you didn’t know she was stealing from Antoine?”
“No. That came as quite a surprise. Then Antoine was arrested and I had to team up with you to get him out of jail. Unbelievable. Then he goes and promotes Brooke over me so I had to get rid of her, too.” She sounded irritated about the extra work. No regret. No guilt. Nothing.
My throat started to close. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Then I figured I was home free. Brooke was gone. Melanie was gone. Sunny had been arrested and they were trying to tie him to Melanie’s murder. I’d finally have Antoine all to myself. Then I see that television interview with the two of you holding hands.” She started to gag a little. “Made me sick. Seriously physically sick. I actually barfed watching the two of you together.”
I straightened up, prepared to bluff my way out of this one. “Then you know you still can’t have Antoine. He’s mine. Put the gun away and go.”
She laughed. “Really, Rebecca? I’ve killed for him already. You think your little play for him is going to stop me? And now I have the perfect patsy. Even if they realize that your death wasn’t an accident, they’ll blame Marie Parsons somehow.”
“Wait. My death?”
My phone rang.
“Don’t even think about answering it.” Her voice was flat and the gun didn’t waver.
I glanced at the screen. It was Haley. “It would be better if I did.”
She snorted. “Really?”
“Yeah. Really. It’s my sister. She put a tracer program on my phone. If I don’t answer, she will track me down.” Please, I thought. Please let her send Dan to track me down. Please don’t let her come herself.
“Does your big sister always take such good care of you?” she asked in a sicky-sweet voice.
I sighed. “It’s not that. You’ve seen her. She’s about to go into labor. In fact, this is probably the phone call telling me she’s about to have the baby. I’m supposed to go home immediately to take care of my nephew.”
The shadow of doubt flickered across Lucy’s face, but it only flickered. It was replaced again by the maniacal glint. “Then we better get this party started.” She turned the heat under the deep fryer to high.
“Hey! Careful!” Grease fires start fast, spread fast and are a bitch kitty to put out. If the grease gets hot enough, it can catch fire.
“Rebecca, I have a gun on you. Do you really think I’m not going to hurt you?” She laughed.
That took me aback. My worst nightmare returned. A gun in my face. “You’re going to burn my shop?”
“It’s going to be absolutely tragic. You were distracted. In love again with Antoine. You left the fryer going and it caught fire. Instead of trying to get out, you tried to put the fire out by throwing water on it.” She said it in a singsong voice.
“Come on. I’m not that stupid.” Pretty much the worst thing you can do with a grease fire is to throw water on it. The results are, shall we say, explosive. I backed toward the wall. How long would it take Haley to get frustrated and trace my phone? How long after that would she call Dan? How long would it take for Dan to get to us?
I wasn’t sure of the exact numbers, but I was pretty sure they all added up to too late. The grease was already bubbling.
“Oh, I think you’re pretty stupid. You had it all. You had the most perfect man in the world and you left him. Then you didn’t have the sense to stay gone.” She shook her head.
“I don’t understand, Lucy. Why are you doing this?” I asked, hoping to buy some time.
“Because I don’t want anything between me and Antoine. I figured with Melanie out of the way, he’d turn to me. Then he promoted Brooke instead.” Her voice quavered and tears welled into her eyes. “I couldn’t believe he didn’t see how much more devoted to him I was.”
He had seen it. It had alarmed him. “So you tried to kill her, too?”
“Another five minutes and it would have worked. Still, she’s sick enough that I’ll be firmly in place by the time she can return to work.” Her eyes hardened. “As long as you’re out of the way, too.”
Someone knocked at the back door. Hard. “Rebecca! I know you’re in there!” Haley yelled. “I’m in labor, damn it. This is not a drill. Come out and get over to the preschool to pick up Evan.”
“Don’t move,” Lucy hissed at me.
I took a step backward and hit the shelves behind me. My hand searched behind me for anything I might use as a weapon. All the knives were safely in their block on the counter. The scissors were in the drawer. All I could feel on the shelf was the container of popcorn kernels.
Haley knocked again. Hard. Then there was a gasping noise. “Damn it, Rebecca. Now my water’s broken. Let me the hell in.”
Oh, sweet caramel sauce on popcorn, if I got out of this alive Haley was going to kill me.
The grease lit. “Finally,” Lucy said, as if the grease fire had chosen not to catch fire just to frustrate her. She started toward the sink.
“What are you doing?”
She smiled. “Getting the glass of water for you to throw on that fire.”
I shook my head. “I won’t do it.”
“You’ll do it or I’ll shoot your sister right through that door.” I shook my head hard, but behind my back I unscrewed the container of kernels.
Without taking her eyes or her gun off me, Lucy used her left hand to turn on the faucet and fill a glass with water.
“How are you going to get out of here?” I asked.
“Oh, I’ll be over here by the door. As soon as I’m sure you’re going to be gone, I’ll go out the front. I’ll tell everyone how I warned you not to throw the water and how you ignored me and sealed your own fate.”
Haley pounded on the door. “Rebecca!” Then she groaned. A horrible, guttural sound. “Rebecca, this isn’t funny. I think I might already be in transition. This baby is coming fast.”
Lucy started toward me with the glass of water. I was only going to have one chance. As she took another step, I threw the kernels under her feet and ran for the door.
“Stop!” she screamed, and did exactly what I needed her to do. She took another step and went down like a ton of bricks on the kernels as if she was trying to run on ball bearings.
I unbolted the door. Haley was doubled over on her knees on the back porch. “Run!”
“Can’t,” she panted. “Contraction.”
Then Lucy was on us, gun trained at my vulnerable sister. “Get back in that kitchen, Rebecca. Right now.”
I bowed my head. I was beaten. I had no other tricks up my sleeve.
It turned out I didn’t need any new ones. Jasper came around the corner. “Hey!” he yelled.
“What the hell, Rebecca?” Lucy asked. “Is your back alley like some kind of weird convention center?”
Her gun went back and forth between Haley and Jasper. It was the distraction I needed. I threw myself at her, knocking her back into the smoky kitchen. The gun flew from her hand, spinning across the kitchen floor. It hit the cabinet and went off. The bullet hit the fryer, providing just the spark required to ignite the grease fire.
“Jasper, get Haley out of here!” I screamed.
I leapt up and started toward the door, but Lucy just lay there.
“Lucy, get up! We have to go.” My kitchen would be engulfed in flames in minutes.
“No,” she cried. “It’s all ruined. How many people will I have to kill to
make him love me? It’s just too much.”
I grabbed her arm and tugged. She slapped me away. “Lucy, you’ll burn. You have to get up.”
“I don’t care anymore.” She rolled onto her side into the fetal position.
In the distance, I heard sirens. The fire caught the cupboards next to the stove. The smoke had already made me start to cough. I grabbed Lucy’s feet and dragged her toward the open door.
She kicked me.
I wasn’t sure exactly what happened at that point, but something inside me burst. I had had it. “Damn it, you ungrateful little turd. You have caused me enough trouble. You are not dying in my kitchen. It is my happy place and you will not ruin it. A person only gets so many of those.”
I grabbed her legs again and heaved. Either I’d shocked her into cooperating or the smoke had gotten to her and she couldn’t fight anymore. I managed to drag her out onto the porch just as Eric Gladstone came running up in full turnout gear.
Sixteen
The next morning, Evan and I walked into Haley’s hospital room hand in hand with Garrett beside us. Even if I hadn’t been on babysitting duty, I wouldn’t have been able to open the shop. The kitchen was a mess. It would take weeks to clean it all up, but it was salvageable. At least, that’s what Eric and Dario told me when they came over to the house. I’d had to leave the shop to pick up Evan from preschool while Dan took Haley to the hospital. Garrett had shown up with dinner and we’d settled in for an evening of reading The Little Engine That Could and laying down wooden train tracks. I’d felt happier than I had in weeks. I hadn’t been back to the shop yet.
Glenn Huerta had had to be the one to tell Antoine about Lucy. Antoine had already been packing to leave. He had all the video he needed to put together the show. He’d been expecting to put it together with Lucy. I hadn’t spoken to him, but if the series of voice mails he left on my phone were any indication, he was pretty shaken.
“I do not know how I am to go forward, Rebecca. I have always prided myself on being a good judge of character. Clearly, I know nothing. Please come help me,” was what he’d said in one of them. The rest were variations on that same theme. I ignored them all.
I felt like I knew when he’d left Grand Lake, though. It was as if my lungs could suddenly expand fully. I could breathe. There was a lot of charm and charisma in Antoine, but it seemed like it would smother me if I was around him too long.
Sunny Coronado also left town. Cynthia dropped her assault charge against him and they had no reason to hold him any longer. I didn’t know if Antoine would bring suit against him for trying to steal his spice formulas or not. If he did, he might have to divulge that they simply weren’t very good. That would be difficult for him, especially on the heels of what had happened to his crew.
Evan had been uncharacteristically calm and quiet, agreeing not to wear his Batman cape, letting me tie his shoes. Then he saw Haley. He took off running and leapt into the bed. “Mama!”
“How’s my little man?” she said, motioning me over to take the baby from her.
For the first time, I lifted my niece in my arms. I’m not sure how to describe what happened next. It was like my heart exploded into a thousand joy bubbles in my chest and all rose up my throat and into my eyes, which is totally why it looked like I was crying. “I am so glad you’re here, sweet thing,” I whispered against her tiny fuzzy skull. “I am so relieved you and your mama are okay.”
“Can I see the baby?” Evan asked from his spot snuggled in next to Haley.
I looked at Haley, who nodded. I walked over to show him his little sister. He reached one finger out and gently touched her cheek. “My baby,” he said.
A half-strangled sob came out of my throat. That’s what Haley used to call me. I looked up at her and saw that her eyes were shiny with tears, too.
Dan came in and offered to take Evan out for ice cream to celebrate having a sister. Garrett decided to join them.
I sat down in the rocking chair next to Haley’s bed, holding Emily, admiring her tiny fingers, her teeny toes, her perfect little ears. “I’m so sorry I missed this with Evan,” I said.
“I’m sorry you missed it, too,” Haley said. “It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Totally, but you know, I’m glad I left here.”
“You are?”
“Yes. I am. Because if I hadn’t, I don’t think I would have ever appreciated it. Coming back here makes me see it with completely new eyes.” I thought how different the town seemed now, how I saw friends where I once saw enemies, how I saw comfort where I once saw restraint. “I don’t think I would have ever known my happy place was right here in Grand Lake if I hadn’t left to look for it somewhere else.”
RECIPES
BACON PECAN POPCORN
4 cups popped popcorn (Pop ⅓ cup kernels in ¼ cup oil)
½ cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
½ cup Karo syrup
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound bacon, cooked and chopped into bite-size pieces
1 cup pecans
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add in the brown sugar, Karo syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring. Then set the timer! Let it simmer for 5 minutes without stirring. Then remove from heat, add in baking soda and vanilla. Pour over the popcorn and mix. Add in the bacon and the pecans.
Pour popcorn mixture into a shallow pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Let cool. Break apart. Store in an airtight container, if there’s any left to store!
LOW-CALORIE MEXICAN CHOCOLATE POPCORN
4 cups popped popcorn (Pop ⅓ cup kernels in ⅛ cup oil)
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Combine everything but the popcorn in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until butter is melted. Pour over popcorn and stir. Pour popcorn mixture into a shallow parchment-lined pan and put in oven. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pop Goes the Murder is Kristi’s second book with Berkley Prime Crime. She has been obsessed with popcorn ever since she first tasted the caramel-cashew popcorn at Garrett’s in Chicago. If you’ve never had it, you might want to hop on a plane and go now. Seriously, it’s that good.
Kristi lives in northern California, although she was born in Ohio like the heroine of the Popcorn Shop Mysteries. She loves snack food, crocheting, her kids, and her man, not necessarily in that order.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
* * *
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.
Pop Goes the Murder Page 25