“Did Joelle talk to you about anyone else in Bald Eagle Falls?” Erin asked, wondering whether Joelle had mentioned Adele to anyone else. “Anyone that she had talked to or who was helping her out…?”
“No. I don’t think she really had much to do with anyone around here.” Charley’s eyes narrowed. “Do you mean you? Were you helping her?”
“No. I just wondered whether she had made any other friends. Just you?”
Charley shrugged. “We weren’t really friends, but I don’t know that she had any friends here. I was the one who had the most to do with her, because of the bakery and her being Davis’s power of attorney. But we weren’t close.”
“You went to see where she had fallen down,” Erin pointed out.
“I was just curious. It was a strange accident.”
“So you were visiting her at her house after the accident?”
“Yeah. She couldn’t get out and around.”
“Did she seem… okay? I mean, her spirits, pallor, energy level?”
“Sure. Seemed normal. In pain, of course, but nothing seemed wrong to me.”
“What day was that?”
“Right after it had happened. I told her to let me know if she needed anything—I figured the more I helped her, the more she would be willing to work with me—but she never called to ask for anything. So I figured everything was just fine. I certainly never expected this.” Charley rolled her eyes. “You’ve kind of messed things up for me.”
“I didn’t—”
“But then…” Charley’s eyes were calculating, “We never were on the same side, were we? You never wanted me to come here and open up The Bake Shoppe.”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to. It’s true, isn’t it? You never did like the idea.”
“I… was nervous about it,” Erin admitted. “I didn’t want to end up getting squeezed out by another bakery. But I was willing to ride it out and see how it went. I never would have… eliminated the competition.”
“Easy enough to say. But I don’t know. This bakery means everything to you, doesn’t it?”
Erin swallowed and looked around at her surroundings. The bakery was important to her. It represented her independence, her one chance to run her own business and be her own boss, instead of constantly being subservient to someone else. It was the unexpected legacy Clementine had left for her. In the short time she had been there, she had made it her own. It wasn’t just important to her, either. It also supported Vic and made it possible for her to be independent from the family that had disowned her for trying to be true to herself. Clementine’s legacy also meant that she had a place to live where she didn’t have to pay someone else rent every month, and also provided places for Vic and Adele to have their own homes. If the plug were pulled, and the bakery were no longer there to support them, what would happen to Erin, Vic, and Adele? Erin would have to find another job, working for someone else once more, and the odds that she’d be able to find something to support herself in Bald Eagle Falls were slim. The odds that all three of them would be able to find jobs, plus Bella, who worked part time to make sure they all got breaks, were almost nonexistent. No more bakery would mean changes to all of their lives.
“It means a lot,” she agreed. “Not everything, because I still have my friends, and my family,” she met Charley’s eyes. “But I don’t know what I would do without the bakery.”
“I don’t think you poisoned Joelle,” Charley said, sitting back. “But her dying like this… it’s pretty weird. Don’t you think?”
“It’s unexplained. I’m sure once the autopsy has been done… it will all make sense.”
“A person doesn’t die from falling down and banging up her knee.”
“No… I mean, it could get infected, or get a clot… so it’s possible… but I don’t know if that’s what happened. I just know… she wasn’t in good shape when we got there. Something was wrong with her.”
“I guess time will tell,” Charley said, folding her arms across her chest. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Chapter 8
Terry hadn’t been to the house or to the bakery for several days. Erin excused his absence; he obviously had a lot more on his plate, with an unexpected death on the books. He had a lot to investigate, and that was all in addition to his usual duties. It couldn’t be easy to conduct an investigation while still performing all of his usual duties.
She was relieved when she heard the tap on her door. At least he hadn’t totally cut himself off from her.
“Terry!” She opened the door wide to invite him in. “Come in! How are you?”
He didn’t go to his favorite spot in the living room, so Erin assumed he was hoping for the kitchen. “Are you hungry? You know I’ve always got bread and jam.”
“I could manage a little something…”
Which probably meant that he had skipped dinner altogether. Erin let him get settled at the table, going through the day-old bread she had brought home with her to pick out his favorite rolls. A few seconds in the microwave, and they would be as warm and moist as if she had just finished baking them.
“I’m getting low on some of the Jam Lady jams,” she commented, as she pulled several out of the fridge. The statement seemed a little ridiculous when she set half a dozen different flavors in front of him on the table but, nonetheless, it was true. They consumed more than their fair share of the Jam Lady jams and, unlike the rest of the town, Erin knew that the Jam Lady wasn’t even a lady, but was Roger, Mary Lou’s husband. Disabled after a failed suicide attempt, it had taken him some time to find something he could do to help bring more income into the home, and that turned out to be creating handmade artisanal jams. As he did not consider it a ‘manly’ job, the actual source of the Jam Lady jams was kept a strict secret.
“Looks wonderful,” Terry assured Erin, breaking open one of the rolls to slather it will butter and jam.
Erin got out a biscuit for K9 and tossed a couple of treats to Orange Blossom to quiet him down and to make sure he didn’t steal K9’s doggie biscuit. Blossom was getting altogether too bold recently, unconcerned that K9 was big enough to put a stop to any thievery if he decided to disobey his master. But K9 was well-trained and, though he grumbled, he didn’t chase Orange Blossom when the cat teased him or stole his food.
Erin made small talk with Terry while he worked his way through a couple of rolls, waiting for an indication from him as to the reason he had stopped by. Was it just for a visit, or did he have news?
She caught a glimpse of Vic making her way across the back yard and, in a minute, Vic was at the back door, peeking around the door.
“Knock, knock? Am I interrupting anything?”
“No, come on in. You want a snack?”
“Better not.” Vic patted her stomach. “I won’t be able to keep my figure if I keep adding extra meals.”
Erin sat down at the table and helped herself to a corner of Terry’s bun. Like Vic, she didn’t want a whole one, but she did want a taste. She savored the bite. Terry offered the rest to her, but she shook her head.
“No. This is good. Just want a taste of that blackberry jam. It’s so good!”
“They all are. Choosing between the flavors is the hardest part.” The handsome officer polished off the rest of his treat in a couple of bites. “We can sit in the living room, if you like.”
They all agreed to go where it was more comfortable and took up their seats in the living room.
“Any news about Joelle?” Vic asked what Erin had been dying to know but didn’t have the nerve to ask.
Terry let out a long sigh. He didn’t look happy. Did that mean they didn’t know anything?
“I wish I could say I had better news. But yes… we have made a little progress on the case.”
“Better news…?” Erin echoed.
“The autopsy isn’t done, but we were able to have the tea analyzed for its components.”
“And it was
n’t just comfrey, was it?” Erin asked.
“No.”
“What else?”
“Foxglove.”
Vic cocked her head. She was obviously more familiar with her herbs than Erin was. Erin was trying to think of any tea that had foxglove as an ingredient, and couldn’t.
“You’ve heard of it?” Erin asked Vic.
“Uh, yeah…” Vic looked at Terry. “It has those tall clusters of flowers in the summer. They’re really pretty.”
“Pretty, but deadly,” Terry said quietly. “They source a drug called digitalis from foxglove. A heart medication.”
“So it’s good for the heart?” Erin suggested hopefully, even though he had said it was deadly.
“In tiny, measured doses, it can be very effective. But you wouldn’t put foxglove into a tea. The plant itself is quite toxic.”
“It was supposed to be comfrey tea,” Erin said. “Do you think someone could mix up comfrey and foxglove? Are they similar?”
“It’s been known to happen. When they are not in bloom, comfrey and foxglove can look very similar. People have been known to confuse them.”
“That must be what happened, then. Joelle knew it was supposed to be comfrey. Something to help her to heal faster. When she drank it, she didn’t act like it tasted bad. I guess… she couldn’t tell by the taste.”
“You could smell it, though,” Terry pointed out.
“Yeah, but you know Erin’s nose,” Vic said. “Just because she can smell something, that doesn’t mean a normal person would have been able to. It didn’t smell bad to me.”
Erin closed her eyes and shook her head. “So it was an accident. That must be why she was acting so strangely when we got there. She’d already had some of the tea. And then when she had some more… I guess that was enough to finish her off? How much foxglove would she need to have to kill her?”
“I’ve got some experts compiling information for me, but from my nonprofessional internet searches… it looks like one or two leaves could kill within a few days. It’s not a fast poison like cyanide or water hemlock.”
His eyes were quick, focused sharply on Erin, watching her for her reaction. Erin looked away from him, frustrated that she would still be on his list, in spite of their personal relationship. “It wasn’t me, Officer Piper.”
“I don’t think it was,” he returned. “But I can’t let my personal feelings get in the way of the investigation. I shouldn’t even be here talking to you, I should get you down to the police department for an official statement. But like I say… I don’t think it was you.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m still on the job. I’m still investigating an unexpected death. If it was an accident, then it was an accident. But if it wasn’t, I can’t let myself be swayed by a pretty face.”
Erin rolled her eyes. “You can’t sweet talk me and investigate me at the same time.”
“Actually, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of it.”
“Not bad,” Vic agreed obligingly.
Erin wasn’t willing to give Terry a break, though. If they were close friends, then he couldn’t suspect her. He couldn’t be investigating her. In the past, with Angela’s murder especially, it was different. They weren’t involved yet then. But now that they were friends, getting ever closer, he couldn’t just step back and pretend to be objective.
“Erin, please…” Terry tried to take her hand. And while his warm grip felt comforting, Erin shook it off.
“No, Terry. You can tell me all you like that you don’t think I did it. If you’re still investigating me, then that’s sort of beside the point, isn’t it?”
He withdrew his hand. “I suppose I should hand the investigation over to someone else. The sheriff or Tom or some outside investigator… I could get someone from the county, or the FBI…”
“The FBI? For an accidental poisoning?”
“If that’s what it was.”
“What else would it be?” Vic demanded. “You think it was intentional? You think that Erin or whoever made that tea was trying to kill Joelle? I agree that no one around here liked her, but why would anyone try to kill her?”
“She might have hurt your business, Miss Victoria. Or Charley might have gotten sick and tired of trying to convince her to help open up The Bake Shoppe.”
“My business? You know very well it’s Erin’s business, I’m not the one who—” Vic looked over at Erin, and blanched. “I mean… I’m sorry, Erin, but it’s true. I’d lose my job if Auntie Clem’s went under, but it isn’t my business.”
“I know that. And so does Terry. And so will whoever he passes the investigation over to.”
Terry knew that she was telling him to go ahead. She wanted him to give the case to someone else, but she could see in his eyes that he was reluctant to do so. He didn’t want to let it go and give it to someone else. Erin had no idea what kind of investigative experience the sheriff or Tom had. Terry had always taken point on everything in the previous investigations. If he couldn’t trust the sheriff or Tom to be able to run down the culprit—if it was murder rather than an accident—then he’d have to get an outside investigator and take the matter completely out of the hands of the Bald Eagle Falls police department. Terry looked pained as he considered the alternatives.
“Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll give it to someone else.”
He waited for her to protest, but Erin didn’t. She didn’t want him looking at her and considering whether she could be a killer, either accidental or intentional. He had done enough digging into her past previously. She didn’t want her boyfriend—if that was what he was—being privy to the mistakes she had made in the past or the circumstances that she had found herself in that were beyond her control.
Vic raised her eyebrows. “Are you really going to make him give the case to someone else? What if he does and that person thinks you poisoned Joelle? Intentionally?”
Erin’s stomach tightened. “I didn’t do it.”
“I didn’t say you did. But some people… they’re not going to look past the first suspect. And being innocent doesn’t mean you’re not going to get convicted and thrown in the pokey. Erin, you have to sit up and pay attention. Terry isn’t going to accuse you of murder. But someone else might.”
“No, Erin’s right,” Terry said. “I shouldn’t be investigating it when she is a suspect. It’s a conflict of interest.”
“Then make her not a suspect.”
“I can’t do that, Vic. The circumstances are what they are. I don’t want to end up censured or disgraced because I listened to my heart instead of the evidence.”
Which again made Erin sound like she was guilty. The evidence would exonerate her, not convict her.
“Who are you going to give it to?” she asked.
“I have to think about it. Probably the sheriff.”
Erin nodded. “Well, he knows where to find me.”
Chapter 9
Erin’s heart was heavy as she made her way through the thick woods to go visit Adele. She didn’t want to have to be the one to break the news to Adele, but she didn’t want Adele to be surprised by the police investigation either.
She was sure that the investigation would prove that it was just an accident. Adele had accidentally included foxglove in the comfrey tea. She had been trying to help out. It was unfortunate, but not intentional. After Terry had gone, Vic had repeated to Erin that comfrey and foxglove looked similar enough to be confused with each other if they were not in bloom and the person gathering them was not experienced or careful enough. Erin hadn’t told Vic that it was Adele who had prepared Joelle’s tea.
It took a while to get to the cottage, and Erin hadn’t called ahead, so there was no guarantee she would be home. Erin knocked on the door, quietly at first, and then louder. There was no answer. Apparently, Adele was out.
With a sigh, Erin turned away from the door. She saw Adele approaching from the other side of the clearing.
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“Oh—Adele.”
Adele’s eyebrows went up. “Erin. I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I know. I should have called…”
“No, of course not. You’re welcome to come by here any time. It is your property.”
“That doesn’t mean I can just come in whenever I feel like it. Anyway… could we talk?”
Adele nodded. “Of course,” she agreed. She paused before approaching the door, looking around. Erin heard a caw, and Skye swooped in and landed on Adele’s shoulder. Adele put two fingers out and stroked the bird.
“Hello, Skye,” Erin greeted him softly.
The crow cocked his head at her curiously but didn’t immediately fly away.
“Could I touch him?” Erin asked.
“You’ll have to ask him.”
Erin took a couple of steps closer and reached her hand out tentatively toward Skye. He cawed and flapped away, disappearing into the trees. Erin shrugged.
“I guess we have to get to know each other better first.”
Adele nodded and let herself into the cabin. Erin watched as she took off her cloak, and then took a variety of greenery out of her satchel, which she arranged in piles on the counter.
“You’ve been out gathering herbs?” Erin asked.
“Yes.”
“Comfrey?”
Adele turned to look at Erin. “No comfrey today.”
She went back to laying out the various plants, and then sat down at the table. Erin sat across from her, feeling awkward without a cup of tea or something to occupy her hands.
“Did you hear about Joelle?” she asked finally.
Adele’s brow furrowed. “I heard that she passed,” she said after consideration. “But no one seemed to know what had happened. I knew that she had hurt herself, but I didn’t know she was sick. It seemed very sudden.”
“It was… and they still haven’t confirmed the cause of death. Not officially, anyway.”
Adele’s gaze darted to Erin’s face. “Not officially.”
Brewing Death Page 6