“Because you are a suspect if it was intentional poisoning.”
“Yes. But I didn’t poison her. Not intentionally, and not accidentally. I just went over there to give her a hand.”
“Because that’s the kind of person you are.”
“Yes!” Erin insisted. “You ask anyone who knows me. I like to help people. Especially looking after their dietary needs. Maybe you could have figured that out by the fact that I run a bakery for people with dietary restrictions. It’s kind of what I do!”
She hadn’t meant to reply so sharply, but the sheriff had hit a sensitive spot. He grinned at her suddenly. He’d been intentionally egging her on, trying to get an emotional reaction from her. Maybe he thought that she’d say something to implicate herself.
“I had heard a rumor to that effect,” he chuckled.
“See if I ever bring you cookies.”
“I’ll just steal Terry’s.”
The frigid atmosphere warmed quickly. Erin shook her head, embarrassed by how she had let him get to her. After so many years of being teased and bullied by foster siblings, she should have had a thicker skin. Joelle’s death had left her anxious and on edge. She was saddened, even though Joelle was someone she hadn’t liked. Maybe because Joelle was someone she hadn’t liked and would never come to like. There was no chance that the two of them would ever be reconciled and become friendly toward each other.
“Sheriff… you know I didn’t kill Joelle. I would never do something like that. I’m a sucker for anyone and anything sick or suffering. I just wanted to help her while she was under the weather. Maybe I thought that if I did something nice for her, we could be… not friends, but maybe just… tolerant of each other. I didn’t want anyone fighting me. I just wanted to be on good terms.”
“That wasn’t likely to happen, if she opened up a bakery that competed with yours.”
“The other person trying to open that bakery is my sister. You think I’m going to kill her too?”
“I hope not. How do you feel about Charley Campbell trying to reopen The Bake Shoppe?”
“I’m nervous about it. But I’ll stick it out. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to survive the competition. If Charley can get Davis to agree to open it, or manages to take it away from him… I’m not going to fight her. I want her to succeed too. I’m hoping that we can carve up the Bald Eagle Falls business so that we can both survive.”
Sheriff Wilmot nodded. “Do you think she’s going to be able to?”
“I haven’t talked to her the last couple of days, but I don’t think things are looking too good right now. Davis tried to get her out of the way so that he could have the full estate to himself, and now she’s trying to do the same thing to him. Legally, but still… they’re not going to work together, so Charley is either going to have to convince the trustees that it’s in the best interest of the estate to open the bakery, even with Davis objecting, or she needs to prove that he had a hand in Trenton’s death, so that he can’t inherit from Trenton’s estate.”
The sheriff raised his brows. “Is that what’s going on? I admit I was confused as to why Joelle would be back in town. But if Charley was trying to get proof that Davis was involved in Trenton’s death, then getting close to Joelle would be the best way to do that.”
Erin nodded. “I couldn’t have done it. I couldn’t pretend to be interested in Joelle while secretly trying to find a way to convict them both of murder. But Charley’s… different.”
“She’s been associating with people who would do that and a lot worse.”
“Yeah. In her world, it makes sense. I just couldn’t be that mercenary.”
“Well, at least you’re trying to stick it out.”
Erin frowned. It sounded as if he knew about her past. As if he knew that in the past, when things got bad, Erin had moved on rather than tough it out. And probably he did. Terry had run background on her when she had first been implicated in Angela’s death. He didn’t know everything, but he knew a lot. And that file was probably fully accessible by Sheriff Wilmot and anyone else who did work for the department.
“I really want to make this work,” Erin told him. “Bald Eagle Falls is the first place I could really call home in a long time. I don’t want to have to leave.”
“Well, let’s keep working on that. No one thought that you could make a gluten-free bakery work in Bald Eagle Falls to start with. You’ve proven them all wrong. You just hang in there and keep at it. See what happens.”
Erin nodded. Sheriff Wilmot closed the file folder in front of him, signaling the end of the interview. He stood up. Erin followed his lead and pushed herself up off of the lumpy couch with its uncomfortable buttons. She rubbed her backside.
“Sorry,” the sheriff apologized. “I keep promising I’m going to replace that old monster. One of these days…”
“Oh, it’s fine…”
“No, it’s a dinosaur and there’s no good reason for keeping it around. Well, I want to thank you for coming in, Miss Price. And thank you for trying to help a stranger out, even if things didn’t work out the way you had expected.”
“Maybe next time, I’ll just mind my own business.”
“No, I don’t think so.” He smiled at her. “And it would be a shame if you did.”
Chapter 11
Exiting the sheriff’s office, Erin ran into Melissa Lee in the administrative office, sorting and filing a sheaf of papers in the rows of files. She smiled at Erin.
“Hey! How’s it going? He wasn’t too hard on you, was he?” Melissa shot a look at Sheriff Wilmot’s closed door. “He really isn’t too bad. He puts on a gruff front, but inside, he’s really just a pussycat.”
Erin nodded and stopped to chat with Melissa. “He was okay. He got me a bit wound up to start with… but he doesn’t seem like such a bad guy. He’s just doing his job.”
Melissa nodded. “It’s such a shame that Terry couldn’t stay on the case. We all know you didn’t have anything to do with it, but I guess he couldn’t let himself be accused of having a bias toward you, with the two of you being so close, and all.” Melissa’s confidential tone was like that of a high school girl wanting to get all of the details of her friend’s hot date. Erin’s cheeks warmed, and she rolled her eyes.
“There’s nothing between us,” she declared. “I mean… we’re friends, and we’ve gone on a few dates, but…”
“You two have been the item ever since Angela’s investigation,” Melissa argued. “You may not be all over each other, but…” She searched for the right words. “You definitely have stars in your eyes.”
Erin laughed, blushing more. “I hope you’re right. But right now… things are going to have to be on hold until this gets sorted out.”
Melissa shook her head. “No, they don’t. Terry isn’t investigating the case anymore, so you two can be as involved as you want. That was the whole reason for giving the case to the sheriff.”
“I know.” Erin didn’t want to have to explain her feelings to Melissa. They were too elusive for her to even label. The fact that Terry had considered her a suspect—probably the prime suspect—in Joelle’s death, despite their involvement, left a bitter taste in her mouth. He shouldn’t have ever even considered it. He knew what kind of person she was, and he should have known immediately that she didn’t have anything to do with Joelle’s death. But his professionalism had won out over his feelings for Erin. “But I think… we’re going to wait until things are resolved with this case.”
Melissa put her hand on Erin’s arm. “You can’t let things get in the way of your relationship with Terry. The two of you have to be stronger than that.”
Erin thought back to what she knew about Melissa and her relationships. The number of men she had been involved with in the time since Erin had arrived in Bald Eagle Falls was easy to tally up. Zero. She had not been dating or even attracted to any man in the time that Erin had known her. Of course, Melissa could be going to the city and living a wild and cra
zy lifestyle there without anyone in Bald Eagle Falls knowing about it, but somehow Erin doubted it. Melissa was involved with community events and with her part time job at the police department, which seemed to provide enough income for her to live on. She was always up on the latest gossip, but Erin never heard anything juicy about her, except for the fact that she and Davis had been involved back in high school. Whatever had happened back then seemed to have soured Melissa permanently on the idea of a relationship.
“How are things with you and Davis?” Erin asked, not so much because she thought there was still a relationship there to be explored, but to distract Melissa from her interest in Erin’s love life. “Do you go out there to visit him?”
Melissa withdrew her hand from Erin’s arm like she had been burned. “Who told you that?” she demanded. “If I’ve been out to the prison, it’s not because I have any feelings for Davis Plaint. And if I did, why would I pursue someone like that? He tried to kill you and he did kill poor Bertie Braceling. He might say that was accidental, just an impulse that he acted on without having a chance to think, but that doesn’t matter. Poor Bertie was a pillar of this community. Davis even admits that Bertie never did anything to hurt him. He helped Davis years ago, when he didn’t have anyone else to turn to.”
It certainly sounded like Melissa was seeing Davis Plaint. How else would she have known Davis’s excuses for having run down Bertie Braceling in cold blood?
“Has he ever said anything about me?”
“Has he ever said what about you?” Melissa returned. “Why would he talk about you?”
“Well, if he talked about Bertie, he might just as easily have talked about me. We were together that day. And then there was Alton…”
“Davis didn’t have anything to do with what Alton did. He never told Alton to go after you.”
That sounded suspiciously like a ‘yes’ to Erin. She didn’t say anything, not sure how to continue the conversation. Melissa leaned in closer to Erin. “Davis is trying to get himself turned around. That’s not easy to do when you’re in prison. He’s lived a hard life and he’s never really had the opportunity to change. He’s getting counseling now. He really does want to be a better person.”
“He hasn’t had the opportunity to change before?” Erin challenged. “It isn’t like anyone has been stopping him. He’s a grown man. He could have decided to turn himself around long before he ended up in prison.”
“You don’t understand what it’s like for an addict. He wasn’t in prison, but he was the prisoner of his own body. You don’t know what that’s like.”
Erin shrugged. “Okay, I’m not a drug addict, so I don’t understand what he’s gone through. But there are a lot of people who are, and who turn themselves around before they end up in prison or having done the things that he has. You said once that you’d never go back to him, after all he put you through when you were younger. I guess you changed your mind on that.”
“I haven’t ‘gone back to him.’” Melissa disagreed. “We are not a couple. I’m not dating him. Just because I visit him, that doesn’t mean there’s anything between us. I wouldn’t get into the middle of all of that drama again.”
Erin raised her brows in disbelief. It certainly sounded to her like Melissa was putting herself right back into the middle of Davis’s drama again.
“Well, I’m glad you’re not letting yourself be pulled in by him again.”
Melissa’s usual broad smile was gone. “I’m not,” she asserted. “I’d never get involved with him again after all the stuff that happened when we were kids. I wouldn’t let that happen.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want you getting hurt.”
“He can’t hurt me. He’s in prison. There’s nothing he can do to me while he’s in there.”
“That’s good,” Erin agreed again.
Melissa was getting more and more agitated, acting as if Erin were arguing with her rather than agreeing. “It’s different than when we were kids. I didn’t understand back then what a monster addiction was, how totally it could change a person. It wasn’t his fault that he behaved how he did. And it wasn’t his fault, the way that his mother and brother treated him. And his father, cheating on Angela and putting the family in jeopardy…”
“He couldn’t help any of that,” Erin agreed. “But he still had choices. I don’t know exactly what happened between the two of you, but he could still choose how he treated you.”
Melissa walked with Erin out of the police department’s offices, away from the sharp ears of Clara Jones and anyone else who might overhear them there. “With the way his family acted, Davis really didn’t have a chance. You don’t know what it was like, the way he was bullied.”
“He’s not a teenager anymore. He’s a grown man. He’s got you feeling sorry for him, but he’s the one who got himself in prison. Nobody bullied him into killing Trenton or Bertie or trying to kill me.”
Melissa bristled. “He didn’t kill Trenton. That was an accident. And that was Joelle, not Davis.”
“Are you sure of that?” Erin held Melissa’s gaze. “Are you really sure he had nothing to do with it? He didn’t tell Joelle about Trenton’s allergy? He wasn’t involved in the plan to feed him something that would kill him?”
Erin thought about Joelle’s death and couldn’t suppress a sudden shiver. Had Davis planned a way to get rid of Joelle from inside prison? She was the one person who could testify if he had planned his own brother’s murder. And it wouldn’t be the first time that Davis had tried to orchestrate such a plan from behind prison walls. With Charley digging around and trying to get Joelle to admit to Davis’s involvement in the plan to kill Trenton, did Davis decide that it was time to get rid of Joelle? With her dead, there was no one else who could testify as to Davis’s role in the murder.
“What is it?” Melissa asked, studying Erin.
“I… nothing. I was just thinking about… something. Maybe I should tell the sheriff…”
“You don’t need to tell him anything else,” Melissa insisted. “You’ve already told him all that you know. So just leave it in his hands now. He’s a competent investigator.”
Had Melissa been able to read Erin’s thoughts that clearly in her expression? She couldn’t know what Erin had or hadn’t told the sheriff, or what direction the sheriff would take the investigation. She might be thinking the exact opposite to what she was saying. Leave Sheriff Wilmot to flounder around with the information he already had, and he’d never figure out what had happened. Davis would be safe, because the sheriff would never figure out his part in Joelle’s death. Could it be?
“You’re right,” Erin told Melissa. “I’m sure he’ll sort it out all on his own.”
Charley had told Erin on more than one occasion that she had a terrible poker face and could not lie without telegraphing it. Erin hoped that was just because Charley was her sister and had an intuitive grasp of Erin’s mental processes. Hopefully, she wasn’t quite as transparent to Melissa, or the woman would have no doubt that Erin didn’t intend to stay away from Sheriff Wilmot. He needed to know of the possibility that Davis might have been involved in Joelle’s death.
How Davis could have had a hand in it wasn’t immediately apparent, but he had a stronger motive than anyone in Bald Eagle Falls, including Erin. He could have influenced Melissa or someone else to take action against Joelle. If Vic and Erin could find the key and let themselves into Joelle’s house, then what was to stop anyone else from doing the same and spiking her tea with foxglove? Erin didn’t want to think Melissa capable of such a thing, but maybe there were others Davis could talk into acting on his behalf.
Chapter 12
Erin was glad to be back at the bakery, doing what she did best, surrounded by her loyal customers, with Vic at her side. That was where she belonged. She didn’t really feel calm and at home except when she lost herself in her work at the bakery or was at home making lists or reading through Clementine’s genealogy books.
“Ever
ything went okay with the sheriff?” Vic asked, watching Erin mix up another batch of cookie dough.
“Yes, it was just fine. I was pretty nervous at first, and he was doing the best he could to get me worked up, but you know… he’s not a bad guy. And I think he’ll do a good job of the investigation.”
“As good as Terry?”
Erin shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe he’s the one who trained Terry.”
“I never actually thought of that,” Vic admitted. “He’s always sort of in the background.”
“I know. But he’s smart. He’ll do okay. I’m glad we’ve got him instead of the FBI. Take how nervous I was of Sheriff Wilmot and multiply it by about a hundred.”
Vic nodded.
“You’re supposed to see him this afternoon?” Erin recalled.
“Yeah. And talking about nervous… I’m about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs.”
“Just tell him what happened. Neither of us had anything to do with Joelle’s death. We just happened to be there when she died. The sheriff doesn’t have any reason to be suspicious of us.”
“Except that we let ourselves into her house and were there when she died. We could have given her something, in her tea or a pill or injection. Or just a pillow over her face. Joelle could have ruined our business if she agreed to open The Bake Shoppe. That’s a good enough motive for some people.”
“He doesn’t think you poisoned Joelle. No matter what he says, just stay calm and answer his questions truthfully.”
“Is that what you did?” Vic’s smile suggested that she knew Erin hadn’t been the perfect interviewee herself.
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