Dead Men Don't Eat Cookies (11 page)

After Lenora’s dramatic afternoon performance in the cookbook nook, the rest of the workday felt anti-climactic to Olivia. As closing time approached, The Gingerbread House felt more like a cookie cutter mausoleum than a thriving business. Maddie had slipped out to buy more baking supplies, and Olivia had sent Bertha home early. She began to wonder if her customers dropped by only when they anticipated entertainment . . . and Maddie’s cookies, of course. Would anyone notice if the store closed early? Probably. Knowing Chatterley Heights, an early closing would trigger rumors that business wasn’t going well, or that she and Maddie were losing interest in cookie cutters. Like that would ever happen.

Olivia began rescuing errant cutters that customers had plucked from their displays and then abandoned far from home. She came to the grouping of classic cutters and realized the heart shape was missing. She remembered watching Dolly pick it up, probably because it reminded her of the tiny pierced heart cutter charm she’d made for Alicia. Olivia found the wandering heart on a nearby ledge. She held the cutter in her
palm and thought about the necklace Alicia had given her father. If those bones once belonged to Kenny Vayle, then he had died wearing his daughter’s gift. But if he had thrown the necklace into the wall to make it look as if he were dead, then he wasn’t worth his daughter’s adoration.

Who was Kenny Vayle? What had he really been like? It seemed he was either loved or despised. Other than that, Olivia hadn’t learned much about him. Del would be investigating to some extent, of course, but he’d wait for word from the crime lab before committing too much of his time to the case. If there was a case . . . For all Olivia knew, those bones had belonged to an itinerant vagrant. Perhaps someone stuffed him into the wall simply to avoid trouble. Yet that didn’t explain the cookie cutter necklace found with the remains.

Olivia’s cell phone vibrated. She answered with a cheerful, “Hey, Maddie. Still shopping? There’s nothing to do here, so you might as well head home. I’ll be closing the store in about five minutes.”

“So did you hear the news?” Maddie asked.

“Are we talking local or national?” Olivia returned the heart to its display and checked for other orphaned cutters.

“Local, of course. Is there any other? Wait, hang on, I have to pay for the groceries.” A few moments later, Maddie said, “I still love debit cards, even though I get up in the middle of the night to check my bank account.”

“You’re up in the middle of the night, anyway.” Olivia locked the Gingerbread House door from the inside. “Again I ask, what news?”

“Alicia’s boyfriend, Kurt, got arrested,” Maddie said. “I heard it from one of the clerks at the grocery store. She and I lived next door to each other before my folks died. Anyway, it turns out Kurt is a lot older than Alicia. He’s got a record, mostly for breaking into cars when he was younger. Now he spends his time online. And he definitely has anger issues.”

“What has he been charged with?” Olivia closed the
curtains and dimmed the store lights, which was her signal to Spunky that it was time to head up to their apartment. Spunky stretched, hopped down from his chair, and ambled toward the store’s front door.

“One could argue that he was arrested for extreme stupidity,” Maddie said. “The kid took a swing at Pete sometime earlier today. He missed, of course. I can’t believe we didn’t hear about it before now, but I guess Pete wanted to downplay the incident. For a former prizefighter, he is remarkably slow to boil. Ida finally broke down and told Polly, and that was that.”

Olivia paused at the door leading up to her apartment. “So did Pete fire Alicia before her boyfriend tried to hit him? That doesn’t sound like Pete.”

“There is undoubtedly more to the story, and rest assured I will hunt it down,” Maddie said. “I stopped at the diner, but Ida wasn’t there, and I didn’t see Pete, but I will persevere. When I do find out what happened, you will be first on my urgent contact list. Meanwhile, I’m heading to the store to dump these groceries in the kitchen.”

“I’ll be upstairs feeding Spunky,” Olivia said. “Are you and Lucas coming to dinner tonight? Mom said she invited you. We should talk about how to handle Alicia. I’d love to pepper her with all my questions, but she seems fragile.”

“I’ll be there, but Lucas has to work. I doubt we’ll ever get much information from Del, so we’ll have to find a way to wheedle it out of Alicia. Hang on again.” In a few moments, Maddie’s cheerful voice returned. “Sorry, I had to hoist the grocery bag. I got a bit carried away with the shopping. We already have plenty of cookies to bring for dessert tonight, but I also picked up some fancy decorated cupcakes from that new bakery. I’ll have a bit of free time before we need to leave for dinner. Shall I fire up the magic computer fingers for some online research?”

“I have a better idea,” Olivia said. “Dinner isn’t until eight, so I wondered if we could pay Aunt Sadie a quick visit? Would we be interrupting her own dinner?”

“I just happened to pick up some of Pete’s meatloaf during my shopping excursion. The stuff is irresistible. I can bring that along for her.”

“Good idea.” Olivia took her keys from her pocket as Spunky, impatient for dinner, whined and pawed the door to the staircase leading up to Olivia’s apartment. As the door opened, Spunky squeezed through and bounded up the steps.

“We can spare some cookies and a cupcake for Aunt Sadie’s dessert,” Maddie said. “She has a hard time baking these days. I can’t wait till Lucas and the guys finish building the mother-in-law addition to our house. Wait, why are we dropping in on Aunt Sadie?”

“Because Aunt Sadie knows everything about Chatterley Heights.” Olivia followed Spunky up the steps to her apartment. “I’d like to know more about the boarding house. Why would Kenny Vayle end up there?”

“I’m unlocking the alley door as we speak,” Maddie said. “I’ll wait for you in the kitchen.”

The instant Olivia opened her apartment door, Spunky rocketed toward the kitchen. “Maddie, I have to feed a starving dog and then take him outside. After that, I’ll meet you in the kitchen. I’m thinking we should bring Spunks along this evening. He might be able to charm Alicia.”

“Good idea,” Maddie said. “See you soon.”

After Spunky had devoured his kibbles, followed by his Milk Bone dessert, Olivia accompanied him to the doggie bathroom, also known as the side yard. By then it was six forty-five and dark. “Okay, Spunks, let’s go say ‘hi’ to Maddie in the kitchen, just for a minute. Then you can guard the sales floor until we leave for dinner.” Olivia led her pup to the back of her Queen Anne, where the Gingerbread House kitchen opened to an alley. Usually, a motion-detector lamp over the alley door switched on automatically. This time it did not. The darkness heightened Olivia’s vigilance as she flashed back to her years in Baltimore. With her now ex-husband in medical school, Olivia had taken business courses during the day and
had a job that sometimes kept her working until well after dark. Since the job was only two blocks away from their apartment, she used to walk home. Her heart still raced whenever she passed a stranger under a darkened streetlamp.

However, Olivia reminded herself, now she had Spunky. Her fierce protector was trotting confidently toward the alley door to the Gingerbread House kitchen. No sooner had she begun to relax than Spunky stiffened, his ears perked. Olivia froze as she watched those sensitive Yorkie ears shift position, trying to pinpoint and identify a sound that Olivia could not hear. Spunky growled in the direction of the Gingerbread House garbage can. The trash collector must have deposited the can in a dark area a few feet away from its usual place near the alley door. With the motion detector out of commission, Olivia could barely see the outline of the can.

Spunky bounded into the air and unleashed a torrent of yaps. Olivia tightened her grip on his leash. Though she couldn’t see into the darkness behind the garbage can, she was certain nothing as large as a person had leaped out of hiding and escaped down the alley. Spunky had probably heard a squirrel foraging for food. The little guy considered squirrels his mortal enemies because he could never catch one.

Yanking on Spunky’s leash, Olivia edged toward the locked door to the store kitchen. She heard the sound of a latch releasing. The door opened, and Maddie’s face appeared. “Hey, you two. Are you trying to scare the life out of me? Now I’ll need an extra cookie to calm my nerves.” She opened the alley door wider to allow Olivia to enter. Spunky seemed to have lost interest in whatever he’d heard behind the garbage can. He ran joyfully into the forbidden kitchen, but his leash kept him from getting very far.

“Sorry, kiddo.” Olivia scooped the pup under her free arm. “Back in a sec,” she said. While Olivia released Spunky from his leash, Maddie held the kitchen door open. She pulled it shut in time to prevent Spunky from sneaking back into the kitchen.

“What happened out there?” Maddie filled a cup with leftover coffee and handed it to Olivia. “I noticed the motion detector light was out when I arrived. Should we call Del and ask for backup?”

“It was probably just a squirrel,” Olivia said, though her hand shook as she poured cream into her coffee. “Spunky has more acute hearing than I do.”

“If you say so.” Maddie turned off Mr. Coffee and rinsed the residue from the bottom of the carafe. “All the same, I’m glad we’re taking that noisy little critter with us this evening. And I suggest we leave by the front door. I’m all for good lighting.”

“No argument here.” Olivia drained her coffee cup and left it in the sink. “We’ll only have about forty-five minutes with Aunt Sadie before we’ll need to head for Mom and Allan’s house. Let’s take my car. It’s parked near the corner of the square.”

“Time to roll.” Maddie slid a covered cake pan off the top of the refrigerator. “I’ll carry the cookies and the goodies I picked up for Aunt Sadie. You grab the mutt.”

In just under ten minutes, Olivia’s distinctive PT Cruiser pulled up in front of Aunt Sadie’s home, where Maddie had lived from age ten until she’d married Lucas Ashford. Olivia parked under a streetlamp, mostly for security but also because she loved showing off her car’s paint job: a colorful depiction of The Gingerbread House festooned with somersaulting gingerbread figures.

“I’ll run up and ring the doorbell,” Maddie said. “Then I’ll come right back for the food. It takes Aunt Sadie a while to maneuver her wheelchair to the door these days, mostly because she’s been sorting through everything in the house. She needs to downsize for the move to her new apartment in our place. Not an easy task when you’ve lived in the same house for fifty years.” Maddie’s long, muscular legs carried her swiftly across the porch. She punched the doorbell and
raced back to the car. “Reminds me of our evil childhood pranks. Remember, Livie? We used to ring doorbells and hide in the bushes to giggle at the clueless adults.”

Olivia chuckled as she handed Maddie the pan of cookies and the food for Aunt Sadie’s dinner. “Fun times . . . at least they were until my mom found out what we were doing.” Olivia remembered well how mortified she had felt when they had to return to each victim’s house and confess their silly crime. It didn’t help that several homeowners had rolled their eyes and laughed.

Aunt Sadie’s greeting felt far more satisfying. Though she was now confined to a wheelchair, she always seemed vibrant. “Now come in quickly and close that door,” she said. “Then we can hug in comfort.”

Maddie bent down to wrap her arms around the woman who had taken her in after her parents—Aunt Sadie’s younger sister and her husband—died in a car wreck. “I love this afghan you are knitting,” Maddie said. “Peach and deep red . . . I’ll have to try that color combination with royal icing.” She kissed the curly gray hair on the top of her aunt’s head. “We brought cookies, a cupcake, and Pete’s meatloaf. I’ll go get you a plate.”

“Don’t bother, Maddie, dear. I have a fork underneath my knitting. I’ll eat the meatloaf right out of the box. Oh, and I happen to have a spoon so I can get every last bit of Pete’s special sauce.” She opened the take-out box and took a sniff. “That man is a genius. Now, while I eat, you two girls sit right there on the sofa and tell me what you want to know. Am I right to assume that this concerns those sad bones you found in the old Chatterley Boarding House?” Aunt Sadie wheeled herself into her living room, while Maddie and Olivia settled cross-legged on the roomy sofa.

“Was it named after the Chatterley family?” Olivia asked.

“It was named
by
a Chatterley.” Aunt Sadie smiled. “That was back in the 1920s, when the building was first built. It was
considered quite a genteel place where even a woman could live alone and maintain her respectability. That changed in the thirties, of course, after the stock market crash.”

“Who owned the building?” Olivia asked.

“Now that’s an interesting story.” Aunt Sadie handed her container of meatloaf to Maddie, and said, “I can finish my dinner later. Right now I’d rather have Spunky on my lap while I nibble on dessert and talk about the old days.” Spunky heard his name, went right over to Aunt Sadie, and jumped up to her lap. Maddie handed her a small plate holding a star-shaped cookie decorated with lilac icing and dark red sparkling sugar. “Who could ask for more?” Aunt Sadie murmured before she bit a point off the star.