Ice Cream Murder (16 page)

Then again, what could Olivia possibly do to her in a place full of people and dogs?

“Maybe I should call Jack and let him know, just in case,” she said out loud to Sprinkles, who was panting happily in the passenger seat. “What do you think?”

 
Sprinkles gave her an ‘are-you-crazy?’ look.

“Right. Bad idea.”

Lexy took the turn onto Meadow Road, the lemon square settling in her stomach like a brick.
 

“I wonder if Nans has an update. She should have called by now.” She fished her cell phone out to check. “Oh, that’s right. I turned it off so I wouldn’t get interrupted while I was baking.”

Lexy pressed the button and the phone turned on, then dinged to announce she had a message. It wasn’t from Nans. It was from Norman.
 

She frowned as she hit the button to listen to the message. “I wonder what he wants?”

“Hi, Lexy. I was doing some surveillance on our suspects and Olivia is acting pretty strange. I’ve followed her to that old farm on Meadow Road. I’m going in to see what she’s up to.”

Lexy’s heart froze—they hadn’t yet told Norman about the attempt on Larry’s life. He had no idea Olivia was the killer!

She fumbled with the phone to press the call back button, her grip tightening on the steering wheel as she waited for it to connect. Her gut churned when it passed straight to voice mail—he must have his phone turned off so he could stalk Olivia without having it ring and alert her!

She pressed down on the accelerator. The farm was only about a half-mile ahead, but there was no time to waste. She had to warn Norman before Olivia killed him, too!

***

Lexy’s heart raced as the farmhouse appeared, a small dot on the horizon. As she got closer, she could see Norman’s beige car parked in front of the barn.
 

Should she go in honking her horn to warn him? No, that might panic Olivia and there was no telling what she’d do. Better to sneak up and surprise her from behind.

She cut the engine, gliding to a stop beside Norman’s car. Glancing over at Sprinkles, she hesitated a moment. Should she bring the dog or leave her in the car? Better to bring her and make sure she could protect her rather than risk Olivia coming across the car and harming her.

“Shhh! Sprinkles.” Lexy instructed the dog to be quiet and Sprinkles cocked her head to one side as if she understood. Lexy grabbed her leash and led her out the driver’s side.
 

Closing the door quietly behind her, she crept up to the old barn. The sliding barn door was cracked open about a foot. Lexy stood just outside it, straining to hear. The sound of a whippoorwill broke the silence of the forest, followed by the lonely call of a mourning dove. Squirrels scurried in the dried leaves next to the barn.
 

A creak sounded from inside.
 

Was Norman in there?
 

Lexy realized the old barn would be the perfect place to store drugs … or even make them. No wonder Olivia and Steve didn’t want the area developed into a mall.

Slipping into the dim interior of the barn, she waited a few seconds for her eyes to adjust. Sprinkles stood quietly by her side.
 

In front of her was an aisle flanked by horse stalls on either side. No sign of Norman or Olivia. To the right was a walled off section which must have contained another room and the small silo that was attached to the barn.

She thought she heard muted voices coming from the other side.

She started toward the sounds. An old board creaked as she put her weight on it and she froze in her tracks, her heartbeat hammering in her chest. No one came or yelled out. She continued on, Sprinkles at her side.

Nearing the door to the walled off section, Lexy reached into her bag and pulled out the can of Mace. Sprinkles stopped short, her nose up in the air, sniffing. She looked up at Lexy apologetically, then lurched around the corner of the wall, through a hall and into the round silo room, pulling Lexy with her.

Lexy’s heart stopped as she skidded into the room … and face-to-face with Olivia Banks.
 

Olivia was sitting awkwardly in a chair, Farfel balanced in her lap. Her wide eyes were filled with fear. Doubt bloomed in Lexy’s gut. This wasn’t the killer’s sneer she expected to see on Olivia’s face.

Olivia’s eyes slid to look at something behind Lexy’s left shoulder. Lexy turned in that direction.

Bam!

Pain exploded on the side of Lexy’s head and she went down, the can of Mace flying out of her hand and her palms scraping up splinters in the old, rough wooden flooring.
 

Her vision became fuzzy, her head spinning. A familiar voice cut through the haze.
 

“You just couldn’t stop snooping, could you?”

Lexy rolled on her side and looked up at the figure.
Her vision blurred in and out—she couldn’t quite make out who it was.
 

She blinked, clearing her vision enough to see who it was.

“Cora?”

Chapter Twenty

“That’s right.” Regis Banks personal assistant glared down the barrel of the gun. “You were expecting someone else?”

“Well, actually, I was.” Lexy sat up, eyeing the can of Mace only five feet in front of her.

“Don’t get any ideas.” Cora kicked the can further away.
 

Something in the corner caught Lexy’s eye. It took her a few minutes to realize it was Norman. He lay slumped on the floor facing away from them, his arms and legs tied together with rope.
 

“Yes, I found him snooping around, too. Apparently, your head is a bit harder than his—he’s been out since I hit him,” Cora said. “Now stand up and throw your bag over here.”

Lexy got on her hands and knees, then wobbled onto her feet. She tossed the bag over, her stomach sinking when Cora picked up the Mace and stuffed it inside. The Mace had been her only weapon.

Cora gestured with the gun for her to sit in a chair beside Olivia, who Lexy noticed was bound to her own chair with some kind of thick rope. As Lexy backed up, Cora moved over toward the door. Behind her, a small window in the other section of the barn taunted Lexy with a vision of freedom.

In contrast to the dire situation inside the barn, the pastoral scene outside the window was friendly—an old, gnarled oak tree with blue sky and green fields.
 

Something niggled Lexy’s memory.
 

She knew that scene.

Then it came to her—she’d seen that same tree in the photo in Cora’s office!

“That’s the picture in your office.” Lexy thrust her chin toward the window.

Cora was too smart to turn her back on Lexy. She smiled. “Yes, it is. How observant.”

“But how…?” Lexy’s brow creased, wondering how Cora had a picture of the view out the barn window of the old farm. Then her mind flashed on Cora’s signature on the birthday party catering receipt, her stomach crunching when she remembered Cora’s signature had a long last name starting with an ’S’.

’S’ as in Silversteen.
 

Why hadn’t she put it all together sooner?

“You’re the granddaughter. This is … was … your family farm.” Lexy stared at Cora, whose face flushed red with anger.

“That’s right. My grandfather was
swindled
out of this land by Regis Banks,” Cora spat the words out.

“So, it was
you
who switched the ice creams at the party?”

“Right again. That’s why I wanted the timing to be perfect, so he would die before he announced the development of this land … except you were late serving them and almost screwed the whole thing up.”

Cora gestured again and Lexy sat in the chair next to Olivia, who had been silently watching the whole exchange. Sprinkles and Farfel snuggled together in a ball on the floor.
 

Lexy sat down and Sprinkles ran to her, her tail wagging. Cora approached with some rope.
 

“Put your hands behind you,” Cora commanded. Lexy did as told, but as Cora started to bind them Sprinkles began growling, the hair on her neck standing on end.

Cora jumped back, pointing the gun at Sprinkles.

Lexy’s stomach twisted. “Don’t shoot her!”

“Get her to back off,” Cora ground out.

“Sprinkles, sit. It’s okay.” Sprinkles sat and Lexy almost cried with relief. “Good girl.”

“You keep her there and I won’t have to shoot her.” Cora approached, more cautiously this time. Sprinkles glanced up at Lexy who shook her head. Thankfully, Sprinkles stayed where she was. Her brown eyes regarded Cora with distrust, but she didn’t make a move toward her.

Lexy winced as Cora jerked the ropes tight, cutting into her wrist. All this time, the killer had been Cora!
 

If only she’d been more observant that day in Cora’s office she might have noticed where the picture was from and put two and two together. She remembered the dark smudges on Cora’s shoes that day—black, just like the powder that she’d seen spilled in the photography store.

“You stole the photos of the birthday party from Wolf’s, too,” Lexy said.

“Yes, of course.” Cora wrenched the ropes tighter. “I couldn’t take a chance that a photo had been taken of me switching those ice creams.”

“So that’s why they were missing!” Olivia piped up from her chair.

“You were there, too that day, though,” Lexy said. “I thought it was you who broke in.”

“No. I was supposed to go pick out some pictures of Daddy and my brothers, but I got the appointment date screwed up. I’m not very good at remembering appointments.” Olivia’s voice cracked. “Our family hasn’t been close in recent years and I just wanted pictures of them. I used to be close to my brothers and father when Mom was alive and I miss that. Anyway, I figured there wouldn’t be many more pictures of Daddy, but never realized those would actually be the very last ones. And I didn’t even get one because when I went back the next day they were missing.”
 

Cora snickered as she got to work on tying Lexy’s ankles to the legs of the chair. “Oh poor you, I never got those last pictures of my grandfather, either. He shot himself after your father stole the farm from him.”

“So you killed Regis as revenge for his tactics in purchasing the farm land … but did you kill Winston, too?” Lexy figured it couldn’t hurt to keep Cora talking while she tried to come up with an escape plan.

Cora smirked. “Of course.”

“You
killed
him?” Olivia’s forehead creased. “But I thought he died of a heart attack.”

“That’s what I wanted you to think,” Cora boasted. “I used a highly toxic herb that leaves very few traces and has the same symptoms of a heart attack.”

“Aconite from the wolfsbane plant,” Lexy said.

“How did you know Winston was murdered?” Cora wrinkled her brow at Lexy as she stood up from her rope tying task.

“We just thought it seemed suspicious, two deaths in the family like that. And seeing as Regis’ death wasn’t natural …” Lexy shrugged.

“Yes, you and your meddling grandmother,” Cora wrinkled her nose. “My only regret is that she and her troupe of old biddies aren’t here so I could do away with all of you. If it wasn’t for your meddling, no one would have suspected anything!”

Lexy’s stomach tightened and she said a silent prayer of thanks that Nans hadn’t been with her.
 

“But how did you know about the aconite? I thought it wouldn’t show up on a toxicology screening?” Cora narrowed her eyes at Lexy.

“It won’t show up on the regular screening, but we had our suspicions and convinced the police to do an extended screening. The aconite showed up on that.” Lexy tilted her head. “It was pretty risky to put aconite in Winston’s food before the meeting, though. Anyone could have eaten some and suffered the same fate. Weren’t you worried that more than one person would end up dead … or that Winston might not eat the food you poisoned?”

Cora’s laugh sent a chill up Lexy’s spine. “You underestimate me. Ingestion isn’t the only way to die from aconite. It can also kill you by being absorbed through the skin.”

“The skin? But how would you do that?” Lexy’s mind flashed to the pile of wet naps in Cora’s trash barrel. “Of course! The wet naps!”

“Yes, it took me quite a few tries to perfect my technique.” Cora’s voice was tinged with pride. “But eventually, I was able to get the aconite oils on a wet nap and seal it back up so no one would notice. Of course, no one really looked at them carefully anyway, and Winston was the only one that ever used them. It would have been the perfect murder if it wasn’t for you being so nosy.”

“But where did you get the aconite?” Lexy asked.

“Why, I grew it, of course,” Cora spread her arms wide. “Right here on this farm. Actually, you helped me, Olivia. I wouldn’t have been able to grow it or harvest the oils without your book on herbs.”

“So that’s why you borrowed it!” Olivia’s eyes grew wide. “To poison my own brother.”

“At least I made good use of the book,” Cora said to Olivia. “Seems like you weren’t doing anything with it.”

Olivia straightened in her chair. “That’s not true!” She looked at them, then snapped her mouth shut.

What’s that all about?
Was Olivia up to something with herbs, too?

Lexy didn’t have time to wonder about what Olivia was up to. There were more pressing matters at hand. Like how to escape from the barn.

“Well, you sure did go to great lengths to get revenge against the Banks family.” Lexy said.

Cora’s face grew dark. “Yes, I’ve been planning it for decades. My parents died when I was a baby and Grandpa and Grandma raised me on this farm. The farm had been in my family for several generations and my grandfather sunk into a deep depression once it was stolen from him. He shot himself, and Grandma died shortly after from a broken heart. They were the only family I had … so I decided to take the same type of revenge on the Banks family. Let them see how it is to lose family members, one by one.”

“But the police are onto you. They know the deaths were murder now and they’ll open an investigation,” Lexy said.