Lemon Pies and Little White Lies (5 page)

Ella Mae tried to speak, but the image of Aiden bopping around town in her pink truck, which was emblazoned with images of pies and silver stars, had her laughing all over again. What made it so funny was that Aiden Upton could be the poster child for masculinity. Measuring well over six feet, he towered over the rest of The Charmed Pie Shoppe staff and was as brawny as a bull. His arms and legs were tree-trunk thick and his chest was as solid as a boulder. He wore tight T-shirts featuring soda or junk food logos that emphasized his incredible physique. Today’s was a faded green Mountain Dew shirt.

“Come on, Aiden,” Ella Mae said once she had herself under control again. “You look like the Incredible Hulk’s younger brother. You could dress in a tutu and people would still find you manly.” She gestured at his T-shirt. “At least you wore green. Your shirt probably saved you from being pinched by half a dozen bank tellers during your last delivery.”

Aiden shook his head. “Nah. They know I’m off the market. Even so, the manager gave me such a nice tip that I’ll
be able to take Suzy to the Wicket tonight for green beer and pub food.”

“See? Working here has its perks,” Jenny said. She gave her brother’s shirt a tug. “You’re changing before your date with Suzy, aren’t you?”

While Jenny teased Aiden about his limited wardrobe, Ella Mae was on the verge of telling Aiden that Suzy might not be free this evening when she stopped herself. Why should she ruin her best friend’s date? She could start researching on her own and include Suzy tomorrow. One glance at Aiden’s dreamy expression told her how much he was looking forward to celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day with his girlfriend. Suzy and Aiden hadn’t been dating long, but all of Havenwood knew that Aiden Upton was completely smitten with the lovely and clever bookshop owner.

“You two are going to have a great time,” she said, feeling a mild stab of envy. She’d love to spend the evening at Havenwood’s only pub listening to Irish ballads and exchanging bawdy limericks with the locals, but she had work to do. Grabbing a ball of dough and her rolling pin, she started rolling out the crust for the chocolate pecan pie.

“I have one more delivery on the schedule,” Aiden said. “It’s not far from Partridge Hill, so should I just head home afterward?”

When Jenny and Aiden had been forced to leave Oak Knoll, a small town in Tennessee, Ella Mae had offered them temporary lodging in her mother’s large house. At the time, her mother had been trapped in the grove. After her release, she invited the siblings to stay with her at Partridge Hill as long as they wished. She told them multiple times that she enjoyed their company and would be sad to see them go, especially since Ella Mae lived on her own in the renovated guest cottage at the back of the property.

“Yes, go on home.” Ella Mae said and then glanced at Jenny. “What are your plans for tonight?”

Jenny shrugged. “They’re not as cool as Aiden’s. I’m taking Miss Lulu out for a run, and then I’m heading to a friend’s house—someone I knew from Oak Knoll—to gorge on mint chocolate chip ice cream while watching
Waking Ned Devine
. I love that movie. You should join us. It’ll be a whole bunch of single gals wallowing—oh!” She stopped abruptly. “I didn’t mean to imply that you were . . .” She trailed off.

“Open your mouth, sis. I’ll help you stick your foot in it.” Aiden chucked Jenny in the arm.

“I’m not offended.” Ella Mae slid the pie dish into the oven and then smiled at Jenny. “I know what you meant. Normally, I’d jump at the chance to eat a pint of ice cream, but I’m going to stay here and make a treat for a woman named Mrs. Drever. She lives in the hills above the lake, and I haven’t seen her around lately. It’ll do me good to pay her a visit.” Catching sight of the keys to her pink mail truck, she added, “Jenny, you should head out with Aiden. Reba can handle the rest of the tea service, and you’ll be needing your car later anyway.”

Jenny hesitated. “Are you sure? Aiden can always swing back here and pick me up.” She held up her index finger. “Then again, if he has a date, he could be primping for two hours. The man takes longer to get ready than a girl going to her senior prom.”

Aiden reddened but didn’t refute the accusation.

Ella Mae laughed and shooed them both out the door.

Alone in her kitchen, she added pecans, brown sugar, corn syrup, eggs, and vanilla extract to a bowl. Gently stirring the filling, Ella Mae closed her eyes and called forth memories from her early childhood. She remembered being helped out of the bathtub. Shivering with cold, someone—it must have been
Reba—had wrapped Ella Mae in a big, fluffy towel and held her until she was warm. She flashed on another image. She was in her bed and had just had a terrible nightmare. Her mother appeared by her side, drying her tears with the corner of her robe while humming a lullaby. Ella Mae could almost feel the soft, ocean-blue comforter from her childhood bed and smell her mother’s perfume of roses and moonlight. She poured these images and feelings of comfort and love into Mrs. Drever’s pie.

“You look like you’re makin’ somethin’ special,” Reba said, startling Ella Mae from her reverie.

“I am. And I’ve sent the Upton siblings home. You and I need to talk.” She pointed toward the dining room. “How many customers are left?”

“Half a dozen. They’re all about done too.” Reba narrowed her eyes. “But I can’t wait to hear what you have to say. I can tell it’s serious because you keep touchin’ your burn scar.”

Ella Mae hadn’t realized she’d been doing that. Sticking her hand into her apron pocket, she said, “Yes, it’s serious.” And then she gave Reba an abbreviated version of what she’d seen at Aunt Verena’s house.

“What does any of this have to do with Mrs. Drever?” Reba asked.

“Her daughter lives in the Orkneys, so she must be worried sick. I just want to check on her.”

“She’s the one who gave you that recipe for the banoffee pie.” Reba raised her eyes to the ceiling and moaned. “I have dreams about that pie.” Shaking her head as if to clear it, she looked through the window to the dining room and back at Ella Mae again. “Okay, so we’ll drop by her place after work and then hit the books. I might not have Suzy’s ability to memorize everythin’ I read, but I can do my best to help you find what you’re lookin’ for.”

Ella Mae smiled at her. “What would I do without you?”

Reba peeked through the window leading into the dining room. “Have a bunch of unsatisfied customers, I suspect. Be right back. It looks like everyone’s finishin’ up at once.”

•   •   •

An hour later, the two women were in Ella Mae’s truck heading north. They passed the newly paved streets leading to the mansions overlooking Lake Havenwood and continued upward. The road narrowed, winding its way higher and higher into the blue-green hills to where the forest became denser and tiny lanes sprang off the main thoroughfare like streams branching off a river.

“They all look the same,” Ella Mae said, slowing down in front of a gravel road. “And half of them are missing signs.”

“It’s the next one,” Reba said, her eyes eagle-sharp even in the fading afternoon light.

Ella Mae drove carefully over the bumpy lane. She didn’t want to pass Mrs. Drever’s driveway, and she’d only been to the secluded cottage once before. Last month, she’d accompanied Aiden on his delivery round, providing him with a short tour of the homes, trailers, and cottages dotting the hillside. Mrs. Drever’s was one of them.

“This is it,” Ella Mae said, turning into a driveway flanked by pine trees and mountain laurels. “I remember the faded violets on the mailbox. Mrs. Drever told me that her daughter painted those. She also asked me to call her Fiona the last time I was here, but it just doesn’t feel right.”

“It’d be like callin’ one of your schoolteachers by their first name,” Reba agreed.

Ella Mae pulled in front of a fairy-tale cottage. The snug, two-bedroom home was made of gray stone and had a periwinkle door with matching shutters. Every window featured
a window box crowded with multicolored pansies, and the tidy garden was filled with birdhouses and spring blooms.

“Mrs. Drever must have gotten a new car,” Ella Mae said, gesturing at the Ford sedan in the parking nook. “She used to drive a green Subaru. It had a Scottish flag decal on the back window.”

Reba glanced at the Ford. “She traded down, then. This car’s at least ten years old and the frame is startin’ to rust. The only sticker is on the side window. See? It says, ‘My Shih Tzu Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student.’”

Ella Mae frowned. “Mrs. Drever doesn’t have a dog. At least, she didn’t have one last month.” Moving to the door, Ella Mae knocked three times. She waited, hoping to hear sounds from inside the house, but all was still. She knocked again. There was no answer.

“I don’t think she’s here,” Ella Mae said.

Reba put her ear to the door. Her senses were far keener than Ella Mae’s, so when her eyes widened slightly, Ella Mae felt a stirring of alarm.

“Do you hear something?” she asked.

“Not hear. Smell.” Reba inhaled deeply and then tried the door handle. “Damn. It’s locked.”

Ella Mae touched Reba’s arm. “What are you doing?”

“We need to get inside,” Reba said. “I smell gas. Lots of it. Enough gas to put a person to sleep and make sure they stay that way forever.”

Chapter 3

Ella Mae quickly moved to the nearest window and peeked in. Though the living room was stuffed with books and knickknacks, everything seemed to be in its proper place.

“I’ll try the back door,” she told Reba. “Can you pick this lock if need be?”

“I can kick the thing right in,” Reba said. “I’ll give you a minute to check other doors and windows, but if you don’t find a way in, I’ll make us one. Somethin’ isn’t right. I can feel it in my bones.”

Ella Mae ran around the side of the house and mounted a small flight of steps leading to the kitchen door. She could now smell the gas too. She tried the knob. To her immense relief, it turned easily and the door swung inward with a slight groan.

“Mrs. Drever!” Ella Mae called as she entered the kitchen. She scanned the room, seeing a teapot on the stove and a mug and sugar bowl waiting on the counter. A plate
with bits of bread crust sat nearby, and there was a jam jar and a crumpled napkin on the kitchen table.

Rushing to the front door, Ella Mae unfastened the deadbolt. Without waiting for Reba to catch up, she continued into the living room. “Mrs. Drever?” Her calls were softer, more hesitant. The gas smell was growing stronger as she and Reba moved deeper into the house, where the bedrooms and small sunroom were located.

“The hairs on the back of my neck are standin’ straight up,” Reba whispered.

Ella Mae was experiencing the same sensation. There was an ominous silence in the back of the house that neither the ticking of the living room clock nor the birdsong from the garden was able to penetrate.

Stepping into the sunroom, Ella Mae instinctively covered her nose and mouth with her hand. The room was unaccountably warm, and she was surprised to see a fire burning in the hearth.

“Gas logs,” Reba said, hastening to examine them. “This is definitely the source of the smell. You’d better open a window before we lose consciousness.”

Ella Mae opened all four, inviting the spring air to sweep inside and do its best to dilute the invisible cloud of gas.

“The vent was closed,” Reba said after she’d switched off the logs. “If Mrs. Drever sat here for more than an hour or so, she would have gotten real sleepy.” She pointed at a splayed paperback resting on the arm of the sofa. Judging from the cover, it was a romance novel. “Especially if she was readin’ the slow bits in between the steamy scenes.”

“She might be passed out in another room!” Ella Mae cried. Racing into the hall, she poked her head into the first bedroom. The bed was made and unoccupied. The second bedroom, which was smaller than the first, was also empty.
However, a pair of pants and a green sweater had been laid out on the bed, and a suitcase was propped open on the blanket chest beneath the window. “It looks like she was about to get dressed. She could only be in one place.”

In the hallway, Reba stood in front of the closed bathroom door. “Let me go first. We don’t know what we’ll find in there.”

Though frightened by the possibilities, Ella Mae shook her head. “I came here to check on her and I’m going to do just that.” And despite the ridiculousness of the action, she knocked on the door. It was one thing to wander uninvited through an acquaintance’s house and quite another to burst into her bathroom. “Mrs. Drever? It’s Ella Mae LeFaye. I’m coming in, okay?”

She slowly opened the door and for an instant she thought the room was vacant. But then she noticed the folded towel on the closed toilet seat and the drawn shower curtain. Her stomach knotted with dread. “No,” she whispered and tiptoed across the tile floor.

Before she could protest, Reba sprang in front of her, pulled the shower curtain aside a few inches, and peered into the tub. Her face went taut and she made a hissing noise. And then she frowned. Her shocked expression was suddenly replaced by one of confusion.

Ella Mae reached for the curtain, but Reba grabbed her hand.