Funfetti Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 52 Read online

  Heather nodded. “I’ve only been to a few meetings, but it was never this full. It looks as if every parent is here tonight.”

  “Then there’s a decent chance that the poisoner could be in this room,” Amy said.

  They surveyed the scene and tried to pick out the sad faces in the crowd.

  “Do you think that’s tall and short?” Amy asked, pointing to two brunettes who were dabbing their eyes with tissues.

  Heather nodded. “They’re next to the Claire I met, so they could be part of the wine crew.”

  They were soon joined by another woman wearing black who bumped into their table as she joined them. Heather and Amy nodded at each other. She was most likely the woman who Mr. Lindau deemed bad at parking.

  Heather and Amy wanted to talk to them, but the meeting was beginning so they had to listen to old business and new business before they could begin interrogations. The meeting had a moment of silence for Marcia Lindau, and it was suggested that everyone who was able to should bring the widower a dish of food.

  Claire was running the meeting as best she could, but often brought up how they would be searching for a new president and how anyone that wanted the job could submit their name for consideration. There didn’t seem to be any takers at the moment. Many attendees wanted to hear details about the death, but Claire did her best to keep the meeting on track. It ended up being a short meeting because so many decisions were now up in the air. This meeting with a record attendance number couldn’t have lasted more than twenty minutes.

  However, the short meeting ended up working out for Heather and Amy. Instead of the attendees rushing off after a long meeting, eager to get home, they were dawdling and chatting.

  Lisa from the scone table saw Heather and came up to her.

  “It’s crazy what happened, isn’t it?” She said.

  Heather nodded.

  “I wasn’t a fan of hers. And I think many people in this room had the same opinion.” Lisa said. “But who would want to murder her?”

  “We were wondering that ourselves,” Heather said. “Do you have any suspicions?”

  “I don’t think I knew her well enough,” Lisa said.

  “You’ve never been to her house?”

  “Nope,” Lisa said. “I think I would have refused an invitation had I been invited. That seems very catty to admit now after her death. She did raise an awful lot of money for the school programs. I wonder who will take over now.”

  Heather shrugged. “Maybe one of her posse?”

  “Maybe,” Lisa said.

  “Why don’t we go ask them?” Amy said, providing an excuse for them to leave Lisa and go talk to the other ladies.

  “Thanks,” Heather said, as they made their way over to Marcia’s friends. “I didn’t want to be rude, but we do have to transition over into official business. I like Lisa, and it’s reassuring to know that she hasn’t been to the Lindau house.”

  “If she’s telling the truth,” Amy said. “If she broke into Marcia’s house to poison her, she would hardly admit it.”

  “Spoilsport,” Heather teased, but she knew that Amy was right. They had to assume that anyone could be a suspect until the evidence told them otherwise.

  She was eager to see if talking to Marcia’s friends could lead them to some other suspects as well. They made their introductions. It was confirmed that Claire was Claire Miller, Kiki’s mom.

  Heather explained that they were private detectives working with the police to investigate Marcia’s death and that they wanted to talk to them about the wine party.

  “I don’t believe it,” Claire said. “They just want more gossip about her death like everybody else here. They just came up with a more convincing story to get more details about her.”

  “We really are working with the police,” Heather said. “We have some I.D. and I can give you the number of the police station if you’d like to check.”

  Claire examined the I.D. badges that Heather and Amy showed her.

  “I still don’t know if we should talk to them,” Claire said.

  “Why not?” said the tall brunette whose name was Alexandra. “They’re working with the police. Don’t you want to know who killed Marcia?”

  “Of course I do,” Claire said. “I just want to make sure they’re on the level.”

  “Perfectly on the level,” Amy assured her. Then she unobtrusively pulled out the tablet to take notes on what the friends had to say.

  “What do you want to know?” Alexandra asked.

  “Were you all at the wine gathering on Friday? And was anyone else there?” Heather asked.

  The women all nodded.

  “We were all there,” Alexandra said. “And it was just us that night.”

  “Who provides the wine for these parties?” Heather asked.

  “We normally all bring some bottles,” Claire said.

  “And because Marcia hosted, she got to keep whatever she wanted at the end of the night,” Alexandra said. “She normally kept the reds.”

  “Were there any leftovers on this Friday?” asked Heather. She knew this was an important point to clarify.

  “I think there was only one red left,” Alexandra said.

  The other ladies agreed with her. The woman who had trouble parking, whose name was Sally, agreed with gusto.

  “I took the extra white wine home because I use it for cooking,” Sally said. “There were two bottles. Marcia made a comment about how she did all the work for the party, but I was reaping all the benefits. I was leaving with two bottles of wine while she only had a half bottle.”

  Heather nodded. It might be impossible to determine exactly, but if they could determine how much wine was left in the bottle, it could help them figure out when the poison was put in the bottle. If she only drank it on the day of her death, then it could have been poisoned anytime between the wine party and when she drank. If she had a glass of wine in between, then the poison might have had to be inserted the day she was killed. Was the “half a bottle” description given from a group of friends that had been drinking enough to go on?

  “Does anyone know her habits for drinking on days besides the wine gatherings?” Heather asked.

  The short brunette who was named Carmen shrugged. “I think most of us like a glass of wine here or there, but it also depends on the kids’ schedules.”

  The women all nodded. Heather stopped herself from frowning in front of them. It was looking more and more difficult to narrow down the time frame for when the poison was put into the wine bottle. She would just have to establish whether anyone had a motive.

  “Did you all get along with Marcia?”

  “She was a great friend,” Alexandra said.

  “A real leader,” offered Sally.

  “A great planner,” said Carmen.

  “And the glue that held us together,” said Claire.

  “But,” Alexandra said. “She could be tough on us.”

  “She could say cruel things,” said Sally.

  “Try to manipulate us,” Carmen said.

  “And undermine us at every turn,” said Claire.

  “But we’re still devastated that she’s gone,” Alexandra assured them.

  “Devastated,” said Claire.

  The other women all agreed. It seemed that Marcia could be difficult to get along with, even amongst her friends. But was this a reason to murder her?

  “Did anyone visit Marcia’s house this week?” Heather asked.

  “I picked her daughter up for a sleepover the night she died,” Claire said. “I didn’t realize it would be the last time I saw her. I only went inside for a minute.”

  “I had to drop something off about a potential school trip,” Alexandra said. “I went to her house for lunch the day before. The day before…”

  “The night of,” Heather asked, changing gears. “Did any of you notice anything strange about the red wine bottle that night?”

  The women shook their heads. Heather thought it
was too much to hope that they could offer her that piece of evidence where one of them saw another one pouring arsenic into the bottle.

  “Was the bottle in the room and in everyone’s sight the whole time?” Heather asked.

  The women said that because they kept the red wine at room temperature, it was kept in the living room where they met all night. They thought it was there in their sight the whole time, but couldn’t be one hundred percent positive. It was possible that someone could have held a bottle when they went into the kitchen to grab a snack or new glass. It wasn’t a behavior that would have stood out to any of them as peculiar. Also, no one there thought that their friend could be the killer.

  “So who do you suspect killed her?” Heather asked.

  “Well,” Alexandra said. “I wouldn’t normally give away her secrets, but if it might help catch her killer.”

  “We should tell,” Claire said.

  “Tell what?” Heather asked.

  “Marcia was having an affair with one of the dads,” Alexandra said.

  “Spencer Port,” said Claire.

  “He and his wife were separated,” Sally said. “And so Marcia started seeing him.”

  “We’re not sure if Dan knew,” said Carmen. “But if he knew, that could be a motive.”

  “Or maybe Mrs. Port got jealous,” Claire said.

  Heather thanked them for the information. Their suspect list had just gotten longer.

  Chapter 10

  When Heather and Amy arrived at Spencer Port’s door the next day, they weren’t sure what to expect of Marcia’s alleged lover. However, the large balding man that they found was not on their list of expectations.

  “Spencer Port?”

  “Yes,” the man said in deep soothing tones. “How can I help you?”

  “I’m Heather Shepherd, and this is Amy Givens.”

  “How do you do?” He said with a voice as smooth as velvet.

  “Fine, thank you. But we’re private investigators, and we’re working on a case with the Hillside Police. We’re investigating the murder of a woman we believe you know. Marcia Lindau.”

  “Please come in,” Spencer said, as he ushered them inside. He led them into the living room where there were some comfy seats and a piano. The walls were decorated with records and pictures of his son.

  “When I heard she was murdered, I thought someone would want to talk to me.”

  “So you were having an affair?” Heather asked, deciding to be blunt and get a straight answer instead of dancing around it.

  “Yes,” Spencer said. “When my wife Susan and I separated, I felt like I wanted some company and to do something exciting. I am embarrassed to admit that my fling was with a married woman.”

  “How did this liaison start?” Amy asked, curiously. Spencer Port was not the usual lover that a woman like Marcia Lindau would take.

  “She heard me perform. I’m an amateur opera singer, but not bad if I do say so myself. I seemed to impress her. She came up to me after a performance at a local theater. It started as asking if I might perform at a fundraising event, but it led to our becoming involved.”

  “Mr. Port, have you ever been to Marcia Lindau’s house?” Heather asked.

  “No, of course not,” Spencer said. “She would come here for our dalliances.”

  “So you never went to her house?”

  “We didn’t want to run into her husband. She’d visit me here when my son was with his mother.”

  “And how would you describe your relationship with her?” Heather asked.

  “What do you mean?” Spencer asked. “Do you want me to say it was illicit?”

  “I mean, were the two of you getting along well? Or were there some issues?”

  “Things were going just fine,” Spencer said. “We both knew that this wouldn’t last forever, but we didn’t really think about that. We were having fun.”

  “We heard that she could be difficult to get along with,” Amy said.

  “We got along well. She liked to listen to me sing, and I loved to perform. That was one of the things that drove Susan crazy. She said I was too loud when I practiced. But when your voice is your instrument, you do need to exercise it.”

  “Was there anything else that drove Susan crazy?” Heather asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Like did she care that you were having an affair so soon to when you separated?”

  “I think it might have irked her. But if you’re suggesting that she killed Marcia, I couldn’t believe it.”

  “I’m not suggesting anything,” Heather said. “I’m just asking some questions.”

  “I think it did bother Susan that I was seeing someone else. I think Susan thought that we might reconcile, but she didn’t want to work on fixing the problems that we had that led to our separation. If we didn’t make any changes, we’d just be headed back to the same issues as before.”

  “But she did want you back?” Heather asked.

  “Maybe she missed my serenades after they were gone,” Spencer said, thinking about it.

  Heather switched gears in her questioning. “Did Dan Lindau know about the affair?”

  “I never met him so I couldn’t say. But we were very careful. I don’t think many people knew about us.”

  Heather and Amy exchanged a look. They had already encountered four people that had known about the affair. It was likely that more people knew about it too.

  Heather thanked him for his time and was about to leave when he offered to sing them a song before they left. Amy couldn’t resist hearing his voice and accepted immediately. Heather had never been serenaded by a suspect before but had to admit that he had a beautiful voice.

  As they left his house and walked away together that was the first thing that she commented on to Amy. “He does have an impressive voice.”

  “I could see why Marcia was in to him,” Amy said. “His talent is killer. But is he one?”

  “I don’t think so,” Heather said. “He said he’s never been to Marcia’s house and that’s where the killer would have to add the poison. He would be foolish to visit the house if Dan Lindau could catch him there. And because he’s a larger fellow I think the neighbors might have noticed him breaking into the house if he attempted it.”

  “So he’d probably not the killer. But the affair could still be a motive. Marcia’s husband or Spencer’s wife could have been mad enough to poison her.”

  Heather nodded. “I think we have some more suspects to talk to.”

  Chapter 11

  Susan Port had let them into her house but still wasn’t very happy about talking to them.

  “I don’t understand why you’re talking to me about Marcia Lindau’s murder,” she said. “I was never a member of the PTA, and the main reason was because of her. She was unpleasant, but I avoided her. I barely said two words to her.”

  Amy had pulled out the tablet and was taking notes to keep herself from saying anything too snarky.

  “We believe you might have had a stronger motive for disliking her,” Heather said.

  “And why is that?” Susan asked. “Who told you that? Was it her little cronies? They were as bad as she was.”

  “You do seem to harbor some grudges against them all,” Heather commented.

  “No grudges,” Susan said, in a voice of forced calmness. “I just didn’t care for them. That’s why I avoided them.”

  “There is a way to permanently avoid someone,” Amy piped up.

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” Susan said. “Did Spencer say I did?”

  “Why do you equate a murder charge with your ex-husband?” Heather asked.

  “He’s still my husband,” Susan said. “We may be separated, but we’re not divorced yet. And our separation is actually pretty silly. I should never have recommended it. Spencer had been getting on my nerves with his constant practicing, and he said that I nagged all the time. But these are common couples’ problems. We will overcome them.”

  �
��And yet you think that Spencer believes you murdered someone?” Heather asked.

  “I didn’t say that,” Susan said. “I don’t think.”

  “Is anyone else getting dizzy?” Amy asked. “I feel like we’re running in circles.”

  “Fine,” Susan said. “I know why you’re asking me these questions. There’s no more reason to beat around the bush. I know that Spencer was having an affair with Marcia.”