Blackberry Cream & Murder Read online

  “But Trish, that’s him. That’s not you,” said Travis.

  “It scared everyone else away,” said Trish.

  “Not me,” said Travis.

  For the first time since they met her, Trish looked happy.

  “Now you’ve tried your worst and caused no damage,” Travis said to Mike. "We're in love, and you're not breaking us up. Now get out of here before I cause you any damage."

  “Wait a minute,” Heather said. “Before we go off to our happy ending or just desserts, there is the little matter of the murder that we need to discuss.”

  Travis nodded. “Of course. That takes precedence.”

  “Now, Mike and Trish, you met last night to talk. Is that right?” Heather asked.

  "When Travis and I returned from our day out, he had to deal with his shoes, so I went in ahead of him. Mike was there and told me we had to meet that night, or he'd tell Travis everything. I think I was still in shock that he had come here when the Ridgefields came down and started complaining about their breakfast."

  “And I thought you looked upset because of the Ridgefields,” said Travis. “But Mike must have left before I came in.”

  “And did either of you go anywhere near the kitchen?” Heather asked.

  “No,” Trish said. “I went straight from my room to the sitting area where Mike wanted to meet. And then right back.”

  “I was the same,” said Mike.

  “Did either of you see anyone else out that night?” Heather asked.

  They both shook their heads. Then Trish said, “Wait. I think the sick lady opened her door when I went by. I’m not certain.”

  “That makes sense with what we’ve heard,” said Heather. “Well, thank you all for your help.”

  “Thank you,” Trish said. “If your investigation hadn’t pushed this into the light, I might never have learned how loyal and true Travis really is.”

  “And I’m glad that no one will try and use your family’s past against you,” said Travis.

  They left together, holding hands happily. Mike looked less than pleased.

  “I can’t believe I paid for this whole vacation for this to happen,” he said. “I wonder if I can make it up to Kylie.”

  “Fat chance,” said Amy.

  Mike left anyway.

  “Well, that was an unexpected turn of events,” said Heather.

  “I’ll say,” Amy agreed. “Blackmail. Love.”

  “Trish Hathaway isn’t Trish Hathaway,” said Ryan.

  “And it looks like all the fighting and strange behavior between the four of them was because of this romantic drama and family secrets,” said Heather. “It doesn’t look like it had anything to do with the murder.”

  “So, this was all a red herring?” Amy asked. “Bring it back to the aquarium! It’s in our way.”

  "So, if the four lovers aren't involved in the murder because their behavior is explained and their movements are now accounted for," Ryan said. "It means we have four fewer suspects."

  Heather nodded. “But I’m still not sure who did it.”

  Amy shrugged. “Wife or mistress?”

  Conferring with the Detectives

  “How has your investigation been going?” Heather asked.

  * * *

  “It’s been smoother than some other cases because we weren’t stepping on each other’s clues,” Detective Smith said.

  * * *

  He and Peters sat on one side of the dining room table while Heather, Amy, and Ryan were on the other. Dave was sniffing to see if there was anything that the forensic team had forgotten to clean up. Thankfully, the forensic team was very thorough, so he wasn't finding anything. They had also placed a tarp over the area where the poisoned jelly might have hit the carpet.

  * * *

  “But difficult in other ways,” said Detective Peters.

  * * *

  Detective Smith reluctantly nodded. “It seems that anyone in the house had the opportunity to enter the kitchen and plant the poison last night, but no one was seen doing so. We only know that Mike Crown was out because you saw him, and we think that the woman he argued with was Trish Hathaway based on what Agnes Stewart saw.”

  * * *

  “About that,” Amy said. “Trish Hathaway isn’t Trish Hathaway, and that explains why they were out last night.”

  * * *

  “What?”

  * * *

  Heather explained the situation about the lover's triangle and potential blackmail, but how things had righted themselves in the end. Unfortunately, this meant that they were no closer to discovering who had been sneaking around at night to kill.

  “The other problem in this case,” Peters said. “Is that the suspects either have no motive at all or too much motive. The two couples and the sick woman didn’t know Gideon Ridgefield.”

  * * *

  "They've told us that, and we've done some preliminary research. There don't seem to be any ties between those guests and Mr. Ridgefield. Though we will keep combing through their backgrounds, and we will look under the name Trish Bundaloo now."

  * * *

  “And Cara Ridgefield and Marigold Fanning both have major reasons to want to hurt Gideon Ridgefield,” said Peters.

  * * *

  “The other woman,” said Amy.

  * * *

  “Exactly,” he agreed.

  * * *

  "But there's no evidence to link them murder right now," said Detective Smith. "Marigold Fanning's prints were on the jelly, but you all saw her touch the jar at breakfast. Other than that, there is no concrete piece of evidence to point out who planted the poison."

  * * *

  “Well,” Amy said. “What about we start from a gut reaction? Who do you think did it?”

  * * *

  "My gut is confused," admitted Heather. "Both of them had means, motive, and opportunity. But I don't have a strong feeling that one of them did it."

  * * *

  "The wife didn't seem especially upset about her husband's death," Amy said. "And not that she didn't have reason to be mad at him. But she was more upset by Dave's fur than the need for a funeral."

  * * *

  “And she did refuse to eat the jelly at breakfast,” Ryan said. “We can’t forget about that.”

  * * *

  “Everyone else at the table could have had the jelly if they wanted to deal with Mr. Ridgefield, but she was the only one who was asked to try it and refused,” said Amy. “Though I would have done the same thing if that guy told me something tasted funny and to try it.”

  * * *

  “Everyone else at the table,” Heather repeated to herself.

  * * *

  “Did you think of something?” Amy asked.

  * * *

  "Not yet," said Heather. "An idea, but not fully formed. But don't stop on my account. What do you think of Marigold as the killer?"

  * * *

  "She also had a motive," said Peters.

  * * *

  “And because she was alone, no one could back up her alibi of being in her room all night,” said Detective Smith.

  * * *

  “I can’t decide if her eating the jelly was an accident that luckily didn’t turn into another tragedy, or if it was a clever move to avoid suspicion,” said Ryan.

  * * *

  “Again, I have to say, it’s not working,” Amy said. “We’re still considering her a suspect.”

  * * *

  “Because she was also the one who piled the jelly on top of his pancakes,” said Ryan.

  * * *

  “But apparently by this time everyone had heard about how he wanted this special jelly,” Peters said.

  “I don’t know if it’s her,” Amy said. “Dave liked her a lot.”

  * * *

  Heather suddenly shot a look at Dave. He wagged his tail in response.

  * * *

  “A wagging tail and a wet nose,” she said.

  * * *

 
“What’s that?” asked Detective Smith.

  * * *

  “Have you ever heard the saying that wagging tails and wet noses were the surest sign there was good in the world?” Heather asked.

  * * *

  “No,” the detective said. “It’s a nice little saying, but I haven’t heard it before.”

  * * *

  “I don’t think it is that common,” Heather said.

  * * *

  “You have that look on your face,” Amy said. “Did you solve it? Was it Marigold?”

  * * *

  “Trish Hathaway wasn’t Trish Hathaway,” Heather said. “I wonder if it could happen again.”

  * * *

  “So, Trish did have something to do with it?” Amy asked. “I thought we cleared her of involvement.”

  * * *

  "Where's the background information that you have for all the guests so far?" Heather asked.

  * * *

  Detective Smith handed her a file. Heather flipped through it.

  "Aha," Heather said when she came across a copy of a driver's license. "Ames, how tall would you say Agnes Stewart is?"

  * * *

  “I don’t know,” Amy said. “She was shorter than you.”

  * * *

  “Exactly,” said Heather. “She’s not five foot ten.”

  * * *

  “What does this mean?”

  * * *

  “It means that Agnes Stewart is lying. And I think I might know why.”

  Confession

  Heather entered Agnes’s room and saw the woman was in bed again. Amy and Ryan followed her inside.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “About the same, I’m afraid,” replied Agnes.

  “You must be feeling somewhat better,” said Heather. “You started packing.”

  “I’ve been working on it for little bursts of time,” said Agnes. “I still feel weak, but I’d like to go home when this is all over.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” Heather said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that we know that you killed Gideon Ridgefield and you’ll have to go to prison for it.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Agnes said. “I’ve been sick all weekend.”

  “The perfect cover for not being at the breakfast table and having to avoid the poisoned food,” said Heather. “But I know you had another reason as well.”

  “What reason could I have for killing a man I never met?” Agnes demanded.

  “It’s true that Agnes Stewart never Gideon Ridgefield before. But you’re not really Agnes Stewart, are you?” Heather asked.

  “Of all the rude things to imply,” Agnes said. “I’m a liar and a killer and fraud. Is that right?”

  “That’s right,” said Amy.

  "I'm not feeling well, and I'd like to lay down," Agnes said. "I think you should leave."

  Agnes began coughing, but this time they did nothing to help her.

  “We know you’re not sick,” said Ryan.

  “We came to give you the opportunity to confess before we had to take action to prove what you’ve done,” said Heather. “Do you want to take the opportunity?”

  “I have nothing to confess,” said Agnes.

  “Very well,” said Heather.

  She looked to the door and saw Detectives Smith and Peters supporting Marigold as she walked through the door.

  “I still don’t understand any of this,” Marigold said. She looked even more confused as she saw who she was facing in the bedroom. “Rose?”

  “Shhh,” Agnes said, quickly jumping out of bed. “My name is Agnes Stewart.”

  “What are you talking about? What is going on here?” Marigold demanded, “Why has my sister been brought here?”

  “Marigold, you’re going to ruin everything,” Agnes said.

  "I'll deal with this, Rose," Marigold replied. "Detectives, why did you drag my sister here? I can't tell you any more about the case. And I didn't kill Gideon."

  “We know,” said Peters.

  “And we didn’t drag your sister here,” Detective Smith said. “We’d like you to meet the other guest here. The woman who has been sick in her room the whole time. Agnes Stewart.”

  "I told you that you were going to ruin everything," Agnes / Rose said angrily.

  “I don’t understand what’s going on,” said Marigold.

  “Did your sister know about your affair with Gideon Ridgefield?” Heather asked.

  “Yes,” said Marigold. “She thought it was a bad idea. She didn’t approve.”

  "How could I?" Rose asked. "He treated you badly as a secretary, and he treated you worse as a significant other. He was never going to leave his wife."

  “I didn’t ask him to.”

  “You weren’t going to get what you wanted from him,” Rose said. “You were never going to have a family with him. All you would ever get was a paycheck.”

  "Take that back," said Marigold.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Rose said. “You’re better off now. You’re free of him. Now you can find somebody who will treat you right.”

  “And that’s why you killed him?” Heather asked. “To protect your sister from a bad relationship?”

  “You killed him?” Marigold asked. “No. Tell me you didn’t.”

  “It was for you,” Rose said. “I was trying to save you.”

  “I ate the jelly too. I could have been killed.”

  “I didn’t think that would happen,” Rose said. “You’ve complained about him before. You told me about how he wanted that special jelly when he went away. You said he didn’t like to share it.”

  “He thought it tastes funny so he asked me to try,” Marigold said.

  “You see how much better off you are without him?” Rose asked.

  “But why did you have to kill him?”

  Instead of answering her, Rose turned to Heather. “How did you know it was me?”

  “In the end, it was the height of the identity you chose to impersonate,” Heather said. “You did look an awful lot like her picture, but you were much shorter.”

  “I tried to only talk to people when I was laying down,” Agnes said. “But you kept catching me when I was up.”

  “I’d like to think that’s why we didn’t pick up on that detail earlier,” Detective Smith said. “But Heather saw right through the disguise.”

  “You and your sister have the same color eyes, and you both mentioned the expression that your mom used about dogs. It’s not an extremely common expression. I started to wonder if you had the same mom,” said Heather.

  “Once one puzzle piece fit into place, the others followed,” said Amy. “You pretended to be sick so no one would bother you.”

  “And to avoid bumping into the one person who would recognize you. Your sister,” said Heather.

  "Last night you went downstairs and poisoned the jelly you thought only Gideon Ridgefield would eat," said Ryan. "You ran into Heather in the hall and told her that you heard angry voices. It was a great cover story. And later, it had us spending a lot of time chasing the couples around. Because who would suspect the poor sick woman stuck in her bedroom?"

  “It almost worked,” Rose said. “And I knew there would never be enough evidence to convict Marigold. You would never know if it was her or Cara. It almost worked.”

  Detective Smith began reading Rose her rights as Detective Peters escorted her out. She stopped to turn to her sister and say, “I wanted to save you from heartbreak.”

  Then the police led her away. Heather called for Dave to come in from the safety of the other room. He came in and comforted a crying Marigold, and Heather told him what a good boy he was.

  Bed and Breakfast at Home

  Heather and he crew arrived home late that night, but they decided to celebrate by having breakfast for dinner in Eva and Leila’s apartment.

  “Since your time at the bed and breakfast wasn’t the cool a
nd relaxing time you thought it might be, we decided to bring the breakfast home to you,” said Eva.

  “As long as there’s no elderberry jelly, I’m good,” said Amy.

  Heather nodded in agreement. Her friends had created quite a spread. There were pancakes, waffles, French toast, sausage, bacon, eggs, and fruit. There were also, of course, donuts that they had picked up from the assistants at Donut Delights.

  “It wouldn’t be home without the donuts,” Eva said.

  “And I was still craving the Blackberry Cream ones,” said Leila. “So we needed some more.”

  “What shapes are these pancakes in?” Heather asked as she noticed the unusual sizes.

  "Well, those were our attempts at making dinosaur pancakes," said Eva. "We were trying to be festive. But some were more successful than others. Some do look like dinosaurs."

  “And some look like the asteroid,” said Leila.