Death of a Kitchen Diva (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktail Mysteries) Read online

  “We were on a date,” Martin said. “She’s a huge country music fan so I surprised her with tickets for her birthday. I can be very romantic.”

  That’s when Hayley felt Martin’s pudgy sausage-like fingers grip her knee.

  She sat back, appalled, and just looked at him.

  There was a slimy, salacious smile on his face, and it made Hayley’s skin crawl. She tried to yank her leg away, but he held it firm.

  “You could do worse,” he said. “The way you’re aggressively going after me, accusing me, it’s like foreplay. Honestly, Hayley, it’s making me hot.”

  “Snap out of it,” Hayley said, taking another bite of her pancakes before wiping the fork off with her napkin, and then reaching under the table and jamming it down on Martin’s hand.

  Martin’s face went beet red and he retracted his hand, howling in pain.

  More looks from the other diners.

  “You’re disgusting,” Hayley said.

  “And you’re fishing,” Martin said. “I didn’t kill Karen and you know it.”

  In a way, Hayley wished he had. Then he would be locked up and she would never have to be blinded by another one of his fluorescent shirts again.

  But if Janice was with him on the night of the murder, there wasn’t anybody else she could think of who might commit murder for Martin. And a paid professional just seemed so unlikely, even if Martin could afford it.

  Which if Janice was right, he couldn’t.

  Martin rubbed his hand, his eyes watery with tears from the pain.

  Janice noticed and rushed over to see what was the matter.

  “What happened?” Janice squealed.

  Martin gave Hayley a pleading look.

  He almost lost a hand. He didn’t want to lose his girlfriend, too.

  “He tried to eat my pancakes. And everybody knows I don’t like sharing,” Hayley said, waving her fork menacingly.

  She turned to Janice. “Could you wrap the rest up for me to go? I’ve lost my appetite.”

  Janice nodded, and scurried off to find a plastic container as Hayley smiled at Martin, confident he wouldn’t try to make another pass at her anytime soon.

  Chapter 29

  Once Hayley finally arrived at the office—only ten minutes late, to her surprise—it was business as usual with Hayley fielding calls and stealing a few moments throughout the day to work on her next column.

  She worked through lunch, attended an editorial meeting mid-afternoon, and without even a coffee break, found herself lagging behind, trying to catch up with all the classified ads, subscriptions, obituaries, and press releases piled high in her inbox.

  By the time she had a moment to catch her breath and look at the clock, it was going on six.

  Hayley hadn’t thought about the Karen Applebaum murder all day, and it made her nervous. The longer it took her to figure out what really happened, the more time the police had to build their case against her.

  Not that Sergio reveled in her going down for the murder, but there were literally no other suspects.

  And now that Hayley had ruled out Karen’s ex-husband and only child, she was left with pretty much nothing.

  She needed to clear her head and think about everyone remotely connected to Karen, anyone besides her who might have had a grudge. She needed to look at the other columnists and reporters at the Herald. Maybe Karen had crossed one of them.

  And who was this mysterious boyfriend and why had she kept his name such a big secret?

  Hayley drove home and prepared a lasagna. She popped it in the oven for the kids, who weren’t even home yet. She then tossed a salad and slid the bowl in the fridge. She knew she had a good hour before the lasagna would be baked and the kids would be pounding their forks on the table, demanding to be fed, so she changed into some gray sweats and Nike running shoes, pulled her hair back in a ponytail, clipped the leash on Leroy’s collar, and flew out the door for a quick run.

  Leroy padded along the pavement, excited to be out in the fresh evening air. The sun had already set and darkness was falling over the island as Hayley picked up her pace, veering off the main road, through a cemetery, and into the heart of one of Acadia National Park’s scenic trails, this one passing through the Kebo Valley Golf Course, and through the woods toward the park road that would eventually lead to the rocky cliffs of the Maine coast and scenic Sand Beach.

  Hayley never bothered with an iPod and ear buds because she didn’t want music obstructing the sounds of nature. The chirping birds, the cool night breeze, the crashing waves against the rocks.

  When Hayley reached the ocean, with Sand Beach just ahead, she turned around to double back. She had already gone two miles. She stopped for a quick break, panting, wiping the sweat off her forehead and checking on Leroy. He had plopped down on his hind legs, his little tongue snaking out over his overbite, panting almost as loudly as Hayley.

  “How’re you holding up, Leroy? You ready to head home?”

  Leroy was distracted by something.

  When Hayley turned around to see what he was staring at, she saw a pair of headlights approaching. She instinctively scooped up Leroy and stepped to the side of the road, concerned the driver might not see her.

  The car slowed down and stopped a few hundred feet away, the engine running, the driver’s face shadowed and unrecognizable. It was too dark to even make out what kind of car he was driving.

  Hayley waved at the driver and smiled. The car just sat there in the middle of the road, not moving.

  What was he doing? He had to see her. Why didn’t he just drive forward and pass her by.

  The headlights shut off.

  Hayley was enveloped in darkness.

  Hayley’s heart raced now. This was getting weird. She could hear the car idling. Why did the driver shut the lights off?

  Hayley clasped Leroy to her chest and jogged down a dark dirt trail leading away from the car and back toward home.

  She heard the car turning around. It began following her along a paved road. She knew the road would eventually wind around. If the driver drove fast enough, he could cut her off as she came out of the trail back onto the main road. She could hide in the woods and wait for the car to give up and drive away. But she wasn’t quite sure what was going on yet and didn’t want to panic.

  The car rolled slowly along and was now ahead of her. The driver clearly knew the dirt path Hayley had taken would end soon and lead her right out in front of him.

  Hayley slowed her pace, deciding what she should do. She was ready to bolt into a thicket of trees and muzzle Leroy until the driver was gone, when suddenly the car’s lights came back on and the man drove away.

  She kept an eye on the red taillights until they turned a corner and disappeared.

  Hayley felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

  She’d probably overreacted. It could have just been a teenager out joyriding alone with only his permit and no adult supervision, afraid someone might see him and report him. Or it could have been a lost tourist.

  Nothing to worry about. Leroy was getting heavy in Hayley’s arms so she finally set him down.

  “You can make it the rest of the way on foot, lazy butt,” Hayley said, patting Leroy’s head. And then she took off again, pulling Leroy’s leash as he scampered to keep pace, now satisfied she wasn’t in any kind of danger.

  As she crested a hill, she stopped suddenly. Just ahead, she spotted the red taillights of the car. It had been pulled over to the side of the road. The driver’s side door was open, and the engine was still on.

  The surprise of seeing the car caused her to loosen her grip on Leroy’s leash, and before she had a chance to react, Leroy sprung forward, dragging his leash as he ran toward the car.

  “Leroy, come back here!” Hayley cried, chasing after him.

  When she caught up to her dog, Leroy was sniffing the ground around the car, obviously picking up some kind of scent.

  The car was empty.

  Who would lea
ve his car on the side of the road with the keys in the ignition and the engine still running?

  Hayley looked around.

  Something just didn’t feel right. Her gut told her to get the hell out of there. She bent down to pick up Leroy’s leash when she heard a sharp cracking sound and felt a whoosh just above her head.

  Hayley stood upright.

  What was that?

  Leroy started barking wildly.

  She leaned down and pointed her finger admonishingly. “Stop it, Leroy! Hush!”

  Another crack.

  Another whoosh.

  This time past her right ear.

  Dear God.

  There was no mistaking what was happening.

  Someone was shooting at her.

  Hayley dropped to her knees, and yanked at the leash. The force choked Leroy’s barking off for a few seconds as he flew toward her. She grabbed him in her arms and held him tight to her bosom, burying his face in her sweatshirt to muffle his incessant yapping.

  Another shot rang out.

  And the glass of the rearview mirror shattered to pieces, just inches from her head.

  She was a sitting duck.

  He would certainly get her with the next one.

  Springing to her feet, Hayley plunged into the woods, carrying Leroy, running as fast and hard as she could, through tree branches that snapped back and lashed at her face. She kicked up some leaves, cranking her head around a few times to see if the shooter was pursuing her.

  She couldn’t make out much in the darkness. And she didn’t see the thick fallen birch tree branch in her path.

  Her Nike running shoe got caught underneath it.

  Hayley lost her balance and went sprawling facedown in the muddy dirt. She lost her grip on Leroy and he sailed a few feet ahead of her, landing on his butt with a shocked yelp.

  She lay on the ground, as still as can be.

  The only sound was Leroy struggling to his feet. Did he see the shooter approaching? Her biggest fear was Leroy barking again and drawing the shooter directly to their location. But the little dog was still in a bit of shock, the air knocked out of him. He just sat there, not sure what had just happened.

  Hayley didn’t make a move.

  Leaves blew past her. The trees swayed back and forth in the night breeze.

  She heard a distinct clicking sound. Like someone cocking a gun.

  And then footsteps. Not close. But close enough.

  If she stood up, she surely would be spotted.

  Leroy began to growl softly, like he was warning her about approaching danger. She put a finger to her lips to shush him before realizing how foolish it was to expect a dog, especially her tiny slow-witted monster, to pick up on her hand signals.

  She reached out and slowly, methodically began pulling Leroy’s leash toward her. He kept up his low gutteral growling, and resisted being gently forced back in Hayley’s direction. But she knew if she didn’t shut him up, they would be easy targets for the shooter.

  Leroy was now only a few inches from her.

  She almost had him in her grasp. She couldn’t tell where the shooter was, or if the crinkling leaves and twigs were from his approaching footsteps or the gusts of wind.

  Then she heard a car door shut in the distance.

  She raised her head just enough to see the car pulling away through a thicket of trees, rounding a bend and leaving for good.

  By now, Leroy was too spent to even keep up his growling. He looked exhausted, and welcomed the warm inviting arms of his master.

  Hayley crawled to her feet, stroking his curly white hair, whispering in his ear that everything was fine, as she slowly hiked home, not quite ready to accept the fact that she was now in the crosshairs of a real killer.

  Chapter 30

  “Was it a man or a woman?”

  “Man. Definitely a man.”

  Sergio began jotting down some notes on a pad of paper.

  Hayley thought about it and then raised her hand.

  “At least I think it was a man. It might have been a woman in bulky clothing. I’m not really sure.”

  Sergio stopped writing and looked up at Hayley.

  Hayley shrugged. “It was dark. It all happened so fast.”

  Sergio nodded and scribbled over what he had written down.

  “I’m so sorry, Sergio,” Hayley said, reaching over and touching his hand. “I know this isn’t really helping.”

  Sergio smiled and took Hayley’s hand in his big bronze paw and squeezed it. “As long as you’re safe. That’s the main thing.”

  “At first I thought it might just be a deer hunter sneaking around illegally in the park when the first shot whizzed past me. But by the second and third one, I knew I was the target. And the whole thing of him driving ahead and waiting for me. Like he was setting a trap. It was terrifying,” Hayley said, shivering as she relived the events.

  Hayley had wasted no time driving over to Randy and Sergio’s house the moment she dropped Leroy off with the kids and instructed Gemma to take the lasagna out of the oven at the top of the hour. She didn’t mention her ordeal to them. Why scare them? But Gemma did notice that Leroy was out of sorts, racing around, a bundle of nerves, barking at the slightest movement.

  Even more than usual.

  “Let’s move on to the car,” Sergio said gently, poised to finally write some pertinent information down.

  Hayley wracked her brain, desperately trying to come up with something useful. She was determined to help Sergio out somehow.

  “I think it was a four-door sedan,” she said confidently.

  “Good. That’s good,” Sergio said, writing on his pad. “Color?”

  “It was too dark.”

  “Could you tell if it was a light or dark color?”

  “No.”

  “I don’t suppose you saw the license plate number?”

  “No.”

  Sergio nodded, trying not to give away his disappointment. “Did you happen to notice if it was an out of state car?”

  “I don’t know,” Hayley said, feeling awful.

  Here she was running around the island like some amateur sleuth, gathering up clues in a murder mystery, but when it came to offering insight into her own attack, she was completely useless.

  Sergio sighed, put down his pen and paper. “Well, if you do remember anything, Hayley, be sure to call me.”

  “There is one thing I definitely remember. One of the bullets shattered the rearview mirror on the driver’s side.”

  “That’s good!”

  “It is?”

  “Yes,” Sergio said, relieved. “I can call all the auto shops in the area to be on the lookout for anyone who brings in a car with a busted mirror. It’s a long shot, but it’s a start.”

  The front door burst open, and Randy stormed dramatically into the living room interrupting the calm discussion between his sister and his boyfriend, who were sitting in front of a crackling fire with two glasses of wine.

  “Are you okay?” Randy wailed as he shot over to Hayley, hauled her to her feet, and enveloped her in a tight bear hug.

  Hayley could barely breathe.

  “I’m fine, really, Randy, not a scratch on me,” Hayley said, trying to calm him down while simultaneously squirming out of his firm grip.

  Randy spun around to Sergio.

  “I have to hear what happened to my sister from Doofus Donnie who came into the bar to get hammered once he was off-duty?”

  “I wanted to question Hayley while the details were still fresh in her mind,” Sergio said, a defensive tone in his voice.

  “So do we know who it is?” Randy asked.

  “I’m a washout as a witness,” Hayley said. “I totally choked when it came to noticing anything that might help identify the shooter.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” Randy said. “The guy was shooting at you. Not the most opportune time to study his face.”

  “I do know one thing. This was no random shooting. Whomever it w
as who took those potshots at me wanted to see me dead. Which is why it has to be someone related to the Karen Applebaum case.”

  “How do you know that?” Randy asked, shoving Hayley down on the couch and then sitting next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her so close to him; it was as if he were afraid to let her go.

  “The people at work, the people who read my column, everybody knows I’m the number one suspect in Karen’s murder. And it’s no secret I’ve been running around town questioning people and trying to find the real killer. Maybe someone’s afraid I’m getting too close to finding out the truth.”

  “That makes sense,” Randy said, nodding vigorously at Sergio. “Doesn’t it?”

  Sergio half shrugged, not entirely convinced.

  “Why aren’t you agreeing with me?” Randy asked, his voice betraying a slight irritation with his boyfriend.

  “Because the whole town is related to the Karen Applebaum case. Everybody knew her. And those people we thought could have done it have air-tight alibis.”

  “There’s still one mystery person out there we haven’t found yet,” Hayley said.

  “Who?” Randy asked.

  “The man Karen was dating. The one who sent those flowers to her funeral. Find him. And I’ll bet anything we find Karen’s killer.”

  “How can you be sure?” Sergio asked.

  “Call it a hunch,” Hayley said, her mind racing.

  “A hunch won’t help me build a case against anyone,” Sergio said softly.

  “Would you please stop being such a Debbie Downer?” Randy scolded as he squeezed his sister tighter. “I swear, Sergio, if you let anything happen to my beloved older sister I’ll never forgive you.”

  “Younger sister,” Hayley said, making another futile attempt to wiggle out of her brother’s grasp.

  “What are you talking about? You’re two and a half years older than me.”

  “But I stopped celebrating my birthday three years ago, so now you’ve gone past me and you’re officially my older brother. At least that’s what I tell everyone who didn’t go to school with us.”

  They both laughed.

  “I’m not worried about anything happening to me,” Hayley said. “I’m more scared of you suffocating me to death if you don’t let go.”