Murder Sweetly Served Page 12

  When he didn’t speak again, I hurried back to Carl, and repeated the conversation. “Well, if Daphne did somehow kill him, it obviously wasn’t with Jake’s help,” Carl said sadly. “I so wanted to think Jake was the murderer.”

  “He is a murderer,” I said. “A muscle murderer.”

  “Narel!”

  I spun around to see Miriam Moreton standing there. Her eyes were red and puffy. “It was a lovely service,” I said, hoping she hadn’t noticed that I was absent throughout the entire event.

  Miriam sniffled. “Yes, it was. I hope Peaches and Daphne don’t cause another scene.”

  “I saw Jake take his mother outside just then,” I said. “I think he’s keeping an eye on her. By the way, did Minnie and Jake ever date?”

  Miriam looked horrified. “No. I don’t think they like each other at all. Jake wanted Daphne to quit and leave the Wellings. He’s never had a good word to say for Stan, or Minnie, for that matter. A most unlikeable young man.”

  “That’s for sure,” Carl said with feeling.

  “Have you found out who owns that piece of jewellery?” Miriam asked me.

  For a moment, my mind went blank. It took me a moment to realise she had given me the guest list on the pretence of me searching for the owner of a piece of jewellery.

  “No, not yet,” I said, wondering how I could change the subject in a hurry. “Oh look, there’s Minnie. Carl and I had better pay our respects.”

  I grabbed Carl’s arm and dragged him away from Miriam. “Do you think she suspects anything?” I asked him.

  Carl shook his head. “Of course not, Narel. You worry too much. You have to learn how to chill.”

  Minnie was standing by herself in a corner, looking ever so bored. “I’m so sorry about your father,” I said to her.

  She looked down her nose at me. “And you are?”

  “Narel Myers, and this is my friend, Carl Camden. Miriam Moreton asked me to make the chocolates for your father’s event.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “You have some nerve, coming to my father’s funeral. I’m surprised the police haven’t arrested you by now.”

  “Narel isn’t a suspect,” Carl snapped. “The police are looking for someone with an actual motive. Are you the sole heir?”

  “I suggest the two of you leave before I call security,” she said.

  I was going to say something, but Carl took me by the arm and pointed me at the exit. “She’s a real…” I began, but Carl interrupted me.

  “Yes, she sure is. Let’s leave in a hurry before we draw any attention to ourselves.”

  As we walked through the winding path leading from the community hall in the church to the parking area, I didn’t see any sign of Jake or his mother. “Who’s looking likely now?” I asked Carl.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Carl said. “From what you overheard, either Daphne didn’t do it, or she did it without the knowledge of her son.”

  “If Daphne did it, then she had to be in it with someone else. Actually, that would explain why she created the diversion, so her accomplice could put the poison in the chocolates.”

  Carl shook his head, and pressed the remote to open his car. “But that brings us back to the key to the whole problem,” he said. “By the night of his retirement party, Stan had already received a fatal dose. Whoever poisoned him had to know that.”

  “What makes you say that?” I said, gingerly lowering myself into Carl’s car.

  “Because nobody is going to poison someone with a poison that they know nothing about, are they? Unless they were pressed for time, of course. No, whoever poisoned Stan with death cap mushrooms knew whatever they needed to know about them. Sure, the second dose that night polished him off more quickly, but the question remains—why the second dose? If we can figure that out, then we will have the solution.”

  “I’ve thought about it until my head hurts,” I said. “All I can think of is that the murderer wasn’t at the party, and giving him a second dose at the party gave the murderer an alibi.”

  Carl started the car and slowly pulled out onto the road. “Which brings us back to the problem of who had access to the chocolates. Let’s leave the Cat Whisperer aside for a moment. You made the chocolates, Narel, and then we took the chocolates to the party. Did we leave the chocolates alone at any time?”

  I didn’t have to think on that long. “No, we didn’t, but we weren’t staring at them the whole time. You know, it would have been easy for someone to put those poisonous tops on them.”

  “Are you thinking Miriam?”

  I nodded. “She was the first one there, and she did go over to the chocolates and have a good, long look at them. She had the opportunity to put the poison caps on them. And don’t you think it’s strange that she ordered fly agaric mushrooms specifically? Why didn’t I think of this before?”

  “Everything’s easy in hindsight,” Carl said sagely. “How do we question her again?” Carl pulled up outside my shop, but kept the engine running.

  “Aren’t you coming in?”

  He shook his head. “I need to get back and rearrange my whiteboards, and I’m a little behind on my work, too. I want to put Miriam at the top of the suspects list, and lower Minnie and Jake, maybe even take them off their own whiteboards.”

  “I’ve got it!” I exclaimed, sticking my head back in the car. “Why don’t we take Miriam a nice box of handmade chocolates and spin her some story—perhaps say something like all the chocolates were confiscated by the police and we wanted to give her some to make up for it, or something like that.”

  “Yes, we’ll play it by ear,” Carl said.

  I sighed at the typical response from Carl. “When should we do it? Should we go to her home, or take them to the office?”

  Carl appeared to be thinking it over for some time. “If we go to her home, that will be twice we’ve turned up uninvited, so I think we should go to her office. How about we go just before five? She would be in a good mood, because she would be about to leave work for the day.”

  “Great idea. She’ll also be in a hurry to tell us whatever we want to know because she’ll want to go home. That might make her a bit careless.”

  “You’re an optimist, Narel.”

  I waved and shut the door. I turned around and walked straight into somebody. “Sorry,” I said automatically, and then saw who it was. “Borage! Sorry, Tom.”

  Tom smiled at me, which made my knees go weak. Get a grip, Narel, I silently said to myself. You’re a grown woman. Aloud, I said, “I was just at Stan Wellings’ funeral. Would you like to come into my shop? I can make us some hot chocolate.”

  Tom said that would be lovely, and followed me into my shop. “Business hasn’t picked up?”

  “Dead as a doornail.” I shook my head sadly. “And people were giving me strange looks at the funeral today. Not only that, Minnie Wellings was outright rude to me. She thinks I killed her father.”

  Tom’s eyes filled with sympathy. “I know it’s hard times at the moment, but try not to let it get to you too much. The police will arrest someone sooner or later, and then your shop will go back to normal.”

  “My concern is that the damage will be done by then,” I said. “Anyway, enough sad talk. I’ll make you a hot chocolate.”

  Soon Tom and I were sitting in my back room. A buzzer always alerted me when customers passed through the open door, although I was fairly sure the buzzer wouldn’t go anytime soon. I offered Tom a tray of assorted chocolates. He ate several before speaking. “When do you think you’ll start your search for a house?”

  I was at once dismayed. Was this a business call? I must have hesitated too long, because Tom spoke again. “You probably have too much on your plate to worry about things like that now. Anyway, we can discuss it over dinner. I came to tell you that I’ll be out of town for the next few days, but would you let me take you out to dinner Friday week?”

  I tried not to look too delighted. “Yes, that would be l
ovely. And getting a house is definitely next on my agenda. As soon as the police make an arrest, the first thing I’ll be doing is looking for a house. I’ll put my house on the market then too, because I’ll need to get it ready for sale. I can’t concentrate now, not with this hanging over me.”

  “You can instruct your lawyer to draw up a contract now,” Tom said. “Sometimes they do it very quickly, depending on your lawyer, but sometimes it can take weeks. Are you familiar with the system in New South Wales?”

  I shook my head.

  “A real estate agent can’t put your house on the market in New South Wales until he or she has a copy of the contract from the lawyer or the conveyancer,” Tom said. “Then someone can make an offer, pending a pest and building inspection, maybe pending finance, too. They then exchange contracts after that, and settlement is usually thirty to forty days after that.”

  “I didn’t realise it was such a long, drawn out process,” I said.

  “Yes, the Queensland system is much better,” Tom said. “Someone simply writes their offer on a contract, and if that’s countersigned, then their finance has to be approved within fourteen days and settlement is a further fourteen days after that. It’s so much faster than New South Wales.”

  “I suppose it doesn’t really matter all that much to me,” I said. “I’ll move into the new house as soon as I legally can, and if my house takes ages to sell, it won’t be the end of the world. I hope Mongrel doesn’t mind moving to a new house. The poor cat’s had such upheaval in his life.”

  “I’m sure Mongrel will be happy to go wherever you are, Narel,” Tom said with a smile.

  My heart melted, and so did my chocolate. I looked down and realised I had been clutching a hazelnut chocolate tightly and now the chocolate was oozing through my fingers. “Oh gosh. I hadn’t realised I was so tense. It’s those terrible newspaper articles,” I said, jumping up to wash my hands at the little sink behind me.

  “Yoo-hoo!” came Carl’s dulcet tones from my front door, just as the buzzer went off. I heard his footsteps striding across my polished wooden floor. He stuck his head around the door. “Oh, my goodness! I had no idea you had company, Narel, or I wouldn’t have butted in. You shouldn’t have left the front door open. Thank goodness you’re both not in a state of undress!”

  Chapter 17

  My cheeks burned. “Carl!”

  Carl waved one hand at me. “Come on, Narel. We’re on the move. Suspect alert!”

  “Whatever are you talking about, Carl?” I said crossly, putting my hands on my hips.

  “I just spotted Miriam Moreton taking a seat at that café right next to the agency, and she was alone,” Carl said. “Grab some chocolates and let’s go there. We can cross examine her under the guise of being friendly.”

  I cast a rueful look back at Tom. I hoped he was as disappointed as I was. After I said goodbye to Tom and locked the door, I followed Carl down the street in the direction of the café. “Great timing, Carl.”

  Carl laughed. “It’s not as if you’re never going to see him again.”

  I had to admit that he had a point.

  When I reached the café, I saw that Miriam, indeed, was alone and was sitting at the back of the café. “She probably just wants to be by herself,” I told Carl. “After all, she has just been to her boss’s funeral.”

  Carl ignored me and walked straight over to Miriam. “May we join you?” He sat opposite her without waiting for her to respond.

  “Only for a minute,” I said. “We were on our way to your office to give you these chocolates when we saw you in here. We’re sorry to intrude.” I handed Miriam the box of chocolates. “They’re handmade,” I added. “I felt so bad about the other night, with the police confiscating all those chocolates, so I selected some just for you.”

  Miriam smiled wanly. “That’s a lovely thought. Thank you.”

  A waitress appeared and hovered over us. “Would you like drinks before you order?”

  Carl shook his head. “Nothing for us, thanks. We’re only here for a minute.”

  The waitress frowned and then disappeared. Carl turned his attention to Miriam. “Will you be out of a job now?” he asked her, as tactless as ever.

  I stood on his foot. “Ouch!” he said.

  Miriam shot him a strange look. “No, Craig is taking over Stan’s position, so I’ll now be Craig’s personal secretary.”

  I wondered if I should revisit Craig as a suspect. “Will you enjoy that?” I prompted her.

  “Oh yes, I should imagine it will be quite a relief.”

  “Why you say that?” Carl asked her.

  Miriam’s cheeks flushed, and she fidgeted with her coffee.

  “State secrets?” Carl asked her with a laugh.

  His remark seemed to relax Miriam. “Oh well, if you must know, it was quite stressful working for Stan.”

  “Wasn’t he nice to you?” I asked her.

  “Yes, he was very nice to me,” she said. “He gave me lots of little bonuses. It did put me in an awkward position, though.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Shall we say that if someone is a personal secretary to a man who is seeing more than one woman, it usually falls to the secretary to keep the women apart. I had to cover for him on more than one occasion.”

  The penny dropped. “Aha, so you knew about both Peaches and Daphne?” I asked her.

  Miriam nodded. “Yes, I had to make sure they didn’t find out about each other.”

  Carl leant forward. “Who do you think told Daphne about Peaches that night?”

  “No idea.” Miriam twirled her latte glass around a few times. “Their timing was bad, though.”

  “All the timing was very good,” I said.

  Miriam looked up at me. “What do you mean?”

  “Someone poisoned those chocolates, the fly agaric chocolates you asked me to make. Daphne caused a diversion so the murderer could have put the poison in the chocolates at that point.”

  Miriam appeared to be thinking it over. “And Mick caused a scene, as well.”

  I agreed. “So there were two big scenes, and both would have given someone the opportunity to put poison in the fly agaric chocolates, because everyone was looking at the big argument.”

  “We wanted to ask Minnie if she invited Mick, but I think she thinks I killed Stan,” I said.

  “But that’s ridiculous!” Miriam said.

  I raised my eyebrows at her vehemence.

  Miriam looked somewhat abashed. “She’s a spoilt little good-for-nothing, that one. While I didn’t approve of Stan’s methods, either in his personal life or in his business life for that matter, he certainly didn’t deserve a daughter like that. She hasn’t done an ounce of work in her life, that one. She was always very rude to me.”

  “Did she ever date Jake, Daphne’s son?” I asked her.

  “Jake?” Miriam looked puzzled. “Not as far as I know. She did spend some time with Mick, and that made Stan very angry. He never mentioned her dating anyone called Jake. I’m sure he would have told me if Minnie was dating Daphne’s son.”

  Carl groaned and put his head in his hands. He rested his elbows on the table.

  I decided to come right out and ask her. “Who do you think murdered Stan?”

  Miriam finished the rest of her coffee before answering. “That question has kept me awake at night. The police took me down to the station and gave me the third degree, but that was on Saturday, and I haven’t heard from them since, thank goodness. It was the fly agaric chocolates, you see.”

  “What do you mean?” Carl asked her.

  “He was poisoned with death cap mushrooms, and I had requested that you make fly agaric mushrooms. The police thought that was altogether way too much of a coincidence, so they thought I killed him.” Her voice broke and she took a moment to compose herself before pushing on.

  “Who else knew you asked me to make fly agaric mushrooms?” I asked her.

  “You sound lik
e the police,” she said with a smile. “I’m quite sure I didn’t actually tell anyone, although there were the emails between us.”

  “Were those emails only on your work computer?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “Yes. I see what you mean; anyone could have looked at my computer when I wasn’t there.”

  “And everyone knew you were organising the retirement party for Stan, didn’t they?” Carl said.

  “That’s right, and I’d been organising it for weeks. All the information about it was on my computer, and as my desk is in the small reception room outside Stan’s office, anyone had access to it. Of course, no one was supposed to touch my stuff, but anyone would have been able to do so easily, if they really wanted to.”

  “So it seems that someone saw that you had asked me to make fly agaric mushrooms as a special present for Stan, and thought they would add some poison mushrooms to them.”

  “What a devious mind the murderer must have,” Carl said. “It doesn’t sound like the work of an ordinary run-of-the-mill murderer.”

  “Is there such a thing as an ordinary murderer?” I asked Carl, but he simply shrugged.

  “Can you smell that strange smell?” Miriam asked me. “If I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s sort of like pine needles, only very strong.”

  “Oil of wintergreen,” I said automatically. “Sorry about that. Carl and I are covered in liniment.”

  “Yes, we did a cardio class last night.” Carl rolled his eyes. “It was nearly the death of us both.” He realised what he had said and his hand flew to his mouth. “Oh, I’m so sorry. You must miss Stan.”

  Miriam’s face fell. “It’s such a shock, and it’s even more of a shock that he was murdered. I know this sounds a strange thing to say, but it would have been easier to take if he had just died of a heart attack, you know what I mean?”

  I nodded. “Yes, that makes perfect sense.”

  “Do you think Craig Cooper did it?” Carl asked Miriam.