Dying for the Truth (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 4) (5 page)

“Connors wants to see me again.”

“Now?”

“I told Fellow I’ll see him after I talk to my lawyer.”

Bailey was so angered by this tactic that she immediately put in a call to Kyle and Eleanor and told them what had happened. They all agreed to go with Maddie to the station as a show of support.

The next day, after business slowed down at the bakery, Maddie and her team made their way to the courthouse. The place was just as dingy as she remembered it, and Maddie realized it was the type of place she would never be comfortable in, even if she was not considered a prime suspect. The whole feel of the place was harsh and unwelcoming. It was designed to make people uncomfortable. Even the information desk was situated atop a pedestal so that the desk sergeant had to look down at the people who came to him for help; no wonder people didn’t want to call the police for anything.

Nevertheless, Maddie made her way over to the desk to ask who she should speak to, and the sergeant directed her to wait in a cold metal chair until she was called. Thirty minutes later, she heard a gruff voice call her name and was directed down the hall toward the all-too-familiar interrogation rooms by a female police officer she didn’t recognize. Maddie was relatively surprised, because she didn’t even think Connors was the kind of guy to accept women on his police force, but there she was. Go figure.

Only she and Kyle were allowed in the room. Bailey and Eleanor were told they had to wait outside. Bailey didn’t take to the news very well, but Eleanor calmly explained that only Maddie’s legal representation would be allowed during questioning, and Maddie assured her that she would tell her everything in detail when it was all over.

The room seemed even smaller than the other one she had been in, but it had more chairs at the single metal table in the middle of the floor. There were now four chairs, two on either side. Maddie walked around the table and took a chair facing the door so she could see whenever someone came in. Kyle sat next to her and they both waited alone for another thirty minutes before the door opened.

To both their surprise, Connors had elected to do the questioning. Kyle looked up and stared at the behemoth of a man towering above them. Clearly Connors was planning on using his size as a way to intimidate them, but Maddie was determined not to give him the satisfaction.

“Ms. McDougal,” he said with a bit of formality.

“Chief.”

“Let’s get to it, why don’t we?” Connors said with a fake smile.

“Let’s do,” Maddie agreed.

Connors flipped through a file folder he had brought with him. “Let’s start at the beginning. How did you know Evan Foster?”

Maddie took a look at Kyle, who nodded, before she answered. “Evan and I were friends while in culinary school.” She stopped there, following Kyle’s advice to keep her answers short.

“Weren’t you rivals?”

“I wouldn’t say rivals,” Maddie started. “That’s what other people would say, but Evan and I had different ways of reaching the same goals.”

“Didn’t he steal your recipes to start his own business?”

“No. Not really,” Maddie couched. “It was actually Emma who stole my recipes and gave them to Evan. I don’t believe he was aware that she was stealing them.”

The muscles in Connor’s face tensed up, and you could see the vein alongside his neck throbbing from frustration. “But, how is it that his entire bakery has a menu that looks almost exactly the same as yours?” His voice sounded like a tight wire about to break.

“Evan and Emma were partners. If she stole my recipes, it’s only logical that she used them to start the bakery.”

“Then Evan was your rival.”

“I didn’t say that. You did.”

Connors stared at the small woman sitting across the table from him. His eyes rolled back in his head as he tried to figure out a way to unnerve her and get her to say something incriminating.

“What were you doing at Evan’s bakery that morning?”

“What morning?”

“Last Monday, the morning of his death.”

“I went to pay a friendly visit,” Maddie said honestly.

“We have you on camera looking very agitated and angry,” Connors said.

“What was I doing?”

“You were yelling to someone inside the shop. You threw your pastries in the garbage and you left.”

“So I was not the only person at the bakery that morning.”

“No. There were others.”

“Did you see me go in?”

“No, we didn’t.”

“And you saw me throw the pastries away.”

“Yes.”

“So how can you conclude that I committed the murder?”

“You were there.”

“Yes. Outside of the bakery, not inside.”

“Right, but you could have come back later.”

“When did Evan die?”

“He was found dead in his office at about five thirty in the morning.”

“When was I there?”

“Around four in the morning.”

“Did you find evidence that the surveillance cameras had been tampered with?”

“No. The footage was pretty consistent.”

“Did the camera show that I ever returned to the bakery?”

“No. Only that one time.”

“Was the office fingerprinted?”

“Yes.”

“Did you find my fingerprints?”

“No.”

“How did he die?”

“He was poisoned with your cupcake.”

“How do you know it was my cupcake? You said yourself that Evan’s store was using the exact same recipes as my bakery. Couldn’t someone who worked for him have had better access to poison him than I would?”

Connors opened his mouth to say something but then realized that Maddie had quickly turned the tables on him. He had already said too much, but she had not given him much evidence to go on. The lady was smart and was not about to incriminate herself in such a way.

“What kind of poison was used?”

“The coroner called it glycoside amygdalin.”

“Where did it come from? How was it administered? What was the quantity? Did you question anyone else that may have come to the store that morning?” Maddie’s questions came in rapid succession as she struggled to get answers.

Connors sat his large, bulky body back in the chair. A flush of red crept across his face. “I can’t reveal anything about the ongoing investigation to you.”

“That is not correct, Connors,” Kyle interjected. “The law states that you can’t reveal this information to possible witnesses. But in Maddie’s case, you’re questioning her as a suspect, not a witness. She needs this information to build up her own defense.” Kyle paused to gauge Connors’s reaction. “Unless you don’t feel you really have a case.” He let his last statement hang in the air and waited for Connors’s reaction.

“You want to quote the law to me?” he said, turning on Kyle. “I’ve been a law enforcement officer since before you were even a thought in your mother’s mind.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Kyle said. “Just like I was born and grew up to be a good lawyer to defend my client, the laws have changed with the times. But Connors, you haven’t. You’re still stuck in the old days, and that’s why you don’t even realize that it is highly unorthodox for you to be conducting this type of interview yourself.”

“What?” Connors sputtered.

“You’ve always had an issue with Ms. Maddie, and you’ve allowed your personal judgment to cloud your perception of her. You have no real concrete evidence against her.” Kyle rose from his seat. “This interview is over.”

“I do have evidence against her,” Connors defended.

“Then it is your responsibility as a legal professional to divulge it,” Kyle retorted. “As far as I can see, the only evidence you have is a series of assumptions. You have no witnesses, no fingerprints, no DNA, nor anything else that puts her there at the time of the crime. In fact, your own evidence shows her leaving the scene more than an hour before he died.” Kyle slammed his fist into the table and came face to face with Connors. “What you have here is a lazy chief of police that would rather set up an innocent woman than actually investigate a crime himself. Come on Maddie, let’s go.”

Maddie rose from her seat and joined Kyle at the door.

“You can’t just walk out like that.”

“Watch us,” Kyle retorted, and they both left Connors sitting in the room, fully disgraced.

Leaving the police station, Maddie fought hard to not look back and followed Kyle’s instructions carefully. She just had this awful feeling that a group of cops were going to come chasing after her with their guns drawn, ready to take her back into custody, but after a few minutes, nothing had happened. She could noticeably feel the tension leaving her body and her back and shoulder muscles began to relax.

She ventured a furtive glance as they got into Kyle’s car to see if they were being followed, but she only saw Bailey and Eleanor quickly keeping pace with them. In the parking lot Kyle explained to both ladies what had happened, and they agreed to follow them to Maddie’s shop.

The drive was quick and uneventful, and by the time they had reached their destination Maddie was completely herself again. Just thinking about telling the tale of turning the tables on Connors like that was enough to elicit a giggle out of most people.

As they all sat around in Maddie’s office retelling the events, she felt an unusual burst of energy. Feeding off the laughter of the others boosted her confidence even more. Kyle disappeared for a few minutes but returned later with two bottles of champagne. This first one they’d open today and the other they’d open when Maddie won her case. They all drank to a victory over Connors and laughed a little while longer before Kyle interrupted.

“Well folks,” he started, “while I know that we’re all feeling a sense of relief after this type of questioning, I just want to point out that the battle has just begun. It’s time to get serious about this investigation if we want to guarantee a victory in this case. It is my opinion that Connors is determined to push this thing all the way to trial, and we need to be prepared.”

Silence fell around the table as the seriousness of the situation fell on them again.

“So, let’s see where we are right now.”

“Well, at least we know what killed Evan,” Maddie said.

“Really? What?” Eleanor’s curiosity peaked.

“It’s something called glycoside amygdalin.”

“What’s that?” Bailey said, pulling her chair up to Maddie’s computer.

“Apparently it is some type of poison that was put into the cupcakes.”

“Mmm hmmm,” Bailey agreed as she pointed at the computer screen. “According to several studies, it turns into hydrogen cyanide when taken in large doses.”

“Really?” They all crowded around Bailey and the computer screen to gather information about this unusual poison that had killed Evan.

They discussed the case well into the night, comparing notes of information each of them may have gleaned. Bailey shared her discoveries about the affair with Kelsey Orlando and Evan, Eleanor revealed precedents that could be used if the case ever went to trial, and Kyle and Maddie focused on what should be done next in order to make sure that everything was ready.