Sage Advice to Cover Up a Murder! (Outer Banks Baker Mystery Series Book 2) (10 page)

The precinct waited on pins and needles to find out what was going on in Chief Monroe’s office. Mrs. Hawkins became more and more agitated as she waited in the conference room down the hall. She picked her fingernails and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It seemed everything had reached a standstill. It was so quiet in the department that a number of people jumped when the silence was penetrated by the shrill ring of the phone on Detective Payne’s desk.

Melissa was on the line and in a panic. She explained that she was on her way to the emergency room with Emily. Although she didn’t know the specifics, she told him that the two teenagers had gone back to the Hawkins’ residence. At some point, Emily started experiencing severe heart palpitations. Logan called his aunt for advice. Her assistant, Maddie, drove her over to the house to check on the girl. Minutes before her arrival, Emily passed out. Thankfully, Logan knew enough to call 911 first. The ambulance pulled up just as Melissa got out of Maddie’s car. She didn’t know anything about the girl’s condition, but needed Jason to track down Emily’s father. He heard the fear in her voice. He wished more than anything he was there to put his arms around her to reassure her. He promised to bring Joey to the hospital himself.

Jason burst into the conference room where Joey sat trying to reason with his mother to simply tell the cops everything so they could get justice for his father. The detective didn’t know how to put the news into soothing words, so he blurted out that Emily was on her way to the hospital. Both Joey and Sophie Hawkins jumped up. Jason offered to take them both over in his own car. Shaken, they accepted. On the way out, Jason informed his partner about Emily’s plight.

After they left the precinct, Cory rushed back to the forensics laboratory. He requested that they put a rush on the cremains testing before Mrs. Hawkins changed her mind and demanded them back. Almost as an afterthought, he decided to take one of the technicians with him to the hospital. Before leaving, he knocked on the chief’s door. Cory requested that he speak with Agent Young for a moment. He advised the agent of what have transpired with the victim’s granddaughter. With a quizzical look, the agent nodded. The two had one last trick up their sleeves. They already had search warrants for the Johnson International Shipping offices, as well as for the Hawkins’ residence. They agreed that the best time to act on it was when the widow was not at home and Mr. Johnson and his attorney were otherwise occupied. Now was the perfect time. While Agent Young rounded up a group of uniformed officers and a couple of forensic lab technicians, Detective Bronson headed over to the hospital.

When Jason arrived at the hospital with Joey and Sophie, Emily had been taken back to radiology for a heart scan. Melissa and Logan waited anxiously outside the secured doors to the emergency room. Since they were not relatives, the staff would not allow them to go back with the young girl and would not give updates on her condition. They only knew that Emily had been resuscitated in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. She was breathing on her own, which was an excellent sign. Joey marched up to the reception desk to demand he be permitted to see his daughter. A nurse escorted him back.

Emily had just been returned to the emergency room cubicle from radiology. Seeing his daughter connected by various wires and tubes to machines monitoring her vital signs made tears spring to Joey’s eyes. He loved his daughter with his whole heart and never wanted to see her in such a sad state. Her skin was a ghastly pale shade with dark circles under her eyes. He realized that he had been in such a rush that he had not even called her mother. Joey hoped his own mother had the sense to call her for him. He doubted it though. Sophie had been frantic on her way over to the hospital.

He walked softly over to a small metal chair beside the bed. Emily appeared to sleep. He took her hand and pressed it to his lips. As tears flowed down his face, he promised the moon and the stars if only she’d just wake up and be healthy again. She stirred a little, but could barely open her eyes. Instead, she squeezed his hand as if to let him know she was going to be okay.

Jason was surprised when his partner entered the small waiting area outside the emergency room, followed by a lab technician from the department. Cory politely asked about Emily’s condition, then requested to speak with Jason privately. Despite the fact he was not allowed to work the case due to his affiliation with Melissa, Cory filled Jason in on the searches that were being conducted. He wanted Jason’s assistance with getting Joey Hawkins to give them permission to take a blood sample from his daughter. The older detective began to see where his partner was going with the new direction of the investigation. He agreed, but needed to speak with Joey when he was away from his mother.

An hour went by agonizingly slow as they waited for word of Emily’s condition. Sophie peppered Logan with questions about what Emily had been doing prior to falling ill. He explained that they returned from the surfing lesson to find no one home. Emily was hungry for something sweet so she offered to make a dessert for them. Although not a fancy pastry chef like his aunt, she promised she could make crazy good smoothies. He didn’t even have a chance to taste it. Almost immediately after testing a spoonful herself before serving it, Emily suddenly felt very ill and grasped her chest in pain. The poor girl’s grandmother was visibly upset so Melissa came over to wrap an arm around the woman’s shoulders to comfort her.

Finally, Joey came out to let them know she was being moved to the intensive care unit (ICU) for observation. The doctors still did not know what caused Emily’s heart palpitations. Her condition was stabilized for the time being, but they couldn’t promise there would not be a recurrence. At this point, they were puzzled but optimistic the tests performed would reveal the true culprit so they could make a proper diagnosis.

Sophie interrupted her son. “What did the doctors say about heart palpitations? She’s just a young girl. Why would she experience that?” she asked with a shaky voice. Joey explained that something caused Emily’s otherwise normal heart to beat extremely fast and then slow to almost a standstill before racing again. She experienced agonizing pain, quite similar to a heart attack. However, she was sedated and resting comfortably now.

The grandmother let out a wail of sorrow. She began rocking back and forth muttering, “It’s all my fault! It’s all my fault!” Over and over again she repeated the words as her voice grew louder each time. Everyone stood back in silent shock as they tried to make sense of the manic woman before them. Cory and Jason exchanged glances. They knew one of them needed to get Mrs. Hawkins to elaborate on what exactly was her fault.

As the truth began to dawn on Joey, he knelt beside his mother. Closing his eyes, he willed himself to speak the awful question that needed to be asked. “Mother,” he began, “what did you do?”  

As rays of sunshine penetrated the flimsy shades of her hospital room, Emily opened her eyes. Still incredibly fatigued, she felt much better. She recalled being brought into the hospital and being poked and prodded. She looked over to find her father fast asleep in an oversized recliner near the window. Clearing her throat, she attempted to wake him. Joey bolted upright at the noise. He quickly realized his daughter made the noise and her eyes were open again. Saying a silent prayer of thanks, he rushed to her bedside.

With the help of Emily’s grandmother, the doctors were able to discover the source of the young woman’s ailment and treat it. A transfusion had been required to flush the poison out of Emily’s bloodstream. Apparently, when she fixed the smoothies she used the same food processor to chop up her berries and kale that Sophie used to mix the ingredients of her version of Melissa’s lemon sage bread. Despite cleaning all the utensils, a small trace of the poison remained stuck on the processor’s blades.

The doctors admitted that if they waited for the lab results, Emily would have survived, but there could have been long-term damage to her heart. Mrs. Hawkins coming forward so quickly with the suggestion it was poison and the particular type of poison made their jobs a lot easier. Joey was grateful his daughter’s life and health would be spared, but he was furious with his mother.  He thought Emily still too frail to hear the entire truth. When she was stronger he would explain the situation fully.

Last night’s revelations rocked Joey to his core. It’s not every day you hear your own mother confess to planning to murder your father. The question still remained whether William Hawkins died of the poison or whether he died of a heart attack. The doctors explained that because Emily had a strong healthy heart, the poison wasn’t fatal. However, his father had been known to have coronary artery disease. Even the slightest contact with the poison could’ve triggered a cardiac episode. He really wished he’d intervened earlier, before his father’s body was cremated.

The police jumped into action when Sophie confessed. Apparently, there was already some suspicion. The search of the Hawkins’ home uncovered several items that were now in police custody – the food processor, bottled lemon juice, commercial (non-organic) dried sage, and a small pill bottle in Sophie’s bathroom medicine cabinet containing a powdery substance. Along with the financial records Joey turned over to the police and his father’s files on the illegal dealings between Johnson Shipping International and the chemical holding company, the confession was enough to warrant the arrest of Mrs. Sophie Hawkins for at least the attempted murder of Mr. Williams Hawkins.

Sadly, the woman’s excuse was simply that she wanted more money to live the life she thought she deserved. She felt her husband’s retirement funds were insufficient to keep her in the lap of luxury. The poor woman cried as she explained that the couple had long ago lost ‘that loving feeling’ and she had started to see William as simply a means to obtain the things she wanted. The extra money coming in from Johnson had been the result of her blackmailing the company with William’s files on the illicit dealings with the weed killer company. With the dirty money and her husband’s hefty life insurance policy to supplement his retirement account, she fully intended to live the good life for the rest of her days.

As for Mr. Johnson, the FBI decided to not authorize an immunity deal for information against Mrs. Hawkins. They had enough evidence to convict her for her husband’s death. They also now had enough information from Mr. Hawkins’ files to pursue an intensive investigation against Johnson for corporate misdealing and regulatory violations. Mrs. Hawkins’ own testimony revealed the company forced her husband out of his job when he wouldn’t sweep the chemical company deal under the proverbial rug for them.

In her interview with Detective Bronson and Agent Young, Sophie admitted that the company’s lawyer advised her how to deal with questions regarding the monetary inflow, as well as how to handle any questions after her husband’s demise. Although she had not informed the lawyer of the use of the poison she found amongst her husband’s things from the office, it was Peter Andrews that recommended Mr. Hawkins be cremated. This made the attorney an accessory to attempted murder.

Back at the precinct, Jason and Cory worked all night. They had not even been home to shower and change clothes when a forensics technician called them into the lab. Although, the Kill Devil Hills police department had never tested cremains for poisons or drugs, the FBI agent had provided them with the proper equipment and instructions to perform the tests. The report clearly stated that no poison was found in Mr. Hawkins’ ashes. If he ingested the poison, even the slightest amount, it should’ve shown in the test results. Mr. William Hawkins had not died of nefarious causes. His wife may have intended to poison him, but in the end it was his own faulty ticker that just gave out. .