Sage Advice to Cover Up a Murder! (Outer Banks Baker Mystery Series Book 2) (8 page)

Back at the police station, Jason was being kept in the dark about everything involving the case from now on. Cory and the chief apologized, but both considered his relationship with Mrs. Maples a liability. Besides, after the heated discussion with Joey Hawkins that morning, even Jason realized it was a bad situation all around. For the duration of the investigation, Jason was on traffic duty along Highway 158 as tourists flooded into and out of the seaside town. He picked up his phone countless times to call Melissa, but every time he chickened out. When she needed him the most, he couldn’t help her.

Jason’s partner and the FBI agent kept busy though. The chief had been furious when he discovered just how much physical evidence the younger detective had kept hidden. Not only were the corpse drawers in the morgue packed with dead seagulls, but Cory managed to talk the coroner into taking blood and tissue samples from Mr. Hawkins’ dead body. None of these things had been authorized. The chief did not like being disobeyed. However, considering Joey Hawkins was breathing down his neck, he was marginally grateful.

The blood work came back negative for the poison, but the ambitious detective wouldn’t give up. What he really needed was tissue samples from the dead man’s stomach contents. That wasn’t going to happen though. Swabs of the inside of Mr. Hawkins’ mouth had not revealed any trace of the poison either. The last item they had to test was Mr. Hawkins’ fingerprint. As Cory read the test results he nearly jumped for joy. There was a tiny trace of the poison embedded in the fingerprint.

Cory spent the remainder of the morning fast-tracking search warrants for Melissa’s home and business. Jason happened to stroll into the precinct as his partner and the FBI agent rushed out. He may not be involved in the case, but he could recognize the signs of search warrants about to be served, as Cory called for three more uniformed cops to follow him. Realizing he could get in big trouble, he picked up his phone again. This time he finished dialing Melissa’s cell phone number.

As she finished her short conversation with Jason on the phone, she informed her brother and nephew that the cops were about to execute search warrants of her home and bakery. “But act surprised,” she warned them. Within a half hour, the knock came to her front door. Detective Bronson led the investigation of her home. Most of their focus was the kitchen. Her utensils and some of her baking ingredients were bagged and tagged as evidence. “At least this time,” she thought, “the cops didn’t leave her home in complete shambles.” John David was livid, but Melissa ordered him to keep his mouth shut. It was best if they just allowed the police to do whatever they needed to do so they would leave sooner rather than later. Detective Bronson informed her a search was also being conducted at the Kill Devil Delicacies bakery. He even offered that she could tag along to observe their search in case she was worried about them trashing her business. Melissa surprised herself by taking him up on the offer. However, she refused to ride in a police squad car. Instead, her brother dropped her off at the bakery.

The search of the bakery went as well as could be expected. While there, the FBI agent asked if Melissa could provide the recipe for the particular bread in question. She unlocked her office, opened the safe and pulled out her recipe card box, made a copy of the card, and handed it to the agent. Just as she suspected, all ingredients in the recipe were confiscated by the cops, along with some baking utensils, while also collecting various swabs of the counters and drawers in the back room. Some poor soul got stuck with dumpster diving in the alley behind the bakery. With the search completed, Cory offered Melissa a ride home. She politely declined. She called her assistant, Maddie, to come to the bakery so they could clean up the mess the cops left behind.

After John David dropped off Melissa, he hightailed it over to the Hawkins’ residence. Logan had called him to say that Emily’s dad really wanted to speak with Aunt Mel. He had no idea what the man wanted, but after hearing Joey Hawkins attack his sister on the news, he certainly needed to talk to him, too.

Sophie Hawkins was still out running errands. Emily answered the door. She had not expected Logan’s father, and only recognized him from family pictures at Melissa’s house. John David introduced himself. Joey Hawkins came to the door and stuck out his hand to the other man. They shook hands as they both sized up each other. Immediately, John David took the initiative and asked how the man dared to have his daughter contact Logan to set up a meeting with Melissa after Joey had the audacity to attack her publicly for something she absolutely did not do. Emily’s father hung his head in shame for his poor judgment in the matter. He admitted his egregious mistake and apologized. Joey also vowed to apologize to Melissa in person.

Emily chimed in that she knew neither Logan nor his aunt had anything to do with what happened to her grandfather. She added that they desperately needed to find out what happened. She brought out the file folder she discovered in the office earlier that morning. John David read it over thoroughly. Being a speed reader, it didn’t take him too long. When finished, he looked up and asked what Joey planned to do with the information. From his viewpoint, it certainly proved Mr. Johnson or someone involved with the deal with the chemical company had motive to kill Mr. Hawkins. “Why haven’t you shown this to the cops yet?” he asked. Joey explained that they fully intended to share this with the authorities. Due to his recent bad behavior, he had wanted to apologize to Melissa and Logan first and share the information with them. According to Emily, the aunt and nephew were fairly good at solving mysteries. Perhaps the information would be beneficial as they searched for the truth. Maybe Melissa could ascertain how her bread was poisoned if she had this information. If a comparison could be made between the poison found in the bread and the poison in the illegal weed killer, it would prove Johnson Shipping International had not only motive, but the means to kill Mr. Hawkins.

After making copies of the files, John David took one copy home to Melissa. Joey planned to hand over the originals to the police, but would keep a copy for himself. As John David made to leave the house, he stopped as a thought struck him. He turned to Joey and asked if he could obtain a copy of his father’s bank records for the last few months leading up to his death. Puzzled, he questioned why the other man needed it. John David explained that he could audit his father’s financial records to determine if he received extra payments from Johnson or some other company that could be viewed as hush money. If they traced any suspicious funds coming into the account, it would lend further credence to the theory that Johnson was somehow involved. If nothing else, someone needed to shed light on the illegal dealings with the chemical company. Being in the financial regulation industry, John David was just the man to make sure that happened. Joey liked the idea and agreed to get the information to him.

Just as Melissa’s brother pulled out of the Hawkins’ driveway, Sophie returned. Both Joey and his daughter agreed it was best to keep all that had transpired hushed up. When questioned about the unfamiliar car leaving their house, Emily simply explained that Logan’s father had stopped by to offer his condolences and to reassure the family that his sister and his son had nothing to do with her grandfather’s death. “Well, of course they didn’t, sweetie,” Sophie replied. “I’ve been trying to explain that to your knucklehead of a father here. Your grandfather simply died of a heart attack or something like it.” Happy to delude herself that Joey would drop the matter now and tell the cops to cease their investigation, she hummed softly as she went back to her bedroom to put away the new clothes she’d just purchased.

John David called Melissa as he drove back towards the bakery. Melissa asked him to meet her at her attorney’s office. She had an idea. When he arrived, the two women were already deep in conversation in Janice’s tiny office. Melissa repeated what she had already told the attorney about the search of her home and business. John David then filled them in on the information given to him by Joey Hawkins. This mystery was getting more interesting by the minute. Melissa had an idea. If someone analyzed the bread found at the scene against her own recipe, maybe they could discover if someone injected the poison into an actual loaf from her bakery or if someone cooked the poisoned bread themselves, but tried to pass it off as her bread. Of course, it would be best if Melissa could be in on the analysis since she would know exactly what goes into her lemon sage bread and could point out any differences. John David picked up the phone to dial Joey. Being a bigwig at the State Department and already throwing his weight around with the Kill Devil Hills police, perhaps he could use some influence with the FBI to have the bread thoroughly evaluated. After a brief discussion with Joey, Melissa’s brother turned to her with a big smile.

Having friends in high places certainly helped. By the end of the day, FBI Agent Elijah Young called Melissa. They arranged for her to be present early the next morning as they tested the bread to verify the ingredients corresponded to those she utilized for her own bread. What he failed to mention was that the package had been tested. It was indeed a bag from Melissa’s bakery, but there was evidence of tampering with the bag. The interior of the bag showed residue of a completely different type of bread – cranberry orange bread, not lemon sage. Detective Bronson reviewed the receipts from the Kill Devil Delicacies over the last couple months. Mrs. Hawkins had purchased a lot of lemon sage bread for her family. However, she only purchased one loaf of the cranberry orange bread the week of Mr. Hawkins’ death.

Melissa arrived early the next morning to help with the bread evaluation. Just in case it was needed, she baked a new loaf of lemon sage bread. She also brought in a loaf from the freezer at the bakery for comparison. In a large box, she brought in all the ingredients. The police already seized her utensils and her large Cuisinart food processor. Shocked to see Melissa entering the precinct, Jason ran over to help her carry her load. Inwardly, Melissa was happy to see him. She realized his boss probably ordered him to stay away from her during the investigation, but it still hurt not to see him every day. After dropping off the things in the forensics lab, Jason squeezed her hand to reassure her. As Agent Young shooed him out of the lab, he mouthed “I love you,” to Melissa.

Cory was against having the suspect involved with the testing of the bread and made his thoughts on the matter well known. However, Joey Hawkins had been causing a ruckus in the department. He insisted Melissa be present during the evaluation. Cory and the FBI agent agreed to keep mum on anything else dealing with the case. They had not even let the chief know the FBI was pursuing a judicial order to confiscate the cremains of Mr. Hawkins for testing. Not many police departments were aware of the technology to test human remains after cremation. However, it was something the FBI had invested in. If Mr. Hawkins was indeed poisoned, as they believed, the cremains held the answer.

Melissa observed as the agent analyzed the fresh bread she brought in, as well as the frozen loaf. After some time, the printer spit out a piece of paper showing a breakdown of the ingredients, along with chemical compositions. The list matched the recipe card Melissa had provided. Then the agent ran the same analysis on the bread found with Mr. Hawkins. Agent Young looked perplexed as the report came through. Aside from the addition of the poison in that bread sample, some key ingredients differed. Instead of fresh lemon zest, it contained commercial lemon juice with high fructose corn syrup. The kind found in the plastic lemon-shaped bottles at the grocery store. It also contained a generic brand of dried sage. Melissa only used fresh organic sage grown in her own herb garden at her home. The search conducted the day before had included digging up her herb garden for the sage. The cops had also managed to devastate her basil and oregano crops in the process. Her zesters from both the house and the bakery had also been taken into evidence.

Along with some other ingredients that differed in quantity and quality, the evaluation proved the poisoned bread was not made following Melissa’s lemon sage bread recipe. Cory asserted that the test results did not exonerate Melissa, but it raised more questions. He knew that the search of her home and bakery, and even the garbage bins, revealed that Melissa only used fresh ingredients. She was very much a stickler for organic, as well. Whoever baked the poisoned loaf had not taken fresh or organic into consideration at all. As a matter of fact, the person used mostly generic ingredients. Melissa realized it was still an uphill battle to convince Detective Knucklehead she wasn’t involved, but this was definitely a good start.

Melissa left the precinct smiling. She didn’t stop to speak with Jason, but flashed him a smile on the way out. He knew she was innocent and he knew she wouldn’t rest until this mystery was solved. He just wished he could help her more. The grumpy look on Cory’s face as he came out of the forensics lab almost made Jason erupt in laughter. The detective admired the younger man’s tenacity, but he thought Cory could use a little comeuppance to bring him back down to reality. The realization that his case was falling apart should have given him some fresh perspective, but Jason doubted that highly. However, he was surprised when Agent Young approached him later that afternoon. Along with the chief, the three men met briefly. Without revealing too much information, the agent conceded that he no longer believed Mrs. Maples was involved in Hawkins’ death. At this point, there was no evidence to indicate Mr. Hawkins even ate the bread. Yes, the bread was poisoned, but was a bad copy of Mrs. Maples’ famous bread.

The FBI agent struggled with presenting the questions, but eventually asked Jason to relay to his girlfriend that they may need her help in catching the bad guy. Someone had gone to an awful lot of trouble to poison Mr. Hawkins. They had the forethought to package the faux bread in the Kill Devil Delicacies packaging, so it was certainly premeditated. However, the agent was confused in that Mr. Hawkins showed no signs of having eaten the bread. Even if he had, based on studies of this particular poison, the result would have appeared as cardiovascular distress. Mr. Hawkins’ medical records indicated he had untreated coronary artery disease anyway. To make the call whether the poison killed him or his heart just gave out, the agent wasn’t confident they would ever really know. His concern was that Detective Bronson wouldn’t just let it go if they couldn’t make a definitive connection from the bread to Mr. Hawkins’ demise. They agreed that Cory was kind of a like a shark in the water once he smelled blood. The stumbling block for the entire case could be less the case and more the detective.

Relieved that Melissa was no longer really considered a suspect, Jason left the station that night and drove directly to her house. He knew the agent held back some information from him. Jason was fine with that. He was just grateful Agent Young had confided as much as he did with him. He didn’t know what would happen next, but he was convinced Melissa would be proven innocent soon.