Sweet Ginger Poison

“Oh, that couldn’t be.”

“Where did you get your recipe, Cash?”

“I made it up myself.”

“No, you didn’t. You got it out of my book, didn’t you?” What was she doing? Did she really expect him to just admit it?

He hesitated, bit his lower lip, and then said, “Yes, you’re right—it was yourrecipe. I’m sorry.”

“And it came out of my stolenrecipe book.”

“Yes. But Ididn’t steal it.”

“I know. Navy Newcomb stole it for you.”

“No. I got it from him. But he just gaveit to me. I didn’t pay him for it.”

“Let me guess. You didn’t pay him because he was already dead.”

“Okay, Lady, I’ve tried to be nice. I’ve been honest with you. I’ve apologized. You can have the stupid recipe book. I don’t want it. But if you think I had anything to do with Navy Newcomb’s death, then you’re just crazy.” He stood up. “I’m through talking. Goodbye.”

“Keep the book. Those are not my real recipes anyway.” Ginger got up and left. On the way out of the store she passed Silvy, who smiled at her.

By admitting he had the recipe book Cash had convinced Ginger that he was not the murderer.

**********

Chief Foenapper appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. “Addie Barneswaller, I need you to come with me to the station.”

“What for?” said Addie.

“I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Well, can’t you do it here? I’m working.”

“Oh, you don’t want that—believe me.”

Addie turned to Lacey. “Honey, you’re gonna have to take over.”

“But—”

“—I’ll be back in a little while—hopefully.”

“Let’s go,” said the chief.

Lacey was nervous about taking over. But she had trained long enough. She knew what to do.

It would be a few more minutes before the next batch of coffee cakes was ready to come out of the oven. She took out her cell phone and called Danny’s number again. Yesterday, when Lacey had asked why he was taking off today, he wouldn’t tell her.

They would never make it as a couple until he was willing to be open up and honest with her.

Why won’t he answer his phone?

Chapter 22

When Addie got back from the police station, Ginger called her into the office.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Ginger.”

“Come on, Addie. How long have we been friends? You know you can tell me anything. I won’t judge you. Now what’s going on?”

“You can’t say a word about this to anyone.”

“I won’t,” said Ginger. “You knowI won’t.”

“Okay.” Addie took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “It happened when Navy was 15 years old. Bobbie was at the movies with a couple of girlfriends.”

“Your granddaughter?”

“Yes. She was 12. And halfway through the movie she had to go to the bathroom. Navy saw her in the hallway and followed her into the restroom. He threatened to hurt her if she screamed. But when he pulled down his pants and grabbed her, she screamed anyway. He got out of there before anybody else saw him.”

“That’s awful. Why didn’t you ever tell me about this, Addie?”

“Bobbie didn’t want anybody to know. She was embarrassed. And she was afraid to tell her momma because she had been told to stay with the other girls at all times. But they didn’t want to miss any of the movie. And she couldn’t wait.”

“Poor thing.”

“We explained to her that we needed to tell the police about it so Navy couldn’t do it to any other girls. They took her statement. But nothing ever came of it. I always wondered if Ellegora paid somebody to make the whole thing go away.”

“So the chief thinks youpoisoned Navy?”

“Ellegora thinks I did. I had motive—or least I usedto. At the time he did that to Bobbie I wanted to kill him. I don’t know whether I really could have. I hated him.”

“But you got over it.”

“Not completely. I could hardly stand to be in the same room with him. But I wouldn’t have killed him.”

“The chief has apparently been looking through old records.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, so you had motive and opportunity. You couldhave put fish oil in that coffee cake. But what about the Epi-Pen? What did the chief say about that?”

“He didn’t have anythingto say about it. As soon as I brought it up, he told me he was done.”

“Good. Hopefully he’ll move on now.”

“He’ll probably go right back to Lacey.”

“Actually, I have a few suggestions for him.”

“Other suspects?”

“Yes. For example: Manny Monet. I’ve been told that he does loan sharking on the side.”

“I’ve heard that.”

“And I was thinking that if Navy had borrowed money from him and couldn’t pay it back—”

“—Manny would killhim? I don’t know. It’s a possibility.”

“And Cash Crawley. Oh—I haven’t had a chance to tell you: Cash is the one who has the fake recipe book. He must have hired Navy to steal it.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“He admittedit to me.”

“That doessurprise me.”

“Yeah. I was shocked. But he says Navy gaveit to him. And that he had nothing to do with Navy’s death.”

“Well of course he’s going to deny killinghim.”

“But I believe him. I can’t really see a motive. But I’m wondering about his brother, Bull, because from what I understand, Bull and Cash hate each other.”

“Always have.”

“So, suppose Bull somehow found out that Navy was stealing the recipe book for Cash. He might have figured that once the police discovered that Cash hired Navy to steal the book, they might think Cash killed him to cover up the theft. If anybody ever learned that his new cupcake recipes were really mine, his business would be ruined.”

“Boy, you’ve really put a lot of thought into this, haven’t you?”

“I’m just trying to keep Lacey, or you, or some other innocent person from going to prison.”

“When are you going to share your ideas with the police?”

“When I’m sure.”

“You know, Ginger, I was thinking…if the coffee cake wasn’t poisoned until after Navy left here with it, how did the killer get the fish oil into it? You couldn’t just pour it on top. Do you suppose they used a hypodermic