Elin’s chest heaved. “Vince? Mom’s ex?”
I shook my head again. “Nope.” I nodded at Peter, and with a wave of his wand, Tonya’s red and gold purse appeared in his lap. I walked over and picked it up.
Tonya’s jaw dropped. “That’s my purse!”
I nodded. “Yep.” I reached inside and pulled out the black tube of lipstick. “And this was the murder weapon.”
Lorenzo, his shirt unbuttoned nearly to his navel, scoffed. “Lipstick?”
Elin, lips curled back in a snarl, whirled on her twin. “So you killed Mom?!”
The color drained from Tonya’s face. “What? No—I couldn’t.”
Daisy rose, hackles raised, and growled.
I shook my head. “Polly put on Tonya’s lipstick during the competition—lipstick that had been poisoned.”
Tonya covered her mouth with both hands, the whites showing all around her eyes. “It was—poisoned?”
I paced in front of Lorenzo and Elin, who stood together near the stairs, and Tonya, still sitting at the round kitchen table. “How would the killer have known that Polly would decide to put on her daughter’s lipstick that day?”
Lorenzo blinked. “They’re psychic?”
I stopped my pacing and frowned at him. “Uh—yeah, that could’ve worked. But no—that’s not the case. The truth is, the killer didn’t know and Polly wasn’t the actual target—Tonya was.”
All eyes swiveled to Tonya, whose chest heaved. She slumped lower in her wooden chair.
I pivoted to face the other two suspects. “None of the other bakers went over to Polly’s station that morning, and Lorenzo didn’t enter the tent until after the murder. Which leaves Tonya, Elin, and Polly with access to the purse. Polly’s dead, and if Tonya was the target….”
I raised my brows, letting everyone fill in the rest.
Tonya looked at her twin, whose face had turned an alarming shade of red. “Elin?”
When Elin only tossed her blond hair over her shoulder and scowled back at Tonya, her lips pursed tight, Tonya let out a moan and buried her face in her hands.
Elin’s chest heaved, her slender hands balled into fists. She shot daggers around the room at all of us. “It’s a lie—I didn’t do it!”
Daisy advanced a few slow steps, as though stalking the blond, and growled. Liar.
I winced. “Oops—looks like Daisy, our canine lie detector, disagrees with you.”
Elin stamped her foot and let out a shriek. “I already told you—I didn’t want to kill my mom!”
Daisy’s tail wagged. True.
I nodded. “It’s how you got around our questioning, earlier. It’s true—you didn’t want or mean to kill your mother, but you did intend to kill your twin, Tonya. Isn’t that right?”
In a courtroom, someone probably would have objected, but in real life I could get away with a lot more conjecture.
Elin’s flush deepened to a blotchy purple. “Fine! Yes, I killed my mother—accidentally.”
Daisy whined—true—as Tonya gasped and Elin whirled on her. The nearest cop drew his wand, and Peter and Russo rose from the couch.
Lorenzo blew out a heavy breath. “Babe—how could you?”
Elin turned and let the full force of her fury out on him. “Don’t you start with me!” She bared her teeth. “I knew you were cheating on me when I found a smear of lipstick on your pillow—in a cheap shade I’d never wear.”
“No, baby, I’d never cheat on you.”
It came out so weak that none of us needed Daisy’s growl a moment later to know he was lying.
Lorenzo ducked his head and hunched his shoulders like a kid getting scolded. I rolled my eyes—these two deserved each other.
“And you—” Elin spun around to face her sister, who cringed back. “We’re twins—I knew you were up to something. I could always tell when you were lying.”
Tonya let out a little whimper.
“Plus, you started wearing those dumb scarves in your hair and trying to dress half decently—I knew you were seeing someone.” She shook her head, lip curled. All the prettiness had disappeared from her features.
“But I didn’t put it all together until that morning. I came over here to help move our baking stuff to the tent for the competition, and while you and Mom were getting ready up here, I had a poke around downstairs. I got bored and saw the note sticking out of your purse—the one from Mom.”
She shook her head. “And then it all made sense.” She let out a shrill laugh. “I mean—I connected the dots, but it frankly makes no sense that anyone would cheat on me with you.”
I shot Peter a wide-eyed look. This family was the definition of dysfunctional. Still, I felt a little badly for them all—they’d lost everything.
Elin shrugged and looked down, her shoulders slumped. She walked to the kitchen table, Tonya shrinking back, and then pulled out a chair and dropped into it. It was as though confessing her crimes had left her suddenly exhausted.
“I just snapped. I went into the kitchen and found the poison potion we use for killing roaches.”
I lifted a brow—remind me to never eat at this bakery. I bit my lip. And also, I should probably tell Gary to spread the word among his roach buddies that they should avoid this place, too.
Elin let out a heavy sigh. “I sprinkled some of it on Tonya’s lipstick—the same color I’d found on Lorenzo’s pillow. I figured it’d be fitting revenge for sleeping with my fiancé.”
I nodded. “And then you all went to the competition and stashed your purses in the cubby below the baking station. Your mother, Polly, took a sip of the tea at the competition, and wanting to look her best in front of the royalty in the audience, touched up her lipstick. Only, for some reason, she grabbed Tonya’s.” I shrugged. “Maybe her purse was the easiest and quickest to get to, or maybe she liked the color.”
Elin scoffed at that.
I raised a brow at her. “Polly got the fatal dose of poison that had been intended for Tonya.”
Elin shook her head, her gaze faraway. “I never wanted to hurt Mom. Never.” She growled at her sister, suddenly full
