I shook my head. ‘You didn’t see them. They were works of art, but they were covered in loads of frosting and icing and glitter. They would have been really sweet – maybe on purpose to cover the taste of the poison. Even without the big meal first, they’d be too rich to eat all of them.’ Another thought occurred to me. ‘Plus it seems to me that all the cakes would have to have a certain amount of toxin in them, so that everyone got sick and made it look like accidental food poisoning, rather than someone targeting Jeremy—’
‘So if the diners had eaten more than one cupcake, and therefore more than one dose of toxin, we surely would have ended up with more than one corpse on our hands.’ Nathan looked at me thoughtfully.
‘I was thinking about this earlier,’ I said. ‘The poisoner must have been at the meal, to make sure that Jeremy took the right cake. So they could have taken any leftover cakes with them on the night, when they left. They could have slipped them into a bag. There was probably enough chaos going on to do that unseen.’
‘But by your reckoning, there would have been at least five cakes left,’ he said. ‘They’d need a big bag, like a messenger bag or rucksack.’
‘Kimi has a rucksack,’ I said, ‘A hideous designer number with a tiger’s head on it…’
Nathan waylaid a scurrying crew member and asked if Kimi was at the shoot today. The harassed woman gave him an irritated look, before looking at him properly and suddenly becoming all big smiles and helpful attitude. It was certainly useful having a good-looking DCI on the case…
Kimi had finished in Hair and Make-Up, and was now waiting in her trailer until she was needed. Probably drinking a bottle of sea water that cost fifteen quid, I thought. Cornwall was surrounded by water on three sides, and we had lots of Blue Flags, the award given to coastal areas with the cleanest water and beaches. Maybe one of our local entrepreneurs should start bottling L’eau de Penstowan and charging a tenner for it.
We approached Kimi’s trailer. Germaine was straining at her leash, and if Nathan had been wearing one, he would have been too.
‘Hold on,’ I said, as we reached the foot of the trailer’s steps. ‘What are we going to say to her? She’s hardly going to admit to poisoning the cupcakes, is she? And she’ll have binned them by now.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘All right, you’re the policeman. What are you going to say to her?’
‘There’s this technique I learned during my CID training,’ he said. ‘You might not have heard of it, seeing as you were only a lowly uniform…’
‘Watch it, DCI Withers,’ I growled. He laughed.
‘Or maybe you have heard of it. It’s called ‘winging it’. Just follow my lead.’ He turned towards the steps, then stopped. ‘Oh, and if you manage to leave all the talking to me I will be amazed.’ He turned away. ‘I’m not holding my breath…’
I gave him a dig in the back as he walked up to the door of the trailer and knocked. Inside, there was the sound of muffled swearing and then silence; Kimi obviously didn’t want visitors. Nathan knocked again.
‘Miss Takahashi, it’s DCI Withers. I’d like to ask you a few questions, please.’
From inside came the sound of frantic movements and a muffled voice again. We exchanged alarmed looks.
‘Can you open the door please, Miss? Kimi?’ Nathan knocked again. Germaine gave a small yap as, behind us, a very pale-looking Aiko and Princess approached.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Aiko, alarmed. Inside, the sounds of frantic movement increased.
‘Walking the dog today, are we?’ I said. ‘Rather than just letting her out so she could take herself off for a swim?’
Aiko started guiltily. ‘I never meant— I didn’t think she’d get that far…’
‘We think your sister might be in some trouble,’ said Nathan. Aiko took a key from her pocket and rushed up the stairs. He took it from her and opened the door.
‘Miss Takahashi, we’re coming in…’
Inside, was a scene of devastation. Devastation if you were a cupcake, anyway. Kimi sat bolt upright on the sofa, her massive fairy wings making it impossible for her to recline in the slightest. The hideous designer rucksack was next to her on the seat, and two empty cupcake wrappers lay beside it, their shiny gold paper twinkling in the ray of weak October sunshine that came in through the open door. It was already blatantly obvious that Kimi had been eating the evidence, but as if to underline it for the people at the back and anyone who wasn’t paying attention, there was a dollop of pink and white frosting on the tip of her nose, and her cleavage (which was on full display in her not-particularly-modest costume) was covered in sprinkles and edible glitter.
‘Kimi!’ cried Aiko, rushing over to her.
‘Mmmpf mmf mmm!’ said Kimi, her mouth full of cake. She swallowed. ‘What the hell? What are you doing, breaking into my trailer?’
‘We didn’t break in. Aiko had a key,’ I pointed out, thinking, I hope we were wrong about those cupcakes, otherwise any time now Kimi’s going to really experience the evils of sugary snacks…
‘Oh Kimi!’ Aiko looked distraught. She sat next to her sister and took her hand. ‘You’ve been doing it again, haven’t you?’ Kimi looked at her for a moment and opened her mouth to retort, but then burst into completely unexpected tears.
Nathan and I looked at each other, feeling awkward.
‘Um…’ said Nathan. He looked a bit bewildered; neither of us had been expecting this. ‘Miss Takahashi, you’re not in any trouble. We just wanted to ask you about the cupcakes…’
‘I couldn’t help it!’ she
