Streusel Creme Killer: Book 5 in The INNcredibly Sweet Series Read online

  Echo, who had a longer stride, beat her to the table by seconds, and closed the laptop before the rude woman could see what she’d been searching.

  “I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Echo’s ire was rising, and the heady combination of anger and adrenalin left her in no mood for company. “Look, I may personally be in danger right now, you need to go,” she stated flatly, daring the woman to defy her.

  “In danger?” Carlotta smirked. “Who would care enough about you to want to hurt you? Certainly not that fiancé of yours…he’s been quite…busy with me all week,” she drawled, her voice dripping with innuendo.

  Her remark was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Echo was, and always had been, a pacifist who firmly believes that violence is not the answer, but she was suddenly consumed by an overwhelming desire to physically wipe the smirk from Carlotta’s face. She knew the woman was lying. Her sweet, adoring Kel wouldn’t so much as give the fiery Latina a second glance, but the nasty way that she had spoken made Echo’s blood boil, and after the emotional day she’d had, she just snapped.

  “I said, get out, and I mean get out,” she snarled between her teeth, grabbing a surprised Carlotta by the arm, with the intention of moving her to the door.

  With a swift movement, Carlotta whipped a syringe out of the pocket of her jacket, took off the protective cap on the end of the needle with her teeth, spitting it onto the floor, and lifted her hand to plunge it into Echo’s neck. Instinctively, Echo blocked the motion with her arm, knocking the syringe onto the floor, and her assailant let out a snarl of frustration, dropping to her knees to reach for the syringe.

  Operating on pure instinct, Echo pushed Carlotta sideways, toppling her away from the syringe, and grabbed the arm nearest to her, pulling it up between the socialite’s shoulder blades, holding her by the wrist and flipping her over onto her stomach. She landed on Carlotta’s back with a grunt, settling her weight at the smaller woman’s waist, so she couldn’t move. She grabbed the other flailing hand, and pulled it up by the wrist as well, effectively immobilizing the viciously angry woman. Only when Echo had Carlotta squirming beneath her, unable to move or fight, did she see the blue and red flashes of light that signaled help had arrived.

  Chas Beckett charged in the front door, followed by four police officers, and saw Echo sitting atop her would-be assassin, tears streaming down her face.

  “One down, one to go,” he muttered grimly, taking Echo in his arms while uniformed officers secured Carlotta, who fought like a wildcat.

  **

  Carlotta Lehman refused to talk, immediately demanding that her attorney be present, which meant that Chas’s only hope of solving the case was to make Dylan McClary break down and confess. The feds had been questioning him fruitlessly while Chas was gone, but had taken a break to let their prisoner sit by himself for a while, alone in a cold, grey jail cell.

  Chas had Dylan brought back up to the interrogation room, and decided to try a different tactic.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” he offered. “Coffee? Water? Soda?”

  Dylan regarded him with suspicion, and his stomach growled.

  “Hungry too, huh?” Chas observed. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

  He left Dylan sitting in the interrogation room, with a glance at the two officers standing outside the door, which let them know to watch the prisoner’s every move. Dylan took a couple of deep breaths, looked at the door speculatively, then shook his head and looked at the ceiling. When Chas came back moments later, carrying a can of soda and a packet of peanut butter crackers, the young man had his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands, staring into space.

  “Here,” the detective said, plunking down the can and the crackers. “I always find that my memory is better when I’ve had a little food and refreshment.”

  Dylan eyed the items suspiciously.

  “Seriously?” Chas asked, raising an eyebrow. “They’re in sealed containers, it’s not like they’re contaminated, although that would be the ultimate irony, wouldn’t it,” he smirked.

  Dylan gave him a withering look, then popped the top on the soda and peeled back the cellophane from the crackers. Soon he was munching quickly, washing down the snack with soda, as though he hadn’t eaten in quite some time.

  “Just picked up your friend Chelsea,” the detective lied smoothly. “And, I gotta tell you, she’s singing like a canary. Of course she’s throwing you under the bus for the whole thing, and I admit, even though both your prints and hers are on the containers from BioZyme, she’s making a pretty good case that points to you being in charge of the whole thing,” he shrugged, spinning his pen on his notebook and not looking at the young man.

  Dylan stopped chewing for a moment, then swallowed hard, nearly choking. He took several quick gulps of soda, and looked a bit sick.

  “I wasn’t in charge of anything,” he muttered, putting down the soda can.

  “That’s not the story I’m hearing,” Chas spun the pen again.

  “Then Chelsea is lying,” Dylan shook his head, disgusted.

  “Why would she lie?” the detective asked mildly, still watching the pen.

  “Why do you think?” the young man challenged. “To save her own skin. She was the one who got the stuff from Carlotta Lehman. She was the one who sprayed the door knobs, and the ATM pads and the cups and utensils at the restaurants, and the phones in the city council building with that stuff so that people got sick, not me. I’d never hurt anyone. I thought it was a stupid idea from the beginning, but Carlotta lied to her and told her that people would just get sick,” he sighed, exasperated, jerking his fingers through his long hair.

  “Why would Chelsea and Carlotta want people to get sick?” Chas asked, still not looking at Dylan.

  “Well, it turns out that she lied to me about why,” he admitted, shaking his head. “She said that it was supposed to be a warning. People would get sick, and then we’d put out a statement that this is why small towns can’t afford to have these big companies coming in and ruining the environment, because of incidents like this. I hoped that it would scare the city council into voting no on the GenetiCorp proposal, but they lied to me, and people got hurt, and I never meant for any of that to happen.”

  “So…Carlotta Lehman is a member of Safe-A too?” the detective carefully masked his surprise.

  Dylan raised his head and looked Chas directly in the eye.

  “Heck no. That wretch used to send me hate mail and death threats. Carlotta Lehman is the daughter of Maxwell Lehman, the principal shareholder of GenetiCorp.”

  Holding his gaze, Chas spoke very quietly.

  “Dylan, I know that you didn’t kill Diane Fellman…tell me who did,” he said softly.

  A strange mixture of emotions passed over the young man’s features as he wrestled with his conscience, finally seeming to resign himself to whatever fate awaited.

  “I’m not sure, but I think Carlotta paid Chelsea to do it. I couldn’t sleep one night, and I heard Chelsea talking on the phone about doing gross things to the body, and leaving clues that would confuse the investigators. I think she killed the old lady who owned the property too, but I’m not sure,” he replied miserably.

  “Why would Carlotta want to kill Diane and Carmen, and make the town sick? Wouldn’t that be working against her own interest?”

  Dylan shook his head.

  “Chelsea got the timing wrong. She was supposed to spray the public areas with the stuff the day before the vote. Carlotta had warned the council members, whom she’d given bribes to, about what was happening, so they wouldn’t touch anything. On the day of the vote, anyone who would vote no, was supposed to be out sick. The Vice Mayor’s death was a warning, but some of the council were sticking to their guns on the issue, so Carlotta had to take things further, and Chelsea got too eager and messed it up. Carlotta’s dad apparently uses her like a scout. She goes and sweet talks the councils and boards of small towns into allowing GenetiCorp t
o build, and by the time that they realize they’ve been manipulated, it’s too late.”

  Chas nodded.

  “Where were you and Chelsea staying? That’s the one thing that she refused to tell us, because she says that all of the evidence that could be used to convict you is there, and she didn’t want to see you go down in flames.”

  “She’s lying, there’s nothing that ties me to any of this, except that I did handle some of the bottles. But I never used them, I swear,” Dylan protested, drained.

  “Give me the address, and we’ll go check it out. If what you say is true, it may help your case.”

  Dylan gave him the address, and Chas excused himself for a moment.

  “Good work, Detective,” one of the federal agents, who had been watching from behind the one-way glass nodded, taking the slip of paper with the address on it. “We’ll go pick up Chelsea Nichols and take over from here.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Every doorknob and contact point in each business and public facility in Calgon had been scrubbed down, with a solution specified by the CDC, after word got out regarding how the salmonella outbreak had been initiated. The answer to that particular mystery had literally been right in front of Vice Mayor, Diane Fellman’s eyes. The penny that had been placed on her right eye after death, had been minted in 1984, the same year that the Rajneesh cult in Oregon had contaminated door knobs and salad bars in their town with spray bottles of salmonella, in hopes of swaying the town’s election process. Timothy Eckels had stumbled upon that clue and provided it to Chas on the night of Carlotta’s arrest. The Medical Examiner also determined that the strange set of letters, printed on Diane Fellman’s nails, T, I, B, A, H, and on the other hand, T, and A, spelled HABITAT, when the victim’s fingers were curled up into fists and placed side by side, another one of Chelsea’s sick taunts.

  Carlotta’s operative inside BioZyme had been identified and arrested, and Chelsea Nichols had been calmly watching TV at the address that Dylan had given Chas, when federal agents descended, placing her under arrest. Chelsea confessed to being a hired killer for Carlotta, and later admitted that she’d murdered Carmen Feeney, of her own accord, just to try to tie up the property in probate, so that it couldn’t be sold. It was she who had rifled through Carmen’s cottage, hoping to find, and destroy any will that might exist, so that the future of the property would be tied up in the courts for potentially years. Her original concern for the environment had turned into an obsession so profound, that she was literally willing to stop at nothing to protect it.

  Carlotta’s father had known nothing about his daughter’s tactics, other than the fact that she had seemed phenomenally successful in getting what she wanted on behalf of the company, so he wasn’t implicated at all in the crimes. The syringe that Carlotta had taken to Echo’s cottage on the night that she was arrested contained a substance that was classified, and remained in federal hands until it could be disposed of properly. It would have killed Echo quickly, having quite a gruesome and quite painful effect on her body before her death.

  CHAPTER 14

  Izzy Gillmore returned to Florida from New York, worried about the stubborn Marine that she had left behind, while she took some time away to think.

  “Oh my gosh, Spencer, I was out of cell range for a while, getting my head together, and when I came back to civilization, I saw on the news what had happened here. Are you okay? Were you affected by the salmonella outbreak?” she asked, concern evident in her eyes and tone.

  “Let’s just say I was able to take advantage of the opportunity to rid myself of some excess weight,” he gave her a half-hearted smile, wondering whether she had come back to say her final goodbyes.

  “You never had any excess weight,” she smiled, poking her finger playfully at his rock-hard abs. “Seriously though, are you okay?”

  “That depends,” his eyes locked on hers, more serious than Izzy had ever seen him.

  “On what?” she murmured, her heart fluttering in her chest, captivated by the intensity of his cerulean gaze.

  “On you,” he husked, caressing her cheek with his fingers before gently cupping her face with both hands and bending down to brush his lips, ever so softly against hers.

  “Oh Spencer,” she kissed him back, hard, and threw her arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry. I thought about you the whole time that I was gone. Your past is your past and it makes you the amazing man that you are today, and that’s all I care about. If you feel like you can’t share some things with me, I’m just going to have to trust you, because I’ve never felt this way about anyone, and I’m not going to walk away from this,” she said softly, her wide hazel eyes brimming with tears.

  “That is…if you feel that way too,” she backed away a bit, suddenly shy and uncertain.

  “I intend to spend a very long time telling and showing you how I feel,” he replied with a tender smile, lifting her easily into his arms and kissing her soundly.

  There was a nearly imperceptible rustling in the bushes close to twenty feet from where he stood, kissing his gal, and Spencer knew that he was once again being watched, but he’d deal with that later.

  **

  “I told you from the beginning that I thought that woman was bad news,” Echo reminded Kel, as they sat at their favorite table, having cupcakes and coffee with Missy.

  “I know, dearest. I’ll never doubt you again,” Kel answered, gazing at his fiancée and twining his fingers through hers. “When I think about how close I came to losing you…” he shook his head, unable to even articulate the thought.

  “But you didn’t,” Missy reminded him. “Because our sweet little pacifist is more than capable of defending herself when she needs to,” she patted Echo’s hand with a grin, glad to know that her friend had been able to rise to the occasion, and had captured a murderer.

  Echo shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it,” her gaze wandered to the window, and she brightened.

  “Looks like they’re going to be okay,” she nodded over her coffee cup.

  Missy and Kel turned to see Spencer and Izzy strolling toward the cupcake shop, hand in hand, both of them smiling as though they couldn’t help themselves.

  “Good morning,” Missy called out when Spencer opened the door for Izzy, then trailed in behind her. “Are you two joining us for coffee and cupcakes?”

  “No thank you, ma’am,” the Marine replied politely. “But I’ll take a couple to go, if you don’t mind.”

  “Help yourself, darlin, you know where the bags are,” she grinned. “Welcome back, Izzy. Did you miss us?”

  “Of course I did,” the author beamed, unable to take her eyes off of the mountain of a Marine who was loading up a bag of cupcakes behind the counter.

  “Some of us more than others, I think,” Echo teased, making Izzy blush.

  “Actually, Echo, I came here this morning to talk to you,” she changed the subject.

  “Oh?” Echo was surprised. “Well, let’s hear it. What’s on your mind?”

  “Spencer said that you have a cottage that you might want to sell or rent, and I’m looking for more…permanent accommodations,” Izzy replied, blushing to the roots of her hair now.

  Echo’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “You mean, you two…” she began, delighted.

  “No! Uh…no,” Izzy interrupted. “It’s just, I’ve been staying at the Inn, trying to decide what I want to do, and I’ve decided that I want to have a place of my own, here in Calgon. I’m selling my flat in New York, and moving here,” she grinned.

  “Well, that’s wonderful news,” Missy exclaimed. “Echo, let’s go show it to her now,” she rose from her chair.

  “Yes, let’s,” Echo agreed. “I hope you like pink.”

  “Save me a cupcake,” Izzy called out to Spencer as the two women practically dragged her out the door.

  Spencer sat down at the table with an amused Kel, and took a cupcake out of his bag, biting it in half and chewing thoughtfull
y.

  “Welcome to the club, young man,” the artist smiled, lifting his coffee in a mock toast.

  “Thank you, sir,” the Marine replied around a mouthful of cupcake.

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