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“Okay, so we’ll follow you,” Joe said, taking Piper’s hand in his.
“All right.” Chief Blake gave Buzz a pat, and then walked outside. Joe took Piper’s hand and followed.
“I need you to keep it together, Pip. Answer only the questions Chief Blake asks. Don’t say anything about the bad blood between us and Mary Howard.”
“He knows that stuff anyway, Joe.”
“But this is going to be on file. Anything you say now could be used.”
“If I get charged and go to trial?”
He nodded.
“We need to find out what day they think this happened, and you need to try and remember it, Pip.”
“It’s a terrifying thought if it’s my memory that’s going to save me.”
Joe snorted.
They arrived at the police station and she managed a smile for Dean, one of the officers she knew well because he came into Phil’s. He liked his coffee black and hot, and his eggs sunny side up.
“It’s just questioning, Joe,” Chief Blake said again. “You look at me like that again and I’m locking you up.”
“Then I should be able to be with her.”
“She’s not underage, and you’re not a lawyer.”
“Then maybe we should leave this until I get her one.”
Chief Blake never looked harassed; he was always calm, a fit, healthy man who always appeared in control. Right now he was none of those things, and Piper guessed he was feeling the pressure of bringing a Trainer in for questioning.
“Look, this is not sitting well with me either, but I have to do this. Now you just wait out here and let me do my job, Joe.”
“If you were doing your job she wouldn’t be here!”
“Enough, Joe.” Piper hugged her cousin. “Now sit down, and I’ll be back soon.”
Piper followed the chief into his office.
“Take a seat.” He held out a chair. “You want coffee?”
She shook her head and listened as he reeled off a date that she had to try and remember as being the day she supposedly baked the poisoned donuts.
“Rona told me you went into Phil’s early and baked the donuts, and she said they were done before she arrived.”
“I don’t know, I can’t remember. I’d need to look at my diary. If Rona says so, then she’s right. She remembers most things.”
“Mary told me she put the order through the night before for a dozen donuts, and that you took it.”
“Maybe. I mean, we don’t like each other, but she still phones through her orders and sometimes I answer the phone. It’s weird, seeing as she hates me, but it’s always happened that way.”
“Ava said you gave her the bag that evening when she left.”
“I probably did, but I didn’t put poison in them. I didn’t do this, Chief. I would never do that to someone.”
Piper’s hands started to shake as she realized just how much trouble she was in. She didn’t want to go to jail; she didn’t want to leave Grace or her family. She thought about Dylan then; surely he wouldn’t believe her capable of poisoning his mother, not after what they’d shared? The thought made her stomach churn, because she didn’t think he was one to trust easily, and he hadn’t said he loved her in return. In fact, he’d walked away without looking back.
Chapter 33
