“Get behind me, I won’t let him hurt you!” said Valencia, ready to tackle the man.
“Wait! I’m on your side!” he said, holding his hands up.
“Come again? You’re the murderer.”
“I’m not, but I know who is. I’ve been on the trail of the murderer since it happened. I’m a private detective - Alpert Banne.”
“But I saw you - you came running into my bakery and said my cake had killed a girl. Then I kept seeing you hanging around, but you kept disappearing and then I saw you pay Mrs Hubbard, your partner in crime, a wad of money. You’ve got murderer written all over you!”
“I know I look guilty but… I’m sorry I said it was your cake that killed the Earl’s daughter, but I had to get everyone out of the bakery in a hurry - and it worked.”
“Yeah… so Mrs Hubbard could leave more of the same cakes in my bakery to frame me and steal my fairies by putting them in her basket and leaving without being noticed. The fairies hissed and growled at the memory of their traumatic wicker basket kidnapping.
“No… no… I had to let Mrs Hubbard think I was working for her… or I wouldn’t be able to stop her. I tried to stop this murder, but I wasn’t quick enough. I didn’t expect her to employ someone else.”
“Someone else? This isn’t making much sense.”
“I saw Mrs Hubbard in the queue with Carmella, the Earl’s daughter. I wanted to get her out of there, but I couldn’t. I thought if I hung around the shop till Mrs Hubbard came out I could stop her from giving her a poisoned cake. I knew her plan, you see. Or at least, I thought I did. But whilst I was talking to Mrs Hubbard outside, unbeknown to me, she’d hired someone else to give her the cake - and she ate it, too,” he said, shaking his head.
“Who? Who gave her the cake?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you might know.”
“Me? I don’t know anything. Talbot’s right, we’re not cut out for solving mysteries.”
“It had to be someone she trusted. And why eat that cake and not one of yours?”
“Now that mystery I have solved. She thought it was an invisibility cake - an expensive, authentic one from a boutique bakery. She trusted Telfjord’s,” said Valencia, pleased she knew something Alpert didn’t.
“So, she needed to be made invisible? That would explain her eating that particular cake, then. She was scared enough to want to be invisible. That cake should’ve done the trick.”
“ ‘One bite and you’re gone’. She looked nervous in the queue. She kept glancing outside. I didn’t notice Mrs Hubbard say anything to her when she was in the queue with her, though. It didn’t seem as if they knew each other to be honest,” Valencia said, reliving the memory of the few moments when she saw Carmella Sailsonbury alive.
“I need to go and make some enquiries,” said Alpert Banne, looking as though he’d suddenly remembered something important.
“Not so fast. Why did you give Mrs Hubbard all that money?”
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“It was for… your fairies,” he said, his head bowed.
The fairies hissed even louder at him. One kicked his ankle.
“What?”
Mrs Hubbard was onto me, said she didn’t trust me, so I had to do something to prove I was still in on the plan. She’s got a plan, by the way. No harm’s come to them, I was going to let them go, but she wouldn’t tell me where they were being kept. Even when I gave her the money, she only gave me vague directions to where they were being held. I was lucky I found them - and you.”
“So, let me get this straight - you say you’re a private detective, pretending to be working with Mrs Hubbard, but you’re not? And you paid her a lot of money to steal my fairies - just to let them go again?”
“I don’t believe a word of it,” said Emberline.
“I know it sounds bizarre but… things happened so fast… I knew what she was planning, and I knew her target would be someone wealthy. I never dreamed as I followed her down Black Cat Alley to keep tabs on her she’d ever poison the Earl’s daughter. I followed her to your bakery – there was nothing remarkable about that. She had her wicker basket with her and… will you stop kicking my ankle like that? I didn’t put you in the basket, did I? She always has the basket with her so again, I wasn’t suspicious. It looked like another routine morning of me tailing her as usual then… I noticed Carmella Sailsonbury was in the queue with Mrs Hubbard and… it started to set alarm bells off in my head.”
As someone as wealthy as her wouldn’t ever go to a common bakery like mine?” asked Valencia, folding her arms.
“Right. It seemed odd, so I tried to keep an eye on them through the windows, but it was too full so I couldn’t see anything. I was relieved when Mrs Hubbard came out of the shop after Carmella and… It looked like no harm had been done.”
“Except you were busy following Mrs Hubbard, not Carmella, so you missed seeing her being passed the poisoned cake and her eating it.”
“Yes! Mrs Hubbard… she’s wick for age, you know. Runs rings around everyone else. She can tie your thoughts inside out, she can. It was too late when I realised she’d gone through with the plan and Carmella was the target.
“And then the plan you were involved with got put into motion? The one where you stole my fairies?”
“Yes. I’m sorry about that but I’d hired her to steal your fairies because… I had to prove to her I was in just as deep as she was. So, I told you about the murder so the shop was empty, leaving Mrs Hubbard able to take the fairies. I didn’t know she’d plant more poisoned cakes at your bakery, though.”
“It was a bad plan. What did you possibly hope to gain from stealing my fairies, anyway?”
“At the time, I suspected she was going to poison people with apples, which was her first choice. Apparently, her great great grandmother was a dab hand at poisoning people with apples which she kept in a wicker basket. She’s her inspiration. Then, she started saying cakes were ‘a sweeter way to go’. So, I thought if she knew I had some fairies she’d get them to bake poisoned cakes, but I’d swap the poison for harmless syrup and stop her plan in its tracks.”
“But she baked the cakes before you got the fairies, so you couldn’t stop them being baked?”
“Exactly. So, it cost me a lot of money and it didn’t work and now I’ve only got several bruises on my ankles to show for trying to help and I’m wondering if it was all worth it, to be honest.”
“You say she’s planning to poison more people?”
“Oh yes. The Earl’s daughter was just the trial run. She’s got a taste for it now.”
“But who baked the poisoned cakes?”
“Not Mrs Hubbard, that’s for sure. She can’t boil an egg.”
“Who’s her accomplice, then?”
“I’ve no idea. It must be someone Carmella knew and trusted, though. I don’t know how I’m going to convince the controllers I’m not as involved as they think I am.”
“Who’s hiring you? You’re a private detective, who hired you to follow Mrs Hubbard?”
Alpert Banne turned pale and started backing up towards the door.
“I’m not supposed to disclose my sources, especially sources of income.”
“But someone is paying you to follow Mrs Hubbard?”
“Yes, the past two weeks - good money, too. I might try to put the money I lost on your fairies on my expenses,” he said, his eyes lighting up at the idea.
“Well, thanks for all that info, it’s been… interesting. I need to find Talbot and track Mrs Hubbard and her accomplice down before they poison anyone else.”
“She won’t like that. You think you’ve been framed for the murder? Just wait till she finds out you’re onto her. She’ll make you look so guilty you’ll believe you did it.”