Hot Fudge Fraud (7 page)

“Can I ask why you haven’t had your phone number changed?  Doesn’t that seem like the logical thing to do?” Melanie baited gently.

“Well, I thought the calls and texts would eventually stop.  And they did, for a while.  But just the past couple of days they started up again.  Actually, when we flew out of Charleston is when the texts started polluting my phone again.  I guess she has radar that I might actually be happy, and she wants to mess it up.” Keith clenched his fists in marginally restrained anger.

“Radar?  Keith, I think you’re giving her too much credit.  She may be a psycho, but she’s not
psychic
!  Maybe somehow she knows that you went away with another woman and that’s why she got back in touch,” Melanie reasoned, suddenly shivering as the night air cooled.

“No, she and I don’t have any mutual friends.  I don’t see how she would have found out that I’m away with you.  It’s just a coincidence.  Just an ugly coincidence,” he seethed.

“I don’t believe in coincidences, Keith,” Melanie retorted, unconvinced.

“Alright, now I told you the story.  Could we go back to enjoying this evening?  Better yet, could we go back to enjoying that
luxurious bedroom?” He winked, rising from the table and extending his hand.

With just a glimmer of hesitation, she accepted his hand and let him lead her back to the unmade bed.

Chapter 7

A
nother rain shower greeted the new lovers the next morning as they rose from bed and dressed for a day of sightseeing.  “Hope you brought some rain gear,” Keith called from the bathroom where he was brushing his teeth.

“Plenty of it!  My mom used to tell me all kinds of stories about how rainy it is here in Ireland.  She said that’s why everything is so green!” Melanie hollered back, slipping into a rain slicker.

“So what should it be today?  A tour of the city or country?” Keith asked amiably, meeting her by the door.

“You mean you’re letting me choose again
?”

“Yes, I aim to please,” he said huskily.

“I know.  And you certainly did last night,” she cooed as he chuckled.  “So hmmm, let’s see.  We could traipse around Dublin in the rain.  Or?”

“Or we could take a taxi to the Irish countryside.  Maybe visit a family farm.  Get some
ice cream mixed from fresh milk.”

“Oh, well if there’s ice cream involved, I’d have to say let’s go to the countryside,” she replied sweetly as they
took the elevator to the lobby to get a cab.

The ride out of Dublin
brimmed with old world charm and sights of endless pubs and cathedrals.  Reaching the countryside, the landscape transformed into a panorama of pure jade magic.  Even though it was still drizzling, Melanie rolled down the window to inhale the refreshing air.  Keith kept his eyes fastened on her face, savoring her delighted reactions more than any tourist landmark or natural wonder.

By noon, they arrived at a
renovated farmhouse set on sprawling acres of land.  Cows and goats roamed freely on the property, and the smell of manure was pungent.  “So much for the fresh country air,” she laughed, pinching her nostrils.

“Tell me about it,” he rolled his eyes, trying not to inhale.

Keith generously tipped the taxi driver in advance and asked that he wait while they explored the farm.  The old Irishman agreed pleasantly and turned the radio on to a Gaelic station.  Plodding through the mud, Keith and Melanie held hands and tried not to breathe as the animals surrounded them.

“They’d be so adorable if they didn’t stink so much!” Melanie joked, petting a friendly goat.

“Let’s go over that way.” Keith indicated a café in the distance where several couples were having lunch.

As they walked towards the café, the intrusive sound of a cell phone ring tone interrupted the moment.  Keith glanced down sheepishly at his pocket, then realized that the source of the ringing wasn’t his phone.  “I think that’s your phone, Melanie,” he said on a note of relief.

“Really?  Oh you’re right.  Let me see who’s calling me.” She dug the cell phone out of her purse, unsettled to see her father’s mobile phone number on the screen.  Instantly, she felt that something was amiss.  “Hello?  Dad?”

Through waves of static, her father’s voice reverberated eerily.  “Melanie, oh sweetheart, I have some awful news!”

Stopping dead in her tracks in the mud, Melanie asked shakily, “What is it, Dad?  Please tell me what happened!”

Keith stopped alongside Melanie and listened to her end of the conversation with concern.  Mr. Bradley’s voice cracked with emotion as he
struggled to convey the news.  “I can’t believe I have to tell you this, Melanie.  It’s killing me to say the words out loud.  Oh, I don’t even know how to say it!”

Heart beating wildly, Melanie pleaded, “Dad, please calm down and just say it.  Whatever it is, I can handle it.”

“Your ice cream parlor burned to the ground!” He burst out. “I arrived early this morning to clean up the place a bit, but when I got here, there was nothing but soot and ashes!  I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he cried remorsefully.

Melanie clenched her eyes shut and tried to process the horrific information.  Mr. Bradley’s outburst had been loud enough for Keith to hear every word.  Placing a
sturdy arm around her shoulders, he stayed respectfully silent as tears streamed down her face.

“Melanie, are you there?” Her father asked sadly.

“I’m here, Dad,” she whispered.

“The
investigators are already here on the scene.  I don’t understand how this could have happened.  I know I turned off all the lights last night and didn’t leave any of the machines on.”

“I’m sure it’s not your fault, Dad,” Melanie said, still unable to fathom that her ice cream parlor was gone.

“The strange thing is that none of the other buildings on this block were affected.  Only Hot Fudge Fancy.  An electrical fire would have likely destroyed the whole row of buildings or at least damaged them a little,” Mr. Bradley pointed out.

Touching a hand to her suddenly throbbing head, Melanie replied, “You’re right.  This sounds like arson to me.  I’ll be on the next plane back to Charleston.”

“But I don’t want to ruin your vacation!  You just got to Ireland.  Oh, I shouldn’t have called you!” Mr. Bradley choked up as Sunny barked in distress in the background.

“Of course you should have!  This is my livelihood we’re talking about.  Please just see if t
he fire department can launch a complete investigation right away.  Because I’m sure that this fire was the result of malicious intent,” Melanie said darkly as Keith bit his lip nervously.

“Alright, darlin’.  I’ll do whatever I can to work with the fire department.  But if someone set your little ice cream parlor on fire, they’ll have me to contend with!  And I want you stayin’ with me at home while this investigation is under way.  Thank God no one was here during the fire,” he rambled on
, feeling a sickening cocktail of emotions as he contemplated the horror of losing his only child in a blaze.

“Okay Dad.  We’ll talk when I’m back in Charleston.  Keith and I are going to pick up our luggage from the hotel and then we’ll be on our way
to the airport,” Melanie said, gathering strength as she spoke.  She had endured an infinitely worse tragedy in her life; this newest crisis would have to be dealt with in a detached, business-like manner.  Melanie clicked the phone off as the tears dried on her cheeks.

Unsure of what to say, Keith locked his arm more tightly around her and merely whispered, “Let’s go.”

Mechanically, Melanie trudged through the thick layers of mud back to the waiting taxi.  The driver glanced up in surprise to see the couple back so soon.  Solemnly, Keith directed him to drive them back to the hotel.

“Who would do this?” Melanie asked glumly.  “Why would someone want to set my business on fire?  People love my ice cream shop.  It brings a smile to everyone’s face.  I just don’t understand.”

“I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that this was arson.  The fire department hasn’t even scratched the surface of an investigation yet.  There could have been a problem with a live wire or some other technical issue.  Either way, you’ll get a good insurance pay out.”

Infuriated, Melanie shouted, “Insurance pay out?!  I don’t care about insurance money!” The cab driver stared at her through the rearview mirror as she lowered her voice to a more appropriate tone.  But inside she was fuming.  “I don’t want some consolation prize of insurance money.  I want to work for a living.  Just like my father taught me to do.  That’s why I opened Hot Fudge Fancy.  To merge my career with my dreams.  And now it’s all gone.”

Awkwardly, Keith patted her hand as she pulled away.  “I’m sorry if I said the wrong thing,” he offered.

“Money might make you feel better, but it’s no comfort to me,” Melanie
said bitingly.

“Now I resent that, Melanie.  I said I was sorry.  There’s no need to attack my character.  I’ve worked for all the money I have.  Nothing has been handed to me either,” he defended as her expression softened.

“Sorry.  That was unfair of me to say.  Maybe we just shouldn’t talk right now.  I can’t even think clearly, let alone carry on a conversation,” she said, circling her fingers around her aching temples.

“I understand,” Keith said quietly.

It was close to dinner hour when the cab finally pulled up to the hotel.  Despite the fact that she hadn’t eaten a morsel for lunch, Melanie had no appetite at all.  Feeling like a zombie, she walked next to Keith to the elevator and then to the glorious suite that they had barely enjoyed.

“If you blink, you might miss this vacation,” Melanie muttered, tossing her clothes carelessly into a suitcase.

Keith shuffled over to the bed and snatched his cell phone from his pocket.  Packing with one hand and dialing with the other, he informed, “I’m calling the airline.  There’s no sense rushing to the airport if we can’t get a flight right away.”

“Tell them it’s an emergency!” Melanie urged as he nodded curtly.

She scrambled to the bathroom to collect her personal effects before firmly zipping up her suitcase.  Meandering onto the terrace, she stared out at the foggy streets of Dublin as Keith tried to get them a flight.  The trip had begun and ended on a shrieking note of disaster.  But as she breathed in the minty air and gazed upon the city that looked numinous from the penthouse suite, she couldn’t ignore the gut feeling that her time in Ireland was incomplete.  She was destined to come back to Ireland; she had to be.

Although she hadn’t told Keith or even her father, Melanie had another powerful motivating factor to explore Ireland.  She wanted to find her mother’s birth parents.  Her mother had
never spoken of her birth parents because she knew nothing about them.  Maureen Bradley’s adoptive parents had died in a car crash before she met Scott, so Melanie had never known either set of grandparents.  Maybe it was naïve to dream of a family reunion at this stage in life, but Melanie dared anyway.  Vowing to return to Ireland, she blew a kiss to Dublin before sliding back into the hotel room.

Keith was just hanging up the phone.  “Okay.  We’ve got a flight that leaves for Washington
, DC in 3 hours, so let’s get ourselves to the airport.”

“That’s great,” Melanie replied in a monotone.  Meeting Keith’s eyes for the first time since her father’s fateful call, she winced at the pain she saw there.  “I’m sorry this trip hasn’t worked out.  I know you really wanted to make this special.  And it was.”

“No it wasn’t.  It was a calamity from the first 20 minutes of the flight!  I really blew it.” He kicked the bedframe in frustration.

“You did not blow it!  The flights were tough, but once we got here
, everything was perfect.  Truly perfect,” she insisted, cradling his face in her hands.  “It’s not your fault that some evil person set my shop on fire.”

“I’m still hoping it wasn’t some evil person,” Keith said under his breath.

“Well I’m sure of it!  I feel it in my bones, Keith.  Someone is out to get me.” Pausing to reflect on any potential enemy, Lynne’s harsh face popped into her mind.  “You know, I don’t think my roommates like me very much.  Especially Lynne.  Remember how rude she was when you were at the house?”

“Yeah, I do remember.  She acted like a spoiled brat.  But that doesn’t mean she would set your business on fire!  Think logically, Melanie,” he urged, pointing to the time on his cell phone clock.  “We’ve gotta go catch a cab to make it to the airport.  Customs can be a bear to get through.”

Wordlessly, Melanie followed him out of the hotel suite.  Tempted to look behind her one more time and indulge in an eyeful of the glamorous room, she instead squared her shoulders and walked straight ahead.  In her mind’s eye, all she could envision was a rebuilt Hot Fudge Fancy and a faceless Irish grandmother welcoming her into her home.

Chapter 8

On the flights home to South Carolina, Melanie felt neither nervous nor scared.  She only felt a numbness paralyzing her body and spirit.  Making small talk with Keith was difficult, and it was hard to believe that they had so recently shared intense intimacy.  Side by side on the plane, they seemed like total strangers.  All Melanie could concentrate on was surveying the damage of her ice cream parlor and identifying the perpetrator of the crime.

“I’m going to press charges when I find out who did this,” she mumbled angrily,
clenching her jaw.

As the plane touched down at Charleston International Airport, Keith glanced at her stiffly, unsure of what to say.  Everything he had said so far seemed to be misinterpreted, and he didn’t want to be on the receivi
ng end of her misplaced wrath anymore. 

Tersely, he responded, “I hope you do press charges
if this was the work of an arsonist.”

“Oh I will!” Melanie repeated emphatically.  “Opening an ice cream shop
has been my dream since I was 10 years old.”

“Really?  You didn’t tell me that,” Keith commented with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, we haven’t had that much time to get to know each other,” Melanie answered plainly.

“
Not yet.  But I want to make sure we change that, Melanie.  I know right now you have a lot on your mind with the fire investigation, but I’m going to be there for you.  In fact, I’ll go with you right now to King Street if you want.”

“Don’t you need to get back to work?”

He grinned and pointed out, “I’m supposed to be enjoying a week long vacation in Ireland right now.  I don’t have to go to work until next week.”

Melanie groaned.  “Don’t remind me.  I wish we were still in Ireland.  I feel like that whole trip went by
like a flash of lightning.”

Keith sighed heavily.  “Well that’s because it did.  Come on, let’s get the hell off this stuffy plane and I’ll drive you to
King Street.”

Grimly, Melanie navigated the labyrinth of
the airport parking garage with Keith at her side.  She vowed not to cry when she saw the wreckage.  Her emotions could wait to be released until she was back at her father’s house holed up in her childhood room.  For now, she would remain as emotionless as a statue.

Keith turned the radio
on to a smooth jazz station, and the rhythms lulled Melanie’s nerves.  Grateful that he was wasn’t trying to broach a conversation, she reclined in the chair and steadied herself for the horrifying sight that awaited her.

The sun had set in Charleston, but the air was still drenched in oppressive humidity.  Melanie fanned herself absently, thinking how exhausted her father must be from the ordeal. 
What a great start to his retirement
, she thought bitterly.
I was worried about all the stress in his life, and now he’s probably more stressed than ever thanks to me.

Expertly, Keith rounded the bend onto King Street.
  Immediately, the signs of destruction were evident.  The fire scene had been cordoned off with police tape, and an assortment of law enforcement personnel was combing the street for clues.  Woodenly, Melanie trudged outside as soon as Keith jerked the vehicle into park.  She spotted her father in an intense conversation with a female investigator.

Mr. Bradley glanced up for a moment as his eyes fogged with emotion at the sight of his daughter.  Melanie hurried to her father with Keith following closely behind.  Sunny leapt up and clobbered Melanie as though he hadn’t seen his owner for a hundred years.  Distractedly, she pet the dog while letting her father envelop her in a bear hug.

“I’m so sorry, darlin’,” he whispered into her ear.

She simply nodded and turned her attention to the investigator.  Reaching out for a handshake, Melanie introduced herself.  “I’m Melanie Bradley, the owner of Hot Fudge Fancy.”

“Hello Miss Bradley.  I’m Detective Stacey Graydon, lead investigator in the fire.  I’ve been speaking with your father all day.  He’s told me everything he knows regarding the ice cream parlor and what could have caused the inferno.  I’d like to have a few words with you before the police take your formal statement later at the station.”

Polished and professional, Stacey Graydon looked to be somewhere in her early fifties
, and immediately calmed Melanie…except for the part about formal questioning at the police station.

“Why do I need to be questioned?  Am I a suspect in an investigation of my own shop?” Melanie asked
briskly.

“It’s just a legal formality.  Sometimes store owners do set their own businesses on fire with the hope of obtaining an insurance payout.  I’m not accusing you of anything, please understand, Miss Bradley.  I’m just following
police protocol since we are treating this as an arson crime scene.” Her words were sharp but her expression soft as she apprised Melanie of the next steps in the investigation.  “As I understand from your father, you’ve just gotten off a plane from Europe.  So we’ll try to wrap up the initial questioning phase as quickly as possible.”

Fighting her inclination to
hunch her shoulders and crumble, Melanie stood up a bit straighter and looked Detective Graydon directly in the eyes.  “I’m ready whenever you are.”

“Good. 
Let’s get started.”

For the next half hour, the
detective grilled Melanie to rule her out for possible motives other than raking in a hefty insurance settlement.  It was apparent to the seasoned investigator that Melanie Bradley was a straight shooter and clearly devastated about the desecration of her new business.  In her mind, Stacey Graydon ruled the young woman out as the culprit but continued a harsh line of questioning to cover all her bases.

“I think you’ve answered enough questions for now, Miss Bradley. 
Now let me show you what we’ve found so far with regard to evidence.” Detective Graydon produced a hermetically sealed bag from her pocket.  Inside the bag was a single tube of lipstick.

“
Whose lipstick is that?” Melanie asked.

“
That’s what we need to find out.  The lipstick was found in the rubble on the sidewalk.  The shade is Muted Iridescent Beige.  Not a very popular color for lipstick.  Do you know anyone who wears this hue?” Slipping a glove onto her hand to keep the evidence fingerprint-free, the detective opened the bag and twisted the tube of lipstick open to demonstrate.

The shade was mucky brown with glitter undertones, a hue Melanie wouldn’t be caught dead in.  “I don’t know anyone who would wear that color,” she said distastefully, thinking of
Chloe and her pink lip gloss, and Lynne with her matte red shade.

Keith shifted his weight from side to side, but Melanie didn’t notice as she fine tuned her attention onto the clues the
detective was revealing.  From a larger bag, Detective Graydon removed a security camera.  “This is the camera that was affixed to the outside of your store.  Interestingly, the arsonist didn’t take the actual camera.  Perhaps it was fastened too tightly to the top of the door.”

Melanie unraveled the details out loud.  “And if the arsonist was a woman, then she wouldn’t be strong enough to pull the camera off from its mounted position.”

“Exactly.  One of the firemen had to remove the camera with a wrench.  And here’s what he found.” Detective Graydon slid the camera open, revealing nothing but empty space inside.

“The memory card is gone!” Melanie exclaimed.

“Yes.  So whoever committed this crime was shrewd enough to realize that she would be caught on security footage.  But she apparently wasn’t smart enough to realize that we could still trace the contents of the camera,” Detective Graydon said with satisfaction.

“How’s that?” Mr. Bradley, completely
uninitiated into the magic of technology, was befuddled.

“You see, Mr. Bradley, the camera also has a hard drive.  Buried in that hard drive is footage of every person who has ever passed through the doors of Hot Fudge Fancy.  We just need to send the camera to the crime lab, and our analysts will be able to unlock
all the secrets on that hard drive,” Detective Graydon explained.

Mr. Bradley gave a low whistle.  “
Very impressive.  Well I hope that crime lab gets on it right away and finds out who did this to my little girl’s store!” Turning to Melanie, he apologized, “Sorry, honey.  I know you’re not a little girl and you hate it when I say that.  I’m just so upset.”

Detective
Graydon smiled gently.  “She’s
your
little girl, Mr. Bradley.  Listen, I’ve got three grown sons of my own, so believe me, I understand.  They’re always kids in our eyes.” She exchanged a meaningful look with Scott Bradley as his eyes crinkled in appreciation.

Keith, who had been anxiously standing by until now, abruptly spoke up.  “
Um, I think I may have some information about the perpetrator of this crime.”

Melanie gasped audibly
at Keith’s statement.  She demanded, “Who is it?  That woman who wouldn’t stop texting you when we were in Ireland?  Who is she anyway?”

Detective
Graydon raised her eyebrows with interest as Scott Bradley’s features contorted in disappointment at the young man’s implied duplicity.  Keith struggled to find the words to explain to Melanie that he hadn’t meant to keep any vital information from her.  He had never dreamed that his ex-girlfriend, as mentally unstable as she was, could be capable of such a horrific crime.  Melanie tapped her foot impatiently on the sidewalk, glaring at him as he squirmed under her gaze.

“My ex-girlfriend is Daisy Delaney,” he said quietly.  “She owns Daisy’s Frozen Delights down the street.”