Death of a Christmas Caterer by Lee Hollis Page A

are we talking about?” Sergio asked, leaning forward.
    â€œKen Massey.”
    A local businessman. Very successful. Owns a few restaurants and t-shirt shops frequented by the summer tourists.
    â€œGarth and Ken had a falling-out?”
    â€œWhen Garth was starting out, he didn’t have the capital to get the business going, so he brought in Ken as a silent partner. Ken paid the initial investment. When the catering business started making money, Ken tried to take control and dictate everything, and it got ugly for a while. Garth felt like Ken was keeping him in a straightjacket, but that was years ago. Ken went on to start a number of other successful businesses, and he finally agreed to let Garth buy him out.”
    â€œWas there any bad blood between them after the buyout?” Sergio asked.
    â€œNo, not at all. They have long buried the hatchet, and Garth and I had dinner with Ken at the Town Hill Bistro just a few months ago, before they closed for the season.”
    â€œOne more question, Mrs. Rawlings, and then I promise we will stop bothering you. Were your husband and Ken still partners when he rented the warehouse space?”
    â€œNo. Why?”
    â€œSo he wouldn’t have had a key to get inside?”
    â€œNo, absolutely not. My husband had a few faults and one of them was paranoia. He was always terrified that someone would steal his recipes and his trade secrets, so he never gave anyone a key to that warehouse. He kept the master key in a safe here at home. I don’t even know the combination. Trust me, it could not have been Ken.”
    Ken Massey didn’t have the best reputation in town. He’d been called a “snake,” a “cheat,” and much worse by the people he plowed over to make his fortune.
    Sergio didn’t look as convinced as Tiffany Rawlings that Ken was a completely innocent party.
    And, frankly, Hayley wasn’t inclined to believe it either.
    Ken was a smart, driven, can-do guy.
    If he wanted to gain access to Garth Rawlings’s warehouse kitchen, he would most likely have found a way.

Chapter 15
    After they left Tiffany’s house, Hayley drove over to the local True Value hardware store, where a Christmas tree farm had been set up behind the building by a local Boy Scout troop for locals to shop for the perfect tree to take home and decorate for the holidays. They also sold homemade ornaments, festive colored lights, wreaths, swag, and garland. It was like one-stop shopping.
    Hayley was in need of a new Christmas tree skirt. While she had been making eggnog in the kitchen, Blueberry had eaten some strands of tinsel and had thrown up all over her old skirt. The stain came out easily enough, but Hayley didn’t want to have to think about placing her wrapped presents on top of something that used to smell of kitty vomit.
    She parked her car across the street and headed over to the lot, where about a half-dozen people were perusing the various trees in all shapes and sizes. Paul Applewood, the rosy-cheeked, pudgy, balding manager of the hardware store, greeted Hayley with a smile. “I thought I already sold you a tree this year, Hayley. Something wrong with it?”
    â€œOh, no, Paul, I just need a new skirt for the base. You have any nice ones left?”
    â€œGot a real pretty one with a reindeer print the wife just finished last night. It’s around back, underneath the big pine tree next to my truck.”
    â€œThanks, Paul,” Hayley said, smiling, before walking through the tree nursery to the back of the hardware store.
    She heard a man’s frantic, hushed voice as she rounded the corner.
    â€œI don’t know what the police chief wants, but he called my cell and left a voice mail asking me to come by the station to talk to him!” the man said.
    Hayley recognized the deep, scratchy, manly-man voice immediately.
    It was Ken Massey, Garth’s former business partner.
    â€œI heard on the car radio