Maddie's Recipe Of Mysteries (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Emily Page Page A

horrified as they watched the man crumble right before their eyes. They were shocked when they saw a tear start to form, and they began to have second thoughts about their accusation.
     
    “Maddie,” he said, “you know I’ve always admired and respected you. How could you think of me in this way? I’m just a poor kid that grew up in a string of foster homes. I know what it’s like to build something from scratch and to make something out of nothing like you did.  If it wasn’t for my Mama Betty and you, then my successes would all have likely been failures. She was the only one who took the time to teach me how to be a decent human being. I swore I would never do anything that would disappoint her in any way.” He stopped speaking to sniffle a little bit more.
     
    “You always reminded me of her, Maddie. That’s why I always looked up to you.”
     
    Madeline and Bailey both looked on, speechless. They weren’t sure if they were watching a well-rehearsed performance or were observing the real man.
     
    Evan continued. “I often shared my fondest memories of our times together at culinary school. I always told Rachel about them and the fun times we had.”
     
    He smiled a little, more to himself than those who were looking on. Kyle rolled his eyes and decided to excuse himself from seeing any more.
     
    “I’m sorry, Evan,” Madeline said. “I was clearly mistaken, and I apologize profusely.”
     
    Bailey looked at her grandmother in stunned silence.
     
    “I’m so sorry to have to put you through this, Evan, but we had to be sure,” Madeline assured him. “I hope we can continue to be friends after this.”
     
    Evan didn’t answer right away. He had drifted off into deep thought. Finally he spoke.
     
    “It was always pretty hard for us growing up, Rachel and me. But if it wasn’t for Mama Betty, chances are we’d have had very different lives.”
     
    Madeline wondered why he was telling them this.
     
    “Did you ever wonder how it was that I got into culinary school?” He smiled to himself.
     
    “I won a cooking scholarship. Both Rachel and I entered, but there could only be one winner. She got second place and I won first.”
     
    He smiled a little bit. “We were so proud that our family had swept the competition. When I went to school, I always came home and taught her everything I had learned.”
     
    Evan continued to reminisce for a while as Madeline and Bailey watched. They were convinced now that they had pegged the wrong person as the killer. Evan didn’t have a murderous bone in his body. Bailey looked around and wanted to kill Kyle for sneaking off the way he did, and she chided herself for not thinking of it first.
     
    She slowly inched her way to the doorway and was standing there trying to figure out how to get out of the sad story when the door flung open and an arm flung violently around her neck. She only needed to see the glint of the knife and feel the sharp edge of its point against her throat to know that their plan had actually worked and they had flushed out the killer.
     
    Madeline and Evan leaped from their seats, startled by the noise, and turned to see Rachel, her eyes fierce like a wild animal’s, standing there with a knife to Bailey’s throat. Madeline screamed, but she dared not move in Bailey’s direction. Evan looked at his sister in horror.
     
    “Rachel!” he shouted. “What’re you doing?”
     
    “You stupid idiot,” she shouted at Evan.
     
    “Why don’t you just stop talking all the time? You’ve gone and destroyed everything,” she complained.
     
    Bailey tried to pull away while Rachel was focused on Evan, but Rachel was surprisingly strong.
     
    “Yes. I killed Emma and I did it so that I could get rid of all you silly sentimentalists,” she shouted.
     
    “Rachel,” Evan pleaded. “You don’t want to do this,” he said soothingly.
     
    “Shut up! You blithering idiot!” she spat.
     
    “Of course I want to do this, if