Chapter 23 #2
“She also may have mentioned that you’re basically a walking apothecary. You can get your hands on anything that’s supposedly good for people—or anything that can kill them. Like digitalis. Easy access, and who would suspect the wellness guru?”
Bunny’s mouth opens and closes, but no words come out.
“Way to go, Lottie,” Lenny growls. “Now let me take over.” He bares his fangs in a chilling manner and the hair on the back of my neck bristles.
“Is it true, Bunny?” I shake my head, hoping it’s not so. “Was Duncan standing in the way of your crusade against his family’s business, so you eliminated him?”
Bunny scoffs in my face. “Look, I don’t know who the killer is, but Gina has had it out for me ever since she set foot in this family,” she says, her voice calm but firm.
“It’s as if they wanted to oust me from the family business entirely.
I was just trying to make sure we kept up with the best ethical practices.
I use our cocoa products in my own baking, for Pete’s sake!
” She crosses her arms and takes a bold step in my direction.
“If you ask me, Fairbanks and Gina have been eating sour grapes ever since my father reduced my brother’s stake in the company.
He didn’t want to leave it in the hands of someone who was a notorious party boy. ”
I blink back. “What do you mean?” I ask.
“My father never fully trusted Fairbanks,” Bunny continues.
“He was a mess in his twenties—partying, dropping out of college multiple times. Dad saw Duncan as the responsible one with his business degree and MBA, already working as president and COO. Fairbanks only received twenty-five percent instead of an equal share because Dad questioned his judgment.”
“That’s true,” Lenny sniffs. “Fairbanks was more interested in the fun crowd than the business crowd. It often landed him in hot water, and Richard wasn’t thrilled.”
Bunny shakes her head. “And Gina? My father couldn’t stand her.
She married into this family with dollar signs in her eyes, and now she’s trying to paint me as the villain because I wrote a book about corporate responsibility.
I publicly rejected the family business practices when I was twenty-five because I believed we could do better, not because I wanted to destroy anything. ”
“But your book specifically targeted Whitmore products,” I point out.
“My book was about the entire industry’s need for transparency and ethical sourcing,” Bunny corrects while gesticulating wildly.
“Gina is making it sound like a personal vendetta when it was really about pushing for better standards across the board. The fact that it affected our sales just proves we needed to examine our practices more closely.” Her voice grows stronger.
“I didn’t kill my brother. But someone did, and pointing fingers at me conveniently takes attention away from people who had real financial motives. ”
“Bunny!” a voice calls from behind. “Could you help me find something for my arthritis?”
Bunny glances toward the customer and looks genuinely reluctant to leave our conversation.
“I’m sorry, Lottie, but I should help the poor woman.
She let me know earlier that she’s been struggling with joint pain for months.
Unlike what you might believe, I really do want to help people, not harm them. ”
“Of course,” I say quickly, realizing this might be my only chance to ask one last crucial question. “But before you go, what business did Duncan have with Luke Lazzari?”
Bunny’s face darkens with something that might be fear, anger, or both. She glances around nervously before stepping in close.
“Honestly, that’s one reason Duncan might be dead,” she says just below a whisper.
“He was in way over his head with that Lazzari fellow. The family company has been...” She casts a quick glance over her shoulder.
“… facilitating certain financial arrangements for Luke’s organization.
Import documentation, currency transfers, shipping logistics for products that may not have been entirely chocolate-related. ”
My brain immediately starts connecting dots at lightning speed. “Financial arrangements?”
She nods. “Duncan got nervous when federal agents started sniffing around some of Luke’s other businesses,” Bunny continues in hushed tones. “He wanted to end the partnership, thought the scrutiny was getting too dangerous. But Luke wasn’t interested in losing such a convenient cover operation.”
Cover operation? I gasp.
“Oh my word,” I breathe, because suddenly everything makes horrible sense.
“I have to go,” Bunny says abruptly, noticing her new customer’s increasingly impatient expression.
“But Lottie—I would never take my brother’s life.
I may have wanted to throttle him sometimes, especially when he was being stubborn about the business, but I appreciated how much he did for our family.
” She casts her gaze to the ground. “The gaping hole he left in his wake is evidence of that.”
Something she said earlier comes back to me. “Bunny, who sent you the flowers?”
She gives a little shrug. “It was sort of a mystery delivery. They just showed up this morning. Must be one of my many secret admirers.” She gives a little wink before hurrying away, leaving me standing next to a display of potentially deadly flowers with my mind racing through implications, and the deadly connections the Whitmores had with the Lazzari family.
“Well, that was illuminating,” Lenny growls. “Though I’m not sure if we just ruled out our primary suspect or discovered something much more dangerous.”
I start processing everything we’ve learned, letting the pieces fall into place with the satisfying click of a puzzle finally coming together.
“Luke was in it for a cover operation,” I sigh hard at the thought. “And I know just what mobsters like him need a good cover for. Lots and lots of illegal cash. No wonder Luke didn’t dare mention his true connection to this mess. It involved money laundering.”
Lenny belts out a roar.
Duncan’s nervousness about ending the partnership comes to mind. The financial irregularities that Fairbanks discovered with his tech expertise.
Lenny stands straight on all fours. “So who did this?”
“Someone with the computer skills to manage complex international transactions, the business knowledge to hide illegal money transfers within legitimate chocolate company operations, and the family access to both poison Duncan and steal Nell’s knife.”
He shakes his wooly mane, and a sprinkle of blue stars flies from it. “Someone who stood to lose everything if Duncan exposed the money laundering scheme—not just the legitimate chocolate business, but potentially decades in federal prison for racketeering charges.”
“Very good,” I tell him while giving his fur a quick pat. “Someone who had been at the festival, knew about my cakewalk supplies, understood Duncan was about to expose his wife, and had both the opportunity to poison him beforehand and stab him when the poison alone wasn’t working fast enough.”
He nods. “Someone who appeared helpful and grieving while actually protecting a criminal empire worth millions of dollars,” he counters.
“Touché,” I say as a thought comes to me. “Oh my goodness,” I whisper as the final pieces lock into place. “It wasn’t about family drama or business rivalries or even Luke Lazzari.”
Lenny tosses his head with a menacing roar. “What are you thinking?”
I look toward the Whitmore chocolate booth, bustling with bodies, then back at those lethal flowers.
“I know who sent them. I think I know who killed Duncan Whitmore—and why.”