Birthday Cake and Bodies (Peridale Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 9) Read online

  “I have a little brother,” she said, as though it had only just sunk in. “A baby brother.”

  “Everything has just changed,” he said with a wink. “I never thought I’d be a dad again, especially at this age, but here we are. Stranger things have happened, right?”

  “Speaking of which,” Julia said, lowering her voice as a nurse hurried past. “How’s Hilary really?”

  Brian let go of her cheek as he inhaled heavily. Julia could tell it was not good news.

  “She survived the surgery,” he started, looking up and down the empty corridor. “The surgeon said if she wakes up, there might be complications.”

  “Complications?”

  “Brain damage.” Brian gulped hard. “She hit her head pretty hard on that marble floor when she fell.”

  “She was pushed,” Julia said, remembering exactly what had been happening over the last twelve hours. “Dad, I need to get back to the manor. I know who is behind all of this.”

  “I’m sure I saw one of those twins being brought in on a stretcher when I was in intensive care,” Brian said, his brow tensing. “Could have been someone else.”

  “Ethan is here?” The corridor walls shrunk around her. “I’ll call you later.”

  Without another word, Julia hurried down the corridor and burst out into an empty reception area. The clock on the wall boasted that it was almost four in the morning, letting her know she had lost valuable hours. She ran over to the giant map on the wall. She ran her finger across the list of departments until she landed on ‘Intensive Care’, which was on level five. Would she lose even more time visiting Ethan to make sure he was okay?

  She pulled out her phone, her battery dangerously low. She quickly scrolled to Jessie’s name, relieved when she picked up in seconds.

  “Did she have it?” Jessie whispered. “Everyone’s fallen asleep. Everything is fine here before you ask. No more deaths.”

  “The baby is fine,” Julia said. “Healthy eight pounds. She’s called him Vinnie.”

  “Vinnie?” Jessie cried. “What a dumb name. Sounds like a mob gangster.”

  “Is Dawn there?”

  “She’s in her room,” Jessie said. “Fast asleep. I keep checking. Billy is keeping watch on the door with the police guy.”

  “And Theo?”

  “Hasn’t been seen since he bailed on us in the basement,” Jessie said. “Hang on, there’s a nurse trying to get in at the front door. I think it’s Vincent’s NHS carer. The officer is blocking her. I’ll call you back. Oh, and Julia, one more thing –”

  Jessie never got to tell Julia her ‘one more thing’. The phone beeped and the screen blackened.

  “Dammit!” she cried, stuffing the dead phone back into her pocket. “Why didn’t I call Barker first?”

  Realising she was the only one who had figured out exactly what had happened to Hilary and Luke, Julia looked at the payphone on the wall, wondering if she should call the police. Would she even make any sense? Would they believe her?

  Julia doubled back and called for the lift. When she was inside, her heart pounded as she drifted up to the top floor of the giant hospital. The doors slid open onto a dimly lit blue corridor. The seriousness of the illnesses and conditions was obvious from the absence of any noise aside from the steady hum of beeping machines. Julia spotted a young woman behind a curved reception desk reading a magazine. She let out a long yawn before blinking heavily and turning the page.

  “Hello,” Julia whispered as she approached the desk. “I was wondering if you could help me. I’m looking for Ethan Brown. He was brought in here a couple of hours ago. I think he might have had a heart attack.”

  “Visiting starts at eight,” the woman said as she stifled another yawn. “You’ll be better coming back then.”

  “Would you be able to tell me if he’s okay?” Julia asked, glancing at the computer. “I just want to know that he’s alive.”

  “Are you related?” she asked, arching a brow as she slapped her magazine shut.

  “Sort of,” Julia said with a shrug as the nurse’s hand drifted towards the computer mouse. “I’m his brother’s girlfriend.”

  “Then I can’t tell you anything,” she said, her hand going back to the magazine. “Patient confidentiality. I’m sorry, miss.”

  Julia nodded her understanding and reluctantly backed away from the desk. She stared down the long corridor, a dozen doors on either side leading into private rooms each with a window. A doctor walked out of one with a clipboard and into another, closing the door softly behind him.

  She called the lift and waited as it shuddered back up to the top floor. The bell pinged and the doors rattled open. Julia stepped in, but the sound of a kettle boiling pricked her ears. The button on the kettle clicked, and the chair behind the reception desk creaked. The nurse wandered into the back room, checking the watch attached to the breast pocket of her blue uniform as she walked towards the kettle.

  Julia did not waste a single second bothering to formulate a plan; she knew she had nothing to lose. Letting the lift doors close behind her, she darted down the corridor as softly as she could so her shoes did not squeak on the polished blue linoleum floor. She whizzed past the desk holding her breath, daring to glance at the nurse as she emptied a sachet of dried soup into a large mug.

  Julia walked down the middle of the corridor, looking through each room window on either side, hoping to see the bald head. She stopped in her tracks, and she saw a very familiar face with a large bandage wrapped around her head. Julia approached the window and stared at the tube sticking out of Hilary’s mouth, her chest rising and falling with the aid of the giant machines surrounding her.

  Swallowing the lump in her throat, Julia tore herself away from the window to continue on her journey down the dark corridor. Relief surged through her when she saw Ethan’s head shining under a soft wall light, a similar tube poking out of his parted lips.

  “You’re alive,” she whispered, nodding carefully as she allowed herself to smile. “Thank God, you’re alive.”

  Julia stepped towards the door, instantly jumping back again when she saw the glimmer of a white coat in the dark corner of the room. She held her breath, hoping the doctor had not seen her. She almost turned on her heels to make her way back to the lift, satisfied that Ethan was alive, until she spotted another familiar bald head. Horror rose up in Julia when she noticed that the man in the white coat was wearing jeans, trainers, and was holding a large white pillow in his hands.

  She watched in shock as Theo approached his brother with the pillow. She wanted to scream out to alert everyone, but something stopped her. If she caused a panic, would she be able to prove her theory? She patted her phone, cursing under her breath when she remembered its dead battery.

  Julia waited until Theo was hovering over his twin brother’s face with the pillow before making her entrance. She slipped silently into the room, her heart banging against her ribcage.

  “Stop it, Theo,” she said, her voice shaking out of control. “There’s been enough death.”

  Theo darted around, the pillow still in his hands. His eyes widened when he realised it was Julia and not one of the hospital staff. She glanced at the panic button over the bed, gulping down her fear as she collected her thoughts.

  “Julia,” he said, forcing a strange, cold laugh. “I was just making sure my brother was comfortable.”

  “In a white coat?”

  “They wouldn’t let me in,” he said, fluffing the pillow before tossing it onto a large chair. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see if Ethan was okay.”

  “Me too,” Theo said quickly, staring deep into Julia’s eyes. “I felt bad about freezing in the basement. I forgot my training in the heat of the moment. I was hoping he would be awake so we could talk.”

  “Or, so you could look him in the eyes while you killed him?” Julia asked, taking a step forward so that the bed was separating them, but also keeping close to the door. �
��Would I be right in thinking you have your contact lenses in this time?”

  Theo’s jaw gritted as his spine stiffened. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he stared at Julia in the dim light, half of his pale face cast in shadow. All of a sudden, there was more than a broken nose separating the twins; there was a look that unsettled Julia to the core.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Theo said drily. “You’ve clearly added two and two together and got five. Why would I want to kill my brother?”

  “Because you know,” Julia said, making sure to maintain his cold gaze. “You know what he did to Bethany. You read Dawn’s letter, and you were so angry that you immediately wanted to kill him for his deception.”

  Theo glanced down at Ethan, and then at the door. Julia knew if he tried to run there would be little she could do to stop him. To her surprise, he relaxed a little and folded his arms tightly across the stolen white coat.

  “Except Ethan didn’t die,” he said calmly, his tone smug. “Luke did.”

  “Eyesight is a funny thing,” Julia said, glancing at the panic button again. “I’ve needed to take an eye test all year, but I’ve been putting it off. I think I need reading glasses, but I don’t want to admit that I’m getting old. Of course, poor vision isn’t a sign of getting old for all of us, is it? Some of us are born with bad eyesight. The first time we spoke, you were taking your contact lenses out because they were irritating you.”

  “So?”

  “How bad is your vision?” Julia asked, squinting at Theo’s eyes. “Are you wearing them now? I suppose you are. You figured out this was your brother, even though the room is dark, unlike at the manor.”

  Theo’s eyes narrowed to slits on Julia. His Adam’s apple bobbed down his stubble covered neck and back up again, as though he was swallowing sand.

  “Dawn was right about you,” he whispered through tight lips. “Little Miss Know It All.”

  “You took your contact lenses out when you slept with Dawn yesterday afternoon,” Julia continued, her voice rising as she glanced at the monitor, Ethan’s heart rate suddenly quickening. “When she went to freshen up, you found the letter in her handbag. Maybe you were looking for it, or maybe you knocked over her bag and it fell out, and curiosity got the better of you. Either way, you realised Ethan was responsible for Bethany’s death in a way you never knew. You blamed him from the start, I know that much, but to find out that he framed her for the crash, I can imagine what that did to you. You were so angry, you didn’t even stop to put your contacts back in. You walked out of your bedroom and into Ethan and Dawn’s bedroom next door, but you didn’t know that Ethan and Dawn had swapped rooms with Luke because Dawn wanted the bigger bed. Neither did I until Casper told me. You wrapped your hands around your nephew’s neck, thinking he was your brother, and you squeezed every last ounce of life out of his twenty-two-year-old body. I wish my phone wasn’t dead because I’d be able to show you the picture he took of the top of your head while you were murdering him.

  “You left him there in the sheets, went back to your bedroom, and pretended nothing had happened. You were putting in your contact lenses when Dawn came back to get her bag, and she was none the wiser. How did you hide what you had just done? You must be a good actor. I couldn’t imagine murdering someone and then pretending everything was fine seconds later.”

  “Pretending everything was fine?” Theo replied, resting his hands against the edge of the bed and leaning across Ethan’s lifeless body. “The only thing I was hiding was my smile. I thought I’d killed the man responsible for murdering my daughter. I was over the moon, Julia.”

  “Until you found out you’d killed Luke, not Ethan,” Julia continued. “Did you feel a scrap of remorse then?”

  Theo’s lids flickered, but he did not say a word.

  “I think you did,” Julia said with a firm nod. “You were upset when I spoke to you. You weren’t faking that. Maybe you were crying for Bethany, but I think you realised your mistake. Luke might not have been an angel, but he was innocent when it came to Bethany’s death.”

  “That boy was anything but innocent,” Theo said suddenly. “I know what he did to Casper and Heather, and I figured out his seedy affair with Conrad the minute I arrived. They barely even tried to hide the looks they were giving each other.”

  “Still, not really grounds for murder, are they?” Julia said, taking a step forward to rest her hands on the edge of the bed so they were face to face. “You messed up. You killed the wrong person, and then you backed away. You let everything happen around you, hoping nobody would connect the dots. I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t seen you and Dawn kissing. That was the one piece of the jigsaw that pointed me to you when I had all of the information in front of me.”

  Theo straightened up and glanced at the door again. He parted his feet, planting them firmly on the floor. He cocked his head back and looked down at Julia as though he were thinking about what to do with her.

  “How does Barker live with you?” he muttered darkly. “I always thought he had taste.”

  “Why Hilary?” Julia asked, ignoring him. “What did she say to you?”

  “The nosey bat approached me about the affair,” he said with a strained laugh, the veins in his neck looking fit to burst. “Said she was dusting the skirting boards when Dawn left my room to go to the bathroom with a sheet wrapped around her. I knew she’d figure it out sooner or later if anyone found out about that letter. Maybe she shouldn’t have confronted me at the top of that nice long staircase.”

  “Do you not have any guilt?” Julia asked desperately as she shook her head. “Do you not regret almost killing an innocent woman?”

  “Almost?” he asked, the surprise loud and clear. “So, she’s survived then? The only regret I have is not finishing off my brother while I had the chance. I should have choked out his last breath the moment I realised I had killed the wrong idiot.”

  “Please,” Ethan croaked through the pipe in his throat, his swollen lids fluttering open. “Do it.”

  Theo turned to his brother, his eyes filling with rage. His top lip snarled up while his bottom wobbled.

  “She was a child,” Theo sneered. “You took her life away from me.”

  Ethan attempted to say something else, but the pipe choked him, making him gag. His face contoured as he tried to cough, but his body would not allow it.

  Theo snatched up the pillow with lightning fast reflexes. Without taking a second to think about it, he pressed the thick pillow over his twin’s face, the pipe to his mouth splitting open. One of the machines beeped loudly as Ethan’s body thrashed against the bed.

  “Get off him!” Julia cried, running around the bed to grab Theo. “You’ve done enough!”

  Theo’s elbow struck the side of Julia’s head, sending her crashing against the chair. She landed on all fours, the room spinning around her as a splitting pain cracked behind her eyes. She groaned out, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach, her ears ringing.

  “You’re a monster!” Theo cried. “This is what you deserve, brother!”

  Julia crawled towards the wall as the floor swayed from side to side. She slapped a hand up to the window ledge, and with every ounce of strength she had left, she dragged herself up to her feet. As though knowing the answer before thinking about it, she picked up the heavy chair, her vision blurred. As the room spun around her, she lifted it clumsily above her head, stumbling on the spot, the pain all-consuming. With one swift crash, she sent the chair flying down on Theo’s head. He folded in half, rolling down his brother’s torso before slipping down onto the floor. Julia stepped over the broken chair, yanked the pillow off Ethan’s face, and slapped the panic button.

  “What the -” the doctor gasped as he burst into the room. “What’s going on?”

  “Call the police,” Julia said, clutching the side of her head as Ethan blinked and gasped for air. “And get some bandage tape. I need to tie up the man on the floor while you check on Ethan.”
/>   “Honestly, I’m fine,” Julia said as the doctor lifted up her left eyelid to shine the bright light directly into her pupil. “It’s nothing painkillers won’t fix.”

  “Julia?” Barker cried as he bolted through the lift doors and towards the reception desk where Doctor Husain was checking her over. “I drove as fast as I could. Are you okay? What’s happened to you?”

  “I’m fine,” Julia said, brushing the doctor’s hands away as he checked on her other eye. “It was just a slight elbow to the head. I’ve taken worse.”

  Barker wrapped his arms tightly around her, cradling her like a baby. She allowed herself to sink into his musky scent, undeniably glad that everything was over.

  “Get off!” Theo cried as two officers dragged him down the corridor towards the lift. “You have no evidence! You can’t do this! She’s crazy! She’s making it all up!”

  “You make me sick, Theo,” Barker said, pulling away from Julia as they passed. “Don’t go easy on him, boys. He killed my nephew.”

  “I’m your brother!” Theo yelled, screaming over his shoulder. “Ethan killed Bethany! He was driving!”

  Barker looked down at Julia for an explanation. She nodded to let him know it was true. She slid off the chair behind the desk and wandered into the middle of the corridor as the officers pushed Theo into the lift. She stepped forward as the doors began to slide, locking eyes with the murderer.

  “You probably already know there’s a strong possibility that Luke was your son,” Julia said calmly. “Good luck living with that, Theo.”

  His eyes widened and his mouth twisted tightly into something that closely resembled a rabid dog. He thrashed against the officers as the doors closed, spitting and foaming at the mouth.

  “I think we need a long conversation,” Barker said as he wrapped his arm around Julia’s waist as she stared at the lift doors. “It seems that I’ve missed a lot, as usual.”

  “Julia?” Doctor Husain called from the doorway of Ethan’s room. “Mr Brown is asking for you.”

  Julia walked down the corridor, glancing at Hilary as she did; there was no change. She slipped into Ethan’s room, glad to see the tube gone from his mouth. Despite everything, he looked aware and alive; that was all Julia cared about.