Chapter 29
I stepped inside the clean house. There were no dust specks in sight. From the beige couches to the beige walls, everything was in its place.
“I’ll take the kitchen,” Rose called out as I headed down the hall. The bedroom and bathroom were just as neat and tidy. I opened the last door, and I froze in place.
The room looked just like Petunia’s, down to the princess bed. I stepped farther into the room. “Carter, did Petunia ever stay with Chef Robin?”
“No, why?” he asked, stepping into the doorway. “What in the world?”
Any lingering doubt of Robin’s guilt vanished. The matching lipstick, the glasses at Johnny’s house, the butcher knife. The death threats in Johnny’s apartment. “They were working together.”
“Who?” Carter asked.
“Johnny and Robin. They each wanted something they couldn’t have.”
I picked up two pictures on the dresser. One was of Petunia and Robin at the lake with the rest of the people cut out. The other was of Robin with another little girl that was similar to age and looks as Petunia, at the same lake. I turned it around to show Carter. “Who is this little girl?”
Carter took the picture from me, and his brow furrowed. “That’s Chef Robin’s daughter, Sabrina who died. She lived here with her mom. Sabrina and Petunia grew up together.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“Two years ago, she drowned,” Carter answered, handing the picture back.
“This is a classic case of transference. Same features, same house, friends, Robin believes that she knows what’s best for Petunia. We know that by breakfast the other day.”
“So, what are you saying? Robin took Petunia? She’d never do that.”
Yet she had.
Rose peeked her head in. “I found arsenic under the sink in the kitchen.”
I handed her the pictures and walked into the kitchen, letting my gaze linger around the room. It landed on the knife block. The same marble-handled knives filled each hole with one missing—the butcher knife.
Carter came up behind me.
“She killed Johnny with one of her butcher knives, and it looks like she was trying to poison everyone else. You need to throw away any baked goods in your kitchen and don’t trust anything.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“She poisoned five operatives and killed a man. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill you and your family. She’ll view you as a threat, as the only people standing in her way of being happy again with a kid just like hers. Throw out everything.”
Carter’s eyes widened, and he took off toward the house. Rose and I followed. Ms. Delany was in the kitchen with Max. His jaw ticked when he spotted me.
“Don’t eat anything. Robin used arsenic,” Carter yelled and grabbed a trash bag, throwing out all of the food sitting out in the kitchen.
Ms. Delany grabbed me and stopped me from checking cabinets. “Gwen, we’ve been fired. Rose is going to stay with Amelia until the FBI shows up, and I’ll fill them in on where we are.”
Determination rippled through my body settling into my gut. “I can find her.”
Max shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’ve done enough.”
Carter stopped his frantic search of cabinets. “You haven’t seen Robin’s house. She has a room set up just like Pet’s bedroom.”
“That makes it worse. She was right under FDG’s nose,” he said.
Anger thrummed my veins mixing with determination into a deadly whirlwind of energy ready to explode. I took a step in his direction. Ms. Delany rested her hand on my arm. “Come on, Gwen, let me help you gather your things.”
I jogged up the stairs to the bedroom they’d provided me and dropped my suitcase on the bed. Stepping into the closet, I yanked my clothes off the hangers and started packing.
