“Fine.” We crossed the kitchen and I shoved the door open in time to see Derek and Dalton and the rest of the chefs scramble backward.
Derek grabbed me as the chefs all began to talk at once. Raoul rushed forward and took Colette in his arms.
“Thank you for sticking close by,” I whispered in Derek’s ear. “Did you hear any of that?”
“Every word,” he murmured.
“Why did you have that knife, Colette?” Raoul asked in a low voice.
“I put it down,” Colette cried.
“Not right away,” I said.
Colette wrapped her arms around Raoul. “She was going to tell everyone I lost my necklace, but I didn’t, Raoul. I swear. It’s missing, though. And…and she thought I killed Baxter. I had to try and keep her quiet.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I said heatedly, tugging away from Derek to glare at her. “Tell the truth for once.”
“Yes, my love,” Raoul crooned, as he held his wife and stroked her hair as if she were a little girl.
“Noooooo!” Colette howled.
He squeezed her lightly. “It is time for the truth.”
“Please, Raoul, don’t!” Colette cried.
“What’s the truth?” Savannah wondered aloud.
Raoul met our gazes one by one. “Baxter Cromwell had to die.”
Colette sagged against him. “No, no, no.”
Whoa. Was that a confession? Did Colette know or had she merely suspected? I spun around and looked at Derek. He didn’t appear quite as surprised as I probably did. Darn! Had he deduced before now that it was Raoul? Why didn’t he say something before I was forced to confront that knife-wielding wench?
“The honor of my family was at stake,” Raoul said, with one of his unruffled shrugs. “It was as simple as that.”
“Not quite that simple,” I said. Derek yanked me closer to him, probably trying to keep me quiet.
“No, not quite,” Raoul said, gracing me with his sexy smile, though it no longer held much charm. “But when Baxter attempted to blackmail me, I knew I had to do something about it.”
Colette blinked at her husband. “He tried to blackmail you, too?”
“Yes, my love.” Raoul took hold of her shoulders to explain. “He showed me a document from a laboratory service that proved his paternity.”
Colette emitted a high-pitched keening sound and then collapsed against his chest. I couldn’t blame her. Not only was Raoul aware of her multiple indiscretions, but worse, he would be thrown in prison, leaving her without a husband and a father for her two boys.
“Baxter had proof of paternity?” I asked Raoul.
“Yes, apparently he planned ahead.” Raoul scowled. “A few months ago, I invited him to stay with us for a few days. While he was in our home, he took samples of our boys’ hair follicles to be tested for DNA. He showed me the lab results the night of his restaurant opening. He ridiculed me, called me a cuckold while boasting of his own prowess.”
“What an awful man,” Savannah whispered.
“Yes,” Raoul said, absently flicking a crumb from his chef’s coat. “I could live with his disdain, but then he mentioned that he had tried to extract money from my wife and she refused. He insisted that I pay him instead and threatened to ruin Colette’s reputation as well as my sons’. That was when I took it upon myself to end it. Any man would do the same.”
He sounded like a Spanish nobleman from the eighteenth century, dueling for his lady’s honor. Did he really believe he had the right to take Baxter’s life?
Derek cast a quick glance my way, then looked at Raoul. “After you killed Baxter, did you take the lab results with you?”
Raoul’s jaw clenched. “No. When he admitted it to me, he shoved them in his pocket and walked away. But later that night, after Savannah gave him that lovely gift, I saw him slip a piece of paper inside the box and I suspected strongly that it was the laboratory results.”
“Inside the leather gift box?” I asked, just to clarify.
“Yes. After everything happened, I looked for the box, but I couldn’t find it.”
My eyes were wide as I met Derek’s gaze. Dalton had been poring over the cookbook for a full day now. Had he found the lab results and tossed them aside? We needed to get home and find it, but there were still more questions to be answered.
“You could’ve called the police and sent Baxter to jail for all the blackmailing he’d done,” Savannah said. “Why did you have to kill him?”
Raoul paused for a moment and seemed to argue with himself. But since we all knew what he’d done, it was useless to hold back information. With a sigh, he said, “The night of Baxter’s first dinner, after the diners had left, I found Baxter in the private dining room arguing with Colette. I almost burst into the room, but I hesitated. The door was partially opened and I saw him snatch the locket from her neck.”