Cake and Punishment

by Maymee Bell

  “Mama, there’s nothing to tell.” Bringing over the coffee had been a nice touch.

  “You didn’t tell me anything about last night and how Carter took you to the rehearsal dinner.” She batted her eyes at me.

  “Fine,” I said. “He asked me to go.” I lied to keep it simple and not let her worry by letting her know that I really went there to question Ella. “Or is it the bakery you’re interested in, or me getting run off the road?” I wondered.

  “All of it, so I can tell people the right story.” She seemed pleased.

  “First off, the Fords have a really nice bakery. I’m actually excited Madison asked me to try out all the equipment so she can sell it. Plus, all that room to make the Big Bird cake for her son is really going to be much nicer than trying to have all my stuff here.” There was an excitement growing in my stomach.

  “As for getting run over, Carter said there’s no leads in that yet.” I took another sip of the coffee and let the warmth warm my soul along with the memories of last night. “The rehearsal dinner was nice. Carter even came over and we baked some banana pudding for Dad.”

  “He will be so pleased.” She looked happy that I’d given her some insider information. She’d gnaw on that for a few days, which would keep her out of my hair. “He said he had a nice chat with Evelyn Moss.”

  “He did?” I questioned, though I knew he wouldn’t tell Bitsy anything that I was looking for. “Is he working at the office or at home today?”

  “He’s at home. I have to have him help me build the free little libraries this morning.” She drank her coffee while more ideas circulated in my head.

  “Why don’t I get showered and pack up some of the banana pudding for him, and I can help you build them so he can work?” This way I could take him the pudding, bribe him for some information, and make Bitsy happy.

  It seemed like a great plan.

  “That’s wonderful.” She kissed Duchess and put her down. “Duchess, you be a good girl.”

  “Are you sure I can keep her while I’m in town?” I asked, giving Bitsy the opportunity to back out.

  “You two need each other. She will be a good guard cat. She doesn’t like much company, so if anyone tries to come over, she’ll let you know.” Bitsy emptied the contents of the carafe in my cup and headed to the door. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

  * * *

  A little bit was more like an hour. I wasn’t sure what to wear, since I’d told Bitsy I’d help her build the free libraries. I’d decided on a pair of jeans and a light-blue long-sleeved sweater that was perfect for the day.

  “What are you doing here so early?” I asked Carter. He was sitting on my parents’ back porch with Bitsy. I set the homemade pudding on the table. “And without your fancy cop uniform on.”

  Bitsy dismissed herself by giving the excuse that she was going to make a fresh pot of coffee and took the batch of banana pudding from me.

  “My mom asked me to come over to show Bitsy how to build a little library.” He nodded toward the pieces of wood and a box sitting on the deck.

  “Oh, Carter, Bitsy has played you.” I laughed and glanced toward the kitchen window, where Bitsy was looking out at us. She jerked back when saw me looking at her.

  “I figured that out when I got here and I was about to open one of the boxes to build one of the free libraries. She told me that she couldn’t possibly help out, but you were coming to help me.” He smiled back.

  “Bitsy and her matchmaking.” Both of us laughed.

  Bitsy had done good today.

  “I was off this morning anyways. Plus, I was hoping to talk to your dad about Evelyn.” The real truth as to why he’d offered to help Bitsy came out. “Bitsy said he wasn’t here.”

  “Darn. I was hoping to talk to him this morning about seeing Evelyn.” I said, but quickly realized who I’d said it to. “Not that I’m interfering or anything.”

  “Of course not.” Carter’s brows rose. “You know that if you hear anything, I’m going to assume you’re going to tell me.”

  “You mean you want my help with the investigation?” I drew my hand up and exaggerated my facial expressions with a high brow.

  “I don’t think I can stop you,” he said. “No way am I saying to go out of your way and put yourself in danger.”

  “Aha.” I lifted my chin. “I see. You need me to help you.”

  “I didn’t say that.” He tried to save himself, but I knew better. “It sure does seem like you’ve got a knack for getting things out of people.”

  “You’d be surprised how comfortable desserts make people feel, and that’s why meeting up for dessert is so popular. Food brings people together.” I loved to make people happy with my pastries.

  “Here are your coffees and I thought you’d like one of Sophia’s treats.” Bitsy was good at the whole way to a man’s heart idea. “Don’t you think she should stay here in Rumford and open the Ford’s Bakery back up?”

  “If that what she wants to do.” His aloofness showed on his face. He took one of the assortments of baked goods that I’d put in the freezer.

  I picked up the creamer and gently stirred some in my coffee, ignoring Bitsy.

  “For goodness’ sakes, Carter. You’re no help.” Bitsy tsked.

  “Why don’t you show me how to do these little libraries, since Bitsy already knows and seems too busy to help us and I’m the one who’s going to build them anyways?” I suggested and walked over to the box.

  The directions were taped on the front and, at first glance, they didn’t seem that hard. There were magnets, wood glue, hinges, natural wood, and nails.

  “It’s like building a cake.” Carter used the analogy that I could understand. “Like a cake, you have to have a base.” He pointed to the directions and the wood. “If you follow the directions, like you would on one of your recipes, then at the end you’ll have a finished little box.”

  “Like a cake brings happiness to some, books do the same to others.” I thought I was pretty witty, finishing off his analogy.

  “Yes.” His smile reached his eyes. We locked stares.

  No matter how much I wanted to deny there was something going on inside of me when I was near him, I couldn’t. Clearly, he intrigued me. Instead of being excited, sadness washed over me. There was no way I could let my heart get involved since I wasn’t going to be here much longer.

  “Well, I’m sure I can do this. If I have questions, I will text you.” I glanced over his shoulder out into the green field to break the stare and dragged the cup of coffee up to my lips. “Why don’t I walk you out?”

  “Sure.” He nodded.

  In silence, we headed inside and through the kitchen.

  “Patrick works at the RCC this afternoon. I guess I’ll see you there?” he asked once we reached the front door.

  “I won’t need to be there since Evelyn hired the new chef.” I held the doorknob and leaned my weight on the door. “I’d like to finish up Charlotte’s cake at Ford’s, and I have to get started on Bryce’s cake.”

  “Okay.” He put his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “You need to give your statement, so I’ll give you a call to set that up.”

  “Fine.” My lips formed a thin line.

  “Did you check into anyone on my list?” I asked. I dragged the toe of my shoe on the floor. “You know, the ones we talked about last night?”

  “We are going over everything with a fine-toothed comb.” He wasn’t going to give me any answers. “Maybe a few of your ideas, too. Don’t be going and getting a big head. Let me do the work.”

  I was happy to know that he at least was open to some of my suggested suspects. Maybe I was good at this sleuthing thing. But was I good enough to get Emile’s killer behind bars for tomorrow’s big day?

  Chapter Twenty

  “I can use you at the Friends of the Library meeting this afternoon and go around Rumford to put up the little libraries” was the last thing Bitsy said when I walked out the
door. There was a lot to do today and little time to do it.

  And maybe helping her for the day was a good idea, since the news about Noah being hired as the RCC head chef spread like honey on a warm biscuit.

  Nick and Jane watched me like a hawk when I got there to get Charlotte’s cakes that I’d already baked. Anytime I walked near the chef ’s stove or oven, I could feel their beady little eyes boring into me. I made sure I stayed out of Noah’s line of vision.

  “Why don’t you just leave them here to decorate?” Noah asked. “I’m not going to bother you. I know this is important to you, and anything I’ve got to say will wait.” He leaned his body up against the counter. “I’ll wait as long as it takes.”

  As much as I hated to admit it, he was right about the cakes. The less I moved them, the better they’d be. The last move would be here to the RCC for the wedding anyway. So I plugged my earphones in my ear and clicked on the radio app to play some romantic music to get me in the mood to give Charlotte the cake she so deserved.

  The first layer was going to be a nice chocolate mousse in the middle. With my bag of buttercream icing, I ran a thick circle around the edges of the bottom layer. When I walked into the refrigerator to grab the chocolate mousse, I could see Noah staring at me. I quickly grabbed the premade bag and headed on over to the makeshift workspace I’d created near Patrick’s dishwashing station. He had an entire stainless steel top that ran along the side wall he didn’t use. It was perfect for assembling the layers and being out of Noah’s sight. I took the notebook out of my bag and opened it up to the sketches I’d shown Charlotte. The same feeling I’d felt when I was drawing it flooded over me. The excitement of seeing one of my designs come to life was a gift. My gift. My purpose in life and gift to the world was to create amazing desserts that allowed everyone, no matter their race, socioeconomics, or age, to escape into a treat that’d give them a wonderful feeling. I loved to make people happy, and when I saw their faces light up like Charlotte’s had, I knew I was doing my life’s work.

  I happily snipped the corner of the mousse bag and filled the center of the first layer to evenly match the height of the ring of icing I’d made around the layer. I lined up the second layer and made sure it was going to sit perfectly on the bottom layer before I placed it on top, making the mousse a little secret until someone sliced into it. The other layers were assembled the same way, only I used a raspberry filling and alternated the layers with mousse. It’d take about two hours for all the layers to settle. Once I stacked all the layers on top of each other, they would take another couple of hours to settle before I could begin icing and decorating. Settling was very important with this particular design because the fondant and decorating would be heavy. There couldn’t be any air bubbles in the filling in any layer.

  There was no way around the first two hours. I had to get the layers stacked today. The icing was the fun part and the decorating came naturally. If I was in a pinch, I’d be able to get that done in the morning. Right now, the less time I had to spend in this kitchen, the better.

  Though Evelyn was looking for me to make something spectacular for the dinner dessert, I just wasn’t feeling it. That was not to say I was going to disappoint her. I was going to make a dessert for the entire RCC. My tasty Kentucky Butter Cake, only in cupcake form.

  Each batch of batter made about twenty-four cupcakes, and in a kitchen the size of the RCC, I could easily triple the batter. By the time they baked up and I’d iced them, I’d be ready to head on over to the library.

  “Only you could pull off a design like that.” Noah’s voice dropped in volume as it drifted over my shoulder.

  I bit my lip and closed my eyes before taking a deep breath and turning around. The nearness of him coursed anxiety, excitement, and anger through me.

  “I still love working around you.” His gaze lowered.

  I tried to steady my shaking hands by gripping the spatula with one and fisting my other.

  The long lashes of his liquid brown eyes were the first characteristics I’d noticed about him during the governor’s son’s wedding. And it was the first thing I noticed now. It was a deadly combination, those lashes and eyes. A man as pretty as Noah should be outlawed.

  His brown hair was longer on top than usual. It was a little mussed. This was a sure sign that he was a bit stressed and had swiped his hands through it a few times throughout the morning. On those days, I would give him a gentle kiss and pat it back down, giving him encouraging words. Not today.

  “How’s what’s-her-name?” I wanted to say something mean and evil. I wanted to hurt him like he’d hurt me.

  “I don’t even know her name.” He shook his head and reached out, curling his hand around the side of my neck like he used to. “I’ve missed this spot. I’ve missed you. Us. The way we worked together. You kept everything going smoothly. We can do that here. Me and you.”

  “That spot is no longer yours.” I tried to keep my emotions flat, hard and painless. I put my hand up to his to jerk it away.

  “Oh. I’m sorry. I guess I walked in on something.” Carter had rounded the corner to find my hand on Noah’s in what looked to be a very romantic position.

  “Carter.” I gasped his name and my heart fell. It took me off guard for a second that my feelings about him seeing me with Noah were stronger than they should be. He was the Rumford police chief and I was just a native visiting my parents. Sure, there was the little murder thing that tied us together, but my feelings far exceeded that.

  I smacked Noah’s hand away as Carter backed out of the kitchen.

  “Jerk,” I muttered. “I’ve got to get these cupcakes baked.”

  “Who’s Carter?” Noah questioned as I walked around the corner and into the kitchen.

  The swinging door between the kitchen and the ballroom was still moving.

  “He took off that way. Lickety-split.” Nick pointed with his serrated knife toward the ballroom. “What’d he walk in on?”

  “Nothing.” Noah appeared. “Get back to work,” Noah demanded.

  Nick looked at me. His brows rose. I snarled.

  It was times like these back at The Manhattan that had made us a good team. He’d get cranky and I’d be the one to clean up his angry words and soothe them over. The kitchen crew would listen to him but take it with a grain of salt as I made the atmosphere fun with music, singing, and crazy delicious treats for us to sample. He was on his own at the RCC. He knew it.

  The quicker I got the Kentucky Butter Cupcakes in the oven, the faster I could get out of here. Nick would take care of getting them out and sprinkling a little powdered sugar on them. Later that night, when everyone else was asleep and dreaming of the big day, I’d come in and get the cakes iced just in time.

  After I wrote down a few instructions about the dessert for Nick—though I was sure he didn’t need them—I turned off the oven.

  “Simple. Easy. Perfect,” I whispered at my cupcake trays as I slid them out of the oven.

  “Just like you.” Noah stared at me.

  My nostrils flared. I jerked the tie of the apron from around my waist and threw the apron in the dirty laundry bin. With my bag in my hand, I shoved the door open and disappeared into the hallway with only one thought in mind—getting the hell out of there.

  The wedding planner was busy placing lace doilies under each blue-and-white large china plate that was the base of the three-tiered place settings Charlotte had wanted. The next plate was a bit smaller and had a nice pale pink ring around it with some gold-lined blue flowers. It was going to look perfect with the wedding cake. On the small top plate, the planner had placed a menu card along with a tented place holder with the name of the person who was going to sit there. The blue cloth napkin was tucked in a gold ceramic napkin holder. On the sides of the plate were silverware, a water glass, and a champagne glass.

  The florist had already put the finishing touches on the birdcages in the center of each table. They’d even added real votive candles that hung
off the outside of the birdcages. It was something I’d never seen, and it was going to look gorgeous once all of them were lit.

  Charlotte glanced up from the front of the ballroom and gave me a thumbs-up. I returned the gesture. I knew she wanted to take a look at the wedding cake. That wasn’t going to happen. I hurried out of the ballroom and out the front door.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Rumford Library was on the south side of downtown. It was a pretty big library for a small town. Most of the town’s meetings were held in the conference rooms there and the town made sure the library was well funded.

  The parking lot was full when I pulled in, so I found a spot on the street. It looked as if there was going to be a new addition to the back. There was caution tape, stacks, and a backhoe ready to go.

  The library was only one floor but very big. When you first walked into the double sliding doors, the reference desk was on the left. On the right was a big children’s library with tiny shelves for little hands as well as a children’s stage, computer stations, and some very comfortable-looking beanbag chairs.

  The children’s library had its own reference and checkout desks in the middle of their room.

  The rest of the library was typical. Different shelves were clustered together by genre and alphabetized. Along the windows were large leather chairs that replaced the boring hard table and chairs that had been there the last time I’d visited.

  The cackle of Bitsy’s laughter breezed through the quiet library from one of the conference rooms in the back. I followed the sound and found her showing off her little library that she’d made. It was painted pink and had fake pearls hot-glued along the border. BITSY’S BOOKS was painted in white along the top.

  “There she is.” Bitsy pointed to me when she saw me walk into the conference room.

  The three friends she was talking to turned around and smiled.