Rocky Road

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “I can’t take much credit,” Sadie said. “All I did was keep cold things cold and hot things hot.”

  “Well, I know it takes a lot of people to pull off something like this, and it was very kind of you to be a part of it. I’m not a member of your church, and yet you have all been so thoughtful. I really do appreciate it.”

  “Oh, I’m not a member of this church, either. I came into town for your foundation’s cancer walk this weekend, but a friend of mine was involved in this, so I tagged along.”

  Anita smiled a little wider and cocked her head slightly to the side. “Then I owe you even more thanks for supporting us through this wonderful meal and for being a part of the fund-raising events this weekend. Thank you very much.”

  “Oh, you’re welcome,” Sadie said, slightly embarrassed by the level of this woman’s praise. “But it’s the least I can do. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

  Anita’s smile fell slightly, and though her expression remained kind, sadness crept into her hazel eyes. The sorrow seemed sincere, which had Sadie reevaluating her earlier thoughts. Maybe Anita simply didn’t know how to cope with such an emotional circumstance and was doing the best she could. “Thank you,” Anita said quietly, twisting her ring again. “I appreciate your condolences. It’s been a very difficult time, but I’ve been lucky to have such wonderful support from friends and family and even strangers like yourself.”

  Sadie nodded while dozens of questions came to her mind—each one completely inappropriate to ask at a memorial luncheon.

  “I look forward to seeing you at the walk on Friday. Be sure to stop by and say hello when you get there.”

  There would be something like a thousand people at the walk, but Anita Hendricks was inviting Sadie to say hi to her? She probably said that to everyone, but an invitation was an invitation. “Maybe I will.”

  “I hope you do,” Anita said, turning toward the door. “You’re obviously a generous person. Thank you again for sharing that with so many people.”

  Sadie thanked her for the compliment despite feeling it was a little bit over the top—all Sadie had done was help in the kitchen. As Anita left the room, Sadie lamented that she hadn’t worked that conversation very well. She hadn’t learned a single thing. A moment later, she shrugged it off and headed toward the gym to see if there were more dishes to clear from the buffet table.

  As she crossed the hallway between the kitchen and the gym, she heard Anita’s voice and looked to her right, where Anita and another woman were talking. Sadie was beginning to turn her head back when a movement farther down the hall, in the shadows past the foyer, caught her eye. She couldn’t very well come to a stop in the middle of the hallway, so she continued to the gym and grabbed an empty potato dish and a nearly empty bowl of fruit salad. She hurried back to the kitchen, slowing her step as she entered the hallway between the rooms and trying to hide the fact that she was trying to get a better look past where Anita and the other woman continued to visit. A man stood in the shadows ... No, Dr. Waters stood in the shadows farther down the hall, where the lights hadn’t been turned on. He wasn’t necessarily hiding, but he did seem to be making himself inconspicuous, which for Sadie made him that much more conspicuous. He was watching Anita, and when she turned her head in his direction, perhaps seeing him out of the corner of her eye as Sadie had, she gave an almost imperceptible nod without interrupting her conversation.

  When Sadie reached the kitchen, she quickly deposited the empty dishes and scanned the room for another excuse to cross the hall. Yes, a third crossing might look suspicious, but she’d been going back and forth during the entire luncheon, so someone would be hard-pressed to make a case out of it.

  There were two more desserts left on the counter and she grabbed the first one—the strawberry-topped cream-cheese creation she’d had her eye on earlier. It had already been sliced, so it was the perfect excuse to enter the hall again.

  With the pie dish in hand, she made another trek across the hall, coming to a stop when she saw the woman Anita had been talking to enter the gym just steps ahead of Sadie. With a quick turn of her head, Sadie saw Anita moving toward the section of hallway where Dr. Waters had stood moments earlier. She couldn’t see him anywhere. Was he waiting for Anita farther down the hall?

  White sauce:

  2 tablespoons butter

  2 tablespoons flour

  2 cups milk

  1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

  1/2 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

  2 teaspoons chicken bouillon

  1 (8-ounce) container sour cream

  Casserole:

  1 (32-ounce) bag frozen hash brown potatoes, cubed or shredded

  1 to 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

  1/4 cup French’s fried onions, crushed

  2 cups cornflakes, crushed

  1/4 cup butter

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

  To make white sauce, melt butter in sauté pan. Add flour and mix until a thick paste forms. Add milk and whisk constantly until sauce thickens. Add bouillon, salt and pepper, and sour cream, and mix well. Remove from heat.

  Put potatoes in very large bowl. Add cheese and mix together. Add white sauce mixture and stir until combined. Add onions and mix well.

  Spread potato mixture into 9x13-inch pan or casserole dish.

  Melt butter and combine with cornflake crumbs. Sprinkle buttered crumbs on top of potato mixture.*

  Bake until melty and bubbly, about 40 to 60 minutes. If cornflakes begin to brown too quickly, cover with foil.

  Feeds 2-16, depending on how much they love it.

  *Use less cornflake/butter mixture if desired. If using pre-crushed cornflakes in a canister, use about 1 cup. But it’s best to crush the cornflakes yourself and not worry about the pre-crushed ones. You get a better texture.

  Note: For easy white-sauce preparation, mix equal amounts of butter and flour. Drop by tablespoons on wax paper, freeze, and remove to an airtight container. Keep frozen. To make white sauce, put frozen base in a frying pan, using 1 tablespoonful per cup of milk.

  Chapter 16

  Sadie was turning in the direction in which Anita had disappeared when Nikki Waters suddenly appeared in front of her. “I was just coming to see if we had any more desserts.”

  Sadie blinked at Nikki, who smiled back, oblivious to the direction Sadie’s thoughts were following.

  “There’s another cake on the counter,” Sadie said, pointing over her shoulder toward the kitchen.

  “Wonderful,” Nikki said, stepping around Sadie. Sadie looked back down the hall, then in every direction to make sure no one was watching as she turned and, dessert still in hand, hurried after Anita Hendricks.

  Sadie glanced over her shoulder as she crossed the foyer, but no one was watching. She proceeded more slowly once she was in the darkened hallway on the other side of the well-lit space, looking and listening carefully as she moved forward. There were recessed doorways on both sides of the hallway that seemed to curve around the building, but this part of the building hadn’t been used for the service, so the lights had not been turned on. The only light came from small eye-level windows in the doors on the right side of the hall—the rooms on the other side of those doors must have windows that allowed natural light to shine through. She looked over her shoulder as the curve of the hall blocked the foyer from sight. Good. No one from that side would have reason to wonder what she was doing. She stopped quickly when she heard the murmur of voices ahead. She couldn’t be too covert in her approach because if they saw her they’d question her stealth, but neither did she want to interrupt their conversation by making her appearance too intrusive if she could help it.

  Sadie kept a cautious pace as she moved forward, only to find after a few steps that the murmur of voices was now behind her. Looking right and left she stopped, turned, and began heading back the way she’d come, listening closely. She turned her head to the right when the voices seemed to be at their loudest—though
she still couldn’t hear actual words—and realized that the voices were coming from one of the rooms with the recessed doors. Sadie knew she’d be seen if she tried to look through the window set into the door, so she ducked beneath the glass and stepped closer to the door in order to try to overhear what was being said.

  Apparently Mormons used high-quality doors because all she could hear was the buzzing murmur of words. She could tell that the voices weren’t raised, and she could make out one masculine voice and one feminine. It had to be Anita and Dr. Waters. But what could they be talking about right now? Alone ... in an empty room ... in a dark hallway in a church?

  Tess had said Dr. Waters was on the board of the foundation—was that what they were discussing? He also worked in the clinic that Anita managed. Maybe they were talking about work. But that didn’t explain why they were hiding in order to have this discussion. Sadie leaned closer, wishing she’d brought a glass from the kitchen so she could better overhear what was being said on the other side of the door. Was it worth going back to the kitchen to find one? She leaned a bit closer in case she could pick something up through the door. She didn’t want to risk going back to the kitchen and missing her opportunity.

  BAM!

  The force of the door hitting Sadie in the head sent her reeling backward. By reflex, her hands went up and out, sending the dessert soaring through the air. She tried to keep her balance, but in the middle of the hallway she lost the fight and fell hard on her backside, sending a jolt of pain all the way up her spine, where it met the pain in her head and left her completely stunned and unable to breathe for several seconds.

  “Are you all right?” a man said to her left. Her ears were ringing, and the walls were spinning, but she immediately tried to stand, embarrassed to be in such an unlady-like position. As the man helped her to her feet, she realized that it was Dr. Waters. Biscuits. A few feet away from her was a mass of cream cheese, strawberries, and bits of crust beside a clear pie dish turned upside down in the middle of the hallway. Double biscuits.

  “What were you doing outside the door?”

  Sadie blinked a few times in order to focus on the fact that Anita was standing in front of her and regarding her with a questioning look that Sadie completely deserved. Sadie felt her face heat up, which she swore made the pain in her head worse. “I, uh, was looking for a, uh, restroom,” Sadie said, willing her brain to stop spinning within her skull.

  “You mean that restroom?” Anita pointed past Sadie’s shoulder. Sadie turned her head enough to see the very clearly marked sign for the women’s restroom on the other side of the hall. Pain shot through her neck with the movement. “With a cake?” Anita added.

  Sadie looked at the ruined dessert again and searched her scrambled brain for an explanation. When nothing presented itself, she looked back at Anita. The kindness Sadie had seen when Anita had thanked her for her help a few minutes earlier had disappeared so completely that Sadie doubted it had ever been there. Now Anita was suspicious and appraising.

  “You were listening at the door,” Anita accused.

  Sadie wondered how this had happened. How had she not heard them coming closer to the door? And the dessert was ruined.

  “It’s okay, Anita,” Dr. Waters said, giving Anita a pointed look. “I wanted to share my condolences with you in private, but what’s most important here is that this woman is all right.” He turned to look at Sadie again, and he moved her head slightly to look at the spot just above her right ear that was surely swelling by now. “I don’t think you have a concussion, but you should get some ice for that.”

  “I should,” Sadie said, latching onto the escape he’d handed her. “And I need to clean up the mess I made. Thank you for your help.”

  “Can I help you to the kitchen?” Dr. Waters said.

  “Your wife is in the kitchen.” She shouldn’t have said that—there was accusation in it. Sadie blamed her head trauma. She had communicated that she knew Dr. Waters and Anita Hendricks were trying to meet without anyone’s knowledge.

  For a few beats no one spoke, then Dr. Waters smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Even better—she can help.”

  “No, no, I can do it,” Sadie said, turning toward the kitchen in a hurry to get away without making eye contact with either of them. “Thank you, though.”

  She walked as fast as she could, but every step hurt her back and her head. Had she ruptured a disk or cracked her skull? She could hear Anita and Dr. Waters whispering as soon as she was several feet away, but she didn’t slow down. For one thing, it took all of her focus to walk in a straight line.

  “What happened?” Caro exclaimed when Sadie entered the kitchen several seconds later with one hand on her head and the other hand reaching for the counter for support.

  “I need some ice for my head,” Sadie said, glancing around the room to see who else was there. Thankfully, it was only Caro and a woman who’d been helping here and there whose name Sadie couldn’t remember at the moment. “And Tylenol ... and I dropped a cheesecake down the hall. There were strawberries on top. I’m worried about the carpet.”

  Caro hurried toward her, and the other woman grabbed a rag from the sink. “I’ll get the strawberries off the carpet,” she said as she headed for the doorway.

  “I’m so sorry,” Sadie said after her, earning a sympathetic smile from the woman before she disappeared.

  “Are you okay?” Caro asked.

  Sadie tried to nod, but the throbbing pain made her want to cry. She moved her hand and Caro leaned closer to look at Sadie’s head. She made a hissing sound between her teeth. “That’s quite a bump,” she said. She crossed the room to the freezer. “What happened?”

  Sadie heard someone come in, and she looked toward the door. Tess crossed the threshold, looking in Caro’s direction but not seeming to see Sadie.

  “Wasn’t Sadie supposed to clear the table? There’s empty dishes everywhere.”

  Caro nodded toward Sadie while she pulled out a partial bag of ice from the freezer. “Sadie hit her head. Tess, will you get her a chair?”

  Tess gave Sadie a momentary look of sympathy and confusion as she left the room. Sadie continued to lean against the counter with her hand to her head, even though it didn’t help the pain. It was even more frustrating to realize that she’d been discovered and physically injured, and she hadn’t even learned what it was Dr. Waters and Anita had been talking about. She had determined they were together and that they didn’t want to be overheard, but that information didn’t feel equal to the price she’d paid for it. She felt sure Officer Nielson would not be impressed.

  “Is everything okay?”

  Sadie looked at the doorway. Nikki was standing there this time, taking in the scene.

  “I hit my head,” Sadie said again. She hated being fussed over and looking at Nikki filled her with conflict. Should she tell her about the private meeting between Dr. Waters and Anita? She looked away and closed her eyes again, hoping darkness would help her throbbing head. Her stomach felt queasy. “Caro, do you have that ice?”

  “I’m working on it,” Caro said from beside the sink, where she was chopping at something. “I think this ice has been here for years.”

  “Run it under hot water for a few seconds,” Sadie offered. “It’ll break up the cubes better.”

  “Oh, good thinking.” Caro turned on the faucet.

  “Here’s a chair,” Tess said as she reentered the room.

  “Thank you,” Sadie said. She opened her eyes and stepped aside as Tess put the folding metal chair next to the counter against which Sadie had been leaning. She was grateful to sit, but she winced as the position seemed to exacerbate her back pain. She didn’t mean to be picky, but surely there was something with a cushion in the building.

  Tess and Nikki stood there as though they were unsure what to do. “Could someone get me some Tylenol?” Sadie asked. “There’s some in my purse over there.” She waved toward the back wall, and after a moment’s he
sitation Tess headed that way. Sadie looked at Nikki again and attempted a smile. “I’m okay, really.”

  Sadie looked past Nikki’s shoulder, straightening slightly when she saw Anita Hendricks standing in the hallway outside the kitchen door. Anita watched Sadie with a decidedly unhappy expression on her face. Nikki said that as long as Sadie was okay, she’d put the last of the desserts out. She crossed to the counter and picked up the last dish—something with raisins in it, which was probably why it was the last dessert standing.

  Sadie continued to hold Anita’s gaze, and she felt her heart rate speed up, which increased the ache in her head. Anita knew Sadie had been listening at the door, but Sadie knew Anita had been talking to Dr. Waters about something she didn’t want anyone to overhear. They both held something over the other. What would they do about it?

  “I’ll be right back to see how you’re doing,” Nikki said, turning toward Sadie with the raisin dessert in hand. “And I’ll see if my husband can come in and take a look at that.”

  Sadie looked away from Anita to look at Nikki instead. “I’m fine, thank you.” Caro came over with ice wrapped in a dish towel, and Nikki headed toward the door. Sadie looked at Anita again in time to see her expression instantly repaired. “Oh, hi, Anita,” Nikki said. “Can I help you with anything?”

  “No. Thank you, though,” Anita said with that soft, kind tone she’d used when she’d thanked Sadie. “Do you guys need any help in here?”

  “No, no, no,” Nikki said, shaking her head and continuing across the hallway. “I don’t want you to lift a finger—this is our gift to you. It sure was a lovely service, wasn’t it? How are you holding up?” Anita didn’t make eye contact with Sadie again but turned to follow Nikki back into the gym.