Birthday Cake Waffle: Book 8 in the Diner of the Dead Series

by Carolyn Q. Hunter

  “You must have just forgotten, dear,” Harriet added, touching his shoulder a little condescendingly.

  “I guess so.” He shrugged.

  “I spent a little time in New York myself, working for a publishing company.”

  “Oh really?” Don’s smile returned. “Are you an editor?”

  “No. Just an aspiring writer. Things didn’t really work out, though.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” Don commented.

  “Oh, by the way,” Frank added, looking toward the wife. “Did you happen to lose a diamond ring?”

  Stepping forward, Harriet nodded. “I-I have. For the life of me, I can’t seem to remember where I put it.”

  “Well, the guy down at the gas station has it. Told us you left it in the bathroom.”

  Don’s smile faded again. Turning to his wife, his expression turned grim. “When did you go down to the gas station?”

  “Uh,” Harriet stumbled slightly over her own words. “Just yesterday. I went to pick up some more milk. You were out on your walk.”

  “Oh,” Don mumbled. “I thought we had a whole gallon just yesterday morning.”

  “No, dear,” she insisted.

  Raising one eyebrow, Don turned back toward the young couple. “I hope you two enjoy your stay here, but we really need to get back to the cabin now.”

  “Okay, thanks again for your help,” Frank replied.

  “Come along, Harriet,” Don ordered, placing his hand firmly on her back and leading her toward the cabin at the bottom of the hill.

  CHAPTER 5

  * * *

  “Here we are,” Frank announced, unlocking the front door and carrying in the bags.

  The cabin itself was quite impressive, and Sonja, for one, was thrilled to finally be there. She felt like she could finally relax and enjoy the weekend.

  The main floor of the cabin had a spacious living area with windows that were two stories high looking out over the snowy landscape below. The elegant fireplace and brick chimney went from floor to ceiling. Moose patterned sofas and chairs made a circle around the hearth. A dining table sat near the windows as well, so that you could easily eat your meals and enjoy the majesty of nature at the same time.

  The kitchen sat directly opposite the window, just underneath an indoor balcony. The appliances and cabinets were far nicer than any kitchen Sonja had ever cooked in. Taking the stairs on the right of the kitchen Sonja found herself in the loft. More chairs and a sofa sat facing out to admire the view.

  From the balcony she could see the frozen river below, running all the way down the hillside. She also noted she could see the other cabin, including being able to see directly into their kitchen area. A red truck sat nearby the house, just a little ways down from the driveway.

  “The loft acts as one bedroom,” Frank commented, setting the bags down as he reached the top of the stairs. “The sofa pulls out into a bed. There are two more bedrooms in the basement, each with a walkout sliding door.”

  “Wow. This is way more impressive than I imagined.”

  “I told you I got a good deal. You can have the loft if you want. I figure you’ll enjoy the view.”

  Sonja couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks. I’m sure my mom would be thrilled to know we are sleeping with an entire floor between us.”

  Frank laughed. “Probably.”

  “Well, better get settled in,” Sonja commented, removing her coat and laying it over the banister. Kneeling down next to her bag she began to dig inside until she pulled out her cast iron waffle skillet.

  “What the heck did you bring that, for?”

  “So we could have waffles, silly.” Without another word, she headed down the stairs and into the kitchen to start cooking.

  * * *

  While she worked on her waffle dessert recipe, Frank came down and started preparing beans and shredded beef for tacos for their dinner.

  Sonja knew it probably wasn’t the best idea to make her own birthday cake, not to mention the fact that her birthday still wasn’t officially until Sunday and it was only Friday evening, but she had a new recipe she was just too excited to wait to try.

  Starting off, she prepared the normal waffle batter that was the staple of most of the dishes at her diner. Once the base was complete, she added in a good helping of sprinkles, the kind that expanded when warmed up and created pockets of color. Pouring the batter into the hot, greased iron, she started the first waffle.

  She pulled out the strawberry ice cream next, which was still frozen solid from sitting in the trunk of the car. She would need it to soften a little before she could use it for the recipe.

  While she waited for the first waffle to cook and the ice cream to soften, she pulled out powdered sugar, vanilla extract, red food coloring, and milk to make a frosting. Using her own hand beater she had brought along, she slowly mixed the ingredients together, whipping them slowly until it became thick and frothy. She added a single drop of red food coloring and beat it into the white frosting. Soon, the mixture took on a soft pink hue—one of Sonja’s favorite colors next to red and black.

  Heading back to the stove, she checked the iron. The first waffle came out perfectly crisp and brown, giving off the aroma so many residents back in Haunted Falls associated with the diner. She set it aside to cool and poured in the next round of batter.

  After about a half of an hour, she had two more waffles complete. Testing the strawberry ice cream, she knew it was soft enough to be used. Scooping out a hefty serving, she plopped it onto the coolest of the waffles and spread it over the entirety of the surface. She placed the second waffle on top and spread on another layer of ice cream. Finally, she topped it off with the third waffle.

  Pulling the bowl of frosting close, she used a silicone spatula to coat the tower of waffles and ice cream. The frosting filled in all the gaps as she smoothed it out. Soon, it looked like your normal multi-layer birthday cake.

  The final touch was to add some more sprinkles all over the top of the frosting.

  “You made your own cake?” Frank complained.

  “Don’t worry,” she calmed him. “This one is just for tonight. You can make me a cake yourself on Sunday.”

  “It’s a deal.” He winked at her and returned to stirring the beef and beans. He had poured a full can of artisan beer into the pan and was letting it boil off. The whole cabin was filled with the malty smell of frijoles borrachos, one of Sonja’s favorite dishes and a perfect filling for tacos.

  “Oh, I forgot the strawberry drizzle for this,” she said, remembering the thick delicious sauce she had made and canned before the trip. Running up the stairs into the loft she dug into her bag and found the mason jar full of dark red liquid.

  Standing up, she was about to head back down the stairs when she spotted Harriet in the kitchen of the cabin below. Darkness had completely enveloped the winter landscape by this point, which made the yellow light from the cabin below all the more prominent against the inky night.

  Harriet appeared to be yelling. Even from here, Sonja could see how red her face appeared to be.

  “What is going on?” she whispered to herself.

  Attempting to read Harriet’s lips, she could only make out the word “stop.”

  Someone else appeared to be in the room as well, but Sonja couldn’t see who it was because of a wooden support beam in the way. She only assumed it had to be Don.

  Suddenly, the figure behind the beam picked up a knife from the counter.

  “Oh, my gosh,” Sonja gasped.

  The kitchen plunged into darkness. Sonja watched in horror, unable to do anything, as the silhouette of a knife came down upon Harriet over and over.

  CHAPTER 6

  * * *

  Sonja ran down the stairs screaming for Frank.

  “What, what is it?” her boyfriend grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, worry and fear enveloping his face.

  “Harriet, the woman in the other cabin. Her husband is a
ttacking her,” Sonja exclaimed. “We have to do something.”

  “Attacking her?”

  “Stabbing her with a kitchen knife. I saw it all from upstairs.”

  Without another moment’s hesitation, Frank grabbed his coat and headed for the door. “Come on,” he shouted.

  Sonja ran outside after him, forgetting her coat completely, as they bolted down the hill toward the house. Approaching the front door, it appeared that all the windows were dark and no one was home.

  Frank pounded on the door with the commanding force only a policeman could muster. “Hello? Is anyone home?” He called.

  They waited a moment for any sort of answer. The only sound besides their own breathing was the night wind.

  “He wouldn’t answer the door. Not if he was killing her,” Sonja argued. Pushing into the doorway she knocked. “Hello. Harriet, can you hear us?”

  Again, only silence was the response from within the cabin.

  “We’ve got to get in there,” she urged, grabbing the doorknob and shaking it. It was locked. “Maybe one of the windows are open.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” Frank grabbed a hold of her. “Just wait a second.”

  “She could be dying, Frank.”

  “I realize that, Sonja, but we can’t just break in there. It’s someone’s private property.”

  “What does that matter if someone is dying inside?” Sonja argued, growing quickly into a frenzy.

  “It matters a lot.” He held his girlfriend still a moment a looked into her eyes. “We would be breaking and entering.”

  “But you’re a cop,” she pleaded.

  Frank shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. We are outside of my jurisdiction, and even if we were in Haunted Falls, I couldn’t go in without probable cause or a warrant.”

  “But I just saw someone get stabbed. Isn’t that enough probable cause?”

  “You saw something, it’s true, but I didn’t. Also, the house appears to be nothing but quiet now. If we go in, we could both get into big trouble.”

  “How can you just stand there and do nothing?” Sonja shouted. While she had seen her fair share of dead bodies, she had never actually watched a murder happen right before her very eyes.

  “Okay,” he spoke calmly. “Tell me exactly what you saw.”

  “Harriet was yelling. Looked like she was arguing with her husband. He was standing just off to the side and I couldn’t see him as clearly.”

  “So it could have been someone else?”

  “I don’t know,” Sonja snapped. “But then he picked up a knife and the lights went out. I saw his silhouette swing the knife at her multiple times.”

  Frank sighed, looking down at his own feet. “So, it was dark when this happened?”

  Sonja nodded.

  “So, it is possible you could have been mistaken?”

  “No,” she retaliated. “I know what I saw.”

  “I’m just saying, Sonj’, you could have made a mistake.”

  Slumping her shoulders, she sighed. “I could have sworn . . .”

  “Look, the best thing we can do is call the local police. I can’t do anything out here besides that. They will drive out, see if anything fishy is going on, and we will get to the bottom of this.”

  Feeling confused and angry, Sonja could only nod in agreement. She knew her boyfriend was completely right. There was nothing they could feasibly do besides call the police.

  Grabbing her hand, Frank led her away from the cabin and up the hill. Glancing back at the house one more time, Sonja noticed the red truck was gone. “He fled the scene,” she whispered.

  CHAPTER 7

  * * *

  “The local Sheriff says the soonest they can get out here is tomorrow morning,” Frank informed his girlfriend as he came back into the living room, phone in hand.

  “Tomorrow morning?”

  “I guess it’s snowing pretty heavily up near Winter Park and all the roads have been shut down. They have to wait out the storm before they can safely make it over here.”

  “Tomorrow could be too late,” she insisted, knowing full well that, if there really had been a stabbing, it was probably already too late as they spoke.

  “That’s all we can do,” Frank put up his hands. “Let’s just try to enjoy our weekend together. It’s your birthday, after all.”

  Sonja sat down on the couch, sticking out her lips slightly in a pout similar to her mother’s. “I guess you’re right.”

  “Okay,” he smiled again, trying to brighten the situation. “I’ll get the tacos and set the table. You just relax.”

  “And put the cake in the fridge. I don’t want it to melt.”

  “Will do,” he agreed.

  While he got out plates and serving dishes, Sonja wracked her brain for some solution, any solution, to the problem waiting just down the hill. She tried to accept the fact that she may have made a mistake, may have seen something that wasn’t actually there, but her gut feeling knew better.

  She needed a way to get into the house at the bottom of the hill, but she couldn’t think of a way to do it without breaking the law and putting herself and Frank in danger.

  Then it came to her. Letting her thoughts wander to the necklace she had stuffed into her purse early that morning, she knew she needed to call Belinda.

  * * *

  After informing Frank that she needed to make a quick phone call and that she’d be right back, Sonja headed into the basement for a little privacy, making sure to grab the necklace from her purse sitting on the kitchen counter.

  Belinda was one of Sonja’s best friends back in Haunted Falls, and the only person she knew that she could talk to about anything supernatural.

  Belinda herself adamantly believed in ghosts and demons, and in fact often held séances to contact the dead. One of Sonja’s earliest encounters with a ghost was during just such a séance.

  Belinda also volunteered at the local library and was in charge of the section of books all about the occult—a section so dangerous that it was kept under lock and key in the basement. Now, whenever Sonja needed help with researching anything supernatural she turned to Belinda.

  Pulling up the phone number, Sonja hit the green call button. After two rings, a voice came on the other end. “Hello?”

  “Belinda, it’s Sonja.”

  “Sonja,” she exclaimed. “How are you?”

  Sonja was Belinda’s only friend. Most of the young librarian’s family had all died off, and everyone else in Haunted Falls had shunned her because of her practice of the occult. It also didn’t help that Belinda was the richest woman in town, by inheritance, and that caused some resentment among community members as well.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be away for the weekend?”

  “I am, but that isn’t why I called. I need your help again,” Sonja replied, getting straight to the point.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve got another cursed object,” Belinda teased.

  “Actually . . .” Sonja whispered.

  There was a gasp from the other side. “You’re kidding me.”

  “No, I’m not. Frank gave me a necklace for my birthday. I swear it has some sort of supernatural power to it. Are you at the library?”

  “Yeah, I am, and I’m way ahead of you. I’m heading downstairs to the occult section as we speak.”

  Sonja could hear the echo of her friend’s voice indicating that she had entered the twisting stone stairwell leading to the basement.

  “Can you describe the object to me?”

  “Let me just take a quick picture.” Bringing her phone away from her ear, Sonja pulled up the camera feature and snapped a quick picture of the necklace. Once she had it, she hit the send button. “It’s on its way.”

  “And I’ve just reached the occult section.”

  There was a brief pause while Belinda examined the picture. “This is it?”

  “Yep. A necklace with a whitish translucent stone on the end.”

  “And you say it h
as supernatural powers? Have you tested them out yet?”

  “Not extensively. The first time I put it on, I had an out-of-body experience.”

  “An out-of-body experience?” Belinda repeated excitedly.

  “Literally, I was floating above my own body.”

  “Holy smokes,” Belinda exclaimed. “It sounds like you projected yourself into the spirit realm.”

  Sonja’s heart skipped a beat in her chest. She hadn’t even considered the fact that she had turned herself into a ghost. Either way, she needed answers, and fast. “Well, I may need to use it again, and soon, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

  “You mean after everything that happened with the last cursed stone you brought me?”

  “Exactly. I want to make sure there aren't any unwanted side effects from this necklace, like possession or human sacrifices or something. How quickly do you think you can find something?”

  “Well, luckily I’ve actually been doing a lot more research on cursed stones since our last study session. If the supernatural element of the necklace resides in the stone itself, I may have something fairly quickly. If it isn’t related to the stone, this could take quite a lot longer.”

  “Just do what you can. There may be a life on the line.”

  “Will do. As soon as I learn anything, I’ll give you a call.”

  With that, they hung up. Sonja only prayed she heard back from Belinda soon.

  CHAPTER 8

  * * *

  Sonja walked back upstairs and attempted to have a good meal with her boyfriend, forgetting about murders and cursed objects and instead eating tacos and simply chatting. Unfortunately, her mind continued to wander. Multiple times she found herself spacing out.

  “Sonja? Sonja, are you okay?”

  Shaking her head, she let Frank’s voice bring her back to reality. “Oh, I’m fine.”

  “You’re still thinking about the cabin down the hill, aren’t you?”