Wedding Cake Killer: A Fresh-Baked Mystery

by Livia J. Washburn

  Carolyn came up the hall from the kitchen. “Are they gone?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Phyllis said.

  “You shouldn’t have let them in here.”

  “I didn’t have any choice. They had a search warrant.”

  “You could have demanded that they wait until Juliette was here to look at the warrant.”

  “And they could have refused,” Phyllis said. “Plus that would have meant that Eve was here, too, and it would have just been harder on her to know they were rooting around in her things.”

  “She’ll find out about it anyway.”

  “Yes,” Phyllis admitted, “I suppose she will.”

  Sam said, “And speakin’ of Eve . . . they’re here.”

  Phyllis hurried to the door. Sam and Carolyn were right behind her. When Phyllis opened the door, they saw Eve and Juliette coming toward the porch. Juliette had hold of Eve’s arm, supporting her.

  “She looks like she’s aged ten years since yesterday,” Carolyn whispered.

  Phyllis agreed, but she wasn’t going to say anything about that to Eve and hoped that Carolyn wouldn’t, either.

  “Well, I’m back,” Eve said as she came into the house. She summoned up a smile, but Phyllis could tell that it cost her an effort.

  “And we’re glad to see you,” Carolyn said with a false note of hearty cheer.

  Eve stopped short. The smile disappeared from her face.

  “You may not be,” she said. “You may not want anything more to do with me once you know the truth . . . but it’s high time you did.”

  Chapter 14

  “Don’t say that,” Carolyn said as she put an arm around Eve’s shoulders. “There’s nothing you could tell us that would make us feel any differently about you, dear.”

  Eve’s smile came back, but it was rueful this time. “Don’t be so sure about that,” she said.

  “Let’s go in the living room,” Phyllis suggested. “I’ll get coffee for everyone.”

  “Thank you,” Eve said. “That sounds wonderful right now.”

  “I’ll give you a hand,” Sam told Phyllis. The two of them went into the kitchen while Carolyn led Eve into the living room and Juliette Yorke followed.

  Quietly, Sam said, “I’ve only known Eve for a few years, but I don’t reckon I’ve ever seen her as down as she is now. She’s usually a ball of fire.”

  “I know,” Phyllis agreed. “This experience has taken a lot out of her, and I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.” She paused. “She’s going to have to deal with Roy’s funeral, you know.”

  “Bound to be hard. Maybe we can give her a hand with all that.”

  Phyllis nodded. “That’s a good idea. Of course, the sheriff’s department probably hasn’t released the body yet. They may not have even done . . . the autopsy . . . yet.”

  But Phyllis was sure an autopsy would be done because it was standard procedure in all suspicious deaths. She just didn’t want to think about it.

  She poured coffee and placed the cups on a silver tray along with creamer and sweetener. Sam carried the tray into the living room and set it on the coffee table. Carolyn and Eve were sitting on the sofa. Juliette was in one of the armchairs.

  When everyone had their coffee, Phyllis and Sam sat down as well, and a few moments of silence went by. It didn’t take long for that silence to become uncomfortable, though, and Eve broke it by saying, “Well.”

  “Well, well,” Carolyn said.

  “I appreciate the effort, dear,” Eve told her, “but you don’t have to try to be cheery. There’s nothing cheery about any of this. Roy’s dead, and the police think I killed him.”

  “They’re insane,” Carolyn said. “You’d never hurt anyone.”

  “That’s not what the district attorney believes. According to him, I not only murdered Roy; I also killed two more of my husbands and got away with it scot-free.” Eve took a sip of her coffee. “And he doesn’t even know yet what happened in Sweetwater.”

  The implications of that statement left them all silent again. Then Phyllis said, “Why don’t you just start at the first, Eve, if there’s something you want to tell us?”

  Juliette said, “I think that’s a good idea. Certainly a better idea than not leveling with your lawyer.”

  “You two stop fussing at her,” Carolyn snapped. “You know the kind of strain she’s under—”

  “That’s right,” Eve said, “and part of that strain is keeping everything bottled up inside. It’s all right, Carolyn, really. I want to talk about this.” She took a deep breath. “You know I’m from West Texas.”

  Phyllis nodded. “You told me once you were born in Midland.”

  “That’s right. And my first teaching job was in Sweetwater. That’s also where I married my first husband, Doyle McGinnis. He was a truck driver.” Eve smiled sadly. “We weren’t happy. Doyle was gone a lot, and I was lonely. It was . . . difficult. I had opportunities to turn to other men, but I resisted. I’m not sure Doyle was as good at resisting temptation as I was. He was on the road so much . . . But then he was hauling cattle one day and the brakes on his truck went out and he wound up going into an embankment. It was a terrible, terrible accident.”

  “How awful,” Carolyn said.

  “As far as the authorities could determine, it was simple mechanical failure due to improper maintainance,” Eve went on. “Doyle never did take good care of his things. But I’m sure if Timothy Sullivan wanted to, he could make it sound like I tampered with those brakes because Doyle was cheating on me, even though there was absolutely no proof of that.”

  “That was just a tragic accident,” Phyllis said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with what’s happened now.”

  Juliette nodded and said, “I agree, but Eve’s right. Sullivan might use it to try to sway a jury . . . if there’s something else to go with it.”

  “Oh, there’s more,” Eve said. “After that I didn’t want to live in Sweetwater anymore, so the next school year I got a job teaching in Abilene. I met a man there. Thom Lewis. Thom with an h. He was in real estate, and very successful at it. He’d made a fortune when they built the interstate highway through there. We were married for almost ten years. I kept teaching, even though we didn’t need the money, of course, because I loved it, and Thom didn’t mind. He was always occupied with his business. But it was a good marriage, much better than the one with Doyle. Until Thom got sick and died after a short illness.”

  “What was wrong with him?” Juliette asked.

  Eve shook her head. “The doctors were never able to make a final determination.”

  “And since you inherited his money, the police questioned you, thinking that you might have poisoned him,” Juliette said.

  “That’s exactly what they thought, my dear,” Eve agreed. “But they could never prove anything, because there was nothing to prove. I loved Thom. I wouldn’t have hurt him.”

  “Of course not,” Carolyn said.

  “And they never determined the cause of death?” Juliette asked.

  Eve shook her head. “Eventually they ruled it natural causes because there was nothing to indicate otherwise. But medical science wasn’t as advanced in those days. I know they thought I’d given him some sort of exotic poison.”

  “Ludicrous,” Carolyn muttered.

  “So you did inherit your husband’s money?” Juliette asked. “I just want to be sure.”

  “Yes, I did. It was . . . several million dollars.”

  Phyllis and Carolyn stared at her in disbelief, while Sam said, “And a million bucks was real money back in those days.”

  Eve smiled and said, “Yes, it was, dear. It certainly was.”

  “I never had any idea,” Phyllis said. “You kept teaching . . .”

  “What else was I going to do? That was what I was trained for, and I liked it. I liked the kids and wanted to make a difference in their lives. Oh, it didn’t happen often, of course, you know that, a lot of them are
just putting in the time, but every now and then . . . every now and then you really reach one of them . . .” Eve took a deep breath. “Anyway, I moved to Wichita Falls and got a job there and told myself that I was never going to marry again. That resolve lasted a few years, but then it wore off.”

  “You started dating again,” Carolyn said.

  “Oh, I never stopped dating, once a suitable amount of time had passed after Thom’s death. I’ve never been a woman who can function without masculine attention. But I never took it seriously. After what happened with Doyle and Thom, I didn’t want another husband. Then I met Alex.”

  “Your third husband,” Phyllis guessed.

  Eve winced slightly. “Fourth, actually. I was married once between Thom and Alex, but it lasted less than a year and we parted on friendly terms.” She lifted a finger. “He didn’t die. In fact, he’s still alive, as far as I know. It’s just that, well, he was gay. But he didn’t want to be, and he figured that if anyone could possibly cause him to . . . steer in the other direction, shall we say . . . it would be me. Times were different then, you know.”

  “Did you know about this?” Carolyn asked in a slightly strangled voice.

  “Not at first. But it didn’t take long to figure out.” Eve sighed. “The poor dear. I did my best, but it just didn’t take. So we went our separate ways with no hard feelings.”

  Juliette took off her glasses, rubbed her temples, and put the glasses back on. “What about Wichita Falls?” she said. “You were telling us about Alex.”

  “Oh, yes, Alex Martinez. God, what a gorgeous man! He looked just like Ricardo Montalban. And he even sounded like him. Rich Corinthian leather, oh, my word!”

  Juliette frowned in confusion. “What?”

  “Before your time,” Phyllis told her. “Go on, Eve.”

  “Alex was in the oil business. Quite the globe-trotter. He was always jetting off to South America or the Middle East to set up some multimillion-dollar deal. He simply swept me off my feet with the same sort of panache. We were married for five years. Five very happy years.”

  “Until he died suddenly,” Juliette said.

  Eve sighed and nodded. “Yes, that’s right. And I suppose the police looked into my background and found out what happened with Thom, and since the doctors had a hard time determining what killed Alex, I was brought in for questioning.”

  “I reckon this fella Alex was rich, too?” Sam said.

  “Oh, my, yes. But he didn’t leave his entire estate to me. Some went to his other relatives, and he made a number of endowments to various charities. I only inherited about five million dollars.”

  “Good Lord!” Carolyn burst out. “We’ve been living with Miss Moneybags and didn’t know it!”

  “Oh, dear,” Eve said, looking hurt.

  “I’m sorry, Eve,” Carolyn said quickly. “I didn’t mean that. Well, not the way it sounded, anyway. But you’re rich! Why did you move in here and live such a simple life? You could’ve bought a mansion!”

  “But I didn’t want a mansion,” Eve said. “I wanted a simple life, like you said. I wanted friends. And before that, I wanted to teach. You see, I already thought I had everything I needed. All that money in the bank, well . . . that was just money in the bank. It didn’t really mean anything to me, not like all of you do.”

  Phyllis was so touched that she felt tears forming in her eyes. But she swallowed hard and brought her emotions under control, saying, “What happened about Alex’s death?”

  “Nothing, really,” Eve said. “I was under suspicion for a while, but there was no evidence against me, again, because I hadn’t done anything. Finally the doctors said they thought he had contracted some sort of bizarre virus during a recent trip to the jungles of South America. That’s what I think happened, too.”

  Juliette said, “So you lost two rich husbands to mysterious illnesses. I can see why Sullivan jumped to conclusions . . . or at least why he would want a jury to jump to that conclusion.”

  “But none of those deaths were Eve’s fault,” Carolyn said. “It’s not fair that she should be blamed for them.”

  “Contrary to what some people believe, the legal system isn’t about fairness,” Juliette said. “It’s about what you can prove. Or rather, it’s about what you can get a jury to believe you’ve proved, whether you really have or not.”

  “This is going to make the case against Eve stronger, isn’t it?” Phyllis asked.

  “I’m afraid so. But we’ve got time to work on our defense. For everything that Sullivan digs up to make Eve look bad, we’ll find something to counter it.”

  “For one thing,” Carolyn said, “even if she had been knocking off her husbands for their money, that doesn’t apply here. Roy wasn’t rich!”

  “I’m right here, dear,” Eve said.

  Carolyn put a hand on her arm. “Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that you did! I was just saying—”

  “Carolyn’s got a point,” Phyllis broke in. “Eve has absolutely no motive. Which brings us to the most important question of all.”

  “Who did have a reason to want him dead?” Eve said. “I wish I could tell you, dear, I really do. But I have no idea.”

  Chapter 15

  Eve was exhausted, naturally enough. She hadn’t gotten much sleep in jail the night before, she said, and she wanted to go upstairs and lie down for a while, even though it wasn’t noon yet.

  “You can’t imagine how good it will feel to stretch out in my own bed again,” she said.

  “Is there anything else you haven’t told me about your past?” Juliette asked.

  “Well, I’m sure there’s a great many things, dear, but they don’t have any bearing on this case.”

  “Nothing else that Sullivan can use against you?”

  “I can’t think of what it might be,” Eve said.

  Juliette nodded. “All right, then. Get some rest. As soon as I find out when the arraignment will be, I’ll let you know. It’s just a formality where the charge against you will be entered officially into the court records.”

  “All right.” Eve clasped both of Juliette’s hands. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done.”

  “I’m not finished yet,” Juliette said. “We’re just getting started.”

  Eve smiled and went to the stairs. She looked back at Phyllis, Sam, and Carolyn and said, “Thank you all. I’d never make it through this without . . . without my friends.”

  “We’ll be here for you,” Sam said with an emphatic nod.

  “You can count on that,” Phyllis added.

  Once Eve had gone upstairs and Phyllis heard the door to her room close, she turned to Juliette and asked, “How do things really look? The district attorney’s going to use Eve’s past against her and try to make the jury think she got away with murder before, isn’t he?”

  “I’m sure he will,” Juliette said. “I’ll do my best to keep him from bringing it in at the trial. It’s really immaterial and irrelevant to this case, and once I get the witness list and know for sure that’s what he’s planning, I’ll go to the judge and try to get him to rule against that testimony before the jury ever hears it. Sullivan’s pretty slick, though. He’s good at getting what he wants.”

  “You’re assuming that there’s going to be a trial,” Carolyn said.

  “Oh, there’ll be a trial,” Juliette said. “The murder weapon and Eve’s lack of an alibi is more than enough to get an indictment, I think. I can’t imagine the grand jury deciding otherwise.”

  “But she doesn’t have any motive,” Phyllis objected. “Like Carolyn said, Roy wasn’t rich. At least, not that I know of.”

  “And evidently Eve is rich,” Carolyn said. “Why would she need to keep on bumping off husbands for the inheritance?”

  Juliette said, “I’ll look into Roy’s finances—that’s for sure. If we can demonstrate that Eve didn’t have any hope of financial gain, and if we can prove that there’s no evidence of any trouble between them, that’s a start
on reasonable doubt, anyway.”

  “We can all testify that they were very much in love,” Carolyn said. “We’ll make that jury believe us.”

  Juliette smiled. “Like I said, that’s a good start.” She nodded to them. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “I can’t believe all this,” Carolyn said when Juliette was gone. “It’s like the whole world has been turned upside down. Eve’s no murderer.”

  “Of course not,” Phyllis said. She started gathering up the empty coffee cups to take them into the kitchen.

  “I’ll give you a hand,” Sam offered.

  When they had all the cups in the kitchen and Phyllis was rinsing them in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher, Sam went on, “I’ve been thinkin’ about that letter opener.”

  “So have I,” Phyllis said. “I assume it was used to stab Roy, and despite the fact that it belonged to Eve, I think the fact that the killer used it argues for her innocence. It doesn’t fit the pattern. In those other cases, she was accused of poisoning her husbands.”

  “Which she didn’t do,” Sam pointed out. “So that means there isn’t really a pattern.”

  “You’re right, of course. But if Sullivan does take that tack, I think Juliette can turn it against him. What were you thinking, Sam?”

  “Well, once you mentioned it, I sort of remember seein’ that letter opener around here, too. I may have even borrowed it from Eve a time or two myself. It’s not very sharp. Seems to me it’d take more strength than a lady like Eve has to stick it in a fella’s chest. If that’s what happened.”

  “So it would be more likely a man who did the killing,” Phyllis said as she frowned in thought. “That’s good, Sam. We’ll have to mention that to Juliette.”

  “She may have thought about it already. She seems to be pretty smart. I hope so, anyway.”

  “So do I,” Phyllis murmured. “So do I.”

  * * *