by Harper Lin
“But why would he have PTSD?”
“Well, you and I know that that kind of deal never comes for free.” He took a big bite of his burger and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “DeLuca said the mayor had enough on him to pin the party girl’s death on him if he didn’t play ball. What else could he do? And in return for keeping quiet about the girl, Mayor Pearl, man of the people, pushed DeLuca to the brink.”
Amelia stopped chewing and leaned forward, engrossed in the story.
“According to the other guards, the fellows you saw with him at the funeral, Mayor Pearl took a special pleasure out of harassing DeLuca. He called him every name under the sun, insulted him at every turn. And DeLuca couldn’t do a damn thing about it. The mayor owned his house, his car, his soul.”
“He couldn’t quit?”
“Not without the mayor either turning information over to the DA to get him tossed in jail for this mystery girl’s death or…”
“Or what?”
“Or blaming him for the death of Gertrude Bullerdick’s daughter. The problem was, the girl who he thought died of an overdose was never found. There was never any report of a missing girl, an overdose victim, and because it was a one-night kind of thing, DeLuca couldn’t even be sure of her name. But he believed the mayor and his people who told him that they had ‘handled’ that situation. He believed that they had saved him from jail. In his mind, he owed them.”
Dan stopped for a moment and knitted his eyebrows.
“The problem now was that Gertrude Bullerdick’s daughter was real. She had a mother and friends and coworkers. She was an innocent person.”
“What did he do?”
Taking a deep breath, Dan described the interrogation at the hospital.
The room the police questioned DeLuca in was barely private. Just a thin blue curtain separated him from a car accident victim on one side and an intoxicated woman who had fallen down the steps at the commuter train station on the other.
The rest of the emergency room bustled and buzzed like a wasp nest that had been poked with a stick. Dan had been pacing back and forth at the end of the small cubicle, waiting for the doctor and nurses to give him the all clear to talk to his suspect. They bustled around DeLuca, shouting instructions and forcing a tube down his throat and into his stomach to pump over eight hours’ worth of alcohol out of it.
Finally, when they had forcibly sobered him up, Dan stepped up to the bed and looked at him. He was handcuffed to the bed railing. His body was covered in sweat, and yet there was a peaceful aura to him.
“Hello, Detective,” he mumbled, averting his eyes.
“Mr. DeLuca, I just want to ask you a few questions.”
“I did it.” He finally lifted his chin and looked Dan in the eyes. “I killed Richard Pearl.” He didn’t smile or laugh. The crazy babblings of the night before had vanished.
“How did you do that, Chuck?”
“With arsenic. The guy ate everything. It wasn’t hard to find an opportunity to do it. The only hard part was finding a venue, you know, a way to get ’er done without having it come back to me.” He started to laugh then stopped, rubbing his throat. The tube had probably torn it up a little and made it sensitive.
“What’s funny about that, Chuck?”
“The funny part is that I made it come back to me. Had I been like Pearl, had I not had a conscience, had I slept on enough rolls of money from dealings like the Minooka Airport deal, maybe I could have held it together. Maybe I could have let Pilson’s brother take the rap.”
Chuck DeLuca went on to describe the kind of conditions he had worked under as Mayor Pearl’s bodyguard. The constant verbal abuse and unreasonable demands were enough to drive anyone to the edge. At least four times a week, DeLuca was called in the middle of the night to bring the man some kind of delivery. Sometimes it was money from an informant. Sometimes it was drugs. Sometimes it was confidential paperwork. Sometimes it was McDonald’s. Every time he entered the room of a “private meeting,” Pearl would address him as a part of the female body – in the crudest word he knew. He questioned his manhood, criticized his abilities, and was just mean. Mean for sport. And when the option to quit wasn’t even there, DeLuca had felt he was already living out a life sentence.
“It was hell.”
Dan was writing everything down in his small notebook. But when DeLuca said these words, he stopped and looked at the man. The suspect had tears in his eyes that he went to wipe away but was stopped by the metal clank of the cuffs against the bed railing. He used his other hand.
“I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t keep quiet, not about this.” He shook his head, again unable to look at Dan. “I kept seeing Gertrude Bullerdick’s daughter’s face. She kept telling me what to do. She said I needed to turn myself in and confess to everything. She said she’d never leave until I did. Detective, do you believe a man can change his ways?”
Dan looked back at his notebook. He was used to criminals having a change of heart after they had been caught. This was nothing new to him, and he kept his hard edge while Chuck DeLuca, the man who would now forever be known as the man who poisoned Richard M. Pearl, tried to clear his conscience.
“I think anything is possible, Mr. DeLuca.”
“I think a man can,” DeLuca mumbled, a hint of singsongy happiness in his tone. “Because I don’t see her anymore.” He smiled widely.
Those were the last words Dan got out of DeLuca. He informed him of his rights again, said a public defender might be paying him a visit and that if he kept his story the same, he might get a lesser sentence. Dan also promised to make sure the judge knew he had been more than cooperative.
Dan took a sip from the large paper cup he brought with the food.
“Like ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’ what he did was tearing him apart inside. In his own twisted way, he thought the way to even the playing field wasn’t to fess up but to put an end to Mayor Pearl once and for all.”
“That’s sad.”
“That’s nothing. DeLuca isn’t alone. Dozens of people are coming to his defense, stating that they had horrific experiences at the hands of Mayor Richard M. Pearl, too.”
“What does that mean for you?”
“It looks like this guy might get a plea deal based on the fact he might be mentally unhinged. Like an abused spouse who wanted to leave, but where would he go? The mayor had too much on him and assumed he was too afraid to ever go against him.”
Taking a sip of her own drink, Amelia couldn’t help but think of Maggie. She seemed like such a nice person. Amelia believed she really loved the mayor. But what was that saying—a man could read fine literature, listen to Mozart, and have a refined taste in wine while every morning getting up to go to work at Auschwitz or something like that. People had double lives.
“There are absolutely no winners in this case.” Amelia hummed before taking another bite of her burger.
“No.” Dan took another big bite while watching Amelia. She was swishing her French fries in some ketchup when she looked up to find him staring at her. Blushing, she gave him a roll of her eyes.
“Sorry the whole thing ruined your first experience with the Gary Food Fest.”
“Thanks for bringing that up.” She slouched. “I think I might have lost my appetite.”
“You’ll recover.” Dan patted her hand, slipped his underneath hers, lifted it to his lips, and kissed it gently. Goose bumps ran up her arm, and Amelia smiled, happy in her embarrassment. They finished their lunch discussing another case that had been nagging at Dan for several weeks. It was a missing person.
Before he left to shower and change his clothes at his own bachelor apartment, Dan said good-bye to Adam and Meg. Amelia walked him slowly to the front door.
“Well, don’t work too hard.” She slipped her delicate hand into his.
Dan looked down at her and took a step closer. He still had that serious look on his face, but Amelia was proud of the fact that she could sense the smile in his eye
s. Blinking up at him, she stepped back a little, leaning casually against the wall.
“So,” he purred. “Do you mind if I give you a call later?” He placed his arm over her head, cornering her between him and the wall.
“No, Detective. I don’t mind at all.”
Amelia stood on her tiptoes to meet him halfway. For a few moments, they kissed quietly. Finally, letting out a deep breath, Dan leaned back and gave Amelia one last peck on the top of her head and a wink as he walked out the door.
The Pink Cupcake was finally released from quarantine. They had missed almost the entire Food Fest event. The remaining time would have been long enough for the ovens to warm up before they’d have to shut them down again.
Amelia drove The Pink Cupcake back home, happy to have it back in her driveway. As soon as she walked in the door, her phone started buzzing. It was Officer Darcy Miller, her favorite catering customer. Amelia wondered if she was making good on her offer for another catering job.
“There is a string of retirements coming up, and you know, if we were to do a party for each guy, it’s going to run each officer a couple hundred dollars each. Crazy as it may seem, being a public servant doesn’t pay all that great.”
“None of the jobs that require actual hard work ever do,” Amelia joked.
Darcy explained there was going to be a giant party for about five hundred to seven hundred and fifty people at The Sabre Room restaurant. It would be about a month from today, and they could pay her more than her normal fee if she could personalize the cupcakes for the three retirees and their specific duties.
“Do you think you can do it?”
Quickly doing the math in her head, Amelia figured it would cut the damage done by the Gary Food Fest debacle in half.
“Yes.” She smiled confidently. “I can do it.”
Honey Apricot Cupcakes
Makes 12
Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup apricot puree
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Almond Butter Frosting:
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 cup almond butter
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 Tbsp milk or whipping cream, or as needed
Stir apricot, vegetable oil, milk, honey, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl. Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Mix gently. Divide among cupcake liners (about 3/4 full each). Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Almond Butter Frosting:
Beat butter and almond butter with an electric mixer. Slowly add in sugar. When frosting gets thick, add milk by the tablespoon until frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes.
Spread on cooled cupcakes.
Coconut Cherry Cupcakes
Makes 12
Ingredients:
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cups self-rising flour
• 6 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 8 oz unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup light coconut milk
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 4 oz frozen pitted cherries
Coconut Buttercream Icing:
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp coconut extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut to decorate (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cupcake tray with liners. Combine flours and shredded coconut in a small bowl and set aside.
Cream butter in a large bowl on medium speed with an electric mixer. Slowly add sugar and beat until fluffy, around 2 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add coconut extract. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the coconut milk and sour cream. Don’t overbeat.
Cut cherries in half and add to batter. Scoop batter into cupcake liners, around 3/4 full. Bake for around 20 minutes, or until they spring back when pressed.
Cool the cupcakes in the tray for 10 minutes. Remove from tray and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
Coconut Buttercream Icing:
Cream butter in a large bowl on medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the icing sugar and coconut extract until combined.
Ice cooled cupcakes with buttercream. Decorate with shredded coconut.