Bake Until Golden: A Novel (The Potluck Catering Club)

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Bake Until Golden: A Novel (The Potluck Catering Club) Page 27

by Linda Evans Shepherd


  “Believe he’s camped near here somewhere. He and his little dog, Lucky, is it?”

  “Camped where?”

  “Wish I could tell you. But if I see him again, I’ll ask him for you.”

  “That would be great, only don’t tell him I was here, okay?”

  “Is anything wrong?”

  “I hope not,” I said. “Though, I’d love a chance to talk to him.”

  “I hope you get your wish, then,” Mrs. Hirvela said as I stood.

  I leaned down and gave her a hug. “You and me both.”

  Lisa Leann

  35

  Half-Baked Romance

  Of all things, on Friday afternoon the high school was hit with a power outage. At the last minute, the girls and I—along with the band mothers—worked a quick change in the venue from the school to the church for the night’s event. As I hurried around the church kitchen I stopped to look at the baby monitor I’d set up between the church nursery and the kitchen. On the screen I could see Kyle sleeping in one of the cribs while Vonnie’s husband Fred sat in the rocking chair and peeled apples for our apple and cheese crisp we were serving for the concert.

  It was hard to believe it was already Friday. The week had flown by and was made all the better by Henry finding Mandy, who was in quarantine in the hospital across town from Ray.

  Lizzie asked, “So what’s the latest news on your kids?”

  “Ray is doing great, aside from his broken legs, and Henry thinks he’ll be good enough to travel in the next couple of days.”

  “And Mandy?”

  “She apparently fell and hit her head during a mugging. She was unconscious for a day, and the Egyptian authorities didn’t know who to contact since she was without her identification. All I can say is it was a good thing Henry showed up.”

  “Is she out of the hospital yet?”

  “No, her ward was in quarantine because one of the other patients had some kind of flu. Though we’re hoping the quarantine will be lifted soon.”

  “But how’s she doing otherwise?”

  “Well, Henry’s spoken to her by phone, and he’s convinced she’s fine.”

  “That’s such a relief,” Lizzie said.

  The team and I, minus Donna, who was working today, chopped and baked with a few of the band mothers while the high school band and choir set up in our church fellowship hall. I kept an eye on them through the window over the counter that opened from the kitchen and into the fellowship hall.

  We were just pulling out the last couple of pans of apple and cheese crisp from the oven when the evening crowd began to arrive, and along with it, Donna, still in her deputy’s uniform.

  I gave her one of our pink aprons to put on before she got busy making gallons of industrial-strength tea, which we would serve after the concert. While we worked, a couple of people stopped to talk to us through the window, though we weren’t yet serving food. A young man named Andrew dropped by to say hello to Goldie. He somehow seemed familiar to me, though I couldn’t put my finger on why.

  A few minutes later I looked up to see Nate, the detective who’d rescued me from my would-be-intruder down at the shop. He stood facing the window with a lovely young lady by his side.

  “Hello, Nate,” I said. “Who’s your friend?”

  The girl, a beauty with long blonde hair, held out her left hand. “We’re engaged,” she said as if that answered my question.

  Nate looked sheepish. “I just popped the question last night.”

  “And I said yes,” the girl said with a giggle.

  I noticed that Donna had stopped her tea-makings. “Congratulations,” she called from over my shoulder.

  “Thanks,” Nate said, then turned to the girl. “Kate, would you mind grabbing a couple of seats for us? I have a bit of unfinished business about a case I’m working on.”

  Kate giggled again. “See you in a minute,” she said as she disappeared into the crowd.

  Once she left, Donna stepped next to me to face him. “So, here you have a girlfriend while you got me believing you were waiting for me,” she teased.

  “You can’t blame a guy for some harmless flirting.”

  “Sure I can,” Donna shot back, her hands on her hips.

  Nate grinned. “No harm done, but if you recall, you implied you wouldn’t date anyone who believed your stepmother was guilty.”

  Donna laughed. “Your loss, because I just had a breakthrough in the case. Of course, you’d know that if you’d finished going through the paperwork I put on your desk.”

  Evie, who had been in the back pantry, suddenly joined us. “Breakthrough in the case?”

  “Can’t talk about it, Evie,” Donna said. “Not now, and certainly not with you.”

  Evangeline quickly disappeared as Nate said, “Well, good luck to you then. Call me and fill me in later. Okay?”

  “Sure thing,” Donna said.

  I raised my brows then turned to look at Donna. “So, you and Nate?”

  She shook her head. “No, no. That was just silly talk.”

  I pointed to Wade, who was entering the fellowship hall with his mother. “Then are you still in love with Wade?”

  Donna narrowed her eyes. “Well . . . I don’t . . .”

  “Well, why don’t you take a break and go say hello,” I said, still trying to keep my promise to Wade to help him connect with my friend.

  Donna sighed. “He’s with his mother.”

  I put a stack of paper plates on the counter. “What difference does that make?”

  “I’ll show you,” Donna said as she pulled off her apron and walked out through the kitchen door and into the crowd. I followed at a safe distance to observe.

  Donna strolled over to the row where Wade and his mother were just finding their seats. “Mrs. Gage, Wade,” Donna said. “Hello.”

  Mrs. Gage looked up at Donna and narrowed her eyes. “Can’t sit here, there’s no room.”

  Donna pointed to the empty seat next to Wade. “I think that’s for Wade to decide. Right, Wade?”

  Wade turned to his mother’s scowl. “Don’t you think Donna could . . . ?”

  “No. Why would she want to bother us; there are plenty of other places for her to sit.”

  Donna simply smiled as if the exchange was not meant to hurt her feelings. “Well, it’s up to you, Wade. Shall I join you?”

  Mrs. Gage answered for him. “I should say not!”

  “Is that right, Wade?” Donna asked, slowly but deliberately.

  Wade shrugged. “Now may not be a good time,” he said. “Let’s talk later, okay?”

  Donna nodded. “Not a problem.” She turned abruptly and headed back to the kitchen while I hurried to catch up with her. I grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her into the kitchen pantry where there was some privacy. I stared into Donna’s red face.

  “Do you see what my problem was?” she asked me, arms crossed. “I couldn’t compete against his dogged loyalty to his mom.”

  “‘Honor your mother and father,’” I quoted from the Ten Commandments, since I was still rooting for Wade.

  “Okay, but where does that leave ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife?’”

  She had me there.

  She continued, “Do you know that in all the time we dated, Wade’s never once, once, stood up to his mom on my behalf? I suppose if we were married I’d have to grin and bear it. But we’re not married and . . . we’ll never be married. It’s over.”

  “Then why did you try to sit with him?”

  Donna laughed. “Because I was showing you his heart. There was no chance Wade would go against his mother. I was beyond safe.”

  “Then why are you so ticked off?”

  Donna’s cheeks pinked again. “Sorry, that woman still gets my dander up,” she admitted. “But as far as Wade goes, I’ve been over him for some time.”

  “Then where does that leave you with your love life? With David? I mean, you two have b
een dating all summer, haven’t you?”

  Donna sighed and dropped her hands by her side. “Well, yes. And I really care about David, I do.” Her eyes glistened. “But I can’t help but wonder if he’s really the man I thought he was.”

  “I see,” I said. “What does Vonnie have to say about it?”

  “She’s too close to the situation. I can’t talk to her.”

  “Maybe the person you really need to talk to is David.”

  “You’re right. And to his credit, he’s tried. But every time we try to be alone, we get interrupted with things like my mother’s murder, or work even. I haven’t even had time to sleep, much less talk to him.” She swatted a tear. “That man has really stolen my heart, and now it looks like it was all for nothing.”

  Lizzie came and tapped on the pantry door. She looked nice in one of her black velour outfits, even if she was wearing a pink apron over it. “It’s starting, you two. Come out and see the skit my kids are doing to kick things off.”

  Donna and I slipped from the pantry and through the kitchen door to join Lizzie and the team, who stood watching from behind the now-filled hall. I could see David leaning on the opposite wall. He must have come in on break from his shift tonight.

  From the stage, one of Lizzie’s high school students was dressed like a gold miner from the gold rush days. He was a tall, thin young man doing a little monologue about what it was like to be a failed gold miner then a stagecoach robber named Old Zeke. All the while, he was dragging a chest across the stage, pretending it was extraordinarily heavy. Another student actor, this one with powdered-gray hair and carrying a couple of cross-country skis and a Bible, stopped him. “Hi, Zeke. What you got there in that chest?”

  “Why, Father John Dyer, this is my treasure,” the kid playing Zeke replied.

  “Old Zeke, don’t you know the Good Book says, ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’”

  “Is that so?” Old Zeke said. “Then Father Dyer, where’s your treasure?”

  “Zeke, my treasure is in the cross.”

  “Then that’s where I’m going to put my treasure too,” Old Zeke said, dragging the chest off the stage.

  Donna gasped.

  I turned to her. “What is it?”

  She shook her head, looking dumbfounded. “I think I just had another break in the case.”

  “Tell me!”

  She shook her head again. “Not yet,” she said. “But be patient, I may be able to solve this thing yet.”

  Donna

  36

  Case Crackers

  The Potluck Team worked late into the night, cleaning up after the dessert for the concert then getting things ready for tomorrow’s Founders Day dinner. So it was no surprise when the girls and I missed Saturday’s parade down Main Street. I, for one, hated to miss seeing our pastor ride on a float dressed as Father Dyer. So I was glad when he appeared at the church to give the public a tour of the sanctuary.

  I slipped out of the kitchen to join in the tour, hoping I might get a glimpse of Horace Shelly in case he was in the crowd. I was on the lookout for a man in his late fifties, with a bit of gray hair on a balding head. And as most of the balding gentlemen in town wore baseball caps, I’d have to keep a sharp lookout for all things suspicious.

  I followed the group as they entered the foyer with Pastor Kevin dressed in full character, his hair sprayed gray with hair paint.

  “Good afternoon, ladies and gents. I’m Father John Dyer. I came to Colorado from Minnesota in 1861 to see Pikes Peak. I stayed to preach to miners and settlers. For twenty-nine years I traveled from camp to camp on ‘snowshoes’ I crafted from Norwegian pines. The miners knew I cared about them, because I attended the sick and preached against gambling, drinking, and prostitution. So with all this caring, why would the miners blow up the church’s bell tower just because I helped establish prohibition in these parts?”

  Everyone laughed, and Pastor Kevin went on to show the sanctuary: the hand-hewed pine floors, the stone wall behind the choir loft with its big wooden cross set into the stones themselves.

  I kept an eye on the crowd, but no one acted suspicious or made a comment that seemed out of place, so when the tour was over I headed back to help the girls. When I got to the kitchen, Vonnie called me into the pantry. She pulled a couple of letters from her pocket. “Donna, I have something for you.”

  “What’s this?”

  “First, this note was on my car last night, here in the church parking lot.”

  I snatched it from her hand and read the typewritten words:

  Meet me behind the church, during the dinner tomorrow night.

  Come alone if you want your dog back.

  “Does anyone else know about this?” I asked.

  “Only Lisa Leann. She was going to come tell you if I didn’t show you first.”

  “I see. What’s this other letter?”

  Vonnie held it out to me. “It’s to you from Bobbie Ann Jackson. It came to my house, I presume because she didn’t have your address.”

  I glanced at the LA postmark as I opened the letter. It was written in neat script:

  Dear Donna,

  I can’t believe I’m telling you this, and if I hadn’t met somebody new, well, the man I work for, actually, I wouldn’t say anything. David chewed me out for the way I treated you. I came all the way from LA to win David back. But after the first five minutes of riding in his car, I could see he was in love with you. You were all he talked about; how beautiful you are, how genuine, how he knew he loved you the moment he saw you, how he was waiting for you to realize you were in love with him. I was angry.

  When we got to Aspen, I did my best to lure David to my hotel room. But instead of letting me seduce him, the man tried to share his faith with me! That was the wake-up call I needed to see he’d changed into someone I didn’t want to spend my life with. Still, I care enough about the man to want him to be happy. So here’s my good deed, more to him than to you. David was loyal to you, just as he was loyal in his care for his Hollywood mom, Harmony, when she was dying of that terrible cancer.

  Since that reality show, David’s turned down television appearances and fame, just to ride in an ambulance and to be with you.

  I hope you know how lucky you are.

  Bobbie Ann Jackson

  I looked up at Vonnie through a sudden mist and folded the letter, tucking it into my jeans. “How long have you had this?”

  She looked worried. “It came in the mail today. Is everything all right?”

  I felt a silly grin spread across my face. “You could say that.”

  “Well, after the way that woman treated you, I just didn’t want . . .”

  “It’s okay, Vonnie. You did the right thing in giving this to me. Have you seen David?”

  “He’s running an errand right now.”

  “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

  She shook her head as Lisa Leann walked into the pantry. “There you two are. We got the last of the stuffed chicken breasts in the oven back at the shop. Fred’s watching over things there so I thought I’d come over and see how things were going.” Lisa Leann stared at Vonnie. “Plus, I wanted to be sure you showed Donna that note. You did, right?”

  Vonnie nodded as Goldie, then Lizzie, who held baby Kyle, joined us in the pantry. “Isn’t this cozy,” Lizzie teased before smiling down at the sleeping baby in her arms.

  I teased back. “Glad I called this meeting. But the truth is, I need your help.”

  Evie poked her head in. “Room for one more?”

  I nodded. “Ladies, I know who killed my mother.”

  “Who?” they asked in unison, causing baby Kyle to almost shudder himself awake. I lowered my voice. “Horace Shelly.”

&n
bsp; “Horace?” Evie’s eyes about popped. “You mean the choir director that ran off with your mother?”

  “Yes. And as I’ve discovered, he’s in town. At least according to his aunt. Could it be that one or two of you has seen him—a balding man with gray hair?”

  Vonnie looked puzzled. “Horace . . . I wonder. Maybe Horace is the Hoss who works at the Gold Rush Tavern. He took over Doreen’s job when she died.”

  “Did he look familiar to you?” I asked.

  “He’s not the young man I remember, but come to think of it, I thought that honeyed voice of his sounded familiar.”

  Lizzie’s eyes lit up. “The Gold Rush Tavern? Pastor Kevin says that one of the construction workers here at the church moonlights there in the evenings.”

  I turned to Vonnie. “I think Horace took Chucky, and I believe he’s the one who tried to lure you behind the church in the middle of the night.”

  “What?” Goldie almost cried. “Vonnie! You didn’t fall for that, did you?”

  Vonnie nodded but said, “Donna stopped me.” She paused. “You know, Velvet said her mother’s exes were mean, but she also said none of them were in town. So how do you explain that when she’d seen Hoss around?”

  “She might not even know him,” Lizzie said. “After all, Velvet hadn’t been born yet when Doreen was married to Horace.”

  “But,” Evie interjected, “why would Horace be after Doreen, or Lisa Leann, Vonnie, or even Chucky, for that matter?”

  “I have a theory about that too. Horace’s great-great-uncle was Old Zeke.”

  “From the skit?” Goldie asked.

  “Yeah, only the real one. I believe he thinks Old Zeke buried the gold at the church. He believes that some of us have information—maybe the letter Lisa Leann found at the shop—that will lead him to the gold. I believe he thinks we have the clue he’s been seeking.”

  “You mean,” Goldie asked, wide-eyed, “the legend is true?”

  “Maybe. But for now, I have a plan. Lisa Leann, do you have your baby monitor here?”

 

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