Faith couldn’t help pushing her cuticles down over and over as she found a half-smile from somewhere. “Sure.” She wondered if she’d ever get Slice of Paradise open, or if she’d be languishing in some Florida jail, waiting for her trial date. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the image.
“Are you all right?” Nathan asked, concerned.
No, Faith thought. No, no, no. When she looked into his kind, dark eyes that had so much heartfelt expression in them, she just wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and squeeze tight. Instantly she flashed her eyes over to the other end of the room, telling her pulse to stop racing and the fluttering in her stomach to stop.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Honestly.” She looked at the spot between his eyes, letting her vision go fuzzy until he was little more than a blur. “It’s just a shock, that’s all.”
Nathan shifted in his seat, like he knew she wanted him to leave. “Well, as long as you’re sure. You have my cell number, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“Well, call me if you need me,” he said, getting up and straightening his hooded sweater and jeans.
“Okay,” Faith said, faking a smile. “Bye.” She didn’t watch him go but as soon as he was gone she wished she had at least done that. In truth, she wished he was sitting right beside her again. But she quickly told herself she only felt like that because of all the drama, which had sent her emotions going haywire.
She accidentally caught eye contact with Tonya, who was watching her with a small smile at the edges of her lips.
Faith looked away, pretending not to see, then after a couple of uncomfortable seconds blurted out, “He’s an excellent gardener.” She almost winced hearing it come out of her own mouth.
And she almost winced again when Tonya said, “Yes,” in a cool, knowing way.
Thankfully Laura, looking like an angel sent from heaven to Faith in that awkward moment, stepped out of another interrogating room. “You can go in now, Faith.”
“How was it?”
“Not too bad,” Laura said, then flashed a smile. “I didn’t even cry.”
Faith managed a weak smile in return.
“You want me to wait for you?” Laura asked.
“No, no,” Faith said, getting up and feeling her heart rate quicken again. “I could just meet you back at the apartments.”
Laura patted her on the arm. “As long as you’re sure. But honestly, don’t freak out. Deputy Valdez was actually really nice to me, and I don’t think he actually suspects you. I think he’s just going through the processes, you know. Doing what they have to do and all.”
“That’s good,” Faith said, breathing out through her mouth and trying to calm down.
Laura’s face brightened. “Tell you what, why don’t you bring the kitties around to my place? We could have some pizza, try out that new recipe you were telling me about, and just chill together. I really don’t want to be alone tonight.”
Faith nodded, a lump rising in her throat again. She’d never had a friend like that before. A friend who she could tell really cared, and wasn’t about to drop her because she didn’t get the ‘in’ haircut, or did something totally off-trend, like wear a floral apron or decorate her four poster bed with lace drapes – all things that had raised eyebrows in the past. She felt like she could just be herself. “That would be nice.”
“Hey,” Laura said, smiling at her and rubbing her upper arms. “Seriously, don’t worry. You’re innocent. That’s all there is to it. Deputy Valdez is really good at his job. I’m sure he’ll see sense right away. Then you can come back and we’ll have an easy night in. What do you say?”
Faith managed a smile. “All right.” Then she leaned in for a hug. Perhaps she’d catch some of Laura’s optimistic attitude. “Thanks,” she said into her neck.
“Don’t mention it, you goofball,” Laura said back.
*****
“I told you I don’t know!” Faith said. “I don’t know how on earth a cherry got on the cupcake.”
Deputy Valdez leaned over the desk with hard eyes. “How did you know it was only on one cake?”
Faith found herself tripping over her words. “Because… well, you said that there was only one cherry, so I—”
“No, I did not,” he said precisely. “I said that poison was found in the half-eaten cherry on top of one of the cupcakes you took over to her, on one of the cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. Your cupcakes were instantly recognizable, as they did not follow her signature style.”
“I know,” Faith said. “We do… we did… our styles…” She couldn’t work out which tense to use, and gave up. “Yeah.”
“So how did you know it was one cherry?”
“I assumed,” Faith said. “Because I never put cherries on any of them, so when you mentioned a cherry, I thought there was only one.”
He eyed her with a cautious nod. “All right. Now, I was at the meeting, so I obviously know the conflict between the two of you.”
“It wasn’t really a conflict,” Faith said. “It was one-sided. She wanted me to stop making cupcakes, but I didn’t want her to stop. I just wanted us all to get along.” She felt like Laura, about to burst into tears at any moment. But she managed to hold them back and look Deputy Valdez right in the eye. She didn’t want him to think she was putting on crocodile tears to throw suspicion off of her. “She had a problem with me, but I didn’t have a problem with her.”
“I am going to level with you, Miss Franklin. Right now, you are the only person we can locate who has any sort of motive,” he said. “Now, this does not mean that you are guilty. But it does mean the spotlight is on you. We have applied for the autopsy, and the results should be back the day after tomorrow. We expect it to say that she died of poisoning by liquid cyanide, which was what was found in the lab tests of the cherry, and in the top of the cupcake. I would hope that you will have your story straight by then, and that you will be more cooperative.”
“More cooperative!” Faith said. “I’ve answered every single question. Told you everything I know. What else do you want from me?”
Valdez gave her a stern look with his eyebrows raised, as if she were proving his point exactly. “That hysterical attitude will get you nowhere, Miss Franklin. You do not need to be so emotional, only to answer the questions posed.”
Faith shook her head, swallowing all the things she wanted to yell at him. “It’s very stressful to be considered a murder suspect,” she said in a low voice, trying to keep cool.
“Perhaps,” he said, which absolutely enraged her. Perhaps?! How would he like to try being in her shoes?! “But remaining calm and answering all our questions to the best of your ability is your best course of action. Remember that, Miss Franklin.”
Faith was so mad she couldn’t think straight. “Can I go now, please?”Deputy Valdez looked down at his papers, then up at her. “Yes, you may.”
“Thanks,” she said, then hurried out of the room and out of the Sheriff’s Department, shaking all over.
*****
Chapter 11
When Faith got in, she was greeted by the tinkly sound of her cell phone ringing. She’d left it on the kitchen counter.
“Hey guys,” she said, nearly tripping over Cirrus and Nimbus, who had hurried over to the door for their I’ve-missed-you stroke under the chin. She snatched up her phone, which was an ancient flip-style thing that she hadn’t seen the point in upgrading. Laura had already started bugging her to get an iPhone, though, so they could start snapping pics of their cakes and pastries and promoting them on Instagram. Faith flipped it open and saw the old fashioned blue-lighted screen read Mom. “Hey, mom,” she said, feeling a wave of relief wash over her, ready to spill all the drama to her favorite confidante.
“Faith.” Her mom’s voice was sharp. “I’ve been trying to reach you for nearly an hour.”
“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry, I just—”
“Grandma’s accommodation rang me to say she’s had a fa
ll,” Diana interrupted. Faith could imagine her at the kitchen table, shaking her head with that pinched look she got in her face whenever she was stressed, her short brown hair held back by the glasses she’d pushed to the top of her head. Her heart sank and sank the more her mother said. “Actually they said another fall, not like I was ever told about the first one.”
Faith felt her heart might just fall to her feet and drop out of her shoes. “Is she all right?”
“I think so,” Diana said. “I spoke to her on the phone and she’s crabby as ever, so I’m taking that as a good sign. She fell this morning and went to the hospital but she’s back in her place now.”
“I’ll go right now,” Faith said. She could feel her stomach rumbling, anticipating the takeout pizza Laura had planned, but that didn’t even matter.
“No. They’ve ordered no visitors until tomorrow.” Her mom sighed. “I might have to come and move down there if she gets any more doddery. I don’t like the idea of her in some home.”
Faith leaned over the counter, watching Cirrus and Nimbus. They’d padded over to the couch. Nimbus was curling up and trying to get to sleep, while Cirrus kept gently hitting him with his tiny paw, wanting him to wake up and play. “I don’t think she’d like that, mom. You know what she’s like. At least there everyone’s in the same boat. And they’re all friends. She was even saying how one of them’s trying to teach her knitting. She’s having so much fun she took time out of the tearoom.”
“Gosh.” A small silence followed. “A break from the tearoom? That’s like… unheard of. She must really trust you, Faith. Are things going well?”
“Yep,” Faith said brightly. “We’ve totally redone the whole place. It’s not quite done but I’ll send you pictures on email. My friend has one of these smart phones that can take awesome pictures.” She paused, wanting to tell her mom about the whole cupcake thing, but somehow unable to open her mouth. Another time, she told herself. When everything with Grandma Bessie blows over. “So, any closer to your cabin dream?”
“As if,” Diana laughed. “I’m up to my eyeballs in sci fi manuscripts right now but as soon as it calms down I’ll get searching for some properties out by a lake.”
“Good.” Suddenly she felt a rush of emotion. “But things might get a bit hard, mom. Like, when you first have a dream, you think it’s going to happen real easily. And then… things might happen that stand in your way and make it harder. But if you truly truly want it, you’ll keep going, even when…” She thought back to her conversation with Nathan in the Sheriff Department, how she’d been squeezed so hard by the tragedy that all her hope had seeped out. “…Even when the only thing you feel like doing is giving up.”
She expected her mom to giggle and mockingly call her Socrates or Confucius or an armchair philosopher, but Diana actually went quiet. “You’re right, Faith. That’s very true. I’ll stay positive, I promise. And I’m not trying to be an interfering old apron-strings-mommy, but if there’s any help you need, with the tearoom, or anything else, you’ll tell me, won’t you?”
“I’ll let you know,” Faith said. “Love you, mom.”
“Love you, darling.”
Faith hung up the phone, wondering if all the planets had moved into some catastrophic alignment that made everything go wrong. First Joanne Cobb’s mysterious death. Then Grandma’s fall? But she tried to keep her own advice and stay positive. Life threw curveballs all the time, after all.
“Come on, pests,” she said affectionately to her kittens. Cirrus had managed to rouse Nimbus, though he looked like a sleepy, slow furball compared to Cirrus prancing about the living room, dashing from toy to toy and looking back at Nimbus as if to say, “Come on! Play with me!”
Faith watched them for a moment, a slow, affectionate smile spreading over her face, then realized she was thirsty. She’d bought a huge bottle of iced tea down at the mini mart the previous day, and decided to have a glass, then take it over to Laura’s for their sanity-saving pizza party. It was only as she was reaching for a tall glass that she noticed the Tupperware box, and her heart jumped in her mouth.
The cakes Joanne had sent as a peace offering.
It was so weird to see them just sitting there, all six of them, in two neat rows with cherries on top. To think that Joanne had made them with her own hands, and they still existed, while she, the woman herself, didn’t. It would have felt so wrong to eat them. So, so wrong. But Faith couldn’t bear to throw them away, either – it felt so disrespectful to Joanne’s memory. So, without even looking at the box, her chest feeling like an open wound, Faith picked up the box and shoved it in the freezer. She’d think about what to do with it later on.
Until then, the hardest thing she’d have to think about would be which pizza toppings she should choose. “Let’s go, my little rainclouds,” she said, then ran over to scoop them up. With the two of them under one arm, and after great difficulty getting the iced tea bottle under her other arm while also picking up her keys and flip phone, she headed a couple doors down to Laura’s apartment.
Even before she got to the door she could hear the 80s music thumping out. Oh, I wanna dance with somebody, I wanna feel the heat with somebody. Faith grinned as she knocked on the door.
“Come in!” Laura shouted, then started singing in this cute falsetto, “Yeah! I wanna dance with somebody, with somebody who loves me.”
Faith came in, already feeling a lot better. Laura was in an apron, bopping around the kitchen, her fingers covered in dough. “Banana bread with chocolate chips!” she hollered over Whitney Houston’s rendition. “For after the pizza!” Then she hurried over to the stereo and turned down the knob with her elbow, with some difficulty. “You think the kittens can handle that loud music?”
Faith closed the door behind her with a nudge of her hip, then let the kittens jump out of her hold as she set down the iced tea and her keys on the kitchen counter. “Hmm, I’m not sure. Give them a couple minutes to get accustomed first.” Cirrus had been wiggling for ages, but as soon as Nimbus slunk down to the floor, he retreated back to her ankles, surveying the new environment with a suspicious expression that always made Faith laugh kindly, her heart melting.
Laura picked up the phone. “Now, tell me what toppings you want. I’m starved but I had no idea what to get you.”
“Oh… um... olives and pineapple. Do they do stuffed crust?” She was really in the mood for a pizza feast. “With garlic dip or barbecue dip, if they have it…?”
“Cool, do you like pepperoni as well?”
“Sure.”
Laura winked. “Hi,” she said into the phone, then repeated Faith’s request. “Yep, supersized, enough for two people. With… a personal size pepperoni pizza on the side, and some garlic bread, as well, please.” She gave her address then hung up, smiling from ear to ear. “Major carb fest, but whatever.” Then she hurried over to the sink to wash her hands and then swooped down on Cirrus. “How’s my favorite playful kitty, huh?” she said, stroking him under the chin.
Faith flopped down on one of the comfy chairs. Laura’s apartment was almost a carbon copy of Faith’s, only Laura had taken it upon herself to inject some dazzle into the place by painting one of the walls a shockingly bright shade of mulberry. “You can’t have favorites!” Faith protested. “What about Nimbus?”
Laura grinned back at her, taking Cirrus up into her arms. “I said my favorite playful kitty. Nimbus is my favorite cuddly kitty.”
“Oh,” Faith said, yawning. She hadn’t realized how tired she was until she’d slumped in the chair.
“No, no, no, missy,” Laura said. She came over and used her free hand to pull Faith up off the couch. “You can’t fall asleep on me before this pizza comes.” She hurried over to the stereo. “Let’s see how these kitties like Whitney.” Then she turned up the music slowly, checking to see if Cirrus and Nimbus were all right. Cirrus was still curled up in her arms, surprisingly, so she took that as a good sign. She kept on turning it up until Whitney wa
s on nearly full blast, then flicked the track back to the beginning.
Then she began dancing with Cirrus in her arms, rocking him this way and that and singing. Cirrus leapt out of her arms, being the boisterous boy that he was, but Laura wasn’t perturbed. She rummaged in a drawer and said, “Aha!” as she drew out a shoelace. Then she dangled it in front of Cirrus, just a little too high for him to reach, and he began to stretch up on his back legs, lifting his paws up to try and snatch it. Nimbus took notice and padded over to see what was going on. Faith began to laugh – it really looked like Cirrus was doing some crazy dance to the 80s music.
“Go on, Nimbus,” she encouraged him, but her voice got lost in the beat.
Then she saw another lace trailing out of the drawer and took it up. Soon they were all four of them dancing around the kitchen, Cirrus and Nimbus jumping up to try and catch the laces, Laura singing and giggling until she couldn’t catch her breath, and Faith feeling like perhaps everything in the world wasn’t all bad after all.
*****
Chapter 12
Faith drank in the atmosphere of their brand new Slice of Paradise as she sat at one of the newly-painted tables, hand sewing the floral material she’d brought with her from Minnesota into special cotton napkins.
“Every single thing has to be… I don’t know exactly the word,” she’d said to Laura, “but everything has to have care put into it. So when people come here, everything they use is beautiful, everything was considered. Everything deliberate, so they feel really… cared for, I guess.” That had always been a big thing for her. Even when making gluten free vegan cupcakes for her mom, she’d always taken the time to make perfect frosting peaks and stick tiny little edible stars or other decorations on. Then she’d pick one of her favorite patterned plates to serve them on. She’d nodded firmly at Laura – it was something she felt really strong about. “Attention to detail really shows people you care.”
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