The Cakes of Wrath (15 page)

I forgot all about that hot pan full of Isomalt when I saw her. “Where in the hell have you been?”

Pearl Lee perched on one of the stools near my workstation. “Oh, don't be such a spoilsport. Scotty and I had a great time together.”

“Terrific. Except you were supposed to be here, not off having a tryst.”

“It was no such thing. I'll have you know that Scotty was a perfect gentleman. I tried to convince him to cut loose a little, but he wasn't in the mood, I guess.”

“The man's in mourning,” I reminded her. “His daughter just died. He might need a little more time before he's ready for a midafternoon roll in the hay.”

Pearl Lee looked scandalized. “Why, Rita Renier, how you talk! It wasn't anything like that. The poor man just needed a shoulder to cry on.”

“Lucero,” I said when she paused to take a breath.

“What?”

“My name. It's Lucero, not Renier.”

“Oh. Well, how very odd. But the point is, Scotty needed some breathing room. He wanted to get away from his son-in-law and the police and all the neighbors who think they know everything, and that old biddy who keeps hanging around his house all the time. So we ran off for a few hours. But it was all perfectly innocent.”

“I sure hope you're telling the truth,” I said. “But you know Miss Frankie will pitch a royal fit when she finds out.”

Pearl Lee tilted her head. “Well now, baby, I don't see why Frances Mae has to find out anything about it. Can't you just tell her that I was here all afternoon just the way she said?”

“You want me to lie for you?”

“Don't think of it as a lie. Think of it as an investment in the future.”

I laughed. “How would that be an investment?”

“Oh, honey, everybody needs a favor now and then. You do this one for me. I'll owe you one down the road.”

“I don't think so,” I said with another laugh. “I'm not doing anything that'll get me on Miss Frankie's bad side.”

“What she doesn't know won't hurt her,” Pearl Lee bargained.

I started to shake my head when the smell of burnt sugar caught my attention and I remembered the Isomalt. I swore under my breath and snatched the pan from the burner, but I was too late. The entire batch was ruined.

Apparently sensing that I was in no mood to negotiate, Pearl Lee hopped off the stool and headed back to the front of the house. I would have breathed a sigh of relief except she paused just before she walked through the door and waved one hand over her head. “Thanks, baby,” she sang out. “I owe you one.”

After Pearl Lee left, I threw myself into my work with a vengeance. Putting everything else out of my mind, I spent the next few hours molding palm trees from gum paste, and modeling a small set of golf clubs, four tires, and a few other details for the golf cart before turning my attention to making sand traps from crushed graham crackers. I sent Edie home around seven with strict instructions to eat well and get a good night's sleep. Around eleven, the rest of us packed it in after coming up with a game plan for finishing the cake the next day.

Just thinking about another day with Pearl Lee underfoot kicked up a craving for one of Gabriel's margaritas. Or two. He's a master at the craft. As I closed up at Zydeco, I briefly considered heading over to the Dizzy Duke. But I had to be up early and I'd need my wits about me. There was no way I could handle Pearl Lee and a foggy head at the same time. Besides, after the way Gabriel had covered for Scotty and Pearl Lee this afternoon, I wasn't in the mood to see him again so soon.

Dragging with exhaustion, I locked up and let myself out through the loading dock door. As I started toward my Mercedes, I spotted Sparkle in the parking lot, standing between her car and mine. Actually, I spotted the gleam of light on the silver studs in her dog collar choker first. Her pitch-black hair and goth clothing blended into the shadows. She tossed a bag into the trunk of her Honda Civic and watched me closely as I walked toward her.

Her dark eyes roamed over the yellowing bruises on my face and the fading scratches on my arms. “You look awful. Are you sure you're okay?”

We'd been working together for hours, but she'd waited until now to ask. From anyone else, the delay might seem odd, but Sparkle likes to pretend that she's bored with the world and unconcerned about everyone in it. The fact that she had asked at all said a lot. She liked me! She really liked me! The realization touched me so deeply, I almost forgot how tired I was.

I grinned and nodded. “I'm fine. Feeling a little better every day.”

“Do they know who was driving the van yet?”

“Not that they're telling me, but I'm sure they're working on it.” Okay, I was being generous. I wasn't sure of anything, especially where Detective Winslow was concerned.

“Well, good.” Sparkle fell silent for a moment, but made no move to leave.

Which made me think she had something else on her mind. I leaned against the trunk of the Mercedes and waited for her to let me know what it was.

“Estelle says you're planning a baby shower for Edie,” she said after a few minutes.

Sparkle cared about the baby shower? That was a surprise. Maybe she was letting down her guard a little. “Actually, Miss Frankie is doing all the work,” I said after glancing around to make sure Estelle wasn't hanging out in the shadows. Call me chicken but I didn't want Estelle to know that I'd passed off the job. “She's much better at planning parties than I am.”

Sparkle nodded slowly, but a frown played across her painted black lips. “Has Edie talked to you about the baby?”

Surprise number two. I was getting more curious about where Sparkle was going with her questions by the minute. “A little, but she's not saying much.”

“That's the problem!” Sparkle cried, throwing up her hands in despair. I'd never seen her so animated before, and I wasn't sure how to react. “She's not talking to any of us, and some people are getting worried about her. They're starting to wonder if she's doing the right thing.”

I took a cautious approach. “I'm not sure what you mean. Who wonders if Edie's doing the right thing about what?”

“The baby, of course.” Sparkle seemed almost embarrassed to be talking about it, but she was obviously upset or she wouldn't have said anything at all. I had the feeling she wasn't just voicing the concerns of her coworkers either, but I played along. “You mean they wonder if she's doing the right thing to keep the baby?”

Sparkle shook her head. “That's not it. Edie wants the baby and I think she'll be a good mom.” She sighed and leaned against the car, mirroring my posture. “But don't you think she ought to at least let the baby's dad be part of its life?”

She was wading into dangerous water now. Edie had already cut ties with her family because of their opinions. I was certain she wouldn't hesitate to do the same with Sparkle—or any of us, for that matter.

“I don't think it matters what you or I think,” I said. “That's Edie's choice.”

Sparkle rolled her eyes. “I know. I know. I'm just thinking about the baby. What kind of life is it going to have? Don't you think it deserves to know where it came from?”

I
so
didn't want to get in the middle of this, but I couldn't ignore the question. “I guess, if there's a great guy out there who would be a loving dad and who wants to know his kid. But what if he's not such a great guy? What if he doesn't care about the baby?”
Or what if Edie doesn't even know who he is?
“We don't know Edie's situation,” I reminded Sparkle. “So speculating about what we think she should do is kind of pointless, don't you think?”

Sparkle did a maybe/maybe-not thing with her head and shoulders. “We'd know her situation if she wasn't being so secretive. She's only thinking about herself. She's not thinking about the baby at all. It's not easy growing up without a father. You know that.”

“I do,” I agreed. “But I was lucky. I lost my dad when I was twelve, but my Uncle Nestor was there to step in.” I couldn't deny that Sparkle had a point, though. Even the most loving uncle hadn't been able to fill the void left by my father's death.

I wondered about Sparkle's past. I didn't know a lot about it except that she'd grown up in a commune and her parents were hippies. “Where is this concern for the baby coming from?” I asked. “I know you had an unusual childhood in some respects, but you grew up with both parents, didn't you?”

Sparkle looked down at her feet. “Well . . . sort of. I know that Liberty is my mom. She says she is anyway, and I'm pretty sure she's telling the truth. But I don't know where Bob fits into the picture. He's been hanging around for so long, I've just started calling him Dad. It's easier.”

“Oh,” I said brilliantly. I didn't know what else to say.

Sparkle lifted her head and laughed, and for a moment the smile on her face transformed her. “Yeah,” she said. “I get that a lot. People really don't know how to react when they find out.”

“So Bob isn't your dad?”

“He might be. He might not be. Liberty doesn't even know. She's all about doing what feels right in the moment but she's not big on keeping track of what she did and when she did it. That includes who she slept with. I have no idea who my real dad is or even if my brother River and I have the same one. Details like that just aren't important in my mother's world.” A note of bitterness crept into her voice, and my heart went out to her. I'd had a rough time after my parents died, but I'd always been completely sure that they loved me. From the way Sparkle was talking, I didn't think she'd had the same assurance. I wondered how she would feel if she ever learned the truth about Edie's situation, and made a silent vow not to be the one who told her.

“I didn't even know you had a brother,” I said when I found my voice again. “I guess I need to pay better attention.”

Sparkle's smile faded and her familiar bored expression took its place. “I don't talk about him much,” she admitted. “I haven't seen him in a while.”

Interesting response. Apparently, River was a touchy subject as well. But she'd brought him up, so I went with it. “How long is a while?”

“This time? Five years. He got fed up with the whole commune thing and took off when he was seventeen. I was only twelve and I missed him like crazy. He came back once, right before I left, and he wrote to me a couple of years later. Bob forwarded the letter, so River and I kept up by mail for a while. Later we started e-mailing. I hear from him about twice a year.”

“Sounds like you still miss him.”

Sparkle shrugged. “I deal with it.” Which, I was learning, meant “yes” in Sparkle-speak. “Look, I'm okay with my life so don't start feeling all sorry for me or anything. I just think Edie's kid deserves better, that's all. Would you help me talk sense into her?”

I laughed and shook my head. “I wouldn't try telling Edie what to do in this situation if my life depended on it. She's doing the best she can in a difficult situation. I think the best thing we can do is to just be supportive.”

Sparkle had looked down at her boots again, but now her head whipped up and she stared at me with eyes wide as quarters. “You know who it is, don't you?”

Crap!
What had I done to give her that idea? I shook my head quickly. “I don't know anything.”

“Don't lie. You
know
. I can tell.”

What was she? Psychic? “I don't know who the baby's father is,” I said firmly. “So you can stop asking. I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to.” And that was the truth.

“But you know something.”

I made a face at her and pulled out my keys. “What I know is that we both have a long day tomorrow. We should both go home.”

“Now you're trying to distract me, but it's not going to work.” Sparkle got between me and the car door. “You know something about the baby. What is it?”

“Forget it,” I said. “If that's all you want, let's call it a night. I'm tired and I want to go to bed.”

Sparkle stared at me, like she thought that if she glowered long and hard enough, I might cave. But I knew she didn't really want me to. Aunt Yolanda had taught me that a person who shares someone else's secrets with you can't be trusted with your own. If I blabbed to Sparkle now, she would never trust me again.

I stared back, holding her gaze with mine and refusing to blink. I'd played this game with my cousins a lot when we were younger and I'd gotten good at it. Only an earthworm down my back could make me blink first.

It took a while, but Sparkle finally broke. She sighed and reluctantly moved out of my way. “I'll find out sooner or later,” she warned.

I tried not to gloat. After all, Aunt Yolanda had also taught me to be a gracious winner. So I flashed a smile as I slid behind the wheel. “I think it's great that you're concerned about the baby, but try not to worry. Edie's a responsible adult. She'll do the right thing.”

“I hope so,” Sparkle said. “For the baby's sake.” I expected her to walk away now that we'd reached an impasse, but to my surprise, she wasn't finished with me. “Is everything okay with you? You seem kind of distracted.”

“I guess I am,” I said. “There's a vice cop who thinks I was supplying Destiny with drugs, and that's freaking me out a little.”

Sparkle's mouth fell open. “No joke?”

“I'm afraid not. And something about Destiny's death feels off to me. I'm about seventy-five percent convinced she had help with the overdose that killed her.”

“You think she was murdered?”

“Maybe. I can't prove it, though. And I'm not sure the police are even looking into it.” Winslow seemed much more interesting in taking me down.

“So are you going to do the same thing with that as you're doing with the baby? Just sit back and hope for the best?”

The question stung. I put my key into the ignition and scowled. “I can't dictate to Edie what she should do with her life, and I can't prove Destiny was murdered just because I want to.”

“But
you
didn't give her drugs,” Sparkle said, as if that should matter to Detective Winslow. “And you're usually right about these kinds of things. You can't let somebody ruin Zydeco's reputation—and yours—just because he's a cop.”

I appreciated her faith in me but it didn't change anything. “It's not that easy.”

“Let's say she was murdered. Who do you think did it?”

“I have no idea.”

“Oh, come on,” she said. “You must have
some
idea.”

I was relieved to leave the subject of Edie and the baby behind and touched by her faith in my innocence. Clearly, she needed to talk, so I motioned for her to get into the car and turned on the air conditioner so we'd be comfortable. “It could have been Edgar Zappa,” I said. “I think he and Destiny were having an affair even though he claims they were just friends. Plus, he knew that Destiny was using drugs again. He says he was trying to help her, but I don't know. I think he's hiding something. How well do you know him?”

“Not well,” Sparkle said. “I've used EZ Shipping to send packages home, but that's about it. Do you really think he and Destiny were sleeping together?”

“It's possible,” I said. “Why? Don't you?”