Devil's Food Cake (2 page)

Trixie-Bambi turned toward them both and nodded, her jaw rhythmically moving as she also chewed her cake. They were now bonded in the devotion to chocolate.

Sadie smiled at them both, glad to be sharing the moment with people who could appreciate it. She took yet another bite and was able to keep from moaning this time—but just barely.

“How many did you end up making?” Gayle asked, pulling her plate closer as if the cake might disappear at any moment.

“Eighteen,” Sadie said. “Thank goodness Shawn arrived last night so he could help me finish up today.”

Gayle nodded, but Sadie noted the distracted look in her friend’s eyes. Eyes that were green tonight. Gayle’s real eye color was mud—Gayle’s word, not Sadie’s—so she usually wore colored contacts. Green was Gayle’s favorite since it went so well with her curly red hair, and her eyes looked particularly good tonight with the green evening gown Gayle had chosen.

“Shawn didn’t want to come?” Gayle asked once she swallowed yet another bite.

Sadie shook her head. “He thought spending a Saturday night with his mom at a library fund-raising dinner sounded boring. In fact, I think his exact words were ‘dead boring.’”

Gayle huffed in feigned offense.

Sadie chuckled and lifted another morsel to her lips.

The rich chocolate was threatening to make her swoon when her eyes caught movement on the stage. Thom had finally arrived and was fiddling with his wireless microphone, trying to clip it to the lapel of his suit jacket. Another man, shorter and balding, was trying to help. Sadie, however, was intoxicated by chocolate to the point of no longer feeling annoyed by Thom’s tardiness.

“Oh, there he is,” Gayle said, pointing at the stage with her fork. “I’m guessing the other man is Thom’s manager? Mr. Ogreski?”

“I assume so,” Sadie said, watching the men with an air of distraction as she cut another bite.

“Thom looks good,” Gayle continued in an appraising tone. “He’s still single, you know.”

Sadie rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but smile at the same time. After Gayle’s divorce five years ago, the merest hint that she might want to date again had been met with thinly veiled malevolence directed at whoever dared suggest it. And then, about a year ago, Gayle accepted a neighbor’s invitation to attend a singles dance at her church. That night, Gayle was officially introduced to middle-age single life and she’d never looked back. Sadie was glad—a woman like Gayle needed people, and people needed women like Gayle.

Gayle opened her mouth to say something, but then straightened, dropped her chin coyly, and looked over Sadie’s head. “Speaking of single men,” she said, then smiled brilliantly and cocked her head to the side.

Sadie swiveled in her seat, then sat up straight as Detective Pete Cunningham entered the ballroom and headed toward their table. If only she’d been able to fit into her black velvet formal. Instead she was in her navy blue sparkle-dress, which was nice, but not nearly as elegant as the flowing dress Gayle was sporting.

Sadie stood and smiled as Pete approached their table. He undid the button of his tux jacket so it wouldn’t wrinkle when he sat down. The man looked downright dapper in his patent leather shoes and bow tie. His well-trimmed silver and black hair and beard were a perfect complement to his formal attire, and for a moment Sadie thought he might kiss her hello; on the cheek if nothing else. Instead he gave her a quick hug. “Sorry I’m late—paperwork.”

“Not a problem,” Sadie said as she sat back down. He helped push her chair in. He was always such a gentleman—too much of one sometimes. In the three months they’d been officially dating, he had yet to kiss her even once. It was beginning to give Sadie a complex.

Pete had met Gayle twice before and said hello before Sadie introduced the other people at their table, including Trixie-Bambi, whose real name turned out to be Michele. Apparently she was Frank’s niece and an English literature major. Who knew?

Pete shook hands with the people at their table—some of whom he already knew—before finally taking his seat. Sadie was nearly bursting with pride to be the girl on his arm. “I’m sorry you missed dinner,” she said. She should probably offer him some of her cake, but she wasn’t sure their relationship was at that level. Certainly a little lip-locking was a prerequisite to sharing devil’s food cake, right? Instead, she waved to get the attention of one of the servers and then pointed at Pete. The server nodded and headed toward the doors leading to the kitchen. Sadie pulled her plate a bit closer to herself in hopes that Pete wouldn’t get any ideas before the server returned with his food.

“They’re getting your dinner,” Sadie said.

“Oh, good, I’m starving,” Pete said. He looked toward the stage. “I haven’t missed the main event, have I?”

Sadie shook her head and looked to the stage as well. Thom was still fiddling with the microphone. They had someone from the hotel helping him now. It was weird that they were having problems with it. The microphone had worked fine for Sadie’s introduction forty-five minutes earlier. She knew the hotel had a wooden podium with a detachable wired microphone off stage right as a backup. She wondered how long they would keep trying to make the wireless system work before they gave up and moved to plan B.

“He doesn’t look much different, does he?” Pete commented, nodding toward Thom.

“Did you know Thom when he used to live here?” Gayle asked, leaning toward them and speaking in a high, sweet voice.

Sadie felt a flash of jealousy that surprised her. Was it her imagination that Gayle was being flirtatious? Or was she just feeling insecure about the no-kissing-for-three-months thing?

Pete looked from the stage to Gayle. “I was one of the detectives on his son’s case,” he said.

“Oh,” Sadie and Gayle said at the same time. Sadie wondered why Pete hadn’t told her that before now, but she wasn’t about to ask in front of Gayle.

“Maybe you should remind them about the wired microphone?” Sadie heard herself say to Gayle.

“Me?” Gayle said in surprise, dropping her smile for a moment.

“I think they’ve forgotten about the backup,” Sadie said, giving her friend a pointed look. She’d like a few minutes alone with Pete to catch up on the day. Surely Gayle could understand that. And maybe Gayle would have a chance to say hello to Thom in the process. Sadie’s motives weren’t totally selfish.

Gayle was silent, but put down her fork, correctly interpreting Sadie’s look. “Well, I guess I could,” she said. Sadie smiled a thank-you. Gayle stood up and put her napkin on her chair before heading toward the front of the room. As she stepped away, a server set down both a dinner and a dessert plate in front of Pete. By the time Sadie looked up again, Gayle had disappeared behind the curtain to the right of the stage. Sadie owed her one.

Michele also stood and excused herself to use the ladies’ room.

Sadie nodded toward Pete’s dinner. “It’s worth the hundred and fifty dollars,” she said. “I promise.” She only wished she could say she’d made it herself. Feeding the people she cared about was one of her favorite things to do.

Pete smiled and winked at her before using his knife to cut off a piece of prime rib.

Sadie looked up at the stage in time to see Gayle roll the podium out from the curtains on the right and Thom walk offstage left, looking frustrated. The manager must have been backstage as well. A hotel worker helped Gayle plug a wire from the floor into a port on the side of the wooden podium. Sadie took another bite of cake to distract herself from the guilt of making Gayle go up on stage. She wasn’t even on the library board this year. Sadie was the one who should be helping out.

Suddenly the stage area was cleared except for the manager and the podium. An expectant hush fell over the crowd, and the manager looked out at the room of people as if just remembering they were there. After straightening his suit coat, he made his way to the podium, which was so tall that the microphone pointed over his head. He reached up both hands to adjust the snakelike microphone holder so that he could speak into it. However, when his mouth moved, the microphone failed to pick up the sound.

Is there a problem with the entire sound system?
Sadie wondered. After all their work to pull off this dinner, she would be really, really mad if it all fell apart now.

Mr. Ogreski continued to wrestle with the microphone, which seemed to be stuck. He pulled it free from the holder, but the wire, which should feed through the hole in the podium didn’t have much give and he couldn’t seem to hold the microphone close enough to his mouth. After a few more seconds, Mr. Ogreski clenched his jaw, adjusted his grip on the microphone, and yanked it toward him, presumably to free the cord that seemed to be tangled within the wooden podium. It didn’t budge. He took a breath and planted his feet, poised to pull again.

Sadie let her eyes drift closed, grateful to give herself up to the chocolate ecstasy in her mouth instead of focusing on what was happening onstage for the moment. There were only a few bites left.

In the next instant, a shotgun blast echoed off the walls of the ballroom. Sadie choked on her cake as the people in the room screamed in horror.

Devil’s Food Cake

1 cup sour milk (1 cup milk + 2 teaspoons white vinegar or lemon juice OR use 1 cup buttermilk)

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2⁄3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon baking soda

For sour milk, mix milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Set aside for five minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except the water and baking soda. Mix until batter is smooth. Add the soda to the boiling water (kids love this part because it bubbles). Add soda/water mixture to batter. Mix well—batter will be thin.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes or until middle is set.

If using round cake pans, grease pans
very
well and cut a round of wax paper to fit inside the bottom of the pans to prevent cake from sticking when removed. Let cake cool five minutes in pans before turning out onto a wire rack.

Serves 12.

* Shawn (i.e. Mint-aholic) likes a teaspoon of mint extract added to the batter.

Chapter 2

By the time Sadie stopped coughing cake from her lungs, the room was in chaos and Pete had disappeared from his seat beside her. Frantic dinner guests had flipped tables on their sides as barricades and a few people ran for the doors. Sadie jumped to her feet and scanned the room, looking for Pete.

“Stay where you are!”

Sadie wheeled around in time to see Pete jump onto the stage and turn to face the audience, looking like James Bond in his tux. “There is not an imminent threat,” Pete continued, his voice booming through the room. He held one hand out, palm down. His other hand was in his jacket—likely on the pistol he kept in a shoulder harness most of the time. There might not be an imminent threat, but Sadie knew he wasn’t taking chances. “Someone call 911,” he yelled.

A hundred cell phones were whipped out of pockets and purses and Sadie put her hand on her hip out of pure reflex. All she felt was the seam of her dress. That’s right; she hadn’t expected to need her phone tonight, so she’d left it in the car instead of carrying it with her.

Pete turned away from the crowd, walked a few feet, and stopped in front of Mr. Ogreski’s body, crouching down to get a better look. It was hard to see anything from Sadie’s position at the back of the room. A flash of green toward the right side of the stage caught Sadie’s attention. Gayle was screaming hysterically with her hands on either side of her face and staring at the body on the stage.

What on earth just happened?
Sadie thought as she picked up her skirts and began making her way toward Gayle. Had it really been a shotgun blast she heard? Or could it have been a bomb? Sadie was getting better at keeping herself together in situations such as this—after all, this was her third dead body in four months—but there was nothing casual in her thoughts or the racing of her heart.

Gayle was still screaming when Sadie reached the stairs so she hiked her skirt up to her calves and moved as fast as her heels would allow. A few people had joined Pete on stage; he was telling them to back away from the body. Thom stood by the curtains on the left side of the stage completely frozen. His face was pale and his eyes were transfixed on the body. Sadie wished she could help him, but Gayle needed her more. Sadie hurried over to her friend who was shaking uncontrollably and put an arm around Gayle’s back. She put her other hand over Gayle’s hands, which were clenched to her chest. Gayle stopped screaming at Sadie’s touch, but her mouth remained open and her eyes wide. Her pale, white face made her green eyes look unnaturally bright.