Devil's Food Cake (9 page)

Jane narrowed her eyes slightly, as if taking Sadie’s measure. “Well, for one thing, Thom’s still here.” She nodded toward the building behind Sadie.

“What?” Sadie asked. Thom was still at the hotel? How would Jane know that? Though why had Sadie assumed he
wasn’t
there?

“They rented a black Camry from the airport Hertz last night,” Jane said, her eyes fairly twinkling as she imparted this knowledge. “It’s in the lot, but the police are still looking for Thom, right? Without a car, he couldn’t get far, especially in the snow. And, quite frankly, the man can’t even tie his own shoes these days, let alone escape the dragnet this town has dropped over him.”

Sadie was stunned. Jane knew the time and place Thom and Mr. Ogreski had rented their car? Did she get that from Google too?

“What do you mean Thom can’t tie his own shoes?”

Jane shook her head. “Oh, come on, that’s old news. Thom’s had a serious drinking problem for the last few years. It’s why he rarely does events anymore.”

It wasn’t old news for Sadie. “Is that the story you had?” she asked, reviewing in her mind how Thom had looked that night. She admitted he did seem . . . worn out and anxious, but his agent had just been killed right in front of him. Thom was a drunk? No. Sadie didn’t see how that could be true. She didn’t
want
it to be true. She wanted Thom to be the man who had overcome his tragedies, not fallen victim to them.

“Oh, no,” Jane said with emphasis. “What I’ve got is way better than that, I assure you. But the alcoholism does factor in.” She looked at the cake in Sadie’s hands. “Do you need help with that?”

Sadie glanced down at the cake box she’d forgotten she was holding. There was a thin layer of snow on top of the cardboard. She was grateful for the turn in conversation because it gave her an excuse to move forward and think about what Jane had said.

“I need to get this cake in the car,” Sadie said, still skeptical of this reporter but willing to take her offer of assistance. Jane stepped aside to let her by.

Jane followed her while Sadie transferred the cake to one hand so she could type in the door code and unlock the car, careful to shield the number pad from Jane’s eyes. One could never be too careful. Once Sadie had unlocked all the doors, Jane pulled the back door open and made a dramatic bow.

“Thank you,” Sadie said as she leaned in, positioning the box squarely next to the other one on the backseat. She took her time, thinking about what to say once she returned to the conversation. With the cake box properly placed, Sadie stood up to ask Jane another question about the story, only to find herself once again alone in the parking lot. She looked to her right and her left. No one was there.

“Jane?” she asked.

The slightest movement by the back of the hotel caught her eye—the kitchen door falling closed.

Chapter 10

As soon as Sadie entered the kitchen, she scanned the room for Jane. The woman only had a few seconds’ head start. However, Andy made a beeline in Sadie’s direction. She had no choice but to give him her attention though she continued to look for the rogue reporter.

“I got most of the mascara off with some olive oil,” Andy said. “But she really should use a good cleanser. Those pores need to be opened up as soon as possible.”

Jane wasn’t in the kitchen, which meant she’d already made it into the hallway.

“Did you see a woman come in?”

Andy let out a breath and looked annoyed. “People have been in and out all night. What I’m worried about is Gayle.”

Sadie turned to look at Gayle, who was still seated near the sink, several feet away from them. Her face was shiny and free of makeup, though her eyes were still red and puffy. But then Sadie caught sight of a woman with short, dark hair in the back of the room. The woman turned—not Jane.

“Sadie? Are you listening to me?”

Reluctantly, Sadie looked back at Andy, whose face showed his frustration. “Vitamin C,” he said in slow, clipped tones. “Do you have a vitamin C-based cleanser she can use?”

“Um, yes,” Sadie said even though she’d never heard of a vitamin C-based cleanser. Orange juice mixed with sugar, maybe? She looked past Andy again and focused on the doors leading to the hallway. Every second she waited allowed Jane to get further away. “I’m sorry, Andy, but I really have to do something. I’ll be right back.” Sadie didn’t meet his eyes as she passed him. He let out an audible sigh, obviously frustrated with her. She hated that, but what could she do?

Sadie hurried into the hallway. Empty. She bit her lip and considered her options. On the one hand, she wanted to go home and let Jane get caught on her own. But Jane wasn’t supposed to be here, and she’d tricked Sadie to get inside, which was a sure sign that the reporter couldn’t be trusted.

Sadie groaned and took a breath as she headed for the doors to the main ballroom. She didn’t have time to search the hotel—and it wasn’t her job anyway—but she had to tell Pete, regardless of how much she dreaded having to talk to him again after being dismissed twice already.

All the lights in the ballroom had been turned up, all the better to put the absolute mess on display. It was horrible. Sadie feared that if the staff didn’t start cleaning soon, they’d all be there until two o’clock in the morning. She finally saw Pete on the stage, discussing something with two important-looking men. A gurney stood off to the side with a big, black lumpy bag strapped to it. Little tented pieces of paper were all over the place. Evidence markers, Sadie guessed.

She walked to the bottom of the stage stairs, waiting for Pete to notice her. He didn’t. She shifted her weight, anxious to get it over with. He still didn’t see her. With another sigh, she picked up her skirts and climbed the steps with heavy feet before stopping a few feet away from the three men. After waiting a few more seconds in hopes Pete would perhaps
feel
her presence, she gave up and cleared her throat. He didn’t notice. She cleared her throat again—much louder. This time Pete turned around. The two men with him looked in her direction as well. She was immediately reminded that she’d been out in the snow for several minutes. Her hair must be a sight—and not a good one. She forced a smile and lifted a hand casually to her hair, attempting to re-lift the roots which were decidedly flattened. So much for wooing Pete’s good favor through her stunning good looks.

“Sadie,” Pete said with forced politeness.

She smiled and motioned him to come toward her. After a slight hesitation, he excused himself from the other men and walked toward her. When he drew close, he took her arm and walked her down the steps. She could feel the tension in him and hated that she was adding to it.

“Why are you still here?” he said, leaning toward her as he spoke.

“I need to tell you something important.” She gave him a strong look that she hoped would communicate how important this was and that she wouldn’t interrupt him otherwise. “I was taking a cake out to the car and I ran into a reporter.”

“There are dozens of reporters here,” Pete said, putting one hand in his pocket. Even though she couldn’t see it, she knew it was clenched in a fist. “If you would leave, they’d stop bothering you.”

“She wasn’t bothering me,” Sadie said, hating his dismissive and annoyed tone. She knew it seemed as though she kept sticking her nose in the case, but she wasn’t doing it on purpose. “Well, I mean she
was
bothering me, but that’s not my point. She said—”

“Detective Cunningham?”

Pete turned to look up at one of the men on the stage. The man had a thin face and heavy eyebrows in serious need of a trim and which served to give him a decidedly severe look. He wasn’t in a uniform, but Sadie felt sure he was very important all the same. Maybe he was a plainclothes detective, like Pete.

The man lifted his eyebrows in an unspoken question: Were they going to get on with their discussion or not? Sadie expected the man wasn’t the type who took well to waiting. She could relate and hoped he could count to ten or something. She put her hand on Pete’s arm to get his attention. If she could just get the words out, she could leave and go home like Pete had asked.

“This reporter,” Sadie said. “Ms. Jane, she’s—”

“Look,” Pete said, cutting her off. He attempted to smile, perhaps to soften his tone, but the stress and strain of the situation made the smile rather ineffective. “The medical examiner just arrived from Fort Collins and the captain is here. I
really
can’t talk to you right now.” He looked over his shoulder at the two men who had gone back to their discussion. A discussion Pete obviously wanted to be a part of.

“But you need to know that this reporter—Jane Seeley from the
Post
—is here. She’s inside the hotel.” Sadie leaned close to him and whispered the rest of what she had to say. “She was supposed to meet with Mr. Ogreski tonight.” She pulled back, nodding knowingly. That was important information, right?

Pete looked at her, not registering any enthusiasm for what she’d said. “Okay,” he said tightly, “I’ll take care of it.”

The flippancy was impossible to ignore. “Did you hear what I said?” Sadie asked. “A reporter is here. She came in through the kitchen when I was taking cakes out to my car—”

That got his attention. “The doors are supposed to be locked,” Pete said.

“Well, I had to unlock it so I could take my cakes out,” Sadie said, though she was reluctant to admit she’d been part of the reason Jane had come in. “But I didn’t
let
her in,” Sadie hurried to explain. “In fact I told her she
couldn’t
come in. But then I turned to put the cake in the car and she snuck inside.”

Pete’s jaw clenched, and he didn’t speak for a few moments.

“I’m sorry,” Sadie said. “And I’m going home, but I wanted to make sure you knew about Jane being here.”

When Pete spoke, his voice was tight. “Go home, Sadie,” he said, and she suddenly felt like a disobedient puppy. “Your interest in this case is
not
normal and it
has
been noticed. You are creating a problem that is becoming an issue.” He nodded slightly over his shoulder at the man with the wiry eyebrows. “I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

Sadie didn’t know what to think so she just nodded and turned away, feeling foolish for interrupting Pete in the first place, especially if people felt she was interfering. She wasn’t trying to be a bother; she was just trying to do the right thing. And Pete didn’t seem to even care about Jane. It didn’t matter that Jane was in the building and that
Sadie
had been the one ordered to leave? Humph.

Go home, Sadie.
Pete’s words repeated in her mind, and she was determined to do exactly that. She didn’t want to talk to Pete or anyone else anymore. Nothing was going to get in her way. She would take Gayle home where she’d relieve Shawn’s worries and leave this whole case behind. With new determination, she hurried across the ballroom and through the side door, coming into the hallway at the same time Andy pushed through the doors of the kitchen. They met in the middle.

“Sadie!” he said, exasperated. “Either you take Gayle home right now or you get her a room at the hotel. She has got to be off her feet. Shock can cause an awful lot of swelling and it would be a shame for that to happen to her pretty little ankles! I think the woman’s had enough trauma for one day, don’t you?”

“We’re going,” Sadie said without a backward glance at the ballroom. She’d done what she could. Where Pete took it from here was up to him. However, if it were
her
case, she’d kick Jane out of the hotel, put an officer on the kitchen door to prevent random reporters from sneaking in,
and
she’d listen to the lady who had so much great information. But, since it wasn’t her case, she’d just go home and fix herself some kibble like a good girl.

Woof.

Chapter 11