Birthday Cake and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “I think the chances are pretty good. Don’t tell anyone, but Mary McCall is thinking about retiring. She’s been here forever. The other staff will have first chance at everything, but eventually you can work your way up the ladder and get a chance to pick what you want.”

  “That sounds great,” I said and went back to the form.

  “Rainey, has Cade mentioned how the investigation is going? I keep intending to call him, but then I feel like I’d be bothering him. I know he’s busy,” she said, biting her lower lip. Her hands were on the desk in front of her, her fingers interlaced.

  “He really is busy, but I don’t think it would be a bother if you gave him a call. He doesn’t go into a lot of detail with me when we talk. You know how the police are. They like to keep certain details to themselves,” I said.

  She nodded. “I can imagine. I just hope they find the killer soon. It would be a terrible thing if they never found his killer.” She sighed and looked away.

  “I wouldn’t even think about it. I know Cade well enough to know he won’t give up on it. Have you heard anything new? Or maybe remembered something that might be of help in solving the crime?”

  She looked at me again and shrugged. “I keep racking my brain, trying to come up with something I overlooked, but I can’t think of a thing. I’ve hardly slept since it happened. I hope he didn’t suffer,” she said, her voice cracking. “I can’t stand knowing his killer is on the loose. What if they kill again?”

  “I know what you mean. I feel exactly the same way. I’m thankful Cade is on the case though. He really is dedicated to finding Silas’s killer.”

  “I know, I shouldn’t worry,” she said, sitting back in her chair.

  I turned back to my forms, but then looked at her again. “Karen, if you don’t mind me asking, how was your relationship with Silas?”

  Her brows flew up. “Why do you ask that?”

  “I don’t know. You two were together for so long. Sometimes relationships grow stale.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Our relationship was fine. We were happy. When you’re together for a long time, you know so much about one another and you don’t need that crazy, excited, romance you had in the early days of the relationship. You learn what’s important and you know those feelings don’t last forever. Why are you asking?”

  I swallowed. “So, Silas had no plans of breaking up with you?” I decided to be upfront. I wanted to see her reaction and hear her answer.

  Her breath caught, and she was quiet. I could see tears welling up in her eyes. “Of course not! We were happy!” she said suddenly. “We just celebrated our twentieth anniversary. Where is this coming from, Rainey?”

  “Nowhere, Karen,” I said gently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just as stumped as everyone else as to who would want to kill Silas.”

  “Well, it wasn’t me!” Karen nearly shouted. She stopped and pulled herself together. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually an emotional person, but this thing has me shook. You can understand that, can’t you?”

  I nodded. “I certainly do understand. I’m sorry. For everything. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  She nodded, accepting my apology. “I know Cade will figure this thing out. He has to. But I will tell you this. The more I go over things, the more I think Harry may have had a hand in this. He called in sick the night Silas was killed and the two of them couldn’t get along. I asked Silas once why he didn’t help Harry and give him a ride to the newspaper—Harry doesn’t own a car. Silas got angry and said he didn’t owe that old man anything. There was just something between the two of them.”

  I wondered if she knew that Harry was Silas’s father. If she did, she wasn’t volunteering that information. “But Harry’s pretty elderly. He doesn’t move very quickly and I would think that in order to stab someone in the chest, you’d have to have some strength and be able to move quickly in case the victim fought back.”

  “I know he’s elderly, but he’s stronger than you think. Being the janitor here, he does some work around here that takes a lot of strength. I’ve seen him lift boxes of supplies that are heavy. And if Silas was asleep when he stabbed him, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to kill him.”

  She had a point. The killer may have slipped into Silas’s room while he slept that night and stabbed him. Cold blooded. Silas wouldn’t have had a chance to fight back or alert anyone that there was a killer in the boardinghouse. If he was killed there that is.

  “I suppose it’s possible,” I said.

  “It is possible. Especially if he had help getting the body out of the boardinghouse. Silas was so thin. He hardly weighed 120 pounds. Harry might not have needed any help at all.”

  “He was that thin?” I asked. I knew Silas was thin, but I hadn’t realized he weighed that little.

  She nodded. “He ate like a horse, but he had a fast metabolism. He never put on weight. It wouldn’t have taken an extremely strong person to drag him to a vehicle and dump his body in your alley.”

  “That’s something to consider,” I said.

  And it was. I still had trouble believing Harry could do such a thing. He reminded me of someone’s grandpa and I wanted to believe he didn’t have it in him to murder someone while they slept. But, if Harry slipped into Silas’s room late at night while he slept, he could have easily stabbed him. Most of the people at the boardinghouse were elderly, and some didn’t hear well. The more I thought about it, I realized the porch at the boardinghouse was just about the right height to transfer a body from it to the bed of a pickup and a pickup has larger tires, just like the tracks made in the mud in my alley.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Guess what tomorrow is?” Mom asked. We were getting a coffee at Agatha’s and I was keeping one eye on the clock. I needed to stop in and put some time in at the newspaper today. I had been given an assignment, and I was excited to get it completed before my deadline.

  “I don’t know. What day is tomorrow?” I said and took a sip of my latte. I was getting as much pumpkin spice in as I could while it was here.

  “The day before your birthday party. We need that cake done. What flavor did you settle on?” she asked, leaning back in her chair.

  “What do you mean tomorrow is the day before my birthday party? My birthday isn’t until next Wednesday.”

  “Yes, but Saturday is the closest weekend day to your birthday without going over. We’re having it Saturday at seven.”

  “What difference does it make if it goes over? Why don’t we just have a little get-together Wednesday night for cake and ice cream? We don’t need to invite that many people. Just Agatha, Cade, some people from the diner and then a few people that Stormy wants.”

  I was still tying to figure out how to keep from having to invite Georgia. She couldn’t stand me, but I thought if I invited everyone else from the diner, I had to invite her. I doubted she would attend, but I was worried she would spoil things if she decided to come. She might come just for spite.

  “We’re having dinner. I’m having Tony’s Tacos cater it and then we’ll have the cake.”

  I sighed. I didn’t want my birthday to be blown out of proportion, but with Mom at the helm, there was no other way for it to go. “Okay, then. How many people? And where are we having it?”

  “About sixty. We’re having it at the boardinghouse.” She took a deep drag on the straw stuck into her iced coffee without looking at me.

  “Wait. What? What do you mean we’re having it at the boardinghouse? Why on earth are we having it there?”

  “Because Sue offered. She has a large dining room, and it’s free,” she said. “It will save me money and there won’t be much clean up. Sue offered to handle it.”

  “Mom, I don’t mean to be rude, but that place isn’t the cleanest place around. Why don’t we just have a smaller get-together at your house? Or my house,” I said, feeling alarmed. It was nice of Sue to offer, but I really didn’t want to have it there.

/>   “Relax. The food will be brought in. It’s not like we’ll be cooking it there. She’s been so down since her friend Silas died. She offered the place and I couldn’t say no. I thought it would cheer her up, and you know what? It did. You should have seen the smile on her face when I said yes.” Mom patted my hand like she had it all taken care of.

  I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. “Please, Mom. Not there. I don’t feel comfortable about it.” I didn’t want to tell her that Silas might have been murdered there.

  “I know it’s important for you to help others, Rainey. And Sue needs our help to pull her out of the doldrums. Stormy already said it was fine.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  I sighed and sat back. I was going to find another place to hold it and then convince Stormy to tell Mom she needed to change the venue. There was no use in arguing with her right now.

  “How’s the new job going?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “It’s fine. I’m writing an article on the new furniture store that opened up last month. I saw some cute items at the store and I need to get a few things for my house,” I said.

  She nodded. “That’s nice dear. I’m glad you got another job,” she said and looked over her shoulder. “I need to talk to Agatha. I’ll be right back.”

  She got up and headed to the front counter. I took a sip of my latte and spied Harry across the room at a corner table. I got up and headed over to him.

  “Hi, Harry,” I said. “How are you this afternoon?”

  He slowly looked up at me and grunted.

  “Mind if I sit?” I asked.

  He considered this a moment, then shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  I took a seat across from him and set my latte down. “Sure is a nice day out, isn’t it?”

  He looked at me suspiciously. “I suppose. If you like that sort of thing.”

  “So, we’re co-workers now. That’s exciting,” I said.

  “Coworkers? So are you going to be cleaning toilets with me?” he asked, peering at me over his glasses.

  “Um, no, not exactly. I’m going to be writing articles for the newspaper,” I explained.

  “I guess we aren’t coworkers then, are we?” he said with a snort. “Darned writers. All they do is sit around at their desk and gossip.”

  I stared at him a few moments. “Oh. Well. I guess I’ll have to work on that, then. The not sitting around and gossiping part.”

  “Suit yourself,” he repeated and shrugged again. He folded over the newspaper and then took a drink of his coffee. There was no lid, and he took his coffee black. Somehow I thought that was the way someone like him would drink it. Nothing fancy.

  “So, I hear there will be some excitement at the boardinghouse this weekend.” I waited, but Harry didn’t look up. “I hear there will be some excitement at the boardinghouse this weekend,” I repeated.

  “I heard you. I just don’t care,” he said finally looking up.

  “Oh. Well, in that case, let me tell you. We’re having a birthday party and I’m making a cake. I think I’m making a vanilla layer, a white chocolate raspberry layer, and a lemon layer. Doesn’t that sound good, Harry?” I asked him, trying to sound excited.

  “I like chocolate. And not that white chocolate stuff. That isn’t real chocolate,” he said looking at me.

  “Sorry. I don’t think we’ll have chocolate this time. It’s a shame Silas won’t be there to join in the festivities.”

  “It’s a good thing he isn’t. He’d get drunk and ruin the whole thing.”

  “Really? I didn’t know he drank,” I said and took a sip of my coffee.

  “Do you live under a rock? Silas was always causing trouble when he drank. I bet he was arrested so many times he lost count.”

  I smiled. “I guess I must live under a rock then,” I said. “It was kind of Sue to allow us to use the boardinghouse.”

  “It’s a filthy mess. I hope you intend to stop by early and clean it.”

  “I just might do that,” I said. With baking the cake, it would be a tight squeeze time-wise, but it was a good idea if I couldn’t find another place to hold the party. I could do it under the guise of decorating and Stormy, my mom, and I could at least clean up the dining room.

  “She did it, you know. I told you that. Her and that Karen. They got together and killed him,” he suddenly said, leaning toward me and whispering.

  “They did it together? Why didn’t you mention that the other day? You said it was Sue by herself.” I wasn’t sure I believed Harry. It seemed like he might be imagining things because I couldn’t see Sue and Karen getting together to do anything.

  “I was thinking about it. They had to do it together. Mark my words. They did it.”

  I nodded. “I’m certainly going to look into it,” I said, hoping to appease him.

  “How else would Sue have gotten his body out of the house? She needed help. She killed Silas. You look into that and let me know what you find out. I know you’re asking all these questions because you’re helping that detective. Now, I’ve got work to do.” He stood to his feet, picked up his paper and coffee and headed toward the door.

  I sighed. I needed to be more careful in how I spoke to people if it was that obvious I was trying to find the killer.

  Silas being as thin as he was wouldn’t have been difficult to move. But, dead weight was dead weight.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “You know what I think we should do?” Cade asked me.

  “No, what?” I said.

  “Go camping down at the river before the weather turns too cold,” he said and grabbed me around the waist, pulling me to him as I walked by.

  I giggled as he kissed me. “It already is too late. Haven’t you been outside in the early morning? It’s freezing!” Fall was settling in and as much I liked to go camping once in a while, it was far too cold to be sleeping in a tent this time of year.

  “Don’t be a baby. It’s not that cold,” he teased.

  “It’s far too cold. We should have done it over the summer when it was hot. Now let me go so I can get the cake put together.”

  Sue had suddenly canceled on my mother and we were forced to move the party to the reception hall of the local wedding chapel. I wasn’t sad about it. It was less work for me since I didn’t have to clean the boardinghouse dining room.

  Cade and I were the first to arrive at the hall and after carefully maneuvering each cake layer into a box and then transporting them in the back of Cade’s car, I was about to put it together. It resembled a medium-sized wedding cake and was probably far too big for the get-together, but I didn’t care. I had enjoyed baking and decorating it. The top and bottom layers had rolled fondant icing and Stormy’s middle layer had buttercream frosting with extra vanilla. At first I didn’t think it would look right with both types of frosting, but in the end, I liked it. It gave the cake depth and texture.

  Cade kissed me again and released me. “I’ll get the rest of the things from the car.”

  “You do that,” I said with a giggle.

  When I had the cake together and sitting on a stand, I began moving the tables so that they formed a ‘U’ shape. I wanted everyone to be able to look at one another and I wanted the cake to sit on the center table.

  “Hey, can I help?” Sam asked, walking through the door. He had two pink striped gift bags, one in each hand.

  “Sam, I hope those aren’t what I think they are. I told you, no gifts.”

  “I don’t care. I wanted to get you and Stormy a little something, so I did. Besides, I’m getting tacos and some delicious cake. It’s the least I could do.”

  “You’re so sweet,” I said and gave him a peck on the cheek. Sam really was the best boss anyone could ask for. “Why don’t you put them on that table in the corner and then help me move these other tables into a ‘U’ configuration.”

  “I like it,” he said and put the gift bags where I had pointed and then went to the end of one of the
tables that I needed to move. “That way everyone has to participate in socializing.”

  “It’s a diabolical plan, but I had to do it,” I said. “No wallflowers at my party.”

  “Hey Sam,” Cade said, returning with a bag of plates, plastic ware, and other party items.

  “Hey Cade. Any news on Silas’s killer yet?” he asked.

  “We’re working on it. I’ve interrogated half the town. I’m sure someone will break under the pressure any day now,” Cade said.

  “That’s what I like to hear. Do whatever it takes to get them to confess,” Sam said with a chuckle.

  “You two are terrible,” I said and stepped back to let them finish moving the tables.

  ***

  “I want cake, please,” Lizzy said. Her cute little nose was smudged with guacamole and she gave me her best smile, trying to convince me to let her have cake now.

  “Soon, Lizzy. I promise. We’ll have cake soon.”

  The party was in full swing and thankfully, there weren’t nearly as many people here as Mom had threatened to invite. A quick guess said there were probably a little over thirty. I saw Sue in a corner talking to Karen and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I had thought they weren’t friends. According to Charlie Rhoades, they had fought on the front porch. Loudly. I watched them for several minutes and then I searched for Cade. He was being cornered by my mother. If I could get around the people and the tables, I would point out Sue and Karen to him. Those two were up to something.

  I saw Stormy on the other side of the room, and I hoped she was holding up. Not having Natalie here was hard for her and I hoped she at least got to talk to her earlier. We had been so busy since the party began that I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask.

  “Can we have cake? Bonney asked, tugging on my dress. Bonney was Stormy’s middle daughter, and she was as cute as her sisters were.

  “Sure honey, in a few minutes,” I promised and kept making my way toward Cade.

  “Stormy!” Gail Simpson said, catching me by the hand. “Happy birthday!”