The Cakes of Wrath (A Piece of Cake Mystery)

by Brady, Jacklyn

  “But Edie saw, right?” Pearl Lee asked. She gasped before I could answer and asked, “Is she all right? Was she attacked, too? What about the baby?”

  “She and the baby are fine,” I assured them both. “Can we talk about this later? I’d really like to get out of here.”

  Looking confused, Miss Frankie stopped working entirely. “Edie was there?”

  “Not exactly,” I said. “She was on her way back to Zydeco when I was attacked.”

  “But you said she woke you up,” Pearl Lee said helpfully.

  “She did.” I checked the clock on the wall and realized that twenty minutes had passed since I’d found out that Winslow was on his way. “It’s complicated. I’ll explain everything later. I just need my shoes and my bag.”

  Miss Frankie bent to pull my shoes from beneath the chair. “So you don’t know who hit you.”

  “No, but I can guess who it was.” I met Pearl Lee’s wide-eyed gaze, hoping to see a flash of guilt or even just the realization that she was at least partially responsible for my current condition. “Scotty Justus got all up in my face yesterday at lunch. Tonight, somebody attacked me just a few feet from the Chopper Shop. It doesn’t take much to connect the dots.”

  Miss Frankie looked shocked. “You think Scotty Justus attacked you?”

  Pearl Lee’s wide eyes narrowed, and the concern in them turned to ice. So much for sympathy. “That’s a very serious accusation,” she said. “Did you actually see him?”

  I rolled my eyes. They were the only part of my body that didn’t hurt. “I didn’t see him or anyone else,” I said again, and I tried to get my shoes from Miss Frankie without moving my shoulder. “But that doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.”

  Miss Frankie handed over my shoes one at a time. Slowly. “But why would he?”

  “It’s complicated,” I said again. “Would you mind grabbing my bag?”

  Miss Frankie nodded absently. “I’m sure you know best, sugar.” She looked over at Pearl Lee and explained, “Rita’s very good at figuring out things like this. If she says it was Scotty, it probably was.”

  I could see Pearl Lee wanting to argue, but if she did that, Miss Frankie would probably guess what she’d been doing with her time. Frankly, I thought their relationship could benefit from a little honesty. “Well, I’m almost positive it was Scotty,” I said. “Unless he has an alibi. What do you think, Pearl Lee? Does he have one?”

  Pearl Lee laughed. “Oh, Rita, how would I know that? I’m not even sure I know who you’re talking about,” she said, while boring a hole through my skull with her eyes. “But then, I’ve met so many new people since I arrived, it’s impossible to remember them all.”

  Miss Frankie gave me an odd look. “Are you sure you’re all right, Rita? You’re behaving strangely. How could Pearl Lee possibly know whether or not this Scotty person has an alibi for the time of your attack?”

  I planned to answer that question . . . later. “Let’s finish this conversation in the car,” I said. “I’m tired and more than ready to get out of here. Would you mind giving me a ride back to my place? My car is still at Zydeco.”

  Miss Frankie put a gentle hand on my back and steered me toward the door. “I won’t close my eyes for a second if you’re alone. You’re coming home with me.” I started to protest, but she cut me off before I could get a word out. “Don’t even think about arguing with me, Rita. You’re staying with me for the next few days and that’s final. Someone needs to keep an eye on you.”

  I wanted to curl up in my own bed in my own house, but my head was swimming, and getting dressed had left me with a thick shaft of pain pulsing through my shoulder. Maybe she was right, I conceded reluctantly.

  “If you insist,” I said. “I have my prescriptions, so there’s nothing keeping me here. Let’s go.”

  In an actual effort to be helpful, Pearl Lee opened the door with a flourish. I poked my head out into the hall and did some reconnaissance. I spotted a couple of women in scrubs behind a desk at the end of the corridor, but other than that, the hall was empty.

  Miss Frankie came up behind me. “Why don’t you wait here for someone to bring you out in a wheelchair? I’ll bring the car around.”

  In the interest of getting out of there quickly, I refrained from arguing. “That’s a great idea,” I said, even though I had no intention of sticking around. I did, however, like the idea of a getaway car waiting for me at the front door.

  Miss Frankie hurried off, leaving me alone with Pearl Lee. As soon as Miss Frankie turned the corner, I started after her. Pearl Lee fussed a little, but I guess she could tell that I meant business. She finally settled down and offered me a shoulder to lean on, putting an arm around my waist to help steady me.

  “He didn’t do this to you, you know. Scotty’s not a violent person.”

  “Oh, so now you know who he is?” I laughed bitterly. “Are you for real?”

  Pearl Lee merely shrugged. “Don’t judge me. You can’t possibly understand the life I’ve lived.”

  “You’re right about that,” I said. “I don’t know why you insist on defending him. You didn’t see his face when he barged into Rubio’s.”

  “He was upset. Surely you can understand that.”

  I twisted to look at her and barely suppressed a cry at the pain that caused. The pain and frustration brought me to the end of my rope with cousin Pearl Lee. I checked up and down the hall to make sure Detective Winslow wasn’t coming toward us and then unloaded on her.

  “Okay, Pearl Lee, I want you to listen to me and listen good. I’ve been putting up with your crap for almost a week and I’ve had enough. I understand now why your family decided to put you on a short leash.”

  Her mouth fell open and anger bubbled up into her eyes but I didn’t care.

  “I’m no good at having conversations like this, Southern belle style,” I said. “So we’re going to do this the Mexican way. No more mincing words. No more dropping pretty hints and hoping you’ll understand me. I’m going to say exactly what I mean, and you need to know that I mean what I say. You are through lying to Miss Frankie as of right now. Either you tell her the truth about what you’ve been doing since you got here, or I will. Is that clear?”

  Tears shimmered in Pearl Lee’s eyes. “Rita, I don’t know what I’ve done to upset you—”

  I cut her off before she could finish. “Save it. You know exactly what you’ve done. But it ends now. Tonight. As for Scotty: You go right ahead and think that he’s Mr. Wonderful. I reserve the right to disagree. I think the man is a psychopath.”

  “Well, you couldn’t be more wrong.”

  “Whatever. If he did this to me, if he killed Destiny, I’m going to do everything I can to put him in prison for the rest of his life.”

  Pearl Lee did her best to give me a pouty face in spite of all the Botox. “You’re going to feel mighty foolish when the truth comes out.”

  “I’m sure one of us will,” I said. “I just hope we’re both alive to figure out which one.” And then I limped away from her with as much dignity as I could muster.

  She stood there until I was about halfway to the other end of the hall and then slowly came after me. I didn’t know what she’d do with my ultimatum, but I’d drawn the line in the sand and I had every intention of following through with my threats. If she didn’t come clean with Miss Frankie, I’d do it for her. Let the chips fall where they may.

  As for Scotty, putting him behind bars might be a bit more difficult, but I sure meant to try.

  Twenty-eight

  I awoke the next morning to the pleasant aromas of coffee and bacon, two scents that I’m pretty sure could raise me from the grave if the need ever arose. Miss Frankie had settled me in Philippe’s room and I’d fallen asleep the minute my head hit the pillow. I thought I’d heard raised voices once, but I wasn’t sure if they’d been real or part of a dream.

  Desperate for caffeine and food, I slipped a robe over the pajamas Miss Frankie had loaned me
and limped downstairs. I knew she’d object to me showing up for breakfast without dressing first, but I wasn’t sure I could manage alone and I hoped she’d be in a forgiving mood since I was injured and all.

  It took forever to get to the bottom of the stairs. I was so focused on getting one foot in front of the other without falling, I didn’t notice the suitcases stacked up by the front door until I was standing in the foyer.

  Well, now . . . that was interesting. Were they Pearl Lee’s? Did that mean she’d actually told Miss Frankie the truth? Maybe those raised voices last night had been real.

  I didn’t want to be responsible for a driving a wedge between family members, but I wasn’t the one who’d been lying to Miss Frankie. I wasn’t the one who’d been sneaking around and hiding what I was doing. If Pearl Lee’s shenanigans had finally caught up with her, she only had herself to blame.

  Feeling lighter than I had in several days, I turned toward the kitchen and sniffed appreciatively. I pushed a lock of bed hair out of my eyes and opened the door. “Miss Frankie, you sure do know how to give a girl incentive—”

  I focused on the scene in front of me and the words froze in my throat. Miss Frankie stood in front of the range. Pearl Lee was pouring coffee into Miss Frankie’s best china cups, and a couple of strangers stared at me from chairs at the table. A middle-aged woman with a porcelain doll face and almond-shaped eyes looked horrified by my appearance. Her companion, a large man of about the same age with graying hair and wide blue eyes, kept his head down and darted sidelong looks at me every few seconds.

  That lock of messy hair fell back into my eyes and I clutched the robe tightly in front of me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had guests.”

  Miss Frankie wagged a spatula in my direction. “Don’t worry about it, sugar. You run back upstairs and dress. We’ll wait for you.”

  I turned around obediently, and it wasn’t until I was halfway up the stairs that reality broke through the medication-induced haze in my brain. Oh. My. God. I stopped in my tracks and turned around again. Oh. My. God! I wanted someone to tell me I’d imagined those two people in the kitchen. I wanted someone to convince me that they weren’t who I thought they were. But even if someone had tried, I wouldn’t have believed them.

  Edie was going to freak out. She’d probably blame me and want to finish the job Scotty had started last night. And to tell the absolute truth, I wouldn’t have blamed her.

  Dumbfounded and unable to think clearly, I took a couple of steps back down the stairs, then changed my mind and climbed up to the second floor. I had no idea what I was going to do about this, but I’d have a much better chance of holding my own against Miss Frankie if I was dressed. Whatever “my own” was in this situation.

  To my dismay, my jeans and T-shirt had disappeared from Philippe’s old bedroom while I slept and a fluorescent pink jogging suit hung in their place. A clean pair of granny panties and some tube socks sat on the chair by the window along with a bra that wouldn’t even dream of containing “the girls.”

  Was she kidding me?

  I dug around in Philippe’s childhood dresser, hoping I’d find some of his adult clothes. I found a couple pairs of clean boxers and a stack of white undershirts that I could have worn if I’d had the full use of both arms, but everything else had probably been here since his junior high school days. There was no way I could squeeze my thighs into any of his jeans. No way to pull a T-shirt over my head. So the jogging suit it was.

  I dressed as quickly as I could, rolling the waist of the jogging pants a couple of times to make them look less like “mom” pants and also to take up the slack in the length since my legs were about half as long as Miss Frankie’s. After zipping the jacket to hide my braless state. I shoved my hair around gently, but there was really no hope for it. After that, I went back to the kitchen, where everyone but me seemed to be in a fantastic mood. They were so busy chatting, nobody even noticed me until I cleared my throat to get their attention.

  Miss Frankie hopped up when she saw me and grabbed both of my hands to tug me toward the table. “Rita, how are you feeling?”

  “Fine,” I lied. “What’s going on here?”

  “Come. Sit down. We have guests.”

  “I can see that.” Determined to take control of the situation myself, I extricated my hands from her tight grasp and offered one to Edie’s father. “I’m Rita Lucero,” I said. “You must be Mr. Bryce.”

  He stood to shake my hand. “Call me Charlie. And this is my wife, Lin.” He waited for me to sit before he resumed his own seat. “You’re Edie’s boss at the bakery, right? I take it you didn’t know we were coming.”

  I was pretty tired of Miss Frankie’s shenanigans, too. I shot a harsh look at her, which she managed to ignore, and then gave the Bryces my best smile. “No. I didn’t realize you’d be here. This is quite a surprise. When did you arrive?”

  “Just this morning. Miss Frankie told us about your accident. I hope you’re feeling better.”

  I waggled a hand in a so-so gesture and spoke to my meddling ex-mother-in-law. “I can’t imagine why you didn’t tell me they were coming. Does Edie know?”

  “We thought it best not to tell her,” Mrs. Bryce said in a softly accented voice.

  “Are you sure that’s wise?”

  Lin Bryce picked up her coffee cup in both hands and brought it almost to her lips. “Yes, I am. Edie is being completely unreasonable. Telling her would have only made things worse. I do hope you’re not encouraging her in this . . . thing.”

  And by thing, she meant her soon-to-be grandchild? I hid my curled lip behind my own cup and tried to figure out how to respond without making everything worse. “I’m supporting her,” I said after I got a bit of caffeine into my system. “She’s a friend.”

  Pearl Lee appeared at my side with the coffeepot. “They have a very tight-knit group at Zydeco. Edie is in good hands.” I appreciated the vote of confidence as much as I hated that she was using the moment to suck up.

  Mrs. Bryce’s mouth pinched tight with disapproval. “Considering the choices she has been making lately, I doubt that very much. We did not raise our daughter to behave this way. Something is influencing her, and not in a positive way.”

  Ouch! My smile froze and I glanced at Charlie for his reaction. He put a big bear hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Now, Lin, let’s not start off on the wrong foot.” He smiled an apology all around the room. “My wife is understandably upset by what’s going on. I’m sure you can understand.”

  I was raised to have manners. Really, I was. But I’d had a rough couple of weeks and I was in no mood for their holier-than-thou attitudes. “Yeah, well, Edie’s upset, too, and she’s the one who’s pregnant and alone.”

  Lin gave me another pinched look. “And whose fault is that?”

  “She wasn’t raised to be fast and loose,” Charlie said, as if that explained everything.

  “Edie isn’t fast and loose,” I said. “She’s anything but that.”

  “And yet she’s pregnant with a child out of wedlock.” Lin put her cup down on the saucer with a clink. “I think that proves otherwise.”

  “Edie doesn’t make a habit of sleeping around,” I said. I tried to remain calm and rational, but my voice rose a little with every word and I was practically shouting by the time I finished.

  Miss Frankie appeared at my side and put a hand on my shoulder. “Rita, the Bryces are my guests. I invited them here, and I insist that you treat them with respect while you’re in my house. I think we should arrange to meet Edie for dinner tomorrow. You talk to her in the morning and we can all get together tomorrow night—if you think you’ll feel up to it, that is.”

  My face burned from the sting of her rebuke, but the way she just kept pushing made my blood boil. “I’m not going to sit down for dinner with Edie and her parents,” I snapped. “You weren’t even supposed to invite them. Edie doesn’t want them here. I can’t even count the number of times I told you to stay out of
it.”

  Miss Frankie’s eyes flashed but she kept that smile on her face. “I don’t think this is the time or place for this conversation.”

  “I can’t talk to you privately,” I shouted. “You just ignore me and do what you want anyway. Now Edie’s parents are here and they’re acting like Edie sold state secrets or burned the flag or something, and you expect me to set up a dinner as if there’s no problem? I can’t even tell you how wrong that is. They have a grandchild on the way who is going to need its family, but all they can think about is what a bad person Edie is. No wonder she didn’t want them here.”

  Charlie got to his feet and Lin’s face turned to stone.

  Miss Frankie straightened her shoulders and looked down her nose at me. “We all know that you’re not yourself, sugar. You’ll apologize to the Bryces, of course. They’re here to straighten this mess out, that’s all.”

  Anger buzzed around in my head, and every word Miss Frankie spoke only made it louder. “I doubt very much they want to reconcile with Edie. They’re here to shame her, and because you just couldn’t keep from meddling. This is none of our business, Miss Frankie. You should have kept out of it and let them work it out on their own. I can’t believe you put me in the middle of this.”

  She pulled her hand away as if the heat of my anger had burned her. “It was the right thing to do.”

  “No,” I said. “It wasn’t.” I put my cup on the table and stood. “I’m not getting involved in this, Miss Frankie. Don’t expect me to smooth the way for you. You’re on your own. But you should know that if Edie leaves Zydeco over this, it’s going to take a long time for me to forgive you.”

  I wanted to pick up my keys and purse and make a dramatic exit, but everything I’d brought with me was upstairs in Philippe’s old bedroom so I had no choice but to limp upstairs again. By the time I got there, I was so exhausted all I could do was collapse on the bed. I lay there for a long time, staring at the ceiling and wondering how Edie was going to react when she found out that her parents were in town.