I heard laughter across the room, and caught Pancetta in the foyer, laughing, taking a woman’s hand, pulling her close to her. She kissed the beautiful Maria Campillio, and there was no mistaking that kiss. It wasn’t simply friendship between them.
“Johnny Blackfoot can be bought. It happens all the time,” Paul said. “Nothing wrong with that, might I add. I think it’s because he’s so mercurial, been ripped off so much for most of his life; it stayed with him.”
Another stab of jealousy ripped through me. I looked up and met Johnny Blackfoot’s gaze.
“Think about it. All of this could all be yours, Annie. This could be your life. Comfortable. Simple. Easy.” Paul said, took my hand, and squeezed it. “You told me a long time ago that someday I’d meet a sweet, pretty girl who would be interested in me for who I am.”
“I’m sure you will,” I said.
“I always wondered where she was, when it dawned on me, I’d already met her. You. I’ve got to get back to the memorial. Strange, in a way, I feel like Slice is here tonight. Think about it,” he said and let go of my hand.
He walked away as Slice passed him. “The pianist is playing my Cailín song. But he’s using different lyrics. I don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said as what Paul sunk into my brain. I could live this life. Paul Vanderveen has had a crush on me for years. I could be comfortable here: swim in the pool in the morning, make coffee from the Electra Belle Epoque twelve-thousand-dollar coffee maker in the spotless kitchen. People would clean the house for me. I’d never have to kill another cockroach again. I could afford any toy that Theodore wanted. My backyard would be the Pacific Ocean.
If Paul ended up being a cheater, I probably wouldn’t care because I would grow fond of him, but I would never fall hopelessly, crushingly in love with him. He would never break my heart. I would be incredibly safe. Why was I sweating it out in my crappy apartment in Venice, California when the life of ease existed only seventeen miles away, up a stretch of road, behind security gates?
I watched as Pancetta and Maria talked and giggled and kissed, and I realized the story that Raphael wanted to tell me. Even if he had been Maria’s husband, they weren’t together anymore. There was obviously mutual respect between them, but I doubted they’d been a married couple for quite some time.
“I remember who the thief was,” Slice said and pointed at Johnny Blackfoot.
Johnny was envious for a better life. His first love: money. His rapid descent from being a rock ‘n’ roll star to being a has-been and then a bodyguard had to have been devastating. And it dawned on me. “Paul!” I hollered.
He turned around and stared at me as I hustled across the room toward him.
“The song Johnny’s playing, it’s not Cailín Came A Hailing, is it? It’s not Slice’s song.”
“No.” He shook his head ruefully. “It’s Warehouse Girl.
“Warehouse Girl?”
“Johnny wrote it twenty years ago. He told me that he wrote it for someone he cared about. I think he wrote it for you.”
“Slice stole the opening, didn’t he?” I asked.
Paul shrugged. “It never went to court. Johnny settled.”
Johnny Blackfoot pushed himself up off the piano bench, strode through the crowd, until he grabbed my arms, shook me, and then pulled me flush against him. “Don’t marry Paul Vanderveen. And don’t think everything he told you is the truth,” he whispered into my ear. “There’s more to this story. I’ll tell you the whole thing later.”
He released me, and all my adrenaline left the building at the same time he did. I plopped onto the ground as Pancetta and Maria raced toward me. “I think he killed Slice,” I told Maria. “I think he killed Slice, because twenty years ago, Slice stole his song, and stole his career.”
Kuchen (Coffee Cake)
Kuchen Dough
1 pint scalded milk
½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups flour
1 egg or yolks of 2
1 oz. compressed yeast
Grated rind of ½ lemon
Warm bowl and flour. Crumble the yeast in a coup with a teaspoon of sugar, and ½ cup of scalded milk cooled until lukewarm. Let stand in a warm place to rise. To the rest of the scalded milk add the butter, sugar, salt, a little nutmeg grated, and when lukewarm, the beaten yolks of the 2 eggs, stir in the yeast, and some flour, and only enough more to knead, until smooth and pliable. Cover closely and let rise double its bulk. Cut dough, form into the desired shape, place in pans, let rise again until double its size, and bake, following the recipes.
Kuchen Streusel
1 cup All Purpose flour
¼ cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon water
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Mix all ingredients. When you get to the butter, cut little slivers of it and add it into the mixture with a fork.
Plain Coffee Kuchen
When light, spread in shallow buttered pan ½ inch thick. Cover and let rise again. Before baking, melt 2 tablespoons butter, spread over dough, sprinkle with Streusel, and add chopped nuts to your liking. Bake 15 to 20 minutes in a moderate oven, 350 degrees F.
Chapter 18
Stairway to Heaven
Annie
About a week after Johnny’s mysterious disappearance, the APB was still out on him. But the media had moved onto another debacle dujour. The paparazzi, the hangers-on, and the wannabes left L.A. to glomb onto another celebrity’s party. The Sloupies held a meeting and voted to never disband, but form a secret Facebook group to stay in touch more often as well as informally.
Those of us still involved in the Slice debacle organized a picnic and a bonfire on Dockweiler Beach, a little south of Venice Beach, California. There were laws about legal bonfires on public beaches so we picked an area that was condoned by the county. And we built a bonfire big enough to rattle the heavens.
We cooked shish kabobs, brats, and burgers. Pancetta brought extra bacon for all of us. She was a peach in that department. Why she was ever on my list of suspects was a mystery to me. She also brought her girlfriend, Maria Campillio. My boyfriend’s ex-wife.
Yes, I still had a boyfriend, and no, I’d have to kill my own cockroaches because I wasn’t going to take Paul Vanderveen up on his offer to live in the lap of luxury.
I had passed the ‘I feel awkward about Maria’ stage. Raphael and she had married spur of the moment during a Las Vegas vacation when they were young. They spent six months together, had some fun, their share of spats. They decided they wanted different lives, and divorced as quickly as they married.
Maria was a cross between an artist and a flower child at that point. I think they were both surprised when she decided to go into law enforcement. She kept his surname, because as they both told me, she wasn’t enamored with her maiden name: Mittelplutz. Campillio suited her just fine. Raphael didn’t care as long as she was happy. Life went on.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” I asked him.
“I tried to bring it up,” he said. “But every time we talked about why marriages failed, you got upset about your ex-husband. I decided to wait for a better time to have the conversation. And I was an idiot, because I waited too long. I’m sorry. No secrets anymore, I promise.”
And so on that fateful night at the UMAs when Julia was to re-unite with her forever crush, Slice, Maria wasn’t on duty, but actually there to enjoy the show. Pancetta had popped backstage to give Slice a pep talk. We calculated that was when she passed Julia by the plundered buffet table. By the time she reached Slice’s room, he was already gone, but his notebook and his guitar were still there.
Pancetta knew he never went anywhere without either of them. She was a suspicious girl by nature, and so she grabbed the notebook and tucked it inside the pocket of her bac
on coat, and texted Maria that something was amiss, that something foul could be happening.
Unbeknownst to me, Slice, or Julia, the notebook went into police custody minutes after Slice collapsed on that stage. I do believe the police would find evidence in that creative tome as well as legal filings that Johnny Blackfoot and Slice had a past filled with allegations of copyright infringement, piracy, and monetary settlements to make sure everything went away.
But the bad feelings never died. The jealousy and envy festered for twenty years. One man became a superstar. The other became a bodyguard. I really didn’t know if Johnny was guilty of bashing Slice’s head in during a crime of passion, but I wouldn’t put it past him. First they’d have to track him down to bring him to justice.
Kids squealed as they ran back and forth in their dripping bathing suits into the surf and plopped down in the wet sand to make fortresses and castles. Grady and his boyfriend Liam tossed a Frisbee back and forth with Paul Vanderveen and Mable Mavis, while her neurotic, scrap of a dog chased them up and down the beach.
David Schoenfelder sat next to Julia on a blanket on the sand. He brought her plates of food and drinks as she just stared off into the ocean’s skyline, quiet and distracted.
I walked up and plunked down next to her on the blanket. “How you doing?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Relieved,” she said “A little weirded out. How about you?”
“The same.”
“Thanks for being my pal,” she said. “Thanks for helping me out during a tough time in my life.”
Grady’s frisbee flew off course and landed a yard away from me. I reached down, picked it up, and tossed it back to him. “That’s what we do for each other.”
“What’s going to happen to Johnny Blackfoot?” she asked.
“They have to find him first,” David stood up. “I’m grabbing another brat. Can I get you ladies anything?”
“We’re good,” Julia and I said in unision. He smiled and walked toward the BBQ.
“If the authorities find Johnny, he’ll have his day in court,” I said. “Just not the way he envisioned. Friendships were ended, lies were told, and careers were sidelined. And twenty years later, Slice ended up dead. To me it looks like a crime of passion.”
“It makes me sad,” Julia said and fondled Slice’s hair voodoo-dad as she stared at the bonfire.
“I think that’s normal for what happened,” I said as the sun set over the Pacific. “I was thinking that maybe you need to let him go. Let go of the voodoo-dad. Release the past. Move ahead into the future. David Schoenfelder’s pretty cute, you know. And awfully smart.”
She smiled. “He’s growing on me. What are you going to do about Raphael?”
My cute, hot, almost ex-boyfriend walked up and interrupted us. “What are you going to do about Raphael?”
I had recently taken a vow to think more positively... “I’m going to tell you some of my secrets.”
“You have secrets?” he asked. “But you’re so sweet.”
“Hah!” I grabbed Julia’s hand, pulled her up from sitting. “Secret number one: I’m not as sweet as you think I am.”
My BFF and I made our way closer to the bonfire, as Slice trailed behind us. I squeezed Julia’s hand and watched the embers spark as they took flight into the night sky. “I love you, my sister that I never had, Julia Devereaux. I always have, and I always will. We will get through everything. It’s time to let this guy you loved go,” I said. “Release him. Let him be free.”
She teared up, pulled the voodoo-dad from around her neck and squeezed it. “Really?”
I nodded.
She tossed Slice’s hair voodoo-dad into the bonfire, burst into tears, and I hugged her.
I turned to wave goodbye to Slice, but he was already floating into the sparks above the fire, and headed out over the Pacific Ocean, a surprised look on his face.
“Can I do this?” Slice asked me. “Like, really, can I do this?”
“Yes,” I said. “You’re like Led Zeppelin. You’re climbing a Stairway to Heaven.”
THE END
Rock Star Recipes
Hello Dolly Bars
By
Margaret Dieman
Use 8” X 8” pan
Layer these Ingredients:
¼ Cup butter, melted
1 Cup Graham cracker crumbs
1 Cup chocolate chips
1 Cup chopped nuts
Pour one can of Eagle Brank Mild over this mixture and bake at 350 degrees for thirty to forty minutes.
Cool before serving. Slice into bars.
PAINT IT BLACK Cupcakes
aka
Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Filling
&
Chocolate Buttercream Icing
By
Laura DeVries, Professional Baker
2/3 cup boiling water
2/3 cup dark cocoa powder
6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chopped
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder or instant coffee (spring for the espresso powder)
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
16 tablespoons butter (2 sticks) room temperature
Instructions:
1. Adjust rack to lower or middle position and pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (325 if using a convection oven.)
2. Line two standard muffin tins with cupcake liners.
3. Whisk boiling water, cocoa, chocolate, and espresso powder together in a small bowl. Whisk eggs, sour cream, and vanilla together in medium bowl until well combined.
4. With electric mixer on low speed, combine flour, baking soda, salt, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in large bowl until blended. Add butter and mix on low until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add egg mixture in 2 additions, then beat at medium speed, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until combined, about 1 minute.
5. Add chocolate mixture and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 1 minute. Divide batter evenly among 24 cupcake liners. Bake until skewer or toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 20 minutes.
6. Cool cupcakes in muffin tins for 10 minutes before removing and cooling completely on wire rack.
Chocolate Ganache
4 oz of bittersweet chocolate (or chocolate chips), chopped fine (see note).
½ cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
Place chocolate and powdered sugar in medium bowl. Heat cream just to a boil then add to bowl with chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then whisk, starting at the center in small circles, until all chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth and shiny.
Chocolate Buttercream
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/14 tsp table salt
8 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
2 ½ sticks (20 tablespoons) butter, softened.
Beat butter (using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment is optimal, but this can be done with a hand mixer if you are thorough) at medium high speed until smooth.
Add powdered sugar and salt; beat at medium-low speed until most of sugar is moistened. Scrape down bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully combined. Scrape bowl and add vanilla and beat at medium speed until incorporated, then reduce speed to low and gradually beat in chocolate.
Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice.
To assemble:
Use a paring knife to create a hole in the center of the cooled cupcakes. Fill with ganache – this can be done using a pastry bag or filling a zip-top bag with ganache and squeezing to fill cupcakes.
Top with chocolate buttercream icing.
&
nbsp; Any uneaten cupcakes should be store in the refrigerator. To serve, bring up to room temperature.
(Pamela DuMond’s note: Why waste the mini cupcake hunks you scored out of the bigger cupcakes? Save the mini hunks, dab a dollop of frosting on them and use them as snacks if a big cupcake is too much food. Store those in the fridge as well.)
Enjoy!
KUCHEN (Coffee Cake)
Kuchen Dough
1 pint scalded milk
½ cup butter
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups flour
1 egg or yolks of 2
1 oz. compressed yeast
Grated rind of ½ lemon
Warm bowl and flour. Crumble the yeast in a coup with a teaspoon of sugar, and ½ cup of scalded milk cooled until lukewarm. Let stand in a warm place to rise. To the rest of the scalded milk add the butter, sugar, salt, a little nutmeg grated, and when lukewarm, the beaten yolks of the 2 eggs, stir in the yeast, and some flour, and only enough more to knead, until smooth and pliable. Cover closely and let rise double its bulk. Cut dough, form into the desired shape, place in pans, let rise again until double its size, and bake, following the recipes.
Kuchen Streusel
1 cup All Purpose flour
¼ cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
The Annie Graceland Cupcakes Cozy Mystery Box Set #2: Books 5 - 7 Page 39
