Devil's Food Cake

by Josi S. Kilpack

  Sadie nodded. That was an understatement.

  “Detective Cunningham?”

  Pete turned, and Sadie looked past him to Officer Malloy, who’d emerged from the hallway leading to Thom’s storage unit. “I thought Dailey was on this case.”

  “He is,” Pete said in a very professional tone. “And he’ll be here in a few minutes with CS. I’m here to bring Mrs. Hoffmiller and her son to the station. The captain would like to meet with them.”

  “What about Josh and Eric?” Sadie said, wanting to do right by them as best she could. She didn’t deserve any more special treatment than they did.

  Pete glanced at her, then back to Malloy. “I can only transport two,” he said. “I’ll call Benson to come for the others. You’re to stay here and continue gathering evidence.”

  Malloy did not seem entirely pleased, but nodded his acceptance.

  Pete showed Sadie to the passenger seat of his car and Shawn to the backseat. She was really glad her son was here. It made her feel

  . . . safer for some reason—like she had backup.

  Once in the car, Pete turned on the heat, and Sadie tried to relax but found it impossible. She could feel words coming to the surface, but she didn’t know how to broach the topics of what had happened since the last time she’d been able to talk to Pete. She’d already given the letters from Mr. Ogreski to the officers at the storage unit. They hadn’t seemed surprised by the information, which made Sadie wonder if they’d come to the same conclusion on their part. If that were the case, had everything she’d done tonight been a waste of time?

  “What does Jane Seeley look like?” Pete asked, interrupting Sadie’s thoughts with a question she wasn’t expecting. It took her a second to backtrack in her memory to find the answer.

  “Oh, uh, she’s tall, with black hair and—”

  “Red?” Pete cut in. “Her hair—does it have red in it?”

  Sadie nodded, completely confused. “Yes,” she confirmed, watching the thoughtful expression on his face. “Why?”

  Pete was quiet as he stared ahead. He began tapping the steering wheel with his thumbs. Sadie waited for him to explain why that detail was so important. “After you left the hotel, I put two officers in charge of finding Jane Seeley. We spent an hour looking for her and didn’t let any witnesses leave during that time.” He turned to look at her. “We never found her.”

  “She was there, Pete,” Sadie said, instantly on the defensive. “And I didn’t let—wait, how did you know who you were looking for?”

  “We got her picture from the website for the Post. It runs next to her column.”

  “That’s not her photo,” Sadie said, but she sensed that Pete had already figured that part out. “You thought I lied about her being there.”

  “I didn’t know what to think,” Pete said, letting out a breath as he turned on his right blinker. The streets were packed with snow and he was driving cautiously. “But several of the officers had a lot to say about it.”

  Sadie remembered what Pete had told her about her reputation at the police station. She could only imagine how those officers’ feelings would be intensified when they thought she’d lied to them.

  “The woman we stopped outside of Eric’s house said she was Jane Seeley. I remember seeing her at the hotel. She said she was with the catering staff.”

  Sadie shook her head, wishing she could shake Jane. “That’s why I was arrested?” she asked. “Because everyone thought I’d lied about Jane being there?”

  Pete nodded.

  “All because Jane uses someone else’s photo for her column,” she said out loud, leaning against the seat.

  Suffice it to say Sadie’s opinion of Jane was not improved. And yet, Jane wasn’t the only one playing a charade. Thom wasn’t an award-winning writer, Mark Ogreski wasn’t an honest literary agent, Michele wasn’t a curious fan, and even Josh wasn’t simply a photographer for a magazine back East. Every one of them had been hiding things, parts of their real selves, and yet working so hard to live behind a façade. Sadie wondered if she, too, weren’t doing the same thing. She’d lied and manipulated and operated outside of her comfort zone. Why? To be right? To add spice to her own life?

  Pete continued. “The captain appointed another detective to the case and sent me back to the station to do some research into Mark Ogreski. I knew nothing about the arrest until the APB was issued. It’s all been pretty ugly since then. I kept hoping you’d answer your phone so we could get things resolved. I mean, I understand that—”

  “You called?” Sadie cut in.

  Pete glanced at her as he slowed down for a red light. “Several times,” he said. “You wouldn’t take my calls. I thought you . . .” He didn’t finish, but Sadie knew what he had been about to say. He’d thought the same thing Sadie thought when he’d ignored her calls.

  “My phone’s dead,” Sadie said, wishing they were talking face to face so she could watch his eyes. “But before that, I’d called you, and sent text messages thinking they would be easier for you to respond to.”

  Pete nodded. “I was in the middle of so many things I couldn’t respond right away.”

  “I had important information, Pete,” Sadie said in her own defense. “And you didn’t think I was trustworthy enough to listen to me.”

  Pete looked at her again, his eyes pleading. “I’m so sorry.”

  Sadie looked away, knowing she couldn’t blame him too much. She liked to think the things she’d discovered were the most important details, but was that fair? And she had gotten over-involved—finding the book backstage, butting in on Gayle’s interview. From Pete’s perspective it made sense that he’d question her judgment, but it still hurt. To believe their connection would override all those other things was more romantic than realistic.

  “How much trouble are we in?” Sadie asked the dreaded question as they approached the police station and her stomach began fluttering. She glanced over her shoulder at Shawn who’d been listening quietly throughout the drive. He gave her an encouraging smile. Shouldn’t she be the one offering encouragement?

  “I don’t know,” Pete said, sympathetically. “If not for the information you, uh, shared about Thom being at Josh Hender’s house we might not have found him for a long time.”

  “You found Thom?” Shawn said from the backseat, leaning forward. “At Josh’s?”

  Pete nodded, meeting Shawn’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “We’ve been questioning him for a couple of hours, but he’d been drinking and we haven’t made much progress. Still—we found him because of you, Sadie.”

  Sadie liked knowing that, but she wondered how helpful it would be in the long run.

  Pete pulled into a parking space in front of the main entrance. “The grounds for you to have been arrested in the first place were shaky at best. I managed to convince the captain to listen to your side of things before he decides what to do, but that’s the only promise I can make. I’ll warn you that this case is very complicated and it’s going to take a long time to put back together.”

  “I appreciate you going to bat for us,” Sadie said and took a deep calming breath, but the lump that had been forming in her throat ever since Malloy had showed up in the doorway of the storage unit was still growing.

  Pete shifted into park and reached for her hand. She took his and he gave it a squeeze. “I should have done it sooner,” he said.

  Sadie offered him a forgiving smile, then looked back at Shawn who had been content to listen to their exchange. “Well?” she said, trying to be brave. “Are you ready?”

  Shawn shook his head. “No. You?”

  Chapter 49

  A few minutes later, Pete formally introduced her to Captain Dresden—the man with the wiry eyebrows who’d ordered Sadie’s arrest at the hotel. Awkward, to say the least.

  “So,” the captain said, looking at her over his cluttered desk. “This interview will not count as your official statement, but I would like to hear how it is that tonight�
�s events came about.”

  Sadie took a deep breath and reminded herself that while she might not be proud of everything she’d done, there was honor in being honest. “Well,” she said, “it started with the devil’s food cake. See, I’m on a diet and . . .”

  It was after two a.m. when Sadie finished telling her side of the story. Partway through, the captain had started taking notes. Next to his notes was the letter she’d taken from Thom’s suit pocket and her cell phone. The captain said he would need to get her call log and messages off of it before he could give it back. Malloy already had the key to the storage unit. Captain Dresden reviewed the notes in front of him and then looked up at her. “Anything else?”

  “Diane Veeter’s family should know what really happened to her.”

  “We’ll take care of that,” the captain said. “I have some things I need to discuss with the district attorney. For that reason, I’d like to have you go to the hospital,” he pointed at her shoulder, “and then return home and get some rest. I expect you here tomorrow at ten a.m. to give your official statement. Can I have your word that you’ll go home and stay there?”

  “Oh, yes, sir,” Sadie said, nodding quickly as she imagined how good it would feel to climb into her own bed. “What about my son and Eric?” She realized she still didn’t know Eric’s last name.

  “I’ll need to review their statements before I make a definite decision,” he said. “But I anticipate they’ll meet you back here tomorrow morning.”

  “And Josh?”

  “Josh has some things he still needs to explain to us about not reporting a crime and posing as a crime scene photographer. But I can promise you we’ll be fair.”

  Sadie nodded. “Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate, um, everything.”

  The captain nodded without smiling and moved to the door, pulling it open.

  As Sadie exited the room, she scanned the lobby. Shawn was sitting on a chair against the wall opposite the captain’s office. She headed in his direction, relieved to be done with the intimidating interview and eager to tell Shawn they would get to go home, for tonight anyway.

  “Cunningham,” Captain Dresden said from behind her. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”

  Pete, who had been talking to another officer a few feet away, nodded, smiling at Sadie as he passed her.

  Sadie reached Shawn, leaning into him once she sat down beside him. She quickly filled him in on the things the captain had told her.

  “I told you it’d all turn out okay,” Shawn said with a cocky smile. He nodded toward the door to his left. “Eric’s in there,” he said. “And Josh is in that next room I think.”

  “Have you seen anyone else?” Sadie asked. “Pete made it sound like they picked Thom up.”

  Shawn shrugged. “Haven’t seen him.”

  “Jane?”

  Shawn shook his head. “Just us.”

  Sadie nodded and looked at the door to the captain’s office. No one had said how she was supposed to get to the hospital, but she was anxious to be there. The more time passed, the stiffer and more painful her shoulder had become. On top of that, she had a massive headache. The sooner she was able to see a doctor, the sooner she could go home and sleep—assuming that once she was surrounded in quiet she could set aside the disturbing information they’d uncovered tonight. Even though her own circumstances had distracted her, the thought of Mr. Ogreski arranging his own violent death was never far from her mind.

  “I’m sorry all this happened, Shawn,” Sadie said. “I feel horrible that—”

  Shawn cut her off by leaning over and kissing the top of her head. “I’m proud of what we did, Mom,” he said. “Maybe we—or, well, me anyway—should have done some things differently. But we didn’t hurt anyone and we weren’t trying to.” He shrugged his big shoulders. “Besides that, this is the best time I’ve had in Garrison since that time Crab and I put Icy Hot on the toilet seats at school.”

  Sadie snapped her head to the side. “That was you?” she said. It had been quite the scandal—for two weeks unsuspecting students had their rear ends burning after bathroom breaks.

  Shawn just smiled.

  Sadie looked around, hoping no one had overheard them. “You are not allowed to tell anyone else you’re responsible for that,” she chided him. “I’d never live it down.” After tonight, her reputation couldn’t withstand another black mark.

  Shawn laughed, then sobered, looking down at his mom. “You didn’t force me into any of this, Mom, and it’ll be okay, you’ll see.”

  “But what if it goes on your record? What if it puts your scholarship at risk?”

  “My grades are putting my scholarship at risk,” Shawn said. “I don’t think a police record will make that big a difference.”

  Sadie’s thoughts took a sharp left-hand turn. “What do you mean your grades are putting the scholarship at risk? What’s wrong with your grades?”

  Shawn patted her arm slightly. “We should probably talk about that another time,” he said in a parental tone. “You’re under a lot of pressure right now, and we don’t want to add to it.”

  Sadie paused, completely distracted. “That’s why you came home this weekend, isn’t it? To confess. What classes are you failing? Can’t you make it up before the end of the semester?”

  “Seriously, Mom,” Shawn said. “Let’s talk about this later.”

  Sadie was not going to talk about this later, and she opened her mouth to continue the discussion when she was startled instead by a sound she could only categorize as a wail. Immediately she sat up straight and scanned the room; everyone in the station was equally alert.

  “What was that?” Sadie asked as another wail ripped through the air. She looked toward a hallway on the far left of the room. A few officers were moving in that direction as the door to Captain Dresden’s office flew open.

  Pete came running through the door, his hand inside his jacket. One of the officers turned toward him. “It’s Mr. Mortenson,” he said.

  Pete growled, heading for the hallway while agonizing sobs replaced the wailing. “They weren’t supposed to tell him until he sobered up,” he yelled, then pointed at two officers and told them to stay where they were.

  Both doors to Sadie’s left opened—the rooms Shawn said Eric and Josh were in—and both men appeared with an officer beside them.

  A moment later, Thom Mortenson appeared around the corner of the hallway, held up by two officers who were attempting to calm him down. His face was red and contorted with agony, his nose was dripping.

  “Josh!” he yelled, pushing against the officers trying to help him. With sloppy, heavy steps, he crossed the room, still partially held up by the police who didn’t seem to know what to do with him.

  Josh took a few steps to meet him, even though he looked unsure of exactly what he was supposed to do.

  Thom reached out and grabbed the sleeves of Josh’s sweatshirt, holding the fabric in his closed fists. “It’s not true,” Thom sobbed, looking like a small child rather than a grown man. “Mark wouldn’t do this, he wouldn’t. Tell them it’s not true, none of it is true.”

  Josh sent the officers a pained look before looking back at Thom. “I’m so sorry, Thom,” he said, trying to sound reassuring. “But it’s going to be okay, it really is.”

  Thom threw his head back and wailed again as his legs seemed to turn to jelly. Josh tried to keep his balance despite the two hundred pounds of dead weight now hanging on his arms. The officers quickly pulled Thom to his feet.

  Sadie could barely watch. Between the sympathetic sorrow she felt for Thom and the basic embarrassment she felt for the scene he was making, she felt horribly uncomfortable and inadequate since she knew there was nothing she could do to help.

  “Back into room seven,” Pete barked to the officers holding Thom. Then he pointed at Josh. “You too.” Everyone followed his instructions and a few seconds later the hallway was clear. Thom’s sobs lost their intensity, but weren’t completely
silenced by the walls and doors that now separated him from the rest of the police station. Sadie thought back to those mini-bottles lined up on the table. They certainly weren’t helping Thom cope with such shocking news.

  After a few seconds, the officers went back to talking to one another, but there was a new tension in the room that Sadie doubted would dissipate any time soon. Reluctantly, she and Shawn returned to their seats, and Eric was taken back into the interrogation room he’d been in. Before he disappeared, though, he caught Sadie’s eye and offered a very small, very fleeting smile. And yet it made her feel so much better. Just knowing he didn’t hold her personally responsible for what was happening to him was a huge relief. It was a few more minutes before Pete came out of room seven, conferred with another officer, and then headed in Sadie’s direction.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Sadie asked as she stood up and glanced at room seven. She couldn’t hear Thom anymore, but she had no doubt things were still very intense inside the room.

  Pete looked at the door as well. “I don’t know. He’s in bad shape.” He touched Sadie’s elbow. “Are you ready to go to the hospital?” he asked. “You should really get that looked at.”

  “I think it’s in my best interest to do as you say,” Sadie said, trying to lighten the mood.

  Pete responded with a smile that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. “It would be nice.”

  Chapter 50

  Pete shielded her from the wind and snow as best as he could as she slipped into the passenger seat of his undercover police car for the second time that night. Pete closed the door, and Sadie let out a breath she felt she’d been holding for hours. Shawn had chosen to stay at the police station to see how things turned out with Eric, Josh, and Thom, but Sadie suspected he also wanted to give Sadie and Pete a chance to be alone. Sadie didn’t know if she wanted alone time quite so much. Of course, she was grateful to know Pete wasn’t angry with her, touched by his concern over her welfare, and greatly appreciated him defending her to the captain and the other officers, but she didn’t know how to find words to explain all of what she felt, even in her own head. Like Pete had said earlier, a lot of things had happened that night.