Sprinkle with Murder (18 page)

“Truth be told,” Phoebe said, “she didn’t like you very much. She thought you were pretty bossy. She was right.”
She led them to a walk-in cooler and gestured them inside. Once the door was shut, she pushed a steel worktable in front of it.
“I just need a few minutes to think,” Phoebe said. “You two just chill, and I’ll be back. Get it, chill?”
They heard her laughing as she walked away.
“This is all your fault!” Olivia rounded on Mel.
“My fault?” Mel yelled back. “You have a psychotic murdering niece, and that’s my fault?”
“If you hadn’t opened up your stupid little cupcake shop, neither of us would be in this mess right now.”
“There’s some logic for you,” Mel snapped. “How about we save the argument and try to figure out a way out of this?”
“What are we going to do, egg her?” Olivia asked sarcastically as she examined the supplies on the shelves.
“Puckett,” Mel said, “I like the way you’re thinking.”

Twenty-one

“How good is your aim? ” Olivia asked.
“We’ve got five dozen eggs here,” Mel said. “How good does it have to be?”
“Aim for the eyes,” Olivia said. “If you blind her, I can get the gun.”
“Do you really think it’s loaded?” Mel asked.
The hum of the cooler was the only sound while Olivia sucked in her cheeks to consider Mel’s question.
“She once took her father’s pride and joy, a ’65 Mustang convertible, for a joy ride when he specifically told her no. When he found out and took away her keys, she just glared at him. Two days later the car was stolen. When they found it in the desert, it had been keyed, red paint had been dumped on the leather interior, and it had been set on fire. Her father always suspected that Phoebe did it as revenge. My sister, her mother, refused to believe it. Either way, Phoebe never admitted it. There were other things like that, but my sister always covered for her. It cost her the marriage. Phoebe’s father finally got fed up and left.”
“She’s a sociopath,” Mel said.
Olivia sighed. “We thought she was just a brat. I never expected anything like this, but am I surprised? Ultimately, no.”
Mel looked at the crate of eggs in front of her. Her aim had better be damn straight, because she had a feeling that gun was indeed loaded.
It seemed like hours passed before Phoebe came back. Mel felt the cold seep into her bones, and her teeth began to chatter. She remembered just weeks ago when her mother had “accidentally” shut Tate and her in the walk-in at the cupcake shop. She’d give anything to be there now with him, instead of here with Olivia.
Finally, they heard the sound of the steel table being dragged away, and Phoebe yelled through the door.
“Put your hands on your heads, and walk out nice and slow.”
“This is it,” Olivia whispered. “Are you ready?”
“Just duck on three,” Mel said.
She quickly palmed two eggs and held them just out of view behind her head as the door swung wide. Phoebe stood in the light, pointing the gun right at them.
“One, two, three,” Mel hissed and Olivia dropped down as Mel fired both eggs right at Phoebe’s face.
There was a satisfying crack followed by a shriek. Olivia darted out of the cooler and grabbed Phoebe’s gun hand as Mel bent down and began lobbing eggs at Phoebe for all she was worth.
Olivia tried banging Phoebe’s hand against the table, but Phoebe didn’t let go. She was dripping egg yolks, and bits of shell were in her hair and on her clothes as Mel pelted her with eggs. Phoebe hauled back with her left fist as if she would punch her aunt, but the egg-slick floor caused her to slip, and she went down hard, with Olivia landing on top of her.
“Help!” Olivia yelled as she tried to keep ahold on Phoebe, but the younger woman was wiggling out of her grasp.
Mel didn’t hesitate. She jumped into the fray, sliding on the linoleum floor and falling with a bone-jarring crack on her rump. She scrambled to her knees and reached out to grab the gun just as Olivia was losing her grip on Phoebe’s wrist. Mel tossed the gun across the room and grabbed Phoebe’s arms.
“Trap her legs!” Mel yelled. Olivia heaved herself off the slippery floor like a walrus lumbering out of the sea and dropped on top of her niece.
Just then the kitchen door slammed open, and Uncle Stan and Joe DeLaura jumped into the room. Uncle Stan leveled a gun in their direction and yelled, “Freeze! Nobody move!”
“Uh.” Phoebe raised her head and then plopped it back into the egg yuck on the floor. Mel and Olivia exchanged a slippery high five before they rolled off Phoebe in exhausted relief.

“How, exactly, did Uncle Stan find me? ” Mel asked.
Angie looked sheepish. “I had my brother Tony track your cell phone.”
“I take it you’re speaking to him and Sal again?”
“For now,” Angie agreed. “When you didn’t call back within fifteen minutes, I panicked.”
“Good call,” Mel said. “I ran out of eggs right as Uncle Stan and Joe barged in.”
“ ‘So it was a real ‘wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey’ moment, ’ ” Tate said.
“
Kill Bill 2.
” Angie identified the quote. “Nice.”
“Thanks. I’ve been waiting to use that one,” he said.
“Happy I could help,” Mel said as she draped the towel she’d been using on her hair around her neck.
After she had given her statement and answered all of the detectives’ questions, she had been sent home to deal with the raw egg that had dried in her hair. On the upside, her hair was silky smooth and shiny, and on the downside, it had taken three shampoos to get it all out.
Her mother had left, after three cycles of hugging her and crying, to go call Mel’s brother with the good news. Uncle Stan had gone to the station to oversee Phoebe being taken into custody, even though it was no longer his case. With Olivia’s statement and Mel’s, Joe felt it was very unlikely that Phoebe would be seeing daylight anytime soon, which suited Mel just fine.
Since business had been slow all evening, Tate and Angie had decided to take a dinner break and were sitting at the steel table in the kitchen with several Chinese takeout boxes surrounding them. They had ordered in Mel’s favorite, and she was just getting ready to dig in when there was a knock on the back door.
“Rule of closeness,” Angie said.
“But I had a near-death experience today,” Mel protested. “I think I should get a pass even if I am closest to the door.”
Tate and Angie exchanged a look. “Nah.”
“Fine,” Mel huffed. She strode to the door and threw it wide.
Standing there was Joe. He smiled at her, and she desperately wished she had taken the time to get dressed instead of wearing her flannel bathrobe with the cows all over it.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she repeated stupidly.
“Can I talk to you?”
“Sure, what is it?” Then she had a panicked thought. “They’re not going to let her out are they? She killed Christie. She admitted it. Olivia will back me up.”
“No,” he said. “It’s nothing like that.”
“Oh.” Mel sagged with relief.
He caught her by the ends of the towel still draped around her neck. He pulled her close and kissed her.
For twenty-plus years, Melanie Cooper had wondered what it would be like to be kissed by Joe DeLaura, and now she knew . . . it was . . . amazing.
He pulled back to look at her, and Mel felt her face get hot.
“Wow.”
“And how,” he said.
“What made you do that?” she asked.
“I’ve wanted to for a while now,” he said. “And since you’re no longer a suspect, I figured now was my chance.”
“Ah,” she said.
“Truthfully,” he continued, “I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since the day I came over to review that contract for you. I’d have asked you out even if you were on your way to jail.”
Mel grinned. “So, you’re asking me out?”
“How does dinner and a movie sound?”
“What about what’s-her-name, your associate?” Mel asked.
“Just business,” he said. “Believe me, everyone else seems pretty boring when you’re around, Cupcake.”
Cupcake?
She knew that as a female entrepreneur, she shouldn’t let him get away with calling her such a frivolous nickname. But darn it, it made her feel breathless the way he said it in his low voice accompanied by his slow grin. And she liked it.
“Speaking of business,” he said, “did you know that there’s a big pink van parked in front of your building?”
“A pink what?” Mel asked, stepping back from him.
“Van,” he said. “It’s right out front.”
Mel spun on her heel and stomped back into the kitchen, where Angie and Tate were still sitting.
“How’s business been tonight?” she asked.
Angie was fishing in a carton with a pair of chopsticks, and Tate had a mouthful. They exchanged a look that said they didn’t want to tell her.
“Dead,” Angie admitted reluctantly.
“Do you think it could be because Olivia’s back?” Mel asked.
“What?” They both jumped from their seats and followed Mel into the main room, which was forlornly empty of customers.
Mel opened the front door, and sure enough, there was Olivia’s big pink van parked in front of their shop. With an enormous tray full of cookies, Olivia was walking back and forth in front of Fairy Tale Cupcakes, offering free cookies to anyone who happened by.
“Are you kidding me?” Mel yelled. “I saved your miserable life, and you’re still trying to run me out of business!”
“
You
saved
my
life?” Olivia asked. “Ha!
I
saved
your
life! The way I see it, you owe me one, and I’ll take all of your customers as payback.”
“That’s it!” Mel was about to launch herself at Olivia when an arm looped around her waist, pulling her back. She glanced over her shoulder and gave Joe her best glare, but his grip didn’t slacken a bit.
Angie had been hot on her heels, but Tate had snatched her in the same around-the-middle grab before her feet left the curb.
“You’d better move this van, ma’am,” Joe said. “I don’t know how much longer we can hold ’em.”
Angie let loose a feral snarl, and Olivia’s eyes went wide. She hustled her cookies and herself into the van and quickly pulled away.
As the pink van banged into the curb in Olivia’s haste to vacate the premises, Mel felt a laugh bubble up from somewhere down deep. Joe looked at her like he was worried that she was cracking up, but then the ridiculousness of the situation seemed to strike him as well, and he began to laugh, too.
Tate and Angie soon joined in, and it turned into a chorus of giggles and guffaws. That’s when Mel knew that everything was going to be okay. Yes, she saw Angie look at Tate with a love in her eyes that he was unaware of. And yes, Tate’s eyes were shadowed by the betrayal and death of his fiancée. But the three of them were still here and still together, and now Joe was with them, too. For Mel, right now was the only moment that mattered.

Recipes

Blonde Bombshell

An almond-flavored cupcake topped with vanilla
buttercream and sprinkled with toasted almonds.
ž cup unsalted butter, softened
1˝ cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1˝ teaspoons almond extract
˝ teaspoon vanilla extract
2˝ teaspoons baking powder
ź teaspoon salt
2˝ cups flour
1 ź cups milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar at medium speed, add eggs and milk, and beat until smooth. Beat in extracts. Add dry ingredients, beat until smooth. Fill cupcake liners ? full. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Makes 24.
Frost with vanilla buttercream and sprinkle with toasted almond slivers.
Toasted almonds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts in one layer on an ungreased, shallow baking pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden.