The Cakes of Wrath (4 page)

Not that I listen to gossip.

“Well, then,” I said with a thin laugh. “That proves it was an accident, doesn't it? Neither Keon nor Isaiah has any reason to run me down. I barely know them.”

Destiny rolled her eyes and gave her attention to a fingernail. “You never know with kids, do you?”

“I guess not,” I said agreeably.

Destiny turned her hand over and inspected the backs of her long nails. “I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe we'll never know who was driving last night. But if I were you, I'd keep one eye on my back, just in case.”

I said that I would and hurried back to pick up my prescriptions. I tried to laugh off her warning, but her words had chilled me. What if she and Sebastian were right? What if someone had been trying to hit me? And what if he—or she—was out there, just waiting for a chance to strike again?

The sun was high in the sky and beating down on the city with a vengeance when I left the drugstore. Humidity hung so heavy in the air I could see it in front of me like a sheer curtain. I'd lived in New Orleans for a year and I was slowly adjusting to the weather, but my lungs still preferred a nice, dry day with humidity in the single digits.

Sebastian's assertion that the van had actually been
trying
to hit me, and Destiny's warning to watch my back, nagged at me all the way to Zydeco. Most of last night's events were a blur, but I knew the questions would bug me until I got some answers. I should check with the police and ask if they'd found the van or its driver. I wanted to forget about Destiny's suggestion that it might have been Isaiah or Keon, but what if she was right about that, too? Maybe I should talk to Aquanettia. If one of her sons had some unknown issue with me, would she admit it? There was only one way to find out.

Before I talked to her, I should talk with the other alliance members who'd been around during the accident: Edgar, Lorena, and Edie. Maybe one of them had seen something that would cross the Fisher brothers off my list. It might be good to find out before I talked to their mother. No sense getting her riled up if her sons were innocent. Which I really hoped they were.

I was hot, sweaty, and seriously regretting my decision to walk by the time I let myself in through Zydeco's ornately carved front door, but a blast of cold air from inside gave me a second wind. Thanks to a healthy bank account full of old family money, Philippe had installed an industrial-sized air-conditioning unit when he'd renovated the beautiful antebellum house into a cake shop. His decision hadn't been frivolous. We needed the cool air to keep cakes and decorations from melting in “feels like” temperatures that could soar to well over a hundred degrees for days at a time. Though it provided an extra benefit for those of us who worked there, granting relief from the brutal summer heat.

Breathing in the delicious aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove emanating from the kitchen and design area, I shut the door behind me and turned to say hello to Edie, who runs the front of the house from behind a large U-shaped desk and a massive computer screen.

She took one look at my face and came out of her chair. “Rita? What in heaven's name are you doing here? You should be at the hospital—or at least home in bed.”

“I'm fine,” I assured her, feeling like a parrot. I wondered how many times I'd have to say those words before the bruises faded and the swelling went down. “I look worse than I feel.”

She sat slowly. “Well, that's good, because you look like death warmed over.”

I laughed and headed toward my office so I could stash my things. “You sure know how to make a girl feel attractive.”

“Sorry,” she called after me. “I should have asked you to call me when you left the hospital last night. I barely slept.”

She'd been worried about me? I tossed the bag from the drugstore onto my desk and shoved my purse into a desk drawer. I still had a few minutes before my meeting with Miss Frankie, so I wandered back into the reception area. Edie's concern was actually kind of sweet. We'd known each other since pastry school and hadn't always gotten along, but we'd become friendly since we started working together last year.

“I thought about calling,” I said as I slipped into a chair in front of her desk. “I didn't want to wake you.”

She ran her gaze over my face, more slowly this time. “You look rough, but I'm glad you're up and walking around. When I saw that van heading for you, I was sure you were dead.”

“I thought I was dead when Moose was lying on top of me.” Now that she was eating for two, Edie kept a bowl of M&M's beside her computer. I have a firm policy that nobody eats chocolate alone in my presence, so I helped myself to a handful. “I didn't get a chance to ask you last night. Did you see what happened?”

Edie nodded. “I saw the whole thing. I was just coming out the front door of Second Chances when the van came around the corner.” She closed her eyes briefly and shuddered. “It was horrible.”

“It was pretty rough from my end, too,” I said, wanting to lighten the moment for her. “Did you recognize the van or see the driver?”

Edie shook her head. “Not really. I think he was wearing a ball cap, but that's about all I saw—and I'm not even sure about that. It was so dark and it happened so fast. Do the police have any leads?”

“Not that I'm aware of,” I said, munching on a couple of candies. “I haven't heard from them since they took my statement at the ER, but I'll call later and find out if they've made progress on the case.” I hesitated to ask my next question. I didn't want to upset Edie needlessly, but she had been an eyewitness and I needed to know if Sebastian and Destiny were right. “Do you think it was an accident?”

Edie's almond-shaped eyes widened in shock. “Well, of course it was! What else could it have been?”

I could have hugged her. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. I shrugged and popped another candy into my mouth. “I don't know. I was sure it was an accident, too, but I just came from the drugstore and Sebastian seems convinced that the driver was trying to hit me. And then I ran into Destiny Hazen and she said the same thing. In fact, she thinks the driver was one of the Fisher boys.”

Edie's eyes flickered. “I'm sure they're both wrong.”

Another perfect answer. We were two for two. “Yeah,” I said. “I'm sure they are. But they both seemed so certain. I thought I should make sure I'm not delusional. But, I mean, who would want to hurt me? It's crazy . . . right?”

“Right.” Edie looked away, but not before I saw that flicker in her eyes for the second time.

I leaned into her line of vision, “Edie? What aren't you saying?”

“Nothing! It
was
an accident. I'm sure of it.” She tried to look outraged, but she didn't quite meet my eyes, and I guessed that she was hiding something.

“Let's start over from the beginning,” I said. “What exactly did you see?”

Edie rubbed her forehead and thought for a moment. “I don't know. It's hard to tell. I mean, he could have been drunk or something. But he never did swerve, so either he didn't see you at all or he did see you and—” She broke off, clearly distressed.

My heart dropped like a rock. I'd felt bad enough thinking that my near miss had been an accident, Now, after hearing three people say the van had been aiming for me, I was starting to wonder if someone really had tried to hurt me.

I stared at Edie for a minute. Or maybe it was an hour. I'm not sure. “But why?” I said when I thought my voice might work again. “And who?”

She shoveled up a handful of M&M's for herself. “An unhappy client?”

Zydeco has a great reputation around town, and even though we'd lost some business after Philippe died, and again when the economy tanked, we'd been slowly rebuilding our client list all year. We'd had a few clients with issues of one kind or another, but we'd resolved every problem. Even if we hadn't, no one had been angry enough to come after me with a loaded van. And besides, who would kill somebody over a cake? A beautifully crafted and very expensive cake, but still . . . cake.

But if a cake order gone bad wasn't the motive, what could it be? I'd lived a fairly tame life. I don't have a long list of psychotic ex-boyfriends, and I'd never knowingly stolen another woman's husband or boyfriend. I'd never cheated anyone in a business deal or run over a neighbor's dog. My list of potential homicidal enemies was a short one, consisting of exactly nobody.

Edie looked as confused as I felt. “Maybe we should look through the client files for the past year. That might jog our memories.”

“Good idea,” I said, grateful that there was something I could actually do.

“What about relatives?” Edie asked. “Are there any who might be angry with you?”

“Not that I know of. And besides, none of my family lives around here.”

“But Philippe's does,” Edie said, looking up from the notes she was making. “He had a couple of aunts, didn't he? Cousins? Maybe one of them is angry that you made out so well when he died. Or maybe it was someone else from Philippe's past.”

I shivered involuntarily. My almost-ex-husband had been murdered last year, which was why I lived and worked in New Orleans now. The idea that some relative of his might be angry with me for inheriting (since I'd technically been his widow) or the notion that he might have more enemies lurking out there made me ill at ease. “Do you know something I don't?” I asked Edie. “Are you thinking of anyone in particular?”

She shook her head quickly. “No. I didn't mean it like that. I barely even know Philippe's cousins. And besides, everybody loved Philippe.”

“Almost everybody.”

Her eyes clouded with memory, and when she spoke again, her voice was subdued. “Almost. But that's over and done with. I was just tossing out ideas. And anyway, how would any of them have known where to find you last night?” She took a deep breath and made a visible effort to lighten the mood. “I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. There are a dozen reasons that van might have appeared to be aiming straight for you, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I'm sure when the police catch the guy, they'll find out he was just distracted.”

“Or drunk,” I said. “Or high.” I scooped up another handful of M&M's for the road. “How well do you know Aquanettia and her sons?”

Edie frowned at me. “Don't tell me you're taking what Destiny said seriously.”

“I can't just ignore it,” I said with a shrug. “What if she's right?”

“Is that a real question? You honestly think Destiny knows what she's talking about?”

“It could happen. Do you think either of the boys is capable of something like that?”

Irritation tightened Edie's mouth but she answered me anyway. “Isaiah? No. He's a good kid, and he's serious about his schooling. Keon? Maybe. He's always been a wild card. I know that Aquanettia has had trouble with him for several years. But he wouldn't just randomly try to run someone over, and there's no reason at all for him to come after you. It might be different if he'd been after Moose. Those two have clashed a few times.” She stopped talking abruptly and we stared at each other while her last few words echoed between us.

I don't know why the idea that Moose might have been the real target hadn't occurred to me before. I was probably in shock. Not that I wanted Moose to be in danger, but if the driver wasn't interested in killing me, I could relax and think about work. I was on the schedule to pipe three dozen buttercream petunias for a baptism cake due on Friday. Those petunias weren't going to make themselves.

“Maybe you should talk to Sullivan,” Edie suggested. Liam Sullivan, a detective in NOPD's Homicide Squad, is a friend. A very good friend, and one of the reasons my relationship with Gabriel hasn't developed into something more. Which was only fair, since Gabriel was a major roadblock in my relationship with Sullivan. And let me just state for the record that both men are well aware of each other. I'm not playing anybody.

“I'd love to, but he's on vacation. Deep-sea fishing with friends. He'll be gone for a couple of weeks.”

“So you're not going to tell him?”

“What's to tell?” I asked with an oh-so-casual shrug. “Even if he were in town, there's nothing he could do about it. Either the case will be solved by the time he comes back, or it will be nothing but a memory.”

Edie gave me an “Are you kidding?” look.

I made a mental note to mention the idea of Moose as target when I called the police. Later. Right now, I needed to get ready for my meeting with Miss Frankie. Not that I had much I could do to prepare. I had no idea why she'd called this meeting or why she wanted to see me. I'd been trying not to think about it. If she'd volunteered me for some new project, I'd just say no. And this time I'd mean it.

I stood and turned to go back into my office, adding a mental note to ask Miss Frankie if any of Philippe's relatives were harboring resentments toward me, just in case. “I'm going to touch up my makeup,” I said to Edie. “Will you let me know when Miss Frankie gets here?”

With a gasp of horror, Edie glanced at the stairs. “Oh my gosh! I can't believe it slipped my mind. You walked in and I saw your face, and everything else flew out of my head.” Her voice dropped to a near-whisper. “She's already up there, waiting for you.”

“Miss Frankie has been here the whole time?”

Edie nodded. “Sorry.”

I waved off her apology. It wasn't the idea of keeping my mother-in-law waiting for a few minutes that had me worried. “You didn't mention anything about the accident, did you?”

The guilt on Edie's face sharpened. “I wasn't supposed to?”