Devil's Food Cake (36 page)

Sadie looked at the request from all angles. Shawn could take him down if he had to, so what was the risk? “Shawn, give him his phone.”

“What?” Shawn said slowly.

Sadie gave him her best “trust me” look. “You can’t deny that he’s given us very important information.”

“
Assuming
he’s telling the truth,” Shawn said, glaring at Josh again.

Josh shook his head and looked at Sadie, encouraging her to convince Shawn.

“Give him his phone,” Sadie said, keeping her tone calm, but assertive.

Shawn sighed and handed the phone to Josh, who looked at it and put it in his pocket.

“So who is Michele to you?” Sadie pushed, trying not to sound too formal, but finding it a difficult balance.

“We used to date,” Josh said, trying to sound casual but failing. A whole new tension was draped all over him. Interesting.

“But you don’t anymore?” Shawn said, closing one eye slightly and looking skeptical. “So why is she calling you?”

“And why did she pick you up from the hotel?” Sadie added, watching Josh carefully.

Josh growled a little bit in his throat and shook his head as if to say he couldn’t believe he was having to do this.

Sadie was reminded that he didn’t
have
to, but he was anyway. Another point in the “Josh isn’t the murderer” column of the score sheet in her head.

Josh took a breath and started talking. “A couple years ago, Michele contacted me about Damon. She was working on a college paper about teens who kill. Her Uncle Frank lives here in Garrison, so she knew the story pretty well, but she wanted to talk to the people close to Damon. We seemed to hit it off, and when she finished her paper, we kept in touch. And eventually our relationship got serious. But we broke up right before Christmas. I was as surprised as anyone else to see her here tonight.”

“But you called her to pick you up from the hotel,” Sadie pointed out.

“No,” Josh said, shaking his head. “
She
called
me
and asked what had happened.”

“Which she didn’t know because she left the ballroom before the shooting,” Sadie pointed out. “Doesn’t that strike you as bizarre? She leaves right before Thom is supposed to speak.”

A look of concern wrinkled Josh’s forehead. Apparently he hadn’t thought it through.

“Would
she
have a motive to kill Mr. Ogreski?” Shawn asked, but Sadie could tell from his tone that he found that a shaky suggestion.

However, Josh’s concerned look deepened, making Sadie seriously consider the possibility. Could Michele have a motive for murder? Sadie pictured the girl she’d met at her table—the piled-up hair, the strapless gown, and the big doe-eyes. She didn’t seem the psychopathic type.

“Would she?” Shawn pressed again.

Josh shook his head, but it wasn’t convincing. He glanced around nervously before making eye contact with Sadie again as he reached into his pocket.

Shawn grabbed Josh’s wrist as soon as he extracted the phone.

“Sheesh,” Josh said, after nearly jumping out of his shoes. Shawn was big, but he was fast.

“Who are you calling?” Shawn demanded.

Sadie tried to shoot Josh a sympathetic look. She was actually relieved by Shawn’s stubborn suspicion of Josh. It was wise to not become complacent with anyone.

“Michele,” Josh said between clenched teeth. He shot a heated look at Shawn before looking at Sadie. “I’ve told you everything I know, and I have nothing to hide anymore and no reason to hide it.” He looked at Shawn pointedly and flipped his bangs out of his eyes. “I’ll put her on speaker.”

Chapter 45

Heya,” a chipper female voice said on the phone. “Did you make it to Denver okay?”

Sadie and Shawn were leaning over the table where they’d all sat down in preparation to focus on the call, not wanting to miss a single word.

“I haven’t left yet,” Josh said rather curtly.

There was a pause. “You haven’t left yet!” Michele responded. “What are you thinking? You’re supposed to catch a flight in less than an hour.”

“A flight
you
insisted I take,” Josh cut in, that tightness still in his voice. “And where are you?”

Sadie noticed that Josh had balled his hand into a fist on the table. When a girl as cute and perky as Michele was could earn such anger from a guy like Josh, there were serious issues at hand.

“I’m betting you haven’t left yet either,” Josh said.

“I’m staying one more night,” Michele said innocently. “Just to see how things shake down.”

“Why did you leave the dinner early?”

Sadie wondered if Michele would pretend not to know what he was talking about, but she didn’t. “I was bored,” she said simply. “And the cake was a little dry.”

Sadie sat up straight. Dry! It was not dry! Sadie had to clamp her teeth together to keep from defending herself out loud. Josh looked at her strangely, reminding her that he didn’t know she’d made the cake. But Shawn did, and he put a calming hand on her arm, smiling as if to say, “Who cares what she thinks?” After a deep breath, she waved Josh to continue and tried to think of beautiful and peaceful thoughts to calm herself down. She suspected some people would think about butterflies or rainbows, but she thought about food and suddenly realized she hadn’t gotten any of the Evil Chicken. Would the injustice never end?

“Bull,” Josh said to Michele. “Why did you leave early? You came all the way to Garrison and left as soon as Thom showed up on stage.”

Michele sighed. “I had to use the ladies’ room.”

That was the reason she’d given when she excused herself from the table. Not that Sadie believed her anymore. She’d lied about Sadie’s cake and therefore couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth about anything.

“Where? At Walmart?” Josh said. “The police had the parking lot to the hotel blocked off within minutes, and no one was allowed in or out without police clearance. That’s why I had to get picked up—remember? I already know why you were there tonight, Michele, but you’d better tell me why you left.”

Sadie held her breath and waited for Michele’s answer. For a moment, she feared Michele had hung up, but then the girl started talking.

“I was in the foyer when Thom came out of the ballroom. Everyone was freaking out. He went out to the parking lot, and I followed him. He tried to get in his car, but it was locked and I guess he’d left the key with Mark. I offered him a ride, and he took me up on it.”

Sadie opened her mouth to ask where they’d gone, but Shawn put his hand over her mouth and shook his head. How could she forget that she and Shawn were simply eavesdroppers on this conversation?

Josh watched them, giving Sadie a pointed look before turning his attention back to the call. “Where did you take him?” he asked.

“A gas station,” Michele said. “We talked for awhile, but then he got kinda nervous and said he wanted to walk. I had what I wanted, so I let him go.”

“I guess you finally got the interview you wanted so badly,” Josh said, anger dripping from his every word.

“Sure did,” Michele said, chipper once again. “No thanks to you.”

“I don’t make it a habit to use my friends,” Josh said. “And I’ll be sure to tell Thom exactly what you’re up to as soon as I see him next time. I hope you got what you needed because he’ll never talk to you again.”

“Oh, I got plenty, thanks,” Michele said, a chuckle laced through her words. “He was far more forthcoming than I’d have expected him to be.”

“You’re pathetic,” Josh said. He hit the end button on the phone.

Sadie stared at it, then looked up at Josh, stunned. “You hung up on her.”

“Yep,” Josh said.

“But we weren’t done,” Sadie said.

Shawn put a calming hand on Sadie’s arm, but kept his eyes on Josh. “Why did she want an interview with Thom?”

Oh, good question,
Sadie thought, reengaging.

“Michele and I . . .” he began. “We didn’t have any secrets when we were together.”

It took Sadie a moment to understand what he was saying. She lifted her eyebrows. “She knew the truth?”

Josh nodded. “You can’t imagine how good it felt to finally have someone I could talk to about everything.”

“How much did she know?” Shawn asked.

“All of it,” Josh said. He met Shawn’s eyes and for the first time they weren’t staring one another down.

Sadie wondered if that meant Shawn’s suspicions were dimming.

Josh continued, “I didn’t tell her all at once, of course, but little by little I told her every bit of this big, complicated story. And she loved me anyway—or at least I thought she did. We were talking about getting married, so I felt I had no reason
not
to trust her with every part of my life.”

Sadie noted the sadness in his expression. Michele had broken his heart, hadn’t she?

“A few weeks before Christmas,” Josh continued, “Michele suggested I invite Thom to visit for the holidays. She’d never met him, even though I talked about him quite a bit—especially the last six months or so as he seemed to be getting worse.

“I told her that inviting Thom would only make him feel bad that he couldn’t come. He rarely left the house, let alone travel to the East Coast. She was determined to meet him, however, so I suggested we go to California instead and she was all over it—too much all over it. I mean, she’d met my mother once and hadn’t made a big deal out of it so it bothered me that seeing Thom was so exciting for her, but I blew it off. I figured she was simply intrigued by him being a celebrity, ya know? Then I found out that her parents were planning a Caribbean cruise with her family over the Christmas holiday and she refused to go even though the tickets were nonrefundable.”

“Yikes,” Sadie said, totally following this line of suspicious behavior Josh was laying out. Turning down a cruise? That was so not normal.

Josh nodded. “I knew there was something funny going on, but I couldn’t figure it out. So I told her Thom had changed his mind and that we couldn’t go to California after all. She insisted I call him back and find a time that would work. I refused and it led to the only fight we ever had.” He snorted again and closed his eyes as though the memory was physically painful. “That’s when I met the real Michele for the first time. I’d thought we never fought because we were so well-matched. Turns out, we never fought because Michele was a chameleon who became what I wanted in hopes it would lead her to Thom.”

“What for?” Shawn asked. “Was she some kind of obsessed fan?”

“Sort of,” Josh said. “More like an obsessed writer. That paper she’d first contacted me about—the one about teens who kill? At some point she decided to turn it into one of those true crime novels about Damon. While I thought I was trusting her with my deepest secrets and insecurities, she was taking notes. Apparently, from the first few e-mails we’d exchanged she sensed I was hiding something. She was very patient and very sly.”

Sheesh,
Sadie thought.
Does everyone want to write a book?
Damon, Thom, Diane, Jane, and now Michele. It was like a disease or something.

Josh was still talking. “I found the manuscript on her computer. Three hundred pages of information she’d carefully siphoned from me over the years, mingled with enough conjecture and supposition to make a great story—a story that will destroy Thom. I imagine she’s already shopping it around by now. When I saw her at the dinner tonight, I knew she was there to talk to Thom. It wouldn’t surprise me if she asked him flat-out if
Devilish Details
was Damon’s book. She’d love to have his reaction in her book—the final pages where she confronts the man behind it all.” Josh shook his head. “It makes me sick, but I’m grateful she and I were over with by the time I learned about Mrs. Veeter. I’m glad she doesn’t get to exploit that part.”

Sadie thought of Jane, who had come to town specifically for a story she could exploit. The pictures Josh had taken would go a long way toward helping that whole process. How did people live with themselves?

“Did you tell Thom about Michele’s book?” Sadie asked. “Did he know his cover was about to be blown?”

Josh shifted in his chair. “I didn’t tell him. I didn’t know what to do about it except count it as one more reason to push Thom to go to treatment—let him get well before Michele’s book hit the market. Thom and I have a good relationship, but I don’t know what he’s going to think when he learns I told someone else—let alone told someone who went on to write a book about it. He’ll be devastated. I’d like to wait until he’s sober and has a good therapist before he finds out.”