Devil's Food Cake (40 page)

“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.

Pete drove out of the parking lot and, as soon as the police station was out of sight, pulled over to the curb. Sadie turned to look at him, wondering if he’d forgotten something and needed to go back to the station, but she had no sooner made eye contact with him when his warm hands reached up and cupped her face. After an evening like Sadie had had, her first instinct was to pull away, jump out of the car, and run for cover, but his eyes chased away her feelings of fight or flight with a tenderness she could see in his face. Pete quickly glanced at the side of her face which still bore the bruise from Donna Hender’s mad skillet skills and frowned at the injury.

“It’s all right,” Sadie said before he could find yet another set of words to use to apologize. A volcano of butterflies erupted in her stomach as a new intimacy began filling the space between them. “It certainly isn’t your fault things got so out of hand.”

“I should have given you the benefit of the doubt tonight, it would have made all the difference.”

Sadie smiled and placed her good hand against his cheek. She patted him twice, then slapped him—but not too hard. “There,” she said. “We’re even.”

Pete chuckled. “You’re one of a kind, Sadie Hoffmiller. Do you know that?”

“I’m not sure Garrison could handle many more,” Sadie answered.
Or wants the one it has,
she added in her own mind. “Thank you for believing in me—in the end, I mean.” That didn’t come out right. “I mean, I’m glad you came to your senses.” That didn’t sound right either. She usually had such a way with words. “What I’m trying to say is—”

Pete suddenly leaned toward her while pulling her face closer to his. He was going to kiss her! Sadie had only an instant to prepare for the moment she’d waited for all these months. Pete’s lips touched hers without force or awkwardness, and Sadie found herself truly breathless as the blizzard outside disappeared and a new and unfamiliar warmth radiated through her body. Pete had kissed her. He
was
kissing her. Finally!

He paused and Sadie sensed he was waiting for permission to move forward, to deepen the kiss. For reasons she didn’t fully understand, she pulled back instead.

Surprised by her own reaction, Sadie tried to determine what was in her way now. She’d wanted this moment, ached for this new level of their relationship for so long. Now here it was, and she found herself anxious and feeling strangely threatened but still all tingly inside. “I’m sorry,” she finally whispered. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but . . . I guess I just . . .”

“It’s okay,” Pete said quickly. Was he as hesitant to hear her reasoning as she was to say it? “It’s been a long night.”

“Yes,” Sadie said, nodding as she grabbed onto that excuse with both hands. She wasn’t sure it was the right excuse, but she’d take it.

Pete smiled and sat back. As soon as his warm hands left Sadie’s face, she wished she could call for a do-over. She wanted Pete—in her life, in her arms. What
was
wrong with her? Why was she acting like this? She felt tears come to her eyes as Pete put the car back into drive and pulled away from the curb. It didn’t feel good to be so at odds with her own feelings.

“Depending on what tomorrow brings,” Pete said, his tone not showing how he felt about the rejected kiss, “maybe we could go to dinner. I’m guessing you might not be cooking quite so much for awhile.”

“Dinner would be wonderful,” Sadie said, trying to convince herself that everything was fine between them. She also took it as a good sign that he expected her to be free for dinner tomorrow—and not in jail.

Pete turned a corner. The blue-and-white sign for the Garrison Community Hospital was lit up. “We’ll get you fixed up good as new,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot.

Sadie smiled, but wished she believed him. Sure, her shoulder would heal, she wasn’t too worried about that, but there were so many other things that couldn’t be fixed so easily. She worried about the Veeter family, and Josh—even his crazy mother. And how would Thom get well with this hanging over his head? Sadie liked justice, and she believed that the truth was better than living with lies and secrets, but she wished it were a less painful process . . . for everyone.

As Thom helped her inside, she couldn’t help but wonder what tomorrow would hold. Would the answers make more sense? Would she feel more peace? She supposed only time would tell.

Chapter 51

A fter a few hours of fitful sleep, Sadie had taken on the challenge of getting herself showered Saturday morning. It had taken three times longer than it should have, and she was dreading the next six weeks when she’d have limited use of her left arm.

A light tapping on the door distracted Sadie from the pain in her shoulder and the buttons on her shirt that were making her want to swear.

“You’re sure you’re okay if I go pick up your prescription?” Shawn said from the other side of the door. “The pharmacy opens at nine o’clock so I’m hoping I can be first in line.”