Wedding Cake Killer (4 page)

C
hapter 4

T
he delicious aroma of cake baking filled the house the next morning. Phyllis didn’t have just one cake in the oven, though. She had three baking, each a little different from the others. She used a basic sour cream cake recipe and split the batter evenly into three bowls, adding almond extract in one, coconut in another, and lemon extract in the last. She thought Eve and Roy ought to have the final say.

Sam came in from the garage where he had been working, carrying the remaining boxes up to the attic. He had assured Phyllis that he didn’t need her to hold the ladder and had promised that he would make sure it was steady and well braced before he started up it. She had been a little worried about him despite those assurances, and while she was working in the kitchen she’d been half listening with one ear for the sound of any trouble.

“That’s done,” he reported, brushing dust off his hands. “And I got to tell you, with those cakes cookin’ and the smell risin’, that attic has never smelled better.”

“You’ll have to wait for this afternoon to try them,” Phyllis said. “They’ll be cooled off by then, and I’ll have some frosting on them. Anyway, we can’t very well sneak a taste before Eve and Roy. It’ll be their cake, after all.”

“You’re right. I’ll just enjoy the smell between now and then.”

Phyllis laughed. “Help yourself to that.”

“I put up the ladder. Any more chores you need done?”

“Not right now.”

“All right. Holler if there’s anything I can help you with.”

She couldn’t have asked for a better tenant, Phyllis thought as Sam left the kitchen. He was always helpful and invariably friendly. He got in a bad mood from time to time—who didn’t?—but they never lasted for very long. Yes, he had been a good tenant, a good friend . . . and sometimes more. With all this wedding talk, the possibility couldn’t help but crop up in her mind every now and then . . .

But no. After Kenny’s death, Phyllis had been convinced that she would never marry again, and nothing had changed her mind on that point. Did she love Sam? Probably. She certainly enjoyed spending time with him and having him around, and she could no longer imagine this house, and her life, without him in it. But she couldn’t help but think that being married might change things.

No
might
about it, she told herself. Being married
would
change things between them, and there was no guarantee that the change would be for the better. She was happy the way things were. Why risk that?

Carolyn came into the kitchen and broke into Phyllis’s train of thought. “That’s certainly a wonderful smell,” she said as she bent down to look through the window in the oven door. “What do you have in there?”

“I just used a plain vanilla sour cream cake and added different extracts,” Phyllis replied. “It’s a fairly dense cake and should be easy to frost. We’ll let Eve pick which flavor she likes best. And Roy, of course.”

“Roy’s going to go along with whatever Eve says, and you know it. He’s just like all the other men in the world—no real opinion about anything.”

Phyllis wasn’t so sure about that generality, but she figured Carolyn was right about Roy agreeing with whatever Eve decided. He had gone along with her decision to come back here to Phyllis’s house after their honeymoon, even though originally he had wanted them to rent an apartment until they could find a place of their own. It was important to Eve to be in a house, though, and in the end Roy hadn’t been stubborn about it.

Later, Phyllis took the cakes out of the oven and used a wooden toothpick to check each of them, pushing the toothpick down into the center of the cake and then pulling it out to see if any batter clung to it. When the toothpick emerged cleanly from all three cakes, she knew they were done and now just needed to cool before she put the frosting on them. She had already mixed up the buttercream frosting and had it in the refrigerator waiting to be spread on the cakes.

As Eve and Roy left to go to lunch and do some shopping, Phyllis reminded them, “We’ll have the cake tasting around two, so don’t eat too much. Leave plenty of room for cake.”

Roy patted his stomach and grinned. “Won’t be a problem,” he assured her.

While they waited for the cakes to cool and cleaned the living room, Phyllis and Carolyn talked about the other decorations they planned to put up for the wedding. Eve had found some pretty blue-and-white curtains to replace the ones in the living room. They went ahead and took down the old curtains, cleaned the windows, and put up the new curtains after ironing all the wrinkles out.

Later they would move most of the furniture out of the living room and put it in the garage. White lights and tulle tied with ribbon would go up the banister. Bows would be placed on the backs of the rented chairs at the end of each row along the center aisle. Flowers and candles would finish the decorating. They could use most of the decorations from the shower in the dining room to set up for the reception.

Roy’s prediction proved to be accurate. He had no trouble sampling all three cakes, and neither did any of the others. And Carolyn was a prophet as well, because when Eve pointed to the coconut-flavored cake and said, “That’s my pick,” Roy nodded without hesitation.

“That’s the one I liked the best as well,” he said. “Proving once again that great minds think alike.”

Standing where only Phyllis could see her, Carolyn rolled her eyes and nodded as if to say,
I told you so.
That really wasn’t necessary, because Phyllis had never doubted it.

There was a short discussion about the punch, and it was decided that a piña colada punch would go well with the cake, and the groom’s cake would be the same batter as the cupcakes at the shower, with a chocolate buttercream icing. Roy had had one of the cupcakes when he and Sam came back from bowling and really liked it.

That was the last real decision that had to be made. The flowers were already ordered and would be delivered on the morning of the wedding. Phyllis would bake the cake that morning; then she and Carolyn would frost it and decorate it during the afternoon, so it would be ready for the wedding, which was scheduled for five o’clock. The dresses that Eve, Phyllis, and Carolyn would wear to the ceremony were upstairs, hanging in their closets. As Phyllis cleaned up after the cake tasting, she took a deep breath, both physically and mentally.

They weren’t ready yet . . . but they would be. She had absolutely no doubt of it.

* * *

On the evening of December 30, Phyllis had baked the chocolate chocolate chip groom’s cake, and it was cooling in the refrigerator. She would bake the wedding cake first thing in the morning. Now she was relaxing, sitting in the living room reading a nice thick historical novel set in medieval times . . . the era, not the theme restaurant, as she had told Sam earlier when he asked what she was reading. He was in one of the other armchairs with a Western paperback. Phyllis liked the fact that they could sit there, each reading quietly but aware of the other’s presence, without feeling the need to talk. Every relationship needed that sort of comfort zone, she thought.

Carolyn was upstairs, and Eve and Roy had gone out for dinner. They had been gone for quite a while, and Phyllis expected them back soon. Then for the last time, Roy would kiss Eve good night and go back to the motel where he had been staying for the past few weeks. Phyllis didn’t know where they intended to spend their wedding night, and it was none of her business.

For now she was happy to just sit in the same room with Sam and read, but a few minutes later, that changed. She heard car doors outside and looked up from her book, saying, “That must be Eve and Roy.”

“I reckon so,” Sam said, still engrossed in the tale of the Old West he was reading.

His concentration was broken, too, though, when the front door was thrown open and Eve hurried in.

“Turn on the television,” she said with a note of alarm in her voice. “I need to see the weather forecast.”

Phyllis had been so busy for the past few days that she hadn’t paid any attention to the forecast, which could be a mistake in a state known for its changeable weather. The remote control was on the small table beside her chair. She picked it up and turned on the TV set, switching quickly to the cable station that carried the satellite radar feed and the forecast from the National Weather Service.

“Uh-oh,” Sam said. “That doesn’t look too good.”

Roy came into the house behind Eve, who obviously had hurried ahead of him. “What about it?” he asked. “Is it going to snow?”

“Shh,” Phyllis said as she looked at the radar image on the screen with its broad bands of pink signifying frozen precipitation stretching across Oklahoma.

“—spread southward across the Red River overnight,” the disembodied voice on the TV was saying. “The atmospheric disturbance now located over New Mexico will move eastward and combine with the overrunning of warm air aloft over cold air at the surface to produce widespread areas of freezing rain, sleet, and snow during the day tomorrow. This mix of frozen precipitation will extend from the I-35 corridor into East Texas with an expected accumulation of one to three inches. Accumulations will be lighter and scattered west of the I-35 corridor.”

“There you go,” Sam said. “We’re west of I-35, so we probably won’t get anything.”

“That’s not what he said,” Eve replied, still visibly upset. “He said it would be scattered. That means we could still get snow and ice here.”

“Even if we do, it probably won’t be very bad,” Phyllis said. “It might keep some people from coming to the wedding, but I’m sure most of the guests who said they were attending will be here.”

“What about the airport?” Roy said. “We’re supposed to catch a flight out for the Bahamas on New Year’s Day.”

Sam said, “The airport hardly ever shuts down. It’d have to be a lot worse than the way they make it sound to keep the planes from getting in and out. You might be delayed awhile; that’s all.”

Roy nodded and sighed. “I think you’re right. See, Eve, we panicked for nothing. Someone at the restaurant was talking about how there was a big snowstorm coming, so we wanted to find out.”

“Well, I don’t blame you,” Phyllis said. “But I really don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Eve said. “If anything goes wrong now—”

“It won’t,” Roy told her as he put an arm around her shoulders. “We’ve waited all our lives to find each other, and nothing’s going to keep us apart now. I believe that with all my heart, Eve.”

She turned toward him, leaned against him, and rested her head on his shoulder as he hugged her.

“I hope you’re right, Roy.”

“Of course I am,” he said, his voice brimming with confidence. “By this time tomorrow evening, you and I are going to be husband and wife, Eve. Just you wait and see.”

Chapter 5

T
he f
irst thing Phyllis did when she got up the next morning was check the sky.

“What are you doing?” Carolyn asked as she came out onto the back porch and found Phyllis standing there peering up intently at the gray clouds.

Phyllis didn’t answer the question. Instead she said, “Do those look like snow clouds to you?”

Carolyn squinted at the sky. “Not really. But don’t go by me. I’m not a meteorologist.”

“Neither am I. But Eve came in last night worried because the area’s supposed to get some snow and ice.”

“That shouldn’t stop her from getting married. Unless the roads got really bad and the preacher couldn’t get here.”

Phyllis looked at her and said, “Oh, goodness, don’t even say that where she can hear it!”

“Have you checked the forecast on TV this morning?”

“Not yet.” Phyllis turned toward the door, shivering in her thick robe as a vagrant gust of cold air blew across the backyard. “I wanted to take a look at the sky first.”

They went into the kitchen, and Carolyn said, “You go see what they’re saying on TV, and I’ll start the coffee.”

Phyllis went into the living room and turned on the weather station again. There was still an awful lot of that frozen-precipitation pink extending down across the Red River from Oklahoma now. Most of it did appear to be aimed at Dallas and points eastward, but one finger of the storm stretched westward toward Denton and Decatur. If it kept coming in that direction, it could brush across Parker County and hit Weatherford.

The temperature down in the bottom corner of the screen read 38 degrees. So it was above freezing right now, she thought, but that could change. At this time of year when a front came through, the temperature often dropped during the day, rather than going up as it normally would.

“Fingers crossed,” she whispered to herself. There were a lot of factors at play here, as the meteorologists liked to say, and as always in the face of the weather, all the puny humans could do was wait and hope.

Sam came into the living room. “How’s it lookin’?”

“Iffy,” Phyllis said. “We might not get anything.”

“That’s what my gut’s tellin’ me.” He smiled. “No way the weather wants to mess with Eve Turner.”

Phyllis had to laugh. “I hope you’re right,” she said. She hadn’t sat down while she was watching TV. She switched it off now and put the remote back on the table. “I’ll get started on breakfast. We still have a cake to bake.”

“You and Carolyn have a cake to bake,” Sam said. “My job is just eatin’ it.”

“Actually, Mike is going to be over in a little bit, and the two of you will need to move the furniture out of the living room and set up the folding chairs. Also you’ll be in charge of traffic control this afternoon when people start showing up.” Phyllis added under her breath, “Assuming they do,” then felt bad about doubting that things were going to work out.

Carolyn had already started cooking some pancakes. Phyllis began scrambling eggs and frying bacon. Those aromas mixed with that of the coffee to create a delicious smell that filled the house. It was enough to bring Eve downstairs . . . but not enough to distract her from her worries about the weather.

“How does it look?” she asked.

“Good,” Phyllis said with as much heartiness as she could muster. “I think it’s going to miss us.”

“I’m going to go look at the radar,” Eve said. She hurried out of the kitchen.

When she came back a few minutes later, she seemed somewhat relieved. “I think it’s going to go east of us,” she said. “But I’m going to be keeping an eye on the sky all day anyway.”

“You don’t want to spend your wedding day doing that,” Sam told her. “Tell you what—you let me watch the weather for you. I see as much as one snowflake, I’ll come tell you right away.”

“You promise?”

Carolyn said, “Oh, good grief, what does it matter? It’s not like you can
do
anything about it.”

Eve glared at her for a second, then said, “Thank you, Sam. I appreciate that, and I’m glad someone around here cares about my special day.”

Carolyn opened her mouth to say something else, but Phyllis made a warning gesture and mouthed,
Let it go.

“Breakfast is almost ready,” Phyllis said. “Let’s sit down and enjoy it.”

They did, and the brief moment of friction was soon forgotten. Phyllis didn’t blame Eve for being nervous. Even under the absolute best of circumstances, a wedding was a stressful affair.

Sam kept his promise, checking the weather forecast frequently during the morning and also going outside to study the sky. After Mike arrived and they had moved the big television out of the living room, he checked the one in his bedroom. By noon all the furniture had been moved, the floor was clean, and chairs were set up. Although the overcast continued, no precipitation had fallen in Weatherford as far as Phyllis knew. It had been sleeting in Dallas for a couple of hours, and that big city would soon be paralyzed by icy roads.

“The airport’s still okay,” Sam reported to Phyllis after a check online. “No cancellations, no delays. Looks like the slick stuff just missed it, and by tomorrow this storm system will be gone. Things are gonna work out for Eve and Roy.”

“That’s good news. Every time I looked out the window I was afraid I’d see snow falling.”

Sam grinned. “Well, earlier I saw a snowflake here and there, but it only lasted for a few minutes.”

“And you didn’t tell her?” Phyllis asked, her eyes widening.

“Didn’t see any point in it. They were so few and far between that they didn’t amount to anything. And they melted as soon as they hit the ground.” Sam shook his head. “We’re not gonna have a white New Year’s, which is fine with me.”

“Me, too.”

“How’s the cake?”

“In the freezer. That’ll make it easier to frost, but it’s perfect so far.”

“That’s just what I figured,” Sam said.

Mike had left as soon as they had gotten all of the heavy furniture out, so Phyllis, Carolyn, and Sam cleaned and decorated the living room. After cutting a piece off, Carolyn gave Sam a roll of white tulle and some lights and told him to go decorate the staircase banister. He looked a bit worried but took the roll and lights and headed toward the staircase.

Phyllis used the smaller piece to decorate the mantel by draping the nylon tulle and weaving white lights through the tulle along the length of the fireplace. She pinned it in place with pushpins and double-stick tape. Carolyn placed votive candles in holders across the mantel as Phyllis put an arrangement of flowers at one end of the mantel and tapers in holders at the other end.

They created an altar by covering a rectangular table with a white tablecloth. In the center they placed a flower arrangement like the one on the mantel, and tapers in holders sat at each end.

As they were putting bows on the backs of the chairs, Carolyn commented that maybe she should have given this chore to Sam. After they finished, they went to check on his progress.

He had draped the tulle tied with ribbon up the banister with the lights inside the material and was just checking the lights as they came up. He smiled when Carolyn looked at his work and gave him a nod of approval. They added a bow at the end for a finishing touch.

Eve had retreated to her room on the second floor and didn’t want to eat lunch. Phyllis tried to persuade her that she ought to eat, but she didn’t work very hard at it. If Eve was too nervous to eat, it was best not to push her. As soon as the cake had sat in the freezer long enough, Phyllis and Carolyn went to work frosting and decorating it. Phyllis worked on the groom’s cake while Carolyn worked on the wedding cake. Carolyn was a little more skilled with the decorating tips, so Phyllis was happy to let her do most of the finishing touches. By the time they were finished, the cakes were a thing of beauty, Sam declared.

The wedding cake had three tiers and sat on a floating cake stand that had white tulle and white lights powered by a battery along the back support. The little battery pack was hidden with a bow. The cake was a creamy white with hearts iced on the sides to match Eve’s topper. The groom’s cake had chocolate frosting with matching hearts on it.

Carefully, Sam carried the wedding cake into the dining room. “If you drop it,” Carolyn warned, “don’t even pack your bags. Just leave and never come back.”

“Don’t worry,” Sam told her. “I won’t drop it. But if I did, the door wouldn’t even have a chance to hit me in the backside before I was gone.”

The punch was made and sitting in the refrigerator ready to be poured into the bowl. The decorations were up. The flowers had been delivered, expensive at this time of year but beautiful to look at as well as filling the air with their fragrance. All the preparations were made. The only thing left now was for everyone to get dressed. Phyllis and Carolyn got into their dresses. Phyllis really did like her dress. The sapphire blue was a good color for her, and the trumpet skirt was slimming and created curves in all the right places. The ice blue one Carolyn had was nice, too, but she liked the darker blue. Carolyn commented that she was glad they had gotten the bows to match the dresses fixed. They added some simple jewelry, did their hair and makeup, and then went to help Eve.

Eve had decided to go with a sleeveless white lace floor-length dress, but she added a pretty three-quarter-sleeved white lace bolero. She also didn’t want to spend the morning at the beauty shop, so Phyllis and Carolyn helped her with her hair and makeup.

Sam put on his suit and stepped outside again, even though the storm front had moved on past the area and the chances of bad weather now were small. While he was standing on the porch, Roy drove up and parked in the driveway. He was very dapper and handsome in his suit as he got out of his car.

“None of the guests have arrived yet?” he asked.

“Nope,” Sam replied. “They ought to start showin’ up soon, though. We sort of dodged a bullet on the weather, so more than likely we’ll have a full house.” Before they went in, he paused and put a hand on Roy’s arm. “I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but Eve means a whole lot to all of us, and we’re glad she found a good fella like you, Roy. If anything was to make her unhappy, well, none of us would be happy, either.”

Roy chuckled and asked, “Is that a veiled warning to treat her right or else?”

“The thought that you might not never entered my mind, old son,” Sam drawled. “I’m just sayin’; that’s all.”

Roy clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I intend to devote the rest of my life to making that woman happy.”

The first guests began to arrive a few minutes later. Phyllis and Carolyn were putting the finishing touches on Eve’s makeup when Sam tapped on the door and called through it, “Roy’s here and folks are startin’ to show up.”

“Is the minister here yet?” Eve asked.

“Not yet. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Don’t worry, Eve,” Carolyn said. “Everything’s going to go off without a hitch . . . so to speak.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Eve said.

“Right now, just hold still,” Phyllis said, “so we can get this right . . .”

By a little before five o’clock, the driveway and the curbs along both sides of the street were full of cars, and the living room of Phyllis’s house was full of people. Fewer guests had shown up for the wedding than for the shower, which was a good thing, because the room wasn’t as uncomfortably crowded as it had been a week earlier.

Phyllis stood at the top of the stairs and looked down at what she could see of the living room. Everything seemed to be perfect. Maybe if she held her mouth right it would stay that way, she thought, an old saying she had heard frequently when she was a child.

Sam walked past the bottom of the stairs with the minister who would perform the service. He gave Phyllis a thumbs-up. She crooked a finger at him, and he said something to the minister, then came up the stairs.

“Did he bring the music?” Phyllis asked.

“Yep. Got it loaded in the CD player.”

“How’s Roy holding up?”

Sam grinned. “He hasn’t bolted for the exit, if that’s what you mean. Seriously, he’s fine. Lookin’ forward to bein’ married to Eve.”

“All right.” Phyllis glanced at her watch. “I think we’re about ready to start, then.”

“I’ll tell the preacher. You’ll hear the music and know when it’s time to come down.”

Phyllis took a deep breath and nodded.

“Let’s get these two married,” she said.