Джанет Кантрелл - Fat Cat Takes The Cake

“Oh, didn’t Julie tell you?’

“I haven’t talked to her.”

“They came! Julie dropped them off on her lunch break a few minutes ago.”

Chase had forgotten they were being sent to Julie’s place instead of hers, since they received so many baking supplies already at her place.

Whew! “That sure is good news. Should I come over and try mine on?”

“Come over when Julie’s off work and I’ll see if they need altering.”

What a relief. Chase couldn’t think of a single other thing that needed doing before the wedding. The Bar None would close Wednesday and Thursday, Christmas Eve and Christmas, and Anna would be married Wednesday evening.

Feeling like she weighed less, Chase walked on, musing about life and death and murderers.

Was Ron North a thoroughly bad person or not? He had a borderline-dangerous habit of stalking women. Okay, it was dangerous, since it had driven Dillon Yardley to try to end her life to escape him. So she came down on the side of thoroughly bad for him.

Bart Fender must have been head over heels in love with Dillon, but that didn’t excuse his actions. He must have been driven by knowing that his love wasn’t enough to keep Dillon going. All of that was on top of his drug dealing. Bart’s future would be decided by a jury, but Chase wondered what Dillon’s would be.

On the other hand, Principal Snelson and Mr. Hail had been deliberately defrauding defenseless older people for their own financial gain. They were just as evil as the others involved in this whole mess. She chuckled to think of Mrs. Snelson throwing her husband’s clothing in the dump. She had heard of women leaving their husband’s belongings in the front yard, even in the rain, but never driving them to a dump.

It looked like Dickie Byrd’s campaign had fallen through. The last time she drove past his headquarters, it was empty. A few of Monique’s posters still clung to poles and stared out from shop windows, but most were gone. Monique had been seen in the company of a local bank executive. Dickie, Rich, or whatever he was called now, had left town. Chase was confident he would run for office somewhere else eventually. He’d been politicking his whole life.

They were now in front of the Meet N Eat, since it lay along their regular route. Another few pounds of weight lifted when she thought about how she was through fending off the charming, electric Eddie Heath. A person who ran a health food place had nothing in common with a person who baked decadent cookie bars.

Julie was tied up with the rest of the real estate case, as well as an additional one she had been given in an e-mail late Saturday. She had yet to celebrate not being a murder suspect, but Chase was making plans for that. They would celebrate. Exactly where and how and with whom wasn’t clear, but Chase was thinking about it a lot. It would happen.

FORTY

“I’m sorry, Quincy,” Chase said. “I promise we’ll have a tree next year.”

Quincy loved the small artificial tree Chase usually put up in her apartment. He didn’t love the tree so much, though, as he liked batting the ornaments off and seeing where he could hide them.

This was the first year Chase hadn’t had a Christmas tree. She hadn’t had time, between going out to dinner with Mike twice, baking far into the night after that and every day since the Minny Batter Battle, and getting last-minute wedding tasks done in her spare moments. The reception seating was constantly being redone as regrets and acceptances came in. Some people “informed” Anna they would be bringing extra people. Had they never had to manage a wedding? It was almost impossible to fit in extra people unless enough guests canceled. Something had to give and it was her own tree.

Since the dresses had arrived two days before the wedding and Chase and Julie were at Anna’s late the last two nights getting them fitted, there had been no chance for a bachelorette party. Julie promised they would have one after the wedding, somehow, somewhere.

Now, getting ready to walk down the aisle of the wedding chapel, she knew everything was worth it. Julie stood in front of her, her more petite figure showing off the asymmetrical one-shoulder design a bit better than Chase’s did, or so Chase thought.

Chase peeked around Julie’s shoulder to see the men lined up in front. Bill’s son, Rick, stood beside his father. Next to Rick was an old friend of Bill’s whom Chase and Julie had met half an hour before the wedding. Bill was appropriately pale and nervous in his handsome dark suit.

The padded pews held Anna’s and Bill’s dearest friends and a few distant relatives.

Anna stood behind them and around the corner, out of sight of her intended until the proper, dramatic moment.

The music changed to Edvard Grieg’s ethereal “Morning Mood,” the cue for Julie and Chase to start down the aisle. Chase waited for Julie to get four rows ahead, then she started the slow, unnatural, bridesmaid’s gait: step, pause, step, pause.

Anna had tried to figure out a way for Quincy to act as ring bearer, but Chase prevailed in talking her out of that. What chaos that would have been!

Mike looked up at Chase as she passed, melting her heart with his smile and those deep chocolate eyes. Mallory, close beside Tanner in the next row, sat with her left hand casually on top of her right, displaying the diamond promise ring he had given her two days ago at Bar None. Inger sat with them, smiling and happy, her baby bump getting larger every day.

Professor Andy Fear sat with his arm protectively around Hilda Bjorn. Hilda gave Julie a huge smile as she passed. The older woman never tired of telling Julie how grateful she was that Julie had saved her from selling her house and had put “that bad man” in jail.

That wasn’t technically correct. Both Snelson and Hail were still awaiting trial and were free on bond, but they would eventually be there, Chase was sure. When the news reported that Principal Snelson’s wife had hauled his clothing to the city dump on Sunday, the day after she had kicked him out, he became a topic of derisive conversation on the news media and in the Bar None shop. Footage of him fleeing reporters who were shoving microphones in his face replayed over and over on the nightly news. He had dropped out of sight, though. Maybe he was staying with Hail now, until their trials. If he hadn’t turned out to be such a sleazeball, Chase could almost feel sorry for him.

When they reached the end of the aisle and turned to face the back of the chapel, Chase spied Grace Pilsen sitting alone in the last row. Her nose was still red and she wasn’t completely healthy, but it was nice she had shown up. And very nice she was sitting far away from everyone else so she wouldn’t infect them.

The music changed again. This time Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” rang out.

Anna, resplendent in the biggest smile Chase had ever seen and shimmering in a silk silvery, gray-on-gray dress, slowly walked down the aisle to become Mrs. William Shandy.

RECIPES

BLUEBERRY MUFFIN BARS

2½ cups unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

½ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

½ teaspoon sherry flavoring

½ cup milk

1 cup fresh rinsed blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.

Add beaten eggs and sherry flavoring.

Add milk and flour mixture alternating, starting with milk, in three parts.

Rinse and pat dry blueberries. Fold into mixture.

Spread in greased 8½ x 11–inch pan.

Bake 15–20 minutes.

Cool completely before adding drizzle.

Drizzle Topping