“Sam? Earth to Sam . . . I was thinking—instead of cake,” Becky said, “what about a triple chocolate cheesecake? Dark chocolate crust, creamy chocolate filling, mocha drizzle over the top . . . I saw something similar in a magazine and I think I could tweak it a bit, add some special touches . . .”
Sam forced her attention to focus. The Chocoholics. “Go for it. They’ll love it.”
Sam left Becky to that creation while she turned her attention to locating a doll form that would sit atop the elaborately draped skirt-cake. She made sure to include a few full-blown roses around the base of the cake as she put the finishing touches on it—what kid didn’t love to pop a big old frosting rose into her mouth and swallow it down? And what mom didn’t regret all that sugar, when bedtime found the little tykes still bouncing off the walls? The image brightened her mood considerably.
“What do you think, Sam?” Becky asked. “I practiced my roses earlier today. I think a big chocolate one in the middle of the cheesecake would kind of balance it nicely.”
“Beautiful—you, kid, have a knack for this!”
Becky beamed at the praise.
“You can go ahead and deliver it to Ivan next door as soon as it’s done. Their meeting isn’t until tomorrow but I’m sure he would accept it today. Our fridge space is getting a little tight right now with the carriage, and I have to leave room for the Tafoya victory cake in there too.”
The reminder of Elena caused Sam’s smile to fade as she watched Becky working at the oven. She would have to ask Beau how the renewed investigation was coming along.
She got the chance to bring it up at dinner that night. She always loved driving out to Beau’s small ranch on the north side of Taos. The open fields, green during the summer, were now fallow and dry, the view quickly dimming now at dusk. The two horses grazed in the distance; Sam had noticed that they normally stayed nearer the barn in the early mornings, awaiting the feed Beau scooped out for them. She still didn’t make staying overnight at his house a regular routine, feeling a little strange about facing his mother clad only in one of Beau’s shirts. And she definitely wasn’t ready to call the relationship permanent enough to move some of her own clothes to his place.
This evening, he’d promised the stew that he’d made yesterday, along with cornbread and honey from a neighbor’s hives. Anything she didn’t have to bake, herself, was always appealing to Sam.
Ranger, the black Labrador retriever, and Nellie the border collie greeted Sam at the gates, trailing along behind her van as she negotiated the driveway up to Beau’s impressive log house. He waved from the kitchen window and she walked in.
“Umm, smells good in here,” she said.
He reached around her waist and pulled her close, savoring a long kiss. “Don’t worry, Mama and Kelly are in the den, finishing a heated game of gin rummy,” he whispered. She let herself enjoy the second kiss even more.
Voices from the living room distracted them. Sam took the basket of cornbread and Beau lifted the heavy tureen of stew.
At the dining table, Iris greeted Sam warmly and Kelly headed toward the kitchen to bring a green salad she’d made earlier. Sam noticed that Iris ate only a few bites of the hearty beef stew and her earlier vitality seemed to fade as full darkness set in. The elderly woman held out for a slice of apple pie but began yawning as the dishes were cleared.
“I’ll get her set for the night,” Kelly offered.
“Any news on the investigation?” Sam asked Beau, once they were alone in the kitchen again, loading the dishwasher.
“I
“In this entire state.”
“True.” He handed her another dessert plate and she bent to put it in the dishwasher rack. “Anyway, after some real teeth-pulling I got the warrant signed. In the morning I think I’ll have enough officers to properly execute the thing. I need at least two besides myself, three would be better.
“Can I help somehow?” she asked.
“That probably wouldn’t be a good idea. The house is a crime scene now. We have to be careful with everything. I don’t know why I’m saying that. Tafoya has had time to remove anything he wanted to, after all.”
“Yeah, but would he? As far as he knows, everyone has bought into the story that Elena’s death was a suicide, right?”
“That’s all I can hope. We’ll get an early start—hope to catch him in that pre-dawn defenses-down time of the day. I heard that he was in Roswell today—speeches and all that. And we know he was busy with the memorial service yesterday. With any luck, he’ll be off guard.”
“So he’s definitely a suspect then?”
“No more than anyone else. I have to keep an open mind to everything I might find there. I just don’t think it’s really likely that he did it. Why would he risk his career right at this moment? He wants to be governor so bad he can taste it.”
“Maybe he went into a rage. Struck out when he found out about the affair.”
“But he was in Albuquerque that night. To sneak away and drive home and back is
Sam chewed her lower lip.
“His wife’s affair would be a whole lot smaller scandal than her murder, wouldn’t it?”
“And I guess her suicide almost works in his favor, right? Man hit by tragedy, the sympathy factor and all that?”
“Probably. Who knows what goes through the minds of the voters this week?”
Sam shook her head. She’d always wondered what went through the minds of the voters in this state— governors with horrible reputations for corruption, state legislators who had multiple drunk driving offenses, towns with local embezzlers and outright cheats—and they all managed to get reelected over and over again.
“We’ll be looking for clues about Elena’s state of mind. Who she might have been in contact with during her last days, anyone who might have threatened her, someone angry enough that they would have killed her.” He looked at Sam. “She didn’t say anything to you along those lines?”
“I’ve thought about that a lot,” she said. “And I can’t come up with anything specific. But I have to admit that I was so shocked by her confession to killing the man who’d followed her that I probably missed other things. My mind was racing all over the place, knowing that it was Fenton she was talking about. Remembering the book with the coded pages we’d found at his place, thinking about the tests you’d ordered on the blood-stained coat.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I
“Hey, it’s fine. The conversation probably wouldn’t be admissible in court anyway. I’m just looking for someplace to start. I still have to come up with evidence.”
Kelly peeked into the kitchen. “Hey you guys. I’m going to head home now. Iris is in bed, reading a large-print Agatha Christie. What time do you want me to come in tomorrow, Beau?”
He glanced at his watch. “I’ll have to leave before dawn but I don’t see any reason for you to be here that early. Mama will sleep until eight or so. Just come at your regular time and make her breakfast like you usually do.”
Kelly gave a little salute and left.
“I better get out of here, too,” Sam said. “You need to make an early night of it.”
He agreed reluctantly and saw her to the door. “I’d sure like more time with you. Maybe after the election my boss will actually put in some time in the office, and we can convince Kelly to stay a whole weekend so we get away somewhere.”
“Sounds nice.” Sam kissed him and then pulled her fleece jacket tightly together in front against the bitter breeze that came down from Taos Mountain. He watched as she got into her van and gave a little wave as she drove out.
Kelly sat in front of the TV with a reality show blasting away as the contestants traded foul-mouthed quips with each other. Sam made herself a cup of tea and sat at the kitchen table to total her day’s receipts and write up a bank deposit slip. She intended to browse her recipe files for new ideas but after nearly nodding off for the third
