Devil's Food Cake Read Online Free

orientation of the body. He nodded slowly. “He was probably dead before he hit the floor.” His eyes went to the podium lying on its back on the ballroom floor, and Sadie looked as well. The front access door was in pieces all over the stage. Set inside—where Sadie imagined the electronic equipment should be—was a gun.
A sawed-off shotgun, if Sadie wasn’t mistaken. An elaborate webbing of what looked like string, or maybe a thin cable, was wrapped around the gun, though it was in disarray now and tangled with the thicker cord of the microphone. Had the cable held the gun in place and engaged the trigger when Mr. Ogreski pulled on the microphone? Someone had put an awful lot of thought into this.
    “It wasn’t an accident,” Sadie said. The words had no sooner left her mouth than she realized they were likely the dumbest words she’d ever said in her life. Guns didn’t accidentally end up hidden inside a podium.
    “No,” Pete said. “It wasn’t.”

Chapter 3
     

    Less than a minute later, a stream of police officers entered the ballroom. Pete put one of them in charge of the body and hurried to confer with the others.
    Sadie shifted her weight, feeling rather conspicuous standing on the stage waiting for Pete to tell her what she should do next. Then she remembered Gayle. Grateful to have something to do, she hurried down the stairs and to their table where she picked up Gayle’s water glass before returning to her friend who was still sitting in the chair facing the right wall of the ballroom. Gayle had regained a little color in her face, but was crying and wiping at her eyes and cheeks, smearing her mascara in the process. Sadie grabbed a cloth napkin from the closest table, hoping no one had blown their nose in it.
    “Here you go,” Sadie said softly, handing the glass of water to Gayle, who took it with shaky hands. She wiped at Gayle’s cheeks with the napkin, but frowned when she only made the smudging worse. After a few more failed attempts with the napkin, she planted a polite smile on her face and put the square of polyester down. She’d simply have to get Gayle properly cleaned up before she had the chance to look in a mirror.
    “I brought the podium out,” Gayle said, her voice flat. “I brought it out for him.”
    Sadie wasn’t sure how to respond, but she felt guilty all over again. She’d told Gayle to help with the sound situation because she felt threatened by Gayle’s flirting and now her friend might be forever traumatized by the event.
    “No one could have known,” Sadie said, even though someone had to have known. Someone put the gun there. Had that person disconnected the wireless system so the podium would be necessary? Sadie shook her head slowly. Who would go to such lengths to do something so horrible? And in public no less?
    “Gayle?”
    Sadie turned as Pete approached them. He came around the chair so he was facing Gayle. “I know it’s difficult, but I need your statement.”
    Gayle nodded slightly, but as soon as she opened her mouth, her jaw trembled and she began bawling again. Pete grabbed another chair while Sadie stepped closer to her friend and placed a comforting arm around Gayle’s shoulders. Gayle leaned into Sadie; she was glad she’d worn a dark-colored dress so the mascara wouldn’t stain.
    “I know you’ve been through a horrific ordeal,” Pete said, sounding truly concerned and compassionate. He was such a good detective.
    “I-I just can’t believe it,” Gayle said, trying to sit up straight and wipe her eyes again. “I was backstage, planning to slip out after he introduced Thom—there wasn’t any way down on the right side of the stage, you know.”
    That’s right, Sadie realized. The left side of the stage had a door that led out of the ballroom, hidden from the audience by the curtains. But the right side, where the podium had been stored so it would be out of the way, was a dead end. Someone would have to come out from the curtains