Cupcake Explosion (Cupcakes 4)

Carmen nodded, her demeanor much more subdued after our meeting with Sarah.

“What kind of a guy does that?” she asked after a few beats of silence. “I mean, to leave your dying wife and start a new life with someone else while she’s still alive . . .”

“She told him to.”

“Still, I couldn’t do it,” Carmen said softly.

I couldn’t either, but I didn’t say that.

“It’s not our place to judge the clients. Believe me, you’ll see a lot of stuff crazier than this. You just have to do the job and not think about it.”

“You’ve never had anything like this, though, have you?”

I shook my head.

“No, I have not.”

We pulled up to the house and I looked at the clock on the dash. It was lunchtime, and there were two cars in the driveway. Hopefully, we’d be lucky enough to find everyone home so we could get the pictures right away and close this case immediately.

I knew the neighborhood pretty well, so I knew there was an alleyway behind this row of houses, which would face the backyard.

“Come on, let’s go for a walk,” I told Carmen, grabbing my camera and getting out of the van.

We walked down the street to the corner, then turned and started coming back up the alley. When I saw a large tree in the middle, I told Carmen to give me a boost, and after I looked around to make sure no one was watching us, I got up in it.

“What should I do?” Carmen asked.

“Keep walking, and if you see anything, try to snap a shot with your phone, but don’t be obvious about it. Pretend you’re taking a selfie.”

I counted houses until I figured out which one was theirs, then shimmied across a large branch and laid on my stomach. I pointed the camera into the kitchen window and adjusted until it was like I was standing in the room.

When I didn’t see anyone in the kitchen, I moved the lens, stopping to peer in each window until I found them.

They were in the dining room.

Mr. Larsen was seated at the head of the table. He was average height, with red hair and a grinning face. Next to him was a pretty brunette, who was holding a baby on her lap. The baby was eating what looked like peas off of the plate in front of him and had a shock of red hair like his father.

I snapped a few photos of all of them together at the table, then zoomed in to get close-ups of their faces. They looked like a normal, happy family, but there was a lead weight in my stomach as I watched them.

I stayed in the tree as they came out into the backyard and let the baby play on a blanket for a few minutes, before Larsen kissed the baby, then the woman, and left to go back to work. At least, that was my assumption.

Carmen was walking back toward me, so when I saw the woman and child go back into the house, I lowered myself down from the tree and waited for Carmen to reach me.

“Get anything?” I asked Carmen as I fell into step beside her and we headed back down the alley and to my van.

“Yeah, some cute stuff of them on the blanket,” Carmen answered, her tone sad.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, it just . . . sucks, you know? I mean, Sarah’s stuck in that bed in her house, while her husband’s off living this double life, apparently getting the best of both worlds.”

“Well, his wife is dying, and has been for years, so he doesn’t have it that great,” I replied, playing devil’s advocate.

Carmen nodded but didn’t say anything else.

We headed back toward my house so we could make prints of the photos we’d taken, then decided to swing by Amy May’s on our way back to Sarah’s. We definitely needed a round of cupcakes after the day we’d had.