Tip for a Lighter Version: If you’re trying to watch your weight because you happen to have a fancy dress you’ll need to fit in soon (or simply because you want to be able to zip up your pants), you can make a couple changes to the recipe. Use light cream cheese, swap half the eggs for egg replacement, and use buttermilk instead of whipping cream. You can also cut the recipe in half for a smaller cheesecake and bake it in a 7-inch springform pan instead.
Tapped Out: Chapter One
The look on Erik’s face said that whatever he’d come to talk to me about wasn’t good.
So did the fact that he’d cleared his throat three times in the last minute. We’d been friends long enough that I knew what that particular tic meant. He was nervous.
I nudged the cup of coffee I’d made him across my kitchen island and waited.
He wasn’t in uniform, so at least I knew this wasn’t official police business. No one was dead, and I hadn’t somehow gotten myself into trouble without realizing it.
For a second, I considered clearing my own throat. The silence was getting uncomfortable, but Erik wasn’t the kind of man you rushed. He’d tell me when he was ready.
“Do you want some maple syrup popcorn?” I asked. “I’ve been testing recipes for Stacey’s baby shower.”
Stacey Rathmell, Sugarwood’s bookkeeper and all-around fix-it woman, was due to have her first baby in a little over a month. I was throwing her a shower, and she’d decided she wanted maple-syrup themed favors, but not something we sold in the shop because she didn’t want me expending Sugarwood resources on her. I’d have gladly spent the money on tiny bottles of maple syrup or bouquets of maple syrup candy if it got me out of my kitchen.
Erik looped a finger through the handle of his coffee mug, but didn’t bring it any closer to him. “I’m not hungry.” He cleared his throat again. “I need advice about Elise.”
Was he thinking of proposing already? Erik and Elise started dating after Mark and I did. I thought they weren’t considering marriage yet—especially since most people waited longer than Mark and I had to get engaged. But maybe I’d been wrong. If he needed help planning a proposal Elise would love, I could give him some great ideas. I had to be better at planning a proposal than planning a baby shower. Or a wedding. Without Mark’s mom, I’d have been lost.
I didn’t want to come straight out and ask if that were it, though, and embarrass Erik even more. “Is something wrong?”
I casually popped a couple kernels of maple syrup popcorn into my mouth. This batch was only marginally better than my first attempt—it practically glued my jaw shut, it was so sticky.
“Maybe. She’s keeping something from me, and I’m not sure what to do about it.”
Crap. That was the opposite of where I hoped this conversation was going. It fell more into the I’m not sure this relationship is going to work category.
He’d probably come to me because, as far as I knew, I was his only female friend, but asking me for relationship advice was like asking a toddler to quiz you for a spelling bee.
“I’ve only had two serious relationships. One was a borderline psychopath who murdered his wife and tried to kill me. The other was Mark. Maybe Mark or Quincey would be a better choice to talk to this about.”
“I can’t talk to either of them. They’re both county employees.”
Erik was so by-the-book sometimes that he made me want to color outside the lines just to be contrary, but he’d lost me this time. “You’re going to have to be a bit less cryptic if you want my help.”
He sighed and finally took his first sip of coffee. “Elise has been suspended, and she won’t tell me why.”
Even if he’d let me guess, that wouldn’t have crossed my mind as a possibility. Elise wasn’t quite as strict as Erik, but she was a good police officer. “You’re sure this isn’t a mistake?”
He shook his head. “I asked her about it. She didn’t deny deserving the suspension, and she said that it’s not something I needed to worry about.”
If I had to make a guess about why she was keeping this from Erik, I’d have said it was one of two things. The first was that she didn’t want him getting in trouble trying to help her. The second seemed more likely. “Maybe she’s embarrassed. It was probably an innocent mistake, and Chief McTavish had to give her a slap on the wrist.”
“I asked the chief,” Erik said. “He wouldn’t tell me what was going on either, and he suggested it’d be better if I left it alone.”
That explained why he felt he couldn’t go directly to Quincey or Mark, even though Mark was the county medical examiner and not a police officer like the rest of them. If Chief McTavish found out that Erik continued to dig even after he’d shut Erik down, Erik and whoever he went to could be in trouble. Besides, if Erik didn’t know the truth, it wasn’t likely Quincey or Mark would, either. Mark wasn’t a police officer, and Erik outranked Quincey.
It also sounded ominous, like this was more than a small disciplinary action.
Erik had to be thinking what I was now thinking. Fair Haven’s former chief had been involved in all kinds of cover-ups. Chief McTavish came here in part to uncover whether the corruption stopped with the former chief or went deeper. If he’d suspended Elise and warned Erik off, it could be because he suspected Elise of being dirty.
No way was Elise a dirty cop. “You know she’s not—”
“I know.” He pushed his cup back away from him. “It’s not that I think she’s actually involved in any of the things the chief’s investigating, but that doesn’t mean circumstantial evidence won’t point to her. That could end her career.”
Or at least end her career here in Fair Haven, where the court of public opinion sometimes mattered more than the actual law. Even if she was cleared in the end, it could mean she’d have to start over somewhere else. Leaving Fair Haven meant leaving her family behind, and I knew how close the Cavanaughs were. One of the items in the con side of the list Mark and I were making as we tried to decide whether to move back to DC after we got married involved leaving his family behind.
And then there was Erik’s job. Would they even be able to get employment in the same county, or would a forced move for Elise mean the end of their relationship?
I dumped my half-finished cup of coffee in the sink. “I’ll go talk to her. Maybe it’s not as bad as we think.”
I decided not to call ahead and give Elise a chance to say no. The whole drive, my parents’ voices yelled in my brain about how rude it was to show up unannounced. Fair Haven had that small town drop by anytime attitude, so hopefully Elise wouldn’t be too annoyed.
Or, at least, not annoyed by me showing up on her doorstep. Based on what Erik had told me, she wasn’t going to love me poking into her private situation.
But that’s what family did. In a few months, I’d officially be a Cavanaugh, and Elise would be my cousin-in-law.
I parked behind Elise’s car in her driveway. The high-pitched squeals of happy kids playing drifted from the backyard.
Elise’s kids were young enough that she’d probably told them she was on vacation rather than that she’d been suspended. She wouldn’t tell me anything around them. If I wanted the truth, I’d have to draw her away.
I detoured from my path to the backyard and rang the doorbell instead.
