A Murderous Cake of Ingredients

Just one slice of cake?

Yes, it would have taken just a slice.

The cake sat on the counter, abandoned and stale, awaiting it’s short trip in a trash bag. Eventually, the once delectable chocolate confectionary treat would be laid to waste in a landfill outside of town. It’s delicious and once sweet frosting would spoil and be forgotten, along with the rest of the ingredients contained within the delicious dessert.

Flour

The first ingredient for most cakes. And the first ingredient Cleo gathered for her baking that evening. Cleo loved to bake. It centered and relaxed her. Unfortunately, Cleo had been having quite the rough day and needed the distraction.

“Distractions” are what led Cleo into the situation which preceded her baking. The situation in question actually did not involve “distractions” on Cleo’s part. Truth be told, Cleo was a very focused being. Cleo led what the rich would call “a simple life” and what the poor might call “successful”. She had a job, which she did as begrudgingly as anyone in the working class. And she had had a happy marriage to a man she had hoped would spend the rest of his… oh, wait. Cleo’s husband had spent the rest of his life with Cleo, with the one exception. Cleo’s husband had suffered a moment of weakness, a “distraction”, on his part.

Eggs

Many may substitute this ingredient nowadays, but Cleo was a fan of the classics. She believed in respecting the original plan, despite any changes or flaws that may continue throughout the years. Marriage was one of those sanctities that she had hoped to keep simple and classical in her life.

Cleo’s husband had allowed his ‘distraction’ to sway his vows, breaking this classical view Cleo had of marriage.

Baking Powder

Not to be confused with Baking Soda. Both were included in the cake, but differing amounts would result in an unfavorable taste. Cleo knew the amounts. Marriage was not always, if ever, 50-50. Occasionally, marriage would be 70-30, or 80-20, one way or another. It all depended on picking each other up. However, Cleo’s late husband went looking for percentages elsewhere.

Vanilla

Derived from a most unsavory place, this liquid adds flavor to baked goods. Many are disgusted to find where this sweet liquid comes from, much like Cleo’s discovery of her husband’s infidelity. Something broke in Cleo that day and now her husband was a disgusting mess in the other room. However, Cleo would leave that clean up to better trained individuals, after she had finished baking of course.

Vegetable Oil

This oily liquid serves to moisten the cake. A moist cake is certainly best, much like the carpet in the next room. That stain would never recover from the moist blood which had drench it. Cleo didn’t think she would have to worry much about it. After the police arrived, she was certain to be detained as a primary suspect. Cleo had watched plenty of crime shows to know that in married couples, if one is murdered, the first suspect is the spouse.

However, she already had a plan. And just as soon as she had finished baking, she would call the cops. The police arrived shortly after her phone call, the sweet and delish looking cake sitting just on the counter under glass in the kitchen. The police rushed to the bedroom to discover the body and called in the appropriate teams.

Sugar

Sweet and tasteful. Cleo was the perfect actress, treating the cops with respect and pleading with them to find the culprit.

“Was it a stray bullet?” She cried. “Who would have done this?! My husband…”

The teams of people trying to keep Cleo out of the room assured her they would get to the bottom of it. Sure enough, the wall seemed to have a hole going through it, much like a bullet hole.

Eventually, Cleo was detained for questioning as she had predicted, after showing the outrage that a natural person would exhibit in being accused of murdering their spouse.

The officers began their investigation. However, after several sweeps of the house, looking for evidence and clues, everything fell silent. No one would be coming and going from the house for some time. The teams cleaned up and departed, never to return again.

Milk

The milk in the fridge would be spoiled before Cleo returned. She had been cleared of all charges. It was clear that something had transpired in Cleo’s house. What was determined was that a random civilian or passerby had shot off a gun, with no assumed mal-intent, at Cleo’s house. The bullet pierced the wall and impacted Cleo’s husband directly in his skull, ending his life.

“He didn’t have a chance to feel anything.” People would say as if to assure Cleo. Putting on her best lack-of-confidence smile, Cleo hoped otherwise. She would nod and resign into herself, not wanting to give away the game she played.

“And they’ll never know.” Cleo sat at her empty kitchen table, reflecting on being free of court dates and interrogations, though no official would call them interrogations. Cleo was questioned over and over, as a way of looking for intent. However, Cleo’s simple and quiet life painted the perfect picture of one who was incapable of such a term as “murder”.

To make everything all the more easy for Cleo’s tale of lies, the third party had vanished without ever coming forward. Cleo was glad for the lack of her husband’s lover’s presence in her life, now and forever.

After no motive was found, Cleo was returned home. Not that she would consider this place home anymore. She may have killed the man, but the man killed her home. Looking down the hall at the room in which she had committed her “grand” crime, Cleo sighed. Eventually, she would have to go back down to that room and pack.

Butter

Cleo had buttered everyone up. At the funeral she got everyone on her side. Not one attendee doubted her love of her late husband. All the while, her feelings twisted and gnarled at her screaming to tell everyone what a two-faced cheat he was to her. Every time she would go to say something positive about her dead husband, she would begin sobbing to hide the rage that flooded her.

She just kept seeing her husband getting ready for his business trip. He had thought he was alone as he sniffed the article of clothing that belonged to neither Cleo nor her husband. When confronted about it, the bold man came out about his unfaithful behavior, revealing he had been using the business trips as a cover. Even worse, he acted as if she should just accept it as the natural progression of their relationship. The gull he had! He never suspected she would retrieve his own weapon from his top draw and turn it upon him.

There were, of course, records of Cleo’s husband owning a gun, but Cleo feigned ignorance in the matter and the weapon was never found. That is to say, the search team checked every nook and cranny of the house to eliminate the possibility of foul play and to identify a murder weapon.

Cocoa

The chocolate powder matched the consistency of the fire that had burnt out in the fireplace weeks ago. Cleo’s husband was supposed to clear it out at some point but, for some reason, he hadn’t gotten around to it. Cleo smiled as she stood and walked past the fireplace, glancing at the poker she had used to poke a hole through the bedroom wall. Cleo was surprised at how convincing a bullet hole the poker had made.

After she had finished packing what she wanted to save from this waste of years, Cleo walked back over to the kitchen counter. She looked at the cake and grinned. Cleo lifted up the glass cover to reveal the stale cake.

“You would have been such a delicious cake. It’s a shame none of the nice officers wanted a slice.” Cleo mocked as lifted up the display stand and dumped the cake into a trash bag she intended to drop off at the dump later.

Many of the officers had seen the cake and thought it most desirable. However, all of them maintained their level of professionalism and left the cake alone to go bad.

Because of that, Cleo was free to go.

She would pack up and leave, getting as far away from this bad memory as possible. All she needed to do was dump the last of her garbage in the landfill nearby. Then she would drive away, leaving that cake behind and it’s final and most important ingredient. The one thing that would have implicated her in the death of her husband. She had baked the murder weapon into the cake. The weapon no one had found and at this point, would never find. It was certainly a most peculiar ingredient in chocolate cake.

A Gun

The final ingredient in the cake batter. And all it would have taken to solve this case, was one slice of cake.