Fatal Festive Donuts

by Cindy Bell

  “You know getting up this early in the morning is kind of nice.” Joyce smiled. “It’s almost as if we get the world to ourselves, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, I agree. Most people are still asleep in their beds, and we’re already up, enjoying the day. I could get used to this. I could also get used to skipping the rushing around getting everything ready for school craziness in the morning.” She grinned.

  “Oh, you would miss it, and you know it.” Joyce rinsed their cups out in the sink, then set them in the dishwasher. “We’d better get moving if we’re going to make it there early.”

  “Yes, I would miss it, you’re right.” She laughed as she gathered her things. “Let’s have a great day, Joyce. No matter what.”

  They headed out the door to Brenda’s car. She insisted that since she was staying at Joyce’s she would be the one to do all the driving, so that Joyce wouldn’t be out of gas money as well.

  “Yes, I can agree to that. I just hope that Jerry doesn’t cause any trouble. I’m in the mood to cause a little trouble right back.” She pursed her lips as she settled in the car.

  “Honey remember, Joyce.” She started the engine and looked over at her. “Or at least, sugar. Is that better?”

  “Fine, I’ll do my best to smother him with sugar.” She laughed.

  When they arrived at the market there were a few other cars that dotted the parking lot, but most people hadn’t arrived just yet. The two continued to joke and laugh as they approached the truck.

  Brenda was absolutely glowing with joy. There was a time she would have shied away and done whatever Jerry barked at her to do. But that wasn’t who she was anymore. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be intimidated by anyone anymore, especially a man like him.

  As she climbed up on the first step to unlock the door to the truck, she was filled with excitement for the day. Then she noticed something gooey all over the steps.

  “Ugh, what is this?” She lifted her shoe to find the sole of it covered in something strange. Then she noticed the egg shells on the step, and all around the step on the ground. “Oh no, Aaron must have broken the eggs, or maybe something else got to them?” She sighed, but was determined not to let it affect their day. “It’s all right, it’s early enough to order some more.”

  “Still, he should be more careful.” Joyce frowned.

  “He might have been in a rush or something.” As the key slid into the lock, Brenda discovered something shocking. “Joyce!” Her voice trembled.

  “What is it?” She looked over at her with alarm. It wasn’t often that Brenda sounded so frazzled.

  “The door is unlocked.” Brenda tugged it open as she spoke. Perhaps she expected to see a robber beyond the door, or even some kind of crafty animal. Instead, she saw a body strewn across the floor of the truck. A body, that appeared to be Jerry.

  Her head spun with fear and disbelief. Was it some kind of prank? Had someone just put a mannequin that looked like Jerry on the floor of their truck? It couldn’t really be him, could it? She shuddered as she continued to stare.

  “Is he dead?” The words spilled out of her mouth, though she couldn’t believe she’d really spoken them.

  “It sure looks like it.” Joyce frowned as she finally overcame the shock of the sight of him. She reached down and checked for a pulse in his neck. Upon feeling nothing, she grabbed her phone and at the same time as she shouted for help from others who were just arriving, she dialed the emergency number for an ambulance. When she’d touched Jerry, his skin was cold. She was certain that it was too late for his life to be saved, but she knew that she had to at least try. As she gave the information to the person who answered her call, she noticed that Brenda had barely moved a muscle. She placed one hand on her back.

  “It’s going to be okay, Brenda, everything’s going to be okay.”

  Brenda shivered at the touch and finally blinked. Her eyes burned from staring so hard at Jerry.

  “How could this happen? A heart attack?” A quick glance over his body revealed no indication of any bodily harm. He was in his fifties, and as tightly wound as he was, she guessed it was possible that the stress in his life might have led to a heart attack.

  “Maybe, or a stroke. It could be any number of things, but the important thing right now is that we get the authorities here.”

  “What’s happened?” Mark ran towards the donut truck. He stopped short when he saw Jerry sprawled across the floor. “Is that Jerry?” His voice cracked.

  “Yes, I’m afraid it is.” Joyce was flustered as she attempted to answer him, while also trying to speak to the person on the phone. Mark knelt down and started doing CPR. Joyce knew it was pointless, but she knew he had to try. More people approached the scene. She knew that in a matter of seconds the news would spread and the crowd would be overwhelming.

  “Please hurry.” She hung up the phone and tucked it into her pocket. In the distance she could already hear sirens.

  “What was he doing here?” Brenda mumbled as she began to shift from one foot to the other. “How could he end up on our floor? I’m sure I locked up last night.”

  “I’m sure you did, too.” Joyce narrowed her eyes. She could recall the exact moment that Brenda turned the key. Her stomach churned as she wondered what Jerry might have been up to.

  Brenda could barely take a breath as her chest tightened.

  “Maybe he’s not dead, I hope he’s not dead.”

  “Brenda, something terrible has happened here.” Joyce couldn’t find any words to reassure her. She didn’t think there was any good explanation. As the police began to arrive, Joyce pulled Brenda away from the crowd.

  “Brenda, I think he must have been here to sabotage our truck.” She crossed her arms as she looked back at the body that was now surrounded by police officers, medical personnel and a few of Jerry’s employees.

  “You really think he would break in to try to cause our business some kind of harm?” Brenda frowned and looked away from the scene. “What a terrible man. But that doesn’t mean that he deserved this.”

  “No, it doesn’t. But it does make me wonder what he might have done.” She shivered some as the possibilities raced through her mind. “He could have contaminated our supplies, or even planted something to make us fail a health inspection.”

  “Joyce!” Brenda narrowed her eyes as she looked back at her friend. “I hardly think this is the time to be focusing on that. Jerry is dead. What does it matter what he did to our truck?”

  “What does it matter?” Joyce forced down a flash of anger. “It matters because, although this is a tragic moment, we don’t deserve to lose our business either. It matters because whatever he did was the last thing he did in life, and perhaps it had something to do with his death. Most of all it matters because he died in our truck, and soon word will spread through the entire town. Which means that we will have to fight the rumors and the hit to our reputation in order to win customers back.” She pursed her lips. “I’m surprised you’re not more concerned about this.”

  “Well Joyce, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but when someone dies my first thought isn’t how it may affect me financially. I think about his family, and his friends, who will have to suffer his loss.” She wrung her hands. “I don’t even know if he was married. Do you?”

  “I doubt that anyone could be married to a man like that.” She gritted her teeth. “I understand where you’re coming from, Brenda, and you’re right, he probably had some family or friends that will miss him. But that doesn’t mean that we should overlook the fact that he might have been here to destroy us, and if we aren’t careful he will succeed at that, even though he’s already gone.”

  “Yes, I guess you have a point.” Brenda sighed. “We’ll have to make sure we inspect things really well.”

  “Top to bottom. I want to know what he was up to.”

  It didn’t take long before the police had control of the crowd. They roped off the area and shooed Joyce and Brenda back away from
the truck.

  Joyce paced back and forth, her breath puffing out into the air before her in quick white clouds. Brenda watched the paramedics and police surround Jerry. She noticed another man approach the scene. He was about Joyce’s age, and wore a suit.

  “Isn’t that…” She paused a moment, then looked over at Joyce. “Detective Crackle is here.”

  “Detective Crackle?” She looked in the direction that Brenda pointed. “I didn’t expect him to be here.”

  They’d met in less than ideal circumstances and knew that he was a homicide detective. Why would he be at the scene of a heart attack? An eerie feeling passed through her.

  “Whatever happens next, the important thing is that we get the truck back up and running as soon as possible.”

  “I know why you feel that way, Joyce, but it’s still hard for me to think about that right now.” She frowned as she studied her friend. “He might not have been our favorite person, but he was still a person, and now he’s gone.”

  “I know that, Brenda, I really do, and I am sorry that someone will be grieving him.” Joyce shivered some as she watched Detective Crackle walk in their direction. “But you have to understand that his intentions were to stop us from succeeding and I do not want to allow that to happen. Even in death he might destroy us, so we have to be on top of things and ready to combat the rumors and issues we might face. It may seem callous to you, but it’s not my intention to be. I just know that if we don’t get ahead of this, we might not recover from it.”

  “Ladies.” Detective Crackle paused in front of them. “I understand that you two had some interactions with the deceased?”

  “Yes, we did.” Joyce rested a hand lightly on Brenda’s shoulder. “We spoke with him several times.”

  “As I understand it, there was some conflict?” He pulled out his notepad.

  “Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?” Joyce tried to hide the defensiveness in her tone, but she could hear her words edged with it.

  Detective Crackle must have heard it as well as he looked up at her sharply.

  “I’m just trying to get an idea of the environment here at the market, what his last moments might have been like, and why he ended up in your food truck. Did he have a key?” His stern gaze lingered on Joyce a moment longer before he shifted his attention to Brenda.

  “No, of course not.” Brenda glanced over at Joyce. She could tell that Joyce wanted to take the lead in the conversation with the detective, and she was a little concerned that she might say something she shouldn’t.

  “Then, what was he doing there?” He tapped his pen on the notepad and passed a glance between the two of them.

  “It’s not as if we invited him.” Joyce frowned. “We were surprised to find him there. I mean, I think it’s pretty clear that he broke in. Don’t you?”

  “No, it’s not clear.” He looked at the truck. “Do you have any cameras?“

  “No.” Brenda shook her head. “Well we do, but they aren’t hooked up. They kept giving us trouble and losing the connection, so we just gave up on them for the moment. We are planning on getting them fixed.”

  “I see.” He made a note and met her eyes. “If you’ll excuse us, Brenda, I’d like to speak to Joyce alone.” He did not look away from Joyce as he spoke.

  “I think it’s best if I stay with her, she’s had quite a shock.” Brenda slipped her hand into Joyce’s.

  “If you don’t mind, I have a few questions to ask, and since Joyce is the owner of the truck, she is the one I’d like to speak with.” He took a slight step back and held out his hands, with the notepad folded up in one. “Let me make it clear to you both, we can do this here, or we can do this at the station.”

  “What?” Joyce’s stomach flipped. “What are you talking about? Why would we need to go down to the station? Because he had a heart attack?”

  “What we have here, right now, is a suspicious death. There is no indication that it was a heart attack, and we won’t know exactly what happened until some testing is done. However, Jerry was in very good health. Of course, there are still possible medical causes for his death, but the fact that you claim he may have broken into your truck indicates to me that there may be much more to this. I don’t want to take you downtown to have these conversations, but if that is what it takes in order for me to get a little bit of cooperation, then that is what I will do.” He looked into Joyce’s eyes again, his gaze determined.

  “Fine.” She drew a slow breath and let the tension ease from her muscles. She certainly wasn’t going to put Brenda in a position where she would be in the back of a police car. She could admit that she was being uncooperative, and it might have been for a few reasons. The main one would be the strange sensation she experienced when she was around the detective. She’d seen him around town quite a bit, and he had been to their donut truck at least once a week lately. That wasn’t unusual, since many of the local police officers enjoyed the discount they offered to safety and rescue personnel.

  “Joyce, are you sure?” Brenda frowned as she looked at the detective. “You have no reason to take us to the station, and I also know that you couldn’t force us to go unless we were under arrest, and you certainly have nothing to arrest us for.”

  “You may be right about all of that.” Detective Crackle nodded as he offered her a tight smile. “But after many years of experience in this job, I’ve discovered there is always a way to get around pesky rules and regulations. Would you like me to explain how?”

  “Enough.” Joyce gave Brenda’s hand a squeeze. “I’ll be fine. We’re just going to have a conversation. It’s not a big deal.”

  “All right, but if you need me just let me know.” Brenda reluctantly released her hand. She wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to walk away, but she knew that she didn’t have another option. Once Joyce decided she wanted something a certain way, there was no changing her mind. As she stepped away from the pair, she noticed the way that Detective Crackle moved closer to Joyce. Most might assume it was an attempt to intimidate the petite woman, but she saw something else in it, as if it was protective. The thought hung in her mind as she walked over to a group of people that had gathered quite close to the truck. She knew there would be a lot of questions to answer, and the truth was she had just as many of her own. If what Detective Crackle indicated was true, maybe Jerry hadn’t died from natural causes. Maybe there was more to it than that. Jerry had his share of enemies. Who would hate him enough to want to kill him? She hadn’t seen a mark on him, how would someone kill him without leaving a mark?

  Chapter 4

  Once Brenda walked away, Joyce felt a little uneasy alone with the detective. There wasn’t a thing about him that she feared, but there was that strange ripple of familiarity, as if she had known him for some time. It confused her, as she didn’t really know him that well at all.

  “I appreciate you deciding to cooperate with me.” He unfolded his notepad again and began to scribble something down on it. “Please understand my only goal here is to make sure I have as much information as early as possible, just in case this turns out to be more than a death investigation. I know I came on a little strong, I apologize for that. It’s been a rough morning.” He lifted his eyes from the notepad to hers.

  “I’m not always the most pleasant myself.” Joyce offered a half-smile. “How can I help?”

  “About these disagreements you’ve had with Jerry, what was the main issue that led to them? Did you have a personal relationship with him?”

  “No, I didn’t have any kind of relationship with him. The main issue is that he was painful.” She lifted her shoulders in a mild shrug. “I shouldn’t say that, now that he’s dead, right?” She grimaced. “But, it’s the truth.” She noticed that his expression grew tense once more, and wondered if she had been a little too honest.

  “Being painful is rather subjective. Could you be a little more specific please?” He tapped his pencil against the notepad. Each strike of t
he eraser against the paper caused Joyce to feel even more irritated. Her mind filled with all of the things that Jerry could have sabotaged inside the truck. What if she had to replace everything? There was no money for that. They’d invested a lot in supplies to be ready for the market even though they hadn’t all been delivered, and every minute the truck stayed closed, was a loss that would be harder to recover from.

  “He didn’t like it that the market gave us a slot instead of his bakery and particularly a slot on the side of the market that was closer to his bakery. However, we had nothing to do with that, the market assigned all of the slots.” She slid her hands into her pockets and did her best to calm herself down. “He was also not a very kind man. He liked to cause trouble with everyone he knew. I hate to say this, but I doubt that I was the only one he had a problem with. In fact, I know that many of his employees and other shop and truck owners had issues with him.”

  “Couldn’t part of the situation have been resolved or at least appeased by you simply moving the truck? It is on wheels, isn’t it?” He flashed her a grin that seemed completely inappropriate at that moment, and yet there was something remarkably endearing about it.

  “No, we couldn’t just move the truck, as it was the only slot available to us. If we tried to move it then we would risk being kicked out of the market. Plus, there was no reason for us to move it. We were fully within our rights to be there. He simply didn’t like having the competition.” She studied the detective for a moment. “What are all of these questions really about, Detective? I was married to a detective for many years and I have seen enough cop shows to know there’s no reason to investigate a death from natural causes.”

  “You watch a lot of those shows, eh?” He lifted an eyebrow and his brown eyes flashed for a moment. “Then you should know I don’t have to offer my reasoning to you. I like to be thorough on any case I investigate. There was clearly conflict here before this death occurred. I like to cover all of my bases.”