Donut Shop Mystery 25 - Devil's Food Defense

by Jessica Beck

  “Thanks for understanding. I’ll see you at five.” It was the latest I’d been able to sleep on my days off. That wasn’t usually a problem though, since Jake awoke that time of morning every day, whether he had a job or not.

  “In the morning?” Grace asked as she looked at me incredulously. “You might be up then, but I’m not rolling out of bed until seven, and even that’s a concession to you. I may have taken the next few days off work myself, but that doesn’t mean that I’m getting up while it’s still dark outside, for goodness sake.”

  “What should I do while I’m waiting for you to wake up?” I asked her with a grin.

  “Make pancakes, do a crossword puzzle or two, repaint the porch; I don’t care. Just don’t wake me up.”

  “It’s a deal. I’ll see you in the morning,” I said as I went into her guestroom.

  “Remember, not too early,” she said with a soft smile. It may have given someone who didn’t know her the impression that she’d been kidding about me not waking up her up before seven, but for anyone who knew her, they’d realize that Grace was deadly serious.

  “Not too early,” I echoed.

  It always takes me a while to fall asleep in a strange place, even if it was only steps from my own bed back at the cottage. As I lay there trying my best to will myself to sleep, I thought about Jake. How was he really doing with his sister and her no-good boyfriend? I knew that he’d be happy to spend time with Sarah’s kids, but would Paul and Amy be enough to take his mind off the situation his sister had gotten herself into yet again? I considered calling him, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know if things were going poorly on his end, too.

  Selfishly, I decided that I wouldn’t be of any help to him, and it would just delay my slumber that much longer. Forcing out the thought of my husband being so many miles away, and the fact that a killer was ever so much closer, I did my best to fall asleep, and to my surprise, twenty minutes later, I finally managed to do just that.

  Chapter 15

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” I said the next morning as Grace finally came out of her bedroom.

  She looked blearily at the clock. “It’s four minutes past seven,” she said. “Coffee. Must have coffee.”

  I’d made a fresh pot, so I poured her some. She smelled the aroma wafting from her mug before sipping it. “That’s delightful. Are those for me?”

  “You mentioned pancakes earlier,” I said, “so I thought I’d make some.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” she said, “but I’m glad you did.” She took one from the plate and studied it a moment. “This doesn’t look like my usual pancake.”

  “That’s because I added some diced apple, instant oatmeal, raisins, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon to your mix,” I said.

  She looked at the pancake skeptically. “I’m not sure about this.”

  “Put a little butter on it and dash some syrup on top and try it,” I said. “If you don’t like it, I’ll make some with the plain mix you had in your pantry.”

  “Okay. I’m going to hold you to that,” she said as she did as I’d instructed. After cutting off a tiny edge, she ate it, chewing slowly and carefully. “I can’t taste any oatmeal in it, but I can sure tell there’s apple.”

  “Did I use too much?” I asked her.

  “No, it’s perfect.” Grace took another bite, and then she smiled. “That’s actually delicious. Care to join me?”

  “Thanks, but I already ate,” I said, and then I took a sip of my own coffee.

  “Where did you learn to make these?” she asked me.

  “I’ve been doctoring my waffle mix for years,” I admitted. “You just happened to have an apple in your pantry, and some quick oats and raisins, too.”

  “Wow, you truly are the wizard of breakfast, aren’t you?” Grace asked after taking a few more bites.

  “Yes, I’ve found my niche in life,” I said good-naturedly.

  “That wasn’t a slam, Suzanne,” she said as she took another bite. She’d polished off one waffle and was starting on another quarter segment, so I knew that she really must like them.

  “I didn’t take it as such,” I said. “After you finish eating, let’s start tracking down our suspects and see if we can make them squirm.”

  “Sounds like fun to me,” she said as she polished off her last small segment.

  “Don’t feel as though you have to eat them all,” I said. “They freeze great, and they’ll make a handy snack.”

  “Okay, you’re right,” she said as she pushed her plate away. “If I eat any more, I’ll be waddling around the rest of the day, anyway. Give me half an hour to get ready, and we can get started.”

  As she stood, I started clearing the table.

  “You don’t have to do that,” she said.

  “I don’t mind,” I replied. “I’m used to cleaning up as I go, so this won’t take much time at all.”

  “Thanks,” Grace said with a smile. “You’re like the perfect houseguest, you know? Would you care to stay again tonight?”

  “It might not be a bad idea, if the situation doesn’t improve,” I said, running some water in her sink. She had a dishwasher, but I didn’t want to leave the few things behind for her to deal with later, even if it just meant running it through its cycle and putting the clean dishes away.

  “It’s a deal. And about tomorrow morning.”

  “What about it?” I asked. Was she going to invite me out to eat breakfast in return for feeding us this morning? Not quite.

  “I have some canned pumpkin in the cupboard. How would that be in the waffle mix?”

  I laughed. “I’ve done that, too. They’re really good.”

  “Yum. I can hardly wait.”

  As we got into Grace’s car half an hour later, I fought the urge to direct her toward my cottage instead of toward town. For some reason, I felt the urge to make sure that it was still there, intact and unharmed. I knew that I was being unreasonable, but the desire was there nonetheless. I got over it by the time we got to the donut shop, and I was happy to see that the parking area in front of the shop was full, and there was a line of customers queued up inside.

  Grace must have noticed it, too. “Do you want to go in and lend them a hand?”

  “No, I’d better not,” I said absently before I looked over at her. “You were kidding, weren’t you?”

  “Suzanne, I know how hard it is for you to let go of your baby. I’m proud of you for doing it as much as you’ve managed to do so far.”

  “It hasn’t been easy,” I said. “Who should we tackle first?”

  “Well, I’m guessing that Donald Rand isn’t in the office yet, and Gladys is probably still at home. That leaves Barry Vance. He’s probably out on his route already, but I have no idea how we find him.”

  “There’s only one thing we can do,” I suggested. “We drive around until we spot him, or something else that might grab our attention.”

  “What I’d really like to do is go snoop at Gray’s place,” Grace said.

  “I’d like to do that myself, but chances are good that if there was a cop posted on duty last night, there will be one there this morning.”

  “Tell you what we should do. If we drive around and can’t find Barry, and if it’s still too early to visit Rand or Gladys, then we try out there again. What do we have to lose?”

  “That sounds like a solid plan to me,” I said.

  We got lucky, which was a nice change of pace. Barry was just leaving the post office for his rounds. He was dressed in his uniform, shorts included, and was pushing a cart with his day’s deliveries.

  Unfortunately, he wasn’t alone.

  “Barry, do you have a second?” I asked him after Grace had pulled over and found a place to park. We’d gotten ahead of him, so we were waiting
when he approached.

  “Sorry, I’m busy,” he said brusquely.

  “It’s important,” I said, and then I looked at the young woman with him, also wearing the same blue uniform, though she looked much better in it than Barry did. “Hi there, I’m Suzanne Hart.”

  I extended a hand, and she took it and smiled. “I’m Kimberly Atkins,” she said.

  “I’m training her,” Barry said.

  “New to the job?” Grace asked her.

  “I’ve been working in Union Square, but when this route opened up, I jumped on it.”

  “You’re not quitting, are you, Barry?” I asked him.

  “It’s not common knowledge,” he said as he glared at his trainee, “but I’ve served my time. If I don’t walk another step on this beat after tomorrow, that will be just fine with me.”

  “Did you qualify for your pension already?” Grace asked. It was an excellent question, one I hadn’t thought to ask.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m all set,” he said.

  “But I thought you were still six months away from getting it in full,” Kimberly said, clearly puzzled by his answer.

  “There are more things to life than money. I’m leaving April Springs and moving in with my sister and her family down in Big Pine Key, Florida. They have a guest cottage nobody’s using, so I’ve finally decided to take her up on her offer to come down there. Now if you’ll excuse me, we’ve got work to do, if you don’t mind.”

  “We don’t mind a bit,” I said. “Just one more question, though. How are you going to be able to afford to live down there without your full pension?”

  “I won’t need much,” he said. “Besides, that’s not really any of your business, is it?”

  As they walked away, I said, “It was nice meeting you, Kimberly. Welcome to April Springs. If you get a chance, come by Donut Hearts, and I’ll treat you to a free donut.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” she said.

  “Let’s go,” Barry said as he sped up his pace. It was as though he couldn’t get away from us fast enough.

  After they were gone, I asked Grace, “What do you make of that?”

  “I don’t buy it. I’ve never known a civil servant to leave their job so close to qualifying for their full pension. Something’s up.”

  “If he killed Gray and stole that cash, he wouldn’t need any more money for quite a while, would he?” I asked her as I watched them turn the corner.

  “Does he even have a sister living in the Florida Keys?” Grace asked me.

  “Beats me. Maybe we should ask around.”

  “Agreed, but we need to do it quickly. If he’s leaving day after tomorrow, our time is running out,” Grace said. “What now?”

  I glanced at my watch. “Do you think there’s a prayer that Donald Rand is in his office by now?”

  “The market doesn’t open for a while yet, but he might be in early. It won’t hurt anything to check and see.”

  “Let’s walk over there,” I said. “It’s a pretty morning, and besides, I could use the exercise. I’ve been sampling too many of my goodies lately.”

  “I’m fine with that,” Grace said.

  I admired her slim shape yet again. “How do you manage it?”

  “Manage what?”

  “To stay so fit.”

  “It’s easy. If I gain more than two pounds, most of my business suits won’t fit. It’s a perfect reminder that it’s time to cut down on my treats when the buttons get harder to fasten. I’ve got it a lot easier than you do.”

  “How so?”

  “I’m around makeup all day, which, the last time I checked, was nonfattening. You, on the other hand, live your life around pastry treats. I’m just amazed you’ve managed to keep your figure, given all of that.”

  “I keep it all right, and I even add to it,” I answered with a smile. “I have an easy solution to your suit problem.”

  “I’m listening,” she said.

  “Buy a bigger size. That’s what I do with my jeans.”

  Grace laughed. “No offense, but my work clothes cost a little more than yours do.”

  “None taken,” I said with a grin.

  We were approaching Donald Rand’s office on the outskirts of town, and I saw something on his door. As we neared it, I could see that it was a message. “We are closed for the foreseeable future. To get in touch with me about your investments, call 555-3154.”

  I pulled out my phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m calling the number,” I said. I dialed the digits posted, but instead of getting Rand, I heard a recorded message. “This number is no longer in service and is not currently a working number. Please check the listing again and redial. Thank you.”

  I dialed again, this time more carefully. Perhaps I’d transposed some of the digits, or even gotten one wrong entirely.

  I got the same message again.

  “You try it,” I said.

  Grace shrugged, pulled out her cellphone, and dialed.

  “It’s been disconnected,” she said. “That’s going to make it tough for his clients to get in touch with him, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t get it. How can he just disappear like that?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m calling Stephen,” she said. “He needs to know that one of our suspects has disappeared.”

  “Don’t forget to tell him about Barry’s plan to leave town, too,” I said. “That’s something else he needs to know.”

  Grace nodded as her call went through. As she caught her boyfriend up on what we’d discovered, I couldn’t help wondering what was going on. Most likely the fact that two of our main suspects were leaving or had already left town was simply a coincidence, but I didn’t believe it. Surely one of them was guilty of something. I didn’t like the direction this thing was heading. If Rand was already gone, with Barry Vance soon to follow, what did that do to our investigation? Most of the information Grace and I had picked up in the past was from active interviews, and if we couldn’t find our suspects, we couldn’t very well question them.

  Grace hung up. “He wants us to wait right here.”

  “Didn’t you already tell him everything?” I asked him, not that we had anywhere else we needed to be in a hurry. Gladys wasn’t supposed to be at work for at least another hour, if her schedule was still the same. No doubt at this very moment, her fellow cook, Hilda, was at her station. But what if they changed their shifts? Were we wasting time waiting on Chief Grant when what we really should be doing was heading for the Boxcar Grill? “Why don’t you wait for him, and I’ll walk over to the Boxcar by myself?”

  “You can’t go without me,” Grace protested. “He said he wouldn’t be long.”

  “Okay,” I agreed reluctantly. I wouldn’t like it if she went off investigating without me, so I had to respect her request.

  At least the chief was as good as his word. Three minutes after Grace had ended the call, he pulled in front of the financial man’s office and got out. “Did either one of you know that he was leaving town all of a sudden?” he asked after he confirmed that the number was a dead one as well. I couldn’t blame him. After all, I’d had Grace check behind me, too. It just didn’t add up.

  “We had no idea,” I said.

  “Maybe the attention you two were giving him spooked him,” the chief said.

  “I don’t see how that’s possible,” I replied. “He seemed to handle our questions just fine.”

  “On the outside, maybe, but he’s probably good at keeping his cool under pressure. You could have rattled him, especially if he had a guilty conscience.”

  “Where could he have gone?” Grace asked.

  “I have no idea, but I’ll put out a bulletin for law enforcement
around here to be on the lookout for him. Thanks for letting me know.”

  “What about Barry Vance?” I asked him before he could get back into his car. “Are you going to talk to him as well?”

  “The man’s quitting his job, Suzanne. There’s nothing inherently suspicious about that.”

  “What about his pension?” Grace asked. “He doesn’t have that long to wait to get all of it, so why leave now?”

  “I’ll talk to him,” the chief said reluctantly, “but it’s been known to happen before. Didn’t Jake quit being the police chief on an impulse?”

  I wasn’t at all certain how impulsive that had been. After all, it had been probably been brewing for some time, and finding his wife, her best friend, his mother-in-law, and the mayor himself staking out a suspect’s house had most likely just been the last straw of many. “That’s something entirely different,” I said in Jake’s defense.

  “I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. “I’ll have a word with Vance before he leaves town.”

  “Good. That’s all we’re asking,” I said.

  He looked around. “Where’s your car?”

  “We left it on Springs Drive,” Grace said.

  “Well, hop in. Since I held you up, the least I can do is give you a ride back into the heart of town. What do you say?”

  “Can we use the siren and lights on the way?” I asked him with a grin.

  “No, and just for that, you have to sit in back,” he said, smiling.

  “As long as I don’t have handcuffs on, we’re good,” I said. Grace got in front, and I headed for the backseat. Her view was better than mine. She had an unobstructed window, while I had wire mesh; she actually had a doorknob and a window crank, two things that were clearly lacking in my space.

  At least it wouldn’t be long.

  With my luck, I glanced over and saw my mother driving in the opposite direction. She glanced casually into the backseat of the cruiser, saw me sitting there grinning at her, and nearly hit a light pole with her car!