Peppermint Glazed Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 28

by Susan Gillard

  “You picked it up? You stole it?” Laura asked and bobbed her chin forward. Her frizzy hair hopped in time with the movement.

  “Stealing is such a nasty term,” Amy said. “We borrowed it. That’s more accurate. I mean, if we’d stolen it, we wouldn’t have returned it, am I right?”

  Heather stepped on the toe of Amy’s boot, and she snapped her mouth shut.

  “I should call the cops on you,” Laura snapped, then grasped a handful of her frizzy hair, pulled it away from her head and stared at it. “But I’ve got bigger problems right now.”

  “Your hair?”

  “Yeah, and my mom ran out for whatever reason. She was crying. Lame.” Laura laughed, hysterically.

  Had the girl cracked? Perhaps, the pressure of losing her sister and her father and pushed her right over the brink.

  What a week.

  Heather coughed into her fist. She squared her shoulders and ignored the pleasant chirps of birds in the trees and the rustle of the leaves on the front lawn.

  “Miss Folger, are you in a relationship with Vaughn Josephs?” Heather asked.

  Laura froze and tugged once on a lock of frizzy hair. “What was that?”

  “Are you and Vaughn together?” Heather asked. “Going steady?”

  “No one says that anymore,” Amy whispered. “Going steady.”

  “She’s right,” Laura said and narrowed her eyes at Heather. “It’s none of your business whether I’m dating him or not.”

  “As an investigator for –”

  “You’re nothing,” Laura replied, and flashed a pearly white smile. “That’s your problem. You’re just some small time donut store owner. And you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  “Next, you’re going to say I’ll lose it,” Heather said and rolled her eyes at the young woman. She couldn’t help it. “I’ve heard it all, Miss Folger. You don’t intimidate me. Did you intimidate your sister?”

  Laura’s lips writhed around her teeth. They whitened and clamped shut in a thin line.

  “What’s wrong, Miss Folger? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?” Heather asked, shrewdly.

  She’d learned to measure her suspects by their actions. Laura Folger didn’t respect weakness. She respected insults and anger because that was all she knew, and that was how she got her way.

  If Heather had to sink to her level to get the truth and solve the case, then so be it.

  Laura still didn’t speak.

  “What’s the matter, Miss Folger? Are you afraid to admit that Vaughn liked Kiki better than you?” Heather asked, and took a single step closer. Her gaze flicked from Laura’s left eye to her right, and back again.

  The young woman folded her arms. “Get out of her,” she growled. “Or I will call the cops on you.”

  “That’s a wrap,” Amy said. “My cue. Sayonara!” She scooted backward and down the stairs of the porch. “Come on, Heather,” she called.

  “Just a sec,” Heather replied. She focused on Laura Folger’s bright eyes. “I know you’re hiding something, Folger. I will find out what it is before the end of this.”

  “Get lost!” Laura slammed back into her house. Her heeled boots thudded on the wooden boards. She stepped on her old phone and the screen cracked underfoot. The front door slammed shut and shuddered in the mahogany frame.

  Heather folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot. “Well, that didn’t go according to plan.”

  “When does it every go according to plan?” Amy asked, from the stone path. She shielded her eyes from the sun with the palm of her hand. “Uh, can we go now?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Calm your donuts,” Heather said. She strode toward her bestie, but questions floated through her mind.

  Too many to count.

  Chapter 16

  Heather shut Lilly’s door, a soft click in the hall, and smiled to herself. Cupcake and Dave had taken up their usual positions on the girl’s bed, and Lilly snored in a deep sleep.

  The kind of sleep which had evaded Heather for months on end. How could she sleep properly when she had cases to solve and donuts to bake?

  “Are you all right, love?” Ryan asked, from the bottom of their polished staircase.

  Heather walked toward him. She grasped the balustrade and traversed the stairs, more of those questions drifting through the fog which shrouded her thoughts. “I’m fine,” she said.

  “You’re worried,” he replied, and offered her his arm.

  Heather accepted it and hopped down the last stair to join him. “I’m always worried when it comes to solving murder cases,” she replied. “I just want to get the right person behind bars.”

  Ryan led her toward the living room, where one of her favorite documentaries waited. They loved the Planet Earth series. Anything nature-related tickled Heather’s fancy.

  “I spoke to Henry Folger, today,” Ryan said. “Interesting guy.”

  “Oh yeah?” Heather walked to her favorite spot on the sofa. She settled on the cushions and pulled one of the throw pillows into her lap. “What did he have to say? Anything relevant to the case?”

  “All he saw was the air in front of the plane,” Ryan replied. “His exact words.”

  “Did he mention anything else? Anything to do with his family or Joe Gankin?”

  Ryan hitched up the pants legs of his PJs, then lowered himself to the sofa beside her. He grabbed the remote control, pressed it between his palms. “He told me his wife was having an affair with Joe Gankin.”

  “Oh my gosh, not that again,” Heather said. “I’m so confused. One second it’s no affair and revenge for thievery, and the next it’s an affair and a loveless marriage.”

  “A loveless marriage?” Ryan asked.

  “Oh yeah. Helena told me this afternoon that she didn’t love her husband and he’d made his bed and can now lie in it.” Heather wrung the corner of her velvety cushion.

  “Wow,” Ryan said.

  “But what bothers me, is how does any of that relate to the case?” Heather asked. “We’ve got two business partners who had a grudge against each other. Joe Gankin might’ve been motivated to harm Kiki because she was Henry’s favorite daughter.”

  “But Joe’s fingerprints aren’t on anything. And he hasn’t skydived in years,” Ryan replied.

  Heather nodded and twisted the cushion again. “But that doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. He might’ve used that as an excuse and tampered with both parachutes, knowing that once up there, they’d exchange them, and Kiki would end up dead.”

  Ryan chewed the corner of his lip and rolled the remote around. “I don’t know about that. It doesn’t scream ‘pay me money.’ It’s like someone wanted Kiki out of the way and this was the perfect opportunity.”

  Heather puffed out her cheeks and exhaled. “I agree,” she said. “The next suspect is Laura. She despised her sister, and boy, you should have seen her today, hon. She totally lost her cool.”

  “I know. We got a call from her at the station complaining about you at length.” Ryan chuckled and smoothed his hand over Heather’s upper arm. “You sure know how to make friends.”

  “I gotta do, what I gotta do.” As Amy would’ve said. “I think she’s infatuated with Vaughn. Who, come to think of it, seemed really shifty around Gankin when we interviewed him. Argh.”

  “Lots of suspects in this case,” Ryan said. “Lots of possibilities. Let’s narrow it down to just those people who touched Kiki’s parachute. That might help.”

  “Not really. Every one of them has a valid reason for touching it.” Heather tapped the center of her forehead with her index finger. “Although, Laura didn’t have anything to say about that. I should’ve asked her, actually.”

  “I had a feeling this case would drag on,” Ryan replied. He put down the remote, then grasped her hand and squeezed it gently. “This is exactly why I didn’t want you to get involved, my love. This is going to ruin your birthday.”

  “No, it won’t. We’ll figure
this out, no matter what,” Heather said. She wouldn’t back down until she got the answers to this conundrum.

  “Henry Folger is behind bars. There isn’t any evidence to suggest he went near his daughter,” Ryan said. “I think we can rule him out.”

  “I agree on that one,” Heather replied. She dropped the cushion beside her on the sofa. “Helena is strange. She’s stressed out about her daughter’s death, but not so much about Henry’s arrest.”

  “But her fingerprints were on the parachute. We can’t rule her out without further evidence.”

  And the cycle continued. They’d never figure this out without further evidence, and there wasn’t any in, well, evidence.

  “We’re just going to talk about this in circles,” Ryan said. “I think we should put the case aside for tonight, and just enjoy our time together.”

  “You’re right,” Heather replied. Of course, her husband was right. When was he ever wrong?

  Ryan lifted the remote and pressed play. The relaxing sound of Attenborough’s voice filled the room, from the surround sound speakers.

  Heather settled back and rested her head on her husband’s shoulder. She relaxed her muscles and inhaled the comforting scent of his cologne. Everything would be all right, in the end.

  They’d figure it out.

  Heather’s eyelids drifted closed.

  Chapter 17

  Knocking forced Heather out of her dream. Ryan shifted beside her, and she popped her head off his shoulder, immediately.

  “What is it?” She asked, and blinked sleep from her eyes. “What time is it?”

  “It’s late,” her husband replied. “There’s someone at the door.”

  Alarm thrilled through Heather’s core. The only times she’d encountered anyone at her home at this hour, had been about a case, and none of them had been good.

  “Wait here,” Ryan said and rose from his seat. He’s switched in Detective Shepherd mode, already. He squared his shoulders and eased his feet in his slippers.

  “Dream on,” Heather replied. “I wouldn’t stay here if you paid me.”

  Ryan didn’t argue – he knew better than that by now – but lead her through to their entrance hall. The butter yellow light from the sconces did nothing to chase away her intrigue.

  Or her nerves, for that matter.

  “Who’s there?” Ryan called out.

  The knocking stopped. “It’s Vaughn Josephs,” the man replied. “I’m an instructor at Just Jump It Skydiving? I – I’ve come to speak to Heather Shepherd. Does she live here?”

  “Just a second,” Ryan said. He walked to the door and drew back the bolt, then unlocked with the key. He opened a second later.

  Vaughn Josephs’ bleach blond do had seen better days. It sat flush against his forehead, and the tip of his fringe hovered just in front of his right eye.

  Heather brushed at her right eye in sympathy. “May we help you, Vaughn?”

  He spotted Heather and the tension leaked out of his shoulders. “There you are,” he said. “Thank goodness.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I had to come tell you before she tracks me down again,” Vaughn said and glanced over his shoulder at the empty street, dotted with lampposts. “I – I helped murder Kiki Folger. There I said it.”

  Ryan’s jaw dropped. Heather wasn’t far behind in her reaction.

  “I – look, it wasn’t what I planned. I didn’t want to hurt her. Laura told me that we had to get rid of her or she’d leave me,” Vaughn said.

  “What do you mean?” Heather asked.

  “Laura and I were an item. But there was one silly evening where I might have, maybe, kissed Kiki while we were checking the parachutes,” Vaughn replied. “And Joe Gankin saw, and he told Laura, or he told Helena who told Laura and then –”

  “Laura confronted Kiki,” Heather said. That explained the slap fight. But how had they jumped directly from slaps and anger to murder?

  “Laura was so mad. She made me promise to do whatever she told me,” Vaughn said, and touched his floppy hairdo. “She said we were going to pull a prank on Kiki to get back at her for trying to steal me away or whatever.”

  “A prank,” Ryan repeated. “I assume it involved a parachute.”

  “Yeah, well. I – uh, it was supposed to be an inconvenience to Kiki and a little mean,” Vaughn said. “I cut the K on her parachute pack. She loved that thing more than life itself. I think she sewed the K’s onto it.”

  “Laura told you to make the incision?” Heather asked.

  “Yeah, Lollipop said I should make the cut, and that would be the joke. She’d have to fix it once we landed and Kiki would have learned her lesson,” Vaughn said. “But then she fell, and she died, and I realized that it wasn’t just a prank. This was Laura’s plan all along.” He stumbled forward a step and stared at them. “She’s crazy. I swear she’s out of her mind.”

  Heather had witnessed Laura’s erratic behavior firsthand. But was she clinically insane? The jury would be out on that one.

  “Would you testify to this in court, Mr. Josephs?” Ryan asked.

  “Yeah, I would,” Vaughn said. “Look, I didn’t want to hurt anybody, and I know I should have owned up to it sooner, but Gankin was right there when you spoke to me, and he’s, I don’t know, he’s got an agenda of his own. I was afraid he’d tell Helena. Or Laura. They’re really close.”

  Heather sighed and nodded. So, Laura had planned it all along. And hidden it well. That explained her prints on Kiki’s backpack. And her angry texts. It should’ve been obvious from the start, but the complicated relationships had totally fogged up the case.

  “You should have spoken to me sooner, Vaughn,” Heather said. “This looks bad.”

  “I tried to, but look,” he said and whipped his phone out of his pocket. He tapped on the screen and lifted it. A long list of messages pinged through in one of his conversations. “She keeps tabs on me constantly. And if I’m not where I said I’d be, she loses it.”

  “Loses it?”

  “Yeah, she tracks me down, and she threatens me. She told me I’d be next if I told anyone,” Vaughn said. “But I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I can’t live with the guilt. Ah – what was that?” He spun on the spot and glared out into the darkness.

  The back of his sweatshirt was soaked right through.

  The poor guy was at the end of his tether.

  Vaughn turned to face them again. He honed in on Ryan. “Please, office, you’ve got to arrest me. Take me to the station or to jail. I don’t care. I just want to feel safe again.”

  Ryan nodded once, then looked over at Heather. “Hon, can you run upstairs and get my gun? I think I’m going to have to take Mr. Josephs to the station.” He sighed and brushed off his pants. “And Laura Folger, after that.”

  A text ping through on Vaughn’s phone and he squealed like a piggy.

  Heather hurried up the stairs toward the bedroom and her husband’s safe. The case was solved, but it hadn’t been on her terms.

  Hopefully, next time, the outcome would make more sense, and the evidence would stack up better.

  Chapter 18

  “Happy birthday to you,” her friends and family at Donut Delights sang, in unison. “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Heather, happy birthday to you!”

  Heather leaned forward and blew out the numerous candles atop the donut-shaped cake. Chocolate flavored, of course.

  The interior of her store erupted into applause and Lilly rushed across the room and threw her arms around Heather’s waist.

  Heather hugged her back and warmth spread through her chest. Boy, this week had been a tough one, but the end of it had turned out to be the best.

  Ryan and Lils had woken her up with breakfast in bed. Dave had cuddled her, and Cupcake had frolicked with a bit of string on the carpet in her bedroom.

  “Are you ready?” Amy asked, and walked toward Heather, with Eva at her side. “We’ve got your present!”

  H
eather laughed and clapped her hands together once. “As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with skydiving.”

  Amy stuck out her tongue, then brought out a wrapped gift from behind her back.

  The bright red bow suited the Christmas decorations in the store, and the snowmen on the paper itself grinned up at her, holding multi-colored Happy Birthday signs.

  “It’s gorgeous,” Heather said and took the gift.

  Lilly grinned up at her. “That’s not from me, though.” She detached herself from Heather and stood beside Ryan, instead. He placed his hand on her shoulder and winked.

  “No, this one is from everyone here at Donut Delights and Eva too. We pooled together for it,” Amy said.

  Eva clasped her hands in front of her chest, eyes alight with excitement. “Open it, dear. The suspense is killing me.”

  Heather removed the bow and placed it on the glass counter behind her, then turned the present over and ripped the taped back. The snowmen peeled away and revealed the black box beneath, flat, rectangular and printed in golden letters.

  “Lenovo?” Heather dropped the paper to the golden boards. She popped the lid off the box and gasped.

  A black screen stared up at her, ten inches in size, at least.

  “It’s a tablet!” Amy announced.

  Everyone in the store clapped again. Maricela and Angelica hopped up and down on the spot, unable to contain their excitement.

  “A tablet,” Heather said, and touched the cold screen. “It’s amazing.”

  “It’s for your investigations, dear,” Eva said.

  “Eva came up with the idea,” Amy replied.

  “Well, you’re always talking about how you hate to waste paper, and your pens keep messing up the pages of your notepads. I thought there had to be a better way for you to take notes during your cases, and then Amy suggested this.” Eva patted her plum hair do. “Do you like it?”

  “Like it?” Heather couldn’t stop staring at the device. “I love it! Thank you so much. I – I don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t have to say anything, Heather,” Ken called from the back. “You’ve given all of us so much.”