Sweet Suspects (The Donut Mysteries)

by Beck, Jessica

  “How is she doing?” I asked delicately.

  “We are all making an effort,” Angelica said, and then she clearly wanted to change to subject. “Are you two hungry?”

  “We’ve already had lunch, and it’s a little early for dinner, if that’s what you’re asking,” I said.

  “That wasn’t my question,” she said with a smile. “Sit. Let me put a few plates together for you.”

  “Honestly, we just wanted to talk to Maria,” I said.

  Angelica frowned at me. “What’s wrong, Suzanne? You don’t like my cooking anymore?”

  “Hardly,” I said. “I just don’t know that I can afford to put on any more weight.”

  “Nonsense,” Angelica said with a huge smile as she studied us. “You’re both too skinny.”

  “Now I know you’re lying,” I said, matching her grin with one of my own. “Grace, aren’t you going to take my side?”

  “Speak for yourself,” Grace said. “When a master chef offers to feed me, the only answer you’ll ever get out of me is thank you very much.”

  “That’s my girl,” Angelica said as she pinched Grace’s cheek.

  “Traitor,” I said playfully to Grace as the restaurant owner grabbed two plates and started filling them with abundant samples of spaghetti, ravioli, and ziti.

  “Every single time,” Grace said.

  As Angelica brought us our plates and put them on the small table in the kitchen, she said, “Now, a little wine will round everything out perfectly.”

  “Just a little, though,” I said.

  “Absolutely,” Angelica replied as she headed for their wine cupboard.

  “We’re never getting out of here. You know that, don’t you?” I asked Grace.

  “We will eventually, but in the meantime, let’s just enjoy this, okay?”

  I looked at the plate in front of me, amazed at how Angelica could take the same basic ingredients and make them into such different and delightful meals. The ziti had a blend of cheeses that danced across my taste buds, while the spaghetti sported a tomato-based sauce that was richly satisfying. The ravioli was stuffed with different cheeses, and the sauce she’d chosen for it complemented it perfectly. I was still sampling each individual flavor when Angelica emerged with a bottle of wine.

  “I hope it’s nothing too special,” I said as she uncorked the bottle.

  “It’s just a little house wine I like myself,” she said.

  Grace, who knew a great deal more about wine than I did, studied the label. “It’s a lot more than that, and we both know it.”

  Angelica winked at her as she poured three glasses. “Shh.” As she picked up her own glass, Angelica asked, “To what should we toast?”

  I said without hesitation, “To family: both here and far away, but most important of all, those long gone but never forgotten.”

  “To family,” we all repeated as we clinked our glasses together.

  The wine was superb, even though I didn’t know just how special it was. A few minutes after we dug into our food, the kitchen door from the dining room swung open. I was expecting to see Maria, but Sophia came in instead.

  The young woman smiled when she saw us. “When did you two sneak in?”

  “While you weren’t looking,” I answered with a grin. “How’s it going out there? Is there any chance Maria might be able to spare us a minute?”

  “I don’t know about that. We’re in the middle of a sudden rush,” Sophia said, and then she turned to her mother. “I honestly don’t think I can work back here anymore today.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Angelica said as she winked at us. “Help your sister.”

  “Hang on a second,” Angelica’s youngest daughter said. “That was way too easy. You’re not trying to get rid of me, are you?”

  “Sophia, you know that you’re always welcome in my kitchen. I just don’t want Maria to be overwhelmed.”

  “Well, okay, then,” Sophia said as she grabbed an order and left.

  Once she was gone, Angelica grinned at us. “That girl thinks she’s so clever, but you mark my words. She’ll be back here in her apron beside me in half an hour or less. She’s a natural in the kitchen these days, and the others better watch out, or she’ll surpass them all.”

  “That’s high praise coming from you,” I said.

  “It’s merited,” she said.

  “If they’re so busy out front, should we come back later and talk to Maria?” I asked her as I cleaned my plate. How had that happened? I hadn’t been hungry when I’d started, but I’d still managed to eat everything Angelica had given me. At least Grace’s plate was empty, too.

  “No, I’ll get her for you,” Angelica said as she headed for the dining room door.

  “Don’t pull her out of the dining room on our account,” I said.

  “Nonsense. My youngest was just exaggerating before.”

  The restaurant owner came back a minute later with Maria in tow.

  “Hey, Maria. Can you spare us a minute?” I asked her.

  “Glad to. Soph’s got it covered up front.”

  “Excellent. What happened earlier?” I asked.

  “The argument? It wasn’t as dramatic as my dear sweet mother must have made it sound. She loves a good story more than just about anyone I know.”

  “It was no story,” Angelica protested. “They were fighting loud enough for me to hear them all the way in here.”

  “Really?” Maria asked with a smile. “Then what were they fighting about?”

  Angelica frowned. “Maybe I couldn’t make out their exact words, but their tone was clear enough.”

  Maria nodded. “You’re right there.”

  “So why were Janet and Tom fighting?” I asked.

  “Was that their names? All I knew was that the woman claimed that the man owed her husband money, but he kept denying it.”

  “Did either one of them mention an amount?”

  “Twenty thousand dollars,” Maria said.

  “That’s a lot of money,” I said after whistling softly under my breath.

  “Some people might believe that it was enough to make it worth killing someone over,” Grace added.

  “I never understood why someone would kill for money,” Angelica said. “Passion I get, but never money. It’s too easily gained and lost to matter all that much to me.”

  “Spoken as someone who has money,” Maria said.

  Angelica turned to her. “We aren’t rich, not by any means, but we have enough to live on, enough to keep this restaurant open, and enough for a few indulgences every now and then. How much more than that do we really need, when we all have each other?”

  Maria smiled as she hugged her mother. “You’re right,” she said.

  “I know that, but it’s still nice to hear every now and then,” Angelica said with a smile.

  So far, we hadn’t gotten anything new but an amount we hadn’t heard before. While twenty grand was a lot of money, it still didn’t seem like enough to make murder worthwhile to me.

  Unless Tom owed it to Zane and didn’t have it.

  “Is there anything else you can remember about their time here?” I asked Maria. “Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem important to you. We’re looking for anything that might help us solve a murder.”

  Maria frowned, and then after a moment, she said, “It’s probably nothing, but she did say something that I thought was kind of strange.”

  “What’s that?” I asked eagerly.

  “Janet told him that a certain someone from his past wouldn’t like it if she found out the truth about him, and that any hope he had of rekindling an old flame would be snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. Does that mean anything to you?”

  Grace looked uncomfortable with the reference, since we both figured that it had to be about her. “Maybe,” I said. “Is that all?”

  “That’s it,” she said. “Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d better get back out
front.”

  “Go,” I said, “and thanks.”

  “For what it was worth,” Maria said, and then she left.

  “Did that help at all?” Angelica asked when it was just the three of us again.

  “We never know,” I said. “Thanks for the meal,” I added as I kissed her cheek and hugged her, with Grace close behind me.

  “It was nothing,” Angelica said warmly. “Remember, I’m always here if you need me.”

  “We know it, and we count on it,” I said.

  After Grace and I were back at my Jeep in the parking lot, she asked, “How does Janet even know that Tom and I spent a little time together at the reunion?”

  “Everybody there was commenting on how natural you two looked together out on the dance floor,” I said.

  “Well, that’s never going to happen now,” Grace said.

  “Why is that?” I asked.

  “The fact that he’s a murder suspect might have something to do with it,” Grace said.

  “I meant besides that,” I said.

  “I don’t know. Even if it turns out that Tom is innocent, I think that maybe we had our chance a long time ago, and now it’s gone.”

  “I wouldn’t discount him that quickly,” I said.

  “Suzanne, could we possibly change the subject?” Grace said. “I’d really like to track down the murderer as soon as we can. How about you?”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” I said. “Is there anything else you’d like to cover in Union Square while we’re here? I have an idea about something we can do back in April Springs, but if we can save ourselves a trip back here later, I’m willing to do that first.”

  “I’d like to talk to Billy again,” she said. “I’ve got a hunch there’s something he’s not telling us.”

  “Any idea what that might be?” I asked.

  “No, it’s just a guess at this point,” she replied, “but I still think that it’s worth a shot.”

  “I agree,” I said.

  As we drove to the hotel, Grace asked me, “What’s your idea?”

  “I want to follow that spear,” I said. “I keep thinking that it wouldn’t be an easy thing to remove from the gym, not to mention carry down the street to my donut shop.”

  “They were never actually at Donut Hearts, remember?”

  “They were across the street,” I said, “and that’s close enough to make it personal.”

  “I totally get that,” Grace said. “Let’s tackle Billy, and then we can go digging around at the gym.”

  “It almost sounds as though we have an actual plan,” I said with a grin.

  “You never know. Stranger things have happened,” Grace answered.

  We were close to the Bentley Hotel when my cellphone rang. Could it be Jake? No, when I checked the caller ID, it was a surprise. What could Maria DeAngelis possibly want with me?

  “Hey, Maria,” I said as I answered. “It’s been awhile since we chatted last.”

  “Suzanne, this might be nothing, but I thought you should know what just happened.”

  “Go ahead,” I said. “I’m listening.”

  “Well, I was cleaning up the table where your two friends were eating, and I found a torn piece of stationery from the Bentley Hotel under the table.”

  This could be the development we’d been hoping for. “Did it say anything?”

  “No, nothing was on it but one long number.”

  “That’s odd,” I said.

  “That’s not the strangest part. Thirty seconds after I found it, Janet came rushing back into the restaurant. I told her that she couldn’t be there and then I reminded her that she’d been banned, but she didn’t care. She said that she lost something that she had to get back. She sounded pretty desperate, and when I tried to get her to leave, she started getting hysterical.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t think it was all that important,” Maria said, “so I showed her the paper I’d found. She grabbed it out of my hand as though it were made of gold, and then she tore out of the restaurant without another word. At first I was just happy she left before my mother threw the woman out, but now I’m starting to wonder if I should have turned it over to her or saved it for you instead.”

  “You did fine,” I said. “Is there any chance you remembered the number?”

  Maria laughed. “If it had been a name or even a note, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to it, but I’ve always had this weird thing about numbers. They stick in my head. It was 3205. Does that mean anything to you?”

  “Not right offhand,” I said.

  She sounded deflated as she answered, “That’s too bad. I was kind of hoping that I’d found a clue.”

  “You might have,” I said. “I just don’t know what it means yet.”

  “Well, let me know if you ever figure it out. It’s going to drive me crazy not knowing.”

  “That makes two of us,” I said. “Thanks for calling.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  After I hung up, I told Grace about the number, and Janet’s reaction to losing it. “What do you think it means?” I asked her.

  “It can’t be a room number at the hotel,” she said. “They don’t go up that high.”

  “Well, there aren’t enough digits for it to be a phone number. Could it be an address maybe?” I asked.

  “What address around here is four digits long?” Grace asked me after a moment’s pause.

  “Sometimes people ask for verification of your social security number,” I said. “That’s four digits.”

  “It could be the second part of a phone number after all,” Grace said as she took out her cellphone.

  After getting a wrong number, she put her phone back in her purse. “Well, that was a dead end.”

  “Who did you call?”

  “The prefix for April Springs, and then 3205,” she said. “It was for a pizza place.”

  “It was still a good idea,” I answered, trying to offer her some consolation. I knew how frustrating it could be when I misinterpreted a clue.

  “So what else could it mean?”

  “I have no idea,” I said, “but I think we should ask Janet about it the next time that we see her.”

  “Then again, maybe we shouldn’t tip her off that we even know about it just yet,” Grace said. “We might be able to use the information to our advantage, but if we tell her that we know that number, it might warn her that we’re on to her.”

  “Are we still thinking that she might have killed her husband?” I asked Grace.

  “I’m not willing to say that just yet, but she did call that insurance agent the day her husband’s body was discovered,” Grace said.

  “Yeah, that doesn’t look too good, does it?”

  “It’s not exactly a character endorsement,” Grace said. “In fact, it sounded pretty cold to me.”

  “It did to me, too,” I said as I parked in the visitor’s lot at the hotel.

  “How should we approach Billy this time?” Grace asked me.

  “Well, he wasn’t exactly thrilled with us the last time we spoke. I think it’s time we just come out and tell him the truth.”

  “What, that we suspect him of murder?”

  “No, nothing that obvious. I was just thinking that maybe we should admit that we’re trying to solve Zane’s murder, and then see what he has to say.”

  “The truth’s always worth a shot as a last resort,” Grace said with a shrug.

  “Then that’s what we’ll try, because otherwise, I’m running out of ideas.”

  Chapter 11

  When we got to Billy’s room, we could hear voices coming from inside. It wasn’t that the doors were that thin, though. Whoever was in there was shouting, and they clearly didn’t care who heard them. Grace was about to knock when I grabbed her hand.

  “Let’s just listen in a little first,” I said.

  She frowned, and then we both put our heads closer to the door. If someone came by, it woul
d be pretty clear what we were doing, but I was willing to take that gamble.