by Jessica Beck
“Well,” Grace said after a moment’s pause, “not to make too fine a point of it, but they can’t be totally unrelated.”
“What else links them?” I asked.
“Your dad,” she said with a hushed voice.
“He didn’t do it,” I said loudly.
“Hey, take it easy,” Grace said softly. “No one’s accusing him of anything, but Morgan had that letter, didn’t he?”
“It doesn’t prove anything. I’d love to know where that key to the locker at the bus station is. I’ve got a hunch that all of the answers are in there.”
“Suzanne, I hate to bring this up, but that key might not even matter anymore.”
“What are you talking about, Grace?”
“What if Morgan moved whatever he’d been storing there, and it’s someplace else entirely now?”
I shook my head. “That way of thinking doesn’t do our investigation any good. We have to assume that there’s a key out there somewhere that is protecting the answers that we need, and until I find out that it’s not true, I’m going to believe it with all of my heart.”
“Then we look for the key,” Grace said. “You know, I’m beginning to wonder if you might have been right earlier.”
“Really? That’s certainly refreshing. Would you care to tell me more, so I have a better chance of repeating the result in the future?”
Grace grinned at me, and then she said, “Stop fishing for compliments. You know how good you are at this. I’m just wondering if we should have broken into Ellen’s place after all. If that key is anywhere, I’ve got a hunch that it’s somewhere in her house.”
“I agree, but if you’d heard the way she talked to me earlier, you wouldn’t be suggesting that we burglarize her place. I don’t know for a fact that she’d shoot first and ask questions later, but I for one don’t want to find out. The only way that we’re going to be able to search that place is at her invitation, and I’m not holding my breath waiting for one.”
“Then what should we do next?” Grace asked.
I glanced at my watch, surprised by just how late it had gotten to be, at least by my standards. “I think we should both go home, sleep on it, and then see what we can come up with tomorrow. Are you ready to go?”
“Just as soon as we get our doggy bags and those desserts,” she said.
“Are we seriously going to take food home with you after all you just ate?”
“Don’t let there be a single doubt in your mind.”
As we drove back to April Springs, I couldn’t help wondering if tomorrow would bring us any closer to the truth than we were at that moment. It was frustrating beyond belief trying to work on two cases so many years apart. I didn’t know how Jake ever managed it, and I wished that we still had him with us.
But he had his hands full at the moment fighting his own demons. I wondered if he’d made any progress on tracking down the bomber yet, but I knew if the terrorist could be found, Jake would do his best to be a part of it.
It was just beginning to get dark when we pulled into April Springs, and I was looking at the clock where Morgan had been murdered when Grace poked my arm.
“What is it?” I asked as I pivoted to face her.
“Is that who I think it is?” she asked.
I turned to see Max and Emily walking down the street holding hands and chatting about something. Emily smiled when my ex-husband said something, and I could see why he was so earnestly pursuing her. There was something about the woman that was enchanting, and for once, it appeared that Max was the one who was mesmerized.
“You’re not jealous, are you?” Grace asked me as we drove past them, offering a quick wave as we did so.
“Not even a little bit,” I said. “Maybe it’s because I have Jake in my life now, but I don’t think that’s all of it. The truth is that I don’t hate Max anymore, and I’ve always been a huge fan of Emily’s. If they can manage to find each other in this crazy world, more power to them both.”
As I pulled in front of Grace’s place, she asked, “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“It’s taken me a while, but I finally got there.”
“I’m so proud of you,” she said with a laugh. “My little baby’s growing up.”
“Go on,” I said with a laugh. “You’d better jump out before I make you walk home from my place.”
Since that was all of a hundred yards, it wasn’t really that much of a threat.
Grace got out, and then she leaned forward. “I’ll see you around eleven.”
“Tomorrow morning, right?”
“Well, I’m not waking you up tonight. Go home, get some sleep, and let’s figure out how we should tackle this tomorrow.”
“It’s a deal.”
When I got home, Momma was on the couch reading another mystery. I was surprised, though, to see that it was the choice of my book club meeting tomorrow. I’d nearly forgotten all about it with so much real murder in the air, but at least I’d read it earlier. “How do you like it so far?” I asked Momma as I dead-bolted the front door behind me.
“This constantly changing point of view is kind of confusing,” she admitted as she closed the book and studied the cover. “Are all of her books like this?”
“I don’t know. This is the first one that I’ve read, and probably the last. I’m sure some people love her, but she’s just not my taste.”
“Agreed,” Momma said as she set the book aside.
I was flabbergasted. “You’re not going to finish it anyway?” I asked her. I’d never known my mother to cast a book away, no matter how bad it might be, until she was finished with it.
“I’m not getting any younger, Suzanne,” she said with a smile. “I don’t have time to read the books I want to read, let alone force myself to drag through something like this.”
“Fair enough,” I said as I reached for it to take to bed with me.
“You’re not going to leave it here?” she asked with a hint of desperation in her voice.
“I thought that you were finished with it,” I said, not even trying to hide my grin.
“Oh, give it back,” she said with a frown. “Maybe it will get better.” I handed the book back to her as she asked, “Will it?”
“That’s only for you to say,” I answered as I kissed her forehead. “Good night, Momma.”
“Good night, Angel,” she said. Momma certainly didn’t have cause to call me that very many times, especially after I hit the terrible twos, but it gave me the warmest glow whenever I heard it.
“I love you,” I said from the top of the stairs. “You know that, don’t you?”
“It’s something I count on each and every day,” Momma answered. “I trust you know that I feel the same way about you.”
“If there’s one thing in this world that I’m sure of when everything around me is going crazy, it’s that you love me.”
“Good,” she said.
As I disappeared up the stairs, the last thing I saw was her getting back to the book in question, a frown on her face accompanied by a look of determination that I knew all too well.
One way or the other, Momma was finishing that book tonight, even if she had to stay up until I left for work to do it.
Chapter 14
I was mashing bananas the next morning at the shop for my latest donut creation, one I was going to call Banana Split, when Emma came into the kitchen from the dining room. “Suzanne, somebody’s out front knocking on the door.”
“Who is it?” I asked as I wiped my hands on a nearby towel.
“I’ve never seen her before in my life. All I know is that she’s a cop I don’t recognize.”
“I’ll take care of it,” I said, knowing exactly who it had to be. I hurried out to see what Ellen wanted. The last time we’d spoken, she hadn’t been all that happy with me. Was she coming back to give me more grief, or had she had a sudden change of heart?
“Good morning,” I said as I unlocked the front door for her.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any donuts ready yet. Would you like some coffee?”
“Sure, that would be great,” she said. “Suzanne, we need to talk.”
“Give me one second, okay? I’ll be right back.”
“That’s fine.”
I walked into the kitchen, and Emma asked me, “Who is she?”
“Can you do me a favor? I need a recipe out of my book, but I left mine at home. Could you get your mother’s copy for me?”
“Right now?” she asked.
“If you don’t mind.” I had to get her out of there so that Ellen and I would be free to talk.
“Suzanne, do you really need your book, or are you just trying to get rid of me?”
There was only one way that I could answer such a direct question. “Honestly? I need some privacy for this particular conversation,” I explained to her.
“What if I promise to stay in the kitchen with my iPod turned up to its highest setting? I promise that I won’t eavesdrop on you, but I’ve got work here that I can be doing, so there’s no sense in me leaving. You trust me, don’t you?”
I nodded. “I do, but that’s not the point. I know that you promised me that you wouldn’t share anything you learned here with your father without my permission.”
“And you can believe it,” Emma said. “I lost my place here once. It’s not going to happen again. When you made room for me again after my brief college fling, I told Dad that his source at the donut shop was gone for good.”
“The problem is that this is kind of sensitive,” I said. “If you’re working back here, she might not open up to me, and I need her candor a lot more than I can explain.”
“That’s all that I need to hear. When should I come back?”
“I’ll call you on my cell phone when we’re finished,” I said as I led Emma back out front. My assistant smiled at Ellen on her way out, and then I let her out into the darkness. I wasn’t sure if she was going home or just to her car, but I appreciated her agreeing to my odd request.
“Where’s she going?” Ellen asked as I locked the door behind Emma.
“I wanted us to have some privacy for our chat,” I admitted. “We’re completely alone now, so you can say whatever you’d like to me without worrying about someone listening in from the other room.”
“That’s good,” the police officer said, and I could see her shoulders ease a little.
“What brings you by here so early?” I asked as I poured us both coffees. “Are you getting off your shift, or just getting ready to start it?”
“I don’t start until seven,” she said, “but I haven’t been able to sleep after our conversation last night.”
“I didn’t mean to wreck your night,” I said. “And if I was rude, it wasn’t my intention. I understand that you are just trying to protect your brother. Or his memory, at any rate.”
“That’s just it,” Ellen said as she pushed her mug around on the table without drinking much of it. “There’s nothing that needs to be salvaged. I know that my brother was anything but reformed while he was in prison. Nothing you told me surprised me, but I still didn’t want to believe it.”
“What changed your mind?” I asked.
“I checked my file cabinet when I got home, and I discovered that someone had pried it open with a letter opener. He didn’t even try to pick the lock. I could still see the scratches from where he got in.”
“Was anything missing?” I asked her, holding my breath a little as I did.
“Four files were gone,” she said, her heart clearly heavy from making the admission.
“I’m willing to bet that I can name the people who were mentioned in those reports.” I recited the folks I knew who were being blackmailed, and Ellen reluctantly nodded her agreement.
“Is that why you’re here?” I asked.
“I think you have a right to look around Morgan’s things,” she answered. “I was going to do it myself, but I couldn’t stand the thought of finding more evidence of what has already taken me too long to accept. Your chief of police has looked it over, but you might be able to find something that he missed. The more eyes looking the better, and if you come up empty, it’s no great loss. After the way Morgan tried to treat you, you at least deserve the chance to see for yourself.” Ellen paused a moment, and then she asked me, “You close at eleven, is that right?”
“On the nose,” I agreed.
“Well, I’ll be there at twelve thirty to eat my lunch, and if you and your friend are both gone before I get there, just leave my keys in the mailbox. Nobody’s going to steal from a cop; not if they know what’s good for them. That should give you an hour, if you take out the travel time. I hope it’s enough, because it’s all that I can give you.”
“That should be perfect,” I said. “Thanks so much for doing this.”
“You’re welcome. Just don’t make me regret my decision. I don’t want you to take anything without telling me about it first. If you happen to find anything of interest, I expect you to hang around until I get there. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” I said readily. “What if I close the shop early? Can we start exploring then?”
“One hour,” she said as she held up one finger.
“Okay. Got it.” I looked at Ellen’s coffee, and I saw that she hadn’t taken a sip of it yet. “Is that all right? I could freshen it for you if you’d like.”
“No, I really can’t. My allergies are killing me, and coffee just seems to make them worse.”
“I sneeze sometimes myself when August gets here,” I conceded.
“Mine are year-round. I’m allergic to pollen, peanuts, milk, the dander from dogs and cats, dust, latex, and a host of other things. It’s a real pain, let me tell you.”
“I can sympathize,” I said.
Ellen stood up, and I walked her to the door as she reached for her keys, which were attached to her belt. They slipped off too easily, and she fumbled with them for a second before she caught them. “I’ve got to get a new clip for these. They keep slipping off my belt.” I took them from her and tucked her keys into my jeans pocket. “Thanks for doing this, Ellen. I know how hard it must be on you.”
“We all have to deal with family issues, don’t we?”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that, so I just shrugged. It was pretty clear that she was referring to my father, but I wasn’t about to address that issue with her.
As soon as the police officer from Union Square was gone, I grabbed my cell phone and hit Emma’s speed dial button.
“Hello?”
“It’s safe to come back now. Are you at home?”
“Nope, I’m just out in my car. I didn’t mean to nap, but I think I drifted off there for a second.”
“Sorry about that,” I said.
“Are you kidding me? I just got paid for taking a nap.” She hesitated, and then she asked, “I will get paid for that time, won’t I?”
I had to laugh. “You bet. Come on back in, and we’ll get back to business.”
“See you soon, Boss,” she said.
Emma was as good as her word, and less than a minute later, I let her back into the shop. I looked into the bowl where I’d been mashing bananas and I realized that I hadn’t taken the time to dip the bananas in lemon juice before I started. They were now an unappetizing brown mush, so I chucked the contents of the bowl and grabbed three more bananas. After slicing them, I dipped each one into the lemon juice, and then I smashed the contents into a paste. That was incorporated into some of my cake donut mix, along with a handful of chocolate chips and chopped maraschino cherries. I’d played with the idea of adding a little marshmallow as well, but so far I hadn’t had the guts to do it. I wasn’t sure how that marshmallow fluff would react to being deep fried, so I’d avoided it so far. As we worked at preparing the day’s offerings, I couldn’t help but wonder what Grace and I might find in Morgan’s room at Ellen’s place. Was he stupid enough to leave something incriminating in sight, or ha
d he been crafty finding a place to protect everyone else’s secrets? Only time would tell, but I had a hunch that Grace and I would have our hands full with just an hour allowed for our search.
“Young lady, we need to talk,” George Morris said later that morning as I opened the door to Donut Hearts promptly at six.
“Hello, Mr. Mayor,” I said as I let him inside. From the expression on his face and his tone of voice, I had a hunch that my friend wasn’t there to try one of my new donuts.
“What’s going on with your investigation?” he asked.
“I take it that you’ve talked to your secretary.”
“We both know that she’s more than that to me. Polly is an important part of my life these days, and I don’t care who knows it.”
“Well, good for you,” I said with a smile as I put a hand on his chest. “I’m proud of you.”
“For being mayor?” he asked.
“No, for admitting that you have a girlfriend.”
George frowned. “I hate the term girlfriend. We both retired from long careers, and we had full lives before we ever met. It just doesn’t sound dignified calling Polly my girlfriend.”
“I can think of some other terms of endearment, but I doubt that you’ll like any of them any better.”
“No, I’m certain that you’re right, but my question stands. Have you made any progress finding Morgan Briar’s killer?”
I poured him a cup of coffee and grabbed one of his favorite plain cake donuts and plated it for him. “Why don’t you sit down, and we’ll talk about it?”
“I suppose that we can speak uninterrupted. You’re not exactly busy at the moment,” George said as he looked around the deserted donut shop.
“The heat seems to keep people away in droves,” I admitted. “But maybe this morning that’s a good thing. George, you know that I love you, but you need to stay as far away from this case as you can.”
“I was a cop once upon a time,” he said, as if I needed to be reminded.
“And now you’re the mayor. It’s a lot different, and you know it. Grace and I are doing everything in our power to get this all cleared up, but there’s nothing you can do to help us that might not reflect badly on you if folks found out.”
