Sugar Coated Sins

by Jessica Beck

  “I do, and it’s greatly appreciated.” I yawned slightly, despite the fact that I’d just had coffee and cake.

  I’d hoped that no one had caught it, but of course my mother saw. She stood and motioned to her husband. “Phillip, Suzanne has an early day at work tomorrow. Let’s go so she can get some rest.”

  He nodded and joined her. “I just have one question.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He grinned before he said, “It’s not for you. It’s for my wife.”

  “All right. I’m listening.” Momma was clearly bracing herself for another confrontation.

  Instead, Phillip asked, “When do I get a cake all to myself?”

  She laughed with relief, and we both joined in. “How about your birthday?”

  “That’s in two months,” he protested. “I don’t think I can wait that long.”

  “I’m sure you’ll find some way to manage.” After I walked out onto the porch with them, Momma stopped and embraced me. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Thanks for the cake, even if it was just an excuse to make your emancipation proclamation for your husband.”

  “Nonsense. The cake was the main course. The declaration was the real dessert.” She smiled as she said it, and I knew that my mother’s marriage was going to be just fine. In a very real way, we were both still newlyweds, and I could testify that no matter how much you loved someone, living with them was something altogether different.

  I fully expected to fall right to sleep, but whether it was the caffeine from the coffee or the richness of the glorious chocolate cake, I was wide awake long after my regular bedtime. As I lay there staring at the clock, I kept calculating how much sleep I would get if I nodded off at that very moment, but soon enough, another minute ticked past. It was getting ridiculous, so I got up and looked for something to occupy my mind for a few minutes.

  I found the box I’d gotten from Gabby and started digging through it, hoping to find something that might help in our investigation. A few things nagged at the back of my mind by the time I finished going through it all, but there was nothing I could put my finger on directly to say “aha.”

  Closing it back up, I put it by the side door, where I’d have to pass by it in the morning. Maybe I’d take it to work with me at the donut shop and look at it all again with fresh eyes.

  For now though, it was time to try to sleep once more.

  Chapter 19

  I stumbled out of bed five hours later and realized that it was going to be a very long day. As I got older, my ability to go without a full eight hours of sleep diminished. This was going to be a morning that I needed coffee just to make it out the door. I nearly stumbled over the box of Ben’s things as I left the cottage, but I decided to take it in with me anyway, not that I’d most likely have a chance to examine its contents again. There were times when I went to sleep without grasping something and my slumber would somehow provide the answer, but today wasn’t going to be one of those moments.

  “Good morning. Isn’t it lovely outside this time of the night?” Emma asked later when she came into Donut Hearts. I could see for a moment how some folks found morning people a little annoying, despite the fact that I was normally one myself.

  “I’m not all the way awake yet myself,” I said as I started dropping donut batter into the fryer.

  “Maybe I should do the cake donuts this morning,” she suggested as she grabbed her apron and put it on. She was fully qualified to do it, since there were times when I left the entire shop in her very capable hands. “We wouldn’t want any accidents, would we?”

  “I’m fine,” I said as my finger slipped on the release mechanism, creating a monstrosity of dough three times its normal size in the oil that would most likely have to be thrown out.

  “Are you sure?” she asked me.

  “Were you under the impression that was an accident? It’s something I’ve been wanting to try forever. I’m thinking about calling it a family-sized donut. What do you think?”

  “Who knows? It might catch on,” she said a little skeptically.

  I looked at her for a second, and then we both started laughing. After flipping the dough beast and letting it fry on the other side, I said, “Nobody in their right mind is going to buy this thing.”

  “Let’s ice it anyway and give it a try,” she suggested.

  “What would we even price it at?” I asked her.

  “Well, it’s three times the size of a regular donut. How about three times the price?”

  “Why not?” I asked with another chuckle. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “If you want to crash and take a nap on one of the couches out front, I can take over for an hour or two.”

  I shook my head. “As much as I appreciate the offer, I think I’ll stick it out. I’ll be fine.”

  Emma thought about that for a moment, and then she asked, “May I make another suggestion, then?”

  “I’m willing to listen.”

  “Why don’t I put some of my specialty coffee on for our break? I’ve been dying to try a new blend that’s guaranteed to keep you awake for at least twenty-four hours straight.”

  “Wow, that sounds strong. How much of it did you buy?” While I was in charge of the donuts, Emma got to order some special blends of coffee from time to time. Her selections were sometimes hit or miss, but we had enough intrepid customers to keep it as a viable option, at least once a week.

  “I didn’t order much, but I think you could use it.”

  “Maybe we’d better not,” I said, after thinking about it for a few seconds. “After all, I plan on getting to bed early tonight, and if I drink any of that, I’ll be awake until this time tomorrow, when I will surely crash.”

  “Maybe that’s for the best after all,” she said. “How many of those are you going to make?” she added as she pointed to the dough beast, now finished and sitting at the icing station.

  “I think one is more than enough,” I replied. “Go set up the front, and I’ll drop the rest in normal-sized portions.”

  “It’s a deal,” she said.

  The rest of the donut batters were dropped without further complications, and I called Emma back after I’d pulled the last one out of the oil. I finished icing the last batch as Emma began on the dishes. She was still working when the dough for the yeast donuts was ready to rest. “It’s time for our break. You can finish those afterward.”

  “Wonderful,” she said. As we moved outside in the darkness for our daily break, she added, “I just love this time of year. It’s not hot yet, and the stars are absolutely beautiful.”

  “You’re in a particularly good mood this morning,” I said as we sat down at our table out front. “You haven’t met anyone recently, have you?”

  Emma grinned at me before she answered. “Is it that obvious?”

  “Hey, I remember the feeling of new love. It’s pretty intoxicating, isn’t it?”

  “Things aren’t cooling down between you and Jake, are they?”

  “Not one little bit. I love being married to him.”

  “It shows,” she said. “I’m not the only one happier around here.” Emma frowned for a second, and then she took a deep breath before she spoke again. “Suzanne, we need to talk.”

  “Okay. I’m listening.” I wasn’t sure what Emma was about to bring up, but I had the feeling that I wasn’t going to like it.

  “You know how I hate to come between my dad and you.”

  “Then don’t,” I said quickly. It had been the only way that we’d managed to keep working together, even after some of the stunts her father had pulled in the past. We’d made a pact not to bring Ray into our working or personal relationships, and I wanted to see that record stay intact.

  “This is a good thing. Don’t worry. He’s sorry for what he did, and he wants to make amends. Dad knows that he pushed you too hard, and he’s genuinely upset about it.”

  “That’s quite a change of heart f
or him to have,” I said reluctantly. “How did that happen?”

  “I won’t mention the fact that Mom and I had a long talk with him, so let’s just assume that he’s seen the error of his ways. As a way of apologizing for his behavior, he’s willing to grant you one favor, any favor, without requiring any quid pro quo at all.”

  I was about to turn her offer down as a matter of course when I realized that I could use her father’s help after all. “Okay.”

  Emma’s smile gleamed in the darkness for a moment. “Do you mean it? That’s wonderful. There’s no need to use your free pass right away. Keep it in the bank if you’d like, since there’s no expiration date.”

  “I want to use it right now.”

  “Now is good, too,” Emma said. “What do you want?”

  “There was a photo taken fifteen years ago when the time capsule was first interred under the town clock. I’ve seen a copy of it taken from the newspaper at the time, but now I want to see the original. Would it be possible for him to make a copy for me to have?”

  “If it’s still in the archives, I can guarantee it. How soon do you need it?”

  “Yesterday would be perfect,” I said, half in jest.

  “I’ll call him right now.”

  I put a hand on hers before she could dial her cellphone. “Emma, just because we’re awake doesn’t mean that anyone else in April Springs is. It can wait until seven.”

  “Maybe, but this is going to be part of his penance. I’ll see you inside.”

  I was going to argue further with her, but my timer went off, so I had to get back inside and work on the yeast dough. “Thanks.”

  “My pleasure,” she said happily. My assistant looked truly pleased about the prospect of waking her father up, and if I was being honest with myself, I wasn’t all that unhappy with it, either. I hoped that he still had the negatives on file in his office. Having a fresh print of that shot might go a long way toward helping us figure out who had confessed to killing Benjamin Port.

  “Jake, what are you doing here so early?” I asked as I unlocked our front door to let our first customer of the day in. I hadn’t been expecting to see my husband until possibly later.

  “Aren’t you happy to see me?” he asked.

  “Always. Would you like a donut?”

  “No, I’d better not,” he said as he patted his stomach. “The uniform’s getting a little snug as it is, and there’s no way that I’m going up another size. Having your mother drop a chocolate cake off at the cottage doesn’t help matters.”

  “Did you have some last night when you came home?”

  “Two helpings,” he admitted. “Thanks for leaving me that note that it was okay to eat. I’ve got to back off the sweets or crank up my exercises.”

  “If you’re not here for treats, did you come by just to see my smiling face?”

  “That, and to tell you that I got the results of the pie analysis back.”

  I looked at the clock. “Already?”

  “I called in a favor,” he said.

  “I thought you were cut off from using your old state police connections.”

  “I am. This is one I made as sheriff,” he explained.

  “You work fast, don’t you?”

  “I asked the tech to do it as a favor, and he stayed up all night to do the analysis.”

  “Don’t keep me hanging. Had the pie been doctored, or were we just being paranoid?”

  “Oh, no. There was a foreign substance in it, all right. Someone doused it with syrup of ipecac.”

  “I didn’t realize that was poisonous.”

  “In its unadulterated form it is, but not this batch. It’s an over-the-counter version. The analyst told me that besides the actual ipecac, it’s got glycerin, sugar syrup, and methyl-something. It induces vomiting, but you’d need to drink a tub of the stuff for it to be fatal.”

  “So whoever baked that pie wasn’t trying to kill us,” I said.

  “No, but they weren’t out to do us any favors, either. The ingredients would have made us both pretty sick if we’d eaten any of that pie. I believe that it was a warning, not a direct attempt on our lives. This time, anyway.”

  “Do you think the killer is going to try to come after us again?” I asked, horrified by the very thought of it. Poison was a sinister thing, a sneaky way to kill someone without actually having to face them.

  “If we keep digging into this, there’s no doubt in my mind,” he said. Was that the hint of a smile on his face? “We’re getting to them, Suzanne. We need to push hard now more than ever. If they try again, we’ll be ready for them.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Jake wrapped me up in his arms and hugged me tight. “Don’t you worry. There’s some good news, too.”

  “I could use some of that,” I said, comforted by his embrace.

  “I had ipecac in my house as a kid, and I’m willing to bet that you did, too, but it hasn’t been manufactured since 2010 because of real doubts about its effectiveness in treating poison. Whoever dosed us had an old batch on hand.”

  “How is that good news in any way, shape, or form?” I asked him.

  “Whoever did it must have been desperate to use it against us.”

  “And you’re sure that’s a good thing?”

  “Positive. Just be careful, okay?”

  “You bet I will. Right back at you, all right?”

  “I promise.”

  It wasn’t until after he was gone that I realized that I had still failed to tell him about Jan Kerber’s erased meeting with Ben the day before his death. It would have to wait again, for now.

  I had customers coming in for their donuts, and I didn’t have the heart to delay their purchases for another minute.

  Chapter 20

  “Hey, Jan. It’s so good to see you again. What can I get you?”

  “I’m not here for any treats. Suzanne, do you have a second?”

  “Sure. What’s up?”

  Jan looked around the donut shop and saw that it was half full of customers. “Is there someplace else we could talk?”

  “How about outside?” I offered. “I can get Emma to watch the front.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, can we do it in the kitchen? It’s starting to get warm outside, and I’d rather not have folks watching us.”

  “Sure. Why not? Come on back.”

  We went into the kitchen and found Emma putting away some of the sheet pans she’d just finished drying. She was about to say something when she saw Jan trailing behind me and clearly changed her mind. “What’s up, boss?”

  “Would you watch the front?”

  “Sure thing,” she said. “Hi, Ms. Kerber.”

  “Hello, Emma.”

  Once my assistant was gone, Jan said, “So, this is where the sausage gets made.”

  “No sausage, just donuts. So, what’s going on?”

  “Thanks for meeting back here. Sorry about the intrigue, but I wanted to speak with you about your earlier request. I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to help you out.”

  “I don’t understand. It was a simple request. Why can’t you come up with a list of names of the people working in your department fifteen years ago? It’s not like there’s some kind of confidentiality agreement about it.”

  “That’s not it. I can’t find the official records, and I’m having a hard time remembering everyone who worked there at precisely that time period. The clerk at the time had a tendency of firing and hiring back then on a whim, so there’s no way to come up with an exact list.”

  Actually there was, through the photo I was about to get from Ray Blake, but I wasn’t going to tell Jan that. “Okay. I understand. Thanks anyway.”

  “How’s the case going?” she asked me, not too subtly trying to get some information out of me. That explained why she’d made a special trip to the donut shop to deliver null information.

  “We’re making progress,” I said as vaguely as I could manage.
<
br />   “Are you having any luck narrowing down your list of suspects?”

  I’d planned on holding off interviewing her about her appointment with Benjamin Port until I had a chance to discuss what I’d found with Jake, but I’d learned long ago in my investigations to take advantage of opportunities, and this one was practically shouting in my face. “Why are you so interested, Jan?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be? You’ve got to admit that it’s fascinating that a confession would show up all these years later, especially when everyone thought the victim died accidentally.”

  “There’s more to it than that,” I said, “and you know it.”

  “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said diffidently.

  “And I’m equally sure that you do. We found Ben’s appointment book. The day before he was murdered, there was an entry that had been partially erased, but we managed to read the name anyway. Why were you meeting with him, Jan?”

  The Register of Deeds looked positively stricken by the news of the discovery. “I don’t…I just assumed…it’s not what it looks like.”

  “Then enlighten me. Were you sleeping with Benjamin Port, too?”

  “What? No! Of course not!”

  Her denial was completely believable. “Then why the intrigue? What were you meeting with him about?”

  “I cancelled it,” she said defensively. “The meeting never happened.”

  Maybe that was true, and maybe it wasn’t. “What were you going to discuss?”

  “I’d rather not say,” she answered meekly.

  It wasn’t the first time a suspect hadn’t wanted to talk to me. I shrugged. “Fine. I wanted to get the story from you before I told my husband. I’m sure that he’ll be contacting you about it soon.”

  I’d started to leave the kitchen when she put a hand on my arm. “Wait. Please don’t.”

  “Talk to me, Jan.”

  She bit her lower lip, and then she hung her head. “I’m too humiliated.”

  “Don’t be. We’ve all done stupid and crazy things in our lives. You said you weren’t dating him, right?”