Chocolate Chip Custard Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 46

by Susan Gillard

  “What’s wrong?”

  “What was he doing there?”

  “Huh?”

  Heather showed her phone screen to Amy. “Look at that address. Lemon lives in the opposite direction of the car lot. What was he doing back there so early in the morning?”

  Chapter 12

  Visiting Lemon’s house was wildly different than Eva’s, yet Heather was surprised by the feeling of sadness she felt when she stepped through these doors as well. Eva’s house had been lovingly decorated through the years to make everything feel homey, while Inspector Lemon’s décor was sparse to the extreme. Eva’s home had cheery colors, while the house Inspector Lemon rented was a boring beige. His furniture consisted of folding chairs in the dining area, a mattress in the bedroom and a desk in the living room. She wasn’t in the ruined home of a loved one, but it still affected her. Inspector Lemon’s home wasn’t happy, but it was sadder to think that he would never return to it.

  Because there was little to search through, Heather was able to search the house quickly. The only space that looked like it received Lemon’s time and attention was his desk area. Notes were sprawled on papers across the desktop and newspaper clippings were hung on the nearby wall.

  Heather gasped as she realized that all the articles were about her investigations. There was an article about the time she and Amy solved the murder of a crime novelist, one about the time they brought the killer of the Tourism Depot’s owner to justice, and many other cases. She wasn’t always a fan of the Hillside Reporter, but it seemed that Kelly Lemon was. The news clippings were the only decorations on the walls of the house. But what did these old cases have to do with her current case?

  Did Inspector Lemon hang them up because he was a still a fan of their work like he used to be? Was he becoming an obsessed fan? Was he angry at them for their work? Or jealous? These questions raced through Heather’s head as she read the headlines. The articles were arranged carefully, so this made her think that they weren’t put up in a fit of rage.

  The article that was center stage in the display included how Amy had officially become a private investigator and described her part in solving the crime. Was it possible that he found that inspiring?

  She searched the rest of his notes on the desk, trying to get a clearer picture of what he was working on. There were some notes related to the cases she knew about from her earlier interview about the bicycle thief and the ballerina statue. Then she found something interesting. A piece of paper was labeled “Clarke’s Employees” followed by a list. Some names included John Grately, Susan Smythe, and Kevin Sanchez. Heather didn’t recognize any of the names, but she hadn’t met many of Clarke’s employees.

  Did his new case have something to do with Lyle Clarke? Was that the big fish that Lemon had mentioned?

  “Poor Lemon,” Heather muttered to herself. As she discovered herself, Lyle Clarke was a formidable nemesis. Inspector Lemon could have gotten in over his head. If he had tried to take down Clarke by himself, that could have been the reason for his “accident.”

  Heather shook her head. Some things were puzzling her. The timeframe seemed wrong. There didn’t seem to be enough time for Inspector Lemon to declare to them that he was going after a big case, discover condemning evidence against Clarke, and then get murdered to silence him about it in less than twenty-four hours.

  She felt bad about her next line of thought, but was Inspector Lemon capable of catching Clarke? She had been trying to find evidence to prove what a bad guy Clarke was for a while and had not been able to find anything that would stand up in a court of law. Heather didn’t think she was acting conceited when she compared her investigative skill set to Lemon’s.

  Clarke was so connected and manipulative, while Inspector Lemon had trouble tracking down sandwiches. It didn’t seem likely that Inspector Lemon would have discovered something that would warrant his death so quickly.

  However, it did seem that Lemon was investigating Clarke’s employees. She could feel that this was an important clue. She just needed to figure out how it fit into the bigger picture.

  Chapter 13

  Sleepovers every night were certainly enjoyable, but Heather had to admit that were tiring her out. Lilly was a bundle of energy right up until the minute that Heather put her to bed.

  The evening had consisted of good company and another old dinosaur movie with terrible special effects. They found an old bone of Dave’s and used it for an impromptu game of “hide the dinosaur bone.” Lilly was a great at finding the unusual hiding places, though Leila certainly put her skills to the test. Leila had even tried hiding the bone inside a couch pillow, though Amy had helped find that one by accidentally sitting on it. Dave was very good-natured through the whole game. After all, it wasn’t donuts that he was missing out on by their hiding them. Cupcake had alternated between pawing at items to help in the search and climbing up on Heather’s shoulders to avoid the ambitious amateur archeologists.

  It was a much more cheery night than the previous time Amy was over. It might have been that Amy was refusing to show that the case was bothering her anymore, or it might have been because Eva and Leila were so grateful for her help with their house.

  After Lilly had gone to bed, they all discussed the fire damage, furniture salvage, and the boyfriend in more detail.

  “If we had known that you were going to do all that work and move all that heavy furniture around all by yourself, we never would have let you go,” Eva said.

  “I wasn’t all by myself. Jamie came over. He’s been really great during this tough time for me, too. Very supportive. And the two of us working on your house helped me to feel less helpless,” Amy said. “It’s also nice to know that he can move furniture. That will be useful when we move into our own new place together.”

  “I like this young man of yours,” Eva said.

  “Yes,” Leila seconded. “We’re glad you’re taking the next step and moving in together.”

  “We think you should keep him around for a while.”

  “Maybe we should invite him to one of these evening gatherings.”

  “These have become girls’ nights recently,” Heather said. Dave looked up, doggy-indignant.

  “He does love animals. I’m sure dinosaurs could fit into that,” Amy laughed.

  “And give him some donuts from us to thank him for all his help around our house,” Leila said.

  “Those Chocolate Chip Custard Donuts should do the trick,” Eva suggested. “They were delicious.”

  “They were. But now that you’ve reminded me of them, I think we need some of those donuts too!”

  The ladies laughed, and Heather promised them more donuts in the morning. She was also pleased to hear that Jamie had been helpful and kind during this ordeal. She thought Jamie was a good fit for her bestie, and Amy certainly deserved to be happy.

  “It’s reassuring to know that a lot of our things survived,” Eva said.

  “There’s rebuilding that will have to be done,” Heather said. “But it can be fixed. And Amy made sure that nothing else can be damaged or stolen while it’s undergoing repairs.”

  “You’ve all been so wonderful. Even Ryan helped by sending photos for our insurance.”

  “Then they’ll send us a big check!” Leila said.

  “I hope it’s a decent size.”

  “I didn’t mean one of those giant checks like they deliver to prize winners on TV. We’d be knocked over by one of those. I meant a lot of money.”

  “I did too, silly.” Eva said, “It’s just strange to think that they are putting a price on all our valuables. Some of the things that were most meaningful to mean wouldn’t be worth a lot monetarily.”

  “I know what you mean. I have a string of fake pearls that are more valuable than my real ones. An actress friend of mine from when I was younger gave them to me. They had been on stage. She never became famous or anything, but her giving them to me made me feel like a star.”

  They bec
ame quieter, lost in their thoughts. Amy broke the tension by proclaiming “After all that hard labor today I think I deserve a rest.”

  Then she plopped onto the couch next to Dave. Dave allowed himself to be cuddled, and then Cupcake joined them. Heather wasn’t sure how much rest Amy would get if she had to keep scratching the pet’s ears and tickling their tummies.

  A thought occurred to Heather as she looked at her friend on the couch. She pondered the furniture and must have been making a “deep in thought” face.

  “What are you thinking about? Did you solve the case?” Amy asked excitedly.

  “No, sorry.” Heather said, “I might have solved something else though. I’ll keep thinking about it. But, you’re right. My focus should be on the case. Ryan should be home soon, and maybe he’ll have some new information.”

  Ryan did come home shortly after that and with new evidence. He had been successful in retrieving the driver forms from Uncle George.

  Amy pretended she was too tired from all her manual labor that day to get up from the couch. She stayed with Eva and Leila as Heather joined Ryan in the kitchen.

  “Uncle George just handed these over?” Heather asked as they sat at the table together and looked over the forms.

  “It was the salesman Tim who was so helpful. It also helped that I had a court order.”

  “Look at this,” Heather said, indicating. “The forms are different.”

  The forms for borrowing a car were filled out more thoroughly for every other borrower besides Kelly Lemon. They included the date and time that the car left the lot and the driver’s license number of the borrower.

  “I thought it was strange at the time that Kelly Lemon’s borrowing form only had his name on it.”

  “So what are you thinking?” Ryan asked.

  “I’m thinking that this form was filled out after the fact. I’m thinking that Inspector Lemon didn’t borrow the car like they said.”

  “Are we jumping to conclusions?”

  “I wouldn’t say jumping. Maybe just a little hop. The reason why we thought Inspector Lemon borrowed the car was because Uncle George’s salespeople said he did. But they acted suspiciously, and Rita thought Kelly was a woman until I brought it up. The form of his is different from all the others. Even if it were a busy day on the lot like they said, then other forms would be missing information in the haste too. I think they didn’t have any information on Inspector Lemon except his name, but because he was killed in one of their cars they had to do something to account for it.”

  Ryan nodded. “It makes sense. So you think Inspector Lemon stole the car and they covered it up?”

  “I do. And I think it had something to do with an investigation Lemon was conducting. I don’t think he suddenly became a car thief.”

  “Uncle George didn’t know what time the car disappeared, so they left the time of borrowing blank on the form.” Ryan nodded. “This could affect our whole timeframe for the case. He didn’t have to get the car during business hours. He could have taken it in the middle of the night.”

  “Or in the morning. I kept wondering why he was on that side of town so early. Maybe he was getting the car before they opened.”

  “That doesn’t give the killer much time to realize that Lemon is on to them and sabotage the car.”

  Heather pondered this. She felt like they were close. They just needed one more piece of the puzzle.

  “What did Inspector Lemon discover?” Ryan asked, trying to get his gears turning.

  Heather kept combing through the borrower forms. She was reading one for John Grately, and seeing that his form even included contact information. Then she focused on the name.

  “John Grately.” Heather muttered. She began going through the papers wildly.

  “Who’s he? What did you figure out?”

  She held up several forms. “These borrowers are all Clarke’s employees.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Inspector Lemon figured it out. He left a list of Clarke’s employees. They match the borrowers’ name. Gately, Smythe, Sanchez, and more. He knew Clarke was up to something with the used cars. That’s the big fish he was going after.”

  “What would Clarke’s employees be doing with the cars?”

  “I can think of a few scenarios. You wouldn’t want to use your own car if you were committing a crime, would you?”

  “It makes sense. But we don’t have any evidence of this, do we? Lemon didn’t leave any? Without evidence, it’s all conjecture.”

  Heather fumed. That seemed to be how all her dealings with Clarke went. They knew that he was involved in criminal dealings, but they couldn’t prove it.

  Yet. Heather told herself.

  “We might not be able to prove what Clarke was doing with the cars,” she said. “But I think what we’ve found does point to Lemon’s investigation contributing to his murder. It does seem more likely than a little arguing in a donut shop, doesn’t it?”’

  “I think it does,” Ryan said smiling.

  “So… Does that mean I can have my P.I. partner back?”

  Chapter 14

  Heather took a deep breath. She thought she was right about what happened, but this could prove it. She made her way over to the side door entrance to Uncle George’s sales building and had to smile.

  She waved to Amy, inviting her to come out of the car and join her.

  “You’ve cleared my name?” Amy asked.

  “I think so. I don’t know who the killer is yet. But look.” Heather pointed to the lock on the side door. There were scratch marks on it, indicating that the lock had been picked.

  Amy wanted to give the moment its due but wasn’t quite sure what it meant. “You weren’t allowed to talk to me about the case until now. What is going on?”

  “Inspector Lemon had a lock picking set on him when he crashed. I bet a forensics team could prove that it was the same lock pick that opened this door.”

  “So Lemon broke in here to investigate?”

  “He discovered Clarke’s employees were borrowing cars.”

  “And if they work for Clarke, I bet they’re not just going for joy rides.”

  “I think Inspector Lemon broke in here the day he died. That’s why he was on this side of town. He was looking for hard evidence before the dealership opened. He either got spooked by someone coming in early or thought the car itself was evidence.”

  “Was it?”

  “Unfortunately, no. Ryan double checked this morning. There’s nothing that ties the car to anything but this lot.”

  “But then Lemon takes the car, and it crashes.”

  “So it’s definitely tied to his investigation and not to you.”

  “I certainly didn’t have time to sabotage the car. But did someone else have time? I mean, to find out he was onto something and then plan his murder?”

  “That’s been bothering me too,” Heather said. “I’m also not sure that Clarke would kill him so quickly. He didn’t have any hard evidence. Only a strong coincidence.”

  “Back up. Am I hearing things right? Is Heather Shepherd defending Lyle Clarke?”

  “Not defending him. Just questioning the motive. Clarke seems to like to taunt the investigators on his trail, and not do anything that could be proven and tied back to him.”

  “I’m not sure where this puts us. Who is the killer?”

  “I think we have more questions for Uncle George and his staff. One of them had the means and opportunity to tamper with the car. We just need to determine who had the motive.”

  ***

  They were saved Uncle George’s usual greeting to his car lot when he recognized them. He covered up his annoyed glare with an overlarge smile.

  “Well, well. To what do I owe the pleasure of this return? And with reinforcements? Didn’t your police already get what they wanted?”

  “Not yet,” Heather said. “We still have to catch the killer.”

  “I resent that you are implying that I had
anything to do with this death.”

  “He did crash because a car you said he borrowed was sabotaged, right?” Amy said, not pulling any punches.

  Uncle George sputtered and adjusted his cowboy hat. “That must have happened after he brought the car home.”

  “Mr. Alvarez, where were you the morning of Mr. Kelly’s death?” Heather asked.

  “I don’t see what business of yours that is. I didn’t have anything to do with the death. And I’m sure my staff didn’t either. You see, my staff is like family to me.”