by Jessica Beck
“Nothing,” Jake said, brushing my question off. “I just have a suspicious mind. That’s all. Put it down to what I did for a living once upon a time. Speaking of making a living, I’ve been thinking about something lately.”
There was dead air between us for a few seconds. Honestly, I was afraid to say much of anything. I knew that my husband had been getting restless ever since he’d left the state police, but I also realized that if he was going to find a second career, he was going to have to do it on his own, without any prompting from me. “Yes?” I asked when I wasn’t sure he was going to continue.
“I may take your advice after all,” Jake said, as though every word cost him money.
“Wonderful! That’s excellent news! Exactly which piece of advice are we talking about?” I asked him with a grin.
“I thought I might start conducting a few private inquiries on my own,” he said. “I wouldn’t take any divorce cases or custody battles.”
“What does that leave?” I asked, not wanting to discourage him but also hoping that he would go into it with open eyes.
“Honest-to-goodness puzzles that need solving. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” I said approvingly.
“Could that be because you’re the one who first suggested it?” he asked as I slipped on a wet part of the path.
“Maybe, but it really doesn’t matter who came up with the plan. I think it’s exciting. You can use the building my father left me. All we need is a sign out front, some business cards, and some stationery, and you’ll be in business.”
“I’m afraid that it’s a little more involved than that,” Jake amended.
“Then we’ll do whatever we need to in order to get this thing rolling.”
Jake stopped, grabbed my arm, and faced me on the narrow path. “Suzanne, as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, this project is all mine. I wouldn’t dream of telling you how to run Donut Hearts, so leave this to me, okay?”
“Got it,” I said lightly. I wasn’t even hurt by the rebuff. I was simply thrilled that my husband was going to do something that made him feel productive again. If he’d been content with his early retirement, no one would have supported it more than I would have, but the fact was that he’d been listless and a little lost lately, and I hated seeing him like that. “Go at your own pace.” I looked up the path and saw that we still had quite a ways to go before we made it to the top. “This thing feels as though it gets longer and longer every time we scale it.”
“There’s not much more to go,” Jake said with a grin. “Come on. I’ll race you to the top.”
“Have you been working out in secret?” I finally asked him. There was no way I could even manage a fast climb at that point, let alone a full-on race.
“I may have taken this trail a time or two without you,” he answered with a grin. “Mad?”
“Are you kidding? I’m delighted,” I said as I reached out and grabbed him. After giving my husband a sound kiss, I stepped past him and hurried up the path. “Come on, slowpoke. What are you waiting for?”
Jake ended up beating me handily, but I didn’t mind.
My husband had gotten his spark back, and I was absolutely delighted.
We’d be celebrating more than Jasper’s birthday the next night. We would also be christening my husband’s new business venture and his renewed sense of purpose in life. I’d heard that all anyone ever needed was love and work in their lives, and I believed it. Even Momma and her husband, Phillip, were extremely active—my mother with her many business and real estate ventures and Phillip with his cold case research on crimes that had happened decades before. The donut shop kept me hopping, and I had no intention of leaving it any time soon, so Jake finding a new purpose was exactly what he needed.
Chapter 2
“Come on in,” Trish said giddily as we entered the Boxcar Grill. “Order whatever you want. This evening, everything is on the house!”
“What’s going on?” I asked my friend. Trish had certainly been generous in the past, but this was crazy. The diner was already brimming with people, and I wondered if everyone else there was enjoying free meals as well.
“I won the lottery!” Trish said jubilantly. “This is my last night running the Boxcar.”
“You’re shutting the place down?” I asked her. “Exactly how much did you win?”
“A cool million,” she said. “A customer left me his ticket as a tip, and on a whim I checked it on the computer. It matched all of the numbers except the Powerball, which means I just made a million bucks.”
“So you’re quitting?” Jake asked her. “How much of that will you actually get to keep?”
“I looked it up online after I saw that it was a winner. Some guy in Rocky Mount won a million a few years ago, and he got a check for $692,000.”
“Is that enough to retire on?” Jake asked.
“I figure it’s going to last me just fine, with what I’ve got put back anyway,” she said, and then she patted his shoulder. “Thanks for worrying about me, Jake, but I’m going to be fine. I’m not going to waste my money.”
“More burgers for the table, please,” Betilda Enwright asked Trish loudly. “With extra fries, too.”
“I thought you said you weren’t going to waste any money,” I told her.
“This? I’m just cleaning out our inventory.”
“What about Hilda and Gladys?” I asked softly. They’d worked for Trish for years, and I hated to see them lose out because of their boss’s good fortune.
“They’re happy for me,” Trish said with the hint of a frown on her lips, “and you should be, too.”
“We are,” I said quickly. “Any chance we could get burgers and fries, too?”
“You betcha,” Trish said with a grin. “I’ll even hold back some peanut butter pie for you, too.”
“That sounds excellent,” I said. We couldn’t find any tables free, but then I heard someone call my name. Momma and Phillip had a table to themselves, and they motioned for us to join them.
“Did you know about this?” Jake asked them as we sat down.
“We just walked in ourselves. As a matter of fact, I was just getting ready to call you,” Momma said.
“What do you think about it?” Jake asked her.
“I’m worried about Trish,” Momma admitted. “It may seem like a great deal of money to her right now, but I’m not at all sure how she’s going to make it last.”
“That’s my concern, too,” Jake replied.
“Should I talk to her?” I volunteered. I would hate for a windfall to turn into a nightmare for one of my closest friends.
“Maybe it would be prudent,” Momma said.
I made my way forward and found Trish speaking with a man I didn’t recognize. There was a look of shock on her face, and I wondered what was going on.
“I just don’t believe it,” she said.
“Believe what?” I asked her, butting in, whether it was welcome or not. That was what friends did, at least as far as I was concerned.
“He says the ticket doesn’t belong to me,” Trish replied, clearly on the brink of tears.
“Explain yourself,” I told the man.
“It’s simple, really. My client inadvertently left the ticket behind, not as a tip, but by accident. It belongs to him, and so does the million dollars.”
“That’s not fair,” Trish said, looking as though she’d just lost her best friend.
“What is unfair is you taking something that doesn’t belong to you,” the attorney said curtly as he handed her a piece of paper.
“What’s this?” Trish asked him numbly.
“It’s an injunction not to do anything with that ticket until the court can resolve its true ownership. There is a hea
ring in two days, and I suggest you find representation of your own. Good evening.”
After he was gone, Trish looked at me, clearly stunned by the news. “What am I going to do?”
“You’re going to fight it, naturally,” I said. “But first things first. We need to stop this free-for-all ordering spree.”
“I don’t have the heart to do it,” Trish said.
“No worries. I’ll do it for you.” I turned to the raucous crowd and said, “May I have your attention, please? Everyone, settle down.”
No one listened until my mother stood and said, “Quiet!”
Though she was an older, petite woman, there was nothing small about her voice.
The room hushed immediately.
I nodded my thanks, and then I made my announcement. “Apparently there is some dispute about the true ownership of Trish’s ticket. Until it can be resolved, I’m afraid that no one’s eating for free tonight.”
“But she already offered us free food,” Belinda complained.
“You can’t take something like that back,” Wally Strong chimed in from a different table. “It’s got to be against the law. It’s bait and switch, or at least something like that.”
Things were quickly getting out of hand.
Trish touched my shoulder, and then she said softly, “It’s fine, Suzanne.”
“No, it’s not,” I replied.
In a louder voice, she faced her diners and said, “Folks, if you’re going to take advantage of my generosity, then go right ahead. I won’t charge anyone for their meals. After all, a promise is a promise.”
There was a loud cheer until she held up a hand and continued, “But if I don’t get the winnings, then my prices are going to have to go up to cover my losses tonight.”
“Tell you what, everybody,” I said. “Don’t pay your bills, but I urge you all to leave tips large enough to make it worth Trish’s while to stay in business if things don’t work out. In the meantime, any future free food offer has been rescinded as of right now. Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with me up front.”
There was some grumbling from the crowd, but nobody directly challenged me.
“Thanks, Suzanne,” Trish said softly. The poor thing looked as though she were about to completely lose it, and I couldn’t blame her.
“Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out,” I said, doing my best to reassure her. “We would still like our food, but we’re paying full price, of course. Okay?”
“No,” she said firmly. “You made your orders when you thought it was going to be free. I won’t go back on my word.”
“Then we’ll just over-tip you,” I said with a grin. “Trish, you know you can’t out-stubborn me, don’t you?”
The diner owner laughed softly. “It would take too much effort at this point to even try. What a mess.”
“Not to pile on, but I have a hunch that it’s only going to get messier from here,” I said.
“Thanks for the words of encouragement,” she said.
Belinda and her party stood and moved toward the door. “You can cancel our orders for extra burgers and fries,” she said as she tried to make her way out without leaving a cent behind.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Belinda?” I asked her.
“Don’t worry. We left a tip at the table.”
“Fine. I’ll go collect it, and then I’ll clean the table for Trish myself,” I said sternly. “I think we should announce all of the customers’ generosity to everyone else, don’t you?”
“Oh, all right,” she said as she dove into her purse, pulled out a twenty, and shoved it into my hand. “Happy?”
“No, but I’m getting there,” I said with a smile. “You have a nice night now, you hear?”
“I will,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Once Belinda and her party were gone, Trish grinned in spite of her dire mood. “You’re a wicked woman, Suzanne Hart. You know that, don’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I take great pride in it,” I said as I gave her the twenty. “Let me go grab the rest of your tip for you.”
“I can do that myself,” she said.
“But then I wouldn’t have the satisfaction of seeing how much Belinda was planning to leave you before I stepped in,” I said as I grabbed a plastic tub and moved to clear the table in question.
After I finished cleaning away the dishes, I found a five and three singles left behind. Even with the twenty, it would barely cover the table’s tab, based on the plates I’d removed. Oh, well. I was sure that some folks would over-tip before they left.
“Are we working for our meal tonight?” Phillip asked when I returned to the table. “I’ve always wanted to run one of those commercial dishwashers. Do you think she’d let me have a turn at it?”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Jake said. “I ran one during a summer spent at camp, and the thing nearly scalded me alive on more than one occasion. We named the thing ‘the Beast,’ and with good reason, too.”
“Okay, you’ve convinced me,” Phillip said, clearly rethinking his previous offer. “Maybe I’ll just leave a good tip instead.”
“We all will,” Momma said as she patted her husband’s arm. My mother stared worriedly at Trish, who looked absolutely lost. “I’m concerned about her, Suzanne.”
“She’ll be okay,” I said, “but if you know any good lawyers, I’d appreciate it if you’d steer one her way.”
“I can do better than that,” Momma said. “A certain barrister in Charlotte owes me a personal favor. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to take on her case, pro bono.”
“I’ve known a few lawyers in my life, but I haven’t seen one yet willing to work for free without some kind of reason,” Phillip said.
“Oh, he has reason enough,” Momma said smugly.
“But you’re not going to tell us what it is, are you?” he asked his wife.
Momma just smiled. “Phillip, there have to be some secrets between us. That’s what helps keep life interesting.”
“Speaking of interesting, you’ll never believe what happened at the donut shop today,” I said, trying to shift the focus away from Trish’s woes.
“Jasper Finney invited you to his birthday party sleepover,” Momma said.
“How could you have possibly known that?” I asked her. My mother often surprised me, but I was stunned that she knew about the happenings in Donut Hearts so quickly.
“It’s simple, really. He invited us, too,” Momma said.
“Are you going?” Jake asked her.
“We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said with clear delight. “Jasper was particularly intent on having Phillip attend.”
“Why he would request my presence is beyond me,” the former police chief said. “We’ve never really been all that close.”
“Funny, but he was insistent that Jake come as well,” I said. “I wonder if he thinks there’s a reason to invite two former police chiefs to his soiree.”
“I don’t know, but why don’t you find out?” Jake asked me.
“What did you have in mind?”
“It’s easy enough. Call Grace and see if she and Chief Grant have been invited, too,” my husband suggested.
It only took a quick phone call to confirm that Jake’s hunch had been right.
“Wow, that’s a lot of lawmen gathered together for one night, isn’t it?” Momma asked after I got off the phone with Grace.
“Something’s going on,” I said. “I just don’t know what it is yet.” I wasn’t ready to share Jasper’s conversation with me about his impending demise, or at least the implication of it.
“Well, we’ll find out soon enough,” Phillip said. “After all, the party is tomorr
ow evening.”
“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to wait until then,” I said. “After I close the donut shop tomorrow, I’m going to go speak with Jasper and see if I can find out what’s really going on.”
“You’ll have to do it without me,” Jake said. “I’ve got that thing in Hickory over the next few days, remember?” He was consulting with the police there on a case, something that had been arranged well before we’d learned of Jasper’s party.
“Just be back in time for the festivities,” I said.
“It shouldn’t take long, but I don’t want you going out there by yourself, just in case.”
“We could always cancel our plans and go with you,” Momma suggested. “We were going to look at some investment property in Boone tomorrow, but it can wait.”
“No, you go ahead. I’m sure Grace will go with me.”
“If she can’t make it, call us,” Phillip said.
“Will do.”
“Why don’t you call her right now?” Momma suggested.
“Fine.” I dialed my best friend’s number, and Grace picked up on the second ring.
“Wow, two phone calls in less than an hour. Do you miss me that much, Suzanne? I know it’s been a few days since we’ve hung out, but you’re getting kind of needy, aren’t you?” Her laughter confirmed that she was just teasing me.
“Do you have any plans tomorrow after lunch? I thought I’d pop in on Jasper and see what’s really going on with this party of his.”
“It just so happens that I’m free,” she said. “I just got a text from Mindy White. Things must be crazy at the Boxcar with Trish giving away the store. I’ll be over there in a minute myself.”
“She isn’t sure she’ll get to keep the winnings, so the free-food frenzy is off,” I explained.
“Then there’s no reason for me to rush over there, is there?” Grace asked me.
“You make a good living. Do you really need a free meal?” I asked her.
