by Jessica Beck
“But you didn’t give in to the temptation.”
“No, at least not yet. I still need to speak with him, though.”
Before we had time for any more conversation, we were there. As I drove the Jeep down the long driveway to the two-story brick colonial, I saw trucks, rental vans, outdoor activity tents, and a host of what must have been vehicles the temporary workers had arrived in.
“Wow. This is going to be some party,” Grace said beside me as I found a spot and wedged my Jeep into it. That was one of the joys of driving such a small vehicle; I could park it just about anywhere.
“I’m not really all that surprised, knowing Jasper,” I said. “Are you?”
“The levels of my astonishment are hard to quantify when it comes to men in general,” Grace said. “Let’s go in and see if we can locate Jasper.”
“First we need to find Bethesda Long. Once that’s settled, then we can go looking for Jasper,” I explained.
“Then by all means, let’s go find the Party Queen,” Grace said, and we headed inside.
Chapter 4
“Wow, I’ve never been here before, have you?” Grace asked me as we walked in through the open door and started looking around.
“It looks more like a movie set than an actual home,” I said, whispering without knowing why. From the gleaming highly polished floors to the coffered ceilings resplendent with crown molding, it was a true showplace. I looked around at the furniture and realized that everything I was looking at was an antique. The hall table alone was probably worth more than my Jeep had been when it was brand new. The staircase leading up was made from marble, and the chandelier in the entryway had so much crystal in it that if the light hit just right, it would be blinding.
“A busy movie set at that,” Grace said as she suddenly ducked out of the way. A troop of folks were bringing in folding tables, no doubt set for the feast. As big as the place was, it still felt as though we were in the way.
“Suzanne Hart, Grace Gauge, what are you two doing here?” a familiar voice asked me from behind.
I turned to find Angelica DeAngelis standing there, the matriarch and owner of Napoli’s, my favorite Italian restaurant in the world, located in a strip mall in nearby Union Square. Angelica was a true Italian beauty, and though her daughters were each lovely in their own right, none of them could hold a candle to their mother’s allure.
“I’m providing dessert,” I said as I hugged her before she moved on to Grace. “How about you?”
“I’m supplying the main courses,” she said. “I hope you’re further along with your prep work than I am with mine.”
“If you’re here, then who’s running the restaurant?” I asked her.
“Sophia is working with me. Maria and Antonia are handling things at Napoli’s without us, and Tianna even agreed to pitch in.” Tianna, Angelica’s oldest daughter, was back in the fold after a long estrangement. It was good to see how happy the reconciliation had made my friend. She smiled as she added, “I’d love to chat, but I’m needed in the kitchen. Talk to you soon.”
With that, Angelica was gone.
“Mrs. Hart, I presume?” a small, birdlike woman asked me from the corridor as she clutched a clipboard as though it were a life preserver and she was at sea. “I’m Bethesda Long.”
“Suzanne works just fine,” I said as I offered my hand. “This is Grace.”
Bethesda didn’t take my hand, simply nodding instead. The poor woman looked as though she had been strained to the breaking point, and I felt bad for insisting on our meeting, though I had no real desire to speak with her. Grace and I were there for Jasper and Jasper alone. “Thank you for stepping in at the last second. When I told Mr. Finney, he seemed delighted by the news. In fact, he insisted that I pay you in full upon your arrival, though that’s generally not my policy at all.”
“I’d be happy to wait,” I said, ignoring the check she began waving at me as though it were an extinguisher and I was on fire.
“Nonsense. As I said, Mr. Finney demanded that it be handled this way.”
“Have you known him long?” I asked her.
“Ages, in fact. My father used to work for him in the factory, so you can imagine my delight when he called to ask me to plan this celebration.”
I took the check, quickly glancing at the amount. As I tried to hand it back to her, I said, “I’m sorry, but you’ve made a mistake.”
“I can assure you, that doesn’t happen,” Bethesda Long said primly.
“The thing is, it’s made out for far too much,” I insisted. “See for yourself.”
The party planner studied the check for a moment, and then she nodded. “The total is correct. It includes additional funds due to the last-minute nature of the request. Please take it. I don’t have time to issue you another one, and I have no desire to convey your refusal to my employer.”
I thought about fighting her on it, but she was right. It wasn’t her problem to handle, but now I had something else I needed to discuss with Jasper Finney. “Thanks are in order, then, I suppose,” I said.
“You’re very welcome, but it’s Mr. Finney you should be thanking. Now, is there anything else I can do for you? I hate to be so abrupt, but I really am pushed for time.”
“No, we’re good,” I said, and she nodded as she hurried away in Angelica’s general direction.
“What was that all about?” Grace asked me. “Did they really pay you too much?”
“It’s not permanent,” I assured her. “That’s just one more thing I need to take up with Jasper now.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Grace said so softly that I nearly missed it.
“What do you mean?”
“You heard the woman. Jasper insisted on doing it. Think about how he’s going to take it if you refuse his generosity,” Grace explained. “You know him better than I do, but if I had to describe him, I’d say that he was quirky, and also full of pride.”
“Okay,” I said reluctantly. “You know, I hate when you do that.”
“Do what?” she asked, clearly made curious by my statement.
“Be right,” I said. I decided not to push the payment issue after all, since I had something far more serious I wanted to discuss with the birthday host. “Where should we start looking for him?”
Grace looked around the house, at least the parts of it that we could see from our vantage point. “I don’t have a clue.”
“Let’s try upstairs,” I suggested. After all, that might serve to get us out of the way of the temporary workers, since the entry was teeming with people moving in and out of the structure as though they were ants.
“I’m game if you are. If we’re going to get caught wandering around, it might as well be with good reason.”
When we got to the top of the stairs and close to the first door—which just happened to be ajar—I paused for a moment. After lifting a finger to my lips, I motioned to the opening and tried to hear what was being said inside.
“I’m telling you, it’s not right,” Bobby Finney said. “We can’t do it. I can’t do it.”
“We can, and we will,” Ethan, his father said. Their voices were distinct enough to hear every word, and identifying them was simplicity itself. “Robert, it has to be done.”
“Then do it without me,” Bobby said, and then I heard angry footsteps approaching us. Jasper’s great-grandson was leaving! Grabbing Grace’s arm, I pulled her forward, not back down the stairs we’d just traversed. I knew if we did that, there might be some suspicion that we’d fled upon hearing their plans. It would have been true enough, but I didn’t want it to seem that way.
The hallway was lined with paintings, and as the door was flung open, I peered at the closest portrait, trying desperately to decipher the artists’ name. “I told you it w
asn’t a Vermeer,” I said, not having a clue if it was or not. I’d seen a public television show on classical artists, and just as I’d been nodding off, I’d heard the name, and it had stuck.
“Of course it’s not a Vermeer,” Bobby said. “Not only is it the wrong style, but you’re off by two and a half centuries.”
Ethan soon joined us. “What’s going on?”
Before I could come up with an excuse, Bobby said, “They were wondering who painted the portrait.”
“Who cares?” Ethan asked. “Why are you two here?”
Grace was about to answer with what would have no doubt been an entertaining story, but I decided to provide the truth instead. “I’m providing dessert for the festivities tonight.”
“Yes, I heard about that,” Ethan said, clearly displeased by the prospect.
“Personally, I think it’s a great idea,” Bobby said, beaming.
“You would,” the man’s father said. “Ladies, I’m sure you need to get started on those donuts right away, so don’t let us keep you.”
The way he stood there staring at us, I realized that there was no way we’d ever be able to search for Jasper now.
We were going to have to abort our mission. I just hoped that I’d be able to connect with the host later when I delivered the promised donuts.
It was the best I could do at the moment, anyway.
Or so I thought.
As I drove us away from the house, I noticed a lone man sitting on a concrete bench just off the drive. If I hadn’t been looking in his direction, I might have easily missed him, but the moment I saw him, I knew that we’d had a stroke of luck at last.
It was Jasper Finney, and by the look of him, he wasn’t having a very happy birthday at all.
“Jasper? What’s wrong?” I asked as Grace and I approached him. He hadn’t seen us stop the Jeep or park it on the grass either, and if he’d spotted us nearing him on foot, he didn’t show it.
Jasper Finney looked up and stared at us both blankly for a moment, as though he were lost, even though he was still on his own property. The panic was gone in a moment, but it stuck in my mind.
“Hello, ladies. What brings you out here?” he asked as he tried to recover his wits about him.
“What’s going on with you?” I repeated.
“Nothing,” he said.
“Jasper,” I insisted.
He shrugged a moment before explaining, “I suppose when you get to be my age, you begin to struggle with the question of your own mortality.”
“Nonsense. Any man who insists on donuts as his birthday treat is going to live forever,” I said, doing my best to cheer the man up. I’d never seen him so downcast in all the years that I’d known him, and I was getting more than a little worried about him.
“Frankly, if I live to see another sunrise, I’ll be surprised,” he said so softly that I almost didn’t hear it.
“Are you in some kind of danger?” Grace asked him gently.
“Aren’t we all, on one level or another?” he asked glumly. It wasn’t exactly a straight answer, but I had a hunch that it was the best one we were going to get.
“Then why the dour prediction?” I asked him. “Frankly, it’s not like you.”
Jasper stared at his hands for a moment, and then when he looked back up at us, he did his best to fabricate a smile. “Of course it’s not. You’re right. It’s just a case of the birthday blues.” He narrowed his gaze at me for a moment before he added, “You’re not going to try to talk me out of giving you that bonus, are you?”
“I was going to,” I admitted, “but Grace talked me out of it.”
“Good for you,” he told her, a true smile appearing for the first time since we’d stopped to chat with him. “You get it, don’t you?”
“It’s your birthday,” Grace said with a grin. “As far as I’m concerned, you should have whatever you want, including overpaying Suzanne for her donuts.” She paused a moment before adding, “I should correct that. Whatever you want within reason, of course.”
“Ah, reason. There’s the rub, isn’t it? If I had any sense at all, I’d shut this farce down right now and send everyone on their way.”
“Then that’s exactly what you should do,” I said as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the check I’d just gotten from Bethesda Long. “I haven’t even started the donuts yet, so consider this visit on the house.”
He refused the check, though. “As much as I appreciate your willingness to forego what must be a rather substantial paycheck for you, I’m afraid that wheels have been set into motion that cannot be stopped.”
“If you ask me, there’s nothing that we can’t fix if we put our minds to it.”
“I remember being that young once upon a time,” he said wistfully with a slight smile. “Nothing seemed impossible back then. I honestly believed that I could slay any dragon that came my way.”
“You still can,” I said.
“I’m afraid those days are long gone.” Jasper suddenly stood and slapped his hands together in a single loud clap. “Enough ramblings from an old fool,” he said. “You need to get started on those donuts. It’s the main thing I’m looking forward to tonight, so don’t disappoint me, Suzanne.”
“I’ll try my best not to,” I said. “Could we give you a ride back to the house?”
“No, but thank you for the kind offer. I aim to ramble, to stroll, and to lollygag my way back. If it takes me two hours, then so be it.”
“You make it sound like so much fun I wish I could join you,” I told him.
That got a real grin from him, and as he walked away from us toward the house at a snail’s pace, he threw a hand over his shoulder, bidding us good bye.
“What do you make of that?” I asked Grace once we were back in the Jeep and heading toward Donut Hearts.
“The man seems genuinely depressed about something,” she said.
“So you agree with me. It’s more than the fact that he’s just getting old,” I answered as I swerved to miss a suicidal squirrel. That gave me a moment’s pause. “You don’t think he’s going to kill himself tonight, do you?”
“What? Where did that come from?” Grace asked me as she glanced in my direction with a puzzled expression.
“I don’t know. Maybe because of that squirrel that just darted in front of the Jeep or the way Jasper sounded just now. At his age, I can see where birthdays could be depressing.”
“I’m not disagreeing with you, but if he was going to kill himself, why hold a party in the first place? I don’t get it. Jasper doesn’t seem the type of person who would enjoy long and morbid good-byes.”
“You’re probably right, but I just can’t help thinking that something is going on with him,” I said as we got back into town.
“Tell you what. Why don’t we speak with him again at the party and see if he’s lightened up any by then?”
“And if he hasn’t?” I asked her as I pulled back into her driveway.
“Then we do our best to convince him that it’s a very bad idea to be so glum during his remaining time on earth,” Grace replied. “Come on. If being around the two of us doesn’t make him want to see another day, I don’t know what would.”
Her infectious attitude was catching. “Okay, it’s a deal. What are you going to do with the rest of your afternoon?”
“What I always do when I find myself with a minute of free time during working hours these days,” she said glumly. “Paperwork.”
“Is it really that bad?” I had my share of forms I had to deal with running Donut Hearts, from supply orders to permit reapplications to a dozen different other time wasters, but I couldn’t imagine it taking up so much of my time. There were some real advantages to having a real job working for wages and getting insur
ance, but there were some perks for working on your own, too.
“It would make any sane person run screaming into the woods,” Grace said, and then she patted my knee before she got out. “Don’t worry about me, though. I’ll find some way to deal with it. Besides, this year I qualify for another full week of paid vacation.”
I looked at her as though I were confused. “I’m sorry, what did you just say? I get a day off every now and then, but are you telling me that someone actually pays you not to show up for work?”
“I know. It’s crazy, isn’t it?” she asked with a grin as she left the Jeep and walked inside, but not before stopping and waving at me like a maniac.
Grace was good for me. Her spirit had a way of buoying mine on the darkest occasions, and that was just one of the reasons she was my best friend. I knew that with her at the sleepover tonight, and Jake as well as Momma and Phillip, we were in for an interesting time.
I just hoped that Jasper Finney had a chance to enjoy himself as much as we all planned to.
But I was going to have to worry about that later.
For now, Emma and I had to make the donuts for the second time that day, and substantial bonus or not, it was rarely as much fun the second time around within such a short period of time.
Chapter 5
“You’re already here,” I said with surprise when I found Emma getting to work in the kitchen without me. She had already started getting out some of the supplies we’d be needing for the eighteen dozen donuts we’d be making, and my assistant looked a little guilty when she saw me.
“Sorry. I didn’t think you’d mind,” Emma apologized.
“You know what? I don’t mind at all. Would you like to make the donuts this afternoon? I can be your assistant for a change.”
“I wasn’t trying to push you out,” Emma said with a frown.
“Believe me, you aren’t,” I answered. “Come on. It might shake things up a little. Just don’t get used to it, though,” I said with a grin. “I don’t want a power struggle on my hands. After all, when you’re here with your mother, you’re the boss.”
