by Jessica Beck
“She could do much worse, you know,” I added.
“That’s what keeps me awake at night. Thanks again,” Ray said, and then he finally left.
It had been a long day, and a double shift at that, so sleep wasn’t that far off for me. Besides, I had a big day tomorrow.
I might not be making any donuts, but I was going to try to solve my friend’s murder, and that was going to be a daunting task in and of itself.
Jake came into the kitchen the next morning a little after seven. I’d gotten better at sleeping in on my days off, but I was still up well before six. My husband had always been an early riser as well, but for some reason, he’d slept in this morning.
“Hey. Been up long?” he asked me as he rubbed his cheek with one hand.
“Not long,” I said as I kissed him good morning. “I made you some bacon, and I can whip you up some eggs in a heartbeat if you’d like me to.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Jake said as he poured himself some coffee. “Have I told you lately how much I enjoy you taking two days off every week?”
“As a matter of fact, you have, repeatedly,” I said with a grin as I got his eggs started. “Are you still going back to Hickory this morning?”
“I don’t have much choice. They need me,” he acknowledged. “Any chance you’ll come with me?”
We’d discussed that as a possibility earlier, but that had been before Jasper had been murdered. That event had changed everything, as far as I was concerned.
“Sorry, I can’t. I’m going back out to the estate,” I said.
“I can probably cancel if you’d like me to go with you,” Jake offered.
“No, you need to tie up all of those loose ends there. I’ll be okay on my own,” I said as I finished scrambling his eggs. As they finished cooking, I crumbled up three of the bacon slices, and after I added that to the mix, I threw in a little shredded cheese, too. I liked my eggs a different way entirely, but I was happy to be able to make Jake his own style of breakfast whenever I had the chance.
“Am I just wasting my breath if I tell you that I don’t like you going out there by yourself?” he asked as the toast popped up and he grabbed it. Jake slathered on a hearty coating of butter, much more than I would have given him, which was probably one of the reasons he’d done it himself.
“I’ll be fine. No one’s going to try anything in broad daylight.”
“I’ve heard that before, and yet it’s happened on occasion, hasn’t it?” he asked. “The bad guys don’t just operate at night.”
“If I call Grace, will that make you feel better?”
“Yes, strangely enough, somehow it would,” he admitted. “The two of you manage to generate together more than double the trouble you get yourselves into, but you also seem to get out of it, too.”
“So far, at any rate.” I grinned at him, holding up two sets of crossed fingers.
“Just call her, smarty pants,” Jake prodded me.
“I’ll do it while you’re in the shower,” I promised. “If I know her, she’s not even up yet, so I’m going to let her sleep as long as I can.”
“I don’t know how she does it,” Jake said. “I’d be groggy all day long if I slept that late.”
“Hey, she’s improved a lot since high school. I used to have to go over and douse her with cold water every other day to get her to classes on time.”
“You’re a true friend, Suzanne. Hey, that looks perfect,” he added as I plated the scrambled egg concoction and slid it in front of him.
“I hope you like it.”
Jake took a bite, and then he grinned widely. “It’s perfect. Any chance I can get you to make this for me every morning? My version doesn’t taste nearly as good as yours does.”
“Why? Because it’s made with love?” I asked him.
“No, that’s not it. I always manage to burn the eggs when I try it,” he said with a grin.
I kept my husband company as he ate, and after he was finished and in the shower, I dialed Grace’s number. I’d been expecting to wake her, but to my surprise, she sounded as though she’d been up for hours. “Hey, Suzanne. What’s up?”
“You’re awake,” I said, almost accusingly.
“I know. Can you believe it?” she asked, and I could hear the grin in her voice. “I was all set for the sleepover at Jasper’s last night, but when that didn’t happen, I figured I’d take the day off and hang out with you. Minerva had different thoughts on the matter, though.”
“Minerva? Who is that?”
“She’s my new sales rep,” Grace said. “At least she was. She started working in her territory four days ago, and she just quit.”
“Wow, that’s fast, even for you,” I said. “What happened?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out. We invested money in training her for a month, and I’m not going to let it go to waste without a better answer than she’s given me so far. I hope you don’t mind that I’m not going to be there for you this morning.”
“I can hardly resent the fact that you’re off doing your job,” I said. It might interfere with my promise to Jake, but I couldn’t expect Grace to always drop everything just because I was digging into another murder.
“I know. Who ever would have dreamed that I’d be so conscientious?” she asked with a laugh.
“I don’t know. I always had a hunch,” I said with the hint of a smile in my voice.
“That makes one of us, anyway. Are you going to be okay without me?” she asked.
“I’ll manage, as difficult as it might be,” I replied with a laugh of my own. “Call me when you get back into town.”
“At least you’ve got Jake, right?” she asked me.
“Right,” I said. There was no way I was going to guilt her into not doing her job just because it meant that I’d be going solo. “I’ll talk to you this afternoon.”
“See you later, alligator,” she said as she signed off.
Jake came out, buttoning his shirt. “That was fast, even for you,” I said.
“What can I say? I was motivated to get going this morning. Is Grace going with you?”
“She has to take care of a few things with her job first, but after that, she’s all mine,” I said. I’d briefly considered shading the truth a little with Jake, but in the end, I knew that I wouldn’t be happy with myself if I did that. I’d rather take his consternation now than have him be disappointed in me later when he found out the truth.
“But you’re going anyway, aren’t you?” he asked me with a frown.
“Come on. I won’t go into any dark corners, and I won’t even ask any probing questions. I just want to see if I can figure out what happened to Jasper.”
My husband seemed to think about that for a few seconds before he answered. “If you aren’t going to ask questions or look into blind alleys, what’s the point of going? Hey, there’s something I forgot to tell you last night.”
“What’s that?”
“I checked out the lock to the study after you went off on your own yesterday,” he said.
“Did you find something wrong with it?”
“No, but the only way to lock it is with a key, whether you’re on the inside or the outside of the door. Whoever left Jasper for dead had to have had a key themselves.”
“Or they knew where to get their hands on one,” I said as I kissed his cheek. “Thanks for worrying about me. It’s nice having someone in my life who cares about my well-being.”
“You have more folks than me doing that. I still don’t want you going alone, though. Why don’t you call your mother?”
“Seriously? I’m a grown woman, Jake. I can do this on my own,” I said, adding a little spirit to my voice. I enjoyed the fact that he cared about me, but I was also n
ot afraid of doing things by myself, and he needed to accept that as being a part of me.
“Sorry. I get it,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender and taking a step backward.
Now I’d gone too far. I softened my tone as I explained, “I’ll be careful. I promise. Now don’t you need to go? I don’t want you being late on my account.”
“We couldn’t have that, could we?” he asked, lightening up a little. “At least tell me you’ve got a full charge on your phone battery.”
I pulled it out and checked it, only to find that the battery was down to fifteen percent. “I’ll charge it in the Jeep as I drive,” I promised.
“You’re trying to give me a heart attack, aren’t you?” he asked me with a grin.
“Anything but,” I said. “Now shoo. We both need to get out of here.”
“Call me whenever you get a chance,” he said as he grabbed his wallet and keys.
“Will you honestly be able to take my phone calls if I do?” I asked him.
“No, probably not,” he admitted. “But if you get into anything you’re not comfortable with, at least call Chief Grant. If you promise me you’ll keep the police chief informed, I’ll go and try not to worry about you too much today.”
“And if I don’t?” I asked him.
“Then I’m cancelling my day and I’m going to shadow you,” he said. There was no doubt in my mind that he was telling the truth.
“Fine. I’ll call the chief at the first hint of trouble,” I promised him.
“Good enough. I’ll walk you out,” he said.
Jake got into his truck, and I slid into my Jeep’s driver’s seat. I hadn’t heard from Emma yet that morning in response to my query the night before, so I wouldn’t be driving behind him for long. I was planning to stop at the donut shop on my way to the Finney estate. Hopefully Emma had seen my apron, as well as the letter in its pocket, but if not, I’d still grab a dozen donuts and take them with me as an icebreaker. I’d learned long ago that donuts could get me a lot more mileage than mere smiles could manage, and I aimed to take advantage of that fact.
Chapter 12
“I thought you were off today,” Emma said with a frown when I walked into Donut Hearts. The place was hopping, which wasn’t that much of a surprise, given the time of morning. “You’re not checking up on me, are you?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “We do have a problem, though.”
Emma’s face clouded up. Sometimes I forgot that she was barely into her twenties. It seemed as though we’d been friends, not just coworkers, forever. “Oh crud. I didn’t call you back. It was late when I got your message, but that’s no excuse. Suzanne, please don’t fire me.”
“Emma, I would never fire you,” I said, concerned about her sudden worry about her job security.
“Never?” she asked me with the hint of a smile.
“Well, almost never, but I wouldn’t push that too much, if I were you,” I said.
“I really am sorry,” Emma said. “What did you want?”
“I was wondering if you’d seen my apron,” I said. “I thought for sure I left it on the counter when we left, but I came back later and couldn’t find it.”
“That’s because I took it when I came back after I went to the bank,” she said with a frown. “I like to take our aprons home and have my mother wash them before we start our two days a week running the shop. I hope you don’t mind, but I always throw yours in, too.”
“Of course I don’t mind. In fact, I appreciate it. I was just hoping to find something in the pocket I’d left behind,” I said.
“Do you mean this?” Emma asked as she opened the register and pulled out the letter Jasper had given me earlier.
“That’s exactly what I was looking for. Was it in there the entire time?”
She nodded. “I thought it might be important, so I stuck it there until I could give it to you myself. Are you sure I’m not in trouble?”
“For doing me a favor? What kind of boss would I be if I punished you for that?” I asked her, and then I gave her a quick hug. “How’s it going?”
“Great,” she said. “Mom’s in back doing the dishes, and I’m taking care of the front.”
I surveyed the donuts in the case, and I saw that she had a healthy inventory for the time of morning. “Mind if I take a dozen with me?”
“Hey, it’s your donut shop. You can clean me out if you’d like. That way we can close up and go home, so go right ahead. You have my blessing.”
“I just need a dozen,” I said with a smile. After I folded up a box and filled it with a nice variety of goodies, I closed the lid and handed her a ten.
“You know you don’t have to pay for your own donuts, don’t you?” Emma asked.
“I know, but I don’t want to throw your report off, either.”
My assistant shrugged as she made change for me, but she didn’t say a word about my behavior. I was dying to read that letter, but I wasn’t going to do it in front of the prying eyes of some of the town. I noticed that several customers were feigning interest in their donuts as they watched us and listening in as well. “Has anybody been talking about what happened to Jasper?” I asked her softly.
“Are you kidding? That’s the only topic of conversation around here this morning.”
“What’s the consensus, or is there one?” I asked.
“Half the town thinks someone in his family did it, and the other half think it was someone from his past in business,” she admitted. “When he shut that factory down, a lot of people lost their jobs.”
“Perfect. That does me absolutely no good at all,” I said with a smile.
“Glad to be of service, ma’am,” she said. “Now, if there’s nothing else, I’ve got donuts to sell.”
“Don’t let me get in your way,” I replied.
I was just turning to leave when someone very familiar stepped into Donut Hearts.
It was my stepfather and the former chief of police, Phillip Martin.
“I thought you were off today,” he told me in an almost accusatory voice.
“That’s the second time this morning someone has asked me that exact same question,” I said. “I didn’t realize folks were keeping so close a track on my schedule.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Phillip said reluctantly. “Do me a favor, though. Don’t tell your mother you saw me here.”
“Why shouldn’t I? Phillip, are you doing something you shouldn’t be doing?” There was no way this man was cheating on my mother. He was as devoted a husband to her as Jake was to me.
But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t up to something, either.
“I’m not strictly supposed to have donuts,” he admitted. “Your mother is gone for the day, though, and I knew you weren’t working, so I figured what would it hurt?” He asked the last bit with a tragic grin, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to rat him out to my mother unless she asked me a direct question about it. The man had certainly grown on me since becoming a part of our family; that much was undeniable.
“How about this? I won’t volunteer the information, but if she asks me a direct question, I won’t lie to her. How does that sound to you?” I asked him.
“That works for me,” he answered happily. “After all, all I’m asking for is a fighting chance.” He tapped the box of donuts in my hand. “It appears I’m not the only one feeling a little peckish today.”
“These aren’t for me,” I said.
“Sure, and the three I’m about to get aren’t for me, either,” he answered with a smile. “I won’t judge you if you don’t judge me.”
“Actually, I’m taking them out to the Finney estate,” I admitted softly.
Phillip looked around. “By yourself?” He must have seen storm c
louds arriving on my face, because he quickly added, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that you usually investigate these things with Jake or Grace.”
“They were both tied up,” I admitted.
“Well, I’m free. How about if I go with you?” he offered.
“Do you honestly think I need a babysitter, too?” I asked him. “And be very careful how you answer that.”
“Heck, I need something to do, and digging into a current murder sounds like fun to me. Besides, cops have partners and backup for a reason, Suzanne.” My stepfather enjoyed solving crimes, but usually he restricted his investigations to long-dead cases from the past. “What do you say?”
“I say grab your donuts and let’s go,” I said. At least it would make Jake happy, and Momma too, most likely. Besides, I wouldn’t mind having him with me, either. After all, being stubborn made perfect sense sometimes, but then again, so did being prudent when the occasion called for it.
“You’re on,” he said. “I’ll even let you drive.”
“Why is that? So you can eat while I chauffeur us to the house?” I asked him.
“You bet, and what’s more, I’m not even ashamed to admit it,” he said. “Just give me a minute to order, and I’ll be right out and join you in the Jeep.”
“Take your time,” I said. I carried my donuts out of the shop, stowed them in the back seat, and then I pulled out the letter Jasper had given me, leaning against my car door. My name was written in his distinctive handwriting, and I found myself missing my friend yet again.
But this wasn’t an opportunity for sentimentality.
It was time to find out exactly what Jasper had wanted to tell me from beyond the grave.
To my surprise, a single, crisp, one-hundred-dollar bill fluttered out of the envelope, along with a letter as well. I caught the errant bill and tucked it back into the envelope as I looked around. No one had seen it, at least as far as I could tell. Why would Jasper give me money? It didn’t take long to understand his rationale after I read the brief note inside, though, also written in his fine hand.
