Donuts & Danger: A 2nd Chance Diner Cozy Mystery

by Beth Byers

  I leaned over and breathed in letting the sweetness fill my lungs and let it out slowly. So, slowly.

  “Do you need a room alone with your waffle?” Zee asked snidely and I scrunched my nose at her.

  Simon glanced at Zee and then said, “What’s happening with the event?”

  “So, Donuts for Dogs. It’s supposed to happen over Labor Day Weekend at the festival near the Sacajawea statue.”

  “Yeah,” Zee said.

  “Supposedly, the shelter brings the dogs, we have adoption discounts, we have places for people to donate cash, and sell all kinds of things, especially donuts. The money helps to finance the shelter and, hopefully, will help to upgrade the play area for the dogs.”

  “Right, like always.” Zee said, sipping her coffee slowly and raising a brow. I hadn’t been around for the last event because I’d still be trapped by corporate America.

  “Except Gary. Stupid, stupid Gary didn’t reserve a tent. Stupid Gary…didn’t contact the bakers who helped last year or the donut place. He didn’t let the foster homes know we’d need the dogs. Nothing. But you know what he did do? He took in eleven dogs from a Bay Area shelter and doesn’t have places for any of them to go.”

  “We’re not taking one,” Simon said bumping his shoulder into mine.

  “I know,” I said and then grinned evilly at Zee. “But Carver took two. They had a couple of young German shepherds. Delightful beasts. They gave me such good kisses.”

  “Wait, what?” Zee demanded. Her gaze narrowed and her usual mean look settled onto her face like an old friend.

  “Two German shepherds.” My smile was wide and vicious, knowing that Zee had been trying to get Carver to adopt a kitten. “He’s already named them.”

  “He did not.” Zee’s eyes were narrowed on my face and promised retribution. There were a couple of round red circles on her cheeks. Her ears were red. Her eyes blazed. Zee’s horde of cats would not like her boyfriend’s new dogs.

  I grinned as I nodded. “Abbot. Costello. Blue eyes, fluffy tails. Cool black noses.”

  “Shut up. I…”

  I laughed evilly and it was Simon who snorted meanly. Zee shot him a quelling look but that only made him laugh.

  “This isn’t over,” Zee swore.

  My smirk was my reply. I didn’t see how it could be anything but over. Once a pet was named, it took a lot for an animal lover to let the creature go, and Carver already loved those dogs. He’d squatted down in front of the, one hand on each head, and the pounding of their tails against the floor had brightened Carver’s whole face.

  I knew it all too well myself. I had rescued a long-haired Weiner dog from a fire around Christmas. There had been three puppies with her. The moment I’d named those pups they’d become mine and the good intention to find them homes had faltered.

  As far as Carver went, I’d processed his paperwork, accepted his fees, all of it. I didn’t care that Gary had been furious about it. The fool had actually demanded the dogs back from the sheriff. Good luck with that one, idiot, I thought. Carver was heavily armed.

  Zee took a drink of her coffee and then frowned more deeply. “Wait. So, how many more dogs did Gary take in?”

  “Eleven! I placed five so far, but they were the easy ones. The rest are either in crates or doubled up in the stalls. As though that’s safe.” I snarled as I thought about it. If we didn’t find some place decent for the overload of dogs, I thought they’d be safer in crates. But they needed to stretch their legs. I hated everything about our current set up. Dog crates were great in the short term. In the long term, they were awful.

  “I think you mean that you have those dogs to place,” Zee said. She rose and delivered a few orders bringing me back a coffee refill. She brought waffles over for herself. They were mounded with sweetened and whipped cream cheese, fresh blueberries, blueberry syrup, and whipped cream. She shook cinnamon over them and leaned down to breathe in the caramelized sugar scent.

  Simon gave me a commiserating glance before he carefully said, “Please though. No more dogs.”

  I had every intention of avoiding more dogs. We’d lost Simon’s ancient lab a few weeks ago, and neither of us were ready to love another dog. Besides, we still had six dogs between us which was way past too many.

  I dropped my head against the table beside my waffles and then said, “I called every person who’d come into the shelter and left without a dog to get those dogs adopted out, but I still have some doubled up in the stalls. It’s totally unsafe. We don’t know any of the dogs well enough for that. They need somewhere far better to go.”

  “What about the Labor Day event?” Simon asked.

  I shook my head. It just wouldn’t work. It was too far away.

  “How many usually get adopted at those events?” Zee asked as she swirled her waffle through the syrup.

  I scowled as I answered. “If we’re lucky? Maybe a couple? But those spots were supposed to be for the dogs we’ve been trying to place. I even called the foster homes and asked if they’d take an extra dog or if they knew anyone who would foster. No luck.”

  I took a bite of my waffle and then sighed. “So what’s worse. Get this, Gary went for coffee and the dogs arrived. They were in too small crates and doubled up. I tried everything I could think of and adopted out five of them before he even deigned to show up. And he was mad when he came back. Without coffee mind you. He got all snippy with me and semi-threatened me.”

  Simon glanced at me, frowning and I nodded as I said, “I know! The jerk. He’s lucky the dogs aren’t in his office.”

  “He got mad at you for getting five dogs adopted? In a single day? Is he insane?” Zee’s brows were high, and it was weird. Everything about the day was weird. I scowled. I felt like I was missing something huge.

  “He should have been apologizing. He went to get coffee and forgot to bring it back. He hasn’t done any of the things he was supposed to do for the fundraising event. Instead, he’s mad at the kid who dropped off the shelter dogs. And mad at me for helping with the situation. Unpaid mind you. I’m a flipping volunteer and I’m the one doing everything. This is his JOB. He gets paid! Money! Actual money! For doing a terrible, terrible job. I can’t even…I mean…this is all going to crap.”

  “Nothing about this adds up,” Simon said. He’d finished his breakfast and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I took a deep breath in and thought about what he’d said. He was right. I was sure he was. I just didn’t have the time or the energy to deal with it.

  “Something needs to be done about Gary,” Zee snarled. “Who hired him anyway?”

  “Roberta,” Simon said.

  I glanced over and then shook my head. Of course it had been the mayor, Roberta. That would put a real kink in the plan to getting rid of Gary. Firstly, Roberta never took responsibility for screwing up. Secondly, she hated me.

  “You need Carver,” Zee told me.

  If Carver was the one who complained…and he complained to the town council instead of to Roberta. That might work.

  “What did Gary do when he got upset?” Simon’s voice was too careful.

  Zee smirked at him, and I had to laugh before I answered. “He got into my space and tried to intimidate me. It didn’t work. But he did yell about getting the dogs back. As I was leaving, Gary was yelling at the kid on the phone. The one who had left the dogs. Calling him an idiot. Like it was the kid’s problem he came when Gary wasn’t doing his job.”

  “What do we need to do next?” Simon asked gently, placing a hand on my lower back probably trying to calm me down. It didn’t work though I appreciated the feeling behind his caring.

  “We?” Zee demanded, but I knew she’d help. She might be a cat lady, but she loved animals. Those dogs needed homes, and the shelter needed to make improvements to the holding stalls. The shelter really needed to be replaced.

  “We need the fundraiser to work. Which hasn’t been planned at all. Or we need to come up with an alternate financing, but this i
s the most successful money gathering event of the year. Labor Day is crowded with people in Silver Falls, a lot of whom are dog owners. Historically, that’s where the shelter brings in a lot of the cash to keep it running.”

  “Who finances the shelter?” Simon asked as he rubbed my back. I was as tense as a brick wall. I tried to take a breath in and let it out, but it wasn’t calming me down.

  Zee answered, “It’s a town thing. A lot of the money comes from Silver Falls. But, they used to be able to do a lot more. I’ve been hearing that things are a mess over there for a while. It’s why I suggested you volunteer there.”

  I thought back and vaguely remembered Zee prompting me to get out of bed and play with puppies rather than lying around struggling to breathe. I’d assumed she just didn’t want me to come in and cough all over everything anymore.

  “Why aren’t cats part of the shelter?” Simon asked, digging his fingers into the back of my neck and futilely trying to work out the knots.

  “There’s a no-kill private run shelter for cats in Silver Falls. They take all the cats around here and offer free spaying and neutering for anyone. So Silver Falls doesn’t have a cat problem at all.”

  “We need to figure out who hired Gary. And how to get rid of him,” Zee said. “Before you talk Carver into another dog.”

  The look she shot me warned me that she hadn’t forgotten what I’d done. But I didn’t care.

  Chapter THREE

  I pulled out my phone and checked my messages hoping that someone would have gotten one of my messages and agreed to take one of the three dogs left. I had tried all of the foster homes who didn’t currently have any dogs. I wasn’t going to be able to double stack the dogs for long. That being said, I couldn’t just forget about the diner. I didn’t know these dogs well enough to leave them with my own pups. Especially since four of my dogs were tiny little long-haired wiener dogs.

  My phone, however, left me unhappy. All I had was a message from Zee. Another from my friend Maddie and two from Simon. I’d closed out the diner with my friends and helped Zee to make cakes and pie for the next day. There were, however, four messages from Gary saying that I had moved too fast and the dogs I’d adopted out needed to come back.

  I’d taken the adoption paperwork when he’d started acting weird. I tapped my finger against the phone debating. Obviously, I wasn’t helping Gary bring dogs back in. Gary couldn’t really fire me. Not really. Maybe…maybe I’d just buy it out? Could you do that if it were financed by the city?

  I had no idea. It probably just depended on the town council. I wondered what Simon would think about me buying out the shelter? I wasn’t loving working in the diner as much as I thought I would. I loved being with my staff. I loved the cooking. And I loved making new recipes. But I didn’t so much love the serving, the cleaning, and the getting up so early.

  I didn’t want to sound negative. I didn’t feel negative about my life. It was just that every dream had positive and negatives, didn’t they? And jerks coming into the diner and scoffing at how sugary our banana split waffles were made my eye twitch. Of course banana split waffles were sugary! They were layered in fresh fruit, whipped cream, and served with flavored syrups.

  The additional reality was that I wasn’t the necessary member of my staff. I could hire just about anyone to replace me and put Zee in charge and all would be well. Plus, I had other demands on me. There was my upcoming wedding. Simon and I had talked about maybe having a kid? My eggs were…to be perfectly clear…old. If we’re going to have a baby, we needed to do it right away. Even then, we’d be approaching retirement age when our kid graduated from high school. Ok, that might me a little dramatic, but we’d definitely be older parents.

  I took a deep breath and pictured me with a baby on my back. Maybe wearing a baby while working at the diner. Or perhaps taking some dogs out at the shelter. I wasn’t sure which image I liked better. Maybe…maybe…a combination of the two ideas? With more time at home as well? I had put kids out my mind for a long time. I hadn’t really let myself think about what kind of mom I wanted to be. But…I knew I was stupid lucky when it came to realizing I could be a stay at home mom or a working mom.

  I rose and went to the police station. I wasn’t sure if Simon would even be there. He’d left after we’d eaten together, promising to talk to Carver about the shelter. We needed him to approach the town council and find out about the way the shelter was run and who had hired Gary. A piece of me felt bad that I was looking to take away his job, and I was. Oh I was. But a bigger part of me was worried about the dogs in his care and the neglect I was seeing happening. I wouldn’t be working so hard to get him removed if I hadn’t brought the problems up to him time and again.

  “Hey,” Simon said when I knocked on the doorjamb outside of his office.

  “I want to buy the shelter,” I told him. I had inherited quite a bit from my grandparents, and it wouldn’t be something that he’d have to contribute to, but I was trying to be part of a team instead of the solo decision maker I had been.

  “That would make you really busy,” Simon said carefully. The way his gaze touched my face, almost caressingly, told me that he didn't want less time with me. I didn’t want less time with him either. What I wanted was more time with him. With our dogs and maybe our babies.

  “I’m thinking of pulling back at the diner and letting Zee and Az have the lead more. I can still play with recipes and the fun stuff, but they enjoy the day to day of the diner more than I do.”

  Simon tilted his head, waiting. Given that we’d snuggled up together the night before talking again about a baby, I added, “And I’d have more flexibility if I needed it.”

  “You’d be busier for a while, as you learned to run the shelter.”

  “I think I might already know the job, I’m just not sure I can buy it. Or, maybe I’ll just open my own? I hate thinking of the dogs there. Either way…we need to do what we can to make sure it’s better run.”

  Simon nodded and rose. “I’ve been talking to Carver about that. I gave him some details that you gave us today. He called up one of his friends on the town council.”

  I grinned wickedly at Simon. It didn’t really make me happy, but it did. The fact that I’d gone into a dangerously overloaded shelter that morning and was getting pushback from Gary and wanting the dogs back. It didn’t even make sense. I shook my head and Simon rose and crossed to me, sitting in the chair next to me rather than on the other side of his desk.

  “I don’t care what you do,” Simon said. “The diner, the shelter, laying around in the backyard in the middle of a dog pig-pile.”

  I laughed at that, and he grinned at my reaction. As he opened his mouth to speak again, my phone rang. I frowned at it not recognizing the number. Simon raised his brows, and I answered the call.

  “Hello,” I said with a bit of a question in my tone.

  “Is this Rosemary Baldwin?” The voice was almost an assault in my ears.

  “Um, yes.”

  “Of the Silver Falls Shelter?”

  “I volunteer there,” I said carefully.

  “I believe you have a full grown golden retriever mix?” If I could have been punched by those words, I’d have been black and blue.

  “We do, from the Bay Area shelter. He’s quite lovely. Are you interested in adopting him?”

  “That’s my dog,” the man almost growled. “It’s my Phillip and you’ll be giving him back.”

  “Wait, now…” I tried to temper his anger and get a handle on things.

  “I don’t know what kind of criminal scam you all have running there, but my dog is from Tillamook, and I won’t stand for this.”

  “Wait now…”

  “I am going to press charges against you thieves. You’re going to jail if I have to put you there myself.”

  “Wait!” I snapped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You stole my dog,” he snarled.

  “I did no such thing,” I snap
ped back. “But if you would shut your mouth and let me talk, I would tell you that if your dog is stolen and we have it, I will do everything possible to get your dog back to you.”

  “What is going on?” Simon asked, poking my shoulder lightly.

  I put the phone on speaker.

  “Whoever you are, I have put Detective Simon Banks on the phone,” I said.

  “What is your name?” Simon asked.

  “Tom Killingsworth,” he said.

  “He says one of the Bay Area Dogs is stolen from Tillamook,” I explained.

  “He is stolen,” Tom replied, making no attempt to hold back his anger. “That is my dog. My Philip, and I won’t stand for this con. You think I haven’t gotten your threats? I did.”

  “What makes you say it’s a con?” Simon asked, barely holding back his temper.

  “The demand for money,” Tom barked.

  “What?” I gasped. As soon as I recovered, I realized…Gary was so mad about me adopting those dogs out. Gary…he’d been upset when the dogs had been brought to the shelter. They’d arrived when he’d been off getting coffee for hours. But really? Hours. The puppies and young German shepherds. “Oh my goodness.”

  Simon’s jaw was tense, and I could see the fury in his gaze. I guessed it was making sense for him too. No wonder a non-dog lover like Greg wanted to run the shelter. What a great cover for a dog theft ring.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. But I did. I’d put the dogs up on the website for our shelter while I was making calls earlier that day. I wasn’t sure I’d ever worked so fast. I bet Gary didn’t realize that I’d done that. Somehow those pictures of the dogs had triggered this Tom fellow into realizing we had his dog.

  “What’s not to understand?” Tom yelled.

  “That isn’t what she means,” Simon said with his calmer tone. “I can promise you that most of the staff at the shelter had nothing to do with the theft of your dog. Now, is he microchipped?”

  “Yes,” Tom said.

  “Great,” Simon replied. “You’ll send the information to me, I’ll verify the dog is yours, and we’ll get him back to you. I promise it.”