Drop Dead Chocolate: A Donut Shop Mystery

by Jessica Beck

  He looked stunned by my statement. “What do you mean? Did she threaten Dorothy?”

  Okay, on second thought, most of what his ex-wife had said was implied, but that didn’t make it any less inflammatory. “Let’s just say she didn’t wish her well. Did you know that Evelyn’s running for mayor just to make Momma look bad? She’s planning to ambush her at the debate, and from the sound of it, she thinks she’s got a bombshell to drop.”

  The chief scratched the top of his head, bewilderment clear on his face. “I heard she might file to run for mayor, but I never thought she’d actually follow through with it.”

  “Trust me, she means business.” As I reached for my telephone, I said, “Sorry, but I have to call Momma.”

  He looked hopefully at me as he said, “Why don’t you let me tell her? After all, it’s my fault this is all happening.”

  “You weren’t under any obligation to stay married to Evelyn if you didn’t love her anymore,” I said, surprising myself by taking the chief’s side. Maybe there was a little bit of my relationship with Max coloring my point of view, but I knew what it could be like having an ex who made life harder than it had to be.

  “No, but Dorothy didn’t sign up for this, either. As soon as I talk to your mother, I’ll hunt Evelyn down and we’ll have a chat.”

  “Good luck with that. Can I get you a donut?” I knew his policy of no donuts, but I thought he might make an exception this time.

  He looked at the case, clearly tempted, but then shook his head. “I’d better not.” Since his divorce over a year ago, he’d transformed himself into a new man, eating healthier, losing weight, and doing his best to convince my mother that she couldn’t live without him. So far, at least to some degree, he’d succeeded; the man was persistent, I had to give him that.

  “Do you happen to know where your mother is at the moment?”

  “No, but I know that she’ll be over at Hannah’s a little after eleven. You can catch up with her there if you want to talk to her in person.”

  “I’ll do that,” he said. “It’s crazy. The mayor made a big fuss over his plans to file for reelection this morning, but he never showed up. My ex-wife decides to run for his office, gets a hundred signatures and files, and now I can’t find Cam for the life of me. This entire town has lost its collective mind.” He shook his head and walked out, looking wistfully back at my donut case one last time before he got out the door.

  The man had willpower, more than I had, that was for sure.

  I knew in my heart that Evelyn didn’t really want to be mayor. She just wanted an opportunity to hurt my mother, and I wasn’t going to let her, not if I could help it.

  I just wasn’t sure what I could do about it. And now Cam was missing? What on earth was going on in April Springs?

  * * *

  I expected Momma to already be at Hannah’s when Emma and I walked over to the empty store after we closed the shop, but we did find George waiting for her at the door.

  “She’s not here yet?” I asked as I pulled my coat closer. A chilly wind had kicked up since I’d been out last, and I was regretting not grabbing a hat before I left the shop.

  George said, “If she is, she hasn’t heard me pounding. I tried both doors, but no luck, they’re both locked.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be right along,” Emma said, rubbing her hands together.

  This was unacceptable, not a way to start a campaign. “We have volunteers ready to work, but we can’t get in. I don’t like making you two wait on the sidewalk like this.”

  As I pulled out my phone, George said, “Don’t worry about it, Suzanne. It’s no big deal.”

  “It is to me,” I said.

  I got Momma on the first ring.

  “You’re late,” I said.

  “I know. I’m almost there,” Momma replied, nearly out of breath.

  “What’s the holdup? We have two volunteers I recruited today to help us get the shop ready. Did you have trouble getting the key?”

  “No, I’ve got it. I just got into a conversation with Phillip that ran longer than I expected.”

  Shocker: my mother’s boyfriend was at the heart of it. So, he’d decided to call her instead of facing her. I wasn’t sure I could blame him for that.

  “Momma, should we wait, or just come back later?”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Momma said. “Look across the street.”

  I glanced up from my phone and saw my mother walking toward the shop from the direction of the cottage we shared.

  I hung up, and as she approached, Momma turned to our volunteers and said, “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me for being late.”

  George and Emma were gracious enough about it that I decided that I could be, too. “What did the chief have to say?” As if I didn’t know. I was just fishing to get Momma’s reaction to the news that she now had two opponents instead of one.

  Momma didn’t answer; she just shook her head as she dove into her bag for a key. “Nothing in particular. It appears that our mayor is missing, and he wanted to know if I’d seen him.”

  Had he chickened out entirely? I was about to ask when Emma piped up. “What happened? Did he run away? Maybe he was afraid of the competition.”

  Momma fumbled with the key in the lock; she was having a little trouble opening it. “Well, that’s just it. He has another sixteen minutes to file, or by the rules he won’t be able to run for mayor again.”

  “Is that such a bad thing?” I asked Momma with a grin.

  “It would be tragic,” she said, clearly sincere, as she finally managed to open the door. “I want to trounce him fair and square, and the only way I can do that is if he runs against me.”

  I took the first step in the doorway and then stopped in my tracks.

  Momma was impatient. I could hear it in her voice as she said, “Suzanne, you need to move so we can all get in.”

  “Call your boyfriend, Momma. I just found the mayor, and it’s not good.”

  * * *

  Inside, Cam Hamilton was on the floor of the shop, a halo of blood spreading out from the back of his head. Someone had taken a baseball bat and had killed him. His face was ashen, and there was no doubt in my mind that he was dead.

  * * *

  “Oh no,” Momma said as she started toward the body.

  George put a restraining arm on her. “Don’t go in there, Dorothy.”

  “It’s my store,” she said. “He might need our help.”

  “He’s beyond anything we can do for him,” George said after looking at the body.

  Emma had glanced in for a moment, then stepped back outside. I noticed that she was on her cell phone, no doubt calling the tip in to her father. She’d become a reporter in the field for him lately, giving him anything he might be able to use for the newspaper. Emma and I had clashed over it once when she crossed the line, but since then, she’d been careful not to let it interfere with her work at Donut Hearts. I couldn’t blame her for calling him. This, for once, was legitimate news that he could report.

  And then something my mother had said sunk in. “You own this place?”

  “Yes, along with several other pieces of real estate in town,” she said dismissively. She’d called the chief, no doubt, because within a minute, he was there on the scene.

  He touched Momma’s shoulder gently, and then turned to George.

  “Report.”

  At the moment, I wasn’t at all certain that either one of them remembered that George had retired from the force years ago. He gave a succinct but pertinent report, and the chief nodded afterwards. “Thanks.”

  Only after leaning over the body and checking for a pulse we all knew he wouldn’t find did he turn back to us. “We all need to step away now.” After we complied and were on the sidewalk in front of the shop, the chief said, “I’ll need statements from each of you.” He looked at Momma and said, “The door was locked when you got here, correct?”

  George had just told him that, but Mo
mma nodded. I had a feeling the police chief was going out of his way not to show her any preferential treatment.

  “Where did you get the key?”

  “I own this building,” she said, repeating something I still had a hard time believing. I had to wonder what else my mother hadn’t told me over the years.

  “Did you have the only key?” he asked, though it was clear that asking that particular question was killing him a little.

  “I sincerely doubt it. The store has been empty for years, but it was pretty active in its day.”

  “Have you changed the locks since Hannah moved out?” the chief asked.

  “No, of course not. Why would I?”

  He looked a little exasperated as he explained, “Dorothy, practically anyone could have an old key to the place. There have to be a dozen folks in town who worked at Hannah’s at one time or another, including my ex, two of Hannah’s sisters, William Benson’s late wife, and Trish’s cousin, Louise, and that’s just off the top of my head.” As he named folks who might have keys as well, the relief in his voice was plain to hear. “I’m not sure how much good it will do, but I’ll get Hannah to make up a list.”

  “Hannah herself would still have a key, wouldn’t she?” I asked.

  “I would imagine,” the chief said.

  I wasn’t a huge fan of gossip, but there was something the chief of police needed to know. “Well, I hate to talk out of school, especially with what just happened, but Cam and Hannah hated each other.”

  That got the chief’s interest. “How do you know that?”

  “I saw them arguing in front of Donut Hearts not a week ago,” I admitted. I’d been looking out the window when they’d bumped into each other, and though I hadn’t been able to hear what they’d been saying, it was clear that they weren’t exchanging recipes. There was raw anger there.

  “I’ll look into it,” Chief Martin said as he pulled out a notebook and started taking notes. “Anything else?”

  It was no time to hold back. “Well, I hate to bring it up, but you just said that your wife used to work for Hannah, right?”

  “Ex,” the chief corrected. “But yes, she did.”

  “Well, she wasn’t exactly a fan of Cam’s, either, was she?”

  Chief Martin looked at me briefly, and it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t pleased. “Are you saying that Evelyn murdered him? She might not have liked him, but she had no reason to kill him. That’s insane.”

  “I’m just saying, she needs to be a suspect, too.”

  “As do I,” Momma said softly.

  “Dorothy, I know you didn’t kill Cam Hamilton,” the chief of police said.

  “You can’t know that though, can you?” Momma asked. “It’s no secret the man and I couldn’t stand each other, and he was killed in a locked building that I clearly have access to. How can I not be at the head of your list?”

  The chief frowned at that but then said, “You were with me, though. I’m your alibi.”

  “Chief, maybe you should wait for the coroner’s report before you say that,” George said from behind him. “We don’t have an exact time of death at the moment.”

  The police chief started to turn on George when Momma said, “He’s right. I’m afraid you might have to ask for some outside help on this one, Phillip. You’re too close to it to investigate the crime. It might be best if you recuse yourself now.”

  “This is my town,” he said. “I can put my feelings aside long enough to investigate a murder.”

  “I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t see how you can,” Momma said softly. It was clear she was trying to be as gentle with him as she could manage.

  The chief was scowling when I had a sudden idea. “I know. You could call Jake,” I said.

  Chief Martin wasn’t all that excited by the prospect. “Do you think your boyfriend can be any more neutral than I can?”

  “I know without much doubt that he’d lock me up in a heartbeat if he had evidence that I’d killed someone,” I said, sure that I was telling the truth. Jake had two modes that I’d seen since we’d started dating: the sweet boyfriend, and the cop working a case. There was clear demarcation between the two sides of him, as apparent as if he had separate faces he wore. I’d seen him in full cop mode before, and it was almost as though I couldn’t recognize him when he had his teeth into something. He would arrest Momma, no matter what the consequences to his personal life, no matter how much it might kill him to do it. Honestly, it was one of the things I admired most about him.

  “I doubt that,” the chief said.

  “Then you’d be wrong. What can it hurt?”

  “I thought he was working a case in Hickory,” the chief asked.

  “He might be able to get out of it to investigate a murder. Wouldn’t you rather have Jake here than some stranger looking over your shoulder?”

  The chief nodded. “I’ll call him.”

  Two of April Springs’ other police officers had shown up and were now intent on securing the crime scene as Chief Martin made his telephone call. It was clear that George wanted to help them, but somehow he managed to restrain himself.

  I looked up to see Emma’s father, Ray Blake, come racing up the street on foot, a camera slung around his neck.

  He tried to get a picture of the mayor’s body, but the chief hung up his phone and closed the shop door before Ray could get a shot.

  “Come on, Chief, give me a break,” Ray said plaintively.

  “I don’t want to see a dead body on the front page of your newspaper tomorrow,” Martin said.

  Ray shrugged, then stepped back and took a photo of our group. “Fine, I’ll use this one. Care to comment?”

  “No,” the chief said.

  “I already know it’s the mayor,” Ray said. “Give me something.”

  The chief glanced at Emma, who just smiled at him. He shook his head. “You won’t be getting anything out of me, so you might as well go back to that cramped little office of yours and wait for another hot tip.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll stick around.”

  Ray winked at his daughter, and I saw her return it. I had a feeling that tomorrow’s story would be full of quotes from an anonymous witness, but at least that way maybe Ray would get things right. I knew that for Emma, getting her father’s approval about anything meant a great deal, so I couldn’t really blame her.

  “What happens now?” Momma asked.

  “I need to speak with each of you alone,” he said.

  “What did Jake say?” I asked.

  “He couldn’t talk, but he said he’d call me right back,” Chief Martin said. He then turned to my mother and suggested, “Dorothy, why don’t we go first?”

  “Are you sure someone else shouldn’t conduct the interviews?” George asked.

  “I can handle it fine on my own. Why, are you volunteering?” The last bit was said with a bite, and I saw George flinch a little.

  He didn’t back down, though. “Chief, you really should let Grant do it.”

  The chief looked at George as though he wanted to swat him, but again, Momma intervened. “You know, that might be for the best.”

  “Grant!” the chief barked out, and the young officer appeared quickly. Stephen Grant had become a friend of mine over the past few years, coming in for donuts when he was off duty, but no outsider would have been able to tell that at the moment.

  “Sir,” he said.

  “Take this group to the squad room and interview them individually about what happened this morning. I expect you to be thorough and show no favoritism. Is that understood?”

  The officer nodded, looked surprised for a split second, and then said to us, “If you’ll all follow me, please.”

  As we walked away, I glanced back at the chief of police for one quick second. There was a look of helplessness on his face that I hadn’t seen before, a vulnerability that made me like him more than I ever had. He was clearly torn between his love for my mothe
r and his duty, and I didn’t envy him that one bit. He was decent at what he did, but he wasn’t on a level with Jake, and somehow that conflict made him a little more human to me.

  * * *

  I was waiting to speak with Officer Grant next when my phone rang. “What’s going on, Suzanne?” Jake asked.

  “Did you talk to the chief yet?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he admitted. “He asked me to take the mayor’s murder case, but I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

  I couldn’t believe that Jake would back down from a case like that. “Why not? You know all of the people involved.”

  “That’s the problem,” he said. “It could really complicate things.”

  “Have you at least considered it?” I asked him.

  He paused, and I could almost see him running his hand through his hair. “Suzanne, think about it. Do you really want to put me in a position where I might have to arrest your mother for murder?”

  The thought chilled me, but I knew in my heart that at least if Jake were involved, he’d do everything in his power to be sure he had the facts before he acted. “I’m not worried about it at all, because I know in my heart that she didn’t do it.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Whoops, sorry, I’ve got to go. Call you later.”

  With that, he hung up on me. Did Jake really have to go, or was he just unwilling to finish that conversation? I was still thinking about calling him back when Momma walked out of the conference room and motioned to me. “He’s ready for you now.”

  I stopped when I got to her and gave Momma a hard and long hug. “How are you holding up?” I asked.

  “I’m managing fine,” she said. “Thanks for asking.”

  “I just asked Jake to come,” I said as I pulled away.

  “What did he say?” she asked, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. My mother was a big fan of Jake’s, and I knew how much faith she had in him.

  “We’re still discussing it,” I said.

  She deflated a little just then, and I wanted to say more, but Officer Grant stepped out of the room and looked pointedly at me. “Suzanne, I need to see you right now.”

  There was an edge of steel in his voice as he said it, and I knew better than to do anything but comply.