Illegally Iced: A Donut Shop Mystery (Donut Shop Mysteries)

by Jessica Beck

  “So, that gives you the right to just break in here? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “I knew about the key,” I explained, “and James expressly invited me to use it whenever I wanted.”

  “I suppose you have proof of that?” he asked.

  “No, but think about it. I knew where the key was, didn’t I?”

  “Suzanne, you both need to leave, and I mean right now.” There was no room for play in his voice, and I knew that he was serious.

  “We’ll be glad to,” I said. “Be sure to check out the card and the letter on top of the desk, though.”

  “I’ll conduct my own investigation, thank you very much.”

  As we were leaving, he called out to me, “Is this why you called me earlier? Were you actually asking for my permission? And why are you both so dressed up? I know Jake’s out of town, so why are you wearing a dress, Suzanne?”

  “Hey, a girl can choose to look pretty whenever she wants to without a man having to be involved in the decision,” I said. I was trying to deflect his original question, seeing the kind of mood he was in at the moment. I’d considered going ahead and telling him the truth about why I’d called him, but I wasn’t sure how much information I should volunteer. The journal in my purse felt red-hot and I knew instantly that I should turn it over to him, but if I did that, we might miss a golden opportunity to investigate a little more. I didn’t plan to keep it forever anyway; I was just going to search through it tonight and mail it to the chief tomorrow anonymously. Maybe I was playing a little fast and loose with the law, but there was no way that my curiosity would let me turn it over before I had a chance to do more than just glance at it.

  Grace and I were almost outside when he asked, “What was that telephone call about, then? Why were you calling me?”

  I didn’t have any choice now. As I turned to face him, I said, “I shouldn’t have to explain it to you, Chief. You already contacted James’s next of kin.”

  He was clearly puzzled by my response. “True. He had a contact card in his wallet with a phone number, and I had Lincoln call it and give them the bad news,” he admitted. “They haven’t come to identify the body yet, though.”

  “And that’s all that you know?” I asked. Wow, Grace’s Internet search had been more effective than the April Springs police investigation.

  I knew that he wasn’t going to like what I was about to tell him, but I had to share the information nonetheless. “We were going to Pinerush, and I wanted to touch base with you first.”

  “What were you doing there, and why would you need my approval?”

  It was time to come clean with all that Grace and I had discovered. Well, most of it anyway. “It turns out that James Settle wasn’t his real name. At least not all of it.”

  The chief looked surprised by the statement. “Do you mean that it was an alias?”

  “Sort of. His full name was James Settle Pinerush, so we went to see his family so that we could pay our respects. It’s just the polite thing to do,” I added.

  As I’d figured, Chief Martin didn’t like that one little bit. “Admit it. You were both snooping. You two are digging into this mess, aren’t you?”

  “Like I said, we went to Pinerush to offer our condolences,” I repeated.

  “And nothing else?” he asked as he studied us both.

  “We might have asked a few questions about James’s life when he lived there.”

  The police chief was clearly unhappy with that. “What did they say?”

  “It sounded like a nightmare, to be honest with you. His aunt and her son had him committed to a mental institution when he tried to give his share of their fortune away, and the second he got himself free, he came here to live in April Springs.”

  “They told you all of that?” The chief of police looked amazed by what we’d discovered so far.

  “We might have also picked up a few things off the Internet,” I said casually, holding Harry’s name back unless I absolutely had to rat him out. He’d most likely lose his job if the Pinerushes found out that he’d talked to us, and I couldn’t have that on my conscience.

  “Let me guess. They were after his money themselves. How much are we talking about?”

  When I told him, he just shook his head. “We all know that people have been killed for a lot less than that.”

  “True, but they can’t be your only suspects. If they left James alone, he wouldn’t have bothered them again. From what we heard, being locked up was enough to cure him of his desire to be a philanthropist for a lifetime. He came here for a fresh start. The money didn’t interest him one bit, either keeping it or giving it all away.”

  “How can you say that with any certainty?”

  “Look around you, Chief. Does this strike you as a place a man worth many millions would live? He didn’t even keep the interest after his stay at the hospital ward. Every bit of it went to the Poor Children Among Us. It pays to feed poor kids around here instead of off somewhere in the world.”

  “I know. I manage to give them some myself every now and then.”

  It was another side of Chief Martin’s heart, which Momma claimed was strong and true. I rarely saw many glimpses of it myself, but this was a sure sign that he at least had a sense of what was right. It was a point for him that I tallied a little reluctantly. Slowly but surely, I was warming up to the man, and I still wasn’t sure how I felt about the change in our status. “So, if he cared anything about money, I doubt he would have lived here.”

  The chief nodded. “I can see that, but I still can’t rule them out, no matter what the two of you might think.” He paused, and then asked, “You both are going to keep at this, aren’t you?”

  “We’ll do our utmost not to interfere with your investigation, but folks around town are already whispering that I might have been involved in his murder despite your endorsement earlier. I really don’t have much choice.”

  “You could leave it all in my hands and trust me,” he said with a slight smile.

  “You’re right; I could do that,” I answered, doing my best to keep a straight face.

  “But you’re not, are you?”

  “Not so much,” I replied.

  “Just don’t do anything that might embarrass your mother, or make me embarrass her.”

  There was a bit of a sting to his words, though he hadn’t changed his tone or demeanor. My mother was a powerful woman in April Springs, and I would have never knowingly done anything to cause her embarrassment. Then again, I’d managed a few times in the past despite my good intentions, so it wasn’t as though the chief didn’t have a point.

  “I’ll do the best I can,” I said.

  He nodded, and as he turned to go back inside, I grabbed Grace and got out of there. If we hung around the cabin much longer, I was sure we’d get instructions very soon not to talk to Rebecca and Murphy.

  “What’s the rush?” Grace asked as we neared her car.

  “We need to find our two other suspects before the chief tracks them down himself,” I said.

  Grace nodded, and it was clear that she didn’t have any problems with that strategy. “I’m not sure where Murphy is, but Rebecca is bound to be at work. She’s been pulling double shifts at the Happy Stop convenience store out on the highway for months.”

  “That sounds good. Grace, do you happen to have a small flashlight in your pocket that I could use while you drive?”

  “Sure, there’s one in my purse. Help yourself. What are you going to look at?”

  I pulled the journal out of my purse and held it up. “I know I should have given this to Chief Martin, and I will the first thing tomorrow, but I had to see what it said for myself first.”

  “You took that from James’s desk?” she asked incredulously.

  “I know. I shouldn’t have done it. Are you disappointed in me?”

  “Are you kidding? I couldn’t be any prouder of you than I am right now. Hang on a second.” She pulled her car off into the chu
rch parking lot and turned on the lights in the car. “Now we can both read it together.”

  I opened the book and started scanning the pages. At first it didn’t look like much, filled with entries about new designs and sketches, a grocery list or two, and even the addresses of some of his clients.

  “It’s not much, is it?” Grace asked, clearly disappointed by my find.

  “What a letdown. Now I really regret not giving it to the chief,” I said.

  “You keep looking, and I’ll drive to Happy Stop.”

  As she drove, I flipped through the pages quickly. What I’d assumed at first glance was a journal entry was actually something detailing a new technique for welding iron. It looked to be a complete bust. I was about to put it away when something on the very last page caught my eye.

  It was a phone number, but that wasn’t the most surprising part.

  What nearly threw me for a loop was the name scrawled under it.

  It was Trish Granger, my dear friend who ran the Boxcar Grill. Now, why in the world would James have her number? Was she the new woman in his life that I suspected? It would explain why she’d reacted so badly to the news of his murder.

  I pulled out my phone and Grace asked, “Who are you calling?”

  “Nobody,” I said as I started punching buttons to call up my personal contact list.

  “Sorry to doubt you, but it looks suspiciously like that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

  “Hang on a second and I’ll explain,” I said. I got to Trish’s info, and sure enough, below the number for the diner was her cell phone number. Almost nobody had that one because Trish hated people calling her when she was off. She’d told me once just three people had it, and that I should be honored that I was one of them.

  It looked like now there were four, though.

  “Trish’s number is in James’s book.”

  “For the diner? That doesn’t surprise me. He probably ordered a lot of takeout food. You saw that kitchen of his.”

  “No, you don’t understand; it’s her personal number. When I spoke with her earlier today, she was really upset. I thought it was because there was a murder so close to the diner, but now I’m starting to think that it’s something a lot more than that.”

  Grace whistled softly. “That’s not good. What are you going to do?”

  “We obviously need to talk to her, but there are a few more pressing conversations we need to have first.”

  “I mean about the number. Are you going to just leave it in there, or are you going to tear it out of the book?”

  I stared down at the book, wishing that I’d never taken it. “As much as I want to rip out the page, I can’t. It’s just not right destroying something that might be evidence.”

  “Do you actually think that she might have done it?” Grace asked, having a hard time believing it herself.

  “Of course not, but that doesn’t mean I can tamper with this journal. I’m sure she’ll be cleared, but she has to go through the process first.”

  Grace nodded, and then asked casually, “What would you have done if it had been my telephone number written there?”

  “I’d have a lot of questions for you, that’s for sure,” I said, trying to blow it off.

  “Seriously,” Grace said.

  I thought about it. “Grace, I would still leave it there for the police. Before you get upset, you should know that I’d expect you to do the exact same thing if it were my name and number there instead. In nine out of ten cases, we both know that the cover-up is worse than the crime. Not to say that I think that any one of us would ever kill someone, but it’s better to bring this out in the open sooner rather than later.”

  “That makes sense,” Grace said. “Still, it’s pretty pragmatic of you to feel that way.”

  “We’ve both been around these investigations enough to realize that the truth has a way of getting loose, and the harder you try to hide it, the more it fights to get free.”

  Just to be certain, I scanned each page of the journal one more time, but there was nothing else of interest there. When I looked up, I saw that we were nearing the police department. “Pull in,” I told Grace.

  “Why, are you going to confess something?” she asked with a smile.

  As I wiped the book with my T-shirt as best I could, I explained, “We’re going to drop this off in the mailbox so it can get into the right hands.”

  “And you don’t think the chief will suspect that it was us?”

  “Oh, I’m betting he’ll be sure of it, but I doubt that he’ll say anything to us about it.”

  Grace raised an eyebrow as she asked, “Why would you possibly think that?”

  “He doesn’t want to cause any more trouble with Momma than he has to. They’re already on edge with each other about me, and I’ve got a feeling the chief will let this one slide to insure a little harmony with my mother.”

  “Suzanne Hart, are you using your personal status for your own gain?”

  “You bet I am,” I answered with a smile. “It’s about time I could use it somehow for something besides getting into trouble. Hang on, I’ll be right back.”

  I was walking to the mailbox and ready to slip the journal inside when someone called my name from the shadows and nearly gave me a heart attack in the process.

  “Suzanne, what are you up to now?”

  There was no way I was getting away with this.

  * * *

  My heart finally stopped racing when I saw Officer Grant step out of the darkness and walk toward me.

  “What are you doing out lurking in the dark like that?” I asked.

  “I wasn’t lurking,” he said with a smile I could see from the streetlight’s illumination. “I’m on the desk again, and this is my ten-minute break. I came outside because I wanted to see what fresh air was like again.”

  “Wow, he really doesn’t like you, does he?”

  “The chief has his reasons for everything he does,” Grant said, and I admired him for his ability to keep his true feelings to himself. At least I hoped he didn’t actually believe what he was saying. Hiding the way I really felt about people was a skill I hadn’t even come close to mastering yet.

  “I asked you a question,” he repeated a little more firmly. “What’s going on, and why are you wearing a dress?”

  “Why is everyone making such a fuss about it? It’s not like it never happens.”

  “It’s rare enough to note,” he said. “But that doesn’t explain anything, does it?”

  “I found something, and I thought the chief might like to see it,” I said as I held the journal up in the air.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  As I started to hand it over, I explained, “This belonged to James Settle. I found it earlier, and I thought the chief should see it.”

  “Where did you come across it?” he asked, being very careful not to touch it.

  “In his cabin just before Chief Martin got there,” I admitted. I wasn’t going to lie to my friend. “Only I’d appreciate if you’d tell him that it was dropped off here anonymously.”

  He shook his head as he put his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry, but I won’t lie to my boss for you.”

  “Does that mean that you don’t want it?” I asked incredulously.

  “Not in my hands. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my desk.”

  As he started to turn back, he said, “I usually check the mailbox on my next break. If I should happen to find something in there, I’d have no real way of knowing how it got there, now would I?”

  After Officer Grant was back inside, I smiled as I dropped the journal into the mailbox. He’d given me an out, and I’d taken it gladly.

  As I got back into the car, Grace said, “For a second there, I thought I was going to have to use our emergency bail money to get you out of jail.”

  “Do you really have a fund earmarked just for that?”

  “You’d better believe it. I’ve been saving
since we first started digging into murders. One of these days it’s going to come in really handy.”

  “Just not today, gladly.” I recounted my exchange with Officer Grant, and she laughed when she heard his solution. “The man’s clever, isn’t he?”

  A thought suddenly occurred to me. Grace had had some truly horrid luck in the past in her love life. Maybe she’d been going after the wrong kind of men. “And nice looking, too.”

  “Suzanne, I thought you were happy with Jake.”

  “I am,” I said quickly. “But you’re available. You could do a lot worse than him.”

  “Date a cop? I don’t know about that.”

  I laughed. “Don’t knock it until you try it. If you need a couple of testimonials, Momma and I would be happy to provide them.”

  “I didn’t mean anything by what I just said,” she added quickly.

  “I know that. I’m just saying, he’s a good guy in my book, and there isn’t an overabundance of those roaming the streets these days.”

  “Or any days,” she replied.

  I thought about pushing a little harder, but knowing Grace, that was the worst thing I could do. I’d planted the seed, and now it was time to step back and see if it sprouted. I honestly believed that Grace deserved another chance at love.

  CHAPTER 6

  As Grace pulled up to the convenience store parking lot, I glanced at my watch. It was getting late, at least for me, but this was too important to just pass up. We walked inside, ready to question Rebecca about her relationship with James and her alibi, but there was an older heavyset man behind the register instead.

  “Is Rebecca here?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “No, she called in sick. There was a death in the family.”

  I nodded, and Grace and I left the store. “It looks like she’s taking it hard.”

  “You read the card, too,” Grace said. “Neither one of us should be surprised. So, should we go looking for Murphy now?”

  “Okay,” I said, stifling a yawn.

  Grace shook her head. “Suzanne, I can be a real dope sometimes. You need to go home and get some sleep.”

  “It’s okay,” I insisted.