by Jessica Beck
“It must help knowing who the murderer is ahead of time,” she said.
“That’s not what Elizabeth from my book club says,” I admitted. “She’s written to just about all of her favorite authors, and most of them have no clue who the killer is until they get to the very end.”
“How can they write like that, not knowing how it’s going to turn out?” Momma asked.
“She told us that one of her favorite authors once said that if he doesn’t know who did it until the very end, there’s not much chance that his readers will be able to guess the identity of the murderer.”
“It sounds rather risky if you ask me.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” I said. “But Elizabeth has a theory about that as well.”
“I can’t wait to hear it,” Momma said.
“She says it’s simple. They all have to be crazy to want to be writers in the first place, so a little more madness is just par for the course.”
CHAPTER 14
“Hello, sunshine,” I said to Emma the next morning when she came into Donut Heart’s kitchen. “You look as though you didn’t get enough sleep.”
“I didn’t,” she answered with a grin, “but it was worth it.”
“Is there by any chance a new man in your life?” I asked as I finished mixing a new orange marmalade cake donut I’d been experimenting with recently. So far I hadn’t had much success, but I still had hopes for it. I didn’t feel as though I was doing my job if I couldn’t offer my customers at least one new donut a month. That self-imposed rule had led to some frightful donuts in the past and I hadn’t always made my goal, but I’d come up with some really nice donuts over the years under pressure from the time limit, too, so it all worked out in the end.
“How did you know?” Emma asked as she grabbed her apron and tied it around her waist. “Is it that obvious?”
“Just for the folks who know you,” I said. “What’s his name?”
“I don’t want to jinx it,” she said. “Do you mind if I don’t say just yet?”
“Of course I don’t,” I said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Suzanne, it’s not like that. It’s just that he’s a little older than I am, and I’m a little sensitive about it.”
I put down the bowl and took her hands in mine. “Emma, I’m not going to judge you by who you date or don’t date. If you can find someone who makes you happy, I don’t care how old he is. Joy is too hard to find in this life to put age limits on it. Hang on a second. He’s not creepy old, is he? When you say older, you mean that he’s just older than you.”
“What do you consider creepy?” she asked.
“For you? Anywhere in his forties, I would say.”
“Oh, he’s younger than that,” she said.
“Is he in his thirties?” I asked. I still thought that might be a little too old for her, regardless of what I’d just said. Believing in something in generalities was one thing, but this was Emma, a girl I’d known her entire life, and I felt extremely overprotective of her.
She laughed. “Suzanne, stop digging. It’s nothing all that serious yet, anyway. We just ran into each other at the library last night by coincidence, and we found ourselves chatting about April Springs. He was very interested in everything I had to say.”
“I’m sure he was,” I said. And then a thought struck me. “Hang on a second. You’re not talking about Rome, are you?”
Emma looked at me and asked, “How could you have possibly known that? I realize that he was in the shop yesterday, but how did you put it together that he was the one I was talking to last night?”
“Call it a lucky guess,” I said, remembering how Emma had taken off after him the second I’d released her from work. “Do you really think you two might start dating?”
“Why not? He’s handsome, and it was clear after I spent two minutes talking to him that he was smart.”
“What exactly did he ask you about when you chatted?”
It was a delicate question, and Emma had every right to refuse to answer me, but I really wanted to know.
“He wanted to know how well I knew James,” she admitted. “Do you think that’s significant?” She frowned for a moment, and then said, “Of course it is. He’s not interested in me, is he? I’m just a kid, and he’s a grown man.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” I said. “I’m sure he was attracted to more than just your mind, as glorious as it is. Just be careful, though.”
“Why? Because he’s older than I am?”
“That, and because of his real name, too. Did he tell you what it was?”
She looked a bit surprised by the question. “Do you mean it’s not really Rome?”
“To his friends it is—I’m sure of it—but he told me that his driver’s license says that Romance is his true first name.”
“Are you making that up?” Emma asked.
“That’s what he told me when he was in the shop yesterday,” I said. “I meant what I said, though. We don’t really know anything about the man, do we? Just be careful.”
“I will. And you know what? I think you’re right. I’m pretty sure that he was interested in me romantically. And why shouldn’t he be? After all, I’m a catch.”
“Easy there, girl. You don’t want your expectations to get the better of you.”
“Why not? As far as I’m concerned, that’s part of the fun in it,” Emma said. “Besides, what girl doesn’t deserve a handsome and mysterious stranger in her life just once?”
I had to laugh. “Just be careful. I ended up marrying mine, and we both know how that turned out.”
“I’m not going to get married, at least not anytime soon,” she said. “Now, are we going to make donuts or what?”
“I’m getting ready to drop these now,” I said. After Emma was out of the kitchen, I got started. As I swung the dropper and added perfect little round wheels of dough to the hot oil, I couldn’t help wondering if Rome was interested in Emma, or the information she had about James?
The next time I saw him, I was going to find out. She was too special, too important to me, to let an older and more experienced man take advantage of her.
And while I was at it, I was going to find out what he was really up to, and why he’d come to April Springs in the first place.
At just before six, the donuts were in the display cases and Emma was in back washing dishes. I started watching the clock, and then I decided to go ahead and open anyway. As I headed for the front door flipping lights on as I went, I saw someone already waiting out front for us to open. It reminded me of an old saying my grandmother was fond of, and she never failed to quote it whenever she thought that it was the least bit appropriate. “Speak of the Devil and he appears,” she’d always said, and sure enough, Rome was out front waiting patiently for me to unlock the door after Emma and I had been discussing him so recently.
The only question was whether he was there to see Emma, or ask me more questions about James Settle.
“We were just talking about you this morning,” I told Rome as I flipped the sign and let him in. “You made quite an impression on my assistant last night.”
“What did Emma tell you?” he asked.
“Only that you two met at the library and that you had a wonderful time together. She’s got the dopiest grin on her face you’ve ever seen.”
He looked clearly confused. “Why would she act that way?”
“Do you mean that none of it is true?” I asked.
“No, we had a nice chat, but there was nothing more to it than that. For goodness’ sake, she’s young enough to be my daughter. Well, I might not be that old, but she could at least be my niece.”
“So then you have no intention of asking her out on a date?”
He looked miserable when I’d asked him the question. “No, ma’am, I surely don’t. I’m sorry if she got the wrong impression.”
I nodded. “When you tell her, do me a favor and let her down gently, okay?
She’s a dreamer who still believes in love at first sight.”
“I do myself,” he admitted. “Just not with someone as young as she is.”
“So then, if you aren’t here to see Emma, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company? Were you looking for more donuts?”
“Actually, I was hoping that you were able to find out something more about what happened to James Settle,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, I have,” I admitted. “Why is he suddenly so important to you, though? You said that you didn’t even know the man when you came in before.”
“No, I didn’t,” Rome admitted. “But from everything I’ve heard, I would have liked to meet him very much. Hasn’t that ever happened to you? You hear about something random and wonder why it ever happened in the first place.”
“There was nothing random about his murder,” I said. “It was intentional.”
“Listen, I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m sincerely interested, though. Would you tell me what you’ve found out so far?”
“I’m not sure that I should,” I said.
“I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important to me, though I can’t tell you why. Please?”
I was tempted—the man was as slick and smooth as could be—when Emma walked out. “I thought I heard voices out here.”
The moment she saw that it was Rome, her face lit up. She was clearly smitten, and I hoped that Rome would let her down gently. “Hey there, stranger. Did you come by just to see me?” she asked him as she ran her fingers through her hair.
“Emma, can we talk?”
Her smile faded. “It’s never good when someone says that to you, is it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry; you are truly a wonderful young woman, and if I were fifteen years younger, I can promise you that you’d have a difficult time getting rid of me.” As he said it, he smiled in a way that led me to believe that every word of it was true.
“Don’t be that way,” Emma said, trying her best to change his mind. “Age is just a number, after all, and we all have to take love where we find it. Can either one of us afford to limit it to numbers?”
Was she honestly quoting me now? This was not good. I hoped Rome had experience with this, because if he allowed her to persuade him that they could be together, she could talk him into anything.
Rome looked at her intently as he said, “Emma, I wish I could say that it was true for me as well, but I’m afraid that it matters to me.”
She took it all in, and then sniffed the air a few times. It seemed as though she was fighting back tears, but she got past the moment and said, “I’m really sorry you feel that way, Rome, and if you ever change your mind, you’re welcome to come ask me out later, but I’m not at all sure that I’ll say yes.”
“It is a chance I must regretfully take,” he said.
Emma nodded, looked at me briefly, and then went back to her dishes.
Once she was gone, Rome looked at me and said, “I really botched that up, didn’t I?”
“Are you kidding? That went spectacularly. You left her with her pride, which is more than I thought you’d ever be able to do. Have you ever let someone down that gently before?”
“No, and I hope I never have to do it again. She just about convinced me that I was wrong after all. Someday I might even regret turning her down.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did.” I knew that it would be crazy to tell this man so much of what I’d discovered, but the tender way he’d handled Emma made me inclined to tell him what he wanted to know. Besides, if I spoke with a complete stranger about the case, it might help me clarify my own thoughts and suspicions. In the end, what harm could it do to share? “Do you still want to know about James and the case?”
“I didn’t think you wanted to tell me.”
“Let’s just say that you convinced me. What do you want to know, and I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Everything,” he said.
“Then let me get you some coffee and a treat and I’ll cover what I can.”
Ten minutes later, after he’d had a donut and some coffee as I briefed him, Rome was on his way. He thanked me for my time, left an overly generous tip, and then took off.
I waited on a few customers, and then called Emma out front. “Could you come out here for a second?”
She came to the door, but wouldn’t walk through. “Is he still here?”
“No, he left a while ago.”
“Why did he stay so long?” she asked, clearly a little hurt by my acceptance of him after he’d turned her down.
“He wanted to know more about James, and I told him. Listen, I’m proud of you for the way you handled that.”
“How so?” Emma asked. “I thought I was kind of rude, actually.”
“My dear friend, I can say with complete sincerity that you handled it better than I ever could have.”
“Do you mean that? I really am trying to grow up.”
I hugged her, and then I said, “If you ask me, you already have.”
She nodded, and then disappeared back into the kitchen. I didn’t know why, but I always felt somewhat maternal toward her, though she had a perfectly fine mother of her own. Still, she was all the work family I had, and we’d formed a bond closer than any employer and employee. When Emma had been gone exploring the world, I’d missed her greatly, and though I hadn’t begrudged her the opportunity to get out of April Springs to see what else was out there, no one short of her mother and father had been happier to have her back among us.
* * *
I was about to give Lily Hamilton her change when I happened to glance out the window toward the park across the street. Standing near the abandoned railroad tracks—mine according to the document that James Settle had signed over to me—I saw Rebecca Link looking all around her in anticipation of something happening. Was she waiting for someone there? I kept watching, even though nothing was going on, because I was dying to know who she might be seeing. The next time I glanced her way, I saw something that I didn’t like. Was that fear on her face, or was I mistaken?
“Suzanne, what’s going on?” Lily asked, bringing me back to my shop.
“I’m sorry, Lily. I zoned out for just a second.”
She nodded as she dropped her change into her purse. “Don’t worry about it. That happens to me all of the time.” Lily was dressed in her EMT outfit, and I hoped that she was exaggerating. She had a vital job to do that I’d assumed took all of her attention, and the idea of her mind wandering was a disturbing one.
“Not on the job, though,” she quickly added.
“That’s good to hear.”
After she started out the front door, I glanced outside again, but Rebecca was gone. “Hey Emma, could you come up here?”
She appeared quickly, and I said, “Take over. I’ll be right back.” I knew that she wasn’t all that fond of working the front, but it couldn’t be helped. I grabbed my light jacket and headed outside, putting it on over my apron. As I walked in the direction where I’d last seen Rebecca, I kept scanning the folks around me. The day was much warmer than it had been over the last week, and I was glad for it. Where had Rebecca disappeared to? I looked and looked, but I couldn’t find any sign of her anywhere. It was odd to say the least, but I couldn’t spend all of my time tracking her down.
I walked over to the Boxcar just in case she’d ducked in there, but I didn’t see her sitting at any of the booths.
Much to my surprise though, Forrest Pinerush was there, scowling at a copy of the April Springs Sentinel as he sipped a cup of coffee.
I nodded to Trish and held a finger to my lips. She nodded back, and I made my way to Forrest’s table. He was wearing a suit that looked as though it had been made in some European capital instead of here in North Carolina. His tie alone was probably worth more than my Jeep, and if I had to guess, I figured that his complete ensemble probably exceeded my entire net worth. I didn’t like him for several reasons, n
ot the least of which was his choice of flaunting his wealth through his clothing, but the thing I despised most of all was the way he’d treated James.
“What’s the matter, Forrest? Did you find something in our little local paper that you don’t approve of?” I asked.
He looked up from the newspaper, clearly startled to see me standing there. “Suzanne, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a donut shop to run?”
“I’m on my break,” I said as I sat in the chair across from him. “Mind if I join you?”
“The question’s a little late for you to ask, don’t you think?”
“What are you doing here, Forrest?” I asked him.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I have a meeting,” he said.
“Is it with Rebecca Link, by any chance?” It was a wild shot, but still one worth taking.
“I don’t have the slightest idea who you’re talking about. Mother demanded that I meet Thomas Oak here and get his progress report. Why he couldn’t come out to the manor is beyond me.”
I felt as though it had more to do with the power struggle between mother and son than it did with inconveniencing the attorney, but I wasn’t about to say anything. “Has he made any progress that you know of?”
“If I could answer that, I wouldn’t have had to come all the way here for this meeting, now would I?”
“Mind if I sit in, too?” I asked.
“Actually yes, I do mind, very much.”
I laughed it off. “That’s the way to extend the warm hand of friendship. I’ll find out soon enough, since your mother told me that she was going to instruct him to keep me updated as well. If you’re not careful, I’m going to tell your mommy on you, Woody.”
He visibly flinched at the name, and I knew that I’d scored a direct hit. “No one, and I mean no one, calls me that. Do you understand?”
“Sorry,” I said, though I wasn’t, not one bit, and what was more, I was certain that he knew it. “James used to refer to you that way, didn’t he?”
“It was an annoying childhood habit of his that I thought he’d outgrown a long time ago. Did you hear it from him?”
