Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 18 - Dangerous Dough (6 page)

Chapter 7

“Emma, Sharon,
what are you two doing here?” I asked as I approached my assistant and her
mother, who were standing on my front porch.
 
“Were we supposed to meet up this
evening?”

“No, but we took
a chance that you’d be here,” Emma said.
 
“When we saw that you weren’t, we were going to leave you a note,” she
said as she offered me a folded sheet of paper.

“Can’t you just
tell me what it says, or do I really need to read it?” I asked with a grin.

“Sorry,” Emma
said as she tucked the note into the front pocket of her jeans.
 
“It’s about what happened while you were
gone.”

“Why don’t you
both come on in and we can talk about it,” I said as I unlocked the front door
and opened it.
 
It was chilly in the
cottage, but I knew how to fix that.
 
“Let me light a fire and make us some coffee.”

“Don’t go to any
trouble on our account.
 
We won’t be
here that long,” Sharon said.

“Well, I’m cold,
so I think I’ll do it anyway,” I said as I lit the fire I’d laid in the grate
before Jake and I had left for our honeymoon.
 
It was amazing to me just how much had
changed in such a short period of time.

As the kindling
took to the flame, I headed for the kitchen and flipped on the coffeepot.
 
“That’s going to take a few
minutes.
 
Now, tell me all about
what happened.
 
I heard Alex Tyler
asked you out on a date.
 
You
usually don’t argue with the men you turn down, Emma.”

“I knew it
wouldn’t take long before everybody in town found out,” my assistant said,
clearly on the verge of tears.

“Take a deep
breath, sweetie,” Sharon said in that soothing, calm voice that all mothers
seemed to acquire naturally.
 
“Would
you like me to tell it?”

“No, thanks.
 
I can handle it.”
 
After expelling a deep breath, Emma
continued.
 
“Alex came by and started
flirting with me.
 
The shop was
empty, so I guess he thought that was his opportunity.
 
Boy, was he ever wrong.
 
I didn’t lead him on, though; I swear it.”

“I believe you,”
I said as I reached out and patted her hand.
 
“Go on.”

“Well, he clearly
wasn’t used to being rejected.
 
The
more I refused his advances, the more belligerent he became.”

“And that’s when
I came out front,” Sharon added.
 
“I
heard Emma raising her voice, so I knew that something was going on.
 
When I got there, Alex was trying to get
behind the counter to get closer to her.”

“What did you
do?” I asked.

“Well, I
thought
about hitting him with a tray of
donuts,” Sharon said with a wry grin, “but I ended up scolding him instead, and
that seemed to work well enough.
 
Emma told him again that she wasn’t interested in him, so he finally
left.”

“I’m curious
about something.
 
How did everyone
in town find out about what happened if the shop was empty at the time?”

“Evidently Gabby
Williams was standing just outside the front door when it happened,” Emma said
grimly.
 
“She must have heard it
all, and after that, it was too late to stop her.”

“Believe me, I
know what that’s like,” I said.
 
Though I’d told Grace that Gabby and I were friends, sometimes the woman
had the oddest way of showing it.
 
“I’ve
got a question for you.
 
Did he
happen to buy a cup of coffee while he was here?”

“No, he
didn’t.
 
Why?”

“Haven’t you
heard?
 
He was poisoned, and they
found traces of what killed him in one of our cups from Donut Hearts.”

“But that’s
impossible,” Emma cried.
 
“I never
sold him a cup.”

“Then he must
have gotten it from someone else,” I said with a frown.
 
“Emma, could you make a list of everyone
you sold a cup of coffee to on the day of the murder?”

My assistant
frowned before she answered.
 
“It
might not be complete, but I should be able to come pretty close.
 
Why, is it important?”

“Sweetie, she
wants to know who might have bought one and poisoned it before giving it to the
new police chief,” Sharon explained, and then she looked at me.
 
“Is that right?”

“It is,” I said.

“Suzanne, do you
have some paper and a pen I can borrow?
 
I’ll make the list for you right now.”

I grabbed the pen
and pad I kept by the landline phone for messages and handed them to her.
 
“Thanks.
 
It might help.”

“I’ll do whatever
I can,” Emma said, and then she started writing down names.

“What does your
husband make of all of this?” I asked Sharon as Emma compiled her list.

“You know
Ray.
 
He sees conspiracies everywhere.
 
You wouldn’t believe some of the
theories he’s been playing with since this happened.”

“Sadly, I would,”
I said.

“Suzanne, I know
you two don’t get along, but you should know that Ray’s heart is in the right
place.”

“I’ll take your
word for it,” I replied, “but only because you married him, and he helped raise
such an excellent person.”

“Hey, I can hear
you,” Emma said as she looked up with a grin.

“Why would I not
want you to hear what I just said?” I answered with a smile of my own.

After another
full minute, Emma handed me the pad and pen.
 
“That’s all I could remember.
 
There were a few folks who came by that
day that I didn’t recognize.”

“Could you
describe any of them to me?” I asked as I took the pad from her and tore off
the sheet with her list.

“Let me think
about it a second,” Emma said with a frown.
 
“Let’s see.
 
There was a heavyset man in his
fifties.
 
I remember him because he
was wearing a bowtie.
 
You don’t see
many of those these days.”

I made a mental
note of her description in case he turned up later in the case.
 
“Who else?”

“We had a plain
woman in her late twenties/early thirties come by for a cup.
 
She was memorable because of what she
ordered more than because of how she looked.”

“What did she
get?”

“Mom and I made
some snowman donuts while you were gone.
 
I wasn’t sure how they looked after they’d been in the fryer, but this
woman seemed obsessed with them.
 
She kept going on and on about how lovely anything dealing with snow was.
 
It was kind of weird, actually.”

That had to be
Maisie!
 
What had she been doing in
April Springs?
 
Was she stalking
Alex in his new home, or was there some other, darker reason for her visit?

“Anyone else?” I
asked.

“Yes.
 
We had the oddest couple come in.
 
He was barely five feet tall, and she
was well over six feet.
 
He kept
looking up at her with such devotion that I envied her.”

“Got it.
 
Who else?”

“There was one
woman who was rather striking.
 
She
sneered at our donuts and insisted on black coffee.
 
She was quite elegant, but there was
something about the way she acted, as though she were better than everyone else
around her, you know?
 
When I handed
her the change from her drink, she visibly shuddered when my hand touched
hers.”

Could that have
been Shannon?
 
It certainly sounded
like her.
 
I wished that Grace and I
had taken photos of the folks we’d talked to earlier.
 
They would have come in handy about now.

“Is that it?”

Grace
frowned.
 
“That’s all that I can
think of.
 
Sorry.
 
I’m sure there were a few others, but I
can’t for the life of me remember what they looked like.
 
You know how it gets around here sometimes.”

“You did
fine.
 
If you remember anyone else
later, let me know, okay?
 
It could
be important.”

“I’ll try my
best,” she said.
 
“Suzanne, would
you like to take a few more days off?
 
It’s okay with us if you do.”

“Why does
everyone keep asking me that?
 
To
tell you the truth, I can’t wait to get back to work.”

“That’s perfectly
fine with us,” Sharon said.
 
“We
just wanted to make the offer.”

“Sharon, I can’t
thank you enough for stepping in for me on such short notice.
 
I’ll have your pay ready tomorrow by
eleven.”

“There’s no
hurry,” she said.

“So, which trip
are you saving for next?”
 
Sharon
and one of her old girlfriends from high school loved to travel, and her working
time at the donut shop helped finance her trips.
 
Getting Ray out of town was next to
impossible, but Sharon never seemed all that upset about it.
 
Who could blame her?
 
If I were married to Ray Blake, I’d take
every trip that I could afford, too.

“We’re thinking
of touring rural Italy this time,” she said rather wistfully.
 
“Or perhaps Scotland.
 
We’re not sure yet.”

“Well, wherever
you end up, I’m sure that it will be lovely,” I said.
 
“Shall I get us some coffee?
 
It’s bound to be ready by now.”

“Thank you, but I
must be going,” Sharon said.
 
“Emma,
you’re free to stay behind if you’d like.”

“I appreciate the
offer, but I think I’ll tag along with you.”
 
As I stood and showed them out, Emma
hugged me.
 
“I’m glad to have you
back, Suzanne.”

“Even if it means
that you’re back on dish duty?” I asked her with a laugh.

“You know
me.
 
I’m always ready for some solitude,
some suds, and some songs,” she said, grinning.

“Then you’ll get
more than your share of all three tomorrow,” I promised.

I just hoped that
I could follow through on it.
 
When
I was in the midst of a murder investigation, I wasn’t always the most present
owner of my donut shop, but I tried my best to be there when the doors of Donut
Hearts were open.

“See you in the
morning,” Emma said, and she and her mother headed for the door.

“Would you like
to sleep in?”

“Do you mean all
day?” she asked me.

“I was thinking
more like an extra hour,” I replied.

“Sold,” she
said.
 
“See you then.”

After they were
gone, I decided to have that cup of coffee and curl up on the sofa by the
fire.
 
Paris had been lovely, but in
the end, there was no place like home, and I had someone to share it with now
that I loved more than anyone else in the world.

Ten minutes
later, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearing time to eat.
 
Was there a chance that Jake would make
it back to join me?
 
There was only
one way to find out.
 

I grabbed my
cellphone and called him.

“Hey, I miss
you,” I said when he answered, though I hadn’t known that I was going to say
that until I’d blurted it out.

“I miss you,
too.
 
Paris seems pretty far away
right now, doesn’t it?”

“We could always
go back,” I said with a grin.

“We could, but it
wouldn’t be the same,” Jake replied.

“Why, because I
wouldn’t have my inheritance from my aunt to blow on the trip?” I asked him
with a laugh.

“No, it’s because
it wouldn’t be our honeymoon the next time,” Jake said simply.

It was quite a
romantic thing to say, even if it had been delivered matter-of-factly.

“Agreed.
 
Is there any chance you’ll make it back
to the cottage for dinner?
 
I’m
here, and I’m getting a little hungry.”

“Are you and
Grace back in town already?
 
How did
it go in Granite Meadows?”

“It’s too
involved to go into over the phone,” I said.
 
“What about dinner?”

“I’m starving,”
he admitted.
 
“Whatever leftovers
you can find in the fridge will be good enough for me.
 
I’m not all that picky.”

“You know that I
can’t resist a man who has a low bar,” I said.
 
“Let me see what I can whip up.”

“See you soon,”
he said, and then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “Love you.”

“Love you, too,”
I said, warm from the recitation.

I poked my head
into the fridge and was happy to find that Momma had used her key while we’d
been gone, leaving us her famous ground chicken casserole.
 
I heated the oven and popped it in, and
just as the timer went off signaling that it was ready to eat, Jake walked in.

“Perfect timing,”
I said as I kissed my new husband.