by Jessica Beck
Grace touched my shoulder lightly. “Suzanne, we haven’t given up on helping Gabby, but we’re certainly entitled to stop and eat a meal every now and then.”
“Okay,” I said smiling slightly. “You’re right. Let me just do one thing first.”
“What’s possibly more important than eating?” she asked me, returning my grin with one of her own.
“I want to leave Tyra a note to call me, just in case she isn’t gone for good.” I scrawled out a quick message and jammed it in the gap between the door and the casing. If she came in that way, she’d either see the note or it would flutter to the ground, and that would have to catch her attention. Whether she’d do as I’d asked and call me was another thing altogether, but it was the best thing I could think of, so I did it.
Once that was accomplished, I turned to Grace and said, “Come on. You did such a good job cheering me up that I’m buying today.”
“I appreciate the offer, but we don’t do that anymore, remember?” she answered with a grin of her own.
“You’re right,” I answered. “I hope that it’s the thought that counts, then.”
“It is,” she replied as we walked back to my Jeep and headed toward our favorite place to eat in all of April Springs, which, given the real lack of competition, wasn’t saying much, but it still counted for something. Not only was Trish’s food delicious, but it was always a pleasure seeing her friendly face, and at the moment, we could use all of those we could get.
The Boxcar Grill was so busy that it appeared there wasn’t a chance Trish was going to be able to eat with us after all. “Hey, Trish. If it’s all the same to you, we’ll take a rain check for that lunch,” I told her as we muscled our way through the crowd of folks waiting for a table.
“There is no way I’m letting you two off the hook that easily,” Trish said as she pointed to the table closest to the door. It had a Reserved sign on it, and a great many people were staring at it, wondering what sort of local celebrity merited a reservation at a place that didn’t allow them.
“We don’t mind coming back at a better time, at the very least,” I said. “Seriously, it’s not worth aggravating any of your customers for us.”
Trish frowned. “We had plans, though.”
“Plans change,” I told her. “We’re not all that hungry anyway,” I lied. “That was a massive breakfast.”
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Trish said. It was clear that she was at least a little relieved that I’d insisted we postpone the get-together. She’d tried to get a new employee to help out up front at the register before, but it had always turned into a debacle, and she was soon back at her usual station. I knew how lucky I was to have Emma and Sharon available and eager to step into my shoes on a moment’s notice at the donut shop, and while I couldn’t afford to reward their loyalty monetarily all of the time, I always made sure they knew how much I appreciated both of them, and at least so far, that seemed to be enough.
“I expect you both back here later,” Trish said as she pulled the sign off the table. Four people clearly not together happily scooped up the suddenly free seats.
“We’ll see you soon,” I said with a smile as Grace and I exited.
“That was a nice thing to do and all, but the truth of the matter is that I’m still hungry,” Grace said with a frown.
“We could always drop by the donut shop and grab something there,” I offered.
“Okay. At the very least I can get something to hold me until we can eat a proper meal.” She quickly added, “Not that your donuts aren’t proper and all.”
“Easy, girl, I’m not about to suggest that donuts are a substitute for a balanced meal. I sell treats, goodies that are to be savored, but I have no delusions that anyone should eat them as a regular meal. Well, maybe breakfast, but lunch? Why do you think I close the shop at eleven every day?”
“Because you haven’t been able to convince people that donuts at noon are a good thing, or because you’re there at three a.m. every morning and you’re tired of working by then, so you close up so you can go home, take a shower, and then catch a nap?”
“I’d say both scenarios pretty much sum up the situation,” I said with a smile. “Come on. You have to at least let me buy you a donut.”
“Considering they don’t cost you anything, at least any cash, I might even take two.”
There was a problem, though.
Even though it was four minutes before eleven, not yet our standard closing time, the shop was empty, the door was locked, and there was no sign of Emma and Sharon inside.
Maybe I’d been a little too hasty with my praise for them after all.
“Hey, Emma. How’s it going?” I asked when she picked up my call. I was about to ask her why Donut Hearts was closed when she interrupted me before I could follow up.
“Suzanne, you’re never going to believe what happened today. It was the wildest thing. A tour bus got lost, and everyone on it was starving. Evidently the driver was new, and he missed a turn or something and was too proud to ask for directions. Anyway, a little after ten, the door opened and around thirty starving seniors piled in. They bought us out! What they didn’t eat in the shop they took to go. We made some serious coin today, my friend.”
“So there was no reason to stay open,” I said.
“I suppose we could have kept the place going and served coffee, but that would have probably just frustrated everyone that they couldn’t get any treats. It’s great news, isn’t it?”
“It certainly is, but maybe if that ever happens again, you could leave a sign on the front door explaining the situation so folks will know why we’re not open.” It was a gentle suggestion, but I really didn’t want to aggravate our regulars who might come by expecting donuts only to be greeted by a darkened shop.
“Did I forget to do that?” she asked, sounding upset. “Mom told me to do it, but I guess I just forgot. I’m so sorry. I guess I was so excited that it completely slipped my mind. Suzanne, I’m really sorry.”
“No harm, no foul, Emma,” I said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You’re coming in?” she asked, clearly unhappy with my response. “Are you taking away our two days of running the shop just because of one simple mistake? Mom’s going to kill me.”
“Take it easy, Emma. I just forgot that I was off tomorrow, too. I’m not punishing you.”
“Thanks. She’s saving up for another trip to Ireland, and she’d be furious if she lost the job as my assistant at Donut Hearts on your days off.”
“There are no worries on that front. We’re good,” I said. After I hung up, I turned to Grace. “Well, it appears that you and I were destined not to eat lunch today.”
“We can’t give up yet,” Grace said. “Surely there’s someplace open around here where we can get something to eat.”
“We could always make something ourselves,” I suggested.
Grace frowned. “I don’t know about you, but my fridge doesn’t have enough in it to feed me, let alone both of us.”
“I have a lasagna in the fridge from two nights ago,” I admitted. “I know it’s not Napoli’s quality, and it’s a leftover to boot, but if you’d like some, you’re more than welcome to it.”
“Sold,” Grace said. “I’ll take your leftovers over my fresh meals any day of the week.”
“I’ve even got some salad greens left, too. We’ll have ourselves a little feast and try to forget that we’re failing at finding the arsonist who started the fire at ReNEWed.”
“Suzanne, we’re not giving up, remember?”
“That’s right, we’re regrouping, whatever that means,” I said as we walked back to my Jeep, still sitting in the Boxcar Grill’s nearly full parking lot. Driving home was a breeze since it was so close, and I didn’t like the idea of my Jeep being in that jammed lot unattended. In the course of things, it was still relatively new, at least in my mind, and I hated every added ding and dent I got from other parked cars.
I w
as reheating the lasagna while Grace set the table when my cell phone rang. Maybe it was from Gabby, or even Tyra, but when I saw it was my husband, I was just as happy about it.
Talking to Jake was always a good thing, even when the news wasn’t.
“Sorry, I can’t talk,” Jake said the moment I answered.
“Hey, you called me, remember?” I asked him, but I was talking to dead air.
“What was that all about?” Grace asked me.
“I honestly have no idea,” I said.
“Aren’t you going to call him back?”
“No, he’s obviously into something that needs his full attention, and I’m not about to distract him from that, whatever it might be.”
Grace laughed. “You two are the perfect pair, aren’t you?”
“I’d like to think so,” I said. “Why do you say that, though?”
“You both love digging into problems and looking for answers almost as much as you love each other,” she replied.
“That’s certainly true enough,” I said. “I never really thought about it that way before.”
“That’s because you’re too close to it to see how things really are between you.”
“Speaking of relationships, how are things going between you and our police chief?”
Grace grinned. “As a matter of fact, they are so good that I’m afraid I’ll jinx things by talking about them. Isn’t that lasagna ready yet?”
I’d been microwaving it on half power, and it took a while, but I’d found that reheating it slowly gave it a much better taste and consistency than blasting it on full. Doing it in the oven would have been better still, but Grace and I didn’t have that much time on our hands, even if we were temporarily stymied by the case we were working on.
We had just sat down to eat when my phone rang again.
“It’s probably just Jake again. I’ll call him back later,” I said, trying to ignore the summons.
“Take the call, Suzanne. I know you love me, so I’m not offended that I’ll always be second in your heart.”
“Does that count Momma, too?” I asked her with a grin as I reached for my phone.
“Okay, third then, but if I’m any lower than that, please don’t tell me,” she said.
“You’ll always be third to me,” I said with a grin as I answered.
It wasn’t Jake, though.
The moment I heard Bo’s voice, I knew that something had happened, and most likely, it was something bad.
Chapter 20
“Suzanne, we had an incident here a few minutes ago, and I knew you’d want to hear about it,” Bo said.
“Is Gabby okay?” I asked, suddenly realizing how much I’d risked by putting her in jeopardy, even if she had approved it after the fact.
“Relax, Suzanne. She’s fine. Manny Wright just left here, and he wasn’t very happy about being turned away, I can tell you that.”
“What happened?” I asked as I put the phone on speaker.
“He tried to force his way past me and get into her room,” Bo said with a hint of laughter in his voice. “Can you imagine that? I told him to stop, and when he wouldn’t listen, I had to persuade him that his current course of action wasn’t going to work out too well for him.”
“Did he say why he wanted to see your cousin?” Grace asked. “Hi, Bo, it’s me.”
“Hey, Grace. Yeah, if you can believe it, he kept saying that she was the one he loved, that he’d made a huge mistake with the other women, and that he needed to see her. He said that almost losing her was more than he could take, and it made him realize just what he’d thrown away.”
That certainly sounded like a different story than we’d ever heard from him. “Did you believe him?” I asked.
“No, not a chance. He clearly had an ulterior motive, but I wasn’t about to risk finding out what it was. I sent him packing, and then I told Gabby what happened.”
“What did she say?”
“That I did the right thing,” Bo admitted. “It was nice hearing that from her. Anyway, I just thought you should know.”
“Thanks for calling, Bo. Keep us posted, okay?”
“Will do,” he said, and then he quickly added, “Here comes Penny. Gotta go.”
“Ask her out, you big dweeb,” Grace shouted, but it was too late. He’d already hung up.
I looked at Grace and smiled. “Dweeb? Really?”
“It was the only thing I could come up with on the spur of the moment. Do you believe Manny’s story?”
“I’m with Bo. We haven’t seen anything from Manny to make me think that he cares about Gabby one way or the other. There has to be another reason he was so determined to see her.”
“I’m not completely convinced myself,” Grace said.
“What do you mean?”
“What if he was telling the truth? I know, I’m supposed to be the hardhearted one, but it’s possible, isn’t it? If Manny wanted to hurt Gabby, he wouldn’t have tried to push his way past Bo. Not only would that make him a witness that Manny was even there, but I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want Bo angry or upset with me.”
“No, I wouldn’t, either,” I said. After giving it a moment’s thought, I said, “I can see another reason it might have played out that way. Let’s say Manny came to the hospital to finish the job, thinking he could slip in and out without being seen. Maybe he saw Bo too late, so he was committed to doing something, and knowing Manny, using love as a cover sounds exactly like something he would do. He forced the issue by claiming his love for Gabby to hide the fact that he was really there to hurt her. It’s at least possible, isn’t it?”
Grace nodded. “I hate to admit it, but I think you’re right. I must be getting soft.”
“I’d never say that about you,” I said as I patted her hand. “That was supposed to be a compliment, in case you weren’t sure. Grace, your pragmatism is part of your charm.”
“Thanks. I guess being in love has affected my way of looking at the world lately,” she admitted. Before taking a bite of lasagna, she quickly added, “And that’s all that we need to talk about that.”
“Got it,” I said as I took a bite myself. It was really rather good, though not as tasty as it had been fresh out of the oven. Then again, it was there, it was free, and I was hungry, so everything worked out for the best in the end after all, at least as far as lunch was concerned.
As we were cleaning up, I got the call I’d been expecting earlier.
It was Jake again.
“Can you talk this time? What was that all about earlier?” I asked him.
“Suzanne, I have some news you’re going to want to hear.”
“Fire away,” I answered as I put my phone on speaker so Grace could hear, too.
“Buster Breckinridge is on the run.”
Chapter 21
“What do you mean, he’s on the run?” I asked. “Does that mean that he’s the one who burned Gabby’s shop down after all?”
“No, in fact, he’s got a pretty good alibi for the time of the fire,” Jake said.
“I can’t wait to hear what it is,” Grace said.
“The thing is, he couldn’t have set the fire at ReNEWed, because at the time, he was leaving Peggy’s Pet Supplies in Union Square after robbing the place.”
“How could you possibly know that?” I asked him.
“I’ve been going around to businesses near where the robberies occurred, looking at video surveillance files, and on the fourth try, I found a clear shot of Buster taking off the dog’s head mask Peggy reported the robber was wearing ninety seconds after the robbery. By the time I got to the Garden Center, he had already taken off. Evidently Manny left him in charge while he went to run an errand, and Buster cleaned out the register before he took off. Manny’s ready to kill him.”
“That was some good police work, Jake,” I said.
“It was okay, but I should have been able to arrest him and hand him over to Chief Erskine in a neat little package
,” Jake said, the disappointment clear in his voice.
“Could you have done that legally without making a citizen’s arrest?” Grace asked him.
“Actually, the chief gave me temporary status to make arrests this morning,” Jake admitted, and then he quickly added, “Suzanne, I wasn’t taking any chances. I had the chief meet me at the Garden Center. I just happened to get there thirty seconds before Manny showed up. That’s when he discovered that he’d been robbed too, and the chief came not a minute later. I never really did anything risky.”
That wasn’t strictly true—he’d taken a chance going to brace a convicted felon alone—but I wasn’t about to chastise him for it. After all, he’d deserved to make the arrest after doing the required police work in order to find him. “What did the chief say?” I asked.
“He was upset with himself for not checking the security footage around the robberies himself,” Jake told us, “but he’s young, and he’s got good instincts. Anyway, I’ll be home in a few hours. I’m going to help out with the manhunt, if you’re okay with me doing it.”
“I’m fine with it, Jake. Be careful,” I said as I started to hang up.
“You, too,” he said, and then the call was over.
“You’re really okay with him going after Buster?” Grace asked me.
“I’m fine with it,” I said. “Jake needs this, and I’m not about to take it away from him. Hey, he just made our job easier. I get why Buster didn’t want to give us his real alibi. It would be tough to admit that he couldn’t have burned down Gabby’s shop and assaulted her because he was busy robbing another shop half an hour away at the exact same time. No wonder he was happy Gabby’s memory might have been coming back, as unconvincing as he was telling us.”
“And then there were two,” Grace said. “It looks as though Manny is in the lead, doesn’t it?”
“True, but I still think Tyra is a likely suspect. All we have to do now is find her.”
“Suzanne, I said it before, and I’ll say it again. There’s a good chance that she hasn’t gone anywhere farther from home than the grocery store. Why don’t we finish cleaning up here and then go by her place again to see if she’s there, by any chance? What do you say?”