Dead As A Donut

by Kathryn Lin

  “Are you talking about Edward Banks?”

  She nodded. “I’m his personal assistant—or I used to be.”

  I couldn’t believe my luck. Now that I was sitting right next to her, I could see that she was the woman who ran out of Elizabeth’s house the other night. Her hair was different and she had more makeup on tonight, but it was definitely her.

  “I’m Hannah, by the way.”

  “Olivia. I’m sorry for your loss. He came into my café a lot.”

  I made sure to leave out the part where he always acted like a rude entitled jerk.

  “You run the Faulkner Café? We love your donuts.”

  She seemed to perk up for a moment, and smiled as she recalled some happy memory.

  “But Edward won’t be eating anymore raspberry donuts,” she said glumly.

  We both sat in silence and stared into our drinks. I waited for her to speak instead of forcing her to open herself up to me.

  “His wife won’t let me go to his funeral,” she said after several minutes.

  “Why would she do that? As his assistant, you were probably the closest person to Edward at work.”

  “That’s exactly why. I know she suspected that we were having an affair—it’s what everybody else thinks when they look at us. But it wasn’t like that at all. They don’t see the kind and nurturing side to Edward. He was teaching me all about real estate and even gave me an account to handle on my own.”

  “It sounds like he was a very important influence in your life.”

  She nodded. “Like I said, he was more of a father to me than my own father.”

  “I guess you knew pretty much everything that went on in his life at work.”

  “Oh yes. All of his appointments went through me and I took care of everything he didn’t want to be bothered with, at work or otherwise.”

  “Did you know if your boss had a meeting with somebody at the park the morning that he died?”

  She looked at me curiously. “Why are you asking?”

  How was I going to bluff my way out of this one?

  “Um. I heard him talking on the phone that morning at the café when he picked up his usual order. It sounded like he was supposed to meet someone at the park.”

  “That’s impossible. If there was such a meeting, I would have known about it. I scheduled everything in his life, even his trips to the golf course and buying gifts for his wife.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Besides, Edward never conducted business during his morning runs to the café. He was always militant about keeping his morning routine strictly personal.”

  A woman in a turquoise silk dress walked by. She must have spritzed an entire bottle of perfume onto herself as the scent she left lingering over the bar was nauseating.

  “Oh no!” Hannah moaned before she started sneezing uncontrollably.

  “Are you alright?” I gave her the napkin under my drink.

  She accepted it gratefully, but it didn’t seem to help much.

  “I’m allergic to fragrances. Excuse me,” she said between sneezes.

  She clutched her nose and rushed off in the direction of what I guessed was the restroom.

  Alone at the bar, I reviewed what Hannah had told me about Edward Banks. If he really didn’t tell her about his meeting with Robert in the park, then maybe it was because he wanted to keep it off the books.

  But why?

  The question lingered in the back of my mind during the rest of the evening. Dinner and dessert was lovely. What was lovelier was when Ben removed his tuxedo jacket and draped it over my shoulders as we walked out into the chilly night air.

  “I had a wonderful time tonight,” I told him as we drove down I-96, also known as ‘96’, back to Grand Arbor.

  Ben took his eyes off of the road and glanced over at me. “Yeah? Me too. We should do something like this again. Officially.”

  My breath caught in my throat.

  Was he really asking me out?

  I looked out the window at the side mirror to hide my blushing face. I was about to tell him it was a deal when I saw a pair of headlights in the dark speeding toward us.

  “Ben, watch out!”

  He jerked the steering wheel sharply to the right and swerved out of the left lane just in time to avoid running into the ditch.

  The car riding our tail sped off into the distance. It was impossible to read its license plate in the dark.

  After he regained control of the car, Ben reached over and grabbed my hand.

  “Are you okay?”

  I nodded and then remembered that he couldn’t see my response as his eyes were on the road. “Yes, I think so,” I said shakily.

  “That was close. It could have been a really bad accident.”

  It seemed more intentional than an accident to me.

  Chapter 17

  After the scare Ben and I had on Sunday night, the rest of the week passed peacefully.

  Despite Greg’s slanderous article about the café, business did not slow down.

  The ladies came in at a quarter past ten and did not wait to tell me the latest gossip.

  “Austin’s innocent, we have proof!” Maude exclaimed as soon as I came over to their table.

  The declaration confused me for a moment until I remembered what Detective Miller said at the police station. They were still going with the mugging story for the general public and for once, Maude was not in the know about something in Grand Arbor. She didn’t know that the police were no longer looking at Austin as a suspect.

  I decided to play along. “Did you guys find some proof? Nobody saw him at the store that morning.”

  They nodded.

  “We talked to Mike—”

  “Mailman Mike?” I asked, interrupting Maude.

  “Yes! Anyways, he remembered seeing Austin in the hardware store when he was walking his route. Mike is certain that Austin didn’t leave his store the entire time because Mike had a clear view of the entire street and Austin was still in his store when he doubled back around to deliver mail to the other side of the street.”

  The ringing of my cellphone in my pocket interrupted our conversation. I made an excuse to head back into the kitchen and the old ladies looked like I had spoiled their big moment.

  “Hello?”

  “This is Detective Miller,” said the voice on the other line.

  “We’ve arrested Robert Morgan this morning. The information you provided has been vital to this case.”

  “He admitted to killing his friend?” I was shocked.

  “No. He only admitted that he was at the park on that morning, he claims that Edward never showed up and he was leaving the park when he saw you with the body.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “No, but we have enough circumstantial evidence to hold him.”

  “Detective, I’m not sure that Robert Morgan is the killer.”

  “It has to be him. He had the motive and opportunity. Anyways, I just thought I should let you know instead of finding out about the arrest in the news. We’re announcing it today.”

  I stared at my phone after he ended the call.

  I had been so sure that Robert Morgan was the killer last week, but now it seemed like the police had the wrong man.

  But if Robert didn’t kill Edward Banks, then who did?

  Chapter 18

  With less than a day to go until Vi’s big day at Cranbrook, the two of us went to the spa for our platinum package treatment.

  The protesters were still gathered on the sidewalk facing the mall despite the biting autumn wind. I stopped the car to give them all some hot coffee and pastries from the café. They accepted the food gratefully and we pumped our fists into the air in a gesture of solidarity.

  As much as I hated everything the mall stood for and hated to give them any of my money, Vi and I needed to look our best for tomorrow.

  I felt calmer and more relaxed as soon as I entered the spa. The interior was dimly lit with flickering cand
les and the sound of trickling water in the background made it feel like we were near a river in a secluded cabin. The scent of lavender and herbs perfumed the air.

  I checked us in at the front desk and we were guided to the locker room where we changed into fluffy white robes that made us look like polar bears.

  After our Turkish bath, we had our nails painted, a facial, and a full body massage.

  No wonder the platinum package took hours. There was not one part of my body that was not rubbed or soothed.

  For the very last part of our treatment, we were taken into a relaxation room where there was a trickling water fountain and sticks of lavender incense burning in a pot of sand. After we laid down on the most comfortable chaise I had ever felt, the staff member guiding us reminded us that we had an hour to meditate and relax before she would return to get us.

  I opened my eyes and saw that Vi was conked out. This was the most peaceful and relaxed I had seen her in the past two weeks so I didn’t want to wake her.

  I slipped on the paper slippers that all spa guests were given and crept out the door. There was a stairwell at the end of the hallway where I had seen a staff member slip out. Since no alarm had sounded, I knew that it wasn’t an emergency exit.

  It wasn’t clear why I felt like I needed to check the stairway, but something in my gut told me to go back there.

  There was another door in the stairway and I opened it to find that it led to a long, plain, concrete corridor. I didn’t have to walk far in the corridor before I stumbled upon an exit to the parking lot. This corridor must be how employees, delivery people, and maintenance got around the mall.

  Seeing that there was nothing interesting in the rest of the corridor, I decided to go back to the spa and join Vi for the rest of our relaxation and meditation treatment. We still had a little over forty-five minutes remaining until our day at the spa ended.

  And then it dawned on me. An hour was plenty of time to sneak out and drive across town from the mall to the park, corner and stab Edward, and then drive back to the mall again. Especially if you knew where Edward was going to be during his morning run and knew about the corridor shortcut from the spa to the parking lot.

  I had to call Detective Miller and tell him what I discovered. I reached into my robe pocket for my phone, but it wasn’t there. Of course it wasn’t there, I left it in my locker in the changing room. Not a big deal, I just had to go back in and get it.

  There was the sound of footsteps behind me, but before I could turn around to see who it was, I felt the jab of something sharp against the side of my neck.

  “Don’t you even think about it. I want your hands out where I can see them.”

  I took my hands out of my pocket and held them out slightly to the side.

  “Good. Now walk back slowly into the spa.”

  As if afraid I was going to resist, the person behind me pressed the weapon sharply into my neck, prodding me like I was cattle being herded into the slaughterhouse.

  I flinched but did what I was told.

  “Why are you doing this, Elizabeth?”

  “Quiet!” She jabbed me again, this time hard enough that I seized up in pain.

  “Move!” she commanded with a sharp shove against my back.

  We entered the spa through the back door and she herded me into an empty room which I saw contained multiple saunas. I turned around and saw that the weapon she had in her hand was an ice pick. It was identical to the one I found sticking out of her husband’s chest.

  “Mom?” Vi’s voice called out to me from the hallway outside. I prayed that my little girl didn’t come back here. Never did I imagine that I would be placing my daughter in danger with my investigation.

  Elizabeth kept her eyes on me while she grabbed a ladle used to spoon water over the heating element in the saunas and jabbed the handle through the door handle, locking us in.

  “That’s better.”

  She dropped the arm holding the ice pick and stepped toward me.

  “I really hate to do this, especially since you were so gracious and polite, Olivia.”

  “You were the one who tried to run us off the road.” I said with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

  "You can stop, Elizabeth, I won’t say a word to anybody.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t. Not when you know so much. You just had to stick your nose where it didn’t belong, didn’t you?”

  That seemed like a rhetorical question so I didn’t respond.

  “I had it all planned out. Poor Robert even helped out in his own oblivious way.”

  “You sent the email telling him to meet Edward in the park.”

  “Yes. And it was all perfectly planned out. I was the secret buyer who Robert thought was going to save his skin at the company. The fool didn’t even look into who owned the company buying up so many shares of his company. Now with the shares I bought and the shares Edward left me in his will, I have majority control of Banks Development.”

  She raised the ice pick again, this time aiming it right at my heart. “Get in there,” she commanded, pointing to the sauna behind me.

  I was unarmed and vulnerable, with nothing on me that I could use to fight her off except a paper slipper.

  I stepped into the sauna even though I knew I was sealing my fate.

  She slammed the door shut and locked me in before she turned the heat on and exited the sauna room without a look back.

  “Help!” I screamed.

  I banged my fists against the plexiglas window of the sauna, but it was useless. Nobody was going to hear me.

  I felt like I was being baked alive. Breathing became harder and harder and soon it took too much strength to even stand upright. My head pounded as if it was being squeezed in a vise.

  Just a moment until I regained strength, I promised myself before I closed my eyes and welcomed the darkness.

  Chapter 19

  Bright white light assaulted my eyes when I woke up.

  “Wha—”

  “Shh, don’t talk, Mom.” Vi touched my forehead tenderly before she elevated my bed and brought a cup of water to my lips.

  I took a couple tiny sips and blinked a couple times. The room came into focus and I realized that I was in the hospital.

  Vi set the cup of water down on the bedside table and sat back down next to my bed.

  “You’re in the hospital. I found you passed out on the floor in the sauna.”

  I gripped her arm and tugged her closer so I could examine her. “Did she hurt you?”

  Vi shook her head. “I knew something was wrong when I saw her running out of the spa. The employees and I looked all over for you before I found you. I used the number in your phone to call Detective Miller.”

  “Sleeping beauty awakens! How are you feeling?” Ben stepped into the room and handed Vi a sandwich which he must have gotten from the hospital cafeteria.

  “Like I’d been hit by a truck. When can I leave?”

  “The doctors want you to stay for a couple hours, but you should be able to head home tonight.”

  “Good. We still have to get ready for your interview tomorrow, Vi.”

  “Mom, we can reschedule. Give me the number and I’ll call them right now.”

  “You’ll do no such thing. We are going to show up at that school tomorrow at ten o’clock sharp.”

  “Why don’t I come by tomorrow and pick you guys up? I don’t think you should drive yet after what happened today, Liv.”

  “Alright, Ben. Thanks.” I knew when to concede and admit when I needed help.

  “What about Elizabeth? Did she get away?”

  Ben shook his head. “The police found her at home, packing a suitcase. She already had a plane ticket for a flight to Russia.”

  “Why Russia?”

  “They don’t have an extradition treaty with the US,” said Vi.

  Ben and I looked at her.

  “How do you know this stuff?” I was absolutely amazed by my walking encyclopedia of a
daughter sometimes.

  “I read about it on Facebook.”

  Chapter 20

  When I woke up the next morning, I was relieved to find that my pounding headache was gone.

  The doctors let me come home last night after they made Vi promise to check up on me every hour or so. I guess they were afraid that I might have a concussion, even though I assured them multiple times that I did not hit my head when I fell.

  After I finished brushing my teeth and showering, I put on my best pantsuit, which I thought I would never wear again after leaving the corporate world, and went downstairs.

  Ben was in the kitchen with Vi having coffee and breakfast. Vi was already dressed in the blazer and dress we bought for her interview. The pastries and donuts on the table looked suspiciously familiar.

  “Carly stopped by earlier and dropped them off,” Ben explained. “She’s going to stop by again after she closes the café tonight.”

  As soon as I took the first bite out of my donut, I remembered that I hadn’t eaten much the day before. Two more pastries and a cup of coffee later, I was finally full.

  I looked out the window and saw someone in the back garden.

  “What’s going on out there?”

  “Austin came by to put in an irrigation system for us,” said Vi.

  “Apparently, your campaign to get people to shop on Main Street worked and business at the hardware store is picking up again. I’d like to get one of those signs for the workshop if you still have some.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ve got some in the van still.”

  “Speaking of, I’m going to go out and warm up the car. We’ve got to get going soon if you don’t want to be late.”

  “How are you feeling, Vi? Nervous?”

  “Actually, no.”

  “Really?”

  “You were right, Mom. There’s nothing to be worried about.”

  “Did you just say that I was right? I’m going to need to get that in writing,” I said as I locked the front door behind us.

  “Hardy har har,” Vi said flatly. “Besides, I know we’re going to knock them dead.”

  ***

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