Donut Shop Mystery 25 - Devil's Food Defense

by Jessica Beck

  “I know you’re right, but still I’m having a hard time believing it,” I said after a few moments.

  “We need to dig into Gladys’s life a little more than we thought we might have to,” Grace said. “Maybe there’s a pressing reason that she needs money, like a dying sister or something.”

  “I still don’t think she’d kill someone,” I said.

  “I don’t want to either, but if we’re going to do this, we need to be thorough. Just because we like her, we can’t just forget about her involvement in this case.”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  I didn’t like it, but what choice did I really have? As I drove back toward the donut shop, I was surprised to see Gabby Williams standing out in front of her shop.

  The moment she saw my Jeep, she started waving in my direction.

  “What do you suppose she wants?” Grace asked me as I pulled my vehicle into a parking spot in front of Gabby’s shop.

  “I don’t know, but I have a hunch we’re about to find out.”

  “Who was that man you two were chasing around in the park earlier?” Gabby asked the moment we were all inside her store. Before I answered, I looked around the shop to make sure that it was empty. There were no customers, but I found some really nice items, gently used clothing pieces that were more fit for Grace than they ever would be for me, and a mannequin that appeared to be looking at my outfit with disdain. Why shouldn’t it? It was dressed much more nicely than I was.

  “You saw that, did you?” I asked her.

  “How could I miss it? Once moment you were talking with Gladys while the three of you were sitting on a bench in the park, and the next thing I know, you both take off running as though the pair of you were on fire. I’d seen that strange man hovering around town earlier, but I didn’t realize that he had anything to do with Gray’s murder.”

  “We don’t know that he does one way or the other just yet,” I said, trying to keep our conversation as cryptic as I could manage.

  “Then why on earth did you chase him?”

  It was a fair question. “I thought he might be eavesdropping on our conversation,” I said. “When I went over to see what he was up to, he was gone.”

  “But you found him soon enough, didn’t you?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Gabby, how can you possibly know that? I understand that you can see the gazebo from your window, but I know for a fact that you can’t see my cottage.” I glanced through the window to be sure that I was right. Sure enough, the trees blocked the view.

  “I was concerned for your safety, both of you,” she amended quickly. “Naturally I wanted to be sure that you two were okay. I went as far into the park as I needed to in order to confirm that you were both okay, and then I came straight back to the shop.”

  “The truth is, we need more information about him,” I conceded. “But what could we do? He decided to leave, and there wasn’t anything we could do to stop him.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out for him in the future,” she promised, which I knew might be of some help. There was little that Gabby missed in our little town. She added, “A little later, I saw you talking to Barry Vance, Suzanne,” she said. “I must say, I’m not surprised you think he might be up to something.”

  “Do you honestly suspect him of killing Gray?” I asked her.

  “Does it matter what I think?” she asked. “You were the one grilling him on Springs Drive. By the way, it was brave of you to face him alone. Where were you, Grace?”

  “I was in the Jeep taking care of some business,” she said firmly, “but if Suzanne had needed me, I was just ten steps away.”

  “And I wasn’t grilling him,” I corrected her. “We were just having a conversation about his relationship with Gray. You should know from firsthand experience that’s the main way we’ve been able to figure anything out in the past. Grace and I are just gathering information at this point,” I said. “Is there some reason in particular we should have him on our radar?” Even though Gabby had given us Gladys’s name as a lead, I wasn’t about to disclose the fact that the cook had told us to speak with Barry. I’d promised to respect the cook’s wishes, and that was exactly what I was going to do.

  “No, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit,” Gabby said. “He almost lost his job last year. Did you know about that?”

  “What happened?” Grace asked. She was still tentative about dealing with Gabby, as the two hadn’t always gotten along well in the past. I knew one thing with full certainty; Gabby Williams was a bad enemy to have, and I was glad that she and my best friend had come to some sort of understanding. They might not be the best of buddies, but at least they’d found grounds for mutual respect, if not affection.

  “He’s a snoop,” she said in explanation.

  “So are we, for that matter,” I said without thinking. “What else can you call what we do?”

  Gabby raised one eyebrow. “Are you talking about you and Grace, or the two of us?”

  “Us, not you,” I quickly corrected her. Gabby was indeed nosier than Grace and me put together, but it wouldn’t do any of us any good calling her on it.

  She seemed mollified by my answer. “Don’t be too hard on yourselves. He’s on a level you can’t even imagine.”

  “What does he do, read other people’s postcards before he delivers them?” Grace asked lightly.

  “I’m really not at liberty to say,” she said smugly. That was the Gabby Williams I knew. She may or may not have had something on the mailman, but if she could keep from disclosing the fact either way, I knew that she’d score it as a personal victory.

  “Okay, so he’s bad at his job. How does that tie in with Gray? Evidently there was something going on between them,” Grace said. She wasn’t exactly violating any confidences, but I wondered about the wisdom of sharing that information with Gabby.

  “Did you ask him directly about it?” she wondered aloud. “Sometimes people will readily confess to the most unusual things if you only ask.”

  “We did. At first he said that Gray owed him money from a poker game.”

  “That’s complete and utter nonsense,” Gabby said quickly before I could finish.

  “Which I told him. He immediately backed down from that lie, but when I pressed him more about it, he pretended to get offended and ended the conversation. He was clearly hiding something; I just don’t know what.”

  “Keep digging,” Gabby said. “You’ll find it. Who else have you spoken with?”

  I was about to deflect the question when Grace answered, “Donald Rand.”

  I gave her a sharp look, but she just shrugged in response.

  Gabby pursed her lips in thought a moment before replying. “That’s interesting. It’s hard to imagine Gray having enough money to invest with Rand. I know one thing; the man’s bad at his job, and he takes a commission for his mistakes, to boot. Then again, Gray hasn’t had any obvious means of support since he first came to town. He’s been living on something all these years.”

  “I thought he retired,” I said.

  “Clearly he did, but from what, exactly? Did Rand have anything to share? You know he’s in dire straights, don’t you?”

  I hadn’t heard about that. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “I’m surprised you missed it,” Gabby said, arching one eyebrow. “The rumor is that he’s about to declare bankruptcy. As I said, he’s bad at what he does, so that’s not really that great a shock, but I also heard something much darker.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That he’s been stealing from some of his clients,” Gabby said in a near whisper, though the three of us were still all alone in the shop.

  “Do you have any proof of that?” Grace asked her.

  “No, but when there’s enough
smoke, there’s bound to be a fire somewhere.”

  It was my turn to reveal something we’d uncovered. “I wonder if that might explain why he had some paperwork on his desk naming a new beneficiary for Gray’s investments with him. What better time to steal from someone than after they’re past caring?”

  “Oh ho! That might be your motive right there.”

  “Actually, there were two names on the documents that I could see,” I said, “but I couldn’t determine who was getting his money, and who was going to be losing it.”

  “What were the names, Suzanne?”

  Before Grace could tell her, I said, “I’d rather not say until I know more about it.”

  Gabby looked frustrated by my refusal. “Honestly, how do you expect me to help you if you won’t share your information with me?”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust you,” which I didn’t. “I just don’t want you thinking badly about either party on my account in case I’m wrong,” I said, mostly wanting to protect Gladys’s good name.

  “Especially since one of them was your friend,” Grace let slip out.

  “What friend are you referring to?” Gabby asked with ice in her voice.

  Grace knew instantly that she’d finally revealed too much. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s got to be Gladys,” Gabby said firmly. “Is she inheriting Gray’s fortune, or is Rand trying to cheat her out of it?”

  So, now it was a fortune, even though we didn’t even know how much Gray had invested with Rand in the first place. “We don’t know anything about which name was going to be named the new beneficiary with any level of certainty just yet,” I said quickly. “Besides, from what I could see, the documents hadn’t even been signed yet, so it’s probably nothing. That’s why we didn’t want to say anything.”

  I was doing my best to be calm and reasonable, but that wasn’t how Gabby wanted to play it. “Do you two honestly believe Gladys had something to do with what happened to Gray? I can say with utter certainty that she would never kill someone for money. It’s ridiculous. That woman wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “We’re not saying that she would,” I said. “But since you brought it up, how can you be so sure that she wouldn’t? I honestly believe that, given the right circumstances, anyone can commit murder. Does Gladys need money desperately for anything that you know of, perhaps a sick relative, or maybe she was about to lose her house?”

  One of my guesses appeared to strike a nerve. They had both been stabs in the dark, but one of them had paid off. “I don’t care if Gladys was about to be evicted, or if her sister needed an operation! She would never do such a thing, and I’ll ask you to leave my shop this very instant!”

  Gabby Williams was angry, and she was making no attempt to disguise it. “We’re trying to help, Gabby. We like Gladys,” I said.

  She wouldn’t listen to another word.

  As she walked us out the door, she said frostily, “Then you have a funny way of showing it. Good day.”

  Gabby didn’t even hang around for a response as she slammed the door in our faces. I heard the deadbolts click into place, and the CLOSED sign suddenly appeared in the window, though it was nowhere near time for her to shut her business down for the day.

  Grace looked horrified when I glanced in her direction. “I am so sorry. Suzanne, what did I just do?”

  “Don’t worry about it. She’ll calm down eventually,” I reassured her, though I wasn’t about to put it to a timetable. Gabby could forgive a transgression overnight, or she could chew on it like a dog with a bone for years; only time would tell which this would be.

  “I wanted her to like me, that’s why I said so much,” Grace said, nearly crying as she said it. “Why is pleasing that woman important to me?”

  “Gabby’s opinion carries a lot of weight in this town,” I said.

  “And now she hates me. I’m so sorry I said anything.”

  “Don’t be,” I said, doing my best to reassure her. “It wasn’t without results. Did you see her flinch when I mentioned the possibility that Gladys might be desperate for money?”

  “It was pretty clear when she got so defensive all of a sudden. Suzanne, should we be looking at Gladys as a more viable suspect than we have been?”

  “I don’t know how we can’t, given the papers we just saw. Greed can be an awfully powerful motive for murder, and it can turn the nicest people into vicious killers if they’re desperate enough.”

  “Trish is not going to be happy with us,” Grace said after a moment’s reflection.

  “She’s just going to have to get in line then, isn’t she?” I asked.

  “So, what do we do now?” Grace asked me.

  I was about to answer when her cellphone rang. She glanced at, and then stepped away as she said, “I have to get this.”

  After a few moments of hushed conversation, she hung up and turned back to me. “That was Stephen.”

  “Did he ask you out to dinner, because if he didn’t, I happen to be free tonight. I thought we might go to Napoli’s, if you didn’t have any plans.”

  “That sounds lovely, but I’m not sure we’re going to be able to go anywhere.”

  “Why not?”

  “He’s got something to tell us, something big that’s going to change the entire course of the investigation.”

  “And he’s willing to share it with us?” I asked, surprised at the level of access we were getting to a formal police investigation.

  “It can’t be anything official. That’s why he wants to meet us on my front porch. He’s already there waiting for us right now.”

  “Then let’s go,” I said. We jumped into the Jeep and drove to Grace’s, though we could have easily walked the short distance.

  I had a reason for getting there so quickly.

  I wanted to get there before the police chief had a chance to change his mind.

  Chapter 11

  “Ladies, thanks for coming,” the chief said as we approached Grace’s front porch. He looked a lot older to me since he’d taken on the responsibilities of being the police chief full time from Jake. Was he losing weight? His uniform seemed a little baggy on him, and there were wrinkles around his eyes that I could swear hadn’t been there before.

  “We couldn’t exactly turn you down, Chief,” I said as I took one of the free chairs outside. Grace detoured toward him long enough to give him a quick peck on the lips.

  “Before you say anything,” she told him, “you need to be sure that you’re comfortable sharing it with us.”

  “You’re not trying to discourage him from helping us, are you?” I asked her with a grin. I’d fought my share of police chiefs in my time, even my own husband, so I wasn’t sure that was the right way to deal with one who was doing so freely and willingly.

  “You of all people should understand why I’m asking,” she said. “Didn’t Jake quit being the police chief directly because of some of the things we did in our investigations?”

  “I’m not sure that’s entirely fair,” I said. “He was always going to be the temporary chief here. He wouldn’t have handed the job over to the new chief if he hadn’t been certain that he was ready.”

  “Hey, I’m sitting right here. You can both see me, right?” Chief Grant asked with a grin. He reached over and patted Grace’s hand. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m not violating any rules by sharing this information with you. It’s going to be public knowledge soon enough anyway, so I don’t see any harm in giving you both a head start.”

  “What’s so earthshattering?” I asked him, no longer able to contain my curiosity.

  “I found out who Gray really was, and more importantly, why he was hiding in April Springs.”

  “How bad is it? Gladys told us a little bit about h
is past earlier, but she didn’t know many facts to back anything up,” I said, feeling myself tense up inside. I realized that my image of an old friend was about to be changed forever, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it on one level, though I knew that if Grace and I were going to pursue our investigation, I’d need to know. Gladys had given us the general outline of what had driven him to April Springs twenty years earlier, but I wasn’t sure I could handle the specific details.

  “It’s pretty bad, actually,” he said solemnly.

  “Did he kill someone?” Grace asked him.

  “Not directly,” the chief said. “It might be easier if I tell this my way. Do you mind?”

  “Sorry,” I said in quick apology. “Go on. I’ll try not to interrupt you again.”

  He grinned at me. “I appreciate the offer, but I won’t hold you to it. Gray Vincent’s real name was Gary Manchester. He had a police record, with two convictions for breaking and entering, but there were no outstanding warrants for his arrest for the past twenty years. As far as the official law enforcement community was concerned, he’d served his time and was not wanted for any other crimes, not even a parking ticket.”

  “Then why hide his identity, as well as his past?” Grace asked. “I understand if he didn’t want folks to know that he was a convicted felon, but it seems a little drastic doing all that he did to hide his past.”

  “That’s not why he did it, at least according to one source I was able to uncover. It’s all unofficial, but I believe it nonetheless. Just before Gray showed up in April Springs, there was a heist in upstate New York, and rumor had it that he was directly involved in it.”

  I’d promised not to comment until the chief was finished, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen. “What did they steal? Gold? Cash? What?”

  “He and two accomplices allegedly made off with two Monets, a Degas ballerina, and a Van Gogh haystack from a private collector, a man who’d amassed his fortune as a landscape architect,” the chief told us.