Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
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Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 1
“They look so lovely,” Eva said. “They’re pretty in pink.”
“It’s nice to see a snack so pink and cheery,” Leila seconded. “Of course, we’ll probably eat them so quickly that we won’t be able to appreciate the color for long.”
The two older ladies giggled. Heather smiled at her two favorite customers over the donut counter. She had been seeing more of her two friends since they started staying at her house while their home was being repaired, but she still loved seeing them at Donut Delights. They loved all of her specialty creations and weren’t shy about telling her.
“They smell as nice as they look,” Eva said after they recovered from their bout of giggles. “Are they strawberry?”
Heather nodded. “This is the Strawberry Sprinkled Swirl Donut.”
“I can see where it gets its name,” Leila said. She twirled her finger in a circle, trying to match the swirl design of the donut.
“It has a sweet strawberry cake base. The swirl design on top is a white chocolate icing. Well, with our coloring, it’s white chocolate and pink chocolate.”
“I love the way those two colors swirl and twirl about on top,” Eva said.
“Especially with the sprinkles,” Leila agreed.
Heather finished up with her donut description by explaining how the fuchsia sugar sprinkles added more shades of the pink color in an eye-catching and tasty way.
“I can’t wait to try the Strawberry Sprinkled Swirl Donut!” Eva said, trying out the name first.
“That could be quite a tongue twister,” Leila said, before licking her lips in anticipation.
“It will be if we try to order seconds with our mouths full,” said Eva, about to giggle again.
Heather prepared plates for the excited ladies and brought the pink donuts to their usual table. They each took a bite, and their faces lit up. They gave their compliments quickly so they could continue munching on their treats. After they both finished a donut and licked their fingers, they were all content and ready to talk again.
They chatted about their plans for finding the right person to rebuild Eva’s house. They had encountered a very enthusiastic renovator (while investigating her sister’s murder of all things) who was chomping at the bit to do the remodel and had given them a good bid on the project, but they were still evaluating their options. Eva and Leila wanted to choose the right person but also wanted to start soon.
They told Heather that they wanted to get out of her hair and stop taking up her living room. Heather assured them that she loved having them as houseguests, and she appreciated them being in her hair – or rather in her daughter’s hair. The two women had given Lilly a beautiful French braid the day before and styled some ribbons into it this morning.
Then their talk returned to donuts. Since the Strawberry Sprinkled Swirl Donut had several S’s in its name, they were coming up with more “S” adjectives to describe the sweet.
“Scrumptious.”
“Savory.”
“Salivating-y.” Leila said with a smile, “Well, it’s got my mouth watering.”
“These donuts are so delicious,” Eva said. “I’m surprised customers aren’t breaking down the door to get them.”
Immediately after she said that a new customer rushed inside, pushing the door roughly in her haste. Heather chuckled at the timing. Her assistant Angelica had taken over working the front counter, but Heather decided to greet this new customer herself. She looked frazzled and might need extra help. It was unlikely that she was going to break down the door to get her donuts, but she did look like she was close to a breaking point.
“Welcome to Donut Delights,” Heather said. “Can I help you?”
“Oh, I hope so,” the woman said. She ran a hand across her hair, making sure her formerly tight bun hadn’t become too messy in her rush. Then she held out her hand to shake Heather’s. “I’m Caroline Humly. The new owner of the Hillside Humly Hotel.”
“I’m Heather Shepherd, owner of Donut Delights,” she replied. She refrained from adding ‘private investigator’ to her introduction. While that was true and she had certainly helped solve her fair share of murders, it didn’t seem relevant to this customer who was eyeing the donut counter hopefully.
“Have you ever heard of the Hillside Humly Hotel?” Caroline asked.
Heather tried to think of the polite way to say “never in a million years.” Caroline must have recognized the look on her face.
“That’s all right. The name is new. It’s the old hotel that was off of Blackbird Court.”
Heather went through the Hillside geography in her mind and nodded slowly. She vaguely remembered an old hotel, though if it was open, it never seemed very busy. It used to have a more avian name too.
“Was it formerly the Blackbird Hotel?”
“Yes, it was. Actually, it went through several names and several owners through the years. It’s never been a bustling hotel, but I’m trying to change that. I have a bunch of ideas to get the Humly Hotel humming. My first one is to have monthly Business Breakfasts.”
“What do you mean by that exactly?”
“I’m trying to attract some customers from the larger cities. I’m going to have these Business Breakfasts that all our guests can attend. There will be complimentary breakfasts on regular days too. But on these days, there will be a guest speaker that gives a talk and gives business tips. It will be great for networking. People already seem excited about it. I think this business idea will be great for my business.”
“It sounds like a great idea,” Heather said. She was still waiting to see how this related to her. “So what’s the problem I can help with?”
“Originally our first speaker was going to be George Mapleton. He runs a succe
ssful pancake house. He had to back out. Now Norton Worthers is going to be our speaker. He might be more impressive, so it works out in that regard.”
Heather nodded. Norton Worthers was a name that appeared in the papers every so often with his successful business deals. She could see why guests would want to see what he said about business. He was a millionaire, after all.
“Where doesn’t it work out?”
“George Mapleton was also going to help out with the breakfast part of things. I just realized that now we won’t have the pancakes for people to eat. So I had to hurry and figure out something else that everyone would like. This is our first meeting, so it has to be impressive. I’ve heard such good things about Donut Delights. I thought maybe I could order our breakfast here.”
“We’d be happy to take that order. And I think this will work out great. Donuts are my favorite breakfast. Actually, they’re my favorite anytime food.”
“It’s so wonderful that you get to work doing what you love then. I hope I’m doing the same. I always wanted to own a hotel. I hope I can make this work. This is my big chance.”
“You’ve got good ideas already. I’m sure you can make it work. So, what sort of order would you like to place?”
“Could you have two hundred donuts by 8 a.m. tomorrow morning?”
Chapter 2
“I’ve never checked into a hotel so early,” Amy said.
“We’re not really checking in. We’re just checking up,” Heather said to her bestie. “Making sure that the donuts are displayed properly and look ready to be eaten.”
They were in the conference room/breakfast area of the Hillside Humly Hotel bright and early. They had opted to deliver and set up the donuts themselves because they had been invited to stay for the Business Breakfast talk as a ‘thank you’ for all their trouble.
“I can’t believe you took such a large late order,” Amy said. Even after all the set-up work, she still wasn’t completely awake and was being cranky. Heather didn’t take her friend’s grumblings too seriously though. Amy could have stayed home in bed if she really wanted to, but she had been interested in hearing the Norton Worthers talk. She also knew that Amy felt the same way she did – that spending time with you bestie when donuts were involved was something never to be missed.
Heather responded to her comment by saying, “Well, Caroline Humly didn’t mean for it to be a late order. She was in a jam.”
“And so we helped her by giving her jelly filled,” Amy said.
Heather laughed. If her friend was starting to crack jokes, it meant that she was waking up and was actually happy to be there.
“Jelly filled and chocolate and pistachio and Strawberry Sprinkled Swirls,” Heather nodded and indicated to a few donuts in the selection they had provided.
They had provided an array of both classic flavors and their own deliciously inventive creations so that the guests would have several tasty options to choose from. They wanted to make sure that every palate would have something that they would like, and they wanted to make sure that their display would be colorful and inviting.
“And if this goes well, this could become a monthly order,” Heather said. “It would be nice to have another consistent order close to home. And if the businesspeople like these donuts, they might make online orders to have them sent to their offices too.”
“Smart,” Amy said. “You are a great businesswoman. They should have you speak here.”
“I love what we do. And we are doing well. But I don’t think we’re ever going to become millionaires like Norton Worthers with our donuts.”
Amy shrugged. “It’s possible. They taste good enough. And I wouldn’t mind becoming a millionaire. I’d like to have a yacht.”
“A yacht in Hillside Texas?”
“Maybe not here. But we’d have several homes if we were millionaires. At least one tropical location and one snowy.”
Heather let her mind wander about what she’d do if she were a millionaire. Overall, she was very happy with her life. She loved her shop and investigating cases. She loved her family and friends, and she loved Hillside. However, is she were suddenly filthy rich, she wouldn’t mind eating out at her favorite restaurant Dos Chicos all the time and perhaps her family movie nights might be more impressive on a movie-theater-size screen. Well, if it ever happened she was sure she could figure out some more fun things to do.
She finished her final touch up for the breakfast display when Caroline Humly joined them.
“This looks wonderful. Thank you. The guests will be so excited,” Caroline said.
“We’re excited too,” Heather assured her. “The Business Breakfast seems like it will be a real success.”
“When the pancake man canceled, I was so worried, but now things seem better than they could be. Donut Delights and Norton Worthers! This is really going to help the Hillside Humly Hotel.”
“What made you decide to change the name?” Amy asked.
“I wanted to guests to know that this was something new,” Caroline said. “I know it’s still an old building, but I think that adds charm to the place. But there are new ideas and a new owner. I wanted to show off the changes with a new name.”
“There’s new breakfasts too,” Heather said with a smile.
“Right. And since this my hotel and my new changes, I decided to rename it after myself. I want to work ‘hum’ into our advertising. Like the Hillside Humly Hotel will leave you humming a happy tune. Something like that.”
“That could be catchy if you have a song to go with it,” Heather said. “In a TV or radio ad.”
“Good idea,” Caroline said. “Of course, we should have a song to go with the humming. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
“Heather is both creative and practical about business,” Amy said, complimenting her bestie.
“I did also think that using my last name was a good idea because ‘Humly’ can sound like ‘homey.'”
“I think it sounds more like ‘homely,'” Amy said before she could stop herself.
“Oh, please don’t say that,” Caroline said, having never made that connection before. “I don’t want people to think this is an ugly place.”
“I’m sure they won’t,” Heather said quickly. “Everything we’ve seen has looked great.”
“Very homey,” Amy agreed. “No ‘L.’ Forget I said anything.”
“And your guests will spread the word about how nice everything looks, about the impressive speaker, and hopefully about how tasty the breakfast is.”
“The donuts do look tasty. Do you think it would be okay to take one? Even though the event hasn’t actually started,” Caroline wondered.
“You’re the boss,” Amy said.
Caroline agreed and opted for the recent strawberry specialty. She murmured her appreciation as she ate it.
“This was definitely the right call. I’m so glad this is our first breakfast. The guests will absolutely love it.”
Heather was pleased to hear her say so. She thought everyone would enjoy the breakfast, but she always felt just a twinge of nervousness before a big premiere with lots of different tastes. It was nice to hear another positive opinion.
With the breakfast all ready, Heather and Amy selected where they thought they would sit for the talk. Caroline opened the door so that the guests could start coming in. Everyone would start milling in shortly, and the talk would begin in less than an hour.
Heather was feeling excited until she saw a slight frown on Caroline’s face as she checked her watch.
“That’s funny. If I remember Mr. Worthers’s quirks correctly, he likes to examine a meeting room before he begins a talk. I thought he would have been in here already,” she said. Then she shook her head and dismissed the thought. “He must not want to talk to anyone early.”
Caroline went about making sure that everything was perfect for the event, as the early-bird guests starting milling in.
Heather tried to stifle the un
easy feeling that she was starting to get. There were lots of perfectly sound reasons why Norton Worthers could be late. It wasn’t necessarily because something bad had happened.
Chapter 3
When the guests first entered the room, they were excited. The donuts helped to create an aura of enthusiasm. Heather enjoyed seeing people go up for seconds and how they selected several flavors in order to try new things that looked delicious.
However, the speaker was late, and now the guests were getting antsy. Even with the delicious breakfast to distract them, they were starting to fidget and get impatient.
Heather and Amy exchanged a look. Truth be told, they were getting tired of waiting too. They had been up early preparing the donut buffet and making sure that everything would run smoothly at Donut Delights without them there. The delay was making them think that something had gone wrong with the event. Was Norton Worthers standing them up? Or was something preventing him from making his appearance?
Strawberry Sprinkled Swirl Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 49 Page 1