Sweet Suspects (The Donut Mysteries)

by Beck, Jessica

  “It’s not about the case,” she said softly.

  “Whatever it involves, I want to know,” I pressed a little harder.

  “I feel guilty,” she said.

  I interrupted her before she could say anything else. “You might have had words with Zane last night, but we both know that you didn’t kill him.”

  “It’s not about that,” she repeated. “I feel guilty about you.”

  That caught me off-guard. “Why would you feel guilty about me?”

  “I need to go home and wrap a few things up before I can throw myself into this investigation,” she said. “I’ve got an hour’s worth of paperwork I need to file for my vacation time, and I also need to finish a few quarterly reports before I can take off.”

  “Why should that make you feel guilty toward me?” I asked, honestly puzzled by her statement.

  “I asked you to leave the donut shop to investigate Zane’s murder, and you walked away from it without a second thought, and here I am needing some time off to do my own job.”

  “In the first place, you didn’t ask me; I volunteered, remember? And in the second place, I left my business in two sets of very capable hands, so it’s not like I’m neglecting anything.” I glanced at the clock on the dash, and then I added, “Why don’t you go home, finish your work, and I’ll swing by Donut Hearts to see if I can lend them a hand? We can meet back up at your place and go to lunch around eleven thirty. How does that sound to you?”

  “Are you sure you aren’t just trying to make me feel better?” Grace asked.

  “Actually, I wouldn’t mind a little physical confirmation that my donut shop hasn’t burned down to the ground,” I said.

  “Do you honestly think that might happen?” she asked, looking surprised by the statement.

  “No, but then again, I’ve never bailed out on it like this before. Who knows how the place will react?”

  If Grace wondered about me referring to my business as an actual person, she didn’t comment on it. “If you’re sure you don’t mind, that sounds great.”

  “Let me drop you off at home,” I said as I put the Jeep in gear.

  “My car’s at Donut Hearts, remember?” Grace asked.

  “That’s right; you were an early riser this morning, weren’t you?”

  “Don’t remind me,” she said as she stifled a yawn. “I just hope that I can stay awake long enough to do the paperwork on my desk at home.”

  “Take a twenty-minute power nap if you need to before you get to work. It does wonders for me some days.”

  “No, if I try to nap, I’ll end up sleeping for days.”

  I knew that she wasn’t being literal, but I wasn’t about to comment. After we pulled into the parking area of Donut Hearts, I shut off the engine when I parked beside Grace’s luxury company car.

  “Here you go,” I said as we both got out. “I’ll see you soon.”

  “If I don’t answer at the first knock, try a little harder the next time,” she said with a grin as she got out her car keys. I knew that she was only partially kidding.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll think you’re in the middle of a thunderstorm if you don’t answer the first time,” I said with a grin.

  After Grace pulled out of the parking area and headed home, I decided to peek into the donut shop instead of just barging in. After all, I’d asked Emma and her mother to step in for me at the last second, so a little chaos was to be expected.

  When I looked through the window, fully expecting to see bedlam, I was a little disappointed to realize that they’d carried on admirably without me. The floor was swept, the tables cleaned, the counter gleamed, and the racks of donuts left in the displays were already consolidated. It was a little neater than I usually kept it myself, a fact that gave me some considerable reason to pause. I hated to admit it, even to myself, but it was hard for my ego to wrap itself around the truth: that I didn’t have to be there every waking second for things to be all right.

  I decided popping into Donut Hearts was the worst thing that I could do at the moment. It could easily be misread as me having a lack of faith in those two women, which was the last thing I wanted to convey. Turning around before anyone could spot me, I headed back toward my Jeep.

  I didn’t make it though, at least not before bumping into someone I hadn’t expected to see anywhere near my donut shop.

  Chapter 6

  “Candy, what are you doing here?” I asked the woman I’d gone to high school with. “Did you come by my donut shop for a treat?” Candy Murphy been a freshman during my senior year, so we weren’t all that close, but I’d known her from afar. Candy had been fond of wearing the most scandalous outfits she could get away with back then, and her taste in clothes hadn’t changed much over the years. At the moment, she was wearing a mini-skirt I never would have dared to try on in my bedroom with the blinds pulled, and her top looked as though it had been meant for the high school freshman she’d been quite awhile ago. I had to admit that she still had the figure to pull it off, and I couldn’t be completely certain that one of the reasons she could was because she hadn’t stepped inside my donut shop a single time since I’d bought the place.

  “I don’t eat donuts, Suzanne,” she said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, which it probably was, when I thought about it. “You must know that I recently opened my own gym and spa. I just wish that I were as comfortable with my body as you seem to be with yours.”

  Was that a slam, or was she being serious? I looked into her eyes to see if she’d just zinged me, but I still couldn’t tell. “You haven’t gained a pound since high school,” I said, merely stating another obvious fact.

  “Actually, I’ve gained almost three,” she said, clearly sad about this unfortunate development.

  I decided not to share with her, or anyone else for that matter, exactly how many pounds I’d packed on over the years. Jake kept telling me that I shouldn’t lose an ounce, and that he loved me exactly the way that I was, but I wasn’t so sure, especially when I was around women like Candy. “Well, I certainly can’t tell by looking at you,” I said.

  She smiled broadly at my compliment. “Aren’t you sweet.”

  “That’s what happens when you run a donut shop. Candy, if you’re not here for my donuts, then what can I do for you?”

  She frowned before she said, “Let me ask you something first. Are you investigating Zane Dunbar’s murder last night?”

  “What makes you ask that?”

  “Suzanne, everyone in town knows that you and Grace like to dig into murder cases on your own. What I need to know is if you’ve decided to investigate this one.”

  Apparently Candy was a little savvier than I’d given her credit for. “We might poke around the edges of the case,” I reluctantly admitted.

  “Good,” she said. “I knew I came to the right place.”

  “Do you happen to know something about last night?” I asked her. I’d seen her at the multi-class reunion, dressed in her old prom dress of all things, but I had to admit that she’d looked spectacular in it.

  “I do. I happened to see Zane arguing with Mr. Davidson about Helen Marston,” she said as though she were delivering something truly significant.

  “Yes, I heard,” I said. “Grace and I spoke with them this morning. Did you know they were seeing each other?”

  “I’d heard rumors,” she replied, clearly a little disappointed that I’d learned something before she had. “How about Tom Hancock?” she asked. “He and Zane weren’t on good terms at all.” There was a spark of intelligence in her eyes as she said it, and I had to wonder if Candy had purposefully disguised a brain behind all that fluff she seemed to exude.

  I hated to do it, but I had to burst her bubble again. “We knew that, too. Grace was dancing with Tom when he and Zane had their little tiff,” I said.

  “That’s all I’ve got then,” she said as she nodded. “Sorry, but I suppose I’ve bothered you for nothing.”

&nbs
p; “I appreciate the effort,” I said.

  Candy started to walk away, and then she stopped and turned back to me. “You haven’t heard any rumors about me, have you, Suzanne?” The question was meant to be delivered casually, but she didn’t quite pull it off.

  “You? No. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason. Well, I’m late for work,” Candy said as she started to walk away. If she wore that outfit to her gym, I couldn’t imagine what her workout clothes must be like.

  As Candy pivoted the second time, she ran straight into our mayor’s arms.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there,” Candy said as she stood there in very close proximity to my friend, George.

  The mayor stammered as he tried to take a step back. “It was all my fault. I was on my cellphone and I didn’t see you standing there. Forgive me.”

  Candy giggled a little, letting the intelligence I’d seen earlier slip back below the surface.

  George took yet another step backward, and Candy finally released him. “I’ll see you later, Mr. Mayor.”

  “Undoubtedly,” George said, and we both watched Candy as she walked away with a little more swing in her step than was actually called for.

  “What was that about?” I asked George with a grin as he turned back to me.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I saw the way you blushed just then, so don’t try to deny it,” I said.

  “She’s quite lovely, and I still have a pulse, so yes, I noticed her. It’s just a shame that she’s not as smart as she is pretty.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that, but I kept the observation to myself. “What brings you here, your honor?”

  “Suzanne, I heard that it was happening, but I had to see it for myself to believe it,” George said.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked him, Candy now forgotten.

  “Someone told me that Emma and her mother were running Donut Hearts this morning. I laughed it off as a bad joke, but when someone else said the same thing, I had to find out if it was true for myself.” He looked hard at me before he spoke again. “You’re not ill, are you?”

  “I’ve never felt better in my life, but thanks for asking,” I said.

  “So tell me this, Suzanne. If you’re healthy and the donut shop is open for business, why aren’t you inside waiting on customers?”

  “Grace and I are investigating Zane Dunbar’s murder,” I said. I might not openly admit that to some folks in town, but not George. Before he’d become mayor, he’d helped Grace and me out quite a bit, and lately he’d even lent us a hand when we’d needed it, in spite of his title.

  “I thought that must be it,” the mayor said. “What can I do to help?”

  “Nothing just yet, but we might need you again soon.”

  “I hope so,” he said. “Sometimes I get bored just being the mayor around here.”

  “Enough that you want to rejoin our investigative team full time?” I asked him with a grin.

  “With Polly holing up in Raleigh, I’ll take any distractions that I can get.” Polly North was his secretary/assistant in the mayor’s office, and George’s girlfriend, no matter how much he hated the term for a woman Polly’s age. She’d gone to Raleigh to be with her new grandchild, but we’d all expected her back long before now.

  “Isn’t she ever coming back home?” I asked her.

  “I asked the woman that exact question last night on the phone,” George said.

  “What did she say?”

  “She was remarkably evasive, truth be told,” George said.

  “Don’t give up hope yet,” I said. George deserved someone special like Polly in his life, and I hated to think that might end.

  “I haven’t, but I am growing more worried by the day,” he said. “I may have to go there myself and drag her back home someday. That’s why I would welcome any tasks you might need taken care of, especially since Jake is so far away.”

  “Have you been keeping tabs on my boyfriend?” I asked him. The two were friends, and it wasn’t all that unusual for them to talk.

  “He keeps in touch,” George said.

  “Good. He likes you, Mr. Mayor.”

  George looked pleased by my statement. “I assure you, the feeling is mutual.”

  My cellphone rang, and when I glanced down at the caller ID, I was overjoyed when I saw that it was Jake himself. “Speak of the devil and he appears,” I said as I held my phone up. “It’s Jake.”

  “Take it,” George said. “We’ll chat later.”

  “Bye,” I said as I answered my phone.

  “Bye? I haven’t even said hello yet,” Jake said.

  “I was just talking to George. How are you doing?”

  “Right now, the bad guy is winning, and it’s killing me,” Jake said with a hint of deflation in his voice. “He’s going to be tough to catch, since the only pattern I’ve been able to discern so far is that he’s randomly murdering men named Kevin. We can’t watch all of the Kevins in the area, and he’s bound to strike again before we can stop him.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll get him eventually,” I said as cheerfully as I could manage.

  “I’ll do my best,” he said, “but how many more Kevins are going to have to die first?”

  “Jake, I know that I don’t tell you this very often, but I can’t even imagine how difficult your job must be,” I said.

  “Unfortunately, that’s one of the results of being good at what I do. They don’t call me unless the case is tough. Enough about me. What’s this I hear about you being involved in another murder investigation?”

  “How could you possibly have already heard about that?” I asked. “Did George call you? You’re not keeping tabs on me, are you?”

  He laughed heartily. “I know better than that. No, Chief Martin asked my help on something related, and he brought me up to speed on what you’ve been up to.”

  “Are you working on the case with him?” I asked. Jake was a crackerjack investigator, and I knew that if he were working on the chief’s side, Grace and I most likely wouldn’t stand a chance of bringing the killer to justice. It had nothing to do with them being men and us being women. Jake was a trained State Police Investigator, and other cops called him in when the cases were too hard for them to solve. Chief Martin was no slouch either.

  “No, I’m just doing a little pro bono consulting on the side,” Jake said quickly. “That’s a new one on me, by the way, the victim being stabbed with a ceremonial spear.”

  “The method might have been a little unorthodox, but the results were just the same. I found the body, Jake,” I said, letting a little of the tremor in my voice escape.

  “I know, and I’m so sorry,” he said. “I wish that I’d been there with you.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, feeling instantly better just talking to him. He had that effect on me, and it was one I hoped never went away. “I sincerely hope that it’s something I never get used to, though.”

  “I know that I still haven’t,” Jake said, something that reassured me immensely. If my boyfriend wasn’t inured to the sight of dead bodies in his job by now, then most likely I never would be, either, and I took a great deal of comfort in that fact. I hoped that murder never became that mundane to me.

  “Were you just calling to say hello?” I asked him, purposely lightening my own tone.

  “Is there a better reason that you can think of?” he asked, matching my attempt at levity.

  “You could always just call to tell me that you love me,” I said. “I never get tired of hearing that.”

  “And I don’t ever tire of saying it. Suzanne, be careful. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, and you be careful yourself, mister,” I said.

  After we hung up, I realized that I suddenly felt better. Grace and I were no closer to finding Zane Dunbar’s killer than we had been before, but I’d spoken with Jake, and that had been enough to take away some of the burden I’d been feeling from the murder.
It was nice having him in my corner, even if he was clear across the state.

  I still had a little time before Grace and I were due to meet up again, so I decided to pop back home and take a shower before we had lunch. Since I’d made the donuts that morning even though I hadn’t sold any, I still had the scent of them on me, and while I knew that a great many men found the aroma enjoyable, I decided that, all in all, I’d rather be clean.