Troubled Treats

by Jessica Beck

  “I was going to keep them as conversation pieces,” she said, “but if you’d like to have them, they’re yours.” After she scooped up the offered replacement money, she grinned. “In even trade, I mean.”

  “Do you happen to know where you got those?” I asked her.

  “No, I didn’t notice at the time. It wasn’t until I was doing my totals at the end of the day yesterday that I spotted them.”

  “Do me a favor and start noticing,” I said. “I’d love to know who’s paying with old twenties.”

  “I can do that,” Trish said. “Should I tackle them and hold them until you get here when it happens the next time?” Clearly the prospect pleased her more than it should have.

  “Don’t act like it’s any big deal. Just give me a call if it happens again,” I said.

  “You’ve got it. Now eat up. Your food is getting cold.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said with a grin.

  Jake was still staring at the bills, though. “I don’t get it.”

  “What’s not to understand?” I asked, and then I took a bite of my food. The meatloaf was excellent. I cut off a small piece with my fork and then dragged it through my potatoes. Momma hadn’t approved of the action when I’d been a kid, but I was a grown woman now, so I could eat however I wanted to. As far as I was concerned, it was one of the real privileges of being an adult.

  “Whoever found this money is making no effort to hide it from the world,” Jake said. “It’s most likely stolen, and it’s easily identifiable, so why not at least go to another town to pass the bills off?”

  “I think you’re giving the thief too much credit.”

  “Maybe so,” he said as he absently took a bite. “Still, it seems pretty brash to me.”

  “That’s because you’re used to dealing with a higher class of bad guy,” Phillip said as he looked up from the clipping he’d been reading. “On this level, they’re a little easier to catch.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Jake said, “because so far, we’re not having much luck.”

  “It’s just a matter of time now,” I said. “We’re dealing with someone who’s being sloppy about it, and that means that we’ll catch them sooner or later.”

  “I vote for sooner,” Jake said.

  I stabbed a few green beans with my fork, and after I ate them, I asked, “Are we absolutely positive that whoever killed Sully is the same person who stole those twenties from the factory?”

  “It’s easier to believe that than the two events are mere coincidence, especially since Sully was holding the torn edge of one of the bills when we found him.”

  I frowned. “That’s a good point.”

  “Something’s bothering you, Suzanne. What is it?” Jake asked.

  “If you killed someone for money, would you go around town on a spending spree afterwards, especially if the bills were so easy to spot?” I asked him. “You’d think that even the dumbest criminal would know not to draw attention to themselves.”

  “I think you’re giving the killer too much credit,” Phillip chimed in.

  “Maybe so,” I said, and then I took another bite of my lunch.

  By the time we finished eating, I was in a much better position to go off in search of Bob Greene. We left my stepfather at the diner, content with his letters and clippings from the past. After we paid with the last of our cash, I asked Jake, “Do I have that to look forward to soon?”

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “I’m just wondering. Now that you’re retired, are you going to start collecting stamps or something?”

  Jake laughed. “I used to love collecting coins as a kid, but you’re safe for now. I resigned from the state police; I didn’t retire. I’ll find something to occupy my time before long. You’re not worried about me, are you?”

  “Always,” I answered with a grin.

  “For richer or for poorer, right?”

  I hugged him tightly. “If you ask me, we’re rich right now in every way that counts. Money is just icing on the cake. I don’t care if you never get another paycheck in your life. I just don’t want you to get bored.”

  “With you around? I’d say that was impossible,” he said with a grin. “Don’t be concerned about me, Suzanne.”

  “If you say so,” I said. “Now, do you have any idea about where we might find Bob?”

  “If he’s getting ready to go out of town, I have a hunch we’ll be able to find him at his apartment, and I happened to look up the address this morning while you were busy making donuts.”

  “Then let’s go have a chat with him, shall we?”

  “Where are you heading off to in such a hurry?” Jake asked Bob Greene loudly as we approached him in his driveway. He was putting a box in his truck bed, and from the looks of it, he’d better be just about finished packing if he expected to get much more into it.

  “You don’t have to shout. I’m standing right here,” he said. The man looked absolutely miserable, and Jake wasn’t about to take it easy on him.

  “Hung over, by any chance?” Jake asked loudly as he patted him on the back.

  “Something like that,” Bob said as he sat down heavily on the back of the tailgate and grabbed his temples.

  “Funny, but your partner seems to hold his liquor a lot better than you do,” Jake responded.

  “That’s because he only has one drink a day, no matter what. That’s his rule. Me, I’m not that smart, especially when I lose somebody like Sully.”

  “Even yesterday?” I asked. I’d seen Jim Burr drink more than that myself, or had I? He’d been sipping one when we’d gotten to the bar, and he’d surely acted drunk standing on Shirley’s front lawn, but was that all that it had been? This new information just made me feel that I’d come to the right conclusion about him after all.

  “Even yesterday,” Bob said.

  “You never answered my question,” Jake piped in, returning his voice to a more normal amplification. I had a feeling that if he started getting answers he didn’t like, my husband’s volume control would go up again. “Where are you rushing off to so soon after Sully was murdered?”

  “I’m going to work for my uncle in Greenville,” he said. “I wasn’t leaving until tonight, but now I just want to get out of here.”

  “Why were you waiting around before?” I asked. It had been curious behavior, at least in my mind. When I wanted to go somewhere, I just went, and Bob struck me as being the same kind of person. So what had been keeping him?

  “I was hoping to get paid what I had coming to me, but now that I know that isn’t happening, I’m hitting the road.”

  “How were you planning to get money out of a dead man?” Jake asked.

  “Haven’t you heard the latest? Shirley’s picking up all of our old clients, but she’s not taking over the business like Jim and I had heard she was going to do. That means that she doesn’t owe anyone Sully owed, but she gets all of the benefits of taking over his clients. I have to admit that it’s pretty slick, even if I am the one getting shafted by it.”

  “Is that official?” I asked him.

  Bob shrugged. “What’s it matter what you call it? Sully’s business is effectively gone, I’m leaving town, and I don’t know what Jim’s planning on doing, but I doubt that it’s going into business for himself. Besides, he doesn’t have to, the lucky dog.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Man, have you two managed to find out anything? He got a big inheritance from an uncle up in New York. Evidently he won’t have to work unless he wants to, and I’ve got a hunch that he’s not going to want to. I might have stuck around and tried to take over Sully’s operation if Jim had shown the slightest interest, but he told me that he’s putting his pliers down, and he’s never going to pick them up again, so what am I going to do, go to work here for Shirley? I don’t think so, even if she’d have me.”

  “Would that be so bad?” Jake asked him.

  “Let’s just say that I’d rath
er start over in a new city than try to make a clean start of it here in April Springs. This town is tapped out for me, and now that Sully is gone, there’s nothing left here for me.”

  “I thought you and Jim were good friends,” I said.

  “I thought so, too, but evidently I was wrong. Now that he’s got some cash, he’s too busy for his old buddy.” Bob stood up, winced a little, and shut his tailgate carefully. “That’s the last of it. Whatever’s left, the next guy can have.”

  I had one last question for him. “When we saw you at the bar, you were wearing a leather bomber’s jacket. Was it new?”

  “No way,” Bob said. “It took me six months to save up for that thing, and then Jim up and buys a pair of custom cowboy boots on a whim that cost more than every stitch of clothing I own. It’s just not right, if you ask me.” He looked embarrassed as he turned to my husband. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to spare a few bucks for gas, would you?” Bob asked Jake. “I wouldn’t ask, but I’m not sure that I’ll make it on what I’ve got in the tank.”

  Jake looked at me and I nodded. He reached into his wallet and pulled out four singles. “Sorry, but it’s all I’ve got on me.”

  “It’ll do fine,” Bob said as he took the money. “Thanks for that.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Jake said.

  Bob saluted us both with his index finger, and then he got into his truck and drove away, leaving his apartment door standing wide open.

  “Is there any reason to search what he left behind?” I asked Jake.

  “I can’t imagine,” my husband said. “Do you believe him?”

  “I might not have until he asked us for money, and then he took those four bucks so gratefully. He’s broke. There’s no doubt in my mind. If he killed Sully, it wasn’t out of greed.”

  “I don’t think he did it at all,” Jake said.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “If he’s as poor as we think, he’d have waited until after payday to kill his boss, unless it was a crime of passion, and he just doesn’t strike me as the type.”

  “Even though he’s leaving town in the middle of our investigation?”

  “There’s that against him,” Jake said. “We don’t have to take him off our list entirely, but we can at least bump him to the back end.”

  “I can go along with that,” I said. “Where does that leave us?”

  “I’d like to talk to Jim and Shirley again,” Jake admitted. “I wonder if we looked in Jim’s wallet what we’d find.”

  “Like a batch of old twenties, for instance?” I asked.

  “Exactly. Bob’s jacket might have been old, but those cowboy boots we saw weren’t cheap, and they were so new they might as well have been sporting a price tag. From everything we’ve heard, they must have cost him a fortune.”

  “Then let’s go,” I said. “Are you going to call the chief and bring him up to date on what we just learned?”

  “I owe him that much, Suzanne. After all, he’s letting us muck around in his case as much as we want to, and I’m not entirely sure that I’d be nearly as understanding if I were running things.”

  “Then let’s just be glad that you aren’t,” I said with a smile. “Should we go looking for Shirley or Jim first?”

  “I’ve got a hunch Shirley might be easier to find, so let’s start with her,” Jake said as he checked his watch. “She’s probably in her office now.”

  “Then let’s go there first. We can track Jim down after that. I’m glad you’re working on this with me.”

  “Now that Grace has dropped out, I don’t have much choice, do I?” he asked me with a grin as he drove toward the electrician’s office.

  “Is it that arduous a task for you to spend your afternoons with your brand-new bride?”

  “No, but I can think of a few things I’d rather be doing with you than interviewing suspects and running down clues.”

  I patted his leg. “All in good time, my dear. For now, we need to focus on the task at hand.”

  Jake nodded in agreement. “Once we find Sully’s killer, why don’t you take a few days off and we can go somewhere?”

  “We were just on our honeymoon not that long ago,” I answered with a hint of laughter. “And now you’re expecting me to take another vacation from the donut shop?”

  “Hoping, not expecting,” he replied with a grin.

  “Let me see what I can work out with Emma and Sharon.”

  “That’s all I’m saying,” he said as he parked the truck in front of Shirley Edam’s electrical business. We didn’t even have to knock on the front door.

  Shirley was already standing outside talking with Jim Burr, an odd situation considering all of the people in April Springs she might have been having a conversation with at that moment.

  Chapter 19

  “Is everything okay here?” Jake asked as we approached the two of them. At least they weren’t yelling at each other this time, which was something.

  “No worries, folks. Everything’s fine,” Shirley said.

  “I just came by to apologize to her, face to face,” Jim said contritely. “I was out of line last night, and I’ve been ducking her calls until I could come by and say it in person. I’m not afraid to admit it; when I’m wrong, I’m wrong.”

  “Yes, you were,” Shirley replied. Wow, she wasn’t cutting him any slack, even though he was clearly there with his hat in his hand. I glanced over at Jim, expecting him to be upset with her curt reply, but he just nodded in agreement.

  “Anyway, that’s all I came by to say, Shirley,” he said. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

  The electrical contractor took that in, and then she offered him her hand, which Jim took. “Listen, I know we haven’t been on the best of terms lately, but I could always use a man of your skills on my team. What do you say? Do you have any interest in coming to work for me?”

  “Thanks for the offer, but I’m getting out of the electrical business. With Sully dead, I’ve kind of lost my taste for it.” It surprised me a little that he hadn’t even hesitated in rejecting her offer.

  Jim walked three steps away from us when Jake called out, “Suzanne and I would love to have another chat with you, if you’ve got the time.”

  “I’m heading over to the bank right now,” he said with a frown. “And after that, I’m going to grab a bite to eat at the Boxcar. You’re welcome to join me there if you’d like to.”

  “We’ll catch up with you soon,” Jake said.

  “I was hoping to see you two today,” Shirley said. “Do you have a second for me?”

  “You bet,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “I’ve been thinking about what you asked me earlier. I’d completely forgotten all about it, but I did speak with someone about the time Sully was being murdered.”

  That stopped Jim in his tracks, and he turned back to face us. “Who’s vouching for you, Shirley?”

  “Stanley Jacobs,” she said. “I completely forgot that he dropped by to add something to the bid I was writing up for him. At the last second, he decided to add two more breakers to his garage panel, and he wanted me to figure it into his quote.”

  “And he’ll be able to confirm the time of his visit if we ask him?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t see why not. There’s just one hitch, though.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “He’s out of town for the next few weeks, but when he gets back from his cruise, I’m sure he’ll confirm it,” she said. “Anyway, that’s all that I wanted to say. Was there any particular reason you two came over here?”

  I couldn’t exactly admit that we were there to grill her further, especially since she’d just found a way to clear her name. “No, we were just driving by, saw you talking to Jim, and we thought we’d pop in and see what was going on.”

  “You wanted to make sure there wasn’t a repeat of last night, right?” Jim asked wryly. “Man, I’ve got to stop drinking. It’s starting to be a real problem.”
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  “You were upset about your boss,” I said. “I get it.”

  “Yeah, Sully was one of a kind.”

  “Well, if you all will excuse me, I’ve got things to do inside,” Shirley said.

  “Mind if we stay out here a minute and chat?” Jake asked her. “We’d like to speak with Jim while we have the chance.”

  “I don’t care what you do,” she said, and then she disappeared inside. “As long as it doesn’t involve me, we’re good.”

  Jim glanced at his watch. “I really do need to go by the bank.”

  “Is it about your inheritance?” I asked, watching him carefully for some kind of reaction.

  “You’ve been talking to Bob, haven’t you?” he asked me warily. “He was the only one I told about it.”

  “He mentioned it,” I admitted. “That must have been quite the windfall for you to just walk away from your career. Who exactly was it that left you the money?”

  “You didn’t know him. It was an uncle from New York,” he said, “but I’d really rather word didn’t get out. People start acting funny when they find out that you’ve come into a little money.”

  “What was his name?” Jake asked as he pulled out the same kind of notebook he’d used while he’d been a state police investigator.

  “Why do you care?” Jim was edging up to open hostility at that point, and I wondered how hard Jake was going to push him.

  “It’s nothing personal. We’re following up on every lead we get. Once we check him out, we’ll be able to tell the police chief what we discovered, and you should be all set.”

  “Why would the chief need to know about my inheritance?” Jim asked.

  Jake studied him a moment before he spoke. “Jim, we know for a fact that a great deal of money was stolen from the wagon factory recently. You’ve been working there, and now all of a sudden you have come into an inheritance from an uncle nobody in town ever knew existed. It all seems like a bit of a stretch, if you ask me.”

  “Are you saying that you don’t believe me?” He was doing his best to act indignant, but it wasn’t very convincing. What he appeared to be was scared. Jake had a way of asking questions that would shake any but the most seasoned criminal.