Evil Éclairs

by Jessica Beck

  “Actually, I’ve agreed to go out with him,” she replied with a slight blush.

  “I would hope I’m worth at least that much,” I said.

  “Suzanne, are you hurt?”

  “Mostly just my pride,” I answered. “My ankle got twisted.”

  “You’re lucky,” she said.

  I patted Jake’s hand, still on my shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me that.”

  After the X-rays showed nothing was broken, the doctor taped my ankle. Waiting for my discharge, I considered how our lives were about to change. It appeared that my mother was finally dating again, and Jake and I were getting closer with each passing day. Did that mean that the life my mother and I had carved out in the cottage was coming to an end? I was surprised to realize that I hoped it didn’t happen too soon. There was a comfort there that I wasn’t ready to give up, no matter how appealing the alternatives might be.

  It was good to be so loved, and that was my richest possession.

  Cara had murdered for money, but in the end, she’d have to pay for her crime, and lose her children forever.

  I couldn’t imagine any amount of money ever being worth that.

  The next time I saw Jake, I was ready to reveal the surprise I’d planned for him.

  “Did you mean what you said about your vacation time?” I asked.

  “The offer’s always open.”

  “Then I’m taking it,” I said with a broad smile. “I can’t get away for two weeks, but a weekend in Tennessee sounds lovely.”

  He looked shocked by the offer. “Do you mean that? Can you afford to leave the donut shop?”

  “Emma and her mother can handle it while I’m gone. The real question is, can I afford not to? If this case has taught me anything, it’s that life gives you only so many chances at happiness, so you have to take every single one that comes your way.”

  “I’ll make the reservations,” he said.

  As Jake talked to the innkeeper on the phone, I thought about how easy letting go was beginning to feel.

  There was something else I looked forward to, as well.

  I’d checked the lodge’s Web site after Jake had mentioned the place, and I’d seen that they offered one of my favorites for breakfast every morning.

  Fresh, homemade donuts.

  And now, a sneak peek at

  TRAGIC

  TOPPINGS

  Book 5 in the Donut Shop Mysteries

  from Jessica Beck and St. Martin’s / Minotaur Paperbacks!

  First, let’s clear something up. While it’s true that I saw Emily Hargraves the day she vanished, I didn’t have anything to do with what happened then or later, when things around town began to get much worse.

  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

  To be honest, I didn’t think much about my encounter with Emily at the time. As the owner of a donut and coffee shop in April Springs, North Carolina, I speak with a great many people in the course of running my business during the day, and she really didn’t make much of an impression on me at the time. Emily told me that she was on her way to Two Cows and a Moose, her newsstand just down the block from Donut Hearts, and while she wasn’t exactly a regular at my shop, it wasn’t unusual for her to visit when she wanted a sweet iced treat. Emily didn’t indulge that often, but when she did, it was all the way. No topping was too outlandish for her, no combination of tasty additions too much. In other words, she was my kind of gal, and we’d been friends ever since she’d come back to town after graduating from college.

  I wish I had taken the time to chat with her a little more before I served her a blueberry donut with chocolate icing, sprinkles, stars, and a chewy sour gummy worm coiled on top—all per her request—along with a pint of the chocolate milk we sold in cute little boxes, but she had come in when things were crazy, and I barely had had time to do more than share a smile, serve her, and then take her money.

  As it turned out, I was the last one to see her before she disappeared.

  When I tried to tell that to Chief Martin a few hours later after folks began to realize that Emily was gone, it was clear that he had a hard time believing me. I wasn’t sure if his frustrated relationship with my mother had anything to do with his attitude toward me, and I wasn’t about to ask. It was a sore topic between the three of us, one that I was very careful to avoid whenever possible. Chief Martin and my mother had been trying for months to arrange a first date, but every time it approached, Momma had found a new and sometimes ingenious way to postpone it. She finally promised him that she wouldn’t drag her feet any more, and they were slated to go out on their first official date later that night.

  I’d been doing my best to avoid the police chief for the past few weeks, but that wasn’t going to work anymore.

  There weren’t many folks in town who wanted Emily found more than I did, and I intended to do everything in my power to discover what happened to her, and how she could manage to disappear so completely.

  * * *

  “We’ve been over this already,” I said to the police chief as we stood in my donut shop soon after he knew that Emily had disappeared. He purposely avoided looking at any of my donuts, since he’d been on a diet ever since his divorce had become final. “She came by for a donut and a pint of milk, and that’s the last time I saw her.”

  “What kind of donut did she get?” he asked as he jotted something down in a small notebook.

  “Does that really matter?” I asked.

  “It might,” he answered.

  “It was blueberry.”

  “Just blueberry?” he asked, his pencil still poised over the paper.

  “No, it had chocolate icing, sprinkles, stars, and a chewy sour gummy worm on top, but I can assure you, there wasn’t anything wrong with it.” I was probably a little too defensive about it, but donuts had shown up in police investigations a few times in the past, and I didn’t want to even consider the possibility that the donut she’d bought from me could be connected to Emily’s disappearance.

  “Take it easy,” he said as he jotted the donut’s complete description down. “I have to ask.” He closed the notebook, and then added, “Suzanne, I’m doing my best to collect information right now. I wish I knew what happened to Emily, but I don’t have a clue. It’s tougher to just vanish than most folks realize. If you had a security camera outside, it might have told us something.”

  “Trust me, I wish now I’d installed one, even if I can’t really afford it,” I said. “You know my budget. I barely make it on my best days.”

  “I understand. I need to speak with a few more folks. If you happen to think of anything else, give me a call.”

  I nodded my agreement. “You really should speak with Gabby Williams. She spends half her day looking out her front window, so she might have seen something everyone else missed.” Gabby was my nearest business neighbor. She owned ReNEWed, a secondhand shop that specialized in nice clothing gently used. If something was going on in town, chances were good that Gabby knew something about it.

  “We’ve already spoken,” the chief said abruptly, and for a second, I actually felt sorry for the man. He was usually able to hold his own with folks around April Springs, but I knew that going up against Gabby, he’d have a battle on his hands. Most folks did, and I always tried my best to keep dancing that fine line that kept me off her expansive list of enemies.

  “Did she have anything to add?” I asked.

  “Only that Emily headed into your shop, and that’s the last time she saw her.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “Do you honestly think she’s still here? Search the place if you’d like. Emma’s in back doing dishes, but Emily’s nowhere to be found.”

  The two young women had been friends for years, sharing the root of a common name, and my assistant was really upset by Emily’s disappearance. It could get confusing talking if both of them were in the room at the same time, something both ladies always had fun with. They claimed it was like being twins som
ehow, in a weirdly wonderful way.

  “How’s she holding up?” the chief asked softly.

  “You knew they were friends?” I asked.

  “Believe it or not, I know quite a bit about our little town. Why don’t you wait on your customers out here, and I’ll go have a word with Emma in back.”

  I would have loved to listen in on that interview, but I still had a shop to run, and I needed our customers to know that I was on the job. Besides, I knew Emma would tell me everything they talked about once Chief Martin was gone.

  * * *

  “Suzanne, what happened?” my mother asked six minutes later when she came bursting through the front door. She was a petite little thing, but anyone who judged her by her size was in for a rude awakening. My mother could take a stand against a grizzly bear and a mountain lion together, and send them both scampering for the hills.

  “Emily Hargraves is gone,” I said.

  “What do you mean, she’s gone? No one just disappears.”

  “Apparently she did. Someone came by her newsstand ten minutes after she left here, and they found the door unlocked and no sign of Emily anywhere.” I wasn’t about to introduce the fact that she’d last been seen in my donut shop. Momma would hear it soon enough, I had no doubt about that.

  “Could she have just stepped away for a while?” Momma asked.

  “I can’t imagine her doing that willingly. After all, the guys were all there.” The guys I was referring to were the store’s namesakes: Cow, Spots, and Moose, three much beloved stuffed animals from Emily’s childhood that she’d named her newsstand after. They occupied a place of honor in her store on a shelf by the register. Emily took it one step further, dressing her three mascots in whatever seasonal outfit struck her fancy. In years past, they’d made appearances as three Santas, superheroes, leprechauns, and a host of other characters.

  “No, of course you’re right.” Momma looked hard at me for a moment. “And how do you figure into all of this?”

  “What makes you think I’m involved?” I asked, trying to muster as much indignation as I could manage. “I’m not a part of every odd thing that happens in April Springs.”

  “No,” Momma said, “but you’re in the middle of most of it.”

  “Why do you think I am this time?”

  She pointed outside to the police chief’s cruiser. “I know Phillip wouldn’t ordinarily be visiting you here unless it was related to business.”

  I wasn’t above using our police chief’s presence to motivate my mother to change the topic of conversation. “You shouldn’t be here then, should you.”

  “Why ever not?”

  “Isn’t it bad luck to see him before your first date?”

  “We both know that’s when you get married. Suzanne, I won’t discuss my love life with you.”

  “Fair enough, as long as mine is off limits, too,” I said.

  Momma chose to let that slide. “Where is Jake this week?” she asked.

  “He’s in Dillsboro,” I answered. My boyfriend was a state police investigator. As a matter of fact, that was how we’d first met. Our dating life had been turbulent for a while, but these days, the only problem we had was too much time apart as he traveled the state solving crime.

  Momma nodded. “That’s right, I read about it in the newspaper this morning. Who could imagine that someone might rob a train in this day and age?”

  A pair of daring bandits had robbed a recreational train that traveled on tracks in the North Carolina mountains, sticking up passengers car by car, and then vanishing into the woods on waiting four-wheelers before anyone could stop them. It wasn’t exactly the great train robbery, but it was enough to spur Jake’s boss into action. It didn’t hurt that the governor’s daughter had been on the train on her honeymoon. I’d ridden that train more times than I could count, but fortunately, I’d missed that particular trip.

  “Jake said they made off with a lot of loot,” I said. “He’s working the backcountry with dogs right now.”

  “The things that man does in the course of a day’s work,” my mother said.

  “Don’t kid yourself. He loves every second of it,” I said.

  Chief Martin chose that moment to come out of the back. He had a stern look on his face that quickly melted when he saw my mother.

  “Hello, Dorothy. You look lovely today.”

  So help me, I almost caught my mother blushing. “You should save some of that praise for later,” she said.

  “Oh, trust me. I’ve got plenty more where that came from.” It was odd seeing that boyish grin on the police chief. I nearly told them to get a room, but I kept my mouth shut just for a change of pace. He smiled broadly at her and said, “I’ll see you at six.”

  A troubled look crossed my mother’s face. “Should you be going out on a date with me when you’re just beginning a new case? If you’d rather postpone, I’d understand completely.”

  “Not on your life,” he said. “I’m not willing to wait another minute for our first date. Believe me, I’ve waited long enough.” That much was true; the man had been pining over my mother since they’d been in grade school together.

  I was happy my mother was going out, but I didn’t need to hear any more from them at the moment. “Chief, did you need me for anything more?” I asked.

  He looked surprised to see me still standing there. “What? No, we’re finished for now.”

  “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do.” That was a big whopping lie, since we didn’t have a single customer waiting to be served, and Emma had things in back under control.

  “Yes, I’d better be moving on myself.” I couldn’t believe it when he tipped the brim of an imaginary hat to my mother, and I was about to say something when Momma said, “I’ll see you this evening.”

  After he was gone, Momma said, “I’m afraid you’ll be on your own for dinner tonight, Suzanne.”

  “That’s fine,” I said. “Grace and I are going out on the town.” Grace Gauge was my best friend, and frequent coconspirator. She liked nothing more than digging into an investigation with me, but things had been quiet lately.

  At least they had been until Emily vanished.

  * * *

  I was just getting ready to close for the day at the crack of noon when something caught my eye outside. A man was approaching with a halting, limping gait, and for a moment, I didn’t recognize him, but as he got closer, I saw that it was George Morris, a retired cop and good friend who had been injured, not in the line of duty, but following a lead for me. I’d been overwhelmed with guilt since his accident. No, “accident” wasn’t the right word. It had been a purposeful event, and my part in causing it was something I still had a hard time coming to grips with.

  I rushed to open the door, and did my best to hide the sadness I felt when I saw him. “George, you’re looking good.”

  He grinned at me. “Suzanne, you’re lying through your teeth, but I appreciate the sentiment. How are you?”

  “That’s what I should be asking you,” I said.

  “I’m fine.” He paused, and then grimaced slightly. “Well, at least I’m better all the time. What more can anybody ask for than that, right?” He tried to smile, though I could see that it was a little forced.

  “You’re getting around pretty good.”

  He tapped his cane on the ground. “I do my best. Now, what’s this I hear about Emily Hargraves?”

  “How did you hear about that? News travels fast around April Springs, doesn’t it?”

  “Faster than you can imagine. How did you get involved in Emily’s disappearance?”

  I frowned at him. “What makes you think I’m involved?”

  “Come on, Suzanne, I’m not a cop anymore, but when I retired, I didn’t give up my skills or my contacts. I hear things.” He tapped his cane again. “This thing has slowed my pace down some, but in a way, it’s been a blessing. You’d be amazed how folks open up to an old man with a cane.” He paused, and t
hen added, “If you’re not involved in the case, you might consider looking into what happened to her yourself.”

  “Why do you say that?” George certainly knew how to get my attention.

  “I’ve heard talk that some folks around town suspect that you’re the reason she’s gone.” He said it flatly, as though he were announcing baseball scores.

  “Just because she was last seen here doesn’t mean I had anything to do with it.” My voice must have gotten a little louder as I spoke, and a few folks in the shop glanced over at us. “Hang on a second.” I wasn’t about to get into that conversation with customers still in the donut shop. “Folks, it’s closing time. Thanks for coming to Donut Hearts, and we hope to see you all again tomorrow.”

  After everyone was gone, I locked the door and turned back to George. “I’m sorry,” I said once I managed to calm down a little. “I shouldn’t have raised my voice like that.”

  “Don’t apologize to me. I’m just telling you what I’ve heard. We need to do something, and do it fast.”

  I grabbed a broom and started sweeping. “Slow down. Whether I look into this or not, you’re not invited this time. You’re recuperating, remember?”

  “This?” he asked, waving the cane in the air. “It’s no hardship; more of an inconvenience, really. I might not be able to chase anyone down in a footrace, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely useless.”

  From the tone in his voice, I could tell that I’d angered George, the last thing I wanted to do. “I can’t risk letting you get hurt again,” I said, the honesty in my answer surprising me as much as it clearly did him.

  “Suzanne, a meteor could fall from the sky in the next ten seconds and I’d be just as dead as if something else happened to me. Being alive is one constant risk, but it’s not something I’m ready to give up on. You don’t have to include me in your investigation, but that doesn’t mean you can stop me from digging around into what happened to Emily on my own. She’s a friend of mine, too, and I aim to find out what happened to her, with or without your blessing. Do we understand each other?”

  I knew I was fighting a losing battle, so the only hope I had of reining him in was including him in my own investigation. “Want a donut?” I asked.