by Jessica Beck
“I’ll make it work,” she said. “Oh, and by the way, congratulations again. I’m truly happy you two found each other.”
It was a nice sentiment of heartfelt feeling from her, a gesture that I greatly appreciated. “Thanks. See you soon.”
“Bye,” she said, and then she broke the connection.
I adjusted my rearview mirror so I could look squarely at Jake. “Well, it appears that our honeymoon is now officially over. Sorry about that.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Jake said happily. “I never was all that interested in all of the hoopla leading up to us being together. The wedding and honeymoon were both nice, but it’s the marriage itself that I’ve been looking forward to.”
“I have to tell you, that’s probably the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me,” I told him, and then remembered that my mother was sitting right beside me. “You know what I mean.”
“Suzanne, I’m not about to argue with you. Who knew that he had that in him?”
“I knew,” I said proudly.
“I’m still here, ladies, remember?”
“Oh, hush,” Momma told Jake. “You should know that whenever people who care about you say nice things, your only job is to listen politely and say thank you when they’re through.”
Jake took a moment, and then he asked, “Are you through?”
“For the moment,” I replied.
“Then thank you,” he answered.
Momma laughed loudly, and Jake and I joined in.
It might not be the best start a marriage ever had, but it was undeniably all ours.
Chapter 4
After we dropped Momma off at her place, I asked Jake, “Where to now? Should we head back to the cottage and unpack?”
“Why not?” Jake asked. “Suzanne, while we’re there, there are a few things that we need to talk about.”
“Have I done something bad already?” I asked him with a smile. “Wow, that didn’t take long at all.”
“We both know that you are just about perfect in my eyes,” Jake replied with a grin.
“Right back at you, big guy. What exactly do we need to discuss, then?”
“What else is there at the moment? I’m talking about this case,” he said.
“Excellent! Are you ready to share something with me already? Sweet! I knew there would be some perks being married to you, but I didn’t expect them to come so quickly.”
“Can we both be serious for a minute?” Jake asked rather soberly.
“Sorry. What do you want to talk about?”
“I’m running the official investigation, and you yourself urged me to take the job less than an hour ago, is that correct?”
“It is,” I answered.
“And you don’t want to make my life any harder than it has to be. Is that true as well?”
“Jake, I would never intentionally cause you problems. You should know that by now.”
“I do,” he said reassuringly as he patted my hand.
“It might be easier for both of us if you just cut to the chase and quit dancing around what’s on your mind, okay?” I suggested.
“That’s probably as good a plan as any,” he said with a grin. “I understand why you have a vested interest in solving this case—two of them, actually—but I’m going to need my space on this one.”
“Does that mean that you don’t want any help from me?” I asked, trying to hide the hurt I felt. He had every right to make the request, but that didn’t mean that I had to like it.
“All I’m saying is that you need to let me dig into this myself before you and Grace start ripping through my suspect list before I can get to them all.”
“That sounds reasonable enough,” I said, fighting to keep my voice level.
Evidently I failed.
“Suzanne, this isn’t meant as a slight in any way, shape, or form.”
“Why would I think that it was?” I asked him.
Jake was about to reply when his cell phone rang. “Saved by the ring,” he said with a slight smile.
“Not saved, just delayed,” I said with a grin to take the edge off my comment. I knew that we both had a lot of adjusting to do as newlyweds, and adding our sometimes conflicting investigations into the mix wouldn’t do anything to make our new life together any easier.
As he spoke, I heard a stiffness suddenly enter his voice. His answers were nearly monosyllabic and gave little away, but I could tell that he was getting more upset by the minute. After he hung up, I asked, “Wow, who just poked you with a stick? Was that your old boss?”
“No, if anything, it was worse. It was Inspector Simpson, and he just read me the riot act.”
“What can he do to you, honestly?” I asked. “It’s not like you work for the state police anymore.”
“If I did, at least I’d be able to fight back. As things stand, he is well within his rights to make certain demands, and I have no choice but to accept them all.”
I hadn’t met this guy and I already didn’t like him. “What exactly did he say to you?”
“He told me that my investigation is confined to April Springs and April Springs alone. Anything out of town limits is forbidden.”
“How can he do that?” I asked, the outrage clear in my voice. “It’s not fair handcuffing you like that.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not exactly sure that I have any choice. Remember what I said earlier?”
“About being there for me in sickness and in health?” I asked him with a gentle smile.
“After that. I’m talking about when I told you to hold off on your investigation.”
“I’m not likely to forget that,” I said.
“Well, you should. Disregard my earlier instructions. Leave April Springs to me. That still leaves an important area for you and Grace to explore.”
I grinned at him. “We’re going to cover what you can’t. Is that it? You realize that there’s a good chance that the root of Alex Tyler’s murder is in Granite Meadows, not April Springs, don’t you?”
“You really are becoming a first-rate detective; you know that, don’t you?”
“Flattery will get you everywhere with me,” I said with a grin.
“It’s not flattery if I mean it,” he said. “There are a few conditions I need to insist on before I set you two loose on the unsuspecting population of Granite Meadows, though.”
“I’m listening.”
“You have to do your best to fly under everybody’s radar. You won’t just be ducking Simpson. You’ll also be trying to avoid antagonizing the police chief there as well. All the while, I need you to find out whatever you can about Alex Tyler and then report back to me.”
I took a deep breath before I spoke again. “Let me get this straight. You want us to amass as many facts as we can, but then we have to turn it all over to you so you can be the detective. Is that about right?”
To his credit, Jake didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he appeared to mull over my comment before he replied. After a few moments, he turned to me with a grin and said, “I’d say that sounds exactly like what I told you to do.”
“You know in your heart that it’s not going to work that way, don’t you?”
Jake shrugged. “I can see where there might be difficulties. How about this? Try to keep from putting yourselves in jeopardy, but find out whatever you can, and we’ll compare notes later.”
“We can do that,” I said, and then I kissed him quickly.
“What was that for?” he asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“It’s for being rational about this and understanding that you can’t always have everything you want.”
“No worries there,” he said with a grin. “I know you pretty well, but even if I didn’t, I’m pretty sure that I would have been able to figure that one out on my own.”
We got back to the cottage and did a perfunctory job of unpacking, and then we started out on our separate ways, me in my Jeep and Jake in his o
ld truck. There was no time for jet lag. We both had work to do. Before he could drive to the police station to be fully briefed, I leaned in through his window and said, “We really should find you a new truck to drive now that you’re a civilian.”
He put a hand over the dash before he answered. “Not so loud. She might hear you.”
“You, sir, are too attached to a simple mode of transportation,” I said.
“Said the pot to the kettle,” he answered with a grin. “Tell me again how you feel about your Jeep.”
“That’s different,” I said.
“How so?”
“It’s simple. The Jeep is mine.”
Jake just laughed. “I can’t dispute the logic of that, so I won’t even try.”
“Good man. Stay in touch,” I said as I got into my Jeep.
“That goes for you, too,” he said, and I drove down the road to Grace’s place to pick her up.
It was a short commute, yards instead of miles, but it was far enough away for me to start getting antsy.
I wanted to get our own investigation underway, and I wanted to do it now.
“Welcome back,” Grace said as she hugged me when I showed up on her doorstep. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” I said as I handed her the bag I’d brought her all the way from Paris. “I’m still not sure about the choice of presents you requested.”
“Let me see it,” she said excitedly as her hand dove into the bag and pulled out a black beret with GRACE embroidered in large red letters. I thought it was going to look silly on her, but my best friend had such a style and polish about her that she actually pulled it off. “How do I look?” she asked, cocking it to one side.
“Spectacular. Now I’m wishing that I’d bought one for myself,” I admitted.
“I’d let you borrow mine, but we don’t want anyone mistaking us for each other,” she said.
I looked at her trim figure and then contemplated mine for a moment. “No chance of that happening. Anyway, I’m glad you like it.”
“Like it? I love it! Thank you, Suzanne.”
“You are most welcome. Now, should we talk about the case?”
Grace slid the beret off and put it back into the bag. “That sounds good. How about some coffee while we brainstorm?”
“Do you happen to have any sweet tea? That’s about the only thing I really missed while we were in Europe.”
“You’re in luck. I made a fresh batch this morning,” Grace said.
After my first glass had been drained and then topped off again, Grace and I sat in the living room and talked about how we should approach the case.
“Where should we begin?” Grace asked. “I’ve picked up on a few things from Stephen, but he’s been reticent to speak with me about the case much. My boyfriend can be pretty tightlipped when it comes to his job.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” I said. Besides, I already knew what Acting Chief Grant thought. There was potential for conflict between Grace and me. I realized that we were in a delicate area, and the less we touched upon it, the better, as far as I was concerned. “Well, here’s what I’ve managed to learn so far,” I said, and I started relaying everything that I’d learned from Momma on the drive back to April Springs.
“Can I ask you a question?” Grace asked after I was finished.
“Go ahead.”
“If Jake has agreed to investigate this case, then what exactly are we doing? Isn’t he likely to be offended by us digging into his own investigation?”
“I haven’t told you that part yet. He’s given us a green light to go to Granite Meadows and look around because one of his old adversaries from his state police days is now in charge of the investigation for his old boss.”
“Why am I guessing that was done as a punitive measure?” Grace asked.
“I don’t know, because you’re smart, savvy, and you know people?” I asked.
“That must be it. So, what do we know about Alex’s life in Granite Meadows?”
“Just that he was a cop there before he came here,” I said. “Right now, the rest of the details are kind of sketchy.”
“That’s okay. We’ll figure out how to fill them in. Let’s go.”
I had to laugh. “That’s just one of the things I love about you, my friend.”
“What’s that?”
“Your complete and utter willingness to dive into the fire with me at a moment’s notice.”
“What are friends for?” she asked. “If they don’t stand by your side when you need them, they aren’t really friends in my book. You’d do the same for me, and you know it.”
“You’d better believe it,” I said as we got into the Jeep and starting driving toward Granite Meadows. I’d have to catch up with Emma and Sharon soon so we could figure out what we were going to do about Donut Hearts, but in the meantime, I had a murder to investigate with my best friend.
“Should we have packed our bags for an overnight stay?” Grace asked me.
“It’s less than an hour from here. I think we’ll be pretty safe commuting while we investigate.”
“Sure, I get it.”
“Get what?” I asked her.
“You’ve got a brand-new husband at home. Why on earth would you want to leave him so soon?”
“Jake has nothing to do with it,” I said.
“Nothing?” As she asked it, there was a mischievous glint in her eye.
“Maybe not nothing, but that’s not the main reason that I don’t want to stay. I have a donut shop to run, remember?”
“You’re kidding. You’re actually going back to work tomorrow with everything going on?”
“Of course I am,” I said. “I’ve been away too long as it is, and I miss it. Are you really all that surprised?”
“Now that I think about it, I realize that I shouldn’t be,” Grace replied. “There’s a lot of you wrapped up into that place these days, isn’t there?”
I thought about it for a moment before I answered, keeping my outward attention focused on the road in front of us. When I spoke again, I knew exactly what I wanted to say. “You know better than anyone but Momma that I never wanted to be a donutmaker when I was a little girl. To be honest with you, I kind of fell into it, seeing that the place was for sale at the only moment in my life when I could afford to buy it. Breaking up with Max was really painful, and I poured myself into Donut Hearts to get away from it. A funny thing happened, though. Instead of a way to hide from my life, the shop showed me a new one altogether. I can’t ever imagine a time when I don’t want to do it.”
I saw Grace nodding out of the corner of my eye. “I was worried about you for a long time after Max,” she said. “Everything you’re saying about the donut shop is absolutely true.”
I grinned at her. “Well then, if you knew the answer to the question already, why did you go ahead and ask it?”
“I knew. I just wasn’t sure that you did,” she said.
“Fair enough. We’ve got a little time; let’s talk about how we’re going to investigate Alex Tyler’s former life in Granite Meadows.”
“Well, the logical first step would be to go where he used to work,” Grace answered. “That might be a little tough to do, though, since he was a cop.”
“There are ways around that, but we need some information first. We don’t even know where he used to live.”
“Ah, that’s something that I can help with,” she said as she pulled out her cellphone.
“I forgot that you used that thing for more than making calls,” I said with a laugh.
“You joke, but I can’t imagine ever being without it. Now let’s see. I’ve got my search engine up, so I’ll type in Alex Tyler, Granite Meadows, North Carolina, police officer, home address. That should do it.”
“That’s a lot of information you’re giving it,” I said.
Grace said, “I’ve come to realize that the more specific the question, the more accurate the answer.”
; “That makes sense. What does it say?”
As she started scrolling through the listings, she finally said, “Bingo. We need to go to 3441 West Mulberry in Granite Meadows. That’s where he used to live up until a few weeks ago.”
“That’s all well and good, but my Jeep doesn’t have GPS.”
“There’s no need,” Grace said as she shook her phone at me. “I’ve got it right here.”
“Is there anything that it can’t do?” I asked her.
“If they can figure out a way to have it rub my sore feet at night, I’d buy two of them.”
“Doesn’t the April Springs interim police chief do that for you already?”
She laughed. “Sometimes, but not as often as I’d like.” After a moment’s pause, she said, “The coordinates are now entered. All we have to do is follow directions and we’ll be there.”
“Do you trust it that much?”
“What makes you ask me that?” Grace inquired.
“I once read about a man who followed his GPS blindly and winded up driving into a river.”
“Some common sense might be in order, too,” Grace said, “but so far, it hasn’t led me too far astray.”
“Good, because we don’t have a ton of time for any wild goose chases. What’s our plan when we get to his old address?”
“We start knocking on doors and we talk to his neighbors. Hopefully we’ll get someone nearby who’s as nosy as Gabby Williams is in April Springs.”
Gabby ran the gently used clothing store near the donut shop. It was called ReNEWed, and besides having some really nice things for sale, expensive clothes that had been barely worn, it was a hotbed for gossip. If Gabby didn’t know it, some folks in town said that it really didn’t happen.
“We should be so lucky,” I said.
Grace laughed. “I never dreamed that anyone would say knowing Gabby was lucky.”
“That’s not true. She’s been a friend to me since I’ve been at Donut Hearts,” I said.
“Suzanne, are you actually defending her?”
I was as startled by the idea as Grace was. Gabby had been a thorn in my side on more than one occasion in the past, so why was I standing up for her now? I wasn’t exactly sure. It just felt as though it was the right thing to do. “I guess I am, though I couldn’t tell you exactly why,” I answered lamely.