by Jessica Beck
“Okay, I get it. Maybe I’ll ask him about it when I speak with him later today. Thanks for the tip.”
“In the spirit of sharing, is there anyone else in April Springs you’re looking at particularly closely?”
Jake paused another moment before answering. “I thought you were focusing on Granite Meadows and I was handling April Springs?”
“That’s the plan, but surely there’s going to be some overlap. What am I supposed to do when one of your suspects walks in and starts asking questions like Brandon just did?”
“That’s a fair point. I can’t tell you anything directly. You know that, don’t you?”
“Well, can you at least give me a hint?”
“How about this? If anyone comes in asking questions about Alex, let me know about it, pronto.”
“You seriously aren’t going to at least give me any idea about who I need to be careful around?”
“Suzanne, we’re both working on a murder investigation. You should be careful about everyone you see until we catch the killer.”
“I know that,” I said. I saw a family of four approaching the shop. “I’ve got to go.”
“Don’t be cross with me,” he said plaintively.
“I’m not. I’m just trying to run a business.” I hung up on him before I could say something that I would probably regret. I knew that he was just doing his job and that sometimes it precluded him from telling me everything he knew, even though I didn’t have that kind of caveat.
That didn’t mean that I had to like it.
Apparently there were going to be more things for us to get used to in our married life than most couples had to go through.
I knew that I’d be fine once I had a little time to cool down.
In the meantime, I had customers to serve.
Chapter 12
“Hey there,” Jake said, walking in just as I was about to close Donut Hearts for the day. I’d sent Emma home early in reward for covering for me while I’d been on my honeymoon, and she’d gladly accepted the goodwill gesture. I’d been there alone for the past half hour, and of course, we’d gotten busy just moments after Emma had gone on her way. “Are you still open?”
“I was just about to lock up,” I said, and then I did exactly that, flipping the sign to let my customers know that there were no more donuts, at least for that day. “I’m now officially closed, but I have a few things I have to take care of before I can leave.”
“Can I give you a hand with anything?” It was a nice gesture, and I decided to take him up on his generous offer.
“How do you feel about sweeping?” I asked him with a smile. I’d gotten over my little snit. After all, he was just doing his job. I had no right resenting the fact that he couldn’t share everything he learned on a case with me.
“As a matter of fact, my mother made sure I knew how to operate a broom firsthand since I was tall enough to hold one in my hands.”
“Excellent,” I said as I handed him our broom. I’d already cleaned the tables in anticipation of closing up shop, so it was quick work to flip the chairs over and get them off the floor. “If you could sweep up, I can get started on running reports for the day’s totals.”
“After I finish this,” he said as he began to sweep, “I’d be happy to do the dishes as well.”
“Be careful about how generous your offer is. You might go on the payroll when you’re not looking,” I said happily. “Besides, don’t you already have a job? You’re investigating Alex Tyler’s murder, remember?”
“I’m not likely to forget it, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not allowed to take a lunch break,” Jake said as he collected the remnants of dropped donuts, forgotten napkins, and other detritus that found its way to the floor in the course of a typical day.
“And you really want to spend it helping me clean up my shop?”
“As long as you’re here, that’s where I want to be.”
“I feel the exact same way about you.”
“Well, I should hope so,” he said with a grin as he finished sweeping up the discards and putting everything in the closest trash can. “Now, how about those dishes?”
“As much as I appreciate your offer, I just have a few trays left to do in back, and I can knock them out in no time while the report is running.” I studied the display cases and realized that I had more than three dozen donuts left. “Either I made too many donuts this morning, or my customer base is dropping way off.”
“How can you possibly know that without checking your numbers?”
“Oh, I’ll go ahead and run the report on the register, but I don’t need it to tell me that things have slacked off around here,” I said as I turned the key in the register lock to its report setting. After I hit a few other buttons, it started spitting out the day’s take, dividing it into neat little segments. Checking the cash we had on hand, I jotted the number down just as the report finished running. I knew that there were newer, much more modern cash registers that did everything electronically, but I liked this system better. I could rely on the numbers printed on the tape more than I could on ones flashing past on a display. “Well, that’s settled.”
“What is?”
“According to this, my sales are down over fifteen percent since we got married.”
“You honestly can’t think that there’s a cause and effect to your slump, can you?” he asked, clearly concerned about my response.
“No, I have a hunch that it has more to do with the new chief of police being poisoned with Donut Hearts coffee than it does with our nuptials,” I said.
“It wasn’t the coffee that killed him,” Jake said as he put the broom away.
“Excuse me?”
“I said that it wasn’t the coffee that was poisoned,” Jake replied.
“Seriously? That’s wonderful news,” I said gleefully. “How soon can we tell folks that Donut Hearts is in the clear?”
“It’s not quite that simple, I’m afraid,” he said.
“What’s the catch? If it wasn’t my coffee or my donuts that killed Alex, then no one from my shop should be a suspect in anyone’s mind.”
“While it’s true that your coffee wasn’t poisoned, that doesn’t mean that the cup itself was free from suspicion,” he explained.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, feeling the air go out of my sails.
“I wish I were, but I don’t joke around about things like that. According to the lab, someone coated the interior of the cup with a common household cleaning product that is fairly toxic. When the coffee was added, the poison dissolved, killing Alex after he ingested it.”
“How can they possibly know that?”
“They tested the sides of the cup that didn’t come into contact with any liquid,” Jake said. “The traces were still there.”
“Then what difference does it make?” I asked, feeling truly dejected now. “Something bought here was still used to commit murder, whether it was the liquid itself or the vessel that was used to transport it. Either way, I’m in the same fix that I was in before.”
“Suzanne, this new information implies a few things about the killer, don’t you think? The evidence might not clear any of the Donut Hearts staff, but it can’t help but assist us with the case.”
“If you say so,” I said as I made out the bank deposit slip. “Either way, my receipts are still down.”
“I wish there was something I could do about that, but we both know that there’s not.”
“You could find the killer and take the heat off me,” I said as I started boxing up leftover donuts. I couldn’t take them to the church where I usually dropped them off to feed the less fortunate of April Springs. Emma had told me that we’d worn out our welcome delivering too many in the recent past. That left throwing them away, something I truly hated to do, or using them as bribes during the course of my further investigation. At least I’d have some available for that today, though I wasn’t exactly sure who I could use them on.
“I’m doing my best,” he said, clearly upset by the tone this conversation had suddenly taken. “Listen, I’m really sorry about earlier.”
The poor man was trying to solve this murder under the most exasperating circumstances, and here I was, selfishly piling on. That was about to change. He deserved my support, not my disapproval. “I’m not exactly being fair to you, am I?” I asked as I kissed him on the cheek. “You are right to withhold whatever you decide from me while you’re working on official police business.”
“Wow, I never thought I’d get off the hook that easily,” Jake said with a smile.
“Don’t celebrate too much just yet. That still doesn’t mean that you should keep anything from me that’s not directly related to Alex Tyler’s murder investigation. I’ve already been through one marriage full of lies, secrets, and hidden agendas, and I’m not about to go through another one.”
“Completely understood,” Jake said, and to my surprise, he swept me up in his arms. “But you should know that I’m not Max. I’ve never been like him, and I never will be. You can take that to the bank.”
“I realize that,” I said, grinning. “Now let me go. I have work to do.”
“Your wish is my command,” he said as he released me.
“What did I just say about lying to me?” I asked him happily.
“Suzanne, you have to at least allow me to embellish every now and then. Otherwise what fun would it be?”
“I suppose you’re right,” I said. “Seriously, though, I know that you didn’t come here to help me clean up the donut shop. What’s your real reason for just showing up?”
“Isn’t the new information about the coffee cup being tainted enough of a justification for me to come by?” Jake asked me.
“We both know that you could have done that with one phone call.”
Jake frowned for a moment before he spoke again. “How about the fact that I missed my bride? Is that cause enough?”
“Of course it is, but why do I keep thinking that there’s another shoe waiting to drop?”
To my surprise, my husband laughed happily, a sound that filled me with great joy. Max and I hadn’t laughed nearly enough during our time together. The drama had outweighed the happiness by far, but Jake and I weren’t about to make that same particular mistake. Jake had been quite a bit more somber when I’d first known him, but leaving his position as a state police inspector had changed him, lightening his load—and his mood—considerably. There was more room for smiles, for laughter, for sheer joy now, and I knew from those things, more than anything else, that him quitting had been the absolute right thing to do. “You know me too well. Okay, I’ll lay all of my cards out on the table. I don’t want you and Grace going back to Granite Meadows and talking to those cops.”
“But Jake, we have to; you can’t do it yourself. You’ve been limited to working in April Springs,” I protested.
“You know what? I don’t care anymore. Simpson might not like it, but I’m not really sure what he can do about it, and that’s just going to come into play if he manages to catch me doing it.”
“Do you know something? You’re starting to sound more and more like me every day,” I said.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“You know it is. I just don’t want you to burn any bridges on my account.”
“Suzanne, if they are burning, it’s because I intentionally set them on fire. I’m going to Granite Meadows with you, whether you like it or not.”
“I like it just fine,” I said. “I’m not sure what Grace is going to think, though.”
“Does she really have a problem with me tagging along on your investigations?” Jake asked me.
“We both know that if you’re there, you’ll be doing more than tagging along. No offense, but you tend to jump in and take over during these things, Jake.”
“What can I say? Old habits die hard, but I think that’s exactly what is needed in this case. You both need to realize that none of these cops are going to talk to you if I’m not there with you.”
“Hang on a second. They won’t be under any obligation to speak with you, either, even if you do have official status in the case in April Springs. Your jurisdiction ends at the town’s limits now.”
“Maybe so, but at least we speak the same language. Now, we can spend more time arguing about it, or you can unlock the front door and let Grace inside.”
I looked out front and sure enough, there was my partner in crime, waiting to be let in. “Let’s see what she has to say before we make any decisions,” I suggested as I let her in.
Once I explained the new game plan to Grace, she looked a little surprised. “Suzanne, of course we need Jake with us. How else are we going to get anyone in law enforcement to say boo to us otherwise?”
“Then that’s settled,” Jake said. “I’m coming with you.”
“I guess you are,” I said. “Now make yourself useful and grab those donuts.”
“What do we need these for?” Jake asked me as he dutifully picked up all three boxes.
“We’re going to use them for bribes,” I said happily. “You don’t have any problem with that, do you?”
“No, ma’am. Not one little bit. There are bad bribes, and then there are good ones.” He took a deep whiff of my donuts and smiled. “These are good ones.”
“Excellent,” I said. “Then after we stop off at the bank so I can make my deposit, the three of us are heading to Granite Meadows to investigate.”
“The more, the merrier, I say,” Grace said happily.
It appeared that the three of us were beginning to form a new team, two amateur sleuths and one ex-cop. It was reminiscent of when George had worked with us before becoming mayor, but I liked this scenario better.
After all, I was with my husband and my best friend.
Chapter 13
“At least the snow finally stopped,” I said as I looked out the front windshield of the Jeep at the wet road in front of us.
“What are you talking about? When was it snowing?” Grace asked me from the passenger seat. Jake was once again in back, and I noticed that he’d found a way to sit with his legs positioned that didn’t confine him nearly as much as I’d been afraid it would.
“No doubt you were still asleep,” I said. “It doesn’t matter, since it didn’t amount to much.”
“I saw some flurries early on,” Jake added. “It looked really pretty coming down in the night sky with just the lights from the park illuminating it. I had a warm fire going inside, too, so it was pretty cozy.”
“What time did you get up?” Grace asked as she looked around at him.
“The real question is what time did he get to bed,” I said.
“You aren’t seriously trying to keep your wife’s hours, are you?” Grace asked him. “Jake, it will kill you if you try to do that.”
“I don’t plan on making a regular habit of it,” Jake said in his defense. “I just thought it would be nice to do it the first night we were back in town.”
“That’s sweet,” Grace said with a smile.
“I’d like to think so,” he answered.
“So, what’s our order of attack?” I asked as we made our way to Granite Meadows.
“Do you really think of this as a battle plan?” Jake asked.
“You bet I do.”
“Me, too,” Grace added.
“Hey, I’m not criticizing; I’m impressed,” he said. Jake was smart enough not to comment on it any further. “I don’t see any way around it. We have to go to the police station first, don’t we?”
“I think so, since that’s the real motivation behind you going with us in the first place,” I replied.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s the only reason,” Jake said.
“It’s right up there, though, isn’t it?” Grace asked. “Otherwise, your new bride and I are perfectly capable of running our own investigation without you.”
“No one ever said other
wise,” Jake answered solemnly, which seemed to placate Grace. She was clearly a little bit defensive about what we did.
“And they’d better not start,” she said.
It was time to defuse the situation. “The real question is how do we approach Officer Durant?”
“We could always bribe him with donuts. I’ve heard that cops have an affinity for that sort of thing,” Grace said, smiling a little too brightly at Jake.
“It’s true sometimes, but it’s mostly on a case-by-case basis,” Jake conceded. “Still, it might not be a bad way to approach him if Plan A doesn’t work.”
“Do we actually have a Plan A?” I asked him as I glanced at him in the rearview mirror. Then I turned to Grace as I said, “Wow, we’ve never had a Plan A before. That kind of implies that there’s a Plan B, C, and so forth, doesn’t it?” I knew that I wasn’t helping the situation, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
At least Jake had the decency to laugh right along with us. “Plan A, at least in my mind, is that I approach Officer Durant as a fellow law enforcement officer seeking information on an active homicide investigation.”
“Where does that leave us, though?” Grace asked.
“Ideally, you’ll both be waiting for me in the Jeep,” Jake said. Before Grace or I could protest, he added hastily, “This could be really dicey. There are things that a cop might tell another cop that he would never share with a civilian. I’m not trying to exclude either one of you, but the bottom line is that we want information from this guy, and like it or not, he’s more likely to give it to me than he is to the two of you.”
Grace and I were both silent for a few moments, taking in what Jake had just told us. I knew that he was probably right, and chances were good that Grace knew it as well, but that didn’t mean that either one of us had to like it. After all, we weren’t making this drive just to keep Jake company. We’d invited him along on our investigation, not the other way around. On the other hand, had we really been the ones issuing the invitation? Jake had basically invited himself, now that I thought about it.
I was about to point that out when Grace spoke up. “How about if we manage to be close by when you talk to him, out of his sightline but within hearing distance? If we can listen to his responses, it might help trigger something for us. Would you try to do at least that much?”