“That’s flattering,” I said, not really knowing what else I could say to that.
“Let’s not disappoint him, then, okay? What do you say?”
“Did the chief happen to mention when I could get my donut shop back?” I asked my husband. I knew he’d posed the question without even asking him if he’d covered that particular topic.
“One p.m., and not a minute sooner,” Jake said with a hint of resignation.
I thought about it and wondered what could possibly take so long, but it was a battle I didn’t want to fight. “Then let’s use the time we have wisely and head to Maple Hollow right now.”
From the way Jake had been watching me, he’d clearly been expecting an explosion. When I’d failed to deliver, he’d been more than a little surprised. “Suzanne, are you feeling okay? I know how you feel about Donut Hearts, and it can’t be easy shutting it down for the day.”
“I love the place. Now try to imagine how outraged I am that someone had the audacity to kill my contractor in it. We need to find this murderer, Jake, and we need to do it quickly.”
“I’ll do my best to do my part,” he said. “The weather forecast is for sunny skies in the mid-thirties. We should take my truck.”
Normally I liked to drive my Jeep, and Jake knew it, but he had a point. We wouldn’t be needing my all-weather traction, and I knew that my husband liked to drive every now and then, too. “Sold.”
“Why do I have the feeling that you’re giving in way too easily on too many things today, Suzanne?”
“Are you implying that I’m not always this easy to get along with?” I asked him sweetly.
My dear husband was too smart to step into that particular trap. “Let’s get going,” he said, completely ignoring my question.
He was indeed a wise man, just one of the many reasons that I’d fallen in love with him.
As we pulled into Maple Hollow, I felt myself tearing up, remembering my late Aunt Jean. Jake must have noticed, because he put his hand gently on my knee as he asked, “Are you okay, Suzanne?”
“It’s just that this place holds a lot of memories for me,” I explained. “I’ll be fine.”
“We don’t have to do this, you know.”
“I appreciate the gesture, Jake, but Snappy was murdered in my shop. There is no way I’m not going to play my part in finding out who did it.” I wiped the last of the tears away and did my best to smile brightly at my husband. “Now, where should we head first?”
“I was thinking we should speak with Hank Bloch, Snappy’s business partner. I’m curious to see how closely Snappy’s description of the man matches what we find.”
“That sounds like a solid plan to me,” I said.
“Do you think he’ll actually be in the office the day his partner was found murdered?”
“If he’s like most of the small business owners I’ve known in my life, he’ll be there,” I said. “He probably can’t afford not to. If I didn’t have Emma, how many days could I keep the donut shop closed before it became a problem?”
“I don’t know. How many?”
“Let me put it this way. There’s a reason Donut Hearts is open seven days a week, and it’s not because we all don’t have anything better to do,” I said.
“I get it. Now, according to what Snappy told me the other day, their place should be somewhere around here.” As Jake drove down a side street that was barely bigger than an alley, he said, “There it is.”
The building looked as though it were in need of remodeling more than my donut shop was. Metal roofing on the two-story building seemed to flap in the breeze, the cinderblock walls were in bad need of a coat of paint, and the truck parked out front made Jake’s old beater look like this year’s model.
“It’s not much to look at, is it?” I asked as Jake parked beside the truck.
“Don’t kid yourself. A lot of tradesmen don’t want to give the impression that they’re prosperous.”
“Well then, I’d say they’re doing a good job of disguising it if that’s the case,” I said as we approached the front door. I’d started to knock when Jake reached for the handle. It opened to his touch, and he grinned at me as he walked in ahead of me.
A young man, husky and prematurely balding, was sitting at the desk, wading through massive stacks of paper. He looked surprised to see us when Jake cleared his throat.
“Sorry, folks,” he said, “but we’re not open for business today. There’s been a death in the family.”
“We know,” I said. “I’m Suzanne Hart.”
Before I could say anything else, he interrupted me. “The donut lady. Yeah, I hate to tell you this, but it looks like we’re going to have to cancel that job. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to get to it in time without Snappy. I wish we could refund your down payment, but we’re already into the job for more than you gave us.”
“I’m not here to get my money back,” I said, doing my best to keep my temper in check at the outlandish statement.
“If that’s the truth, then you’re the first one today who hasn’t been.”
“Are things going to be all that tough with Snappy gone?” Jake asked as he looked at the stack of papers.
“You might say that,” Bloch said with a sigh. “I’m sorry to say that my partner was the bookkeeper of the two of us, but that’s not saying much. We were both better builders than accountants. The truth of the matter is that I don’t think I’m going to keep going now that he’s gone.”
“Surely you need the business now more than ever, though,” I said.
Bloch leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Who knows? At least I’ll be able to keep a little cash after I pay off all of these.”
“Will half of what you’re worth be enough to cover them?” Jake asked. “I assume whoever inherits Snappy’s share of the business may be reluctant to part with any of their windfall.”
“Fortunately, I don’t need to find out. We had an understanding that if one of us should die, the other partner would get everything. Snappy was quite a bit older than me, so we both kind of assumed that he’d go first, but not for a whole lot of years, you know?”
“Was it drawn up in a legal document?” Jake asked him.
Bloch looked annoyed by the question. “We set our wills up in each other’s favor. At the time, we figured we’d kill two birds with one stone. Sorry, that was probably a poor choice of words. I still can’t believe that he’s gone.”
It was an interesting admission that the partners were each other’s beneficiaries. Was Bloch telling us before we could find out on our own, or was it just casual conversation? I needed to find out, but before I could ask another question, he asked me one. “If you’re not here for a refund, then why are you here?”
“We’re looking into Snappy’s murder,” Jake said.
“Really. A donut maker and her bodyguard? Interesting.”
“He’s much more than a bodyguard,” I said proudly. “Jake used to be with the state police.”
“The key phrase in that sentence being ‘used to be.’ As a matter of fact, I’ve already spoken to the police, so there’s nothing left for me to tell you.” Bloch’s phone rang, and after glancing at his caller ID, he said, “Sorry to cut this short, but I’ve got to take this.”
We didn’t have time to get in another word as he pointed to the door.
Once we were outside, Jake said, “Suzanne, you don’t have to tell everyone we meet what I used to do for a living.”
“Are you kidding? They’re usually a lot more willing to talk to us if they know that than if they think you’re just some random stranger tagging along with me.”
“I hear what you’re saying, but I hate using my old job as leverage,” Jake explained.
“Okay. I get it.”<
br />
“Does that mean you won’t do it again?” he asked me.
“I can’t honestly say. I suppose it depends on the circumstances. Can you live with that?”
“It doesn’t sound as though I have much choice,” he said with a crooked grin. “So how much do you think the business is worth?”
“Judging by the condition of that building, after he pays that stack of bills, he’ll be lucky if he has enough for the stamp to mail in his taxes,” I said.
“Maybe,” Jake said. “I’d like to find out for sure, though.”
“We could always call Momma and ask her,” I suggested.
“How could she possibly know the answer to that?”
“Jake, the things my mother knows or can find out at a moment’s notice continue to amaze me even to this day.”
“She is pretty terrific,” Jake agreed, and then he quickly added, “And so is her daughter, for that matter.”
“We both thank you,” I said. “Now, we need to find Snappy’s son and then his girlfriend and see what they have to say.”
“Sanderson is probably home right now accepting visitors,” Jake said. “I took the liberty of doing a little preliminary work while you were getting ready, so I’ve got his address if you want to start with him.”
“I didn’t take that long on the phone before, did I?” I asked.
“No, but I’m just that good. Come on. Let’s go check out his house.”
We drove to the address Jake had found while I’d been on the phone earlier, and I prepared myself to brace a man who had just lost his father to a violent death. Whether they’d gotten along in life was irrelevant to me. The man had lost someone close to him, and I didn’t expect him to be in very good emotional shape. I started to feel bad for him as we rang the doorbell, but that evaporated quickly.
A pretty redhead answered the door wearing only a man’s dress shirt, and from the mussed condition of her hair, I suspected that she’d been doing something a little more than mourning with Snappy Mack’s son.
Chapter 4
“May I help you?” the redhead asked us after we all just stood there for a moment.
“Are you Madison, by any chance?” I asked her.
“Yes, I’m Madison Moore,” she said. “Who are you?”
“I’m Suzanne Hart, and this is my husband, Jake. We’re here to see Sanderson and offer him our condolences,” I said.
“Go on in. He’s in the living room,” she answered, and then she appeared to just realize what she was wearing. “Excuse me, but I spilled some wine on my dress, so Sandy was nice enough to loan me his shirt.”
Sandy, was it? Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been a perfectly valid excuse.
I just didn’t believe it.
“How sweet of him,” I said.
“Anyway, you can go on in. I’m heading home to change.”
“But you’ll be back soon, right?” Jake asked her politely.
Madison sized him up in a second, and I felt myself bristle as the woman treated my husband as a piece of meat. “You can count on it.”
I put my hand instinctively on Jake’s arm, but if Madison noticed it, she didn’t show it.
After she was gone, I told my husband in a soft voice, “Well, it appears that you’ve made yourself a new friend.”
“Suzanne, we need her to like us.”
“Agreed, but not too much, if you know what I mean.”
Jake was robbed of the opportunity to respond as we entered the living room. There were flowers and plants all around, as well as stacks of food placed on the folding tables. “Our deepest condolences,” I said as we approached him. I wished I’d made donuts so I could bring a gift of my own, but that hadn’t been an option, not that I was blaming the victim for shutting down my shop.
I blamed the killer and the killer alone for that.
“Thank you,” he said as he rose off the couch, shook our hands, and then sat heavily back down. I could see bits of his father in him, and I wondered how much he’d grow to resemble him in the future. “How did you know my father?”
“As a matter of fact, I was his last client,” I said, hating myself instantly for the way it must have sounded to him.
“You own the donut shop,” Sanderson said numbly.
“I had the privilege of spending some time with your father a few days ago,” Jake said smoothly, bailing me out from my awkward comment. “He was a unique individual, wasn’t he?” my husband asked Sanderson with a smile.
“That’s putting it mildly,” the man’s son said with a partial grin. “I can’t even imagine what he told you about me.”
Jake shrugged. “We’ve all been there. Fathers can be hard on their sons. I know that from firsthand experience myself.” Jake hadn’t had the greatest of childhoods, but it was something he rarely talked about, even with me. Was he trying to soften Sanderson up, or was he genuinely sharing his experiences with the man in an effort to console him? I suddenly realized that there was no reason he couldn’t be doing both things at the same time.
“What can I say? We just never seemed to manage to get along,” Sanderson said.
“I must say, it surprised me to find Madison here,” I said. “I just assumed that you two weren’t all that close, based on your relationship with your dad.”
“Believe it or not, Madison and I went to high school together,” Sanderson said a little ruefully. “You can imagine how thrilled I was when my dad started going out with her.”
“I hope she didn’t ruin her dress,” I said, looking to see if Sanderson would back up Madison’s story.
“She said it would be fine,” he replied absently. Maybe I’d jumped to conclusions earlier, and there really had been an accident. I would have loved to see that dress for myself to find out one way or the other, though. “I appreciate you stopping by.”
It was a clear dismissal, but I wasn’t ready to go quite just yet, though. “We just left Hank Bloch,” I said. “Has he been by to see you yet?”
“Actually, I went by the shop myself this morning. I wanted to talk to him about my father’s business holdings, but Hank insisted that we wait for the lawyers and the reading of Dad’s will. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel being partnered with the man, given his temperament.”
“Partners?” Jake asked softly.
“As my father’s only living heir, it’s just natural to assume that I’ll be getting everything he owned, including his share of the business.”
I was about to say something about what Hank Bloch had told us when Jake interrupted me. “We won’t keep you, then. We just wanted to stop by and offer you our condolences.”
I raised an eyebrow, but Jake barely shook his head. As we headed for the door, my husband paused and looked back at Sanderson Mack. “When did you see your father last, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I can’t believe it, but it was just yesterday afternoon,” Sanderson said. “That’s what’s so tragic about this. We’d finally managed to put our differences aside, and now this happens.” I thought they hadn’t gotten along. Was he backpedaling from that statement after realizing how it must have sounded to us?
“At least you can take some solace from that,” I said.
As Jake and I reached the door, the bell rang, and I found neighbors bearing food standing on the stoop. “Just put it in there,” I said as I pointed to the kitchen, and then Jake and I walked out of the house.
Once we were outside, I asked my husband, “What was that all about? Why didn’t you let me tell him that Hank Bloch has a completely different view on what happens to Snappy’s possessions?”
“Think about it for a second, Suzanne. It gains us nothing by telling him. Let’s see what he does when he finds out on his own.”
“If
Bloch was even right,” I said. “It sounds as though it’s about to be a real mess.”
“Aren’t you glad you’re not involved with the will?” Jake asked me as a sports car drove up and parked near us.
“For more reasons than I can count,” I said.
Madison got out, wearing a dress that was entirely too short for mourning, at least in my opinion.
She approached Jake and smiled. “This is much better, don’t you think?” she asked as she twirled around for him.
“I don’t know. The other outfit had its own merits, too,” my husband said with a grin as he looked at me.
I pinched him out of Madison’s sight.
“Are you leaving already?” she asked, clearly sounding disappointed with our coming absence. Could the woman not keep herself from flirting with any man within sight?
“Sorry, but we have to,” I said. “That’s a nice car you’ve got there.”
She beamed at it. “Thanks. Isn’t it super cute? It was a present from Snappy.” Lowering her voice, she leaned in and asked us softly, “Can you keep a secret? I’m getting a great deal more than a car. Snappy made out a new will recently. I’m getting everything, including this house.”
“Do you happen to have a copy of the will on you?” Jake asked. “I’d be interested in seeing it.”
The stylish redhead looked puzzled by the request. “No, it’s with my lawyers. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go in and keep Sandy company.”
“I understand you two went to school together,” I said.
“Isn’t that a hoot? I never dreamed I’d end up with his father. Well, I’ve got to go. Don’t be strangers now, you hear?”
After Madison was back inside, Jake’s frown blossomed. “Does everyone believe they’re going to inherit Snappy’s money?”
“It appears so,” I said. “Were you flirting with Madison just then?”
Mixed Malice Page 3