“You know what we need to do,” Jake said with a grim expression.
“Call Chief Grant?” I asked.
“True, but it’s not time to do that just yet. Suzanne, how do you feel about a little more impromptu remodeling?”
That’s when I got it. “We need to pull the rest of the plaster from the walls to make sure there’s nothing else there.”
“I’m truly sorry about that.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “As you told me earlier, at least I’ll be able to pay for the remodeling now.”
“We’ll have to wait to see about that, I’m afraid,” Momma said.
“What do you mean?”
“There are still Hathaways in town,” she said softly.
“And if these stones belong to them, they can’t belong to me.”
“Not necessarily,” Jake said. “The insurance company had to have paid for the loss. Technically, the jewels could still belong to whoever insured the old man.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said. “No matter who’s paying, the plaster in here still needs to come off the walls.”
“Would you like me to do it?” Jake asked gently.
“Thanks, but no. I seem to have a knack for it.”
In short order, there was no more plaster on any of the walls out front.
I took no solace in the fact that we hadn’t made any more discoveries.
Evidently we’d cleared the last cache there had been.
Now the question was what were we going to do about our discovery?
“Does anyone have any idea how we can use these stones to our advantage?” Jake asked as we finished picking up the plaster remnants, bagging them, and dumping them out in back of the shop. Snappy had rented a dumpster for demolition, but he’d opted for the smallest version available, and it was getting perilously full.
“You make them sound so common, but they can be quite rare,” Momma said. “I’ve loved emeralds for years. Did you realize that some of the finest in the world have been found right here in North Carolina?”
“I’m guessing that these weren’t, though,” Jake said. “I fully realize that we need to tell the chief of police about these, but the question is, when do we make the call?” he asked after a moment’s thought.
“Immediately,” Phillip said firmly. “He probably doesn’t have any idea what the real motive in Snappy’s murder was.”
“We don’t know that for sure ourselves yet,” Jake reminded him.
Phillip countered, “If Snappy wasn’t killed for the emeralds, then where exactly are the other stones? They obviously aren’t here, and there were sections of the newspaper from the same time period in both cavities, the one we found, and Snappy’s original discovery. Those emeralds are out there somewhere. If nothing else, their absence here demands it.”
“That’s assuming the entire lot was stashed here originally,” I said.
“You don’t think someone hid these recently, do you?” Momma asked me.
“No, that plaster was far too old for that to be possible. What if there were two thieves, though, and only one hid his share here? Or what if there was a single thief, and he split them up, hiding them in different places?”
“It still doesn’t explain the newspaper you saw on the floor when you found Snappy’s body,” Jake said. “We know for a fact it didn’t come from the hiding place we found tonight.”
Phillip stared off into space for a few moments before he spoke again. “It’s safer to assume that the entire hoard was stashed here, and I may know the answer as to why.”
“Have you been holding out on us, Phillip?” Jake asked the retired chief of police. His voice was light and airy, but there was a hint of steel in it as well.
“No, not at all. I just realized something, that’s all.”
“Well, don’t keep it to yourself, dear,” Momma told her husband. “Share it with the rest of the class.”
“Repairs were made on this structure around the time of the robbery when this place was still an active train depot and not a donut shop,” Phillip explained. “I wasn’t looking for the information, but in one of the articles in the archives about the theft, there was mention of a contractor working here during that time.”
I knew my building had a wonderful history of serving the residents of April Springs, but it was nice to be reminded of it. “Do you have any idea who the contractor was?”
“Henry Chastain,” he said after consulting his notes.
“You thought that was important enough to write down?” Momma asked him.
Phillip reddened slightly. “I thought Suzanne might find it interesting, that’s all.”
“I do,” I said. “Thank you for thinking of me.”
“Happy to,” he answered, clearly uncomfortable about the attention.
“Getting back to the case,” Jake said, reminding us all of what we were talking about. “How is that significant?”
“Chastain had a daughter named Bess who worked as the upstairs maid at the Hathaway home,” Phillip said. “There was some speculation when she disappeared shortly after the theft, but most folks figured she’d just run off with Barton Grass. Only Barton came back through town years later and claimed that he’d last seen Bess the day before she’d disappeared, and he just assumed there had been someone else in her life.”
“So, the girl disappears about the same time as the theft,” Jake said, and I could almost see the wheels churning in his mind. “If she’d absconded with the stones, that would be one thing, but why hide them here and then disappear?”
“What if she never went anywhere?” Phillip asked gravely. “Fifteen years ago, they had to drain the quarry for an expansion project, and they found the skeletal remains of a woman in her late teens or early twenties. There was a pendant around her neck with a large C on it, and some folks thought it might be the missing Chastain girl.”
“So, she stole the gems after conking Hathaway on the noggin, took them here in the dead of night and hid them behind the walls her father was fixing the next day. What happened to her after that? And if those were her bones in the quarry, did someone kill her, or did she drown herself out of remorse for what she’d done?” I asked.
“I’m not sure we’ll ever know the answer to those questions,” Jake said as he stood beside one of the walls that had been demolished before I’d gotten started myself. Shining a much bigger flashlight into the opening than I’d had, he took out another baggie, reached down, and worked something loose that had shone in the light.
“Well, will you look at that? I just found another emerald,” he said in surprise. “Evidently both batches were originally hidden here after all.”
“Where did you find that?” I asked as I joined him. “I checked that wall myself.”
“It wasn’t easy to spot,” Jake said. “It had fallen down and wedged itself between two floorboards. I’m guessing Snappy missed it, and so did his killer. I doubt the police had much call to search it so thoroughly without knowing about the emeralds hidden there.”
“So, both sets of jewels were here until they were unearthed recently,” Momma said. “We need to check the local pawnshops and jewelry stores.”
I doubted my mother had ever been in a pawnshop in her life, though I knew she’d visited more than one jeweler in her day. “That’s a leap, isn’t it?” I asked her.
“Hear me out. The jewelry-store angle might not make sense after all. There could be some embarrassing questions that the killer wouldn’t be able to answer. No, the pawnshop would be the better choice,” Momma said. “Suzanne, let’s say you killed Snappy.”
I interrupted her. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather we didn’t.”
“Fine. We’ll call the killer X for convenience’s sake
. X comes to the donut shop to see Snappy. Maybe one of his potential heirs found out they weren’t getting what they’d been promised. The killer catches Snappy with the stolen gems and decides to get what’s rightfully coming to them, at least in their minds. They stab him with the screwdriver and grab the stones. Only they’re in a hurry, and for some reason, they can’t hang around much longer to search for any more that might have been hidden here. They scoop up the stones they can see, and then they leave as quickly as they can. Only there’s a problem. Greed sets in. What if there are more stones hidden than Snappy found? It’s a natural enough thing to wonder. Soon, it’s all the killer can think about, the possibility that there are more, even better jewels, still hidden here. It makes sense that the killer would come back to Donut Hearts to see what they might have missed after everyone has gone home for the night.”
The premise gave me chills. “Are you saying whoever killed Snappy is coming back tonight?”
“It’s entirely possible,” Momma said. “Anyway, it’s all just idle speculation at this point, but it might be worth sticking around in order to find out one way or the other.”
I looked over to see Jake and Phillip looking at my mother in awe. “You know, you might just be right, Dorothea,” Jake said, and then he turned to Momma’s husband. “What do you say, Phillip? Do you feel like going out on a stakeout with me here tonight?”
“Shouldn’t we just turn this over to Chief Grant and be done with it?” I asked.
Jake frowned for a moment before answering. “He’s spread thin as it is, and we don’t have much in the way of hard evidence to go on as things stand. What could it hurt to wait and bring him up to speed in the morning?”
“No hard evidence other than the emeralds, you mean?” I asked him with a grin.
“Sure, other than that. Don’t forget, Phillip and I are both perfectly capable of handling things here on the off chance the killer does decide to come back, and if they don’t show, we haven’t wasted any of the police chief’s valuable time. What do you say? Wouldn’t you love to know who did this, Suzanne?”
“I would,” I admitted. “Momma, what do you think?”
Phillip looked at her with open anticipation, and I had a feeling that she found she couldn’t bring herself to say no to him. “Fine, but I’m setting a few conditions before I agree to anything.”
“Whatever you say,” Phillip said.
“Hang on a second. What did you have in mind, Dorothea?” Jake asked my mother.
“No worries, it shouldn’t be too arduous for either one of you. If you hear someone outside trying to break in, or if you suspect something is about to happen, you are to call the chief and tell him what you’re doing, and I mean immediately. Do not, under any circumstances, try to handle this without him. Have I made myself understood?”
Both men nodded as though they were a pair of scolded schoolchildren, and I could see that it was all Momma could do not to laugh out loud at them. I myself was biting my lower lip in an effort not to let my mirth explode.
“Very well. If you two are going to stay here on your stakeout, these gems are going directly into my safe at home.”
“What if we need a few of them for bait later?” Jake asked.
“I’ve got something that should do nicely in their place, but we’re not risking these,” Momma said.
Jake frowned, clearly unhappy about this latest development. “No offense, Dot, but there are a great many crooks who will know a fake from a mile away.”
“What makes you think I have any fakes?” Momma asked him with a grin.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Jake asked her, smiling in kind.
“I have my moments. As for visiting the pawnshops in the area, where else would an amateur unload several emeralds in a hurry if the jewelry stores would be unavailable to them? Surely they don’t want to be caught red-handed with the emeralds. If tonight yields no results, we need to get Chief Grant’s approval to start visiting pawnshops in the area and see if anyone’s been trying to unload some cut emeralds that haven’t been set yet.” She turned to her husband as she added, “Now, Phillip, you’ll need some provisions for this little adventure you’re going to have tonight. Would you like to stay here with Jake while I fetch them, or would you care to come with me?” The man looked absolutely traumatized by the prospect of leaving the donut shop, so Momma quickly added, “Never mind. Suzanne, would you care to join me?”
“You bet I would,” I said as I paused to kiss my husband good-bye, at least for the moment, and walked out of the shop with my mother.
Chapter 9
By the time we got back to the donut shop with supplies, the men were settled in. Jake had even made coffee, something I’d neglected to do. “I’m glad to see that you men can take care of yourselves,” I said as I handed them both sandwiches for later.
“Don’t be too confident in our abilities,” Jake said with a smile. “What else do you have in that bag?”
“There are all kinds of goodies,” Momma said. “What have you two been up to since we’ve been gone?”
“We decided that the best place to wait for any unwelcome visitors is behind the counter,” Phillip said. “By the way, where did you get those moving blankets in back, Suzanne?”
“One of my out-of-town customers lost his wallet last week, so we bartered for donuts,” I said. “I don’t normally do that, but he comes by every month, and he’s a really nice guy. He makes some of the blankets that movers use, and that was all he had in his truck. I still might not have done it, but he had his little boy with him, and there was no way I was going to say no to that sweet little face. I offered to float him the donuts on credit, but he wouldn’t hear of it, thus the blankets. I’m glad you’re putting them to good use.”
“I think you got the better part of the deal,” Jake said. “Not that your donuts aren’t worth every penny, but exactly how many donuts did you trade for?” When I didn’t say anything, Jake raised an eyebrow, showing that he was still waiting for my answer. I wasn’t going to be able to duck this one.
“Okay, so I gave him two twenties so he could buy enough gas to get back home, as well,” I said. “Nobody here had better judge me. If you’d been in my shoes, you’d have done the exact same thing.”
Momma walked over and, without a word, hugged me fiercely. “I’m proud of you, Suzanne.”
“I hope so, but this was just the right thing to do. Anybody would have done it in my place.”
“Would that it were true,” Momma said, and then she looked at our husbands. “I’ve been giving this some thought, and I truly believe that you should inform the chief of police about what’s going on before you conduct your stakeout tonight.” Before either man could speak, Momma raised a hand in the air to keep them silent, and they clearly knew better than to challenge her. “I fully realize that you are both immensely overqualified to do this on your own, but do I really need to remind you that neither of you are still active in law enforcement? Besides, isn’t there such a thing as professional courtesy? How is Stephen Grant going to feel when he hears about this?”
Momma was clearly going to go on, but she was interrupted by a knock at the door. Chief Grant himself walked in after I let him in, and he was carrying three sleeping bags with him to boot. “Sorry I’m late,” he said with a grin.
“Did you two call him?” Momma asked the men sternly.
“We came to the same conclusion you did earlier,” Phillip said with a smile.
“Then why on earth did you let me go on lecturing you?” she asked them.
Jake laughed. “I don’t know about your husband, but there was no way that I was going to interrupt you when you were on a roll like that.”
Momma looked at me. “Men.”
“I quit trying to figure them out years ago, and I’m much happ
ier these days,” I told her.
“Sorry, dear,” Phillip said. “We should have led with that.”
“No worries,” my mother said as she patted his cheek affectionately. She then turned to the police chief. “Does your presence mean that you approve of this impromptu stakeout?”
“The emeralds may just help me solve this murder case, so I’m not exactly in any position to be picky at this point. Besides, if the killer does come back, we might have this thing wrapped up by midnight. The worst thing that can happen is that I get to spend a few hours with two of my predecessors, and I’m not foolish enough to pass up an opportunity to learn more from them.”
“You’re further along than you give yourself credit for,” Jake said.
“I agree completely,” Phillip added.
“Thanks. I appreciate that more than I can say.” The chief looked at us in turn, and then he said, “Ladies, I hate to kill this party, but there’s no way anybody’s going to try to break in if it looks like we’re having a bash in here.”
“You’re right,” I said as I stifled a yawn. “Besides, if I’m going to be making donuts soon, I’d better get at least a little sleep. Are you coming, Momma?”
“I’m right behind you,” she replied. “Now you gentlemen be careful, do you understand me?”
“Don’t worry about us. If someone tries to get in here, they won’t stand a chance,” Phillip said with a grin. It was clear he was having the time of his life.
“Just don’t do anything foolish,” Momma replied.
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