“You’d be surprised. A good crew could do it that fast, and this team is clearly good; there’s no doubt about it. What’s that?” he asked as he noticed a note sitting on the counter.
“It’s from Young,” I said as I read it aloud.
“Finished the inside.
Will start on the outside tomorrow.
Door locked and key enclosed.
Young.”
“He’s a man of few words when he’s writing a note, isn’t he?” Jake asked me with a grin.
“He can use smoke signals if he wants to, for all I care,” I replied. I turned the register on, opened the drawer, and put the key back where it belonged. A part of me felt good having it in my possession again, even though loaning it out had yielded terrific results. “I just wish our case against Snappy’s killer was going as smoothly as this remodel is.”
“Is it my turn to give you a pep talk?” Jake asked me with a grin. “Keep the faith, Suzanne. We’ll get there.”
“I hope so.”
“Are you ready to go home now, or do you want to stand around and admire the place a little more first?” my husband asked me, still smiling.
“No, we can go. After all, I’ll be back here soon enough.”
We left the donut shop together, and I felt more at peace than I had before the ice storm had damaged Donut Hearts. I wouldn’t be fully recovered until the exterior was repaired as well, but what I’d seen so far had encouraged me.
By this time tomorrow, my shop should be back to its former glory.
There was just one large item still on my checklist that was still nagging me, one that I needed to resolve before I’d be fully able to appreciate all that had happened.
We needed to find Snappy’s killer.
The next morning, I was careful not to wake Jake when I left the cottage. Driving through the dark streets of April Springs alone usually gave me a sense of comfort, but this morning I kept seeing demons hiding in the shadows. I parked my Jeep in front of the shop and raced inside, even though I had no real reason to panic. Still, I felt relieved once I was back where I belonged. For the moment, I vowed that things were going to get back to normal as I started the process yet again of making the morning’s donuts, but soon enough, it would be time to dig into the murder again. I decided not to focus on that, though, and I found refuge in my work as I made my preparations for a brand-new day. Today happened to be Emma’s day off, something she didn’t always take every week. I had two days off myself every week when she and her mother, Sharon, took over for me, and I didn’t begrudge her the one day she took every now and then herself. The truth of the matter was that I enjoyed working at the donut shop alone, even if it did mean that I’d most likely be buried in dishes until sometime past noon. Alone, the cleaning took on a Zen-like quality, and I found myself getting lost in the process, enjoying the journey as well as the final destination.
That peace was interrupted by my phone ringing two hours before I was set to open for the day.
“Hey, Suzanne. It’s Tammy. From Burt’s.”
“Hi, Tammy. Are you okay?” I asked immediately. “Did Lester decide not to leave town after all?”
“No, he’s gone. I watched him get on the bus, and it may be uncharitable to say it, but I hope I never see him again. Your husband is quite a fellow, isn’t he?”
“I like to think so. I’m glad you’re doing all right.”
“I appreciate that. Listen, the reason I’m calling is that I just found out something at the diner, and I knew you’d want to know about it as soon as possible.”
“Are you there working already?” I asked as I glanced at the clock. It was just past four, Emma’s normal time for coming in if she’d been on the schedule that day.
“I pulled the graveyard shift last night,” she said. “I don’t mind. We take turns, and my number came up. Nathan Glade came in for a chat and a bite to eat, and he just left.”
“I understand. One question.”
“What’s that?” she wanted to know.
“Should I know that name?” I asked.
Tammy laughed. “That’s right. Sometimes I forget you aren’t from around here. Nathan is an insomniac who happens to live across the street from Sanderson Mack.”
“We’ve met, actually,” I said. “I just didn’t know his name. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for him not to be able to sleep.”
“I know. It would drive me crazy, but he likes to come by Burt’s and chat with whoever’s on duty. The man’s the biggest gossip you’ve ever met in your life, but he’s nice enough. Anyway, we got to talking about Snappy and how so many folks had a reason to want to see harm come to him when Nathan said, ‘At least his son and his girlfriend are in the clear’.”
“What?” I asked. “Why did he say that?”
“Settle down. I’m getting right to it,” she said. “Nathan was keeping his usual vigil that night when he saw Madison show up around supper time. He never left his post, and he told me that he saw her roll back out around five a.m., and Sanderson walked her to her car. They thought they were being slick about it, but evidently the two of them have been seeing each other on the side for months.”
“Is Nathan sure it was the night before last?” I asked.
“He was dead positive when he told me about it,” Tammy said. “I told him to call the police, but knowing Nathan, it’s hard to say if he will or not. Anyway, I thought you’d want to know.”
“Thank you, Tammy. You may have just provided us with the key to solving this case.”
“Hey, I just wanted to do what I could to repay the kindness your husband did for me yesterday,” she said softly.
“Well, you can consider that loan paid in full, and then some.”
“I’m just glad I could be of help,” she said. “Listen, my break is over, so I’d better get back to it.”
“I’m sure we’ll see you before too long,” I said.
“You didn’t have to tell me that. I saw the way your husband’s eyes lit up when I mentioned the free pie,” she answered with a laugh.
I hung up and dialed Chief Grant’s number, not even caring that I was probably waking him from a sound sleep.
To my surprise, he sounded downright chipper when he answered my call. “Chief, it’s Suzanne. I’ve got to tell you something about Snappy Mack’s murder.”
“Suzanne, I can’t talk right now,” he said in a soft voice. “Are you in any danger?”
“No,” I said.
“Then I’ll call you back in a bit. Hang tight.”
And then he hung up on me.
It wasn’t the warmest reception I’d ever received in my life, but then again, I’d gotten worse ones as well.
I decided it was time to call Jake, no matter how late—or early—it might be.
“Jake, Tammy just called me.”
“Tell her I can be there in twenty minutes,” my husband said, coming fully alert on absolutely no notice at all.
“Hold on. It’s not that. She’s fine.”
“Then why did she call you?”
After I told him what Nathan had conveyed to her about Sanderson and Madison, my husband let out a deep breath. “So, it’s Bloch, then.”
“That’s what I think,” I said.
“Have you called the chief to tell him yet?”
“I tried to, but he was in a rush, so he’s going to call me back when he gets the chance.”
After a long pause, Jake asked, “Suzanne, do you want me to follow up with him?”
“No, you go back to bed. I can handle things from here on out.”
“Okay, but call me straightaway if you hear anything else, okay?”
“Will do.”
Forty-five minutes later, there
was a knock on my front door. I peeked outside to find Chief Grant standing there alone with a look of satisfaction on his face.
“Did you catch the killer?” I asked, knowing that it was probably the only thing that could make him grin like that.
“No, but we finally know who did it,” he said.
Before he could tell me, I said, “It was Hank Bloch.”
The chief looked at me oddly for a moment before he spoke. “How on earth did you know that?”
“I’m right though, aren’t I?”
“You are,” the chief said, “but I’d still love to know your source.”
“It’s just the process of elimination,” I said. “We know for a fact that Deloris didn’t do it; she was with her boyfriend in Tennessee the night of the murder. I just found out from a very credible source that Sanderson Mack and Madison Moore are both innocent. Well, I wouldn’t say they were innocent, not by any stretch of the imagination. Let’s just say that they aren’t guilty of Snappy Mack’s murder and leave it at that. The only viable suspect we had left on our list was Hank Bloch, and he certainly had motive enough and the opportunity to do it. How did you find out he was the killer?”
“It turned out to be simple police work,” the chief said. “Bloch wiped his fingerprints off the screwdriver handle, but he forgot the inside doorknob of your shop. There was no reason for his prints to be there at all, since he’s been vehemently denying that he’d ever been in this shop before yesterday. I’m guessing he paid a surprise visit here yesterday, didn’t he?”
“Yes. I thought he was here looking for more emeralds,” I said.
“Maybe, but what I think is that he was really just covering his tracks. If we hadn’t found those prints on the doorknob, we would have never been able to prove that he hadn’t left them there when he came to see you yesterday.”
“Now that you know who the killer is, what are you doing about it?” I asked him.
“That’s where I was when you called me a little while ago. We were getting ready to break into his shop and arrest him. His truck was parked in front, so we thought we had a pretty good idea that he was in there. Only he was gone by the time we got inside.”
“So, do you think he’s on the run?” I asked.
“Honestly, I’m not even sure he realizes that we know he did it. I’m expecting him back at the shop first thing this morning, acting as though nothing happened. When he shows up, we’ll be ready to nab him.”
“Good work, Chief,” I said, relieved that our independent conclusions had both landed on the same person.
“Right back at you,” Chief Grant said with a grin. “Well, I’m off. I’ll keep you informed.”
“How about some coffee for the road, and maybe a donut or two to go along with it?”
He smiled at me. “You know what? I don’t mind if I do. I’ll pay my own way, but that sounds great.”
“Come on. George won’t let me give him any freebies, but he’s the mayor. You’re a cop. Donuts are your national birthright.”
The police chief laughed, but he still shook his head. “As much as I appreciate the offer, I just can’t do it.”
“Fine, be that way,” I said as I stuck my tongue out at him. I took his money, bagged up a few cake donuts I’d just made, and got him a cup of coffee.
Once he was gone, I debated calling Jake when my cell phone rang again.
It was my husband.
“Did you hear the news?” I said. “The Chief agrees with our assessment. He found Hank Bloch’s fingerprints on the inside doorknob when he first got here. Thank goodness he and his team were thorough before Bloch could plant his fingerprints other places later.”
“So, it’s done then. Has he picked him up yet?”
“No, but he believes Hank doesn’t even realize his cover is blown. He and Chief Kessler have a team waiting at the construction company’s office. The second Hank shows his face, he’s going to be under arrest.”
“Good. Do you want me to come over and keep you company until we hear for sure that Hank has been arrested?”
“I have a feeling that the last place we need to worry about Hank Bloch showing up is at Donut Hearts. He’ll want to avoid this place like the plague now that he believes he’s covered his tracks by planting more of his fingerprints around the shop.”
“That makes sense, but call me if you need me, okay?”
“I will, but it’s not going to happen,” I said as I realized that I’d neglected to lock the front door again after the police chief had left. “Good night,” I said as I hung up and started toward the front of the shop.
I almost made it, but I wasn’t fast enough.
Before I could get the door locked again, Hank Bloch showed up out of the darkness and pushed his way in.
I couldn’t even protest.
Having a gun pointed at my heart managed to kill my words before I could speak them.
Evidently I’d made at least one mistake since I’d gotten to the donut shop.
I just hoped that it didn’t prove to be a fatal one.
Chapter 17
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you, Suzanne?” Hank Bloch asked me as he flipped off the main lights at the front of the donut shop. There was still enough light coming from the kitchen to illuminate our surroundings, but no one would be able to see us from outside. “I’ve been watching you since the start.”
“Why are you here?” I asked him in protest. “You should be out of the state by now.”
“Don’t play stupid with me,” he said. “I want the rest of those emeralds before I disappear. I know you found them, so don’t try to deny it.”
“Greed? That’s why you came back to the place where you murdered your partner? I don’t have them,” I said.
“I don’t believe you,” he said, moving even closer to me with the gun. Bloch was near enough now so that if he pulled the trigger, I knew that I wouldn’t stand a chance.
“I’m telling you the truth. I turned them over to the police the moment I found them,” I said. I was doing my best to sound convincing, but even though I was mostly telling the truth, my voice still wavered.
Bloch looked disgusted with me, evidently believing me at last. “You’re just stupid enough to do exactly that, aren’t you? Why didn’t you keep them for yourself?”
“Because they never really belonged to me,” I said.
“That’s why you’re running a two-bit donut shop. You don’t have any imagination. This is your building. Of course they belong to you.”
“Actually, we haven’t been able to figure that out yet,” I said.
“Well, you’re not getting the ones I found,” he said, frowning as a car drove by. It was the newspaper delivery guy, but Bloch didn’t know that.
“The police are patrolling the neighborhood searching for you. You might as well give yourself up,” I said, trying to pull off one of the biggest bluffs of my life.
“Nice try, but no sale,” he said, but he still glanced out the window as the car passed by again going in the other direction.
“You didn’t realize I’d be out yesterday morning when you drove by the shop, did you? I tried to see who was driving that car, but it was too dark inside to tell. It had to be you, so don’t bother trying to deny it.”
“Why should I? It was me. I own more than a work truck, Suzanne,” he said. “I thought I’d pop over and see if there was anything else of value hidden in your walls here, but evidently you beat me to it.”
“The paper bag over the license plate was a nice touch. It really threw me off.”
“What can I say? I had to improvise. I can’t believe I’m not getting the rest of those emeralds.”
“Is that why you killed your business partner? Over a handful of jewels?”
The contractor looked at me with real anger. “I came over here to ask him for a loan, and he laughed at me. He said I could gamble my money away all I wanted to, but I wasn’t going to get my hands on any of his. That’s when I saw an emerald lying on the floor. I confronted him about it, and the fool tried to hide it from me! He made one last mistake and turned his back on me. The screwdriver was right there, so I used it to shut up his mocking mouth forever.”
“You never really dreamed that his will leaving everything to you would stand up in court, did you?” One look at his face told me that I’d just scored a direct hit. “That’s why you didn’t kill him before,” I said. “You couldn’t afford to take the chance.” I wasn’t stalling. I wanted to know the truth. If I was about to die, at least I wouldn’t go without knowing what had really happened. “You knew all along that you wouldn’t get a dime of his money.”
“I would have if he hadn’t found out about my little gambling problem. He told me he wasn’t about to leave everything he’d worked so hard to acquire to someone who was just going to fritter it all away. As if his son, his girlfriend, or even his ex-wife wouldn’t have done the same thing I would have with it.”
“Who really gets his money? Do you even know?”
Bloch shrugged. “At this point, it doesn’t matter, at least not to me. I guess I’ll just have to make do with what I’ve got. I know one thing. I can’t stay here. The police are on to me. I nearly got caught driving home from a poker game this morning, but I happened to see a squad car staking out my house, so I kept driving past.”
“Well, you’re welcome to my petty cash, but that’s all I can give you. If you want to tie me up before you go, there’s some duct tape in the back you can use.”
Mixed Malice Page 14