Mixed Malice

by Beck, Jessica

  Bloch shook his head. “What makes you think I’m going to tie you up?”

  “You’re going to kill me?” I asked, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. “Why? I haven’t done a thing to you. No one will find me for hours if you just lock me in the closet in back. You’ll be long gone by then.”

  “Correction. We’ll be long gone. You see, you’re coming with me.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I need a hostage, just in case,” he said, the ice clear in his voice. “If you behave yourself, you might just get through this alive. Now let’s go!”

  I knew if I left Donut Hearts with this killer, there was a real chance that I’d never live to see the dawn. “What about my money in back? Don’t you want that?”

  “You said it was petty cash. How much could it be?” he asked me as he glanced back outside again. “Come on. Quit stalling. Nobody’s coming to your rescue.”

  “Do you really think seven emeralds will be enough to last you for the rest of your life?” I asked him.

  “It’s just five now,” Bloch said in disgust.

  “What happened to the other two? Did you gamble them away already?”

  “In a way, I guess I did just that. I planted the two smallest stones on Sanderson and Madison,” he said. “That turned out to be a mistake, but I’ll just have to manage as it is. Better to be poor and alive than rich and sitting in jail. Enough stalling. Let’s go.”

  “Can I at least grab my jacket?” I asked. “It’s cold out there.”

  He looked at me suspiciously. “Why, do you have a gun in one of your pockets?”

  “No, of course not,” I said, wishing that it were true.

  “Tough it up. You won’t be cold for too long,” he said.

  That’s when I knew that he had never planned on letting me go.

  I needed to do something, and it had to be fast, or it was going to be the end of me once and for all.

  Chapter 18

  There was a stack of folding chairs near the door where Young had left them when he’d left earlier. If I could somehow manage to trip Bloch with them, I might be able to get away from him before he could recover.

  As he walked me to the door, I lunged for the chairs, but he was too quick for me, jumping nimbly out of the way before they could even slow him down.

  All I’d managed to do was make him even angrier with me.

  “Is that the way it’s going to be?” I felt the gun barrel being jammed into my back. “Suzanne, do you want to die?”

  “No, but do I really have any choice?”

  “Not if you keep acting like that,” he said. “Now go!” Bloch nudged me again, and I had no choice but to cooperate this time.

  It was dark outside, with just a dim streetlight down the road offering little illumination. I could see his car, the same black sedan I’d seen the morning before driving past the donut shop, parked off to one side of the parking lot. The contractor moved me quickly to the car, and I decided that I’d have to risk opening the back door as he drove and jumping out, no matter how fast he might be going.

  But apparently that wasn’t going to happen, either.

  Hank Bloch reached for his keys to open the trunk, and I knew that I was going inside.

  “I’m afraid of tight spaces,” I said, pleading with the man not to stuff me in the trunk. It wasn’t entirely true, but I was legitimately terrified that if I got in there, I’d be a dead woman. That part of my fear was real enough.

  “It won’t be for long. Just until we get out of town.”

  He started to put his trunk key in the lock when he fumbled it and his key ring slipped to the ground.

  I didn’t even take a moment to consider my options.

  I ran.

  There was only one real place I could go. I didn’t even consider sticking to the road, even though it would lead me either to Jake or to the police station, depending on the way I chose, but there were streetlights along the way, and I knew that Bloch would be able to pick me off with that gun without a problem. Would he be able to shoot me in the back, though? I didn’t want to find out. I tore off across the street and straight into the park. There were trees there, some still down from the ice storm, and it was dark.

  If I could get to Jake, maybe he’d be able to save me.

  But there was a lot of ground to cover before I made it back to my cottage.

  I didn’t have to wonder if Bloch would shoot me for very much longer. I heard the gunshot behind me almost at the same time I felt a bullet slam past me, flipping my ponytail before burying itself in a nearby tree.

  “Come back here!” Bloch was fully enraged now, shouting at me in the darkness, frustrated by my complete lack of cooperation.

  Good.

  I didn’t waste my breath responding.

  As I ran, I kept zigzagging back and forth, doing my best to make myself a hard target to hit. When I risked a glance backward, I saw that he was much too close, running after me with his right arm extended, looking for another clear shot. Why was he pursuing me and not running away? What good would it do him to kill me now? I wanted to shout out his illogical behavior, but I needed every gasp of breath I had just to stay alive.

  Another shot rang out, and it felt even closer than the last one had. I braced myself for impact, but it never came.

  Dodging behind a tree for some cover, my foot hit an exposed root, and I felt myself going down. I tried to scramble back onto my feet, but I must have twisted my ankle during the fall!

  I was dead, and I knew it.

  As Bloch came toward me, he slowed a little, smiling in the dim light at my predicament.

  But I wasn’t finished yet.

  I frantically felt around on the ground for something, anything I could use in my own defense. My hands closed on some dried leaves and a bit of a branch that had fallen during the ice storm. As Bloch approached, I did my best to fling the leaves directly in his face, and then I quickly followed up by swinging the branch toward his gun, hoping to dislodge it and buy myself some time.

  Both of my attempts failed miserably, but at least I’d tried.

  There was nothing else to do but face my fate.

  That wasn’t entirely true, though.

  With what very well might have been my final breath, I screamed out my husband’s name. “Jake!” It might be the last thing I ever said in this world, but if that was how my life was to end, I wanted to die with my husband’s name on my lips.

  “Drop it,” I heard my dear, sweet spouse’s voice say from the darkness a split second later.

  Bloch started to swing his pistol around to the sound of Jake’s voice as well.

  “Last chance,” Jake said coldly, and I could hear the Angel of Death in his voice.

  Evidently so could the contractor.

  Hank Bloch dropped the weapon instantly, and once more, perhaps for the final time, I was miraculously saved at the last possible second.

  Chapter 19

  Three days later, my ankle fine again, I was back at the donut shop serving my customers their donuts for the day when Jake walked in.

  “That’s not a happy look on your face,” I said the moment I saw his frown.

  “It’s fine. It’s just that nobody’s sure what happened to the five emeralds Bloch supposedly had on him when the Chief searched him after his arrest. It’s as though they just vanished into thin air.”

  “He couldn’t have swallowed them, could he?”

  “No, they would have turned up by now if that were the case,” Jake said as he shook his head.

  “Have they still not found the gems he planted on Sanderson and Madison?” I asked as I got him a cup of coffee.

  “They haven’t turned up either, and the pair won’t admit to finding them on th
eir own. My best guess is that they discovered the emeralds and decided to keep them for themselves. It would be just like them, wouldn’t it?”

  “They’re like a pair of dogs fighting over table scraps,” I said, wondering how that unholy alliance would ever last.

  “Have you heard any word on who is going to eventually get Snappy’s money?” Jake asked me.

  “As a matter of fact, Adam just called,” I said. “Evidently, Snappy had a change of heart in the end and gave it all to Deloris after all. There was a will that he’d had notarized two days before he died and a note attached to it. He explained that the failure of their marriage was mostly his fault, and if he had it all to do over again, he never would have left her. It was his way of apologizing for being such a miserable husband. Actually, it was kind of sweet the way it all worked out in the end.”

  “So, Sanderson and Madison are going to have to make do with the illicit gains from the sale of two small emeralds. I wish there was a way to keep them from even getting that much,” Jake said. “Snappy might have been a decent businessman, but he certainly surrounded himself with some less-than-stellar people, including his own son.”

  “It’s not much of a legacy to leave behind, is it?” I asked.

  “No, it’s not,” Jake agreed. He finally smiled as he looked at me. “The outside looks just as good as the inside, doesn’t it?”

  “I’d hire Young again in a heartbeat. He and his crew do excellent work.”

  “Let’s hope you never need him,” Jake said. “Have you thought any more about the emeralds you found here?”

  “According to Momma’s lawyer, their fate will be tied up in court for years. There are so many claims on them they may never sort it out. The insurance company wants them, four surviving Hathaway heirs are filing counterclaims, and Momma is urging me to put my two cents in as well.”

  “What are you going to do?” Jake asked me.

  “On the face of it, I’d feel foolish not to at least try, don’t you think? Especially with Momma offering to foot the legal expenses, something we surely can’t afford on our own.”

  “How do you feel about her doing that?” Jake asked me.

  “If it’s okay with you, I say we take her up on her kind offer. Momma’s not doing it for free, though. She’s offering me a fifty-fifty split if we win. If you ask me, I think she’s doing it for the sheer fun of it.”

  Jake laughed. “That sounds good to me. Why not roll the dice and see what happens?”

  “Be careful there. That’s what got Hank Bloch in trouble in the first place,” I reminded him.

  “I thought his game of choice was poker,” Jake said.

  “You well know what I mean. So, would you like a donut to go with that coffee?”

  I was expecting him to turn me down, but instead, he grinned and said, “I wouldn’t mind an old-fashioned cake donut at that.”

  “You’re such a risk taker,” I said as I got him his usual fare.

  “Tell you what. Make it iced,” Jake said.

  “Wow, now you’re really living on the edge.”

  “What can I say? We need to grab life and get the most out of it that we can.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more,” I said as I got him his donut.

  On impulse, I grabbed one for myself, and since we were slow at the moment, I carried both treats around the counter, and we sat at one of the new pieces of furniture my friends had given me after the ice storm. As we ate and chatted, I looked around the donut shop. The shiplap whitewashed walls were perfect, and the patterned gray wood simulated hardwood floors looked as though they’d been there for a hundred years.

  I promised myself that I wouldn’t be upset about the court’s decision as to who the emeralds eventually belonged to, no matter what they ended up deciding.

  After all, I was already the richest woman in town if the love and affection of my husband, my family, my friends, and my customers counted for anything.

  And for me, they meant everything!

  Recipes

  Momma’s Turkey Chili (NEW)

  We used to make a variation of this recipe with ground beef, but lately we’ve switched to ground turkey or even chicken. I’ve served this to guests who’ve had no idea it wasn’t my regular ground beef chili, and it’s fast become a favorite of mine. The heat of the chili can be adjusted accordingly, but I strongly suggest including at least a little chili powder for the flavor range it brings. My spouse suggested the pasta addition long ago after attending the University of Kentucky, which happens to be close to Ohio, and this is a variation of the famed Cincinnati Chili. With or without the pasta, though, this recipe is a real keeper!

  Ingredients

  1 pound ground turkey (ground chicken or ground beef 80/20 can be substituted)

  1 medium onion, diced, yellow or white

  1 medium green bell pepper, diced

  1 medium red (or yellow) bell pepper, diced

  1 15-oz. (approximate) can tomato sauce

  1 to 3 tablespoons chili powder (depending on the amount of heat you like)

  1 teaspoon sugar

  1 teaspoon salt

  1 teaspoon black pepper

  1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

  * Approximately 1 tablespoon olive oil needed to cover the bottom of the pan if poultry is used

  1 15-oz. (approximate) can dark-red kidney beans, drained

  2 to 4 oz. cooked spaghetti noodles, added just before serving (amount is matter of preference)

  Directions

  In a large pan, brown the ground meat, diced onion, and diced green and red bell peppers until thoroughly cooked. Add the tomato sauce, chili powder, sugar, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce and stir in thoroughly, then bring to a boil. Back off the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for one hour, stirring occasionally. Add the drained kidney beans, stir them in, and then heat throughout for 15 to 20 minutes. Just before serving, add the pasta, incorporating it thoroughly before dishing it out.

  Feeds 3 to 4 people.

  Lemon Donut Treats

  There’s something about the taste of lemon to me, whether in a donut, a drink, a pie, or a bowl of sherbet. My family has learned to indulge me when I go through these periods of lemon craziness, mostly because they’re just as passionate about my lemon donuts as I am. To add a little more zest to the treats, I’ve formulated a simple lemon glaze that enhances the donuts into pure delight!

  Ingredients

  Mixed

  1 egg, lightly beaten

  1/2 cup whole milk (2% will do)

  1 tablespoon canola oil (any vegetable oil will do)

  1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract

  Sifted

  1 cup flour, unbleached all-purpose

  1/2 cup sugar, granulated

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

  1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

  1/4 teaspoon salt

  Directions

  Preheat your oven to 365 degrees F.

  In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly, and then add the milk, canola oil, and lemon extract. Set this aside, and in another medium-sized bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.

  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring along the way until the mix has a smooth consistency.

  Place the batter in a greased donut pan and bake for seven to nine minutes or until the donuts are a golden brown but not too dark.

  Remove the donuts to a cooling rack, and while they are still warm, drizzle them with the lemon glaze mentioned below for a truly delightful treat!

  Yield: 8 to 10 small donuts

  Lemon Glaze

  This is a simple
and easy glaze that’s sure to be a hit! We like it not only on our lemon donuts but on pound cake, sugar cookies, and anything else we can think of! For a little added zip, add the zest of half a lemon to the mixture as well.

  1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

  1 tablespoon warm water

  1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

  (The zest from half a lemon, optional)

  In a medium-sized bowl, mix confectioner’s sugar, water, and lemon extract. Combine until the sugar is dissolved into a glaze and then drizzle on top of the donuts while they are still warm.

  My Favorite Apple Pie Recipe

  There are times when I love a good double-crust apple pie, but lately the only pie my family clamors for is one with a crisp topping. We’ve even made this without the crust on occasion, but for my taste, it’s best when it’s served as pie. I was going to say plain and simple, but there’s nothing plain or simple about this recipe. Add a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream to the top of a warm piece of pie, and it’s just about as close to perfection in the kitchen as you’re ever going to get! This pie is wonderful fresh out of the oven and piping hot or served a day or two later, either served at room temperature or straight from the refrigerator, though most of my pies never make it that long!

  Ingredients

  5–6 cups thinly sliced firm, tart apples

  (Granny Smiths work well in this recipe, as do Staymen and Gala. I like to mix my apples, using three-quarters Granny Smith and one-quarter Staymen or Gala)

  1⁄2 cup granulated sugar

  3 tablespoons all-purpose unbleached flour

  1 teaspoon nutmeg

  1 teaspoon cinnamon

  Dash of salt