Assault and Batter

by Jessica Beck

  “For being here, and always taking my side, no matter what,” I said with a grin as I pulled away.

  “Goodness, I can’t imagine being any other way,” she said as she returned my grin.

  We’d had our share of issues over the years, but I loved where we were right now in our relationship. “Now, I’d better wash up, too.”

  “Don’t worry; we’ll wait for you. Perhaps,” she added with a twinkle in her eye. Momma was definitely happier these days, and I knew that Chief Martin being in her life had a great deal to do with it. That factor alone had made me more willing to accept the man for what he was, and in turn, he’d begun to trust my unofficial capabilities more. I knew that something might derail our new spirit of cooperation, though, so I planned to enjoy it all while I could.

  I took a chicken leg, basted in sauce and simmering in the oven for an hour, and helped myself to some of the veggies my mother was so good at making. After cutting them into chunks, she drizzled them in olive oil and added a little sea salt, then roasted them in the oven. They were incredible, each bite perfectly done, crisp on the outside and perfect inside. The chicken was moist and juicy, and I added a little of Momma’s sauce from the pan to top mine off.

  After we’d eaten, Momma said, “It always amazes me how good something can be that doesn’t cost all that much to prepare and serve.”

  “You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Grace said. “I could take the exact same ingredients and render them into something entirely inedible.”

  “I’m sure you’re just being too hard on yourself.”

  “Obviously you’ve never tasted her cooking,” I said with a smile.

  Grace laughed at my comment. “You’re one to talk.”

  “Hey, I’m a specialist more than a general chef. I might not be able to do much besides make donuts, but I’m very good at what I do.”

  “Agreed,” Grace said as she stood and started gathering dishes.

  Momma stood as well. “Grace, leave those to me.”

  “We don’t mind helping,” I said as I joined them as they cleared the table. “After all, it’s the least that we can do.”

  Normally Momma might fight me on it, but this time she just smiled. “If you’re sure you two don’t mind, I’ve gotten into a new mystery that I just can’t put down. It’s about a diner, of all things, if you can imagine that.”

  “Is it all about the food?” Grace asked. “I might like to read that myself when you’re finished.”

  “Not just comfort food, but crime solving, too,” Momma said. “There’s a large family working at the diner itself, but the main amateur detectives are a granddaughter and her grandfather. I’ll be honest with you. I hesitated to start reading books electronically at first, but once I took the plunge, I was sold.”

  “Sometimes they make life easier than toting books around, don’t they?” I said. “My book group has been picking some huge books lately, and I have to admit, I enjoy the rest it gives my arms not having to hold a paper book up at night.”

  “Go on and read,” Grace said. “We’ve got this.”

  As we cleared the dishes and put the leftovers away in the fridge, Grace asked me, “Have you come up with any new ideas?”

  “About who killed Jude?” I asked.

  “No, I was wondering what you were going to do about the wedding donuts.”

  I hit my forehead. “Honestly, I forgot all about them.”

  “Well, you’d better come up with something,” Grace said. “Emily’s expecting miracles from you, and if I know her mother, she’s not going to accept anything less than perfection.”

  “After we finish the dishes, let’s invite Momma to brainstorm with us. She’ll get a kick out of it, and I could use all of the help I can get.”

  “I’m all for it,” Grace said.

  We made short work of the dishes, and when we came into the living room, we found Momma engrossed in her e-reader.

  “Do you have a minute?” I asked her.

  “Of course,” she said as she turned it off and put it on the coffee table. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m afraid that I might be in over my head with something,” I said.

  Momma just smiled. “It wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve ever heard that in your life.”

  I laughed, recalling the times in the past that I’d said the exact same thing. “It’s different this time, since Emily wants me to create wedding donuts for the reception in honor of the role I played in getting her and Max together.”

  “Personally, I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

  “You don’t think it’s a little unconventional?” I asked her.

  “Suzanne, being the maid of honor in your ex-husband’s wedding sort of threw conventionality out the window, wouldn’t you say?”

  “So, what are your thoughts?” I asked.

  “How about devil’s food cake donuts for the groom, and angel-food cake donuts for the bride?” she asked with that grin of hers.

  “That’s it,” I said. “It’s perfect.”

  “Suzanne, I was just joking,” Momma said.

  “You may have been,” Grace replied for me, “but I think it’s excellent, too. Suzanne, you can ice the angel food cake donuts with white icing, and the devil’s-food cake with chocolate. Done and done.”

  “Hang on. Before we get too excited about this, I need to run it by Emily first,” I said as I reached for my cellphone. “She might not find it as amusing as we do.”

  A few minutes later, I hung up and stared at Grace and Momma.

  “What did she say?” Grace asked.

  “She loved it,” I said. “Momma, you hit a home run with that idea.”

  “I hope you didn’t tell her that it came from me, Suzanne,” Momma said.

  “I told her that it was a group effort after much consultation and deliberation,” I replied with a grin. “Why, did you want solo credit?”

  “No, I can live with what you said just fine.” I saw her looking at her e-reader. “Was there anything else I could do to help?”

  “No, you can go back to your book,” I said as I kissed her cheek. “Thanks again. You’re a genius.”

  “Hardly,” Momma said, but she wasn’t entirely unhappy about my praise.

  “Now that that particular dilemma is solved, I’d better take off,” Grace said.

  “It’s early still, and that’s coming from a woman who has to get up in the middle of the night,” I replied.

  “I know, but if we’re going to go sleuthing tomorrow afternoon, I have some work to do at home tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow at eleven,” she said.

  “Let me at least walk you out,” I said.

  “Sounds great. Good night,” Grace said to my mother as she left.

  “Night, dear. Pleasant dreams.”

  After Grace was gone, I came back in and told Momma, “I think I’ll try to catch up on some of that sleep I’ve been missing lately.”

  “We both know that you can never catch up,” Momma said.

  “No, but I can make a stab at it. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I don’t even think she heard me. That must be some book. After she finished it, I was going to see if I could borrow it myself.

  It sounded like a real winner.

  I tried not to think about Jake as I lay in bed, but it was hard not to. What was going on with that man? I couldn’t imagine him not being in my life. If he’d just tell me what was wrong, I might be able to fix it, but this silence was just driving me crazy. I’d have to find a way to track him down tomorrow even if I had to drive to Raleigh to do it.

  I wasn’t going to give up without giving it everything I had.

  After I came to that conclusion, sleep came much easier than I’d expected, but my alarm clock still rang much too early for my taste.

  Chapter 10

  It had been business as usual at the donut shop the next day when I was surprised to see Reggie Nance come in. Sure, he’d been a longtime
customer of mine, but after the way he’d lied to us the day before, I was kind of shocked to see him show his face at Donut Hearts.

  “What can I get you?” I asked him as formally as I could. I wasn’t fond of the way he’d acted the day before, but that didn’t mean that I could afford to alienate any of my customers at the shop.

  “I’ll have the usual, Suzanne,” he said with a frown.

  “Coming right up,” I replied as I started selecting a dozen random donuts for his office. It was a weekly ritual of his, and under other circumstances, I would have welcomed his business. After I boxed a good selection, I taped the lid and slid the box across the counter. I quoted the price, and Reggie paid promptly.

  He started to pick the donuts up when he hesitated. “Those smell really good today. I think I have time for a coffee and a glazed donut here.”

  In all the time he’d been coming to Donut Hearts, he’d never lingered at the shop. What was going on? “Absolutely,” I said as I quoted him an additional price.

  He paid, and I put his coffee and donut on a tray. “There you go.”

  “I’ll just eat this at the counter, if that’s all right with you.”

  I nodded. “It’s fine.”

  I turned my back and started consolidating donuts on the trays so Emma could start washing the empty ones when Reggie cleared his voice and spoke up. “Do you have a second?”

  “I’ve got all the time in the world. I can work and talk at the same time,” I said, keeping my back to him.

  Reggie wasn’t going to allow that, though. “Suzanne, look at me. I want to talk to you.”

  I put the tray down and turned to face him. “Go on. You’ve got my undivided attention.”

  “I’m sorry I lied to you yesterday,” he said as his words came out in a rush. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t all that used to apologizing to anyone, and it was difficult for him to do.

  “I am, too,” I said. “I thought we were friends.”

  “I’d like to think that myself,” Reggie replied.

  “In my book, friends don’t lie to each other,” I said with a frown.

  “I panicked, okay? I didn’t want anyone to know that I was watching Max’s place.” His voice was so low it was hard to hear him, and I was standing pretty close by. There were a few folks in the donut shop, but I doubted that anyone else could hear us.

  “What were you doing there, anyway?” I asked as I took a step closer.

  “I wanted to ask Max’s friend, Peter, if he was the one who killed Jude,” Reggie said.

  “What! Why would you ask him that?”

  “I saw them fighting, Suzanne. It’s not that far a leap to go from a fistfight to murder.”

  “Excuse me for saying so, but I know that you didn’t have any affection for Jude yourself. Why would you care if Peter killed him?”

  “You’re probably not going to understand this, but I was going to give him a reward,” Reggie said.

  “A reward? Like a bounty? Are you kidding me?” What had happened to the friendly guy I’d known all these years?

  “Jude Williams killed my daughter just as surely as if he’d put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger,” Reggie said. “Maybe I didn’t have the guts to do anything about Jude myself, but I wanted to shake the hand of the guy who did, and show him my appreciation.”

  “Reggie, that’s just plain wrong. What would Debbie think if she knew what you were doing?” I asked it without thinking, but it was a fair question. I’d known Debbie Nance, and one thing I was pretty sure of was that she wouldn’t approve of her father’s current vengeful attitude.

  “Leave her out of this, Suzanne,” Reggie said with a hard edge in his voice.

  “How can I? She’s at the center of this whole thing for you.”

  “You don’t have kids. You can’t know what it’s like to lose one,” Reggie said. His stern face began to crack, and tears ran unnoticed down his cheeks.

  “I may not have children, but I know what it’s like to lose someone you love,” I said, thinking of my late father.

  “Losing a child is different. Why did I even try to come here to explain myself to you? You’ll never be able to understand what I’ve been through.”

  Reggie started for the door, leaving his donuts behind. “Hey, don’t forget these,” I called out.

  “Keep them,” he said as he hurried away. “I don’t want them anymore.”

  I shook my head, wondering why I’d talked to him the way I had. Reggie was right about one thing. I had no idea what it was like to lose a child. That didn’t justify his behavior, but it did help to explain it. If he’d been telling me the truth about not killing Jude, it would take his name off of my list of suspects, but I wasn’t ready to take him off at his word just yet.

  I needed to do more digging before I was ready to do that.

  Still, his visit certainly gave me something to think about.

  “Aren’t you closed yet?” Grace asked as she walked into Donut Hearts a few minutes before eleven.

  “Just be glad that I’m not still open until noon,” I said as I finished boxing up the donuts we had left over from the morning’s sales. I loved it when we had around a dozen unsold donuts at the end of the workday, but I absolutely hated it when we had to shut down early because we were out of inventory. Most days I usually erred on the side of caution and made too many donuts. After all, I could always give them away to the church, or even use the extras to help pave the way as I questioned suspects.

  “I don’t know how you keep open this late in the morning, considering the time you get started,” she said. “I’ve just been up two hours and I’m already ready for a nap.”

  “I’m willing to bet that you were up later than I was last night, though,” I replied. I crammed the thirteenth donut into the box and set it on the countertop. As I pulled the trays and handed them to Emma, I asked, “Did you call in sick today?”

  “I didn’t have to. Officially, I’m working on employee evaluations.” Grace grinned at me as she added, “I did them last night, though, so you’ve got me all day today.”

  “Does your boss have any idea how you work their system?” I asked with a smile.

  “She doesn’t want to, Suzanne. I’m running the number three territory in the Southeast. As long as the numbers are good, no one asks me any questions.”

  “It must be nice,” I said as I wiped the counter down.

  “It has its moments,” she said. Grace looked back into the kitchen where Emma was happily washing the last dishes, glasses, cups, and trays for the day. It was clear that my assistant was listening to her iPod by the soft sounds of her singing along with the music. Sometimes I tried to guess based on what I heard, but it was often too hard to do. Emma wasn’t exactly tone deaf, but she wasn’t spot-on in her sing-alongs, either. “What’s on the schedule for this afternoon?”

  “Do you mean after I finish cleaning up here, closing out the register, making my deposit out, and generally shutting the donut shop down for the day?”

  “Yeah, after all of that,” Grace said with a grin. “Don’t try to complain to me about what you do. You know as well as I do that you love it.”

  “Guilty as charged,” I said as I returned her smile. “We need to find Peter and talk to him. That’s got to be first on our list.”

  “Do you really think that he might have killed Jude?” Grace asked.

  “I don’t know, but there’s enough smoke around that I’m willing to look for some fire.”

  “Okay, so we talk to Peter. What’s in store after that?” Grace said as she flipped open the box of donuts. She was trying to eat healthier these days, but that didn’t mean that she was willing to cut donuts completely out of her life.

  “You can have one, you know,” I said.

  “What? No. No thanks. No offense,” she said as she closed the lid and scooted the donuts back toward me. “I’ve picked up a few pounds lately that I’ve been trying to lose.”

  �
�You look great, and you know it,” I said as I moved them out of her reach.

  “Yes, we’re all pretty,” she said happily. “Are we going to talk to Max, too?”

  “We have to, don’t we?” I asked.

  “Well, Jude used to go out with Emily, and Max is the jealous type, so yes, he needs to be on our list.”

  “That’s going to be more awkward than I can even fathom,” I said.

  “I could do it by myself, if you’d like me to,” Grace offered.

  “Thanks, but I’ll manage to get through it,” I replied. “Should we talk to Emily as well?”

  “Do you honestly think that she might have killed Jude?” Grace asked, the surprise clear on her face.

  “I don’t know, but we have to ask,” I said.

  “What motive could she possibly have?”

  “What if Jude threatened to tell Max something that would break up the wedding?” I asked. “She might kill him to protect her love.”

  “What could he say that could possibly drive Max away?” Grace asked. “The man’s absolutely smitten with her. You said as much yourself.”

  “That’s just it. I don’t know. We need to find anyone Jude interacted with in the last few days who might have a reason to want to see him dead.”

  “That could be a long list of suspects,” Grace said after whistling softly.

  “Then we’d better get started.”

  “Is there anything else we need to do today?”

  There was something else on my personal list, but I wasn’t about to tell Grace that I was going to track Jake down, even if I had to drive to Raleigh to do it. I was going to find out what my boyfriend had on his mind, one way or the other. If he was going to dump me, I needed to get it over with. I honestly was beginning to think that the suspense of it all was worse than anything that he could say to me. That wasn’t exactly true, but I did hate being kept in the dark about his intentions. “Nothing I can’t handle on my own.”

  “Are you talking about Jake?” she asked tentatively.

  “I really don’t want to discuss it,” I said.

  She could read my tone of voice better than anybody but my mother could. Grace recognized the fact that I was ending the conversation before it could even get started. “Okay, what can I do to help around here so we can get started?” she asked as she clapped her hands together and looked around the donut shop.