by Jessica Beck
“You could wipe the tables down and sweep the floor,” I said.
“Consider it done,” she said. Grace grabbed a rag, and I started balancing the register receipts and running my daily reports. Everything checked out on the first try, and I was just finishing up the deposit slip when Emma walked out.
“The dishes are done, and the kitchen floor is clean. Is there anything else I can do?”
“Would you mind running this by the bank on your way home?” I asked her as I held the bag holding our deposit up in the air.
“Happy to do it,” she said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I’ll be here,” I said as I let her out the locked door.
Grace and Emma exchanged good-byes of their own. Once Emma was gone, I turned to my best friend, and as I grabbed our leftover donuts to take with us, I said, “Let’s get started. Thanks for helping me close the shop.”
“Glad to do it. So, is it back to Max’s first?”
“It’s as good a place to start as any,” I said. “I just hope they’re both there.”
“Given that it’s not even noon yet, I’m willing to bet that they’re both still asleep.”
“You might be right. If they are, what do you say we go wake them up?”
“Lead the way. I’m right behind you,” Grace said as we walked out of the shop and locked the door behind us. Any more donutmaking would have to wait until tomorrow.
For now, it was time for us to dig into the reason someone had murdered Jude Williams.
Chapter 11
“Hey, Suzanne,” Peter Hickman said as he opened the door to Max’s place when I knocked. “If you’re looking for your ex-hubby, he’s in the shower.” Peter was wearing a bathrobe, and I held my breath hoping that it stayed together. It was obvious that he had just woken up, given his disheveled hair and his bloodshot eyes.
“That’s quite a black eye you’ve got there,” I said.
“This? It’s nothing. You should see the other guy,” Peter said.
“Is that supposed to be funny?” Grace asked with a whip in her voice.
Peter looked at her warily. “What put the burr under your saddle, Grace?” he asked her.
“Are you trying to claim that you don’t know that Jude Williams is dead?” I asked him point-blank.
Peter pursed his lips. “Now who’s saying things in bad taste?”
“It’s true, Peter. Are you telling me that you didn’t already know?” I asked.
“How am I supposed to know if you’re even telling me the truth?” Peter asked. After studying our faces, he must have finally realized that we wouldn’t joke about something like that. “It’s really true, isn’t it? How did it happen?”
Grace was about to answer when I shook my head slightly. She stopped, and I asked, “Why don’t you let me ask the questions? Why were you two fighting so publicly?”
Peter’s hand went automatically to his bruised eye. “What makes you think we were fighting?”
“Come on; we’re not stupid, Peter. We know what happened.” There was no way that he was going to bluff his way out of this one. We had reliable witnesses on our side.
“You just think you know,” Peter said. A little reluctantly, he added, “I guess you might as well come on inside. Max needs to hear this, too.”
“Why is that?” I asked him as Grace and I followed him inside.
“Because apparently he’s in this just as deeply as I am,” Peter said.
I felt my blood run cold hearing that.
It appeared that my ex was in some serious trouble, and right before he was set to marry one of my dearest friends. The fact that I’d played such a significant role in the matchmaking didn’t help matters one little bit, either.
Max walked out of the shower with a towel around his waist. He was using another one to dry his hair, and when he saw us, he grinned. “What brings you two here so bright and early?”
“Max, somebody killed Jude Williams,” Peter said before either one of us could respond.
“You got a few shots in, but you have to give the man credit. He did just as much damage to you,” Max said with that ever-present grin of his. “If anything, I’d call it a draw. Nobody won, nobody lost, and nobody certainly got killed.”
“Jude is in the morgue right now, Max,” I said. “He’s dead.”
“But I don’t understand,” my ex said. “Peter didn’t hit him that hard.”
“Actually, I’ve been trying to deny the fact that I even got into a fight with him in the first place,” Peter said. “You kind of just ruined it for me there, buddy.”
“Peter, I wasn’t the only one who saw what happened. You didn’t do anything wrong. Jude picked that fight, and we both know it.”
“Where have you two been?” I asked. “This all just happened.”
Max looked at me sheepishly as he explained, “Peter’s bachelor party idea went a little longer than we expected it to.”
“That’s what you’ve been doing all this time?” I asked incredulously.
Max smiled at me before he said, “Suzanne, as much as I appreciate your concern, you don’t have the right to use that tone of voice with me anymore. I explained it all to Emily before we left, and she was perfectly fine with it.”
“Or she just said that she was,” Grace said, skepticism thick in her voice.
“She understands me,” Max said. “That’s why we’re getting married.”
“Well, I’ve got a hunch nobody’s doing anything until Chief Martin talks to you both. I’m surprised he hasn’t been here yet.”
“He might have left a few messages,” Max admitted reluctantly.
“And you weren’t even a little curious about what he wanted?” Grace asked him.
“I thought he was sending along his best wishes,” Max said.
The front doorbell rang, and Max answered it without thinking.
It was the police chief, and he clearly wasn’t happy with any of us. “What are you two doing here?” he asked Grace and me the second he saw us standing together.
“We just wanted to have a little chat with Max and Peter,” I said.
“Get in line,” he said as he turned to my ex and his best friend. “Gentlemen, get dressed.”
“We just heard the news about Jude Williams, and that’s the truth,” Max said.
“Save it. I don’t want to get into it right here. Unless you object, and you’d better have a darn good reason if you do, this interview is going to take place in my office. Do either one of you have any problem with that?” The way he stared at them both, it was clear that the question was moot. He nodded at their lack of responses. “Good. Now go.”
Once they were back in Max’s bedroom, Chief Martin turned to us. “Really? You just couldn’t wait, could you?”
“We’ve been trying to track them down ourselves,” I said.
“What did they say?”
“They both claimed they didn’t know that Jude was dead,” I said.
“Do you believe them?”
”Yes,” Grace said quickly.
When I didn’t answer right away, the chief asked, “Well? What about you, Suzanne?”
“I’d like to be able to say that I do, but they are both decent actors. Maybe they were telling the truth, or maybe they’re just both very good at lying. I don’t know, and that’s the truth.”
“I appreciate your candor,” the chief said.
Both men came out in jeans and T-shirts. “We’ll follow you out,” I said.
“Do me a favor, would you?” Max asked me as we all walked out together.
“Sure,” I said.
“Don’t tell Emily about this.”
“Max, I’m not comfortable keeping secrets from her,” I said.
“I’m going to tell her. I just want to do it myself. Can you at least give me that?”
I thought about it, and then I answered, “I won’t go out of my way to tell her where you two are, but if she asks me, I’m going to t
ell her. I’m sorry, but that’s the best I can do.”
“I’ll take it then,” he said. “Thanks, Suzanne.”
“Happy to help.”
“Chief, do you mind if we follow you there in my car?” Max asked.
I could see Chief Martin consider it, and then finally, he nodded. “Stay in my rearview mirror the entire time. If you try to make any unscheduled stops, you won’t be happy with the results.”
“You’ve got it,” Max said.
Peter waved to us as he got into Max’s car, but he looked a little concerned as he did so. Then again, who could blame him? He’d had a fistfight with a man who was murdered soon afterward. It couldn’t feel good, no matter how you looked at it.
Once everyone was gone, Grace turned to me. “There goes two of our suspects,” she said. “Does this change our plans in any way?”
“I’m thinking that it might be a good time to see if we can get Lisa Grambling alone. I had a hunch that the last time we spoke, she had more to say.”
“Oh, boy. This should be a real treat,” Grace said as we both got into my Jeep and drove over to Lisa’s place.
I just hoped that Frank would be gone this time.
Otherwise, I had a hunch that we weren’t going to get a thing out of her.
“I don’t want to talk to either one of you,” Lisa Grambling said as she opened her front door.
“Why, is your husband still at home?” I whispered. “We can meet up someplace else if you’d like.” I had to get this woman alone so she could speak frankly about Jude Williams.
“He’s at work,” Lisa said. “That still doesn’t change the way I feel. You both need to stop bothering me, or I’ll tell Frank that you’re harassing me.”
“You were eager enough to talk to us yesterday,” Grace said. “What’s changed?”
“We’re finished here,” Lisa said. Before she ducked back inside though, she looked quickly up and down the street. The look in her eyes could only be described as real fear.
“Lisa, has someone threatened you? If your husband is being abusive, you need to get out.”
“My husband loves me,” she said emphatically.
“Then who are you so afraid of?” I asked her.
She replied by slamming the door in my face.
“What was that all about?” Grace asked me as we walked back to my Jeep and got in.
“She’s clearly rattled about something. Do you think it’s possible that the killer got to her and threatened her to keep her mouth shut?”
“I can’t for the life of me figure out why else she’d have such an abrupt change in attitude. Yesterday she couldn’t stop herself from naming suspects in Jude’s murder, and today she acted as though she was afraid of something, or someone. How else can we read it?”
I nodded. “I know you’re right, but what good will it do us knowing that Lisa’s scared? We don’t have any idea who might know that she’d been talking to us.”
“Unless someone has been following us,” Grace said.
“You’re talking about Reggie Nance, aren’t you?”
“We have only his word that he was at Max’s place waiting for Max and Peter to show up. What if we got it all wrong and he’d been following us all along?”
I considered the possibility. “Wasn’t he already at Max’s when we got there, though?”
“Did you see his car when we first drove up?” Grace asked me.
I thought about it, and then I said, “I can’t be sure. I didn’t notice him until he started his car and took off.”
“So, he could have pulled in behind us and shut off his engine without us noticing him. We were pretty focused on Max’s place at the time.”
“It’s possible,” I said.
“Then we need to have a chat with Reggie,” Grace said.
“I already spoke with him today. He stormed off without his donuts.”
Grace nodded. “Then it’s a good thing you had extras this morning.”
“What do you expect me to do with those?” I asked her, even though I had a sneaking suspicion what her plan was for my leftovers.
“Why, you’re going to apologize, of course, and offer these as a peace offering,” she said with a smile.
I wanted to argue the strategy with her, but I knew that she was right. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do, and you’re going to be standing right beside me when he do.”
“There’s nowhere else that I’d rather be,” Grace said.
“Just one thing,” I said as I started the Jeep and drove toward Reggie’s office. “It’s a minor point, but it’s still something that we should probably clear up before we get to his business.”
“What’s that?”
“What exactly am I apologizing for?” I asked.
“I was hoping that you would be able to come up with something,” Grace said with a grin.
“I could say that I was being insensitive about Debbie, but I don’t believe that. She wouldn’t have approved of her father’s attitude. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.”
“Can you try to fake it?” Grace asked me. “If you can’t, I understand, but we need a reason to just show up at his office.”
“I am sorry if I hurt him,” I said. “I don’t have to pretend that I’m not.”
“There you go, then.”
We drove up to the form-supply business Reggie owned and parked in a visitor’s parking space. I grabbed the stuffed box of donuts, and then I turned to Grace. “You can sit this one out, if you’d like.”
“Are you kidding? This was my idea, remember? Lead on.”
“What are we going to say is your reason for being with me?” I asked as we walked up to the front door.
“We have plans this afternoon, so I’m just tagging along when you do this,” she said.
“Okay. Here goes.”
We walked in through the front door of the business. Three men and women sat at desks behind a counter, though there was room for half a dozen more. They were all on the phone and talking at the same time. I didn’t know how I’d be able to get any work done in that kind of environment, but then again, a lot of folks would have balked at the prospect of getting up in the middle of the night to mix batter and dough. To each their own.
There was an unremarkable rather heavyset woman behind the desk that said Reception, so we approached her.
“May I help you?” she asked, her gaze never leaving the box of donuts in my hands.
“We’re here to see Reggie,” I said.
“Is Mr. Nance expecting you?” she asked.
“No, we don’t have an appointment, but this is important. My name’s Suzanne Hart, and this is Grace Gauge.”
“I know who you are,” she said as she looked up briefly from the donuts into my eyes.
“Please. It’s important,” I said.
“Let me see if Mr. Nance has time to see you.”
She left her desk, and Grace whispered to me, “Did you see the way she was eying those donuts?”
“Hey, who can blame her? They’re delicious, and she didn’t get any today. Reggie left without them, remember?”
“I’ve got a hunch they aren’t leaving with us, no matter what Reggie says.”
“Shh. She’s coming back.”
The woman came back with a frown plastered on her face. “I’m sorry, but Mr. Nance is unavailable. If you’d like me to give him something, I’d be glad to hand deliver it myself.”
“Sorry. This has to be done in person, or not at all,” Grace piped up.
The woman frowned again, and I could swear I saw storm clouds forming in her eyes. “That’s too bad.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. There was nothing to gain by holding my own donuts hostage. “Why don’t you take these anyway?” I asked her as I handed her the box.
“That’s really sweet of you,” she said with a broad smile. She took the offering and then leaned forward as she whispered, “In ten minutes, he’ll be heading to his car to
get his hair cut. You can try again outside. I’m sorry, but it’s the best that I can do.”
“It’s perfect,” I whispered back. “Thank you.”
She just nodded, and Grace and I left the office, but instead of going back to my Jeep, we walked over to Reggie’s car. It was parked front and center, and the sign said, “CEO Parking Only.” For such a small office, calling yourself a CEO had to show that the man had a bit of an ego.
“Well, what do you know? Your donuts really do open doors, don’t they?”
“I wasn’t expecting her to be so cooperative. I just hate to disappoint people when they only want my treats, you know?”
“Suzanne, your good heart pays off yet again,” Grace said with a smile. “What are we going to say to Reggie now that we’ve given up our secret weapon?”
“I’m still going to apologize,” I said firmly.
“But you don’t believe that you need to,” Grace protested. “I didn’t mean to back you into doing something that you’re not comfortable with.”
“Grace, he was right. The man lost a daughter in a pretty devastating way right after losing his wife. He has to have felt pain that I can only imagine. I need to apologize.”
“I knew there was a reason that you were my best friend,” Grace said with a soft smile as she hugged me.
“I thought it was because of all the free donuts,” I said, trying to soften the seriousness of our conversation.
“Hey, I didn’t say that was the only reason,” she said, joining in with a smile of her own.
It was gone soon enough, though, as Reggie walked outside.
“I told Betty that I wasn’t interested in seeing you,” Reggie snapped as he barely hesitated upon spying us waiting by his car. “You’ve got some nerve ambushing me in the parking lot like this.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, plainly and simply.
It was enough to make Reggie stop. “About what, ambushing me?”
“About what I said about your daughter. I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”
That clearly confused him. Reggie had made up his mind to be rough on me, but I’d invoked his daughter’s name, and something changed instantly in the man. “That’s okay.”