Deep Fried Homicide

by Jessica Beck

  “He’s fine,” she reassured me. “He just needs some rest.”

  “I’ll see you soon,” I said as I patted his leg on the way out.

  “You can count on it,” he replied.

  Momma was in the waiting room when I got back out there, but she wasn’t alone. The reporters were all gone, but I was thrilled to see that Grace was sitting with her. They both hugged me and started talking at the same time.

  “Take it easy, you two,” I said, happy to be with them both. “Jake’s doing fine.”

  “I cannot believe that someone shot him,” Grace said. “The worst thing that happens to me in my job is that I get scolded every now and then.”

  “I confess,” Momma added, “that the perils of what I do are equally mundane.” She turned back to me and asked, “How did he look?”

  “Like a million bucks,” I said, an expression my dad used to say when he’d still been with us.

  Momma nodded. “Here, I got you some coffee,” she said as she handed me a cup. “I’m afraid that it’s not piping hot, and even if it were, it would still be borderline at best. It’s nowhere near as good as the coffee you and Emma serve at Donut Hearts.”

  “I’m just grateful for anything at the moment,” I said as I took a sip. She was right on all counts, but I didn’t mind. I had Jake back after nearly losing him forever, and that was really all that mattered to me.

  “When does he get out of here?” Grace asked as she looked around the waiting room. “There was a crowd of reporters outside when I drove up, and the only reason that I got through was that your mother was there to vouch for me.” She turned to Momma and said with a smile, “I bet you regret that already.”

  “Never,” Momma said as she patted my best friend’s hand.

  “Thanks for coming, you two,” I said, “but Grace, shouldn’t you be working right now? I thought you had a big day scheduled.”

  “I did, but I can always shift things around for you,” she said.

  “I’m fine, and Jake is, too. Thanks for coming, but you need to go back to work. I’ll call you if there’s any change, or if I need anything. I promise.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to just abandon you here,” Grace said with a little reticence in her voice. I knew she was swamped with work, but she would beg off doing any of it if I let her.

  “Don’t worry, dear. She always has me,” Momma said.

  “That she does,” Grace said, and then she stood. “If you’re absolutely sure, then there a few things that I really need to do.”

  “Go,” I said as I stood and hugged her. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Give him a kiss for me when you see him,” Grace said as she was leaving.

  “I will, but it’s going to have to wait until all of mine are delivered first,” I said with a grin.

  Once Grace was gone, I told Momma, “The same goes for you, you know. I understand that you have a busy life yourself.”

  “There’s nothing I’d rather be doing, and no one I’d rather be with right now than you,” she said.

  “Thanks, for everything,” I replied.

  “It’s my pleasure. Now stop thanking me.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I replied with a grin.

  After a few moments, Momma said, “You know, once Jake is out of here, he’s going to need somewhere to go to recuperate. Have you given that any thought?”

  “To be honest with you, I’m still wrapping my head around the idea that he got shot this morning.”

  “I understand that, but I want to make you an offer that I’m serious about you taking. Before you say no out of hand, I want you to seriously consider it. Is that agreed?”

  “Sure,” I said, wondering what she had in mind. “What’s going on?”

  “Suzanne, I know that you’re not aware of this, but I recently bought a house on the other edge of town as an investment. I propose that I move out of our cottage immediately and stay there.”

  I started to protest, but she held up a hand and silenced me, something that no one else had ever managed to do. “Let me finish. You promised, remember?”

  “Okay,” I said. “Go on.”

  “Jake can take over my bedroom downstairs. After all, he’s in no shape to climb stairs. We both know that you can take better care of him at the cottage than you can anywhere else, and I want him to take as long as he needs to get better. You know, the more I think about it, the better I like it. It’s actually quite perfect. The park is right there, so when he’s up to it, he can even walk for exercise. What do you say?”

  I started to say no automatically, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how ideal a solution it would be. After a few moments, I said, “I’ll have to run it by him, but it sounds perfect to me, if you’re sure that you don’t mind. It’s only going to be a month.”

  She grinned at me and hugged me tightly. “It can take as long as it takes, Suzanne. There’s no timeframe on my offer. Thank you for letting me do this for you.”

  “Like I said, we’ll both have to persuade him that it’s a good idea first.”

  Momma grinned. “Don’t worry about that. You just leave it all to me.”

  Chapter 4

  It took some convincing, but by the time Jake was ready to be discharged from the hospital, he’d agreed to our plan.

  I hadn’t been standing idly by waiting for him to be discharged, though. There was a great deal of work to do, including moving Momma to her new, if temporary, digs.

  “How on earth did I ever manage to accumulate so many worthless things?” Momma asked me as we loaded another box into the sheriff’s pickup truck. Actually, it didn’t belong to Chief Martin; it was his cousin’s, but he’d graciously allowed us to use it for the move.

  “What are you talking about, Dorothea? This isn’t junk,” the police chief said as he hoisted a box. “These are all full of precious memories.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Momma said, but she smiled at him as she said it. The two of them had grown incredibly close over the last few months, and I couldn’t help wondering if we’d have an actual wedding soon. There had been a false alarm with Emily Hargraves and Max, my ex-husband, but I doubted that Momma and the sheriff would change their minds if they ever decided to get married in the first place.

  “I still don’t know why you’re moving so many of your things in the first place,” I told Momma as I surveyed the boxes and boxes of her personal possessions still stacked on the front porch of the cottage we shared. “You’re only going to be gone for a month, and then we’re going to have to just move everything back in again.”

  “About that,” Momma said gravely. “We need to talk, Suzanne.”

  “I’ll see about finishing loading that truck,” the police chief said as he grabbed another box from the porch.

  “You do that, Phillip,” Momma said. “Suzanne, let’s go inside and have a cup of tea and chat.”

  “Why don’t I like the sound of this?” I asked my mother as we walked back into the cottage together.

  “It could be because you tend to worry too much,” she said with a grin.

  “Where on earth could I have gotten that?” I asked her. My mother was a champion worrier when it came to our family, and she’d passed the trait down to me long ago.

  “It must have been from your father’s side,” she said with a hazy bit of a smile. “Speaking of your father, he’s been gone for quite a few years now.”

  “I know,” I said. My dad might have been gone, but I could still hear his laugh in the cottage if I closed my eyes, though how much of that was due to my imagination I couldn’t say.

  “Suzanne, he would have wanted me to be happy,” she said as she squeezed my hands. “You know that, don’t you?”

  I was just too close to it. I had no idea where my mother was going with this conversation. “Of course he would have.”

  Momma took a deep breath, and then, in a rush of words she said, “I’m honoring his wishes. It�
��s why I’ve accepted Phillip’s proposal of marriage.”

  “You’re getting married again?” I asked, incredulous that I hadn’t seen this coming. Neither one of them were getting any younger, and it was clear, even to me, that they belonged together. “What I meant to say was congratulations,” I added lamely with my best smile.

  “Thank you,” Momma replied, clearly relieved that I’d added my well wishes, if belatedly. “Suzanne, how do you feel about it, really? You can be honest with me. I know that you and Phillip have had your differences in the past.”

  “Sure, we’ve butted heads on occasion,” I admitted, “and we probably will in the future, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t see that he’s good for you. You’ve been happier over the past few months than you’ve been in a lot of years, Momma.” I hugged her, squeezing my mother tight. “I’m really happy for you, and I mean it with all my heart.” When I pulled away from her, I could see that she was crying. “Momma, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, now,” Momma said. “I was so afraid that you wouldn’t approve.”

  I took my mother’s hands in mine as I said, “Momma, even if I didn’t, which I do, that still wouldn’t mean that you shouldn’t do what was best for you.”

  “My darling daughter, if you had a problem with this marriage, I would tell Phillip that I had a change of heart and I would retract my acceptance.”

  “You’d really do that for me?” I asked, having a hard time believing it.

  “You are my only child, but there’s more to it than that. Since you’ve come back here to live with me, you’ve become my best friend as well,” Momma said. She wasn’t usually so prone to sentiment, and it really touched me hearing her voice those feelings. Sure, she told me that she loved me often enough, but being called her best friend really touched me.

  “You’re my best friend, too,” I said.

  “Even over Grace?” she asked.

  “It’s only fair. After all, I’ve known you longer,” I said with a laugh.

  “Not by much,” Momma answered with a hint of laughter of her own.

  “So, does this mean that you’re not coming back to live here, even after Jake recovers?” I asked as I looked around the cottage that we shared.

  “Of course I’ll be back,” she said. “I just won’t live here anymore.”

  A thought suddenly occurred to me. “Chief Martin isn’t behind this move, is he?”

  Momma looked surprised by the question. “Of course not. Why would you even ask such a thing?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t really blame him if he felt that way. After all, you and Dad lived here your entire married life. It would be hard for another man to try to live here, too.”

  “You should know that Phillip has never tried to replace your father, not in your eyes, and certainly not in mine. He understands that the memories I have of your dad are more precious to me than anything in my life but you. No, Phillip would live wherever I chose, as long as he could join me. I need to do this for me. It’s time for a fresh start.”

  “Does that mean that you’re going to live together before the wedding?” I wasn’t sure how I thought about that prospect, just because it was my own mother. It came as quite a shock to me to realize just how old fashioned I was.

  “No, I’ll move into the house now, and he’ll join me after the ceremony. Believe it or not, I invited him to move in with me today, but he insisted that we follow convention and wed first.”

  “So, when are these nuptials going to take place?” I asked her.

  “Well, neither one of us are getting any younger,” she told me with a smile. “We thought the sooner the better. How does four weeks sound to you?”

  “That’s perfect,” I said. “Jake should be fully recovered by then.”

  “Why do you think we chose that timeframe?” Momma asked me, grinning. “We want him there in good form when we say our vows.”

  “Thanks for that. Are you having a big blowout of a wedding?” I asked her.

  “No, we’ve decided that we want only two witnesses with us.”

  “Jake and I are going to be your only guests?” I asked.

  “If you’ll be my maid of honor, Phillip is going to ask Jake to be his best man. What do you think he’ll say?”

  “I’m sure that he’ll agree,” I said. “I have one last question. Is this supposed to be a big secret, or can I tell anyone I want to?”

  “You can broadcast it on the news for all I care,” Momma said happily. Honestly, she was downright giddy about the prospects. “I have a feeling that Phillip might beat you to it, though. He’s going to be absolutely jubilant when I tell him that you approve.”

  “May I tell him myself?” I asked. There had indeed been some ill feelings between us in the past, though those had mostly faded away. As a matter of fact, we’d even started cooperating lately on cases that I was involved in, something that still managed to surprise me. But there was still the hint of an undercurrent that I wanted to dispel once and for all.

  “Of course,” Momma said. “I’ll go get him.”

  “Let me,” I said.

  She nodded. “Okay, but keep the door open. I want to hear his reaction.”

  I smiled at her. “You know that I’m going to have a little fun with him first, don’t you?”

  Momma smiled. “Of course I know it. Just don’t give him too hard a time.”

  “We’ll see how it goes,” I said.

  I opened the porch door to see the police chief standing close by gripping a box that held bath towels, a light enough load that he could hold it forever if he had to.

  “Hey,” I said in as neutral a voice as I could manage.

  “Hi there,” he replied, trying to act nonchalant, though I knew that the suspense had to be killing him.

  “So listen,” I said, adding a touch of iron to my voice, “I’ve just finished talking to my mother about your proposal.”

  “Let me explain,” he said before I could tell him that I approved. “Suzanne, it should come as a surprise to no one that I’m in love with your mother. I admit that I’m shocked she feels the same way about me, but what she told you is the straight up truth. If you have a real problem with this, we’ll call the whole thing off.” Before I could break in, he added, “Not that I’m going to stop seeing her, no matter what your decision might be. It took me most of my life to convince her that we belong together, and I’m not about to throw that all away now.”

  “Nobody doubts that you love her, Chief,” I said. “I just have one question for you.”

  “Go ahead and ask it, then,” the chief said in a steady voice.

  “Are you going to do your best to make her happy for the rest of her life?”

  He nodded. “With every breath I have left in me.”

  “Then I approve,” I said, and to both our surprises, I hugged him. “Welcome to the family.”

  Momma came out just then, and as Chief Martin pulled away, I could swear that he was crying, ever so slightly. Taking out a bandana handkerchief, he dabbed at his eyes as he said, “The pollen count must be sky high today.”

  “I’m sure that it is,” I said, and then I noticed that Momma was crying, too.

  When did I start crying, though?

  For such a happy occasion, there were certainly an awful lot of tears going around.

  After unpacking all of Momma’s things at her new place, a house that I’d admired for years for its Craftsman style architecture, I said my good-byes and left the newly engaged couple to their own devices. Momma had taken a great many of her personal items with her, but fortunately, she’d left most of her furniture behind at the cottage. The new place was already outfitted with everything that she needed, so I didn’t have to go shopping for anything more than groceries anytime soon.

  Driving my Jeep across town, I thought about ducking back into the donut shop and taking care of some inventory issues that I’d been putting off for weeks, but then I decided not to do it at the moment. After
all, it was clearly just an excuse not to go back home now that I was alone and on my own. I hadn’t lived by myself ever in my life, going from Momma’s to the place that I’d shared with Max, and then back to Momma’s again. In all of that time, I was willing to bet that I hadn’t spent a handful of nights on my own, all by myself.

  Jake wasn’t due to arrive until the next day, and things would be crazy enough then, but for now, I was alone. I probably should have savored the moment, but when I walked back into the cottage that I had so recently shared with Momma, all I could feel was sad. Her absence was conspicuous, and not just because of all of the things that she’d taken with her. More important than her things was her presence, the spirit that had always made this a home and not a house.

  I plopped down on the couch, wondering what I was going to do with myself, when there was a knock at my door.

  Who could be visiting me now?

  I was delighted to find Grace there when I opened it, a bottle of wine in her hand. “Hey, I saw you come back home. Since we had to cancel our plans tonight, would you care to share this with me?”

  “Your timing couldn’t be better,” I said. “Boy, do I have news for you.”

  Grace looked delighted by the prospect. “Grab two glasses, and we can get started,” she said.

  I was happy that my best friend had sensed that I’d need her and she’d acted upon it. I wasn’t going to be all alone tonight after all.

  Chapter 5

  “She’s getting married?” Grace asked with delight when I told her the news about Momma and the chief. “What do you think about it?”

  “Honestly, I’m happy for them,” I said, pleased that I could say it without stretching the truth in the least. “It’s hard finding someone you want to spend the rest of your life with.”

  “Tell me about it,” Grace said.

  “Don’t give me that. You’ve finally got a decent boyfriend of your own, which has to be a nice change of pace for you.” Grace had recently started dating a police officer on the local force who happened to be a friend and customer of mine named Stephen Grant. Officer Grant had always been of help to me, even when his boss hadn’t been nearly as supportive, and he was clearly smitten with Grace. I knew from watching her look at him that she was just as intrigued as he was.