by Jessica Beck
Chapter 3
“Would you two mind? I’m trying to bake in here,” I told the two men a little later as I worked in the kitchen.
“Sorry about that. We’ll try to keep it down,” Jake apologized as he and George sat side by side at the counter out front.
“That’s not what I mean. I want you to speak up,” I clarified. “How else am I going to get anything done and still eavesdrop?”
“Fine. We’ll talk louder,” Jake replied, suppressing a grin.
As I worked on the cake donut batter for the day, I could hear the two men talking. I wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop the entire time they were chatting, but for the moment, I could hear everything they said.
“When was the last time you saw Van?” Jake asked the mayor as he took out one of the small notebooks he always carried with him.
“Do you mean before we found him sprawled out on the floor at his house?” George snapped.
Jake didn’t blow up. Instead, he said calmly, “George, you can pretend this isn’t going to be a problem for you, but we both know that you’d be wrong. If you don’t want my help, I completely understand. Shoot, I can even respect it a little, even though we both know that it’s the wrong way to approach this, but I won’t make a man accept my help.”
My husband stood, and I was about to protest when George said, “Hang on a second, Jake. I’m sorry. I know you’re just trying to help. I saw Van last night at the auction. That was it. At least until Suzanne and I found him this morning.”
“How did you two leave things last night?” Jake asked as he took his seat again.
“It’s no secret that we were arguing,” George said. I glanced in and saw that the mayor was scowling. “The two of us never got along, and everybody in town knows it. Van has always believed that he would make a better mayor than I ever could, and he wasn’t shy about sharing his opinion with anyone who would stop long enough to listen to it. We clashed on just about everything, you know? That doesn’t mean that I’m happy that he’s been attacked. Who would do something like that?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Jake said.
That managed to perk George up a little. “The two of us?”
“Actually, I was talking about Suzanne and me,” he corrected.
“No offense to your wife, but I was a trained law enforcement officer myself, remember? Why does everyone seem to keep forgetting that fact?”
“George, if you go anywhere near this investigation, folks are going to think you’re doing it just to try to cover your own tracks,” Jake said solemnly. “Suzanne and I are impartial.”
“Gee, I sure hope that’s not the truth,” George said with the hint of a wry smile.
“Of course it’s not, but at least neither one of us are suspects,” he replied.
“And right now I’m at the top of everyone’s list, including the police chief’s,” the mayor answered.
“Take it easy. Not everyone’s got you in their crosshairs,” Jake said. “I don’t think we have to rehash all of the reasons you might have wanted to hurt the man. The real question now is who should we be looking at? Do you have any ideas?”
“If it were me, I’d talk to Buford Wilkins first,” George said. “He was in on everything Van did on the council, and as far as I could see, the two of them were thick as thieves. He’s going to be your best source of information.”
I saw Jake make an entry in his notebook. “Anybody else?” he asked, his pen still poised over the page.
After a moment or two of thought, the mayor said, “There’s his sister, Noreen. She’ll probably already be at the hospital by now. Do you know her?”
Jake shook his head, so I piped up from the kitchen, “I’ve known her for years. Noreen Walker is an acquired taste, if you know what I mean.” That was putting it mildly. The woman had a way of antagonizing folks that made Gabby Williams seem downright diplomatic, which was something I would have said was nearly impossible to do in ordinary circumstances.
Jake nodded, and then he turned back to George. “Van makes his living as an insurance agent. Is that right?”
“He’s had a lot of careers over the years. That’s just one of the things he’s into at the moment, but rumor is that he has small stakes in at least half a dozen different businesses around the county. Taken individually, you wouldn’t think he’d be worth that much, but I suspect the man is loaded.”
“Does he have a business partner of any kind?” Jake asked.
“I know that he and Bob Casto have owned a few things together over the years. The two of them had a pretty public blowout a few months ago though, and they haven’t spoken since.”
“Why didn’t I know about that?” I asked from the kitchen. It was nearly time to start dropping cake donuts into the oil, and for once, I was willing to risk leaving the door open so I could hear them talking. The heavy dropper had slipped from my hands once and had indented the wall with the force of its impact, so generally I made Emma leave when I dropped the cake donuts, but I was willing to make an exception this time. Speaking of my assistant, where was she? By the time I was ready to drop donuts, Emma Blake was usually arriving at work.
“Suzanne, you don’t know everything that goes on in April Springs,” George said with the hint of a laugh in his voice.
“Maybe not, but I know more than most folks do,” I said.
“I’m not about to disagree with that,” George said.
Jake frowned as he stared at what had to be the meager entries in his notebook. “That covers business and family. Is Van involved with anyone at the moment?”
“Do you mean romantically?” George asked. “I don’t have a clue.”
“He was seeing Vivian Reynolds, but they had a bad breakup recently,” I said as I carefully swung the dropper, forcing the batter down to the bottom where it could be released with the trigger mechanism on top.
“How could you possibly know that?” George asked me.
“Vivian was in here a few days ago. She bought a dozen donuts to go and made some kind of fuss about giving some of her friends my tasty treats, but I could see that she’d been crying, and I pushed her a little about it. It didn’t take much of a nudge. She told me that she and Van were through, and that she was giving up on men and devoting herself to charitable works and kind deeds instead. It appeared to me she was going to start by polishing off that entire box of treats by herself, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that.”
“Do you happen to know who ended the relationship?” Jake asked me.
“He dumped her, and she was pretty bitter about it,” I said. “The truth is, that woman has always struck me as being a little nuts.”
“Do either one of you have anything else?” Jake asked as he glanced from the mayor to me.
“Not me,” I said as I dropped the last few batter rings into the oil.
“That’s all I’ve got,” George concurred.
Jake flipped the notebook shut. “All right, then. It should be enough for us to get started.”
“How’s the chief going to feel about you mucking about in his business?” George asked Jake. “He kind of looks up to you, you know.”
“I’ll speak with him before I do anything,” Jake said. “Besides, he has a soft spot in his heart for Suzanne.”
“That’s only because I feed him donuts,” I said with a laugh.
I heard the front door open.
Emma was there at last.
There was only one problem, though.
She wasn’t alone.
“Suzanne, let me state for the record that this wasn’t my idea. I told Dad not to come in with me, but he wouldn’t listen,” Emma said plaintively.
“The people have a right to know what’s going on with their mayor,” Ray Blake said as I walked out of the kitchen, having pulled out the last cake d
onut ring from the hot oil.
“Not in my shop they don’t,” I said as I took Ray’s arm and started walking him back to the front door.
“Hang on a second,” George said, surprising me. I could see that at least Jake had approved of the eviction, but unfortunately, neither one of us was in charge of the mayor.
“Mr. Mayor, do you wish to make a statement?” Ray asked, his handheld recorder at the ready.
“I wouldn’t say a word to him if I were you,” Jake told him.
“I second that,” I said.
“How is it going to look to your constituents if you refuse to comment on the dire situation?” Ray asked, clearly goading the man into saying something he’d probably regret later.
“For the record, I didn’t attack Van Rayburn,” George said. “When he wakes up, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be the first person to clear my good name.”
“What makes you think he’s ever going to regain consciousness?” Ray asked.
“What makes you say that?” Jake asked him. “What have you heard?”
“Just that it’s not looking good,” the newspaperman admitted.
“I’m sure you got that information straight from his physician, Ray,” I said, knowing that was probably not the case at all.
“As a matter of fact, it was someone on the hospital staff who prefers to remain anonymous,” Ray said stiffly.
“Which means it was a custodian or an orderly, and they don’t have a clue about what’s really going on,” Jake said as he stood as well. “Suzanne was right. Ray, you don’t have any right to be here.”
“Mr. Mayor? Do you want me to leave,” the newsman asked, “knowing how it’s going to look to the fine citizens of April Springs?”
“They’ll just have to think what they think. Suzanne and Jake are probably right. You’d better go, Ray,” George said with a sigh.
It almost seemed as though the newspaper editor was proud of being thrown out of my donut shop. “On your head let it be,” Ray said, and then he walked out.
“I’m so sorry about that, Suzanne,” Emma said.
“It’s not your fault. I have a pile of dirty dishes waiting for you,” I said with a smile. It didn’t take Emma long to get the hint.
“I’m on it, boss.”
After she was gone, George looked at Jake and then at me. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”
“It doesn’t look good,” Jake admitted. “Do you know any good lawyers? You might want one from out of town for this case.”
“I have a friend in Newton who’s supposed to be pretty good,” George said cagily. “Should I call her?”
“It’s possible that it could wait until morning,” Jake said, “but if it were me, I wouldn’t risk it. How well do you know her?”
“Pretty well,” George said. “We’ve been going out for the past two months.”
That was a brand-new bombshell I hadn’t known about. “Are you kidding? And we’re just now hearing about this, George? What’s her name?”
“Cassandra Lane,” he admitted, “and I didn’t want anyone to know. I’m the mayor, but that doesn’t entitle everyone to every corner of my private life.”
He had a point, so I decided not to berate him about holding out on me. “Understood.”
George seemed surprised that I hadn’t given him more grief. “Wow, things really must be bad if you’re passing up a chance to take a shot at me, Suzanne. I’d better call her right now, despite the hour.”
“I’d do that, if I were you,” Jake said.
The mayor looked at each of us in turn before he said, “If it’s all the same to you two, I’d like to do this in private. In fact, I think I’ll head back home before I give her a call. Sorry about the donut lessons, Suzanne.”
“They aren’t canceled, just postponed,” I said, doing my best to buoy his spirits. “We’ll have this straightened out in no time.”
“I hope you’re right,” the mayor said, and then he started for the door.
Jake wasn’t about to let him go just yet, though. “You need to keep a low profile for the next few days, George.”
“I’m not going to cower in my house as though I’m guilty of something I didn’t do, if that’s what you mean,” George protested.
“I’m not suggesting that you do. In fact, you should be in your office at nine a.m. taking care of the day’s work as though nothing has happened.”
“If I’m doing that, then how am I going to dig into who attacked Van Rayburn?” he asked.
“I told you before. You can’t. You’re going to have to leave that to Suzanne and me,” he said.
“It’s going to be hard not getting involved myself,” the mayor said.
“Fight the impulse,” I said as I kissed his cheek. “We’ll talk later. Would you like a few donuts for the road? I can’t offer you glazed yet, but I have cake donuts ready.”
“Thanks anyway, but I seem to have lost my appetite.”
The mayor was more upset than he was letting on if he was passing on some of my donuts. At least he finally realized that he was in trouble and that he needed our help.
“Would you like me to escort you home?” Jake asked him seriously.
George was about to protest when he saw my husband smiling at him. “You almost got me there, Jake.”
“Be good, Mr. Mayor,” Jake told him.
“I’ll try my best, but I can’t make any promises,” George said.
“I sincerely hope you do more than try,” Jake replied.
After he was gone, I looked at Jake. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s not good. I suppose it could be worse,” my husband said with a shrug.
“Short of someone catching George on film swinging that trophy over his head, I don’t see how,” I said.
“Think again. At least Van’s still alive,” Jake said sagely.
“That’s a fair point. Listen, this can’t wait until I close the shop at eleven, can it?”
Jake shrugged. “Things are moving quickly, and if we’re going to have any luck, we have to strike fast with our suspects. Don’t worry about it, Suzanne. I can solo this morning, and you can join me after you finish up here.”
“Sorry, but that’s not going to work for me,” I said. “Emma, can you come out here for a second?”
She joined us. “I said I was sorry about Dad.”
“This isn’t about that. Could your mother come by on short notice and help you take over the shop today? Jake and I have things we need to do that can’t wait.”
“Mom was up when I left,” Emma said with a grin. “I know she’d love the distraction.”
“Then call her,” I said, “and thanks for pitching in.”
“You bet,” Emma said.
After my assistant went into the kitchen to fetch her phone, I turned to Jake. “See? Problem solved. We can work on this case together all day.”
“Is there any chance I can snag a few donuts before we go?” he asked me with a smile. “I left the cottage before I could grab something to eat.”
“Of course you can. There has to be some advantage to being married to the donut lady.”
“I can think of more than just free treats,” he said with a smile.
“But they’re still a benefit, right?” I asked him, returning his grin with one of my own.
“I never claimed otherwise,” he said as his smile broadened even further.
It quickly faded when there was a tap on the front door, though.
Had Ray Blake come back for another stab at us?
No, in some ways, it was worse.
The chief of police was standing outside, and from the expression on his face, he wasn’t there to grab a few fresh donuts for himself.
Chapter 4
“Where’s the ma
yor?” Chief Grant asked as he looked around the donut shop after I unlocked the front door and let him in.
“He decided to go home,” I said, “which is exactly where Jake and I are heading ourselves.”
“This is pretty early for you to be leaving the shop, isn’t it?” the chief asked as he glanced at his watch.
“What can I say? We have things to do,” I said.
“About that,” my husband said. “There’s something you should know, Chief. Suzanne and I are going to look into what happened to Van Rayburn.”
It appeared that my husband was waiting for some kind of blast from our police chief, but instead, Chief Grant simply shrugged. “I kind of figured that you might. You told the mayor that he needed a lawyer, didn’t you?” the chief asked Jake softly.
“That sounds ominous. How’s Van doing?”
“He’s hanging on, but just barely. That’s about the best prognosis there is right now. Somebody walloped him pretty hard with that trophy this morning.”
“You can’t honestly think that the mayor did it, can you?” I asked. I’d been friends with the police chief since he’d been a beat cop, but I’d known George a lot longer.
“It’s not part of my job description to jump to conclusions,” Chief Grant said, looking much older than his years. The job seemed to take its toll on whoever held it, and I wasn’t sure why anyone would even want to be in charge. “I’ll leave that to you.” Before Jake or I could say anything in our defense, the chief added, “I’m kidding. I get a little sarcastic when I’m beat, and I only got about two hours of sleep last night, if you can call it that.”
I felt a sudden flood of sympathy for the man in place of my ire. “Can I get you some coffee, Chief?”
“I probably shouldn’t,” he said.
“But you will anyway, right?” I asked as I poured him a mug. “Sorry, it’s probably a little old. Since I was going to throw it out anyway, you don’t have to pay for it.” It was a sticking point with our police chief about taking anything for free, but I was telling the truth. I wouldn’t have sold it to my customers, so there was no reason that he should have to pay for it.