Floured Felonies (The Donut Mysteries Book 27)

by Jessica Beck

  The store had been even worse than I’d expected, and by the time I fought my way back outside, I realized that, all in all, it hadn’t been worth the trouble. The bread, all of the bread, was long gone, and so was every kind of milk imaginable, including several different types of soy. The peanut butter was gone as well, and so were most of the jellies and jams. I’d ended up getting a bag of dry beans, two cans of whipped cream, and a pumpkin pie that had seen better days, its crust battered and beaten. On my way back home, I dropped by the donut shop to make sure that everything was safe and sound, and after that, it was time to head for the cottage and meet Grace. Her car was in her driveway as I drove by, and I thought about swinging in, but she’d be at my place soon enough, so I kept going.

  She was there sooner than I’d expected, actually.

  When I drove the truck into my driveway, I found Grace bundled up in a heavy coat as well as thick sporting gloves and a brightly knitted hat. She was sitting on the front porch swing, going back and forth and grinning like some kind of maniac.

  “You walked over here?” I asked her as I got out and let her in the house.

  “You’d better believe it. There’s no way I’m risking my company car in an ice storm. Besides, it’s not that far.” She spotted the bags and asked, “What did you get us?”

  “It was slim pickings at the store,” I said as I put my meager collection on the counter in the kitchen.

  “Are you kidding? We’ve got pie! Everything else is icing on the cake.”

  “There’s no icing for the pie, but I did manage to find two cans of whipped cream,” I said.

  “Brilliant. That way we won’t have to fight over just one,” she laughed. “Grab a couple of forks, and let’s get started.”

  I did as she instructed, along with a knife for cutting the dessert treat. “Grace, are we seriously starting our evening out with pie?”

  “What better way is there to do it?” she asked me with a grin.

  I cut us both quarters of the small pie and put them on large plates.

  “Good thinking,” she said over my shoulder. “We want to leave plenty of room for the topping.”

  “I knew there was a reason you were my best friend,” I said, laughing as I handed her plate to her, along with one of the cans.

  It was the perfect way to start off our slumber party. I found myself wishing later that we hadn’t had so many bad things happen so soon after. It was a shame to let the nice time we shared early on be forgotten in the aftermath that was to come.

  After we finished our dinner, the pie first, of course, we were cleaning up as we discussed what we’d do next.

  “I bought some movies today after I finished working in a territory with one of my reps,” Grace said as she retrieved a few DVDs from her bag.

  “What did you find?”

  “Well, since the theme tonight is apparently going to be ice, I bought Ice Age, Frozen, and one of the sequels to Ice Age. I thought about getting The Ice Storm, Ice Station Zebra, and The Day After Tomorrow, but I figured we could use some lighter fare, if things are going to get as intense as they’re saying. What do you think?”

  “Your selection sounds good to me,” I said as the wind outside began to pick up and the sky started to darken quickly. The temperature had dropped several degrees in the past few hours, but I knew that it still wasn’t cold enough in the upper atmosphere for the snow I’d rather be getting. I was a bit of a weather nerd as a kid, and I’d done my junior high science fair project on the different forms of precipitation, so I knew that for freezing rain to occur, the upper atmosphere temperature had to be above freezing, while the temperature on the ground had to be below it. The icy rain, still liquid, hit the frozen surfaces below and froze instantly, coating the world in its icy embrace. As the wind blew harder and harder, I could hear tapping on the glass outside, and when I looked out, I saw that there was some sleet mixing in with the freezing rain. “It’s getting started earlier than I thought it would,” I told Grace.

  She looked outside and shivered a little. “Do you think the forecasters finally got one right?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “I hope Jake is okay.”

  “You should call him.”

  “I don’t like to pester him when he’s driving,” I answered.

  “Suit yourself, but if it were me, I’d call him in a heartbeat.”

  It didn’t take much for her to persuade me. I dialed Jake’s number, fully expecting to get his voicemail, when he surprised me by picking up on the third ring instead. “Hey. I was going to call you in a few minutes. How’s it going?”

  “The bad weather is just starting here,” I reported. “How about you?”

  “The skies are gray, but that doesn’t mean a thing. I left Boone ten minutes ago, so I should be at the lodge in about half an hour. I’ve been warned to expect to lose my signal pretty soon, though. Is Grace there with you?”

  “She is. We had pie for dinner, and potato soup for dessert,” I said.

  “Hi, Jake,” Grace said loudly, laughing as she did.

  “Don’t have too much fun without me, you hear?” he asked.

  “Sorry, but it’s too late for that,” I said, happy to hear his voice, even if he’d be out of range soon. The mountains could be that way, yielding a clear signal one second and then a dozen feet down the road not letting us pick anything up at all. “Have fun.”

  “You, too,” he said, and then the signal dropped out entirely, and he was gone.

  I put my phone aside with a shrug. “I’m glad I called. Thanks for the advice. Now, let’s do the dishes and then start that first movie.”

  As we watched the first film, the howling wind picked up outside, but the pelting against the glass stopped. I knew that wasn’t a good thing. The rain was freezing on contact now instead of in the air, and that was how an ice storm was born. Sure enough, I looked out the window again and saw that the glass was starting to get a fine glaze on it. The lights in the park were all wearing the beginnings of icy beards, and I wondered how long we’d have power.

  An hour later, my question was answered. There was a loud explosion, followed quickly by the sound of something crashing to the ground, and then the lights were suddenly extinguished, killing our movie as well.

  With no power in the cottage, the only heat we had now was from the fireplace, so it was natural enough for us to sleep out on the couches in the living room where the warmth was. We each bundled up and chatted about the things best friends talk about, and soon enough, I found myself drifting off to sleep, warm and full.

  I hoped my fellow townsfolk were faring a tenth as well as Grace and I were.

  Only one of them didn’t make it through to the other side of the storm.

  The phone rang in the middle of the night, and I was surprised to be getting a call from anyone at that hour. Grace didn’t even move as I answered.

  “Hello?” I asked softly.

  “Suzanne, we’re not working today, are we?” my assistant Emma Blake asked me.

  I peeked outside and saw that the night was still blanketed in darkness. “I’m afraid not. Without power, we won’t be able to do anything, so there’s no use going in. Go back to sleep.”

  “This storm is crazy, isn’t it?” she asked me excitedly.

  “Crazy enough. Are you all doing okay?”

  “Mom and Dad are gone to the world, but I can’t seem to sleep when I know I should be at the donut shop, no matter what the circumstances might be.”

  “Sorry about that. You’ve got the same curse I do,” I told her softly.

  “What’s that?”

  “You’re too conscientious.”

  “No. That can’t be it,” she said with a laugh.

  “I’ll talk to you later, Emma. Thanks for calling.”

&
nbsp; I threw a few more logs on the fire, and then I settled back onto the couch. I fell asleep almost immediately, and even the shotgun explosions of tree limbs breaking free in the darkness weren’t enough to keep me awake.

  Chapter 3

  No surprise, I woke up before Grace did, and I felt chilled from the lower temperature of the cottage. The fireplace held only coals, but there were enough there still glowing to generate real flames not long after I added some dry wood to the embers. Once I had that going and the room started to get toasty again, I set about making us breakfast. There would be no donuts today, not without power at Donut Hearts, but that didn’t mean that we had to skip breakfast. I snuck into the kitchen and whipped us up some pumpkin pancakes, Grace’s new favorite. Before the first pancake was off the griddle perched on my gas stovetop, my best friend joined me. “You made breakfast?” she asked me with a smile as she rubbed her eyes.

  “Your favorite,” I said. “How do you manage to look so good crawling out of bed first thing in the morning?”

  She grinned at me. “I’d like to say that it’s due to clean living and healthy eating, but really, it’s just a matter of good genes. I’d take credit for it if I could, but since I can’t, I won’t.”

  I slid a pancake onto her plate. “Dig in.”

  “Have you already eaten?” she asked me as she started to take her first bite.

  “No, the cook eats last. It’s one of the rules that I often love to break.”

  Grace took another bite, smiled as she swallowed it, and then laughed. “If I were cooking, there would be a brand-new set of rules.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m having the next one,” I said. “Did you hear all of the commotion outside last night?”

  “No, I slept like the dead,” she answered, an unfortunate expression but one she used every now and then. “Why? Did I miss something?”

  “Just the ice storm,” I said. “I take it Emma’s phone call didn’t wake you in the middle of the night.”

  “No, I never heard it, either. Why, did she want to come in to work this morning?”

  “She did. So did I, as a matter of fact, but without power, I knew that there was no use even going over to Donut Hearts. After we eat, would you like to trek over there with me through the park? I want to make sure nothing happened to the building in the night.”

  “Sure, I’m game if you are,” she said as I slid the next pancake onto my plate. “We don’t have to go just yet though, do we?”

  I had to laugh at the not-so-subtle hint. “No, I’m sure there’s enough time for another pancake.”

  “Or maybe even two,” she answered with a smile.

  Once we’d finished eating, I put the dishes in the sink, since I wasn’t about to wash them in cold water. The stove was gas, but my water heater was electric, something I meant to correct if I ever had enough of a windfall to convert it over. We both bundled up in warm clothes, and Grace borrowed an extra scarf of mine my mother had picked up for me on one of her trips to Ireland a few years earlier. That was always her gift to me when she visited there, and I had half a dozen of the best scarves money could buy. I chose one for myself to complete my ensemble, we put on our boots and heavy jackets, and then we stepped outside.

  It was breathtaking, even though I knew how potentially deadly the ice storm had been. It had passed us by now though, and the sun was shining brightly as everything around us seemed to be coated in fine diamonds.

  “Man oh man, it’s cold,” Grace said as she pulled the scarf closer.

  “I know, but isn’t it gorgeous?” I asked her as I looked around in wonder. Though I knew the storm could prove fatal for some, there was no denying the beauty it left behind in its wake. Branches, and even entire trees, were covered with nearly half an inch of ice, as though they had been encased in glass. The downside to that was that there were several large branches lying on the ground as well. The trees hadn’t been able to support them, given the added weight of the ice. The grass crunched under our feet as we walked in the park, and I spotted the downed power line near the Boxcar Grill before Grace did. “Careful,” I said as I gave it a wide berth.

  “You don’t have to tell me,” she said as she neatly sidestepped it. “Wow, it’s amazing how much damage a little ice can do, isn’t it?”

  “I can’t even imagine how slick the roads must be,” I said. “Nobody’s driving anywhere anytime soon, or at least until it melts.”

  “Which shouldn’t take too long, given the way the sun is shining and the temperature is starting to warm up,” Grace added as she turned her face up to the warmth. “The limbs are already dripping from moisture, and I have a hunch it won’t be long before life gets back to normal around here. Have you heard from Jake today?”

  “No, but I imagine where he is, he just got snow.”

  “I kind of envy him that,” Grace said as she nodded. “I wouldn’t mind having a white Christmas.”

  “This is probably as close as we’re going to get to it,” I said as I noticed one of the mayor’s plastic snowmen sitting on one of the park benches between my cottage, the Boxcar Grill, and Donut Hearts.

  Grace noticed it at the same time I did. “I think George is getting a little carried away with those things, don’t you? I saw one yesterday that looked as though it were about to steal a car.”

  “I think they’re fun,” I said, but as we got closer, I realized that there was nothing fun about this one.

  The second I realized what I was seeing, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed 911.

  “What’s going on, Suzanne?” Grace asked me.

  “That’s not a plastic Santa,” I said as I was connected with the police station.

  At least my cell phone was working.

  I wouldn’t have wanted to walk up the icy sidewalk to get help.

  I told the cop on phone duty, “This is Suzanne Hart. Grace Gauge and I are out walking in the park, and we just found a man in a Santa suit frozen to death on one of the benches near the Boxcar Grill.”

  “Are you sure he’s dead?” the dispatcher asked me.

  “Yes, Darby, I’m sure,” I told the cop on the other end. I looked at the clearly frozen man sitting there and tried to figure out who it was. It was hard to tell though, since his face was nearly completely covered by an icy white beard. What skin I could see was pale white though, and a layer of ice covered his eyes and nose, at least from what I could see from where I was standing. Was it possible it was Phillip, my stepfather, under the beard? This man matched his size and stature, and I worried for one split second that this could be a blow my mother would never recover from, but then I looked around the eyes, and I knew that it wasn’t him.

  That still didn’t explain who it was, though.

  “There’s no need to get testy with me, Suzanne. None of us have gotten a wink of sleep because of the storm. We’ll be over there as soon as we can make it. You just need to calm down and not get upset.”

  I sympathized with him, but I had problems of my own. “How long will that be, Darby? Are we talking minutes? Hours? Days?” The last thing I wanted to hear was someone telling me not to get upset. Did that ever work on anyone?

  “Minutes,” he said, and then he hung up on me.

  “Someone’s on his way, sometime today,” I told Grace as I started taking photographs of the man on the bench with my cell phone. It was more a matter of habit than anything else, but I wanted to document what Grace and I had just found, as though it would help me somehow come to grips with it. My best friend pulled her own cell phone out and started to dial it as well. “Who are you calling?” I asked her.

  “No worries, Suzanne. We won’t have long to wait. Stephen will handle this,” she said. Her boyfriend was the chief of police, so he probably would try to make an appearance faster.

  I wasn’t
sure it was the right thing to do, though. “Grace, he’s got his hands full, what with this storm and all. Let’s just wait until Darby can send someone.”

  She frowned for a moment, and then she shrugged as she put away her phone. “Okay.”

  “It shouldn’t be long,” I said, and then I glanced over at my donut shop.

  My heart fell when I saw that a large tree had toppled across the road and had landed squarely on my lovely building.

  It appeared the storm had done more damage than I’d first suspected.

  It wasn’t another fatality, but it almost felt like one.

  Chapter 4

  “Grace, would you mind waiting here for the police without me? I need to see what’s going on at my shop.”

  “Suzanne, there’s no reason either one of us should stay here. Clearly we can’t help this poor guy. When the cops show up, we’ll point them in this general direction, but for now, I’m coming with you.”

  As soon as she said it, I knew that she was right. Whoever this man was, there was nothing we could do for him, and I needed to see the extent of the damage Donut Hearts had suffered during the storm. I had insurance on the business, but it wasn’t very good, and I wasn’t sure how much of the storm damage it would cover. Jake and I weren’t exactly rolling in spare cash, but I knew in a pinch, I could always borrow from Momma and pay her back in installments. I’d have to worry about that later, though. Right now I had to get in there, assess the damage, and see what it would take to make things right again.

  If someone had asked me the day before, I would have said that there was no way the tree that was now sitting partially in my donut shop could have ever reached it from where it had stood for over a hundred years in the park. It had been a direct hit, but at least it hadn’t been closer.