Suzanne eased into the chair with its back to the desks. “Poor choice of words, Jenn.”
Jenn flushed.
The room became silent as if we were all waiting for another customer to enter the front door and set the bells jingling. I couldn’t merely sit there admiring the box of donuts. I turned to Suzanne. “How did you end up with Vinnie as a nickname?”
Jenn sat up straighter and stared at Suzanne. “What? Vinnie? Since when?”
“My middle name’s Lavinia, Jenn, as you should know.”
“I do, but I’ve never heard you call yourself Vinnie.”
“I like it,” I said. “It’s cute.”
Suzanne looked annoyed. “I wasn’t trying to be cute. I didn’t want you giving away my real name.”
Feeling chastened, I helped myself to a donut.
As if she wanted to inject some neighborliness into our tea party, Jenn asked, “What kind of donut is that, Emily?” She sounded stiff and formal.
“Bacon and sun-dried tomato, made with baking powder, not yeast. I brought three of them and three raised peanut butter donuts filled with grape jelly and coated in sugar. This one’s my dinner and the sweeter one will be my dessert.” My attempt at a folksy and friendly tone probably came across as overdone.
Jenn selected a bacon and sun-dried tomato donut. “Great idea.” She bit into it. “Mmmm! It’s good. Try one, Suzanne.”
“I can’t. I’m going out to dinner.”
Jenn beamed. “You have a date?”
Suzanne pooh-poohed it. “No big deal.”
I felt like dozens of millipedes were slithering down the back of my neck. If Suzanne’s date was with Gerald Stone, it was potentially a very big deal.
Not wanting to tell Jenn and Suzanne things that Brent wouldn’t want me to, I managed a weak objection. “Not with that security guard, I hope.”
Suzanne’s face became almost as cold and hard as the last name of the man she’d stumbled into in Deputy Donut that morning. “I can look after myself. It’s not like a real date. I need to find out all I can about him so I can protect my sister.”
Jenn asked, “Is he the security guard from Saturday night?”
“He told me he works as a security guard part-time, so I asked him if I’d seen him at Little Lake Lodge on Saturday night, and he said he’d been there. Bingo.” She said it all, including “bingo,” in a dry and unexcited tone.
Jenn asked, “Did you find out his name?”
Suzanne sat up taller. “Unless he’s making it up, his name is Gerald Stone.”
The uneaten half of Jenn’s bacon and sun-dried tomato donut landed on her plate. “The Gerald Stone who used to own Stone Drugs?”
“That’s what he said.”
Jenn put her palms on the table, levered herself up, and towered over us. “Don’t go anywhere near that man, Suzanne.”
Chapter 20
Suzanne demanded, “What are you talking about, Jenn? Why should I stay away from Gerald Stone?”
Jenn grasped the back of the chair she’d left. Her knuckles whitened. “Gerald Stone is dangerous.”
Suzanne stared up at her half-sister, still looming over us. “We don’t know that for certain. That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
Groaning, Jenn fell into her chair.
I took a deep breath. “We should let the police do the investigating.”
Suzanne turned to me. “ We are not going out with Gerald Stone, and I am not going to do anything that will endanger me, or either of you. I’m just going to meet Gerald for dinner, and then I’m going home. By myself. I won’t ask leading questions. I’ll let him talk, and if I learn anything that the police should know, I’ll tell them, okay?”
I suggested, “You might want to ask him why he went from being a successful pharmacist to a part-time security guard.”
Suzanne thrust her face forward. “Didn’t you just tell us not to interfere with the police investigation? Asking Gerald Stone questions could endanger us. Gerald Stone is going to do the talking.”
I quickly apologized. “You’re right. But if he mentions why he retired early from being a pharmacist—”
“I’ll remember what he says,” Suzanne snapped. “Don’t worry. It’s my own sister’s life I’m trying to save.”
I apologized again.
Jenn didn’t seem to notice that she was tugging at her own hair as if trying to pull out fistfuls. “Years ago, Gerald Stone tried to poison Roger.”
I nearly jumped out of my seat. “He what?”
As if deflated, Jenn sank lower in her chair. “Roger was just out of college, planning to go on to pharmacy school. He got a summer job at Stone Drugs. He noticed that there was something off about Stone and the way he was doing business. Stone must have guessed that Roger suspected him of fiddling the books or filling prescriptions wrong, or something illegal.” Jenn picked up a peanut butter and grape jelly donut. Even though it didn’t have a hole, she seemed to be looking through the jelly-filled portion to the cobalt blue plate underneath it. “And the next thing Roger knew, he—Roger, that is—was sick. Roger thought he had stomach flu, but it wouldn’t go away, and no one else seemed to catch it. Roger didn’t figure out that Stone was poisoning him until he realized that he was the only one eating Stone’s homemade cookies and brownies. Roger quit the job and immediately got better. But Stone’s treachery changed Roger’s life. Roger gave up becoming a pharmacist.”
About fifteen years ago, according to Tom, the police were looking into the possibility that Gerald Stone was illegally selling prescription drugs, but the flow of drugs stopped suddenly, and they couldn’t find evidence that Stone had broken any laws. Roger could have graduated from college about fifteen years ago. Maybe it was Roger’s suspicions that had caused Stone to clean up his act and leave the profession he’d tarnished. I asked Jenn, “Did Roger tell the police about his suspicions?”
She tore her donut in half. Grape jelly oozed onto her plate. “He didn’t have proof. He thought it was funny. That’s one of the things you didn’t appreciate about Roger, Suzanne. He could be easygoing even when other people tried to attack him. He could laugh it off and go on. That’s what made him such a good life coach and . . .” Her voice softened. “And such a good person.”
I asked Jenn, “Have you told the police about that previous attempt at poisoning?”
“I didn’t think of it until now.”
I urged, “Call Detective Passenmath and tell her.”
Jenn licked jelly off her little finger. “She’ll think that I should have told her before. I didn’t, so if I tell her at this late date, she’ll think I made it up just now to cover myself.”
“Maybe not,” I pointed out. “You’re under a lot of pressure and stress. It shouldn’t surprise a detective if it takes you a few extra days to remember something that Roger told you happened a long time ago.”
“I suppose.” Jenn didn’t sound convinced.
I leaned forward. “It all fits.” I wasn’t going to tell Jenn that the police had investigated Stone, probably around the time that Roger thought he’d been poisoned. “Roger moved away, and after several years, he came back to Fallingbrook. Stone could have heard that Roger was back, and Stone could have felt that Roger was again a threat to him. Then Stone must have learned about your wedding. He wanted to silence Roger, and he knew exactly when and where to find Roger.”
Suzanne stared toward the window above the sink. “Now maybe you understand why I need to learn more about Gerald Stone.”
Jenn shuddered. “And why he’s probably dangerous. Don’t go out with him, Suzanne.”
Red splotches broke out on Suzanne’s face. “And let him get away with murder? And possibly try to kill you, too?”
“Don’t you understand?” Jenn was almost shouting. “Gerald Stone killed Roger to keep Roger from telling anyone about whatever illegal thing Stone was doing. Stone had no way of knowing that Roger took it all as a joke and would never have bothered to re
port him. And Stone has no reason to come after me. He’s never met me.”
I said calmly, “Jenn, if Stone knew about your wedding, he knew you were Roger’s fiancée. Stone could easily have guessed that Roger told you about Stone’s possible illegal activities and about Stone trying to poison him.”
With her forefinger, Jenn scraped grape jelly from her plate. “That’s kind of farfetched.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Suzanne said. “You have to be prepared for anything.”
I nodded.
Jenn leaned back and crossed her arms, threatening to smear grape jelly on the pretty pink sweater. “It seems to me that the best way to keep ourselves safe from Gerald Stone is to stay completely away from him, Suzanne. By trying to protect me from him, you’re putting yourself in danger. You have to keep yourself safe from him also.”
Suzanne heaved a huge sigh. “I will.”
I warned, “Don’t let him put anything into your food or drink.”
Suzanne retorted, “Don’t you think I know that?”
Feeling guilty for insulting her by stating the obvious, I offered a weak smile.
She explained slowly, as if Jenn and I didn’t understand English, “I’m only trying to figure out who killed Roger. It might not be Gerald. It could be those two women who were hanging around the back door at the lodge. Don’t be surprised if ‘Vinnie’ comes into your donut shop to talk to those two women, too.”
Jenn suggested, “Instead of going out alone with Gerald Stone, you could meet him only at Deputy Donut where Emily can help keep an eye on him.”
Suzanne glowered at her. “I could, but I’m not.” She turned her attention to me, and the glower dwindled to a puzzled frown. “Did I see Chad come out of your shop today?”
“You could have. He was there.”
Jenn stared down at torn-up donut bits marooned in a sea of grape jelly on her plate. I suspected that she didn’t want her sister to know she’d been with Chad before work that morning. A prolonged goodbye in his car in the parking lot behind the store she owned with Suzanne didn’t seem like the best way to keep the relationship a secret, however, even though Jenn probably hadn’t expected Suzanne to arrive at work so early.
“What did he want?” Suzanne’s question had a sharp edge, as if she suspected Chad of killing Roger, and of possibly having tried to kill Jenn.
“Coffee and donuts.” Immediately regretting my snarky response, I added, “And to say hello, I guess. We talked a little Saturday night, and danced together after midnight.”
Jenn nodded at me and said softly, “I saw you.” I couldn’t tell if she was jealous of me for spending time with her ex, who now seemed to be her ex-ex, but I didn’t think she was. Maybe Chad had told Jenn that I had suggested he could win her back.
Suzanne asked Jenn, “Are schools off today?”
Jenn lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “I guess they are, up in Gooseleg, anyway.”
Suzanne eyed her. “I didn’t see kids around here during school hours.”
Jenn asked me, “Aren’t Fallingbrook and Gooseleg in different school districts?”
“They were when I was growing up.”
Suzanne stood and began clearing the table. “Chad had better not start hanging around you, Jenn. The police will be certain you offed Roger.”
Jenn blanched. “I thought you liked Chad. Liked him better than Roger.”
“I do like him,” Suzanne said. “But I don’t want you giving the police fodder in their case against you.”
“They don’t have one. We—”
Suzanne interrupted her by looking straight at me. “Come back tomorrow night after work and we can share what we learn.” I couldn’t tell if she suspected Chad of killing Roger, but apparently, she wasn’t about to continue discussing Jenn’s former boyfriend around me.
“Okay,” I said. “You two be careful.”
Jenn let me out the back. I stood outside the closed door for a second, but didn’t hear that rusty-sounding bolt. Had Suzanne gone to the extra trouble of bolting the back door earlier that evening because she had, only an hour or so before, spotted Chad’s car behind Deputy Donut? Unless I was mistaken, Chad’s car had been parked behind Dressed to Kill other days. Maybe Suzanne hadn’t noticed or didn’t know that the car belonged to Chad, if it did.
I crossed the driveway to the back door of Deputy Donut. In our office, Dep actually stood still and let me fasten her halter around her. She didn’t attempt to bite the halter until I began attaching the leash.
Outside, I was glad that I owned another warm jacket besides the one the investigators had confiscated. The cool evening seemed to encourage Dep to dawdle more than usual on our walk home.
I let her play in the backyard before we went inside for our dinners. The two donuts I’d eaten had not been quite adequate, after all. I ate a salad and an apple.
Dep again acted like I was supposed to go to the front door, open it, and let her friends in to see her. “There’s a problem,” I informed her. “I know I should tell Brent that the man Samantha saw parked near the lodge and looking upset, or something, on Saturday night was almost certainly Chad, but if we invite Brent over, I’ll feel like I have to tell him what Suzanne and Jenn said, and he’s not going to be happy that the three of us are doing anything that might resemble snooping where we shouldn’t.”
“Meow.”
“Thanks for the advice, but calling him would probably be just as problematic.”
The phone rang. Brent. “Misty tells me that Scott ID’d the widowed bride’s old boyfriend in your shop today. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. As far as I know, he didn’t bring any arsenic.”
Brent understood my sometimes-peculiar sense of humor. “Great,” he said dryly.
“I’d have called you if I thought it was crucial, but Chad didn’t stay long and didn’t make any confessions. I still don’t know his last name.”
“We do.”
“I’m almost certain that Samantha and her partner saw him when they were bringing the ambulance to Little Lake Lodge early Sunday morning after Roger collapsed.” I described the similarities between the cars and the license numbers, and I gave him what I’d read of the license plate on the car Chad had been driving.
“Thank you. I’ll talk to Samantha and her partner. Meanwhile, just a sec. I’ll look up Chad’s license number.”
“Chad seems really nice. When they saw him with his face in his hands early Sunday morning, he could have been sick, he could have been sad that Jenn was married, or he could have been regretting something like leaving arsenic where someone might eat it.”
“Witnesses’ interpretations of body language don’t always hold up in court.”
“I suppose you’re right. Especially when the car’s windows are fogged over.”
“Were they?”
“That’s what Samantha told me. You and Misty’s partner, Houlihan, wrote down the license numbers of the cars in the parking lots at Little Lake Lodge. If Chad’s car was there, then maybe he wasn’t the man that Samantha and her partner saw. Or he could have come back to the lodge, followed the ambulance, perhaps.”
“There, I got Chad’s plate number. It includes the numbers you gave me. And his car was definitely not among those at Little Lake Lodge when Houlihan and I checked all of the cars.”
I told Brent that I’d seen the red car in Jenn’s parking lot at various times during the week and that, after a pair of people in it seemed to have their heads close together for a minute or so, Jenn got out of the car and blew a kiss, and then Chad drove away.
“Very interesting,” Brent said. “He’s been telling us that they’re just friends.”
“Maybe that’s changing.” I was glad I was talking to Brent over the phone and he couldn’t see the sudden blush heating my face. Brent and I were just friends, a relationship that was unlikely to become closer. Quickly, I asked, “Were schools in Gooseleg closed today?”
“You picked up on
that, too? After Misty told me that Chad was in your shop this afternoon, I checked. Yes, Gooseleg schools had a long weekend, starting today.” He was silent for a second. “It’s interesting that those two women from the conference, Gerald Stone, and the ex-boyfriend have all landed in Deputy Donut since the poisoning. Were any of them customers before?”
“Not unless they came disguised. Are they your prime suspects?”
“Mmp.”
“Our donuts were a hit on Saturday night,” I informed him haughtily. “No one should be surprised that people who tried them for the first time would want more.”
Apparently, my attempt at imitating some of Suzanne’s sterner tones didn’t frighten Brent. He laughed.
I asked, “Are you making progress?”
“On the case? I wish. Passenmath has us concentrating on collecting and watching surveillance videos from every business south of Little Lake Lodge. We’re supposed to view them north to south, in order, to figure out which vehicles were coming from Little Lake Lodge.”
“Um, I’m not a detective, but wouldn’t questioning reception attendees about where they were and who they saw and when they saw them be more useful? For instance, the teenagers who were groomsmen and bridesmaids left at midnight, and they didn’t come back.”
“A patrol cop stopped the van those kids were in, because they weren’t quite in it. They were hanging heads and arms out windows. The cop pulled them over at twelve twenty-one on Wisconsin Street north of the town square. He kept them there until twelve thirty-four.”
“They left the reception at midnight, before I put my hat on the table.”
“Because of the timing, we’ve ruled them out for harming Roger, but the officer gave them a warning. He also gave the father who was driving a ticket. Ironic, isn’t it? The kids’ foolhardiness could have cost them an arm or worse, but it prevented them from being implicated in a murder.”
“I hope no one tells them that. They might continue riding around with their arms and heads out windows.”
“The Fallingbrook Police Department school outreach team is about to do their annual safety presentation at the high school. Maybe the message will sink in this year.”
Goodbye Cruller World Page 17