by Jessica Beck
“For you? Absolutely,” Grace said. That was one of the things I loved about her; she was always ready to throw herself into my cases.
“How would you feel about doing a little investigating with me? Is there room in your schedule by any chance?”
“After I fell asleep on you this morning and left you holding the bag alone? You’d better believe that I can make time for you,” she said. “I just got back in, so I’ll do whatever you ask me to. I still can’t believe that I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”
“Grace, stop apologizing, okay? If it had been me, I would have probably fallen asleep myself. We’re good.”
“No way. You wouldn’t have dozed off like I did, no matter how much you protest otherwise. Where should we start?”
“I was thinking that a drive to Union Square might be in order. We need to find out all we can about the Briar brothers, and we’ve got the best resource there is in town to tap into.”
“We’re going to go see the DeAngelis ladies, aren’t we?”
“I can’t think of a better place to start, and while we’re there, maybe we can get a bite to eat, too.”
“You don’t have to sell me on Napoli’s,” she said. “I’ll pick you up in three minutes.”
“You’d better make it ten,” I said as I glanced at my watch. I had to help Emma finish closing up for the day.
“Ten it is. See you soon.”
I’d have to tell her about Jake joining our team on the way to Union Square, but at the moment, I had cleaning to do.
The only problem was that someone else had her own agenda.
I looked down the street, and Gabby Williams was walking toward me with a stride that told me that she wasn’t approaching me for a social visit.
“Suzanne, do you have any fans?”
“I’d like to think that some folks love my donuts enough to call themselves fans,” I said. “I’m sure that you have admirers yourself, Gabby.” She ran a gently used clothing store called ReNEWed, and her business was the closest to my donut shop. That made us de facto neighbors, but it didn’t mean that I still didn’t have to watch my step around her. Gabby had the fastest, and the sharpest, tongue in all of April Springs, and it was never a good idea to cross her.
“Not that kind of fan, you nit,” she said with a hint of aggravation in her voice. “My air conditioning went out at the shop and I’m roasting.”
That was serious indeed. With the heat wave we were experiencing, there was no way a customer would stay in an unairconditioned spot any longer than they had to. “Have you called someone about it?”
“Yes, for all the good that it will do me. Since Tim died, I’ve had a devil of a time finding a decent repairman.”
I knew too well what she meant. Tim had met an untimely fate near my cottage, and every time I walked past the Patriot’s Tree, I glanced up at it with trepidation, remembering seeing his body swaying in the breeze. “Come on in. I think I have a few box fans stored in back, and you’re welcome to use them as long as you’d like.”
“I appreciate that,” she said as she followed me into Donut Hearts.
Emma was just finished cleaning up the display cases, and she was about to say something when she saw that Gabby was with me. “Good morning, Gabby,” she said. “May I get you something? Coffee, perhaps?”
“It’s a thousand degrees in my store. Coffee is the last thing I need right now, young lady,” Gabby replied.
“How about some ice water, then?” I asked.
“That would be more appropriate,” Gabby said. “Emma can get the water for me while you’re retrieving those fans.”
I winked at my assistant as I headed for the back and found the fans in short order. As I carried them back to the front, I heard Emma say, “I belong right here, at least for now.”
Leave it to Gabby to poke and prod, no matter how little time she had for being nosy.
“Here you go,” I said as I grabbed a clean rag. “Let me just dust these off for you.”
“I can do it myself,” Gabby said as she reached for the fans. “Why exactly do you have these on hand?”
“Don’t you remember my last summer experiment?” I knew that she did, since her complaints had been the main reason I’d stopped. The year before, in a summer that was much milder than the one we were going through at the moment, I’d propped the fans near the counter and opened the front door, hoping that the smell of donuts would be enough to draw customers inside. I didn’t know if it would have worked one way or the other, because Gabby had insisted that I was contributing to the growing air pollution that only she seemed to be able to sense.
“Ah yes, how could I forget when all of April Springs smelled as though a donut factory had just blown up.”
I decided to take the high road and let that one go, mainly because Grace would be on her way soon, and I had work to do before she arrived. “Here you go. I hope they help.”
Gabby seemed to take my capitulation with more curiosity than grace, but in a moment, she was gone, along with the box fans, and I got back to business.
As Emma and I cleaned, I asked, “It didn’t take her long to take a jab at you, did it?”
Emma just grinned. “I didn’t mind. I’ve kind of come to expect it from folks around here, to be honest with you.”
I hadn’t realized that Emma had been taking such a beating around town about her decision to come back home to April Springs. “Has it really been that bad?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing I can’t handle,” Emma said. It was clear she didn’t want to discuss it. Fine. If she changed her mind, she knew that I was always there for her.
“How do things stand in back?” I asked as I wiped down the last stretch of counter.
“We’re nearly ready to close. If you balance the register, I can finish everything else up.”
“That’s a deal,” I said.
I ran the reports I needed, counted the money in the till, and when I was finished, I was happy to have everything balance out perfectly. It wasn’t that unusual to be off a nickel or so every now and then, but I loved it when everything worked out. It so rarely did in the life of a small businesswoman.
I was just finishing up the deposit slip when there was a knock at the front door. I looked up to see that Grace was standing there with a smile.
As I let her in, Emma came out from the back. “Suzanne, what should I do with the extra donuts today? Oh, hi, Grace.”
“Hi right back at you,” Grace said.
“How many are we talking about, Emma?” I asked.
“Two baker’s dozens,” she said.
I figured that twenty-six extra donuts wasn’t that bad. “Do you have any use for them yourself?”
“Sorry,” she said. “My mother’s got Dad on a diet, and if I slip him any more goodies, I’m going to be in some serious trouble with her.”
“We’ll take them with us,” Grace said suddenly.
“Feeling peckish, are you?” I asked her with a grin.
“What can I say? I’m still a growing girl.” The statement was patently false, since Grace could still fit into her high school prom dress, but I let it go. I also knew that she wasn’t about to eat all of those donuts, or probably even one.
Emma put the boxes on the counter, and then she said, “If that’s it, I’ll go ahead and take off. I’ve got a class in twenty minutes.”
“Go on. Take off.”
After she was gone, I asked Grace, “What are we going to do with all of these donuts? I know for a fact that you’re not going to eat them.”
“What we always do,” Grace said. “We’re going to use them to bribe people to talk to us. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Are you kidding? I love that they might be going to good use, but I doubt that the DeAngelis ladies are going to want someone else’s donuts around their restaurant.”
“Then we’ll use them on somebody else. Are you ready?”
“Let’s drop my
deposit off at the bank, and then I’m raring to go. I’ll drive the Jeep so your car doesn’t end up smelling like donuts.”
“There are worse aromas in the world,” she said, but she didn’t disagree with my suggestion.
And just like that, we were off on another investigation.
Chapter 5
“Grace, there’s something you should know,” I said as I drove us to Union Square to visit Napoli’s and the DeAngelis women, our sources there.
“Is it about the case?”
“Sort of. Jake is going to take some time off to help us solve it. That’s not a problem, is it?”
“Why should it be?” she said. “I’m delighted.”
“Good. I was afraid that you might not like him being a part of our team.”
“Suzanne, I adore your boyfriend. Why wouldn’t I want him around?”
I hesitated for a moment, and then I said, “Snooping is our thing, you know? I just didn’t want you to feel left out.”
“I’m here, aren’t I? If Jake’s helping us, where is he right now?”
“I have no idea. He said that he was going to try to tap into his official police sources for some inside information. In the meantime, we’re going to keep each other up to speed about our progress, but unless something significant happens before then, we’re meeting back at my house tonight for dinner. That reminds me,” I said as I took out my phone and called my mother. “Hang on one second, Grace.”
When my mother answered, I asked her, “Momma, would you mind making dinner for three unofficial investigators tonight?”
“I’d be delighted,” she said. “Suzanne, you didn’t drag George into this, did you?”
“No, ma’am, I realize that our mayor has enough on his hands without me adding to his problems. Jake is taking some vacation time to help us.”
“Did he have any trouble getting leave on such short notice?”
“No, as a matter of fact, his boss was all for it,” I said, not really sure if I was stretching the truth or not.
“Then that’s perfect. Do you have any preferences about what’s on the menu?”
“I’m sure that whatever you make will be splendid,” I said, meaning every word of it. My mother was a fine cook, a savvy businesswoman, and a real pistol if anyone had the nerve to cross her. Not many did it twice; that was for sure.
“Give Grace my love. You two need to be careful, do you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “Loud and clear.”
After I hung up, I told Grace, “Momma sends her love.”
“Right back at her. How’s she holding up?”
“You know my mother nearly as well as I do. I have a tough time reading her sometimes, but I can tell that she’s pretty upset right now. Who can blame her? This is something no one would want dumped in their lap.”
“Between the three of us, we’ll figure this out,” Grace said reassuringly.
“Don’t forget that Chief Martin isn’t exactly an innocent bystander in all of this. He wants this case solved as much as any of us. It can’t be easy for him having his girlfriend as a prime murder suspect.”
Grace glanced over at me. “Suzanne, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you’re becoming quite a fan of our dear police chief.”
“He has his good points,” I admitted. In all honesty, the chief really had started to win me over. No one that devoted to my mother could be all bad, and I was trying harder and harder to see him for what he was, and accept him.
I was willing to admit that some days were better than others, but it was good between us at the moment.
When Grace and I got to the restaurant, we found a sign on the door that said Napoli’s was closed.
“What’s going on?” Grace asked. “I thought they were open every lunchtime during the week.”
“Me, too,” I said as I grabbed my phone and called Angelica, the mother and patron saint of the best Italian restaurant I’d ever enjoyed.
“Angelica, this is Suzanne Hart. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Suzanne,” she said rather abruptly. “Why do you ask?”
“Grace and I are out in front of the restaurant, and we just saw your sign that you were closed. I hope nothing’s happened.”
“I’m sorry to say that it has. Come around back. Hurry.”
“If it’s not a good time, we could always come back later.” I felt bad asking her for a favor when she was clearly having trouble of her own.
“There’s no time to talk. I’ll be waiting.”
Angelica hung up before I could protest any further.
“What’s going on?” Grace asked.
“I don’t have a clue, but we’re about to find out.” I led my friend around the back of the building. We had to knock twice on Napoli’s rear entrance before anyone heard us. Sophia, Angelica’s youngest, finally opened the door, a pained expression on her face. There was an expanding puddle of water at the base of the door, and I wondered if they’d had a rainstorm here that we’d missed in April Springs.
“What’s the big mystery, Angelica?” I asked her.
“We’ve got a leak somewhere inside,” she said as Grace and I walked into the kitchen.
A leak was the mildest way their problem could be described. A central pipe must have broken somewhere overhead, flooding the kitchen with at least six inches of water, and the tide was rising even as it came pouring out through the open back door. There were towels stacked up at the door that led to the main dining area, so I was hoping that the public spaces had been saved from the torrent of water. What made it worse was that there was the sound of more water coming in as Angelica, Antonia, and Maria tried to stem the tide, but they were clearly in a losing battle. The fourth daughter was nowhere to be found, but that didn’t surprise me. Tianna had left the restaurant business abruptly over a boy that was sheer trouble, and sometimes Angelica was so distraught by it all that she claimed only three daughters, not four. I even caught myself on occasion forgetting about Tianna, but I hoped that someday she would come back into the fold. I knew that it must have broken Angelica’s heart to lose contact with one of her children.
“Where’s the cutoff valve for the main supply line?” I asked frantically.
“We don’t know,” Angelica said with great distraught. “I called our landlord, but he isn’t picking up the phone. Everything’s going to be ruined if we don’t stop this water, and fast.”
I looked around and tried to trace the exposed overhead plumbing, searching for some kind of cutoff valve. The only problem was that I couldn’t find one. “How do you get up onto the roof?” I asked.
“I can’t ask you to climb up there, Suzanne. Sophia, you go.”
“I’m afraid of heights, and you know it.”
“Just go!” her mother urged her, but she wouldn’t move.
“I’ll help you down here with a broom,” Grace said as she started trying to push more water out the backdoor. It was clearly futile, but at least she was trying to do something.
“Come on, Sophia,” I said as I grabbed her hand.
Once we were outside, I asked, “Can you think of any way to get up there?”
“I saw a ladder over there one time,” she said as she pointed to a spot along the back wall, “but I’m not climbing up it. Suzanne, I wasn’t kidding. I hate standing on a chair, let alone climbing around on a roof.”
“Show me the ladder. I’ll take care of the shutoff myself, but I have to be able to get up there first.”
Sophia led me to the area she’d pointed to earlier, and there was indeed a ladder there, just as she’d promised. After taking a look at it, though, I wasn’t at all certain that it was going to be tall enough for me to climb up onto the roof using it.
I grabbed it and leaned it against the building anyway. Just as I’d feared, it was a good two feet short of the roof.
“It’s not going to work,” Sophia said.
“I can climb it and pull myself up the rest of the way
once I’m at the top,” I answered. “Steady it for me, would you?”
I started climbing before I could chicken out. When I got to the top step, I reached up with both hands and pulled myself up the rest of the way. I managed to get my waist onto the edge, and then I pulled myself up. The T-shirt I was wearing was probably ruined by the hot tar on the lip of the roof, but I couldn’t worry about that right now.
I had thought it was hot on the ground, but being up on that roof was a thousand times worse. Gravel that had once been embedded in hot tar was now loose and stuck to my shoes with every step I took. Hot exhausts from a dozen air conditioning units blew straight into my face, and I felt my feet grow heavier with every step.
I suddenly realized that I had to do this quickly if I was going to be able to do it at all.
Sophia yelled up, “Are you okay?”
“Walk to the restaurant’s back door,” I told her.
I started in the general direction, and as I looked over the edge, I saw Sophia standing there, shielding her eyes with one hand.
It was a great deal further up than I’d originally thought.
As I looked around the roof’s maze of pipes, I found a plumbing stack with valves clustered together over to one side. This had to be where the leak was coming from. I grabbed the nearest valve and tried to turn it, but there were two problems with that: the valve was burning hot to the touch, and it was rusted a bit as well.
As I blew some air onto my fingertips to try to cool them off, I walked back and said, “I need a wrench.”
“Sure, we’ve got one, but how am I going to get it up to you?”
“Don’t worry, you don’t have to climb up to let me have it. You can throw it.” That girl really was afraid of heights.
“Okay. I’ll be back in a sec.”
She took ten of them, and each one felt like a full minute apiece in the blistering heat.
Finally, Sophia reappeared. “Here it is.”
“Throw it up,” I said.
I’d planned on trying to catch it, but Sophia chucked it a little too hard, and it fumbled out of my hands.