Pastry Penalties

by Jessica Beck

  “What we believe doesn’t matter,” Jake said.

  It might have been the right thing to say as a cop, but it wasn’t anywhere close to being what a friend should say. I took Emily’s hands in mine. “Believe me, we are going to do everything in our power to find the truth about what happened to Dusty.”

  “Does that mean that you don’t believe me, either?” she asked me, her voice trembling as she asked the question. “Suzanne, it’s important to me that you don’t think of me as a murderer.”

  “Emily, Jake didn’t phrase it the way I would have, but what he said was true enough. What matters right now is what we can prove and what we can speculate, not what we feel. If we start eliminating suspects just because we love them, there wouldn’t even be a reason to investigate. We have to clear our emotions away and look at the facts. You and I have been friends for a very long time, and if there’s anything my husband and I can do to help you, we will, as long as you didn’t kill Dusty.”

  “Of course I didn’t kill him!”

  “Take a deep breath,” I said. “I didn’t accuse you of anything. If you’re innocent, you don’t have anything to worry about from us. We’ll do everything in our power to make sure that the real killer is caught.”

  “Okay, I guess I can see the distinction,” she said after a moment. “What can I do to help you make it happen and make this cloud over my life go away?”

  “Be honest with everyone you speak with. Don’t try to hide anything from the police when you talk to them like you just did with us,” Jake answered before I could.

  “Even if it makes me look guilty?” she asked incredulously.

  “Believe me, I fully understand that no one likes to put themselves in a compromising position, but the chief needs to know what happened. If that witness comes forward and tells the chief what he saw and heard before you tell him yourself, it’s going to make you look ten times as guilty as if you volunteer the information up front.”

  “Do you really think the police are going to come here and start grilling me about Dusty’s murder?” she asked, clearly worried about the prospect of a full-on interrogation.

  “Honestly, I’m a little surprised they haven’t been here already,” Jake said just as the front door chime went off.

  We all turned to the door and were each in turn equally surprised that it was just Christine, back bearing a thermos and a piece of Tupperware large enough to contain at least a dozen of the requested cookies. The treats were quickly forgotten, abandoned with the thermos on the counter, as she spotted her daughter’s tears. “What’s going on here?”

  “It’s okay, Mom,” Emily said as she started to wipe the tears from her face.

  “It is anything but okay, young lady,” Christine told her daughter. She marched straight toward us as if she were about to do battle, which in a very real sense, she was. “You two need to leave.”

  “Mom, they’re only trying to help,” Emily protested, but her voice was a little weak as she said it.

  “Then they can do it someplace else.” Christine stood directly in front of me, and though she bore little resemblance to my own mother, her stance and the determined expression on her face were both all too familiar. “I mean it. Good-bye.”

  I nodded in capitulation without even looking at Jake. I knew that we’d gotten all that we could out of Emily at the moment, and with Christine acting as her guardian, it wouldn’t do us any good to try to keep questioning her. “We’re going, but Christine, we’re just trying to help Emily.”

  “Then help her by leaving,” she said.

  Jake and I started to walk out when I turned to Emily and added, “If you need me, I’m just a phone call away.”

  “She won’t need you. She’s got me,” Christine said firmly.

  We were out on the sidewalk before Jake said a word. “Was it just me, or did she remind you of your mother just then?”

  I laughed a little despite the seriousness of the situation. “It wasn’t just you. She had a definite ‘defending lioness’ vibe going on there. Not that I can blame her. It must have looked as though we were attacking her daughter when she walked in, even though we were just trying to help her.”

  “To an extent, at any rate,” Jake said as we got in the Jeep.

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked, hesitating before I started the engine.

  “Suzanne, if Emily killed Dusty and we can prove it, we aren’t going to be helping her at all,” Jake said.

  “Do you really think she did it?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know yet,” he said. “I just want to make it clear that if we find proof that she did it, we’re turning our evidence over to the police. Agreed?”

  “I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else,” I said. “I’m kind of surprised you’d even ask me that, Jake.”

  “Suzanne, I know how loyal you are to your friends.”

  “I’d walk through fire for them,” I agreed, “but if I discovered that one of them had committed murder, I’d do everything in my power to make sure they paid for the crime. Otherwise I’d never be able to look at myself in the mirror again.”

  “That’s what I thought, but I didn’t think it would hurt to be sure,” he said.

  “Now that we’ve cleared that up, what’s our next step?” I asked him as I started the Jeep.

  “I want to speak with Hattie and Michelle again,” Jake said, “and I’d like to get to them before they find out what happened to Dusty.”

  “Any preferences on which one we tackle first?” I asked, happy that we had something constructive to do.

  “You pick,” he said. “I just need to make a quick phone call first.”

  “You’re not calling the chief, are you?” I asked him.

  Jake stopped before he could finish the call. “And if I am?”

  “Fine. Just don’t tell him what Emily told us.”

  Jake scowled for a moment before he spoke. “Suzanne, it could be a piece of critical evidence. He needs to know.”

  “I’m in full agreement on the point, but doesn’t Emily have the right to tell him herself first?”

  “If she’ll actually do it,” Jake said. “Don’t forget, she tried to hide it from us. What makes you think she’ll be more forthcoming with the police?”

  “Because we told her she needed to be honest with them,” I said.

  “Do you really have that much faith in your friend to do the right thing?” Jake asked me as I drove back to Michelle’s office. I’d decided to tackle her first mostly because she was the closest to us at the moment. Neither woman would be a treat to tackle again so soon, but we really didn’t have any choice. Time really wasn’t our friend at that point.

  “I do. Besides, if she doesn’t tell him, then we will,” I said, “but let’s at least give her the chance.”

  Jake put his phone away, albeit a bit reluctantly. “Okay. We’ll play it your way for now.”

  “Thanks. Now let’s go talk to Michelle about Dusty Baxter. It might just prove to be an interesting conversation.”

  Chapter 9

  “Seriously?” she asked us as we came back into the accounting office where Michelle worked. “Is there even really a raffle? Because if there is, I’m not interested in buying any tickets from either one of you.” She turned back toward her employers’ offices. “They’re all out at a big meeting, so you won’t be able to peddle any to them, either.”

  “We’re not here about the raffle. We need to talk about Dusty Baxter,” I said.

  Michelle definitely reacted to the name. “What about him? Has he been spreading more lies around town about me? Fine. I admit it. He broke my heart a few days ago. Isn’t that enough for him? Why does he have to keep rubbing my nose in it? What is wrong with men? First Max and then Dusty. What kind of hold does Emily Hargraves have over them? She’s not all that much to
look at, is she? It’s absolutely baffling. Well, she can have them both as far as I’m concerned. I’m swearing off men for the immediate future. Let’s see how they like that. Max and Dusty both could walk through that door in ten seconds, and I’d send them both packing.”

  “Dusty didn’t say anything directly to me about the two of you, and for the record, neither did Max, for what it’s worth,” I said, which was the absolute truth, though by no means all of it.

  “I don’t know why not. Dusty has been telling everyone else that I threw a fit when he dumped me, like it’s some kind of badge of honor to be with him. Have you ever been in love and have someone tromp all over your heart?” Michelle paused for a moment, and then a look of sympathy briefly crossed her face. “Look who I’m asking. Of course you have. Suzanne, after what Max did to you, I never thought you’d pile on me with the rest of them.”

  “I’m not here to taunt you,” I said. “Michelle, Dusty’s dead.”

  Her reaction was immediate, and it somehow felt quite genuine to me. The look of puzzlement on her face quickly shattered into one of despair. “No. He can’t be. I don’t believe you!” She shrieked the words out loudly enough to get everyone’s attention within half a mile, and I was suddenly glad that her bosses were out of the office at the moment. It took a moment or two to settle down, and when she did, she asked plaintively, “What happened? Was it a car wreck? I always told him that he drove too fast, but he would never listen to me.”

  “Actually, someone stabbed him in the heart,” I said. I assumed the only thing the police chief was holding back was that the knife had been found in Spots’s possession. I glanced at Jake with a questioning look, and he nodded his approval toward me for divulging the cause of death. It was nice to have such a high level of unspoken communication with my husband.

  She nearly fell when she heard the news, just as Emily had, and if Jake hadn’t been there to catch her, I’m not so sure that she wouldn’t have landed hard on the floor. “I don’t understand. Who would want to kill him?”

  “That’s exactly what we’re trying to find out,” I said.

  “You should talk to Emily Hargraves,” Michelle said angrily.

  “What makes you suggest that? I thought she was still with Max,” I said, trying to act as innocent as I could. Emily had told us about her confrontation with Dusty, but the real question was, had Dusty told Michelle?

  “Why do you think Dusty broke up with me? He told me that he was going to win Emily back no matter what it took. I tried to tell him that he was as delusional as the rest of them, but he wouldn’t listen to me!”

  “When was the last time you saw Dusty, Michelle?” Jake asked her gently.

  “Do you think I did it?” the receptionist shrieked, jumping to the conclusion instantly. “I loved that man, even if he did crush my heart. I wouldn’t have hurt him for anything. Now get out of here!”

  I was about to try to calm her down when the front door opened and two men and a woman walked in. They’d been smiling and joking about something, but Michelle’s reaction to my question killed any levity they may have been feeling at the time.

  “What’s going on here?” Harvey Bascomb looked anything but friendly as he asked the question.

  “Dusty is dead,” she told him, breaking into sobs and throwing herself at him. As she drove her face into his chest, it was pretty clear that this particular interview was over.

  “I’m so sorry, my dear,” he said as he stroked her hair, doing his best to comfort her.

  “If we could just ask a few more questions, we might be able to sort this out as far as Michelle is concerned,” Jake said.

  I glanced over at him and shook my head, but it was too late. Evidently our unspoken communication didn’t go as far as ESP.

  “I’m sorry, but I need to ask you both to leave,” Harvey said angrily. “Don’t you see that you’ve upset this child enough already?”

  “With all due respect, sir, the police are going to be a lot tougher on her than we are,” Jake said. I hadn’t been surprised by his reaction. My husband believed that when you were pushed, you pushed back. It worked for him most of the time, but this wasn’t going to be the case today, and I knew it before Harvey said another word.

  “Then we’ll deal with them when and if they come,” he said. “Are you going to leave now, or must I call them myself and have you forcibly removed?”

  I could see Jake tense up, but I beat him to the punch. “We were just leaving,” I said. Before we departed, I looked at Michelle, who still had her head buried in the chest of one of her bosses. “We truly are sorry for your loss. The only thing we want to do is uncover who killed Dusty. If you loved him as much as you say you did, you’d want the same thing.”

  Her only response was a heightened moan, so we left before the three accountants tried to throw us out themselves.

  “We should have pushed her a little harder,” Jake said. “She was close to cracking.”

  “Jake, I love you dearly; you know that, don’t you?”

  “Yes. Of course. What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Sometimes it seems as though you’ve forgotten that you’re not a cop anymore. No one has to tell us anything. They were quite within their rights asking us to leave just then.”

  “It sounded more like a demand than a request to me,” Jake said with a frown. “I don’t like being told what I can and cannot do.” I had to laugh at that statement, something he didn’t react well to at all. “Suzanne, do you think that’s funny?”

  “Jake, nobody likes that happening to them. Unfortunately, we just have to deal with it and move on.” I had to get him to forget about what had just happened with the accountants and deal with the task at hand. “What do you think of Michelle’s reaction?”

  “It felt a little too melodramatic to me, as though she’d staged it,” Jake said.

  “Seriously?” I asked him. “That’s odd. It felt genuine to me.”

  “Huh. I wonder if it might be because she struck a sore nerve with you,” he said softly.

  It took me a few seconds to figure out what he was talking about. “Do you mean what she said about Max? Jake, it was painful, there’s no doubt about it, but if he hadn’t done it, I would have never found you. How many times do I have to tell you that before you believe me?”

  Jake surprised me by taking me in his arms and kissing me soundly. “That should just about do it,” he said after he broke our kiss.

  I laughed again, but this time out of sheer happiness. When I turned toward the Jeep, I glanced back at the office and found one of the accountants watching us through a slit in the blinds. I winked at him, and the opening quickly closed. “Come on, sport, let’s go see if Hattie has anything interesting to add to our pool of knowledge.”

  “I can’t even guess as to how she’s going to react. Of our two main suspects, she’s the more melodramatic of the two,” he said with the shake of his head.

  “One can only imagine,” I said.

  As I drove toward Hattie’s place, I glanced over at Jake and saw that he was frowning. “What’s wrong? Are you thinking about the case?”

  “Yes.”

  Seriously? Was that suddenly his idea of what a conversation was supposed to be? What happened to give and take, sharing our thoughts? “You’re going to have to give me something more than that, mister,” I said.

  “I could tell you, but you aren’t going to like it.” He was looking out the side window now, avoiding any eye contact with me at all.

  “You think Emily killed Dusty,” I said flatly. I hated the thought of entertaining even the remotest possibility that it was true, but I knew that my husband was better able to look at a case dispassionately and evaluate the information we had than I was. Most of the time I admired the trait, but not when it concerned one of my dearest friends.

  “No. At lea
st not at the moment. That’s all subject to change, though.”

  “You don’t have to use a disclaimer with me,” I said. “No one’s printing this conversation in the newspaper.” I glanced in the backseat as a joke. “At least I don’t see Ray Blake anywhere close by, but who knows? He could be really good at hiding.” Ray was not only my assistant Emma’s father, but he also ran the town newspaper.

  “I doubt it,” was all that he said.

  Again with the short answers that really didn’t answer anything.

  That was about all that I was willing to take. I pulled the Jeep over and turned off the engine. I’d waited for a parking lot, and the first one I’d found was at the Baptist church.

  “Why are we stopping here?” Jake asked me as I pulled the key out of the ignition.

  “We’re not going anywhere until you talk to me.”

  “Suzanne, I could tell you what’s on my mind, but I don’t want to get into an argument with you about it.”

  I was more curious than anything else at that point. “What if I promise not to react one way or another to whatever you tell me?”

  Jake laughed, but there wasn’t any joy in it. “How could you possibly promise me that?”

  “Try me.” I meant it, too. He could say anything short of directly accusing my mother of the murder, and I wasn’t going to even raise an eyebrow, let alone my voice.

  “Okay, but remember, you’re the one who pushed it. I know you and Max are on good terms, but are we absolutely sure that he’s still in LA filming a commercial?”

  I started to protest as an instant reaction, but my recent promise made me take a breath and then a beat. After a few moments, I asked him, “What makes you wonder that?”

  “That mysterious stranger who interrupted Dusty pinning Emily at the newsstand. What if it was Max?”

  “I would think if he’d been there, my ex would have raced in and tried to beat Dusty within an inch of his life,” I said.