Pastry Penalties

by Jessica Beck

  After a very pregnant pause, I asked, “What did she say?”

  Minerva’s voice got low, and then she reported, “Hattie said, ‘Or else means that you won’t live to see another sunrise.’ I tell you, I get chills now just thinking about it.” After a moment, Minerva asked, “Am I back up to a dozen raspberry now?”

  “Come by in the morning and you can collect,” I said as Trish walked up with a tray laden with food and two drinks.

  “Are you two eating here now?”

  “No, we’re going back to our own table,” I said. As we did, I asked Jake softly, “What do you think of that?”

  “I think we have more to talk to Hattie about now than we did before,” he said. As we sat down, Trish put the plates laden with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and rolls in front of us. She’d been right. I doubted I’d be able to eat one of these monsters, no matter how delicious it looked, let alone two.

  “If you need anything, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you?” she asked us, giving us her best Lauren Bacall impression.

  “You bet,” Jake said, putting two fingers in his mouth and emitting a shrill sound that stopped everything in the diner.

  “Okay, you know how,” Trish said as she looked around and added in a loud voice, “That was a test of the April Springs Emergency Broadcast system. It was only a test. Had it been a real emergency, you would have seen me running for the nearest exit. Everybody can go back to their food now.”

  There were several chuckles, but I noticed a few folks give Jake an odd look. That was okay by me. I’d been getting odd looks my entire life, and it suited me to finally be married to someone who merited them as well.

  “This is amazing,” I said after I took the first bite. The ladies in back had outdone themselves, and I saw that Jake was enjoying his every bit as much as I was savoring mine. “Should we talk about what we just heard?” I asked him between morsels.

  “Let’s wait until we’re outside,” Jake said. “This meal is so good, I kind of feel like it deserves our complete attention.”

  I knew it had to be good if Jake was willing to put our investigation on hold, but I didn’t disagree with the sentiment at all. Every bite was better than the last, and I suddenly realized that I’d managed to eat everything Trish had brought me after all.

  Jake grinned at me when he saw that I had polished off my plate. “Are you ready for Round Two, Suzanne?”

  “You’re kidding, right? I’m going to be lucky if I don’t fall asleep before we get back to the Jeep.”

  “Then let’s pay and get out of here. I know we need to look for Max, but after what Minerva told us, I really want to speak with Hattie again.”

  “I’m with you there,” I said as I paid Trish, being careful not to overtip her. She hated getting more than she thought she deserved almost as much as she disliked getting less.

  Once we were outside, I stretched in the fading sunlight. “I just hope Hattie is back home.”

  “I can tell you without a doubt that she’s not,” Jake said.

  “How could you possibly know that?” I asked him.

  My husband pointed over my shoulder toward the donut shop, which was close to the Boxcar Grill, a fact that I was more than a little happy about most days, especially when I was craving some of Trish’s delightful fare.

  “Because she’s right there, slipping a note under the door of Donut Hearts.”

  Chapter 11

  “Hey, Hattie. What are you up to?” I asked as we walked over to Donut Hearts and stood behind her. She was still trying her best to get a note under the door, but since I’d had it redone after a storm had demolished most of the front of the building, it was a much tighter fit than it had been before.

  “Hello. There you are,” she said, catching her breath. Had she really been struggling that hard to get the folded paper through the slit, or was she tired for another reason? Her tricycle was parked on the sidewalk in front of Donut Hearts, but I doubted that riding it around town had worn her out. “I need you both to stop bothering me!”

  “Let me get this straight. You’re standing in front of my donut shop trying to leave me a note, and you believe that I’m the one bothering you?” I asked her, amused by her indignation.

  “Millie Farnsworth told me you were snooping around my cottage when I wasn’t home earlier,” she said, looking triumphant at catching us in the act of something she thought we shouldn’t have been doing. “Don’t bother denying it.”

  “We wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “We were indeed there. I’m glad you came by. You saved us another trip to your place.”

  “Suzanne, are you growing deaf? I just told you that I didn’t want to speak with you anymore.” She looked thoroughly confused by my nonresponse.

  “And yet here we stand, all having a nice little chat. Hattie, we need to talk about Dusty Baxter,” I said, watching her carefully as I said the dead man’s name.

  “What about him?” she asked, her eyes narrowing to two slits. “I was under the impression you were trying to find Emily’s stuffed animals.”

  “We found them,” I said.

  “Well, bully for you. If you found them, then why exactly are you asking me about Dusty? I rue the fact that I spoke with you in the first place, and if there’s anything I’d like to talk about less than three missing stuffed animals, it’s Dusty Baxter.”

  “You haven’t heard the news, have you?” Jake asked her.

  She rolled her eyes before she answered. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. What is this supposed news?”

  It was as unconvincing as the last performance of hers I’d seen. “Are you saying you’ve been tooling around town on your trike and no one has stopped you with the news about him?” It was beyond belief that she didn’t already know.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. A few folks tried to flag me down, but I didn’t have time to stop. I’m a busy woman with things to do. Now I’ll ask you one more time, and then I’m finished with this conversation, and with you. What is this so-called news?”

  “Dusty’s dead, Hattie,” I said.

  Again, she overplayed her response. It was obvious to me that she was lying about knowing Dusty’s fate. I just didn’t understand why yet. “What? That’s impossible! Why, I saw him just last night!”

  “We know,” Jake said. “It sounds as though you two had quite an argument near the clock on Town Square.”

  “So, she wasn’t sleeping after all,” Hattie mumbled under her breath. “I should have known the old bat was faking it.”

  “It’s refreshing that you’re not trying to deny it,” I said. “You threatened him, didn’t you?”

  Hattie held up her hands as though she were warding off a blow. “Hold on now. You’ve got it all wrong. I asked for the repayment of a small loan I made him, and when he balked, I may have gotten a little carried away in my reaction, but I’m just a harmless old woman. I wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “It’s funny, but you never asked us how he died,” I said.

  “I just assumed he was shot. The world is full of too many firearms, if you ask me.”

  “As a matter of fact,” Jake said, “he was stabbed to death.”

  “Oh. That’s dreadful. I still don’t know what it has to do with me.” Again, she was acting more in line with a play than a real-life reaction.

  “Hattie, you had an argument with a murder victim the night before he was slain, and you were heard threatening to end him. Why wouldn’t we want to speak with you about it?” This woman was pushing me more than I could tolerate.

  “Neither one of you is a member of any police force that I know of, so what concern is it of yours?” Hattie asked. “I don’t have to stand here and answer questions that are none of your business.”

  “Tha
t’s perfectly true,” Jake said in a calm voice. “I’m sure the police will be along shortly to speak with you instead.”

  Hattie acted as though that thought had never even occurred to her. “I’m not quite sure why you’re making so much of this. After all, it was all perfectly innocent.”

  “Then help us help you,” I said. “We can be powerful allies.” I wasn’t sure why I’d just said that, though it was true. Jake and I were good allies and even worse foes.

  Hattie looked for a moment as though she was going to say something in response to my offer when I noticed a car drive up in my peripheral vision.

  It was the chief of police, and he didn’t look particularly happy with any of us.

  “There you are,” Chief Grant said to Hattie once he got out and approached the three of us. “I’ve been looking for you for the past hour.”

  She blanched at the news. “I don’t care what you might think. I didn’t kill that man!”

  “So, you already know about Dusty,” the police chief said, frowning at me for a second. “I suppose that was unavoidable, given the circumstances. Do you have a second to talk about it?”

  “Actually, I’m rather late for an appointment, but I could probably squeeze you in sometime tomorrow,” Hattie said as she put a hand on her tricycle handlebar.

  “I’m afraid that’s not going to work for me,” the chief said. “Why don’t we take care of it right now, and that way I won’t have to bother you tomorrow?”

  “It’s getting dark,” Hattie said, clearly trying to stall him again. “I hate riding my tricycle after the sun goes down. It’s much too dangerous.”

  “I’ll see that it gets home safely, and when we’re finished, I’ll drive you back to your cottage myself. How does that sound?”

  “Impossible,” Hattie said. “I won’t hear of it. No one, and I mean no one touches my transportation other than me. If you want to arrest me, then go right ahead and be my guest, but I’m riding it straight home this very instant.”

  The chief looked as though he was considering locking her up just to prove a point, but after a moment, he relented. It might have had something to do with the crowd we were amassing, including Ray Blake, the newspaper editor, who happened to have his camera phone at the ready to record anything that might be of interest to his readers. “Fine. I’ll follow you home in my squad car, and we can speak there.”

  Hattie looked as though she wanted to protest further, but evidently she knew when she’d reached the end of her excuses. “I don’t see how that could possibly work. I ride much slower than you drive, Chief.”

  “I don’t think anyone’s going to complain. Think of it as a police escort. After all, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to you along the way, now would we?”

  Hattie shook her head and finally mounted her tricycle, forgetting all about us for the moment.

  As she rode away, the chief asked us, “Did you get anything out of her?”

  “Out of her? No,” I said, being careful with my wording. I wasn’t about to lie to him, but I wasn’t sure how much I should volunteer, either.

  Jake clearly had other ideas. “There’s something you need to know. Hattie had a fight with Dusty last night. He owed her money, and he was reluctant to pay it back promptly. Evidently Hattie took exception to that, and she threatened to kill him.”

  “How did you happen to come across that information?” the chief asked my husband. I couldn’t tell from his reaction whether he knew about it or not.

  “Minerva Gant overheard the whole thing. I’d talk to her if I were you.”

  “I already have,” the chief said as he nodded. “She came by my office ten minutes ago. Thanks for sharing, Jake.”

  “I was going to tell you eventually,” I protested.

  Both men looked at me with raised eyebrows.

  “Well, I was. Shouldn’t you be on your way, Chief? It looks as though Hattie is breaking her best speed record on that thing.” They both looked after the older actress and saw that I wasn’t lying. She was really flying on that tricycle. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed that she could pedal that fast.

  “You’re right. I’d better go,” he said as he headed to his cruiser. I half expected him to use the siren and flashing lights, but he chose to do neither.

  Once he was gone, I asked Jake, “Was that a trap the chief just set for us?”

  “He wanted to know if he could trust us,” my husband said. “I had to tell him, Suzanne.”

  “I know that. I also realize that I should have said something myself. Do you think he’s angry with me?”

  “No more than usual when we’re meddling in his business,” Jake said. “As long as one of us said something, we’re fine.”

  “Then I’m glad that it was you. You didn’t mention Emily’s news.”

  He nodded. “I was going to, but he left before I got the chance.”

  “Jake, we agreed to let her tell him herself,” I scolded him.

  “Hang on. I was going to mention that he should speak with her as soon as possible. I wasn’t going to tell him why, Suzanne.”

  “Then I apologize,” I answered contritely.

  “And I accept,” he replied with a grin.

  “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m glad that I did,” I said as my cell phone rang. “Hang on. I need to take this.”

  “Is it Grace or your mother?” he asked me as he smiled.

  “It might be someone else,” I said.

  “Sure, but what are the odds?”

  It turned out that they were actually pretty good, since it was the mayor on the line. I’d called George Morris earlier about Max, but he hadn’t known anything at the time. George had helped me with some of my earliest cases, but I didn’t like to consult with him anymore. Not only did I not want to interfere with his ability to be our mayor, but I’d inadvertently put his life in jeopardy once, and there was no way I could ever allow that to happen again.

  “Hey, George,” I said as I grinned at my husband. “What’s up?”

  “Are you still looking for Max?” the mayor asked, dispensing with small talk altogether.

  “I am. What have you got for me?”

  “I might know where he is,” George said. “The thing is, if you go without me, it might spook him. Jake is with you, right?”

  “He’s standing right here. Why, do you need to speak with him?”

  “No, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t going to face Max alone if you decide not to let me tag along,” the mayor said.

  “George, I don’t have anything to fear from Max.” The notion was patently absurd. We’d had our differences over the years, but there had never been even the slightest hint of violence on my ex’s part toward me. I wasn’t even sure he was capable of it under the most extreme provocation.

  “Suzanne, Dusty Baxter is dead, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t suicide.”

  “No, he was clearly murdered,” I said, still puzzled as to why he thought Max might have something to do with it.

  Unless he knew something I didn’t. “You were the one, weren’t you?” I asked him as the pieces all started to fall into place.

  “The one what?” he asked. Now it was his turn to be confused.

  “You walked in on Dusty and Emily last night,” I said.

  “Dusty and Emily Hargraves were having a fling? You’re kidding.” There was no way George was faking his stunned reaction.

  Wow, had I ever gotten that wrong. I had to end that particular rumor, and fast. “No. They weren’t having a fling. Dusty and Emily were together at the newsstand last night, but it wasn’t because of an affair. They had an argument, not a tryst.”

  “But they dated before Max came into the picture, didn’t they?” he asked me.

  “Yes, but that’s been
over for a while,” I said.

  “Maybe so, but did Max realize what was going on? He’s the jealous type these days. If he saw Emily with Dusty, he might act first and ask questions later,” George said.

  “Not Max,” I said, though a little doubt was beginning to creep into my mind. Was it possible that Max had indeed had a confrontation with Dusty about Emily after he’d tried to assault Emily? “George, let’s keep this conversation between the two of us, okay?”

  “I suppose we could do that,” the mayor said, “on one condition.”

  “What’s that?” I asked, wondering what George was going to ask for. I knew he wouldn’t be bought off with a dozen donuts; that was for sure.

  “I told you a minute ago. I want in,” George said plainly.

  “In on what?” I asked, not getting what he was going for at all.

  “The investigation,” he explained.

  That was exactly what I was trying to avoid, but how could I say it without hurting his feelings? “Jake and I are already working together on this. We can’t have too many investigators, or we’ll tip our hand to the killer too soon.”

  “I’m not asking to be the lead detective, but I want to play a part, no matter how small it might be. Suzanne, once upon a time I was a very good cop. Use me.”

  “May I at least speak with Jake about it first?” I asked, trying to buy a little time.

  “Sure. Do you want me to hold?”

  “I need a minute,” I said. “I’ll call you right back.”

  He just laughed. “I was just teasing you,” the mayor replied. “But don’t take too long.”

  “I promise,” I said.

  Once I hung up, I realized that George had craftily avoided giving me the lead he’d been calling about. It was clear that I was going to have to give in to his request to get the information I needed. I wasn’t sure I cared for his tactics, but if our roles had been reversed, I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t have done the exact same thing.

  But first I needed to speak with Jake.

  “That was George on the phone, not Momma and not Grace,” I said.