by Jessica Beck
“I promise, all you have to do is hang out while I work,” I said with a laugh.
“Are you sure it’s nothing pressing that you want to discuss?” he asked me.
“If it were, I’d ask you to come right away. It’s just that a few curious things have happened, but nothing even remotely dangerous.”
“I don’t know, Suzanne. One of those two women most likely killed Dusty Baxter, so I’d call any interaction with them potentially treacherous.”
“I suppose so,” I admitted. “I just have a hard time seeing either one of them as a killer.”
“Does Max or Emily fit the bill more in your mind? I know we have reason to believe they are both innocent, but we could be wrong.”
“It’s happened before,” I said as someone walked into the shop. “I’ve got to go.”
“Is one of them there now?” Jake asked, his voice immediately tensing up.
“No, it’s just Arnie White,” I said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Arnie asked as I ended the call with Jake.
“I was just talking to my husband,” I said. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been looking for you.”
Arnie looked at me suspiciously. “Why would you do that? I just came by for a cherry-filled donut and a cup of coffee.”
“Answer one question for me and they’re both on the house,” I said as I got him his order.
“Gee, I don’t know. I don’t mind paying, you know.”
“Suit yourself. That’ll be twenty dollars,” I said with a straight face.
“For a donut and a cup of coffee?” he protested loudly.
“Hey, you’re the one who didn’t want to answer my question,” I said with a grin.
“Let’s hear it,” he said, resigned to playing my little game with me.
I had a hunch that he might. I could never have pulled a stunt like that if I’d been working for someone else, but that was the beauty of being my own boss.
Nobody could fire me.
“You were working on the newsstand when it flooded,” I opened with.
“I was,” he said happily as he reached for the treats.
“That wasn’t the question. In fact, it was just a statement.”
“Go on then, ask away.” Arnie looked a little upset about not getting off so easily, but I couldn’t afford to let him leave quite yet.
“You and Michelle Pennington were dating at the time,” I said, “and before you acknowledge that fact as well, I still haven’t come to my question yet.” When he didn’t answer, I asked, “Well?”
“I’m still waiting for the question,” he said.
“What happened to the key you got from Emily Hargraves when you were finished with your work for her? That’s my question.”
“Are you sure I can’t just pay you for this stuff?” he asked, looking uncomfortable.
“I’m sure. Why don’t you want to tell me?”
“Because it sounds crazy,” he said. After a few moments of thought, Arnie finally shrugged. “What could it possibly matter now?”
“That’s what I want to know. Why are you so reluctant to tell me?”
“I think Michelle took it, okay? It was on my key ring, she came over, and then it wasn’t. I had to borrow Sam Winston’s key to get into the shop one more time to finish the job.”
“Did you ask her about it at the time?”
“You obviously don’t know Michelle all that well. She had a temper then, and it’s just gotten worse since we broke up, but she took it, all right. I’m sure of it.”
That was more than I’d hoped to get out of him. I handed him the coffee and donut. “Thanks. Would you do me a favor and not mention this to Michelle or anyone else?”
“I was just about to ask you the exact same thing,” he said. “Trust me, you don’t want that woman mad at you. Take some free advice worth every penny it’s costing you; steer clear of Michelle Pennington. She’s got a bite worse than you can imagine.”
Once Arnie was gone, I realized that I just had new and stronger reasons to suspect my final two suspects of murder. Hattie’s disheveled appearance and odd behavior made her a real possibility in my mind, and Michelle’s theft of the key gave her access to the stuffed animals, which had started this whole mess in the first place.
“There’s got to be something we can do to flush the real killer out,” I told Jake later as I had my arms buried in soap suds in the donut shop sink. Jake had pulled the stool over and was keeping me company as I worked cleaning up Donut Hearts. The truth was that it was nice having him there. I just wished his visit had been under more agreeable circumstances. I’d brought him up to date on what I’d discovered since we’d last chatted, and he’d taken it all in, mulling it all over as he nibbled on a sour cream cake donut.
“Suzanne, we need to think of a way to apply a little pressure and see if we can make one of them crack,” he said after a few moments.
“I know you did that as a cop, but we can’t exactly threaten either one of them,” I said.
“Not with incarceration, but there are other inducements at our disposal.”
“Withholding donuts from them doesn’t have quite the same sting to it, does it?” I asked as I slid a few more dirty plates into the sudsy water. There were times when doing dishes by hand was therapeutic, but this didn’t happen to be one of them. I was thoroughly tired of the process at the moment, but then again, it felt as though I was on my hundredth batch of dirty dishes for the day.
“Let’s think about what we can come up with,” he said. After he finished the donut he’d been snacking on, he asked, “Are there any more of those just lying around?”
“Sorry, that was the last one,” I said. “Besides, I figured we could go grab a bite at the Boxcar before we started investigating again. That is if you’re even hungry anymore.”
“Try me,” he said with a grin. “Making chili and thinking are both hard work, and I’ve done both of them this morning. I’d offer you some chili right now, but we both know it’s better if it sits in the fridge for a day or two.”
“Then we’ll grab something to eat and see what we can come up with,” I said. “I need five more minutes here, and we can be off. Can you hold off snacking on something else until then, or is there any danger that you’re going to just waste away in the meantime?”
“I think I can make it,” he said, tweaking my shoulder lightly.
It turned out that we weren’t going to get a chance to have lunch in a timely manner after all, though. As we left the donut shop, me with the day’s deposits tucked under my arm, someone started calling out my name from down the street. “Suzanne. Suzanne.”
I turned to see the mayor rushing toward us. In fact, I’d mostly forgotten about him taking off after Michelle earlier. That was just how crazy my day had been.
“What’s going on, Mr. Mayor?” I asked him as he approached us, nearly out of breath.
“Michelle. I followed her,” he said, trying to recover.
“Take it easy, George,” Jake said. “Catch your breath, and then you can tell us. We were just heading over to the Boxcar for an early lunch so we could discuss where we should go from here. Care to join us?”
“That’s just it,” the mayor said, finally getting his wind back. “It’s Michelle.”
“What about her?” I asked as a hint of dread crept into my thoughts.
“I’m afraid she’s gone,” the mayor said.
Chapter 20
“Michelle died?” I screeched out, not caring who heard me. How could that be? I’d just seen her that morning!
“No, not that I know of,” George said. “I just meant that I lost her.”
“You need to be a little clearer when you say things like that,” I chided George.
“Sorry,” he said with a shrug.
“What did you mean when you said that she was gone?” Jake asked him. “Do you know for a fact that she’s left town, or is it that you just don’t know where she is?”
“What I mean to say is that I can’t find her,” George admitted. “Sorry I’m not being easier to follow. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I can’t go without it like I used to be able to.”
“When was the last time you saw her?” I asked him. “I mean after you followed her from the donut shop.”
“I trailed her all the way to work without any problem,” George reported. “I figured she’d be there awhile, so I sat on a bench just down the street and watched as covertly as I could. From where I was sitting, I could keep an eye on her car and the front door of her office, so I figured I’d be safe.”
“So what happened?” I asked him gently.
“The sun was warm, and I was a little bored waiting for her. I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, her car was gone. I went by her apartment, but she wasn’t there, either.”
“Did you ask inside the accounting office?” Jake asked him.
“I was about to, but then I realized that I had no earthly reason to inquire about where she’d gone,” George admitted. “The truth is that Harvey Bascomb is a big-time supporter of mine, and I can’t really afford to have him wondering what I’m up to.”
I was afraid of something exactly like that happening when I’d kept George at a distance during my previous investigations, but it certainly wasn’t time to remind him of that. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it, George. You’ve been a big help.”
“I don’t see how,” George lamented. “Maybe I’m too old to be doing this after all.”
“Nonsense,” Jake said, slapping the mayor hard on the back. “You dropped the ball, that’s it, plain and simple. It could have happened to anyone.”
“It’s nice of you to say so, but I doubt that you would have fallen asleep on a stakeout,” George said sadly.
Jake just shrugged, so I decided to step in. “George, we’ll get to the bottom of this, and if we need any more help, you’re the first person we’ll call.”
That seemed to brighten his mood a little. “Really? Do you mean that?”
“I do,” I said. Right then and there I resolved to do just that if we needed a third person. At the moment though, what we really needed was to find out what Michelle was up to, and just as important, where she’d gone.
“Fine, then,” George said. “Don’t forget, if you need me, I’ll be in my office.”
“Sounds good,” I said as I patted his shoulder.
After he left, I looked at Jake. “Have you ever fallen asleep on a stakeout?”
“Not yet, but the day is still fairly young,” he said, trying to brush the question off. “I’m guessing my lunch is going to be delayed yet again, isn’t it?”
“We can eat first if you have your heart set on it,” I told him.
“No, business has to come before pleasure,” he said as he noticed something in the bookstore window across the street.
As Jake started to walk over there, I tugged on his arm. “As much as I love to encourage you to read, we don’t have time to browse at the bookstore right now.”
He pointed to the window. “Trust me, we need to make this particular stop,” he said, and then I saw what had caught his attention.
Apparently Paige was going to give us a perfect reason to go back to the accounting firm after all.
“Hey, I see you’re selling raffle tickets,” I told Paige as we walked in. I loved visiting the bookstore, walking the aisles of old favorites and new discoveries. April Springs had been really lucky when its owner had decided to come to town and open it. “What’s the cause?”
“It’s to provide books to kids who couldn’t otherwise afford them. I’m a sucker for things like that,” she said. “The tickets are five dollars apiece, and you have a chance to win a two-night stay at the Nascent Inn in the Smokies. It’s supposed to be very posh. Would you like to buy one?”
“We can do better than that,” I said. “How would you like it if we sold some for you?”
“Ordinarily I’d say that would be great, but why do I have the feeling that you two are up to something?” she asked us with a grin.
“Us? We’re just trying to help out a good cause,” I said, pretending to be offended by the implication. I couldn’t do it though, and I started grinning as well.
“You know what? I don’t care what your motivation is,” she answered as she handed over the booklet still filled with a great many tickets. “Have them hold onto their stubs and put their names and phone numbers on the tickets themselves.”
“We can do that,” I said with a smile. “Thanks.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Is there any chance this is tied into Dusty Baxter’s murder?” Paige asked softly.
Jake just shrugged, but I said, “Yes,” at the same time, so it kind of defeated the purpose of him responding at all. “I can’t say anything more, though,” I added a little too late.
“I understand completely,” Paige said. “Once it’s all over though, I’d love to hear what happened. I’ve been a big fan of mysteries all of my life.”
“This is very real,” Jake said. “It’s best we all remember that.”
His words were sobering, and Paige nodded in agreement. “Of course. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” I said, wondering if she meant selling tickets or finding Dusty’s killer. Either way, we’d probably need it.
As Jake and I walked into the accountant’s office, we saw that Michelle had indeed abandoned her post. In a trash can by the wall, someone had discarded the donut box she’d purchased from me earlier, though whether anyone had eaten any or not I couldn’t say. I suddenly had to know, so I took two steps toward the trash can when one of the boss’s doors opened.
“What are you doing here, Suzanne?”
It was Harvey Bascomb, and it appeared that I’d been caught dead to rights.
“I was just about to knock on your door,” I said, doing my best to cover for my odd behavior. “Do you know where Michelle is, by any chance?”
“Is there a particular reason you’d like to know?” Harvey asked me a little pointedly.
“Raffle tickets,” I said, fanning the pad in my hand. “She really wanted one.” It was a bold lie that could be easily verified or denied later, but I’d worry about that when it happened.
“Frankly, I find that hard to believe,” Harvey said.
“Maybe I got it wrong, but it’s for a good cause, and I felt as though I had to at least try,” I said.
“I suppose I could take one off your hands,” he said as he reached for his wallet. “How much are they?”
“Five dollars each. It’s a fundraiser for literacy, and the prize is a trip to the Nascent Inn in the Smokies. Just jot your name and number down on the ticket,” I said as I took his money.
“I have no need of a trip,” he said.
“You could always put Michelle’s name and number down,” I suggested. I was curious to see if he knew it by heart, though I didn’t really suspect that he would.
“It hardly matters to me. Put yours down, if you’d like,” Harvey said.
“The truth is, we’d really love to talk to Michelle,” Jake said.
“As would I,” he answered a little testily. “She was here twenty minutes, and then she suddenly told me that she needed to go home.”
“Interesting,” I said. “Did she happen to say why?”
Harvey looked embarrassed. “She claimed that she had a bad donut, and it made her sick,” he said, almost as an apology. “Don’t let it bother you. Everyone has a bad day at the office now and then.”
I walked over to the box and retrieved it. “I don’t,” I said. There were eleven donuts inside, along with one that had been cut i
n half. Given what she’d told me in the past, I couldn’t imagine that she’d eat even that much of one. “I suppose this is the one that she claimed made her sick,” I said, and then I ate it before anyone could say a word. “I’m not at all concerned. I stand by my food.”
“Maybe it was something else then,” Harvey said quickly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, we’re shorthanded today, so I’ve really got to get back to work.”
I thought about taking the box with me, but I didn’t really need any more donuts, especially ones that had been thrown away.
Out on the sidewalk, Jake said, “That was not the wisest thing you’ve ever done.”
“Why do you say that? There was nothing wrong with that donut when it left my shop this morning,” I said.
“True, but how do you know the killer didn’t dose it with something bad after it left your hands?” Jake asked.
“Honestly, that thought never even occurred to me,” I said, sobered by what I might have just inadvertently done to myself.
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. Chances are you’ll be fine,” Jake added lamely.
“Only time will tell, I guess,” I said. “I just can’t bring myself to believe that there was anything wrong with it.”
“You’re probably right,” Jake replied. “Let’s go by Michelle’s apartment and see if she’s really sick.”
“George said he already checked for her there,” I reminded Jake.
“I know, but it couldn’t hurt to see that for ourselves.”
“You’re right. Jake, you haven’t lost confidence in our mayor, have you?” I asked as we got into my Jeep and headed for Michelle’s apartment. I knew it was a duplex across town, since I’d looked it up as soon as I realized that she was one of our main suspects.
“No, it’s not that. Anyone can make a mistake.”
“Even you?” I asked him.
“Even me,” he answered.
“Care to give me any examples?” I asked with a grin.