Donut A Day

by Sattler, Gail

  She’d marked his schedule on her calendar.

  He thought maybe, he just might be falling in love.

  Sarah stepped away from the wall and smoothed out her sleeves, brushing off some imaginary dirt, no doubt needing more time to compose herself after he’d frightened her so badly.

  He flexed his fingers and rammed his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to say more.

  Earlier today, he’d thought she might have been feeling a little of the same thing he was, except now, she had just asked him to leave.

  Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that she didn’t feel the same way. Both personally and professionally, seeing Sarah was a bad idea. First and foremost, the woman was a nonbeliever. Though she was sweet, kind, intelligent, and fun to be with, she didn’t share his faith.

  If he had been in any condition to be out that morning, he would have invited her to come to church again since she’d already been twice. Yet, he feared he was already in over his head, exactly where he didn’t want to be. Already, he didn’t trust himself to judge if she really did believe or if she was simply going along with him for reasons of her own.

  As well, on a professional level, it was very bad to see each other socially. Without evidence, Sarah was the only witness they had who had seen money being exchanged between Kincaid and Donnie. She was also the only person who could identify Kincaid as an associate of Donnie. She saw when the contacts were made and how the money was passed on. She was the only one who could keep them under surveillance, and they not suspect they were being watched.

  He continued to watch Sarah compose herself.

  She looked so sweet and innocent that no one could ever suspect she was an informant. She was perfect.

  She looked up at him, straight into his eyes. He couldn’t look away. The deep, sea green drew him like a moth to a flame. “I don’t want to be rude, but I really have to go to bed, so I think it’s best that you go home. I think you could use some sleep, too, so that’s also the best place for you.”

  Matt tried not to heave a sigh of relief. If her only reason for kicking him out was so that she could get some sleep before she went to work, then he could easily live with that.

  He followed her to the door, but before she opened it, he blocked it with his foot and moved close to her. When she didn’t shy away, he slowly raised his hand until he brushed her cheek with his fingertips. He had so much to say, and so much was rolling around in his mind, he didn’t know where to start.

  He cleared his throat, but he still could hardly speak. “Thanks for dinner.”

  Very slowly, she raised her hand until she loosely wrapped her fingers around his wrist. Her voice came out lower in pitch than usual, almost husky. “You’re welcome.”

  The silky sound made his heart race and her touch made his brain misfire. He reached up with his other hand until he cradled her cheeks in both hands. She still didn’t move away, nor did she show any signs of hesitation.

  “Sarah. . . ,” he muttered as he lowered his head to hers, letting his voice trail off when his lips touched hers. Slowly and gently, he kissed her warm, soft lips. She lifted her head just a little within the cradle of his hands and returned his kiss.

  Matt’s heart kicked into overdrive. He wanted to slip his arms around her back and hold her tight and kiss her well and good, but this wasn’t the right time for that. Using all the self-control he could muster, he pulled back and let his arms fall to his sides. “Bye, Sarah. I guess I’ll see you around.”

  Before she could tell him that wasn’t such a good idea, he turned, opened the door, and left.

  ❧

  With a shaking hand, Sarah hung up the phone. All night long at the donut shop and all through classes, she’d been unable to concentrate. No matter what she tried to do, and no matter what she did, all her thoughts drifted back to Matt. That she’d gotten his answering machine instead of talking to him in person was probably a blessing in disguise. She probably couldn’t have put together an intelligent sentence right now if she had to speak to him in person.

  He’d kissed her.

  Fool that she was, she’d kissed him back.

  Sarah squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t know what she was doing with Matt. All she knew was that it wasn’t smart.

  She couldn’t allow herself to get emotionally involved with a cop. His normal days weren’t as exciting and intriguing as what she saw on television, but danger was a reality on his job. He wasn’t James Bond, and he didn’t face life-threatening situations every day, but he still did face them. All it took was once for something to go wrong. Even if he didn’t die on the job, divorce rates among cops were high. The stress level of his job was high. People couldn’t help but let their job overflow as part of their personalities into their off-duty lives. That kind of stress took its toll not only on a person, but also on their spouse.

  Matt was every inch a cop, and he didn’t have to be in uniform. Just looking at him she could tell, even if she’d never met him before.

  Until yesterday, she told herself the reason he was seeing her when he wasn’t on duty was because she’d first gone to seek him out, to tell him something that related to his being on duty.

  She had obviously only been fooling herself. The way he kissed her had nothing to do with duty.

  Unless. . .it was a delayed reaction after the trauma of being with the little boy who died.

  With her hand still pressed on the phone, Sarah stared blankly at the table. The recipes she’d written out for Matt, and then forgotten to give him after his rather abrupt awakening, were still there.

  She still wanted to give them to him. Regardless of how she felt about the possibility of developing a relationship with him, as he said, the man still had to eat. Even if she didn’t want to go further, he was a nice guy. And he was an awfully good kisser.

  Sarah buried her face in her hands. She couldn’t allow herself to think like that. From this day forward, it would be business only with Matt. Because of the situation at the donut shop, she would still see Matt, the cop. But she would no longer see Matt, the man.

  ❧

  Today’s line of customers somehow seemed to be worse than usual. Still, Sarah found working the counter preferable to the drive-thru for the morning rush. This way, she didn’t have to put up with the exhaust fumes drifting in her face or get a blast of cold morning air every time she opened the window. Tomorrow, she would have the drive-thru, and Kristie would get the counter.

  She pushed in the cash drawer, anxious to serve the next customer as soon as the group of four ladies moved out of the way. As they lifted their individual cups and started to clear some space for the next customer, a tall man in a dark suit stepped up to the counter.

  Sarah’s breath caught. “Matt?” She glanced from side to side and cleared her throat. “I mean Constable Walker. How nice to see you today.”

  He grinned like the cat that swallowed the canary. “Hi, Sarah.” His smooth voice almost made her knees buckle. “I’ll have a Boston Cream and a large vanilla latté.”

  She looked up at him, then to the entrance to the washrooms. No other officer appeared to be in the building. She couldn’t see the parking lot through the crowd, so she couldn’t tell if his were the only police cruiser in the lot.

  Today, Matt was still wearing his hat inside the building, which he never did when he came in at night for his coffee breaks. Not only was he in uniform, he was in full uniform, including a tie and the jacket, smartly buttoned.

  She lowered her voice. “What are you doing here all by yourself? At this hour? It’s seven-thirty in the morning.”

  He smiled as he reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and handed her some money. “I’m a cop. This is a donut shop. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

  Someone behind him giggled.

  Sarah rang his order into the cash register and counted back his change. “Right.”

  “I’m on my way to a court hearing so I thought I’d pick up a d
onut and a coffee. Since I won’t be called out, I can actually drink it before it gets cold.”

  “Oh. I guess that means you want this to go.” She turned and hit the button on the latté machine while she put the donut in a bag for him.

  “How’re things? Same as usual?”

  Sarah glanced quickly around him, at the crowd of people both in her line, as well as in Casey’s. Kristie’s line at the drive-thru had to be twenty cars long. Sarah didn’t know if he just meant in general, or if his question was in some kind of secret code, and she was supposed to tell him if Kincaid had been back with another suitcase for Donnie, which he hadn’t. She didn’t know how to word a coded reply. “Everything’s been about the same as usual, I guess.”

  He nodded as she slid the coffee across the counter. “Good. Bye, Sarah.”

  Matt walked out of the donut shop, holding himself straight and tall and ever so handsome.

  Not only she, but a number of people in the lines also watched him, especially the women.

  Sarah gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to care that the other women watched him. She had no claim on him, nor did she ever intend to have a claim on him.

  Before she could think about why it bothered her, Sarah leaned forward to the woman who was first in her lineup. “Excuse me, Ma’am? What would you like?”

  The woman, her cheeks a brilliant shade of red, turned back to Sarah and mumbled her order.

  For the last portion of her morning, Sarah scrambled to shorten her line. By the time the woman who replaced her arrived, Sarah was tired, and she’d had enough.

  On her way through the kitchen, as she headed for the staff room to change, she nearly lost her footing on a pile of sprinkles that had been spilled on the floor.

  She sighed and turned toward the closet to get the broom. She didn’t have a lot of time to spare before her first class of the morning, but she would feel too guilty if someone else slipped on the same pile and was hurt.

  When she opened the closet door, she didn’t immediately turn on the light. With the light out, she looked down to see the glow of the light from Donnie’s office, reflecting through.

  Sarah stepped backward, turned around, and scanned the room. Everyone else was busy with customers, and the kitchen was vacant.

  Tamping down her curiosity had never been easy for Sarah. She couldn’t help herself. Since no one was watching, she slipped into the closet without turning on the light and quietly pushed the door closed behind her. Dropping to her knees, she inched along the floor and looked up through the vent.

  Donnie was alone in his office, sitting behind his desk. The increasingly familiar briefcase lay open beside him. This time, Sarah hadn’t seen Kincaid come in, but that didn’t necessarily mean he hadn’t. The same as every day, when the morning rush began, she concentrated on each customer who was in front of her, not on who was coming in the door or where they went. She knew that the suitcase had only recently been delivered. Otherwise, it would already be in the safe.

  Knowing that Kincaid had been in and she missed him, Sarah told herself that from now on, she would pay more attention to the door, regardless of the crowd. The fact that he was no longer limiting his visits to the middle of the night, when everything was quiet, sent shivers down her spine.

  Sarah gritted her teeth and inched closer to the vent, trying to catch a glimpse of the contents of the briefcase. If there was again money in it, she had to tell Matt. However, from her angle next to the floor and looking up, she couldn’t determine the contents.

  She could determine, though, that in addition to the usual briefcase, a black duffel bag was also lying on top of the desk.

  Sarah held her breath as Donnie put down the bundle of money he had been counting. He reached into the duffel bag and pulled something out. A sly smile grew on his face as he examined the contents of his hand. He started to poke at whatever was in his palm, but the phone rang. At the sound, a small sandwich bag filled with white powder dropped out of his hand and onto the desk. Some of the contents of the bag must have spilled, because Donnie muttered a string of very crude words. He cleared his throat and answered the phone as politely as he usually did while he brushed the powder from the surface of the desk and back into the bag.

  Something in Sarah’s stomach churned, and she knew it wasn’t because she was hungry. She didn’t know exactly what Donnie had, but unless she was mistaken, it was something very illegal.

  She didn’t need to see more. While Donnie was still talking, Sarah shuffled backward, stood, and grabbed the broom and dustpan. Without turning on the light, she slowly opened the door and peeked out. No one had come into the kitchen yet, so she quickly slipped out and did the quickest sweep job she’d ever done in her life. Without changing into her regular clothes, she hustled out of the building, into her car, and drove straight to the police station.

  Eleven

  “16Bravo4. Back in service.”

  “16Bravo4. While you were in court, that same woman who was in here last week left another message asking you to call her. Do you need the number?”

  Matt’s stomach tightened. The only other time Sarah had left a message at the station was when she could make a positive identification on Kincaid exchanging money with Donnie. He had no doubt that for her to, once more, run into the station on her way to the university meant something equally as important had happened. “I have it.” He checked the time. “I’ve got to add this to my calls today. It’s a follow-up to a current file. Was there any specific message?”

  “No message, just the phone number.”

  Matt gave the dispatcher Sarah’s address and checked the time. He had to trust that if it were something urgent, she would have said so.

  Matt took care of two of the prior calls that had backed up while he was in court in order to time himself to arrive at her apartment building shortly after she arrived home from classes.

  He drove onto Sarah’s street at the same time as he saw her little blue car disappear into the entrance for the underground parking.

  He punched a ten-seven into the computer to let dispatch know that he was out of service unless something urgent came up and quickly entered a few notes about his last call. Once he figured he’d given Sarah enough time to park her car and get up to her apartment, he locked up the squad car and made his way to the main entrance of the apartment building.

  This time, she answered his buzz only a few seconds after he pressed the button. She wasn’t waiting for him at the elevator, but when he arrived at her door, it opened before he knocked.

  “I just got home a couple of minutes ago. Your timing is great. Would you like me to make coffee?”

  Matt glanced over Sarah’s shoulder into her apartment. In order to talk at a location away from the scene of the alleged crime, they had no alternative but to meet on personal territory—his church, her home, or in a public restaurant—when he was on his personal time. But this time, he was in uniform and on duty. For reasons of personal safety, it was against department policy for an officer in uniform to accept food or drink from anyone, including trusted informants. He knew Sarah was safe, but still, if he let her make him coffee, the visit would feel too social, and for him, at that moment, it was very much business.

  Up until now, because he liked Sarah, he’d conveniently forgotten why they had come together in the first place. He was an upholder of the law. He was there to investigate a crime in progress. She was finished working, and in the comfort of her own home, but he wasn’t.

  Therefore, Matt remained standing in the foyer, just as he would have if he were questioning someone he didn’t know.

  “I’d better pass on the coffee. But thanks for asking. What happened?”

  “I didn’t see Kincaid today. He must have been there when the place was busy. Donnie had more money. The more money I see, the more I’m pretty sure they’re laundering money. How is it done?”

  “Commonly it’s filtered through legitimate businesses in phony sales and suppl
ier invoices, and there would be many bank accounts set up in different names under false identifications. Everything has to run through consistently and not in sporadic huge lump sums so it doesn’t cause any raised eyebrows at the taxation department. Most is done through independent, non-franchised businesses.”

  “Just like Donnie’s Donuts. So that means this could have been going on for a long time. Years even.”

  “Yes, that’s what it means. Although, in this case, I tend to doubt it’s been that long.” Matt happened to know that Kincaid had only been out of jail for seven months. “Didn’t you tell me that Donnie has only been coming in for the graveyard shift for the last six months or so? Tell me, didn’t you think it was a bit unusual for the owner to be coming in and working in the middle of the night?”

  Sarah shook he head. “No. Donnie had just fired a really awful night manager, and that’s when he started coming in late. I thought he was having a hard time finding a reliable manager, and he’d eventually hire someone. Kristie and I got used to seeing him, and it’s normal now. But I’m working graveyard shift because I’m going to school during the daytime. Maybe Donnie has something else to do during the daytime too.”

  Matt didn’t want to think of what Donnie could have been doing during the daytime if he was taking in Kincaid’s drug money at night.

  Since turning in his original report to the shift NCO, he’d discussed his findings with the staff sergeant and had been assigned as the officer in charge. The department had gone over what was happening at Donnie’s Donuts at a couple of recent debriefings. Apparently, Kincaid was already under suspicion. After being seen repeatedly at Donnie’s, a general bulletin had been put out for all members to keep an eye on things.

  Being a donut shop, open twenty-four/seven, it was an easy thing to do. Since his report had been officially discussed, more and more members of the force were gradually filtering through Donnie’s on their breaks at varying times of the day and night, hoping to see something. The staff sergeant had instructed all the members to take their breaks at Donnie’s and treat it as a callout, just to keep a constant eye on things. Already some of them had noticed suspicious activity going out the back door.