Donut A Day

by Sattler, Gail

  “Sounds good,” they both replied. Sarah quickly prepared their orders and set everything on the counter. She rested her palms on the table and waited for Matt to say something, but all he did was hand her the money. After she counted out his change, he turned around and walked straight to a table.

  Sarah’s heart sank. She didn’t expect him to comment that she was wearing the locket, but she had at least expected some conversation out of him. He usually chatted with her a little bit, even before they got to know each other. Today, he’d acted as though he didn’t even know her.

  She tried to think of what she’d done wrong. She couldn’t think of anything she’d done to hurt his feelings, but obviously something had happened.

  When he left, he didn’t acknowledge her at all. He didn’t even glance in her direction.

  As soon as he was out the door, Sarah hurried to his table to see if he’d left her something—a note, his pen, anything. He hadn’t.

  She watched to see if he would hang around pretending to check his car while the other officer left. Matt’s car drove off first.

  All through the morning rush, all she could think of was Matt and what could be wrong. She couldn’t think of a thing. By the time she left for class, she felt ready to burst into tears, which was totally unreasonable. From the first time she’d seen him away from work, she told herself that establishing a relationship was a bad idea, yet that was exactly what she’d done. She’d tried to fight it, but she felt herself falling for him, and now it was too late.

  If she thought something had begun when he kissed her yesterday, judging from his actions today, the quickest relationship in history was over. The knowledge stabbed her heart where she didn’t think she would heal.

  Her eyes blurred as she slipped behind the wheel of her car. The engine roared to life as she turned the key. She waited a few seconds, and just as she slid the gearshift into reverse, a note under the windshield wiper caught her attention. She disengaged the shifter, yanked the parking break up, and scrambled outside to get the note.

  Phone me when you get home. Short, sweet, and to the point, the note didn’t have to be signed. She instantly recognized the meticulously neat handwriting. Even though whatever had barely started was over, at least now she would know why.

  Fortunately, the morning classes demanded all her attention, so she didn’t have to dwell on what would happen when she arrived home.

  Once in the kitchen, she dumped her books and her purse in the middle of the table and dialed Matt’s number.

  It was obvious from his sleepy voice that she woke him up. She told herself not to feel guilty, because he had asked for her to call—she was only doing what she had been told to do.

  “I’m glad you called. I wanted to let you know that I didn’t mean to ignore you this morning.”

  Sarah tried to keep her voice from trembling. “Then why did you?”

  “I thought it would be best if we don’t give any indication that we’ve ever seen each other out of the donut shop. We can’t do anything to arouse suspicion. As it is, more members are going to be dropping into Donnie’s Donuts at varying times of the day and night. We’re hoping Donnie doesn’t notice. We don’t want to make an issue of anything to do with members stopping in, and that especially includes fraternizing with the staff, more now than ever.”

  “Is that what this is? Fraternizing with the staff?”

  “You know what I mean, Sarah. I shouldn’t be seen talking to you, so I think it’s a good idea to cut down on the chatter. We don’t want to give anyone ideas.”

  “I guess.”

  “I’m worried about you. I hope you kept out of the closet today.”

  “I didn’t go in the closet.”

  “While I’m talking to you, have you had any time to do any reading?”

  “Not much.”

  He cleared his throat. “I was wondering. Wednesday night I go to a Bible study meeting if I’m not working. Would you like to come with me?”

  “I thought you said we shouldn’t be seen fraternizing.”

  A pause hung over the line. When he spoke, his voice came out softer and lower than usual. “I meant at Donnie’s or in a public setting. But if you don’t want to go with me, I’ll understand.”

  Her heart pounded in her chest. She did want to go to learn more about the Bible. She also wanted to go with Matt.

  “As long as I know far enough in advance to get enough sleep for work, yes, I’d like that. Did you say it was Wednesday night?”

  “Yes. I’ll pick you up at seven, and I can have you home by nine. Normally I’d ask if you wanted to go grab something for supper first, but I don’t think we should be seen in a restaurant together. You never know who’s watching, or who might recognize either one of us and let word slip back to Donnie. How about if I bring a pizza over to your place? But if you want to sleep, that’s fine too.”

  The thought of his sneaking a pizza over so they wouldn’t be seen together didn’t appeal to Sarah. “I don’t like sneaking around like this.”

  “I don’t like it either, but we do have to be careful about where we go. I would think the small crowd at the Bible study meeting is safe, but I wouldn’t trust being out in a public setting. You never know who you might see. I’m only being concerned for your safety and the integrity of the case.”

  Sarah’s throat tightened. “How long do we have to keep this up?”

  Once again, a silence hung on the line. “If we were only targeting locals, it would be a matter of days. But the department wants to go further up the food chain. Getting the evidence for a drug running operation can take years. I know that doesn’t sound encouraging, but that’s the way it goes.”

  A sinking feeling washed over her. She wanted to do what was good and right. She wanted to stop some of the drug trade and keep such evils way from the kids and teens and other adults too. But to have to keep up what Matt was suggesting would be grueling. She didn’t want to hide, and she didn’t like pretending not to know Matt when anyone might be watching them.

  The good deed she had planned to do was no longer fun, and instead of being exciting, things had become frightening. Even so, she could live with simply keeping an eye on things while she was working, but for the situation to encroach on and limit her personal life was more of a sacrifice than she had planned.

  She thought of some of the verses she’d read that day from the second chapter of James.

  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

  She wanted to help stop the drug trade, but if she stood back and did nothing, what good was she doing?

  Jesus wouldn’t have wanted the children He loved harmed by illegal drugs.

  “Yes, you’re right. However long this takes to nail Kincaid and everyone that goes with him, then that’s how long it’s going to take. Pizza sounds good. I just hope I’m not sick of pizza by the time this is all over.”

  She could hear the smile in his voice as he replied. “It’s not possible to get sick of pizza.”

  Sarah couldn’t help but smile back. “Just like it’s not possible to have too much coffee. I think you’re in trouble, Matt. I’ll see you Wednesday night.”

  Fourteen

  Sarah hummed to herself as she finished wiping up a table after a group of truckers. She was tired, but it was a good tired. Since their talk about not seeing one another in public, she’d already seen Matt twice. In private, of course.

  He’d taken her to the Bible study meeting on Wednesday, which she had thoroughly enjoyed. He tended not to say much, but what he did say helped her to understand the lesson more clearly. Even though the time was short, she had enjoyed her time with him. The meeting had been held at the home of Gwen’s twin brother, Garrett, and his wife Robbie. Sarah had known Garrett slightly when she was a teenager but lost touch when they all graduated. It was nice to
see him again after all these years, as well as meet his wife and thereby expand her circle of friends. When she asked about why Gwen didn’t go to her own brother’s group, she discovered that Gwen and Lionel hosted their own home group on the same night.

  Sarah had immediately liked Robbie, who was very friendly. Robbie had noticed the locket and asked to see the picture, just like Kristie had. When Sarah told her that she needed a picture of Matt to put in it, the whole group ganged up on him. Everyone chided Matt for giving a locket to a lady without a picture of himself in it. Sarah struggled not to laugh, knowing the real reason he’d given her the locket had nothing to do with a picture, and she watched him try to talk his way out of it, which was impossible.

  To right an alleged wrong, Robbie brought out her digital camera and started snapping. One picture in particular of herself and Matt with their heads together hamming it up for the camera turned out very good. The best part was that when they reduced the picture to be small enough to fit into the locket, it was so small that their faces were virtually unrecognizable. Sarah now had a picture taped on top of the transmitter, so if anyone asked, she could now open the locket to show off her new “boyfriend,” yet not have him be recognized.

  The next time she’d seen Matt had been on Thursday afternoon. She’d stopped by Matt’s townhouse to return his Bible, after finally getting the chance to go buy one of her own. This time she’d been inside his home, and, for the first time since she’d known him, she saw how he lived. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have believed a man lived there. He hadn’t been expecting her, yet his townhouse was perfectly clean; nothing was out of place, and everything was meticulously organized. While it did show a new side of his personality, it didn’t surprise her. In or out of uniform, he was always perfectly dressed, with not a thread or a hair out of place. His car was also spotless inside, unlike hers, without a single paper, or napkin, spare book, or empty pop can rattling around in the back.

  Now, due to his schedule, she probably wouldn’t see him again until Monday.

  As she made her rounds through the near-empty restaurant, Sarah carried the tray of cups and plates she was accumulating to the next table that needed cleaning. She had just started wiping when three surly men entered the building.

  She thought the Ronsky clan looked like a rough bunch, but these men were older and had gang practically flashing in neon letters above their heads.

  Instead of walking to the counter where Kristie was standing, they made a beeline straight to Sarah.

  Sarah immediately grasped the locket and poised her finger on the release for the clasp. At this point in time, Matt was in bed sleeping, but he had told her to push the button any time, day or night, if she needed to. From the appearance of the men approaching her, Sarah feared this would be the time.

  The tallest one, a shaved-bald man wearing a dirty denim jacket with torn-off sleeves over a T-shirt with a cigarette package tucked in the sleeve, stepped forward from the other two to address her.

  “We need to see Donnie.”

  Sarah turned so fast her elbow knocked the tray. A few cups and plates crashed to the floor.

  She forced herself to straighten to her full height. “I’ll see if he’s free. Can I have your names?”

  The man gave her a horrid sneer. “Tell him Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe are here to see him.”

  A sick sensation rolled through Sarah’s stomach. She didn’t dare to challenge these men that those weren’t their real names.

  “Wait right here,” she choked out and hurried to Donnie’s office door, which was closed. She knocked. “Donnie?”

  “Come in,” he called out.

  The door opened freely, indicating he hadn’t locked it. Donnie sat behind his desk with a ledger book in front of him, his pencil in one hand, his other hand poised over the calculator.

  “Three men are here to see you. They say their names are Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe.”

  Donnie’s face paled. He cleared his throat. “Send them in. And leave the door open.”

  Sarah had barely taken one step out of Donnie’s office when the three men barged past her, roughly shutting the door behind them.

  Sarah glanced at the mess on the floor, then at Kristie, who was staring at Donnie’s closed door with her mouth gaping open.

  Sarah walked as quickly as she could without running to the opening between the restaurant and the kitchen. “I had better clean up that mess.”

  “You do that,” Kristie mumbled, barely audible. “I’m going to stay right here.”

  As soon as she was out of Kristie’s sight, Sarah ran for the closet. She slipped inside and closed the door, hoping Kristie really would stay where she was. Sarah dropped to her hands and knees and crawled to the corner of the closet, lowered her head to the level of the bottom shelf, and looked up through the vent.

  Donnie was standing, his back to the wall, and the tall man with the shaved head stood mere inches from him.

  Sarah grabbed the locket and opened it, her finger poised and ready to push the button, when she froze. Matt wouldn’t come; it would be someone else, but that wasn’t the point. The point of calling Matt, or any other police officer, was to bust the drug ring Blair Kincaid was involved in. If she pushed the button now, by the time the police arrived, she had no doubt that the three men would be long gone. The only thing to be accomplished would be to show Donnie that he was being watched, and that would defeat the purpose.

  The man wasn’t hurting Donnie, although he could have if he wanted to. Sarah suspected that his purpose was not to hurt, but to threaten. For that, she didn’t need to call in the police.

  Donnie’s voice came out in a near squeak. “But I didn’t go to him. He came to me.”

  “He’s ours. Everything he gets is from us. Understand?”

  Donnie’s voice lowered. “What do you want me to do, ask for references first? He came to me. He had cash. So I gave it to him.”

  The tall man turned to the two others. After a few seconds of staring into each other’s faces, the two men nodded.

  “If he comes to you again, we get a cut. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “I understand.”

  All three men turned at the same time. They all stepped to Donnie’s desk. The hoodlum with the tattoo on his wrist knocked Donnie’s calculator to the floor. Donnie remained with his back to the wall and said nothing.

  Sarah didn’t need to see any more. Their message was clear.

  In two seconds, she’d backed up, grabbed the broom, and was out of the closet. She ran all the way to the point where Kristie could see her, then slowed her pace to a fast walk. She had just reached the broken glass when the door banged open and the three men walked out. The tall one pointedly turned in her direction, flashed the most evil smirk Sarah had ever seen, and walked straight out the door.

  Sarah didn’t know whether or not going in to Donnie’s office to check on him would show she knew what happened, so she didn’t. He was probably unhurt, but she didn’t want to think of the condition of his office. Mentally, she tried to calculate how much damage could have been done between the time she grabbed the broom and when she arrived at the table.

  Donnie appeared out of his office, quickly closing the door behind him. “If they ever come back, tell them I’m not here.” He wiggled the doorknob and then joined Kristie behind the counter. “Kristie, I think it’s time for you to start getting ready for the rush. I’ll take over for you while Sarah cleans up.”

  Kristie obviously could take the hint because she disappeared in record time. Sarah lowered her head and began sweeping, afraid to look in Donnie’s direction. She swept everything into the dustpan and carried it into the kitchen to dump in the garbage can.

  With only a couple of people in the restaurant area, the building seemed unusually quiet. Sarah tried to shake off her apprehension, telling herself that since the three men were gone, everything would be fine. She stepped on the pedal to open the
garbage can lid and was about to dump the broken glass when she heard the cash register drawer close.

  Sarah froze. She hadn’t heard any voices ordering anything, nor had she heard the shuffle of paper from donuts being selected, or the clink of the coffee pot, or the whirring of the latté machine.

  She gritted her teeth. Knowing what she knew, she suspected that Donnie had just either taken money out of the till, or put money in, although it was ridiculous because he was the owner and handled all the cash anyway.

  She dumped the broken glass and let the lid thump closed.

  This time, when she opened the closet door, she turned the light on, banged around while she clipped the broom onto the hook, and closed the door loudly enough for Donnie to hear.

  When she returned, he was standing at the donut rack. “Good, you’re here. Take over. I’m going back into my office, and I don’t want to be disturbed.”

  She suspected Donnie was cleaning up the mess and didn’t want anyone to see what had happened.

  By the time the morning rush had started, Donnie seemed back to normal, but Sarah couldn’t relax. All through the busy morning, she kept one eye on the time. When she was done, she hurried out deliberately avoiding Kristie.

  She had to leave a message for Matt, but for the first time, she was scared.

  The creepy men had seen her up close, face-to-face. She knew she would recognize any one of them if she ever saw them again. Likewise, Sarah had no doubt they would recognize her too.

  Because they knew she had witnessed them going into Donnie’s office, she wondered if they might be watching her, in case she went to the police. They would have been right. Sarah had to report what she’d seen to Matt.

  Just in case she was being followed, Sarah didn’t drive to the police station to leave a message, as she’d done before. This time, she followed her usual route so no one could think anything was strange. Once on campus, she located the nearest phone booth and left a quick message at the police station for Matt to phone her. From the phone booth, she ran all the way to her first class, where she knew she would be safe.