Spooky Choc Orange Glazed Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 23

by Susan Gillard

  Heather emerged into the light, then rolled onto her back and sat up.

  “Is that a journal?” Kenneth asked.

  “No, it’s a farmer’s almanac,” Heather said and flipped open the journal.

  “What, why would –”

  “It’s your daughter’s journal, Kenneth.” Heather flipped through the pages, each stained with tears or lipstick or cookie crumbs. Typical teenage things. But the words on the pages were anything but.

  The darkest thoughts of a murderer’s mind couldn’t compare to the text on this page. Yet, each ‘I’ had been dotted with a heart.

  “Does it say where she is?” Kenneth asked. “My poor daughter.”

  Heather struggled to retain a snort. Tatiana was anything but poor by any definition of the phrase unless it was morally.

  She’d planned her mother’s murder from the start. She’d only lacked the method and the opportunity.

  “October 30th,” Heather said, and scanned the page. “James promised he’d, like, come to visit me today, but he totally didn’t. He says we’re going to run away together, but he keeps stalling. He wants to look after his dumb mother. As if that’s going to make him happy. Whatever. I know what I have to do.”

  “What did she have to do?” Kenneth asked.

  Heather flipped the page and pressed her fingers to her lips. Her phone buzzed in her other hand, and Heather glanced down at the screen.

  The text message symbol flashed in the top right corner.

  “What did she have to do?” He asked again.

  Heather met the father’s gaze and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Kenneth,” she said, then handed him the journal. She couldn’t read another word.

  He took it from her, and his brow wrinkled. His gaze flicked across the page, and the color drained from his face. “No,” he said. “No, that’s not right.” He turned the page and read more. “Oh, no, oh, please no.”

  Heather lifted her cell and swiped her thumb across the screen, then tapped to open the text.

  South Bosque River. Please help me. J.

  “J?” Heather whispered. “J for… James?”

  South Bosque. The meeting place. Oh, gosh, had Tatiana chosen James as her next victim?

  Heather darted to her feet and stared at the text message. It could be a trap. A method to draw her in and attack her next. Tatiana was smart enough.

  Kenneth stared at the book in his hands, and tears dripped from his cheeks to the open pages. “No,” he said. “Not Tatiana.”

  Heather grasped the journal and pried it from his grip. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kenny, but this is evidence, now.” She closed the book and grimaced at the memory of its contents.

  “What are you going to do?” Kenneth asked, and scrubbed at the tears.

  “The right thing.” Heather turned and walked to the door. She held up her cell and tapped through to her husband’s number, then clicked the green icon.

  Two rings.

  “Shepherd, speaking.”

  “Yeah, hon? You need to get to the South Bosque River, now. Tatiana Kenny murdered her mother, and I think James might be her next victim.”

  Chapter 16

  Heather stood beside Ryan’s police cruiser on the outskirts of the forest and folded her arms. “We’re wasting time here,” she said. “They could be gone by now. Or worse.”

  The early afternoon sun warmed the back of Heather’s neck, but it wasn’t enough to cut out the chill of fall. Wind twisted the branches of the trees and leaves fluttered to the ground at their roots.

  “We’ve got officers combing the river, love. It will be fine,” Ryan replied.

  “How many?”

  “Three groups of two,” he replied.

  “That’s not enough,” Heather said. “This is a full-scale alert. We should have –”

  A man snorted nearby, and she cut off. She inhaled and turned her head to the right.

  Detective Hoskins stomped around the front of the cruiser, a jelly donut clutched in his chubby hand. He took a bite and raspberry jelly dripped onto his shirt.

  “What do you want,” Heather asked.

  “Not a donut, this time,” Hoskins replied.

  She’d had the good fortune of missing out on his jibes the past week or so, but now, the overweight cop with an attitude problem to match had returned.

  “You’ve got an opinion, Hoskins?” Ryan asked.

  “Yeah, I’ve got an opinion. This whole search is a sham. We don’t know that this girl is the killer, for sure.”

  “Are you kidding?” Heather looked from the Hoskins to her husband. “Is he kidding?”

  “Are you?” Ryan asked.

  “Course not.”

  “I found the murder weapon in Tatiana Kenny’s bedroom, along with a journal which contained detailed plans to murder her mother,” Heather said and jabbed her finger at Hoskins. “Get your facts straight.”

  “Ooh hoo, someone’s touchy today,” the officer replied, then ate more jelly donut. “Must be a woman thing.”

  “Don’t make me roll up my sleeves,” Heather said.

  Ryan grasped her by the shoulder and squeezed, probably to support her. She shrugged off the restraint and narrowed her eyes at Hoskins. “If that girl gets away, I blame you.”

  “Say what?” Mr. Jelly Donuts asked.

  “That’s right. You heard me. I blame you! If you’d stuck to your job in the first place, none of this would’ve happened,” Heather said. “Wasn’t it you who said Tatiana was too weak to be the murderer?”

  Hoskins’ mouth flapped open and closed. “I – uh – I.”

  Birds chirped, and the wind rustled leaves, but the officer couldn’t muster a defense.

  “There you are!” Amy waved from the other side of the road. “Thank goodness this isn’t too far from, you know, civilization. Only took me an hour to get here from the store.”

  “What’s she doing here?” Hoskins asked.

  “She’s my assistant,” Heather replied.

  “She makes donuts too?” Hoskins sneered, then brushed off his shirt and smeared jelly down his front.

  Amy stopped beside Heather and looked the officer up and down. “One does not simply make donuts,” she said. “This is the guy, isn’t it?”

  “It’s him,” Heather replied, and nodded at her bestie. She’d told Amy about Hoskins’ behavior at length. It’d provided them with giggles and frustrated groans.

  “What are you doing here, Amy?” Ryan asked, and frowned at his wife. “This is police work.”

  “She’s here with me,” Heather said, immediately. “She’s my assistant and has helped me document and investigate crimes since I received my license.”

  “She got a license too?” Hoskins asked, and his double chin wobbled.

  Amy cracked her knuckles, then wriggled her eyebrows at him. “Depends what license you’re talking about.”

  “Look, this is quickly devolving into a debate of some kind, and I think we’ve all had enough debates to last us a lifetime,” Ryan said.

  “Right,” Heather said, then looped her arm through Amy’s and walked toward the line of trees. “Let’s go.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, where are they going?” Hoskins asked. “I thought we already had teams out.”

  “We do,” Ryan replied, but he didn’t try to stop Heather. He knew better than to do that. He hurried to catch up to her and unclipped his gun from his holster.

  “So, what, you’re just gonna leave me here?” Hoskins called out. “Real classy.”

  Amy waved back at him. “You stay here and watch the car. Watch out for the headless horseman!”

  They hurried through the forest but slowed down after a few paces. They didn’t speak, and Heather stuck to the shadows beneath the trees.

  Five minutes passed, then ten. The rush of water from the South Bosque River trickled at first. Another five minutes and it became a roar. A furious thundering of sound which set Heather’s teeth on edge.

  A shout rang out, a
nd Heather held up a hand. Amy crashed into her back, and Ryan stopped beside her.

  “Close,” Heather mouthed. “Someone.”

  Ryan gave her a thumbs up, and they crept forward, then to the left. The rush of water slowed, whatever kink had funneled it must’ve petered out, and the sound of voices reached their ears.

  “Very close,” Heather breathed.

  Amy shivered and rubbed her arms. “I do not like this,” she whispered.

  Ryan pressed a finger to his lips and took his gun out of his holster. He held I in one hand, then unhooked his handcuffs with the other.

  Heather brought out her Taser.

  Amy shrugged and grabbed a stick off the ground.

  “You have to let me go, Tatiana.” James’ voice rang with fear. “My mother is sick. She needs my help.”

  “Your mother, ugh, would you, like, shut up about her already?”

  “Why are you doing this?” The boy asked. “I said I couldn't run away with you anymore. Things have gotten real bad at home. I love you, Tats, but I –”

  “Oh shut up already,” the girl said.

  Heather pressed her back to a tree, then peered around it at the scene in front of her.

  Tatiana Kenny stood on the river bank and pointed a can of pepper spray at the teenage boy. He stood, arms behind his back, the phone clutched in both hands, staring at her.

  “I’ll tie you up if you keep whining,” Tatiana said.

  “I’m bigger than you,” James replied. “You can’t tie me up.”

  “Dude, I’ll just mace you or whatever.” She rolled her eyes and lifted the can. “Easy. Now, let’s go. We’ve got a long walk to, like, the border or whatever.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” James said and drew himself up straight.

  Heather lifted the Taser and clicked off the safety. This could go really wrong, really fast.

  Chapter 17

  James Little took a step forward and glared at Tatiana. “Why are you doing this? I don’t understand.”

  “Oh gosh, are you, like an idiot or something?” The girl asked, then flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder. “I killed my mother for you.”

  James’ jaw dropped. “What did you just say?”

  “I killed my mother for you,” Tatiana said, then sighed and shook the can of mace. “She didn’t like you. I didn’t like her, and she wasn’t my real mom anyway.”

  James opened and closed his mouth five times in a row. A tiny whine came out instead of words.

  “Oh relax. It’s not, like, she was a good person or anything,” the girl said.

  “You killed someone,” James said, and his face crumpled. “You’re horrible. You’re, ugh, I can’t even look at you, right now.”

  “Whatever. I did this for us,” Tatiana replied, but clearly James’ reaction was unexpected. “I can’t believe you’re unhappy about this.”

  Ryan had heard enough. He stepped out from behind the tree, gun raised, and Heather followed his lead. Amy scrambled out after them and clutched the stick like a baseball bat.

  “Freeze,” Ryan said. “Drop the mace, young lady.”

  “Lady is a subjective phrase in this instance,” Amy whispered.

  Tatiana rolled her eyes, she actually rolled her eyes at the officer, but she did drop her pepper spray into the long grass. “Fine,” she said. “Whatever. Like, I don’t even care, right now?”

  “Is that a question?” Amy asked.

  Tatiana ignored her and stared at James instead. “You were supposed to love me,” she yelled.

  James blinked and did the fish mouth again. The poor boy had been through enough, without crazy Tatiana added to his long list of issues.

  Heather beckoned to him. “Come on, James. Come to me. You’re safe now.”

  The boy glanced at Tatiana, then turned and hurried toward Heather. She grabbed him by the arm and walked him backward. “You okay?” She asked Detective Shepherd.

  “I think I’ll be fine,” he replied, and raised the handcuffs.

  Tatiana rolled her eyes again. Perhaps, it was a teenage auto-roll setting or something.

  “Let’s go,” Heather said. She turned and walked into the forest, with James and Amy in tow.

  Behind her, Ryan read Tatiana Kenny her rights. Heather could almost make out the ‘like, whatever’ at a distance.

  “I had no idea,” James said, after a second. He shook his head, then slapped tears from his cheeks. “I didn’t know she did that. If I’d known she was like that, I would never have dated her. I’m so sorry.”

  “This is not your fault,” Heather said.

  “Though, the fact that she called herself the Kenster might have been an indicator she wasn’t all there,” Amy added in.

  Heather elbowed her in the ribs and Amy waggled the stick back at her bestie.

  “I’m so sorry,” James repeated. “I’m so, so, sorry.”

  Heather grabbed him by the shoulders and stared into his eyes. “James, stop apologizing. You had no control over her actions and there was no way you could’ve known. You’re a good kid.”

  “I should have known, though. The night of her mother’s murder, when I went to the house, I looked in through her bedroom window and she wasn’t there. I couldn’t figure out where she’d gone to. I heard a noise on the stairs which led up to the balcony, and I freaked out.”

  “What kind of noise?” Heather asked.

  James stared over her shoulder and zoned out. “A thump,” he said, and gulped. “I totally freaked out because I thought her mother would catch me. But that was probably, what if it was – do you think it was –?”

  “It’s over now,” Heather said, and patted him on the shoulder. “It’s over and you’re safe. You get to go home to your mom, and help her out.”

  “Thanks,” James said and heaved a sigh of relief. “Yeah, thanks. She expected me to be home ages ago.”

  “Hey, James,” Heather said, then turned back to their path through the trees. “Does your mom like donuts?”

  “Sure, she loves them. She doesn’t have a huge appetite lately, though.”

  Heather led the way toward the rim of the forest. “Well, I’ll send over some donuts for you guys. And hey, if you need help around the house, you just let me know.”

  “Yeah, me too. The crew at Donut Delights would be happy to help out.”

  James swallowed, then cleared his throat. “Do you really mean that?” He choked out the words, and lowered his head. He didn’t want them to see his tears.

  “Of course, dude,” Amy said. “I mean, I hate cleaning stuff, but if there are donuts, I’m set.”

  “Amy would sell her Prada shoes for a box of donuts,” Heather said.

  “What? No ways.” Amy laughed and held up her palms. “Two boxes of donuts and you’ve got a deal.”

  James Little hiccupped a laugh. They walked for another ten minutes, and exited the forest down the road from the cruisers.

  The distant image of Hoskins mid-bite of another jelly donut brought laughter to Heather’s lips.

  Something good could come out of the worst situations. Even if it was a new friend. She met her bestie’s gaze, then grinned at James Little.

  “Let’s get you home,” Heather said.

  Chapter 18

  Partygoers sat at the wrought iron tables and drummed their heels on the golden boards. Music hummed through the interior of Donut Delights, and the scent of fresh coffee and baked donuts drifted on the air.

  “This is perfect,” Amy said and took a bite of her Choc Orange Glazed. “And I don’t mean just this donut. I mean, this is a party. None of that chandelier garbage.”

  Heather chuckled, then patted her bestie on the back. The case was done, at last, and Tatiana Kenny had been arrested. Heather could usually muster up some pity for the perpetrator in each case, but not this time.

  The girl had lost her way and refused to find the path back.

  “Is Ryan coming?” Amy asked.

  “Oh, h
e’ll pop in later. He’s on duty tonight,” Heather replied, then sipped from the tall glass of milkshake.

  Eva and Lilly sat at the far end of the store and played cards on the table. Eva had taken it upon herself to teach the girl some of her favorites.

  Maricela and Angelica sat beside Emily in the corner, and the three of them burst out laughing, then chattered some more.

  Ken snapped photos of the decorations. Ronald Tombs took a bite of a donut then shut his eyes and smiled.

  Snapshots of joy.

  These were the images she’d carry with her for the rest of her life.

  “So, what now?” Amy asked.

  “What do you mean?” Heather turned to Ames and wrinkled her nose. “I should’ve gotten entertainment? Maybe a local band?”

  “No, I’m not talking about the party,” Amy replied, then glanced around Donut Delights. “Everything is perfect, Heather. The store is a success. The expansion worked. You’re sending out donuts by the dozen, and you’re more popular in Hillside than ever thanks to you sleuthing.”

  “You’re making me blush,” Heather said and fanned her cheeks.

  “My point is, what’s next? What’s next for Donut Delights? I mean, you’ve pretty much conquered everything, if you think about it.”

  Heather’s jaw dropped. Was that true? Sure, the store ran like clockwork, now and she had her private investigator’s license so she could help her hubby dearest with his cases, but… that couldn’t be it.

  “I just figured you’d want to conquer something else, next,” Amy said. “Like the fashion industry.”

  “What?!”

  “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Amy burst out laughing, then choked on a bit of donut.

  Heather banged her friend on the back and stared around the room. In the past months, she’d expanded, she’d become a private investigator, she’d solved cases and added a child to her family.

  Things had hit a level of perfection she’d never envisioned. “I couldn’t be happier,” Heather said.

  The door to Donut Delights opened, and the bell above it tinkled. Ryan Shepherd stepped into the store. He tucked his police hat under his arm, ran his hand through his hair, then strode up to her.