Illegally Iced: A Donut Shop Mystery (Donut Shop Mysteries)

by Jessica Beck

  There was no window in the garage, and when I tested the door, it was locked. The windows of the house were blocked off from light as well, with the shades drawn all around.

  “That just leaves the deck,” Grace said.

  We walked around the house, and I found myself hoping beyond hope that we’d see Trish curled up on one of the deck chairs.

  No one was there, though.

  “Where could she be?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Is there anyone we can even call at this point? Do you have the numbers for the women who work with her at the diner?”

  “No, I never needed them before. I’m not even certain that I know their last names. It’s just one big dead end.”

  “What should we do, then?” Grace asked me.

  “There’s only one thing we can do. We weren’t able to find Trish, but maybe we can still save Rebecca. We need to find her, and fast, and try to find out who she was meeting in the park,” I replied. “It might be the only clue we get to saving either one of them.”

  “Where can we look for her? She’s not at work; we know that much.”

  “Then we need to find out where she is,” I said. “Go straight to the police station. I’m sure that once we explain everything, Chief Martin will help us track her down. Who knows? He might even be able to help us find Trish, too.”

  * * *

  We never made it to the station, though. I got a call instead that changed everything from that point forward.

  The second my cell phone rang, I looked at the caller ID, hoping against hope that it was Trish.

  It was no surprise then that I couldn’t keep the disappointment out of my voice when I saw that it was Jake.

  “Hey there,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “Suzanne, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “No. Yes. I don’t know,” I replied, trying my best to hide my emotions from him.

  “That certainly clears it all up. Take a deep breath, and then tell me what’s going on.”

  I did, relaying Rebecca’s expressions in the park and Trish’s sudden disappearance. “Have you called Chief Martin yet?” he asked as soon as I finished.

  “We’re heading over to the police station right now, but I’m starting to worry that he’s going to tell us that we have to wait twenty-four hours to report that Trish is missing.”

  “You’re not filing anything, so that’s not going to be an issue. Go see him and tell him what you just told me. He might know what’s going on, and there’s even a chance he knows why the Boxcar is closed.”

  “I’ll try. What do you think about Rebecca? Could Grace and I have been so wrong about her?”

  “It’s not that hard to misread a clue,” he said. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. Gut reactions can be wrong sometimes. I’m speaking from experience here, because it’s happened to me a time or two. Try not to let it get you down. As soon as I get back, I’ll help you both look for Trish.”

  “Thanks for the offer, but who knows how long that will be? You’ve got problems of your own.”

  “That’s why I’m calling. I just closed the case, and I’m on my way back to April Springs. I should be there in an hour.”

  “That’s the best news I’ve had in a while,” I said.

  “Because you need my help?” he asked, fishing for a compliment.

  “You can shorten that statement, if you’d like to. I need you. That’s all there is to it, plain and simple.”

  “There’s nothing plain or simple about it. I need you, too. Don’t worry, between the three of us, we’ll figure out what’s going on.”

  My phone beeped, and I said, “Hang on a second, Jake. I’ve got another call.”

  I hit the button to put him on hold and said, “Hello?”

  “Suzanne, this is Harry at the Pinerush Manor. You need to get over here as soon as you can.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I just overheard Forrest on the telephone. He was in the garden, and it was pretty clear that he was under the impression that no one could overhear him, but I was just on the other side of the bushes. Someone’s coming out here today, and I think it’s going to be important.”

  “Why makes you think that?” I asked.

  “I didn’t hear much of the conversation, but I did hear him say, ‘One way or the other, this is going to end today. Get out here as fast as you can, and we’ll settle it once and for all.’ Doesn’t that sound significant to you?”

  “We’re on our way,” I said.

  I hit the button and brought Jake back up. “Sorry about that.”

  “I was beginning to think that you forgot about me.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” I said, and then I covered the mouthpiece and told Grace to drive to Pinerush.

  “What was that?” Jake asked.

  “We’re headed to Pinerush,” I explained. “Harry, the gardener, said that Forrest is up to something, and we want to find out what’s going on over there.”

  “Is there any chance that you’ll wait for me?” Jake asked.

  “We would, but then we might miss whatever’s going to happen.”

  There was a long pause, and then Jake asked, “Should I call in for some backup for you? I have a couple of friends in that area, and they both owe me a favor.”

  “No, we’ll be fine. If we get in trouble, we’ll call you.”

  “When do you think you’ll get there?” he asked.

  I glanced at the speedometer. “At the rate Grace is driving, it won’t take that long.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t take any chances until I get there, okay?”

  “I’m not making any promises. Do me a favor, would you?”

  “Anything,” he said.

  “Call Chief Martin and ask him about Trish. It might mean a little more if the question comes straight from you instead of from me.”

  “I’ll do it right now. If I find out anything, I’ll call you right back.”

  After I hung up, Grace asked me, “Do you really think it’s all coming to a head right now?”

  “It sounds as though Forrest is tired of playing around. I’m betting that he’s going to make his move, but whether it’s against Rebecca or Trish I can’t say.”

  After a few moments of silence, she asked, “Is there any chance we should do what Jake asked and wait for him?”

  “You heard that?” I asked.

  “He doesn’t exactly have a soft voice, does he? I heard everything he said to you. What do you think?”

  “That maybe I should tell Jake to lower his voice whenever you’re around.”

  “I mean about going to the manor without him,” Grace explained.

  “I knew what you meant. As much as I’d love to wait for an armed state trooper to show up to the rescue, we need to move fast. If we don’t, we might lose our chance to save Rebecca. If we’ve already blown this and something has happened to Trish, I’m never going to be able to forgive myself, and I won’t get involved in another murder investigation for as long as I live.”

  “You mean that, don’t you?”

  “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”

  “Suzanne, if something did happen to Trish, and I don’t think for one second that it did, there’s no way you can blame yourself for it. We’re doing the best we can.”

  “But what if it’s not good enough?”

  Grace let out a sigh, and then said, “Then we try harder the next time, but we don’t give up. We never give up.”

  “Maybe,” I said. I kept waiting for Jake to call back, but I’d just about given up hope when we finally pulled into the manor’s long driveway.

  “Should I call Jake and ask him if he was able to come up with anything?” I asked as we turned the corner.

  “From the look of things, there’s no time for that. What’s going on over there, anyway?” Grace asked.

  That’s when I saw that an ambulance had pulled up in front of t
he main house, its lights flashing.

  Something bad had clearly just happened at Pinerush Manor.

  MY DONUTS AS EASY AS PIE RECIPE

  Again, I came up with this one while digging through my pantry. It’s as easy as can be, and the donut holes are wonderful!

  INGREDIENTS

  • 1 pouch muffin mix (we like Apple Cinnamon Martha White 7 oz. size)

  • ½ cup whole milk

  • Canola oil for frying (the amount depends on your pot or fryer)

  INSTRUCTIONS

  Stir the milk into the mix until moistened.

  Drop bits of dough using a small-sized cookie scoop (the size of your thumb, approximately). Fry in hot canola oil (360 to 370 degrees F) 1½ to 2 minutes, turning halfway through.

  Yield: 10–12 donut holes

  CHAPTER 17

  “Are we too late?” I asked Grace as we rushed up the drive.

  “I don’t know,” she said. She parked her car away from the ambulance, and we got out and raced toward it. Had Forrest already acted and beaten us to the punch? I couldn’t take it if we were a little too late to help save another innocent victim.

  Harry was out front watching the main door, and I doubted that he even realized we were there until I spoke to him.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

  “It’s Mrs. Pinerush,” he said.

  “Was there an accident?” Grace asked. Could that have been who Forrest was going to settle up with when Harry overheard him? We might have missed identifying his next victim completely.

  “What? No. She had trouble breathing, and Stephen called the paramedics.”

  “Do they know yet if she’ll be all right?” I asked. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to the older lady. Though Thomas Oak had told me that she was sick, it was still hard to reconcile that image with the strong woman I’d seen so recently.

  “I overheard one of the EMTs say that she’s on oxygen right now. They’re taking her to the hospital to be sure she’s okay, but this guy seemed hopeful.”

  They brought her out then. She was strapped to the gurney, and there was an oxygen tank at her side. I saw a thin tube running up to her face, and she looked really frail just lying there.

  No one but Stephen and the EMTs were with her.

  “Where’s Forrest?” I asked as I looked wildly around. “Why isn’t he here?”

  “To be honest with you, in all of the commotion, I sort of lost track of him.”

  This was bad, very bad.

  Where had he gone?

  “I’m going to follow the ambulance to the hospital,” Harry said, as Stephen approached us and said, “I’m going with you, Harry.”

  “That’s fine by me,” Harry answered, and then he turned to us. “Are you two coming?”

  “We’ll be right behind you,” I said. Grace was a little surprised by my response, but she didn’t say anything.

  After they all pulled out, it left us at the manor alone. Grace asked me, “If we’re following them, then why are we still here?”

  “I want to see if Forrest is on the grounds before we go anywhere,” I said. “There’s nothing we can do to help Anne right now, and somebody else might be in trouble here.”

  “If he were anywhere around, wouldn’t he be with his mother? I know full well that he might be a cold-blooded killer, but he wouldn’t turn his back on her now, would he?”

  “I don’t know what he’d do, but I’ve got an idea that he’s nearby. Did you see if Stephen locked the front door behind the EMTs?”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Grace said as we approached the front door.

  It was open.

  “What do you say? Are you ready to do a little trespassing?” I asked her.

  “Funny, I seem to remember being invited in, don’t you?”

  I nodded. “Let’s go see if we can track Forrest down and find out what’s really going on.”

  Grace and I walked inside, and as we began searching through the rooms on the first floor for some sign of Forrest, I was more and more in awe of the great wealth the Pinerush family had accumulated over the generations. Elegant art hung from many of the walls in the rooms we entered, and priceless antiques were around every corner. In the study, I came across a display of antique pistols mounted over the fireplace that had to be worth more than everything I owned. The place looked more like a museum than a private residence, and I had to wonder if it might not have been kind of creepy growing up there as a kid. It was hard to believe that my friend the blacksmith had been raised in such posh surroundings.

  “Suzanne, we could search all day and not find him. This place is huge.”

  “We have to at least try,” I said. “Why don’t you finish up here and I’ll go start on the next floor?”

  “No way. We’re sticking together this time,” she answered. In the past we’d both been caught alone at the worst possible times, and I had to admit that I was reassured by her presence beside me.

  “Why don’t we save the rest of this floor for later? I want to climb up and look out a few of the windows. Maybe we’ll spot him somewhere out on the grounds.”

  We climbed the marble staircase and headed for the first window we saw. As Grace and I looked out onto the landscape, I spotted something out of place. “Grace, is that Rebecca Link’s car over there?”

  “Where?”

  “Behind those bushes,” I said as I pointed.

  “It could be. Do you think that Forrest is settling the score with her right now?”

  I kept scanning the land below us, and I finally caught a glimpse of something nearly out of sight on the edge of a nearby wooded area. It was a single flash of something red, and it was nearly gone as soon as I saw it, but then I got a better glimpse of it. As I watched, I saw that it was Rebecca’s scarf. Even as I was about to tell Grace, I caught sight of Forrest as well.

  The two of them were arguing, and it appeared that it was escalating by the second. What made things infinitely worse was that I spotted a handgun in Forrest’s hand as it came into view.

  “We need to stop him!” I shouted as I headed for the stairs, all the while pulling my cell phone out of my pocket.

  “Who are you calling?” Grace asked as she followed me.

  “Jake,” I said, both in explanation to her and in response to my boyfriend answering his phone. “We’re at the manor. Forrest and Rebecca are having some kind of confrontation out on the grounds in back.”

  “Don’t do anything,” he said. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  “We can’t just hide so that we’re safe inside,” I shouted. “We have to stop him.”

  “Don’t—” he said just as I hung up.

  “We can’t wait,” I told Grace. “You know that, don’t you? We have to stop him before he kills her, too.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Grace asked in desperation. “We’re unarmed.”

  “We might be right now, but we can always bluff,” I said as I dodged back into the study where I’d seen the old-fashioned revolvers over the fireplace.

  I grabbed a gun for me and handed one to Grace as well.

  “Where are the bullets?” she asked.

  “I have no idea if these things even use shells,” I said.

  “What good are they, then?”

  “I’m just hoping they buy us some time until Jake shows up,” I confessed.

  “But we know that Forrest is armed with a gun that actually has bullets in it.”

  “What can we do? We’ll just have to sneak up behind him and disarm him. I know it’s not a perfect plan, but we can’t just stand by and watch someone murdered while we’re waiting for the infantry to show up. Grace, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

  “I’m going wherever you go,” she said.

  “Then let’s do this before we lose our nerve, or something else bad happens out there.”

  We raced outside and did ou
r best to hug the tree line so that Forrest wouldn’t spot us coming. As we got within range, Rebecca saw us. Her eyes widened for just a moment, but she managed to kill her expression before Forrest caught on.

  I was within three feet of him when my foot hit a fallen branch on the ground. As he started to turn at the sound of the snap, I rushed toward him and shoved the antique gun into his back so that he couldn’t see my weapon. “Drop it, Forrest.”

  “You don’t understand,” he said.

  “Shoot him! He wants to kill me!” Rebecca shouted.

  “You’re the murderer!” Forrest protested.

  “If that’s the truth, then who has the gun?” she yelled back.

  At that moment, I wasn’t entirely certain who to believe, but Rebecca’s argument was a powerful one.

  “This is the last time I’m going to tell you, Forrest. Throw your weapon over there, or I’m going to shoot.”

  Was he going to call my bluff, or do as I’d asked? I waited three heartbeats before I saw him start to lift the weapon. If he spun and fired at me now, I was dead, and I knew it.

  After another moment of hesitation, he chucked the gun over into the woods.

  At least now we were all unarmed.

  “What happens now?” Forrest asked in a voice filled with resignation. “You’ve made a huge mistake, you know.”

  “My boyfriend will be here anytime,” I said. “He can sort things out when he gets here.”

  “Jake’s coming?” Rebecca asked.

  “Even as we speak,” I said.

  That’s when she dove for the gun.

  Forrest had the same idea, but he was just a shade too late.

  When Rebecca came up with it, I found that we were both staring down each other’s barrels. “There’s nothing you can do now. It’s still a stalemate,” I said.

  Rebecca just laughed. “It might be if you knew how to load one of those pistols, let alone fire it. Those particular weapons haven’t been fired in seventy-five years, I’m willing to wager.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I’m a bit of a gun nut. I thought for sure your friends from Napoli’s must have told you. I saw them at the firing range just the other night.”