by Jessica Beck
And then I noticed the steel blade in Amanda’s hand, and how it was held tightly against my best friend’s throat, ready to cut it at the slightest provocation.
Chapter 24
“Drop your weapons,” Amanda rasped out, “or I swear I’ll slit her throat right here and now.”
“Will somebody please tell me where Emma is?” Kyle said loudly, confused by what had just transpired. The man was out of his mind. Had Jake’s threats back at his place finally sent Kyle off the deep end? “Until someone tells me what’s going on, I’m not putting my shotgun down. You can slit Grace’s throat all you want to, for all I care.”
“I care!” I shouted, though I still held the gun in my hands tightly. “Don’t do it!”
“Then do as I say!” Amanda shouted.
At that moment, the door behind us opened again, and the second man we’d seen earlier arguing with Amanda came into the room. In his arms he carried all of the things she’d sent him to get, and that was probably the only thing that kept us alive at that moment.
“This woman killed Emma!” Grace shouted during the moment of confusion.
Kyle reacted instantly. His rifle exploded, and I saw both Grace and Amanda snap backwards.
Jake disarmed Kyle in an instant, but I barely noticed it.
When I rushed to Grace’s side, I saw the blood. “Are you okay?” I asked her, my voice barely above a whisper now.
“I’m good,” she said, still in a daze from what had just happened.
“Where exactly are you hurt?” I asked her, searching for a wound on her. The blood was making it impossible to tell exactly where she’d been hurt.
“This isn’t my blood,” she said shakily. “Kyle must have missed me entirely and hit Amanda.”
We looked over at the killer and saw her lying a few feet away on the cold concrete floor grabbing her shoulder and moaning. “He shot me. That lunatic shot me.”
“I should have killed you,” Kyle said ferociously, and then he launched himself at Amanda. “You took away my reason to live.”
Jake neatly blocked him, and Grace approached the man carefully. “She’s okay, Kyle. I was wrong. I made a mistake. Emma’s fine.”
“She’s okay?” Kyle asked in clear disbelief. “Really? Are you sure?”
“I’m positive. Thank you for saving my life.”
He completely ignored her thanks. “I want to see Emma.”
Jake clamped a hand on his shoulder and moved him over Hank and Bruno. “Right now, you’re not going to see anybody.” He glanced at me. “Suzanne, did you get the knife, too?”
I started looking wildly around for it when Grace held it in the air, as though it were some kind of trophy. “Don’t worry. I got it,” she said.
“Don’t let her move,” Jake ordered.
Grace looked down at Amanda, who was clearly not in any shape to get up, let alone attack anyone else. “She’s not going anywhere. I’ll make sure of it,” she said.
“Suzanne, call the police chief. He deserves to be in on this.”
“I’m on it,” I said, and I quickly dialed Stephen Grant’s number.
When I told him what had happened, he had a hard time believing it at first, but by the time I finally convinced him that it was all true, I found myself talking to a dead cellphone.
Before we knew it, we were surrounded by the police, and Jake was finally able to turn over his charges and relinquish his guns.
It was over at last.
Chapter 25
“Good morning. What can I get for you, Chief Tyler?” I asked the next morning as our new police chief came into Donut Hearts just after we opened for business.
“I didn’t think you’d be in today,” the man said guardedly.
“This is my place of business. Where else would I be?”
“After hearing about what happened to you last night, I figured you might go ahead and take the day off,” he said.
“If I did that, then where would the good citizens of April Springs get their breakfast?”
The new chief frowned a bit at my comment. “You’re feeling pretty good about yourself right now, aren’t you?”
“No more than most days,” I said. “Why do you ask?”
“I heard all about what happened last night from Officer Grant,” he said. It was pretty clear that Stephen Grant was about to have a few hard weeks under his new boss.
“You shouldn’t hold anything that happened last night against him. He was just doing his job.”
“It sounded more like you and your boyfriend were doing it for him.”
“He’s my fiancé, actually,” I said, correcting him.
“Like it matters,” the cop said. All signs of his earlier repentance were gone now, and I was faced with the same personality I’d seen the first time we’d spoken.
“It might not matter to you, but let me assure you that it matters a great deal to me,” I said. I had intended to offer him a donut and a cup of coffee on the house for his first day of work even though he’d turned both down before, but I suddenly had a change of heart.
“You got lucky, Suzanne, whether you know it or not.”
“Chief, I’m a firm believer that there’s a little bit of luck in everything we do,” I said.
“I’m not the chief yet,” was the only answer he could come up with to that. “At least not for another two hours, anyway.”
“Then if you don’t mind me asking, exactly why are you here? You clearly aren’t interested in anything that I have to offer,” I said.
“I just wanted to set the record straight before I took over. I was forced to apologize under duress earlier, but once this job is mine, I’m going to run my department, and this town, the way I see fit. Is that understood?”
“Believe me when I tell you that I’d be happy if I never had to investigate another murder as long as I live,” I said, and it was the complete and utter truth.
“That’s good enough for me,” he said with a smug smile.
I just couldn’t let him walk away like that.
As he started to open the door, I added, “But if the need arises for me to ever do it again, nobody’s going to stop me.”
He hesitated for a moment, and then he kept walking.
Emma coughed lightly behind me. I hadn’t even known that she’d been standing there.
“How much of that did you hear?” I asked her.
“Enough,” she said. “You have to get George to change his mind before it’s too late.”
“Emma, I wouldn’t do it, even if I could.”
“Why not?”
“He has a right to run things as he sees fit. George can’t handcuff him by making him tiptoe around me. I might not like his attitude, but since he’s the police chief, I need to respect his wishes.”
“Really?” she asked, clearly bewildered by my response.
“Well, at least up to a point,” I said with a smile, and then we both laughed. “Now, don’t you have more dishes to do?”
“If our doors are open, then there’s work to be done,” she said.
“Then I suggest that you do it,” I said with a smile.
After she was back in the kitchen, I got a call from Jake.
“You’re up early,” I said.
“I just heard from the hospital. Amanda is going to be okay.”
“Pardon me for not celebrating the news. After seeing that knife blade at Grace’s throat, I’m a little ambivalent about what happens to that woman from here on out.”
“Understood. Oh, and they also ordered Kyle on a psychiatric hold. The man has some serious problems. Maybe this way he’ll get some of the help that he needs.”
“As long as he’s out of Emma’s life, that’s all that I care about.”
“Maybe not,” Jake said.
“What do you mean?” His tone of voice had sent chills through me.
“He’s fixated on someone else now.”
“It’s not me, is it?” I asked, fearing wha
t his answer was going to be.
“No, as a matter of fact, it’s Grace.”
“Oh, no.”
“Hopefully by the time he gets out, he’ll be better,” Jake said.
“In three days? I don’t see how that’s possible.” I couldn’t imagine the nightmare that Grace had been through with a blade at her throat, and now she was going to have to deal with this.
“I’ve got a hunch that’s going to be extended indefinitely once they start talking to him,” Jake said. “How’s your morning been?”
“Well, the new police chief stopped by the donut shop and read me the riot act,” I told him lightheartedly.
“Sure he did,” Jake said, as though he were playing along with a nonexistent joke. “He didn’t really, did he?”
“As a matter of fact, he did,” I said.
“How did you respond?” Jake asked cautiously.
“I figure that he has the right not to want me to meddle in his murder cases,” I admitted.
Jake breathed a sigh of relief. “Really?”
“He has the right to hope for it, but I didn’t say that I was going to respect it,” I added.
“That’s more like the woman I know and love. Suzanne, if there’s another murder on his watch, it’s not going to be as easy for you as it was under Chief Martin.”
“Whoever said that it was all that easy?” I asked. “Honestly, I don’t want to talk about him anymore. What are we going to do after I close the donut shop today? Do you have any plans?”
“For the first time in my adult life, I don’t have a single one,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “How about you?”
“Between the two of us, I’m sure we can think of something,” I said.
After we hung up, I marveled at how one person’s obsession with another had taken a life, and how another’s obsession had saved one. It was important to love, but just as important to be loved in return, and I was so happy to have that in my life again, or maybe for the first time ever, that I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.
Jake surprised me by coming by just as I was closing up for the day.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here,” I said as I brushed a stray strand of hair out of my face.
“What can I say? I missed you,” he answered as he kissed me soundly right there in the shop in front of all the good folks of April Springs.
I laughed as I pulled away. “Already? That didn’t take long.”
“Listen, there’s something we need to discuss,” Jake said, now very serious.
“Okay,” I said, wondering if he was going to tell me that he’d changed his mind and was going back to work for the state police, or maybe something even worse. Did he still want to marry me, or had he had a change of heart? “I’m listening.”
“Last night I realized something, and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind.”
Oh, no. “What was that?” I asked noncommittally. “Are you going back to the state police?”
“What? No. Never. This is about us.”
“What about us?” I asked as my heart began trying to pound through my chest.
“Everything could have gone seven ways wrong last night, and all I could think about was the fact that we weren’t married yet.”
“Really?”
“Really. Did you have your heart set on a long engagement, or can we move things forward at a little more rapid pace?”
“Just how rapidly did you have in mind?” I asked him with a smile so broad that my cheeks hurt. This was the exact opposite of the news that I’d been worried about getting.
“Well, I’m free right now, you’re just about finished with your work for the day. I know for a fact that the mayor’s in his office for the entire afternoon. I figure that he can expedite the paperwork and we can be saying our vows before nightfall if you’re up for it. What do you say to that? Oh, before you answer, this might sweeten the deal a little for you. I checked earlier, and we can get two tickets to Paris tonight if you say yes. We can be eating croissants as we stroll along the Seine tomorrow morning if that’s what you want.”
“Jake, are you offering me a honeymoon in Paris?” I asked him.
“I am.”
I couldn’t believe just how much I loved this man! “You don’t have to bribe me with the trip of my dreams to get me to marry you.”
He grinned at me. “Does that mean that you’ll still marry me, and settle for an overnight stay in Union Square instead?”
“No, sir. We are going to Paris!”
He looked at me somberly for a moment before he spoke again. “Suzanne, is that a yes?”
“It is! Yes! Of course it’s a yes! I’m in, Jake. I’m all in.”
His smile was now broader than mine. “Then let’s go round up your mother and Grace to be our witnesses, and let’s do it.”
And suddenly, in an instant, I knew that I had everything in the world that I’d ever truly wanted.
ORANGE DUNKERS
I got this idea from some treats my mother-in-law used to make at Christmas. They featured the candied oranges cut into cubes and added to an applesauce cake recipe. She baked hers in loaves, and we started making them in cupcake tins when I realized they would make a great baked donut! Making these adds a rich cinnamon taste to the air, and they are worth trying for that alone!
INGREDIENTS
WET
1-1 1/2 cups milk (2% or whole)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 stick butter, (1/4 cup), melted
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon orange extract
Zest of one orange, fine
DRY
1/4 cup orange slice candies, cubed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
3-4 cups flour
DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, stir in the milk, sugar, melted butter, beaten egg yolks, canola oil, orange extract, and orange zest thoroughly until everything is well combined. In another bowl, stir together the cubed candy pieces, cinnamon, baking powder, and 3 cups of flour. After slowly adding the liquid, stir the mixture well. This will make a nice batter, but feel free to add more flour or milk to the mix in order to get a batter that easily scoops out on the edge of a tablespoon.
Place in donut molds, or scoop out tablespoon-sized balls on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for six to eight minutes, or until they are golden brown and spring back to the touch.
Yield: 8-10 Dunkers
DOODLE DROPS
These delightful little donut drops are easy to make, and they have the added benefit of being really tasty, particularly when it’s cold outside. Not the fanciest donut we make by far, but we make these sometimes when time is of the essence, and particularly if there aren’t any other treats in the house.
INGREDIENTS
WET
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup whole milk (2% will do in a pinch)
1/2 cup sugar, granulated white
DRY
1 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose unbleached is our first choice)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 dash of salt
DIRECTIONS
Beat the eggs together in a large mixing bowl, and then add the milk and sugar, stirring well. Set this aside, and in another bowl, sift together the flour, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring thoroughly. Use a small cookie scoop or two tablespoons to add the batter to 375 degree F canola oil, cooking for two to three minutes per side and turning the balls halfway through. These can be dusted with powdered sugar, iced, or slathered with jelly, jam, or my favorite, apple butter, or even better, pumpkin butter.
Yield: 10-12 drops
APPLE DROP TREATS
We first made these using apple cider, but we found it too limiting in our time frame, since cider isn’t always available on our lo
cal store shelves. We’ve substituted apple juice instead on occasion, and now we enjoy these year round. For a stronger bite, substitute cider for the juice, and add some apple butter on top for a truly tasty treat! These can also be made adding small apple bits, but for a real treat, try using dried cranberries instead!
INGREDIENTS
WET
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup fresh apple juice (cider will do nicely, too)
1/4 cup brown sugar, light
1/4 cup sugar, white granulated
DRY
4 cups flour, unbleached all-purpose
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of salt
FINAL ADDITION
1/4 cup butter, melted
DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs thoroughly, and then add the juice or cider. In a different bowl, combine the brown sugar and granulated sugar first, and then add the sugar mixture to the wet mix. After that’s incorporated, take another bowl and sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Incorporate the dry mix into the wet, and then add the melted butter last. The dough will most likely be sticky at this point, but work enough flour into the mixture to be able to scoop it out with a cookie scoop or two tablespoons. Fry the small round balls in hot canola oil at 375 degrees F for 3-4 minutes, turning them halfway through the process. These can be topped with powdered sugar, glazed with a simple icing, or simply dunked in the topping of your choice, from hot fudge to butterscotch to any of a number of jams.
Yield: 8-10 Drops
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