by Jessica Beck
“What can I say? It sounded like fun,” Jake explained.
“Okay, I can see that,” Blaze said. She ignored the others for a moment as she shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye for an instant longer than was entirely necessary. After a moment, she asked me quizzically, “Do I smell donuts?”
“That’s me. I came here straight from the donut shop,” I explained. I’d honestly stopped noticing the scent of freshly fried donuts that constantly hovered around me a long time ago, but I knew it could be a powerful aroma that clung to my clothes and my hair until both had a thorough wash.
“You work in a donut shop,” she said with a hint of a frown as she nodded before releasing my hand.
“She does more than that; she owns the place. It’s called Donut Hearts,” Jake explained. It was clear that he’d caught the edge in her voice, and the change in her expression as well. “The place is extremely successful.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” I said, happy that my husband had come to my defense. Then again, I was a grown woman, so I could take care of myself. “I manage to do all right for myself.”
She accepted that, briefly nodded to Momma and Phillip, and then turned back to my husband. “Where are the bills you found?” she asked.
Jake produced everything that we’d found, all neatly bundled in a clear plastic evidence bag. It wasn’t that unusual for him to carry the bags with him, since my husband had a pile of them on hand ever since he’d left the force. He’d even taken the time and trouble to fill out the information openings on the front, including the time, date, and contents of the bag.
Agent Blaze took the bag from him and nodded. “You always were an excellent law enforcement officer. I was surprised to hear that you left the force to get married.”
“That wasn’t the only reason, or even in the right order,” Jake explained. “It was time. I needed a change in my life.”
“And yet you’ve still managed to do some freelance work in security lately,” Blaze said matter-of-factly.
“Keeping tabs on me, Blaze?” Jake asked her with a slight smile.
“I hear things from time to time.” After offering him a brief grin, she was all business again, switching her personality off and on like a light. “Hang around for a bit, would you?” Blaze was most likely speaking to all of us, but you wouldn’t know it, since she clearly had eyes only for my husband.
“We’d be happy to help in whatever way we can,” I said with my brightest fake smile. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the woman. The truth was that she intimidated me. I’d always felt that way around redheads, especially striking ones, and this one exuded an air of confidence that was palpable.
“Good,” she said as she turned toward Chief Grant. “Thanks for securing the scene. You’re free to go.”
“I thought I might stick around, too,” the chief said.
“As long as you understand that you have no jurisdiction in this case. We’re officially taking over,” she said firmly.
“I get it,” Chief Grant said simply.
“Perfect.” She turned to her two agents. “Let’s go.”
They disappeared inside, and I noticed that she locked the door behind her, as though we might try to sneak in behind them to see what they might find. Okay, if I’d been alone I might have been tempted, but I thought it was a little excessive, given the circumstances.
Chief Grant whistled softly under his breath once they were gone. “I’m guessing you two have a history,” he told Jake. It was a question I was dying to know the answer to as well, but there was no way I was going to be the one to ask him about her.
“We worked a few cases together back in the day,” he admitted.
“Nothing more than that?” the chief asked.
“No. We were cordial, but that was it,” he said.
“Okay,” the chief said, dismissing that line of questioning. “Exactly how much money did you find up there?”
“Three hundred eighty dollars,” Jake and Phillip said in nearly perfect unison. Both men nodded toward each other and smiled slightly.
I frowned. “I don’t think they’re going to find any more of those phony bills up in the loft. Momma and I looked pretty closely once we found the first few bills.”
“Why the scowl?” Momma asked me, noticing my displeasure.
“Think about it. Would you go to all the trouble whoever printed those bills seemed to go to for less than four hundred bucks? You know, it’s just as easy to counterfeit a hundred-dollar bill as it is a twenty. Why didn’t they go for a bigger score, both in the worth of the bills they made and the sheer volume of their operation?”
“Hundreds are put under more scrutiny,” Jake pointed out.
“Still, it seems like it’s hardly worth the trouble. They clearly put a lot of time and energy into making those bills and then attempting to age them. I can’t imagine this is the only stash of them they had, can you?”
“No, unless I miss my guess, I’d say this area is about to be flooded with bad paper,” Jake said. “You might want to get a marking pen to make sure you’re not getting any of the counterfeit bills.”
“I’ve already got one,” I said. I’d been burned a few months before with a bad twenty, and ever since, I checked them all. The new ones had watermarks and embedded plastic strips, but the old ones could be hard to spot by eye alone.
“Then you should be fine,” Jake said. He pulled me aside and added in a lower voice, “Listen, I hope you know that there was never anything between me and Blaze.”
“I wouldn’t hesitate believing that for a second, but even you have to admit that she lit up the moment she saw you, and I doubt that’s all that new.”
Jake looked decidedly uncomfortable about the statement. “I never went out with her, Suzanne.”
I took a leap and asked, “But she asked you out, or at least let you know that she’d be willing to date you if you were up for it, didn’t she?”
“I can’t do anything about that,” Jake said stubbornly. “The point is that I never pursued her, not once.”
I patted my husband’s cheek and gave him a quick kiss. As I did so, I happened to glance up and found Agent Blaze watching us from the loft window above. She blushed a bit when she realized that she’d been spotted, and I doubt that happened very often. Being a redhead, she turned a delightful shade of pink before looking away.
“I’m not worried,” I said. “You’re stuck with me, and I’m stuck with you.”
“Wow, you make it all sound so romantic,” Jake replied with a slight smile, and then, to my surprise, he kissed me soundly in front of Momma, Phillip, and the chief of police.
It was my turn to blush now.
Momma and Phillip pretended to ignore us, but I noticed that Chief Grant was grinning broadly in our direction.
It was over half an hour before we saw any more movement from inside the house, and the chief kept glancing at his watch the entire time. “How much longer do you think they’ll be in there, Jake?”
“It’s hard to say. Blaze is thorough, so it will take as long as it takes.”
“Well, I can hang around a few more minutes, but then we have to get back to work.” I noticed his deputies were sitting in the car again, waiting patiently for their boss, but then why shouldn’t they be happy enough to sit, since they were clearly still on the clock?
As Chief Grant spoke, I saw all three Secret Service agents approach the front door. Once they were outside, Blaze said, “We’re going to have to secure the scene for the time being.”
“Did you find any more bills inside?” Jake asked her.
She wanted to tell him, I could see it in her eyes, and if he’d been alone, there was no doubt in my mind that she would have told him everything, but clearly our presence kept her from saying too much. “Sorry, we can’t disclose that at this time.”
“When can we get the house back?” Phillip asked.
“We should be ready to release it by tomorrow morning. Was anyone on
site besides the four of you?”
“Not today,” I told her.
“A neighbor down the road stopped by a few times. His name is Curtis Mason, and he lives right over there,” Jake said as he gestured to the neighbor’s home.
She nodded. “Understood. Jake, your prints are on file. How about the rest of you?”
“I used to be the chief of police in April Springs, too,” Phillip said.
“I’ve supplied mine to local investigations in the past,” I admitted.
That caught her attention. “Were you a detective as well in a previous life?”
“Not in any official capacity,” I admitted.
She waited for me to explain further, but I decided to follow my husband’s example and keep my answers short and to the point.
“And you?” she asked Momma.
“No, not that I’m aware of,” she admitted. “Is that really necessary? I wore gloves the entire time I was inside.”
“If you don’t mind, it will aid us in our investigation if we can eliminate as many sets of fingerprints as we can,” Agent Blaze said. It was clear that Momma avoiding being fingerprinted wasn’t going to be an option.
“You can use my equipment in April Springs if you’d like,” Chief Grant offered.
“Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. We have a kit in the car.”
Momma followed one of the agents to get fingerprinted, with Phillip close on her heels.
“Do you need me to keep the place under surveillance?” the chief asked her.
“Thank you, but as I said, we’ve got the scene covered. Thank you for your cooperation.”
It was a dismissive tone, and there was no mistaking it. The chief just nodded and then tipped his cap to us. “In that case, I’d better be getting back. See you two later.”
Once he was gone, it was just the three of us, since the remaining agent had stationed himself in front of the door and had taken himself out of the equation.
Jake pulled out a key on a string that had a tag with the house address on it. “You’ll need this. We just changed the locks this morning.”
“Fine,” she said. It was clear that Blaze wanted to say more, but I was obviously cramping her style.
That was fine by me.
“I’ll touch base later,” Blaze said.
“Do you need my address in April Springs?” Jake asked her.
“No, I’ve already got it,” she replied before turning to me. “It was nice meeting you, Susan.”
“It’s Suzanne,” I corrected her. “Likewise.” I put my arm in Jake’s and started to lead him away. “Let’s go home, shall we?”
“I’ve got my truck, and your Jeep is sitting right beside it,” Jake answered logically. “We can’t really go together, can we?”
It ruined a perfect exit, but he was right. We’d both need our own vehicles once we were home. I resisted the urge to kiss him again in front of Agent Blaze. Instead, I said, “Sounds good. I’ll see you back at the cottage.”
“I’ll be there,” he said with a soft smile.
As I got into my Jeep and headed home, there were a few questions swirling through my mind. Who had been using our new project as a clearinghouse for counterfeit twenties? Was it indeed someone local, as Momma had suggested, or was it someone who had spotted what seemed like a deserted house and had taken advantage of it? Surely they’d try to come back to collect the efforts from their work, but would they spot the agents there before it was too late? Last but certainly not least, was my curiosity about just how long Agent Blaze was going to be in town and in our lives.
For everyone’s sake, but mine in particular, I hoped it wouldn’t be long, but I wasn’t counting on it.
In the meantime, we needed to get life back to normal. I wasn’t sure how long they’d keep the house for their investigation and observation, but one thing was certain.
No one would be working on fixing the place up again anytime soon.
Chapter 4
BEFORE I EVEN MADE it into the cottage, my phone rang. “Suzanne, do you and Jake have dinner plans tonight? I made a pot roast that’s certainly large enough for the four of us, if you’re interested,” Momma said.
“Why on earth would you make something that big for just the two of you?” I asked her as I sat on the porch swing out front.
“I often make large meals and freeze most of it. I’m not sure why some people have such an aversion to leftovers. Phillip often likes them better the second time around, so we always have plenty on hand. What do you say? Or do you need to speak with Jake first?”
“No, I’m positive he’ll agree to eat just about anything you make. You don’t happen to have any pie too, do you?” I asked her.
“No. I’m sorry. I made a pineapple upside-down cake this morning, though. Would that do?”
“It would be perfect. Are you sure we’re not putting you out?” I asked her as Jake drove up in his truck.
“We’d love to have you. Besides, it will give us a chance to discuss what happened earlier at the house.”
“What time should we get there? You know I have to eat earlier than most people because of my work hours.”
“I’m well aware of it, Suzanne. Is five too soon, or is that perhaps too late?”
“It’s perfect. We’ll be there. Thanks, Momma.”
“It is always a pleasure to take care of my little girl,” my mother said before hanging up. We both knew full well that I hadn’t been a little girl in a very long time, but if it made my mother happy thinking of me that way, I wasn’t about to argue with her.
Especially when there was good food and a dessert to boot waiting for me at her home.
“Good news. Momma invited us to dinner,” I told Jake as he joined me on the front porch.
“And you accepted without even asking me first?” he asked me with a touch of frost in his voice.
“I honestly didn’t think you’d mind. I can always call her back and cancel,” I said, a little concerned that I’d misread my husband so completely.
Jake couldn’t keep his stony expression a second longer. “Don’t you dare,” he said as he broke out in a grin. “It sounds great to me.”
“Just for that, you’re not getting any dessert,” I said as I unlocked the door and let us both inside.
“Come on, I was just teasing. She made pie, didn’t she?”
“As a matter of fact, she made a pineapple upside-down cake,” I said.
“I love that, too,” Jake said. After a moment’s pause, he asked, “If I let you take your shower first and use all of the hot water, can I get back on the full menu plan, dessert included?”
I pretended to consider it for a few seconds before finally nodding. “I suppose that’s a fair trade,” I said as I raced for our bathroom. There was a shower upstairs I had used when I lived there with Momma, but the water pressure was much better in our bathroom suite. Besides, it was closer to the hot water tank, too, a key factor in getting quick delivery. I took a brief shower to spare him some hot water, and as he showered, I got dressed in fresh jeans and a T-shirt. Soon enough, we were on our way to Momma’s place. I wasn’t sure about Jake, but I was starving just knowing what was waiting for us there.
“Dot, you’ve outdone yourself yet again,” Jake said as he pushed his dessert plate away. “Suzanne threatened to keep me from your cake, but I’m glad she didn’t mean it.”
“Suzanne Hart, why on earth would you do something so cruel?” Momma asked me with a twinkle in her eye.
“I had my reasons,” I told her. The truth wasn’t much, but the innuendo was perfect. Let her and Phillip come up with their own reasons in their minds. “It really was wonderful. All of it.” I stood and started gathering plates, and to my happy surprise, Momma didn’t say a word as I started to clean up. Usually she insisted on doing it herself. Maybe she was finally beginning to accept me as an adult and a friend, not just a daughter.
“Don’t forget to rinse them before you put them in t
he dishwasher,” Momma reminded me.
“I never do,” I said, reverting to a younger tone I’d used in my teens.
“Rinse or forget?” Jake asked.
“Do you really want to get into the middle of this?” I asked him pointedly.
“No, ma’am. No thank you. Phillip, I’d love to talk to you about our plans for that master bathroom at the house.”
It was an obvious dodge to extricate himself, but I didn’t blame him. This was between Momma and me. Phillip picked right up on it. “Let’s head off to the living room after we help finish clearing the table.”
“You boys go,” Momma said. “We’ll handle it.”
He paused long enough to kiss my mother’s cheek. “Thank you, my dear. Have I told you lately that you’re the best?”
“Yes, but I never tire of hearing it,” Momma said, softening for a moment.
“Then I’ll keep telling you until my dying breath,” Phillip responded.
“Which we will both hope is a very long time away,” Momma answered.
Once they were gone, I turned to my mother. “I’m sorry.”
“About what in particular?” she asked me.
“For sassing you,” I explained.
“Apology accepted.” Momma studied the remains of dessert for a moment and shook her head. “There’s barely enough left here to save.”
“If you throw that out, Jake will shoot us both, if Phillip doesn’t do it first,” I told her.
“I wouldn’t dream of discarding it,” Momma said. In a softer voice, she said, “I’ve got two clean forks in the kitchen. Care to polish it off with me?”
It was the best peace offering I’d ever gotten in my life. “Lead the way!”
As we sat in the kitchen enjoying the cake straight from the serving platter, I asked her, “What do you honestly think about what we found at the house today?”
“Truthfully, I don’t know what to think,” Momma said. “It all seems a little too deliberate to be random, doesn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Suzanne, that house has been empty for years,” Momma said. “Whoever is counterfeiting money there had to know that. Why else choose it as a spot to treat and dry their illegal currency?”