Custard Crime: Donut Mystery #14 (The Donut Mysteries) (13 page)

“Mom’s on board, but I haven’t told Dad yet.
 
I have a feeling that he wants me to
take some journalism classes, but that’s not happening.”

“Not interested in joining the family business?”

“No way, no how.”
 
She studied the display cases and then
shrugged.
 
“I’d better jump on those
donuts right now,” she said with a smile.

“If you do that, we won’t be able to give them away,”
I answered her with a laugh.
 
It was
an old joke, one that we told with some frequency, but it broke the serious
mood of the situation.

After Emma started boxing donuts, I turned to the
cash register and ran our reports as the machine did its magic.
 
I just hoped that we were somewhere
close to being balanced.
 
I couldn’t
take a lengthy time period analyzing where I might have gone wrong.

To my delight, it balanced out perfectly, and by the
time I had the day’s deposit ready, Emma had the place cleaned up.

“Are you ready to call it a day?” I asked her.

“More than I can tell you,” she said.
 
“No offense, but I can’t wait to get out
of here.”

“I’m beat, too,” I said.
 
“I’m going to go home, take a shower,
and then grab a quick nap.
 
How
about you?”

“Actually, I’ve got a date,” she said with a
grin.
 
Where did she find the energy
after the day we’d just had?
 
Then
again, she was quite a bit younger than I was.
 
I took a little solace in that.

After I locked the place up, I carried the leftover
donuts out to my Jeep so I could drive to the bank and take care of the day’s
final order of business.

I never made it there, though.

Someone stopped me before I had the chance to follow
through with the rest of my plans for that afternoon.

Chapter 12

“Suzanne, we need to talk,” my ex-husband, Max, said
as I was stowing the donuts in the backseat of my Jeep.

“If you’re hungry, you can have a box,” I said.

“It’s got nothing to do with food.
 
I need to ask you something about
Emily.”

My ex had been dating my good friend for some time,
even proposing at one point, though the wedding had never materialized.
 
I knew that Max was serious about her,
and I had a hunch that the feeling was mutual.
 
“I suppose I have a minute, but just
that.
 
I have to get to the bank,
and then I have some other errands to run as well.”
 
I wasn’t about to tell him that the
second task on my list was going back to the cottage and taking a nap.
 
I was worn out!
 
How could a month off do that to me?

“That’s fine.
 
I just need to ask you about Dusty Baxter.”

“Dusty?
 
What about him?”
 
I remembered the tall, handsome young
man who used to live in April Springs, but I couldn’t figure out why Max was
asking about him.
 
And then I
remembered that he’d dated Emily Hargraves before he’d moved to New York.
 

“He’s back,” Max said.

“In April Springs?
 
What on earth would possess him to come
back here?
 
The last I heard, he was
a big success working in finance in New York.”

“Evidently he’s decided that he’s tired of the grind
and wants to move back here.
 
Guess
what else he wants to do?”

“Does it have something to do with Emily?”

Max frowned.
 
“Of course it does.
 
We were at
The Boxcar last night on a date when he sauntered in as though he owned the
place.
 
You wouldn’t believe the fuss
people were making over him.”

“Including Emily?” I asked him.

“Her most of all.
 
She invited him to join us at our table,
and he had the gall to take her up on it.
 
I had to sit there listening to them relive their glory days.
 
It was all I could do to keep my dinner
down.”

“You could have always excused yourself and left,” I
said, being a little meaner than I should have been.
 
Max and I had made our peace quite some
time ago, but that still didn’t keep me from occasionally taking a few shots at
him.

“Wouldn’t he have loved that,” my ex said.
 
“No, I sat there and smiled, nodded
every now and then, and generally pretended to be having the time of my life.”

“I’m sure they bought it,” I said.
 
“After all, you’re an excellent actor.”

“Thank you for that,” he said.
 
“But it’s beside the point.
 
What am I going to do?”

“About Emily?
 
Nothing at all.”

“That’s it?” he asked me incredulously.
 
“That’s the best advice that you’ve
got?”

“Listen, Max.
 
They broke up for a reason, and I doubt it had anything to do with the
fact that he was leaving town.
 
Emily cares for you now.”
 
I
studied him a moment, and then I added, “It’s not like you to be so insecure.”

“I know, right?
 
There’s something about that guy that just puts my teeth on edge.”

I patted his shoulder.
 
“Stop worrying about it, and for
goodness sake, don’t let Emily sense how you really feel.
 
The best way to drive her back into
Dusty’s arms is to let Emily see how worried you are about him.
 
Just try to remind her why the two of
you are together whenever you get the chance, but don’t force anything.
 
She’ll be able to smell it from a mile
away.”

“Thanks.
 
You’re right.
 
That’s good
advice.”

“Whoever dreamed I’d be giving you dating tips when
we first divorced?” I asked.

“Certainly not me, but it’s not going to go
unappreciated.”
 
Max paused a
moment, and then he snapped his fingers.
 
“I’ve got it.
 
I’m going to
buy something special for the guys.”

‘The guys’ he was referring to were Emily’s mascots,
three stuffed animals she’d adored since childhood, even going so far as to
naming her little newsstand after them: Cow, Spots, and Moose.
 
“You know, that just might work.”

“It’s better than that.
 
I had the distinct impression that Dusty
wasn’t a true believer in the reality of the guys.
 
That’s a death knell in Emily’s heart;
there’s no doubt about that.”

I had to laugh.
 
“It doesn’t sound like you need my help after all.
 
Any idea what you might get them?”

“I’m not sure,” he said with a slight frown.
 
“They have just about everything a
stuffed animal could ever want.
 
Over the years, Emily’s bought them dozens of props to go with the
outfits that she’s made them.”

“Well, think about it.
 
What haven’t they dressed up as yet that
she would love?
 
You need to go
through the scrapbook of photos she’s taken of them over the years.”

“I’ve just about got that thing memorized,” he
said.
 
“It’s a pretty complete album
of photographs.”

I patted his shoulder.
 
“Don’t worry.
 
I’m sure that you’ll come up with
something.
 
I’m really sorry, but I
need to take off.”

“That’s fine,” he said absentmindedly.
 
“Thanks again for the advice.”

“Happy to help,” I said as I started to get into the
Jeep.

Max was walking away when I suddenly had a
thought.
 
“Max, I might have
something for you.”

He hurried back to me.
 
“Great.
 
What have you got?”

“National Donut Day is the first Friday in June.
 
Why don’t you dress them up as chefs and
have a celebration?”

“They’ve already worn those outfits,” he said with a
sigh.

“How about commissioning someone to make them all
costumes so that they can be donuts themselves, then?
 
Emily would get a kick out of that, and
I’ll make you a dozen red-iced donuts to take her instead of roses.”

“Do you think she’d go for that?” he asked.

“It couldn’t hurt.
 
I’m just not sure who you can get to
make the costumes, though.”

“I’ve got that part covered,” he said with a
smile.
 
“Hillary Teal makes the
outfits for our stage productions in our amateur theatre group, so I bet that
she’d be willing to do it.”

I knew that Max had enjoyed directing our seniors in
productions targeted for much younger actors, much to the town’s delight.
 
Hillary, along with a host of other men
and women of a certain age, enjoyed everything from acting, prop making, and
sewing.
 
“That’s perfect.”

“Thanks for the idea,” he said.

“Happy to help.”

As I drove to the bank, I just wished that all of my
problems were that easy to solve, not that I thought Max had anything to worry
about.
 
When Dusty had left town, it
was no secret that he’d been more in love with himself than anyone had a right
to be, and my ex was devoted to Emily.
 
Still, it wouldn’t hurt if he showed her how he felt, and Max had been
dead-on about one thing: the way to Emily’s heart definitely was through her
three mascots and best friends, Cow, Spots, and Moose.

My nap wasn’t a long one, but at least it was
something, so I was ready before Grace came around to the cottage so we could
start our sleuthing.
 
By the time
she got there, I had awakened to an empty house, showered, and changed into fresh
clothes.
 
As much as I loved making
donuts, they definitely left a distinct aura around me until I could wash it
off.
 
Jake claimed to love the
scent, but part of me suspected that he was just indulging me.
 
Then again, I’d had a friend once who’d
fried a pound of bacon before every date just for the scent of it on her, and
she had a line of boyfriends longer than any one girl could manage.
 
Everyone else had thought it was a joke,
but she had clearly known what she was doing.
 
Me, I just relied on my charm and wit,
but if the aroma of donuts really was attractive to Jake, I wasn’t going to
dissuade him.
 
However, today was
about the investigation that Grace and I were about to take up, so I needed to
feel as though I had a clean start before we started interviewing our suspects.

“Good, you’re awake,” Grace said after I answered her
knock on the cottage front door.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked her with a smile.

“I was afraid that today might have worn you out
completely.”

“It did, but I managed to squeeze in a quick nap and
a shower, so I’m as good as new.”

Grace nodded.
 
“Perfect.
 
I finished up
early, so we can get started.
 
Who
are we going after first?”

“Let me grab my keys and we’ll talk about it on the
way.”
 
I locked the door behind me, and
as we made our way out to the Jeep, I said, “I have three thoughts for today.”

“I can’t wait to hear them,” she said.

“We should go see Conrad Swoop, Violet Frasier, and then
we can snoop around Evelyn’s place to see if we can uncover something that the
April Springs police might have missed.”

“Do you think there’s a chance we’ll stumble across
anything if Jake has investigated the scene himself?” she asked me.

“I don’t know, but it’s got to be worth a shot.
 
After all, we have an advantage over
him.”

“I’d love to hear what that might be,” Grace said as
she got into the passenger side.

As I got in and started the Jeep, I said, “We know
how women think.”

“Is that going to be enough?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know, but it has to be worth something,
don’t you think?
 
Since Conrad and Violet
are both in Union Square, I thought we might stop by Evelyn’s place first on
our way out of town.”

“How exactly are we supposed to get inside?”

“Knowing Evelyn, there’s bound to be a spare key
hidden somewhere around the property.”

“And if there’s not?” she asked me.

“Then we improvise.”

“I’m not opposed to breaking into her place if we
can’t find a key, but I’m pretty sure that Jake’s not going to be pleased if he
finds out about it.”

“Then it’s important to make sure that he doesn’t
find out, isn’t it?” I asked her with a grin.

“I like the way you think,” Grace said as I drove
away from the cottage and headed straight to Evelyn’s home.
 
If we got lucky, we just might be able
to find a clue that could lead us directly to whoever killed her.

“Why isn’t there any crime scene tape on her door?”
Grace asked me when we got to Evelyn Martin’s house.

“She wasn’t killed here, remember?”
 
I parked the Jeep twenty feet past her
house and on the opposite side of where Robby Chastain lived.
 
I didn’t want Robby to see us snooping
at Evelyn’s, especially since we’d already talked to him.
 
If he hadn’t been suspicious of us
before, seeing us lurk around the murder victim’s home would surely do it.