Custard Crime: Donut Mystery #14 (The Donut Mysteries) (2 page)

Sharon nodded, and then she noticed someone drive up
behind us.
 
“If you’ll excuse me,
I’ll go have a quick chat with my husband.”

Ray Blake was not just another idle curiosity seeker
there to see what was going on; he owned and ran the town’s only newspaper,
The April Springs Sentinel
.
 
It was mostly ads, but Ray prided
himself on his journalistic abilities, so he was always searching for a
titillating story for his front page.
 
Even though I knew that we were dealing with a dead body here, I decided
to keep that to myself.
 
Let Ray
discover that fact on his own.
 
I
didn’t have anything against the man, but my first loyalty was to Jake, first,
last, and always, and I was certain he wouldn’t want me sharing what he’d just
told me with the press.

“This is quite the scene, isn’t it?” Emma asked as
she looked around.
 
“Should I go
grab some coffee and the rest of our donuts to sell to the crowd?”

“My, aren’t you the little entrepreneur,” I said with
a smile.

“Sorry, I’ve just gotten used to watching the bottom
line all of the time.
 
It’s
exhausting, isn’t it?” she asked with a grin of her own.

I studied Emma closely before I spoke again.
 
“Let me ask you something.
 
Is it going to be demeaning for you to
go back to just being my assistant tomorrow?”

“Are you kidding?
 
I’m going to welcome it with open arms,”
she said, the relief clear in her voice.
 
“Suzanne, I said it before, and I’ll say it again.
 
What you do every morning is more impressive
than most folks can imagine.
 
I’m
actually looking forward to burying myself up to my arms in warm, sudsy water
and letting my mind just wander.
 
You’re more than welcome to take things back over as far as I’m
concerned.”

“Thanks for saying that,” I said.
 

I was about to add something to it when there was a
commotion out front.
 
Evidently
something big was about to happen, and I didn’t want to miss a moment of it.

Jake walked out of the building toward me, but that
wasn’t what caught my attention.
 
Just
behind him, Chief Martin looked as though he’d just been shot in the gut.
 
His face was ashen, and it looked as
though he was mere moments away from losing his lunch.
 
I watched in surprise as Officer Grant
steadied him, and when I glanced back at Jake, his grim expression triggered a
flood of emotions in me.

“Did something happen to Momma?” I cried out, nearly
collapsing onto the pavement.

Jake got there and managed to catch me before I could
fall.
 
“Take it easy, Suzanne.
 
Your mother is fine.”

“Are you sure?”
 

“I’m positive.
 
As a matter of fact, I just spoke with her on the phone,” he assured
me.
 
“She’s on her way.”

“If Momma’s okay, then what’s wrong with the
chief?
 
He looks as though he’s just
seen a ghost.”

In a softened voice, Jake said, “He’s pretty shook up,
but then he has a right to be.
 
The
body they found inside was his ex-wife.”

“Evelyn is dead?” I asked in disbelief.
 
I had never been a big fan of the woman
after the trouble she’d once made for my mother, but I certainly hadn’t wished
her that much ill.
 
“What happened
to her?”

“At first glance, it appears to have been an
accident,” Jake said carefully.

“But you don’t believe that, do you?” I asked as I
studied him closely.
 
Maybe I’d
learned to read him as well since we’d been together.

He shook his head.
 
“Not a chance.
 
It looks staged to me.
 
I hate to do this, but I’m going to have
to call my boss.
 
There’s no way
that the chief is going to be able to investigate this himself.”

“Are you going to do it?” I asked him.
 
“That would be perfect.
 
After all, you’re already here, and
besides, you know just about everyone in town.”

Jake shook his head wearily.
 
“Suzanne, that’s precisely why I’m the
worst
person to investigate this murder.
 
I have too many opinions and prejudices
about this case before it even begins, and more ties to the people involved
than any investigator should have.”

“But don’t you see?
 
That’s what could be your most powerful
asset.”
 
Not only did I want Jake to
stay and take over because he was the best man for the job, but if he were to
take it, that would mean that I wouldn’t have to say good-bye to him quite so
soon.

“I don’t have time for this conversation right now,”
Jake said as he pulled out his phone.
 
“I just wanted to let you know what was going on.”

I hadn’t even seen Ray Blake standing nearby, which
was the newspaperman’s intention, I was sure.
 
He’d been lurking and eavesdropping in
on our conversation, and when he’d gotten all that he could out of Jake that
way, he decided to try a more direct way to question him.
 
“Inspector, I understand that the victim
was Evelyn Martin, Chief Martin’s ex-wife.
 
Would you care to comment?”

Jake gave the reporter an icy glare that shook me a
little in its intensity.
 
I was
seeing the cold side of him at that moment, the professional lawman that didn’t
put up with any interference from outsiders. After staring at Ray for a full
ten seconds, he finally just grunted, “No comment.”

“Surely you have something to say,” Ray pressed him.

“Off the record?” Jake asked, surprising me and the
newspaperman.

“Sure thing,” Ray replied eagerly.

Jake took a step closer, now looming over him.
 
“If you don’t hold this until tomorrow,
you’ll never get another useful thing out of me for as long as I’m around, and
I plan on being here for a very long time.”

I had to give Ray credit.
 
He didn’t even flinch.
 
“And if I choose to cooperate, what do I
get then?”

“My respect, and a shot at some cooperation later on
down the line,” Jake said.

Ray shook his head.
 
“Sorry, but I only deal in things that I
can write about.
 
I don’t care how
you feel about me.
 
That’s not my
job.”

“Then we’re through,” he said.

Emma’s father just shrugged as he made his way out into
the growing crowd.

“Sorry about that,” I told Jake.

“It’s not your fault,” he replied curtly.
 
“I should have been paying closer
attention to who was around us.”

“That’s because of me, though.
 
Ray wouldn’t have overheard you if you
hadn’t been updating me on what was going on.”

Jake shook his head.
 
“Suzanne, you didn’t run and tell him
what I shared with you, so I’m not about to blame you.
 
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really do
need to go make that call now.”
 
He
was a little brusque with me as he said it, but that could have just been a
part of him doing his job.
 
At least
that’s what I hoped it was.
 
As Jake
stepped aside to have a little privacy, I saw Momma finally show up on the
scene.
 
She headed straight for the
chief the moment she arrived, and when she got to him, Officer Grant quietly
peeled away and went back to stand guard in front of the empty shop.
 
We’d run Momma’s truncated mayoral
campaign out of that building, and I had been pleased for her when I discovered
that she was finally selling it to Beatrice Ashe.
 
That still didn’t tell me what Evelyn
Martin had been doing inside, though.
 
I knew that Beatrice and Evelyn were friends, forming a kind of alliance
after both had been divorced at about the same time, but that didn’t explain
her presence in the building.

I heard Jake raise his voice, so I glanced over in
his direction and saw him arguing with someone over the phone, most likely his
boss.
 
What did that mean?
 
I didn’t have to wait long to find
out.
 
He rejoined me less than a
minute later, and he clearly wasn’t happy about the outcome of the
conversation.

“Well, be careful what you wish for, Suzanne, because
it might just come true,” Jake said unhappily.

“Does that mean that you got the job?”

“I tried to talk him out of it, but my boss saw it
the same way that you did.
 
I know
the players involved, so he thinks I’ll have more of a chance to wrap it up
quickly.
 
I think there’s more to this
than meets the eye, though.”

“How so?” I asked, trying to contain my enthusiasm
for his continued presence.
 
I hated
the reason for it, but nonetheless, Jake was going to be hanging around a little
longer than either of us had anticipated, and that was the sliver of silver
lining in the black cloud of Evelyn Martin’s death.

“He’s clearly not sure that I’m ready to hit the
ground running when I get back to Raleigh, so he’s giving me an easy one to
start off with so that I can work myself back into active duty.”

“Do you think this case is going to be that simple to
solve?” I asked him.

“I can’t say that one way or the other just yet, but most
likely it’s not in the same league as tracking down mad dogs and serial
killers,” Jake said.
 
He frowned as
he added, “Whoever tried to stage this clearly wasn’t a professional.”

“How so?” I asked him.
 
I clearly wanted more details than he
was willing to give.

“I can’t talk about it right now, Suzanne,” he said
as he headed over to where Momma and Chief Martin were in deep
conversation.
 
I watched as Jake
gave the chief the news.
 
After he
told him, Jake dialed a number on his phone and then handed it to the police
chief.
 
It was no doubt direct
orders from his boss.
 
I watched the
chief’s expression as he listened, but all he did was nod, and then he handed
the phone back to Jake.
 
Momma
pulled Chief Martin away, and Jake reentered the building, making sure to speak
with Officer Grant on his way inside.
 
The young officer nodded, and then repositioned himself in front of the
building.
 
It was clear that no one
was getting in without permission, and sadly, that included me.

For the moment, there was nothing that I, or anyone
else standing vigil outside, could do.

“I’m sorry about Dad,” Emma said a minute later as
she rejoined me.
 
“You know how he
gets when he has the slightest whiff of a story.”

“I’m not the one who has a problem with him.”

“That’s a relief,” Emma said with a happy sigh.

“I wouldn’t be too joyous about that just yet.
 
Jake was pretty upset, and believe me,
he’s one man you don’t want to have against you.”

“Doesn’t he know that Dad was just doing his job?”
Emma asked plaintively.

I knew that I couldn’t win if I let this conversation
continue.
 
If I took Jake’s side,
which I was inclined to do for many reasons, it would just alienate Emma, but
if by some bizarre reasoning I defended Ray’s position, it would put me in
direct opposition of the man I loved.
 
“Tell you what.
 
Let’s just
agree not to discuss this situation anymore.
 
How does that sound?”

“Sorry.
 
You’re right,” Emma said apologetically.
 
“So, you’re still coming back to Donut
Hearts tomorrow, right?”

“Just try to keep me away,” I said.
 
“Could you do me a favor and ask your
mother to come by the shop after we close tomorrow?”

Emma frowned.
 
“Why?
 
What’s wrong?”

“Not a thing.
 
I’m going to go over the books tonight, so I’d like to pay the two of
you your share of the profits for the past month as soon as possible.”

“There’s no hurry,” Emma said, clearly happy that
nothing else was wrong.

“Emma, you should know me well enough by now to
realize that I always pay off my debts as soon as I possibly can,” I told
her.
 
“I’m going by the shop this
afternoon to collect all of the reports and deposit slips for the last thirty
days, and I’ll have a figure for you tomorrow.”

“Why don’t I grab them for you now?” Emma asked a
little too eagerly.

What was going on?
 
“Emma, is there something at Donut
Hearts that you don’t want me to see?”

“The place is a mess,” she confessed.
 
“We haven’t had a chance to clean up for
the day yet, and I don’t want you to see it the way that it is right now.
 
Let me grab the books for you,
Suzanne.
 
Please?”

“I suppose that’s all right,” I said.
 
“Just make sure that the place is in
good shape before you go.
 
I want a
clean start tomorrow when I come back.”

“Understood.
 
I’ll just be a few minutes,” she said, and after grabbing her mother,
Emma took off down the road back to Donut Hearts.