Custard Crime: Donut Mystery #14 (The Donut Mysteries) (6 page)

“So, you’re going to talk to Robby Chastain, right?”
he asked.

“As soon as I can find Grace,” I said.
 
“What are you going to do?”

“I have someone else I need to speak with,” he said,
avoiding my glance.

“Are you going to go look for Julie Gray?
 
I might be able to help with that.
 
I have connections in Union Square,
remember?”

“I’m not about to forget the formidable DeAngelis
family at Napoli’s,” he said.
 
“But
no, I won’t be going there until later.”

“So then, if you’re not going there, where exactly are
you headed?” I asked him again.
 
Why
was he being so reticent about telling me?
 
And then I knew.
 
“You’re
going to go talk to my mother, aren’t you?”

“What makes you ask that?” Jake said, not bothering
to come straight out and lie to me.

“Why else would you be so evasive with me?
 
Besides, it’s a good move.
 
Momma just sold the building where
Evelyn was murdered.
 
She might have
some useful information for us.”

“For me,” Jake tried to correct me.

I had to laugh.
 
“If you think you’re going to interrogate my mother without me going
with you, you are seriously delusional, my friend.”

“Who said anything about an interrogation?” Jake
asked.
 
“I’m just going to have a pleasant
conversation with her about the circumstances surrounding the sale.”

“If it’s just a conversation, then there’s no reason
that I shouldn’t go with you,” I said.
 
“After all, how official can it be?”

“I’m not going to win this one, am I?” Jake asked
after pausing a moment.

“Not a chance.”

“Then let’s go,” he said as he stood.

“Why do I feel as though I won that round a little
too easily?” I asked him after we paid and we were walking back to the cottage.

“In all honesty, it might just help having you
there.”

I stopped walking and looked at him.
 
“Jake, you’re not afraid of my mother,
are you?
 
She’s just a little old
thing.”

“Her size isn’t what intimidates me,” Jake admitted.

“You know, sometimes you are smarter than you look.”

“I certainly hope so,” Jake said, the relief clear in
his voice.

I knew that my mother could be a mighty combatant,
and I always loved having her in my corner, but Jake was right to be wary of
her.
 
If he took the wrong tone with
Momma, she’d eat him for breakfast, and what was more, everyone involved knew
it.
 

“Are you going to have any trouble with the chief?” I
asked him.

“No, he understands the situation.
 
He might just be local law enforcement,
but he really is a pro, Suzanne.
 
You don’t give him enough credit sometimes.”

“Maybe not,” I replied.
 
I’d actually wondered the same thing
myself.
 
I had been the police chief’s
biggest critic at times in the past, and now that he was married to my mother,
I realized that it was time I adjusted my attitude toward the man.
 
I wouldn’t go so far as to call him my
stepfather, though technically it was true, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t
merit a modicum of respect from me, given his changed status in my mother’s
life.

I glanced over at Jake and saw his open mouth.
 
“What is that look for?” I asked.

“You just agreed with me without an argument,” Jake
said.

“Well, don’t get used to it.
 
It’s not like I want to set any precedents
here.”

“Don’t worry.
 
I won’t take it for granted.
 
I might relish it a little, though.
 
Are you okay with that?”

“As long as you celebrate quietly,” I said with a
slight laugh.

“Come on,” Jake said as we got back to the
cottage.
 
“Let’s go see your mother.”

“Can we take my Jeep?” I asked him as I looked over
the squad car he’d been given.

“I don’t see why not,” he said, “even though we are
on official police business.”

“Don’t worry.
 
I won’t tell anybody if you don’t,” I said.

Chapter 7

“My, what a pleasant surprise,” Momma said as Jake
and I walked into her new place.
 
“I
wasn’t expecting to see either one of you today.”

“Sorry about that, Momma,” I told her.
 
“I know that we should have called
first, but we need to talk.”

“Suzanne, I thought you were going to let me handle
this,” he told me softly.

I smiled at him.
 
“What on earth made you think that?”

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that I’m the one who’s in
charge of this investigation?” Jake asked.

“Is that what this is about?” Momma asked us.
 
“Hold on one second.”
 
She turned and called out to the other
room, “Phillip, could you come in here and join us, please?”

Chief Martin came out of the den, and he looked a
little surprised to see us there.
 
I
knew that it had been nearly a month, but I was still wrapping my head around
the fact that the police chief and my mother were married and living together
as husband and wife.
 
Every time I
went over there, I was honestly startled to find him in the house.
 

The chief nodded at Jake, smiled briefly at me, and
then he asked my mother, “What’s this about?”

“They are here to discuss Evelyn’s death,” Momma
said.

The chief looked immediately uncomfortable when he
heard that bit of news.
 
“Dorothea,
you know that I’m not supposed to get involved with this investigation.”

“Don’t worry.
 
It’s clear that you aren’t trying to solve the case,” Momma said in a
dismissive tone of voice.
 
“But Jake
and Suzanne are here to talk with me about what happened to your ex-wife, and I
think you should be a part of the discussion.”

“As the police chief?” I asked her.

“No, as my husband,” Momma said.

“I don’t have any objections to you being here, Chief,”
I said, and then I turned to Jake.
 
“Do you?”

“No, it’s fine with me,” he said, suddenly aware that
he’d clearly lost control of the interview before it had even had a chance to
begin.
 
“This shouldn’t take long.”

“Take your time, dear,” Momma said as she patted her
husband’s hand.
 
“We have nothing to
hide.”

Jake looked steadily at the chief for a few seconds before
he spoke again.
 
“Are you sure that you’re
okay hearing this?
 
I completely
understand why it wouldn’t be easy for you to be involved in this case in any
way, shape, or form.”

“I appreciate you asking, but it’s fine.
 
Evelyn and I made our peace, what there
was of it, years ago.
 
I wasn’t the
woman’s biggest fan, and she certainly wasn’t mine, but she
was
my wife for many years.
 
It was a bad way for her to go.”

“There was nothing anyone could do about it.
 
Accidents happen, my love,” Momma said
reassuringly.

It was too big an opening to ignore.
 
“Only it wasn’t exactly an accident
after all.”

“What are you talking about?” the chief asked.
 
“Jake, I know that you had your doubts
at the scene, but have you uncovered anything else that makes you certain that it
was anything but exactly what it looked like, that Evelyn slipped and fell in a
dark building that wasn’t safe to be walking around in?”

“I’m afraid that I have,” Jake said.
 
“I don’t want to get into the specific reasons
with you just yet, but suffice it to say that this is now an official murder
investigation being conducted by the North Carolina State Police.”

It sounded kind of ominous the way that he said it,
and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as he spoke.
 
Jake was in full police inspector mode,
and again, I almost didn’t recognize his voice without its normal warmth
reserved for me.
 
It would take some
getting used to hearing him speak in such an authoritative manner.

“If it was indeed murder, then what can we do to help,
Jake?” Momma asked as she gently touched the chief’s shoulder.
 
It was clear at that moment that she
truly loved him, something that I hadn’t doubted, but still couldn’t get used
to seeing.

“I need to know why she was inside that building in
the first place,” Jake said.
 
“It
just doesn’t make sense her being there.”

“How odd.
 
It makes perfect sense to me,” Momma said.

“Would you care to enlighten me?” Jake asked her.

“I’d be happy to.
 
I had no problem discovering that Evelyn
was in that building.
 
After all,
she owned half of it.
 
Why shouldn’t
she be there?”

“What?” the chief asked her incredulously.
 
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“I honestly didn’t see that it mattered,” Momma
replied as she turned to him.
 
“Phillip, I own a great many properties in and around April Springs, and
do a fair amount of business on a daily basis.
 
Is it your contention that I should tell
you about every transaction that takes place just because we’re married now?”

“No, of course not.
 
We agreed that your business was just
that when I signed the prenup.”

“You have a prenuptial agreement?” I asked loudly.

Momma frowned.
 
“Of course we do.
 
I signed
one as well.”

“Not that I have any real assets to protect,” the
police chief said good-naturedly.
 
“I was happy to do it.
 
After
all, your mother was just looking out for your inheritance on down the road.”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” I said
suddenly.
 
Thinking of my mother
planning for her own mortality, a reasonable, even responsible, thing to do,
was more than I wanted to consider at the moment, especially since death had
just paid us all a visit way too close to home.

“Suzanne, we don’t have to say another word about it,
since it’s not the subject of our discussion,” Momma said, and then she turned
back to her husband.
 
“Honestly, I
didn’t think you’d want to know about my business deal with Evelyn.
 
What good could it do for you to learn
about it?
 
I thought it would cause
you only pain, and I was trying to protect you.”

“I don’t need protection, Dorothea.
 
I’m a grown man,” he said.
 
“You should have told me.”

Momma frowned again, and after a moment’s
consideration, she nodded.
 
“You’re
right, Phillip.
 
I’m sorry.
 
I made a mistake.
 
Please forgive me.”

Wow.
 
I
had never seen anywhere near that kind of capitulation on her part in our
dealings in the past as mother and daughter, and I wanted to scream at the
chief to quit while he was ahead, but instead, he replied, “It’s okay this
time, but don’t let it happen again.”
 
If he hadn’t added a smile at the last second, I would have been in fear
for his life, but my mother just grinned at him in return.
 
Who
was
this woman?

“What I really want to know is where she got the
money to buy even half of that building,” the chief said.
 
“I know she didn’t get it from our
divorce settlement.
 
I didn’t have
much to begin with, and all she got was half of that.
 
It wasn’t anywhere near the cash she’d
have to have had to buy anything on that scale.”

“I wasn’t supposed to know anything about it,” Momma
said, “but Beatrice told me in confidence that Evelyn inherited quite a bit
from her great aunt, Ruth.
 
From
what I gathered, it was in the neighborhood of a half a million dollars, if
Beatrice is to be trusted.”

“That’s the same figure that we heard,” I said, and
Jake nodded in agreement.
 
It
appeared that Gabby’s information, at least about Evelyn’s inheritance, had
been spot on.

“Did Ruth finally kick the bucket?” the chief
asked.
 
“She was an odd bird, but I
figured that she’d find a way to live to see a hundred.”

“Evidently she didn’t quite make it there, though she
wasn’t that far off,” Momma said.
 
“Anyway, Beatrice told me that Evelyn wanted to go into business, but
she was afraid to do it on her own.
 
Since Beatrice had run a few shops successfully in the past, Evelyn
convinced her that they should be partners.
 
Evelyn provided the lion’s share of the
financing, and Beatrice would provide the expertise in their daily business
operations.”

“What kind of business were they going to open?” I
asked Momma.
 
“Please tell me it
wasn’t going to be a donut shop.”

“As a matter of fact, it was going to be a candle store,”
Momma said.
 
“They had a name picked
out for it and everything: Wax, Wicks, and Us.
 
I’m afraid that dream is gone forever.”