Deep Fried Homicide (The Donut Shop Mysteries) (13 page)

Trish smiled as she pulled away.  “Well, I don’t know anyone quite like me, but I appreciate the compliment nonetheless.”

After I let her out, I asked Jake, “Should I have gone with her out onto the porch?”

Jake shook his head as he finished another bite.  “Don’t worry about Terry.  He’s a big boy.  He’ll be able to handle her.”

“Maybe,” I said as I finally got a bowl for myself.  I looked at Jake’s bowl and asked, “Would you like some more?”

“Maybe just a little,” he said.  “I’m trying to catch up on all the food I missed while I was in the hospital.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me.  I’m just happy to see that you have an appetite.”

“I feel like a grizzly bear.  All I seem to do is eat and sleep.”

“That’s all that you need to do,” I said as I kissed his head on my way past him.

“Hey, you can eat first before you serve me any more soup.”

“This won’t take a second,” I said as I snatched his bowl so I could fill it up again.

I topped his bowl off and returned it to him, but I didn’t get a chance to taste my soup after all.

“More company’s here,” Terry said.

I left Jake in the kitchen, and I went into the living room.  I got there just as Terry opened the door for Hazel, Jennifer, and Elizabeth, the ladies from my book club.  Elizabeth held a massive chocolate cake, Jennifer was carrying a lemon meringue pie, while Hazel had a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

“We brought you a few desserts when we heard about what happened,” Jennifer said.

“Come on in, ladies,” I said as I saw another car pull up.  “I’ll be right with you,” I said as the DeAngelis women from Napoli’s Restaurant in Union Square got out.

“We brought food,” Angelica, the matriarch, said.

“Enough for two armies,” her youngest, Sophia, added.

“They have to eat, don’t they?” Angelica asked, and the parade of food began in earnest.

Terry whistled as he saw the food being unloaded.  “How many friends do you have, Suzanne?”

“Inspector, I may not have a lot of money, but I’m rich beyond all dreams of avarice when it comes to my friends.  Have you ever eaten at Napoli’s?”

“No, but Jake’s told me about it a few times.”

“You’re going to want to get a plate when the DeAngelises finish unloading, trust me.”

Terry looked mournful.  “I’d love to, but I need to stay at my post.”

“I’ll have Maria bring you a plate,” I said.

Terry surveyed the lovely sisters as he asked, “Which one is she?”

“She’s the pretty one,” I said with a grin.

“You’re going to have to narrow it down a little more than that.  They’re all beautiful, including the mother.”

It appeared that Trish was going to have some competition.

As the sun started to fade, the cottage was nearly splitting at the seams with food.  That was the way we showed our love in the South, and what I’d told Terry had been true.  There was a whole lot of love going on at the moment.  I called Momma and Chief Martin to come over and join us, but they had other plans.  George was smart, though.  He showed up half an hour before his shift to load up a plate, and he’d even brought his secretary, and not-so-secret girlfriend, Polly, with him.  Grace put in an appearance, and so did a few other friends as the night wore on.  I made up a killer to-go box for Terry before he left, and by the time George was ready to take over his shift, I was afraid that he might be so full that he would fall asleep on duty.

“Are you going to be able to make it until Chief Martin gets here to relieve you?” I asked George as he took over Terry’s spot.

“I’m so full I can’t nod off,” he said.  “I should have stopped with my second plate.”

“Who can blame you?  It’s not every day you get that kind of spread laid out for you.”

“Don’t I know it,” he said.  “Let me know if you need me.  I’ll be right outside, wide awake, and that’s a promise.”

“I trust you, George,” I said.  “If anybody else comes by, thank them for us, but let them know that Jake needs his rest.”

“You’ve got it.”

I closed and locked the door behind me, and Jake and I were in for the night, finally alone.

“Sorry I’ve been sleeping so much since I got here,” Jake said as I added a small log to the fire.  It wasn’t that chilly, but I liked the ambience of it with its dancing flames and intermittent crackles and pops.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” I said as I settled in next time.  “You’re recovering from a gunshot wound, remember?”

“I’m not about to forget,” he said as he shifted a little, clearly trying to make himself more comfortable. 

“Can I get you anything?” I asked him.

“No, I’m still full from that last plate from the DeAngelis clan.  That was really a magnificent spread, wasn’t it?”

“I’m glad you liked it, because even with all of the people we fed tonight, there’s tons still left over.  If we get much more food, we’re going to have to use Grace’s fridge to store the extras.”

“I missed seeing her today,” Jake said.  “Is everything okay?”

“She came by, but you were resting.  Besides, she only stayed for a few minutes.  She said that she saw the parade of well-wishers coming up the road to the house, so she decided we might appreciate a little space.”

“Thank her for me, would you?  That’s the nicest thing anyone’s done for me today.”

He sounded a little grumpy as he said it.  “Jake, is everything okay?”

“I hate being the center of attention, Suzanne.  You know that.”

“I do, but you’re going to have to just suffer through it,” I said as I mussed his hair a little.  “After all, how many folks get the chance to thank a hero?”

“I wish everyone would stop tossing that word around so casually.  I was just doing my job.  Besides, in all that time I was tracking Monroe, I never knew that Rusk was working with him from the very start.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.  No one else knew it, either.”

“That’s no excuse,” he said, and then my boyfriend let out a heavy sigh.  “I’ve been thinking about it a lot ever since I got shot.  I’m not sure this is going to work out anymore.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Was he actually breaking up with me while I was trying to help him recover from his wound?  “You’re not tired of me, are you?”

He looked startled by the question.  “What kind of thing is that to ask?”

“Based on what you just told me, I think it’s a perfectly reasonable question.  If you’re not getting tired of me, then what is it?  Have I done something?”

That’s when he must have gotten it.  “Suzanne, you and I are just fine.  Better than fine, actually.  I love you, or do I need to remind you of that more often?”

“It couldn’t hurt,” I said, feeling better all of a sudden.  “If it’s not me, then what were you just talking about?”

“The job,” he said heavily.  “I must be slipping.  First I let Morton get a shot off and hit me, and then I find out that I missed learning about Rusk entirely.  It’s not good.”

“You can’t hold yourself to such impossible standards, Jake,” I said in protest.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m the only one who can.  When a cop gets stale and burned out, he knows it before anyone else.  I’ve made a couple of pretty big mistakes lately, and it could have cost me more than just some blood and recovery time.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not sure,” Jake said as he stared into the flames.  “Not so long ago it didn’t seem to matter all that much what happened to me, but now that I’ve got you in my life, I have a solid reason to live again.  Is it worth losing that just for a job?”

“Jake, it’s completely understandable for you to second-guess yourself right now, but you’re a great cop, and you know it.”

“I’m still okay,” he said grudgingly.  “I’m just not at all sure that I’m as good as I need to be anymore.”

“There’s one thing I know for sure.  You shouldn’t try to make any decisions about your future while you’re recuperating,” I said.  “If you still feel this way in a month, then you have every right to entertain the notion of stepping aside, but give yourself a chance to heal first, okay?”

“Are you that dead-set against me retiring?” he asked me softly.  There was a hint of hurt in his voice as he asked the question, and I felt a little guilty for not being more supportive.

“Of course not.  If it’s what you
really
want, then I’ll support you a thousand percent.  To be honest with you, I’d love to have you puttering around April Springs all of the time.”

“You’d still run the donut shop, of course,” he said, and he watched me closely as he waited for me to comment.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” I admitted.  “I haven’t been gone all that long, but I’m still eager to get back to it.”  As I said it, I realized how it might have sounded to him.  “It’s nothing against you, Jake.  I’m just not sure what I’d do with myself if I suddenly quit making donuts.”

“Yeah, I wonder about that, too.”  Jake yawned, and then he added, “I didn’t mean to stir up anything.  I just wanted to tell you what was on my mind.”

“Please don’t ever stop doing that,” I said as I kissed his cheek.  “I’ll be your sounding board anytime.”

“But not tonight,” he said.  “I hate to do this, but I’m going to go crash again.  I don’t know why I’m so exhausted.”

“Well, if it wasn’t getting shot, maybe it was being in the hospital.  Did they wake you every hour to take your temperature?”

“No, it was always my blood pressure they were worried about,” he said with a grin.  “What are you going to do if I go to sleep now?”

“Don’t worry about me.  There’s plenty for me to do around here.”

“Then I’ll say good-night,” Jake said, and after pulling himself off the couch, he tottered into Momma’s room.  I had to stop thinking of it that way, since it was clear that my mother wouldn’t be coming back to the cottage to live even after Jake was healed.  I was still a bit ambivalent about that fact, but she’d done a noble thing stepping aside so that Jake would have a place to recover, even if she did have motives of her own.

I cleaned a little more, but mostly I just straightened up.  I wasn’t all that sleepy, even though it was approaching nine o’clock, well past my normal bedtime.  The problem was that I wasn’t working at Donut Hearts at the moment, the real reason that I was usually able to nod off so quickly.  Jake was easy to take care of, that was for sure.  When he wasn’t sleeping, he was eating or resting on the couch, and none of those activities took a great deal of effort on my behalf.  I was wondering if he’d be able to take a month of idleness, but even more pressing a question, could I?  Without the shop, I felt a little rudderless, ready to get going, but not exactly sure where, or how.

Finally, I made up the couch again and stretched out with a mystery novel that Momma had left behind.  It was about an amateur sleuth who turned to his pet ferret for help in solving crime, an interesting enough premise, I supposed, but it couldn’t keep me awake. 

Between the fire in the hearth and the tedious prose of the writer, I was asleep before I knew it.

At least I was until three AM the next morning.

When Chief Martin yelled out from the front porch, I came instantly awake, wondering what exactly was going on outside my cottage at that time of night.

Chapter 13

“What’s going on?” I asked the chief as I hurried out of the cottage to investigate.  I’d stopped long enough to grab my baseball bat, just in case.  “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said gruffly as he looked off into the night.  Without even glancing back in my direction, he asked, “Did I wake you up?”

“No, not really,” I lied.  “What happened?”

“I’m not quite sure,” he said, his gaze still riveted to the shadows.  “I thought I saw something out there, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Should I wake Jake up?” I asked.

“No, let him sleep.  It was probably just my imagination.  This time of night, the shadows can play tricks on your eyes.  That must have been what happened.”  Chief Martin rubbed his hands together.  “You wouldn’t happen to have any coffee in there, would you?”

“No, but I can make a fresh pot in six minutes.”

“Don’t go to any trouble on my account,” he said.

“It’s no trouble at all,” I said.  “I’ll be right back.”  The air had a bit of a nip to it tonight.  “Can I get you a blanket or anything?”

“Thanks for offering, but if I get too comfortable, it might knock me out, and I need to stay alert; thus the coffee,” he said with a grin.

“Coming right up, then.”  I put the baseball bat down beside my chair, close enough to reach if I needed it quickly, but still out of my way.