Deep Fried Homicide (The Donut Shop Mysteries) (2 page)

“Thank you,” I said, and then I hung up.

The tears suddenly came again as I ended the call, flowing so hard I could barely see. 

Terry reached out a hand and patted my shoulder.  In a soothing voice, he said, “He’s going to be okay, Suzanne.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I said.  I managed to corral my crying jag again, knowing that when I did finally get to see Jake, I didn’t want him to see me sobbing hysterically.

The short drive to Hickory seemed to take a lifetime.  When we finally got there, a uniformed local police officer met us at the emergency room after we made our way through a crowd of reporters mingling near the entrance.  “Officer Hanlan?” he asked my escort.

“That is correct,” Terry said.

“The doctor’s right over there,” he said.  “She’s been waiting for you.”

“Good,” Terry replied as he led me to a youthful woman wearing scrubs.  Wow, she was young.  The doctor couldn’t have been out of her twenties, and her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail didn’t help matters.  This was the woman who had Jake’s life in her hands?

“Are you Suzanne Hart?” she asked me as soon as we approached her.

“I am.  How is he, Doctor?”

“No worries.  Officer Bishop is going to be just fine,” the young doctor said.

“Are you sure?” I asked, not daring to let myself believe her.  I suddenly realized how I must be coming across.  “I didn’t mean that the way that it sounded.”

“I understand completely,” she said with a smile.  “For a gunshot wound, it wasn’t too bad, but he’s going to need some time to recover.  He’ll need to stay here overnight, and then we’ll release him.  After that, he’s going to need about a month to get the full use of his arm back.  During that time, he’s going to have to wear his arm in a sling.”

I’d forgotten that Terry was standing behind me.  In a low voice, he said, “Jake’s going to just
love
that.”

“I’ll make sure that he does everything that he needs to do,” I said, and then I turned back to the doctor.  “When can I see him?”

“I’ll take you to him right now,” she said as she put the tablet in her hands down onto the counter.  “Be warned, though, he’s going to be a little woozy.  We gave him something for the pain.  I’ve got to say that the man really must love you, Miss Hart.  He made me promise that I’d take care of you personally before he’d even let me touch his wound.”

“That’s good to hear, but he can’t love me nearly as much as I love him,” I said.

The doctor smiled at me, but it faded quickly as she noticed the throng of reporters moving toward us.  “Get them out of here,” she told the officer on duty. 

Terry responded as well.  “I’ll give him a hand.”

“Why are there so many reporters and cameras here?” I asked.  “Are you taking care of someone famous?”

“Didn’t you know?  They’re all here for your boyfriend,” the doctor said, clearly surprised by my question.  “After all, he’s a hero.”

“He’s always been special in my eyes, but honestly, I don’t care what they think he is.  I’m just glad that he’s going to be okay.”

“Let’s just ignore them then, shall we?  Would you like to come with me?”

That’s when I heard a commotion behind me near where the reporters were being herded away. 

My mother’s voice rang through the crowd loudly. “My daughter is standing right there, so you’re going to have to shoot me to stop me from joining her.”

“It’s okay,” I told Terry, and he let her through. 

Momma hugged me, and then I told her the good news.  “Jake is going to be okay.  I hate to just ditch you like this, but I get to go see him right now.”

“Then go,” Momma said with a smile.  “I’ll be right here when you get back.  And Suzanne?”

“Yes, Momma?”

“Give him my best,” she said.

“Right after I’m done giving him mine,” I said with the first smile I’d had in what felt like months.

“Hey, there,” Jake said groggily as he opened his eyes.  He smiled slightly, and then he winced a little.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

“Do you mean other than the fact that I’m feeling like I’ve been shot, drugged, and stitched up with a huge needle and thread?  Honestly, I’m fine,” Jake said, doing his best to manage a grin.

“I’m so glad that you’re okay,” I said as I started to hug him.  He was hooked up to some monitors, which started beeping immediately.

A nurse came over to check on him.  “Is everything all right here?”

“Trust me.  If my heart doesn’t start pumping harder whenever I see her, you’d better get new machines, or pull the plug altogether,” Jake told her with a slight smile.

She smiled in return as she patted his arm gently.  “Just take it easy, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.  “I promise.”

Jake tried to rub his eyes, but he couldn’t quite manage it.  “Suzanne, can I have a sip of water?”

“Let me check,” I said, and I hurried to the nurse’s station.  “He wants some water.”

“Certainly,” she said as she filled a cup halfway and then handed it to me.

“That will do,” I replied as I took it from her and then ferried it to him.

After a few sips, Jake sighed.  “Boy, is happiness ever relative.  If you’d have told me yesterday that I’d be satisfied with that, I would have called you crazy.”

“I’m so happy that you’re alive,” I said as I stroked his forehead lightly.  “I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you.  I love you.  You know that, don’t you?”

He smiled gently back at me, and I was glad that I wasn’t the one wearing the heart monitor.  “With all my heart.  I love you, too, and you were never in danger of losing me.”

I looked at him incredulously.  “You do remember that you were just shot, don’t you?”

“I remember,” he said as he winced a little.  “He got off a lucky shot at the same time I pulled the trigger myself, that’s all.”  After a moment, Jake asked, “Do you know what happened to him?”

“You got him,” I said.  Surely he had to have remembered that.  Most likely he was foggy from the meds he was on.  “It’s okay, Jake.”

“I didn’t have any choice,” he said softly, and then he frowned as his monitor started getting louder.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that you’ll have to go now,” the same nurse who’d given me water for Jake said.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” she reassured me.  “He just needs some rest.”

“I’ll see you soon,” I said as I patted his leg on the way out.

“You can count on it,” he replied.

Momma was in the waiting room when I got back out there, but she wasn’t alone.  The reporters were all gone, but I was thrilled to see that Grace was sitting with her.  They both hugged me and started talking at the same time.

“Take it easy, you two,” I said, happy to be with them both.  “Jake’s doing fine.”

“I cannot
believe
that someone shot him,” Grace said.  “The worst thing that happens to me in my job is that I get scolded every now and then.”

“I confess,” Momma added, “that the perils of what I do are equally mundane.”  She turned back to me and asked, “How did he look?”

“Like a million bucks,” I said, an expression my dad used to say when he’d still been with us.

Momma nodded.  “Here, I got you some coffee,” she said as she handed me a cup.  “I’m afraid that it’s not piping hot, and even if it were, it would still be borderline at best.  It’s nowhere near as good as the coffee you and Emma serve at Donut Hearts.”

“I’m just grateful for anything at the moment,” I said as I took a sip.  She was right on all counts, but I didn’t mind.  I had Jake back after nearly losing him forever, and that was really all that mattered to me.

“When does he get out of here?” Grace asked as she looked around the waiting room.  “There was a crowd of reporters outside when I drove up, and the only reason that
I
got through was that your mother was there to vouch for me.”  She turned to Momma and said with a smile, “I bet you regret that already.”

“Never,” Momma said as she patted my best friend’s hand.

“Thanks for coming, you two,” I said, “but Grace, shouldn’t you be working right now?  I thought you had a big day scheduled.”

“I did, but I can always shift things around for you,” she said.

“I’m fine, and Jake is, too.  Thanks for coming, but you need to go back to work.  I’ll call you if there’s any change, or if I need anything.  I promise.”

“Are you sure?  I don’t want to just abandon you here,” Grace said with a little reticence in her voice.  I knew she was swamped with work, but she would beg off doing any of it if I let her.

“Don’t worry, dear.  She always has me,” Momma said.

“That she does,” Grace said, and then she stood.  “If you’re absolutely sure, then there a few things that I really need to do.”

“Go,” I said as I stood and hugged her.  “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Give him a kiss for me when you see him,” Grace said as she was leaving.

“I will, but it’s going to have to wait until all of mine are delivered first,” I said with a grin.

Once Grace was gone, I told Momma, “The same goes for you, you know.  I understand that you have a busy life yourself.”

“There’s nothing I’d rather be doing, and no one I’d rather be with right now than you,” she said.

“Thanks, for everything,” I replied.

“It’s my pleasure.  Now stop thanking me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied with a grin.

After a few moments, Momma said, “You know, once Jake is out of here, he’s going to need somewhere to go to recuperate.  Have you given that any thought?”

“To be honest with you, I’m still wrapping my head around the idea that he got shot this morning.”

“I understand that, but I want to make you an offer that I’m serious about you taking.  Before you say no out of hand, I want you to seriously consider it.  Is that agreed?”

“Sure,” I said, wondering what she had in mind.  “What’s going on?”

“Suzanne, I know that you’re not aware of this, but I recently bought a house on the other edge of town as an investment.  I propose that I move out of our cottage immediately and stay there.”

I started to protest, but she held up a hand and silenced me, something that no one else had ever managed to do.  “Let me finish.  You promised, remember?”

“Okay,” I said.  “Go on.”

“Jake can take over my bedroom downstairs.  After all, he’s in no shape to climb stairs.  We both know that you can take better care of him at the cottage than you can anywhere else, and I want him to take as long as he needs to get better.  You know, the more I think about it, the better I like it.  It’s actually quite perfect.  The park is right there, so when he’s up to it, he can even walk for exercise.  What do you say?”

I started to say no automatically, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how ideal a solution it would be.  After a few moments, I said, “I’ll have to run it by him, but it sounds perfect to me, if you’re sure that you don’t mind.  It’s only going to be a month.”

She grinned at me and hugged me tightly.  “It can take as long as it takes, Suzanne.  There’s no timeframe on my offer.  Thank you for letting me do this for you.”

“Like I said, we’ll both have to persuade him that it’s a good idea first.”

Momma grinned.  “Don’t worry about that.  You just leave it all to me.”

Chapter 4

It took some convincing, but by the time Jake was ready to be discharged from the hospital, he’d agreed to our plan.

I hadn’t been standing idly by waiting for him to be discharged, though.  There was a great deal of work to do, including moving Momma to her new, if temporary, digs.

“How on earth did I ever manage to accumulate so many worthless things?” Momma asked me as we loaded another box into the sheriff’s pickup truck.  Actually, it didn’t belong to Chief Martin; it was his cousin’s, but he’d graciously allowed us to use it for the move.

“What are you talking about, Dorothea?  This isn’t junk,” the police chief said as he hoisted a box.  “These are all full of precious memories.”

“I don’t know about that,” Momma said, but she smiled at him as she said it.  The two of them had grown incredibly close over the last few months, and I couldn’t help wondering if we’d have an actual wedding soon.  There had been a false alarm with Emily Hargraves and Max, my ex-husband, but I doubted that Momma and the sheriff would change their minds if they ever decided to get married in the first place.

“I still don’t know why you’re moving so many of your things in the first place,” I told Momma as I surveyed the boxes and boxes of her personal possessions still stacked on the front porch of the cottage we shared.  “You’re only going to be gone for a month, and then we’re going to have to just move everything back in again.”