Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 18 - Dangerous Dough (10 page)

“Hey, you’re the
one who brought it up.
 
Can I get
you something, or did you just come by for some good conversation?”

He studied the
display cases for a moment before he ordered, though I could easily guess what
he was about to have.
 

George surprised
me, though.
 
“I’ll have a glazed
donut with chocolate sprinkles and a chocolate milk, but I’d better get it to
go.
 
I need to wade through a pile
of paperwork now that Polly’s quit her job.”

“You’re kidding
me,” I said, surprised by his request.

“Why would you be
surprised that I’d be overwhelmed with work with my secretary gone?”

“I’m talking
about the donut and drink order,” I said.
 
“Are you sure that’s what you’d like?”

“What can I
say?
 
I feel like shaking things up
a little.”

“Good for you,” I
said as I filled his order.
 

After I made
change for him, I watched him leave the shop.
 
George didn’t act all that upset about
Polly’s departure, and I had to wonder if there was more to the story than he
was letting on.
 
Should I have pried
a little more?
 
Had she asked him to
move with her?
 
Had he begged her to
stay?
 
I might never know, because
if George had wanted to tell me more, he would have volunteered the
information.
 
It appeared that he
was doing his best to move on with his life, so I decided that I was going to
respect his wishes.

At least I was
going to try to.
 

Only time would
tell if I’d be able to do it or not.
 

I was still
musing about our conversation when Brandon Morgan walked into the donut shop.
 

I didn’t realize
it at the time, but things were about to get really interesting.

Chapter 11

“I thought you
hated donuts,” I said with a smile as Brandon came into my shop.

“No, not really,”
he said, trying his best to match mine, but failing miserably.

“Really.
 
The reason I say that is because I’m
pretty sure that was you I saw picketing out front when I had my problems with
Lester Moorefield a few years back,” I said.
 
That particular confrontation hadn’t
ended well for Lester, but not because of anything that I’d done, though some
of the townsfolk had suspected that I might have had a hand in the radio show
host’s demise.

“Suzanne, that
was a long time ago.
 
I’m a big
enough man to admit when I’ve made a mistake, and I’m sorry to say that I was
wrong to do what I did back then.
 
What do you say?
 
Can we let
bygones be bygones?
  
How about
a donut?”

“Sure, I’m not
one to hold grudges.
 
What would you
like?”

He studied the
display case.
 
“What’s the
healthiest donut you have on the menu?”

That was
easy.
 
Back before Grace had come
around to the joys of my calorie-laden donut treats, I’d made a few special
ones just for her.
 
“Let’s see.
 
Today I’ve got vegan vanilla cake and a
blueberry banana that uses yogurt.”

“Wow.
 
Seriously?”

“You’d be
surprised by how many folks like to indulge a little but still maintain a
modicum of healthy ingredients.”

“How do they
taste?” he asked as he looked at them skeptically.

“Tell you
what.
 
I’ll let you taste a bite of
each first.
 
If you don’t like either
one of them, you don’t have to pay me a cent.”

“But if I do?”

“Then you pay
double what they cost anyone else,” I said with a grin.

“Why don’t I just
buy them outright from you instead?” Brandon asked.

“You could
certainly do that if you’d like to, but I’m trying to prove a point here.
 
Just because something’s healthy doesn’t
mean that it can’t taste good, too.”

“If you feel that
way, then why do you serve so many selections of the unhealthy options?”

Was he seriously
going to stand there in my donut shop and argue with me about my offerings?
 
“Brandon, I never recommended a steady
diet of my fare to anyone, but every now and then it feels good to
indulge.
 
So, what do you say?
 
Are you willing to take me up on my
offer?
 
How lucky are you feeling?”

“What’s to keep
me from lying?” he asked.

“Not a thing in
the world but your conscience,” I said.

“Why not?
 
What have I got to lose?” he asked.

“Five bucks, from
where I’m standing,” I said with a smile as I retrieved one of each of the
donuts we’d just been discussing.

He didn’t want to
like them.
 
I could see it in his
gaze as he studied my offerings.

I watched as a
sense of amazement covered his face when he took his first bite.
 
“Say, this is really tasty.”

“I told you so.
 
Now try the other one.”

Brandon took a
bite of that one as well, and then he frowned as he shook his head.

“What’s the
matter, don’t you like it?” I asked.
 
I’d been sure that I’d offered him two winners.

“I don’t like it,
I love it.”

“Then why the
frown?”

“I owe you five
bucks,” Brandon said as he dug out his wallet and slid a five across the
counter.
 
“You know what?
 
I don’t even mind being proven wrong.”

“Good for you,” I
said.
 
“How about if I throw in one
more of each donut to go?
 
That way
you’re getting your money’s worth, and I still get to make my point.”

“No, a bet’s a
bet.
 
You won fair and square,” he
said.
 
“How about some coffee?”

“Do you actually
drink that?
 
Isn’t it bad for you,
too?”

“Not in
moderation,” he said.
 
“Speaking of
coffee, that was too bad about how Alex Tyler died.
 
Who would have dreamed that he drank
poisoned coffee from your donut shop.”

“I’m sure that it
wasn’t poisoned when it left here,” I said, immediately going on the
defensive.
 

“No doubt you’re
right,” he said.
 
“Does your
boyfriend have any idea who might have done it?”

“Haven’t you
heard?” I asked him as I showed him my wedding ring.
 
“He’s my husband now.”

“Congratulations,”
Brandon said automatically.
 
“He’s
still working on the case, though, isn’t he?”

“In a manner of
speaking,” I said.
 

“Does he have any
leads yet?” Brandon asked me, his voice lowered to a near whisper, as though he
were having trouble getting the words out.

It was rather
curious behavior, and I had to call him on it.
 
“Why all of the sudden interest in what
happened to the new police chief?”

“What do you
mean?”
 
Brandon definitely looked a
little guilty when I’d asked.
 
“We’re
just talking.”

“Maybe so, but the
last time you were within a hundred yards of Donut Hearts, you were holding a
sign that said, ‘Donuts Kill!’
 
Now
you’re in here eating my treats and asking me questions about a murder that
doesn’t concern you.
 
Or does it?”

“Like I said, I’m
just making polite conversation,” he said.
 
“Can I get these to go?
 
I
need to be somewhere.”

“Sure thing,” I
said.
 

As I started to
bag his partially eaten donuts, Emma came in through the kitchen.
 
“Suzanne, we’re running low on
flour.
 
Would you like me to call—?”
 
The second she saw Brandon, she faltered,
and her sentence died in the air mid-delivery.

“I already called
him,” I said.
 
“More is on the way.”

“Good.
 
Fine.
 
I’ll just get back to work, then.”
 
My assistant was gone in an instant, and
Brandon was looking in her direction with a curious expression that defied
explanation.

“Thanks for the
donuts,” he said as he held up the bag and shook it a little.

“Come back
anytime,” I said.

The moment he was
gone, I opened the door to the kitchen.
 
“Emma, would you mind coming here for a second?”
 
If I stood in the doorway, I could carry
on a conversation with her and still watch the front.
 

“What’s up, boss?”

“That’s what I
want to know.
 
The instant you saw that
Brandon Morgan was in the donut shop, you couldn’t get out of the front fast
enough.
 
Do you two have some kind
of history that I don’t know about?”

“Me and
Brandon?
 
Yuck.
 
You’re kidding, right?”

“Well, there’s
got to be some reason you acted so weird around him.”
 
I thought about it for another moment,
and then I made an educated guess.
 
“He’s on your dad’s list of suspects, isn’t he?”

Her expression
told me that I’d scored a direct hit.
 
“What?
 
No.
 
I never said that.
 
No way.”

“Emma,” I said
softly.
 
“I won’t tell anyone where
I got my information.”

“I can’t,” she
said.
 
The way her voice quivered, I
could tell that she was on the edge of tears.

“That’s
okay.
 
You don’t have to tell me a
thing.”

“Dad would kill
me,” she said, a pleading quality in her voice that it pained me to hear.

“I get it.
 
We’re good.”
 
I closed the door and faced the
counter.
 
While Emma hadn’t
confirmed anything outright, I was pretty sure that I was on the money.

At that point, I
did what any self-respecting concerned citizen would do.

I decided to call
the police.

Well, not just any
police.
 
I knew that my husband had
recently retired from being an officer of the law, but he was still working as
a cop, and I wasn’t certain that I could ever think of him any other way.
 
“Jake, I’ve got a hot tip for you.”

“I’ll take it,”
he said.
 
“I’m still trying to get
settled in over here.
 
Evidently
Manfred is on the move, because he hasn’t been in here all morning.
 
What have you got?”

“You should look
for some kind of connection between Alex Tyler and Brandon Morgan.”

There was dead
silence on the other end of the line for a few moments, and then Jake finally
spoke.
 
“How did you know about
that?”

“About what?”

“While we were in
Paris,” Jake explained, “Alex arrested Brandon for speeding, and the two of
them got into a pretty ugly confrontation right on the street.
 
I’ve got him on my list of folks to
interview.
 
How did you know about
him?
 
Don’t tell me.
 
Emma told you, didn’t she?”

I knew that I was
dancing close to the edge of the truth by not telling him everything, but I had
to protect Emma’s involvement, too.
 
I decided to slant my response to deflect Jake’s suspicion of my
assistant.
 
“As a matter of fact, the
man just paraded into the donut shop asking questions about Alex’s murder, and he
wanted an update on the progress you were making on the case.”

“What’s so odd
about someone coming into Donut Hearts?
 
I thought that most of the town ate there sooner or later.
 
As for the case, the whole town’s
talking about it, so that doesn’t make Brandon Morgan all that different if he
wants to hear about how we’re doing.”

“The thing is,
though, Brandon was one of the protesters outside the shop when I was battling
Lester Moorefield,” I explained.
 
“Seeing him in here is like finding a lump of coal in a bag of
marshmallows.
 
He just didn’t
belong.”

“Okay, I get
it.
 
Maybe I’ll ask him about it
when I speak with him later today.
 
Thanks for the tip.”

“In the spirit of
sharing, is there anyone else in April Springs you’re looking at particularly
closely?”

Jake paused
another moment before answering.
 
“I
thought you were focusing on Granite Meadows and I was handling April Springs?”

“That’s the plan,
but surely there’s going to be some overlap.
 
What am I supposed to do when one of
your suspects walks in and starts asking questions like Brandon just did?”

“That’s a fair
point.
 
I can’t tell you anything
directly.
 
You know that, don’t
you?”

“Well, can you at
least give me a hint?”

“How about
this?
 
If anyone comes in asking
questions about Alex, let me know about it, pronto.”

“You seriously
aren’t going to at least give me any idea about who I need to be careful
around?”

“Suzanne, we’re
both working on a murder investigation.
 
You should be careful about everyone you see until we catch the killer.”

“I know that,” I
said.
 
I saw a family of four
approaching the shop.
 
“I’ve got to
go.”

“Don’t be cross
with me,” he said plaintively.

“I’m not.
 
I’m just trying to run a business.”
 
I hung up on him before I could say
something that I would probably regret.
 
I knew that he was just doing his job and that sometimes it precluded
him from telling me everything he knew, even though I didn’t have that kind of
caveat.
 

That didn’t mean
that I had to like it.

Apparently there
were going to be more things for us to get used to in our married life than
most couples had to go through.

I knew that I’d
be fine once I had a little time to cool down.

In the meantime,
I had customers to serve.