Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 18 - Dangerous Dough (13 page)

“Hey, don’t blame
me.
 
I make them for a living,” I
said lightly.
 
“If I ran a flower
shop, I would have brought you roses.
 
There’s no hidden message here.
 
We’re all sorry for your loss, and this is the best way we have to show
it.
 
We didn’t know Alex that well,
but he’d already made an impression on the folks in April Springs.”
 
It wasn’t completely a lie.
 
He’d certainly made an impression on me,
just not a good one.

“Sorry.
 
I guess I’m a little touchy about the
subject,” Chief Willson said as he took the box from me and lifted the lid for
a peek.
 
“These look great.
 
Tell you what.
 
I’ll put them in the break room.
 
Thanks for your thoughtfulness.
 
Jake, are you ready?”

“Actually,
they’re with me,” Jake said, though I could see that he was pained to admit it.

Chief Willson
frowned at him for a moment, glanced quickly at us, and then he looked back at
Jake.
 
“Surely they aren’t helping
you with your investigation, are they?”
 
It was clear that he didn’t approve of that prospect at all.
 
Clearly Jake had been right.
 
Without him, we never would have even gotten
this far.

“Allow me to
introduce them.
 
This is Suzanne,”
he stumbled a moment before adding, “Hart, my wife, and her best friend, Grace
Gauge.”
 
We hadn’t really discussed
the possibility of me taking his last name, and this obviously wasn’t the time
or place to do it, either.
 
I’d kept
Hart through my marriage to Max, and now that I owned a shop called Donut
Hearts, it seemed to make more sense to keep it rather than change it to
Bishop.
 
Still, that was something
we were going to have to discuss somewhere down the line.

“Ladies, it’s a
pleasure to meet you,” he said as he extended a hand to each of us in
turn.
 
“Now, if you wouldn’t mind
waiting over there, we won’t be long.”
 
It was as blunt a dismissal as I’d received in quite sometime.

I was about to push
a little and ask if we might not join them when Grace surprised me by saying,
“Take all the time you need.
 
Suzanne and I need to catch up on a few things while you two are talking.”
 
She’d said it with that sweet Southern
belle accent she used sometimes to get what she wanted.
 
It usually worked.

“We’ll be back in
a flash,” the chief answered, and then he smiled broadly at her.

Grace returned it
in kind, and a moment later we were sitting by ourselves.

“Well, that was a
little unexpected,” I told her softly.

“Suzanne, let’s
face it.
 
There’s no way the police
chief was going to speak freely in front of us.
 
At least this way Jake has a chance to
come up with something we can use.”

“I’d come to that
same conclusion myself, but I never expected you to come around so quickly on
your own.”

“What can I
say?
 
I’m reasonable if I’m
anything,” she said.

I choked back my
laughter.
 
“Seriously?
 
You do remember who you’re talking to,
right?”

“I’m willing to
admit that I have my moments,” Grace said, “but I can behave myself when the
situation calls for it.”

“It just doesn’t
call for it very often, does it?” I asked her with a smile.

“Not so far,” she
replied with that grin of hers that always made me think that she was up to
something, even on those rare occasions when she wasn’t.
 
“Besides, I’ve got an idea about
something we can do while we’re waiting.”

“This ought to be
good.
 
I can’t wait to hear it,” I
said.

Chapter 14

“First of all, it
entails finding the restroom,” Grace said as she stood and approached the cop
at the front desk.
 
“Is there a ladies’
room nearby?” she asked.

“Not on this
floor.
 
You have to go upstairs,” he
answered abruptly.

“Surely you all
don’t use that one,” Grace said.

“Ours is only for
staff and visitors who are here on official business.”

“You saw that we
came in with Inspector Bishop, didn’t you?
 
The chief himself said hello to us.
 
That must count for something.”

At that moment,
his desk phone rang, but Grace wasn’t about to stand quietly by and let him
take the call in peace.
 
She raised
her eyebrows as she put a hand on his phone before he could answer it, and he
finally waved her through.
 
I
doubted that her argument had been all that persuasive.
 
He most likely had just wanted to get
rid of her.
 
I stood and quickly
followed her before the desk cop could protest.
 
He wasn’t pleased about me following her,
but he didn’t try to stop me, so I was okay with his disapproving frown.

“Now what?” I
asked Grace softly.
 
“Do you really
need to go to the bathroom?”

“We might end up
there eventually, but for now, I’d like to speak with
her
.”
 
She pointed to
the policewoman I’d seen earlier, and we veered off in her direction.

“Excuse me,”
Grace said to her.
 
“May we ask you
something?”
 

Before she could get
anything else out, the woman pointed down the hallway.
 
“Restrooms are on the right down that
way.
 
You can’t miss them.”

“Thanks, but we were
wondering if you could tell us anything about Alex Tyler,” Grace asked.

The woman, who
had FARLEY engraved on her name tag, looked sharply at us both.
 
“Who wants to know?”

“I’m Grace and
this is Suzanne,” she said warmly.
 
“We met Officer Tyler when he first came to April Springs.”

“Did he hit on
you, too?” she asked harshly.

“Not me,” I said,
and Grace acknowledged the same.

Officer Farley
shrugged.
 
“What do you know.
 
He told me he was going to turn over a
new leaf when he left, but I didn’t believe him.
 
Maybe I was wrong about him, after all.”

“To be fair, he
didn’t have that much of an opportunity,” I said with the hint of a grin.

“Trust me.
 
He wouldn’t have let a chance pass
by.
 
I don’t know.
 
He said that he was going to make himself
into a new man from top to bottom.
 
I just didn’t believe him.”

“He did try to
get my assistant to go out with him, and when she refused, he was pretty
persistent pursuing her,” I said.

“That sounds more
like the Alex I worked with,” she said smugly.

“Did you know him
very well?” I asked her.

“Are you asking
me if we ever dated?
 
No way.
 
Not a chance.
 
I wouldn’t date
any
of the men on this force.”
 
She didn’t even lower her voice as she said it, though perhaps that was
because no one else was around.

“Slim pickings
around here?” Grace asked sympathetically.

“You don’t know
the half of it.
 
I have to be able
to trust a man before I’ll go out with him.”

“That’s why you
don’t ever go out, Farley,” the desk cop said with a mean laugh.
 
Evidently he was off the phone, and now
he was eavesdropping on our conversation.
 
At least he hadn’t made a move to throw us out.
 
Not yet, at any rate.

“Nash, nobody’s
ever going to go out with you, either,” she said wearily.

“I happen to have
a date tonight,” the man said smugly.

“Your mom doesn’t
count.”

“It’s not my
mom.”

“Your sister,
either, then,” Farley said.

The desk cop
waved a hand in dismissal and then turned his attention back to the magazine
he’d been reading when we’d first walked in.

“Officer Farley,
do you know anybody who might have wanted to hurt Alex?” I asked her.

“Look
around.
 
Half the guys on the force
had a beef with him,” she said.

“Really?
 
What about?” I asked.

She was about to
answer when I heard Chief Willson just behind us.
 
“Farley, don’t you have a beat to patrol?”

“On my way, sir,”
she said as she stood and left hurriedly.

Jake joined us
all a moment later.
 
What had
delayed him?

“Don’t mind
Officer Farley,” Chief Willson said warmly as he turned to us.
 
“She sees conspiracies behind every tree.
 
Did she share any with you this
afternoon?”

Grace was about
to say something; I could see it in her body language.
 
I decided to beat her to it.
 
“Actually, we were just getting
directions to the ladies’ room,” I said.

“Nothing more
than that?” the chief asked me, letting his true interest show for a moment.

“Nothing more,” I
said with my sweetest smile.
 
Grace
wasn’t the only one who could use charm to her advantage.
 
I didn’t have to always rely on donuts
to win people over, though I was the first to admit that they often helped my
cause.

“Very good,” he
said, seemingly satisfied with my response.
 
“What were you doing back here, anyway?”

“We were looking
for the ladies’ room,” I answered.

“I’m afraid
you’ll have to use the facilities upstairs.
 
No exceptions.
 
I’m sure you understand.”

“Completely,” I
said as I touched Grace’s arm lightly.
 
“Come on.
 
Let’s go.”

Once we were
outside, I turned to Jake.
 
“What
did you find out?”

“Maybe I should
ask you first,” he replied.
 
“It
appeared that you and Grace were having more success than I was.”

“We might have
gotten a few things out of Officer Farley before you and the chief showed up,”
I admitted, “strictly due to Grace’s spur-of-the-moment idea.”

“What can I
say?
 
I came up with Plan C,” she
said.

“This I’ve got to
hear,” Jake said with a smile as we walked back to the Jeep.

I felt as though
someone was watching us as we made our way back, and when I turned suddenly to
look back at the building, there was movement in the curtains, as though
someone had been peeking out from behind them.
 
Could it have been Officer Farley,
afraid that she’d told us too much? Or perhaps the police chief wasn’t quite as
innocent as he’d presented himself to be in all of this.
 
Then again, it could have been nothing
more than the heat kicking on and blowing air from the registers into the
drapes.

But thinking like
that wouldn’t do me any good, so I decided to stick with my theory that we’d
rattled a few cages on our visit to the police station, and we hadn’t even
spoken with Officer Durant yet.

“Why don’t we
wait until we’re out of earshot of the police station?” I suggested, and Jake
and Grace quickly agreed.

Chapter 15

“You go first,” I
prodded Jake as we got into the Jeep and left the police station.
 
I wanted to get out of there as fast as
we could.

“According to Chief
Willson, Alex Tyler was a man without fault and an officer above reproach,”
Jake started.
 
“I couldn’t see his
files, because according to his boss, there was nothing to see, but it sounded
as though it would have been full of commendations and no signs of the
slightest negative.”

“You didn’t
believe that, did you?” I asked him.

“No, I’ve been a
cop long enough to know when someone is trying to hide something from me.
 
I just don’t know what it is yet, but I
will.
 
What did you two discover?”

“Well, Officer
Farley was a little more candid with us than Chief Willson was with you,” I
said.
 
“Should you tell it, or
should I?” I asked Grace.

“Go ahead.
 
I’m sure that you’ll do a fine job,”
Grace said.

“I don’t care who
tells me, as long as someone does.”
 
Jake hesitated, and then he interrupted himself as he looked at me.
 
“Suzanne, why do you keep glancing back
here?
 
Do I have something in my
teeth?”

“I’m just
checking to see if anyone is following us,” I admitted.

“Why would they
do that?” Grace asked me.

“I could have
sworn that someone was watching us as we left the station,” I admitted.
 
“Don’t mind me.
 
I’m probably just being paranoid.”

“Don’t sell
yourself short.
 
Sometimes being
paranoid can keep you alive during a murder investigation,” Jake said as he
glanced backward as well.

“Nobody’s back
there,” I said, feeling a little silly for bringing it up in the first place.

“Not at the
moment, but that’s constantly subject to change, so keep checking periodically,”
Jake said.
 
“Go on.
 
Tell me about Officer Farley.”

“She kept
stressing that Alex told her he was going to be a changed man when he got to
April Springs.
 
At first I thought
it might be in his love life, but then she told me that half the cops on the
force had a problem with him.”

“Did she happen
to say why?”

“I was about to
ask her that when you and the chief showed up,” I said.

“Sorry about
that.
 
I just didn’t see any reason
to keep asking him questions when I knew that he was just going to lie to me.”

“Why were you
late?
 
The police chief was with us
a full minute before you showed up,” I asked him as I took a random turn and
then pulled over, waiting to see if someone might go past us.

“You caught that,
did you?
 
I told Chief Willson that
I had to make a quick phone call and that my cellphone battery was dead.
 
As soon as he was gone, I called time
and temperature while I took a cursory look at the man’s desk.”

“Did you find
anything?”

“Nothing,” he
admitted.
 
“It was worth a try,
though.”

“No doubt.”
 
When no one passed after a reasonable
amount of time, I turned the Jeep around as I asked, “Where should we go
now?
 
Should we head back to April
Springs, since the police station was a dead end?”

“I still want to talk
to Officer Durant,” Jake said, “but he’s not getting off duty for another two
hours.
 
I’m pretty sure that the
chief wouldn’t approve of me speaking directly to him, but that’s not really a
concern of mine after the way he just tried to snow me.
 
Do you two mind hanging around town until
then?”

“It’s fine by
me.
 
How about you, Grace?”

“My calendar is
wide open for the rest of the day.
 
What should we do while we’re waiting, though?”

“I thought we
might all have another run at the suspects you spoke with yesterday,” Jake
admitted.
  
“Would you two mind
if I tagged along?”

“No, that’s okay
with us, right, Grace?”

“At this point I
don’t see what it could hurt,” she admitted.

“Then let’s go
have a chat with your suspects.
 
Who
should we tackle first: Shannon Wright, Maisie Fleming, or Deke Marsh?” I asked
so I’d know where to drive.

“Don’t ask
me.
 
I’m just along for the ride,”
Jake said from the back.
 
“You two decide.”

“Let’s tackle
Deke first,” Grace suggested.
 
“He
wasn’t very forthcoming with us when we talked to him before, but maybe he will
be now that we have Jake with us.
 
Is that okay with you, Suzanne?”

“Deke it is.
 
Do you think there’s the slightest
chance that he’s back at that bar where we found him last time?” I asked.

“It’s as good a
place as any,” Grace said as I drove there.
 
“Maybe he uses the place as his office.”

Once we arrived
in the parking lot and got out of the Jeep, I told Jake, “Deke got out of
prison a month ago, and Maisie Fleming told us that he’s been hanging around
the apartment complex where Alex lived before he took the job in April
Springs.
 
He was supposed to be in
jail for three years, but we never heard why.
 
Evidently the judge overturned his
sentence because of something the DA did during the trial.
 
I wonder what he did.”

“You won’t have
to wonder for long.
 
I can find out
in thirty seconds,” he said as he reached for his phone.
 
I looked at Grace, who just
shrugged.
 
We usually didn’t have
those kinds of resources available to us, so why not use them when we did?
 
After a quick conversation, Jake hung up,
frowning.
 
“Grant told me that he
was in for assault, but he would have gotten out sooner if he’d kept his nose
clean.
 
He has a bit of a temper,
though, and he got in a few fights inside.”

“What’s wrong?” I
asked him.
 
“You don’t look very
happy.”

“I understand
that Simpson has been looking for me,” Jake said.

“Does he know
that you’re here?” I asked him.

“No, and Grant’s
not going to volunteer the information.
 
We should be fine.”

I wasn’t quite so
sure of that myself, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it, so I
decided to drop it for the moment.
 
“There’s
one more thing you should know about him.
 
He told us that Alex had reformed recently, or at least was trying
to.
 
That’s why he arrested Deke.
 
He was trying to turn over a new leaf.”

Jake’s expression
clouded.
 
“He was probably
lying.”
 
I knew my husband hated
when anyone impugned the reputation of a law enforcement officer, especially
one who wasn’t around to defend himself anymore.

“He could be, but
don’t forget what Officer Farley said.
 
She told us that half the force hated
Alex, and she implied that it was more than a personality conflict.”

“I’m still not
going to believe a bunch of hearsay until I have some cold, hard facts.”

“Even if it’s coming
from another cop?” Grace asked softly.
 
I tried to warn her off from that
particular line of questioning, but evidently she had missed all of my signals.

“Even then.
 
Let’s go talk to this guy,” Jake said as
he strode off toward the bar’s entrance.

“Grace, just drop
it, okay?” I whispered as we followed him.

“Suzanne, he has
to at least consider the possibility that some of the cops on the Granite
Meadows force are doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”

“He’ll consider
it, but we don’t need to swat him on the nose with it, okay?”

Grace looked at
me for a moment before she spoke again.
 
“You’re awfully protective of him, aren’t you?”

“Hey, that’s not
fair.
 
I look out for you all of the
time, too,” I said.

“Like that?”

“Grace, I love
you both,” I said.

“Equally?” she
asked me softly.

“Sorry, but no.
 
Jake’s first, and then there’s Momma,
but you’re solidly in third, so at least that’s something.”
 
I wasn’t about to lie to her, not about
something that important.

Grace let out a
breath of air and smiled.
 
“That
sounds about right to me.
 
It’s
natural for you to defend your husband, and I’d be a little bit worried about
you if you didn’t, but you’ve got to let me keep pushing him if I think it’s
important.
 
If you can’t do that, I
might as well go back home and let you two work on this case together without
me.”

“Nobody wants you
to do that,” I said hastily.

“That’s fine,
then.”
 
We both looked up to see
Jake hurry into the bar ahead of us.
 
Where did he think he was going in such a rush?
 
After all, we’d met Deke Marsh once.
 
We already knew what he looked like.

I hurried up to
go in after Jake so I could steer him to the man we wanted to speak with.

To my surprise,
Jake was already approaching the convict’s table.
 
How could he have possibly known what
Deke looked like?

Before too long,
I was going to have to ask him just that.

“You’re Deke
Marsh, aren’t you?” Jake asked him as he loomed over the crook’s table.

Deke wasn’t all
that pleased to see him, or us either, for that matter.
 
Without answering Jake’s question, Deke
looked directly at us when he spoke.
 
“I talked to you both before, so this is what I get in return?
 
You go out and find a cop to come here
and try to intimidate me?”

“I never
identified myself as a police officer,” Jake said.

“You didn’t have
to.
 
I see you didn’t have any
problem finding me when you walked in, either, did you?”

Jake just
shrugged.
 
“Tell me about Alex
Tyler.”

“He was a heck of
a fine fellow,” Deke said, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

“This will go a
lot smoother if you keep your lip to yourself,” Jake answered.
 
His voice had gotten softer, but somehow
it was more intimidating as well.
 
How did he do that?
 
And more
importantly, could he teach me?
 
I
sort of doubted it.
 

That attitude
coming from a cop and from a donutmaker was clearly two different things.

Deke just shrugged.
 
“Tyler arrested me, I got three long, my
lawyer got me out on a technicality because of something the DA did, and now
I’m out, just another law-abiding citizen.”

“I wonder if
that’s true,” Jake said evenly.
 
“You’ve got to be supporting yourself somehow, and I don’t see you as
the type to have a regular job.
 
How
long will it take me to uncover your real source of income if I start digging?”

Deke thought
about that for a moment before he spoke again.
 
When he did, there was a certain air of
resignation in his voice.
 
“What do
you want to know?”

“Who would want
to kill Alex Tyler?” Jake asked.

It was one heck
of a lead question.

“Take your
pick.
 
I’ve got a few friends he put
away, but you need to look on both sides of the law, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you talking
about another cop?” Jake asked.
 
It
was clear in his voice that he wasn’t going to stand for any nonsense.
 
I had a hunch that the next thing Deke
Marsh told us would probably be true.

But what he said
next nearly floored me.