Assault and Batter (13 page)

“It feels like a lifetime right now,” he said. “Is there any chance that you’d go with me?”

I thought about leaving my donut shop behind for a year, leaving Grace, leaving my mother. I loved Jake, there was no doubt about that, but I couldn’t just walk away from my life for him. I wasn’t expecting a proposal, but it shocked me to the core when I realized that was the only way that I’d leave everything behind. Who knew? I turned out to be an old-fashioned gal after all.

I must have hesitated too long, because he answered the question for me. “I know. I felt ridiculous even asking you to leave everything for me.”

“It’s not that I don’t love you, because I do,” I said.

“I know that,” he said, wiping away the tear I’d seen. “Forget I even asked. After all, you’re right. What’s a year, anyway? We’ll be back together before you know it.” He hesitated, and then Jake asked, “I can come back twice within the year’s time, but if you could come up once, we’d only have to be apart three months at a time at the longest. Will you come visit me?”

“I promise,” I said. “Jake, I’m so sorry,” I added.

“Don’t be,” he answered. “We’ll be fine. Well, I’d better get going.”

“You just got here. Stay. Please.”

“I would if I could, but there’s just no time. I’m going to be pushed for time as it is. I love you, Suzanne.”

“I love you, too,” I said. “Can’t you at least kiss me good-bye?”

He nodded, and then Jake took me in his arms. I did my best to breathe him in, to capture the essence of him to hold me over for the next few months, but it was impossible.

Finally, he broke free, and as he got into his car, ready to leave me for a year, I yelled out, “Call me when you get through security.”

“Don’t worry. That’s not going to be a problem for me,” he said, managing a feeble grin. “The job has some perks, after all.”

“At least promise to call me when you get there, then,” I said.

“I will. Good-bye, Suzanne.”

“Bye,” I said, and I stood there waving as he drove away.

He was really gone.

Why hadn’t I said yes when he’d asked me to join him? Was I really that set in my ways that I couldn’t do something that might ensure my future happiness? Was I afraid of what a commitment like that would mean to me? Or had I just been caught off guard by the suddenness of it all? I hadn’t lost my boyfriend, at least not metaphorically.

I was still standing there looking out into the growing night when I heard footsteps approaching. Had Jake delayed his trip long enough to give me a proper farewell?

No.

It was Grace. She’d walked up from her house, and the second I saw her, I fell apart.

“Grace, I might have just made the biggest mistake in my life, and there’s no way to fix it now.”

She hugged me tightly, stroking my back lightly as she said, “It’s okay, Suzanne. We’ll figure out a way to make it all better.”

I just wished that I believed her.

Jake was gone, and I was alone, by choice.

And I didn’t see any way to make things right again.

Two hours later, after a steady supply of sweet tea, homemade cookies, and apple pie, I was finally starting to feel a little better about my situation with Jake. Momma had come home an hour before, and she’d quickly joined in the support group. Both women kept reassuring me that they understood why I’d turned Jake’s offer to join him down, but it still didn’t help make me feel much better.

In the middle of a sentence, I yawned loudly, exhausted more from the emotion of the evening than any real weariness.

“Suzanne, look at the time. You’d better get off to bed right now if you’re going to get any sleep tonight,” Momma said.

“I could try, but I doubt that I’d sleep a wink,” I said as I yawned again.

“You should at least make an attempt to get some rest,” Grace added as she stood and stretched. “I’ve got a big day tomorrow myself.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, wondering if my friend might not be able to help me in my investigation the next day. I relied on Grace’s company as well as her astute observations, and I hated the thought of digging deeper into Jude Williams’s murder without her.

“I have a meeting in Hickory at eight, and another in Lenoir at nine, but I’ll be back here by eleven,” she said. “I promise.”

“You don’t have to rush back on my account,” I said, though I didn’t really mean it. “I know that your job is important to you.”

“It is, but don’t forget that I love these investigations just as much as you do.” Grace hugged me again before she left, and then she said goodnight to my mother before she headed home.

Once Momma and I were alone, I asked her softly, “Tell me the truth. What would you have done in my shoes?”

“Suzanne, that’s an impossible question to answer. What does your heart tell you?”

“Just that it’s breaking,” I answered.

She hugged me, and then Momma stroked my hair just as she’d done when I’d been a child. “There, there. It will all seem better in the morning.”

“How can you be so sure?” I asked her.

“Time does more than wound all heels. It heals all wounds as well.”

“Should I have gone?” I asked her again.

“Could you leave everything you have here behind to follow him?” she asked me softly.

“I don’t know, but shouldn’t I at least try?”

“My dear child, why don’t you think about it for a week and see how you feel once the shock of Jake’s departure eases a bit? You’re in no position to make a rational decision tonight. Don’t you think that Jake must have realized that himself? After all, from the sound of it, he didn’t push you very hard to go with him, did he?”

“No, and that worries me a little, too. If he’d wanted me with him, why did he ask me just once?”

Momma shook her head. “The ways of men are just as mysterious to us as our ways are to them. It might be that he was afraid to ask you in the first place, and asking twice might have seemed like he was begging. Now answer me this honestly. Does that seem like something Jake Bishop would do, no matter how much his own heart might be breaking?”

“No, you’re right,” I said, suddenly feeling better because Jake could just possibly be as miserable as I was right now. I knew that it was petty of me, but I couldn’t help it. “If you don’t mind, I think I will try to get some sleep. Thanks for everything tonight.”

“Grace had things well in hand before I got here,” she said. “I’m not sure that I added all that much in the end.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. When a girl’s heart is broken, she needs her mother most of all.”

Momma’s smile was full as she said, “Then I’m glad that I could be here for you. If you want to talk, even if it’s the middle of the night, wake me. Will you do that for me?”

“I promise,” I said. “Good night.”

“Good night, Suzanne.”

I was just about to go to sleep when my cellphone rang.

It was Jake.

“Suzanne, I’m so sorry that I sprang that on you at the last second. I can be such an idiot sometimes. Can you forgive me?”

I laughed, just happy to hear his voice again. “Only if you forgive me for not dropping everything and flying off to Alaska with you.”

“You’re much too practical for that,” he said. “I should never have put you in that position in the first place. I guess it was pretty cowardly of me.”

This from a man who faced down armed criminals on a regular basis. “Jake, you are many things, but cowardly isn’t one of them.”

“Oh, I can stand my share of danger, but I should have handled this entire mess better than I have.”

“Tell you what. Let’s give each other a free pass and stop beating ourselves up about it, okay? It’s not like we can’t see each other more often than every three months, and we can talk on the phone every day.”

He laughed. “We don’t talk that often now.”

“Maybe not. I hope you have a safe flight. Call me when you land, okay?”

“No matter what time it is?” he asked.

“Chances are that I’ll either be making donuts or selling them,” I said. “Don’t worry about waking me up.”

“Thanks, Suzanne. I can’t believe how lucky I was to find you.”

“It was part of another murder investigation, if you remember.”

“I’m not about to forget,” he said. “Speaking of murder, I hear you’re in the thick of another one.”

“How did you hear that?” I asked.

“Chief Martin called me the day before yesterday,” Jake admitted. “Don’t tell him that I told you so, but he asked me to keep an eye on you.”

“Is he worried about me?” I asked.

“He worries about everything. The man honestly cares for you.”

“Because of Momma,” I said.

“There’s always that, but I think he likes your spunk, too.”

“How about you?”

“I like it just fine,” Jake said. I could hear speakers in the background of the airport making an announcement, and he added quickly, “I’ve got to run. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Have a safe flight, Jake. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

When we hung up, I felt a great deal better than I had all day. Talking it out with Momma and Grace had given me a little perspective, but working things out with Jake was even more important to me. He had said farewell in a much better way, not a final good-bye, and we were in as good a place as we could be, given the circumstances. We’d work things out one way or the other, I was sure about that, but I was going to stop feeling sorry for myself because he was a continent away. Others had gone through much worse to be together and it had all worked out fine in the end, so there was no reason to think that we would end up otherwise. In the meantime, I had a renewed interest in catching a killer, and I wasn’t going to be able to do it without sleep. I climbed into bed and fell asleep, wrapped in my boyfriend’s love and finally understanding that though distance separated our bodies, our hearts were together, and that was really all that counted.

“Good morning, Suzanne,” Emma said the next day as she walked into Donut Hearts.

I glanced up at the clock before I answered her. “You’re early today.” I hadn’t even finished the batter for all of my cake donuts yet. Usually I was icing the last batch of them when Emma came in. “What’s the matter? Couldn’t sleep?”

“Actually, I need to talk to you,” Emma said solemnly.

“Oh, no. You’re not quitting again, are you?” My assistant had left for college once before, but she’d come back soon enough when living away from home hadn’t suited her.

“No, of course not,” she said.

“Then what do you want to talk about?”

“I spoke with Emily last night,” she said tentatively.

“I’m not surprised. You two are best friends, after all.”

“That’s the thing,” Emma said softly. “She asked me to take over for you.”

“You’re going to make the wedding donuts now?” I asked before I quickly added, “Not that you wouldn’t be perfectly capable of doing it. It just surprises me, that’s all.”

“I’m not making donuts or a cake,” Emma said. “Her mother’s got that covered. I’m standing in as her maid of honor. At least I will if you give me your blessing. I told Emily that I wouldn’t do it if you had a problem with it. She’s just going to have to find someone else.”

“Of course I don’t mind,” I said. “Emma, I’m happy for you. You know, you should have had the job from the start. I just got it because of my interfering.”

“I’m so sorry about this rift between you and Emily. Are you really not even coming to the wedding?” Emma asked.

“She told me not to come, and I’m going to respect her wishes,” I said.

In a soft voice, my assistant said, “All you have to do is apologize.”

That was something that I wasn’t about to do. “Emma, it might be better for both our sakes if we both just drop this, okay? I don’t want my problems I might have with Emily to bleed over into our relationship.”

“I don’t want that, either,” she said quickly. “Are we still good?”

“We’re perfectly fine,” I said as I forced a smile.

“Then there’s only one other thing I’d like to talk to you about,” Emma said as I worked on the batter for our pumpkin donuts. It was getting to be that time of year again, and I always enjoyed the smell of the frying donuts.

“Does it involve Emily?” I asked.

“Not directly. It is about Jude’s murder, though. If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand completely, but Dad came across something that I thought you might like to know.”

Emma’s father was constantly trying to turn his newspaper into something more than a place just for ads and comics. “Are you sure you won’t be breaking any confidences with him by telling me?”

“I asked him that, and he gave me his blessing.” Emma looked at the clock as she added with a smile, “It doesn’t make too much difference, since the paper will be out by six AM. He figured you weren’t going to tell anybody until we opened, anyway. Could you do that much for me?”

“Sure thing,” I said. “So tell me, what’s the big news?”

“Dad found out the reason behind the fight Peter had with Jude the night he died, and he’s going to publish it today.”

“That’s old news,” I said as I went back to the batter. “Peter told me himself that he was trying to persuade Jude not to crash the wedding. Evidently they had words about it, and it led to a fistfight.”

“He lied to you, Suzanne,” Emma said. “That wasn’t the real reason at all.”

“Okay, you’ve got my attention,” I said as I set the batter aside. “Why did the two of them fight, if it wasn’t about the wedding?”

“Dad believes that both men were dating the same woman,” Emma said smugly.

“Does he know who it is?” I asked, trying not to give anything away. Could Peter have been going out with Lisa Grambling, too? I certainly had something else to ask her about the next time I saw her.

“No, he’s calling her Madam X for now. He’s even got a shadow outline of a woman to go along with the article. It sounds like a real winner.”

Ray Blake had been known to run with far less, and most folks discounted his supposed exposés with grains of salt. I had a hunch that Ray was off base on this one as well. After all, Peter wasn’t all that familiar with April Springs. How could he have even met Lisa? “Is that all he’s got?” I asked.