Deadly Donuts (11 page)

“I had no idea,” he said in astonishment.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it.
 
We had help.
 
Angelica DeAngelis told us.”

“I suppose that ties into your earlier statement that you were climbing around on Napoli’s roof.
 
Care to elaborate on that?”

“I thought we were taking turns,” I said.

“I’ll cede the floor in this instance,” Jake answered.

“I had to shut off the water,” I said.

“On the roof?”

“It turned out that it was for some kind of fire extinguishing system,” I said, having finally found that out as I was leaving.

“And
you
were the only one who could have done it,” Jake said.

“Well, Angelica, Antonia, Maria and Grace were cleaning up, and Sophia’s afraid of heights.”

“Is that supposed to be an explanation?” he asked me.

“I don’t know
how
I could say it any clearer.
 
Angelica is our source of information when it comes to Union Square, so we went to Napoli’s.
 
We found their flood disaster in progress when we got there, and I figured the investigation could wait.
 
A friend needed us, and we responded.”

“I would have expected nothing less from either one of you,” he said.
 
“Did you have any luck with the Briar sibling?”

“Not much,” I admitted.
 
“Morgan got out of prison six days ago and the first thing he did was move in with Ellen.
 
He promised her that he’d turned over a new leaf, but clearly that wasn’t the case.
 
We asked if we could search his room, but she declined.
 
We don’t have any official status in the investigation, and she wouldn’t budge.”

“Maybe I could talk to her tomorrow,” Jake suggested.

“You can try,” Grace said, “but we already dropped your name, and although she was a little impressed that you were helping us, it didn’t win her over completely.”

“You dropped my name?” he asked.

“She didn’t; I did.
 
I didn’t think you’d mind.
 
Do you?” I asked.
 
If Jake was going to work with us, he couldn’t be ashamed that we were amateurs, especially with our track record of solving murders together.

“Not one bit,” he said hastily.
 
The man was learning my tone of voice pretty quickly, something that I was thankful for.
 
It would probably save us
both
some aggravation down the road.
 
I, too, was learning the way he thought, and how to read his tone of voice and his expressions, something I’d never been able to manage with Max, the Great Impersonator, even after all the years that we’d known each other.
 
Jake added, “I still think that I should talk to her tomorrow.
 
Cops talk to each other in a different language, you know?”

“Hey, you’re welcome to give it a try,” I said.
 
“Like I said, we didn’t uncover much of anything.”

“Don’t sell yourselves short,” he said.
 
“I think you both did an exemplary job with what little information you had to go on.”

“Thanks,” I said.
 
“So, what were you able to come up with?”

“Actually, I was lucky enough to see the files of the original hit-and-run,” he said.
 
“Suzanne, do you really need to know everything about what I uncovered?”

“Are you asking me if I can I take you telling me things about my father that I really don’t want to know?
 
Is that the real question, Jake?”

“It is, and I want you to think hard about your answer before you say anything.”

“I don’t have to,” I said firmly.
 
“I know that neither of my parents have ever been saints.
 
Tell me what you uncovered, and then leave it up to me to deal with it.”

I looked toward the kitchen, and I saw that the door was slightly ajar.
 
Had it been an accident, or was Momma listening in on our conversations?
 
I’d just as soon think that she’d been eavesdropping; it would save me from explaining it all to her again later, and I meant what I’d said.
 
If I could hear it, so could she.

“It appears that your father drank quite a bit while he lived in Union Square.
 
The ‘Jack’ nickname came from his favorite drink, Jack Daniel’s, straight up.”

“So what?
 
I never dreamed that my father was ever a teetotaler.”

“You don’t understand.
 
He drank until he passed out on more than one occasion, at least according to the eyewitness reports at the time.”

My father as town drunk was not a role that I’d ever imagined him playing, but it was well before I was born, so I had no right to judge him.
 
“Did the cops at the time think that he might have killed Blake Briar?”

“One might have, but the rest of them realized that there were no conspiracies there.
 
If your father hadn’t reported his car stolen two days
before
the accident, it might have been a different story.”

“Is the cop still around who
didn’t
believe him?”

“He’s still on the force, as a matter of fact.
 
I’m seeing him tomorrow, along with Ellen Briar.
 
I have a hunch that Morgan’s murder had more to do with the past than what’s happened since he’s been out of jail.
 
I’ve got a few more angles on Blake Briar’s death that I still need to follow up.”

“Like what?” I asked, fascinated by just how good a cop my boyfriend really was.
 
He’d already started applying his special talents to this case, and I was glad to have him on our side.

“I’m going to the prison in the next day or two to interview some of the staff there.
 
If anyone else got out recently, or even had a major grudge against Morgan, I’ll uncover it.
 
I’m especially interested to see if he ever talked about his brother while he was in there.”

“That’s great and all,” Grace said, “but what are we supposed to do in the meantime?
 
It seems like you’re covering
all
of the bases.”

I hadn’t said it, but I’d been thinking it, too.
 
I just hoped that I didn’t have to admit it to Jake.
 

No such luck, though.

He turned to me with a troubled expression as he asked, “Suzanne, do you feel that way, too?”

“It
does
seem as though you’ve got the complete investigation under control,” I admitted.

Jake ran a hand through his hair before he answered.
 
“I wish I had your faith in me.
 
As a matter of fact, there’s a ton of stuff that I
can’t
do.”

“We’re not too good to work on crumbs,” I said.

“Let’s see, where should we start?
 
Morgan was out of jail for six days.
 
What else was he up to?
 
Did he have a girlfriend?
 
How about drinking buddies?
 
Had he looked for a job in the time he was out?
 
There are a thousand questions you can ask around Union Square that I’d have a hard time getting answers to as a cop.”

“But how do we find the right people to talk to?” Grace asked.

Jake just shrugged.
 
“That’s part of the joy of police work.
 
It can be a slow grind, but it’s the best shot we’ve got.
 
Listen, if I’m doing too much, all you have to do is say so, and I’ll back off.
 
Are you both sure that you’re okay with me working on this case with you?”

“Yes,” Grace and I said in unison.

“Okay, because the last thing I want is to alienate either one of you.”
 
Jake stretched, and then said, “If you don’t mind, I’m going to hit the hay.”

“Are you staying with Cam again?” I asked.
 
Cam Jennings rented rooms on an extremely selective basis, something he did for the company more than the paltry additional income it provided him.

“Yes, he was happy to have me, even on such short notice.
 
I’m going to head over there right now and prepare my notes so I’ll be ready for tomorrow.”

As Jake stood, I joined him, and kissed him soundly before he could go.

“Not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?” he asked.

“For taking this just as seriously as you do your regular job,” I said.

Grace stood and kissed his cheek.
 
“That’s
my
way of thanking you.”

Just then, Momma walked into the living room, but I knew that her timing was no coincidence.
 
She had two small parcels wrapped in aluminum foil, and she handed them both to Jake as she approached him.
 
“You have my thanks, as well,” she said, and then on the spur of the moment, she kissed his cheek on the other side of Grace’s peck.

“If I knew about the rewards I’d get helping you out, I’d have done it long ago,” he said with a grin.

“We know what this is costing you,” I said.
 
“We just want to be sure that you know how much we appreciate it.”
 
I turned to Grace and I said, “I’m going to walk him out, but if you’ll stick around, I’d love to chat a little more.”

Grace nodded.
 
“That sounds good to me.”
 
Then she looked at Momma and asked, “Is there
any
chance there’s pie left?”

“Of course,” Momma answered with a grin.
 
She loved requests for seconds and thirds, and she treated them as the applause they represented.

“Hey, save some for me,” I protested.

“That depends on how long it takes you to get back here,” Grace said.

“Bye, Jake,” I said with a smile.

“No, ma’am.
 
You’re
coming with me.”

He tugged at my hand, but I needed no prompting at all.

Outside at his car, I said, “I really am glad that you’re here.”

“I am, too,” he said, and then he kissed me one last time.
 
“I hate to ask your mother to feed us again tomorrow so that we can catch up again.
 
Should I take us all out to dinner instead?”

“Where do you suggest we go?
 
There’s no place in town or anywhere nearby where we can have the privacy to talk about these cases openly.
 
Besides, do you honestly
want
to break my mother’s heart?
 
She’s probably poring over recipes for tomorrow night even as we speak.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings,” he said with a grin.

“Good, then it’s settled.
 
See you tomorrow evening.
 
Be careful, Jake.”

“Right back at you, Suzanne.
 
Good night.”

“Night,” I said, and after he was gone, I hurried back inside.

After all, I found that I suddenly had room for another sliver of pie myself, and I wanted to make sure that I got one in time before it was all gone.

Chapter 8

Oh happy day.

There was enough pie left for me when I got back inside.

I grabbed a fork and the last piece, and then I joined Momma and Grace at the kitchen table.

After I took my first bite, I turned to my mother and smiled as I said, “Don’t even try to pretend that you didn’t hear every word we spoke,” I said as I pointed my empty fork at her.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Momma answered.
 
“And don’t point at me, young lady, not even with a fork.
 
Jake is quite competent, isn’t he?”

“He’s more than that.
 
The man is an investigating machine,” Grace said.
 
“I was beginning to wonder if there was anything left for us to do.”

“That thought crossed my mind, too,” I said.
 
“But we’ve still got places to dig.
 
Maybe we’ll be able to turn something up on our own.”

“Should we get started tomorrow when you close at eleven?” Grace asked.

“Can you take off that early from your job?
 
We can postpone it until later, if that works out better for you.”

Grace grinned at me.
 
“My boss and her boss are both in London for a conference at corporate headquarters.”

“I’m so sorry that you didn’t get to make the trip yourself,” Momma said.

“They’re welcome to it.
 
It’s
way
above my pay grade, and while they might get to take fun trips now and then, the headaches they have in their jobs aren’t worth the perks to me.
 
I like things just fine the way they are.”

“Then tomorrow at eleven it is,” I said as I stifled a yawn.
 
Between the wonderful dinner, that last slice of pie, and all that we’d done after I’d worked a full day at the donut shop, I was beat.
 
I glanced at the clock on the wall and I saw that it was just after eight, which, sadly enough, was past my bedtime.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Grace said to me as she stood.
 
Before she left, though, she leaned down and hugged my mother.
 
“Thank you for a terrific dinner and dessert.
 
You, my dear lady, are a magician in the kitchen.”

“I’m glad that you enjoyed it.
 
Do you have any requests for tomorrow night’s meal?”

“Momma,” I butted in.
 
“We don’t want you to feel as though you have to cook for us
every
night.”
 
Despite what I’d told Jake, I was a little reluctant to ask her to go to so much trouble on our account two nights in a row.

“Suzanne, I’m dying to try out a handful of new recipes, and the three of you are my perfect test subjects.
 
You wouldn’t deprive me of that, would you?”

“How could I?” I asked.
 
“Any previews of what we might be having?”

“That depends on which mystery I pull off the shelf tonight.”

After Grace left and I was upstairs drifting off to sleep, I realized that somewhere out there a murderer had struck less than twenty-four hours earlier.
 
I wondered if we’d ever be able to find him, even with Jake’s help.
 

Momma and I couldn’t afford to have this case go unsolved.

There was too much at stake, including the memory of my dear, departed father.
 
He might have been flawed, but he was still my dad, and I was going to do everything in my power to preserve the memories we had of him.

“Are you Suzanne?” a woman asked me the next morning as she came into the donut shop.
 
She was in her late twenties, around twenty pounds overweight, and she had shiny black hair and the deepest, darkest eyes I’d ever seen in my life.
 
We’d just been open a few minutes, and no one else had been in yet.
 
When Emma had first arrived, she had peppered me with more questions about the murder, but since I had no real answers for her, we’d quickly fallen into our routine of early morning donut making.
 
There was a definite rhythm to our movements, and I loved having her back by my side.
 
At the moment I was up front working the counter alone, while she had her hands buried in soapy water in the kitchen sink, her iPod cranked up as usual when she worked alone.

“I’m Suzanne.
 
Can I get you a donut?” I offered.

The woman looked surprised by my question, though I wasn’t at all certain what she’d expected when she walked into my, you know, donut shop.

“Just coffee,” she said.
 
“Nothing fancy.
 
Plain and black is fine by me.”

“A woman after my own heart,” I said.
 
“My assistant loves to offer exotic blends to our customers, but I like mine old-fashioned.”

I put the coffee down in front of her as she slid a ten on the counter toward me.
 

“We need to talk,” she said.

“Well, since there’s no pressing business at the moment, you’ve got my complete and undivided attention.”

“My name is Heather Morningstar,” she said.

“And you already know my name,” I said as I offered her my hand.

She took it briefly, and then she said, “Angelica sent me.”

As soon as she said that, things began to make a little more sense.
 
“This is about the murder, isn’t it?”

“It is.
 
I understand that Morgan was blackmailing you, too.”

“Too?” I asked, surprised by her statement.
 
“Do you mean that he tried to get his hooks into you, as well?”

“There was no trying about it.
 
He succeeded.
 
You see, I couldn’t afford to have my secret come out.
 
It would have ruined everything.
 
At least I thought so.”

This was clearly going to take more than a minute.
 
I said, “Would you excuse me for one second?”

After tapping Emma on the shoulder and nearly startling her out of her tennis shoes, I said, “I need you to cover the front for me.”

“What?” she asked as the pulled out the earbuds.

“Cover for me, okay?”

“You got it, Boss,” she said as she shut her iPod off.

I walked back out into the dining area to see what Heather had to say, but it was empty.

Where had she gone?

Then I spotted her sitting at a table out front.
 
It was barely after seven, and the humidity had already started up in full force, but if she could take it, then so could I.

“I’ll be out front if you need me.”

I grabbed a coffee for myself, and then I joined Heather outside.
 
“There you are.
 
I thought for a second that you took off on me.”

“After what I just told you?
 
That would be cruel.”
 
She stared into her coffee cup for a few seconds, and then she said, “Angelica told me that I could trust you, and that you knew how to be discreet.”

“That’s sweet of her,” I said, “but I won’t keep anything illegal from the police.”

“Isn’t paying off a blackmailer illegal in and of itself?” Heather asked.

“That’s not what I’m talking about; if you confess to killing Morgan, I won’t keep my mouth shut.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.
 
Will you keep my secret, Suzanne?”

“If it’s humanly possible, I will,” I said.
 
“But you should know up front that doesn’t include two people: my boyfriend, Jake, and my best friend, Grace.
 
He’s an investigator for the state police, but he’s taking some time off to help me solve this case, and she’s my partner in the investigation.
 
If you don’t want either one of them to know, too, then you’d better not tell me.”

Heather nodded.
 
“Angelica already warned me, so I have no problem with you sharing what I tell you with them, as long as they don’t blab, either.”

“I can give you my word that they won’t,” I said.
 
Jake, reticent by nature, would never violate a trust, and while Grace could be a little chatty on occasion, she’d keep quiet, too.
 
I believed that enough to include her in the circle of those I trusted the most.
 

That left Momma, and I was about to say something about her when Heather said, “Angelica told me that you and your mother are close, and since she’s directly involved in this, you have my permission to share it with her as well.”

“Then we have a deal,” I said.
 
“Why was Morgan blackmailing you?”

Heather looked at me for a full ten seconds before she said, “Okay.
 
Here goes.
 
I’m engaged to the most wonderful man in the world, and we’re getting married in three days.”

“Congratulations,” I said.

“Thank you.
 
Anyway, Morgan came by my job five days ago and slid an envelope across my desk.
 
We’d never met, and I was curious what it was about.
 
When I opened the envelope and saw what was inside, I nearly fainted.
 
I skipped the letter and looked at the photos first. They were all of me, taken years ago, a series that started with me fully clothed, and ended up with me just having a smile on my face, if you know what I mean.”
 
Her next words came out in a rush.
 
“I’d foolishly agreed to let a boyfriend take them back when I was young and stupid and drunk.”

“How did Morgan get his hands on them in the first place?”

“That’s the first thing I asked him.
 
It seems my ex had the pictures in prison with him, and Morgan won them in a poker game, of all things.
 
That’s not all that he won, but we’ll get to that in a second.”

“What did you do?”

“I was in shock, until my boss tapped on my door.
 
I hurriedly shoved everything back into the envelope, but he must have seen something on my face.
 
He asked me if I was okay, and I told him that I was fine, though he clearly didn’t believe me.
 
He kept glancing into my office, and I did my best to hustle Morgan out of there as fast as I could.
 
I asked him what he wanted, and that’s when he slid the wedding announcement I’d put in the newspaper the day before.
 
He said that he needed ten grand for his silence, and if I paid him, I’d never see him, or the pictures, again.”

“Did you have ten thousand dollars?” I asked.

“Not even close.
 
There was only one way that I could get that kind of money, and it was from someone I’d
never
ask.”

“Your fiancé?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“So then, what did you do?”

“I tried to stall for time.
 
We were going to meet yesterday, and when he didn’t show up, I thought all was lost.
 
Then I heard about the murder, and the flood of relief I felt was unbelievable, until I began to wonder where those photographs were now.”

I could feel her pain, and though I’d never done anything quite that foolish myself, I hadn’t always been the most levelheaded girl myself in the past.
 
“So you came looking for me.”

“Not at first, but Angelica’s a friend of the family, kind of like an aunt to me, really.
 
Not one of the stern ones, but a really cool one, you know?”

“I do,” I said.
 
“It just makes sense that you went to her with your problem.”

“Not about the blackmail, but about Morgan Briar being murdered,” she said.
 
“There’s just one thing.
 
Cliff can’t find out, and I mean
never
.
 
He is ultraconservative, and this would ruin everything.
 
If he knew that there were pictures of me out there like that, he couldn’t handle it; I just know it.”

“I understand,” I said.
 
“I wish I could help you, but I don’t know what I can do.”

“If you find my pictures when you’re snooping around, I need them, and I mean desperately.
 
I’ll pay you as much as I can scrape up.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” I said.

Before I could continue, she interrupted, “Please, Suzanne?
 
I’ll do anything.”

“Heather, you didn’t let me finish.
 
If I find out where Morgan was hiding his blackmail stash, I’ll see to it personally that you get your pictures back before anyone else gets a chance to see them.
 
I hope you destroy them the second that you get them, but I won’t take a dime from you.
 
Do you understand?”

“Angelica told me that you had a good heart,” she said.
 
The relief was plain on her face, but I couldn’t let her go on thinking that all was well and good now.