Drop Dead Chocolate (9 page)

Grace nodded. “William Benson is a suspect.”

“William?” I asked, surprised by the mention of his name. William ran an arcade on the other side of town, a place the kids—and many adults—loved. In fact, many of the kids in April Springs called him Uncle William, including me. “Why should his name be on our list?”

“I was going to the Boxcar to meet Peter two days ago, and I was waiting outside when I heard an argument. Cam and William were around back, and from what I heard, they were ready to come to blows. It seems William wanted to put in a go-cart course, and Cam personally stopped the permit process. It sounded as though Cam was shaking William down for a little something under the table to let the permit go through, and William wasn’t having any of it.”

“You didn’t tell me about that,” I said. Normally, Grace and I shared things like that.

“I meant to. As a matter of fact, I had my phone out to call you, but Peter showed up just then and it slipped my mind.”

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” George said. “William and I go way back. Do you two want to tackle the women?”

I thought about facing Evelyn Martin, and honestly, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I’d had to ask tough questions to people in the past who’d liked me even less. “We’ll do it.” I turned to Grace. “Can you take a few days off?”

“I already did,” she admitted. “Peter and I were going away, and I put in for my vacation two weeks ago. I can’t change it now, so I’m sorry, but you’re stuck with me.”

“Does that mean you’ll be volunteering at the donut shop every morning, too?” I asked with a smile.

“Sure, if you change your hours. Why don’t I take advantage of my time and sleep in? Then, when you’re ready to close shop for the day, I’ll be ready to help you investigate.”

“That sounds like a plan to me. So, we all meet up tomorrow evening, right back here.”

“That sounds good,” George said as his phone rang. “Excuse me.” After a hurried conversation, he hung up. “That was a friend of mine on the inside. Cam was spotted an hour before you found the body, so we’ve got a timeline to work from. He was murdered between ten thirty and eleven thirty in the morning.”

“Can you trust your source?” I asked.

“With my life,” he answered. “We need to make tomorrow’s meeting before dinner. I can’t come back here and eat again so soon.”

“Why? Didn’t you like what you had tonight?” I asked.

He looked flustered and was clearly searching for the right thing to say when I added, “George, you’re always welcome here. I was just kidding.”

“I love your mother’s cooking,” he said. “I just can’t make a habit of it.” He stood, and I saw a trace of the limp he’d been doing his best to overcome. I for one would be glad when it was completely gone, since it was a reminder of a time I’d put him in harm’s way with one of my investigations. It had nearly made me stop digging into other people’s troubles, but I couldn’t do that, especially not now. Momma had asked for my help, and I wasn’t about to turn her down.

“See you ladies tomorrow,” he said as he climbed off the porch.

I looked around for his car, but I couldn’t find it. “Where are your wheels, George?”

“I’m out walking for physical therapy,” he admitted. “Treadmills bore me these days.”

“I’d be glad to give you a ride home,” I said.

“No, thanks. I need the exercise.” He waved as he walked around the corner, and I felt Grace’s hand touch my shoulder.

“You need to stop beating yourself up about that, Suzanne. It wasn’t your fault.”

“He was there because of me,” I said.

“George is a grown man. You couldn’t have stopped him even if you’d tried.”

I turned back to her. “That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? I didn’t try, not one little bit, and now he’s got a limp because of me.”

“Which is getting better every day,” Grace said.

Momma came outside with a serving tray and four bowls. “I’ve brought out the apple crisp,” she said, and then noticed George’s absence. “Oh, dear, I assumed he’d still be here.”

“I’ll eat his,” I said with a grin.

“Not without a fight. I’ll flip you for it,” Grace added.

“There’s no need to argue over the extra portion. There’s plenty left.”

“Yeah, but it’s more fun acting as though it’s the last one,” I said with a smile.

BAKED FRUIT DELIGHT DONUTS

We’ve been trying to eat a little healthier lately, so I’ve been playing with more baked, and less fried, donuts. You can achieve some surprisingly good results, and once I got my stand-alone baked-donut maker, I found that making donuts couldn’t be easier. These donuts in particular produce a fruit-filled explosion in your mouth with every bite.

INGREDIENTS

Wet

• 1 egg, beaten slightly

• ½ cup whole milk (2% can be substituted.)

• ½ cup granulated white sugar

• 1 tablespoon butter, melted (I use unsalted; salted can be used, but cut the added salt by half.)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry

• 1 cup all purpose flour (I prefer unbleached, but bleached is fine, and so is bread flour.)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ½ cup dried fruit (any combination of fruit bits like raisins, cranberry [Craisins], apple, apricot, plum, peach, cherry)

DIRECTIONS

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in a bowl and sift together. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients (beaten egg, milk, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract). Slowly add the wet mix to the dry mix, stirring until it’s incorporated. Don’t overmix.

The donuts can be baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 10–15 minutes in cupcake trays or small donut molds, or for 6–7 minutes in a countertop donut baker.

Once the donuts are finished, remove them to a cooling rack. These are best served as is, but they can be embellished with any topping of your choice. Sometimes I make an apricot glaze by reducing apricot jam on the stovetop by half, and then use that to lightly cover the tops.

Makes 5–9 donuts, depending on baking method

CHAPTER 6

To my surprise, the next morning Emma was in front of the donut shop, waiting for me though she wasn’t due in for another half hour. I hated that she’d been standing out in the cold. She must have been freezing.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I unlocked the door and let her in. “You’re here early, aren’t you?”

As she rubbed her hands together, she said, “Don’t worry, I’m not on the clock. I found out some stuff from Dad that I just couldn’t wait to tell you.”

As we both hung up our coats, I said, “I don’t want to get you into trouble with him. Are you sure he’s okay that you’re sharing?”

Emma laughed. “It was his idea. He’s hoping that if you and your gang crack the case, you’ll give him a heads-up so he can write it up for the newspaper.”

“As much as I appreciate the spirit of cooperation he’s proposing, I’m not sure I can do that,” I said. Getting Ray Blake’s take on things could be helpful, but if he printed anything that disparaged Jake or even the police chief, I would hate to feel responsible for it.

“How about this: What if you just did whatever you were most comfortable with doing?” she said.

I decided that I could live with that. “What have you got, then?”

She clearly couldn’t wait to tell me. “Dad was able to uncover two pretty big bombshells. You know what a ladies’ man Cam always thought he was?”

I’d had a few friends who’d made the mistake of dating him, though he’d never been crazy enough to ask me out. If he had, I would have turned him down, even before Jake came into my life. Cam wasn’t my type, more flash than substance, trying to impress women with his wad of money more than his personality. “He was delusional,” I admitted.

“Well, it turns out that some women weren’t quite as discerning as you. He dated the vet in town, didn’t he?”

“Sherry broke up with him,” I said. “She told me that she was glad to be rid of him.”

“Well, clearly not everyone he ever dated felt that way. It turns out that he dumped a woman named Kelly Davis four days ago, and it was a bad breakup. From what Dad heard, she threatened to kill him for dumping her, in front of witnesses, too.”

“I didn’t even realize they were dating. Has Jake heard any of this?”

“I don’t know about that, but Dad’s going to tell Chief Martin the second the newspaper hits the stands today. He won’t give up a scoop, but he’s going to make sure he doesn’t help a murderer get away if she killed him, either. Is Jake in town?”

“I’m not sure,” I said.

Emma looked puzzled. “That doesn’t sound good. You two didn’t have a fight, did you?”

“We’re not seeing each other at the moment,” I said, and before I could finish, Emma looked as though she wanted to cry.

“That’s terrible! You two are perfect for each other, Suzanne. You have to make this right while you still can.”

“Easy, let me finish. As long as Jake’s here working on the case, we aren’t going out, but we’re still solid. There’s no reason to worry about us,” I said.

“Are you sure? That doesn’t sound all that solid to me.”

I took her hands in mine. “Emma, it’s what we have to do, and we both understand it.” It was time to get her off my love life. “Who else did your dad come up with?”

Emma took a deep breath, and then let it out. “William Benson made his list, too.”

I knew about William as a suspect, but I didn’t want to say anything just yet. I wanted to know if Ray was working off of the same information we were. “William’s always had a pleasant word for me and a nice smile whenever he comes by the donut shop. What did your dad find out about his relationship with Cam?”

“They had a problem about money,” Emma said.

It sounded as though we had the same information. “Cam expected to be paid off for the go-cart permit, right?”

“How did you know?” Emma asked, clearly disappointed that I knew about the scheme.

“Don’t worry, it’s good to hear it confirmed from a different source.”

Emma shook her head. “Do you really think that William might have killed him? I have a hard time believing that.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll talk to him,” I said.

My assistant looked expectantly at me. “‘We,’ as in ‘the two of us’?”

I had to nip this right now. “Emma, you know the rules.”

She was clearly deflated by the reminder that I’d promised her parents not to involve her in any of my criminal investigations. “Okay, fine.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

“Do you know about Harvey Hunt?”

“The contractor?” I asked. I’d heard about him around town, but to my knowledge, he’d never stepped one foot into the donut shop. Plenty of his men had, though, and if they were any indication of their boss’s disposition, he wouldn’t be an easy man to deal with.

“That’s the one. Dad found out that Harvey owed Cam a tidy sum of cash, and the mayor was pressing him hard for it.”

“What was the money for?”

“Dad has two theories, but he’s not sure which one is true. One is that Harvey still owed the mayor for a payoff for getting the bid on the city hall renovation three months ago.”

Sadly, I had no trouble believing that. “What’s his other theory?”

She grinned. “I shouldn’t smile, but I find it ironic that despite his crooked business practices, Harvey’s construction company was in financial trouble.”

“Why should that make you happy?”

“Dad thinks that Harvey had to borrow money from Cam to pay off some creditors, cash that Harvey had originally paid our mayor for bids that he’d gotten in the past. Either way, it was a tidy sum of money.”

“How did your father find out about the loan in the first place?”

“It was supposedly from a call-in tip from an anonymous source. At least, that’s what Dad said.”

I could see that she was holding something back. “But you’re not sure you believe him, do you?”

Emma shrugged. “My father is the poster child for not telling anyone everything he knows, including my mom. I’ve got a feeling that he’s got an inside source at the construction company. He gets this particular smile when he knows he’s onto something solid, and when Dad told me about this, he was grinning like the Cheshire cat.”

“I can’t wait to hear what else you’ve got for me.”

“That’s it, but I’ll keep paying attention to what’s going on, and if there are any new developments, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks,” I said as I stood. “I appreciate that.”

“Just trying to help where I can, boss,” she said with a smile.

“Then maybe we can start making donuts,” I said with a grin of my own.

*   *   *

Just before six a.m., I picked up my phone and called Grace’s answering machine. I knew she left her ringer on silent mode on her home telephone, so I didn’t have to worry about waking her up. I left her a brief message about Kelly and then told her that I’d see her after work. It was time to open. I left the kitchen to turn on the lights out front and unlock the door. Sometimes I had early risers waiting for me, and other times I didn’t, but I’d noticed that since we’d pushed our hours back some, we had more customers the first thing.

To my delight, Jake was standing outside, and better yet, he was alone.

“Hey there,” I said, wanting to hug him, but afraid someone might see. My boyfriend was a stickler for how things looked, and I was going to respect that.

“Hi, Suzanne. You look great.” His smile nearly melted me.

I glanced down at my jeans, an old T-shirt, and my apron. “You’ve been out to sea too long, sailor. I’m a wreck, and I know it.”

He shook his head and grinned. “I don’t think so. Can we chat for a second?”

“What happened to keeping a low profile?” I asked.

Jake looked around. “I made sure no one else was around when I waited for you to open. Nobody’s here yet, but if Emma could watch the front, we could talk in the kitchen, if you’re interested.”

“You bet I am.” I smiled as I called out, “Emma.”

“What’s up, boss?” she asked as she came out drying her hands on a dish towel. The second she saw Jake, she started grinning. “Hey there, stranger. It’s good to see you.”