Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 17 - Old Fashioned Crooks (8 page)

“Of course.
 
Thanks again for the time, the food, and
the advice,” I said.

“All free to you,
my dear friends,” Angelica said as she ducked out front.

Once she was
gone, Sophia said quickly, “I don’t have much time, but you should know that my
mother wasn’t kidding about Denny West.
 
He’s bad news.”

“Are you speaking
from personal experience?” I asked.

“No, but Maria
went out with him a few times.
 
I’m
still not sure what happened, but it ended with Mom threatening him with a
cleaver, and that was the last I heard of it.”

That was an image
I had no problem visualizing.
 
I
knew that Angelica was fiercely protective of her girls, and I was proud that
she considered Grace and me hers as well.

“What does he
look like, so we’ll be able to recognize him when we see him?” I asked her.

“He’s nice enough
looking in a slick kind of way.
 
Light
hair, blue eyes; kind of icy, though, if you know what I mean.
 
He always wears a suit and tie, and he
puts a white rose in his lapel like he thinks that he’s something special.
 
It’s kind of cheesy if you ask me, but
Maria seemed to like him for awhile there.”

“Thanks, we’ll be
on the lookout for him.
 
By the way,
do you happen to know Amanda Moore?” Grace asked as we headed for the back
door.

“She’s another
real winner,” Sophia said.
 
“That
garage of hers does more than work on cars; I can tell you that much.”

“What do you
mean?” Grace asked.

“Well, there are
rumors that she’s running a chop shop on the side at night.
 
Stolen cars come in whole at all hours,
but they always leave in pieces.”

“Why doesn’t
someone do something about it?” I asked.

“There are rumors
that have been around for years that Amanda has some friends in high places, if
you know what I mean,” Sophia said with a shrug.
 
“Boy, you two are scraping the bottom of
the barrel of Union Square this time.
 
I’m just glad that we’re all not like that.”

I touched her
shoulder lightly.
 
“We never dreamed
that you were.
 
Remember, there’s
darkness in even the brightest corners sometimes,” I said.

“Come on,
Suzanne.
 
It’s time to go when you
start spouting fortune cookie observations,” Grace said as she nudged me.

“Maybe so,” I
said with a grin.
 
“I’ll see you
later, Sophia.”

“You can bet on
it.
 
I’ll probably still be here
trying to perfect this dish.
 
Taste
this, would you?”

She offered me a
bite, and I couldn’t refuse.
 
I took
a nibble of the veggies, and then I tried to smile.

“It’s good,” I
said.

“Suzanne, don’t
lie to me.”

“There’s too much
garlic for my taste,” I said honestly.

“I knew it.
 
I just hate it when my mother is right.”

I laughed.
 
“Don’t feel as though you’re all alone in
that.
 
It happens to the best of
us.”

“Grace, do you
want a taste?” Sophia asked as she offered my friend a bite.

“Thanks, but I
think I’ll pass.
 
I’m not a big fan
of garlic, myself.”

“That’s
okay.
 
You can try my next version.”

“I’m already
looking forward to it,” Grace said as we headed out the back door.

“Suzanne, you
need some gum,” Grace said as she dug into her purse.

“Is it that bad?”

“Let’s just say
that you’ll be safe from vampires for the foreseeable future,” Grace said with
a laugh as I took a stick of gum from her and popped it into my mouth.

“What can I
say?
 
I took a hit for the
team.
 
Now, how do you feel about
going to a bar?”

“I’m fine with it
as long as I don’t have to take a drink.
 
I’m so stuffed I don’t think I could swallow a sip of water right
now.
 
Not that I’m complaining, mind
you.”

“We’re not going there
to drink, Grace.
 
We need to talk to
Denny West.”

“Then by all
means, let’s go see if he’s in his usual spot and find out what he has to say
for himself.”

Chapter 10

Murphy’s Bar looked
like a real dive, but it turned out that we didn’t even have to go in.
 
We had just parked when Grace tapped my
shoulder and pointed to a man leaning against a brand-new car who was talking
loudly on his cellphone.
 
I wasn’t
sure why she was pointing him out to me at first, and then I saw his trademark
rose, and I knew that we had our man.

“How do we do
this?” I asked Grace before we got out.

“I say we come
right out and confront him,” my best friend said.
 
“I have a hunch that dancing around the
issue with this guy isn’t going to do us any good.”

“Why not?
 
After all, we can’t do any worse than we
did with Amanda.”

“Let’s go for
it,” Grace said, and we got out of the Jeep and walked toward Denny.
 

As we approached,
I could hear his end of the cellphone conversation.
 
“All I’m saying is that I’d hate for
anything to happen to you.”

That sounded
ominous enough, and I waited to hear more when he finally noticed us
approaching him instead of the door to the bar.
 
“We’ll talk later.
 
I said later,” he repeated, and then he
put his cellphone away.
 
“Is there
something I can do for you ladies?” he asked.
 
His demeanor had an oily charm to it,
and I could see how some women might find him attractive.
 
I didn’t mean me, but some women.
 
His eyes were pure, cold, and
terrifying.

“We need to talk,
Denny,” I said firmly, trying to show confidence that I didn’t feel at the
moment.
 
“You are Denny West, aren’t
you?”

He looked
intently at me for a few seconds, and then at Grace, before he spoke
again.
 
“Do I know either one of
you?”

“I very much
doubt it, since we don’t run in the same circles,” Grace replied.
 
“We’re here about Rick Hastings.”

“What about him?”
Denny asked, not giving anything away with his question.

“There’s no use
pretending that you didn’t know him,” I said.
 
“The real question is, did you kill
him?”
 
I was taking a chance pushing
him like that, but what choice did I have?
 
Grace and I had no way to compel the man to talk to us, and if he had
anything to hide, I doubted that it would come out in our conversation unless
he got angry and sloppy.
 
I knew
that it was dangerous poking him like that, but I didn’t have the slightest
idea about what else we could do.

I wasn’t sure
what kind of reaction I was expecting, but laughter wasn’t one of them.
 
He chuckled slightly before he said, “I’ll
say this; you get a point for attitude.”

“Thanks, but I’d
rather have an answer to my question,” I said, fighting down my panic and
trying my best to smile, instead.

Denny studied me
for another moment before he answered.
 
The man seemed to weigh everything he said and did before he acted, and
I had to wonder if it was a habit he’d picked up in his line of work.
 
“Fair enough. No, I’m not the one who
killed him.
 
Why would I do that,
when he still owed me five grand from our last business transaction?
 
Now I’ll never see that money again, and
you can ask anybody.
 
I hate to lose,
period, especially when it comes to cash.”

“Can you prove
that you
didn’t
kill him?” Grace
asked him.

I could swear
that he was about to answer her when the door of the bar opened and Amanda
Moore, of all the people in the world, walked out.
 
“Sorry, it took me longer than I thought
it would to set her straight,” she told Denny, and then she noticed us for the
first time.
 
“Are you kidding
me?
 
What are you two doing
here?
 
Are you actually following me
around Union Square?”

“As a matter of
fact, they came by to speak with me,” Denny said, “but we’re finished.”

“Do you two have
a death wish or something?” Amanda asked us as she walked past us and slid into
the passenger seat of the car Denny had been leaning against.

“No, not even a
little bit,” I said, which was the plain and unvarnished truth.

“You could have
fooled me, because you’re sure acting like it,” she snapped.

Denny moved
around to the driver’s side door, but he paused a moment before he got in.
 
“I don’t want to see either one of you
again, and if you’d like some free advice, I’d leave Amanda alone, too if I
were you.
 
There’s nothing but
trouble if you pursue this any further.”

“Now what fun
would it be if we just gave up every time someone asked us to?” Grace asked
him.

“If you keep it
up,
nobody’s
going to be having fun;
you can take my word for that.”

Denny got into
the car and drove away, and I noticed Amanda ignoring us as they pulled out.

“Wow, you can
actually feel the love in the air, can’t you?” Grace asked me after we were
standing there alone.

“These aren’t our
usual brand of suspects, are they?” I asked as we headed back to the Jeep.
 
“Grace, I hate to admit this, but I
think we might just be out of our league on this one.”

“We’re not going
to let a couple of goons scare us off, are we?” Grace asked, clearly unhappy
about my observation.

“Think about
it.
 
We have until tomorrow morning at
eight until we have to drop this altogether.
 
Do you want to spend the rest of our
time trying to get those two to talk to us again?”

“No, you’re right
about that,” Grace said as I started driving back to April Springs.
 
“When you look at it that way, there’s
not much about this investigation that I do like.
 
The fact that we can’t see it through is
really starting to bother me.
 
Do
you think this cop Tyler is really going to try to stop us from digging into
Rick’s murder?
 
What can he do, lock
us up?
 
I don’t believe that he’d
have the nerve to do that, no matter what he said to you earlier.”

“Why wouldn’t he?”
I asked.
 
“Chief Martin has
threatened to do it enough over the years.”

“Maybe, but we
always knew that he was just bluffing.”

“Take it from
me.
 
I don’t think this new police
chief is much of a bluffer.”

We both
considered that for a few moments, and then Grace said, “Well, at least we’ve
still got Travis and Kyle.
 
Neither
one of them is a thug.”

“Not on the
surface, at any rate,” I said.

“Suzanne, you
sound as though you’re ready to give up,” Grace replied.

“It’s not that at
all.
 
It’s just that I promised Emma
that I’d dig into this, and I’m not going to break that promise lightly.
 
I’m just not sure what we should do
next.”

“You could always
ask Jake for advice,” she said.

“I could, but
he’s got his hands full as it is.
 
I
don’t want to add any more to his current load than he already has.”

“Then where does
that leave us?
 
Are we back to
square one?”

“I wouldn’t say
that.
 
At least we have four viable
suspects, and nothing that we heard today changes my mind about any of them,” I
answered.

“Time’s a-ticking
though, Suzanne.
 
Should we take
another run at our two April Springs suspects while we have the opportunity?”

I was about to
answer when my cellphone rang.

It was Jake, and
all thoughts of furthering our investigation at the moment died.

“Hey, I didn’t
expect to hear from you so soon,” I said.

“Well, we got a
lucky break and wrapped things up here.
 
The bad guy is in jail, though in this case it was a bad gal.
 
Anyway, I’m happy to report that I’m on
my way back to April Springs.”

“That’s great
news,” I said.
 
“What’s your next
assignment going to be?
 
Do you
think it will be the last one you have to do for your old boss?”

Jake laughed a
moment before he spoke.
 
“He was so
happy that we solved this one so quickly that he’s decided to let me off the
hook for the rest of my notice.
 
He
just promised me that he’s going to process my paperwork in the morning, but as
of this moment, I’m officially through with the state police.”

“How do you feel
about it, now that it’s a reality?” I asked him gently.

“The honest truth
is that I’m so happy I can barely stand it.
 
The real question is, why aren’t you,
Suzanne?” he asked.
 
There was a shade
of hurt in his voice, and it killed me knowing that it was because of me.

I took a deep
breath, and then I voiced a concern I’d been nurturing since Jake had first threatened
to quit his job.
 
“I just want to be
sure that you don’t regret the decision later.”

“It’s not going
to happen, Suzanne; you can take my word for it.
 
I don’t look back, only forward, and
I’ve got the entire world ahead of me now.”

“Then I’m
thrilled for you,” I said.
 
“I’m
just sorry that George couldn’t wait another day before he named a new chief of
police around here.”

“He could have
waited for a month and my answer wouldn’t have been any different,” Jake explained.
 
“I don’t know what my near future holds.
 
Actually, that’s the beauty of it.”

I had a sudden,
crazy thought, and before I talked myself out of it, I said, “You know, you
could always help Grace and me with the case we’re working on.”

I glanced over at
my friend to see how she was reacting to my offer and saw her simply shrug.
 
What did that mean?
 
I’d have to deal with that after I got
off the phone.

“Suzanne, what makes
you think for one moment that I want to dive back into another murder
investigation, especially working on the other side of the badge this time?”

“Maybe it will be
a breath of fresh air seeing things from our perspective,” I offered.

“I don’t see how,”
Jake replied.
 
“What other reasons
can you come up with?”

“How about
because I’m asking you nicely for your help?
 
Does that change your mind?”

There was a long
pause, but I knew better than to interrupt it.
 
Jake was thinking, and if I spoke before
he was ready to express his opinion, I knew that I’d blow any chance of getting
him to help us.

After a few
moments, he finally said, “Okay.
 
How
about this?
 
I’ll advise you, but
that’s
all
that I’m willing to do at
this point.”

“That’s plenty,”
I said, happy to have Jake in our corner.
 
“We gladly accept your kind offer.”

“Is there
anything urgent that I need to know about the case right away?” Jake
asked.
 
“If not, you can catch me up
in the morning.”

“That’s the
thing,” I said.
 
“Tomorrow might be
too late.
 
The new police chief
starts at eight AM tomorrow morning.”

Jake whistled
softly before he spoke.
 
“That
didn’t take long, did it?”

“I’m so sorry,” I
said.
 
“I don’t like it, either.”

“It sounds as
though we need to expedite your investigation if we can,” Jake said after a few
seconds.

“I couldn’t agree
with you more,” I said.
 
“How
exactly do we do that?”

Jake laughed, and
then he said, “Let me make a phone call and I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks,” I said,
but it was to dead air.
 
Jake had
already disconnected the call.

“You don’t mind
me asking him to give us a hand, do you?” I asked Grace as I put my phone
aside.

“Why would I?”
she asked me impishly.
 
“Are you
asking if I should be offended that you solicited Jake to help us without
discussing it with me first?”

“What can I
say?
 
I saw an opportunity, and I
took it,” I said as we neared April Springs city limits.

“Well, since I’ve
been advising you to do that very thing for years, I could hardly be upset with
you, now could I?
 
As a matter of
fact, now that your brilliant boyfriend is on the case, you hardly need my help
anymore.”

Was she hurt by
my plea to Jake for advice?
 
I had
to fix this, and quickly.
 
“Grace,
we’re a team.
 
Jake might pitch in a
little, but it’s still you and me, kiddo.
 
Nobody’s ever going to replace you as my partner in crimesolving; is
that clear?”

My best friend
looked a little relieved by my declaration, though she tried hard not to show
it.
 
“Okay.
 
That sounds good to me.
 
I love working with you, Suzanne.”

“Me, too, with
you,” I said.
 
“As things stand
right now, Jake’s just going to be acting as our advisor, and nothing more.”

“Unless we need him
for something a little more direct than that,” Grace said.
 
“Let’s not rule that possibility out
just yet, either.”