Raspberry Revenge (6 page)

“Have you
met
my mother?” I asked him with a grin.

“Point taken. It still makes sense, since Harley is more in your mother’s circle of acquaintances than yours.”

“That’s exactly how it’s turning out,” I said. “Grace and I spoke with Amber North and Nathaniel Bloom, while Momma and I interviewed Curtis Daniels and Megan Grey.”

“Hold on a second. Why are they all on your list of suspects? Curtis I understand, and even Nathaniel, but what about the women?”

“Harley was dating Amber, and Megan was in love with him.”

“Did he know that?” Jake asked.

“He probably suspected it, but then yesterday she declared her undying love for him and confirmed it,” I said.

“How did Harley react to that? Forget that. How about Amber?”

“Harley laughed in Megan’s face, and Amber dismissed her as not being worthy of being considered a threat,” I said.

“Wow, and here I thought everyone in town but the mayor loved Harley before this happened,” Jake replied.

“We have more,” I said, afraid that he might take it as an affront that my team had done so much better than his had.

“There are even more suspects than you’ve mentioned so far?” he asked incredulously.

“No, but we also managed to get alibis out of each of them, for what they were worth.”

“Let’s hear them,” Jake said as he got out the little notebook he always carried with him.

I started talking, being sure to give him time to take notes. “Nathaniel claimed to be in his office all morning preparing for a meeting this afternoon. I’m not sure if it’s true, but Seth Lancaster came by while we were there and confirmed it, so it’s possible. Amber said that she was home alone watching television after nine thirty, which is what she was doing when Grace and I showed up on her doorstep this afternoon. Megan claimed that she was at work in Admissions at the hospital, but she could have easily slipped out while no one was looking. They have security cameras there, don’t they?”

Jake nodded. “In the emergency room and at the front desk, but not anywhere near the Admin offices.”

I frowned for a second. “How about the parking lot?”

“Just the one that’s open to the public. I had reason to inquire last month over another matter. That’s why I know.”

“What was it about?”

“Sorry, I can’t talk about it,” Jake said. “I already know Curtis’s alibi, and his secretary’s, too.”

“We didn’t even list Wendy as a suspect,” I admitted. “Do you think she might have done it?”

“At this point, I’m still gathering information. Who knows? Maybe Harley hit on her and she fought back. They had proximity going for them, which is enough in and of itself sometimes if there was bad blood between them.”

“Was there?”

“I couldn’t say, since I’m still looking into it. Anyway, her alibi is that she was alone at the office all morning, while Curtis was out looking at some of their property assets he was considering liquidating.” Wendy’s name was going on our list. I couldn’t believe that Momma, Grace, and I had not even considered her as a potential killer.

“Jake, I hope we didn’t cross any lines today.”

“Suzanne, ordinarily I might say that you had, but I can use all of the help that I can get on this one. Half my deputies are out sick, and the other half are scrambling to cover basic services. This is probably the worst possible time to be conducting a murder investigation.”

“I’m sure if Harley were still around, he’d agree with you wholeheartedly,” I said, raising an eyebrow as I did so.

“I know it’s not very politic to say it, but there’s nobody here but the two of us.”

“I get that,” I said as I patted his shoulder gently. My crack had been undeserved. The massage was my way of apologizing, and Jake had readily accepted. It was part of our unspoken language that many good marriages possessed.

“Where does that leave us now?” I asked him.

“I don’t know about you and your crack team, but I have to go back to the office,” he said reluctantly as he stood and stretched.

“Can’t the investigation wait until morning?” I asked him.

“Probably not, but that’s not why I’m going back in. Stephen and I are going to patrol in a squad car together tonight. He’s good company, though not as good as you are.”

“He’d better not be. Wouldn’t it be more efficient if you each took a car?”

“Yes, but I feel better at night when there are two officers in each car,” he said. “It’s my rule, and I don’t think it sets a very good precedent if I’m the first one who breaks it.”

“I understand that. Should I wait up for you?”

“With your hours? You’d better not. I just hope I’m back by the time you leave for work in the morning. You
are
going in to the donut shop, aren’t you?”

“Yes, it’s not my turn to get a few days off again yet,” I said. My assistant, Emma Blake, and her mother were running Donut Hearts two days a week to give me more time with Jake, but their time at the helm was still four days away. I didn’t mind, though. I loved my shop, and I wasn’t entirely sure that the arrangement was working for me. After all, Jake still had a more-than-full-time job, and it left me with too much time on my hands, especially when he had to go in on his days off. Maybe when and if he ever retired, I’d sell the shop to Emma and her mother if they were interested, but that was probably a long way off. In the meantime, I was going to enjoy every second I had making donuts for the nice folks of April Springs.

I thought about calling Grace or even Momma after Jake left, but something held me back. In the end, I decided to spend my last few hours before bed enjoying the fire, a good book, and my own company. I loved my husband dearly, but I still enjoyed a little time alone every now and then.

Chapter 12

“H
aven’t you been to bed
yet?” I asked Jake as I came into the kitchen after sleeping fitfully in the time I had. He was nursing a cup of coffee and frowning when I approached him, but he did his best to smile when I walked into the room.

“What can I say? It’s been a long day,” he said.

“Have you been able to make any progress?”

“Not that you’d notice,” he said. “Is it time to make the donuts already?”

“It’s always time,” I said with a smile. “I don’t know how you do it, Jake.”

“Do what, stay awake this late?”

“No, deal with people all day long you suspect of being possible murderers. How do you not see the worst in everyone you meet?”

“The truth of the matter is that I believe that most people are fundamentally good,” he said after a moment’s pause. “Certainly there are evil folks in this world, I’m not naïve about that, but for most killers, the act is an irrational one, dictated by their circumstances, whether real or imagined. I’ve often said that given the right conditions, anyone could be a killer, but the obverse of that is true, too. Given the perfect setting, just about anyone can do the right thing, too.”

“You’re a complicated man. You know that, don’t you?” I asked him after I leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

“I’ve been called much worse, even today,” he said.

“Who’s been giving you a hard time?”

“I tend to make people uncomfortable with the questions I have to ask them.”

“I understand how that feels completely,” I answered. “At least you get paid to do it.”

“Why do you do it, Suzanne? I suddenly realize that I never asked you that question before. Is it out of a sense of justice for the victim, or do you just hate seeing wrongs go unpunished?”

“Can’t it be a little of both, with some other factors thrown in, too?”

He laughed a little at that. “And you’re calling me complicated?”

“Hey, it’s just who I am. You knew that when you married me.”

“I wasn’t complaining,” he said as he took another sip of coffee. “That’s one of the things I find most attractive about you.”

“What are some of the others?” I asked coyly.

He swatted my behind. “It’s too early to be fishing for compliments, young lady.”

“It’s never too early, as far as I’m concerned,” I replied with a laugh of my own. “I’ll see you later.”

“Have a good day.”

“Hey, I’m spending the morning making donuts that just about the entire town will be enjoying later. What’s not to like about that?”

“If you say so. You don’t know how I do my job, but I’d go crazy in a week if I had to do yours.”

“More likely a day,” I said with a smile.

It was rare when Jake was awake when I left for work, and it always picked up my spirits. I loved him, but it was more than that. I genuinely liked the man, something that seemed to be in rare supply in too many married couples. Then again, though neither of us was exactly young anymore, our marriage still was, and we were in the honeymoon phase of our union.

May it last forever and a day, as far as I was concerned.

The Jeep was freezing when I got in, so I warmed it up for a few minutes as I scraped the frost off the windshield. I loved cold weather, but every now and then, I wouldn’t have minded having a garage.

The short drive to Donut Hearts was uneventful, and as I walked in, I felt embraced by the warmth of the place. We’d had our furnace repaired the winter before, so it was nice having convenient and consistent heat. Flipping on a few light switches and the coffee pot as I walked into the kitchen, I turned the fryer on to give it a chance to come to temperature as well. Taking out my trusty recipe book, I opened it to my basic cake donut recipe, though I knew it by heart. It was nice having it there as a reference, a comfort in its mere presence. Measuring out the flour and other ingredients, I found myself humming softly to myself as I worked. I loved having Emma around, but this was my favorite time of morning at the shop, when most of the world around me slept and I worked to brighten some of their days with what I offered. I never claimed that my donuts were nutritional, but then again, I didn’t advocate a steady diet of them, either. They were meant to be a treat, a present my customers could give themselves without any need for a reason, and that suited me just fine.

I was dropping the last of my new pumpkin apple spice donuts into the hot oil when Emma started to come in. She was a little late, but I was in such a good mood that I didn’t mind. “Oops. I’ll be out here setting up,” she said as she ducked back into the front area while I dropped the final few donuts.

Four minutes later, after I pulled the last of the donuts from the oil, I pushed the kitchen door aside. “All clear,” I said as I started icing them, getting the glaze on the donuts before they had a chance to cool.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said as she put her jacket on the coatrack and donned her apron. “My car wouldn’t start, so I had to get Dad to give me a ride.”

“I bet he loved getting out of a warm bed to do that,” I said.

“Are you kidding? He’s been up all night getting ready to put a special edition out. I’m not sure what he’s going to write, but I saw a glimpse of his headline.”

“What does it say?” I asked as I moved the donuts to a drip rack before I placed them on trays.

“Murder Hits Home Again.”

“That’s not bad,” I said.

“You should have seen some of the ones he crossed out. Councilman Killed in Mayor’s Chair, Harley’s Homicide, and my favorite, No One Is Safe From The April Springs Killer.”

“That’s a little long for a headline, isn’t it?” I asked as I shook my head. None of them had surprised me. Ray Blake’s little newspaper was mostly a flyer for store ads and classifieds, but he aspired to be an investigative reporter, and sometimes it showed a little too clearly in the issues he published.

“That’s the only reason he killed it,” she said. “Is the rumor I heard true?”

“Which rumor might that be?” I asked her, careful not to say too much.

“That George is on the run,” she said.

“Not as far as I know.”

“But he’s missing, right?”

“I don’t know if you could say that he’s missing,” I said carefully.

“But you don’t know where he is.”

“Who’s asking, my assistant or the newspaper publisher’s daughter?” Emma and I walked a fine line when we discussed my investigations, and we’d learned, through painful trial and error, when not to cross it.

“Suzanne, I promise you that this is all strictly off the record,” she said earnestly. “I never discuss our conversations with my father in any way, shape, or form anymore.”

“I know that,” I said. “George isn’t in town, but that doesn’t mean that he had anything to do with Harley’s murder, no matter how it might look.”

“I don’t think he did it, either,” she said. “Are you and Grace digging into Harley’s homicide, since it ties in so closely with the mayor? I know how close you all are.”

“We might be,” I said.

“Good,” Emma answered. “George Morris is a good guy in my book, and a great mayor. I’d hate to see this ruin him when it wasn’t his fault.”

“I would, too,” I said.

Emma sighed, and then she looked at the dishes I’d already piled up for her. “Well, those bowls aren’t going to wash themselves, are they? This morning, I’m kind of looking forward to burying my hands in some hot and soapy water.”

“See what you can do in twenty minutes,” I said. “By then I’ll have the yeast dough ready for its first raise and we can take our break outside, if it’s not too cold for you this morning.”

“I wouldn’t let a little chill in the air stop me,” she said, “and you know it.”

We enjoyed our break outside, but soon enough, it was time to go back in and continue the process of making our yeast donuts. I’d had my eye on a new cutter that cut out donuts in the shape of Christmas wreaths, but I’d lost the online auction for it. On a lark, I’d bid on one that made Santas, but they hadn’t turned out as well as I’d hoped. Maybe I’d try again in July, when the seasonal cutters weren’t such a hot item, if anyone had one for sale. Finally, two minutes before we were set to open shop for the day, I was adjusting the last tray in the display case, having just finished setting up the cash register, when there was a knock at our front door. Ever since I’d pushed my opening to seven, folks got impatient for me to let them in, and on cold mornings like we were experiencing now, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to refuse anyone’s plea for sanctuary from the chill.

I wasn’t expecting to see who was standing out there tapping, though.

Grinning as though he didn’t have a care in the world was our missing mayor himself, George Morris.

“Where on earth have you been?” I asked George as I opened the door to let him in.

“I was visiting a friend of mine at his lake cabin in the mountains. Moose and I have been buddies for a long time. He called me out of the blue yesterday to invite me up there, and since I didn’t have anything pressing, I joined him for some good food and even better lies.”

“Have you spoken to anyone in town since you got back?” I asked him.

“No, I drove straight here to get some donuts for breakfast. Moose is a fine short-order cook, but I knew if I had breakfast with him, I wouldn’t be able to move for a while.” He peered at the donuts behind me. “I see an old-fashioned donut that has my name on it.”

“There’s no time to eat,” I said. “George, you’re in trouble.”

“Why is that?” he asked me as he kept looking longingly at the treats behind the counter.

“Somebody killed Harley Boggess yesterday morning in your chair in City Hall with your letter opener.”

“Not funny, Suzanne,” he said. “Should I serve myself, or are you going to get that donut for me? You know what? Why don’t you make it two? I’m feeling pretty great this morning.”

“Sorry to ruin your good mood, but I wasn’t kidding.”

George’s grin froze on his face for a moment before he spoke again. “Are you serious?”

“I wish I weren’t, but it’s true.”

“What happened?” he asked me.

“That’s what everyone wants to know. Should I call Jake, or do you want to?”