Sweet Suspects (The Donut Mysteries) (19 page)

“What can I say?
 
It makes sense.”

“I just hope that they are both still there,” Grace said.

“They can’t leave yet,” I said.
 
“There’s an active police investigation going on.”

“How long do you think they’re going to hang around?
 
I doubt that Chief Martin can make them stay.”

“Why wouldn’t Janet want to be here when her husband’s killer is arrested?”

“Suzanne, you’re assuming that she didn’t do it herself.”

“I’m not assuming that at all.
 
I’m just saying that’s how the police might perceive her absence before the case is solved.”

“She might not care how it looks,” Grace said.
 
“After all, she wasn’t shy about calling her insurance agent about Zane’s policy.”

“No, but we’re not supposed to know that, remember?
 
We only know because we broke into her hotel room.”

“Nobody knows that we did that, though.
 
As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Janet is just another grieving widow.”

“Trust me, I’m sure she’s just as high on Chief Martin’s list of suspects as she is on ours.”

“And we can’t forget Billy,” Grace said.
 
“Did you see the way he looked at Janet yesterday at breakfast?
 
That man clearly still has a crush on her.”

“Maybe, but was it enough to make him kill his rival for her affections?” I asked.

“Nobody can really answer that but Billy.”

“What about Tom?” I asked.
 
“He wasn’t high on my list until today, but I’ve got to tell you, he scared me in the park.
 
I saw a side of him that I’d never seen before.
 
Plus, he admitted taking the spear from the gym in the first place.”

“Yes, but he claims that he dumped it outside,” Grace said.

“That’s not a bad cover story if he realized too late that he forgot to wipe his fingerprints off the murder weapon he used to kill Zane.”

“Honestly, who would be that stupid?”

“Maybe drunk, not necessarily stupid, could explain it.”

“I don’t know,” Grace said after a moment’s hesitation.
 
“I just can’t see him as a killer.”

I weighed my next words carefully.
 
“Is that because of the facts, or from the history the two of you shared back in school?”

She didn’t answer right away, and for a minute, I thought she was going to ignore the question completely.
 
Finally, Grace said, “I truly don’t know how to answer that.”

I reached over and patted her arm.
 
“It’s hard to separate our personal feelings from our suspicions, isn’t it?”

“It can be,” she said.
 
“That just leaves Candy.
 
I wonder just how bad those pictures of her are?
 
Would they be something she feels she needs to suppress, no matter what the cost?”

“She’s not exactly shy about her clothing,” I said.
 
“If those pictures are enough to embarrass
her
, I’m guessing that they must be pretty bad.”

“So her motive might be just as strong as anyone else’s,” Grace said.
 
“We’ve got four viable suspects left, and no way to tell who really did it.”

“That’s why we keep pressing forward,” I said as we came upon the Welcome to Union Square sign on the highway.
 
“I don’t want to announce our presence at the hotel, so let’s park in the back lot and walk from there.
 
How does that sound?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Grace said, and soon we pulled into the lot and parked with the employees of the hotel.
 
My Jeep fit right in with the other vehicles parked there, and we set off for the main building on foot.

We never got there, though.

Two familiar voices were arguing in the garden that buffered the parking areas from the hotel, and if we were lucky, we just might be able to overhear what they were fighting about.

Chapter 16

“I don’t care how you manage it!
 
Just make it stop,” Janet told Billy angrily in the garden.
 
Grace and I hid behind an arbor covered with thick vines.
 
It was dense enough to hide us both from view, but open enough to allow us to hear what they were saying.

“Janet, you’re being unreasonable,” Billy said calmly.
 
“What makes you think that
I
have any control over what Suzanne and Grace do?”

“Figure it out, Billy.
 
I can’t afford to have anyone interfere with that insurance payment.”

“Trust me; you’ve got more problems than that,” Billy said.
 
“You’re more of a murder suspect than I am.”

Grace must have shifted her weight at that point, because a stick snapped under her foot.
 
In the quiet of the garden, the sound was loud and clear.

I quickly looked at Grace, who mouthed, “I’m sorry,” but it was too late.

They’d heard us.

“What was that?” Janet said as she looked in our direction.
 
“Hello.
 
Is someone there?” she called out.

“Of course somebody’s there,” Billy said.
 
“Can’t you see them through the leaves?
 
I’m taking off, Janet.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” she snapped.

“You don’t think so?
 
Just watch me,” Billy said as he hurried toward the hotel.

We weren’t that lucky with Janet.

Instead of fleeing as well, she started walking straight toward us, and there was no way that we weren’t about to be caught this time.

Chapter 17

“Are you two
spying
on me?” Janet said with indignation as she rounded the arbor and found us standing there.

“Of course not,” Grace said.

“We
were
coming to
see
you, though,” I added.

“So why didn’t you announce yourselves when you first got here?” Janet asked us.

“We wanted to eavesdrop on you two a little first,” Grace said brazenly.

Janet stared at us both for a full six seconds before she spoke again.
 
“Well, I sincerely hope that you got what you wanted, because I’m finished talking to the both of you.”

Janet turned back toward the hotel, but she’d only taken a few steps when I said, “You should know that we’ve discovered that you had a
pair
of motives for killing your husband.”

She stopped in her tracks and whirled around to face us.
 
“What are you talking about?
 
Did you overhear something that you probably misunderstood, Suzanne?”

“Hardly.
 
You wanted the money, but you also wanted Billy, didn’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said.
 
“Billy Briscoe and I were over a long time ago, and I’d rather have Zane back right now than all the money in the world.
 
What makes you think otherwise?”

“We have sources that you don’t even know about,” Grace answered.
 
“If all that you say is true, then why
exactly
did you want Billy to stop us from investigating your husband’s murder?”

“Because I
need
that insurance money, and no amount of wishing is going to bring Zane back.
 
I’m concerned that your snooping might interfere with my plan to collect what’s coming to me and get out of this state forever.
 
My late husband promised me riches beyond belief if I’d just be a little more patient, but I’d heard all of those promises before.
 
It’s a sad thing to admit, but in the end, he turned out to be worth more to me dead than he had ever been when he was alive.”

“Where was he supposedly getting all of this money?” Grace asked her.

“If you must know, he was going to blackmail people that we knew,” Janet said.
 
“Is it any wonder that someone stabbed him with a spear?
 
I warned him that he was playing a dangerous game, but he told me that he had it all under control.
 
We can all see how well
that
worked out for him.”

“You talk a good game, but you obviously care more about the money than you ever did for Zane.
 
Isn’t that true?” I asked.

“Once upon a time, back when I could trust him, I loved the man more than anything in the world.
 
Then the lies started.
 
Who knows?
 
Maybe he’d been lying to me all along.
 
I don’t know.
 
Anyway, he took whatever love I had for him and stomped on it with his boots.
 
I shed a few tears for him when he died, but not many.”

“It sounds as though you won’t miss him at all.”

“I can’t honestly say one way or the other at this point, but I didn’t kill him.”

“Why should we believe you?” I asked her pointedly.

“I’ll ask you another question.
 
Why should
I
care what you believe, one way or the other?”

I was stumped to come up with an answer to that, but fortunately, Grace wasn’t.
 
“Because we have contacts everywhere, including with insurance agents who are eager for an excuse to delay benefit payments next to forever,” she said.

I knew it was a bluff, and plainly Grace knew it as well.

The question was, did Janet?

She tried to keep a brave face for as long as she could, but neither Grace nor I budged.

After a full thirty seconds, Janet sighed deeply, and then she said, “I give up.
 
What do you want to know?”

“Who exactly was your husband blackmailing?” Grace asked her.

“I don’t know.
 
I have a few suspicions, but he never named names,” Janet answered.

“Okay then, tell us who you
think
he might have been blackmailing,” I said.

“For starters, he
definitely
had something on Candy Murphy.
 
Tom Hancock has a secret that he’s been hiding for years, and so does Billy.
 
That’s how I got him to help me.”

“How did Billy help you?” I asked.
 
I could see him killing Zane for Janet, or for the secrets that Zane held.
 
Love for Janet was looking less and less like a factor in the murder.

“Do you want to know the truth?
 
He didn’t, not one single bit.
 
The man was clearly drunk the night of the reunion, and when I had breakfast with him the next morning when you two showed up here, he was hung over like nobody’s business.
 
Billy Briscoe has been absolutely worthless to me from the start.
 
I’d hoped to use his feelings for me to my benefit, but that didn’t turn out to do me much good, either.
 
He’s been a complete wash.”

Janet was a cold woman, icier than most I’d met in my life, but that still didn’t make her a killer.
 
“Janet, did you kill your husband, or did you have someone kill him for you?” I asked bluntly.

“No,” she said flatly.

“Why should we believe you?”

“Do you mean my word isn’t good enough?” Janet asked sarcastically.

“That’s exactly what we mean,” I said, deciding to answer her anyway.

“I don’t know how to prove to you that I didn’t cajole or hire someone into killing my late husband.
 
All I
can
do is show you that I didn’t do it.”

“How can you possibly do that?” I asked her.

“Because I wasn’t even here,” she said.
 
“I got so mad at Zane for the way he behaved at the reunion that I drove straight home.
 
I wasn’t going to come back, but halfway there, I got pulled over for speeding in Charleston.
 
It was one forty five AM, if you’re interested.
 
Anyway, I decided to come back after all.
 
There was no telling what kind of trouble Zane might get himself into without me there to look out for him.”

“Can you prove any of this?” Grace asked.

Janet reached into her purse and pulled out a slip of yellow paper.
 
“Here’s the ticket I got.
 
I already showed it to Chief Martin.”

“When did you do that?” I asked.
 
I would have expected the chief to share something as important as that with me.
 
I knew that I didn’t have any rights to his information, but this was a courtesy I wanted from him.

“Ten minutes before you both got here.
 
That’s what prompted my fight with Billy.”

So it appeared that Janet was off the hook, at least as far as committing the murder herself.

“What about that paper you dropped at the restaurant?” Grace asked.

“How did you find out about
that
?” Janet asked, and then she nodded before I had the chance to answer her.
 
“The waitress at the restaurant told you, didn’t she?”

“I won’t answer that,” I said.
 
I was going to protect Maria and her family as much as I could.

“So it’s okay to expect me to tell you everything, but you’re not going to share anything with me.
 
Is that it?”

“That pretty much sums it up,” Grace said.

“Fine.
 
Whatever.
 
I found the slip of paper hidden in our hotel room.
 
I asked Zane about it, but all he would say was that it was the key to our future.
 
Do
you
two have any idea what those numbers mean, because it’s been driving me crazy.”

“We don’t have a clue,” I answered as Grace shook her head in agreement.

“Of course not.
 
That would make my life too easy, wouldn’t it?
 
I know that those numbers were written in my husband’s handwriting, and that they had something to do with this weekend, but that’s all that I know.
 
Zane always believed in keeping friends close, and enemies closer.
 
I’ve got a hunch that philosophy is what ended up getting him killed.”
 
After a moment’s pause, she asked, “Are we done here?”

I looked at Grace, who just shrugged.
 

“For now,” I said.

“Forever,” Janet replied, and then she stormed off back to the hotel.

“Should we follow her, or look for Billy?” I asked as a car sped out of the parking lot to the road.

Billy Briscoe was behind the wheel, and we were far enough from the Jeep that we’d never catch up with him.

“Well, there’s no way that we’re going to catch Billy in your Jeep, so we should probably talk to Candy again,” Grace said with a wry grin.

“That sounds like a plan to me.
 
I have a phone call to make first, though.”

I dialed the chief’s number, and he picked up on the first ring.

“I just talked to Janet Dunbar,” I said.

Before I could get another word out, he said, “I was about to call you, Suzanne, but I had to confirm her story to make sure that it checked out.”

“And did it?” I asked, feeling better about our situation.

“All across the board,” he said.
 
“She
couldn’t
have killed Zane.”

“Maybe not, but could she have hired someone to do it?”

“With what?
 
They’re not only flat broke, they’re completely overextended.
 
That was why I looked so hard at Janet.
 
That insurance money will buy her out of most of her problems.”

“She could have promised a payoff to the killer later,” I said.

“That might work in the movies, but most paid killers demand something up front, and she just didn’t have it.
 
I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner, but like I said, I just found out.”

“That’s fine,” I said.
 
“There’s more, though.”

He was interrupted by someone just outside my hearing range, because when Chief Martin spoke again, he said, “I’ve got to go.
 
We may have a lead about where Tom Hancock is hiding out.
 
I’ll talk to you later, Suzanne.”

Then he hung up on me.

“You didn’t tell him about Zane being a blackmailer,” Grace said as I put my phone away.

“I never got the chance.
 
He thinks they may have found Tom Hancock.”

“Has the chief settled on him as the killer?” Grace asked me.
 
“We have three suspects left ourselves.
 
Does he know something that we don’t?”

“If he does, he’s not telling me,” I said.

“So then we go talk to Candy,” Grace answered.

“Since she’s the only suspect left that we have any hope of finding, I think that’s a fine idea.”