Custard Crime: Donut Mystery #14 (The Donut Mysteries) (9 page)

That loosened Beatrice up.
 
“Your mother drives a hard bargain, but
I like her.”

“I do, too, but I know exactly what you mean.”

“How could you possibly know that?” she asked me.

“Try getting her to agree to let you go to a school dance
with Mitchell Bloom when you’re sixteen years old,” I said with a grin.
 
“By the time we got out of there, she made
Mitchell promise everything but to carry me home piggyback.
 
He was so intimidated by her that I was
home a good hour before my curfew.”

“I don’t have any trouble believing that.
 
The question begs itself to be asked,
were you two looking for me, or was this meeting just a coincidence?”

“Truthfully, we’d love to talk with you if you have a
second,” I said.

The older woman glanced at her watch.
 
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt, but be
warned, I don’t have much more than that.
 
I can give you two minutes, but that’s about it.
 
I’m heading home to meet someone.”

“Is it about selling the building you just bought
with Evelyn Martin?” Grace asked her.

“What are you talking about?
 
That’s not mine to sell,” she said
huffily.

“At least not yet,” Grace amended.
 
“We understand that you had a
survivorship clause in your partnership agreement, though.”

“I need to fire that lawyer and report him to the bar
for talking out of turn,” she said.

“That’s not where we heard it.”

“Of course it wasn’t,” Beatrice said as she shook her
head.
 
“You got that straight from
your mother, didn’t you?”

“Is it true, then?” I asked her.

Beatrice shrugged.
 
“I suppose it can’t hurt anything
admitting it.
 
Yes, Evelyn insisted that
we agree to share the business fifty-fifty.
 
I couldn’t match her financial
investment, not even close, actually, but I was bringing my expertise to the
table.
 
Now I’m afraid that particular
dream is ruined forever.”

“Does that mean that you’re not going to open the
candle shop without her?” I asked.

“Sadly, I don’t have the capital I’d need for
supplies, shelving, utilities, licenses, and a dozen other things.”

“Then what are you going to do with the building, now
that it’s yours?”

“I haven’t a clue,” she said.
 
“Is that why you came all the way to
Union Square?
 
Just to pepper me
with questions about my relationship with my late business partner?”

“It’s one of the reasons we’re here,” Grace
said.
 
“Do you mind if we ask you
where you were this morning?”

“Are you asking me for an alibi?” Beatrice asked her
incredulously.

“Why not?
 
If you have one, it will clear you as a suspect quickly enough.”

Beatrice just shook her head.
 
“What nerve you have.
 
I didn’t kill Evelyn.
 
Why would I?
 
I can’t run the business without her,
and I gave up everything to do this with her.
 
If you’re looking for suspects, you
should dig into her love life.”

“I didn’t even realize that Evelyn was seeing
anyone,” I said.
 
“It seemed to me
that she wasn’t over her ex-husband yet.”

“Well, appearances can be deceiving,” Beatrice said a
little smugly.
 
“Perhaps you two
don’t know everything.
 
While it’s
true that Evelyn wouldn’t go out with anyone from April Springs, that didn’t
keep her from dating someone here.”

“She was going out with someone who lives in Union
Square?” I asked her.

“Yes, a car salesman named Conrad Swoop.
 
They’d been dating four months, but from
what I heard from Evelyn, they were on the outs lately.”

“Do you know why?”

“Apparently, there’s a woman named Violet Frasier in
town who thought she and Conrad were exclusive as well.
 
When she found out about Evelyn, she
went ballistic.
 
It seems Violet
doesn’t like to share.
 
There are
two wonderful suspects for you right there.”

“I can understand why Violet wouldn’t care for
Evelyn, but why would Conrad kill her?” Grace asked.

“Evelyn confided in me that she’d foolishly loaned
him some money when she inherited a bundle from her aunt, and Conrad had no
intention of paying her back.
 
It
put a strain on their relationship, and what do you know?
 
Now that she’s gone, he’s off the hook
for good.”

“Not exactly.
 
He still has to pay back the estate,” I said.

Beatrice smiled softly.
 
“Perhaps you’d be right if there were
any written record of the transaction.
 
However, I have it on good authority that there isn’t any proof that the
loan ever took place.”

“How do you know so much about Evelyn’s personal life?”
I asked her.

“Did you forget?
 
We were partners, and besides, Evelyn loved to talk.
 
Sometimes it drove me crazy, but I
listened, anyway.”

“Is something wrong?” a stunningly attractive woman I
was most familiar with asked after opening the door to Napoli’s.
 
“Suzanne, Grace, what are you two doing
here?”

“Hi, Angelica,” I said.
 
“We’ll be inside in a minute.”

Angelica DeAngelis took the hint and merely nodded as
she ducked back inside the restaurant.

“As much as I’d love to stay and chat, I really must
go,” Beatrice said as she started to walk away.

“We’d be glad to follow you home, if you’d like,”
Grace said.

“Why on earth would I want you to do that?” she asked
with a laugh as she hurried across the street to her car.

After Beatrice was gone, I said, “Did you notice
that?”

“Notice what?”

“She neatly ducked our question about having an
alibi.”

“Maybe that’s because she doesn’t have one yet,”
Grace said with a grin.

“You might be right.
 
She was certainly eager enough to give
us two alternate suspects, wasn’t she?”

“It would be a good way to distract us from looking too
hard at her,” Grace answered.

“Well, that’s not going to happen,” I said as I took
out my phone.

After he picked up, I asked, “Jake, are you still in
Union Square?”

“I’m just getting ready to leave.
 
Why, would you like me to pick up some
takeout for you from Napoli’s?”

“Grace and I are just getting ready to go in, as a
matter of fact,” I said.
 

“Would you mind if I join you?”

“Are you really hungry enough to eat again?
 
The two of us had a meal not that long
ago,” I protested.

“And yet you’re going into a restaurant right now.”

“I’m just going to keep Grace company,” I said.

“So, are you telling me that you’re not going to order
anything for yourself?”

“I might, just to be social,” I admitted.

“Then that’s what I’ll do, too.”

“Fine,” I said.
 
“I just thought you might like to talk to Beatrice Ashe first.”

The playfulness went out of his voice instantly.
 
“Do you know where she is?”

“As of this moment, she’s heading home to meet
someone,” I said.
 
“If you hurry,
you might get to her before someone else does.”

Jake paused, and then he said, “I suppose you and
Grace already spoke with her.”

“We tried, but she refused to give us her alibi,” I
said.

“Suzanne, she’s under no obligation to tell you
anything.”

“That’s why we thought you might like a crack at
her,” I said.

“Okay.
 
I
appreciate the tip, but we need to talk about things this evening.”

“I can do that,” I said, “but for now, Grace and I
are going into the restaurant.
 
Would you like anything?”

“No thanks.”

He hung up before I could say good-bye.

I stared at my phone for a few seconds before I put
it back into my jeans pocket.

“What’s wrong?” Grace asked.

“That didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped it would,”
I admitted.

“What did you honestly expect, Suzanne?
 
We’re stomping around in the middle of
his investigation.
 
I didn’t figure
he’d thank us for it.”

“I don’t know why not.
 
After all, we told him where he could
find Beatrice.”

“Sure we did, but only after we chatted with her
first.
 
Give him a break.
 
This can’t be easy for him to have us
looking over his shoulder all of the time, especially when we beat him to one
of his suspects.”

“I suppose you’re right.
 
He wants to talk about it tonight.”

Grace grimaced a little.
 
“Ouch.
 
That can’t be good.”

“Probably not, but I’m not going to worry about it
now.
 
Let’s go get you something to
eat.”

“Are you sure that we have time?” Grace asked.

“Jake is going to have his hands full for the next
hour unless I miss my guess.
 
Besides, I’m not in any hurry to get the scolding that’s probably coming
my way.
 
After all, even condemned
prisoners get a last meal.”

“I’m sure it will all be fine,” Grace said as she
held the door to the restaurant open for me.

“I hope you’re right,” I said as I walked inside.

Grace had a full meal, and even though I’d promised
myself to eat lightly, I ended up consuming way too many calories before we got
out of there.
 
I couldn’t hurt
Angelica’s feelings, could I?
 

We were both stuffed as we drove back to April
Springs.

“I don’t envy you this evening,” Grace said.
 
“It’s not going to be all that pleasant
dealing with Jake, is it?”

“I don’t know about that.
 
He’s usually a very reasonable man,” I
said a little uncertainly.
 
“I’m
sure we’ll find a way to work things out.”

“I hope so, for both your sakes.
 
Suzanne, you’ve never been happier.
 
Don’t let this case jeopardize that, do
you hear me?”

“Yes, Momma,” I said with a smile.

She grinned back.
 
“You don’t actually expect me to be
offended by that, do you?
 
Calling
me your mother is the highest compliment you could ever pay me.
 
Besides, we both know that my advice is
the exact same thing that your mother would give you if she had the chance.”

“Well, she’s not going to get the opportunity,” I
said.
 
“I’m going to deal with the
situation with Jake on my own.”

“I suppose I could hang around to lend you a little
moral support if I had to,” she conceded.

“Thanks, but like I said, I can tackle this all by
myself,” I said.

Halfway back to April Springs, Grace asked, “Are you at
all nervous about tomorrow?”

“What about it?” I asked absently.
 
It was growing dark, and a set of
headlights on high beams was in my rearview mirror.
 
I tried flipping the mirror to the
dimming position, but the inside of the car was still lit up.
 
“What is this guy’s problem?”
 
I tapped my brakes, and he backed
off.
 
After tapping them twice more,
he must have realized that his high beams were on, and they shifted back to
their normal intensity.
 
“There,
that’s better.
 
Now, what were you
saying?”

“I was wondering how you felt about going back to the
donut shop in the morning,” she said.
 
“It’s been a month since you’ve worked there.”

“That may be true, but I’ve popped in every now and
then since I left it in Sharon and Emma’s hands,” I said.

“I know that, but it’s going to be a whole different
thing running it again.
 
The hours
are going to kill you, for one thing.”

I didn’t tell her that I’d never truly adapted to the
new sleep schedule since I’d been taking care of Jake.
 
I seemed to wake up every morning at
exactly the same time, regardless of whether I was using an alarm clock or
not.
 
“I’ll manage.”

“Don’t forget, you’ll be on your feet a lot more,
too.”

I looked over at her for a second.
 
“Grace, are you saying that I shouldn’t
go back to Donut Hearts tomorrow?”

“What?
 
Of
course not.
 
Everyone knows that’s
where you belong.
 
I’m just saying
that you shouldn’t be surprised if it’s difficult at first getting used to
being back in the saddle.”

“Thanks for worrying about me, but I’m sure that I’ll
manage just fine.”

“Of course you will,” Grace said.
 
“What do you think Jake’s going to say
tonight?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m betting that I’ll find out
soon enough,” I said.

We were back in town before long, and I pulled into
Grace’s driveway so I could let her out and then make my way back to the
cottage.
 

“Good luck,” she said as she squeezed my hand before
she got out of the Jeep.
 
“Call me
later if you need to talk.”

“Grace, stop worrying about me.
 
Everything is going to be just fine.”