Illegally Iced (4 page)

“We both know that I would never knowingly do that,” I said as I took it back.

A teenager came to the register with his bill and said, “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, either. Should I just keep this, too?”

Trish snatched the cash out of his hand and rang up the sale. “You’d be amazed at how thick a skin I have sometimes, Tommy Jenkins.”

As I left the diner, I was still worried about my friend, but what made it even worse was when I spotted the crime scene tape again.

I knew that I had to deal with the blacksmith’s murder, but there was something even more urgent that I needed to do at that moment.

I had to confront Gabby Williams about what she thought she’d seen before the entire town heard her rendition of what had happened earlier with James Settle. I wasn’t at all certain that I could get her to see the truth about what she’d witnessed, but I owed it to myself to at least try.

KOOL-AID CAKE BITES

When I heard about these donuts being served at our county fair, I had to try my own recipe. The taste, as well as the color, is BOLD! We love these, so if you’re feeling adventurous one day, try them!

INGREDIENTS

Mixed

• 1 egg, lightly beaten

• ¾ cup sugar, white granulated

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sifted

• 2 cups flour, unbleached all-purpose

• 1 full packet of powdered unsweetened Kool-Aid mix, .13 oz. (we like Tropical Punch!)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• Dash of salt

• Canola oil for frying (the amount depends on your pot or fryer)

INSTRUCTIONS

In one bowl, beat the egg lightly, and then add the sugar, butter, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, Kool-Aid packet, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing well until you have a smooth consistency. It’s fun to do this one with your kids, because when you mix the dry and wet together, the colors go from bland to BRIGHT!

Drop bits of dough using a small-sized cookie scoop (the size of your thumb, approximately). Fry in hot canola oil (360 to 370 degrees F) 1½ to 2 minutes, turning halfway through.

Yield: 10–12 donut holes

CHAPTER 3

“Gabby, we need to talk,” I called out as I saw her duck back into her secondhand clothing shop, ReNEWed.

“Suzanne, I don’t have anything to say to you,” she answered as she slammed the door to her shop in my face.

This woman had clearly lost her mind. “Gabby, you know me,” I said through the door, hoping that she was still just on the other side of it. “Think about it. If the police believe me when I say that I’m innocent, how can you possibly think that I could have done it?”

There was no response, and though I hated to play the next card, I really had no choice. Gabby was influential in our town, and I couldn’t afford to be on her bad side. “Let me ask you something. Who stood by you the last time you were accused of murder, when most of the other folks in April Springs turned their backs on you?”

There was a pause, and then I heard the dead bolt unlock. Gabby opened the door and then stepped to one side so I could come in. I felt a little better being inside her shop, but I noticed that she still had her cell phone in one hand. Was she preparing to call the police at a moment’s notice? All around us, Gabby had the usual array of beautiful clothing for sale, but I wasn’t there to browse.

“You were always on my side,” she reluctantly admitted. “But that doesn’t change what happened this morning, Suzanne. I saw what I saw.”

“But did you really? Sure, James and I were talking about the smoke from his fire coming into my shop, but we weren’t yelling at each other, were we?”

She considered it, and then shook her head. “Maybe not, but you can’t deny that you weren’t very happy with him.”

“Of course I can’t,” I said. “But we were friends. He explained to me that he couldn’t move his fire pit without risking burning the park down, and I went back into my shop when I understood that he couldn’t make my problem go away. At no time after that did I ever approach him or even say another word to him, let alone stab him.” I knew that Gabby had her finger on the pulse of the town, and if I asked her the next question on my mind, it was more than likely that she’d be able to answer it, and it might even distract her for a second. “Have you heard yet exactly
what
James was stabbed with?”

“One of his wrought-iron skewers,” Gabby said, clearly pleased to have the information before I did. “Evidently he’d just made it this morning.”

“How can they be sure of that? I have a couple of his skewers in the donut shop myself.” I’d experimented with using them to flip the donuts in the fryer halfway through their cooking cycles, but I’d quickly gone back to my old reliable method of using thick wooden chopsticks instead. As a matter of fact, the skewers were both still in one of my kitchen drawers. Would that help my cause, or put me into deeper trouble?

“What do the ends of them look like?” she asked.

I thought about the long and thin black iron tapers and the boxed ends that made them easier to hold. “They are both diamond-shaped,” I admitted. “Why do you ask?”

“Then you really should be in the clear. These had curlicue circles at the top, and he told me that he’d just started using the new pattern today and was still experimenting with the design.”

That was an interesting fact. “When did he tell you that?”

“I walked over to his demonstration when he first got started this morning,” Gabby admitted. “I’ve always liked James, and I wanted to say good morning to him.”

That particular friendship was news to me. “Really?”

She must have sensed something in my voice. “Yes, really. Is it that hard to believe that a handsome young man would find pleasure in my company?”

I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “Are you telling me that the two of you were
dating
?”

“Of course not.” She looked flustered by the question. “I commissioned him to make me a set of those handsome bookends out of railroad tracks like he made you. I’ve admired them since you got a set yourself. Unfortunately, he never got around to making a pair for me.”

“Gabby, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to imply…”

She stepped in when I failed to come up with the words to explain just what I had been trying to say. “It’s all right, Suzanne. I don’t have that many friends left these days, and I just lost one of them. Now that I think about it, I believe you when you say that you didn’t do anything to James. I know that you two were friends as well, even if you were having a rocky time of it today.” She paused, and then looked sad. “What were your last words to him, do you remember?”

I wasn’t ever going to forget them. “I told him that if it ever happened again, he’d have to go to Hickory for his donuts for the rest of his life.”

“How dreadful.”

“Honestly, it could have been a great deal worse,” I said. “At least I smiled when I said it.”

“I myself told him how lucky we all were to have him living in April Springs. He seemed pleased by the compliment.”

“I’m sure that he was,” I answered, though I wondered if that was really what Gabby had told him. “So, we’re good, right?”

“Right as rain,” she said.

“Excellent,” I said. “I can’t tell you what a relief that is. Gabby, you must know that your opinion is very important to me.”

The woman actually looked pleased by my confession. “I feel the same way about you. Let’s forget this ever happened. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” I said, and on an impulse that I couldn’t name, I stepped forward and hugged her. It was clear by her stiffness that she wasn’t all that used to being embraced, so I released her almost immediately.

Things were awkward as our gazes met again, and Gabby said, “Suzanne, I can’t just stand around and chat with you all day. I’ve got work to do. Not all of us have such flexible hours that we’re off every day before the crack of noon.”

My first impulse was to argue with her about her blanket—and completely wrong—statement, but I bit back the impulse with all my might. I came into my shop at three
A.M.
every day, seven days a week. I was many things in this world, but lazy wasn’t one of them.

When Gabby saw that she wasn’t going to get a rise out of me, she smiled for a split second and then watched me walk out of her shop.

At least I’d been able to persuade her that I was innocent. I hoped so, at any rate. For now, though, I could put her out of my mind with a big check mark beside her name. It was just one of many things that I hoped to accomplish today, but it was an important one, and I was glad that I’d been able to talk to her before the wrong ideas were so ingrained in her mind that she’d never be able to change her opinion about my innocence.

*   *   *

As I started back toward Donut Hearts, I noticed that someone was leaving a note on the windshield of my Jeep. That could have meant that I’d been dinged during a misguided parking attempt, or perhaps they were leaving a pamphlet or an announcement that I wouldn’t be interested in.

It was neither of those things, though, and I was happy when I saw who it was.

I hurried toward Grace and said loudly, “Grace, over here.”

She turned toward the direction of my voice, and I saw my best friend—pretty and blond and slim—smile at me. “There you are. I’ve been looking all over town for you. Where have you been hiding?”

“I was talking to Gabby at ReNEWed,” I said.

Grace laughed a little. “Okay, I admit that I wasn’t desperate enough to look for you in there. How
is
Gabby, anyway?”

“Earlier this morning she was accusing me of murder, but I managed to talk my way out of it.”

Grace studied me for a moment, perhaps waiting for my smile to acknowledge that I was just kidding, but when it wasn’t forthcoming, she asked haltingly, “Murder? Who was killed?”

“You haven’t heard? Someone stabbed James Settle in the park a little while ago.”

“That’s terrible,” Grace said, the life going out of her for a moment. “What a waste.” She paused, and then asked, “Why did Gabby think you might have done it?”

“James and I were arguing about smoke coming into my shop this morning, and we had a few words, all friendly enough, but Gabby misunderstood. The second she heard what happened, she started singing her head off.”

“Suzanne, are you in trouble?”

“Not with the police. I have a pretty solid alibi, and Chief Martin has already confirmed it. Harry Dale was in the donut shop drinking free coffee all morning.”

Grace nodded slightly. “You were lucky he was there. Does that mean that we aren’t going to investigate his murder?” My best friend and I had had some success in the past catching killers, and I loved that she was so eager to help me yet again.

“I’m afraid we don’t have much choice. The chief might believe me, but I have a feeling the residents of April Springs aren’t going to be as reasonable.”

“Then it’s settled. We start digging into this ourselves right now.”

“Don’t you have to be at work?” I asked. Grace was a supervisor for a popular cosmetics company, but she seemed to spend more time with me than she did at her job.

“That’s what the note was for,” she said. “My boss called me this morning and told me that she wants a new manager-trainee to take over my responsibilities all week. I’m getting a free vacation.”

“You’re not worried that she’s going to replace you, are you?” I knew just how much of Grace’s identity was tied up in what she did for a living, and I didn’t know how she’d cope if she ever lost her job.

“No, if Sally passes this test, she’s got a management territory in the mountains waiting for her.”

“I wouldn’t mind that myself,” I said. “Don’t you want it?”

“All that snow?” Grace asked, shivering a little. “No, thank you.” She plucked the note off my windshield and stuck it her purse. “So, who do we talk to first?”

“That’s the thing. I’m not really sure. When James came to town, he was like a blank slate. The man never really talked all that much about himself, at least around me. Where did he live before, and what made him want to move here? The problem is that I don’t know how to find all of that out.”

Grace thought about it, and then said, “I need my computer.”

“Is it about work? If you have other things to do, that should come first. I understand.”

“It’s not for business. They’ll do just fine without me, and Sally isn’t getting a safety net, either. I want to do some digging online into James Settle’s past.”

“Do you honestly think there’s going to be much there about him?” I asked. Momma and I shared a computer at our cottage, but neither one of us spent a lot of time on it.

“If anything’s there, I’ll find it. It might take some time, though. Do you want to come back home with me while I dig?”

“Why don’t you see what you can come up with and I’ll go home and take a shower? I constantly smell like donuts. Big surprise, right?”

“Don’t knock it. It must make you a real magnet for men.”

I had to laugh. “Jake did say once that he enjoyed it.”

“You know, we should bottle that scent ourselves at the company,” she said.

“You’re not serious, are you?”

“More than you’ll ever know. There’s an in-house contest for a new fragrance idea, and this might just be a winner.”

“How would you ever go about duplicating it?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Fortunately, that part isn’t up to me. We leave that to brighter minds than mine.” Grace pulled out her telephone, sent a quick text, and then turned back to me. “Done and done,” she said.

“Do you think they’ll take your idea seriously?”

“There’s no doubt in my mind. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If I win, I’ll share some of the prize money with you. Is it a deal?” she asked as she stuck out her hand.

I took it as I answered, “What have I got to lose? I’ll see you at the cottage soon.”

“You can count on it.”

*   *   *