Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 18 - Dangerous Dough (4 page)

“Of course I am,”
I said.
 
“I’ve been away too long as
it is, and I miss it.
 
Are you
really all that surprised?”

“Now that I think
about it, I realize that I shouldn’t be,” Grace replied.
 
“There’s a lot of you wrapped up into
that place these days, isn’t there?”

I thought about it
for a moment before I answered, keeping my outward attention focused on the
road in front of us.
 
When I spoke
again, I knew exactly what I wanted to say.
 
“You know better than anyone but Momma
that I never wanted to be a donutmaker when I was a little girl.
 
To be honest with you, I kind of fell
into it, seeing that the place was for sale at the only moment in my life when
I could afford to buy it.
 
Breaking
up with Max was really painful, and I poured myself into Donut Hearts to get
away from it.
 
A funny thing
happened, though.
 
Instead of a way
to hide from my life, the shop showed me a new one altogether.
 
I can’t ever imagine a time when I don’t
want to do it.”

I saw Grace
nodding out of the corner of my eye.
 
“I was worried about you for a long time after Max,” she said.
 
“Everything you’re saying about the
donut shop is absolutely true.”

I grinned at
her.
 
“Well then, if you knew the
answer to the question already, why did you go ahead and ask it?”

“I knew.
 
I just wasn’t sure that
you
did,” she said.

“Fair
enough.
 
We’ve got a little time; let’s
talk about how we’re going to investigate Alex Tyler’s former life in Granite
Meadows.”

“Well, the
logical first step would be to go where he used to work,” Grace answered.
 
“That might be a little tough to do,
though, since he was a cop.”

“There are ways
around that, but we need some information first.
 
We don’t even know where he used to
live.”

“Ah, that’s
something that I can help with,” she said as she pulled out her cellphone.

“I forgot that
you used that thing for more than making calls,” I said with a laugh.

“You joke, but I
can’t imagine ever being without it.
 
Now let’s see.
 
I’ve got my
search engine up, so I’ll type in Alex Tyler, Granite Meadows, North Carolina,
police officer, home address.
 
That
should do it.”

“That’s a lot of
information you’re giving it,” I said.

Grace said, “I’ve
come to realize that the more specific the question, the more accurate the
answer.”

“That makes
sense.
 
What does it say?”

As she started
scrolling through the listings, she finally said, “Bingo.
 
We need to go to 3441 West Mulberry in
Granite Meadows.
 
That’s where he
used to live up until a few weeks ago.”

“That’s all well
and good, but my Jeep doesn’t have GPS.”

“There’s no
need,” Grace said as she shook her phone at me.
 
“I’ve got it right here.”

“Is there
anything that it can’t do?” I asked her.

“If they can
figure out a way to have it rub my sore feet at night, I’d buy two of them.”

“Doesn’t the
April Springs interim police chief do that for you already?”

She laughed.
 
“Sometimes, but not as often as I’d
like.”
 
After a moment’s pause, she
said, “The coordinates are now entered.
 
All we have to do is follow directions and we’ll be there.”

“Do you trust it
that much?”

“What makes you
ask me that?” Grace inquired.

“I once read
about a man who followed his GPS blindly and winded up driving into a river.”

“Some common
sense might be in order, too,” Grace said, “but so far, it hasn’t led me too
far astray.”

“Good, because we
don’t have a ton of time for any wild goose chases.
 
What’s our plan when we get to his old
address?”

“We start
knocking on doors and we talk to his neighbors.
 
Hopefully we’ll get someone nearby who’s
as nosy as Gabby Williams is in April Springs.”

Gabby ran the
gently used clothing store near the donut shop.
 
It was called ReNEWed, and besides
having some really nice things for sale, expensive clothes that had been barely
worn, it was a hotbed for gossip.
 
If Gabby didn’t know it, some folks in town said that it really didn’t
happen.
 

“We should be so
lucky,” I said.

Grace
laughed.
 
“I never dreamed that
anyone would say knowing Gabby was lucky.”

“That’s not
true.
 
She’s been a friend to me
since I’ve been at Donut Hearts,” I said.

“Suzanne, are you
actually defending her?”

I was as startled
by the idea as Grace was.
 
Gabby had
been a thorn in my side on more than one occasion in the past, so why was I
standing up for her now?
 
I wasn’t
exactly sure.
 
It just felt as
though it was the right thing to do.
 
“I guess I am, though I couldn’t tell you exactly why,” I answered
lamely.

“Well, good for
you,” Grace said as we finally neared the sign welcoming us to Granite Meadows.
 
“I heartily approve of loyalty, no
matter what form it comes in.”
 
After a moment, she said, “Hey, my phone just died.”

“Did you forget
to charge the battery?” I asked her.

“It’s got plenty
of charge left.
 
The signal just
dropped out.
 
We must be in a dead
zone.”

“Does that happen
very often?” I asked her.

“More than I
like.
 
Hopefully we’ll get it back
soon.”

“Otherwise we’ll
have to find his place the old-fashioned way,” I said with a smile.

“What’s that?”

“We stop at a gas
station and ask directions.”

Chapter 5

“Nobody’s home,”
I said as I banged on the apartment door next to Alex’s old place for the second
time.
 
Half a mile down the road,
Grace had managed to pick up a signal again, and we were back on track.
 
This was our fourth attempt to find
someone home who might be able to help us, and it wasn’t looking very promising
so far.
 
“Let’s try another door a
little farther down.”

“I’d hoped that with
him living in an apartment complex, it would be easy to interview his old
neighbors, but I’m starting to lose faith that’s going to happen.”

As she spoke, I
saw movement three doors down from where we stood, a fluttering window curtain
that was quickly pulled shut when the person inside realized that I’d spotted
them.
 
“Hang on a second,” I said as
I casually walked toward the closest door to the movement.
 
“We might have ourselves a live one.”

Evidently Grace
hadn’t spotted the curtains.
 
“Where
are we going?
 
We should try the
closest places first, Suzanne.”

“Trust me,” I
said as I rapped firmly on the door in question.

After a full
thirty seconds, Grace and I were still standing there alone.
 
Apparently my knocking had been to no
avail.

“I’m telling you,
it’s a waste of time,” Grace said.

I knocked again,
winking at her in the process, and then I said loudly, “We’re not selling
anything.
 
Someone you might know was
murdered recently, and you could be able to help us find the killer.”
 
If that didn’t get the attention of
whoever was on the other side of that door, I didn’t know what would.
 
I could probably pull a fire alarm for
the complex and wait to see who came out, but I didn’t really want to do that.
 
Maybe I’d call that Plan B.

After three
seconds, I knocked again as I said, “We’re not going anywhere, so you might as
well speak with us.
 
You’ll feel
better if you do.
 
I promise.”

Grace looked at
me oddly for a moment, something that unfortunately wasn’t all that unfamiliar
to me.

This was getting
ridiculous.
 
I couldn’t compel
whoever was hiding behind that door to come out and speak with us.
 
Maybe it was time to give up and move on
to the next door.
 
I was about to suggest
that very thing to Grace when the door opened tentatively and a rather plain-looking
gal in her late twenties poked her head out.
 
“Who was murdered?
 
It wasn’t Alex Tyler, was it?
 
I knew that something was wrong.”

“I’m sorry to be
the one to tell you, but yes, it was.
 
Did you know him well?”

“He’s really gone?”
she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
 
The next thing I knew, she was
collapsing.
 

I had two
choices: catch her or let her fall.

I caught her.

“Are you okay?” I
asked as I kept her from hitting the ground.

There was no
reply.

Grace helped take
some of the weight, but it was still an awkward burden.
 
“Suzanne, let’s get her inside.”

“Should we just
walk right into her apartment without being invited?” I asked, still surprised
by the sudden turn of events.

“Well, I suppose
we could just leave her spread out on the cement in front of her apartment,” my
best friend said with a chuckle.
 
“It’s up to you.”

“You’re
right.
 
Let’s take her inside.”

We carried the
woman in and found a pretty unusual décor there.
 
I’d been expecting a drab kind of
interior, but the main living space looked as though a glitter bomb had gone
off.
 
There were snow globes of all
shapes and sizes on just about every flat surface, and she’d even made her own
glistening, giant snowflakes that hung from the ceiling and plastered the
walls.
 
Painted snowmen covered any
free space available, and I felt myself shivering a little, and not because of
the implied chill the scene evoked.
 

“Wow,” Grace said
as she stopped dead in her tracks and looked around.
 
“All I can say is wow.”

“We can take in
the winter wonderland after we get her on the couch,” I said as I continued
moving forward with our unconscious host.

“Right.”

We quickly got
her positioned on the couch, and I grabbed a blanket and put it over her.
 
It was covered with wintry scenes as
well, of course.

“Who does this?”
Grace asked me, but I never got a chance to answer.

“I love winter,”
the woman said softly, her eyes slowly opening.

“Good.
 
You’re awake,” I said as I got close to
her.
 
“Are you okay?”

“This isn’t
because of that kids’ movie, is it?” Grace asked her.

“I’ve loved
winter all of my life,” she said.
 
“Long before it became a trend, I have adored it.”

“I’m sorry to be
rude, but if that’s true, why don’t you live someplace farther north?
 
I don’t have to tell you that we rarely
get snow around here at all.”

The woman on the
couch frowned before she spoke.
 
I
was going to have to get her name soon so I’d know what to call her.
 
Otherwise I was going to start calling
her Princess Snowflake or something ridiculous like that.

“I’d move in a
heartbeat, but there’s just one problem,” she said as she struggled to sit up.

“What’s that?” I
asked as I helped her.

“I can’t stand
being cold.”

I caught Grace
fighting laughter, but she wasn’t entirely successful at it.
 
It wouldn’t do to alienate this woman,
but I was afraid that it was too late for that.

To my relief, she
just smiled.
 
“It’s ironic, isn’t
it?”
 
Then she studied us both
briefly.
 
“Who are you two, anyway?”

“I’m Suzanne, and
that’s Grace,” I said.
 
“In all of
the excitement, we never caught your name.”

“I’m Maisie
Fleming,” she said.
 
“I don’t know
what happened to me back there.
 
I’ve never fainted before in my life.”

“I’m sorry we
gave you such a shock,” I said.
 
“We
didn’t realize that you and Alex were that close.”

Maisie frowned,
fighting back the tears before she spoke again.
 
“We weren’t; not really.
 
I was on the edges of his life, never in
the center of it.”

“You would have
liked that, though, wouldn’t you?” Grace asked her softly.

I thought it
might be a little too probing a question, downright inappropriate given that
we’d just met this woman, but Maisie smiled as she shrugged slightly.
 
“More than anything else in the
world.
 
Alex was wonderful.”

I tried to
imagine anyone referring to Alex Tyler as wonderful, but I couldn’t visualize
it.
 
Maisie must have caught
something in my gaze.
 
“I realize
that he wasn’t perfect, not by any means, but that was one of the things that I
saw in him.
 
If he’d only had me by
his side, I could have helped him become the man I knew that he could be
someday.”

“I’ve tried to
fix a few men in my life before, too,” Grace said in consolation as she sat
down across from Maisie in a comfortable-looking chair.
 
“It
never
worked out the way I hoped.”

“This time it would
have been different,” she said stubbornly.

I had to end this
line of conversation.
 
“I’m sure
you’re right.
 
Do you have any idea
who might have wanted to hurt him?”

Maisie looked
startled by the thought.
 
“Do you
think someone from Granite Meadows might have done it?
 
How did he die, anyway?
 
I just assumed that it was in the line
of duty in his new job.”

“As a matter of
fact, somebody poisoned him,” I said.

Maisie frowned
for a moment as she took all of that in, and then she looked at both of us a
little harder.
 
“You two aren’t with
the police, are you?
 
Neither one of
you are wearing uniforms, and I haven’t seen any badges since you’ve been here.”

“They put the
poison they used to kill him in a cup of coffee that I sell at my donut shop,”
I explained.
 
“I wasn’t there when
it happened, but folks are wondering if my staff might have had something to do
with it.
 
I need to prove that they
didn’t.”

“How can you be
so sure that they weren’t involved?” Maisie asked me pointedly.

“I’d stake my
life on their innocence,” I said.
 
“Besides, if I thought they could be guilty, would I be in Granite
Meadows trying to find the real killer?”

“You might if you
were looking for a scapegoat to blame it all on,” Maisie said.
 
This woman was savvier than she’d first
seemed.

“If I were going
to do that,” I said reasonably, “I would have stayed closer to home where I
know everyone.
 
Alex didn’t make
many friends in the short time he was in April Springs.”

Defending the man
even after his death, Maisie said, “He was hard to get to know at first, but
once you did, you’d all have seen what a great guy he was.”

“Maybe so, but
we’ve heard rumors that there were folks here who never got to that point,
either,” Grace said.
 
It wasn’t hard
to imagine that it was true, but we hadn’t heard anything that supported
it.
 
My friend was taking a shot in
the dark hoping to hit something that might eventually resemble a lead.

Maisie suddenly
looked uncomfortable.
 
“Sure, there
were a few folks who had problems with Alex in town.”

“Would you care
to share any names with us?” I asked gently.

“I don’t know if
I should,” she said after a moment’s pause.
 
“I don’t want to point any fingers.”

“Even if it might
mean helping us catch his killer?” Grace asked.

That clearly made
Maisie’s mind up for her.
 
“If you
have to start somewhere, it should be with Shannon Wright; that woman has to be
high on your list of suspects.
 
She
was his ex-wife, and she hated him.
 
I can tell you for a fact that woman’s heart is made from ice, not stone,
and if anybody wanted to see Alex dead, it had to be her.”

“Does she still
happen to live in town?” I asked.

“She does.”
 

After Maisie
provided the address, Grace asked, “Who else should we speak with?”

The floodgates
were clearly now open, and Maisie seemed almost eager to share her list of
suspects with her.
 
“To be honest
with you, I never really cared much for Alex’s partner.
 
He and Alex had a pretty nasty argument
when Alex took the job in April Springs.
 
Someone actually had to call the police!
 
Can you imagine?
 
The chief himself broke it up, and believe
me, Robert Willson wouldn’t leave his desk chair for anything short of an all-out
emergency.”

“Anyone else we
should speak with?” I asked her.

“Well, Deke Marsh
has been hanging around Alex a lot lately, and they weren’t exactly best
friends, if you know what I mean.”

“What’s this
Deke’s story?” Grace asked.

“Alex arrested
him recently, but he got out on a technicality last month.
 
Since he’s been released, I’ve seen him
hanging around the building watching Alex come and go.
 
He’s somebody you should talk to, if
you’re brave enough.
 
I cross the
street whenever I see him, but that’s just me.”

“Is there anyone
else you can think of?” I asked her.

“No, not that I
know of.”
 
Maisie stood, letting the
blanket fall back to the couch.
 
“I’m feeling much better now.
 
Thanks for helping me inside.”
 
As she spoke, she kept walking us toward the front door of her
apartment.

“We’re truly sorry
for your loss,” I said, trying to delay our exit in the hopes of getting
something else out of her.

“As I said
before, ultimately, we weren’t all that close.
 
Most of our relationship took place in
my imagination.
 
It’s sad; that’s
all.”

We were at the
door now, and Grace and I really had no choice but to leave.
 
I snatched a business card from my
wallet and handed it to her.
 
It was
from the donut shop, one of a gift of a hundred from my mother last
Christmas.
 
I still had ninety-seven
left.
 
“If you think of anything or
anyone else we should consider, don’t hesitate to call.”

“I will,” she
said, and then the door closed.

I glanced at
Grace, who grinned back at me, and then she started singing, “Let it snow, let
it snow, let it snow.”

“Not today,
though,” I said.
 
“We have some
suspects to track down and interview.”