Lemon Larceny (The Donut Mysteries) (21 page)

She grinned.
 
“Let’s just agree that we’ve taught each
other over the years and leave it at that.
 
How does that sound to you?”

“Like a good way
to keep the peace,” I admitted.
 
“Agreed.”

“So then, where
does that leave us?”

“We still have
five solid suspects, and no alibis that disqualify any single one of them from
being on our list.”

“I hate to admit
it, but it all feels rather hopeless, doesn’t it?”

“Momma, we’re truly
making progress, even if it might not feel like it.
 
The only thing we can do is to keep
digging and see what we find.”

“Then that’s
exactly what we shall do, but not tonight.
 
I for one am finished sleuthing until I’ve had a good night’s
sleep.
 
Any objections?”

“Not a one.
 
Let’s go back to Aunt Jean’s and call it
a night.”

Chapter 18

“So, what’s our
plan for today?” Momma asked me as we finished up our early light breakfast the
next morning at my aunt’s place.
 
We’d stocked up at the grocery store on a few things on our way back
from the library the night before, grabbing some bagels, cream cheese, coffee,
and a few other items it would be nice to have on hand.

“Don’t forget
that Hank is coming by early, but before he gets here, I’d like to look at
those clues again to see if any of them make any more sense than they did when
we first found them.”

“Good.
 
I’ll go get them,” Momma said.

She came back
frowning two minutes later.
 
“They’re gone, Suzanne.”

“No they aren’t,”
I said.
 
“Sorry.
 
I forgot that I moved them to a safe
place before we saw Meredith Pence last night.
 
I stuffed them in the back of the hall
closet so no one would be able to find them.”

“Whew.
 
I was frightened that we’d lost them for
a moment.”

“I can’t believe
I forgot to tell you that I hid them.
 
Let me go grab them myself.”
 
I went into the hall closet and started rooting around where I’d left
the doll locket and my aunt’s journal the night before.
 
Seeing them together like that made me
pause to consider the possibilities of how they might be linked, but whatever
thought I’d been trying to grasp slipped away when I spotted my aunt’s jewelry
box stashed even deeper into the back of the closet.
 
I’d missed that before.

Pulling it out as
well, I went back to the kitchen and put everything I’d gathered out on the
table.

“Where did you
find Jean’s jewelry box?” Momma asked me curiously as she reached for it and
opened the lid.
 
“Did you empty it
out?”

“No, this is how
I found it,” I said.
 
It was true; there
was nothing left inside.
 
“Could she
have emptied it herself?”

“I doubt it.
 
Jean always kept this on her
dresser.
 
What was it doing in the
back of the closet?”

“Obviously
someone didn’t want us to find it.”
 
I picked the box back up and looked at the top of it.
 
“There’s a very light layer of dust on
top of it if you look closely enough.”

“How odd,” Momma
said.

I kept staring at
the box, and after a moment, I said, “I have an idea.”

“Well, don’t keep
it to yourself,” Momma said.

“Let me check
something first,” I replied as I went straight to the hidden window seat.
 
Placing the jewelry box carefully onto
the floor, I saw immediately that it matched the dustless imprint perfectly.

“So, it appears
that my sister hid it up there, but someone found it, anyway.”

“And emptied it
out in the process,” I said as I shut the top of the lid.

“Aren’t you going
to take the jewelry box back out?” Momma asked.

“Why bother?
 
Besides, whoever stashed it in the
closet would never look for it where they originally found it.”

“Does it even
matter at this point?
 
After all, it
was empty.”

“Maybe so, but
there may be more to it than that, and I don’t want it getting away again.”

As we walked back
into the kitchen, Momma said, “I somehow feel violated knowing that someone
robbed my sister when she died.”

“It probably
happens more than we realize,” I said.

“What a grisly
thought,” she replied.
 
Shaking her
head a few times, it seemed to me as though she were trying to wipe away the
image in her mind.
 
“At least we
have two other clues still in our possession.”

“For what good
they are doing us,” I said as I picked up the locket and journal again.
 
“Do you have any new thoughts on what the
note we found might mean?”

“I’m sorry.
 
J:P24, S5
means nothing to me,” she said.

“For some reason,
I think that they might be related.
 
Why else would Aunt Jean split the clues to us like that?
 
Nothing else makes sense.
 
She clearly didn’t want someone
stumbling across both the locket and journal.
 
There’s got to be a way that they are connected.”

“If there is, I
haven’t the foggiest idea of how they could be linked,” Momma said.
 
“Jean was always reading Nancy Drew
books as a child.
 
It wouldn’t
surprise me if she mimicked something that she read once.
 
My sister had a tendency sometimes of
being a little too clever for her own good.
 
Not that I didn’t love her,” Momma added
hastily, lest she sound as though she were criticizing her late sister.

“Of course you
loved her.
 
We both did,” I
said.
 
Staring at that cryptic
message, I had a sudden thought.
 
Aunt Jean had directed Momma to the doll, which had the locket attached
to it, while she’d sent me to the jewelry box and the journal itself.
 
Were we now missing a vital part of the
clue since someone robbed her, or was there enough in our hands to figure it
out?

I was still
staring at the journal when the front door rang.

“That will
probably be Hank,” Momma said.
 
“Perhaps you should put those things away for safe keeping.”

“I could always just
shove them back in the closet,” I suggested.

“I’m not at all
sure that’s a very good idea.
 
What
if the jewelry thief comes back looking for the box he discarded?
 
We don’t want anyone stumbling onto the
clues that we’ve found ourselves.”

“I’m open to
suggestions, but it needs to be quick,” I said as the doorbell rang again.

“You get the door
while I hide these,” Momma said.

I wasn’t exactly
in any position to argue with her, though I would have liked to have stashed
the clues myself.
 
It wasn’t that I
didn’t trust my mother; it was just that I hated giving up control of any part
of an investigation once I was involved in it.
 
It wasn’t a very pretty side of my
personality; I knew that, but I couldn’t help myself.
 
I justified it because I’d had a great
deal more experience than my mother in conducting criminal investigations, but
I wasn’t sure that was the only reason I wanted to lead every part of this.

When I opened the
front door, I was surprised to see the attorney, Adam Jefferson, standing there
instead of the handyman.
 
“Oh, it’s
you,” I said when I saw who it was.

“Well, I’ve got
to admit that I’ve had warmer welcomes in my life, but we lawyers must take
what we can get,” he said with a smile.
 
“I brought coffee and donuts, if that helps,” he said as he held the
tray aloft.

“Thanks for the
offer, but we’ve already eaten,” I said.

“Why doesn’t that
surprise me?
 
You said that you were
an early riser.”
 
Adam looked at the
bag, and then he asked, “Was it thoughtless of me to bring a donutmaker fresh donuts
for breakfast?”

“No, it’s fine,”
I said, though the only donuts I usually ate were samples of new varieties I
was trying out.
 
I’d eaten quite a
few when I’d first started running Donut Hearts, but it hadn’t taken long for
me to get over that.
 
“Come on in.”

“Thank you.”
 
As he looked into the living room, he
saw the plywood over the window.
 
“What happened there?”

“Someone threw a
brick through our window last night,” I said.

He looked at me
skeptically as he asked, “You’re kidding, right?”

“Counselor, do I
look
like I’m kidding?”

Adam shook his
head.
 
“What is this town coming
to?
 
I can’t believe the number of
random acts of violence that have been happening around here lately.”

“There was
nothing random about this, I’m afraid,” I said as Momma walked into the room
and joined us.

“Oh, hello, Mr.
Jefferson.
 
I wasn’t expecting to
see you this morning.”

“Clearly I should
have called first and warned you both,” he said to her before turning back to
me.
 
“Suzanne, how do you know that this
wasn’t random?”

“There was a note
wrapped around the brick,” I said.

“May I see it?”
he asked.

“Sorry, but the
police chief took it with him last night, along with the brick itself, not that
it’s going to do him any good.
 
I’ve
got a strong suspicion that there weren’t any fingerprints on the paper, and
I’m guessing that not even the latest police technology could lift them from a
rough surface like the face of a brick.”
 
I glanced at Momma and gave my head a slight shake.
 
I didn’t want her bringing up the fact
that I had a photo of the note on my cellphone.
 
Fortunately, she read my signal and kept
silent.

“What exactly did
it say?” the attorney asked.

“I don’t remember
the exact wording,” I lied, “but the implication was that we weren’t welcome
here, and that we should both leave as quickly as we could.”

The attorney shook
his head again.
 
“I just don’t
understand.
 
There’s got to be more
to it than that.”

“You could always
ask the police chief about it yourself.
 
Counselor, it’s not that we aren’t happy to have you here, but to what
do we owe the pleasure of your company so early this morning?”

He shrugged.
 
“I’m afraid that I’ve got some bad news
for you.”

“Go on.
 
I’m listening,” I said.

“I’ve been
looking over your aunt’s estate, and it appears that it’s not nearly as
substantial as I’d thought it was yesterday.”

“Frankly, that’s
the least of my worries right now.
 
I honestly don’t care if I don’t get a dime,” I said.

“Suzanne, let’s
not be hasty,” Momma said before she turned to the attorney.
 
“Mr. Jefferson, I understood that my
sister owned not just this property, but several others in the area.
 
In fact, unless I’m mistaken, you were
interested in purchasing some of her land yourself.”

“I was, but it
seems that it wasn’t hers to sell, at least not anymore.
 
She donated the property, along with
most of the rest of her liquid assets, to the LPCS.”

“What is that,
some sort of cult?” Momma asked as she frowned mightily.

“Some people
might think so, especially land developers in the region.
 
The full legal name of the group is the
Land Preservation and Conservation Society.
 
She didn’t want her land built on after
she was gone.
 
Sorry to bring you
such bad news so early, but I didn’t want you to overextend yourself
financially based on what I told you earlier.”

“As I said
before, it’s fine with me.
 
If
that’s what my aunt wanted to do with her land, then I’m happy that she donated
it while she was alive and had a chance to feel good about her contributions.”
 
I hadn’t even entertained the thought of
getting rich off my aunt’s demise.
 
All I’d wanted was to hear her laugh one last time.
 

Everything else
was tied for last place.

“On the bright
side, you still inherit this house and everything in it, including her jewelry,”
the attorney said, trying to soften the blow.

“That’s—” Momma
started to say, but I interrupted and finished for her.
 
“Excellent,” I added.

“Well, I just
thought you should know before you made any big plans,” the attorney said.

Before he could leave,
I said, “You never told us exactly where you were when my aunt died.”

“I thought we’d
already cleared that up.
 
I was home
eating cereal when she called me, and then later I was at Colleen Edwards’
fixing a leaking washer.”

“Actually,
there’s at least an hour gap in there, given what you told us before.”

The attorney
shrugged.
 
“I just assumed that you
wouldn’t need to know that I finished breakfast after I spoke with your aunt,
went for a run, took a shower, got dressed, came into the office early, and
then I had to go back home again and change clothes when Colleen called.”