Lemon Larceny (The Donut Mysteries) (3 page)

“Surely someone
saw who was driving the truck,” I said.

“No one actually
saw the driver, but several of them did see the truck.
 
Evidently its rightful owner had left
the keys in it at the grocery store a few minutes before, and someone had taken
a little joy ride.”

“I suppose all of
those incidents could have just been unrelated,” I said, but I was basically
just trying to make my mother feel better.
 
It sounded a little too coincidental to me, but then again, maybe I was
just being paranoid.
 
Working on so
many murder cases with Grace in the past had left me watching the world with
jaded vision these days.

“Nonsense,” my
mother said.
 
“I might believe two events
were simply accidents, but three?
 
No, I’m afraid that Jean might have been right.
 
Someone was out to hurt her, and they
finally succeeded.”

A thought
suddenly occurred to me.
 
“Momma, is
that the real reason why you asked me to come with you?
 
Did Aunt Jean really want me to help
with her estate?”

“That part of it is
true enough,” my mother said gravely.
 
“I’m just asking you to take on the first task she wanted of you, along
with my sister’s other requests.
 
Suzanne, we need to figure out if this was an accident or outright
murder.
 
It’s the only way that I’m
going to ever be able to live with myself.”

I’d noticed the
word “we” the moment that she’d said it, but I wasn’t about to comment on it
just yet.
 
“One way or another, you
can’t beat yourself up about it,” I said, “no matter how it turns out.”
 
I paused, and then I asked, “How are you
going to feel if we find out that really was coldblooded murder?”

“I can live with
whatever we uncover,” Momma said firmly.
 
“It’s the not knowing that’s been killing me.”
 
She smiled gently as she added, “I know
that you’re used to working with Grace, but would I do as a substitute Watson
to your Sherlock?”

“Grace is more
than that,” I said.
 
“As far as I’m
concerned, we’re equals in our investigations.”

“I’m not
discounting her contributions, but we both know that you are the driving force
behind solving the murders you’ve looked into in the past.
 
So, what do you say?
 
Could we do this together?
 
Please?”

I couldn’t say no
to her request even if I’d wanted to.
 
There was no way that I was going to disappoint such a direct and
heartfelt plea from my mother.
 
“I’d
be honored to have you working with me.
 
There’s just one thing that we need to get straight first, though.
 
Momma, I know that you’re much wiser and
more experienced than I am in more ways than I can count, but
I’m
the one with a history of solving
murder.
 
You’re going to have to
follow my lead, and not challenge me at every turn.
 
Can you honestly do that?”

She nodded
solemnly.
 
“I can, and I will.
 
I need this, Suzanne.”

“I do, too,” I
said with fresh resolve.
 
“If
someone did kill Aunt Jean, I’m going to find them, and make sure that they are
punished for what they did.”

“
We’re
going to find them,” Momma gently corrected
me.

“We,” I agreed.

We were almost in
Maple Hollow, and Momma surprised me by heading toward town instead of Aunt
Jean’s place on the outskirts of it.
 
“Where are we going?”

“We have to get
the keys and the paperwork from her attorney before we go to the house,” Momma
said.
 
“He’s the one who called me
to tell me what happened, and he gave me instructions on what we have to do
first.”

“Do you think
that we can we trust him?” I asked her as she pulled into a parking space in
front of a small law office across from the courthouse.

“Suzanne, I’m not
sure that it would be wise to trust anyone but each other while we’re here,”
Momma said.

“You’re right, of
course,” I replied.
 
“Okay, let’s go
see where things stand.”

“Mr.
Jefferson?
 
You
were
expecting us, am I correct?” Momma asked as we walked into the
lawyer’s outer office and found a slim and handsome man about my age wearing
jeans and a faded old sweatshirt with the name DUKE emblazoned across the front
of it.

“I am.
 
You must be Mrs. Hart,” he said as he
extended a hand to my mother.
 
“As I
told you on the phone, I’m sorry for your loss.
 
I can’t believe that she’s really
gone.
 
We spoke just this morning
around seven, and three hours later, her housekeeper found her at the bottom of
the stairs.
 
You both have my
deepest and most sincere sympathies,” he added as he nodded in my direction,
though we hadn’t been introduced, he must have assumed that I was Jean’s niece.

“Thank you,” she
said as she took in his apparel once more.
 
“If this is a bad time for you, my daughter and I could come back
later.”

He seemed to realize
the inappropriateness of his attire for the first time.
 
“Are you talking about my clothes?
 
Sorry, but I own a few rental properties
on the side, and I had to stop a leaking pipe this morning, at least that’s
what Colleen Edwards told me when she called me so frantically an hour
ago.
 
I went home, changed, and then
made my way to her apartment.
 
The
‘leak’ was a worn-out washer in the sink faucet that took me all of two minutes
to replace.”

“So, you’re a
lawyer and a handyman,” I said.

He offered me a
high-wattage smile as he extended his hand.
 
“Guilty as charged.
 
You must be Suzanne.
 
It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
 
The attorney hesitated, and then he
said, “Please, I hope you’ll both call me Adam.”

“Did you really
go to Duke?” I asked him.

He glanced down
at his sweatshirt, and then he smiled.
 
“I did, but I think I learned more being a super for the college apartments
I managed than I did in law school.”

“I very much
doubt that,” Momma said.
 
“You were third
in your undergraduate class, and second in law school.”

One eyebrow shot quickly
up before he answered.
 
“Somebody’s
been spending time on Google.”

“What can I
say?
 
I like to know who I’m dealing
with,” Momma said.

“As do I,” he
answered with a smile.
 
“You make
for a fascinating study yourself.
 
You’ve hidden your tracks rather well, but I found several interesting
businesses you own portions of, and your land holdings are rather extensive as
well.”

I expected Momma
to blow up, but instead, she just smiled.
 
“It appears that I’m not the only one who knows how to manipulate a
search engine online.”

“Why do I feel so
unprepared for this meeting?” I asked them both.
 
“I didn’t bother checking anyone out.
 
 
Silly me.”

“I didn’t need to
search your name to know about you, Suzanne,” Adam said.
 
“I learned everything I needed to know
from your aunt.
 
She was a big fan
of yours, you know.”

It warmed my
heart knowing that Aunt Jean had talked about me.
 
“I can assure you that the feeling was
mutual, but I’m not sure you should believe
everything
she told you about me.”

“Trust me,
everything she said was stellar.
 
You didn’t happen to bring any donuts with you, did you?
 
Ever since Jean described them to me,
I’ve been aching for a taste myself.”

“I have some in
the car that were freshly made this morning, if you’d like them,” I said.
 
Momma had protested when I’d suggested that
we bring them, but now I was glad that I’d insisted.

“That would be
great,” he said.
 
I started to fetch
them when he added, “Maybe I can get them after our meeting.”

“That’s fine by
me,” I said.

“I understand you
have Jean’s keys,” Momma said, shifting gears back to the business at hand.
 
“If you’ll get them for us, we’ll both
get be on our way and let you go home and change.”

“I’m afraid that
it’s not going to be as simple as that,” Adam said as his smile slowly hid
behind a cloud beginning to cover his face.

“What do you
mean?
 
Are my daughter and I not my
sister’s executors?” Momma asked pointedly.

“As I told you
earlier, you are, but she left me very specific instructions I was to follow in
case of her demise, and I mean to follow them to the letter.”

“Because it’s
your job?” I asked him.

He frowned as he
shook his head.
 
“Because I gave
your aunt my word, and I
never
break it
once it’s given.
 
To me, a promise
is the most sacred contract there is in the world.”

“Then you’ve
chosen a most interesting profession for yourself,” Momma observed.

“Unfortunately,
not everyone in the world feels the way I do, but there are consequences when
someone breaks their word to me.”

“I must say, I
think you and I are going to get along just fine,” Momma said as a slow grin
started to appear.

“Perhaps you
should reserve your judgment until you hear your sister’s conditions,” Adam
said.
 
He might have been dressed as
a handyman, but there was an air of professionalism to his words that belied
his outer appearance.

Momma
sighed.
 
“I’m not about to be caught
off-guard by them.
 
Don’t forget, I
knew Jean much longer than you did.
 
What did my dear sister demand?”

He nodded as he
got down to business.
 
“Before
either one of you do anything else, I have letters for each of you to read,”
Adam explained.
 
“They are both in
my safe at the moment, so let me go get them.
 
I’ll be right back.”

After the
attorney disappeared into what had to have been his inner sanctum, I looked at
Momma and raised my eyebrows.
 
She
shook her head in reply, so I decided to bide my time.
 
It was clear that she wasn’t ready to
discuss anything about the latest twist with me, and that was something that I
could respect.
 
I was dying of
curiosity about what might be in those letters, but I knew that I’d find out
soon enough.

Adam returned a
moment later with two envelopes, both clearly written on Aunt Jean’s
stationery.
 
I had several letters at
home written on the same paper in a drawer in my bedroom back in April Springs.
 
My aunt’s missives were not to be read
and then discarded, but to be treasured for their wit, humor, and willingness
to offend just about anybody in her sights.
 
She’d missed her calling; the woman
should have written comedy professionally, in my opinion.

As Momma put a
hand out for her letter, Adam looked embarrassed as he explained, “I’m sorry,
but I’ve been instructed to read these aloud, with just the two of you
present.
 
Since this is my
secretary’s day off, that won’t be too difficult.
 
Shall we go into my office?”

“Lead the way,”
Momma said.

She and I
followed, and it was clear that Adam was doing all right for himself by the
furnishings we found inside.
 
Every
last bit of the furniture in there was made from quarter-sawn oak, an expensive
office full of items that had been masterfully built and finished.

“What a beautiful
desk,” I said as I stroked the top of the slick and polished surface.

“Thanks.
 
Everything in here was part of a
graduation present from my folks.”

“I’m surprised
they didn’t mind you starting your practice in such a small town,” I said.

“Suzanne, that’s
hardly an appropriate thing to say to someone that you just met,” Momma said.

“I don’t mind responding,”
Adam said with a rather disconcerting smile.
 
He turned to me and explained, “This town
is where my grandfather practiced law when he first started out, and I promised
him I’d spend my first few years here in private practice as well before I made
my way out into the world.”

“That was an
honorable thing for you to do,” Momma said as she checked her watch.
 
“Now, if you don’t mind, we’d like to
get started.
 
My daughter and I have
a great many things we need to accomplish in a very limited amount of time.”

“No nonsense,
exactly what I expected from you,” he said with the hint of a smile.

“Just how close
were you to my sister?” Momma asked.
 
Now who was being more curious than she should have been?

“I’m not afraid
to say that she was one of my best friends in Maple Hollow,” Adam said
proudly.
 
“I was a big fan of the
woman, and she seemed to enjoy my company as well.”

Seeing that Momma
was satisfied with his response, Adam opened the first envelope and removed its
letter.
 
Before beginning to read
it, though, the attorney looked at both of us and said, “Before I begin, you
should both know that I protested what is about to transpire, to no avail.
 
Jean had made up her mind, and she
wasn’t about to let anyone change it.
 
Is that understood?”