Lemon Larceny (The Donut Mysteries) (4 page)

“So, you’re privy
to the information written in there?” Momma asked as she pointed to the letter
in his hand.

“I am,” he
said.
 
“Is that acceptable to you?”

My mother laughed
a little, and then she asked, “Does it really matter how I feel about it at
this point?”

“Actually, it
does, a great deal at that.
 
Jean
left me instructions that if either one of you failed to accept her terms and
conditions, you were to be relieved of your executorships, and an alternate
clause will be enacted instead.”

“If she felt that
way, then she was pretty serious about it,” I said.
 
“That’s all I need to know.
 
I’m game for whatever she’s got in store
for us.” I turned to my mother and asked, “How about you?”

“Of course I’ll
do it,” Momma said.
 
“My sister knew
perfectly well that I wouldn’t be able to say no to her, in this life or the
next.”

“Good,” Adam
said.
 
“Then let’s begin.

“Dot, I’ve never been all that fond of
good-byes, you know that more than anyone else in the world, so I’ll spare us
both any maudlin musings from beyond the grave.
 
Suffice it to say that you were the best
baby sister a gal could ever hope to have, and I was proud to be related to
you.
 
Don’t grieve for me too long,
lil sis.
 
We both know that I was
living on borrowed time.
 
It just
irks me to the core to know that it was cut short before it was my time to go.”

Adam looked up at
her.
 
“Does that make sense to you?”

“As a matter of
fact, it does,” my mother answered.
 
“Out of curiosity, when were these letters written?”

Adam frowned for
a moment before he spoke.
 
“Do you
mean these drafts?
 
Jean gave them
to me two days ago.”

“So, there were
other versions before these letters?” I asked.

“There were three
others,” he said.
 
“She was most
emphatic about this round in particular, though.
 
They had to be done immediately, and
Jean showed a compelling sense of urgency that I didn’t understand at the
time.”

We did, though, I
thought silently to myself.

“Please continue,”
Momma said with her bravest face in place.
 
I knew that she was in some real pain from losing her sister, but all I
could do was reach out and pat her hand.
 
It wasn’t much, but at least she knew that I was there for her, in
whatever way she needed me to be.
 

I just hoped that
it would be enough.

Adam nodded and
resumed reading aloud.

“Dot, you need to be there for Suzanne, to
help her in any way that you can.
 
Lil
sis, I know how much you love being in charge, but this is mainly your
daughter’s task, not yours.
 
Your sole
responsibility is to help her, and allow her take the lead.
 
I’m not asking; I’m telling, so no sass
from you, young lady.”

For some odd
reason, that made Momma smile, if only for a second.

“That’s it, then.
 
You know how much I love you, so I won’t
get all mushy on you and make both of us uncomfortable.
 
It’s been a real treat being so close to
you, lil sis.
 
Take care of you, and
that precious kid of yours, too.”

Adam folded the
letter up and returned it to its envelope before handing it to Momma.

“Is it mine to
keep?” Momma asked as she clutched the envelope so hard that it folded in on
itself in her grasp.

“I was required
to read it aloud, and then hand it directly to you.”

I took a deep
breath and let it out slowly, knowing that now it was my turn.
 
“Okay.
 
Go on.
 
I’m ready to hear my letter now.”

The attorney
nodded gravely, and then he began to read again, but this time it was
different.

This one was to
me.

“Suzie Q, you are my sunshine, my only
sunshine.
 
What a delight it’s been
to have you in my life.
 
You were
everything this crazy aunt could have ever hoped for.
 
When your heart was breaking, mine died
a little with you, and when you were happy, my soul soared right beside
you.
 
Neither time nor distance
could ever separate us, and even though we hadn’t seen much of each other
lately, please know that you were in my heart each and every day.
 
If you’ve spoken to your mother about
her last visit, which I suspect you have, you know what your job is now.
 
Dream with me of far away places, and
see what there is to see.
 
I love
you more than life itself, kiddo.
 
Be good to yourself, and to anyone who’s lucky enough to earn your
love.”

Adam put the
letter back into its envelope and handed mine to me.
 
“I have no idea what some of this
means.
 
I just hope that you do.”

“Aunt Jean could
be mysterious when she wanted to be,” I said as I tried my best not to burst
out crying at the thought of the sentiments she’d just conveyed.
 
There were indeed hidden references in
my letter, but I wasn’t about to explain them to the attorney.
 
I figured if Jean had wanted him to know
more, she would have been a little more forthcoming in her letter than she’d
been.
 
That didn’t necessarily make
him a suspect in her mind, but it wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, either.
 
For now, until I learned differently,
Adam Jefferson was going to have to be satisfied without any clarifying answers
from me.

The attorney
shrugged after hearing my response, and then he reached into a desk drawer and
handed a ring of keys to my mother.
 
“This meeting was held strictly at the request of Jean.
 
I did it as a favor to her, not as her
attorney, but as her friend.
 
You
should know that the formal reading of the will comes after the services in
three days, but according to her instructions, I’ll need to see you both again
tomorrow.
 
I can come to you at the
house, or you can both come here.
 
Don’t worry; we don’t have to decide that right now.
 
Oh, and one other thing.
 
Jean instructed me to tell you that you
are both to stay in her house until the will is read.
 
She was most emphatic about it, so I trust
that’s acceptable.”

“I was aware of
her desires before we came here today,” my mother said.
 
“Is there someone in town I should see
about making arrangements for her interment?”

“That’s all been
taken care of,” Adam said.
 
“The
bills were all paid in full and every last detail has been decided.
 
All you have left to do is grieve for
your loss.”

“Thank you,”
Momma said as she stood.
 
“Let’s go,
Suzanne.”

I paused and
reminded the attorney, “I’ve got those donuts out in the trunk.”

“Super,” he said,
and he followed us outside.
 
I
handed them to him, and he opened the lid with great relish.
 
“These smell wonderful.
 
Now I owe you both a meal.
 
How about dinner?”

I was about to
accept when Momma said, “Thank you, but we’ll be quite busy for the rest of the
day.
 
Perhaps another time.
 
Good-bye, Mr. Jefferson, and thank you
for everything.”

“It’s Adam,” he
reminded her, but Momma didn’t respond as we drove off, leaving him standing
there in the street watching us as our car disappeared from view.

Chapter 6

Once we were
gone, I said, “Well, that was a bit cold, even for you.”

“What are you
talking about, Suzanne?” Momma asked as she glanced over at me.

“He was just trying
to be helpful,” I said.

“Perhaps,” my
mother replied.

“Are you saying
that you don’t think he was trying to help us?” I asked her.

Instead of
answering my question directly, she asked one of her own instead.
 
“Suzanne, he asked a great many
questions, don’t you think?”

I considered
it.
 
“Maybe he was just curious
about what Aunt Jean meant in her letters.
 
If you didn’t know the backstories, they must have sounded fairly odd.
 
If they were indeed friends, he had a
reason to want to know, especially given her sense of urgency.”

“Perhaps you’re
right, but until we know more about his relationship with my sister, I plan to
keep him in the dark.”
 
Momma
hesitated, and then she added, “I noticed that you didn’t rush to explain the
clues in your letter to him, either.”

“There were clues
in yours, too?” I asked her.
 
“What
were they?”

“There was nothing
all that significant to anyone who didn’t know her as well as I did, but they
were there nonetheless,” Momma said.
 
“The most glaring hints were the continual references to ‘lil sis.’
 
They weren’t about me, Suzanne.
 
 
Lil Sis was Jean’s favorite doll as a
child.
 
It was the only one she
still kept in her bedroom as an adult.
 
I’m wondering if she didn’t leave us more information hidden somewhere
close to her.”

“And the other
clues?”

“Nothing else was
quite that specific.
 
It just seemed
that she was eager for me to see what secrets Lil Sis might be hiding.
 
Now it’s your turn, Suzanne.”

“Sunshine and dreams,”
I said simply.

“You’re going to
have to give me more than that to work with,” Momma insisted.

“The repeated
sunshine reference has to refer to the hidden compartment in her window seat,”
I said.
 
“She always used to sing
that song when she sat there with me when I was younger.”

“I remember that
now,” Momma said.
 
“And the dream
reference?”

“It has to be the
attic where the skylight is,” I said.
 
“Aunt Jean told me more than once that was where our dreams escaped the
earth and flew up into the sky to join everyone else’s, where wishes came true
and memories were stored forever.”

“That sounds exactly
like something my sister would say,” she said.

“Momma, I can’t
wait to see what she hid for us.”

It turned out
that it was going to have to wait after all.

When we got to
the house, it was clear that someone else was already there.
 

The lights were
on throughout the place in the fading light of day, and the front door was
standing wide open.

Someone who
didn’t belong was on the premises, and we needed to find out what they were
doing there.

“Should we call
the police?” I asked Momma as we parked out front and stared at the open front
door of the house.

“I don’t think
so,” my mother said.

“Why on earth
wouldn’t we?”

“I’m sure it’s
perfectly harmless,” Momma said as she shut off the engine.
 
“There’s got to be a reasonable
explanation for what’s going on.”

“Maybe so, but
what if there isn’t?”
 
I grabbed her
arm before she could get out.
 
“Momma, we have to take this seriously.
 
If Aunt Jean was right, then someone
killed her this morning.
 
That means
that there is a murderer out there somewhere who is desperate enough to
kill.
 
I’m calling the police.”

“Suzanne, I think
you’re overreacting,” she said with a sigh.

“I very well could
be, but then again, if we go inside without knowing what’s in store for us, we
might be doing something really stupid that could have easily been
avoided.”
 
I dialed 911 and got a
police dispatcher immediately.
 
“Hi,
this is Suzanne Hart.
 
I’m at Jean
Davidson’s place, and we believe that someone might have just broken in.”

“I’ll get the
chief for you right away,” the woman said, and twenty seconds later, a man
picked up the line.

“This is Chief Kessler,”
he said.
 
“What’s this I hear about
Jean’s place being broken into?”

“I’m Suzanne
Hart, her niece, and I’m here with my mother, Jean’s sister.
 
We are supposed to be the only ones with
keys to the place, and yet the lights are on and the front door is standing
wide open.”

“I’ll be there in
thirty seconds,” he said.
 
“Stay away
from that house in the meantime.”

“Don’t worry,
Chief.
 
We plan to,” I said.

“I still think
this is unnecessary,” Momma said after I hung up the phone.

“Momma, this
might be serious.
 
You need to stop
thinking like a civilian and start acting as though there’s a target on your
back.”

“It sounds a bit paranoid
to me, Suzanne.”

“I once read that
just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get you
anyway.”

“Is that how you
live your life?” Momma asked me, clearly disapproving of my behavior.