Bad Bites: Donut Mystery #16 (The Donut Mysteries) (11 page)

“Even though it means putting your mother at possible risk?” Jake asked
me.

“Between you, her new husband, and the mayor, I think she’s probably
going to be safe enough.”

“What about me?” Grace asked playfully.
 
“Who’s going to be looking after me?”

“Any man with the least sense at all will be doing that,” he said.

Grace laughed.
 
“Why, Jake,
aren’t you the charmer.”

“Yes, Jake, you really are,” I echoed.

He looked distinctly embarrassed by the exchange, so I decided to take it
easy on him.
 
After all, he’d gone
out on limb agreeing to come with us this weekend, and I didn’t want him to
regret it.
 
“Okay,” I said, “we’ve
got one way to stir up trouble.
 
What else can we come up with?”

“We have a little more time.
 
Why don’t we talk about our suspects and go around the car and say why
we think each one of them might have done it?” Grace asked.

I thought that was a great idea, and I was about to start when Jake said,
“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” I asked him.
 

“You two can talk all you want to, but I can’t just share the information
that I’ve gathered in my official capacity with civilians.”

“We won’t tell anyone you said anything,” Grace said encouragingly.

Jake laughed.
 
“Sorry.
 
We can talk about anything else in the
world, but I’m not willing to exchange what I’ve learned so far just yet.”

“If you won’t talk, then we won’t, either,” Grace said, and then she
turned to me.
 
“Right, Suzanne?”

“The rain is really starting to pound down,” I said as I glanced out the
front windshield.
 
It had been
coming down the entire trip up the mountain, but it was really picking up steam
now.

“Are you just trying to change the subject?” Jake asked me.

“That, too, but it’s really pouring up ahead.”
 
I peered through the windshield again,
and I could see a wave of rain hurtling toward us.
 
My headlights were already on, but I
kicked my wiper blades up to their fastest speed and prepared myself for the
coming deluge.
 
The Jeep did well in
most inclement weather, but I still wanted to be ready for the wall of rain
when it hit us.

Thirty seconds later, having a conversation was nearly impossible anyway,
as the interior of my car was filled with the sound of rain slamming down on
it.
 
I had to focus everything I had
to keep us on the road, and thankfully, my passengers didn’t even try to engage
me in conversation.
 
I was happy
that we’d brought my Jeep.
 
I wasn’t
at all sure that we would have made it in Grace’s company car.

The downpour finally eased up a little, and I let out a deep sigh as my
grip loosened on the steering wheel.
 
“That was pretty intense.”

“We’re supposed to get rain all weekend,” Jake said.

“How do you know that?”
 

“I heard it on the news.”
 
Jake paused, and then he added, “You know, even if I can’t talk about
the case, maybe we can brainstorm about some ideas about how we might trap the
killer.”

“That sounds like fun,” Grace said, and she started throwing out some
pretty outlandish ideas.

“Within reason,” Jake corrected her with a laugh.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were going to limit me.
 
That might take a little more thought.”

By the time we got to the lodge, an imposing old log building aptly named
Storm Cloud, we had a few other tricks up our sleeves.
 
I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to use
them all, but it was nice knowing that we were ready to step in and cause a
little trouble for our suspects if the need arose.

Chapter 14

“Welcome to Storm Cloud,” Shelly said quickly, meeting us as we piled out
of the Jeep.
 
In a rush, we started grabbing
our overnight bags and running under the cover of the expansive front porch
before we got too soaked in the cold rain.
 
Once we were under the safety of the roof, she added, “I’d have had some
of my bellboys take those for you, but unfortunately, we’re all alone up here.”

“Who’s going to cook?” Jake asked.

“Oh, I’m quite the little chef, even if I say so myself,” she said as she
ran a hand through her wet hair.
 
“The pantry’s well stocked, so we won’t go wanting for food.
 
You might have to pitch in and make a
bed or two or even help wash the dishes, though.”

“I believe that I can do both of those things with a modicum of skill,”
he answered.

“Don’t worry about it,” Shelly said with a hint of a smile.
 
“The dishwasher is automatic, and
everybody can make their own beds, as far as I’m concerned.
 
I don’t mind pampering my guests, but
all four of us know that it’s likely that a killer is going to be among us this
weekend.”

“No one else has beat us here yet, have they?” I asked Shelly as I looked
out onto the empty parking lot.
 
There were puddles everywhere, and more were forming by the minute.
 
We were really in the middle of a
genuine deluge.

“Not so far.
 
Have you had any
late additions to our slate of visitors?”

“Just one,” I answered.
 
“Vince
Dade decided to come after all.
 
Is
that going to be a problem?”

“No, the room’s already set.
 
You know what’s so ironic?”

“What’s that?” I asked her.

“Chester would have loved this,” she said with a sigh.

“I don’t understand,” Grace said.

“Oh, I don’t mean the murder investigation.
 
I’m talking about having so many folks
from April Springs coming up here.
 
For some reason, he really loved that town of yours.”

“I can testify that there’s a lot to be said for the place myself,” Jake
said softly.
 
I hoped someday that
he’d settle there, maybe even sooner rather than later, but it wasn’t anything
that I would ever ask him about.
 
If
he didn’t know that he was welcome, in my cottage as well as my town, then I
wasn’t exactly sure how else I could show it.

“Is that safe?” I asked as I looked at the stream running beside the road.
 
It was clearly beginning to expand its
way toward us, and it didn’t look as though it would take a lot more
precipitation to push it over its banks.

“Don’t worry.
 
It’s flooded a
few times in the past, but we’ll have to get a lot more rain for it to do that
again.”

“That’s exactly what we’re supposed to be getting,” Jake said ominously.

Grace broke in, holding her cell phone in the air and waving it around.
 
“I can’t get a signal.”

“And you’re probably not going to, either,” Shelly said.
 
“This place is pretty remote, but don’t
worry, we have a landline if you need it.”

“Does that mean that there’s no Internet?” she asked in obvious distress.

“We’re a mountain getaway, after all,” Shelly said.
 
“It’s a place where you’re meant to get
in touch with yourself, not the rest of the world.”

“Okay,” she said reluctantly.
 
“If you say so.”
 
Grace
tucked her phone back into her purse, and I could see that she was having
second thoughts about my idea.
 
I
wasn’t all that dependent on the Internet myself, but even I liked to touch
base with the outside world every now and then.
 
Maybe it would give us the opportunity
to focus more on our suspects than anything else.

“So, where are we staying?” I asked as we walked into the lobby, a large
expanse enclosed by thick honey-stained logs.
 
A massive stone fireplace occupied the
center of the room, and the check-in desk was off to one side.
 
A fire was blazing in the hearth, and I
could feel some of the heat coming off it.
 
That was how it should be, in my opinion.

“Let me grab you all some keys,” Shelly said.
 
As she handed them out, she explained,
“Grace, you’re in #10.”
 
After she
handed the key to my best friend, she said, “I put the Hoffs in #1, Kevin Leeds
in #2, and I left #3 open for Vince Dade.
 
Then #4 is for Chief Martin and Dot,
while #5 is for the mayor.
 
That
leaves 6, 7, 8, and 9.
 
Would the
two of you be needing one room, or two?”

It was so discreet a way to ask if Jake and I would be sharing a room
that it was all I could do not to laugh.
 
Instead of answering her directly, I turned to my boyfriend and looked
at him expectantly.
 
He took the
hint, and then he answered for himself.
 
“Better give me #6 and put Suzanne in #9.”

“Are you trying to shield me from the killer?” I asked Jake, amused that
he’d put himself as far away from me as he could with the rooms that Shelly had
left.
 
Was he honestly afraid of
what my mother might think?
 
I was a
grown woman, divorced and living on my own again, but even if none of that were
true, there was nothing that said I had to stay in the room that had been
assigned to me.

“No, but I’m probably going to be keeping some strange hours while we’re
here, so it’s probably best this way.
 
Is that all right with you?”

“Hey, if she gets lonely, she can always come bunk with me,” Grace said
with a laugh.

“Be careful.
 
I might just
take you up on that,” I said.

“My door’s always open, especially since my boyfriend is back in April
Springs keeping the town safe from armed desperados.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jake said, “but he does have a lot on his
plate at the moment, even without the murder investigation.
 
It’s not easy overseeing an entire town,
something that he’s about to find out for himself.”

“Are you saying that I’d just be a distraction if I were back there with
him?” Grace asked, clearly enjoying baiting my boyfriend a little.

I would have stepped in and stopped it, but Jake was perfectly capable of
handling things himself.
 
All I did
was step back and enjoy the show.
 
“Grace,
you know as well as I do that you can be a distraction wherever you are.”

My best friend turned to me and asked with a wink, “Suzanne, is your
boyfriend actually flirting with me?”

“Not that I could tell,” I said with a smile.
 
“He’s just telling the truth.
 
You do seem to get more than your share
of attention.”

“Can I help it if I’m interesting?” she asked with a smile.

“Sure, let’s call it interesting,” I said as I laughed.

Shelly was clearly uncertain about what to make of our playful
sparring.
 
“May I show you to your
rooms?”

“Don’t worry.
 
We can find
them ourselves,” I said as I grabbed my key.
 
“After all, you’ve got to get ready for
your other guests.”

“I’ve got plenty of time,” Shelly said.
 
“After all, they aren’t due to arrive
for another hour.”

That’s when we heard a car horn outside in the parking lot.

Evidently someone had decided to get there early.

That meant that the show was about to start.

I just hoped that my plan worked.
 
At its best, we’d catch a murderer, but at its worst, someone who was
innocent might die.

The odds weren’t bad, but the stakes were high.
 
But in the end, I knew that it was the
only game in town, and I honestly believed that we didn’t have any other
choice.

One way or the other, we were committed now.

Chapter 15

“Do you honestly expect us to carry our own bags?” Maggie Hoff asked as
she burst in through the front door of the lodge.
 
She was soaked from the brief dash to
cover, and the woman looked perfectly miserable.
 
“I should have known that this ‘free’
trip was going to be worth every penny that it’s costing us.”

“We’re shorthanded, it’s true,” Shelly said evenly, “but that doesn’t
mean that you can’t enjoy your stay with us.”

“Enjoyment was never offered to us as part of the deal,” Maggie said as
she glanced over at me.
 
“What on
earth is keeping my husband?”

Nathan came in a little less animated than his wife had been, but that
was perfectly understandable, given the fact that he was weighed down by five
pieces of not-insubstantial luggage.
 
“Where should I put these?” he asked as he started to set the bags down
on the lobby floor.

“I’ll be glad to show you to your room,” Shelly said as she grabbed their
key.

Maggie didn’t look very pleased about that, and I had to wonder if she’d
been hoping for a room by herself.
 
We could have easily accommodated her, but that wouldn’t have allowed us
to add the extra pressure of having her in such close proximity to her
husband.
 
That probably wouldn’t be
that big an issue for most couples, but we knew that Maggie had been cheating
on Nathan with Chester for quite some time.
 
I had to wonder if they shared a bedroom
at home, but they weren’t going to have any choice here.
 
I knew lots of married couples that
enjoyed their own private spaces when it came to sleep, and I had to wonder how
it would impact these two being jammed together in a single room.

As Shelly led them to their accommodations, I asked Jake, “Is the fact
that they showed up early going to influence our plans any?”

“Well, I was hoping to get a better idea of the hotel layout before our
first suspects arrived, but we’ll find a way to deal with it,” Jake
acknowledged.

Grace chimed in.
 
“There are
guest rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and this lobby.
 
What else do you need to know?”

“You just mentioned the main rooms,” Jake said, “but I’ve seen at least five
other doors that I don’t know what they’re hiding.
 
Let’s not forget that a killer is going
to be staying here with us this weekend.
 
The more information I have about this place, the better I can prepare
myself.”

“Don’t worry,” I said as I patted his arm.
 
“We’ll get a tour from Shelly as soon as
the Hoffs are in their room.
 
I’m
sure that they’re going to at least want to change into dry clothes, so that
should give us some time to scope out the lay of the land.”

“Okay, I can live with that,” Jake said as we both spotted Grace waving
her cellphone around as though it were a flag in a Fourth of July parade.
 
“Shelly already told you that there was
no signal up here.”

“She could be wrong, couldn’t she?” Grace asked as she continued to
search for a signal.
 
“This phone is
the latest thing in personal communication devices, and the guy who sold it to
me said that I could pick up a tower practically anywhere.”
 
After trying in vain for another few
seconds, she put it back in her purse and added, “Apparently not here, though.”

“It’s okay,” I said calmly, trying to reassure her.
 
“The world will keep on spinning, even
if we’re a bit out of touch with it at the moment.”

“That remains to be seen,” Grace said.

Shelly rejoined us with the hint of a smile on her lips.
 

“What’s so funny?” I asked her.

“Not funny, really, just amusing.
 
Apparently the missus isn’t pleased with her accommodations.”

“What did she expect?” I asked.

“I’m guessing five-star treatment and a wing to herself at a minimum,”
Shelly said.
 
“Not to worry.
 
I’ve dealt with her type before.
 
I can handle her.”

“You never finished your tour,” Jake reminded her.

“Okay, but we’ll have to make it quick.
 
Nathan warned me that the rest of our
suspects would probably show up early as well.”

“How could he possibly know that?” Grace asked her.

“Evidently the Hoffs saw Vince Dade and Kevin Leeds both filling up at
the gas station at the bottom of the hill.”

“Were they together?” I asked.

“No, not from the sound of it.
 
Still, we don’t have much time.
 
Okay, here goes.
 
That door
is a broom closet, and this one leads to the mechanical room,” she said as she
pointed to the two closest doors to us.

“What about the others?” Jake asked.

“The third room in line is where we keep some of our overflow supplies
like toilet paper, tissues, and paper towels, and the next door goes down to
the bomb shelter.”

“You’ve actually got a bomb shelter on site here?” I asked her.

“It’s really just for storms, but I’ve called it the bomb shelter forever,
so the name kind of stuck.”

“Is there any chance that I could look around down there?” Jake asked.

“Not unless you can swim,” Shelly said with a bit of a frown.
 
“When we have a heavy rain like today,
it starts filling up with overflow water from the stream.”

“How can it be called a storm shelter if it does that?” I asked her.

“That’s kind of why I call it a bomb shelter.
 
As a storm shelter, it’s a real
bomb.
 
Get it?”

“Okay, what else have we missed?” Jake asked, ignoring her attempt at
humor.

Shelly thought about it a moment, and then she explained, “There’s just
one more door down here that you haven’t seen yet.
 
That’s another closet that houses all of
our games.”

“Do you mean like board games?” I asked her.

“Those are there, but we have some outside sports as well, like
badminton, volleyball, just general summer-camp kind of stuff.
 
To be honest with you, it’s a huge closet,
and I haven’t inventoried it forever.
 
It’s hard to say what exactly is in there at the moment.
 
The previous owners were pack rats, and cleaning
that room out was one job that I just never got around to.”

“I’ll check it out later,” Jake said.
 
“One more thing.
 
I’ve noticed that you have candles and
flashlights stashed all over the place.
 
Do you lose power a lot here?”

Shelly nodded.
 
“More than I’d
like.
 
The problem is that our power
lines come in through the trees, and sometimes trees are taken down in storms.”

“Why don’t you have buried cables?” I asked her.

“Too expensive,” she explained.
 
“We’re running on a razor-thin profit margin here as it is, so we save
money every way that we can.
 
I hope
this was a good idea inviting everyone up here during a storm,” Shelly added,
and for the first time since we’d arrived, she looked a little concerned about
the situation we’d created.

“Don’t worry.
 
I’m sure that
it’s all going to turn out fine,” I said.

“Let’s see,” Jake said with the hint of a smile.
 
“We’ve invited a murderer to join us up
here, along with three other people we suspect are capable of committing the
crime, and more innocent folks are joining us as well.
 
There’s a storm raging outside, the
basement is filling up with water, not to mention the overflowing stream just
outside the front door, and the power is questionable at best.
 
Sure, you’re right.
 
What could possibly go wrong?”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Grace said with a laugh.
 
“Jake, I didn’t know that sarcasm was
one of your verbal weapons of choice, but I like it.”

He chose to ignore her comment.
 
“Like I said before, we need to be ready for anything.”

“Don’t worry so much.
 
We’re
ready,” I said, though I was less confident than I might have sounded.
 
I had been concerned about my plan
before, but when Jake laid all of the perils out so succinctly, it sounded a
bit like sheer lunacy to me now.

Jake was about to respond when the front door opened again, and I watched
as Vince Dade struggled to close it when Kevin Leeds swept in behind him.

“Hey, watch it,” Kevin said as he entered the lodge.

“Sorry,” Vince said, though he didn’t sound as though he was sorry at
all.
 
“I didn’t see you there.”

“How bad is it getting out there?” Shelly asked a little anxiously.

“I followed this guy up the road,” Kevin said as he pointed to Vince
Dade.
 
“If I hadn’t been on his bumper
the entire time, I don’t think I would have made it.”

“You could have always turned back,” Vince said as he took his hat off
and shook it off, water flying everywhere as he did it.

“Are you telling me that you didn’t see the road behind us as we drove in?”
Kevin asked him incredulously.
 
“You’re kidding, right?”

“What about the road?” Shelly asked him, clearly concerned about the
situation.

“I got through just before a surge of water took it out.
 
The stream jumped the banks, and
everything is flooded behind us.
 
There’s no way that anyone without a boat is going to get through that
mess now.”

I knew what that meant without anyone spelling it out for me.

Grace, Jake, and I were alone with our suspects.
 
While Shelly wasn’t at the top of our
list, her alibi still hadn’t been confirmed, and there was no way that was going
to happen now.
 
It would be too easy
to assume that she was innocent of Chester’s murder, but that wouldn’t do any
of us any good.
 
I hadn’t liked the
odds all that much before when we thought we’d have Chief Martin, my mother,
and George Morris with us, but suddenly, there were more bad guys than good
ones staying at the lodge.

“How long do you think that the road will be closed?” Jake asked, clearly
thinking the same thing that I had.

“If it stopped raining right now, it probably wouldn’t be crossable until
tomorrow afternoon,” Shelly said as the Hoffs decided to join us.

“And if it doesn’t stop anytime soon?” I asked her.

“It might take a while longer than that,” Shelly acknowledged.

At that moment, there was a tremendous crack of lightning outside,
followed almost instantly by the resounding blast of thunder, and every light
in the place went out as the rain continued to beat down on the lodge roof,
sending a staccato echo of sound through the room that unhappily reminded me of
gunfire.

It appeared that we were really in for it now.