Bad Bites: Donut Mystery #16 (The Donut Mysteries) (19 page)

Chapter 31

“How is he doing?” I asked as Grace and I knelt down beside Maggie and
Nathan.

“Well, at least he’s still breathing,” she said as she pressed both hands
against his chest.

“Hold on, Nathan,” I said as I patted his head, but he only managed a
moan in response.

“We have to get him some help!” Maggie pleaded.

“I’ll go,” Jake said as I stood up.
 
He tried to hand me his weapon, but I just stared at it.
 
“Suzanne, be ready in case Shelly comes
back.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked him, still refusing to take his
firearm.

“What else can I do?
 
I’m
going to cross the stream and go for help,” he said firmly.

“Jake, don’t go.
 
It’s not
safe,” I pleaded with him.

My boyfriend—no, my fiancé—stroked my head lightly.
 
“If I don’t at least try, a man might
die.
 
I have to do this.”

“Then I’m going with you,” I said.
 
“Grace, you take the gun.”

She made no move to grab it, either.
 
I knew that my offer didn’t make any sense, but I didn’t care.
 
It had taken Jake and me so long to
finally get together that I wasn’t going to let him leave me now.

“Would
someone
please go?”
Maggie asked through her tears.
 
“I
can’t afford to lose him.”

It amazed me how much she really seemed to care about her husband now
that he might be dying.
 
Clearly
Maggie had taken him for granted all those years, but now that she was about to
lose him, she was hanging onto him with everything that she had.

“Don’t worry about me.
 
I’ll
be back soon,” Jake said as he stood.

I was about to protest once more when I heard something overhead over the
roaring noise of the stream.
 
In a
moment, a helicopter burst into view, its spotlight blinding us with its
brilliance.
 
As it set down, I saw a
man that I’d only met a few times leap out and rush toward us, his gun drawn.

Apparently Jake’s boss was coming to the rescue, but his efforts were mostly
too little and too late.

“How did he know that you were here?” I asked Jake as his former boss
approached us.

“Ask him yourself.
 
I told Kelly
Blakemore all about my investigation yesterday, and just as a precaution, I
gave Stephen Grant her contact information in case something happened to us up
here.
 
It was either that, or when Phillip
and George got washed out on their way up here, one of them called to tell him
that we were stranded up here with a killer.”

“And he came running,” I said.

“Why shouldn’t he?
 
It was the
least he could do after all that I’ve done for him over the years,” Jake
replied matter-of-factly.

They loaded Nathan into the back of the chopper, but there was no room
for the rest of us, including Jake’s boss, after Maggie insisted that she had
to be by her husband’s side.

“Thanks for coming, Grafton,” Jake told his former boss after the chopper
took off.

“We don’t leave our people behind,” the man said.
 
“I got the call, and I came running.”

“The only problem with that is that I’m not your people anymore,
remember?”

“We can talk about that later,” Grafton said.
 
“I’m just glad that you’re okay.”

Jake just shrugged, but before he could reply, we heard the chopper
noises overhead again.
 
“Why are
they coming back?”

“They aren’t.
 
I brought
another chopper with me,” Grafton said.
 
“There was no shortage of volunteers to come up here after you.
 
You have a great many friends in the
department.”

“Well, I’ll give you that much.
 
You didn’t hold anything back.”

“We got here as soon as we could manage it with the storm,” he said.
 
As the other chopper landed where the
last one had so recently taken off, Grafton said, “Hang on one second.
 
I’ll be right back.”

Grafton rushed up to the helicopter, its blades still furiously turning,
and I squeezed Jake’s hand.
 
“It’s
all pretty impressive, isn’t it?”

Jake just shrugged.
 
“It
doesn’t matter.
 
None of it is going
to change my mind.”

“You can always go back to your old job, you know,” I said.

Jake was about to answer me when Grafton rejoined us.
 
“There’s no longer any need to worry
about the woman.”

“Why is that?” I asked him.

“The pilot spotted her body coming across the stream.
 
She got caught on a log and
drowned.
 
We’ll retrieve her body at
daybreak,” he said as he glanced at the growing sunrise, “which should be any
minute now.
 
What do you say we get
you out of here?” he asked.

“Where are we going?” I asked him.

“Just to the other side.
 
There are some folks waiting for you over there.”

“Lead the way,” I said as Grace, Jake, and the rest of us followed him to
the helicopter.
 
We couldn’t all jam
into it, but I wasn’t about to wait around for the second trip when my mother
was just across the raging stream.
 
I didn’t even need confirmation that she was there.

It was as certain as the rising sun to me.

When we landed, I quickly found myself in Momma’s embrace, but only for a
moment.
 
Before I knew what was
happening, George added himself to the mix, and Chief Martin as well.
 
He was truly relieved to see me, and I
realized that it was about time I started calling him Phillip, if I could
somehow bring myself to do it.
 

“Are you okay?” Momma said as she finally broke the group hug and stroked
my hair.
 
I lightly pushed some of it
away after a moment.

“I’m fine,” I said when my mother grabbed my hand.

“Suzanne Hart, is there something that you’d like to tell me?”

“Oh, that.
 
Yeah, that.
 
I’m engaged,” I said with a grin.

“Congratulations,” she said, which spurred another round of hugs,
including Grace this time.
 
After I
finished telling them the full, dramatic story of the proposal, they descended en
masse on Jake and he disappeared in a sea of well wishers.

All in all, it was a happy reunion, but I had to wonder about Nathan as I
found myself being smothered in warm blankets.
 
Would he make it, and if he did survive
the gunshot wound, would he stay with Maggie after all that had happened
between them?
 

How would the chief, er… Phillip, take the news about who had killed his
brother, and why?
 

And how would Jake respond to the heightened pleas of his boss to rejoin
him at the state police?

There were a great many questions still to be answered, but as far as I
was concerned, the only crucial one had already been addressed.

Jake had asked me earlier, and my answer had been a resounding yes.

I was getting married again, and this time, I was certain that it would
be forever!

And nothing else really seemed to matter beyond that.

RECIPES

Suzanne
and Momma’s Hot Chocolate

Some folks wonder why we go to
so much trouble making our own hot chocolate mix when there are so many
perfectly fine blends available at the nearest grocery store, but one sip of
this and you’ll never go back!
 
This
is, without a doubt, the finest hot chocolate recipe in the world, at least
according to me and my family!
 
Don’t wait for a cold winter night to try this; it’s just as delicious
in the summertime, too.

Ingredients

2 cups powdered nonfat milk

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ cup powdered nondairy creamer

¼ cup Hershey’s cocoa powder

¼ cup Hershey’s special dark chocolate
cocoa powder

1 dash of table salt

Warm milk, whole or 2%

Directions

Mix the powdered ingredients
thoroughly and then store in a tight, covered container in the freezer until
needed.
 
For each cup of hot
chocolate, add ¼ cup of the mix to ¾ cup warm milk, heated carefully over the
stovetop or in the microwave until it reaches a gently warm temperature.
 
Stir well, add a dollop of whipped or
plain marshmallows if preferred, and enjoy!

Makes 3¾ cups of the mix, or 15
mugs

Momma’s
Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp is one of Momma’s
favorites, and one of ours, too!
 
This can be made without using the crust in a casserole dish, but I like
it best as a pie.
 
Once upon a time
I used Granny Smith apples exclusively, but lately I’ve been mixing a few
Staymen, Winesap, or Pink Ladies into the mix.
 
My ratio is two Granny Smiths for every
other apple.
 
These pies will wake a
sleeping teenager when they’re baking—a rare feat indeed!

Ingredients

An 8- or 9-inch pie crust,
premade or a homemade crust, if preferred

Filling

5 to 6 cups thinly sliced firm,
tart apples (Granny Smiths work well as the base, with a few Staymen, Winesap,
or Pink Ladies to balance the tartness)

½ cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons white all-purpose
unbleached flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

A dash of salt

Crisp Topping

1 cup white all-purpose
unbleached flour

½ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup butter, cubed and at room
temperature

Directions

Peel and core all of the apples,
then cut them into thin slices.
 
In
a large bowl, mix the apple slices together thoroughly to evenly distribute the
different kinds of apples in the pie.
 
Next, in a smaller bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg,
and salt, then stir the dry mixture into the apple slices until they are evenly
coated.
 
Add the apple slices to the
pie shell. Then, in another bowl, combine the flour and brown sugar, then cut
in the butter with a fork or a pastry cutter.
 
The mix should be crumbly and formed
into small chunks the size of lima beans to peas.
 
Add this mixture on top of the apples. Then
bake the pie uncovered in a 425° F oven for 30 to 45 minutes, until the crust
is golden brown and a butter knife slips into the pie easily.
 
Cool the pie as long as you can stand
it, but if you want a bite when it’s fresh out of the oven, be prepared for a
deluge of lovely, sweet juices from the slice.

Momma’s
Pot Roast

We make pot roast much the way
Momma does in the donut shop books, using a slow cooker to let the meat and
veggies cook long and slow.
 
The
smells that waft through the house are absolutely incredible, and I’m always
hungry well before the meal is ready!
 
It’s worth the wait, though.
 
If you watch for appropriate meat cuts to go on sale, this is an
extremely economical meal, and delicious to boot!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons all-purpose
unbleached flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 boneless beef chuck roast, 2
to 2½ pounds

2 medium russet or red potatoes,
peeled and cubed

carrots, baby or peeled, cut
into 1-inch sections, about 1 lb.

Any good onion soup mix packet,
about 1 oz.

1 cup tap water

1 tablespoon of either cornstarch,
all-purpose flour, or powdered tapioca

1/3 cup cold water

Directions

Over medium heat, add the canola
oil to a nonstick frying pan and warm until a drop of water sizzles when
dropped into it.
 
While you’re
waiting, mix the flour, salt, and pepper together, and then coat the roast with
the mix.
 
Brown the meat on all
sides in the hot pan, and then drain off the fat.
 
In the slow cooker, spray the pot with
nonstick vegetable spray (or use a slow-cooker liner, which makes cleanup super
easy), and then add the potatoes and carrots to the bottom of the slow cooker.
 
Add the browned roast next, and then
sprinkle the soup mix on top.
 
Next,
add the water until the veggies are almost covered, but not the roast.
 
Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook
on HIGH for 6 hours, or until the roast falls apart with gentle prodding from a
fork.
 
Remove the roast and veggies to
a serving plate and cover everything with aluminum foil to keep it all warm,
then strain the liquid and pour it into the pan you used to brown the meat
originally.
 
In a small bowl, add
the thickening agent (cornstarch, all-purpose flour, or powdered tapioca) to
the cold water, and then stir it all together in the pan, heating it at a
simmer until the gravy is formed.
 
Serve the gravy directly on the roast and carrots if you’d like, or
serve separately.
 
If you want to
skip making the gravy, the meal’s just fine without it!
 
Either way, it should be delicious!

Serves 4 to 6
people, depending on serving size