Bad Bites: Donut Mystery #16 (The Donut Mysteries) (8 page)

Chapter 10

“Another woman?
 
Are you
sure?” I asked loudly, not caring if some of the folks already eating at the
Boxcar had paused to listen to our conversation.

“She was a woman, all right.
 
She
might have been wearing a suit, but there was no hiding those curves,” Trish
said.
 
“Sorry.
 
I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“We all know that’s not true, and I appreciate the heads up,” I said as I
reached for my cell phone and headed back out the door.
 
Grace started to come with me when I
stopped her.
 
“Grab us a table and
order.
 
I’ll take the special after
all.
 
I love meatloaf.”

“What if you need to go somewhere to straighten this out after your
telephone conversation?” she asked me.

“Don’t worry.
 
I’m sure that
it’s fine,” I said.

Grace just shrugged, and then she and Trish shared a furtive glance that
I was sure I wasn’t supposed to have seen.
 

It just made things that much worse.
 
The entire town knew that Max had cheated on me when we’d been married,
so it was understandable that everybody might be worried that Jake might do the
same thing, but I had a distinct advantage over them: I knew my boyfriend.

Jake answered on the second ring.
 
“Bishop here,” he said.

“Hey.
 
I heard you had a
pretty nice-looking lunch companion today,” I said, allowing the smile to come
out in my voice.

Jake laughed, a very good sign indeed.
 
I trusted him completely, but it was
nice to know that he hadn’t been caught doing something that I wouldn’t approve
of.
 
“This town is something else,
isn’t it?
 
Kelly and I left the
diner three minutes ago.
 
Did Trish
call you?”

“Actually, Grace and I must have just missed you.
 
We’re at the diner right now,” I
said.
 
“Are you talking about Kelly
Blakemore?”
 
I’d met Kelly twice, a
fellow investigator Jake worked with.
 
She was a lovely woman, there was no doubt about it, but she also
happened to be devoted to her husband, a former linebacker for the Carolina
Panthers professional football team.
 
“What was Kelly doing in April Springs?”

“Take a guess.
 
The Chief sent
her to talk me out of retiring.”

Actually, that was a pretty smart move on Jake’s boss’s part.
 
There were few men alive who could say
to no to Kelly if she put her mind to it.
 
“What did you tell her?”

“I thanked her for caring enough to come, and then I apologized to her
for the wasted trip.
 
I meant what I
said, Suzanne.
 
No matter what happens
next, that part of my life is over, once and for all.”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked.
 
“I’m a little worried that you might miss the excitement of your old job
if you quit now.”

“With you around, how is that even possible?” he asked with a chuckle.
 
“Kelly just left, and I’m trying to
track Vince Dade down.
 
Any ideas
where I might find him?”

“Honestly, we were going to look for him ourselves as soon as we ate.”

There was a pause, and then Jake said, “Fine, just as long as I get to
him first.
 
Have you spoken with any
of your other suspects yet?”

“We have, not that any of the conversations did us any good.”
 
I told him the painful details of each
encounter, and to his credit, he was sympathetic to our frustration.

“You know as well as I do that happens in questioning more often than
anyone likes to admit,” he said.
 
“It’s not nearly as easy as they make it look in books and movies.”

“It still doesn’t make it any easier to accept, though,” I said.

“Nor should it.
 
Listen, I
really do have to run.
 
If you find
Vince first, go ahead and take a shot with him.
 
You never know.
 
You might just get lucky.”

“Goodness knows that I’m due a little.
 
See you later.
 
I love you.”

“And I love you right back,” he said before he hung up.

I tucked my phone back into my pocket and found Trish and Grace both trying
to look nonchalant as they stared out the door at me.
 
Putting on a fake frown, I stomped up
the steps toward them.
 
After all,
why shouldn’t I have a little fun with them before I told them what had really
happened?

“What did he say?” Grace asked softly as I approached them.

“You’re not going to believe this,” I said, trying to build up a little
frustration in my voice so they wouldn’t know that I was just playacting.

“Suzanne, I’m sure that it was all harmless enough,” Trish said
hastily.
 
“They’re probably just old
friends.
 
I need to learn to keep my
mouth shut.”

“Don’t you dare apologize.
 
You
were just looking out for me,” I said.

“What did he say?” Grace asked.
 
“Is it over?”

I suddenly felt bad about teasing them.
 
It was time to end this.
 
“It was all perfectly innocent.
 
I’ve known the woman for years.
 
Jake works with her.
 
Or should I say worked.”

“Why was she here, then?” Grace asked.

“It turns out that her boss sent her to get Jake to reconsider his
resignation,” I explained.
 
“It was
all a perfectly understandable mistake.”

“That’s a relief,” Trish said.
 
“I still need to be a little more careful about what I say.”

I hugged her lightly.
 
“Don’t
ever stop caring enough about me to tell me the truth.”

Trish looked surprised by the gesture.
 
“The same goes for the two of you, you
know.”

“You don’t have to worry about us,” Grace said with a grin.
 
“We’re both honest to the point of
brutality sometimes.”
 
Her smile
faded as she turned back to me.
 
“You didn’t answer my question, though.
 
Is he going back?”

“No, he sent her on her way,” I said.
 
“One thing that I’ve learned about Jake
is that once he makes up his mind about something in his life, there’s very
little chance that he’s going to change it again without a very good reason.”

“So, are we happy about that?” Trish asked me.

“Actually, we’re ecstatic,” I said.

“What’s he going to do for a living, though?”

“That’s the beauty of it,” I said.
 
“He has no idea.
 
One thing
that he has repeatedly said that he won’t do is take over the police chief’s
job, even though it’s pretty clear that Chief Martin is finished with it
himself.”

“So, we’ll be in need of a new police chief soon,” Grace said.
 
“Any chance that you might run for
office, Suzanne?”

I looked at her in disbelief.
 
Had my best friend lost her mind?
 
“I wouldn’t do it if you paid me a million dollars,” I said.
 
“Besides, I already have a job.”

“Isn’t it tempting to run, though?” Grace asked.

“Not even a little bit,” I said.
 
“Now let’s eat.
 
I’m starving.”

“The only free table is right here beside me.
 
I hope that’s okay,” Trish said.

“That sounds wonderful to me,” I said.

When Grace agreed, we took our seats beside the register.
 
Trish smiled at us as she offered
menus.
 
“Do you even need to look at
these?” she asked.

“I’ll have the meatloaf special,” I said as I refused it.

“Make that two,” Grace said, surprising me with her choice.

“I thought you were going to have a burger.”

“Hey, a gal’s entitled to change her mind, isn’t she?”

“Are you kidding?
 
I consider
it my natural-born prerogative,” Trish said.

I grinned at the diner’s owner.
 
“Two specials then, and two sweet teas.”

“Coming right up.”

As Trish ducked back into the kitchen, a large room formed from another
boxcar that matched the one we were sitting in, Grace said, “I’ve got to admit
that you had me going there for a minute.”

“I’m sorry.
 
I know that it
was cruel.
 
I just couldn’t help
myself.”

“Are you kidding?
 
I applaud
your inability to pass up a way to zing Trish and me.
 
Just remember, though, payback can be
brutal.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I said.
 
“By the way, Jake’s on his way to speak with Vince Dade.”

“I hope he has more luck than we’ve been having today,” she said.
 
“Have we ever had an investigation where
we’ve been thwarted so much so soon?”

“Not even close, but we were probably due.
 
What we really need to do is to get
these folks away from their usual surroundings so we can isolate them a
little.
 
They’re all just a little
too comfortable as things stand right now.”

“That sounds suspiciously like you’ve got a plan,” Grace said.

“I wouldn’t call it a plan quite yet.
 
Right now it’s more of an inkling.”

“Those work, too.
 
Care to
share it with me?”

I shook my head.
 
“Not just
yet.
 
I want to play with it a
little more in my mind first before I say anything out loud.”

“I totally get that,” Grace said, and then she looked up as Trish brought
us not only our drinks, but our food as well.

“That’s the beauty of getting the special,” Trish said as she slid the
plates in front of us.
 
“You never
have to wait.”

“This all looks delicious,” I said as I took in the lovely sight of the
diner food on my plate.
 
The
meatloaf was coated in brown gravy, and there was even a dollop of gravy
crowning the mashed potatoes as well.
 
One look at the green beans told me that they’d never seen the inside of
a can, and I knew that they’d be delicious too.
 

“Trust me, it’s tasty,” she said with a smile.
 
“I had mine before we started serving
lunch.”

The food was everything that I’d hoped it would be, and my appetite was
satisfied by the time we paid the check and walked out into the crisp afternoon
air.
 
Cool weather was finally upon
us, and it hadn’t come a moment too soon as far as I was concerned.
 
Folks tended to eat more donuts when the
temperatures began to drop, but there were more reasons than that that made me
love the cooler weather.

“Where to now?” Grace asked me as she buttoned her jacket slightly.
 
My best friend favored the hot days of
summer over every other time of year, so I knew that she was already in
mourning over the fact that chilling temperatures were to come.

“Well, I hope that Jake has already spoken to Vince Dade, because he’s
the only name left on our list.”

“What do we do if we can’t speak with him?
 
If Jake can’t find him, what hope do we
have?”

“We’ll just have to figure that out if it happens.”

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened after all.
 
All in all, it just wasn’t our day.

It turned out that Vince Dade wasn’t at his office or his home, either.

“Do you have any idea where else he could be?” I asked Grace as we left
his workplace.

“The only other place I can think of is the bank,” she said.

“Why would he be there?”

“Well, he’s got his hands in a dozen different ventures, so he’s got to
get capital for it all somewhere.
 
It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

“I suppose it’s as good a place as any to look,” I said as I drove toward
the bank.

It turned out that we didn’t have to look for him after all.

When I glanced across the street, I saw the man himself coming out of the
town hall.

Grace had been looking at the bank, so when I turned the Jeep in the
opposite direction, she yelped a little.
 
“Hey, what are you doing?
 
The bank’s over there.”

“Maybe so, but Vince Dade is right here.”
 
I pointed to him just as he spotted us
and turned to walk away in the other direction.
 
“Come on.
 
He’s trying to get away.”

“Vince, hang on a second,” I called out as Grace and I hurried out of the
parked Jeep.

“I don’t want to talk to either one of you,” he said as he kept walking.

“This will just take a second,” I promised him, though I doubted that I
could question him that quickly.

“That’s what your boyfriend said.
 
I didn’t tell him anything, and I’m certainly not going to speak with
the two of you.
 
I just want to be
left alone.”

“I’m sure that you do, but wouldn’t it be easier just to speak with us
now and get it over with?
 
If you
do, we’ll promise to leave you alone.”

“Guess what?” Vince said as he stopped abruptly.
 
“You’re going to leave me alone
anyway.”
 
There was nothing friendly
or pleasant in the way he said it, and his statement sounded distinctly like a
threat to me.