Bad Bites: Donut Mystery #16 (The Donut Mysteries) (9 page)

“What could it hurt to answer a few questions?” Grace asked.

“Go away,” he said.

“Do you really think that it’s going to be that easy to get rid of us?”
Grace asked him, pushing the man a little harder than I would have dared to
try.

He looked at her fiercely for a moment before he spoke again.
 
“I’ll just say this once.
 
I’m not interested in being a part of
your little investigation, and I expect you to respect my wishes on the subject.”

There was a clear “or else” hanging in the air, but Grace started to
follow him anyway as he stomped off.
 
I put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

“Suzanne, we can’t just let him get away.”

“Grace, don’t kid yourself.
 
We
never had him in the first place.
 
You heard the man.
 
He’s not
interested, and we can’t exactly
make
him cooperate with us.
 
If Jake
didn’t have any luck with him, there’s no reason in the world to suspect that
we would.”

“I guess you’re right,” she said, so I removed my hand from her
shoulder.
 
“We’ve hit nothing but
dead ends this entire day.
 
Is there
anything else we can do, or is this just going to all be hopeless?”

“I’ve got one idea,” I said.

“Is it the one you were talking about before?” Grace asked me.

“No, that one is still percolating.”

“Then what’s the one that’s already been fully brewed?”

“Let’s see if Momma and the Chief will let us nose around Chester’s
apartment for clues,” I said.
 
“I
was hoping that it wouldn’t come to that, but right now, we’re all out of other
options.”

“Do you think he’ll let us?”

“If we ask him?
 
Probably
not.
 
I don’t plan on being the one
to put it to him, though.
 
I’m going
straight to my mother.”

“What makes you think that she’ll be able to get his permission?” Grace
asked.
 
“Scratch that.
 
The chief would walk through fire for
her.”

“Not only that, but Momma practically begged me to investigate Chester’s
murder.
 
I can’t see her refusing us
permission to search his place, can you?”

“We won’t know until we ask,” she said.

I pulled out my phone and dialed my mother’s number, and as I did, I found
myself hoping that she’d agree and that Grace and I would be able to find
something that might help us figure out who had murdered the librarian on the
day before his retirement.

“Momma, it’s Suzanne.”

“You don’t always have to identify yourself.
 
I know my own daughter’s voice,
Suzanne.”

Uh oh.
 
She was in a bad mood;
that much was clear from her tone of voice.
 
“Maybe this isn’t the best time to ask
you for a favor.”

“I’m sure that I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
 
“What do you want?”

“We need to check out Chester’s place.
 
Could you ask your husband if it would
be okay for us to look around?”

Momma surprised me by laughing when she heard the request, and I could
hear a muffled conversation with her husband: “I told you that she’d ask.”
 
Speaking to me again, she said, “The key
is under the third flower pot on the left.
 
Don’t worry about disturbing anything.
 
Jake has already had one of his deputies
check the place out.”

“It wasn’t Stephen Grant by any chance, was it?” I asked, and I saw
Grace’s interest in the conversation perk up at the mention of her boyfriend’s
name.

“How should I know who he sent?” Momma asked, that mood back again.
 

“Thanks for the permission,” I said, determined to get off the phone as
soon as possible.

“Just find whoever did this,” Momma said in a low voice.
 
“Not knowing is making our lives absolutely
miserable.”

“Are you two having problems?” I asked her, and then I immediately
regretted posing the question.

“Suzanne, you’ve been married before, so I shouldn’t have to tell you
that the first year is always the most difficult one.
 
Good-bye.”

I found myself holding a dead phone, so I slipped it back into my pocket.

“That went well, didn’t it?” Grace asked me sarcastically.

“How could you tell?”

“I could hear your mother from all the way over here.
 
Let me guess. Is there trouble in
paradise?”

“No comment,” I said, refusing to get into it with Grace.
 
“All that matters is that we’ve got
permission to search Chester’s place, and we’d better go do it before either
one of them changes their mind.”

“I’m all for it,” Grace said as we hurried back to my Jeep.
 
“What do you think we’ll find?”

“I don’t know, but we can’t do much worse than we have so far, so it’s
not like there’s much for us to lose.”
 
Apparently my mother’s mood was influencing my behavior as well.

If Grace noticed, she didn’t comment, which was one of the things I loved
about her.
 
“That’s the spirit!”

I just hoped that something would turn up.

If it didn’t, I was going to have to refine my one last idea, or give up
our investigation before it really even had a chance to get started.

Chapter 11

“I can’t believe how small this place is,” Grace said as she looked
around.
 
“It reminds me of the old
joke about having to go outside to change your mind.”

“It’s modest, all right,” I said, “but at least that should make it easy
to search.”

The key had been exactly where promised, and Grace and I had let
ourselves into the late Chester Martin’s humble little cabin.
 
Nestled in a stand of cypress trees, the
place had been hard to find at first.
 
The rustic siding had been painted the exact same shade as the trees,
and I had to wonder if that hadn’t been Chester’s intent all along.
 
For a pretty social and outgoing guy, he
was apparently a bit of a recluse in his private life.

“Suzanne, do you want the combination kitchen/dining/living room, or
would you like the bedroom/bath/closet area?” Grace asked me.

“It’s your call,” I told her.

“If you don’t mind, I think that I’ll stay out here.
 
Good luck.
 
Should we meet back up in three minutes
after we’ve tossed the place?”

“Let’s at least try to be neat,” I said.
 
“After all, Momma and the Chief will be
coming back soon enough to go through everything.”

“That’s true,” my best friend said as she opened the first cabinet door
she came to in the kitchen.

As she began to work, I headed back for the bedroom, wishing that one of
us would find something that the police had missed.

I didn’t have much hope for that happening, though.

I was nearly finished when I stumbled across something that was not
exactly a clue—at least, I didn’t think so at first.
 
Then again, I didn’t know what to think
when I found it.
 
Something had
slipped under one of the drawers of a dresser jammed into Chester’s closet, and
it took me a full ten seconds to dig it out from beneath the wide array of hanging
costumes the man owned.
 
I was
tempted to take a photo of Chester’s outfit selection and send it to
Emily.
 
I thought she’d done a thorough
job of outfitting Cow, Spots, and Moose in the past, but Chester could have
taught her a thing or two about costume creation and design.
 
It was clear from the fancy sewing
machine, as well as the yards of unused fabric and myriad spools of thread, that
the librarian had enjoyed making his own outfits, but none of that had
attracted me.
 

I’d found a postcard, and what was on it left me more baffled than I’d
been before I’d found it.

The full-color photograph on one side of the card sported a dense campfire
filled with heavy flames, an odd enough image to send someone else, but on the
reverse side, in the small space reserved for a message beside Chester’s name
and address, were three words written in bold block letters that matched the
address: STOP OR BURN.

I was staring at the message trying to figure out what it might mean, so
I didn’t even hear Grace come in.
 
It
startled me when she asked, “That’s kind of an odd message to send through the
mail, isn’t it?”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” I said as I studied the card a
little closer.
 
It had a Forever stamp
on it instead of a standard postcard stamp, so that wouldn’t help us figure
anything out about how old it might be.
 
There was a cancellation stamp over it, but the ink was too faded to
easily read.

“What’s the date it was sent?” Grace asked as she took a closer look for
herself.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” I said as I headed back to the
closet.
 
I’d seen a deerstalker hat
hanging on a pegged board with several other unlikely pieces of headwear, but
this one had been different.
 
Hanging from its peg was a monocle as well, and when I retrieved it, I
saw that it was a magnifying glass.
 
“This might help,” I said as I held the magnifier up to the cancellation
mark.
 
It was a little clearer now,
and I could actually make out the date a little better.

“When was it sent?” Grace asked eagerly.

“Three days ago,” I said as I reached for my phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“Jake needs to see this,” I said.
 
“Any objections?”

“No, not a one,” Grace said quickly, which was a good thing, because I
wasn’t about to change my course of action.
 
It was one thing withholding information
from Chief Martin, but I was not about to do it with Jake.

I got him on the fifth ring, just before I’d been about to hang up.

“Hey, Suzanne,” he said hurriedly, and I knew that I’d caught him at a
bad time.
 
“Is it urgent?”

“No, it can wait,” I said.
 
“Are you okay?”

“Fine, just busy right now.
 
Talk
to you later.”

He hung up, and I returned the monocle to the peg where I’d found it
earlier.

“Is he too busy to talk to you, Suzanne?”

“Apparently,” I said as I took a sheet of paper from one of the empty
notebooks and folded it in half.
 
Placing the postcard inside the fold, I held onto it, not that there
would likely be any viable fingerprints still on it.
 
Still, I hoped that Jake would
appreciate the effort.
 
“Did you
have any luck searching your part of the cabin?”

“Not really.
 
After looking
through his things, I can tell you that Chester Martin was a man of simple
tastes.
 
I found twelve cans of
chicken noodle soup in his pantry and three jars of peanut butter.
 
Add those to the three loaves of bread
he stored in his freezer, and I’m betting we know what the man ate every lunch
and dinner that he was here.”

“What did he have for breakfast?” I asked half in jest.

“I’m glad you asked,” Grace answered with a smile.
 
“There were three cartons of power bars
and eight cans of pear halves in natural juices.”

“Well, we’ve got his dietary habits covered,” I answered.
 
“Anything else?”

“No, I came up empty.
 
What
did you discover besides that postcard?”

I showed her the variety of costumes hanging in the closet, as well as
the sewing machine.
 
“Apparently,
Chester was a man of many talents,” I said.
 
“I’m pretty sure that he made all of his
costumes himself.”

“Okay, but none of that information is all that useful, is it?”

“No, this search has been pretty much a wash.
 
In fact, we could say that about the
entire day, couldn’t we?
 
I’ve got a
feeling that no one’s going to cooperate with our investigation unless we do
something drastic to shift the balance more in our favor.”

“You know me; I’m all for dramatic acts.
 
Are you ever going to tell me what you
have in mind?
 
Talking out loud
about it might help clarify your thoughts.”

“Why not?” I asked.
 
“It’s
clear that it’s our last hope of doing any good at all with this murder
investigation.”

As I drove Grace back home, I told her all about the plan that had been
brewing in my mind.
 
I wasn’t sure
if it was reassuring or not, but she was extremely enthusiastic about trying it
out after I explained it all to her.
 
I wasn’t quite so willing to jump on board myself yet, though.
 
First, I needed to talk it over with
Jake and get his blessing.
 

After all, if my plan worked, it would drastically alter the course of
his investigation as well as ours.

Chapter 12

“Hey, stranger.
 
Are we eating
together, or should I go ahead without you?” I asked Jake after I dialed his
number from the front porch of my cottage.
 
The place had been empty when I’d arrived, but it really hadn’t come as
that big a surprise, given my boyfriend’s work ethic.

“If you can hold out that long, I can be there in half an hour,” he said.

“I’m not trying to guilt you into coming back here,” I said in a soothing
manner.
 
“I know how you get when
you’re working on an investigation.”

“Right back at you,” he said, and I swore that I could hear the smile in
his voice.

“I’m not denying it,” I said, adding the hint of a laugh.
 
“How’s it going on your end?”

“The truth is that no one in this town has any desire to tell me
anything,” Jake said flatly.
 
“Frankly, I expected to get a little more cooperation than I’m getting
right now.”

“Have you considered the possibility that no one’s talking to you because
they know you’re not a state police inspector anymore?”

“How could they possibly know that?”

“Jake, you weren’t trying to keep your voice down when you told me.
 
Someone could have picked it up without
you even realizing it.”

“Maybe, but I’m still a law enforcement officer,” he said.
 
It sounded as though he was a little
hurt by the lack of intimidation his new office held.

“Of course you are,” I said.

“How did Phillip Martin ever manage to do it?
 
I’ll be honest with you.
 
His job is tougher than it looks.”

“You should tell him that sometime,” I said.

“Maybe,” Jake replied in a tone that told me that he might admit it to me,
but that was as far as he’d ever be willing to go.

“If you have the time, why don’t you come back here, eat a little, and
then you can regroup.”

“The first part sounds good, but I have no idea what I’m going to do
next.”

“I actually have a thought that might interest you,” I offered timidly.

“Go on, I’m listening.
 
Don’t
keep me in suspense.”

“I’d rather talk to you about it face to face,” I answered.

“Fine.
 
I’ll see you soon,
then.”

“I can’t wait.”

After we hung up, I started digging through the cupboards, the fridge,
and the freezer to see what I could make us to eat.
 
I ended up going with omelets because
they were easy and fast and I knew that Jake liked them as much as I did.
 
The best part was that I could wait to
start cooking them until he showed up.
 
In the meantime, I chopped up a green pepper, a little ham, part of a
leftover onion, and a few bites of turkey we had left over from an earlier meal.
 
After that, I grated some cheddar and
mozzarella cheese, and then I tucked everything back into the fridge.

As I closed the refrigerator door, my cell phone rang.
 
Was Jake canceling on me already?

“Hey, Suzanne.
 
It’s Shelly
Graham.”

“Hi, Shelly.
 
I was just talking
about you not half an hour ago.”

“That’s why my ears must have been burning, then,” she said lightly.
 
“I just wanted to touch base with you
and tell you that I’m back at the lodge.
 
I never realized how isolated this place was with no guests or staff.
 
I mean, I come up sometimes in the winter
to check on things during our off season, but it’s just weird being here alone
this time of year.”

“How would you feel about having some company?”

“Are you and Jake coming up?
 
That would be great.
 
I’ll
give you my best room, the honeymoon suite, not that I’m trying to put ideas
into anyone’s head.
 
I—”

“I appreciate the offer, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
 
Shelly, what would you think if we
brought our suspects with us there?”
 

After I explained the plan, she readily agreed.

“How are you going to get them all to show up?”

“I haven’t quite figured that part of the plan out yet, but I’ll come up
with something.”

Shelly hesitated for a moment, and then she finally said, “If you can
manage it, it sounds perfect.
 
Let
them try to weasel out of what they did up here.
 
I’ll start getting the rooms ready the
second that we hang up.”

“Hold on.
 
I have to get Jake
to approve of my plan first.”

“Suzanne, from what I’ve heard, you shouldn’t have any problem convincing
him that this is a good idea,” Shelly said.

“I wish I had your faith in me.
 
Like I said, don’t do anything yet on my account.”

“Okay.
 
Out of curiosity, how
many rooms do you think you will be needing?”

I counted the suspects in my head, making allowances for the fact that
Maggie and Nathan would most likely be sharing a room.
 
Or not.
 
“I’d say five max.”

“That’s just fine, because I’ve got ten rooms we can use.
 
When will you know for sure?”

That’s when I heard the front door open.

“Hang on one second.”
 
I put
the phone to my chest as I called out, “Jake, is that you?”

“It had better be,” he said as he came into the kitchen.
 
“What’s for dinner?”

“One second,” I told him, and then I pulled the phone back to my
mouth.
 
“Listen, I’ve got to
go.
 
I’ll call you back later when I
know more,” I said, and then I hung up.

“Who was that?” Jake asked curiously.

I ignored both of the questions he’d recently asked and wrapped my hands
around his neck.
 
Pulling him in for
a kiss, I waited until it was over before I said, “I’m fine; thanks for asking.
 
How are you?”

“Well, I’m better now,” he said, and then he moved in for another kiss.

“I thought you were hungry,” I said as I playfully pushed him away.
 
Both of us were in infinitely better
moods now.
 
Why wouldn’t we be?
 
After all, we were together again.

“I am,” he said as he sniffed the air.
 
“I don’t smell anything cooking.
 
Aren’t we eating here?”

“We are,” I said as I turned a burner on and put the skillet on it.
 
After it heated up, I dropped some
butter in the center and watched as it sizzled.
 

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

“I’ve got it covered.
 
Why
don’t you go wash up?
 
We’ll be
eating soon.”

“Glad to,” he said.
 

I cracked five eggs into a bowl, added a splash of milk, and then I
whisked them a little with a fork until they were mixed together.
 
After that, it was just a matter of
adding them to the hot butter in the pan.
 
As the egg mixture began to set, I got out my filling, and five minutes
later, we were ready to eat.

I just hoped that Jake went for my plan.

If he didn’t, I wasn’t at all sure what either one of us was going to do
about furthering our investigations.

“What’s this?” Jake asked as he walked into the dining room a minute
later.
 
He had the postcard I’d
found in his hand.

“I found it at Chester’s place,” I said.
 
Jake started to speak, but before he
could, I added, “It was stuck under a drawer, and it was nearly impossible to
find.
 
I called you about it, but
you were busy, remember?”

“That’s good that you found it,” he said a little too evenly for my taste.
 
“I’m going to have to have a talk with
the officer who searched Chester’s place.”

“It wasn’t Stephen Grant, was it?”

One eyebrow shot up.
 
“No, it
was the new man, Blake.
 
Why do you
ask?”

“No reason,” I said, glad that we hadn’t gotten Grace’s new boyfriend in
trouble with his new, if temporary, boss.

Jake held it carefully by two edges as he asked, “Any idea what it
means?”

“I haven’t a clue,” I admitted.

Jake set it back down carefully as he replied, “Neither do I.
 
Well, I’m here now.
 
Let’s hear all about your plan.”

“Shouldn’t we eat first?” I asked as I cut the omelet into two portions
and slid the larger one onto Jake’s plate.

“Hey, I got more food than you did,” he said.

“You’re seriously not complaining about that, are you?”

“No.
 
Not one bit.
 
Forget I even mentioned it,” he said
with a slight grin.
 
“Now talk.”

I took a deep breath, and then I started to tell him my idea.
 
“I’ve been thinking that the only way
we’re going to have any luck interrogating our suspects is to isolate them
somewhere out of the way where we can be certain that we have their undivided
attention.”

Jake took a bite of his omelet, smiled, and then waved his empty fork at
me.
 
“Believe me, I’d lock them all
up if I could, but there are procedures that I have to follow.”

“How about if they isolated themselves voluntarily?” I asked as I took a
bite myself.
 
It was delicious, and
I had to wonder how much of that had to do with the fact that I was
starving.
 
Trish’s meatloaf had only
held me for so long.

Jake put his fork down.
 
“How
are you going to get any of them to agree to doing that?”

“I’m still working out all the details.
 
First I wanted to see what you thought
of the general idea.
 
I’ve already
spoken with Shelly, and she’s on board, and so is Grace.”

“Who else have you told about this plan of yours?” he asked me a little
warily.

“That’s it; I promise.”

“Let me think about this for a minute,” Jake said, and then he went back
to his omelet, though I noticed that he was eating much less heartily now.
 
We continued to eat in silence, since I
knew that anything I could add at this point could be detrimental in Jake’s
decision.

After he finished eating, he pushed his plate away.
 
“That was amazing.
 
You should seriously think about making
food for customers for a living.”

I smiled at him.
 
“What a
coincidence.
 
I already do.”

After another moment or two spent deep in thought, Jake looked at me
before he spoke again.
 
“There a few
things we need to get out of the way up front before I agree to anything.”

“I’m listening.”

“First off, I can’t be the one who invites anyone anywhere.
 
In fact, there can’t even be the whisper
of an official investigation being conducted here.
 
Is that understood?”

“Completely,” I said.

“That means that you have to coordinate everything, including issuing the
invitations and making the room assignments.
 
Is that going to be a problem?”

“I’m ready to handle everything,” I said.
 
“You’re at least coming too, aren’t
you?”

“Suzanne, you couldn’t keep me away even if you tried locking me up.
 
Exactly who are you going to invite?”

I ran through my list of suspects, and then I asked him, “Is there anyone
I’m missing that you’d like me to invite, too?”

“As far as suspects are concerned?
 
No, I think you’ve got that covered.”

“Okay then, is there anyone who’s
not
a suspect that I should add to my list?” I asked, curious about what Jake was
thinking.

“Well, obviously you need to call Chief Martin and tell him what you’re
planning.
 
If I know him, he’s going
to want to come, too.”

“Don’t worry about him.
 
I can
get Momma to keep him at home,” I said as we started gathering our empty plates
and glasses to carry into the kitchen.

“Hang on.
 
That’s not what I
meant.
 
As a matter of fact, it
might be good having him there as backup.”

“If he comes, we both know that Momma’s going to want to come as well,” I
said.

“Is that a problem?”

“To tell you the truth, I’m not all that thrilled with the idea of putting
my mother in harm’s way,” I said as I piled the dishes into the sink for later.

“I’ve got a hunch that you’re not going to have a say in the matter,”
Jake replied.
 
“I know you might not
like including them, but the man’s brother was killed on his watch.
 
I can’t refuse the chief’s request if he
wants to be at that lodge to help catch the killer.”

“Nor should you,” I said.
 
“I
don’t know why I’m so worried.
 
Momma
and I can take care of ourselves.”

“How well I know that to be true,” Jake said.
 
“Who else needs to know what we’re up to?”

“Well, I don’t see any way around the fact that you’ve got to tell your
boss,” I said.

“I’m not calling him, so forget it.
 
I quit, and that’s the end of it.
 
He’s no longer my boss, so I don’t have to run anything past him ever
again.”
 
Jake’s jaw was set in a way
that told me this topic was not up for discussion.