Drop Dead Chocolate (28 page)

“Is it really necessary?” she asked.

“Oh, yes.”

“Very well. We might as well get it over with.”

“Aren’t you excited?” I asked as I drove her to city hall where we always voted.

“I am, actually,” she said with that secret grin of hers.

“Momma, what’s going on? Have you done something?”

“Whatever do you mean?” she asked, her smile now even more prominent.

“You didn’t throw the election, did you?” The last thing I wanted was Evelyn Martin as our new mayor.

“Suzanne, your imagination is much too active. I wouldn’t even know how to go about such a thing.”

“Come on, remember who you’re talking to? You could overthrow a third world government if you set your mind to it. A small-town election would be a piece of cake for you.”

“Let’s just vote, shall we?”

We did that indeed, and a few folks wished Momma good luck as we left the polling place. While there were no signs at all for my mother, Evelyn had bought quite a few. I wondered if it might be enough to sway the election in her favor, but I had to rely on the good sense of my fellow townsfolk not to elect the woman.

As I headed for my Jeep, Momma didn’t join me. “Get in. I have time to take you back home.”

“Thanks, but it’s such a lovely day, I think I’ll walk,” she said.

“Good luck,” I said as she strolled casually away.

“Thank you, but I have a feeling luck won’t have anything to do with the outcome.”

Her smile was back again, but I had no idea what it was about.

“I’m back,” I said as I walked into the donut shop. “Anything exciting happen while I was gone?”

Emma shook her head. “It’s just been business as usual,” she said. “Do you have the front now?”

“I’ve got it. Thanks. I can’t believe this is it. Our last day together.”

“Don’t say anything,” Emma said. “I don’t want to start crying again.”

During our early morning break, we’d both gotten maudlin, and it was all we could do to manage to produce the donuts together without ruining the batters and doughs with the added moisture from our tears.

“I’m okay now, but there are no promises for later.”

“But not until we close,” she said.

“Agreed.”

Once Emma was safely in back, I motioned to the crowd waiting outside: George, Sandi, Emily, Grace, my favorite two snowplow operators, Emma’s mother and father, and even Jake were all there. They came in as a group, with balloons, flowers, banners, and even a cake. Once they had things set up, I opened the kitchen door and called out, “Emma, I need a hand for a second.”

“I’ve just about got this load of dishes finished,” she said. “Can it wait?”

“Sorry, no,” I said, having a hard time keeping the grin off my face. “This is too important.”

Emma came up front, wiping her hands on her apron, and with a curious expression on her face. “What’s so important that it can’t wait a second, Suzanne?”

Then she spotted everything, the crowd, the decorations, the cake, the entire celebration set up in her honor.

“Surprise!” everyone shouted in unison.

“I don’t know what to say,” Emma exclaimed.

“Wow, I never thought I’d ever hear you say that,” I answered with a grin. “We’re all going to miss you.”

She started crying then, and I joined her as we hugged. I wasn’t just losing my only employee; one of my best friends was leaving as well.

After the party broke up and everyone had pitched in to help clean up before leaving, only Emma and I were left in Donut Hearts.

“I guess this is it, then,” she said as she handed me her apron.

“You’re coming to the victory party in city hall, aren’t you?” I asked. A great many of us had decided to have another party, two in one day. This one was for election night results. It wouldn’t be on television, announced breathlessly to a waiting world. Marybeth Jenkins would walk down the steps with the results, and we’d know who our new mayor was, hopefully Momma.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be there.”

I took her apron from her, gave her another hug, and then said, “I’m really going to miss you.”

“Nan will be fine,” Emma said. I’d hired a middle-aged woman to work with me, and she’d spent the last three days training with us. Nan had skipped the farewell party, though. She’d gone out of town while she still could get away, and she wouldn’t be back for several days. In the meantime I’d run Donut Hearts by myself, a fitting transition.

*   *   *

The party at the city hall wasn’t anything like the farewell to Emma. There were no banners, though there were plenty of balloons. There was a punch bowl and a cake, but everyone was waiting to eat until we found out the results. Even Evelyn was there, though she stayed in one corner with her pack of friends.

Emma was standing with her folks to one side, and I asked her if I could have a moment of her time.

“I wanted to give you something before you left,” I said as I reached into my jeans and pulled out an envelope.

“You already gave me a bonus,” she said. “What’s this?”

“Just open it,” I urged her.

She did, and then saw the size of the check. It wasn’t much from most people’s standards, but it was all I could afford.

“Suzanne, I can’t accept this,” she said.

“You’d better. I’ve been saving it for nearly a month. Good luck, Emma. I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too,” she said. “No matter where I am, you’ll always be in my heart.” As Emma started to cry again, she headed for the bathroom to wipe away her tears.

When Marybeth finally tottered down the steps with the results, she had a confused expression on her face.

She faced us from the third step, and the room quieted instantly.

“I’m not sure how to say this, but something has happened that is unprecedented in town history.”

“Was there a tie?” someone asked from the back.

“No, the results were absolutely conclusive, and I’ve just certified them, so the election is official.”

“Who won, then?” another woman asked.

“Yes, I should get on with the announcement, shouldn’t I,” Marybeth said. She cleared her voice, and then read from the sheet of paper in her hands. “In an overwhelming majority vote, our new mayor is … a write-in candidate.”

“What?” a dozen of us asked at the same time. I was standing beside Momma, ready to congratulate her, when I saw the broad smile on her face.

“What did you do? You never wanted the job, did you?”

“Neither did Evelyn,” Momma said. “We were both motivated for the wrong reasons.”

“Who won, then?”

“Shhh,” she said as she pointed to Marybeth. “Listen and you’ll find out along with the rest of us.”

“Quiet down, folks. If you give me the chance, I’ll tell you the name of our new mayor.”

For a brief second, I was horrified by the thought that Marybeth was about to read my name. I could never be mayor, and it wasn’t just because of my business hours. I didn’t have the temperament to do it.

When Marybeth finally did read the winner’s name, it took me a second to realize who had won, I was so relieved that she hadn’t called my name.

And then it sank in.

My dear friend George was the new mayor of April Springs.

And he looked as surprised to hear the news as everyone else.

It was indeed a new day in my hometown, some good, some bad, and some just different, but I loved living there, and couldn’t imagine myself being anyplace else.

As we all congratulated George, he looked shell-shocked by the announcement, but he didn’t say he was turning it down.

I smiled for a moment, realizing that I now had a very important friend in city hall.

It might just help keep me out of trouble in the future, but somehow, I doubted it.

And now a look at the next Donut Shop Mystery,

POWDERED

PERIL

—available soon from

Jessica Beck and St. Martin’s / Minotaur Paperbacks!

CHAPTER 1

The dead body was hard to see at first in the deep shadows that surrounded it. Soon enough, as darkness faded into the edges of light, a false dawn would spread over the crime scene and reveal some of its secrets; photographs and video would be taken, notes would be written, and the careful study of not only the victim, but the area around it, would occur. An amount of intense activity like no other would consume the investigators as they fought to solve the murder in the early hours of discovery.

But none of that would happen for hours yet.

For now, only one person knew about the crime, and they weren’t about to tell anyone.

One thing was certain; the lives of the people in April Springs, North Carolina, would never be the same once they knew that murder had come back to visit their sleepy little town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

CHAPTER 2

My name is Suzanne Hart, and I’ve lost boyfriends in the past in as many ways as you can imagine; at least that’s how it feels to me sometimes when I look back on my life so far. I hope I never lose my current beau, State Police Inspector Jake Bishop, but I can honestly say that I’ve never lost one to murder.

And hopefully, I never will.

I just wish I could say the same thing about a good friend of mine.

If I think about it, that’s when everything started to fall apart in town, and it took all I had to keep the world from crashing down around me.

And more importantly, to save someone I cared for more than I could express.

*   *   *

It wasn’t all that late in the day for most of the folks I knew, but for a donut maker, it may as well have been midnight. My crazy schedule often precluded me from staying up much past dark by the time spring rolled around. I was just about to go upstairs for bed when the doorbell rang at the cottage I shared with my mother in April Springs, North Carolina. It was nearing seven in the evening, and I’d had another exhausting day making donuts by myself at my shop, Donut Hearts. Nan Winters, the woman I’d hired to replace my dear friend and longtime assistant, Emma Blake, was starting work tomorrow, and while I knew that I would miss Emma for a very long time, I needed
someone
there with me, because doing all the work at the donut shop alone was getting to be way too much for one person to handle.

I answered the door, ready with an excuse that would allow me to beg off and get my much needed sleep, but all thoughts of rest vanished when I saw my best friend, Grace Gauge, standing there, an emotional wreck. It was pretty obvious that she’d been crying for a while, and it broke my heart to see her like that.

“Grace, what happened?” I asked as I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. She was the sister I never had, and I liked to think that I was the same to her. On the outside, the two of us were pretty different, Grace being blonde and trim while I was a brunette with a bit more than my share of curves, but inside, we were two peas in a pod. She was my oldest and dearest friend, and I hated seeing her so upset.

As I stroked her hair gently, I asked softly, “Are you okay?”

“Peter and I just broke up,” she whimpered, and the tears started in full force. I could feel her shaking as she cried, and I held her tight, stroking her hair lightly and doing my best to offer her what comfort I could.

“Come on inside,” I said. There was a break in her sobs and she fought to catch her breath as she pulled away a minute later. “I can make us some coffee and we can talk all about it.”

Grace wiped her nose with a tissue as she shook her head. “I shouldn’t have come at all. I know it’s getting late for you, Suzanne. You need your sleep. I just didn’t have anyone else to talk to.” She sniffed again, as though she were holding back more tears by sheer willpower alone, and then she added softly, “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be okay. I promise.”

“Don’t be silly. I wasn’t going to go to bed for hours,” I said as I led her inside into the living room.

She stopped dead in her tracks. “Don’t lie to me, Suzanne, especially tonight. I’ve had just about all of that I can take from the rest of the world.”

“Okay, I’m sorry; you’re right. I shouldn’t have said that. The truth is that I was heading off to bed when you knocked, but I don’t have to go to sleep this instant. I’ve got time to talk, at least a little bit, anyway.” I had to get Grace talking. Once she started, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to stop until I had the whole story. If I paid for it later and was drowsy tomorrow at work, then so be it. Grace came first in my mind, on an equal level at the top of my life with Momma and Jake. Without any one of the three of them, my life just wouldn’t be the same, and I knew it. There were people who floated in and out of my life and others who always seemed to hang just around the edges, folks I cared about, but those three were my core.

Grace looked around the cottage as she tucked the tissue away in her hand. In a low voice, she said, “I hate to be a pain, but is there any way that we can we talk somewhere else? Your mother doesn’t need to hear all of my problems.”

“No worries,” I explained in my normal voice. “She’s off on one of her dates with Chief Martin, so we’ve got time to talk before I have to go to sleep. Honestly, I don’t expect them back for hours.” I took her hands in mine and added, “Grace, I promise you that you’ve got my undivided attention as long as you need it. If I have to go totally without sleep tonight, you’re worth it. I’ll find a way to manage tomorrow.”

“I’m not doing that to you, or your customers,” she said. “I know how grumpy you can be when you’re sleep-deprived,” she added, even managing a slight grin. It was good to know that her spirit was still in there somewhere, despite the temporary pall that hung over her.

“I’d say that was patently untrue if I could do it with a straight face, but we both know that you’re right,” I admitted. “I always shoot for seven thirty as my bedtime, but how many times do I actually make it? Trust me; I’m wide awake right now. Even if you leave this instant, there’s no way I’m going to be able to go straight to sleep.”

“Are you sure?” she asked hesitantly.