Raspberry Mojito Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 20 (3 page)

Heather stared at the plastic bug
which served as the store’s doorknob. She pulled her lips to one side and
wriggled them, then sighed. “I know you think this guy’s a hoot, or whatever,
but –”

“Ol’ Bob? He’s the best. Come on. The
guy made a living off bugs. And would you look at that van?” Amy pointed to the
van parked out front. The massive bug sat on top of it and glinted in the
sunlight.

A breeze twiddled its antennae.

“He’s got style.” Amy clasped her
hands in front of her chest. “A true visionary.”

Heather narrowed her eyes. “You’re
teasing me, aren’t you?”

Amy tapped the side of her nose, then
grabbed the bug and opened the door. The scent of citronella hit them full on.

Heather reeled and pressed her fist to
her nose. Amy coughed and stumbled through the invisible haze of chemicals.
Okay, so citronella was an essential oil, but this was beyond comfortable.

Dizziness assaulted Heather, and she
grasped the counter to keep from toppling over.

“Welcome to the –” Bob looked up from
his game of whatever it was on his phone. “What do you ladies want?”

“We’ve got some questions that need
answering, Bob,” Amy replied.

“Uh huh. This about dead Paul?” Bob
asked. He’d never been one to mince words. Perhaps the citronella smell had
crept through to his brain and shorted the neural pathways responsible for
sensitivity.

“Quick Paul,” Heather corrected.

Metal clamored at the back of the
store, and Heather studied the shelves. Nothing.

“That’s what I meant. The dead guy.
Yeah, yeah, before you say anythin’, I know you know that I was ‘sposed to meet
with him.” Bob stifled a yawn. “He came in here a couple of weeks ago, spouting
all this hoo-ha about business and making money, so I made and appointment with
him.”

“And did you see him?” Heather asked.

“Nope. Turned up at his offices and
everything but he wasn’t there. Waste of my darn time,” Bob replied, then bent
and brought out a packet of Cheetos.

Amy’s gaze lit up and she shuffled
toward the exterminator.

“You’re talking about Quick Paul’s
murder,” a man said, behind them.

Heather spun toward the store’s
shelves, packed with all types of tinctures and poisons.

“Oh hey, Peter. I forgot you were
here,” Bob said and popped open his bag. He eyed Amy, shook his head once, then
bent, got another packet of Cheetos and tossed it to her.

“Yeah we’re talking about Quick Paul,”
Heather replied, then tilted her head to one side. “And you are?”

The elderly gentleman shuffled forward
and stuck out his hand. He had to be at least Eva’s age. “Peter Hill. You spoke
to my son yesterday. He told me all about it.” Peter pursed his lips. “My son
didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I, uh, nice to meet you too,” Heather
said and finished the handshake.

“The greetings sure have gone down
around here,” Amy muttered.

“You knew Paul?” Heather asked.

Peter shook his head. “Nah, not
really. I just know he wasn’t a good guy. He was involved in all kinds of bad
deals, my son told me all about it.” He cleared his throat and jabbed his
finger at her in mid-air. “So don’t you go accusing my son of doing something
he didn’t do.”

Amy chomped on Cheetos, her fingers
coated in orange dust, and snorted.

“You seem awfully protective of your
son.”

“As is every parent’s right to be,”
Peter replied. He smoothed his fingertips over the tufts of hair at his
temples. “I, uh, don’t have any other family. Lost my wife a few years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Hill,”
Heather replied. She couldn’t imagine losing Ryan, and Eva still missed her
husband, though he’d died many years back.

“It’s all right. It was better she
went when she did. She was ill for a long time.” Peter cleared his throat. “Not
easy to see someone you love suffer like that.”

Heather nodded slowly. The only time
she’d seen similar had been the day Eva had wound up in hospital after she’d
been attacked. “Mr. Hill, I’m trying to get to the bottom of this murder, so
that I can take another dangerous criminal off the streets. Any information you
have would be greatly appreciated.”

He grunted and brushed off his palms
on his worn pants. “I’ll help in whatever way I can.”

Amy crumpled up her empty bag and
presented it to Bob. He chucked it into the trash can beside the counter, then
grinned at her. “You like Cheetos,” he said, between orange teeth.

“Not as much as I like donuts,” Amy
replied, then turned to Peter instead. “Did your son tell you anything about
Quick Paul?”

“Not really,” Peter replied. “He
doesn’t discuss his business matters with many people, and especially not with
his old man. Ha. I never had a successful business, like him. Why would he ask
me, right?”

Heather blinked. “I see.”

“But I did hear that Quick Paul was
into some dangerous dealings. Got in trouble with the bad types over in that,
uh, Dallas or Houston or somewhere. Heard he had a lot of enemies.”

Heather whipped out her notepad and
pen from her back pocket and made a note of it. Or tried to, at least, her pen
had run out of ink. She shook it back and forth, and black ink spurted out of
the end and onto her plain, white cotton blouse. “Oh, fantastic.”

“That’s totally in fashion, right
now,” Amy said, then hurried to Heather’s side. “Maybe it’s time to call it a
day.”

Heather glanced down at her blouse and
back up at Peter. He didn’t have much information on Quick Paul, anyway. Just
the type of conjecture that Sharon Janis would spew if asked. “Well, Mr. Hill,
it was nice meeting you. Take care.”

“And you,” he replied.

Heather hummed Truly Madly Deeply by
Savage Garden and barely managed to keep up with Lilly.

“C’mon, Au-Heather, if we don’t pick
up the pace, Dave will never lose any of his puppy fat,” Lilly said and glanced
back over her shoulder.

Dave whined and tried slowing down
again. Lilly waggled the end of the leash, and he trotted back to her speed.

“Finally, Dave, I feel your pain,”
Heather called out, then wiped sweat from her brow. At least, clouds blanketed
the sky, and they’d bruised from gray to black in the past ten minutes.

Lilly would have to quit at some
point.

“It’s going to start raining in a
minute,” Heather said, and more beads of sweat gathered at her hair line.

“That’s why we need to get back to
your house. Quick as Flash Gordon.”

“Who’s Flash Gordon?” Heather asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Lilly broke
into a jog, then slowed down again.

Another pair of walkers had appeared
just ahead of them, heading in the opposite direction. Lilly stepped aside to
let them pass, but the woman froze, instead. She held a young boy in her arms.

“Momma?” Kieran Hill said. “What’s
wrong, momma?”

Lilly made doe-eyes at the little kid.
“He’s so cute,” she said.

“You.” Katie Hill’s gaze speared
Heather directly between the eyes.

“It’s nice to see you again, Mrs.
Hill,” Heather said – she wasn’t about a tiny white lie in cases like these.
Katie’s attitude stunk to the high heavens.

The woman worked her jaw but didn’t
reply. “You want to talk?” She asked, at last.

Shock straightened Heather’s spine.
She glanced at Lilly and Dave, then pack to her potential suspect. Or was she
the source of a potential lead?

“Sure,” Heather said. The swollen
clouds frowned at her. She beckoned to Lilly. “Would you play with Kieran here,
until his mom and I are done talking, Lils?”

“Yes please!” Lilly said. “Hello, I’m
Lilly.”

“I’m Kieran,” the little boy replied,
and grinned. The apples of his cheeks grew chubbier. Katie put the boy down,
stretched her back, and then stepped to one side.

Heather followed her example, minus
the stretching. “You want to talk to me about something?” She asked,
immediately.

Katie ground her teeth, then relaxed
her shoulders. “I’m not a fan of anyone who interferes with my family life,”
she said. “That’s why I get angry when strangers turn up on my doorstep.”

“I had an appointment with your
husband, Katie. I’m investigating a murder, and I have to follow through on my
leads. Apologies if that inconvenienced you during family time.” And Heather
did mean that.

Katie sighed and glanced at the two
children and one, cheeky dog, a few paces away.

“It’s not that,” Mrs. Hill said. “I
understand why you were there. These past few months have been difficult for my
family. Really difficult, and the minute I saw you, I just jumped to the wrong
conclusion.”

“And what conclusion was that?”

“That you’re trouble. Trouble for
Jeremy and trouble for my family,” Katie replied. She scraped the heels of her
palms across her eyes. “I overreacted. I’m sorry.”

Heather grasped Katie’s shoulder and
squeezed. “That’s totally okay. I understand.”

Kieran burst into laughter, and they
turned to the kids. Lilly made a funny face, then danced on the spot, and the
boy mimicked her. Dave barked and ran in circles, tail set to permanent-wag.

“I want to help in whatever way I
can,” Katie said. “If you have any questions, go ahead and ask me, please.”

Heather risked a small smile. “Thank
you.” She hadn’t brought her notepad and pen with her on this trip. She’d have
to memorize the details. “Did you know Quick Paul?”

“I met the guy once,” Katie said, and
her lips turned down at the corners. “I don’t want to lie and say I liked him.
He was a creepy guy. Real creepy. Always hanging around when he shouldn’t.”

“What do you mean by that?” Heather
asked. Another bout of laughter from the kids.

She kept her eyes fixed on them, but
her concentration on Katie’s words.

“Jeremy invited him over for dinner
once to talk business. I made a casserole, and he complained about it, then hung
around smoking cigarettes in my living room,” Katie replied, and venom dripped
from her tone. “My house is a non-smoking house.”

“Oi vey.”

“Yeah, and when I asked him to stop,
he called me ‘doll’ and told me the big men were talking so I should head back
to the kitchen,” Katie said.

“Wow. Sounds like a real nice guy,”
Heather replied.

“Precisely. Then they spoke, and he
stayed way past Kieran’s bed time. It was a total mess. And he burned a hole in
my sofa cushion.”

Heather chewed the inside of her cheek,
then released it. “You don’t happen to know what Quick Paul and your husband
were discussing, do you?”

“No,” Katie snapped. She sucked in a
deep breath, then exhaled. “Sorry, I mean, no I don’t. It probably had
something to do with Jeremy’s business. That’s my best guess.”

“I see,” Heather replied. “Do you have
any other information for me? Anything at all?”

Katie sighed and shook her head. “No.
All I can say is a guy like Quick Paul probably had a lot of enemies. If he
treated other people half as bad as he treated me, then I can only assume
that’s the case.”

“Thanks for talking to me, Mrs. Hill,”
Heather replied.

Together, they walked to the kids.
Heather placed a hand on Lilly’s shoulder, and Katie grasped Kieran’s chubby
hand. She smiled at Lilly, then flicked her gaze to Heather. “Your daughter is
wonderful with kids. What a lovely girl,” Katie said.

Heather beamed at Lilly and drew her
into a one-armed hug. “Thanks. She’s our little star.”

“Thank you.” Lilly’s cheeks reddened,
and she grinned from ear-to-ear. “C’mon, we’d better get walking. The clouds
are about to pop, and Dave’s not going to lose all this weight by himself.”

Heather groaned, but she didn’t voice
a complaint.

Amy bustled around in Heather’s
kitchen. She stopped in front of the fridge, opened it, and then stuck her head
inside.

“They’re on the top shelf,” Heather
said. “You’ll see them right away.”

“Got ‘em,” Amy replied, and brought
out the raspberries. She carried them to the kitchen counter and set them down
beside a pile of mint. “I’d never have thought of this flavor.”

“Yeah, it came to me the other day
after Lilly mentioned berries. You can’t go wrong with Raspberry jelly, am I
right?”

“Ooh, we’re making jelly?” Amy rubbed
her palms together. “This evening just keeps getting better and better.”

Heather placed her hands on her hips
and scanned the ingredients on her kitchen counters. “Yeah, we’ve got to make
something totally delicious for the opening next week, and I wanted to surprise
Lilly with a taste tester tomorrow.”

“Where does the jelly come in?” Amy
asked.

“Oh boy, you sure have a one track
mind.” Heather nudged her bestie in the ribs, then nodded. “So, I loved what we
did with the Caramel Glazes, last week, and I wanted something equally yummy,
but with a bit of change. Fruitier.”

Amy folded her arms and nodded. “Uh
huh, uh huh, go on.”

Heather placed two fingers on either
side of her ceramic mixing bowl. “This is what we’re going to make. A crispy
mint- flavored base donut, subtle mint, though, we don’t want to overdo it,
with a mint glaze, once dipped, very light.”

“All right, but where does the
raspberry come in?” Amy asked, and her fingers crept across the countertop,
toward the raspberries.

Heather slapped at it, and her bestie
retracted it.

“There are going to be two pockets of
raspberry jelly either side of the donut, to offset the minty flavor,” Heather
replied. “The mint glaze will be sweet, the dough beneath it more neutral and
the jelly will be tart.”

Amy swallowed. “Okay, my mouth is
officially watering, right now. Let’s start making them so I can start eating
them, right away.”

Dave barked agreement from the
doorway.

“No, Davey, you go back to the living
room, this instant,” Heather said.

Dave whined, but turned and trotted
off down the hallway again.

Amy stole a raspberry, quick as a
flash, and popped it into her mouth. “Yum. I can’t wait until these guys are
jelly.” She sniffed then narrowed her eyes at Heather. “So, now that the plan
is out of the way do you want to talk about the case?”

Heather couldn’t pretend it wasn’t on
her mind. Not successfully, at least. “It’s another case with a severe lack of
evidence. Useful evidence, I mean.”

“And there are plenty of suspects, am
I right?” Amy asked. She lifted her fingers and ticked them off. “Bob the Bug
Debunker, Jeremy Hill and Katie Hill.”

“Yeah, though I’m not sure about Bob.
Oh, who am I kidding? I’m not sure about anything, right now. Wash these for
me, please,” Heather said, and pointed to the raspberries.

Amy hurried off to the kitchen sink.
“What about Katie?”

“I told you I spoke to her this
morning, right?”

“Yeah,” Amy replied.

“She was nice and her son is adorable.
I can’t picture her jeopardizing that relationship for Quick Paul. She seemed
to detest the guy,” Heather said. She reached for the flour and shifted it
closer to the bowl. “Not that rules her out.”

“She’s got a bad attitude,” Amy
replied, then turned on the faucet. Water gushed into the sink.

Heather measured out the flour in her
steel cup and dumped it into the bowl. She gestured with the measure and
wriggled her nose. “I don’t know enough about Jeremy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, his wife told me he had some
kind of business deal or meeting with Quick Paul, and that’s about all I know.
I need more,” Heather said and reached for more flour.

“What does Ryan have to say about it
all?”

“Oh, he’s been super busy at the
station. Apparently, there’s a strong chance that Davidson might come back, and
he’s been putting in extra hours to try to get this case down before that
happens. I’ve hardly seen him this week.” Heather tried to keep the lonely edge
from her tone.

“He doesn’t have any leads on Jeremy?”
Amy asked.

“No, he’s been pursuing other leads.
Quick Paul had a lot of enemies and a lot of business partners. Some of them
weren’t exactly legitimate,” Heather said. She put down the cup measure and
brushed her hands on her apron. Flour smeared down her front.

“So, then we need to find out more
about Jeremy Hill. Don’t you have that card he gave you? The business card?”
Amy asked. She turned off the faucet and hurried back to Heather’s side.

“Ames, I don’t know what I’d do
without you. I completely forgot about that,” Heather said.

She hurried through to the entrance
hall, then grabbed her tote bag from the entrance hall table. She strode back
into the kitchen, plopped it on the counter, then rifled through it. “I put the
card in here when I got home the other day. Let’s see, let’s see.”

Her fingers brushed past tubes of
lipstick and the cold plastic of her Taser. She touched vellum, grasped and
pulled the card from her bag. “Here it is.” Heather raised the card and
narrowed her eyes to read the fine print. “Jeremy Hill, his cell number, email
and the name of his business is –”

“What?” Amy asked.

Heather blinked, then laughed, and
blinked again. “I’m not sure whether I can take this seriously.”

Amy snatched the card from Heather’s
grasp and read it herself. “Diaper Pop.”

“You see that too, right?” Heather
shook her head. “What does it even mean?”

Amy turned the card over, but the back
was blank. “There’s only one way to find out. To the laptop!”