Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 17 - Old Fashioned Crooks Read online

  The First Time Ever Published!

  The 17th Donut Mystery

  From New York Times Bestselling Author

  Jessica Beck

  OLD FASHIONED CROOKS

  Other Books by Jessica Beck

  The Donut Mysteries

  Glazed Murder

  Fatally Frosted

  Sinister Sprinkles

  Evil Éclairs

  Tragic Toppings

  Killer Crullers

  Drop Dead Chocolate

  Powdered Peril

  Illegally Iced

  Deadly Donuts

  Assault and Batter

  Sweet Suspects

  Deep Fried Homicide

  Custard Crime

  Lemon Larceny

  Bad Bites

  Old Fashioned Crooks

  The Classic Diner Mysteries

  A Chili Death

  A Deadly Beef

  A Killer Cake

  A Baked Ham

  A Bad Egg

  A Real Pickle

  A Burned Out Baker

  The Ghost Cat Cozy Mysteries

  Ghost Cat: Midnight Paws

  Ghost Cat 2: Bid for Midnight

  Jessica Beck is the New York Times Bestselling Author of the Donut Shop Mysteries, the Classic Diner Mysteries, and the Ghost Cat Cozy Mysteries.

  To P and E,

  my reasons why!

  Old Fashioned Crooks by Jessica Beck; Copyright © 2014

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Recipes included in this book are to be recreated at the reader’s own risk. The author is not responsible for any damage, medical or otherwise, created as a result of reproducing these recipes. It is the responsibility of the reader to ensure that none of the ingredients are detrimental to their health, and the author will not be held liable in any way for any problems that might arise from following the included recipes.

  Chapter 1

  It was originally meant to be a fun event that the entire community could enjoy, a pleasant way to spend an evening and help raise money for a good cause.

  Instead, the festivities turned out to be the backdrop for murder, a homicide that found its way to my donut shop’s front door on a night when I should have been home getting ready for bed instead of out and about on the suddenly perilous dark streets of my otherwise idyllic hometown of April Springs, North Carolina.

  Chapter 2

  “Suzanne, did Rick come in here by any chance while I was gone?” Emma Blake, my assistant, asked me when she hurried into Donut Hearts as darkness started to fall outside. It was odd being in my donut shop at the beginning of nighttime instead of the middle and end of it, but then again, this was turning out to be an unusual night in more ways than one.

  “Sorry; I haven’t seen him,” I told her as I began rearranging the donuts we had left in the display case.

  Emma frowned for a moment, and then she replied, “I don’t get it. He was supposed to meet me out front ten minutes ago. It’s starting to get chilly out there.”

  “What can I say? Maybe something distracted him. Emma, if you want to grab your coat and then go out and enjoy Spirit Night, I can handle things here on my own now that we’ve got things wrapped up in the kitchen. I fully realize that asking you to work at night is going above and beyond the call of duty. I still can’t believe that I offered to open the donut shop this late in the day.”

  “How could you say no?” Emma asked. “Practically every shop in town is staying open for the festivities, even ReNEWed right next door. Besides, it’s for a good cause.”

  “I know the school needs money for new band uniforms, but honestly, I would have rather just written them a check,” I said with a smile.

  “But if you had done that, then you would have missed out on all of this,” she said as she gestured at the folks milling about outside. “Besides, I thought you’d welcome the distraction, you know, considering everything.”

  “Considering what, specifically?” I asked her as I turned to face her. I knew perfectly well what she was talking about, but I was tired of her tiptoeing around me. If she was going to say something, she needed to just come out and say it.

  To her credit, at least Emma managed to look a little uncomfortable as she spoke. “Suzanne, it’s no big secret that your boyfriend is out of town again, even after you thought he was done with his job with the state police.”

  I took her hands in mine and smiled. “Emma, you worry too much. In the first place, Jake’s not my boyfriend; he’s my fiancé. In the second place, he’s wrapping things up with his job. It’s not his fault that his boss is making him work a full six weeks’ notice. The best thing about it is that when his time is over, he’ll be back here for good.”

  “I’m sure that you’re right,” Emma said. “I’d just hate to see you get disappointed.”

  “Are you kidding? I’m marrying the man of my dreams,” I said with a grin. “It’s tough to be too disappointed about that.”

  “How’s Chief Martin feel about being drafted back into duty after he tried to quit?” Emma asked me.

  “The chief understands that he needs to step up until the mayor can find a replacement for him. Until then, he’s doing his job again, however grudgingly.”

  “And you’re positive there’s no way that Jake will want to take over as police chief after he leaves the state police for good?”

  I shrugged. “He claims that he’s done with law enforcement as a career forever, but I’m not so sure, myself. I think he’d be a perfect fit for the April Springs police department, but it’s not my call. I’ll be happy with whatever he decides to do.”

  “What if he wants you to move somewhere else?” Emma asked me, her question coming out in a rush of words. There it was. She’d finally voiced her fears that I’d close Donut Hearts the moment that Jake and I got married, and now I could address it out in the open.

  “It’s not going to happen,” I said as I squeezed her hands. “Don’t worry about me, or your job. I’m not going anywhere.” I gestured around the shop as I added, “This is all too important to me to ever just walk away from it. Now, do you feel better?”

  “A little bit,” Emma said with a hesitant smile. “I’d be even better if I knew what Rick was up to.”

  “Like I said, I can’t help you with that. If you’re that worried about him, though, go out and see if you can find him.” I looked outside to see crowds of people wandering up and down Springs Drive. Quite a few folks were wearing the high school’s colors of blue and gold, but nearly an equal amount were dressed in Halloween costumes, including a great many adorned in plain white sheets with holes cut out for eyes. Apparently a lot of folks in town had decided that Spirit Night deserved its own set of ghosts, aka spirits, and they were enthusiastically joining in on the fun. In honor of the special celebration, I’d created a Band Buster Donut, a plain cake donut decorated with blue and gold stripes and topped with a dollop of whipped cream. Emma had teasingly played with the idea of calling it a Band Aid Donut, but we hadn’t been sure how that name would be perceived by our customers, so we’d changed it to something a little more acceptable. On a lark, I’d also made a regular solid yeast donut
, left unfilled, but covered with white icing. As a finishing embellishment, I’d even added two small round bits of chocolate to serve as eyes, and another larger one for the mouth. I could be as playful as everyone else, so I called it the Spirit Donut and put it on sale as well. They were actually doing better than the Band Busters, and I thought about adding them to our regular autumn menu. I was about to say so when I saw that Emma was completely lost in the outdoor festivities; honestly, she might as well go find her errant boyfriend. “Go. There’s no reason that both of us need to hang out around here,” I said.

  “Are you sure?” she asked me eagerly as she grabbed her jacket. Emma was just starting the first year of her twenties, and I was grateful to have her working for me instead of off somewhere in college. My assistant took some classes at the local community college during the afternoons and evenings, but nothing that interfered with her time working with me.

  Usually.

  Then again, Donut Hearts wasn’t usually open at seven o’clock at night.

  “I’m positive,” I said. “Now go before I change my mind!”

  “Thanks. I’ll check in with you later, just in case,” Emma said happily as she headed out the door, hot on the trail of her boyfriend. I wasn’t a big fan of Rick’s for several reasons. For one thing, he was in his early thirties, an age I considered too old for my assistant. Added to that was the fact that I had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t the only object of his affection. Finally, his means of support wasn’t entirely clear to the casual observer, and yet he always managed to flash a wad of cash around wherever he went. I kept telling myself that it wasn’t any of my business, but I’d always thought of Emma as a combination sister and daughter, and that meant that I constantly lost the argument with myself that it would be smarter to just butt out of her love life altogether. Besides, I knew that Ray and Sharon Blake, Emma’s parents, weren’t pleased with the relationship either, so there was no real need for me to add my voice into the mix.

  That didn’t mean that I was just going to let it go entirely, though.

  I was still wondering if there was a subtle way that I could discourage Emma from seeing Rick when my best friend, Grace Gauge, walked in carrying a pennant on a stick. She was wearing a lovely blue coat and had a gold scarf tied fashionably around her neck. Slim and pretty, she looked more like a model than a cosmetics rep. “Go Bulldogs! Woof, woof,” Grace said with a smile as she waved the flag eagerly in my direction.

  “Not you, too,” I said with a smile.

  “Why not? After all, it’s not every day that April Springs is this alive after dark, and I for one approve of all of this gamboling about. Suzanne, this festival matches my preferred hours perfectly, though probably not yours,” Grace said as she looked around at the half-full racks of donuts left, Band Busters and all. “How’s business, or do I even need to ask?”

  “Not wonderful, but then again, it’s not during my normal operating hours, so it’s not an issue. We’re raising some money for the band, so I can’t complain.”

  “Are you donating all of the supplies to the cause yourself?” she asked me critically. Grace knew what a thin profit margin I ran on at Donut Hearts, and she was always looking out for me financially. She was a savvy businesswoman, something that I found too easy to forget sometimes because of the easygoing way she treated her job.

  “I am, but don’t worry about me. I can handle the hit,” I said, not willing to admit that my donation of raw materials, even discounting my time and Emma’s salary for the extra working hours, would eat a deep hole in that month’s profits.

  “Tell you what. Let me cover them for you,” Grace said softly. “Things have been very good at work lately. We blew past our sales goals this quarter, and everyone, including the supervisors, just got a nice bonus.”

  Grace worked for a cosmetics company as a regional supervisor, and from everything I could see, she did well at it, though she generally worked quite a few hours less than I did. I would have loved to hit the minimum wage mark myself. In truth, I was exaggerating, but not by much.

  “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got it. There’s no reason for you to spend your hard-earned money on me or my donut shop.”

  “Suzanne, there’s no reason to be a hero. Besides, I wasn’t talking about dipping into my own personal bank account. I have a budget for PR that I have to use up in the next few days or I’ll lose it. What better cause can you think of than this?”

  “Honestly, you should use it for something else,” I said, determined to do it on my own. I was reluctant to accept her offer, even though it would help me a great deal. It was probably just stubborn pride.

  Grace just shrugged. “Suit yourself, but I have to spend it all somewhere, or I won’t get as much next quarter.”

  “For the life of me, I don’t understand the corporate world sometimes,” I said.

  “It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, but it has its perks,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want the donation? Honestly, you’d be helping me out if you took it.”

  Leave it to Grace to couch her generosity as a favor request. I struggled with the idea of accepting her donation for another moment or two before I spoke again. “If I took your money, how could we advertise your participation in the program? Spirit Night is already halfway over.”

  “That’s not an issue,” she said with a smile as she handed me a check. The sneaky rascal had already made it out before she’d even stepped one foot inside my donut shop.

  “This is way too much, Grace,” I replied as I tried to hand it back to her.

  “Then donate what’s left after your expenses to the uniform fund. There’s just one catch, though.”

  “What’s that?”

  Grace frowned, and then she asked me, “Would you mind putting a sign in your window that my company participated in the event by sponsoring you? I just need to take a picture of it and send it in to Corporate, and you can pull the sign down as soon as I have my photo.”

  I thought about it for a moment, and then I countered her suggestion with one of my own. “I can do better than that. Make a banner and I’ll put it up in the front window for a week,” I said.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind? That would be perfect. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes,” Grace said, and then she handed me her pennant. “In the meantime, wave this around every now and then. Go Dogs.”

  I had to laugh as my best friend hurried back out into the crowd, narrowly avoiding being run over by two ghosts, one leaning heavily on the other. Evidently someone had gotten more into the spirits than the actual spirit of the event. Leave it to Grace to step in and save the day. I had to admit that having that check made me breathe a lot easier. Maybe now I could actually enjoy the sleep deprivation I’d be undergoing soon. I decided to be a little more active, so I grabbed a nice selection of donuts and put them on a tray, focusing mainly on the blue and gold donuts I’d made for the event, as well as the spirit ghost ones. I couldn’t exactly wander around the park, leave the donut shop unattended, and risk something happening while I was gone, but there was no reason I couldn’t sit out front at one of the Donut Hearts tables and peddle my goods from a spot closer to the action.

  From my new perspective, I had a bird’s-eye view of the park across the street where the majority of the festivities were taking place. The school band was set up in the gazebo, and a dozen vendors, all donating their proceeds to the cause, were tightly wedged around it. A bonfire ready and waiting to be lit had been built close to the Boxcar Grill, and I realized that I’d have had a wonderful view of it from the porch of my cottage. For a moment I wished that Jake were there to take all of it in with me, but he was on the North Carolina coast dealing with the murder of the mayor of a beach resort. It was a real puzzler, the only type of case that Jake seemed to get. That was a real hitch with being so good at what he did, and his boss was squeezing every last drop of work out of him before he was gone for good.

  I enjoyed the exc
itement as folks of all ages paraded past the shop, laughing at the ghosts as they wandered in and out of the festivities, and I even managed to sell a few donuts as time went by, too. I loved this time of year. The days were growing shorter and the evenings chillier, and this evening was no exception. Soon the bonfire would be lit, and folks would enjoy the dancing flames long into the night, sipping their hot cocoa—and other drinks—and reveling in their friendships.

  When all was said and done, it would be a time to remember, a slice of the small town life that I loved so dearly.

  I decided that as soon as they lit the bonfire, I’d close Donut Hearts and join everyone else.

  “Hey, you haven’t closed the shop yet, have you?” Grace asked as she hurried to me with the promised banner in her hands.

  “No, of course not. Is that it?”

  She grinned. “It turned out to be a little bigger than I’d originally planned. To tell you the truth, I got a little carried away. I’ll let you off the hook. You just have to leave it up long enough for me to take a few photos of it.”

  “Nonsense. I meant what I said. I’m going to leave it up all week so folks know that you and your company played a part in my donation,” I said. We walked back into the shop and draped her signage across the window, a sweet banner she’d printed out on her computer that looked extremely professional. “That’s great. I might have you do some advertisements for the shop if I ever scrape up enough to cover the expense.”

  “I’d be happy to do it,” Grace said with a smile. There was no denying that she was a lovely woman, stylish and fit, but in my opinion, it was her smile that made her so beautiful. My best friend had an easy way with people that proved she had been born for sales, and she took full advantage of it. When we were finished hanging the new banner, we both took a step back and admired her handiwork. “Wow, that turned out even better than I hoped it would.” After taking several photos with her camera, she asked, “Are you sure you want to leave this up? It’s kind of big.”