Custard Crime: Donut Mystery #14 (The Donut Mysteries) Page 6

  I tapped Grace’s shoulder, and we headed back to the Jeep.

  “But I’m not finished with him,” she said once we got far enough away that we could talk in relative peace over the noise.

  “Well, it’s pretty clear that he’s finished with us,” I said.

  “Suzanne, do you believe his story?”

  “I know that it’s awfully convenient, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a lie,” I said as I pulled out my cellphone.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “I’m telling Jake what Robby just told us.”

  “Is that how we’re going to be handling this case?” Grace asked me. “Are we giving your boyfriend full and complete cooperation along the way?”

  “No, we’re giving law enforcement information that might help them solve the case,” I replied with a smile.

  “It’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

  “Grace, I’ve seen what going against Chief Martin can do. I’m not about to risk alienating Jake.”

  “I get that,” she said as she nodded her acceptance. “It’s just going to be odd, that’s all.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m sure that we’ll get used to it.”

  Jake answered his phone, and I said, “Grace and I happened to be driving by Evelyn’s house when we saw Robby Chastain cutting down the oak tree he and Evelyn had been fighting about.”

  “How much of a coincidence am I supposed to believe at this point?” Jake asked.

  “That’s entirely up to you. Would you like to hear what he had to say?”

  Jake sighed, and then he said, “Sure, why not?”

  “Robby claimed that he didn’t know that Evelyn was dead, let alone murdered. He told us that last night the two of them agreed to get rid of the tree, and that things were all patched up between them.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “We’re not entirely sure one way or the other,” I said. “It’s just all a little too convenient for us to swallow, if you know what I mean.”

  “No one else heard this alleged conversation, did they?” he asked.

  “No, and it gets worse. Robby claims that he’s been in the garage all day working on his chainsaw. Nobody saw him or talked to him the entire time.”

  “So, he doesn’t have an alibi,” Jake said.

  “That’s true, but if you can find someone who saw him today someplace other than his garage or his side yard, then you know that he lied to us about it. That’s something, anyway.”

  “I have to give you credit. It’s more than I’ve gotten so far.”

  “Wasn’t Beatrice cooperative?” I asked him.

  “I couldn’t find her,” Jake admitted. “She wasn’t at work or at her house. I’m going to give up on her for now and go find Julie Gray.”

  “Good luck with that,” I said. I decided to hang up before Jake asked me what Grace and I would be doing next. I didn’t want to admit what I had in mind, and I hoped that he didn’t call back to ask me.

  “How did that go?” Grace asked.

  “Surprisingly well, as a matter of fact.”

  “You didn’t stay on the phone long.”

  “That’s because I didn’t want him to ask me what we were going to do next,” I said.

  “Would you care to share our plans with me? I’m curious about what comes next myself.”

  “Jake looked for Beatrice at home and at work, but she wasn’t at either place. He’s giving up for the moment, but I don’t think that we should.”

  “What did you have in mind?” Grace asked me.

  “Well, when Momma was talking, she mentioned something that I think Jake might have missed.”

  “What’s that?”

  “She told us that Beatrice shopped at a yarn shop in Union Square near her attorney’s office. I wonder if there’s any chance that she’s there right now?”

  “Shouldn’t you give Jake a heads-up about that?” she asked me.

  “I’m as willing to cooperate with the police as the next gal, but he heard it just as clearly as I did. As far as I’m concerned, that yarn shop is fair game.”

  “Then let’s go to Union Square,” Grace said.

  Chapter 9

  “Should we pop into Napoli’s and say hello while we’re so close?” Grace asked as we pulled into a parking space in front of the Yarn Barn. The business was right across the street from my favorite Italian restaurant, a charming little establishment owned by Angelica DeAngelis and her lovely daughters.

  “We’d better stick to the business at hand,” I said. “After all, Beatrice might not even be inside.”

  “If she’s not, we could always ask Angelica if she has any ideas.”

  “Grace, did you skip lunch again?” My best friend was notorious for working through her noon meal in order to finish her work early. As for me, I wouldn’t consciously skip a meal on a bet.

  “I could eat,” she acknowledged.

  “Then we’ll take care of your tummy later, but first we have to find Beatrice. I hope she’s in there.”

  “So do I,” Grace said. “After we find her, then I can satisfy my appetite.”

  Unfortunately, the yarn shop was devoid of customers.

  A lone employee was restocking brightly colored yarn skeins, but she stopped when we walked in. “May I help you?”

  “No, thanks,” Grace said as she started to leave.

  “Hang on a second,” I told her, and then I turned back to the clerk. “Has Beatrice Ashe been here today by any chance?”

  “You missed her by half an hour,” the woman said. “Are you friends of hers?”

  “Yes,” I said at the exact time that Grace answered, “No.”

  “Well, you need to make up your minds,” the clerk said good-naturedly.

  “I am, but she hasn’t met Beatrice yet,” I said. “That’s why we came in here. We were hoping to remedy that.”

  “Then try Napoli’s,” the woman said. “I’ll bet she’s still there.”

  “Thank you,” I said as Grace and I hurried out.

  “See? My instincts were right,” my best friend said with a grin. “I told you that we should have gone to Napoli’s first.”

  “Admit it. You just got lucky,” I said happily as we headed for the restaurant.

  “You know how I feel about luck,” she replied. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”

  “I’d rather be both if I get the choice.”

  “Who wouldn’t?” Grace asked as an older woman with a bag from the yarn shop exited the restaurant. “Is that her?”

  “It is,” I said as we approached her. “Hi, Beatrice. Do you have a second?”

  “You look familiar, but I’m not sure where I know you from,” she said suspiciously as she held her purse tightly against her body.

  We’d met a few times, but evidently I hadn’t made all that big an impression on her. “I’m Dorothea Hart’s daughter, Suzanne, and this is my friend, Grace Gauge.”

  That loosened Beatrice up. “Your mother drives a hard bargain, but I like her.”

  “I do, too, but I know exactly what you mean.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” she asked me.

  “Try getting her to agree to let you go to a school dance with Mitchell Bloom when you’re sixteen years old,” I said with a grin. “By the time we got out of there, she made Mitchell promise everything but to carry me home piggyback. He was so intimidated by her that I was home a good hour before my curfew.”

  “I don’t have any trouble believing that. The question begs itself to be asked, were you two looking for me, or was this meeting just a coincidence?”

  “Truthfully, we’d love to talk with you if you have a second,” I said.

  The older woman glanced at her watch. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt, but be warned, I don’t have much more than that. I can give you two minutes, but that’s about it. I’m heading home to meet someone.”

  “Is it about selling the building you just bought
with Evelyn Martin?” Grace asked her.

  “What are you talking about? That’s not mine to sell,” she said huffily.

  “At least not yet,” Grace amended. “We understand that you had a survivorship clause in your partnership agreement, though.”

  “I need to fire that lawyer and report him to the bar for talking out of turn,” she said.

  “That’s not where we heard it.”

  “Of course it wasn’t,” Beatrice said as she shook her head. “You got that straight from your mother, didn’t you?”

  “Is it true, then?” I asked her.

  Beatrice shrugged. “I suppose it can’t hurt anything admitting it. Yes, Evelyn insisted that we agree to share the business fifty-fifty. I couldn’t match her financial investment, not even close, actually, but I was bringing my expertise to the table. Now I’m afraid that particular dream is ruined forever.”

  “Does that mean that you’re not going to open the candle shop without her?” I asked.

  “Sadly, I don’t have the capital I’d need for supplies, shelving, utilities, licenses, and a dozen other things.”

  “Then what are you going to do with the building, now that it’s yours?”

  “I haven’t a clue,” she said. “Is that why you came all the way to Union Square? Just to pepper me with questions about my relationship with my late business partner?”

  “It’s one of the reasons we’re here,” Grace said. “Do you mind if we ask you where you were this morning?”

  “Are you asking me for an alibi?” Beatrice asked her incredulously.

  “Why not? If you have one, it will clear you as a suspect quickly enough.”

  Beatrice just shook her head. “What nerve you have. I didn’t kill Evelyn. Why would I? I can’t run the business without her, and I gave up everything to do this with her. If you’re looking for suspects, you should dig into her love life.”

  “I didn’t even realize that Evelyn was seeing anyone,” I said. “It seemed to me that she wasn’t over her ex-husband yet.”

  “Well, appearances can be deceiving,” Beatrice said a little smugly. “Perhaps you two don’t know everything. While it’s true that Evelyn wouldn’t go out with anyone from April Springs, that didn’t keep her from dating someone here.”

  “She was going out with someone who lives in Union Square?” I asked her.

  “Yes, a car salesman named Conrad Swoop. They’d been dating four months, but from what I heard from Evelyn, they were on the outs lately.”

  “Do you know why?”

  “Apparently, there’s a woman named Violet Frasier in town who thought she and Conrad were exclusive as well. When she found out about Evelyn, she went ballistic. It seems Violet doesn’t like to share. There are two wonderful suspects for you right there.”

  “I can understand why Violet wouldn’t care for Evelyn, but why would Conrad kill her?” Grace asked.

  “Evelyn confided in me that she’d foolishly loaned him some money when she inherited a bundle from her aunt, and Conrad had no intention of paying her back. It put a strain on their relationship, and what do you know? Now that she’s gone, he’s off the hook for good.”

  “Not exactly. He still has to pay back the estate,” I said.

  Beatrice smiled softly. “Perhaps you’d be right if there were any written record of the transaction. However, I have it on good authority that there isn’t any proof that the loan ever took place.”

  “How do you know so much about Evelyn’s personal life?” I asked her.

  “Did you forget? We were partners, and besides, Evelyn loved to talk. Sometimes it drove me crazy, but I listened, anyway.”

  “Is something wrong?” a stunningly attractive woman I was most familiar with asked after opening the door to Napoli’s. “Suzanne, Grace, what are you two doing here?”

  “Hi, Angelica,” I said. “We’ll be inside in a minute.”

  Angelica DeAngelis took the hint and merely nodded as she ducked back inside the restaurant.

  “As much as I’d love to stay and chat, I really must go,” Beatrice said as she started to walk away.

  “We’d be glad to follow you home, if you’d like,” Grace said.

  “Why on earth would I want you to do that?” she asked with a laugh as she hurried across the street to her car.

  After Beatrice was gone, I said, “Did you notice that?”

  “Notice what?”

  “She neatly ducked our question about having an alibi.”

  “Maybe that’s because she doesn’t have one yet,” Grace said with a grin.

  “You might be right. She was certainly eager enough to give us two alternate suspects, wasn’t she?”

  “It would be a good way to distract us from looking too hard at her,” Grace answered.

  “Well, that’s not going to happen,” I said as I took out my phone.

  After he picked up, I asked, “Jake, are you still in Union Square?”

  “I’m just getting ready to leave. Why, would you like me to pick up some takeout for you from Napoli’s?”

  “Grace and I are just getting ready to go in, as a matter of fact,” I said.

  “Would you mind if I join you?”

  “Are you really hungry enough to eat again? The two of us had a meal not that long ago,” I protested.

  “And yet you’re going into a restaurant right now.”

  “I’m just going to keep Grace company,” I said.

  “So, are you telling me that you’re not going to order anything for yourself?”

  “I might, just to be social,” I admitted.

  “Then that’s what I’ll do, too.”

  “Fine,” I said. “I just thought you might like to talk to Beatrice Ashe first.”

  The playfulness went out of his voice instantly. “Do you know where she is?”

  “As of this moment, she’s heading home to meet someone,” I said. “If you hurry, you might get to her before someone else does.”

  Jake paused, and then he said, “I suppose you and Grace already spoke with her.”

  “We tried, but she refused to give us her alibi,” I said.

  “Suzanne, she’s under no obligation to tell you anything.”

  “That’s why we thought you might like a crack at her,” I said.

  “Okay. I appreciate the tip, but we need to talk about things this evening.”

  “I can do that,” I said, “but for now, Grace and I are going into the restaurant. Would you like anything?”

  “No thanks.”

  He hung up before I could say good-bye.

  I stared at my phone for a few seconds before I put it back into my jeans pocket.

  “What’s wrong?” Grace asked.

  “That didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped it would,” I admitted.

  “What did you honestly expect, Suzanne? We’re stomping around in the middle of his investigation. I didn’t figure he’d thank us for it.”

  “I don’t know why not. After all, we told him where he could find Beatrice.”

  “Sure we did, but only after we chatted with her first. Give him a break. This can’t be easy for him to have us looking over his shoulder all of the time, especially when we beat him to one of his suspects.”

  “I suppose you’re right. He wants to talk about it tonight.”

  Grace grimaced a little. “Ouch. That can’t be good.”

  “Probably not, but I’m not going to worry about it now. Let’s go get you something to eat.”

  “Are you sure that we have time?” Grace asked.

  “Jake is going to have his hands full for the next hour unless I miss my guess. Besides, I’m not in any hurry to get the scolding that’s probably coming my way. After all, even condemned prisoners get a last meal.”

  “I’m sure it will all be fine,” Grace said as she held the door to the restaurant open for me.

  “I hope you’re right,” I said as I walked inside.

  Grace had a full meal, and eve
n though I’d promised myself to eat lightly, I ended up consuming way too many calories before we got out of there. I couldn’t hurt Angelica’s feelings, could I?

  We were both stuffed as we drove back to April Springs.

  “I don’t envy you this evening,” Grace said. “It’s not going to be all that pleasant dealing with Jake, is it?”

  “I don’t know about that. He’s usually a very reasonable man,” I said a little uncertainly. “I’m sure we’ll find a way to work things out.”

  “I hope so, for both your sakes. Suzanne, you’ve never been happier. Don’t let this case jeopardize that, do you hear me?”

  “Yes, Momma,” I said with a smile.

  She grinned back. “You don’t actually expect me to be offended by that, do you? Calling me your mother is the highest compliment you could ever pay me. Besides, we both know that my advice is the exact same thing that your mother would give you if she had the chance.”

  “Well, she’s not going to get the opportunity,” I said. “I’m going to deal with the situation with Jake on my own.”

  “I suppose I could hang around to lend you a little moral support if I had to,” she conceded.

  “Thanks, but like I said, I can tackle this all by myself,” I said.

  Halfway back to April Springs, Grace asked, “Are you at all nervous about tomorrow?”

  “What about it?” I asked absently. It was growing dark, and a set of headlights on high beams was in my rearview mirror. I tried flipping the mirror to the dimming position, but the inside of the car was still lit up. “What is this guy’s problem?” I tapped my brakes, and he backed off. After tapping them twice more, he must have realized that his high beams were on, and they shifted back to their normal intensity. “There, that’s better. Now, what were you saying?”

  “I was wondering how you felt about going back to the donut shop in the morning,” she said. “It’s been a month since you’ve worked there.”

  “That may be true, but I’ve popped in every now and then since I left it in Sharon and Emma’s hands,” I said.

  “I know that, but it’s going to be a whole different thing running it again. The hours are going to kill you, for one thing.”

  I didn’t tell her that I’d never truly adapted to the new sleep schedule since I’d been taking care of Jake. I seemed to wake up every morning at exactly the same time, regardless of whether I was using an alarm clock or not. “I’ll manage.”