A Holiday Donut Steal: A Special Christmas Donut Mystery Short Story (The Donut Mysteries) by Jessica Beck Page B

anyone.
    After we explained the situation to him, Jake frowned as he looked at the women present.  “Do you all really want to go through with this?  I’m sure I can talk my mother-in-law out of pressing charges if you just surrender the earrings right now.  Isn’t that right?” he asked my mother.
    “I suppose so,” she said reluctantly.
    “Jake, nobody’s going to do it if everyone can see her return the earrings, “ I said.
    “What do you suggest, Suzanne?”
    “Turn off the lights for five seconds.  If Momma’s earrings are back on the table when the lights come on, we can all go home and do our best to forget this ever happened.”
    Jake shrugged, and then he turned to Momma.  “This is your show.  What do you think?”
    “It’s fine with me.  I just want my earrings back.”
    “Okay,” Jake said as he moved to the light switch.  “I’m going to start counting the second the light goes out, so don’t dawdle.”  He flipped the light off, and we were all suddenly plunged into darkness.  Some genius on the decorating committee had even covered the emergency exit light with a handmade sign, so there was no illumination to be had anywhere.  “One, two, three, four, and five.”
    Jake flipped the light back on, and sure enough, the earrings were in the center of the table.  I reached over for them and handed them to my mother, and as I did, I noticed a little custard clinging to one of the prongs holding a diamond in place.  I didn’t say anything, but I made sure to shake each woman’s hand on the way out.  Marla held it for a single moment before releasing it, Cassandra was reluctant to do even that much, while Joanie frowned as she tried to crush my hand in hers, not a very ladylike thing to do at all.
    Once the suspects were outside, Momma said, “I can’t believe that just happened.”
    “I’m sure that someone just got caught up in the moment,” Jake said.  “It happens.”
    “Would you both excuse me?” I asked as I followed the women outside.
    “What’s going on?” Jake asked.
    “No worries.  I’ll be right back.”
    Once I was out in the cold, only the lights in the parking lot offered illumination.  “Cassandra, hold up a second.”
    “What’s going on, Suzanne?” she asked as she stopped and turned to face me.
    I leaned forward and said softly, “I don’t know why you did it, but you should be ashamed of yourself.”
    “What are you talking about?” she asked after pausing just a moment too long to decide how to react to my accusation.
    “You took my mother’s earrings.  Don’t bother denying it.  Are things really that bad for you right now?  We can help, if you’ll just ask.”
    “I don’t know what you’re implying, but I didn’t do anything!”
    I was going to have to call her out on it, though I didn’t relish embarrassing her.  “The earrings were clearly stashed in one of the new donuts I just brought out.  No doubt you realized that if you were searched and the earrings were found on you, you’d be through in this town.  What you weren’t counting on was that I’d have to substitute red iced donuts for green ones at the last second, and that the red dye was extremely potent.  Show me your hands.”
    “I don’t have to,” she said.
    “Do you want me to go get Jake?” I asked her ominously.  I’d seen signs of red dye on her fingertip, her thumb, and under her fingernails too.  If I had to guess, I’d say it was from when she’d shoved the stolen earrings into the donut for safekeeping, so I believed that I was on solid ground.  Cassandra hadn’t been biting her nails; she’d been trying to remove the evidence of what she’d done.
    Obediently, the thief pulled her hand from her pocket, and I saw that no matter how hard she’d tried to remove the evidence, there were still traces of red dye on her fingers and under her nails from the icing.  She immediately broke down when she realized how obvious it was.  “I