Bad Bites: Donut Mystery #16 (The Donut Mysteries) by Jessica Beck

may be when we close, but I have to run the register report, make
out the deposit, and help Emma clean the shop.”
    “So then, five after?” she asked with a laugh.
    “If you want to pitch in and help, that would be fine.”
    After a brief pause, she said, “Eleven thirty it is, then.”
    I swore I could hear her laughing as she hung up on me.
    Excellent.  
    Now I had a plan for my investigation, and a partner in crime to help me
carry it out.
    Honestly, what could possibly go wrong?

 

 
    Chapter 8

 
    “Which suspect should we speak with first?” Grace asked as we left the
donut shop together toward the end of the morning just after closing.   Emma had offered to take the deposit by
the bank for me, and I’d readily agreed, so I was free to sleuth for the rest
of the day.
    “I think we should tackle the married couple,” she said firmly.
    “Really?   I was actually kind
of hoping that we’d interview them last.”
    “Why is that?” she asked as she looked at me quizzically.
    “I don’t know.   The whole subject
matter is kind of delicate, and we certainly can’t bring it up while they’re
together.   Why do you want to speak
with them first?”
    “I suppose it’s the whole ‘two birds with one stone’ philosophy.”
    “If they’re together, we’re going to have to find a way to split them
up.   If we can somehow manage that,
would you like to take Nathan or Maggie?” I asked her as we got into my Jeep
and I started driving toward the Hoff house.
    “Suzanne, we both know that you’re better with the men,” she said.  
    “I can’t say that that’s entirely true.”
    Grace grinned at me.   “Okay
then.   Have it your way.   You take Maggie.”
    I thought about questioning the woman about her affair with Chester,
something that wasn’t public knowledge as far as I knew, and how I could
delicately ask her for an alibi for the time of the murder.   I decided that maybe I’d be better off
with Nathan after all.   “No, you’re
right.   You take the cheating wife,
and I’ll deal with the spurned husband.”
    “When you put it that way, I’m not sure that I like that, either,” Grace
said.
    “Well, we need to decide fast, because we’re here.”
    My best friend looked surprised to see that we were already at the Hoff
house.   “How did I miss that?”
    “You were too busy trying to convince me to take Nathan on, and April
Springs isn’t all that big a town,” I said with a smile.   “So, first off, we need a strategy to
divide and conquer these two.”
    “I could always tell Maggie that she won a cosmetics kit from my company,”
Grace said.
    “Do you happen to have one in that big purse you always carry around with
you?”
    “You never know,” Grace said with a grin as she started rooting around in
the voluminous bag.   After thirty
seconds, she came up with a lipstick sampler and a small zippered plastic bag containing
several different sample sizes of blush.   “It might not be much, but I’ll sell it as something much bigger before
I give it to her.”
    “That I’ve got to see,” I said.
    “Then watch the master and learn,” Grace said with a smile as we
approached the front door.   “Have
you decided what you are going to tell Nathan?”
    I thought about it for a second, and then I came up with something that I
thought was fairly good.   “Well, he
came by the shop last month to buy some donuts for his office.   I’ll tell him that we drew his business
card out of the fishbowl today, and that he’s won a free dozen donuts.”
    Grace frowned as her finger hovered over the doorbell.   “You don’t normally do giveaways, and
I’ve never seen you collect business
cards, in fishbowls or any other bowls, for that matter.”
    “You know that, and so do I, but what are the chances Nathan’s going to
remember what he did a month ago?   Do you think he’s going to challenge me and refuse the donuts?   If he does, he’ll be one of the