Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 18 - Dangerous Dough (14 page)

Chapter 16

“It goes higher
than that.
 
Try the police chief
himself,” Deke said.

Jake shook his
head.
 
“Come on, get real.
 
Are you honestly trying to tell me that
Chief Willson was in on Alex Tyler’s murder?”

“Hey, don’t take
my word for it.
 
The man had his
hand out to look the other way when he was the deputy chief, and he hasn’t
pulled it back in empty-handed since he took over.”

“I’m still
waiting for proof,” Jake said.

“If you can crack
Craig Durant, he’ll tell you that I’m not lying.”

“Alex’s ex-partner?”
I asked.

“One and the
same.
 
Durant didn’t take too well
to Alex trying to reform, either.
 
I
heard him threaten the man once myself.”

“I can’t imagine
any cop being stupid or careless enough to say or do anything incriminating in
front of you,” Jake said.

“They didn’t know
that I was standing nearby,” Deke said with a shrug.
 
“That’s not all, though.
 
I heard Durant tell Alex that if he
tried to do anything about stopping what had been going on, he’d pay for it.
 
Then Durant said that the chief would put
him on a solo patrol shift at midnight in the worst part of town, and nobody
would answer if he called in for backup.
 
That shook Alex up pretty good from what I could see.”

“What did he say
in response?” Grace asked, caught up in this new revelation as well.

Deke shrugged
again.
 
“Beats me.
 
I didn’t hang around to find out.
 
I knew if they found out I’d been
listening to their little conversation, it was not going to end well for me, so
I took off.”

“When did all of
this supposedly happen?” Jake asked.

“Three days
before Tyler took the job in April Springs,” the criminal said.
 
“That’s it.
 
I’m tapped.
 
I don’t have anything else for you.”

Jake stared hard
at him before he answered.
 
“I’m not
ready to concede that just yet.
 
We’ll see you around, Deke.”

“I’m not going
anywhere,” the crook said as Jake, Grace, and I walked out into the late-afternoon
light.
 
The sky was gray, heavy with
snow; at least that’s how it looked to me.
 
Maybe I was just a little paranoid about us getting enough accumulation
to matter.

“Wow, that was
quite a different conversation than the one we had with him,” Grace said.
 
Before I could ask my question, Grace
asked it for me.
 
“How did you even know
that was Deke Marsh?
 
We never
pointed him out to you.”

“Did you see the
way he nursed that drink?
 
He had
his forearm around it, as though he were guarding it from being taken.
 
That’s a jailhouse move if ever there
was one.
 
I took a shot the second I
saw that.”

“Good to know,”
Grace said.
 
“I’m sorry that it
looks as though the police chief here might be involved.”

“We don’t know
that!” Jake lashed out at her.

“Take it easy,
big guy.
 
We’re on the same team,
remember?” Grace asked softly.

After a few
moments, Jake let a deep breath out.
 
“Sorry.
 
I shouldn’t have
overreacted.
 
I’ve just seen too
many cops accused of doing things they never would have dreamed of doing.
 
It can ruin a career if it’s not true.”

“And if it is?” I
asked him as we approached my Jeep.

“Then they
deserve whatever punishment they get, just like everybody else.”
 
Wow, some things really were just that
black and white in my husband’s mind.

“How do we find
out if Deke Marsh was telling us the truth, though?” Grace asked.

“I’ll ask around—discreetly,
of course—but I have a hunch that if that man’s lips are moving, he’s probably
lying.
 
Let’s move on to your next
suspect.”
 
Jake glanced at his
watch, and then he added, “We’ve got another hour before Durant is due back at
the station.”

“Then let’s go
tackle the ice queen,” I said.
 
“Honestly, I want to see what Shannon Wright makes of you.”

Jake smiled a
little, something I was glad to see that he was still capable of doing, even if
he was in his full investigative mode.
 
“I’ll be nothing but charming; I promise.”

“Oh, I don’t
doubt that for an instant,” I said, doing my best not to grin.

Grace was not
equally restrained.
 
Her smile was
broad as she said, “She’s a real piece of work.
 
I can’t wait to see this, either.”

“She can’t be as
bad as the two of you are implying,” Jake said.

“We’ll see soon
enough.
 
We’re here,” I said as I
parked the Jeep and we got out.

It was time for Round
Two with the queen of mean.

“Hello, there,”
Shannon said when we knocked on her door.
 
“My, aren’t you a tall, handsome fellow.”
  
I could swear she was almost
purring from the moment she saw Jake.
 
I had to admit that I did not like the way she looked at him.
 
While I’m not typically all that
jealous, I was still a little uneasy about the way she focused so intently on
my husband.
 
It was as though Grace
and I weren’t even there.
 
I’d wondered
about the appeal she’d had for Alex Tyler, but that question had been answered
now.
 
When she turned her full
attention on a man, it was almost radiant.

“Ms. Wright?”
Jake asked.
 

“Please, call me
Shannon,” she said.
 
“And you are?”

“This is my husband,
Jake,” I said, just to be sure that she knew I was standing there.
 
From her lack of eye contact with Grace
or me, I hadn’t been quite sure.

Still ignoring
me, she offered her hand to Jake.
 
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He shook it
curtly, even though it was pretty clear that she’d been trying to hold onto it
a little longer.
 
“I’d invite you
in, but the place is a mess.”

I glanced behind
her and saw that the apartment was immaculate, and I had a hunch that if Jake
had been alone, the invitation would have been issued quickly enough.

“I’m sure that
it’s fine.
 
We’re here about your ex-husband,”
Jake said as he glanced at Grace and me.

“As I told your
wife, I don’t know anything about what happened to him,” Shannon said.
 
“I’m sorry you wasted a trip coming
here.”

“That’s
fine.
 
We were already in town to
coordinate with the Granite Meadows police department,” Jake said, giving his
voice that tone of authority he used so well.
 
If I didn’t know better, I would have
believed him myself, but calling what we were doing with the local police cooperation
was beyond any stretch of the imagination.

Hopefully Shannon
wouldn’t know that.

“It’s all such a
shock,” Shannon said.
 
“To think
that someone would murder poor Alex.”

“Where were
you
the day he was murdered?
 
Is there any chance that you might have
seen him?” Jake asked.

Shannon looked as
though she’d been shocked by an exposed electrical wire when he’d asked her for
an alibi.
 
“Surely you don’t think
that I could have had anything to do with it.”

“When a former
spouse is murdered, we always look at the ex first,” Jake explained
calmly.
 
“If you’ll just tell us
where you were, we can take your name off our list and be on our way.”

“I was here all
day, alone, I’m afraid,” Shannon said after a momentary hesitation.
 
Was she really a little hurt that Jake
had asked her for her whereabouts, or was she just acting?

“Did you have any
contact with anyone like a delivery man, a mailman, anyone?” I asked.
 

She glanced over
at me for a split second and frowned, and I had to wonder if it was because I’d
dared ask her a question myself or that I’d had the audacity to marry Jake.

“No one,” she
said, as if she were shooing away a pesky gnat.
 
“I’m sorry I can’t be of more
help.”
 
Almost wistfully, she looked
at Jake another full moment, and then she started to close her door.

“I have one more
question,” Grace asked, but it was too late.
 
The door was already shutting.

“Sorry, but I
really must go,” Shannon answered as it shut completely, and we were faced with
a closed door.

“Wow, I didn’t
think it was possible, but I like her even less than I did before,” I said as
we walked back to my Jeep.

“Why wouldn’t
you?
 
She was looking at Jake like a
starving man looks at a free meal.”

“What are you two
talking about?” Jake asked.

“Seriously?
 
You didn’t notice the way she was acting
toward you?”

“Of course I
did,” Jake answered.
 
“I’m not
blind, but I don’t think she was really all that interested in me.”

“Were you looking
at the same woman we were?” Grace asked him.
 
“Because from where I was standing, she
was practically drooling when she spoke to you.”

“That’s just
because she thought she might be able to manipulate me,” Jake answered.
 
“This isn’t the first time it’s happened,
and I’m pretty sure that it won’t be the last.”

“This conversation
suddenly got more interesting,” I said.
 
“Care to share any other stories with us?”

Jake stopped and
wrapped me up in his arms, and then my new husband kissed me soundly.
 
“Suzanne, there’s only one woman alive
that I’m interested in, and I just kissed her.”

“Okay.
 
I’ve got it,” I said with a grin.

“She was lying
about something, though,” Jake said after a moment.

“How do you know
that?” I asked him.

“She hesitated in
all of the wrong places,” he replied.

“And that’s
it?
 
That’s all it took to know that
she was lying?” I asked him.

“There were a few
other signals, but that was the main one.”

I touched his arm
lightly.
 
“Could it be possible that
your former job made you more paranoid than the average man?”

“It’s within the
realm of reason,” Jake said reluctantly, “but I still think she was trying to
hide something from us.”

“Then we’ll keep
digging into her alibi,” I said, and then I kissed him again to show him that I
had his back.

“If you two are
finished acting like teenagers, we have a bit of a deadline now if we’re going
to speak with Maisie before we have to be back at the station to meet up with
Officer Durant.”

“Then let’s go,”
I said, happy that Jake had taken a moment to reaffirm the way he felt about
me.
 
I wasn’t generally that insecure,
but Shannon’s direct assault had shaken me a little, even though I knew better
than to worry about my new husband’s loyalties.

Hopefully Maisie
wouldn’t try anything so obvious.

But after meeting
with her once and then hearing the stories about her, I wouldn’t put it past
her.

The only problem
was that she wasn’t there when we got to her apartment.
 

At least she
wasn’t answering the door.

“I don’t think
she’s home,” Jake said after Grace knocked loudly when the doorbell hadn’t
worked to bring her out.

“She could be in
there hiding from us,” Grace said.
 
“It’s not like she didn’t try to do it before.”

“Why would she do
that?” Jake asked.

“She’s an odd
bird,” Grace replied.
 
“Wouldn’t you
agree, Suzanne?” she asked me.

“Let’s just say
that she’s a unique individual and leave it at that.
 
One thing is certain: we can’t just camp
here and wait for her to come out if we’re going to catch Officer Durant.”

“We can always
come back later,” Jake said, “but Durant is the real reason I came with you two
this afternoon.
 
Let’s go back to
the police station, just in case he comes back early.”

“That sounds like
a solid plan to me,” I said as we made our way back to my Jeep.
 
I glanced back before we left, but there
wasn’t the slightest flutter in Maisie’s curtains.
 

Either she truly
was gone, or she didn’t want to take the chance of being seen peeking out her
window.

“Should we go
inside and wait for him?” I asked Jake as I drove into the police station’s
parking lot.
 
The cars had thinned
out some, but then again, it was getting to be later in the day.
 
I was getting hungry, but we didn’t
exactly have much time to stop and get a bite.

“I think we
should stay right where we are,” Jake replied.
 
“It would be better if we caught Durant
out here instead of in the station.
 
I’m not sure how the chief will react if he knows that we’re not just
going to take his word for things.
 
Park over near those squad cars,” he directed.