Assault and Batter (9 page)

He paid, and I put his coffee and donut on a tray. “There you go.”

“I’ll just eat this at the counter, if that’s all right with you.”

I nodded. “It’s fine.”

I turned my back and started consolidating donuts on the trays so Emma could start washing the empty ones when Reggie cleared his voice and spoke up. “Do you have a second?”

“I’ve got all the time in the world. I can work and talk at the same time,” I said, keeping my back to him.

Reggie wasn’t going to allow that, though. “Suzanne, look at me. I want to talk to you.”

I put the tray down and turned to face him. “Go on. You’ve got my undivided attention.”

“I’m sorry I lied to you yesterday,” he said as his words came out in a rush. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t all that used to apologizing to anyone, and it was difficult for him to do.

“I am, too,” I said. “I thought we were friends.”

“I’d like to think that myself,” Reggie replied.

“In my book, friends don’t lie to each other,” I said with a frown.

“I panicked, okay? I didn’t want anyone to know that I was watching Max’s place.” His voice was so low it was hard to hear him, and I was standing pretty close by. There were a few folks in the donut shop, but I doubted that anyone else could hear us.

“What were you doing there, anyway?” I asked as I took a step closer.

“I wanted to ask Max’s friend, Peter, if he was the one who killed Jude,” Reggie said.

“What! Why would you ask him that?”

“I saw them fighting, Suzanne. It’s not that far a leap to go from a fistfight to murder.”

“Excuse me for saying so, but I know that you didn’t have any affection for Jude yourself. Why would you care if Peter killed him?”

“You’re probably not going to understand this, but I was going to give him a reward,” Reggie said.

“A reward? Like a bounty? Are you kidding me?” What had happened to the friendly guy I’d known all these years?

“Jude Williams killed my daughter just as surely as if he’d put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger,” Reggie said. “Maybe I didn’t have the guts to do anything about Jude myself, but I wanted to shake the hand of the guy who did, and show him my appreciation.”

“Reggie, that’s just plain wrong. What would Debbie think if she knew what you were doing?” I asked it without thinking, but it was a fair question. I’d known Debbie Nance, and one thing I was pretty sure of was that she wouldn’t approve of her father’s current vengeful attitude.

“Leave her out of this, Suzanne,” Reggie said with a hard edge in his voice.

“How can I? She’s at the center of this whole thing for you.”

“You don’t have kids. You can’t know what it’s like to lose one,” Reggie said. His stern face began to crack, and tears ran unnoticed down his cheeks.

“I may not have children, but I know what it’s like to lose someone you love,” I said, thinking of my late father.

“Losing a child is different. Why did I even try to come here to explain myself to you? You’ll never be able to understand what I’ve been through.”

Reggie started for the door, leaving his donuts behind. “Hey, don’t forget these,” I called out.

“Keep them,” he said as he hurried away. “I don’t want them anymore.”

I shook my head, wondering why I’d talked to him the way I had. Reggie was right about one thing. I had no idea what it was like to lose a child. That didn’t justify his behavior, but it did help to explain it. If he’d been telling me the truth about not killing Jude, it would take his name off of my list of suspects, but I wasn’t ready to take him off at his word just yet.

I needed to do more digging before I was ready to do that.

Still, his visit certainly gave me something to think about.

“Aren’t you closed yet?” Grace asked as she walked into Donut Hearts a few minutes before eleven.

“Just be glad that I’m not still open until noon,” I said as I finished boxing up the donuts we had left over from the morning’s sales. I loved it when we had around a dozen unsold donuts at the end of the workday, but I absolutely hated it when we had to shut down early because we were out of inventory. Most days I usually erred on the side of caution and made too many donuts. After all, I could always give them away to the church, or even use the extras to help pave the way as I questioned suspects.

“I don’t know how you keep open this late in the morning, considering the time you get started,” she said. “I’ve just been up two hours and I’m already ready for a nap.”

“I’m willing to bet that you were up later than I was last night, though,” I replied. I crammed the thirteenth donut into the box and set it on the countertop. As I pulled the trays and handed them to Emma, I asked, “Did you call in sick today?”

“I didn’t have to. Officially, I’m working on employee evaluations.” Grace grinned at me as she added, “I did them last night, though, so you’ve got me all day today.”

“Does your boss have any idea how you work their system?” I asked with a smile.

“She doesn’t want to, Suzanne. I’m running the number three territory in the Southeast. As long as the numbers are good, no one asks me any questions.”

“It must be nice,” I said as I wiped the counter down.

“It has its moments,” she said. Grace looked back into the kitchen where Emma was happily washing the last dishes, glasses, cups, and trays for the day. It was clear that my assistant was listening to her iPod by the soft sounds of her singing along with the music. Sometimes I tried to guess based on what I heard, but it was often too hard to do. Emma wasn’t exactly tone deaf, but she wasn’t spot-on in her sing-alongs, either. “What’s on the schedule for this afternoon?”

“Do you mean after I finish cleaning up here, closing out the register, making my deposit out, and generally shutting the donut shop down for the day?”

“Yeah, after all of that,” Grace said with a grin. “Don’t try to complain to me about what you do. You know as well as I do that you love it.”

“Guilty as charged,” I said as I returned her smile. “We need to find Peter and talk to him. That’s got to be first on our list.”

“Do you really think that he might have killed Jude?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know, but there’s enough smoke around that I’m willing to look for some fire.”

“Okay, so we talk to Peter. What’s in store after that?” Grace said as she flipped open the box of donuts. She was trying to eat healthier these days, but that didn’t mean that she was willing to cut donuts completely out of her life.

“You can have one, you know,” I said.

“What? No. No thanks. No offense,” she said as she closed the lid and scooted the donuts back toward me. “I’ve picked up a few pounds lately that I’ve been trying to lose.”

“You look great, and you know it,” I said as I moved them out of her reach.

“Yes, we’re all pretty,” she said happily. “Are we going to talk to Max, too?”

“We have to, don’t we?” I asked.

“Well, Jude used to go out with Emily, and Max is the jealous type, so yes, he needs to be on our list.”

“That’s going to be more awkward than I can even fathom,” I said.

“I could do it by myself, if you’d like me to,” Grace offered.

“Thanks, but I’ll manage to get through it,” I replied. “Should we talk to Emily as well?”

“Do you honestly think that she might have killed Jude?” Grace asked, the surprise clear on her face.

“I don’t know, but we have to ask,” I said.

“What motive could she possibly have?”

“What if Jude threatened to tell Max something that would break up the wedding?” I asked. “She might kill him to protect her love.”

“What could he say that could possibly drive Max away?” Grace asked. “The man’s absolutely smitten with her. You said as much yourself.”

“That’s just it. I don’t know. We need to find anyone Jude interacted with in the last few days who might have a reason to want to see him dead.”

“That could be a long list of suspects,” Grace said after whistling softly.

“Then we’d better get started.”

“Is there anything else we need to do today?”

There was something else on my personal list, but I wasn’t about to tell Grace that I was going to track Jake down, even if I had to drive to Raleigh to do it. I was going to find out what my boyfriend had on his mind, one way or the other. If he was going to dump me, I needed to get it over with. I honestly was beginning to think that the suspense of it all was worse than anything that he could say to me. That wasn’t exactly true, but I did hate being kept in the dark about his intentions. “Nothing I can’t handle on my own.”

“Are you talking about Jake?” she asked tentatively.

“I really don’t want to discuss it,” I said.

She could read my tone of voice better than anybody but my mother could. Grace recognized the fact that I was ending the conversation before it could even get started. “Okay, what can I do to help around here so we can get started?” she asked as she clapped her hands together and looked around the donut shop.

“You could wipe the tables down and sweep the floor,” I said.

“Consider it done,” she said. Grace grabbed a rag, and I started balancing the register receipts and running my daily reports. Everything checked out on the first try, and I was just finishing up the deposit slip when Emma walked out.

“The dishes are done, and the kitchen floor is clean. Is there anything else I can do?”

“Would you mind running this by the bank on your way home?” I asked her as I held the bag holding our deposit up in the air.

“Happy to do it,” she said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“I’ll be here,” I said as I let her out the locked door.

Grace and Emma exchanged good-byes of their own. Once Emma was gone, I turned to my best friend, and as I grabbed our leftover donuts to take with us, I said, “Let’s get started. Thanks for helping me close the shop.”

“Glad to do it. So, is it back to Max’s first?”

“It’s as good a place to start as any,” I said. “I just hope they’re both there.”

“Given that it’s not even noon yet, I’m willing to bet that they’re both still asleep.”

“You might be right. If they are, what do you say we go wake them up?”

“Lead the way. I’m right behind you,” Grace said as we walked out of the shop and locked the door behind us. Any more donutmaking would have to wait until tomorrow.

For now, it was time for us to dig into the reason someone had murdered Jude Williams.

“Hey, Suzanne,” Peter Hickman said as he opened the door to Max’s place when I knocked. “If you’re looking for your ex-hubby, he’s in the shower.” Peter was wearing a bathrobe, and I held my breath hoping that it stayed together. It was obvious that he had just woken up, given his disheveled hair and his bloodshot eyes.

“That’s quite a black eye you’ve got there,” I said.

“This? It’s nothing. You should see the other guy,” Peter said.

“Is that supposed to be funny?” Grace asked with a whip in her voice.

Peter looked at her warily. “What put the burr under your saddle, Grace?” he asked her.

“Are you trying to claim that you don’t know that Jude Williams is dead?” I asked him point-blank.

Peter pursed his lips. “Now who’s saying things in bad taste?”

“It’s true, Peter. Are you telling me that you didn’t already know?” I asked.

“How am I supposed to know if you’re even telling me the truth?” Peter asked. After studying our faces, he must have finally realized that we wouldn’t joke about something like that. “It’s really true, isn’t it? How did it happen?”

Grace was about to answer when I shook my head slightly. She stopped, and I asked, “Why don’t you let me ask the questions? Why were you two fighting so publicly?”

Peter’s hand went automatically to his bruised eye. “What makes you think we were fighting?”

“Come on; we’re not stupid, Peter. We know what happened.” There was no way that he was going to bluff his way out of this one. We had reliable witnesses on our side.

“You just think you know,” Peter said. A little reluctantly, he added, “I guess you might as well come on inside. Max needs to hear this, too.”

“Why is that?” I asked him as Grace and I followed him inside.

“Because apparently he’s in this just as deeply as I am,” Peter said.

I felt my blood run cold hearing that.

It appeared that my ex was in some serious trouble, and right before he was set to marry one of my dearest friends. The fact that I’d played such a significant role in the matchmaking didn’t help matters one little bit, either.

Max walked out of the shower with a towel around his waist. He was using another one to dry his hair, and when he saw us, he grinned. “What brings you two here so bright and early?”

“Max, somebody killed Jude Williams,” Peter said before either one of us could respond.

“You got a few shots in, but you have to give the man credit. He did just as much damage to you,” Max said with that ever-present grin of his. “If anything, I’d call it a draw. Nobody won, nobody lost, and nobody certainly got killed.”

“Jude is in the morgue right now, Max,” I said. “He’s dead.”

“But I don’t understand,” my ex said. “Peter didn’t hit him that hard.”

“Actually, I’ve been trying to deny the fact that I even got into a fight with him in the first place,” Peter said. “You kind of just ruined it for me there, buddy.”

“Peter, I wasn’t the only one who saw what happened. You didn’t do anything wrong. Jude picked that fight, and we both know it.”

“Where have you two been?” I asked. “This all just happened.”

Max looked at me sheepishly as he explained, “Peter’s bachelor party idea went a little longer than we expected it to.”

“That’s what you’ve been doing all this time?” I asked incredulously.

Max smiled at me before he said, “Suzanne, as much as I appreciate your concern, you don’t have the right to use that tone of voice with me anymore. I explained it all to Emily before we left, and she was perfectly fine with it.”

“Or she just said that she was,” Grace said, skepticism thick in her voice.

“She understands me,” Max said. “That’s why we’re getting married.”