Criminal Crumbs

JESSICA BECK

THE DONUT MYSTERIES, BOOK 21

CRIMINAL CRUMBS

Criminal Crumbs

Copyright © 2015 by Jessica Beck All rights reserved.

First Edition: September 2015

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Recipes included in this book are to be recreated at the reader’s own risk. The author is not responsible for any damage, medical or otherwise, created as a result of reproducing these recipes. It is the responsibility of the reader to ensure that none of the ingredients are detrimental to their health, and the author will not be held liable in any way for any problems that might arise from following the included recipes.

The First Time Ever Published!

The 21st Donut Mystery.

Jessica Beck is the
New York Times
Bestselling Author of the Donut Mysteries, the Classic Diner Mysteries, the Ghost Cat Cozy Mysteries, and the Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries.

To Kath and Tom,

Family in every way that counts!!

When Suzanne accepts Grace’s invitation to a luxurious corporate weekend retreat, she believes she’s in for some first class pampering, but when one of the participants dies soon after they arrive, she’s thrown back into the world of detecting, whether she likes it or not. To make matters worse, they are soon cut off from the rest of the world, and the group finds itself trapped on a mountaintop with a cold blooded killer.

Foreword

T
his book was inspired by
a recent visit to the Mountain Lake Lodge in Penbroke, Virginia, better known as the site where much of the movie
Dirty Dancing
was filmed. In
Bad Bites
, an earlier donut mystery, Jake and Suzanne visit a lodge in the latter stages of the book, but by no means does the entirety of that mystery take place there. I decided that it might be fun to revisit a different lodge setting as a backdrop for this donut murder mystery, since there are so many lodges in my part of North Carolina and Virginia. It’s not unreasonable, at least in my mind, to assume that Suzanne would visit more than one lodge in her lifetime, but I wanted to make you, my dear reader, aware that I’m not repeating myself with this entry; rather, I’m exploring more of a particular favorite vacation setting of mine. And honestly, we must let the denizens of April Springs be excused from a murder now and then, or the town will soon be decimated.

For those of you have enjoyed the Donut Mysteries, along with my other series in the cozy mystery world (insert blatant plug for the Classic Diner mysteries, the Cast Iron Mysteries, and the Ghost Cat mysteries here), I thank you.

I’ll be waiting on the other side, working on the next adventure we can share together.

The Author

Chapter 1

T
hough it was just a
little past nine on a late autumn evening, I was sick with worry. Where was my best friend, Grace, and why hadn’t she returned to the cottage in the woods we were sharing for the long weekend? Had something happened to her on her solo walk back from the main lodge? I peered out the window searching for her in the darkness, but the glass might as well have been painted jet black for all the good it did me. Saying that it was dark outside couldn’t begin to describe the complete and utter absence of light I found. This wasn’t anything like the wee hours back in April Springs when I left the house in the middle of the night to get ready for my day at Donut Hearts making treats for my fellow townsfolk. Although those short trips were nominally nighttime, there were always lots of little lights here and there along the way, ambient illumination emanating from the small town where I lived and worked that offered beacons beyond the scope of my Jeep’s headlights. Not this—it was a dense, woodsy dark, one devoid of all extraneous light, where only the hope of an exposed moon could guide steps. Only there was no moon tonight, at least not one that I could see. Our guest cottage, scattered among three others just like it, was perched along a narrow path that skirted a dramatically steep drop-off on one side, and while it felt perfectly safe coming and going in the light of day, at night, it was another matter altogether. Was Grace lingering over coffee while sitting in one of the comfortable couches that surrounded the massive stone fireplace at the lodge, talking to one of the women she worked with at her cosmetics company, trading war stories of nightmare bosses and clients they’d endured over their years of service? Or was her fate something far more sinister? Could she have strayed from the unlit path and plummeted into the forest below, even now lying there in pain, calling out for me?

She should have been back twenty minutes earlier, and I knew that I never should have let her stay back at the lodge without me. I’d been sleepy, used to my odd nocturnal habit of going to bed around seven, and Grace had caught me yawning before sending me off to enjoy my rest. But that had turned out to be impossible after all. The night air had been too bracing on my walk back, sending chilled fingers through the hooded sweatshirt and heavy jeans I’d had on. We were in true mountains, at twice the elevation of April Springs, and when we’d left home, it had been just over seventy degrees. Now, just seven hours later, the thermometer was hovering somewhere around forty, and if the temperature at the moment was any indication, it would get colder still before morning came. I paced around inside the small stone cottage, wondering what I should do, until I finally decided to just face the cold and go out in search of her. Chances were good that I’d find her safe in the lodge, wondering what had brought me out again, but I didn’t care if I looked foolish showing up again unexpectedly.

I had to make sure that she was safe.

Grabbing the flashlight they’d issued me upon checking in, I walked out into the cold night, bracing myself for the wind and the oppressive darkness. Turning on my light as I stepped outside, I kept it to the gravel path in front of me as I made my way to the lodge. Glancing up at the sky, I could see wave upon wave of dark clouds overhead. If it had been a clear night, I was certain that the stars would have been breathtaking, but there was nothing but shadows of gray above me. Maybe that was why they’d called the place Shadow Mountain Resort so long ago.

I was halfway to the lodge when I heard the first scream, so close that I could almost touch it, and I nearly plummeted over the path’s edge as I raced toward it.

And then a second, higher-pitched scream filled the night air again.

Someone was clearly in trouble.

I just hoped and prayed that it wasn’t Grace as I ran in the direction of the sound I’d just heard piercing the night.

Whatever had just happened, I knew in my heart that it had spelled disaster for someone in our weekend group.

Chapter 2

Two days earlier.

“H
ey, Suzanne,” Grace said when
she walked into my donut shop a little before closing one day. “Please tell me that you have an apple fritter left for me.” It wasn’t unusual to see my best friend at my shop, especially after she’d decided to forgo depriving herself of the treats and goodies I sold at Donut Hearts and indulge along with the rest of us. Once upon a time she’d insisted on gluten-free, fat-free, sugar-free fare, but these days she’d been known to enjoy an apple fritter and a cup of coffee with the best of them. I was a fan of fritters myself, made from dough too overworked for any other kind of treat. They were dense and rich like no other, and I delighted in embedding the dough with tiny bits of apple and cinnamon before I fried them and then coated them heavily with the thick icing I poured over most of my other donuts. Somehow the sweet coating tasted different on the fritters, perhaps because of all of the nooks and crannies that could hold more icing than a plain round shape could.

“You’re in luck. I have two left,” I said as I grabbed one for her.

“Since you have two, would you care to join me?” she asked me with a grin.

Usually I tried to abstain from eating too much of what I made and sold. After all, if I sampled just one thing every day, I’d soon have trouble getting through the door, and though my husband, Jake, said that he liked my curves, I wanted to be sure that I didn’t get completely round. Then again, what would one hurt? “Why not?”

The shop was nearly empty, and it was close enough to the end of my working day, though it was still not quite eleven o’clock in the morning, that I felt comfortable shutting down early. We had less than a dozen donuts left for sale anyway, and Grace and I were about to wipe out two of those. I flipped the sign, locked the door, and then I served us by one of the couches near the window.

As I placed the fritters and coffees on the table, I studied Grace a little more closely. “Why are you grinning like that? Did something happen with Stephen?” She’d been dating Officer Stephen Grant for some time, and I was happy that the fact that he was working for my husband, if only temporarily, hadn’t interfered with our friendship. Jake was retired from the state police, but my friend the mayor had asked him to step in when we’d had a sudden vacancy as police chief, and Jake had acquiesced. The truth was George hadn’t had to twist his arm all that much. I had a feeling that Jake missed being an officer of the law, no matter how much he protested to the contrary.

“No, everything’s fine and dandy. We’re still getting along splendidly, so there are no changes to report on that front,” she said. “This isn’t about him. It’s about us.”

“Us?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Suzanne, how would you like an all-expenses-paid trip to Shadow Mountain Resort? It’s for three glorious days, and it won’t cost you a dime.”

I’d read about the resort before, a getaway in the mountains where, in the twenties and thirties, movie stars and business magnates had gone to escape the heat, living in opulence and enjoying all the comforts their money and fame could afford them. It was an exciting prospect, but then I realized that I’d have to refuse it nonetheless. “As much as I’d love to, we just can’t do it. Jake’s shorthanded right now. He’s even doing some of the patrol routes at night himself. I’m really sorry.”

Grace wasn’t finished yet, though. “Funny, but I don’t remember inviting him. I thought I just asked you to go with me.”

“Oh. Sorry. That was presumptuous of me, wasn’t it?” I asked her with a grin.

“Suzanne, I know how busy our men are. No offense, but I asked Stephen first. When he declined, I immediately thought of you. Just because the fellows in our lives are busy keeping April Springs safe doesn’t mean that we can’t have a girls’ weekend away, does it? And don’t tell me that you can’t get away from this place,” she added as she waved a hand around Donut Hearts. “I know that Emma and her mother would be perfectly happy to step in and take over for you for three days.” She took my hands in hers, setting her fritter aside for a moment. “Suzanne, the truth is, I miss you. Before Jake came into your life and Stephen came into mine, we used to spend most of our free time together. Remember how it was after your divorce from Max?”

It was true. I’d fallen apart after finding my husband with another woman, and two people had gotten me through those dark days: Grace and my mother. Momma had taken me in, and Grace had helped me put my life back together as I’d started over. I’d bought Donut Hearts on a whim and ended up changing the course of my life forever. “I remember,” I said.

“Come on. It will be fun. We’re having a district retreat, and we’re each allowed to bring one guest. What do you say? It will be great.”

“Isn’t it a little late in the season to be visiting a mountain resort?” I asked her.

“Why do you think we’re having our retreat there then? It’s probably too expensive during the summer. We’re booking the entire place, and they’ve agreed to stay open for us, even though their official closing was last weekend. Come on. What do you say?”

The idea of having some time away with Grace sounded wonderful, and the setting didn’t hurt, either. It was probably the only way I’d ever be able to afford to go there, given how much it would have cost Jake and me to visit it. I’d miss him, but it was only for three days, and with our schedules lately, I wasn’t sure how much time together we’d actually miss. “Let me talk to Jake and Sharon first, and I’ll let you know. When is the retreat?”

“It’s in two days,” she said with a grin.

“Wow, not much notice, is it?”

“Hey, just be glad you’re getting invited at all,” she said. “No rush, but could you check with them both now?”

“Why, so you can line someone else up to take my place if I can’t make it?” I asked her with a smile.

“Nope, that’s not it at all. I have to tell my boss who I’m bringing,” she said. “Go on. Check with everybody. I can wait.” Grace had finished her fritter, and she was now eyeing mine.

“I’ll be right back,” I said, taking my fritter with me. I trusted Grace with my life, but my fritter? No, I didn’t think so.

“Hey, Jake. Do you have a second?” I asked him when he picked up.

Before I could say another word, he broke in. “I think you should go, Suzanne. You and Grace don’t spend nearly enough time together, and besides, you know how busy I’m going to be.”

“Did she already talk to you about it?” I asked him.

“No, but Grant and I are making our rounds together, and it came up in conversation that he’d turned Grace down. I didn’t need to know anything else to realize that you’d be her next choice. So go. Have fun. Just not too much fun, okay?”

I grinned, and I knew that it would be in my voice. “Just exactly how much fun is too much?”

“If you need bail money, then you’ve probably gone a little bit too far. For anything less than that, go on and knock yourself out.”

“Jake, you’re not trying to get rid of me, are you? This has all been just a little too easy. There aren’t any cuties in town you have your eye on, are there?”

His laugh was full and rich. “You’re kidding, right? I can’t keep up with the woman I have. Why on earth would I want to complicate my life any more than it already is?”

“I love you, too,” I said happily.

“Right back at you.”

After I hung up with Jake, I turned to Grace. “One down, one to go.”

Sharon was equally enthusiastic. She used her occasional stints filling in for me for travel money, and she had a big trip planned if she could find a way to finance it. It looked as though everything was set. Grace and I were going to go to Shadow Mountain Resort, and hopefully, we’d have a memorable experience together.

It turned out to be exactly that, all right, and much, much more.

Grace drove us in her newest company car, a luxury vehicle I could have never afforded on my donutmaking income, not that I didn’t love my Jeep, even if it was getting older and more temperamental by the minute. “So, how are you doing? Really?” Grace asked me three quarters of the way through our journey as we neared the place where a steep ascent began that eventually led to our weekend getaway on the mountaintop.

“I’m doing fine.”

She took her gaze off the road for a second and looked steadily at me. “I mean really, truly, honestly.”

It was something we’d said to each other as kids when only the unvarnished truth would do. “I’m great. The business is doing well, my marriage is wonderful, and Momma and I have never gotten along better. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “Suzanne, there’s a sadness about you these days that I haven’t seen in a long time. It’s not there all of the time, but I still see it enough to worry about you.”

“Is that why you really asked me along on this trip?” I asked her. “You should turn around and take me home if that’s it. I’m fine. I’ll see if Jake will let Stephen off for three days.”

“I want to spend this time with
you
,” she insisted. “Don’t be so touchy. You know as well as I do that you’re still having a hard time with what happened on that roof. There’s no use trying to deny it.”

I’d hoped that wasn’t what she’d meant, but clearly it was. It was true. I wished that I could refute it, but I couldn’t. A life had been lost directly because of my actions, even though the killer had died trying to end me once and forever. That still hadn’t made the outcome any easier to accept. I’d been in a fog for several weeks, but I thought I’d finally snapped out of it. Maybe I was wrong, though, if Grace could still see the overwhelming sadness in me. “Jake and I have talked it out. There was nothing I could do. It’s horrible that it happened, but in the end, I’m glad that it wasn’t me going off that roof. Am I sad and upset that it happened? Of course I am. Is it going to ruin the rest of my life? Not a chance. I think about it less and less every day, and I imagine, or should I say that I hope, that someday I won’t think about it at all. That’s the best answer that I can give you right now.”

She reached over and patted my leg. “That’s all I need. I suppose the main question lurking in the dark recesses of my mind is if you are sure that our crime-solving days together are really over?” Grace asked it with a grin, and I tried to return it with one of my own, though it felt feeble to me even as I was doing it.

“I’ve learned never to say never, but as of right now, I’m retired, now and forever,” I said.

“Okay. I thought I’d ask, just in case.”

“Is there something specific you had in mind, Grace?”

I stared at her without saying another word, and I watched as she grew more and more uncomfortable with the attention, until she finally found a shoulder off the side of the road and pulled over. “Suzanne, there’s something I haven’t told you yet. You should know up front that I want your company, first and foremost, this weekend, and if you don’t want to get involved, that’s fine by me, but I’ve committed to it, so I’m going to do what I can, with or without your help.”

“Grace, what have you gotten yourself into?”

“It’s a long story,” she said.

“Then pull back onto the road and start driving. We have a thirty-minute drive up the mountain. Can you tell it to me in that amount of time?”

“I should be able to,” she said.

“Then if you can talk and drive at the same time, tell me what’s going on.”

“Somebody’s trying to kill my new boss,” she said flatly.

I was glad that I wasn’t the one driving.

I wasn’t sure that I would have been able to keep my car on the road.

“Are you serious?”

“Never more in my life,” Grace said grimly.

“What makes her think someone wants her dead?” I couldn’t help myself. Though I’d sworn off amateur detective work, this was different. In the first place, no one had been murdered, at least not yet. In the second, I was as far removed from the victim as I could possibly be. We hadn’t even met! But third, and most important of all, Grace needed my help. How could I say no to her, given what we meant to each other?

“Are you sure you want to hear this?”