Custard Crime: Donut Mystery #14 (The Donut Mysteries) (8 page)

“Probably not, but from what I’ve heard, there was a
great deal more to it than that.”

“What exactly might that be?”

I grinned at her as I admitted, “I haven’t a
clue.
 
That’s why we’re going to go talk
to him.”

When we got there, though, all we could hear was the
loud whining noise of a chainsaw.

“Boy, he didn’t waste any time taking care of that,
did he?” I asked Grace as we got out of the Jeep.

“It must have been pretty important to him,” she
replied.

“Let’s go see if we can find out exactly why.”

It took us a full minute to get Robby’s
attention.
 
The tree in question was
already down on the ground and was currently being cut up into fireplace-log-sized
pieces.

When he finally saw us, Robby shut off his saw and
set it aside.
 
After taking off his
ear protectors and his safety glasses, the older man wiped the back of his brow
with his hand.
 
“Hey, Grace.
 
How are you doing, Suzanne?
 
Wow, I forgot how hard it was to cut
down a tree.”

“Is this the same tree that you and Evelyn were
squabbling over?” I asked him.

Robby shrugged.
 
“We were, but yesterday she gave me her blessing to cut it down.”
 
I looked at him skeptically, and he
added, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask her yourself.”

Was he telling the truth?
 
Was Robby ignorant of the fact that his
neighbor was dead, or was he playing a part for our benefit?
 
“You haven’t heard the news?”

“What news is that?” he asked as he kicked at one of
the branches he’d taken off earlier.

“Evelyn’s dead, Robby.”

It didn’t register at first.
 
After a moment, he looked hard at
me.
 
“What are you talking about,
Suzanne?
 
Have you been sniffing too
much frosting in that donut shop of yours?”

“It’s true,” Grace said.

Robby slumped down on the stump where the tree had
just stood.
 
“You’ve got to be
kidding me.”

“It’s not something that we’d joke about,” I
said.
 
“I’m guessing that you didn’t
know.”

“No, I hadn’t heard a thing about it.
 
Then again, I’ve been working with my
chainsaw all day.
 
I couldn’t get it
to start, so I practically had to rebuild it before I could get it running
again.
 
What happened to her?
 
Was it a car accident?”

“She was murdered,” I said calmly, hoping to see some
kind of reaction.

He had one, and it was immediate.
 
“Hang on one second.
 
I sure didn’t do it, if that’s why
you’re here.
 
I had no more beefs
with the woman after we resolved this thing about the tree.”

Grace asked him, “Robby, did anyone see you working
on your saw today?”

“I highly doubt it.
 
I was in the garage by myself,” Robby
said.
 
“That doesn’t mean that I
killed her, though.
 
What
happened?
 
You didn’t say?”

“Somebody pushed her through a hole in the floor and
she died in the basement.”

“Over there?” Robby asked as he stared at Evelyn’s
house.
 
“That’s impossible.
 
I would have at least seen the
ambulances and heard the police sirens if that were true.
 
I doubt my hearing protectors could have
stopped those.”

“I didn’t say it was in
this
basement,” I said.

“It must have been at the candle shop, then,” Robby
said.

“How did you know about that?” I asked him
suspiciously.
 
As far as I knew,
Evelyn and Beatrice hadn’t been telling anyone about their plans for their
future business venture yet.
 
If
that was really the case, then how did Robby know about it?

“She told me yesterday when she came over to give me
permission to cut down this tree.
 
She didn’t care about it anymore, since she was going to buy a new place
to live, anyway.”

“She was leaving her home?
 
Do you happen to know why?” Grace asked.

“Well, it certainly wasn’t because of me.
 
Evelyn told me that she recently came
into some money, and she planned on blowing every dime she hadn’t already spent
on a new house.
 
To be honest with
you, I don’t think she ever liked this tree any more than I did.
 
Having me cut it down saved her from
having to pay someone else to do it.”

“Robby, I’ve got a question for you, and it’s
important.
 
Did anyone else hear
your conversation with Evelyn yesterday?” I asked him.

He looked hard at me for a few seconds before he
answered.
 
“Suzanne, you’re asking
me an awful lot of questions for a donutmaker.
 
What business is any of this of yours,
anyway?”

“You know me.
 
I’m just a concerned resident of April Springs,” I said.

“You’re more than that, and we both know it.
 
Do you think folks in town haven’t been
talking about you and Grace sticking your noses into murder investigations
where they don’t belong?”

“We may have helped out the police every now and
then,” I admitted.
 
“So what?”

“You’ve done more than that, and you both know it.
 
Well, you two aren’t going to pin this
murder on me.
 
I didn’t kill
her.
 
Evelyn and I finally patched
things up between us, but if you don’t believe me, then that’s just your own
bad luck.
 
Now if you’ll excuse me,
my break’s over.
 
I have some
firewood to cut while I’ve still got the energy.”

“We’re not finished talking to you,” Grace said as he
slipped his ear protection back on.
 

Grinning at her, Robby tapped the earmuff and shouted,
“Sorry, but I can’t hear a thing that either one of you are saying.”

I was about to yell loud enough for him to hear me
even over the earmuff protection when he started the chainsaw back up and
attacked part of the trunk of the tree again.

I tapped Grace’s shoulder, and we headed back to the
Jeep.

“But I’m not finished with him,” she said once we got
far enough away that we could talk in relative peace over the noise.

“Well, it’s pretty clear that he’s finished with us,”
I said.

“Suzanne, do you believe his story?”

“I know that it’s awfully convenient, but that
doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a lie,” I said as I pulled out my cellphone.

“Who are you calling?”

“I’m telling Jake what Robby just told us.”

“Is that how we’re going to be handling this case?”
Grace asked me.
 
“Are we giving your
boyfriend full and complete cooperation along the way?”

“No, we’re giving law enforcement information that
might help them solve the case,” I replied with a smile.

“It’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

“Grace, I’ve seen what going against Chief Martin can
do.
 
I’m not about to risk
alienating Jake.”

“I get that,” she said as she nodded her acceptance.
 
“It’s just going to be odd, that’s all.”

“Don’t worry.
 
I’m sure that we’ll get used to it.”
 

Jake answered his phone, and I said, “Grace and I
happened to be driving by Evelyn’s house when we saw Robby Chastain cutting
down the oak tree he and Evelyn had been fighting about.”

“How much of a coincidence am I supposed to believe
at this point?” Jake asked.

“That’s entirely up to you.
 
Would you like to hear what he had to
say?”

Jake sighed, and then he said, “Sure, why not?”

“Robby claimed that he didn’t know that Evelyn was
dead, let alone murdered.
 
He told
us that last night the two of them agreed to get rid of the tree, and that
things were all patched up between them.”

“Do you believe him?”

“We’re not entirely sure one way or the other,” I
said.
 
“It’s just all a little too
convenient for us to swallow, if you know what I mean.”

“No one else heard this alleged conversation, did
they?” he asked.

“No, and it gets worse.
 
Robby claims that he’s been in the
garage all day working on his chainsaw.
 
Nobody saw him or talked to him the entire time.”

“So, he doesn’t have an alibi,” Jake said.

“That’s true, but if you can find someone who saw him
today someplace
other
than his garage
or his side yard, then you know that he lied to us about it.
 
That’s something, anyway.”

“I have to give you credit.
 
It’s more than I’ve gotten so far.”

“Wasn’t Beatrice cooperative?” I asked him.

“I couldn’t find her,” Jake admitted.
 
“She wasn’t at work or at her
house.
 
I’m going to give up on her
for now and go find Julie Gray.”

“Good luck with that,” I said.
 
I decided to hang up before Jake asked
me what Grace and I would be doing next.
 
I didn’t want to admit what I had in mind, and I hoped that he didn’t
call back to ask me.

“How did that go?” Grace asked.

“Surprisingly well, as a matter of fact.”

“You didn’t stay on the phone long.”

“That’s because I didn’t want him to ask me what we
were going to do next,” I said.

“Would you care to share our plans with me?
 
I’m curious about what comes next
myself.”

“Jake looked for Beatrice at home and at work, but
she wasn’t at either place.
 
He’s
giving up for the moment, but I don’t think that we should.”

“What did you have in mind?” Grace asked me.

“Well, when Momma was talking, she mentioned something
that I think Jake might have missed.”

“What’s that?”

“She told us that Beatrice shopped at a yarn shop in
Union Square near her attorney’s office.
 
I wonder if there’s any chance that she’s there right now?”

“Shouldn’t you give Jake a heads-up about that?” she
asked me.

“I’m as willing to cooperate with the police as the
next gal, but he heard it just as clearly as I did.
 
As far as I’m concerned, that yarn shop
is fair game.”

“Then let’s go to Union Square,” Grace said.

Chapter 9

“Should we pop into Napoli’s and say hello while
we’re so close?” Grace asked as we pulled into a parking space in front of the
Yarn Barn.
 
The business was right across
the street from my favorite Italian restaurant, a charming little establishment
owned by Angelica DeAngelis and her lovely daughters.

“We’d better stick to the business at hand,” I
said.
 
“After all, Beatrice might
not even be inside.”

“If she’s not, we could always ask Angelica if she
has any ideas.”

“Grace, did you skip lunch again?”
 
My best friend was notorious for working
through her noon meal in order to finish her work early.
 
As for me, I wouldn’t consciously skip a
meal on a bet.

“I could eat,” she acknowledged.

“Then we’ll take care of your tummy later, but first
we have to find Beatrice.
 
I hope she’s
in there.”

“So do I,” Grace said.
 
“After we find her, then I can satisfy
my appetite.”

Unfortunately, the yarn shop was devoid of customers.
 

A lone employee was restocking brightly colored yarn
skeins, but she stopped when we walked in.
 
“May I help you?”

“No, thanks,” Grace said as she started to leave.

“Hang on a second,” I told her, and then I turned back
to the clerk.
 
“Has Beatrice Ashe
been here today by any chance?”

“You missed her by half an hour,” the woman
said.
 
“Are you friends of hers?”

“Yes,” I said at the exact time that Grace answered,
“No.”

“Well, you need to make up your minds,” the clerk
said good-naturedly.

“I am, but she hasn’t met Beatrice yet,” I said.
 
“That’s why we came in here.
 
We were hoping to remedy that.”

“Then try Napoli’s,” the woman said.
 
“I’ll bet she’s still there.”

“Thank you,” I said as Grace and I hurried out.

“See?
 
My
instincts were right,” my best friend said with a grin.
 
“I told you that we should have gone to
Napoli’s first.”

“Admit it.
 
You just got lucky,” I said happily as we headed for the restaurant.

“You know how I feel about luck,” she replied.
 
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than
good.”

“I’d rather be both if I get the choice.”

“Who wouldn’t?” Grace asked as an older woman with a
bag from the yarn shop exited the restaurant.
 
“Is that her?”

“It is,” I said as we approached her.
 
“Hi, Beatrice.
 
Do you have a second?”

“You look familiar, but I’m not sure where I know you
from,” she said suspiciously as she held her purse tightly against her body.

We’d met a few times, but evidently I hadn’t made all
that big an impression on her.
 
“I’m
Dorothea Hart’s daughter, Suzanne, and this is my friend, Grace Gauge.”