Lemon Larceny (The Donut Mysteries)

The
First Time Ever Published!

The
15
^th
Donut Mystery

From
New York Times
Bestselling Author

Jessica Beck

LEMON LARCENY

Other
Books by Jessica Beck

The
Donut Shop Mysteries

Glazed
Murder

Fatally
Frosted

Sinister
Sprinkles

Evil
Éclairs

Tragic
Toppings

Killer
Crullers

Drop
Dead Chocolate

Powdered
Peril

Illegally
Iced

Deadly
Donuts

Assault
and Batter

Sweet
Suspects

Cinnamon
Sins

Deep
Fried Homicide

Custard
Crime

Lemon
Larceny

The
Classic Diner Mysteries

A
Chili Death

A
Deadly Beef

A
Killer Cake

A
Baked Ham

A
Bad Egg

A
Real Pickle

A
Burned Out Baker

The
Ghost Cat Cozy Mysteries

Ghost
Cat: Midnight Paws

Ghost
Cat 2: Bid for Midnight

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

To
Garnet, Ruby, and Phyllis.

Three
women, all jewels!

LEMON LARCENY by
Jessica Beck; Copyright © 2014

All rights reserved.

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.

Chapter 1

My late aunt’s
old house, which had seemed so homey and comfortable earlier that day, had
somehow been transformed in the darkness during the storm into something that suddenly
had menacingly sharp teeth.
 

“Hello?
 
Is anyone there?” I called out into the night
as I opened the front door to the storm.
 
Where was Momma, and what was keeping her?
 
Was she waylaid somewhere by the squall,
unable to get back to me, or had something much worse happened to her?
 

“Momma?
 
Are you there?”
 

Too soon, the
wind and the rain forced me to close the door and go back inside.

That’s when I
heard a noise coming from the attic.
 

Was someone up
there?
 

It sounded as
though someone was clawing at the door, trying to get out.
 

My first instinct
was to run outside to my Jeep and drive away from Maple Hollow straight back to
the safety of my donut shop in April Springs as fast as I could go, and if I
hadn’t been staying at the house with my Momma, that was exactly what I might
have done, but I couldn’t leave her alone to deal with this mess by herself in
a place that was turning out to be brimming with malice.

“For land’s sake,
Suzanne.
 
You’re a grown woman,” I
chided myself out loud, hoping that it would give me an ounce of courage to
investigate the noise upstairs.
 
As
I started up the steps, I held the flashlight in my hand so tightly that my
fingers were hurting, so I eased my grip.
 
Momma had warned me that this old house lost its power easily during
thunderstorms, and she’d armed us both with flashlights when we’d first arrived.
 
Mine was two feet long, cold steel that
was heavy in my hands.
 
I might not
need it to light my way, but it would make one heck of a weapon if I needed one.

I just hoped that
I didn’t have to use it.

As I made my way
up the creaking old wooden stairs toward the attic, the boards moaning with
each step, I prepared myself for what might be up there.

And then, for an
instant, the whole world exploded in light and sound as lightning struck so
close I could smell the ozone in the air.
 
I was blinded by the light and deafened by the noise from the explosion,
and in the next instant, my world was plunged into absolute darkness.

I didn’t trust
myself to go any farther up the stairs quite yet, so I pivoted and sat down on
the closest step and waited for my eyes and my ears to recover from the recent onslaught.
 
After a minute, my senses began to
slowly return, even though I was plunged in a different kind of darkness now as
my sight and hearing began to come back.

At least I had still
my flashlight, so I wouldn’t be in total darkness for long.

I flicked the
switch, and a faded, flickering yellow light greeted me.

It might have
been a good idea to check the batteries when I’d first gotten it, but I hadn’t
done more than turn it quickly on and off when Momma had handed it to me.
 
I’d been certain that she’d been
exaggerating that I might need it.

Clearly I’d been
wrong.

Then I heard the
clawing noise coming from above me again.

It took a great
deal of courage to climb the remaining steps in the fading light from my beam,
but I managed to force myself upward somehow.
 
Was this crazy?
 
Should I be running away instead of
walking toward that ominous sound above me?

Then there was a loud
banging sound below me, and I heard something fall over in the darkness.

 
“Momma?
 
Is that you?” I called out.

There was no
reply yet again, and my question was met only with ominous silence.

Wonderful.
 

Now I had scary
noises coming from above
and
below
me.

And I didn’t have
the slightest idea what I should do about my situation.

Chapter 2

Earlier That Day

“Momma, what
brings you by the donut shop?” I asked my mother as I boxed up the last half-dozen
donuts we hadn’t managed to sell that day.
 
I was finally in the routine of running Donut Hearts every day again,
and my life was getting back to normal, whatever that meant.
 
The man in my life, Jake Bishop, was off
on an assignment in his role as state police inspector, though he’d left reluctantly.
 
It seemed that he’d gotten used to being
in April Springs, and I’d loved having him there with me, but duty had called,
and he’d had no choice but to answer.

“Suzanne, we need
to talk,” my mother said in a voice filled with grave sadness.
 
I instantly put the box I was filling
down on the counter and hurried to her.
 
I’d heard that tone of voice enough in the past to know that something
was wrong.

“What
happened?
 
Is it the chief?”
 
Another thought suddenly struck me.
 
“Please tell me that nothing happened to
Jake.”
 
Those were the two
worst-case scenarios that I could think of.
 
Momma had married our chief of police
recently, and technically, she was still a newlywed.
 
While Jake and I weren’t engaged, let
alone married, he was just as important to my life as the very breath I took.
 
He’d been shot in the line of duty not
that long ago, and while he’d managed to make a full recovery, I still woke up
at night sometimes in a cold sweat thinking about how close I’d come to losing
him.

“It’s not that.
 
As far as I know, they’re both fine,” Momma
said as she managed a slight smile before it disappeared altogether.
 
“I’m sorry, Suzanne.
 
It’s your Aunt Jean.”

Though I didn’t
see her much these days, Aunt Jean had been a constant and joyful presence in
my childhood, always there to offer me fun and escape when I needed it.
 
She was very different from both of my
parents, possessing the most telling trait of being eccentric to the point of
hilarity in a rather serious world.
 
My mother had always liked to call her sister quirky, but I always
thought that she was delightful.
 
Aunt
Jean was always ready to drop whatever she was doing to play with me, and she
was never afraid of looking silly; she was the perfect adult, full of whimsy,
full of life.
 
“What about her?”

“I’m afraid that
she’s gone,” Momma said.

Gone?
 
How could a woman with so much life be
gone?
 
As I hugged my mother, the
tears streaming down my cheeks, I suddenly realized that I’d taken my aunt’s
presence in my life for granted.
 
I
couldn’t imagine a world without her in it.
 
“What happened?” I asked through my
tears.
 
“Did she have a
relapse?”
 
Aunt Jean had been sick
over the past few years with some kind of cancer.
 
That was about all that I knew, since no
one shared many details about it with me, no matter how much I’d asked.

“What can I
say?
 
You know that my older sister hadn’t
been well for quite some time, and she shouldn’t have been rattling around in
that old house alone.
 
It appears
that Jean took a tumble down the steps early this morning.”
 
As Momma patted my back softly, she
added, “I’m so sorry for your loss, Suzanne.”

“I’m sorry for
yours, too,” I said, realizing that my mother had lost someone just as
important to her as well, and here she was comforting me.

“Don’t get me
wrong, I loved my sister; there was never any doubt about it, but you two were
kindred spirits from the very first moment that she laid eyes on you.
 
She loved you very much, Suzanne.”

My mother’s words
gave me great comfort.
 
As I pulled
away and dried my tears, I said, “I loved her, too.
 
What can I do to help?”

“That’s why I’m
here,” Momma said.
 
“I’ve already heard
from her attorney, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to either one of us that
Jean left most specific instructions.”
 
She smiled again then, for just a moment.
 
“That woman loved telling me what to do all
of her life, so why should things be any different after she’s gone?”

“Are you in
charge of settling her affairs?” I asked her.
 
I knew that there were a few other
cousins and assorted family members spread out all over the country, but no one
had been as close to my aunt as Momma and I had been, even though we hadn’t
seen each other in a few months.
 
I
remembered the last time I’d visited her, driving the hour to her place in the
mountains after work one day with a dozen of her favorite donuts, pumpkin spice
cake.
 
How she’d laughed when I’d
shown up unexpectedly in Maple Hollow that day.

“Actually, we both
are,” Momma said.
 
“She’s left
instructions that the two of us are to spend the next three days in her home
getting things sorted out.
 
If she
were still alive, I’d remind her that we both have businesses to attend to here
in April Springs, and that it wouldn’t be fair to ask you to abandon your donut
shop to do this.”

“Nonsense.
 
I’m sure that Emma and Sharon will be
delighted to take over in my absence.
 
When do we need to leave for the mountains?”

“You really don’t
have to do this, you know,” Momma said.
 
“I can handle things by myself.
 
I know how much she is asking of you, Suzanne, so you should feel free
to stay here.”

I smiled as I replied,
“We both know better than that, Momma.
 
Give me one second.
 
I’ll be
right back.”
 
I went into the
kitchen to find Emma finishing the last of the dishes, and as usual, she was
listening to her iPod as she worked.

I tapped her on
the shoulder, and once I got her attention, I said, “My aunt just died.”

Emma’s smile
vanished instantly as she hugged me, wrapping her soapy hands around me and
holding me tight.
 
“Oh,
Suzanne.
 
I’m so sorry.
 
I know how close you two were.”