Free Sweet Ginger Poison by Robert Burton Robinson

trust her. But on the other hand—why should he? Especially since…she was
lying.
     
     

12 - Cash & Carry
Donuts
    Cash and Carry Donuts was a very popular shop, sitting
just around the corner from town square. Cash Crawley, 34, was determined to
make his business more successful than his older brother’s restaurant, Bull
Crawley’s Bar and Grill. Bull had the advantage of a prime location on The
Square. Plus, Bull’s full-service restaurant could pull in heavy traffic at all
three mealtimes.
    Cash had always conceded the lunch and dinner crowd to
his brother. And Bull knew that Cash’s donuts were preferred over his apple pie
for coffee breaks. But breakfast was war. Sure, everybody knew donuts were a
poor nutritional choice. But it was difficult to drive by Cash and Carry Donuts
without stopping—especially early in the morning. And particularly since Cash
had installed the fan .
    He had discovered that on mild weather days when he
could turn off the air conditioning and leave the front door open he got a lot
more business—particularly in the morning. Then he realized it wasn’t the fresh
air dining that brought in the people. It was the fragrance of fresh, hot
donuts wafting out into the street, creating an invisible wall of temptation,
diverting Bull’s bacon and egg eaters into Cash’s sticky-sweet den of donuts.
    Cash wished he could leave the door open year-round.
But that would make the temperature very uncomfortable inside on most days. So,
he removed one of his front windows and installed a huge exhaust fan. His
electric bill went up a bit—but not near as much as his profit.
    Then a couple of months ago he had another idea: What
would happen if he extended his hours until 10:00 p.m.? And instead of offering
donuts that had been made that morning, what if he fried up a fresh batch at
around 7:00 p.m. He knew he would still get almost no business at dinner time.
But what about right after dinner, and then close to bedtime when people got
the munchies? What did those folks normally do—go out for ice cream? Why not a
box of hot, fresh donuts? It was worth a try.
    Once the word got out, his evening traffic began to
grow. Now his second-busiest time of day was between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. His
store was becoming the destination for a late night sugar fix.
    And he had learned to have the coffee brewing right up
until closing. His coffee was always fresh—anytime of the day or night. But you
paid for it. A cup of Cash and Carry coffee cost fifty percent more than
anywhere else in town—but the cups were twice as big. And his coffee cups were
not the environmentally-friendly ones made out of recycled paper. Cash hated
those things. He served piping hot, I-dare-you-to-sue-me-for-burning-yourself,
coffee in heavy duty Styrofoam cups.
    A drive-through window would have brought in even more
business. But because his shop was located between two other stores, there was
no way to add one. Cash had briefly wondered about the possibility of a
drive-through window at the back of the building. But the City Council never
would have approved it. His neighboring shop owners would have thrown a fit
over the idea of Cash’s customers driving through their alley all day
long.
    Silvy Knox had only been working at the donut shop for
a few weeks. The young blonde had landed the job soon after moving to
Coreyville. She had lied about being nineteen, calculating that Cash would be
more likely to sleep with a twenty-one year-old.
    “It’s almost closing time, Boys.”
    The two young cops looked up from their coffee and
donuts. Silvy could tell they wanted her body. Otherwise, one or both of them
would have made some remark about how she should show more respect to the
police. A young woman like her had no right to refer to Coreyville’s Finest as
‘boys.’ She knew how hot she was, and enjoyed using it to the max.
    “We need nourishment so we’ll have plenty of energy to
serve and protect,” said Officer #1.
    “Yeah,”