Free Custard Crime: Donut Mystery #14 (The Donut Mysteries) by Jessica Beck Page A

her.
    “Did you forget?   We were partners, and besides, Evelyn loved to talk.   Sometimes it drove me crazy, but I
listened, anyway.”
    “Is something wrong?” a stunningly attractive woman I
was most familiar with asked after opening the door to Napoli’s.   “Suzanne, Grace, what are you two doing
here?”
    “Hi, Angelica,” I said.   “We’ll be inside in a minute.”
    Angelica DeAngelis took the hint and merely nodded as
she ducked back inside the restaurant.
    “As much as I’d love to stay and chat, I really must
go,” Beatrice said as she started to walk away.
    “We’d be glad to follow you home, if you’d like,”
Grace said.
    “Why on earth would I want you to do that?” she asked
with a laugh as she hurried across the street to her car.
    After Beatrice was gone, I said, “Did you notice
that?”
    “Notice what?”
    “She neatly ducked our question about having an
alibi.”
    “Maybe that’s because she doesn’t have one yet,”
Grace said with a grin.
    “You might be right.   She was certainly eager enough to give
us two alternate suspects, wasn’t she?”
    “It would be a good way to distract us from looking too
hard at her,” Grace answered.
    “Well, that’s not going to happen,” I said as I took
out my phone.
    After he picked up, I asked, “Jake, are you still in
Union Square?”
    “I’m just getting ready to leave.   Why, would you like me to pick up some
takeout for you from Napoli’s?”
    “Grace and I are just getting ready to go in, as a
matter of fact,” I said.  
    “Would you mind if I join you?”
    “Are you really hungry enough to eat again?   The two of us had a meal not that long
ago,” I protested.
    “And yet you’re going into a restaurant right now.”
    “I’m just going to keep Grace company,” I said.
    “So, are you telling me that you’re not going to order
anything for yourself?”
    “I might, just to be social,” I admitted.
    “Then that’s what I’ll do, too.”
    “Fine,” I said.   “I just thought you might like to talk to Beatrice Ashe first.”
    The playfulness went out of his voice instantly.   “Do you know where she is?”
    “As of this moment, she’s heading home to meet
someone,” I said.   “If you hurry,
you might get to her before someone else does.”
    Jake paused, and then he said, “I suppose you and
Grace already spoke with her.”
    “We tried, but she refused to give us her alibi,” I
said.
    “Suzanne, she’s under no obligation to tell you
anything.”
    “That’s why we thought you might like a crack at
her,” I said.
    “Okay.   I
appreciate the tip, but we need to talk about things this evening.”
    “I can do that,” I said, “but for now, Grace and I
are going into the restaurant.   Would you like anything?”
    “No thanks.”
    He hung up before I could say good-bye.
    I stared at my phone for a few seconds before I put
it back into my jeans pocket.
    “What’s wrong?” Grace asked.
    “That didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped it would,”
I admitted.
    “What did you honestly expect, Suzanne?   We’re stomping around in the middle of
his investigation.   I didn’t figure
he’d thank us for it.”
    “I don’t know why not.   After all, we told him where he could
find Beatrice.”
    “Sure we did, but only after we chatted with her
first.   Give him a break.   This can’t be easy for him to have us
looking over his shoulder all of the time, especially when we beat him to one
of his suspects.”
    “I suppose you’re right.   He wants to talk about it tonight.”
    Grace grimaced a little.   “Ouch.   That can’t be good.”
    “Probably not, but I’m not going to worry about it
now.   Let’s go get you something to
eat.”
    “Are you sure that we have time?” Grace asked.
    “Jake is going to have his hands full for the next
hour unless I miss my guess.   Besides, I’m not in any hurry to get the scolding that’s probably coming
my way.   After all, even