Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 18 - Dangerous Dough Read Free

It
appeared as though she was fighting back tears, something very unlike my mother’s
usual behavior.
    Jake touched her
arm lightly.   “Take a deep breath,
Dot, and tell us what happened.”
    Momma did as he
suggested, and after a moment, she seemed to be more collected than she’d been
before.   “It’s Chief Tyler.”
    “What about him?”
I asked.   The man who’d taken over
the April Springs police department hadn’t made all that good an impression on
me in the brief time that we’d known each other, and I had to wonder how he was
involved in my stepfather’s current situation.   “Is he making life hard for Phillip now
that your husband is officially retired?”   It was hard for me to call the man by his given name, but now that he
was retired, I didn’t know what choice I had.   I couldn’t very well go on calling him Chief
after he’d left the job.
    “Suzanne, he’s
dead.”

 
    “What are you
talking about?   What happened?” Jake
asked.   The former state-police-investigator
part of him was in full gear now.   Though Jake had quit his job less than a few weeks before, I knew that
it would take a great deal more time than that for him to get adjusted to
civilian life, if he ever managed to do it at all.
    “That’s what’s so
puzzling.   At first it appeared that
he’d had a heart attack and passed away in his squad car, but it now seems that’s
not what happened at all.”
    “We’ll get into
that in a second.   What I want to
know is who’s in charge of the force right now?” Jake asked.  
    “Stephen Grant is
the acting chief at the moment,” Momma said.   The young officer had been the interim boss
at one point during the transition between Chief Martin and Chief Tyler, but it
had been pretty clear that he wasn’t ready for the job yet.
    “Seriously?” Jake
asked.   “I didn’t think he’d be put
in charge again so quickly.”
    “What choice did
George have?” she asked.   “ Someone had to take over.”   George Morris was the mayor of April
Springs, and, as such, he had the authority to appoint a temporary chief if the
current one was unable or unwilling to serve, something that seemed to be
happening with increasing frequency lately in our little town.
    “He could have
always asked your husband to step back into the job,” I suggested.   While I’d never been Chief Martin’s
biggest fan, I truly believed that he was a decent law enforcement officer, all
in all.
    “That’s where it
gets tricky.   Somehow Stephen Grant
has it in his head that my husband might be involved in Alex Tyler’s death.”
    I was about to
ask how that was possible when Jake said, “I’m beginning to believe that this
is too complicated to go over in an airport parking lot.   Can we discuss this once we get back in
town?   You can follow us, or we’ll
follow you.”
    “Actually, I’ll
need a ride, since I don’t have my car with me,” Momma said.   “Vince Jenkins was coming here anyway to
fly to see his daughter, so I caught a ride with him.   I thought it would be easier that way.”
    So much for
easing into our new lives together on the drive home.   What could I do, though?   I couldn’t exactly refuse my mother’s
request.   Besides, we needed to be
briefed on the situation before we stepped back into it.
    “Then let’s go,”
Jake said as he stowed our bags in the back of the Jeep.  
    “Would you like
to drive?” I asked my new husband as I offered him the keys to my vehicle.
    He managed a
smile before he replied.   “Thanks
for offering, but it’s your vehicle.   I don’t see any reason anything has to change just because we’re married
now.”
    I kissed him
soundly, forgetting my mother for a moment.   “Really, because I can think of at least
a thing or two myself.”
    He smiled gently.   “So can I, but let’s focus on figuring
out what happened while we were gone before we get into that.”
    Momma started to
climb into the back when