Pumpkin Pleas (The Donut Mysteries Book 26) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Recipes

  Other Books by Jessica Beck

  JESSICA BECK

  THE DONUT MYSTERIES, BOOK 26

  PUMPKIN PLEAS

  Donut Mystery #26 Pumpkin Pleas

  Copyright © 2016 by Jessica Beck All rights reserved.

  First Edition: October 2016

  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.

  The First Time Ever Published!

  The 26th Donut Mystery.

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

  In no specific order, for Celeste Fenno, Pam Meadows, Jeff Biddle, Bev Ratliff, Hiemie Gandee, Scott Mease, Terry Murphy, David and Polly Perkins, Jamie Siebold, and most of all, Patty Hurley, for making my Carbide camp years some of my very best!

  When newspaper owner Ray Blake goes missing, it’s just the start of troubles for some of the people closest to donutmaker Suzanne Hart. Soon after, old flame Tom Thorndike is found dead at the bottom of a nearby waterfall. Was it foul play or simply a daredevil stunt gone wrong? Little does Suzanne know that her past is about to play a major role in her present, as well as her potentially perilous future.

  Chapter 1

  I was awake and working long before anyone with any sense should be, making donuts for my customers at Donut Hearts, the small shop I owned and ran in April Springs, North Carolina. For the first part of every morning, I worked alone. It usually wasn’t until I started frying the first cake donuts for the day that my assistant, Emma Blake, normally came in. Whenever I was at the donut shop, which was now down to five days a week, Emma did the dishes and kept up with a myriad of other chores for me while I handled the two main tasks at hand, producing the delightful treats we offered to the public and then working the counter out front selling them. On the two days a week I took off, Emma and her mother, Sharon, ran the place in my stead. On those days, Emma took over my duties, and Sharon handled her daughter’s normal responsibilities. Though I’d known her for years, for some odd reason, I had a difficult time remembering the poor woman’s name. She handled it with grace whenever I called her by the wrong moniker, but it seemed the harder I tried to get her name right, the worse I did.

  As I dropped the first set of battered rounds into the hot oil, I glanced at the clock. Where was my assistant? Was it possible that I was ahead of schedule? No, my work was progressing at its usual pace.

  So where was Emma? I started to worry as I continued dropping round after round into the hot oil, and by the time the cake donuts were iced and glazed, completing the first phase of my business, I was starting to get concerned. I had one more job to do before my break, and as I prepped the beginnings of the fresh dough for the yeast donuts, I decided that if Emma didn’t show up by the time I finished, I was going to call her to see if she’d just overslept or if it was something more dire.

  I had just finished assembling the ingredients for the yeast donuts when Emma finally walked in, looking decidedly upset about something.

  “What’s wrong? Did you oversleep?” I asked her as I studied her dire expression.

  “I wish that was all that it was,” Emma said as she rubbed her eyes. Had she been crying? “Suzanne, I haven’t even been to bed yet. I’m afraid that it’s really bad.”

  “Talk to me,” I said as I hurried to finish the first steps of creating the yeast donuts, always the second phase of my operation. After I mixed everything together thoroughly, including the liquid, it was time to let the dough rest before I could move on to the next step. As soon as I removed the dough hook and covered the big mixing bowl with plastic wrap, I had time to give her my full attention.

  “Dad never came home last night,” Emma said worriedly. “Mom has been going crazy, and I’ve been doing my best to calm her down, but I’m starting to get worried myself. This isn’t like him.”

  Emma’s father, Ray Blake, owned and ran our local newspaper, The April Springs Sentinel. In many small towns, the publisher might be satisfied with running a few human-interest stories while selling enough ads to justify continuing the costs associated with printing their papers, but not Ray. He had it wedged deep in his mind that he was going to be a real newshound and scoop the larger papers around us someday, and he never rested in searching for that perfect story that would catapult him to the top.

  So far, he hadn’t found it, or anything even close, but that didn’t keep him from looking.

  “Where do you think he could be?” I asked her.

  “I have no idea. At first I thought he might be at the newspaper; after all, he’s been known to fall asleep at his desk in the past. But when he wouldn’t answer any of our calls, I drove over there to check on him in person. There was no sign of him anywhere, Suzanne. Mom was really starting to get frantic, so I called Chief Grant. He and his night-shift cops have been out looking for Dad ever since, but they haven’t had any luck, at least not so far.”

  “Could he be off somewhere chasing a story?” I asked as I put the dough hook in the sink with the rest of the dirty dishes I’d generated so far.

  “It makes perfect sense if that’s what he’s doing, but why isn’t he answering his phone?”

  “Maybe he turned the ringer off,” I suggested.

  “No way. Dad would be too afraid of missing a big story to ever do that,” Emma said. “I’m really worried about him, Suzanne.”

  “I completely understand,” I said as I reached for my cell phone.

  “Who are you calling?” she asked me.

  “I’m waking Jake up,” I said. “He can help get to the bottom of this.” There was no doubt in my mind that my husband was sound asleep, but I knew that he wouldn’t begrudge me the call, especially if it was for Emma’s sake. He had a soft spot in his heart for my assistant, and everyone in town knew it.

  “You don’t have to do that,” Emm
a said, putting her hand on mine.

  “Nonsense. We need to find your father, and my husband is the perfect man for the job.” It wasn’t just wifely pride speaking, either. Jake Bishop had served with distinction with the state police, rising all the way to investigator before leaving the force in order to spend more time with me. He’d temporarily taken over the reins as the leader for our local police force, but after turning things over to his second in command, Jake was back in civilian life again.

  “Are you sure he won’t be upset about you calling him in the middle of the night?” Emma asked me.

  “It’ll be fine.” I finished dialing my husband’s cell phone number, and to my surprise, he answered on the first ring. What’s more, he sounded wide awake.

  “Hey, Suzanne, what’s up?”

  “You don’t sound a bit sleepy,” I said, almost as though I were blaming him for being awake.

  “Sharon called me twenty minutes ago. She’s worried about Ray, so I told her I’d help her look for him. I was just about to call you, but I’m guessing that Emma’s already told you the news. It’s no secret that I’m not the man’s biggest fan, but I happen to like the women in his life, so I agreed to help out any way that I could.”

  “I’m glad. Jake, should I shut the donut shop down so we can both help with the search?” I asked.

  After a slight hesitation, he said, “I wouldn’t if I were you. I believe Sharon’s mobilized the entire town, and they’re going to be hungry come sunup. I’ve got a feeling that your donuts are going to be greatly appreciated by one and all.”

  “That makes sense,” I said. “You make a good point, but I can handle things here by myself. Emma is going to want to be with her mother, so as soon as we get off the phone, I’m sending her on her way.”

  I looked over and saw my assistant nodding her thanks and reaching for her jacket. It was October, and the mornings were getting a distinct chill in the air the closer we got to Halloween.

  “That’s the spirit,” he said. “I’ll keep in touch, unless you want me to come by and lend you a hand at the shop.”

  “As much as I appreciate the offer, I think I’ll be fine on my own.” After all, I ran the place by myself one day a week anyway, so it wouldn’t be that much of a hardship. Besides, Emma needed to be out looking for her dad alongside her mother. In his defense, Jake had tried to help me out at the shop a few times in the past, but I’d spent more time explaining and demonstrating what I’d wanted him to do than the tasks would have taken me to simply perform myself.

  “Let me know if you change your mind,” he said, the relief clear in his voice, and then we hung up.

  “Suzanne, I really can stay if you need me here,” Emma offered.

  “Nonsense. Go be with your mother. I can handle things at the donut shop just fine on my own.”

  “Thanks, Suzanne. You’re the best,” she said as she hugged me.

  “Try not to worry. I’m sure your father is fine,” I said as I gave her back a few quick pats of consolation.

  “I hope so,” Emma said, and then she was gone.

  Suddenly, my break was over. Now I had dishes to do, and then I had to get going on those yeast donuts. There was a reason Emma worked at Donut Hearts with me, and it wasn’t just to keep me company. While I could do a fairly decent job of handling everything myself, it was exhausting, but it sounded as though a great many people in town were making sacrifices of their own searching for the missing newshound, so I could do my share, too.

  Running hot water into the large sink, I started cleaning up the pots, pans, and utensils I’d used earlier, and I began to plot out the rest of my morning now that I knew I would be soloing at Donut Hearts. Ray’s disappearance soon faded into the background of my thoughts as I got busy with my chores, but it never completely left my mind. Where could the man possibly be? If he was off chasing a story, why hadn’t he at least told his family what he was up to? I had a feeling that if he was found alive and well, he was going to get the reprimand of his life from his wife and daughter for worrying them needlessly.

  At least I hoped that was how the story ended.

  The other possibility was too grim to even consider. I couldn’t imagine how it would impact Emma and her mother if something had happened to Ray. It would be a blow that would be tough to recover from, and speaking as someone who had experienced losses in her own life, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

  Chapter 2

  It was a great deal of work making the donuts by myself, keeping the kitchen clean, and then waiting on customers once I opened my shop for business. I suspected that I’d be there until well past noon washing dishes, and that was if I was lucky, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. By the time I was ready to greet the public and start selling donuts at six a.m., I was desperately in need of a real break, but I wasn’t going to get one for hours yet. I loved what I did for a living, but sometimes it could be a bit much, even though I still wouldn’t trade places with anyone in the world.

  When the mayor of April Springs—and my dear friend—George Morris walked in, I realized one of the reasons I was so happy to have my life. Besides earning me a precarious income, my shop afforded me the opportunity to stay in close touch with many of my friends and family in the area. After all, just about everyone I knew loved donuts. They were frequent visitors to my shop, and I was more than happy to cater to every whim, and every sweet tooth, too.

  “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but why aren’t you out looking with the rest of the town? I figured you’d be leading a search party of your own,” I told the mayor.

  “Search party? What happened? Who’s missing?” It was pretty obvious that he hadn’t heard the latest news.

  “Nobody told you? Ray Blake has vanished off the face of the earth.”

  “No, he hasn’t,” George said with a puzzled expression.

  “He surely has. Most of April Springs has been out looking for him since four a.m. He didn’t come home last night, and Emma and Sharon are frantic with worry.”

  George frowned. “That’s odd.”

  “You’re telling me. They’re scared to death that something has happened to him.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” the mayor said. “Ray called me yesterday around six, and everything seemed fine with him then. I wonder what happened to him in the meantime?”

  “Why was the newspaper man calling you?” I asked the mayor.

  “I’m an important man in this town, young lady. Why shouldn’t he call me?” George asked with a shrug. Was he really going to try to duck my question? If he thought I was just going to let it go, he’d seriously underestimated my determination to find out what was going on.

  “I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t,” I said levelly. “I’m just wondering what he was calling you about. Do you mind telling me what he wanted, or was it confidential?”

  “If it was, Ray didn’t warn me to keep it to myself.” The mayor sighed heavily, and then he looked at me for a moment before he spoke again. “You’re not going to give this up until you find out what we talked about, are you?”

  “Do you even have to ask me that question?” I posed with a grin.

  “No, not really. If you must know, he was asking me something about Tom Thorndike.”

  “Tommy? What did he want to know about him?” Tommy, or Tom as he liked to be called now, had been my boyfriend all through the sixth grade, but we’d parted ways when Cindy Bottoms had suddenly, and almost miraculously, developed overnight. Tommy lost all interest in me at that point, and I’d been crushed for nearly two weeks, that is until Clark Davis started sitting with me at lunch, something that Grace Gauge, my best friend then and now, never let me forget to this day. Clark had gotten married straight out of high school, and now he had enough children to form his own coed basketball team. As for
Tommy, we’d dated again for a few months in high school, but he’d gotten too attached, and I’d broken up with him because of his neediness. He’d disappeared for a while just before we were all set to graduate, only to reappear a few months ago. Tom kept very quiet about what he’d been up to in the intervening years, and frankly, I hadn’t been curious enough about him to try to find out where he’d been or why he’d come back to town all these years later.

  “Suzanne, I don’t know if you’ve heard any of the rumors, but evidently Tom recently came into a great deal of money.”

  “He didn’t inherit it, did he?” I asked. I’d known the Thorndikes forever, but I didn’t realize anyone in the family had any serious money.

  “I have no idea, and frankly, it’s no one’s business where it came from. Suzanne, you know how Ray operates. He got some wild theory about where the money came from based on nothing but his overactive imagination, and he started digging around when he found out that Tom bought a brand-new truck with cash last week.”

  “I can understand how Ray got excited about that, but where exactly do you fit into the picture?” I asked George.

  “I’m not sure if I should tell you that part or not,” the mayor said, suddenly looking uncomfortable about my question.

  “Why not? Did Tom make you pledge an oath of secrecy about something?” I asked, half joking.

  George frowned for a moment, and then he shook his head. “I suppose it’s going to get out soon enough now that Ray is digging into it. Do me a favor and don’t tell anyone that I’m the one who told you, would you?”

  “I won’t say a word about your involvement.” I was really starting to get intrigued now.

  “The reason Tom and I have been close over the years, and the reason Ray asked me about him, is because I arrested him when he was a senior in high school,” George said with a sigh.