Deep Fried Homicide (The Donut Shop Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

awhile, I want to embrace the experience.”
“I understand, but if you get scared or lonely in the middle of the night, I’m just down the street, okay?  I won’t tease you if you decide to call me and ask me to come over here later.”  She paused, and then she added with a wicked grin, “Well, not much, anyway.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Grace,” I said as I walked her out onto the porch.  “This was fun.  Exactly what I needed.”
“You’re most welcome.  I had a good time, too.”
Once she was gone, the cottage seemed to get awfully quiet.  It wasn’t that Momma was normally that loud, but I missed her presence there nonetheless.  Looking around for something to do, I saw the pizza box still sitting on the coffee table, so I decided to throw it away outside so the living room wouldn’t smell like pizza when Jake came tomorrow.
When I opened the front door, though, there was movement outside in the bushes.
“Grace, that’s not funny,” I said loudly.
There was no response.
I got out my cell phone and dialed Grace’s number on speed-dial. 
When she answered, my best friend said, “Wow! That was even faster than I thought it would be.  I just walked through my own front door.”
“Do you mean that you’re not still here?” I asked as I peered out into the gloom.  “Seriously?”
“Suzanne, like I said, I’m home.  Wow, you really are jumpy, aren’t you?  No sweat, though.  I’m on my way.”
“No.  Stay there.  Please.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, the uncertainty clear in her voice.
“Positive.  I’m okay.  Listen, I’m probably just jumping at shadows.  Once I’m back inside, I’m going to deadbolt the front door and light a fire.”  I glanced at my watch, and then I added, “On second thought, maybe I’ll just call it a night and go to bed.  I’m giving Emma and her mother a final run-through tomorrow at the donut shop, so I have to be up in five hours.”
“Fine, but you have to promise that you’ll call me if you need me, or if you see or hear anything else outside, okay?  I mean it.”
“I promise,” I said as I walked back in and deadbolted the door.  Just that action alone gave me a great deal of comfort.  “But I have one question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“What are the two of us going to be able to do that I can’t do on my own?”
“We can double-team the bad guy together,” she said.  “Isn’t that enough?”
I paused and listened outside for a moment before I spoke again.  “Now that I think about it, I’m sure that it was just the wind.”
“I don’t know.  I’m looking out my window, and the trees seem kind of still over here,” Grace said a little tentatively.
“Maybe the park has more of a breeze than you do.”
“Sure, that’s exactly what it is,” she said.  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Suzanne.  Sleep tight.”
“You, too.”
After we hung up, I walked all around the first floor of the cottage, turning the lights on and off as I inspected each room to make sure everything was locked up tight.  I would have felt ridiculous doing it if anyone else had been there, but then again, if they had, I wouldn’t have felt the compulsion to do it in the first place.
Tomorrow would be there soon enough, and I had a big day ahead of me, what with turning over the keys to the donut shop, then driving to Hickory and picking Jake up from the hospital.  Getting him settled in would take some time, but after that, we were wide open. 
It would be the beginning of our time living in the house together, even if it was only temporary.
I didn’t want to think about that now, though.
There would be time enough to worry about all of that tomorrow.
For now, I really had to get some sleep.
     
“I can’t thank you enough for doing this, Mrs. Blake,” I told Emma’s mother the next morning bright and early at Donut Hearts.  “It’s unbelievably kind of you to step in on such short notice.”
“Nonsense,” Emma’s mother