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the first place.”
     
    “I
meant that I’m sorry for the loss of your husband.”
     
    “Oh. 
Well.  Thank you,” she said, edging backward as if to turn away.
     
    “Do
you plan to continue the franchise in Stan’s absence?”
     
    “Ha! 
Are you kidding?  The sooner I can get out from under it, the better.  In fact,
I just came from my attorney’s office to sign papers relating to returning the
franchise to the parent company.  Due to the untimely death of the franchisee.”
     
    “That’s
too bad,” Heather said.
     
    “No,
it really isn’t.  It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time.  Only dear, departed
Stan insisted on hanging onto the franchise.  He didn’t seem to care that he
was running it into the ground.  If he even noticed.”
     
    “Oh,
he noticed,” Heather said before she could help herself.
     
    “Only
he blamed it on you, not himself,” Sheila said.  “Typical.”
     
    “What
do you mean?”  Heather wrapped her arms around herself, shivering against the
chill wind.
     
    “He
always blamed everything on everyone but himself.  If he was asked to leave the
Chamber of Commerce board, it was because of Gary Larkin, not his own
behavior.  If his business was failing, it was because of you, not him.  If his
marriage was failing, it was because I was having an affair, not because he
was—well, I don’t want to speak ill of the dead.”
     
    That’s
the second time I’ve heard that phrase in as many days, Heather thought. 
Aloud, she said, “Were you having an affair?”
     
    “Not
that it’s any of your business, but no, I wasn’t,” Sheila said, her lips
tightening into a straight line.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have funeral
preparations to make.”  With an upward tilt of her regal head, she turned and
disappeared around the corner.
     
    Was
there anybody Stan didn’t falsely accuse? Heather wondered as she dashed back
across the street to the cleaner’s.  He accused his wife of having an affair. 
He accused his accountant of embezzling money, accused me of trying to ruing
his business, accused a loyal employee of incompetence, accused the president
of the Chamber of Commerce of kicking him off the board for no good reason.
     
    The
warm air enveloped Heather as she slipped inside the cleaner’s and shut the
door behind her.  What a sad way for him to live, she thought as she stepped
forward to give her name.

Chapter 6
     
    “We
could just buy filling,” Heather said, “but making our own makes the donuts
taste so much better.  Besides, that’s what customers come here for: the
homemade-ness, the originality, the quality.”
     
    Maricela
nodded.  “And that’s why they keep coming back.”
     
    “Precisely,”
Heather said to Maricela, Angelica, and Jung.  In a lull between customers, she
was teaching them how to make Wild Blueberry Pie donuts, including even making
the filling from scratch.  “So we don’t buy filling.  We make it.  Jung, hand
me the blueberries, would you please?”
     
    Jung
passed a large, flat silver container down the prep counter to her.  Inside
were thousands of blueberries, all of which had been sprinkled with sugar so
that the sugar could draw the juice out of the berries, then mix with it, thus
producing a delicious, semi-natural syrup.
     
    “Now
we need to stir these,” Heather said, “to make sure they’re all evenly coated
and mixed.”  She picked up a large, metal slotted spoon and began to stir
slowly and gently so that the berries wouldn’t become bruised or damaged.
     
    The
bell above the door of the shop rang as a customer entered.  Heather glanced
up, but Maricela was already heading for the serving counter.  “She’s made
these before,” Heather said, “and they turned out great.  Okay, so we made sure
all the berries were coated in this syrup.  Hmm, looks like we need to thicken
it up a little.  You guys remember how to do that?”
    As
both Jung and Angelica nodded, Heather