Troubled Treats

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Book: Read Troubled Treats for Free Online
Authors: Jessica Beck
Tags: Women Sleuths, Mystery & Suspense, cozy mysteries
guard.
     
    Jake pulled in, and the officer walked over to us before he could shut the truck engine off.
    “Sorry, folks, but the building’s closed,” the man said solemnly, and then he grinned at us both as he added, “My orders were to let you down easy if you came asking.”
    “Thanks, Griffin,” Jake said cordially.  “I appreciate that.”
    “You don’t have any donuts on you, do you, Suzanne?” the officer asked me.
    Though he hadn’t been in town—or on the force, for that matter—very long, Happy Griffin was another cop/customer of mine, so all of us knew each other.
    “Come by tomorrow morning and I’ll take care of you, on the house,” I said with a smile.
    “I appreciate the offer, but the chief won’t let us take anything we don’t pay for,” Griffin said.  “Sorry I can’t let you in.”
    “We understand completely,” Jake said.  “Do you mind if we park over there and just look at the building, as long as we stay in the truck?”
    “You can have a picnic for all I care,” he said, and then he went back to his station.  He’d been a fairly new hire, and Stephen Grant was the only chief he’d ever known.  Though he hadn’t been in town long, Griffin was a welcome addition as far as I was concerned.  Anyone who liked donuts as much as he did was okay in my book, until I learned something that made me think otherwise.
     
    “So, tell me what you’ve got,” Jake said after he’d backed the truck up in a parking space so we could see the building without turning our heads.
    “Don’t you feel funny just sitting here like this?” I asked him.  Griffin was doing his best to ignore us, but we’d made eye contact a few times, and when we did, he offered me a three-finger salute and grinned.
    “The view might spark something,” Jake said, “but if you really want to go, we can find somewhere else to park.”
    “No, this is fine,” I said, doing my best to ignore the new patrolman.
    “What did Gabby have to say?” he asked.
    “Sully didn’t trust the two guys working for him, Bob Greene and Jim Burr.  Evidently there was some bad blood between them.  She also said that one potential suspect is Carl Descent.  He’s been trying to get the project shut down since before it even started.  Apparently Momma outbid him at the last second, and he’s been mad ever since.  What brings Sully into the mix is that he found out Descent was going to raze the building, so he put in a good word for Momma with the owner.”
    “Wow, that’s a lot to digest in one session,” Jake said.
    “Hang on.  There’s more.  Sully also managed to alienate his competitor, a woman who thought they were discussing more than merging their electrical contractor operations.  Her name is Shirley Edam, and it sounds as though she had a few reasons of her own to want to make Sully suffer.”
    “How in the world did Gabby gather that much information so quickly?  Sully just died a few hours ago.”
    “It turns out that she had the inside track.  She was dating the man,” I said.
    “Wow.  That puts an entirely different spin on things, doesn’t it?”
    “Jake, you don’t think for one minute that Gabby had anything to do with Sully’s murder, do you?  Take it from me.  She didn’t do it.”
    “Suzanne, I know that she’s a friend of yours, but how can you be so sure?” Jake asked me carefully.
    “Because I know Gabby,” I said.
    Jake thought about that for a few seconds, and then he asked, “Would you mind if she at least stays on my list until I get my own reasons to take her off?”
    “That’s fine, but you should know that she’s not even going on mine,” I said.
    “Agreed.  We’ve certainly got a lot to work with.  That was smart going to Gabby for information, Suzanne.”
    I loved hearing his praise, but I couldn’t take credit for all of it.  “To be perfectly honest, I had no idea that they were dating, Jake.”
    “I understand that, but you still knew the

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