Donut Shop Mystery 25 - Devil's Food Defense Read Online Free Page B

the event so far, but at least my total should be respectable when Emma and I compared numbers in the end.
    She took over the cart, carrying her own cashbox, while I took over the empty shop. There was no use sitting around inside, so I watched part of the movie with Grace from the donut shop’s front chairs. The angle was skewed, and the sound was tough to pick up, but it beat sitting on the ground, or even in a lawn chair. Trish must have made a killing on her restroom passes. It seemed to me that folks were constantly getting up and moving around, on their way to the restrooms mainly, but every now and then someone would join us and I’d have to stop to sell a donut or two and maybe some coffee or hot chocolate to go with them as well. I ended up catching bits and pieces of the movie as it played, not the best way to watch it by any means, but most of the folks who were attending the screening seemed to enjoy it.
    I had no idea where Emma and I stood as the movie played, but it turned out to be the last thing on my mind when the film finally finished.
    That was when things really began to fall apart.

Chapter 4
    I knew that I needed to talk to Gray, but I had a few things that I had to do first. Emma and I unloaded the cart and the urns, and I was pushing the rig back to my rental building when I noticed that though Gray’s lawn chair was still there, the man himself was gone. Had he slipped off to use the restroom? I waited a few minutes, but when he didn’t return, I decided to check things out.
    On top of his chair, I found a folded piece of paper, one that had obviously been torn out of a small notebook and left there for someone to find.
    It was addressed to me.
    “ Suzanne, I couldn’t stay. Bring Grace out to my place as soon as you read this, no matter how late it might be. The gate will be unlocked. Hurry. ”
    I frowned as I folded the note up and stuck it in my jeans pocket. I needed to find Grace, and as soon as I stowed the cart, I made that my mission.
    As I was looking for her, Emma came up, smiling. “I hope you brought your best stuff, because I made a killing tonight.”
    It took me a second to realize what she was talking about. “Oh. The bet. You win. You can take your hour whenever you’d like to.”
    “Suzanne, what’s wrong?” she asked. It was obvious that something was troubling me, or I never would have conceded the friendly competition so easily.
    “Have you seen Grace around? She was just here.”
    “She’s over there talking to the chief,” Emma said as she pointed.
    “Great. Do you mind locking up? I have something I need to do.”
    “Don’t you want to cash out the day’s receipts and figure out how much we’re donating to the Food Bank?” Emma asked.
    I’d completely forgotten about the money we’d made tonight. “Would you mind doing it?”
    “Not at all. I’m happy to. Suzanne, something is clearly wrong, so don’t bother trying to deny it. The question is, can I help?”
    I touched her shoulder lightly. “You are. Thanks for everything tonight. That was above and beyond the call of duty.”
    “It was my pleasure. I don’t know if I told you, but last semester I wrote a paper for class about the problems of the poor here at home, and it really shook me up. Did you know that most folks are two paychecks away from being homeless, and a great many of them don’t have enough to eat? I feel bad enough for the adults, but the kids are the ones who are really suffering. We’ve got to do something.”
    I smiled at her. “We are. Sometimes I forget what a big heart you have.”
    “It’s the same size as everyone else’s,” she said, trying to downplay the compliment.
    “We both know better than that. Thanks for taking care of things at the shop.”
    “Happy to do it. You’d better go catch her. It looks as though she’s leaving.”
    I glanced over and saw that she was right. Grace was heading home, and I needed to stop her before she got there. “Grace.