Peppermint Glazed Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 28 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  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

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  Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright 2016 by Guardian Publishing Group - All rights reserved.

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  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 1

  Heather Shepherd sat in her favorite spot on a stool behind the counter in Donut Delights and admired her newest creation beneath the glass countertop. She’d gone out on a limb with this one, but why not?

  This was her birthday week, and somehow – she blamed Amy – the assistants in the store had all found out.

  “What are they called, dear?” Eva Schneider asked. She placed her tiny, silver clutch bag on the countertop and leaned in to admire the candy cane coated donuts.

  “Peppermint Glazed Donuts,” Heather replied, and grinned at her friend and oldest customer. “I was inspired by one of my grandmother’s recipes, as usual, and Christmas is coming, of course.”

  “Oh my, they sound intriguing. Tell me about them,” Eva replied, and placed her small, withered hands on top of her bag.

  Heather scooched forward a bit. “Each donut is made up of light, fluffy chocolate dough deep fried to perfection, then injected with vanilla cream in two pockets along the sides. That’s to break the sharpness of the peppermint flavor,” she said and pointed at one of the donuts. “After that, they’re dipped in peppermint glaze and sprinkled with crushed up candy canes.”

  Eva licked her lips. “Delicious. I’ll take one of those with my morning coffee if you don’t mind.”

  “Of course,” Heather said, and scooted off her chair. She punched a few buttons on the coffee machine, then brought out a plain, white cup and placed it underneath the spout.

  “How are you this week?” Eva asked. “Excited for your birthday?”

  “Ugh,” Heather said. “Another year older.” She bent and brought out a plate, then used her silver tongs to nab a donut from underneath the counter. She fed it onto the plate and placed it on the countertop.

  “I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time,” Eva replied, and winked. She tapped the side of her nose with her index finger. “And I know why.”

  “Oh no. They haven’t planned anything big, have they?” Heather asked.

  Eva’s eyes twinkled, but she didn’t reply.

  “Eva Schneider,” Heather said, and pursed her lips. “Don’t you toy with me.”

  The kitchen doors opened, and Amy rushed out, her apron dusted in purple. She clutched a bit of paper in her right hand, and a sneaky smile lifted the corners of her lips.

  “Uh oh, what is it now?” Heather asked. She grabbed Eva’s coffee, placed it on a saucer, then handed it over to the elderly woman.

  Eva took a sip. She sighed. “That hits the spot.”

  “Okay, we’re already planning something for you,” Amy said and stopped beside Heather. “But I just saw this, and I figured it’s just the perfect way to celebrate your birthday.”

  “What is it?” Heather asked, and glanced around the room.

  The breakfast rush had already ended, and the store’s interior had filled with customers. Each tucked into a donut or sipped on coffee, and the heady aroma of the brew and the tickle of peppermint filled the air.

  Amy slapped down a flyer on the counter.

  Heather scanned it. “Just Jump It Skydiving?” She met Amy’s gaze. “Is this a joke?”

  “Of course not,” Amy replied. “Oh come on, Heather, when have you ever done anything that’s scared you.”

  “I catch murderers on almost a weekly basis,” Heather replied, flatly. She lowered her voice. “Besides, aren’t you the one who’s scared of rats and graveyards and just about everything?”

  “Not skydiving. That’s an adrenaline rush. We have to do it, Heather, come on. It’s something you have to do at least once in your life,” Amy said.

  Heather looked at Eva for support. “Can you believe this?”

  “I wash my hands of this, dear,” Mrs. Schneider replied. “I’ll be over by the window gorging on coffee and donuts while you make a decision.” She tottered off to her favorite spot in Donut Delights.

  Amy clasped her hands together and wrung them. “Come on. It would be so fun. It’s something we could do together, as besties.”

  “I’m sorry, Ames, I’m just not comfortable with this. I have a child in my life now, and I feel like I’d be putting more than myself at risk,” Heather replied, and sat down on her stool, again.

  Amy chewed the corner of her lip. “But it’s perfectly safe,” she said and thumbed the flyer. “These are qualified skydivers. They know what they’re doing. I researched them and everything.”

  She whipped out her cell and swiped her finger across the screen, then directed it toward Heather.

  “See?” Amy said. “They’ve never had an accident. Not once.”

  “There’s a first time for everything,” Heather replied, darkly.

  “Oh lighten up,” Amy said and whacked her on the upper arm. “It’s your birthday! Your birthday. We have to do something amazing.”

  “Can’t we just go see a movie or something?”

  Amy puffed out air. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted to bore me to death on your birthday? Is that your wish? Because another movie is the way to go.”

  “I thought you liked out movie evenings.”

  “I love them,” Amy replied, “but this is special. It’s –”

  “Don’t say it’s my birthday again. I heard you the first fifty million times.” Heather picked up the flyer and examined it. An image of a woman, mid-air, with an instructor strapped to her back, decorated the page.

  She had both thumbs up and a massive grin on her face.

  “See?” Amy said. “She’s happy.”

  “You won’t convince me on this, Amy Givens,” Heather replied. “So give it a rest, already.”

  “Okay, wait, okay.” Amy adjusted her apron and cleared her throat. “You don’t have to go skydiving, but at least come check out the place with me. We can take a drive out
there this afternoon. Look at where they jump and land. Maybe we’ll even get to see someone in the act.”

  Heather put down the flyer. She folded her arms across her chest. “It’s basically winter, Ames. It would be freezing up there.”

  “Just come check it out, that’s all I ask. You can make your final decision there,” Amy said.

  Mirth tickled Heather’s brain. Her bestie just didn’t know when to quit.

  “Fine,” she said. “Fine. I’ll go have a look.”

  “Yes!” Amy clapped her hands and giggled. “Oh, this is going to be great. You’ll see. You’re gonna want to dive immediately.”

  Heather moved to the coffee machine and punched a few buttons. “I highly doubt that.”

  Chapter 2

  Heather took the long dirt road which led out to the skydiving range. Was that what it was called? It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t be there for long, and she’d already made her decision.

  Heather Shepherd might solve murders and stick her nose where it didn’t belong, but that did not include the inside of a plane before a freefall from the heavens.

  “We’re getting close,” Amy said and waggled the flyer. She’d brought the thing out at the end of her shift and clung to it ever since.

  “All right, but we’d better make this quick. The last time I left Lilly and Dave with Eva, she fed them both donuts. Dave had a tummy ache when he got home. Cupcake jumped on his belly. There was a vomiting incident. Ugh. I don’t need a repeat of that.”

  Amy chuckled. “All right, all right, just keep an open mind. I think the field where they land is around here.”

  “Where they land?” Heather asked.

  “Well yeah, they have to have a specific landing area, so it’s safe. Can’t veer off and end up on the top of a tree somewhere.” Amy crunched up the flyer in her hand and waved it around. “Can you imagine that?”

  “I’d rather not.”

  A sign peered out from behind a stand of trees. The silhouette of a skydiver beside the words Just Jump It Skydiving.

  “What a name,” Heather said.

  “It is a little cheesy,” Amy replied. “But I bet –”

  “What’s that?” Heather asked, and slowed down on the dirt road. The car bopped and hopped over loose stones, and the dashboard rattled.

  “What’s what?” Amy turned and squinted out of her window.

  “Between the trees,” she said. “It’s a… cop car.”

  A cruiser parked in the middle of the field beside them lights flashing in the distance. An officer stood beside it and spoke to a man in a different kind of uniform.

  Heather’s insides turned cold. “Uh, oh,” she whispered.

  “What? What is it?”

  “I can’t be sure, but that looks a lot like the end of a parachute,” Heather said, and pointed to the white, blue and red fabric just ahead of the cop car.

  Sirens wailed behind them, and Amy spun in her seat and glared out the back window this time.

  “What’s going on?”

  An ambulance streaked past them on the road. Its tires spat gravel and dust.

  Heather parked the car, immediately. “Hand me my bag, Ames.”

  Amy grabbed it off the back seat and gave it to Heather. “I don’t like the look of this.”

  “That makes two of us,” she said and brought out her cell. She unlocked it, then tapped through to her contacts and Ryan’s number. She dialed and pressed the phone to her ear, then squinted at the cop car in the field.

  The man there stopped and fiddled with something in his pocket.

  “Detective Shepherd,” he said.

  “Hey, hon. Is that you out in the skydiving field?” Heather asked. Was that the right term for it?

  “Yeah, wait, how do you know that?” He asked, and turned around in a circle. His dark hair flapped in the breeze.

  “I’m parked on the side of the road here. What’s going on?”

  Amy squished around in her seat and dropped the flyer in her lap.

  “I’m not sure yet. We’ve got a female in her early twenties here, deceased. It might be a murder, but I can’t be sure yet.”

  “It might be?”

  “Yeah, it looks like someone tampered with her parachute,” Ryan replied, then let out a sigh. “Another day in Hillside.”

  “Why didn’t you call me about this?”

  “I just got here,” he replied, then paused and cleared his throat. “And hon, honestly, I think you should take a break from investigating this week. You’ve been helping out for ages now.”

  “And so? That’s what I do.”

  “And so, you need a break. It’s your birthday this week. Take it easy. Focus on donuts. Spend time with Ames and Lils and everyone at the store,” Ryan said. “Let me handle the big stuff.”

  Heather tapped her fingers on the side of the phone. “I know you’re trying to be sweet, love, but it’s annoying me.”

  “Heather –”

  “Call me when you have some more information on the case. I will be taking it,” she said, then hung up. Perhaps she’d been a little harsh, but she needed normality this week, and everyone seemed determined to upset that.

  “What was that about?” Amy asked. “Sheesh, you seem kinda tense, Heather.”

  “Ugh, I know. I shouldn’t have snapped like that. I guess this whole birthday thing has gotten under my skin.” She shook her head. She’d apologize to Ryan later.

  “What happened out there?” Ames jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Nothing too serious, I hope.”

  “A woman died. Apparently, someone tampered with her parachute. That’s all I know so far.”

  Amy broke eye contact and looked out over the field instead. “Well,” she said, “I guess we won’t be going skydiving anytime soon.”

  “Yeah, my answer is going to be a firm, ‘no’ on this one, Ames.” She turned on the engine, then put on her indicator. “Let’s get home and have a cup of coffee.”

  “Because we never do that,” Amy replied.

  Heather drove back the way they’d come, and dust drifted behind them, a tide which marred her view of the field. Already, her cogs ticked over, and her mind puzzled through the possibilities.

  A woman who’d been murdered. A jealous spouse? A bad business investment?

  Only time would tell.

  Chapter 3

  Heather brushed off the arms of her coat and glanced up at the sky. The pale clouds had bruised since she’d exited the car. Thunder rolled in the distance, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

  She shifted her gaze to the sign plastered to the front of the small building in front of her.

  Just Jump It Skydiving. That same skydiver in silhouette sat beside it. Everything painted in lurid yellow. Ugh, this place gave her the creeps, already.

  And the atmosphere around here wasn’t celebratory. Christmas around the corner and not a decoration in sight.

  Oh, that reminded her. She had to decorate the store. And the house.

  Bubbles of excitement drifted through her belly and popped. This was her favorite time of the year, by far. And the first time she’d get to celebrate with Lilly.

  The front door creaked open, and a man stepped out onto the cobbled stone path. “May I help you? You wanna skydive?”

  Not even if he paid her. “No, thanks. I’m here –”

  Tires crunched on the gravel behind her, and she turned her head. Ah, Ryan had arrived at last.

  The man in front of the building straightened and touched his fingers to his throat. “Uh?”

  Ryan parked his cruiser, then got out and shut the door. “There you are,” he said. “I thought we were meeting at the intersection.”

  “We were?” Heather had tuned that part out. She’d been so focused on getting to the place and not getting lost. Gosh, the back roads surrounding the town were a maze of trees and grass.

  “Never mind,” Ryan said and walked up to her. He nodded to the man who’d exited the bui
lding. “Mr. Joe Gankin?”

  “That’s me,” the guy said. He ran a hand over his baldpate, then touched the tufts of air either side of it. “Are you here about Kiki?”

  Kiki Folger had died on impact, according to the autopsy. At least, it had been quick.

  Fat drops splatted to the cobbles in front of his sneakers.

  “Let’s talk inside,” Heather said.

  “Sure,” Gankin replied, but he hesitated and gave her a once over. “You’re a cop?”

  “I’m a consultant,” she replied. “I specialize in these kinds of investigations.”

  “Oh yeah? People usually fall out of the sky where you’re from?” He chuckled, then swallowed it. Maybe he realized the joke was off color.

  Joe Gankin led them into the interior of his building, past a reception area decorated with motivational, blue-skied posters, and into his private office.

  Ryan shut the door behind them. “How are you this morning, Mr. Gankin?”

  “I’m allergic to small talk. That’s how I am,” he replied, then squeezed his bulk behind his tiny wooden desk and sat down in an even tinier chair. It creaked and squealed beneath his weight.

  “We have that in common,” Heather said and favored him with one of her ‘customer’ smiles. “Did you know Kiki Folger well?”

  Ryan walked to the chair in front of the desk, then pulled it out for Heather. She sat down and plopped her tote bag on the floor beside it.

  “Kiki, sure. She got her qualification last week, just in time for her birthday,” he said. “That’s why she went up yesterday. Wanted to dive without an instructor for the first time.”

  “Her birthday,” Heather said, and bitterness spread across her tongue. Yeah, she’d avoid the skydiving on her birthday for sure. Movies might be boring for Amy, but they were a lot safer.

  “That’s right. She went up with a whole group of people,” Joe replied and snorted in a breath.

  “Mr. Gankin, we found evidence which indicated her parachute had been tampered with,” Ryan said. “Can you explain that?”

  “Honestly? Heck, no I can’t explain that. We check our parachutes for damage, daily, and Kiki would’ve checked her own chute before she went up. In fact, I saw her checking it before she boarded the plane. I remember because it’s got two K’s printed in bright pink on the back,” he said. “Failing that, my instructor checks them all too. It’s a rigid safety procedure.”