Sticky Steal (The Donut Mysteries Book 56) by Jessica Beck

Author:Jessica Beck [Beck, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: bake, cook, Mystery, cozy, series, donuts
Publisher: Cozy Publishing
Published: 2022-09-14T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

“WOW, I SINCERELY HOPE nothing happens to Barton in the next few days,” Grace said as we made our way back to my Jeep.

“That’s funny, I didn’t know you cared,” I said with a grin after we got in, buckled up, and started heading back to April Springs.

“You know as well as I do that I don’t want to have to rat Angelica out to the police. The truth is that I’m not Barton’s biggest fan at the moment.”

“I caught that earlier, but then again, I’m more perceptive than most,” I answered with another slight smile.

“Okay, I admit I’ve been a little hard on him, but you were right. He was lying to us just then.”

“By not telling us what was on his mind,” I said.

“That’s one of our three favorite ways to lie, isn’t it?” she asked.

I nodded as I said, “You can lie outright, or you don’t tell everything you know, or you tell the truth so badly that people are convinced you’re lying, even when you’re not. That last one is the hardest one to pull off, but it’s also the most convincing.”

“That sounds about right to me,” she said.

“Something else is going on with you though, isn’t it?” I asked her as I drove back to April Springs with our newly found evidence.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Suzanne.”

“Really? You’re going to try that with me? Denial? Why are you being so hard on Barton? I know you and Emma are friendly, but you’re not that close. He’s being a real jerk, but if she can put up with it, why can’t you?”

We rode in silence for ten minutes, which usually wouldn’t be a problem, but for us, given the awkwardness of it, it was a lot to take. I was determined not to say another word until Grace did, though.

Finally, she spoke. “Stephen’s been flirting some lately too, and I guess I might be a bit overly sensitive about it at the moment.”

“Has he been targeting anyone in particular, or is it just a change in his general behavior?” I asked her softly.

“Oh, it’s someone in particular all right,” she admitted.

“Care to share a name with me?” I asked after a few more moments of silence.

“Dr. Zoey Hicks,” she said.

“Got it,” I answered. I knew the young doctor/coroner could act a bit too over the top at times, dressing suggestively and cooing a bit too much in the presence of any man who paid her the slightest bit of attention. She’d even been caught flirting with our police chief in the past, but I’d thought that foolishness was behind us. “What exactly did you see? Did Stephen do something?”

“It’s not so much what my husband does when she’s around, it’s the way he acts,” Grace said. “You know, when I say it out loud, it sounds crazy even to me.”

“Crazy hasn’t stopped either one of us in the past,” I reminded her. “Have you told Stephen how it makes you feel when he acts that way?”

“Sort of,” Grace said.

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