Lacey wrapped a towel around her wet hair and quickly put on her underwear. She could only imagine the look on Ginger’s face. This wasn’t the way she had wanted Ginger to find out that she and Danny were dating. She slipped into her bathrobe and walked out to the living room.
“Hi, Lacey,” said Ginger.
“Please, y’all have a seat,” said Lacey.
The chief and Ginger sat down in the chairs on opposite sides of the TV.
Lacey and Danny sat on the couch.
“What’s this about?” said Lacey.
“Well, as I’m sure you know,” said the chief, “Navy Newcomb died this morning.”
“Yes,” said Lacey.
“And the medical examiner has finished his autopsy,” said the chief. “We just came from his office.”
Lacey felt sick at the thought of Navy’s body stretched out across a cold, metal table, being butchered like a slab of beef.
“And he has determined that Navy was poisoned. That’s what killed him—anaphylactic shock.”
“So, it was murder?” said Danny.
“More than likely,” said the chief. “He was apparently allergic to fish oil.”
“Shell fish,” offered Lacey. “He was
“The chief thinks somebody put it in his food,” said Ginger.
“Specifically,” said the chief, “a coffee cake.”
“One of
“I’m afraid so,” said Ginger.
“He loved Ginger’s coffee cakes, didn’t he, Lacey?” said the chief.
“Well…,” she glanced at Danny. She didn’t like being the expert on Navy’s likes and dislikes. “…yes, he did.”
“Did he have a favorite?” said the chief.
“Sweet Ginger Cake,” said Lacey. “That was his favorite.”
“I see,” said the chief. “Okay, thanks.” He stood up. “That’s it for now. But I may some more questions for you later.”
“Sure,” said Lacey, “no problem.”
Ginger stood up, and she and the chief walked toward the door. Lacey and Danny followed them.
Then the chief turned around. “Oh, yes—I knew I was forgetting something. And you might find this particularly interesting, Lacey.”
“What’s that?”
“He didn’t have an Epi-Pen with him,” said the chief. “Wonder why?”
“Uh, I don’t know. He used to carry one around in his car.”
“In the glove compartment?” said the chief.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“We didn’t find it. And obviously he didn’t find it either—otherwise he’d still be alive.”
Lacey didn’t know what to say.
“No Epi-Pen,” said the chief. “But we did find something interesting under the front seat of his car.”
Lacey felt her face quickly turning red, but she couldn’t stop it. “What?”
“A pair of panties,” said the chief.
Lacey could feel Danny staring at her, waiting to hear her response.
The chief added, “They’re kind of unusual. They lace up on the sides.”
Lacey hoped Ginger would tell the chief to stop making these ridiculous innuendos.
The chief went on. “And there were two words printed on the front of them—‘Unlace Me.’
“I’ve never seen any like that,” said Lacey. Then she saw the disappointment in Ginger’s eyes—as though she didn’t believe her.
“Well, I guess that’s it,” said the chief, opening the door. “Thanks again. Goodnight.”
Ginger said goodnight to Danny and Lacey as she followed the chief out the door.
Danny locked the door and then spun around. “What was
“Navy was murdered,” said Lacey.
“I know
“Probably just wanted to talk to somebody who knew about his allergy.”
“Yeah, but what’s this about the panties?”
“How should I know? I guess they belong to his girlfriend. Who knows?”
“I saw those exact panties in your little lingerie catalog.”
“What are doing looking through my catalog—checking out all the half-naked women?”
“They were just like the ones the chief was talking about.”
“The panties they found in Navy’s car are
Danny didn’t say a word. He just stormed off into the bedroom.
She waited a minute and then went after him.
He was sitting on the other side of the bed, with his back to her. She walked around to face him—and wished she hadn’t.
“What are you doing with that thing?”
He held up the pistol. “This thing?”
“Be careful.”
“I think you’re lying about the panties.”
Lacey was about to start telling him he had it all wrong and to beg him to get rid of the gun. But then something snapped.
She snatched the pistol out of his hands. He was so surprised that he didn’t have time to react.
Lacey stepped back with the gun and pointed at him. “Get out of my home. Now!”
“I’m sorry, Lacey. I should have believed you. I
“No, you don’t! Get out of here
He eased his hands into the air. “Okay. Take it easy. I’m going.”
She followed him to the door. Once he had closed it and walked away, she locked it.
Lacey didn’t need a man in her life. Not one who didn’t trust her. But on the other hand—why should he? Especially since…she was lying.
Chapter 12
Cash and Carry Donuts was a very popular shop, sitting just around the corner from town square. Cash Crawley, 34, was determined to make his business more successful than his older brother’s restaurant, Bull Crawley’s Bar and Grill. Bull had the advantage of a prime location on The Square. Plus, Bull’s full-service restaurant could pull in heavy traffic at all three mealtimes.
Cash had always conceded the lunch and dinner crowd to his brother. And Bull knew that Cash’s donuts were preferred over his apple pie for coffee breaks. But breakfast was war. Sure, everybody knew donuts were a poor nutritional choice. But it was difficult to drive by Cash and Carry Donuts without stopping—especially early in the morning. And particularly since Cash had installed
He had discovered that on mild weather days when he could turn off the air conditioning and leave the front door open he got a lot more business—particularly in the morning. Then he realized it wasn’t the fresh air dining that brought in the people. It was the fragrance of fresh, hot donuts wafting out into the street, creating an invisible wall of temptation, diverting Bull’s bacon and egg eaters into Cash’s sticky-sweet den of donuts.
Cash wished he could leave the door open year-round. But that would make the temperature very
