“Has the mayor called you, then?” I asked.
The chief put his donut back down. “Suzanne, what have you been up to?”
“Me? Nothing. At least nothing that you don’t already know about. Why do you ask?”
“First you want to know if Jake called me, and then you ask me about the mayor. It sounds to me as though you’re up to something.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I said with a smile. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “How are you holding up?” he asked in a softer voice.
“I’m a little bit tired, but that’s to be expected. I’m about to end a long shift on my feet.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “Don’t worry. It will be fine.”
“I’m going to kill my mother,” I said as I put it together and reached for my cellphone.
“Hang on a second,” Chief Martin said, clearly alarmed by my threat. “Why would you do that?”
“She obviously told you that Jake was gone,” I said. “I can’t believe that she’d do such a thing.”
“She didn’t,” the chief said plainly.
As I put my cellphone back in my jeans, I asked, “Then who did?”
“I really can’t say,” he answered.
“It was Jake,” I said.
“I never said that.”
“No, but you didn’t deny it. Why did you just lie to me?” I asked him, unhappy with this conversation in general.
“I never lied,” he said.
“I asked you if Jake called you,” I said loudly. We were getting some attention again, but I didn’t care at that point.
“And I asked you why would he? Suzanne, I never lied to you.”
“You avoided the question completely, though, didn’t you?”
“Gosh, it’s a good thing you’ve never done that with me,” the police chief said with a smile.
I wanted to feel a little righteous indignation, but I couldn’t muster any up, especially since he was dead right about me. I smiled back at him. “Point well taken. Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s just assume that Jake called you and asked you to keep an eye on me while he was gone.”
He nodded as he said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t confirm or deny that.”
“Got it. I’m fine, by the way. Thanks for checking up on me. How’s your investigation going?”
“We’re muddling through. And you?” he asked as he took a sip of coffee. Two small bites of donut were gone, but the majority of it was still there on his plate.
“It’s slow going, but then I don’t have to tell you that.” I gestured to his plate. “Is something wrong with that donut?”
“No, it’s delicious. I’d just better not eat the whole thing.”
“Go on, live a little,” I said with a grin.
“That is exactly how I ended up bursting out of my uniform in the first place,” he said as he pushed the plate away.
I got rid of it so it wouldn’t tempt him anymore. “I wish I had your willpower,” I said.
“I have the best incentive in the world,” he said.
“What’s that? Would you care to share?”
“Can’t you guess?” he asked.
“Momma,” I answered.
“Bingo.” After taking another sip of coffee, he asked softly, “Is your list as long as mine is?”
“I don’t know. Are we sharing again?” I asked him.
“I wouldn’t mind hearing about who are suspects in your mind,” he said.
Okay, the chief was ready to play again, and who was I to say no? I took a napkin from the nearest holder and pulled out my pen. In a hasty scrawl, I wrote the names REGGIE NANCE, FRANK GRAMBLING, LISA GRAMBLING, MAX, PETER, GABBY, and finally, a little reluctantly, I added, EMILY.
After I slid it across the counter to him, he took it and studied it for a few seconds. “Wow, that’s longer than my list, and I thought I had everybody down.”
“Have you eliminated any of mine yet?” I asked him.
“No, but I’m close to wiping three or four names off your list,” he said. The chief looked at me a second, and then he added, “I can’t say which ones at the moment. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I understand. You’re running an official police investigation here. Could you at least tell me the names I can cross off when you find that they aren’t viable suspects anymore? That alone would be a big help.”
“I can do that,” he said. “Mind if I keep this?” he asked as he held the napkin up.
“Be my guest,” I said, and he folded it up and then tucked it into his shirt pocket.