Without hesitation, I hit the delete button, glad that no one else had heard that particular message.

SUPER EASY DONUTS.

These are a fun and fast alternative when you just don't have the time to wait for yeast donuts to rise twice. Delicious, and ready to eat fast!

INGREDIENTS.

* 1 tablespoon white vinegar * 1/2 cup milk * 2 tablespoons shortening * 1/2 cup white sugar * 1 egg * 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract * 2-3 cups sifted all-purpose flour * 1/2 teaspoon baking soda * 1/4 teaspoon salt * 1 quart oil for deep frying * 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting DIRECTIONS.

Stir the vinegar into the milk, then let the mixture stand for a few minutes until it thickens slightly.

In another bowl, cream the shortening and sugar together until smooth, then beat in the egg and the vanilla until everything is well blended.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then combine the dry ingredients with the wet, adding a little bit at a time until it is all well blended.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick. Cut out donut rounds and ravioli-sized pieces and let them rest for 10 minutes.

Add the donuts to the hot oil, turning them once as they brown. Drain them on a rack or paper towels, then dust them with confectioners' sugar while they are still warm.

Yield: Makes 8-12 donuts

CHAPTER 8.

My alarm sprang to life much too early for my taste, and I struggled to shut it off before it managed to wake Momma up, too. She always claimed to not hear it, but I knew that sometimes it roused her from her sleep. As I got dressed and hurriedly ate a bowl of cereal, I turned my telephone on to see if Jake had called me after I'd left him a message. There was a zero on the display when I checked for any new messages, and I wondered why he hadn't at least tried to get in touch with me.

As I walked out to my car, I realized that it was a beautiful night--the temperature was somewhere in the mid-fifties and the humidity almost nonexistent--and thought about walking across the park to the donut shop. It was an impulse I squelched, though. There was too much darkness, too many shadows for evil to hide in, and my nerves were tight bands that vibrated with every slight breeze.

Donut Hearts was dark, as I'd expected it to be, but there was something wrong about the place. It took me a second to realize what it was, and then I noticed that there was something sitting on one of the tables I kept out front for customers.

As I got closer, I saw that it was one of my lemon-filled donuts, and there was a green miniature plastic sword embedded in the middle of it. Some of the lemon filling had oozed out of the puncture wound, and I was very glad they hadn't used cherry or raspberry instead. I wasn't sure if I could handle a filling that looked like blood.

And that was it. No threatening note, no one lurking in the shadows, just a sad little donut with a skewer jammed into it. If it was a joke, it was in extremely bad taste, and if it was a warning, it was too silly to be frightening. What were they trying to say, stop nosing around or the donut gets it? As threats went, it wasn't much of one. Probably it was a group of teenagers who thought it would be funny to throw a scare into me.

Still, just in case it was more serious, I grabbed a plastic glove from inside the shop and put the donut, along with its skewer, safely on a tray and took it back to my office and set it on my desk. Should I call the chief, or maybe one of the local officers more sympathetic to me, or should I go straight to the top and let Jake know what I found?

I wasn't sure what to do, so I put the tray on top of the bookshelf, and started getting things ready so we could make the donuts for another day.

Emma was ten minutes late, and I'd already started making my preparations without her.

I glanced at the clock as she walked in, and Emma said, "I know, I know. I'm sorry. I came as fast as I could."

"Another late-night date?" I asked as I continued preparing the ingredients for the day's cake donuts.

She frowned as she said, "No, Paul dropped me off at my house at nine."

"Don't tell me the bloom is wearing off the rose already?"

"I'm afraid it might be," Emma said, and when I looked at her, I could see that she was really concerned about it.

"Come on, I was just teasing you," I said.

She shrugged. "I know that." After a moment's pause, she said, "Suzanne, could I ask you something?"

I nodded absently as I weighed out the ingredients for my brand-new modified pumpkin donut recipe.

"What do men really expect in a relationship? And what makes them want to stay?"

I couldn't help myself; a hearty laugh escaped my lips before I could rein it back in.

Emma frowned at me and said, "I'm serious. It's not funny."

"The question's not, but you have to be able to pick someone better to give you advice about men. I'm not exactly the world's leading authority on relationships."

"You've been married, though," she said.

"Need I remind you that it failed, and pretty miserably at that?"

Emma wasn't going to let me off the hook that easily, though. "I've seen the way Max looks at you when he comes in here. He still has feelings for you, and that's even after you divorced him."

"Not without cause," I said. I stopped what I was doing and looked hard at Emma. "My friend, there aren't any easy answers. You're going to have to find your own way. We all do, you know."

"I guess," she said with a frown. "I just didn't think being a grownup was going to be all that hard."

"It's one of the toughest jobs there is," I said. When I saw the gloom intensify, I added, "Don't worry, it's not all bad. There are a lot of fringe benefits, too."

"Name one," she said.

"You can have dessert for breakfast, if you want. That's kind of what we do for the world, isn't it?"

"I guess so," she said.

I reached for her apron and threw it to her. "Then we'd better get to work, or we're going to disappoint half of April Springs."

"We wouldn't want to do that, would we?"

"Don't worry," I said as I hugged her quickly. "Everything will all work out in the end. Trust me."

"I can't help wondering if Peg Masterson felt that way too, and we both know what happened to her."

I said, "Emma, we can't feel guilty about that. Someone killed her, but it wasn't our fault they used a donut to deliver the poison to her system. All we can do is move on, and do the best we can with what we've got."

"Is that what you're doing?" she asked. "I thought you were looking for Peg's killer yourself?"

"That's different. There are good reasons for what I'm doing." I dusted my hands together, then said, "Now, we can talk, or we can make donuts and earn a little money today. Which one is it going to be?"

"I vote for the money," Emma said.

"That gets my vote, too, so let's get started."

As we worked on preparing today's offerings, I couldn't help wondering if Emma was right. Maybe I should let the police handle things and get on with my life. Then again, if I took a passive approach to the way things turned out, I never would have gotten where I was today. Which, come to think of it, was being locked into a marginal business that barely paid its way most days.

Those thoughts were too dark for such a happy task as making donuts, so I buried them and focused on making the best treats I could. Just because my life was suddenly covered in clouds was no reason not to try and brighten my customers' existences.

By the time were ready to open the doors at 5:30, I was close to coming to terms with what had been happening around me lately. And then I saw Jake standing there waiting to get in, and it all came flooding back to me.

"Hi," I said as I stepped aside to let him in.

"You have a second?" he asked.

I pretended to look around the empty shop. "At the moment, I've got all the time in the world."

"And an assistant who likes to eavesdrop," he said softly.

From the kitchen, Emma said, "I do not."

Jake shrugged, and I said, "Point taken." I turned and said, "Emma, you've got the front."

She came out wiping her hands on one of our towels.

"Spoilsport," she said to Jake, but he was already halfway outside.

"I'll just be a minute," I said.

"Take your time. I think I can handle the place on my own."

I walked outside, and breathed in the chilled air. The promise of the day was heavy in the darkness, and I knew sunrise wasn't far away. "What's up?"

"You called me, remember? I hate it when a woman says we need to talk. I'd rather face down three angry thugs."

I nodded, fighting to keep my smile to myself. "That's probably a good call. Listen, I know you're in town with a job to do, but to be honest with you, I miss you. Can we have dinner together tonight?"

"There's nothing I'd like more, trust me, but you're still one of my prime suspects in the case I'm working on, Suzanne."

I grinned at him. "So, if anyone asks, you can say you were interrogating me. I've been craving spaghetti. Why don't we go to Napoli's?" That was the scene of our first real date and maybe, if only for a few hours, we could forget about everything else.

He returned my smile with one of his own. "Yeah, I've been dreaming about that place." Then he hastily added, "You, too, of course."

"So, what do you say?"

He was going to say yes, I could see it in his eyes, and then his telephone rang. "Hang on one second. I've got to take this."

He turned away from me, whispered something for a few moments, then turned back to me. "I'm sorry, I've got to go."

"What happened? Is there a new development in the case?"

"No, it's nothing like that. It's something personal," he said as he headed for his car.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'll call you later," he said as he got in and drove off like he was being chased by the devil himself.

What was going on? Was he lying to keep me from knowing something that was going on in the investigation, or was there truly a personal emergency he was facing? If he was, why hadn't he at least given me a hint what it was about? I was a part of his life, after all.

I was still standing there on the sidewalk when Max walked up. In all the years I'd known him, I'd never seen him awake before nine am, and here it was not even six yet. I asked, "Have you been out all night?"

He shook his head. "No, ma'am. I got to bed at a reasonable hour so I could come by and talk to you before things got busy here."

"I don't have time to talk to you right now, Max."

He looked over my shoulder at the deserted donut shop. "Yeah, I can see you're really jammed up."

"Okay, maybe I've got the time, but I've long since lost the inclination." What was it with men? When I wanted them around, they were as scarce as hen's teeth, but when I was through with them for good, they wouldn't leave me alone.

"Hear me out. I was not out on a date with Darlene yesterday."

It was all I could do not to shout at him. "Max, it doesn't matter what I think anymore, remember?"

"It matters to me, and I'm not leaving until you tell me 'I believe you.' "

I looked him dead in the eye. "Fine, I believe you."

"You don't mean it," Max said.

I let out a sigh, then said, "Have it your way. If you say you aren't dating Darlene, then I believe you. You don't have any reason to lie to me anymore, do you?"

"Good. Now that we've got that settled, have dinner with me tonight."

I walked up to him and put my face within two inches of his. "No, and stop asking. My answer isn't going to change. Now go away."

He laughed. "I'm leaving, but I'm not giving up."

I couldn't take his smugness. "Max, be serious. Why are you so interested in getting back together with me, anyway? I'm nice enough looking, but as handsome as you are, we both know you could do better than a donut maker."

"You don't get it, do you? It's you, Suzanne. It's always been you."

"Maybe at one time that was the truth, but not anymore. Find someone else, Max. Anybody else but me, because I'm not interested."

I walked back into the donut shop and saw that Emma was staring strangely at me.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked her.

She looked at me carefully, then said, "I don't see a gun."