Chapter 26

“I’m glad you didn’t have to take the entire day off. It’s better to keep busy when your heart is broken.”

“Work did help,” Penny admitted.

“I still can’t believe Rachel just left you at a club alone because Evie texted you,” I said. It was after dinner and Penny and I were in the kitchen. Penny had finally gone into work after lunch. She worked late, and I had made us both ham and cheese sandwiches, sliced pickles, and cups of tea.

“I think she’s gone a bit bonkers about Evie,” Penny said and chewed a bite of pickle. “She told me that Chef Wright had promised her that Evie was out of the picture. Can you believe that?”

“I think he was playing them both. Evie told me that Chef Wright was leaving his wife for her and her unborn baby.”

“The joke’s on them both.” Penny picked up half of her sandwich. “I heard that he had a new girl on the line.”

“A new girl?”

“Yes, according to the kitchen staff Chef Wright was planning a private demonstration. He only did those when the girls were still in the first impression stage. I hear Chef Wright would bring them into the kitchen late and give a cooking lesson. His whole staff knew about these lessons. No one said anything because they were afraid they’d be fired.”

“Oh, how awful,” I said. “Do they know who his latest girl was?”

“There was some thought it might be you.”

“What? No, I don’t need cooking lessons from anyone. Besides, ew.”

“That’s what I said,” Penny said. “It had to be someone else.”

“And no one knew who?”

“It had to be someone who wasn’t part of the kitchen staff. I’ll give him this, he didn’t mess around in his own kitchen.”

“That’s true, Evie and Rachel belong to the admin staff.” I chewed my sandwich thoughtfully. “It most likely was a woman on the administration staff. What about Beth?”

“Beth?”

“You know,” I waved my sandwich. “The one who was selling secret recipes to Lord Heavington. She might know more admins. She might know who Chef Wright had his eye on. Or she started flirting with Chef Wright herself to get access to more recipes.”

“Now that would be something,” Penny said with a laugh. “She would be out maneuvering the slick old man.”

“We can ask her,” I said. “She was pretty forthcoming about her involvement with Lord Heavington. I bet she’s the type to laugh about putting one over Chef Wright.”

“Yikes, that has to make Evie and Rachel insane.”

“I don’t think we should be the ones to tell them either,” I said. “Those two will chew us up and spit us out for dinner.”

“Beth Branch,” she said thoughtfully. “Did you ever rule her out as Wentworth’s killer? I mean, she stood to be as embarrassed by the photos of her with Lord Heavington as Lord Heavington would be.”

“You know that Ian and I both spoke to Beth,” I said. “She didn’t seem bothered by the photos. It’s strange. Do you know if anything came of her transgression? I mean did the palace do anything about her selling recipe secrets? If she didn’t think anything of selling recipes what other secrets would she sell?”

“Maybe Wentworth knew,” Penny said. “I’ll look more into Beth. It seems like she should have been severely reprimanded at best and fired at worst.”

“I haven’t heard of anyone being fired since I got here,” I said. “The employee handbook says that you get three warnings before they fire you—unless you commit a true crime.”

“Like selling state secrets.” Penny wiggled her eyebrows. “Wentworth could have had pictures of Beth selling more than recipes.”

“And if she had access to Chef Wright’s kitchen, she could have killed Wentworth.”

“We should go see her,” I said. “Is she living in the city?”

“I think she lives just outside of the city,” Penny said. She mentioned something about taking the tube.”

“I wonder what Rachel and Evie will do when the news comes out that they were both being dumped for a new girl.”

“Probably lose it,” Penny said. “Evie’s pregnant, right?”

“Yes,” I said and shook my head. “Not good.”

“I’ve known both of those girls for the last year,” Penny said. “They aren’t people to mess around with. Although why Rachel would go after Chef Wright is beyond me. I thought she was dating another guy in security. I think his name was Richard something.”

“But you told me that she was flirting with a new guy and wanted to keep it secret. Remember? She must have broken up with Richard. Maybe you just can’t remember that.”

“Hmm,” Penny said. “Maybe Rachel will talk to you. You aren’t exactly on Evie’s best friend list.”

“Evie sat with me at the employee handbook training,” I said. “People are going to know that.”

“Maybe Rachel doesn’t,” Penny pointed out.

“I can’t,” I said. “I’m still mad at her for leaving you alone like that. Something really bad could have happened to you.”

“Thanks.” Penny sipped her tea. “But nothing happened. At least nothing I noticed.” She winked at me.

“There are a lot of women working at the palace,” I said thoughtfully. “What if Beth wasn’t the one?”

“Don’t worry.” Penny patted my hand. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I certainly hope so.”

*   *   *

The next day I was on my way to class when I ran into Rachel. “Rachel,” I called out and she turned around.

“Yes?”

“What were you thinking abandoning Penny like that?”

“I beg your pardon?” Rachel stopped short and frowned. She wore a tweed skirt and navy sweater.

“Penny told me about the other night. You and she were out at the clubs and you just left her to find her way home. Something bad could have happened to her. I mean something really bad.”

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Rachel said. “She was texting Evie. I asked her to stop and spend time with me. She refused, so I left.”

“She was drunk,” I said. “She had to get a bartender to call her a cab.”

“Look, I don’t want anything to do with anyone who talks to Evie Green.” She narrowed her eyes. “That woman is a menace. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one who killed Don.”

“You think Evie killed Chef Wright?”

“Why not? He got her pregnant and moved on to me.”

“I heard he moved on from you.” I crossed my arms. “Maybe you had cause to kill him.”

“Oh, I wanted to kill him,” Rachel said. “But I realized soon enough that he wasn’t worth it.” She shook her head and sighed. “You’re right. He did move on from me and pretty quickly. I tried to warn Evie, but she dished me bad. It’s why we got into a fight the other day. That woman was serious about Chef Sleaze. As far as I’m concerned, she got what she deserved.”

“You didn’t have to take it out on Penny,” I said. “We girls have to stick together.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Good,” I said. “You should tell Penny.”

“I will.” Rachel winced. “I’ve been a bit of a jerk lately. Can’t help it. Seems so weird that Don is dead. He might have been a skank, but you kind of know that going in.”

“So why’d you do it?”

She shrugged. “Evie was talking about how he was going to leave his wife for her. I wanted to prove to Evie that the man wouldn’t leave his wife for anyone. That if he two-times his wife, he’d two-time anyone. But Evie didn’t believe it. So I started flirting with him. Then one thing led to another. The guy was really good at making you feel like you were the only girl in the entire world, you know?”

“I guess not,” I said. “I’ve never been in that situation.”

“You’re lucky,” Rachel said.

“There is a rumor that Chef Wright had moved on to a new girl. Do you have any idea who that was?”

Rachel laughed. “No, and I don’t want to know. Maybe the new girl is the one who killed him?”

“Why?”

“Because the man could make you crazy.”

I spotted Evie going into the lecture hall. “I have to go to class. Listen, call me before you leave Penny on her own next time. Okay?”

“Oh, I doubt there will be a next time,” Rachel said with one raised eyebrow.

“Fine, whatever.” I made my way into class and took a seat beside Evie.

“Was that Rachel you were talking to?” Evie asked. Her eyebrows were drawn down and her mouth a thin line.

“Yes.”

“What did she want?”

“Actually, I flagged her down,” I said. “I wanted to find out why she left Penny drunk and alone.”

“She did what?” Evie turned toward me. “That witch. Wait, what was Penny doing going out with Rachel?”

Oh boy.

“She knows that Rachel and I are on the outs. Serves Penny right to get left alone. I warned her Rachel was a back stabber.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Funny, Rachel just told me that she started to see Chef Wright to prove to you that the man was still on the prowl.”

“A likely story,” Evie said. “Rachel can’t stand it when I have even the tiniest bit of good luck. She seduced my Don. Lucky for her, he put an end to her schemes and plans.”

“He did?” That was not the story I got from Rachel and Penny.

“He did, and he told me so himself. She lured him into a closet in the kitchen. Then Rachel wrapped herself around my Don, but he was true to me. He pushed her off and told her to stay away from him.”

“Huh,” I said.

“Like I said,” Evie went on. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Rachel killed him. He humiliated her in front of half the kitchen staff.”

“Like who?” I asked.

“Talk to Chef Theilman or that Sandy chick. Don told me that they saw him tell Rachel to leave him alone. In fact, he told me he put in a complaint to security to keep Rachel out of his kitchen.”

“Huh,” I said again. “No one mentioned that to me before.”

“Well, I know why Rachel wouldn’t mention it. How humiliating. Serves her right if you ask me.”

Class started and I was left to wonder if Rachel had lied to me or if Evie lied. Or maybe Chef Wright had deluded them both.