Miles and Myrtle, both eager to get on with it, immediately raised their hands. Louvenia, naturally, called on Miles first.
Miles cleared his throat and looked around at the other students as he stood up. Louvenia closed her eyes as if she wanted to feel Miles’s words. “I didn’t know Chester very well. In fact, I really only knew him from his billboards around town. But he was certainly full of life. And memorable.”
He sat down again quickly as his classmates clapped.
“Myrtle?” prompted Louvenia.
Myrtle stood. “It’s been a long time since I had seen Chester. I found him easy to talk to yesterday—so easy to talk to that I got distracted while chopping vegetables.”
Louvenia gave a trilling laugh at this, but her eyes told Myrtle that she was still considering keeping her off of tomato-chopping duty.
Myrtle continued, “I taught Chester in school many years ago. He was a very fun-loving guy.” Myrtle supposed that Chester’s definition of fun included making and flying paper planes and playing hangman in class instead of working on assignments. Myrtle sat down quickly to the smattering of applause.
Felix stood up without bothering to raise his hand first. His blue eyes radiated sympathy and good will. “I was proud to call Chester my friend. He was a burly guy, never much of a fancy dresser. But he had an amazing gift for business and was incredibly smart and intuitive in a non-bookish way. He had many friends.”
Felix appeared to tear up and sat abruptly down. Myrtle and Miles looked at each other with eyebrows raised. Was Felix faking?
Louvenia seemed to be waiting for Bonnie to stand up and volunteer a happy memory of Chester. But Bonnie was frozen in her seat, eyes wide.
Louvenia sighed and said, “I’ll go first, then. Chester Struby had a passion for life. That’s evident from his desire to expand his horizons and learn how to be a better cook. Although he was only in my class for a single day, I could tell he had great promise and was going to do very well.”
They applauded and Myrtle said to Miles, “No mention of her working for him at all.”
Miles shrugged.
Bonnie was now in the spotlight again and seemed to be searching her brain wildly for something nice to say about the man who, from all accounts, made her life miserable in school. Finally, she stood up, quivering.
“Chester had nice suspenders,” she finally stammered out before dropping with relief back into her seat.
Louvenia blinked. Then she said, “All right. Well, class, I think it’s time for us to get cooking. We had a small class to begin with, which is fairly common for our continuing education classes, but now with Hattie absent and Chester gone, we’ll really have to double up on our work.”
“Wonderful,” murmured Miles.
“We’re going to start out with something easy but tasty today. A fresh take on an old favorite, tuna salad,” said Louvenia. “Then, for our next dish, we’ll stretch ourselves a bit and make an entrée that will be fit to serve for all your special occasions.”
The tuna salad was going fine. This time Myrtle was paired with Miles, which was actually a bit more annoying than being paired with Chester had been. For one, he took a good deal of time sanitizing their cooking station.
“I’m sure Amos did a good job,” said Myrtle. “The smell of bleach could practically knock you out.”
“I’d rather not put my personal safety into someone else’s hands,” said Miles, walking over to throw away the wipes.
Miles was putting together the tuna and fruit as Myrtle came back from the fridge with the spicy mustard. “I wonder if Hattie is planning on coming back to the class,” she said.
“I hardly think so. After all, the only reason she was probably here to begin with is because her uncle was attending,” said Miles.
“She certainly didn’t seem to be very excited about cooking,” agreed Myrtle. “Her face was the very picture of misery the times I looked over at her. Her idea of cooking is probably making a bowl of ramen. She said al fresco instead of al dente.”
“Hattie wasn’t that young. I think ramen ceases to be on the menu once one graduates from college. I bet she was here so that she could schmooze Chester somehow. Maybe to lend her some money or something,” said Miles.
“Or to kill him,” said Myrtle, stirring the spicy mustard vigorously into the tuna and fruit.
“That, too.”
“All right, class! Let’s all sample our delicious, fancy tuna salad,” sang out Louvenia. She started handing out plates and slices of deli bread to each of them.
Miles stared into the container with misgivings. “It doesn’t smell right, Myrtle.”
“Of course it smells right.”
Miles said, “It doesn’t. It smells funny.”
“It’s tuna. It’s supposed to smell funny. Besides, there are olives in there and olives always put off a different kind of smell.”
Miles started peering at the various ingredients scattered on their station. “Wait a minute. What’s this?”
“That? That’s the spicy mustard, Miles. The primary ingredient in the recipe.”
“This is not spicy mustard. Myrtle, you grabbed the wrong thing from the fridge.”
Myrtle glared at him. “What are you talking about? It’s a squeeze bottle of mustard.”
“It’s a squeeze bottle of ginger.”
“Ginger?” Myrtle grabbed the bottle from him and held it close to her face. “What?! Why on earth would someone put ginger in a squeeze bottle? It should be in a glass jar in a pantry.”
Miles rubbed his forehead as if it were beginning to throb. “Because this is fresh ginger. Fresh ginger must be refrigerated. This is a fancy class with fancy ingredients.”
“Well, I think that’s completely ridiculous. And certainly not my fault. How was I to know that they’d put ginger in a container like this? Absurd!”
Miles was now staring at the tuna salad with trepidation as if it were about to leap up out of the bowl and attack him.
Louvenia appeared suddenly in front of them, brandishing a fork. “Taste time!” she said brightly.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Miles.
Myrtle said, “I’m not particularly hungry right now. Perhaps later.”
Louvenia said, “Well, I’m going to taste it now. I’ll announce the best tuna salad in the class.”
Miles and Myrtle watched silently as Louvenia took a particularly large forkful and put it in her mouth, an anticipatory smile on her lips. Her expression quickly turned to horror, her eyes grew large and she ran off for a napkin.
“I guess we win the prize. The only tuna salad in the class that wasn’t actually swallowed,” said Miles glumly.
Louvenia was back momentarily, looking stern. “I’m imagining that the two of you realized that there was some sort of a problem with the tuna salad?”
“Myrtle put ginger in it,” offered Miles.
“It lends it a distinctive Asian flavor,” said Myrtle, shooting him a look.
“Or so you would imagine, since you’re not tasting it yourself,” said Miles.
Fortunately, the entrée went a little better. Miles claimed the credit for that, since he stated at the start that he was going to double-check and ensure quality assurance to every ingredient going into the dish.
“We’re going to have a little talk with Felix in a few minutes when class is done,” said Myrtle in her stage whisper that could probably be heard from across the room.
Miles sighed. “He’s a busy man. Do you think he’ll stop to talk?”
“We’re both voters, Miles. And the man is running for office. He’ll stop and talk.”
But as soon as class was over, Felix politely thanked Louvenia for teaching and fairly bolted from the classroom, pulling his phone from his pocket as he went.
“After him, Miles!” cried Myrtle.
“Wait!” called Louvenia. “Didn’t you want to take home your Asian-inspired tuna salad?”
Myrtle and Miles kept hurrying along, panting.
Finally, they caught up with Felix outside. He turned at the sound of Myrtle’s cane furiously hitting the pavement.
“Everything all right?” he asked pleasantly, putting his phone away.
Myrtle decided a little dithering might be in order. “As a matter of fact, Miles and I are most shaken by the horrible tragedy yesterday.”
“Yes. Yes, we are,” said Miles unconvincingly.
“Well, I can certainly understand that,” said Felix in a soothing voice. “Louvenia said you were there when she discovered his body. That must have been very upsetting.”
Myrtle wasn’t at all sure she and Miles were really there when Louvenia discovered Chester’s body, but she nodded anyway.
“The worst thing is, that Chester’s death wasn’t natural. That he was ... murdered.” Myrtle spat out the word as though it had never crossed her lips before. Miles looked impressed at her act.
Felix nodded along as she spoke. “I agree, that’s very disturbing. But the police haven’t warned us to be on alert. And we have no reason to think that a killer wants to eliminate Louvenia’s cooking class.”
“Do you think the murderer is someone in our class?” asked Myrtle, clutching at Felix’s arm as if needing strength.
To his credit, Felix tenderly covered her hand with his other one, as if comforting concerned senior citizens was a pure joy and part of his everyday life. As it might be, since he was in government in a small town.
“I suppose so. I’m expecting Red and the other authorities to be interviewing each one of us to learn what we saw or heard, or if we had a connection at all to Chester,” said Felix.
“Did you have a connection to Chester?” asked Miles curiously.
Felix turned his friendly smile on Miles. “We were great friends, back in the day. He and I played football together, you know. Everyone knew Chester.”
“Another of our cooking classmates was in your high school class, as I recall,” said Myrtle.
“Bonnie,” said Felix, nodding. “Poor Bonnie.”
“Chester wasn’t very kind to her,” said Myrtle.
“Not at all. High school isn’t the best time for kindness, is it? Bonnie Pendergrass unfortunately stood out a little bit. She wasn’t academic, she wasn’t athletic, she wasn’t social. And because of that, she was something of a target. Chester could be relentless, as you know. It’s how he ended up succeeding in business so well,” said Felix.
“He bullied her, you mean,” said Myrtle.
Felix hesitated to use a word like bully in reference to the dead. “I suppose you could say that.”
“I certainly would. And if I’d have known about it, that would have been the end of it. The only time I saw inappropriate behavior, it involved spitballs, and I had Chester in in-school suspension.” Myrtle fumed. She abhorred bullying.
Miles cleared his throat. “Myrtle and I were saying a while ago that it’s frustrating that we didn’t see anyone furtively leaving the building or re-entering it. We were here for a while yesterday helping a friend with car trouble. Did you see or hear anything? Notice anything unusual?”
“Where were you when Chester was murdered?” asked Myrtle more directly. Then she softened her words by forcing a smile.
Felix didn’t seem to take offence. “I was actually around for a while, too. I got an important phone call and sat in my car for a while to take it. I’ve discovered that I’m not much of a driver when I’m talking on the phone. And I’m afraid that I was so focused on my call that I didn’t notice anyone coming in or going out or doing anything at all.” He gave a rueful smile.
“You didn’t even notice Miles? He was working on a car in the parking lot,” said Myrtle.
Felix raised his eyebrows, looking surprised.
“I wasn’t working on the car. I was simply observing that the car no longer had any gasoline,” corrected Miles.
“No, sorry, I didn’t even notice you. Like I said, when I’m on a phone call, I’m laser-focused on the conversation, which is why I don’t drive and talk. I wish I had seen something. Chester was a great guy and I’d like to make sure that his killer comes to justice. I’ve known Chester my entire life.” Felix looked sad.
“Who do you think could have done something like this?” asked Myrtle.
“I wouldn’t want to speculate,” said Felix, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. “After all, I wasn’t a witness and I don’t even know people in the class very well.”
“Of course, none of us knows. But who could you imagine doing it?”
Felix hesitated again and Miles said solemnly, “Myrtle and I aren’t gossips.”
“Certainly not!” said Myrtle.
Felix grinned at them. “I’d imagine not. I remember Miss Myrtle from the classroom. Smart as a whip and not one to allow for any foolishness,” he said to Miles.
“Sounds about right,” agreed Miles.
“This is pure speculation, but I couldn’t help wondering about Bonnie,” said Felix.
“Because of how hurtful Chester had been to her years ago?” asked Miles. He squinted skeptically at Felix.
“Scars last a long time. Chester annihilated her self-esteem. I ran into Bonnie at a barbeque restaurant a few years ago and we spent a few minutes catching up. She was so miserable at the time.” Felix shook his head.
“She told you she was miserable?” asked Myrtle.
“She did. And the words came bubbling out of her even though I hadn’t really talked with her for a couple of decades. She confided that she felt her entire life had been derailed during that period in high school. Before Chester had belittled and bullied her, she’d had a concrete plan of where she wanted to go to school, what she wanted to study, and what she wanted to do when she graduated.”
Miles asked, “What is she doing now?”
“She’s a bank teller,” said Felix. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except for the fact that she’s not happy with it. She had hopes of being so much more than that.”
“Do you think she had it in her to kill Chester?” asked Myrtle, tilting her head to one side. “I remember her as being rather timid and mousy. It’s hard for me to picture.”
Felix sighed. “I saw her staring at him in class yesterday. Believe me, there was hatred in her eyes. Yes, I think she could have done it. Although I have to say of all the people in the class who might have ended up murdered, I’m sort of surprised that it ended up being Chester.”
“Who do you think would have been a more likely victim?” asked Myrtle, raising her eyebrows.
“Me,” said Felix with a shrug.
Myrtle blinked at him. “You? Why on earth? You seem to be Mr. Popularity in Bradley, North Carolina. Politicians usually are.”
“Well, although I was on very friendly terms with Chester, I don’t think he necessarily felt the same way about me. Chester was a competitive guy—something I knew from even back when we played on the same football team. He wasn’t just competitive, either ... he was furious whenever he thought I was inching my way ahead. He ended up very resentful of my success, no matter how hard he tried to conceal it.” He glanced at his watch and gave them a friendly smile. “It’s been nice chatting with you, but now I’ve got to run. See you in class tomorrow.”