“I’m sorry, what?”
I’d been up since two in the morning Seattle time, and it was possible I was hallucinating.
“My husband, Nick. He was one of the contestants on the episode of Parking Lot Potluck when Diana and Sig were poisoned. The police, and the show, have asked him to stay here until they solve the case.”
“I don’t understand the problem.” Kenzie had said everyone associated with the last episode was staying here. Asking him to stay at a better-than-average hotel chain location was better than locking him in a jail cell.
And Kenzie had mentioned a rivalry between the contestants… I wondered if he was involved.
The woman’s demeanor deflated. “The problem is that he has a restaurant that desperately needs his attention. I was okay stepping in for a couple days to help out, but I don’t know how to run his business, and things are falling apart.”
“Has he told production that?”
“He says so, but he’s so blown away by the opportunity to be on the show and what it could do for the restaurant, he’s not thinking practically.” She shook her head. “By the time his episode airs, if it ever does, he won’t have a restaurant for the viewers to visit.”
That sentiment resonated deep in my bones. My staff at Helping Paws was the absolute best, but I worried too much time away would come back to bite me in a very uncomfortable place.
Chloe pulled on her leash. She was ready to go anywhere that wasn’t here, and I didn’t know her personal cues well enough yet to know exactly what she wanted. But this woman—
“What is your name?”
“It’s Marci.” Someone came out of the hotel, and she scooted behind a tree and lowered her voice. “Please. You have to help me. Our kids are asking why they can’t see their dad.”
This was getting more bizarre by the moment. “You can’t bring them here?”
She shook her head. “They won’t let us in. They think we’ll tell him things that will affect the outcome of the investigation. I really need your help, Addie.”
“How can I do that?” I wouldn’t commit to anything yet, especially since Chloe was growing impatient. And I wanted to get back to Persephone.
“I need you to solve the case as soon as possible.” She hugged herself and looked at the ground. “I miss my husband, and I’m scared about our future.”
“Do you think he’d be willing to talk to me about the case?”
“I do.” Marci’s eyes widened. “Wait. Are you officially on the case? Or are you doing your own investigation?”
“I’m on the case.” I hoped I didn’t say too much.
“Addie!” Kenzie’s voice cut through the night. “Is everything okay?”
“I gotta go. Nick’s in room 305.” Marci turned on her heel and disappeared between the trees.
“Hi.” I turned to Kenzie. “Chloe had to go out, and she made it seem like it couldn’t wait.”
Chloe’s tail wagged, hitting me in the leg hard as she greeted her regular caretaker. Kenzie took the Dane’s face in her hands and kissed her head. “Were you a good girl for Addie?”
“She was.” I debated on whether I should tell her the next part, but I could already tell I couldn’t afford to have any secrets on this case. “She and Persephone didn’t exactly hit it off.”
Kenzie’s mouth opened to an O. “You didn’t like Persephone?”
Chloe went down on her front paws, thinking this was playtime. Then she shook her head hard, sending large drops of drool airborne, one landing on the front of my jacket.
“They seemed to smooth it out, but it was a little rocky at first.” The situation wasn’t hopeless, but we had a hill to climb. And I’d keep the knowledge that Diana didn’t like Kenzie close to the vest.
“Sometimes she can be like that with new people, too.” Kenzie stood and wiped her hands over the front of her sweatshirt. There were probably a few traces of dog slobber that she rubbed away. “Was everything okay with that lady?”
“Do you know her?”
“Know of her. Val’s taking a restraining order out on her because she keeps interfering with the investigation.”
Oh. That was a different take. “Wasn’t her husband a contestant on the last episode?”
“Yeah,” Kenzie said slowly, and then scanned the parking lot. “We should probably head inside.”
I followed Kenzie, and a very enthusiastic Chloe, into the lobby. For the first time, I noticed the security guards. More like, there was no way I could miss them as Chloe bound over to them.
Kenzie groaned. “We can’t go through the lobby without paying the toll.”
Each guard gave her a good scritch, and one of them opened a glass jar full of treats.
Once the guards bid Chloe good night, we headed to the elevator and back to my room.
Persephone was sound asleep in my bed, with her fluffy belly exposed. Kenzie and Chloe stayed in the doorway.
“What’s your plan for tomorrow?” Kenzie asked. I felt like I should be asking her that.
“I need to get a car. The rental is part of my contract.” I couldn’t compromise on that, because then I’d lose access to other areas of the case. “And I’d love to come back to set. Give Chloe a chance to get used to having Persephone on her turf, let her get a good sniff at things, and talk to anyone who’s around.”
Kenzie bit her lip again. She was about to shoot me down.
“The sooner we solve the case, the sooner all of you can get back to normal.”
Kenzie shut the door quietly behind her. “There’s talk that the show might be canceled.”
I gasped. If I was the only thing that stood between the future of Parking Lot Potluck and the end, that gave me all the more motivation to solve this case.
“None of us are ready for it to end,” she whispered. “Of course, it won’t be the same without Sig or Diana—”
“I thought Diana was getting better.”
“She is. But she’s still in the hospital.” Another big Kenzie sigh. “I don’t want to go home. Since I’m on the road so much, I’d be headed back to my folks’ house. My hometown. I’m worried once I go back, I’ll never leave.”
“Helping Paws is in my hometown, and if I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t be here.” Going home was the best decision I’d ever made. “But I don’t want the show to be canceled, either. For purely selfish reasons. I’m here to help you save it. And I feel like everyone’s keeping secrets from me. That makes it really hard to do my job.”
“Whoever did this to Sig and Diana is most likely one of us,” she said. “And the Potluck team is like family. So whoever betrayed them betrayed all of us.”
That declaration sent a chill down my spine.
“Tell me about Marci.”
Kenzie shrugged. “Since the episode, she’s been escorted off set several times. She’s not allowed in the hotel anymore, either. The police say they don’t have enough evidence to arrest her for interfering with the investigation yet, but they’re close.”
“Do the police consider her a suspect?”
“No. Just a nuisance.”
I wouldn’t cross Marci off my list. There was a reason they weren’t letting her talk to her husband. Either they thought she knew something she shouldn’t, or he did something that brought the show to a standstill.
I’d make sure to swing by room 305 and see if Nick was willing to chat.
“Is there anyone they’ve taken a close look at?”
“They’ve talked to all of us.” Kenzie twisted her lips. “But they’ve talked to Lindsay the most. She’s Diana’s assistant and my best friend.”
Oh.
“Why would they be interested in her?”
“Because she was one of the last ones to handle the food before the judges ate it.”
Pretty good reason. “How does the food get from the contestant’s stations to the judges’ table?”
“Once Sig calls time, the contestants step away from their stations. The plates are brought over to a separate station to be photographed, and then they’re put on a warming tray. We take that time to do some behind-the-scenes type interviews with the contestants, so we can get their thoughts on the cook in the moment while everything’s still fresh in their mind. Then we do the judging. There’s another round of interviews as the judges evaluate the dishes, and then we call them back out to announce the winner.”
“Who transports the food from station to station?”
She hesitated, and Chloe whined. “The production assistants.”
“Is there anyone else the police have brought back in for additional rounds of questioning?” I wanted to talk to them too…which hadn’t always gone smoothly in the past. Professional law enforcement tended to not take the lady with the talking cat very seriously.
“Yeah.” Kenzie blinked rapidly, and Chloe pressed against her leg. “Me.”