NINETEEN

By Friday afternoon I had not only survived Kevin’s abduction but had made it through finals. After misdiagnosing Owen, I mistrusted my judgment while I was taking the DSM exam. I think I did well, but I probably didn’t ace it. Josh had stayed over every night and was feeding me constantly. I’d probably gained five pounds a day.

I was seated with Adrianna and Owen inside Simmer. The weather was cool this afternoon, so we’d forgone the patio in favor of a table in the dining room. Officially, the restaurant was between lunch and dinner service, but Josh had filled our table with plates of food. His latest creation was running as a special: a phenomenal spaghetti and lobster with a fantastic green and red tomato sauce, flavored with saffron, ginger, and fennel, and then topped with fresh basil. Nothing made for more perfect comfort food than a steaming bowl of pasta, and this one was outstanding. I breathed in the aroma and sighed before twirling my fork in the spaghetti and scooping up a generous bite of lobster meat.

“Let me see your ring again,” I said to Adrianna. She proudly held out her hand to show a beautifully simple silver ring with a pale olive stone.

“It’s the baby’s birthstone,” she said with a grin. “It’s called peridot.”

“I know.” I smiled at her. She had told me the same thing about forty times in the past twenty-four hours. “It’s just beautiful.”

Adrianna was happier with the inexpensive ring than she’d have been with the one that Owen had had in mind. One of the reasons that my dear deluded friend had bought a truck for his new fish-delivery job had been to increase his commission: he’d wanted to be able to make payments on a pricey diamond solitaire engagement ring. Adrianna had now convinced him to sell his truck when the police returned it and to use one of the company’s instead. But I’d also learned that Leandra had, in fact, known about Owen’s four-wheel purchase, and she had been taunting him her last night at Simmer simply because she was, as Belita and others had put it, a bitch.

“I wish I could give you the ring you deserve, but I guess this will do for now,” Owen said sadly. “I’m sorry about everything. I really apologize to both of you for acting like such a jackass. I just want to be able to take care of you and the baby, Ade, and I thought you’d feel better if you thought I had a lot of big restaurant accounts. It’s just taking longer than I thought it would to build up business. Do you know how much this baby is going to cost? When Ade stays home next year, I’ll be the only person supporting us, and I guess the stress got to me.”

I hadn’t told either of my good friends that I’d suspected Owen of being involved with Leandra. The notion was so stupendously dumb! And I’d sworn Josh to secrecy. I took Owen’s hand. “Wipe that sheepish look off your face. We understand why you lied. And Adrianna let you have it pretty good. So, you probably learned a lesson, right?”

Owen’s eyes widened. “Our child is going to learn quickly not to mess with Mommy, that’s for sure!”

Adrianna took his other hand. “Honey, we’ll work it out. Plenty of people have babies when only one parent is working. Besides, do you know day care would be over a thousand dollars a month? That is crazy. And it would eat up my income anyhow. Plus, I want to be home for a while with the little one” She gave me a knowing look.

Josh and Snacker came to the table, and Josh placed yet another dish on the table. This one was a deep bowl piled high with clams and mussels. Aromatic steam rose from the top. The chefs sat down, and I was happy to see no overt displays of malice from either Owen or Snacker.

“Chloe, are you getting enough to eat?” Josh asked with concern.

I looked at my boyfriend with disbelief. “More food? Josh, seriously, you have to stop hovering over me! I promise you that I am fine. I’ve eaten enough for me, Ade, and her baby. But thank you. Everything is as good as ever.”

Josh scooted his chair close to me and draped his arm over my shoulder. “Just making sure. Here, try this. It’s clams and mussels cooked with a spicy orange bouillon. A chef I went to school with stole my idea for this and put it on his menu, but this is the original dish. And a better one.” He spoon-fed me some of the broth. “I brought enough for all of you, obviously.”

“Josh isn’t going to stop feeding you until you puke,” Snacker added indelicately.

The bouillon was liquid heaven. I pulled some clams and mussels from their shells and dunked them into the broth. Perfect!

Wade sauntered through the front door. I was convinced that his hair had grown an inch higher in the past few days. Blythe saw him come in, too, and hurried over to our table. “He just came from seeing Kevin.”

I bristled at the sound of that man’s name. Having confessed to Leandra’s murder, he was safely locked in jail, but none of us knew exactly what had transpired on the night of the crime.

“Come here, Wade! What did that asshole have to say for himself?” growled Josh.

Wade stood next to our group. “That night, Kevin and I were closing together, remember? We were drinking a little while we were cleaning up and cashing out the registers. Leandra was with us for a while, but then she left. Kevin and I finished closing not long after that and locked up together and went our separate ways. It turns out Leandra came back because she wanted to get some stuff that wouldn’t fit in her purse.” Josh raised his eyebrows at Blythe, who looked down in her lap.

Wade continued. “She ran into Kevin on the street, and they went back in the restaurant together. I guess she figured that Kevin was stealing, too, so he wouldn’t care. Apparently, he’d had a lot more to drink than I thought, and he came on to her. For whatever drunk, horny reason, he cornered her and unzipped his pants. Kevin said that Leandra ridiculed him beyond reason, and it was completely humiliating. Then she told him exactly what Penelope from the gallery would think of him.”

“And he snapped,” I finished for Wade. “Right?”

Wade nodded and sighed. “Yeah.”

Blythe and I understood, of course. Everyone else looked confused. “What could she have said that was so humiliating?” Adrianna wondered aloud.

I let Blythe reveal Kevin’s secret embarrassment. The sound of ohhh echoed through the room. The amazing thing, I thought, was that if Kevin had just waited to be in a relationship with someone caring and understanding, he wouldn’t have had a problem. Now that I was safely out of the confines of the fish truck, a small part of me actually felt sad for Kevin. I wondered whether the intense pressure of Newbury Street, with its emphasis on physical perfection, had made his secret all the more mortifying. How unposh to have a problem like his!

Wade continued. “Ahem, yes. I don’t know specifically what Leandra said, but it was apparently pretty vicious. Kevin said he just went apeshit and, without thinking, pulled his apron off and strangled her behind the bar. He didn’t even realize what he was doing. He said he was as surprised as anybody that he killed Leandra. He carried her body out to the alley, thinking he’d throw her in the Dumpster, but Owen’s truck was there, so he put her in. He wasn’t thinking very clearly because he was so drunk, but he did realize that putting her there might make it look like somebody else killed her. Then he just locked up the restaurant and left. When he woke up the next morning, he thought maybe he should move her out of the truck, but by then, it was too late. Chloe and Owen had already found Leandra’s body.”

I’d been right that Kevin had been afraid that I’d ruin any chance he had with Penelope. He threw me into the truck and drove me to what I learned was his home. He parked the truck in his own garage. Kevin always took the bus to work. Consequently, his car had been at his house. He sped back to Simmer, where he told people that he’d been taking his break and had no idea where I was. Because Kevin wanted to get back to me before somebody heard me, he intentionally burned himself on the espresso machine and left work, supposedly to go to the emergency room. But he went back home for me.

Owen and Adrianna’s fight had gone on for so long that Josh eventually told them to take it outside. When they did, they realized that Owen’s company truck was gone. It soon became obvious that I was missing as well. Josh called my cell to find out where I’d gone and heard my phone ring in his office. By that time, Kevin had left, supposedly to attend to his burn, but Josh realized that something was dreadfully wrong. My boyfriend called the police, who had him pull Kevin’s home address from the office. My 911 call came moments before Josh’s call, but it eased my mind a bit to know there would have been backup if I’d needed it.

“How’s Gavin doing with all of this?” I asked of the Simmer employees. “Has it helped him at all to know that Leandra’s killer is in jail?”

“Yes and no,” said Wade. “He’s hardly been in here since Kevin was arrested. Of course, he’s glad that Kevin was caught, but he also feels responsible. Like he should have been able to predict that Kevin was going to flip out. He might be down one bartender, but at least he has you two holding down the fort,” Wade said to Josh and Snacker. “You guys are the best.”

Josh opened his mouth. I kicked his foot under the table.

“Oh, and Gavin is working on a new girlfriend already. Did you guys know he asked Penelope out?”

“Oh, God, that’s so tacky,” said Snacker.

“I have to work on finding a replacement for Kevin, so I’ll catch you all later.” Wade started to walk away. I was glad to be done talking about Kevin. “Oh, Chloe? Did you know you fractured Kevin’s left leg? Not bad.” He winked and left us.

Josh and Snacker stayed while Ade, Owen, and I finished eating. Snacker and Owen had apparently called a truce: neither of them threw forks at the other. Blythe leaned in to me. I hoped that she didn’t have another piece of unwelcome anatomical information to convey about another of Simmer’s employees. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

I followed Blythe to the bar. She took a deep breath. “I talked to Josh earlier today, and I wanted to talk to you, too. You know that I’ve been stealing from the restaurant and selling the things on eBay.”

“Did Josh ask you about that?”

“Yes, he did.” Blythe had the decency not to pretend that she was confessing on her own. “I have no excuse. I know I said that everyone steals, but I really took it too far. I needed money for school and for bills. I’ve been getting crappy shifts here, and I got desperate. Obviously, I knew what I was doing was wrong and stupid, but I didn’t realize that the knives I took were Josh’s. I thought they were the restaurant’s and the loss would come out of Gavin’s too-deep pockets. Not that it’s a good excuse, but call me Robin Hood. I’m broke, and it seemed like a basically harmless way to get some cash. Just so you know, I gave Josh back everything I took. Nothing sold on eBay yet, so it’s all been returned.” She shook her head at her own behavior. “I don’t know what else to say. I’m sincerely sorry for being so thoughtless and awful!”

Blythe did look sorry, and I appreciated it that she was speaking to me directly about what she had done. “You still have a job, though?”

“Josh made me swear up and down that it wouldn’t happen again and threatened to make me eat cayenne cookies if I even glanced at his cooking equipment!” She smiled. “So I promised.”

“What about Snacker? Have you talked to him?”

“He’s next. I know he’s a little wild, but I do like him. I think he likes me, but I don’t know what will happen after I tell him. He and Josh seem pretty tight.”

“They are. But if Josh hasn’t booted you out of here, you might have a chance.” I started back to the table but then turned around to Blythe. “And that peacoat better arrive soon, or Adrianna and I are going to give you negative feedback on eBay.”

I heard a gasp. “That was you two?”

I slid back into the crook of Josh’s arm. “Everything okay, babe?” he asked with concern.

I sent Snacker off to talk to Blythe and popped another bite of lobster into my mouth. “A little stuffed, but I’m good. Hey, have you two picked a wedding date yet?”

Adrianna shook her head. “No. I don’t think we want to do a big wedding, anyway. Maybe something simple this summer before the baby is born.”

I turned to my boyfriend. “Josh, you can cater it!”

“Absolutely. I’ll do whatever the beautiful bride wants.”

And then my gorgeous, wonderful chef looked at me. “You know, you’d make a beautiful bride, too.”