Chapter 12
“Ididn’t think they’d ever leave,” Maddy said as all four of us cleaned up the tables from the Senior Juniors. They’d acted like kids, not worrying too much about the mess they were making, and after they were gone and back on their bus, they left a monumental cleaning task for my crew. Greg and Josh didn’t seem to mind, though, something that was a bit out of character for them.
“Okay you two, what’s going on?” I asked as they each carried bins of dirty dishes into the kitchen.
“Us? Nothing at all,” Greg said with a smile.
“That’s right. We’re happy all of the time, don’t you think?” Josh added.
“Come on, come clean. I know you’re both up to something,” I said. I turned to my sister and asked, “Maddy, do you have any idea about what’s going on?”
“Don’t look at me. I don’t have a clue,” she confessed.
I stared at both young men in turn, but I didn’t say a word. I knew that one of them would crack before I did. I was making bets in my mind which one would talk first when Greg was the one who folded.
“Okay, the folks who just left gave us a nice tip as they departed,” Greg admitted. “We were planning on sharing it with you two, but we were waiting for the right moment.”
“Now’s as good a time as any,” Maddy said as she looked around the nearly empty restaurant. “How much did you get?”
Greg nodded toward Josh, and both young men dug into their pockets and dumped out handfuls of spare change onto a table as they smiled.
“They’re mostly pennies,” Greg added, and the two of them started laughing out loud.
“It’s not all that funny to me,” Maddy said.
“Oh, but it was,” Josh said. “They acted like they were big spenders when they did it.”
“They’re probably on tight budgets,” I said. I understood the way they felt, but I didn’t like the idea that they were having fun at other peoples’ expense. “It may have been the best that they could do with limited resources.”
“You think we didn’t think of that?” Josh asked. “If that was the case, we both would have been cool with it. We saw some of those bankrolls these guys were carrying around, though, and they could stuff a pillowcase between them, so that theory won’t hold water. Eleanor, did you or Maddy happen to hear where the group is headed after this?”
“No, I thought this was just a day trip,” I admitted.
Josh laughed. “They’re going to spend three nights in Cherokee so they can gamble.”
Greg said, “I guess we should just be glad we got them on their way to the casino and not coming back. We might not even have gotten that.”
They collected the change and added it to the tip jar on the counter, counting it and laughing the entire time. I didn’t get their sense of humor, but then again, sometimes they didn’t get mine. As long as they were having fun, I didn’t care.
“Is it okay if I come in?” David Quinton asked as he poked his head into the kitchen just as the main dinner hours were coming to a close.
“Of course you can,” I said as I finished a sub and put it on the conveyor. It was a new offering with jalapeno peppers, spiced sausage, ham, and a sauce Maddy and I concocted one day when we were searching for something new and different. We called it a Sliced Screamer, and we served it with some fiery chips on the side. “What brings you here?”
“I just wanted to say hi,” he confessed.
“Weren’t you supposed to be working late tonight?” Since David had come back to town, he’d taken over managing the branch office of his company, and he often worked late, especially since I was tied up so much in the evenings. Our dates usually consisted of getting together after work and sharing a quick bite, but every now and then I left the restaurant in Maddy’s hands and we had a real date.
Tonight wasn’t supposed to be one of those, though.
“What can I say?” he said with a grin. “I missed you.”
I gave him a quick kiss, and then said, “I miss you, too.” A thought suddenly occurred to me. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we have a mini date right now? I can make you anything you’d like for a late dinner, and we can eat back here.”
“Eleanor, I didn’t come by just so I could con you out of a free meal,” David said with a grin.
“Who says it’s free?” I asked, smiling back at him.
“Whatever you charge me, I’m sure it will be worth every penny,” he said.
I couldn’t help myself. I grinned as he mentioned one of the coins we’d just gotten so many of.
“Did I say something funny?” he asked.
“No. It’s just a little pizza parlor humor.” I explained to him what had happened earlier, and then asked him, “So, what do you say?”
He didn’t even hesitate. “That sounds great to me, if you don’t mind.”
“I’d love to do it,” I said. I rubbed my hands together, and then asked, “So, what do you feel like tonight?”
“What’s that sub you were just making?” he asked.
“I call it the Sliced Screamer,” I admitted.
After I told him what was on it, he shook his head as he said, “I’m not sure I’d like that. How about a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese on it, and a pair of sodas?”
Why not? “Going old school, huh? I like it.”
As I kneaded the dough into the pan, I asked, “Are things finally slowing down at work? I know you inherited a real mess from your old boss.”
“I really liked the guy,” David said, “but if he were here right now, I’d kick his tin can all the way to Hickory.”
“Is it really all that bad?”
David shrugged as he watched me work. “It was when I took over, but I’m finally getting everything in order again.”
As I added sauce and the toppings, I asked, “Are you going to be bored once you’ve got it all squared away?”
“I doubt it,” he said as he plucked a pepperoni slice from my hand and ate it.
“Hey, no more snacking,” I said.
“Sorry. I missed lunch.”
I suddenly felt bad about scolding him, but that was one of my kitchen rules. “Okay, I’ll let it pass this time, but no more. Now, sit over there on the barstool and tell me how you’re going to spend your time while I’m here working.”
He took the seat, and then said, “I don’t know where to even start. There’s so much I want to do, but I haven’t been able to with the mess my predecessor left me. There’s plenty to keep me busy.”
I slid our pizza onto the conveyor, and then took the other barstool and joined David at the counter. “Whew, that feels good.”
“Seeing me, or getting off your feet?” he asked.
“Would it be bad if I said both?”
“No, it would be perfectly understandable,” David answered. “I don’t know how you do it, Eleanor. I’m not sure one day off a week is enough.”
“We manage just fine, but then again, Maddy and I are both lucky enough to have understanding boyfriends.” I almost told him then about Bob’s proposal, but decided that if Maddy or Bob wanted anyone else to know, they’d tell him themselves. I certainly had no business telling anyone, not even David.
“Did I just say something wrong?” he asked. Could the man read me that well already? That could mean trouble for me if I ever had to tell him a little white lie.
I was saved from answering by Maddy’s arrival back in the kitchen. “Do you have that large sausage and pepperoni pizza ready yet? They’re getting impatient, so I promised them that I’d come back and check on their order.” She looked at David and asked, “Are you still here?”
“No, I left a minute ago,” he said with a smile.
Maddy looked at me and said, “He’s hilarious, isn’t he?” “We all have our moments,” I said. I glanced at the conveyor and said to Maddy, “They’re going to have to wait one more minute until it’s ready.”
“You could always just reach in and pull it out early,” Maddy said. “I do that sometimes myself.”
“You shouldn’t,” I said. “Especially with pizzas. They need the entire time to cook; though you might get away with pulling a sub out of the oven a little early, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“No one’s complained yet,” Maddy said.
I didn’t want to have that particular conversation with Maddy with David sitting right there, and bless his heart, he must have sensed it.
“If you two will excuse me, I need to go wash up. Are we eating back here, or should I grab a table?”
I thought about eating in the kitchen, but I needed a bit of a break from it all. “Why don’t you go grab the table closest to the kitchen, and I’ll be out as soon as our pizza’s ready.”
After David was gone, I said, “Maddy, I’m serious about this. Just because no one has complained doesn’t mean they haven’t noticed. We can’t afford to lose any customers over this. I’d rather they have to wait three minutes for something good than get something second-rate right on time.”
“No need to keep drilling me about it. I understand,” Maddy said. “I won’t do it again, scout’s honor.”
“You and I both know that you were never a scout,” I said with a smile.
She protested, “Hey, is it my fault they wouldn’t take me?”
“That’s not what Mom said,” I answered.
“Who are you going to believe, our dearly departed mother, or your dear, sweet, trustworthy sister who’s standing right in front of you?” She didn’t even wait for me to answer. “Okay, scrub that. I’ll do better from now on, Eleanor. I promise.”
“Good,” I said. I hated being the boss with my sister, but she had a tendency to cut corners if she thought she could, and with my limited profit margins, I couldn’t afford to give anyone a reason not to come back.
“Did you tell him?” Maddy asked as she motioned toward the front toward David.
“Tell who about what?” I asked, focusing on what I had to do next.
“I’m talking about Bob’s proposal,” Maddy answered, as though I were slow on the uptake.
“I didn’t say anything to him about it,” I confessed. “I figured that was your right; if you want folks to know, you can tell them yourself.”
Maddy nodded. “That’s good. Thanks. I don’t want the word to get out before I actually make my decision. He won’t be mad when he finds out, will he?”
“David? I don’t see why he would. After all, it doesn’t exactly involve him, does it?”
Maddy was clearly surprised by my reaction. “Seriously? I’d think the possibility of his girlfriend’s sister getting hitched might matter just a little bit to him, but maybe that’s just me.”
“When the time is right, do you want to tell him yourself?” I asked, just as David walked back in.
“Tell him what? Are you two talking about me again?”
“I thought you were going to wait at the table,” I said.
“I got hungry,” he admitted. “But I still want to know what you two were saying about me.”
“Wow, what an ego you must have,” Maddy said to him with a smile. “My pizza’s next in line, right?” she asked as she turned back to me. “Is it ready yet, or should I come back in a minute?”
The pizza she’d been waiting for finally slid out on the conveyor, golden brown, bubbly cheese on top and perfectly done crust all the way around.
“You’re all set to go,” I said as I plated the pizza and cut it.
After Maddy left to deliver it, David said, “How about ours? We’re next, right?”
I glanced inside the oven. “Right after the sub I made, remember? Down, boy. It’s going to be another four minutes before ours is ready.”
David nodded, and then asked, “So, are you?”
“Am I what?” I asked, though I knew perfectly well what he was asking.
“Are you going to tell me what you two were talking about just then? I ordinarily wouldn’t ask, but since I suspect it’s about me, I thought it might matter.”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it. “Maddy has a secret, but until she gives me the green light to say anything, I don’t feel right about telling anyone else. Does that make any sense at all to you?”
“Sure it does,” David said as he took his seat on the barstool again. “I’d hate to be the cause of a rift between the two of you. When she’s ready for me to know, you can tell me, but until then, I’m fine with not hearing what it’s about.”
I walked over and gave him a kiss.
“What was that for?” he asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“For changing into a man I could really get used to having around here,” I said.
“In that case, you’re most welcome.”
He glanced at the conveyor’s output end and asked, “Is that thing ready yet? Maybe there’s something wrong with the conveyor belt.”
I laughed. “You’re as bad as Maddy sometimes.”
“I’ll take that as a good thing,” he said.
“The interpretation is entirely up to you,” I answered as the sub sandwich slid out. I plated it, cut it once, and prepped it to be served.
Greg came back at that exact moment and collected it, as though he somehow knew that it was ready. It was a knack that most of my people acquired over the years. They could judge the time it took something to run through the oven nearly as well as I could.
“Hey, David,” Greg said as he grabbed the sub and left.
“Hey,” David said to the closing door.
“You’ve got to be quick around here,” I said with a smile.
“So I see.”
After our pizza came out, I prepped it to serve, and then slid it in front of David. “We can eat back here, if you’d rather.”
“You don’t mind?” he asked. It was pretty clear that was his preference.
“No, it’s fine with me.”
“Let’s do that, then.”
“Fine,” I agreed. “You can set the table. There are plates over there, glasses here, and tableware if you need any.”
“For pizza? You’re kidding, right?”
“Hey, everybody’s different,” I said as I retrieved two sodas from our kitchen fridge. Maddy and I liked to keep some chilled there so we didn’t have to go up front if we were eating during business hours.
David took a slice, and then had a quick bite. “Man, that’s good.”
“You approve?” I asked, and then took a bite of my own.
“You bet I do.”
As we ate, I had to stop now and then to take care of business, but David didn’t seem to mind. Why should he? He had a hot pizza in front of him, plenty of soda to drink, and my sparkling conversation.
The only problem might be ever getting him to leave.
After we finished eating, David stood and reached for his wallet. “That was good enough to pay for.”
“Put that away, silly. I’m not going to charge you when I feed you. This was a date, remember? There’s got to be some advantage to dating me.”
He smiled. “Oh, that’s just one part of it. Since everything’s on the house, I’ll be back in an hour when you close up for another bite.”
“Okay, maybe I should clarify that,” I said, matching his smile with one of my own. “I won’t charge you once a week, but the rest of the time, you’re running a tab.”
“Sounds fair to me. May I have permission to kiss the chef?”
My smile must have faltered a little as he said it. “Eleanor, I’m so sorry. That was a colossally bad choice of words.”
I’d just managed to forget about Chef Benet’s murder, but his slip of the tongue brought it all back to me. “It’s fine,” I said as I gave him a quick peck.
He knew better than to apologize again, instead making a quick exit.
I knew that no matter how much I wanted to just wish it all away, there was no getting around the fact that it was time to step up our investigation of Benet’s death. I wasn’t at all sure how long most of our suspects would be available, but Maddy and I needed to make the most of it while they were around. We needed to talk to Janet first, but after we were finished with her, it was time to tackle the out-of-towners again.
I decided to focus on one thing at a time, though, and at the moment, I needed to think about pizza.
At least that was how I felt until an unwanted visitor came into the Slice and took that option away.
“I don’t suppose you’re here to grab a slice of pizza or to see your son,” I said as the police chief walked in.
“Sorry, it’s about Benet’s murder.”
“I was afraid of that,” I said. “What about it?”
“I need to know the last time you saw him,” the police chief said.
“Do you mean before I found him pinned to one of my chairs like some kind of bug?”
Kevin Hurley nodded. “Sorry, I should have known that I needed to be more exact in my wording to you. Your sister said the exact same thing, as a matter of fact.”
Good for Maddy. “I guess neither one of us likes being considered a suspect in a murder case.”
“Who said you were a suspect?” Chief Hurley asked.
“Come on, neither one of us is that stupid. Maddy and I found his body in our dining room, and we weren’t big fans of the man, either. It’s not a big step thinking we might be in your sights.”
The police chief sighed, and then leaned against the wall. “Eleanor, I might have suspected you in the past, but I don’t think you or your sister killed Benet.”
That was a revelation to me. “Are you kidding? Why not?”
He smiled wryly, and I saw a shadow of that boy from high school a long time ago that I’d fallen for. “Are you trying to talk me into something here?”
“No, sir. We didn’t do it. You have my word on it.”
The police chief said, “So, tell me. When did you see him? How many times, where, and under what circumstances since he came to town?”
“That’s a lot of questions all at once,” I said. “Any chance you might answer one or two of mine after we’re finished?” I needed information, and I had no other way of getting anything about the official police investigation without Kevin Hurley’s help.
“Eleanor, we’re not playing Twenty Questions here.”
“I’m not asking you to give away state secrets,” I said. “Would you at least keep an open mind and think about it?”
“Okay, I’ll consider your questions after we’re finished here, but I’m not making any promises.”
“That’s good enough for me.” I thought about it a few seconds, and then said, “Let’s see. The first time that I saw him was at the bookstore, where he had a temper tantrum and antagonized his producer, his wife, and his assistant in the span of about three minutes.”
Chief Hurley nodded, and then asked, “What about Cindy or her mother, Janet?”
That was interesting. “Do you think one of them might have done it? As far as I know, Janet wasn’t even nearby when Benet arrived. At least I didn’t remember seeing her there.”
“Cindy was around, though, wasn’t she?”
“She was,” I admitted. “She admitted to me that she was worried that Benet wouldn’t follow through with the demonstration and the signing, and she thought it might ruin her.”
Hurley jotted something down in his notebook, and then said, “So, she had a motive to kill him if he’d gone back on his word.”
I shook my head. “No way. Cindy wouldn’t gain anything by doing that, and besides, you’ve known her as long as I have. That girl doesn’t have the least bit of a temper as far as I know. It couldn’t have been easy being raised without a father, and a lot of kids might have turned out bad under the circumstances, but Cindy never did, as far as I know.”
“That’s right, as far as you know,” the chief said.
“What does that mean?” I asked him. “Does she have a police record?”
“No,” the chief of police admitted, “but there were stories that she burned down the Johnson barn when she was a kid.”
“I still don’t believe it,” I said, “and you should know better yourself than to listen to those lies.”
“I’m just trying to get the facts straight,” he said. The way he sighed, it sounded as though the police chief had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I didn’t envy him his job one bit.
“I can’t see Cindy killing Chef Benet,” I said flatly.
The chief kind of shrugged, and then asked, “And you didn’t see Benet fighting with anyone else?”
“That’s right,” I said quickly, and then hesitated. “Wait a second, it’s not, but it doesn’t matter. It didn’t mean anything.”
“What didn’t?” Kevin asked, his interest clearly perking up.
“He and Paul were arguing about the proper way to make pastry when I found Benet at the bakery.”
“Were they having a nice discussion, or was there yelling involved?”
I knew that I was burying Paul with my account of things, something I didn’t want to do. “I think it was just two professionals with different points of view.”
“Were they yelling?” Kevin repeated.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“I’ll talk to him,” the chief of police said as he jotted that down as well.
“Tell him that I’m sorry I threw him under the bus when you do,” I replied.
“Eleanor, you didn’t throw him anywhere. I’ll talk to Paul next, and most likely, I’ll be able to rule him out as a suspect. After all, he was probably still at the bakery when Benet was murdered. I need an exact time when you left him alone in the dining room.”
I thought about it, and then told him, “At two o’clock, he was alive.”
Kevin nodded. “Okay, that makes sense. My medical examiner told me Benet was murdered between two and three, as near as he can tell.”
Maddy and I had already figured that one out for ourselves. “This might be a stupid question, but are you sure the knife is what killed him?”
The police chief looked amused by my question. “Well, I can tell you for sure that he wasn’t electrocuted.”
“He could have been poisoned, though,” I said.
“Why would someone take a chance on being seen knifing the man if they’d already poisoned him?” the chief asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “When a chef is murdered, doesn’t poison come to mind first thing?”
Chief Hurley shook his head. “Not when one of your blades is driven all the way through him.”
I shrugged. “I just thought you might want to be thorough. After all, enough people wanted the man dead. Who’s to say there was just one murderer and one attempt on the man’s life?”
Chief Hurley bit his lip, and then grabbed his radio. “Tell the M.E. I need to see him. Yes, right now.”
He put his radio back on his belt, and then said, “It’s probably a wild goose chase, but I’ll ask him if he ran a toxicology screen.”
“It was just a thought,” I said.
“I’m not sure I’m all that thrilled with the way your mind works, if that’s the kind of things you’re thinking about,” he said.
I shrugged. “Maybe Maddy’s mystery novels are finally starting to rub off on me. Have you been able to eliminate any of the suspects?”
I wasn’t sure Chief Hurley even realized that I was pumping him for information, but while he was in a talkative mood, I was going to take advantage of it. “No, everyone was in and out of that bookstore so much, even Cindy could have done it.”
“You don’t think that, though, do you?” I thought about what we’d been talking about, and wondered if her previous relationship with Benet may have had more to it than she’d told me.
“At this point, I don’t know what to think,” he said. “I’m still collecting information.”
And here I was, holding some out on him. I couldn’t keep what I knew from the chief of police any longer, even if it meant pointing him in Cindy’s direction.
“Did she tell you that she and Benet had an online relationship before he came to town?” I asked softly.
It appeared that Kevin thought I was teasing him at first, but then he saw the look on my face. “Are you serious?”
“They weren’t doing anything icky,” I said, “but they chatted a lot online.”
“I need to see her computer, then,” the chief answered, suddenly losing all interest in talking to me.
“I’m sure that it doesn’t mean anything,” I said, but it was too late.
He was already gone.
Good job, Eleanor. You just put the chief of police on the trails of two friends.
I didn’t know if I’d thrown them under the bus, but I surely hadn’t done them any favors. Then again, if Chief Hurley found out some other way, it might be even worse for them. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was better to get everything out into the light, examine it, and then see what merited a closer look.
I was still wondering if I’d done the right thing when Maddy came back to pick up a pizza.
“What did you say to Hurley?” she asked as she grabbed the pie.
With a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I told her everything we’d discussed.
Maddy whistled softly to herself. “Wow, you didn’t tell him anything about me, did you?”
“Of course not,” I answered.
“Okay. Just remind me to stay on your good side.”
I started to throw a towel at her, but then changed my mind.
“Deliver that pizza,” I said, “and let’s start wrapping up around here. We need to talk to Janet, and then we need to get our rest.”
“Any reason in particular?” she asked.
“You bet. We have a big day tomorrow.”
“Yeah? What did you have in mind?”
“I think it’s time we start asking some hard questions, and I want to start with Jessie, Oliver, and Patrice.”