Death of the Family Recipe (A Scotti Fitzgerald Murder Mystery Book 3) (44 page)

I walked away from the mixing bowls and sniffed each corner of the room. "No, not the food. It smells like something died in here." I stared at him. "Why are you standing there, call the cleaning crew."

Ted smirked. "Yes dear." He frowned. "Which one?"

I threw up my hands and groaned. "I don’t know. You have a guy for everything don’t you? You must have a cleaning guy. Call him!" He stared at me, then I pointed to the door. "What are you waiting for? Go! Now!"

Ted escaped the kitchen, and I poured the brownie batter, slid the pans into the oven, then started on the dishes. When Ted returned to the kitchen, he reported that a cleaning crew would be at the house the next morning at eight sharp. That news made me so happy that I cried. Gently Ted walked me upstairs, then got me into the shower and clean clothes. When I came downstairs, Ted was at the front door waiting for me.

"Are you ready?" I stared at him. Ted jangled his keys. "Shopping, baby seats, nursing bras, groceries?"

I gaped at him. "Are you nuts? We can’t leave now. I have food in the ovens. And Zelda and Matt will be here any minute to restock."

Ted frowned and dropped his keys on the entry table. "Okay."

"Good, tomorrow morning then."

Ted pinched my cheek. "You don’t want to stay here to instruct the cleaning crew?"

I groaned. "Stop trying to confuse me." I stomped back to the kitchen and found a bewildered Zelda and Matt. "It’s about time!"

Matt gaped at the disaster area that was my kitchen. "Dude, who did this to your kitchen?"

Zelda stared at me like I’d sprouted a third eye. "Do we need to do an intervention?"

Ted came into the kitchen and spoke to Zelda over my head. "She’s been up since last night."

Zelda nodded. "Okay, you put her to bed, we’ll clean up this mess."

I snorted. "Excuse me, I’m not a four-year-old. Nobody’s putting me to bed."

But it was easy for Ted to steer me out of the kitchen and into bed. I barely had the energy to tell him I wasn’t tired before I went out .

<<>>

When I stumbled into the kitchen after a four hour nap, Zelda and Ted flinched. I frowned at Zelda. "What are you doing here?"

Zelda grabbed a dish towel and held it up in front of her. "Please don’t hurt me." Then she pushed out a stool with her foot. "We’re having a sleep over."

I sat down. "What?"

Ted stroked my back. "We’ve got it all worked out."

Zelda slid off her stool and put on the tea kettle. "Yeah, you and I go shopping tomorrow, and Ted stays here to supervise the cleaning crew."

Still tired and cranky I said, "You worked it all out, eh? What about the truck?"

Ted handed me a glass of milk and two prenatal vitamins. "Matt and Eric are on truck duty tomorrow."

I sighed. It was too much to think about and my stomach gurgled. "I’m hungry."

The tea kettle whistled, and Zelda turned off the burner. "Okay. Lasagna, roast chicken or roast pork?"

I wrinkled my nose. "No. Chinese." I licked my lips and nodded. "Shrimp chop suey, orange chicken, noodles, spring rolls, oh and wonton soup."

Zelda brought me my tea. "Okay, I’ll go."

Ted pushed back his stool. "No, you stay here, I’ll go."

Then a five minute argument ensued about who should go for takeout. I finally pounded the countertop with my fist, and they stopped. "Why don’t you both go? I could use some peace and quiet, and you two are driving me crazy."

Zelda rolled her eyes at Ted. "Man, you weren’t kidding."

I let the insult slide and pointed to the door. "Now! I’m eating for three, and we’re all hungry!"

Ted bent down and kissed my cheek. "We won’t be long."

I nodded and sipped my tea, but Ted hesitated. I shooed him away. "I’ll be fine. Lock the door and if anybody rings the bell, I won’t answer it, okay? I won’t even answer the phone if that’ll make you feel better."

Zelda pushed Ted out the door. And then it was quiet. The babies did a little tap dance in my belly, and I said, "Daddy will be back with the food soon."

But after a few seconds, I got bored waiting for Ted and Zelda and checked my email. Nothing that couldn’t wait. I tried logging onto the tipster website, but my log on didn’t work anymore, ditto for the email account. That stung a little but what did I expect? Just as I was ready to shut down the computer, the instant message box popped open.

Bgirl357 said,
‘Hey Scotti, have you missed me?’

I speed dialed Eric on my cell. "Eric it’s that Bgirl again, can you track her?"

I heard clacking keys on his end. "Okay, I’m in. Keep her talking."

‘Hi, what happened to you?’

‘Oh, so you did miss me? Well, fear not, I’ve been keeping my eye on you.’

My skin crawled.
‘You have?’

‘I have to say though, I’m very disappointed in the way you’ve let yourself go. Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you should eat with wild abandon. You know that weight isn’t all baby.’

That pissed me off, and I was done playing games.
‘Really, Ingrid? What do you know about babies? Or any other human being besides yourself for that matter?’

Eric said, "Scotti, what are you doing?"

She didn’t respond.
‘You think I don’t know it’s you?

Eric yelled, "Scotti!"

"I’m tired of this shit, Eric. If this bitch wants a showdown then fine! She can bring it or shut the hell up!"

Clacking keys sounded on his end.

‘Ingrid? Still there? What’s the matter, not so brave now that I know it’s you? What are you doing, murdering another guitar?’

Ingrid said,
‘This isn’t over.’

I said,
‘Of course it’s over. Ted married me. We’re having babies. You’re all alone with your crazy fantasies. Sounds over to me.’

A box popped up saying Bgirl357 had logged off.

"Damn bitch!" I took Eric off speaker and picked up my cell. "Still there?"

"Man Scotti. Why’d you do that?"

"Because I’m sick of being pushed around. And I don’t want that crazy bitch to think she can get to me." I sighed. "Same deal? Internet café?"

Eric murmured, "Uh-huh."

"Okay, send me the IP and anything else that might track her, and I’ll give it to the cops. Maybe they can find her." Eric didn’t respond. "Eric?"

Eric blew out a long sigh. "Yeah, before she finds you."

I scoffed. "She’s a coward, she’ll never come after me."

Zelda and I left Ted to manage the cleaning crew and hit the stores. We found everything I needed in Macy’s maternity department. After they realized I had no shopping limit and was in the mood to buy, all three sales ladies waited on us like we were royalty. I bought every color and style of nursing bra, nursing pajamas, nursing shirts and lot of big fat post partum ugly panties. According to the senior sales lady, I needed big ugly panties for the post-birth period.

"You don’t just shrink back to your original figure overnight, dear."

"Oh no?"

The lady shook her head and whispered. "Some people might think you’re still pregnant after you’ve delivered." I gasped and clutched Zelda’s arm. "Eventually though, you’ll start to recognize your figure again."

I stared at the stack of ugly white, elastic banded, stretchy, full-coverage panties. "God, is my ass that big?"

Zelda smacked me. "Shut up and give the nice sales lady your Am-Ex card."

We completed the apparel leg of our journey, stowed the bags in the car and stopped for burgers before taking on the car seat search.

Zelda stared at me as I put away a double bacon cheeseburger, a side of fries, a side of onion rings and a chocolate shake. "Damn, Scotti."

I slurped the rest of my shake. "I’m eating for three, and that takes a lot of food." Zelda nodded, but she was frowning at something behind me. "What?"

She shook her head and looked back to me. "Nothing." But her eyes kept wandering. I turned to look, but she grabbed my arm. "No, don’t."

"Then tell me what has you making that face."

Zelda leaned across the table and lowered her voice. "It’s the third time I’ve seen the same woman."

"Where?"

She looked past me again. "The box store, Macy’s, now here."

"What does she look like?"

Zelda glanced at me. "Middle aged, overweight, dyed red hair." She snatched one of my onion rings. "I’m probably just being paranoid."

My eyes went wide. "Really intense red hair? Almost purple?"

Zelda stopped chewing. "Yeah."

"Kind of hard looking? Around the eyes and mouth?"

Zelda frowned. "You know her?"

I bent my head and whispered. "Where is she?"

"At your three o’clock."

I bent down, pretending to look for something in my bag and shifted my gaze. Kathy Morrissey sat at a two-top a few feet away, as though unaware of us. I straightened up. "I’ll be damned."

"Who is it?"

"Kathy Morrissey." Zelda gaped. I rolled my eyes to the side. "What’s she doing?"

"Pretending to read a magazine. You think she knows you followed her the other day?"

I pushed away my food. "I thought I was being so careful. Crap." Scraping back my chair I said, "Let’s see if she is following us."

We walked past Kathy on the way out, but she kept her face buried in the magazine. We took our time going back to Macy’s, paused to look at window displays and to buy caramel corn, but Kathy didn’t follow. While we shopped for the car seats, we kept our eyes peeled, but she never reappeared. I found the car seats I wanted, and the shopping trip was finished. Even if I wanted to, I didn’t have the energy to buy one more thing.

Zelda scanned the parking lot. "You think we were wrong about Kathy?"

I glanced behind me and shrugged. "We walked right past her — she figured we made her and backed off."

Zelda loaded the car seats into the back of my car. She closed the hatch, leaned on the back bumper and frowned. "What if she didn’t make you the other day? What if Jennifer told her about the conversations you two have been having?"

I cringed. "Yeah, that would be worse, wouldn’t it?"

Ted and Zelda unloaded the car — after the third trip, Ted gave me an exasperated look. "No, I didn’t buy the whole store. You think this is bad, wait until the babies are born."

He smacked me on the butt. "Daddy may have to put Mommy on a budget."

I rubbed my butt. "That hurt."

Zelda laughed. "With all that blubber back there, bullshit."

Ted bear-hugged me. "Stop being a brat — you can buy anything you want." He tweaked my nose. "Do you want to inspect the house?"

I grinned and nodded. "Yes, please."

The crew did a great job — the house sparkled and that funny smell was gone. "Did you give them a big tip?"

Ted laughed. "There you go spending my money again."

Matt wandered out to the living room. "Dude the house looks awesome." He jerked his thumb toward the kitchen. "Eric wants your computer boss lady."

I nodded. "Right, he was going to give it a check up. Just tell him he can take it home, and I’ll call him later, okay?"

Matt nodded and went back to the kitchen. A few minutes later, the three of them left, honking the truck horn as their good bye.

I hugged Ted. "I thought they’d never leave. What do you want for dinner?"

Ted sucked in his lips. "I won’t be here for dinner."

"What happened to maternity leave for Daddy?"

He shrugged. "Steve happened."

"What did he do?"

"Business dinner with Feldstein and Feldstein tonight. Looks like they want to renew the contract." He smiled. "We’ll need the money for all the stuff going to buy for our kids." He kissed my forehead. "You okay on your own for a couple hours?"

I nodded. "Sure. I’ve been putting off a lot of paperwork and should do some planning too." I blew out a breath. "It’s only a few more weeks before the babies get here, and I want things to go smoothly while I’m on maternity leave."

Ted wiggled a finger in his ear. "Did I hear you say maternity leave?"

I pinched his butt. "Yes dear, you win."

<<>>

When Ted walked out of the bathroom, I was clipping off the tags from the big ugly panties. He frowned in horror. "What are those?"

I held them up to me. "Aren’t they cute? It’s what all the formerly pregnant but still fat new moms are wearing these days."

He dropped his towel and pulled on shorts and trousers. "You’re not fat."

I stuck out my belly and patted it. "Yes because at the moment I can hide behind my pregnant belly."

Ted grabbed a fresh shirt out of the closet and put it on. "You won’t be fat after the babies are born either." He buttoned his shirt. "Not the way you run around like a maniac."