Murder in the Pearl District (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Series Book 5) (4 page)

Kelly called Roxie first to ask her
if she could manage the coffee shop for a few extra days while Kelly stayed in
Portland to help Sophie oversee Mangia! Mangia!

“Thanks, Roxie. I won’t be
gone longer than a week. Naturally, I’ll pay you extra for all of this, and I’m
so glad your friend enjoys working there and is such a big help to you. Again,
thanks for being so understanding.”

One down and now for the
hard part.

“Hi, Mike. I wasn’t
planning on calling you today, but it’s been an interesting morning. Actually,
I wish you were here. I think your expertise in matters relating to murder
would be appreciated.” She told him everything that had happened, and that
Sophie had asked her to stay for several days and help out at the restaurant.

Mike remained completely
quiet while she spoke. When she finished, he said, “Kelly, I can understand why
Sophie feels she needs you to help keep the restaurant open and certainly,
you’re the logical one to help. What I don’t like is having you work in a place
where the owner was just murdered. For all you know, it could be someone who
was jealous of the success of the restaurant, and that person might decide to
return to the scene and try to murder you. I don’t know how in the devil you do
it, but you seem to attract murder like some dogs attract fleas,” he said in an
exasperated voice.

“Mike, how could I
possibly know this was going to happen when I agreed to cater Sophie’s party?
This is just a random happenstance. Really, I’ll be fine. Detective Masters is
handling the case, and he seems very competent. It’s not like it happened in
Cedar Bay. There were so many police and detectives at the house today I
couldn’t even begin to count them.”

“Kelly, would you promise
me two things?”

“Sure, Mike, what?” she
said mentally crossing her fingers behind her back.

“First of all, I want
Rebel with you at all times. Unfortunately, I have several cases here that need
my attention. If I can’t be there to protect you, at least he can be there to
look out for your safety. Secondly, promise me you will not become involved in
solving this murder in any way. Do we have an understanding?”

“Yes. I promise you I
won’t do anything on my own that would cause me to get involved in the case,
but as far as Rebel with me at all times, that’s going to be hard to do. It’s
one thing for me to have a dog in my coffee shop in Cedar Bay, but I don’t
think I can get by with it here in Portland. I’m sure someone would report me.
What I will do is have him right outside the back door of the kitchen. When I’m
at the restaurant I’ll be spending most of my time there, and although I
haven’t been in it yet, I’m sure there’s a back door. There might even be an
office, and he could stay there. He’ll be with me the rest of the time, and
Sophie’s home is very safe.”

“All right. I can live
with that, but I want you to call me every night, and if for any reason, you
start to feel threatened or unsafe, promise me you’ll leave and come home. By
the way, did you take your gun with you?”

“I promise,” she fibbed,
looking up towards heaven and hoping to make a deal with whatever powers
reigned there if and when she ever got there. “And yes, I do have the gun with
me, so I’ll be fine.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear
that. That makes me feel a little better. Kelly, I love you. Be safe.” She
ended the call and told Rebel to come with her. It was time to begin working at
Mangia! Mangia!

*****

Kelly opened the door of Mangia!
Mangia! and was immediately greeted by Carlotta, the hostess she’d met when she
and Sophie had eaten there in what seemed a lifetime ago, but in reality, was
only the day before yesterday.

“Welcome Mrs. Reynolds. I
understand you’re the new chef of Mangia! Mangia! Congratulations, and please
let me know if there’s anything I can do to make this new job easier for you.”

“Thank you, Carlotta.
First of all, I’d like to make this change as seamless as possible. I’m sure
people will be asking you what’s going to happen to the restaurant. Simply tell
them a visiting chef will be filling in until a new permanent chef is selected,
but that nothing will be changed in the interim. That should make them feel
better. Secondly, if there’s anything you can tell me that you think I should
know, please don’t hesitate. This is all pretty new to me. Also, do you know if
Mrs. DeLuca had any enemies?”

“Ever since I heard that
Mrs. De Luca had been murdered, I’ve been trying to think why someone would do
it. Although almost everyone loved her, there are a few people I’d want to talk
to if I were in charge of solving her murder.”

“With your work station
right here next to the front door, you’ve probably had a better opportunity
than anyone to observe what’s going on here at the restaurant.”

“Mrs. Reynolds, what I’m
going to tell you is just stuff I’ve heard. I don’t have any real facts to back
it up, and I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t say that anything I’m about
to tell you came from me.”

“I can certainly promise
you that. Rest assured I won’t tell anyone I learned anything from you.”

Carlotta looked around to
see if anyone could overhear what she was about to say. Satisfied, she began,
“A couple of people came to my mind. That snooty food critic for the Portland
Gazette, Bill Hossam, has eaten here several times in the last month. A friend
of mine who knows him told me that Hossam didn’t think our food was all that good.
He’s the only food critic in Portland who hasn’t written a review of our
restaurant.”

“Did Mrs. DeLuca know Mr.
Hossam had visited the restaurant?”

Carlotta nervously looked
down at her hands and then abashedly looked up at Kelly. “I told her. I thought
she should know.”

“I think that was the
right thing to do. When did you tell her?”

“It was the afternoon of
the night you came to dinner. I remember, because she was quite upset. She told
me he better not publish a bad review, because it could really hurt her
business.”

“Do you know if she did
anything about it?”

“I’m pretty sure she
called him. I needed to tell her to get more salt for the salt shakers on the
tables, and I went back to her office. The door to her office was closed, but I
could hear her screaming on the telephone, and I realized she was talking to
Mr. Hossam. I overheard her tell him that if he wrote a bad review for Mangia!
Mangia! she’d personally make sure it was the last review he ever wrote for the
Gazette. I don’t know what happened after that.”

“You know, Carlotta, you
look the way my daughter used to look when she wanted to tell me something, but
wasn’t exactly sure what I would think about it after she told me. Is there
something else I should know?”

“Mrs. Reynolds, you didn’t
hear this from me, but there is a very wealthy woman who lives here in the
Pearl District, not far from the restaurant. She brings a lot of people to the
restaurant, and a few weeks ago she asked Mrs. DeLuca to cater a dinner party
in her home. Mrs. DeLuca didn’t like to do catering, because she felt she
needed to be at the restaurant, but Elena Wright insisted, and because she is
such a good customer, Mrs. DeLuca agreed to it. Miss Wright wanted scallops
served to her guests, and I remember Mrs. DeLuca telling me that she really
didn’t like to fix seafood when she catered, because she worried something
might be wrong with the shellfish and the dinner guests might become ill.

“Evidently the dinner
party was being held in honor of a friend of Miss Wright’s who lived in the
Midwest. This particular person had never eaten scallops and had a severe
allergic reaction to them during the dinner party. Fortunately there was a
doctor at the dinner party, and he treated her immediately. Miss Wright refused
to believe her guest had become ill because she’d insisted on serving scallops
without inquiring as to whether or not her special guest or anyone else had any
food allergies.”

“Good grief. That really
is dangerous. That poor woman could have gone into anaphylactic shock and died.
What happened to her?”

“Miss Wright’s guest
recovered, but she blamed Mrs. DeLuca for serving bad scallops. It didn’t help
that all the papers got wind of it and made Miss Wright out to be a bad hostess
for not finding out whether or not any of her guests had food allergies. Miss
Wright’s claim to fame, besides being the only child of a rich lumber baron, is
her entertaining. She has a reputation in Portland as being the ‘hostess with
the mostest,’ if you know what I mean. Evidently a number of people have
declined her invitations to dinner parties since then, and she blamed Mrs.
DeLuca.”

“Well, that’s interesting.
I suppose she might have had a motive for killing Mrs. DeLuca, and Mr. Hossam
might have felt she’d threatened him. If I was going to make a list of possible
suspects, I think I’d be well advised to include the two of them in the list
based on what you’ve told me. Thanks, Carlotta, I really appreciate your
confiding in me, and don’t worry. I never heard any of this from you.”

Kelly took a deep breath
and walked through the restaurant dining area to the kitchen which was located
towards the rear of the building.

It was 11:00, only a few hours after
the gruesome discovery of Donatella’s body, and the restaurant was scheduled to
open for lunch at 11:30. Kelly walked into the kitchen and stood for a moment,
staring in amazement at what looked like orchestrated chaos taking place before
her very eyes. People were cooking, chopping, going in and out of the large
walk-in refrigerator, taking things out of the ovens, and putting things in the
ovens. Over in a corner Sophie was in a deep conversation with a handsome
looking young man. Kelly walked over to them.

            Sophie looked up and
said, “Kelly, I’d like you to meet Chef Nico Bassi. He was Dede’s sous chef. I
told him I want him to act as chef, but for the time being, I want all of the
dishes to remain as they were when Dede was chef. He agrees with me. We’re just
going over the menu. He’s giving me an overview of how the kitchen works and
who is responsible for what. I think we’re very lucky to have such a fine
staff. I really believe we can pull this off.”

            A tall muscular blond man
with a tattoo of a chef’s knife prominent on his right forearm stood up and
held out his hand to Kelly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Mrs. Marchant has
told me what a good chef you are and about your restaurant in Cedar Bay. I
consider it an honor to have the opportunity to work with you.”

            “Thank you, but please
call me Kelly, and call Mrs. Marchant, Sophie. We’ll be working too close
together for formalities. The restaurant opens in a half an hour. What can I do
to help other than get out of your way?”

            “Kelly, if you could
handle anything that happens in the front of the house, I would appreciate it,”
Nico said. “Some of the staff is a little nervous about everything that’s
happened today. I’d like to be able to stay here in the kitchen with the
kitchen staff until they feel comfortable. They’re worried that the restaurant
is going to close and they won’t have jobs.”

            “I thought Sophie told
you that was not going to happen.”

            “Actually when she first
walked into the kitchen she told me that, but nevertheless, some of the staff
think we’re going to close after today or when the food runs out.”

            “Nico,” Sophie said, “Let
me repeat what I told you earlier. I have money to order the food and take care
of the employee expenses, so please tell the staff I will take care of any
costs that the restaurant incurs until a final decision is made concerning its
continued operation. We don’t even know what’s in Dede’s Will or if she made
arrangements in it for the continued operation of the restaurant.”

            “Sophie,” Kelly said,
“why don’t you stay here with Nico and learn everything you can about what’s
taking place here in the kitchen? I’m going to talk to the bartenders and the
wait staff and assure them that nothing will change for the foreseeable
future.”

            She left the kitchen and
walked over to the two bartenders who were standing behind the bar engaged in a
deep conversation. She overheard one of them saying, “Well, now that she’s
dead, her lover’s ex-wife probably won’t be coming in here anymore. Thank
heavens. She’s got that redhead temper and drinks way too much. I’ve had to cut
her off several times. Didn’t want to be the one sued for letting her drive
when she was drunk.”

            The other one replied,
“Yeah, me too. I never understood why Mrs. DeLuca didn’t just refuse to serve
her.”

            “You know what a soft
touch she was. She felt sorry for Mr. Ramos’ ex-wife because he’d left her for
Mrs. DeLuca. Guess it was quite the scandal when he divorced her, but she had a
lot of moxie to come in here and make the scenes she did. I’ll give her credit
for one thing though, she was careful to never do it at mealtimes, just in the
afternoons. I remember one time she got in Mrs. DeLuca’s face and accused her
of stealing her husband. That was the only time I saw Mrs. DeLuca completely
lose it and really get mad. She told her to leave and never come back.
Actually, I think you were off that day. It was only a few days ago.”

            Kelly cleared her throat,
and they both turned to her. “Hi, I’m Kelly Reynolds, I just wanted to
introduce myself and assure you that the restaurant is going to remain open. A
friend of Mrs. DeLuca’s, Sophie Marchant, and I will be running it for the time
being. Actually, Sophie was one of Mrs. DeLuca’s closest friends and was in
here a lot. You probably know her.”

            “Of course. That makes me
feel good. She’s good people,” the taller of the two men said. “How can we
help?”

            “I don’t know much about
serving alcohol. I own a restaurant, well, actually it’s a coffee shop, in
Cedar Bay, but we don’t serve alcohol. Can you give me a quick course in how it
works here?”

            For the next fifteen
minutes the two bartenders instructed her in what they did to keep the bar up
and running. They showed her how they gauged the amount of liquor that went
into a mixed drink, reviewed the wine list, how to operate the cash register,
where they put used glasses, and anything else that came to their minds about
the bar business.

            “You must take in a lot
of money here at the bar. Who picks it up, and where does it go?”

            “Mrs. DeLuca picked it up
every couple of hours. She did the same with the reception desk, because the
servers took their credit card payments or cash to the register there. She has
a floor safe in her office, and she put the money in there. Rango Security
Company comes every morning to collect the receipts from the day before and
then deposits the money in her bank account.”

            “Thanks, based on that
procedure, I’ll continue to do the same.”

            She walked into
Donatella’s office and pulled back several throw rugs until she found the floor
safe.
Swell, I’ve found the safe, but I have no idea how to open it. I’ll
have to make some other arrangement for the money until I can find out the
combination.

           
While she was
contemplating what to do next, the phone on Donatella’s desk rang. She crossed
the small room in several steps and answered it. “This is Kelly Reynolds.”

            “Mrs. Reynolds, it’s
Carlotta. I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s a man here at the reception desk
who says he’s Mrs. DeLuca’s lawyer, and he needs to talk to you. I told him you
and Mrs. Marchant were going to run Mangia! Mangia! for the time being, and he
said he’d like to talk to her as well. I’ve called the kitchen, and she’s on
her way.”

            “Please send him back
here to the office. Thanks, Carlotta.”

            A moment later there was
a knock on the door. Kelly opened the door, and a large man dressed in a very
expensive-looking grey pinstripe suit walked into the room. His thinning white
hair was swept back from his forehead and his sharp blue eyes openly assessed
her. He put out his hand, “Hello. I’m George Mitchell, Donatella’s attorney, or
rather I was.”

            Sophie walked into the
room and greeted the man. She turned to Kelly, “I’ve been to several dinner
parties at Donatella’s where George was also a guest. It’s good to see you
again, George, although I would prefer if it was under different
circumstances.”

            “So would I, Sophie, so
would I.” He set the large briefcase he’d been carrying on the desk. “Ladies,
would you please be seated? I need to talk to you.” He opened the briefcase and
took out what looked like legal papers with a blue backer attached. “Normally
when someone is deceased, I would do a reading of their Will with all of the
heirs and family members present in my office a day or two after their death,
but time is of the essence here because of the restaurant. Francesca is the
primary heir of the estate, and as you know, she isn’t capable of understanding
what’s contained in the Will.”

            “I’m confused, George, I
don’t see how this affects either one of us.”

            “Sophie, it will all be
clear in a few moments, you see, Donatella DeLuca willed the Mangia! Mangia!
restaurant to you. She made some changes to her Will a month ago, and she told
me at the time that you were a superb cook. She said you’d always wanted to
cook for people, but you were afraid to, so she wanted you to have the chance.”

            “
Mon Dieu
, I can’t
believe it. Mangia! Mangia! left to me? She believed in me enough that she left
her restaurant to me?
Non
, this is too much. Shouldn’t this go to
Francesca?”

            “I’m sure it would have
if things had been different, but obviously Francesca is not capable of
handling it. Donatella provided for Francesca in other ways. She left her house
to her as well as the proceeds from the sale of her cookbooks along with a
stock brokerage account containing investments she’d made in the stock market.
That account alone is worth over five million dollars.  There is easily enough
money and assets available to continue indefinitely with the type of care she
has been receiving.”

            Kelly looked over at
Sophie who appeared to be in a state of shock. “I don’t know what to say. I
never even thought of owning a restaurant.”

            “Well, if you choose to
sell it at some point, that’s your decision. I need your signature on a number
of forms that will authorize you to buy provisions for the restaurant from
various food and alcohol purveyors as well as changing the bank account to
reflect that you’re authorized to sign checks for the staff, etc.” He took a
number of papers out of his briefcase and passed them over to Sophie. “Please
sign where the red ‘x’ appears on each page. My secretary has been very busy
since Detective Masters called us this morning with the sad news, but I believe
all the necessary paperwork is here.

            “I’ll be filing
Donatella’s Will with the probate court this afternoon, and at the same time I
will ask the court for an emergency order allowing Sophie to continue operating
Mangia! Mangia! until ownership of the restaurant is officially transferred at
the close of the probate proceedings.”

            “Excuse me, Mr.
Mitchell,” Kelly said, “by any chance do you know the combination to the floor
safe? I found the safe, but I have no idea how to open it,” Kelly said.

            “It’s probably in this
packet of documents. Donatella gave me an envelope three days ago and told me I
was to give it to Sophie if anything ever happened to her. I thought it was a
rather strange request at the time. Now I wonder if she had a premonition this
was going to happen.” He handed the envelope to Sophie.

            “I would love to stay and
talk to both of you. Actually I would love to stay and order something off of
the fabulous lunch menu,  but I have to be in court this afternoon, and the
judge I’m appearing before is very unforgiving if lawyers show up late in his
courtroom.” He picked up the papers Sophie had signed and said, “If you have
any questions, please call me. Here’s my business card, and I wish you luck,
Sophie. I’m sure Mangia! Mangia! is in very good hands.”