Murder in the Pearl District (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Series Book 5) (7 page)

“Sophie, I hope you’ll excuse me, but
I really am exhausted, and I need to call Mike and tell him what I’ve learned
about some of the possible suspects in Donatella’s murder. I value his
judgment, even though I don’t think he’s going to very happy about my getting
involved trying to catch the killer.”

“Why would he be upset?
You solved Jesse’s murder, and from what Jesse told me, several others as well.
He must be used to you getting involved by now.”

“It sounds good on paper,
but it doesn’t quite work out that way. You see, when I told him I was staying
an extra day or two with you, I promised him I wouldn’t get involved in the
murder investigation. He worries about my safety. As a matter of fact he makes
me keep a gun in my purse and wants Rebel to be with me at all times. That’s
why I took Rebel to the restaurant. I noticed you were a little surprised when
I put him by the back door initially and then when I brought him into the
office, but I promised Mike that Rebel would be with me. I suppose I can’t put
off calling him any longer, and if I wait much longer he’ll be asleep. See you
in the morning. Come on Rebel, time for bed.”

Kelly sat down at the desk
in the sitting room and called Mike. She knew it would be much easier if she
could just get his voicemail, but this was one time she needed to talk to him
and looked forward to any advice he could give her.

“Hey, lady, how are you?
Before you answer, I want to tell you first how much Lady and I miss you. I
really don’t want to do this again. Secondly, you know that five extra pounds
I’m always fighting? Well, with the caramel sauce I think it’s now ten pounds.”

“Oh, Mike, I miss you just
as much, and I wish you were here. Don’t worry about the caramel pounds. I’m
sure it looks good on you.”

“Wish I thought so. Tell
me how it went at the restaurant.”

“It’s a new learning curve
for me. Actually, it went well. Mike, there’s something else I need to talk to
you about, but before I begin, will you promise me you’ll withhold judgment and
trust me when I tell you that I didn’t do anything deliberately to get involved
in the investigations of Donatella’s death?”

Mike was quiet for a
moment. “Kelly, I have a feeling I am definitely not going to like what you’re
about to tell me. Just answer one question for me. Are you safe? Actually, I’ll
make it three questions. That was the first one. The second one is I want to
know if your gun is with you, and thirdly, is Rebel with you?”

“The answer is yes to all
three questions. Mike, you have to believe me when I tell you what happened at
the restaurant today was not something I ever expected would occur. I think
what I learned may be very important in solving the case and catching
Donatella’s killer. I met five people today, and believe it or not, all of them
may have had a reason to murder Donatella.”

“I’m sorry. It’s been a
long day, and I admit that I’m a little slow on the uptake tonight. I thought
you said you met five people today, all who might have had a reason to murder
Donatella. You’ll have to excuse me for finding it hard to believe that all
five of these people just happened to come to the restaurant and you just
happened to find out that they had a motive to kill Donatella? Am I missing
something here? Why in the devil do these things happen to you, Kelly? Have you
become some type of a murder solving magnet?”

She sighed. “Mike, I know
it’s hard to believe, but I really need to hear what you think about what
happened today. Could you please just listen to me?”

“Sure, and could you
please come home now? Oh, never mind, knowing you, that’s not going to happen.
Okay, sweetheart, what have you gotten yourself involved in this time?”

“I’m not sure I like the
tone of your voice.”

“I’m not sure I like you
being there,” he countered.

She told him everything
that had happened during the day and the evening, concluding with Rebel being
by her side at the moment and the gun conveniently sitting on the desk in front
of her.

“Well, Mrs. Reynolds, I
would say you’ve had a very busy day. What do you need from me? Sounds like
you’re doing just fine on your own,” he said sarcastically.

“Mike, please don’t be
that way. I really want to hear what you think about all of this.”

“Kelly, do you have any
idea how much I worry about you? Do you have any idea what I’ll be thinking
about when I try and get some sleep tonight, if I even get any sleep at all?”

“I’m sorry. Honest, I’m
not in any danger. Could I help it if all these things just kind of happened
when these various different people showed up at the restaurant?”

“I won’t even go there,”
he said, taking a deep breath. “All right. I know you well enough to know that
you’re going to get involved anyway, and in my mind, you already are. Let’s
take these people one by one.”

“Mike, could you give me
some guidelines on what I should do?”

“My advice is to get in
touch with that detective you met at the crime scene, and tell him what you
know and come back home. What’s his name?”

“Detective Masters.”

“Well, switching our conversation
to your list of possible suspects, didn’t you mention the other night you
overheard Donatella and her sous chef having an argument about changing the
menu? The first thing that comes to my mind is that it’s very convenient that
she’s gone, and now he gets to change the menu with Sophie’s blessing. What’s
your gut feeling about him?”

“I like him. Yes,
Donatella’s death did provide him with a way to change the menu, but I can’t
believe someone would commit murder just so their dishes would be on the menu.”

“Trust me, sweetheart,
stranger things have happened.”

“Well, the only reason the
changes are going to be made is because the food critic threatened to write a
bad review if they weren’t. And don’t forget, Carlotta overheard Donatella
threatening to ruin the critic if he gave her restaurant a bad review.”

“Now tell me what you
thought about the food critic.”

“He was insufferable. You
know, kind of one of those nerdy types who are academics and no one ever liked
them until they found some new atom or planet and suddenly everyone thinks
they’re great. That was kind of the impression I had of him. A nerd who has
somehow made it as a food critic.”

“If Donatella claimed she
could ruin his reputation as a food critic and that was his only claim to fame,
that might provide a motive, but how do you think she would be able to do that?
Sounds like an empty and perhaps desperate thing for her to say unless
Donatella had some information about him that would somehow harm him. Almost
sounds like a scenario for blackmail.”

“I’m having a hard time
thinking of him as a suspect, but theoretically, yes.”

“That’s two down. What
about Mitch’s ex-wife?”

“That would be Tina Ramos.
She obviously hated Donatella for breaking up her marriage, although from what
she said it wasn’t the first time that Mitch had been looking in other places
for a little affection. According to the bartenders, she’s got a really bad
temper, so it’s possible in a fit of anger she could commit murder. She had a
motive, and if she was drunk, she’s a definite possibility.”

“You didn’t care for her,
did you?”

“No, but what I saw of her
certainly had to be her worst side. Maybe she’s a wonderful person when she’s
not drunk, however, from what the bartender told me, that wasn’t the first time
they’ve had problems with her.”

“I’d keep her pretty high
on the list. And the next one, this Elena Wright?”

“She’s kind of like Bill
Hossam, the food critic. Her sense of self-importance is wrapped up in what
other people think about her. Evidently the incident with Donatella’s scallops
caused her reputation as one of the leading party givers in the Pearl District
to suffer a severe blow. I find it hard to think someone would kill over that,
but if her reputation as the ‘hostess with the mostest’ was all she had,
maybe.”

“You said her father was a
lumber baron. I wonder if I can find out anything about him. I’ll look up the
name Wright and see what I can come up with.”

“Mike, I knew I could
count on you. Thank you so much for helping Sophie and me.”

“I still think it should
be Detective Masters who’s helping you and vice-versa. This is way out of my
jurisdiction.”

“Mike, one thing Sophie
mentioned about Chef DuBois was that the accent he placed on some of the French
words he used was incorrect. She wonders if he really is French. I did not like
that smarmy man. It literally made my skin crawl when he kissed my hand. It was
disgusting. I wonder if he could be a complete fake.”

“May have disgusted you,
but that doesn’t mean he’s a murderer.”

“I know, but the whole
television thing smells. First of all he tries to get a show, but Mitch gives
the show to Donatella. Then I find out Mitch’s television station is in
financial trouble, and he calls the chef the morning the woman he loved was
murdered and offers the television show to him? Doesn’t sound like a very
honorable man to me. I don’t like the whole television thing, and I don’t like
either man.”

“Lady, I think you’ve done
enough for today. Turn off that wonderfully inquisitive brain of yours and get some
sleep. Tomorrow may be another zoo at the restaurant and you also have the new
menu to deal with. I’ll be curious to see how that goes. I have a little time
free in the morning, so I can do some research before I have to attend some
meetings I have scheduled. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll run a check on all these
people. I’ve written their names down while you were talking. Maybe there’s
something in one of their backgrounds that will give us some type of insight
into whether or not they could be the murderer.”

“Give us some type of
insight, us?” she asked.

“Just a phrase, Kelly.
Just a phrase. I’ll call you when I know something. And Kelly, this is from
Lady, keep the gun on you at all times and Rebel with you. Hear me? Deal?”

“Yes, sir, Sheriff Mike, I
promise I will. Deal.”

“Kelly, we both know your
promises leave something to be desired. How about if you don’t keep the
promise, you will do all of the dishes, housework, and whatever else I may have
in mind,” he said laughing.

“I don’t know whether I should
look forward to that or fear it,” she answered.

“Take your pick.
Goodnight, sweetheart.”

“Goodnight. I love you.”

When Kelly, Sophie, and Rebel arrived
at the restaurant at 10:00 the next morning it was a scene of utter chaos. Nico
was trying to get everything ready for the new menu which was to be introduced
at lunch. The requested food had been delivered and boxes were stacked on the
floor just inside the back door. The kitchen staff was frantically trying put
everything away in its proper place before the first diners arrived.

“Nico, did you see the
Portland Gazette this morning?” Sophie asked as she began to chop the mound of
fresh mushrooms he put in front of her. Kelly watched, impressed by knife
skills she didn’t know Sophie possessed.

“No, I barely slept trying
to wrap my mind around everything that needed to be done today.”

“Well, there was a long
eulogy to Donatella and at the end the article mentioned that Mangia! Mangia!
was under new ownership and a new menu would be debuted at lunch today. I
wonder how they found out. Neither Kelly nor I called them.”

“That’s all we need, a big
crowd of hungry diners all ordering the same thing. I’d like to have some time
to experiment with the new dishes and try to get them tweaked to perfection. It
will be hard to do if everyone is ordering the same dish. I ordered more food
than I thought we’d need, but if what you’re telling me is true, this could be
a disaster. I don’t usually let much get to me, but I have to admit I’m a nervous
wreck about how these new dishes are going to be received by our customers. If
they don’t like them, it will not only mean the death of the restaurant, it
will be the death of my professional career.”

Kelly walked over to him
and put her hand on his arm. “Nico, I watched you work all day yesterday, and
you’re an excellent chef. I know a little about food, and your new menu items
are some of the most inventive creations I’ve ever seen. Just wait. By tonight
you’ll be the toast of the Pearl District.”

He grimaced and looked at
her. “Easy for you to say. You’ll be going back to your restaurant in Cedar
Bay.”

“That I will, but I’ll be
checking in with Sophie. I can’t walk away from here and not know what’s going
to happen. What can I do to help?”

“You can dice these green
onions,” he said, putting a huge pile on the chopping block. With that Kelly
rolled up her sleeves, put on an apron, and started chopping.

At 11:15, Carlotta called
the kitchen and Nico took the call. Kelly and Sophie saw him visibly pale while
he listened to her. “Thanks, I hope so,” he said as he hung up. He turned
towards them. “A line of diners has formed in front of the restaurant. She said
most of them want to try the new dishes.” He yelled to the kitchen staff. “Make
more pies, start boiling the noodles, get to your stations. The battle is about
to start, and we need to be ready for the onslaught.”

Kelly took off her apron.
“If it’s going to be that busy, I better go out front and help Carlotta.”

The restaurant doors
opened promptly at 11:30, and no one working at the restaurant even had time to
stop for a sip of water until it finally slowed down around 1:30. Kelly walked
into the kitchen holding several sheets of notepaper. “Nico, can you take a
break for a moment? I want to read a few things to you,” she said grinning.

“I decided I’d ask several
of the diners who ordered the new dishes if they would mind writing a comment
about their meal. Here are a few samples of what they said.” She began to read,
“I’ve never eaten anything like this. It was absolutely wonderful and
delicious. The seafood bucatini was without a doubt the best thing I’ve ever
had. I wasn’t planning on it, but I’ve decided to come back tonight for dinner,
and although I’d like to order the lasagna, I don’t think I can get past the
perfect combination of seafood, herbs, and spices served over the bucatini.
Done this way, it’s just like my mother used to make pasta. My taste buds are
screaming, ‘Have it again.’ Here’s one for the lasagna. Chef Nico’s lasagna has
set a new benchmark for the popular dish. Rich in cheese, noodles, and a meaty
sauce, there’s a perfect blending of spices and rich marinara sauce. My stomach
is very, very happy. It is simply the best I’ve ever had.”

Nico was standing stone
still, a shocked look on his face. Then a smile slowly started to appear at the
corners of his mouth and quickly spread into a broad grin across his entire
face. “Does this mean we did it?”

“No, it means you did it.
Here’s one for the frozen key lime pie. The customer wrote that combining the
ingredients in the traditional South Florida key lime pie with slivered almonds
to give the dish a quasi-Italian feel was sheer genius and resulted in the
perfect way to end an Italian meal. Those are just a couple of the numerous
favorable comments you received. Congratulations, Nico.”

He leaned heavily against
the kitchen’s central stainless steel counter. “All my life I’ve lived to hear
words like that about my cooking. This is a dream come true. I wish Nonna was
alive. She’d be so proud that her cooking was making her grandson famous.”

Sophie was quickly
beginning to fit into her new role as the owner of Mangia! Mangia! “Okay gang,
let’s get back to work. If we were that busy for lunch, and no one knew what
was going to be on the new menu, I can’t begin to imagine what dinner will be
like.”

A short time later the
house phone rang, and Kelly answered it. “Yes, Carlotta, I’ll return the calls
from the office. Please write down the phone numbers and bring them to me.” She
turned to Nico and Sophie, “The word’s out. Two newspapers have called about
the new menu, and one of the television stations wants to interview Nico. I’ll
talk to them and set it up. What’s a good time for you, Nico?”

“Tomorrow morning. I’d be
too tired when we finish tonight, and there’s too much to do right now. Wow, I
can’t believe this.”