Dumplings and Disaster, page 1
part #4 of Alphabet Soup Mystery Series
‘
Dumplings and Disaster:
Alphabet Soup Mysteries
Book 4
Erica J Whelton
Copyright © 2024 Erica J Whelton All rights reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Publisher: Sunseri Design Publishing
Cover Designer: Mariah Sinclair Book Cover Design
ISBN: 978-1-956069-27-3
Printed in the United States of America
This is dedicated to all the military veterans and active duty members – From a fellow veteran
Books in this series:
Appetizers and Alibis (Book 1)
Biscuits and Bodies (Book 2)
Cornbread and Coffins (Book 3)
Dumplings and Disaster (Book 4)
Eclairs and Executions (Book 5)
Falafels and Fatalities (Book 6)
Gumbo and Grudges (Book 7)
Other books by this author:
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Premedicated Murder: Medium with a Heart (book 1)
Replicated Murder: Medium with a Heart (book 2)
Organized Murder: Medium with a Heart (book 3)
Inherited Murder: Medium with a Heart (book 4)
Crafted Murder: Medium with a Heart (book 5)
Destined Murder: Medium with a Heart (book 6)
Small-town Women’s Fiction
Mandy’s Story: Courage – Finding Herself Series (book 1)
Becca’s Story: Purpose – Finding Herself Series (book 2)
Caroline’s Story: Serenity – Finding Herself Series (book 3)
The Haunting of Anna-Rose (Paranormal Suspense)
Decoding Us (Women’s Fiction/Friendship)
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter One
I was working in the kitchen, prepping the soup of the day. Today we were offering vegetable beef. I’d made it a month ago on a whim and it became one of the most requested items.
Cullen, my assistant manager, suggested we advertise on social media to get the word out.
“That way, the customers know which soup we are serving that day. Plus, we can hype up our other menu items.” He had said.
I couldn’t disagree, but I was never good at keeping up on socials. Sometimes I would waste time scrolling through them, but I rarely posted much myself.
“Who would run it?” I asked.
“I will. If you’re good with the idea, that is?”
“You think you can keep up with it?”
“Yes, not a problem. I did it in my past job.”
I had to think about it for all of half a second because I could see nothing negative about his idea. It could only help with business.
“Okay, then I say go for it.”
We probably should have been doing this all along, but sometimes the most obvious things weren’t obvious until someone pointed it out.
Thank goodness for Cullen and his fresh take on things.
That was a week ago, and it was already having a positive response from the community and was bringing in business from other cities.
When I would do my rounds to greet customers, they made a point to tell me they were from Pinehurst or Camden or Wisteria. I even had some from Houston and New York come in.
“How did you find us?” I asked.
“Social media. A friend shared pictures and we just had to come check it out.” The New Yorker had said.
“And we saw you on the Food Network several times.” His fellow traveler added.
It was so much fun to talk to them all.
Now, I was finding myself going online and engaging with customers that way. It was energizing. Sure, there were the negative comments that were like a gut punch, but then I’d see a picture of smiling faces or read some kind words, and I could get past the bad review.
My friends, Sawyer and Vee, who were also my roommates, loved the soup last time I made it. So tonight, I planned to take enough home for dinner along with a half a dozen biscuits and another half a dozen cornbread muffins. Just a perk of being the boss and owner.
Noah came in while I was dicing the carrots.
“Mornin’.” He stopped at my station, watching me for a moment. “Wow, that always amazes me to see you chop so quickly.”
“Ha, yeah, I guess I’m quick. Learned it by doing so many competitions.” I kept the blade slicing through the vegetable as I smiled. “Oh, and good morning.”
“Veggie beef today?”
“Yep. It just sounded good. Plus, I stopped at the farmers’ market yesterday. I got a ton of great stuff.” I thumbed towards the table behind me where I had set all the boxes I’d bought.
He walked over, examining the goods, picking up a bit of dill to smell it.
“I love the smell of dill.” He said. “By the way, did you hear about that building that burned down the day before yesterday?”
“Um, no, which one?”
While most of Dashwood was beautiful and thriving, there were parts of town, like the neighborhood I had grown up in, not being maintained at all. The areas have been almost abandoned, which made them perfect to be renovated. That’s just what one city council committee was working on.
“That one near where Earl used to live, on Jamison.”
“Oh, that one?”
It had been abandoned since I was a teenager. They were planning to make that into some luxury apartments with shops and restaurants on the first floor. A lot of people were excited about it.
“Yeah.”
I threw the carrots into the pot, giving it a stir. “What happened?”
“Don’t know, but they found a body inside.”
“Really?”
Better them than me. I was tired of finding dead bodies. I have already found two and been involved in three murder investigations. More than what I had ever thought I would see in my life.
“Yeah, they aren’t sure who he is, but some said he was a homeless veteran.”
“That’s sad. I wonder if he has family somewhere.”
“No idea. It wasn’t on the news.” He tapped my station before heading to the office.
After he left, I thought about that poor man. I knew nothing about him, only what Noah had said. However, I knew some military veterans. In fact, I had two working for me, Marco and Smokes. Marco was a busser and Smokes did the dishes.
Marco had retired from the Marines after twenty-five years. His wife, Selene, was a teacher at Dashwood elementary school, and he had two grown children.
He always had a positive attitude and a fun energy. He could be found joking with the other employees or telling jokes to customers.
Then there was Smokes who retired after twenty years in the Army. He was divorced, with four grown children and two grandchildren. He was a quieter guy, keeping more to himself, but he thanked me often for the job.
“Washing dishes takes little brain power. I love it.” He’d said, many times.
I am glad that they loved it so much. We enjoyed them both being here, and I felt really lucky to have such hard-working employees.
Slowly, more and more employees came in for the day. Some were also talking about the abandoned building.
Marco came in, shuffling over, flashing me a weak smile. His energy felt heavy, and his eyes looked red and puffy. It wasn’t like him to look so down.
“You okay?”
“Did you hear about the building over on Jamison?” He asked me.
“I did.”
“The guy was a friend of mine.” His voice cracked.
“Oh, gosh, I am so sorry.”
“Yeah, thanks. I’m just sorry I couldn’t help him get the assistance he needed. Counseling, a job, and a safe place to live.” Marco hung his head. “We bonded over our military service. He had some demons and so do I.”
“You do?”
He looked at me with a weak smile. “You know what they say about the sad clown?” He shrugged, then went to get to work.
I watched him prepping his cleaning supplies. My heart broke for him. I wanted to ask him more questions about his friend, but we had to finish getting ready for the day. We would open in just fifteen more minutes.
I watched him shuffle out of the kitchen into the dining room.
Sad clown indeed, but I could understand why.
We got all our set up done just in time for the early lunch crowd. They came in fast and hungry, and in a blink it was 2 pm.
“Chef, the soup is popular today.” Hannah said as she put two more in the window, yelling for a runner.
I smiled. I just knew it would be. I’d have to reme
“Good day today, I think.” Hannah said. “We sold at least one of everything on the menu. I changed the paper in my ticket machine twice.”
“Nice. I changed mine once. I guess you win.”
We laughed.
“What can I say? Your soup is popular.”
We began cleaning our stations. Anytime we weren’t cooking, we were cleaning and prepping and cleaning again. I could almost hear my old culinary arts instructor, Duncan Jones’s, lesson on cleaning.
“If you clean as you go, you’ll have less to do in the end.”
I also liked the phrase, ‘if you have time to lean, you have time to clean.’ I like it so much that I had a poster made, and it is hanging over the door leading to the dining room. It was visible to the entire kitchen there.
There was a loud commotion coming from the dining room. I exchanged looks with Hannah. Her eyes were wide as she shrugged.
Noah came jogging out of the office as I was drying my hands to go check out what was happening. We spoke at the same time.
“What in the world?”
“What’s happening?”
We stepped into the dining room to find the police were here, and they had Marco in handcuffs.
It was Officers Kyle “Raff” Rafferty and Lupe Perez. I’d gone to school with both of them. Raff saw me and gave me a head nod.
“What is happening?” I asked.
They exchanged a look. Perez nodded.
“We are arresting him for murder.” Raff said, flatly.
“Murder? Murder of who?”
Marco was stoned faced as he looked at me. “They think I murdered Zachary, my friend. The homeless vet I mentioned.”
“Oh, my. There is no way.” I said. “You couldn’t have.”
“We have CCTV footage of him going into the building. Not long after he left, it was on fire.”
Well, that didn’t sound good.
I studied my employee. This didn’t feel right. I just had a gut feeling he had nothing to do with it. He wasn’t that type of person. Okay, so I had used him a few times as a sort of security guard. It was a large guy and had an authoritative vibe, but I couldn’t picture him actually killing anyone. Then again, my father had been my hero, loving and caring until the night he killed a man.
Plus, I hadn’t known about the sad clown part until today. What could he be hiding behind that smile and the sad eyes? Sad eyes I only noticed this morning.
Bleep, I guess anything was possible, but looking into Marco’s face, I just knew he hadn’t done it.
“Don’t worry, Chef. I will be okay.” He nodded and let the officers lead him away.
We all stood there watching as they left. I looked around. This should not be happening. I had to do something, but what?
Without thinking, I ran out the front door, following them.
“Wait, Raff.” I called out.
He turned, studying me. He looked over at Perez. “Give me a second.”
She nodded as she loaded Marco into the back of the car.
Raff jogged over to me.
“What’s up?” He smiled.
“Is there anything I can do to help? I just can’t … I can’t believe he would do this.”
Raff frowned. “I don’t know what I believe. He has always seemed like a good guy, but the evidence is pretty damning.”
“It sounds like it.”
Rafferty gave a nod before joining Perez in the car. I watched helplessly as they drove Marco away. I don’t know how long I stood there, frozen in disbelief and fear, but jumped when a hand touched me.
“Sorry, Chef.” Noah said. “I was just checking on you.”
“I can’t believe this.”
Noah slowly turned to face me. “Are you going to help him?”
I thought about the past several months. I had managed to solve three crimes, murders. What was one more?
“Yeah, of course.”
I just needed to figure out what he knew and get more information about his homeless friend. It would have to wait until he wasn’t in police custody. None of them would like it if I got involved, but too bad. Marco was one of my best employees and I wouldn’t allow him to be wrongly convicted, even if now it was just a gut feeling.
Chapter Two
I woke up early. Too early. The last two days raced through my mind. Marco had been arrested for murder. Murder of someone he claimed to be his friend. I believed he didn’t, but I had no way yet to prove otherwise.
Mostly because I hadn’t gotten to talk to him yet, but today was the day. He had been released from jail yesterday, after posting bail, and would be back at work.
With his absence, I was down to only one busser on day shift. I had two more, but they were on the night shift. Noah had suggested we stagger their shifts to help. The only problem, Andy was in school, and Neal’s wife worked, so he couldn’t come in until she was home to stay with their children.
Between the food runners and the servers, we had made it work the last few days, but if Marco got tied up in a lengthy trial, we would have to hire someone new. We couldn’t go long without another person.
Heck, we probably needed to hire extra employees anyway, as we would get so busy sometimes that it was difficult to keep up with tables and the servers would start bussing to fill the gaps.
I flopped over to my stomach and stared at my clock. Why did I want to be my own boss? I just wanted to cook. It was the thing that brought me the most joy.
I was extremely thankful for my managers, Noah and Cullen. They really helped out with the staffing issues, but I still had to be involved. I was the boss, after all.
Rolling to my other side, I punched at my pillow, trying to get back to sleep. My brain just wouldn’t stop thinking about work stuff. I groaned, giving up on the idea of getting more sleep. I stretched, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
From the other side of the bed, Lulu, my cat, lifted her head.
“Do you want food?”
She yawned, then snuggled into a ball, falling right back to sleep.
Well, sorry to disturb you, ma’am. I thought.
I dropped a scoop of food into her bowl, anyway. It was just my routine. After I was finished in the bathroom, I went downstairs to get some coffee.
Maybe I would make my roommates breakfast, too.
Sawyer, Vee, and I had been friends since middle school. Over twenty years ago, we met and almost instantly clicked. We bonded over the fact we didn’t quite fit in any other cliques, so we made our own.
As an adult, I realize now that I had a lot more friends than just the two of them. A few have come to my aide over the last several months in ways I could never repay.
Kyle Rafferty, or, as he is known to most, Officer Rafferty has become someone I see often. He was usually one of the responding officers when there is a crime or murder, like when my sous chef, Earl was killed on opening night for my restaurant.
Oh, Earl. I thought. I missed him daily. He had been a good friend and a great employee.
I have since been involved in three murder investigations. Not something the police wanted me to do, but hey, I was getting better at it. It was also how I had been reunited with many of my old classmates. Well, that and not traveling as much for cooking competitions.
The most recent murder broke my heart when I solved it. The killer had been my childhood babysitter and a good friend of my grandmother’s. Granny Ines had been so hurt, she stopped talking to me for a week. We have since talked it out, and she’d explained she wasn’t mad at me, more about the situation.
This one with Marco and his friend, Zachary Boyd, would be my fourth, and I did not know where to start yet.
I checked the time. It was still a bit too early to start breakfast. I grabbed my mug of coffee and headed to our office. We had a huge bulletin board that Sawyer’s dad built for us. We used it to gather the clues to each murder. It gave us the ability to brainstorm and see everything in one place.
Vee had been disappointed when Detective Richard Upton had told us they don’t actually use these boards. Though he said that they’d occasionally use a version to brainstorm, just not like in the movies and TV shows.
