Cornbread and Coffins, page 2
part #3 of Alphabet Soup Mystery Series
Honestly, I didn’t care what they had to say, I just wanted to go home.
It was another hour before Rafferty came over to me.
“Initial cause of death. Poisoning.”
From crime shows, I knew that there were sometimes signs on the body, like foaming at the mouth or blue lips and skin. It would depend on the type of poison what her symptoms would present.
“Poisoning?” I choked out the word.
“Yeah, so we need to look at the food you had. Where is it?”
“Jordan and Shayla took it back to the restaurant.”
“Why did they leave?”
“Y’all said they could.”
“Crap, that was before—” He looked around.
“Let me call them to see if they can bring it all back up here.”
Though I imagined that had it all cleaned up by now.
“Actually, no, let’s all go over. We’ll need to gather evidence and take pictures. All of that.”
“Do you want me to call to make sure they don’t throw anything out yet?”
“Yes, but don’t tell them why.”
I hit the button for Jordan.
“Hey, Chef, what’s up?”
“Do y’all still have the food from today?”
“Um, most of it, but not all.”
“Okay, I am coming over there now. Please save the rest and don’t do anything until I get there.”
“Um, okay, I assume this has to do with the dead lady?”
“Yeah, something like that.” I was careful to keep my voice neutral. Rafferty didn’t want them to know the reason, and I’m sure that was so that they didn’t tamper with anything. Though I knew the food was fine.
“Okay, see you soon.”
I hung up and looked at Raff. “They still have the food. We can head over when you’re ready.”
“She knows why we want it, huh?”
I thought about lying to him, but there really was no point. He knew that she knew.
“Yeah.”
“Then we need to go.”
“Do you mind if I ride with you? They were my ride.”
“Yeah, Chief wants me to keep an eye on you, anyway.”
“On me, why?”
“You know why.”
“I don’t, actually.” Crossing my arms hard over my chest.
“Don’t make me say it, please. You know I cheer for you, but she was poisoned. It had to be in her food.”
“I never saw her out here eating the food. She had been working the entire time. Gio did eat some food before he left, but not her.”
“Well, nonetheless, we need to check the food. We have already gathered everything in the office, so your food is next.”
“Alrighty.”
We waited for Roberts to join us, then they had me sit in the backseat. I felt humiliated sitting there as if I was under arrest, even though I knew I wasn’t. Anyone who saw me in the car wouldn’t know though, so I tried to keep my head down.
They tried to make small talk with me on the way over, but my mind wasn’t into it. All I could think about was another murder. Another murder.
Bleep!
How could they suspect me in this? I barely knew Donna and had nothing against her. We had worked together the past week to get the menu set for this service, but that was the limit of my interaction with her.
Without knowing anything about her, I couldn’t even speculate who could have done it. Was it Gio? Even though he had seemed upset over her death, had they fought over … well, I don’t know, something funeral home business? Could it be an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend? An old friend? A rival? I had no idea and no way to know at this point.
The only thing I did know for sure is that I didn’t do it.
As we neared my restaurant, my stomach fluttered. This felt so unreal.
“You can park in the back.” I said. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself, even though the parking lot was visible to all of Brush Avenue. Dr. Vega’s office had a clear view. He was the optometrist across the road from us.
He probably thought of us as his crazy neighbors since we have had to get security footage from them a few times. I had started to send them free lunch once a week as a thank you. It was a small price to pay to keep our neighbors happy.
We headed into the restaurant via the back door.
Things were hopping inside, but I saw that Shayla and Jordan had everything still on carts by the back door. Jordan came over, nodding to the two carts loaded with leftover food and all the containers we had transported it in.
Raff and Roberts put on gloves and evidence bags, then got to work. I stood back, arms crossed, watching them work. They worked with only a few words spoken, only what was necessary to make notes and label the evidence.
Next, Roberts took out his phone and began taking pictures of the food. Not sure what he hoped to determine from that, but whatever they needed, if it proved my staff and I were innocent.
“Alrighty, Jess, I think that’s all we need.” Raff said, giving me a salute. “We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.”
“Thanks.” I held the door open, watching them walk out to their car, then I stood there watching them drive away. It was only then that I exhaled. At least I wasn’t arrested or even taken into the station. I turned towards my staff. “Well, this sucks.”
Chapter Three
I woke up after a sleepless night. Laying there, I just stared at the ceiling for a few moments, then rolled to my side to stare at my favorite two pieces of art. One was bought from a local artist who turned out to be working with others to sabotage my business. Despite the artist, I loved the little elfin boy that I’d nicknamed Luca.
Next to Luca was a dragon which I’d gotten from April Evans. Her brother Colt had been killed on his way to meet me for a blind date. Colt and I never got to meet, but April thought Colt would want me to have this dragon and some of his t-shirts.
They were actually Neal Barney shirts. He was a local artist who did folklore art and put it on shirts, purses, and canvas. My roommates and I were his biggest fans.
I put the dragon next to Luca. They made me happy, even if there were slightly bad memories attached to them.
Sighing, I pushed myself up. The last two days had been heavy. Why was I involved in another murder investigation? This one pointed to a poisoning and that pointed to my catered food.
I was unable to clear my name until the investigators determined the exact poison she had consumed, then compared it to the food samples they’d gathered.
Well, there were a few things I could do, but Detective Upton had once again warned me to not do any of them. We were standing in the parking lot of my restaurant yesterday after Rafferty and Roberts finished gathering evidence when he issued the warning.
“Look at what happened last time?” He pointed to my new car.
I simply nodded.
It wasn’t like I could argue. He was right and didn’t need to finish his thought for me to know exactly what he was referring to. Just a few weeks ago, my previous car had been blown up when I was investigating a case of embezzlement. The bad guys didn’t want me to keep looking into things. Not sure if they meant to kill me or scare.
Luckily for me, they only succeeded in one of those things.
Though I had a few not-yet-healed burns as a reminder. They were a pale pink now and not the burned flesh of a few weeks ago. They still itched like crazy.
In fact, as I thought about being pulled into a murder again, they began burning. It was like my body wanted to remind me of my past mistakes.
Chief Stone had shown me a lot of appreciation and thanked me for helping them solve the high school’s embezzlement scandal recently. But that short-lived appreciation was gone now that I was the prime suspect in this case.
Well, maybe it wasn’t just me, but the restaurant’s food and my reputation had been called into question. If customers believed that we had something to do with poor Donna’s death, it could really hurt my business.
While I lay there pondering my current situation, Lulu jumped up on the bed, climbing onto my chest. She looked down as if she was a queen atop her throne and I was just a peasant. It made me giggle.
“Good morning, Lulu.”
She meowed down at me.
“You want food?”
She meowed again, then jumped to the ground, running to her bowl. I followed dumping a scoop of her dried kibble in the bowl, then ran my hand from head to tail as she dug into her tuna medley.
This is why I loved having a cat. She gave me a reason to get out of bed even on days I was struggling. I smiled down at her as I stepped into the bathroom. I splashed water on my face and then ran a brush through my straight hair.
Simple.
I headed downstairs for some coffee and perhaps I would make breakfast. Today I was off, Parker was working the day shift and June would be working the evening one.
Having the two extra chefs available to take on the head role had freed me up to have an actual personal life. In fact, I was nearly ready to promote my lead line chef, Hannah, to sous chef as well.
This would give us four people in the top kitchen position and would open a spot for one of the apprentices to take. Shayla would be graduating in December as an early graduate, and with her extensive experience, she was my first choice.
Our other two apprentices, Jacoby and Brooklynne, wouldn’t graduate until next year, so by then we might have a position for them.
I took a long sip of coffee as I prepped breakfast. I popped the bacon into the oven. Then, I started grabbing ingredients for pancakes, mixing it into a sweet batter. I let that sit while I got the skillet ready. I had a nice flat one that was perfect for pancakes.
Once the pan was hot, I ladled the batter on and watched it sizzle just slightly. It was magical.
“Perfect.”
Flip, flip. Then, once I was satisfied, I took them out. I was about eight pancakes in when Sawyer and Vee made their way downstairs. Both dressed for another day at the Post Office.
“What smells so good?” She asked, before she came fully into the kitchen.
“Pancakes and bacon. Help yourselves.” I pointed to the two plates. One piled with perfectly cooked bacon and then the other with a stack of fluffy pancakes. I loved creating beauty with food. “There is more where that came from, too, so eat up.”
“Didn’t sleep well?” Vee asked, as she got two pancakes.
“You always know,” I exhaled, turning to face her. “No, I tossed and turned. This latest murder … Ugh!”
“Well, obviously the evidence is going to show it wasn’t you, so why worry?” She shoveled a large bite of pancake in her mouth.
“I’m with Vee. You’re worrying too much when you know you didn’t do it.”
“Y’all are so right. Why am I so worried?”
Honestly, I was afraid to turn out like my father, which was a silly thought. While I liked to help the underdogs, I wasn’t quick to violence like he was.
When I was five years old, he killed a man in front of me. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I remembered the reason, but regardless of why, he had a hot temper. It had never been pointed at me or my mother, but he was quick to defend others with violence first, words second.
I loved that he wanted to protect others from bullies, but it got him in trouble so many times in prison. I remember missing visits with him because of fights he’d gotten in, which meant losing his visitation for that month.
In my early teen years, I’d lashed out by sneaking out, egging houses, and other rebellious but mostly harmless teen pranks. Sawyer and Vee were there with me or maybe for me.
Sawyer had an okay home life, but his dad was a long-haul trucker. That just meant he was gone a lot. His mom worked a lot, so Sawyer had a lot of unsupervised time.
Vee had a mostly privileged life, but she wanted so badly to be a rebel and disobey. It usually didn’t end up that way. Her parents simply ‘talked’ to her, and all was forgiven.
I looked at them now. Had they not been my friends, no telling how life would have turned out for me. I had felt so alone most of my growing up, even with the support of my granny and aunt. They were the ones who raised me.
There were the children at Ms. Lolly’s but those kids weren’t friends outside of her house. They were just people to play with sometimes and by the time I was a young teenager, I wasn’t going there any longer.
“So, what’re your plans for the day, Jess?”
“I have to go over to Caruso Funeral Home so I can get paid for the catering job. I wasn’t able to leave the invoice last time.”
“Why didn’t you email them or mail it?”
“They asked for it this way. I have no idea why.”
“No paper trail.” Sawyer said, taking a bite of bacon.
“What?” Vee and I said in unison.
“Y’all watch the same crime shows I do.” He looked at us as if we should know what he meant. When we didn’t catch on, he sighed. “Where are they always storing and laundering money?”
Again, we stared at him, unblinking.
He continued. “Places that take in a lot of cash, like strip clubs, laundry mats. But also, funeral homes because even though they don’t take a lot of cash, they have enormous expenses, like caskets and things. What better way to explain having large sums of money in the bank?”
“Why does that make perfect sense and yet sound so crazy at the same time?” I said.
“Right?” He chuckled. “If you give them a paper copy, they don’t have an electronic copy of the receipt and they can fudge their accounting. Hide things they don’t want seen.”
“Maybe that’s why Donna was killed.” Vee blurted.
“Maybe.”
That gave me something to think about as I dressed later. Originally, I hadn’t even questioned why they wanted me to give them a printed copy and not email it. Now that was all I could think about.
I’d have to ask Noah his thoughts on it later. He had more experience with accounts payable and receivable. I was only managing this since it was a deal coordinated by my granny, not exactly through the restaurant.
I steered my new car across town to the funeral home. I was still getting used to this new car. It was nice and all, but my other car and I had history. Sure, this one had all the latest features, like an incredible back up camera, moon roof, and heated seats. And sure, it had that amazing new car smell, and nothing was sticky from Vee’s ice cream drips or my coffee oopsies.
I looked down at the gorgeous, not yet worn gray seats with the blue stitching that perfectly matched the exterior paint. I ran a hand over the smooth, clean dashboard.
“Who am I kidding? I love this car.” I shouted, then laughed at myself.
I turned the radio up loudly and sang along until I steered into the funeral home parking lot. There were about half a dozen cars. I looked at each of them, a habit I was starting to get into. Looking at my surroundings and taking in the little details.
I recognized Gio’s car right off. It was a corvette with plates that read CARUSO. I didn’t know much about him, other than his family had owned this funeral home for two generations. He was the second Caruso to be in charge.
Rumor was that his son Dimitri did not want to take over. He wanted to be a sculptor. Gio’s daughter Talia was married with young children and had expressed openly that she had no desire to take over.
That left all the work to Gio for now. Unless one of his children changed their minds, or if Talia’s husband took over. But the rumor was Gio didn’t want it out of the family control like that. As it was, he had made the poor man sign a prenup to marry Talia.
The door chime announced my arrival as I stepped inside. Right in front of me was the spot that just a few days ago, I sat waiting for the police to tell me my fate. Would they charge me or let me go?
Well, they didn’t arrest me, so that was good, but I wasn’t off the hook yet.
As I walked down the hallway, the statues and pictures still creeped me out as their eyes followed me. I stopped when Gio came out of the back room.
“Oh, hello, Chef Jessica. Welcome.” Gio said, smiling. His booming, friendly voice filled the room and pushed the eerie feeling away. “Are you here with the invoice?”
“Yes, I have it right here.”
He stepped forward, taking it from me. I’d met him a few times growing up because I’d gone to school with both his children and they both spent time at Lolly and Ray’s, too.
He seemed like a much larger man back then, or maybe it’s perhaps it was just because I’d been smaller. I stood at six feet tall and now towered over him by about six inches. But despite his shorter stature, he didn’t appear like a small man. I’m not sure if it was his weight or his confidence, but he seemed much larger.
“This looks good. Alrighty, follow me. I’ll have Regina cut you a check.”
“Oh, your wife is working her now?”
“She is. Begrudgingly, but losing Donna really left me in a bind and Dimitri won’t get his head out of his … um, behind long enough to help me out here. Wants to be an artist. Can you believe that?”
I wanted to argue and say he was already a great artist, but I knew that wasn’t the answer that Gio wanted. I hadn’t really seen much of Dimitri’s work, except a few pictures online. It wasn’t enough to really comment.
Dimitri would likely never be rich or make enough to support himself the way his father had, but if it made him happy, I say go for it.
But to keep the peace, I simply agreed with him..
We stepped into the office where Regina was cursing at the computer.
“This stupid thing froze up on me again.” She growled, hitting the side of the outdated monitor. “This piece of … Oh, hi, Jessica, I didn’t see you there.”
She stood with a smile. She was close to my height and rumor was she used to be a model before marrying Gio and having two children back-to-back.
Her bouffant hair was colored to a perfect platinum blond. She had an 80s style suit with pleated skirt and shoulder pads in the jacket. She was quite lovely but outdated and out of place in this modern world.
