Banana Fudge Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 50 Read online

  “Would you like anything else?” Phillip asked.

  “I think we could have another glass of wine,” Ryan said. This was their night out, and they could indulge another glass with their fine meal.

  “I’ll put your food order in, and I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Phillip said. He looked at his watch and smiled a big smile. Then he walked away.

  However, things did not go according to his plan. They waited for him to return for a very long time.

  Chapter 3

  “Now I’m getting so hungry, I would try the snails,” Amy said.

  Heather nodded. It seemed like eons had passed since they had placed their order. They saw other tables receive their food and were sure that those guests had arrived after they were seated. Heather wondered whether they had ordered something that took an inordinate amount of time to prepare, or if they had done something wrong and were being denied service without being informed of it.

  “He never brought the wine either,” Ryan said. “And I think we might be more willing to accept a longer wait for our food if the drinks did arrive.”

  “I’m not crazy, right?” Amy asked. “We have been waiting a very long time for our food.”

  “You might be crazy,” Heather joked. “But you’re also right. I think it’s been an hour since we ordered.”

  Ryan consulted his watch and nodded.

  “Do you think anything is wrong with Phillip?” Jamie asked. “He seemed healthy when he spoke to us, but he also seemed a little old to be working on his feet all night.”

  “I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions,” Heather said. “If there was a medical emergency, I don’t think they could hide the arriving ambulance from us. Even if it went around to the kitchens.”

  “Then what is he doing?” Amy asked. “I was so impressed that he remembered all our complicated orders by memory, but if he never told the chef, I won’t be impressed at all.”

  Heather tapped her fingers on the table. The service tonight was radically inconsistent. They were uneasy at the fancy table but had the most delightful conversation possible with their waiter, and then they had to hungrily wait for food while being ignored.

  Ryan had been trying to attract the attention of another waiter with no success. They seemed to focus only on their own tables and ignored the others.

  “I think it might be time to whip out your badge,” Heather whispered to her husband. She knew that he didn’t like to abuse police power, but he could just let the staff know that the customer they were ignoring was a detective. Besides, if they did all starve to death while waiting for food, that would surely be a crime.

  Ryan considered it. Then he adjusted his outfit so that his badge could be seen on his hip, and slid his chair back, so it was visible.

  Suddenly it became much easier for them to attract another waiter’s attention.

  “Yes, sir,” the young freckle-faced waiter asked. “What can I do for you?”

  “Our waiter seems to have abandoned us,” Ryan said. “Can you find him?”

  “Or at least find our food?” Amy asked.

  “It’s been about an hour,” Heather explained.

  The young waiter looked surprised to hear that Phillip was gone.

  “He hasn’t been to your table in an hour?” He asked in shock.

  “So we’d really like our food,” said Amy.

  “Sometimes Phillip can be a little slow or get distracted, but nothing like that,” the waiter said. “I’ll go look for him.”

  He had run off before he heard Amy’s suggestion of “Or just look for our food.”

  They waited some more for the young waiter to report back to them. They were just considering cutting their losses and having some Banana Fudge Donuts for dinner instead of dessert when the young waiter returned.

  He hadn’t found Phillip. Their waiter had set aside a bottle of wine for their table, but then seemed to have disappeared. No one else on the staff had seen him recently. The restaurant manager joined them at the table.

  Heather was curious to hear more about where Phillip had gone, but the manager was too busy making apologies to field any questions. He had the young waiter bring them wine and appetizers to tide them over. Then they retook their orders for their main courses. The young waiter wrote it down on his pad of paper and ran off as quickly as possible to get it into the chef’s hands.

  The manager was so generous in his apologies that the table was inclined to forgive the inconvenience. They enjoyed the complimentary Pork Rillettes and a cheese platter. However, even as they forgave the delay, they couldn’t stop themselves from discussing the disappearance.

  They considered that something unfortunate had happened to Phillip, but thought it was unlikely that Phillip could have been injured or threatened in a crowded restaurant without someone noticing. Could he have quit his job and walked out? Was this a quickly decided retirement? Did he run away for an impromptu hot date?

  Their meals arrived, and they decided that the food was worth the wait. Phillip had helped them order the perfect dishes. They enjoyed their meals, and their talk turned to a discussion of Amy and Jamie’s house hunting plans.

  “We’ve been looking at some places online. We need to schedule some appointments to actually visit them,” Jamie said.

  “We’ve been leaning towards renting a house instead of an apartment,” Amy said. “It would give us more space to work with.”

  “But we need to find the right layout that we like.”

  “And find a nice neighborhood in Hillside. Far away from recent crime scenes, if possible.”

  “Hopefully something that is between both of our jobs.”

  “And feels homey.”

  “It sounds like it’s tricky to find the right place,” Ryan said.

  “But when they do, it will be perfect for them,” Heather added. Amy smiled at her.

  Heather hoped that discussing their house hunting aloud would alleviate any feelings of cold feet. It seemed to be working, as both members of the couple looked hopeful.

  They were enjoying their time together and had almost forgotten about their missing waiter when Ryan received a call.

  “Shepherd,” he said, answering his cell phone. “I’m pretty close by. I’ll be right there.”

  “What happened?” Heather asked.

  “I’m being called to a murder scene,” Ryan said. “For an older man with hearing aids.”

  Chapter 4

  “Are you sure it’s Phillip?” Heather asked.

  “Until I get to the crime scene and see for myself, I’m not sure of anything,” Ryan said. “But based on the description that was given, I think it’s likely.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Amy said.

  “Me neither,” Jamie said, with a tinge of both annoyance and defeat in his voice.

  “He took our order, disappeared and was murdered?” asked Amy.

  “Let’s not assume anything until I get to the scene,” Ryan said.

  He pushed away his plate with the remainder of his meal on it. The rest of the group followed suit. Even if they didn’t have to hurry away as quickly as Ryan did, their appetites were ruined. The potential death of the kind waiter they had talked to left them without a desire to touch their food.

  Heather knew that Ryan had to leave, but saw that he was hesitating.

  “If you have to go, go,” Heather said. “We can take care of the bill.”

  “I do hate running out on you all, but I should start work on a murder case as soon as possible.”

  Amy agreed, “Especially if it was our waiter, then you shouldn’t wait.”

  “Do you need any help?” Heather asked. With a wink, she added, “I know some nearby private investigators who are willing to assist.”

  “I would love your help,” Ryan said. “This was a recent crime so all the clues should be fresh. It happened by the side of the road. We could use every set of eyes available to make sure we don’t miss anything.”

&n
bsp; “Between the two of us, we’re four eyes. And decent brains,” Amy said.

  “I was just trying to figure out the best scenario with our cars,” Ryan said.

  Heather nodded. Now she understood why he hesitated. He didn’t want anyone to be left behind or without a vehicle.

  “You need to get to the scene,” Heather said. “You take my car.” She handed him the keys to her Cherry Red Spark that they had traveled to the restaurant together in. Then she turned to the other couple who had traveled together as well. “How about we drop Jamie off at his house and then Amy and I can drive back to the crime scene?”

  They all agreed on this course of action and Ryan rushed off. The remaining trio paid their bill to the apologetic manager who was still trying to regain their favor. Heather assured him that the meal was excellence and he was appeased. She felt guilty about not informing him about what might have happened to Phillip, but she decided it was better not to say anything until they knew exactly what the situation was. She didn’t want to spread any misinformation, even if it was to preserve Phillip’s reputation.

  They left in Amy’s car and headed out to bring Jamie home. Heather noticed that there was an icy silence in the vehicle, apart from Jamie saying “I can’t believe the last thing I said to him was wow.”

  When they arrived, Amy walked Jamie to his door and Heather tried not to eavesdrop. However, the car was parked too close by, and she couldn’t help overhearing.

  “I guess a positive spin is that when we’re living together, our carpooling will be easier,” Amy said. “Even if I need to run off to a crime scene, our cars and end point will be at the same spot at the end of the night.”

  “I was sort of hoping that when we live together that this wouldn’t happen as much.”

  Amy took a step back. “Are you saying that you don’t want me to be a private investigator? Because I’m a pretty good one, and I didn’t have a clue that you felt this way.”

  “No, I don’t want you to stop from investigating,” Jamie started.

  “Good. Because I wouldn’t,” Amy said, crossing her arms. “I wouldn’t stop just because you told me too.”

  “Well, it’s great to see how much you care about me and my opinions.”

  “It’s not an opinion if it’s an order,” Amy said

  “I didn’t order anything,” Jamie said. “I’d just like to go out to eat every once in a while without somebody being murdered!”

  “Well, I didn’t kill him,” Amy snapped. “It’s not my fault.”

  “I didn’t say it was your fault. Stop putting words in my mouth!”

  Heather felt very awkward, sitting in the car. She played with her seatbelt, trying to ignore the squabble that was going on so close by.

  “I have to go,” Amy said.

  “Fine,” said Jamie.

  They glared at each other angrily as Amy got into the car. Jamie relented a little and came up to the car window.

  “Wait,” he said. “Let me know when you get home tonight. I want to know that you’re safe. There is apparently a murderer running around.”

  “All right,” Amy said. “I’ll do that.”

  Then Jamie went inside while Amy took off down the street. Heather was happy to see that despite their argument, that they still cared about one another’s well-being. However, she wasn’t sure whether she should comment on this or not to her friend.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” Amy said eventually. “That must have been awkward.”

  “It’s okay,” Heather said. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Right now I’m angry, and I’m not even sure why.”

  “Murder can complicate everything,” Heather commented.

  “You can say that again.”

  Heather refrained from a repeat but smiled at her friend who seemed to relax a bit.

  “Let’s just try and solve this one quickly,” Amy said.

  “I’ll do my best,” Heather said. “But it’s not often I’m dressed in formal wear when I start sleuthing. I hope I can manage in these shoes!”

  Chapter 5

  “What party are we dressed up for? And why wasn’t I invited?”

  Heather groaned at Detective Hoskins’s joke. She had wanted to get to the scene of the crime as soon as possible after making sure that Jamie was home. However, if she had thought more about Hoskins’s presence on the scene, she might have taken the extra time to run home and change.

  Detective Hoskins’s was Ryan’s partner, but she considered him to the dead weight of the duo. He could be lazy on the job. Heather did her best to hide her feelings of annoyance towards him for her husband’s sake. (Ryan did have to work with him.) However, it was clear that neither of them was each other’s biggest fans.

  “There’s no party,” Heather said. “Just a case to investigate.”

  “And you know as well as anyone that a call can come in at an inconvenient time,” Amy said. She was gesturing towards the stains on his shirt that must have come from his dinner.

  He grumbled a response. He was eyeing Amy’s high heeled shoes but thankfully didn’t make a comment. Detective Hoskins had made some sexist comments when they first started working with the police force but had rightfully started to refrain from them. Heather tried her best to think of Hoskins in the best light and that he had learned from the experience. It was equally as likely that he was frightened of the Shepherds’ response to the behavior. Either way, he was quiet now and seemed ready to discuss the case.

  Ryan joined them. The body had been removed, so they had to ask.

  “Was it the waiter Phillip?”

  Ryan nodded. “I was able to make the identification, even though he had been hit on the back of the head.”

  “So he was snuck up on?” Heather thought aloud.

  “Most likely,” Ryan said.

  “You’ve been on the scene for a while,” Heather said. “What can you tell us so far?”

  “That’s right,” Detective Hoskins said. “We have been on the scene. Because we’re detectives and we investigate when we are called upon. We work on solving crime because it’s job. We don’t decide when we want to leave a party and then—“

  Ryan stopped him by speaking up firmly. “On an evening off, I went out to dinner with my wife and friends. When told about the crime, we all came as quickly as arrangements could be made. As evident by our outfits, we put starting work on the case above the comfort of changing clothes. And, while there should be nothing wrong with going to a restaurant when off duty in general, in this circumstance, it gives us special insight into the case. We met this man earlier tonight.”

  Detective Hoskins quickly mumbled an apology. He must not have realized that his partner had been out that evening as well. Maybe he actually had been sad that he thought a party happened and he was not invited. He pulled a candy bar out of his pocket and started eating. His sweet tooth was even more developed than Heather’s.

  In an effort to redeem himself he told them an update on the case in between bites of candy bar. “The victim was found over there. His car was found further up the road. We were able to determine that his name was Phillip Ruth.”

  Heather nodded. They had not known the waiter’s last name earlier. It seemed like information was already being discovered about the case that could be helpful.

  “Was there anything in the car that would indicate why he was here?”

  “Not that we’ve found,” Ryan answered. “However the car keys were found in the victim’s pocket. That makes it seem likely that he parked the car on the side of the road intentionally and walked over here. He had a flashlight on him, which further makes us think he was looking for something.”

  After all her driving around that evening, Heather had to get her bearings.

  “How far away are we from the restaurant?” she asked.

  “Just about three miles. He’s moving away from town, so it seems more desolate, but it actually is close to where he works.”

>   She considered this. The area they were in did seem desolate and abandoned. There were a grouping of trees and overgrowth nearby. Though lights from business could be seen in the distance, right here it was dark except for the lights provided by the Hillside Police Department.

  “He was looking for something,” Heather said. “But secretly. He slipped out from his job for what he thought would only be a few minutes.”

  “I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but I wish he did put in the dinner order with the chef before he snuck out,” Amy mumbled.