Pink Moscato & Murder: An Oceanside Cozy Mystery - Book 15 Read online

  “I wasn’t suggesting that,” Heather said. “But you might have suggested that there is another suspect in our case. The scrunchie was definitely dropped close to the murder.”

  Cooking Dreams

  After their discovery about the scrunchie, Heather and Amy were even more determined to find out who it belonged to. They also wanted to question all the other employees and see if they had a motive to kill.

  They arrived at Andy Dalton's door, and he admitted them inside.

  "I don't know what I can tell you about all this," Andy said. "As Clint liked to remind me, I was only a waiter."

  “But you wanted to be a chef?” Heather asked.

  "Very badly," Andy said. "But I couldn't afford to go to culinary school. I wanted to learn on the job, but the closest I could get was to become a waiter. When I started there, I hoped that the chef would give me some pointers. The Sous Chef Josh gave me some advice but didn't have much time to teach me. But Clint just liked to laugh at my dreams."

  “That must have been hard,” Amy said.

  “It was pretty mean,” Andy said. “But it’s not something you would kill over.”

  Heather and Amy looked at Andy. He was a skinny young man with short blonde hair. He seemed like a soft-spoken guy but was making an effort to tell them the answers they wanted to hear.

  “Did any of the other employees have a reason to be angry with Clint Trag?” Heather asked.

  “Damian got along with everyone. He just let things roll off his back. Mary Lou had been acting strangely lately. I’m not sure if it was related to Chef Clint’s shouting about how she was too slow,” Andy said. “And then there was the ex-employee.”

  “Who was that?” Heather asked, playing dumb.

  “The Sous Chef I mentioned before. He and Chef Clint got into a big argument a few days ago. There was a lot of shouting. Someone threw a pot. It started with a stir-fry recipe. I heard Chef Clint give a challenge to create the best stir-fry. But then they were just insulting each other. And then Josh left. He looked angry. Maybe angry enough to kill. I’d hate to think that because he was nicer to me than Chef Clint was,” Andy said. “But you never can tell.”

  “And where were you on Saturday morning?” Heather asked. “Before ten thirty?”

  “I was home alone,” Andy said. “But when I got up I tried to squeeze in an On-Demand show. That must have been around nine. Maybe there’s some record of it. It was a cooking show, but it ended up not being very good. My dish didn’t turn out the same at all.”

  "Do you have a key to the restaurant?” Heather asked.

  "Yes," Andy said. "All the full-time employees did. To the front door. In case someone had to get called in early sometime. But I rarely used mine. I was the low man on the totem pole. Do you think the killer used a key?”

  “It’s possible,” Heather said.

  She really wanted to see the knives in Andy's kitchen and see if any of them matched the murder weapon. She was sure the pictures they were taking of kitchen knives would be useful.

  "That looks like a lovely kitchen,” she said. “Is that where you do all your cooking? Following along with the cooking shows and such?”

  “That’s where I try and cook,” Andy said. “I am learning. But it’s hard to become a professional you don’t have a mentor.”

  “I’d love to see it,” Heather said. Without waiting for an invitation, she headed towards it. The room was covered with fancy culinary gadgets and cookbooks.

  “You sure have a lot of cookbooks,” Amy said.

  "They're my mentors right now," Andy said. “Do you cook?”

  “We bake more than anything else,” Heather said. “Donuts.”

  “I haven’t tried those,” Andy said.

  Heather was trying to get a glimpse of his knives, and so she kept up the chit-chat. "They can be tricky when you're starting out, but now donuts are our specialty, and I create my own recipes. Are you working on anything in particular now?"

  “Not really,” Andy said. For some reason, he started closing some open cookbooks.

  “Oh no,” Amy said, suddenly. She held a hand up to her ear. “I lost an earring. It must have been in the living room. Can you help me find it?”

  Andy reluctantly agreed and went with Amy into the other room. Heather gave her an appreciative smile. She opened a cookbook to a bookmarked page and saw it was a recipe for a stir-fry.

  "Oh. I can't have lost that earring!" Amy cried from the other room. "It was my Great-Grandma Leila's."

  Heather hurried up her search. She started taking pictures of all of Andy's kitchen knives. They were all professional quality. She could tell that he had been trying to take his cooking seriously but didn't know quite where to start. She found all eleven of his matching knives in his kitchen by the time Amy returned with her "found" earring.

  “Well, I think we’ve found out everything we need to know,” Heather said. “Thanks for talking to us.”

  She and Amy scuttled out the door. Heather couldn’t help laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Amy asked.

  "I know I shouldn't be laughing when we're looking for murder weapons," Heather said. "But I bet Leila will get a real kick out of you calling her your great-grandma."

  The Last Employee

  Damian also admitted the investigators into his home. He provided them with some appetizers.

  “I’m not sure we should be accepting food during our questioning,” Heather said.

  “One bite couldn’t hurt,” Amy said after she smelled the food. She took a bite and smiled, but then said, “This is so good it might be considered a bribe.”

  “I don’t mean it to be such,” Damian said. “I just like to eat. And cooking is the best way to get something tasty.”

  “Are you a chef too?” Heather asked.

  Damian shrugged. “What makes a chef? Is it having your own kitchen and making good food? Then I guess I am when I’m at home.”

  "But at work, don't you just prepare food?" Amy asked. "Like chopping up vegetables?"

  “That’s right,” Damian said.

  “And it doesn’t bother you?” Heather asked.

  “It seems like a waste of talent to me,” Amy said, taking another appetizer.

  "The other cooks at Meals by the Sea make it sound like such a big deal. It’s a job to me. It pays me so I can enjoy the rest of my time. If I had my own professional kitchen, I might do things differently, but I’m happy where I am,” Damian said. “I don’t feel like fighting to get my own place just so that I can say it's mine and be in control."

  "Is that what it was like with Clint Trag?" asked Heather.

  “He was very particular about his dishes. It was his way or the highway. I can understand that if you truly feel that is what is best for the guests. But he also liked to belittle his staff. That’s not nice. I tried to make everyone feel better about work after he would try and bring them down.”

  “Where were you on Saturday morning?” Heather asked, changing the subject.

  “Saturday mornings I go to a Tai Chi before work. It’s at nine thirty and lasts an hour. A little longer if we get to chatting,” Damian said.

  Heather took out the picture of the scrunchie as Amy took another appetizer bite.

  “Do you recognize this hair tie?” Heather asked.

  “It’s mine,” Damian said.

  Amy had to refrain from spitting out her food in surprise at his admission. Damian’s hair was long enough that it might need to be tied back while in the kitchen, but the style still didn’t seem to match.

  "I thought it was funny," Damian said. "The band I was using had broken, and I saw that scrunchie in a display window, so I bought it. I must have lost it though. Where did you find it? At the restaurant?"

  “Yes,” Heather said. “Unfortunately, our finding it there also places you there close to the murder.”

  “Oh dear,” Damian said. “I knew I’d be found out.”

  “Is that another con
fession?” Amy asked.

  "Not to the murder," Damian said. “But there is something else to confess. Mary Lou won’t like that I’m telling you this.”

  “Did she call you when we were at her house?” Heather asked.

  “I told her that she shouldn’t have done that,” Damian said. “Hopefully you’ll realize that she doesn’t have the criminal temperament. Neither of us had anything to do with the murder. But she was afraid that it might look like we did if you knew.”

  “Knew what?” asked Heather.

  “Yeah,” Amy said. “You’re going around in circles.”

  “Mary Lou and I were dating,” Damian said.

  “What’s wrong with that?” Heather said. “Was it not allowed at work?”

  “That’s right,” Damian said. “Clint wouldn’t have approved of employees dating each other. He would have given us a hard time.”

  “That could be a motive,” Amy said. “He found out about you two. One of you went to the restaurant early in the morning to silence him.”

  “No,” Damian said. “He didn’t know about us. And he didn’t know about the other thing. The real thing we have to confess to.”

  “We’re waiting,” Amy said impatiently.

  “I hope you’ll be lenient about it,” Damian said.

  “Please, tell us,” Heather said. “We just want to find the murderer.”

  “Mary Lou and I used to have date nights at the restaurant. Late at night after they were closed. We would use our keys and go inside. We'd use the kitchen's ingredients, and I'd whip up fancy meals for us. We'd clean up before we left. We didn't think anyone ever knew about it. Clint might have mentioned missing ingredients before, but he didn't suspect anything," Damian said. "We knew that technically it was stealing. But after working all day for such a harsh boss, it didn’t feel like stealing. It felt like a well-deserved perk of the job. It was pretty romantic too.”

  “And you were there Friday night?” Heather asked.

  “That’s right,” Damian said. “We were there late Friday, but we weren’t there Saturday morning when the murder took place. Mary Lou was afraid that we might not have cleaned up after ourselves or dropped something and it would look like we were involved with the death.”

  “You did drop something,” Heather said. “The scrunchie.”

  “I guess you let your hair down at the end of the date,” Amy joked.

  "And so, what was in the trash was from what you had cooked up that night?” Heather asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Damian said. “We cleaned up everything we used for our dinner and took the trash out with us. We didn’t want anyone to know we had been there. What was in there?”

  “A lot of vegetables,” Amy said.

  “So the food in the trash had to be thrown out the morning of the murder," Heather said.

  "I didn't have anything to do with Clint's death. And I'm sure Mary Lou didn't either," Damian said. "Would you like to look in my kitchen?"

  “Why?” asked Heather.

  “For whatever you were looking for in Mary Lou’s kitchen,” Damian said. “She told me she found you there. I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t bring your dog to talk to me.”

  “He wouldn’t have done anything except beg,” Amy said. “These appetizers are delicious.”

  “We would love to see your kitchen,” Heather said. “And do you mind if we take a few pictures?”

  “Whatever you need,” Damian said.

  “And a few of these appetizers for the road?” Amy added.

  Recipe for a Solution

  Heather sat at her kitchen table. She had a box of donuts in front of her but was waiting until Ryan came home to eat them. Amy was pacing nearby.

  Dave and Cupcake looked between Heather and Amy, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally, Amy sighed and dropped into another chair at the table.

  “What’s bothering you?” Heather asked. “The case or Jamie?”

  “They’re interwoven for this case,” Amy said. “And last night was weird.”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” Heather said. “I kept thinking about the case. Could any of the other employees have done it?”

  "I couldn't sleep either. You know how I slept in your guest room because I was mad at Jamie? Well, I kept wondering why he wasn't calling me to see where I was and why I wasn't home. I was so upset because it seemed like he didn't care."

  “I’m sorry,” Heather said.

  “Well, it turns out he was sleeping on Eva and Leila’s couch. He was wondering why I wasn’t worried about him too! We must have confused Miss Marshmallow terribly,” Amy said. “We laughed about it this morning when we found out. I think ultimately, we’ll be all right. But we’re still annoyed at each other right now.”

  “I bet if we could solve the case, it would help,” Heather said. “Ryan should be home any minute. Hopefully, he’ll have some good news about the knives that we’ve been taking pictures of.”

  “Hopefully,” Amy agreed. “It would be so nice if Jamie were right about Josh. Even if they acted foolishly after the fact.”

  Ryan came home. After greeting everyone, he sat down without a smile on his face.

  “Bad news?” Heather asked.

  “Just an absence of news,” Ryan said. “We compared the shapes of all of the knives that you gave us, but none were a perfect match.”

  “Really?” Heather sighed. “We found so many and none of them matched?”

  “Afraid not,” Ryan said.

  “If it wasn’t one of Mary Lou’s knives, or Damian’s complete sets, or Andy’s eleven knives,” Amy said. “Then it had to be Josh.”

  “What did you just say?” Heather asked.

  “It was what we were afraid of,” Amy said. “Josh had to be the killer.”

  “No, not that,” Heather said. “Eleven knives.”

  “What about them?” asked Amy. “It didn’t match.”

  "The killer must have disposed of the murder weapon," Heather said. She opened the box of a dozen donuts and looked at it. She picked one donut up and took a bite while she stared at the other circles.

  “That’s it,” she said. “That’s the murder weapon. And if that’s the murder weapon, then I know who the killer is. And just maybe a guess for the motive too.”

  “Where are you going?” Amy asked.

  “I know what we have to test to see if it’s a match for the murder weapon,” Heather said. “Let’s go!”

  Heather and Amy stood at a distance as Ryan and Detective Peters arrived at Andy Dalton's house and arrested him. He saw the two of them as the detectives led him to the squad car.

  “But how did you know?” he asked.

  “You only had eleven knives in your kitchen,” Heather said. “That seemed like an odd number to me.”

  “Odd meaning unusual,” Amy said. “Even though it’s the math odd too.”

  "I thought the set might have come in a set of twelve. We checked with the manufacturer, and we were right. The knives come as a dozen," Heather said. "Then, we just had to check the shape of that blade to see if it matched the murder weapon that was used. And it did."

  “Do you know why?” Andy asked. He looked like he had been bottling something up and it was ready to spill out.

  "I have a guess," Heather said. "You went to work early that day because you were hoping to impress Clint Trag so he would promote you and let you train to be a chef. You used your key and started cooking in the kitchen. You thought that with Josh gone, you might be able to move up. All the ingredients in the trash that day? They were ingredients that could be used to make a stir-fry. You were hoping to impress him, but I'm guessing it didn't work out."

  "He laughed at me," Andy said, breaking down. "All I wanted was to become a chef like him, and he laughed at me for it. He said my cooking was a joke. Then he started accusing me of stealing his supplies. Stealing? I brought all the ingredients. I even brought my own knives and supplies in. I didn't wa
nt him to be distracted by my using his things that he wouldn't taste my food. But he just starting yelling."

  “Damian and Mary Lou were the ones stealing the supplies,” Heather said. “But he didn’t know that.”

  "I just wanted to impress him," Andy said. "I got there early so it would be all finished when he arrived and then he could tell Mr. Gusters that they should give me the job. He had challenged Josh to make the best stir-fry. I heard it. And I thought I might be able to do it. But instead, he just laughed at my dreams. I'm not sorry I killed him. I'd do it again if I could!"

  “Once is enough,” Ryan said. “Come on.”

  He and Detective Peters led Andy away even as he continued to shout about how terrible Chef Clint had been.

  “That was pretty mean of Clint Trag, but he shouldn’t have been stabbed for it,” Amy said.

  “Agreed,” said Heather.

  “And I’m really glad that it ended up that Josh was innocent,” Amy said.

  "Maybe if we tell this to Jamie, he could mention it to him,” Heather said.

  “If he knows where he is,” Amy said, rolling her eyes.

  Donuts for All

  “I’m not staking him out today,” Amy said. “He can come to me.”

  “Are you sure it’s that? And not that you want to test out all the donuts I’m preparing for Col and Mona’s wedding?” Heather teased.

  “Well, that’s a perk,” Amy said.

  They were in the kitchen of Donut Delights, trying to whip of a flavor that would be perfect for their friends' special day. Even though it was for an important event, after the craziness of their last investigation, Heather was finding the time in her kitchen with her bestie relaxing.

  At least she did until Digby entered. He looked sadly at the donuts.

  “Did you eat your one donut of the day already?” Heather asked.

  “About three seconds after I came in this morning,” Digby said. “It’s torturous. But I am sticking to my resolution.”