A Food and Wine Club Mystery Boxset Books 1 through 5

by Cat Chandler

  “What’s that note about a tea party?”

  Nicki tilted her head to the side and read Jenna’s neat printing. “I’m not sure. But Viola was planning one that she specifically mentioned to Maxie. And whoever she was going to invite, Viola was very sure they’d like tea.” Nicki shrugged. “It might not have anything to do with the murder at all.”

  “Well the rest of it is very impressive. And logical. The Scotch, footrest, and notepad suggest someone else was there with her. But the lack of a car, or any other form of transportation, clearly tilts toward it being an accident.” Jane cast a quick look out the window in front of Nicki’s desk. “It’s too far a walk from town.”

  “I have to agree,” Nicki said. “And I can’t believe she died too long before Maxie found her.”

  “Probably not, if the smell of the liquor was still as strong as you state on the board.”

  “It was,” Nicki confirmed. She frowned at the sound of the front door opening. Jenna couldn’t possibly have made it to Eddie’s and back that fast.

  “There’s a truck outside.” Jane was staring out the window. “Does Jenna drive a truck?”

  Nicki glanced outside and smiled. “No. But Mason Edwards does. I imagine Maxie couldn’t wait to see you.”

  “Oh, probably not. We’ve known each other for a number of years.”

  Frowning at the strange tone in Jane’s voice, Nicki looked around when Maxie called out her usual “yoo hoo.”

  “We’re in the office, Maxie,” Nicki called out.

  Maxie poked her head around the side of the doorway and waved at Jane. “Hello, dear. How good to see you again. We have your desk. My Mason is dealing with the box right now. He also brought his tools, so we’ll have it put together in no time.”

  Nicki blinked. Desk? What desk?

  Less than a minute later, Maxie’s husband slid a large, skinny box through the open doorway.

  “These glass-topped desks are heavy,” he complained as he continued to push the carton in front of him until he could lean it against a wall. He looked around until his gaze landed on the small couch. “We’ll need to move that out. I’ll store it at our place until Jane’s ready to go back to Kansas.” He grinned when his wife shook her head at him.

  “How long have you been waiting to say that?” Maxie, who’d crossed the room to give Jane a warm hug, stood with her arm around the admin’s waist.

  “A long time,” Mason told her. “Now stand aside so I can greet Jane properly and then get Nicki to give me a hand with her couch.” He looked over at his tenant and grinned. “Won’t you give me a hand?”

  Giving up at having any control over the situation, Nicki laughed. “Sure. Why not? And while you’re putting it together, I think I’ll give Matt a call.”

  “Now?” Maxie’s eyebrows winged up. “It’s barely past three in the morning in Paris.”

  “Is it?” Nicki shrugged as she strolled over to the couch and stood at one end, waiting for myMason to get into position.

  “An excellent idea,” Jane agreed. “Send Mason back in here, and we’ll give you some privacy.”

  Ten minutes later, Nicki stepped into her living room and dialed the international code for Paris. She wasn’t at all surprised when Matt answered his phone on the first ring. Nicki was sure he’d been waiting for her to call.

  “Hi, honey.”

  He sounded so hopeful that she almost burst out laughing then and there. Instead, she cleared her throat and put on the sternest voice she could muster up.

  “Hi, yourself. What were you thinking?”

  She could almost hear him shuffling his feet.

  “Well. It was either this or break my promise to you, and I don’t want you to think I’d ever do that, so Jane seemed like the best solution.”

  “You said you were sending me something.” Nicki rolled her eyes. “Your admin isn’t a ‘thing’, Matt. She’s a person.”

  “I know, I know. I might have fudged that a little.”

  Nicki huffed out a breath. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘deliberately’. You fudged it deliberately, Matt Dillon, and you know it.”

  “I could still get on a plane.” Now he sounded so hopeful, Nicki couldn’t hold back the laugh.

  “No, you won’t. She’s already here, and I’m certainly not going to tell her to go home. She’d flatten me with just one look.”

  He laughed. “You’ll never convince me that you’re afraid of Jane. You fearlessly go after murder suspects without batting an eye.”

  Maybe so. But not one of them so far had been as scary as Jane Markley.

  “Matt. You probably sent her for no reason at all. There’s a better-than-excellent-chance that this was an accident.”

  He sighed. Nicki could picture him running his hand through his hair until it stood straight up. She really wished they were on Skype, so she could see him rather than talking on cell phones. “We’ve already gone over that, Nicki. You don’t think it was an accident, and your instincts are good.” He sighed again. “Sometimes too good.”

  Since she could hear the worry in his voice, Nicki relented and softened her tone. “I don’t want Jane to get into something that she might not be comfortable with. I’d hate for her to be unhappy and then have to stick it out because you told her to. She’ll do anything for you, Matt.”

  “She’d do anything for you too, Nicki. I know you don’t believe it, but Jane loves you, just like I do. And she has one of the most logical minds I’ve ever met.”

  Nicki pressed her ear closer to the phone. Did she just hear what she thought she’d heard? That wasn’t the first time he’d said it, and just like the other times, he’d casually moved on as if he were commenting about the weather.

  As Matt continued on about all Jane’s virtues, Nicki shook her head in disbelief. Her big nerd says “I love you”, and then follows it up with a long list of reasons about why his admin assistant would be a big help in a murder investigation?

  How did she ever fall in love with such an idiot? Maybe she should simply follow his lead. Smiling, she waited until he’d wound down.

  “I know all that,” Nicki said, even though she hadn’t heard a word he’d said after “I love you.” “And Jane told me she always wanted to be in on solving a murder, which is why I’m afraid she might be terribly disappointed if there isn’t one to solve after all.” She paused to be sure she had the most dramatic moment she could. “And by the way, I love you too.”

  “Well, I’d rather there wasn’t a murder even if it disappoints…. Wait… what did you say?”

  Satisfied, Nicki grinned. “Oh gosh, Matt. Everyone’s calling for me. I have to go. We’ll talk later.” She tapped the disconnect button and waited. Ten seconds later her phone rang. Smiling, she happily sent Matt to voice mail and went to help myMason assemble Jane’s desk.

  Chapter One Hundred Nine

  Nicki sat at her kitchen counter the following morning, sipping on a cup of coffee and going over the plan for the cooking class later that day. She’d been surprised when she’d walked into the kitchen after her morning run, and Jane was nowhere to be seen.

  Thinking her unexpected houseguest may have gone for a walk, Nicki glanced at her phone when it signaled an incoming text. Matt had been calling her periodically since six that morning, and she’d let every single one of his calls go to voice mail. This time he’d sent a text.

  Why aren’t you talking to me?

  She smiled and sent him a message back.

  Because I’m still mad about you sending Jane without telling me.

  A few seconds later her phone pinged again.

  Okay. How long are you going to be mad? Or do I get on that plane after all?

  Nicki laughed. Trust Matt, the engineer, to want a precise time she’d stop being mad. Thinking it over, Nicki tapped out, two hours and twenty-two minutes.

  Setting my alarm

  Shaking her head at how silly even a grown man could be at times, Nicki set her phone
down and picked up her coffee cup again just as Jane appeared in the doorway.

  “Please tell me you made another cup of coffee with that heavenly aroma.”

  Hopping off her stool, Nicki plucked a mug off a wooden rack and headed for the stove where the pot with the French press coffee was being kept gently warm over a very low flame. She poured a generous amount into a large mug and expertly slid it across the wide island toward Jane.

  “Do you need cream or sugar?”

  Jane set down a thick notebook lined along the side with colored tabs and picked up the steaming mug with two hands. “No, thank you. Undoctored coffee is the best, as long as it’s made right.” She took a delicate sip and closed her eyes. “And this certainly is.”

  “Thanks,” Nicki said, acknowledging the compliment as she studied Jane. The admin was clearly dressed for a workday in a slim skirt topped by a wide leather belt and a crisp white blouse. The only thing that was missing were shoes. Jane was wearing a fluffy pair of bedroom slippers.

  “I spent most of my childhood running barefoot, so I never have gotten used to shoes,” Jane said when she noticed Nicki’s stare. “I tend to wear them as little as possible. But if my slippers bother you, I’ll be happy to put my regular shoes on.”

  “No, no, not at all,” Nicki quickly denied. “Alex prefers slippers too, because she’s on her feet so much. And I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen Jenna wearing anything besides flip flops.” She grinned as she looked down at her own feet. “I’m partial to good old tennis shoes.”

  Jane’s eyes crinkled at the corners as she looked back at Nicki over the rim of her coffee mug. “So is Matt. Speaking of whom, have you returned any of his calls yet?”

  Nicki laughed. “Is he calling you too?”

  “Every half-hour since six a.m.”

  Curious, Nicki tilted her head to the side. “What’s he been saying?”

  Matt’s admin took another long sip of her coffee. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t been answering the phone. I don’t get into the middle of relationship issues.”

  “What makes you think we’re having an issue?”

  “I may be older than you, Nicki, but I’m not that old. He should have told you I was coming and didn’t, so you’re very rightfully taking him to task. Something that rarely happens to Matt, unless you happen to be his mother or grandmother.” She set her mug down and smiled. “The fact that he allows you to scold him on occasion told me straight off that you were the one for him.”

  At a loss for words, Nicki raised her own coffee mug hoping to hide the blush she could feel creeping across her cheeks.

  Seemingly oblivious to Nicki’s discomfort, Jane kept on going. “The fact you’re as clever and talented as you are pretty, makes me very happy Matt has set his sights on you. His mother feels the same way.”

  Nicki’s eyes flew wide open. “His mother? You’ve talked about me with Matt’s mother?”

  Jane nodded. “Since she called and asked, of course I did.”

  “Matt’s mother called and asked about me?” The very thought had Nicki freezing in place like a deer caught in a headlight.

  “Only natural,” Jane stated in the matter-of-fact voice Nicki was used to hearing over their many phone calls about magazine business. “Matt talks about you quite a bit, which would make any mother curious.”

  When Nicki fell silent, Jane reached for her notebook. “Now then. We need to plan out our workday. Do you have any meetings or conference calls planned for the day?” Jane looked at Nicki with her pen poised over the paper.

  “Um, just one. With Matt.”

  “Excellent. And what time would that be?”

  Nicki’s mouth lifted at the corners as she glanced at the large clock hanging on the wall behind Jane. “Oh, in one hour and two minutes. That’s when I told him I’d stop being mad at him. He said he’d set his alarm.”

  Jane blinked behind her glasses. “Well. That was very efficient of you. And him.” She turned to a different section of her notebook and ran a finger down the page. “That would be at nine fifteen here and six fifteen in Paris. Matt has a business dinner at six, which I assume he has now canceled, so I’ll take that off his schedule.”

  “I’m interrupting a business dinner?” Feeling suddenly guilty, Nicki started to reach for her phone to text Matt not to call her until after his dinner.

  “Don’t worry about it, Nicki. I’m sure he canceled it as soon as you two worked out a time to talk. Matt’s a big boy. He sets his own priorities, and you’ve always been at the top of his list.” Jane looked up from her book. “No use in changing that now, is there?”

  Still uncomfortable at breaking into Matt’s workday, Nicki reluctantly nodded her agreement. Jane was probably right and Matt had already changed his dinner plans. Making a mental resolution to ask Matt what his plans were before she expected more of his time, Nicki sighed and picked up her coffee cup.

  “Now. How much time today will we need to devote to the murder investigation?”

  Resigned to sounding like a broken record, Nicki leaned her elbows on the counter. “We don’t know if there’s going to be any murder investigation. The whole Viola Richards death thing could easily end up being an accident.”

  Jane nodded. “So, you won’t be spending any time on it today? Excellent. That will allow us to get ahead in our work, so we’ll be sure to have some space for the investigation later in the week.” Jane was writing quickly in her notebook. “I understand you have a novel you’re writing? Plus a personal blog, and there are two new article assignments for the magazine that are waiting in your email. Now, if we divide the time up equally, we should make great progress.” She looked up again. “How much time do you require for lunch?”

  Thinking this was beginning to sound too much like a typical nine-to-five desk job, Nicki was relieved when her phone rang. She picked it up with a smile.

  “Hello, Alex. How’s the doctoring world?”

  “Relatively peaceful now. I haven’t had one patient all morning who’s sure he or she is going to die at any minute from an infected splinter in the thumb. Or something along those lines.”

  Since Nicki could hear the overhead pager in the hospital, and the steady hum of voices in the background, she thought Alex must be calling from the hospital’s cafeteria.

  “I called to let you know I just talked to Dr. Tom. He told me that the preliminary autopsy report on Viola Richards was sent to Chief Turnlow this morning.” Dr. Thomas Garland was the county coroner as well as having a family practice of his own.

  “Really?” Nicki held her breath. “Was it interesting reading?”

  “No idea,” Alex’s disembodied voice responded. “I haven’t seen a copy of it, and probably won’t unless I can get over to the coroner’s office in the next few days, which isn’t likely.”

  Disappointed, Nicki’s shoulders drooped at that news. “Well. It was probably an accident anyway.”

  There was a long pause, which had Nicki sitting up straight again. “Do you think it was an accident, Alex?”

  “I haven’t seen the report, Nicki, so I don’t have an opinion one way or the other. But Dr. Tom did mention that he found something odd between the notes on the crime scene he was given and his autopsy, so he hasn’t declared it an accident or a homicide yet.” Alex laughed. “I don’t have anything other than that. Be sure to tell Chief Turnlow I said hello. Oops. That’s my pager. Gotta go.”

  When she hung up, Nicki smiled. So maybe her gut feeling was right after all.

  “A change to our plans today?”

  At Jane’s question, Nicki picked up her coffee cup and glanced at the clock. “I think we need to take a quick look at the murder board.”

  Jane immediately put her pen down and stepped away from the counter. “All right.”

  The two women walked into the office together and headed straight over to the whiteboard. Without a word, Jane picked up one of the markers and stood with it poised over the clean
surface. “What do we know?”

  Nicki grinned. “We know that the autopsy report came in and that the death remains unclassified.” At Jane’s startled look, Nicki nodded. “The coroner found something he doesn’t think fits with it being an accident, but he isn’t sure it was homicide either.”

  The admin assistant frowned. “What else is there?”

  “Natural causes, maybe.” Nicki shrugged. “It depends on what he found.”

  “So we really might be dealing with an actual murder? Well, heavens.” Jane set the marker down and stepped back as she studied the board. “If I remember my detective novels, I believe the standard questions are who, what, where, how, when and why.”

  “Who is easy enough,” Nicki started. “Viola Richards, a professional genealogist. Where is right across the street, and right at the moment we don’t know exactly what the cause of death was. And if it was a murder after all, we also don’t know how it was done or why.”

  Jane drew in a long audible breath. “How do we go about finding all of that out?”

  Nicki smiled as she crossed her arms and studied the board. “We do a little snooping, and some baking.”

  “Baking,” Jane repeated. “You want to bake something? Does that help you think things through?”

  “As a matter of fact, it does,” Nicki said. “It also serves a double purpose. How are you at making brownies?”

  “Not too bad if you have a mix in a box.”

  “Bite your tongue, Jane Markley. They should be made from scratch. They’re the police chief’s favorite, and we have just enough time to bring him some before I need to be back here for the cooking class.”

  Jane’s face became more animated than Nicki had ever seen it, and her eyes shone behind the lenses of her glasses. “A bribe? Are you talking about a bribe?”

  Nicki raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. “I have no idea what you’re talking about Ms. Markley.”

  Jane’s smile stretched across her entire face. “Of course not, Ms. Connors.” She looked over at the board and clapped her hands together.

  “Excellent.”