“Good,” Celestial said, all traces of edge in her voice gone. “That’s all I ask.”
Chapter 13
Jody sat by herself in a corner booth at the diner as she tabulated the restaurant’s expenses for the month. She looked up from her laptop and the stacks of bills to see what had lamentably become a common sight: only two customers were present. One was a man who sat at the end of the counter, sipping on a cup of black coffee and hungrily devouring a slice of cherry pie. The second was a woman at a table near the door, nervously eyeing her plate of pot roast. With these two, Jody thought, that brings our customer count for today up to … seven.
With the realization, Jody broke down in tears and withheld her sobs as best she could to keep from disturbing the few customers she did have. Tommy had been eyeing Jody as he lazily wiped and rewiped the tables, and when she began crying he took it as his cue.
Tommy checked in with the customers, and after he was positive they both didn’t need his help, he walked to Jody’s booth and sat down.
“I’m so sorry, Jody. This is all my fault.”
“Tommy, no,” Jody replied, her sobs subsiding to quiet tears as she looked at him. “None of this is your fault.”
“It is, though!” Tommy practically shouted, his body tensing. “I’m the reason that Tammy was here in the first place. If it wasn’t for me, none of this mess would be happening. It seems like, even with Tammy gone, I’ll never truly be rid of her.” His body relaxed only slightly; Jody could see just how much the murder continued to hurt Tommy.
“Tommy, you can’t take the blame like that. If you do, Tammy really will haunt you forever.”
She couldn’t tell what Tammy was thinking, and he wouldn’t tell her he agreed. No matter what Jody said, it seemed Tommy was intent on self-flagellation.
Suddenly, Tommy said “Jody, I can quit. Get out of your hair, you know? I think I’m the reason people aren’t coming in. I bet business would improve 100 percent if I was gone”
“Absolutely not, Tommy. You may want to punish yourself, but I won’t be a part of it. Besides, where else would I find a chef as good as you in such a short time?”
Tommy looked up at her and they both smiled. The tears on Jody’s cheeks had begun to dry, leaving small rivulets that had broken through her makeup. “Everything is going to work out, Tommy.”
“How can you be so sure?” Tommy asked.
“Because Brightborough is home to a world-class detective,” Jody responded confidently as she sat up straighter. “Celestial has our back, and she won’t let whoever did this get away with it. I believe in her, and you should too.”
“I’ll try,” Tommy sighed, “but it won’t be easy.”
“She will solve this,” Jody insisted. “Speaking of, I have some stuff I need to discuss with Celestial. Think you can hold down the fort while I go out for a bit?”
・・・
Jody left Tommy in charge of the diner and made her way to Celestial’s house. Jody knocked on her door and Celestial answered in a T-shirt and sweatpants, her signature mug of tea in hand.
“Hi, Jody,” Celestial greeted her cheerily, “I didn’t expect company so late. Please, come in; I hope my outfit doesn’t offend.” Celestial jokingly gestured to her comfy clothes.
“Of course not, Celestial. I probably should’ve called or texted you first. I’m not exactly thinking clearly since Tammy died.”
“It’s not a problem, Jody. I’m happy to have you here.”
Jody walked in and the two went into the kitchen. Celestial pulled out a chair for Jody and said, “Please, sit. Can I make you some tea?”
“No, thanks,” Jody replied as she sat down, “it’d probably keep me up all night, and sleep isn’t very easy to come by these days. I appreciate the thought, though. I actually wanted to talk with you about the diner.”
Celestial set down her mug and sat opposite Jody. Jody recounted to her the conversation she’d had earlier with Tommy. When she mentioned Tommy’s suggestion that he quit, Celestial’s eyebrows shot up.
“Please tell me you didn’t agree to that,” Celestial swiftly responded.
“Of course not!” Jody looked up, hurt. “I hope you don’t think I’m heartless like that.”
Celestial calmed, “Not at all. Besides that, though, I’d be even more concerned about how people would take Tommy leaving the restaurant. It’d be as good as him admitting he killed Tammy. People might even think the two of you were in on the murder together, like you were having some sort of secret tryst or something.”
Jody nodded in agreement, “That definitely crossed my mind, too. It feels like neither of us will get out of this unscathed.” She sighed, “What can I do, Celestial? I don’t know where to turn, how to fix all of this, and make everything okay.”
“Stay strong, Jody. Right now, I think that’s all you can do. Once we find the real culprit, people will be banging down your door just to eat at Jody’s Diner.”
“Thanks, Celestial. I really appreciate your support.”
Celestial smiled, “Of course, Jody. Since I’ve got you here, I did have one question about that night.”
“Sure,” said Jody, “shoot.”
“That alley behind the kitchen, did you happen to see anyone out there?”
“Not that I remember,” Jody replied sullenly. “I don’t even know why the door was left unlocked in the first place.”
“Don’t worry about it Jody,” Celestial consoled. “Accidents happen.”
“Yeah, but this accident might have cost Tammy her life.”
Chapter 14
Celestial sneezed at the pollen-laden breeze coming in through the cracked-open window at Herbal Heaven. She loved plants, positively adored them, but that didn’t make her utterly immune to their allergenic powers. Usually it wasn’t enough to bother her, but today--maybe due to her heightened emotional state, all this worry over Jody and Tommy--she felt more sensitive than usual.
“Whoa there!” Bella exclaimed, popping into view in the store. “It’s windy outside!”
A moment later, Stella popped over too.
“Hey ladies,” Celestial greeted before sneezing again.
“Bless you, Celestial,” Stella said, before looking at Bella. “Are we allowed to say that?”
Bella shrugged before turning to Celestial. “You look worried there, Celestial.”
“Just some allergies,” Celestial replied. “Let me get some tissues.”
She grabbed her purse and started rooting around in search of the pack of facial tissues she kept in there. Her fingers settled on something that at first felt as though it was of a similar size, but much harder and more compact. As Celestial closed her hand around it, she realized that this was a foreign object, something that didn’t belong in her purse at all, and she pulled it out in order to get a better look.
“What’s this?” Celestial asked, in wonder.
Only when she set eyes on it did she recognize and remember the lighter she had picked up in the kitchen when she first visited Jody’s diner. How could she have forgotten it entirely? She supposed that all the hectic events that had happened, both at the time and since then, had pushed the discovery out of her mind.
Luckily, she had thought to tuck it in her purse for later discovery.
Celestial looked closer at the faint initials she had found etched into the lighter. They were obscured by grime and tarnish, not distinctly readable, so Celestial dug again in her purse for the tissues and this time located them successfully. Her itching nose long forgotten, she instead applied the tissues to vigorously cleaning the lighter in order to better see the shallow carvings.
JR, they read.
“Jardín Rico,” Celestial whispered.
“Does that mean anything to us?” Bella asked. “I figure as co-detectives that’s the kind of question we should be asking.”
“I got this at Jody’s diner kitchen. It belongs to Elaina. It seems like just the type of thing Elaina would do, to
have a fancy lighter made with the initials of her beloved, hoity toity restaurant engraved into them,” Celestial mused.
“But why would Elaina’s lighter--or, at the very least, a lighter from her restaurant--show up in Jody’s diner’s kitchen?” Stella asked.
“It only makes sense if Elaina, or someone acting under Elaina’s orders, had snuck into the kitchen for whatever reason,” Celestial said quietly.
“Dun, dun, dun,” Bella said with mock gravity.
When Stella and Celestial turned to look at her, she shrugged. “I’ve been watching a lot of television lately.”
Of course, the first reason to come to Celestial’s mind was that Elaina had been responsible for making the switch: for swapping the parsnips for hemlock when Tommy and Jody weren’t looking.
With the door to the alley unlocked, it would have been easy to do. The diner was often bustling, and Jody and Tommy would have been too busy to take note of everyone who came and went. For someone who really knew their way around a restaurant kitchen, and who wasn’t too worried about what customer, specifically, received the poison, it would’ve been potentially as easy as simply adding the water hemlock to the parsnip pile.
“It might be just about time I go check out this Jardín Rico myself,” Celestial said, already grabbing for her purse again. “Come on, Athena, let’s go.”
* * *
No sooner had Celestial entered Jardín Rico, however, than Elaina Chavez herself swooped up and tried to physically block her entrance. “Excuse me,” said Celestial. “I was hoping to be able to eat here.”
“I’m sorry,” said Elaina, faux-sweet with a steely undertone. “I’m afraid that doesn’t work for me.”
“Doesn’t work for you? What do you mean? This is a restaurant, isn’t it? I wanted to eat here.”
“The thing is, I know you’re a friend of Jody Stillwell’s,” said Elaina, grabbing Celestial’s elbow in a businesslike but too-firm grip. “I just think that allowing you to eat here might be bad for business.”
“All right,” Celestial said, figuring she would have to wait until the restaurant was closed and then investigate in her own, slightly less legal way. However, just as Elaina was steering her back toward the door, Celestial happened to catch sight of a table in the far corner, where Dakota and Tamara were both half-rising from their seats, flapping their hands eagerly in her direction. “Except that I’m here to meet my friends. You see? Over there?” Celestial wrested her elbow from Elaina’s grip and pointed. “I’m sure they would be awfully disappointed if I couldn’t join them.”
Elaina frowned suspiciously at Celestial, then looked over at Dakota and Tamara, evidently making mental calculations as to whether it was better to get rid of Celestial now and risk starting some kind of scene or to just relent. Finally, with a superior little hmph, she said, “Just don’t cause any trouble, okay?”
Dakota and Tamara looked overjoyed when Celestial joined them at the table. “Are you here to do reconnaissance?” Dakota asked, sounding far too excited. “So are we!”
“Voice down, Dakota,” Tamara hissed. Dakota looked around the room to check if anyone had heard him, then back to Tamara apologetically.
“You two are the best,” said Celestial. “What have you found out so far?”
“Well, Elaina isn’t exactly the warmest or most forthcoming character,” Dakota said wryly.
“She’ll be even less so now that she knows we’re your friends, I imagine,” Tamara cut in. “Luckily, our waitress is very chatty. She gave us all kinds of scoop on this place. You wouldn’t believe how much workplace drama there is in a place like this. Servers dating busboys, managers suspected of skimming off the top…. Here, try the ceviche, it’s actually really nice.”
“Anything relevant to our case?” Celestial asked after taking an appreciative bite.
“Absolutely.” Tamara leaned forward so that she could lower her voice conspiratorially. “Evidently, Elaina isn’t particularly happy with her current chef. She knew about Tommy, and about how good he is, and she really wanted him to work for her here. So she offered him a pretty substantial raise if he’d quit Jody’s and come work for Jardín Rico.”
“I’m guessing he refused,” Celestial said.
“Bingo.”
Celestial whistled. “I bet a woman like Elaina isn’t used to being turned down.” The question now was what would she do to get what she wanted.
Or to punish the person who didn’t give it to her.
Chapter 15
Celestial, Tamara, and Dakota took a moment to enjoy their meals, Celestial even taking the time to order her own food. Since she was going to sit in here anyway, there was no reason to look more suspicious in Elaina’s eyes by not buying any of her wonderful food. While she waited for her meal, Celestial found her eyes wandering around. Still scanning for clues.
Dakota and Tamara, more caught up in their meal than their supposed reconnaissance, were chatting away, and only noticed Celestial’s wandering eyes as she began to fidget around her seat to get better vantage points. “Celestial?” Dakota questioned, snapping Celestial’s focus back to her table. “Are you okay?”
Celestial shook her head, dazed, trying to regain her train of thought, “Me? Yeah, I was just wondering if… Do you think they sell cups? Jackets? Lighters, maybe?” Dakota seemed puzzled for a moment but shrugged. Tamara interjected a bit louder. “I mean, yeah? Maybe. Why wouldn’t they, in such a fine establishment?” She giggled, covering up her laughter with a sip of her drink.
Celestial laughed as well, her eyes still scanning the area for anything odd. Like, maybe Elaina was watching her, just in case Celestial could find something? Celestial suddenly realized that, yes, Elaina actually hadn’t been watching her this whole time. Something mischievous and curious began to stir inside her almost immediately. Maybe this would be a good time to snoop around? She might even be able to get into the kitchen, see if she could find anything useful.
“Hey, I’ll be right back.” Celestial said in almost a whisper as she began to get up, only to be stopped by Dakota grabbing her arm, “Wait, where-?” He started to ask. Only for Celestial to shrug him off with a slight smile.
Celestial slipped out of her seat, took one last scan of the area to make sure she wasn’t being watched, and after affirming nothing out of the ordinary, she made her way through the people towards the kitchen. She made a point to look around often, finally arriving at what appeared to be large doors with no handles, only a silver slab of metal intended to be pushed. This had to lead to the kitchen. And that is exactly where Celestial needed to be right now.
Celestial took a breath and pushed her way through the doors. It might have been the most brazen "breaking and entering" she ever attempted, but she figured she would be forgiven. Ends and Means, all that stuff. She went wholly unnoticed in the kitchen. Servers were busy with customers, and the chef seemed to be out at the moment, Celestial sighed at her good luck.
There was food everywhere. Not in a messy way, but there was fresh produce on different tables, in crates, just enough to dig around in. She’d been told by Nikoli that the meal Tammy ate might have been the cause of her death, so all Celestial had to do was look for the components of said meal.
A quick glance over revealed that there weren’t really any parsnips, the main star of the dish, but there did seem to be quite a bit of parsley. Like, a lot of the stuff. Celestial knew that parsley could have been the murder weapon, as Tammy had allergies, but there was a second angle. Parsley could look very similar to Hemlock, which could be fatally poisonous if ingested.
Celestial had a bright idea: collect some of this “parsley”. Nikoli could take it back to the lab, confirm whether or not it was Hemlock, then they have a murder weapon. And Elaina ends up looking like a better suspect. Not that Celestial wanted that, it was just where the clues were taking her at the moment. But she wouldn’t deny that Elaina was suspicious and rude.
As Celestial reached to collect som
e parsley, someone quickly grabbed her wrist and, with an incredible amount of force, restrained her. Celestial winced, turning to face her assailant and the wince immediately became a short whine. Elaina stood, stone-faced and glaring Celestial down, “What exactly are you doing in here?”
Celestial barely took her next breath before Elaina began to yell at her, “Are you seriously sneaking around my restaurant!? Seriously!”
Celestial pulled her arm out of Elaina’s grip, fiercely shaking her head, “No! No, I wasn’t sneaking- I just-” Celestial blinked rapidly as her mind raced. “I was going to the bathroom?” She felt the lift in her voice as her confidence faltered.
Elaina was literally shaking with anger. “The bathroom? You were going to the bathroom? That’s your excuse!?” Elaina didn’t try to grab Celestial again, but she did angrily point towards the doors to exit the kitchen. “Well genius, I’m sure you figured out that there were no bathrooms in the kitchen area!”
Celestial couldn’t really do much except to agree, even as the embarrassment warmed her face and brought a bright red glow to her cheeks. “Look, Elaina, I-”
“I. Do. Not. Want to hear it.” Elaina fumed, “I want you to take your things and get out! Gah, I knew I didn’t want you in here!”
Celestial couldn’t say much else, and she certainly didn’t want to be grabbed or yelled at anymore, so she left. Head down, eyes focused on the exit, she barely remembered to wave goodbye to Dakota and Tamara as she left. But Elaina kept a closer eye on her this time, most likely to make sure she left.
Celestial’s mind cleared as she walked, and she came to one conclusion. That was highly suspicious. Elaina had gone from 0 to 100 straight away. Celestial just couldn’t shake the fact that Elaina had to be hiding something. Even more so with this little incident, but Celestial also knew she would have to cool down investigating Elaina and her restaurant for a moment. She had attracted too much attention.
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