Fine Dining

by Gale Deitch

  “Alan told me it’s the only way to get May released.” I sat at my desk at A Fine Fix reviewing the recipes to be served at Maybelline’s that night. Zach and I had done our prep work for our upcoming jobs, and he’d left to meet with Ally to check out possible restaurant sites.

  “Alan? Who the heck is Alan?” Now his voice was getting louder.

  “May’s lawyer, Alan Bernstein. It really does make sense, Daniel. The judge won’t release May on her own recognizance. Someone needs to be responsible for her, to ensure that she won’t skip town or commit some other crime, which of course she wouldn’t do.”

  “And why do you have to be that responsible person? Somehow you seem to always end up in the midst of the hurricane. First you’re managing May’s restaurant and now you’re living at her house. I don’t like any of this.”

  “Daniel, please calm down. May doesn’t have anyone else to turn to in this area. She’s not close enough with her staff to live with any of them. She has other friends, but I’m like family to her.”

  “Trudie,” he said, lowering his voice. “I’m worried about you. You are convinced that May did not murder her brother, but you don’t know that for sure. Or it could be someone who works at Maybelline’s. Either way, managing her restaurant or living at her house, you’re putting yourself in jeopardy. Don’t you see that?”

  Yes, I did see that; very clearly. But I knew I could do this. I could manage May’s restaurant successfully, being careful not to put myself in precarious situations. I still didn’t believe that May could have killed her brother, even though she had no memory of what had happened. Sure, I was scared as scallops about spending time in the restaurant not knowing who the culprit was, but I had promised May and I wasn’t going to back out now.

  “Daniel, meet me at the restaurant tonight and I’ll go home with you. We’ll talk everything out and come up with the precautions I’ll need to take. It will be our last night together for a while, so let’s make it nice. Okay?”

  He was so quiet I could hear him swallow. “Okay. I’ve got a dinner meeting with Sergeant Flowers tonight. She wants to go over my testimony again. I’ll meet you at eleven at Maybelline’s and follow you home.”

  “Dinner with Sergeant Flowers, huh? Can’t she question you at the station? You both work there, for heaven’s sake.” Judging by the way she’d looked at Daniel last night I was sure she-cop Sherrie wanted to get her claws into him.

  “We both have busy shifts today, and we have to eat, don’t we? Do I sense a little of the green-eyed monster?” Daniel asked.

  “Maybe. Now I think I should be the one cautioning you. Watch yourself around her.”

  “And I think I should be cautioning you about your new friend, Alan. Kind of buddy-buddy, you and he being on a first-name basis?”

  “Let’s talk about this later,” I said. “Okay?”

  “Talking wasn’t quite what I had in mind. But sure, we can talk.”

  I ARRIVED AT the restaurant at three-thirty and headed to the kitchen. It was obvious that prepping had been going on for a while, with garnishes and vegetables already filling the stainless steel bins, line cooks chopping away and Gus grinding the meat for the sausage.

  “I thought you begin dinner prep at three-thirty,” I said to Gus.

  He chuckled to himself. “Three o’clock, I told you. You’re late. Is that any way to manage a restaurant?”

  “You told me three-thirty, Gus, and you know it.” His big grin made me seethe like a pot of rice boiling over. This was someone I’d have to watch. I wondered how he’d gotten along with Micah, whether he worried May would promote her brother to restaurant manager.

  I settled myself in May’s office, and using the key she’d given me, opened the bottom file drawer to stash my purse. When I opened it, however, I noticed files with employees’ names. Later, I would look over their resumes and see what background information I could find. Maybe I’d call some former employers. I’d love to find some dirt on Gus with his nasty attitude. I wondered how many jobs he’d lost because of that.

  I checked the reservation book for that evening. Washington, D.C. was a town full of foodies with a huge selection of eating establishments. On a warm evening, near the end of a busy work week, bars and restaurants would be buzzing with young professionals and Federal workers. Maybelline’s had received great reviews from the food critics and was never wanting for clientele. But would they show up after a murder had been committed here just last night?

  When I re-entered the kitchen, I noticed Gina backed up against the dishwasher, Gus leaning in so close he almost obscured her. As he murmured into her ear, she squirmed. “Gus, don’t. Come on, leave me alone. I have work to do.”

  I headed in their direction, checking each prep station as I went. The sausage Gus had been grinding stood uncovered and unrefrigerated in a huge bowl ready to be seasoned and piped into casings.

  When I reached the couple, I cleared my throat. “You heard her, Gus. Sorry to break up this little tete-a-tete, but that sausage can’t sit out like that. At least cover and refrigerate the ground pork if you’re not ready to finish the links. We don’t want to kill the customers.” I glared at him, not letting myself retreat from his angry stare.

  Slowly, he turned and headed back to his station to prepare the sausage.

  I glanced at Gina. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, fastening the couple of buttons on her blouse that were undone.

  “You’re the dining room manager, aren’t you? Gina, right?”

  “Yeah. That’s me.”

  “We’ve never met. I’m Trudie Fine.” I held out my hand to her and she shook it half-heartedly with a limp grip.

  “It’s going to be a bit of an adjustment,” I added. “For all of us. I hope you’ll help me out. I know none of us want to let May down, do we?”

  “I guess not,” she said. “What do you want to know?” During this exchange, her glance wavered between Gus and me, and he threw her an occasional sideways glance over his shoulder.

  “Why don’t we go into the dining room,” I continued, ignoring him, “and you can show me how you do the table set-ups for the dinner service.”

  Gina followed me out of the kitchen, explaining their system. Bus boys were setting the tables for dinner and placing small vases of herbs and votive candles on the tables. The sound of silverware and crystal glasses tinkling as they were set in place was sweet music to my ears. Gina showed me where supplies were kept and May’s system for resetting tables during the evening for quick turnover.

  Katie stood behind the bar with the beverage manager wiping glasses and hanging them from the racks above. She watched Gina and me as we talked. It seemed Katie was always in the background, viewing things from afar. I wondered if she knew more than she let on and decided I needed to get friendly with her, gain her trust and see what I could find out.

  The front door of the restaurant opened and in walked Sergeant Sherrie Flowers. As she entered, an aura of sensuality surrounded her in the way her strawberry-blonde hair waved down over one eye, the way her beige pants suit and low-cut coral blouse hugged her body, and the way her hips swung as she approached. I noticed all eyes, male and female, riveted on this woman.

  She headed straight over to me and held out her hand. “Trudie Fine, I never got to speak with you last night.”

  I shook her hand. Her cloying sweet, floral scent hung in a cloud around us, almost choking me.

  “Do you mean speak to me as a witness or as May’s friend?” I wondered if Daniel had discouraged Sherrie from interrogating me last night since he’d pretty much seen and heard the same things I had.

  “Maybe a little of both. After all, you’re an important witness.” She smiled, her turquoise eyes seeming to dance with delight at this opportunity. “Shall we go into the office?” she asked, gesturing with her hand. “After you.”

  When I hesitated inside the office, Sherrie took the cushy leather desk chair while I was relegated t
o a bridge chair next to the desk. She leaned the chair back, enjoying its comforts, and I almost expected her to put her feet up on the desk. As May’s stand-in, I was ready to rally against that if she tried.

  “So, you’re Daniel’s girlfriend?” she started, hardly an important question in a murder investigation. She eyed me from head to toe, probably wondering what Daniel saw in this short, plump figure in front of her. I wasn’t going to let her intimidate me.

  “If that’s what Daniel told you. Yes, I am.”

  She scrutinized me some more. I was glad I’d changed into my purple dress and jacket to add an air of authority to my new role. Purple was my power color.

  “Hmm. I wouldn’t have thought you his type.”

  “You’ll have to ask Daniel about that. You’re seeing him for dinner tonight, aren’t you?”

  Judging by her reaction, she was surprised that I knew about their meeting, but quickly covered it up with a forced grimace. “Yes, I am. Shall I give him a message for you?”

  “No need,” I said, grinning back at her. “I’ll be with him later tonight. I’ll tell him myself.” I checked my watch. It was four-fifteen. “Listen, Sher…I mean Sergeant. Can we proceed with the questioning? Our first dinner seating is at six, and I have to make sure everything is prepped.”

  “Certainly, Miss Fine.” She leaned the desk chair forward to an upright position and pulled out her notes. “I understand you knew the victim, Micah Dubois, and that he came out to your table to say hello last night.”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “And you knew him before that?” she asked.

  “I went to culinary school with May at Johnson and Wales in Charlotte. Her little brother, Micah, that is, would visit from time to time. He was just a teen back then.”

  “And had he ever caused any trouble for his sister at that time?”

  I paused a moment to consider how I would answer this. “Caused trouble in what way?”

  She smirked. “You tell me, Trudie.”

  “He was an energetic young man, adventurous, liked getting involved in things.”

  “What kinds of thing?” she asked.

  “Whatever was going on at the campus, whether a rally or protest, there was Micah right in the middle of it all.” I couldn’t help but smile. I remembered Micah loving life and wanting to grasp whatever he could of it.

  “In the middle of what, for example?” Sherrie had leaned back again, a little more comfortable now that she was in control.

  I didn’t like where this conversation was heading and certainly didn’t want to portray May’s brother in a bad light. “Micah got involved lots of things. He was a restless, rebellious teenager without a mom. So May was the one who had to take responsibility for him. And Micah always either made her crazy with worry or hot as a charcoal fire.”

  “And was May, as you say, ‘hot as a charcoal fire’ last night? I understand that while you were dining, you heard an altercation coming from the kitchen.”

  Oops, I thought. I wasn’t painting a very pleasant picture of May to the police. “She was angry. Daniel and I both heard it, as did the rest of the diners. I’m sure you’ve gotten the story from all of them.”

  “And when you heard loud voices emerging from the kitchen, you chose to go in to see what was happening. Correct?”

  “That’s right. May is a very close friend of mine, so I was concerned. But also she had wanted me to come into the kitchen after dessert anyway to see her new oven.”

  “And why would you want to see her new oven? It’s just an oven.”

  “Just an oven? Lady, a Wolf Challenger XL is not just an oven. It’s the king of the beasts in the kitchen, the master of the universe. Just an oven?” I repeated, shaking my head.

  She appeared puzzled, but continued. “So, when you went into the kitchen, what did you observe?”

  I told her about May yelling at Micah for dealing with the thugs in the dining room and then about Mr. Benson coming in to demand the money Micah owed him.

  “And during that altercation or the one that followed later, did Ms. Dubois threaten her brother in any way?”

  I thought about this. May had been fuming. She had thrown him out of the restaurant and demanded that he even leave town. But she’d never actually threatened him.

  “No,” I said.

  “No? Others who witnessed the scene did feel that she had threatened him. And you deny this?”

  “Yes, I do. Oh, she yelled at him like crazy, but she never threatened him. Ever.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know why others said she had. May loved her brother more than anything. He was her only living relative. Sure, she was angry with him, but she did not threaten him.”

  Sergeant Flowers consulted her notes. “Isn’t it true, Miss Fine that Ms. Dubois said, ‘I wish you were never born?’”

  “Yes, she did say that. But that’s not a threat. Not in my book.”

  Sherrie continued asking question after question, minute details about everything from what Daniel and I ate for dinner to each conversation I’d overheard. By the time Sergeant Flowers left, I felt like a dish cloth that had been wrung out and hung to dry. And dinner service was just getting underway, the first diners arriving and being escorted to their tables.

  Gus and his staff surprised me with their efficiency and gorgeous plating. I checked some of the dishes before sending them out with the servers and only had to return two to the line cooks—an underdone haddock and a tenderloin that was overcooked.

  I had worried that reservations would be cancelled because of the murder the night before, but there weren’t any no-shows and, in fact, several people stood in the waiting area hoping for cancellations or sat at the bar to eat. May would be relieved that business had not been hurt by the incident.

  At eleven o’clock, as promised, Daniel walked in and sat at the bar to wait for me. I smiled when I saw him in his new tan jacket with brown trousers, pleased that he had thought to change. Then I realized he’d dressed for his dinner meeting with she-cop Sherrie, and my stomach sunk like a boiling egg clunking on the bottom of the pot.

  Once at my car, Daniel leaned me against the driver’s door and kissed me. “I missed you, Trudie. I’ve been thinking about doing that all day.” He brushed my bangs from my eyes. I wondered if he’d wanted to do the same thing to Sergeant Flowers, then dismissed the thought. I wouldn’t let my mind go in that direction--if I could help it.

  He followed me home, and the minute the door closed, we clutched each other, somehow making it into the bedroom and out of our clothes.

  “Trudie,” he murmured into my hair. “How am I going to live without you here?”

  “I know. I feel the same way. Hopefully, the case will be solved soon. In the meantime, we’ll just have to have some interesting lunch breaks. Uh, maybe not, since I’m now managing a restaurant every day at lunch. Or what about early evening? No, dinner service starts at six.” We rolled over so I was on top of him. “Daniel, what are we going to do?”

  “I know what we’re going to do right now,” he said, pulling me down for a kiss.

  “We’ll just have to get together early in the morning,” I said, lifting my head.

  “Sure, Trudie. Anything you say. Are you finished talking now so we can get on with it?”

  Chapter Six

  I awoke to my cell phone ringing. Snuggled in Daniel’s embrace, I didn’t want to answer it. What time was it, anyway? I squinted at the alarm clock. Seven o’clock. Who would call this early? Daniel groaned and rolled away from me as I reached for the phone.

  “Hello,” I mumbled, my mouth dry as a Saltine cracker.

  “Hi, Trudie,” the perky voice answered.

  “Alan?” I sat up. “What’s happened? Is May okay?” I glanced at Daniel who had turned to listen.

  “She’s fine. The doctors have just released her and she’s being taken to the detention center for processing. I’m not calling too early, am I?”

  I sighed and lean
ed back on my pillow. “Well, it is a little early. I worked late at the restaurant last night.”

  “Sorry, Trudie.” I heard the concern in his voice. “You did want me to keep you in the loop, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I guess so. What time is May’s arraignment?”

  “Not sure yet. Sometime this afternoon. You should probably be there since you’re going to be the responsible party. I’ll keep you posted.”

  “Okay,” I said. “And thanks, Alan. I do appreciate your letting me know.”

  I hung up and turned my head to Daniel, who was looking at me.

  “You seem pretty chummy with this Alan guy.”

  I rolled over to Daniel and kissed him. “Do I detect a little green-eyed monster?” I asked, loving the opportunity to throw this question back in his face.

  He sat up and hovered over me, brushing the hair from my face. “Maybe just a little.”

  “You had dinner with Sergeant Sherrie Flowers. I had coffee with Alan Bernstein. “Tit-for-tat. I’d say we’re even, wouldn’t you?”

  Daniel smiled and kissed me, his bangs falling into his face. “Well, Alan Bernstein had better watch whose girl he’s messing with.”

  “Would you feel better if I told you I spit coffee all over his silk tie and ruined it?”

  Daniel threw his head back and chortled. “That’s my Trudie.”

  At nine, I headed over to Maybelline’s to check what food needed ordering and to see how prep was going for lunch service. Gus had just arrived and seemed more chipper this morning. “Hey, Trudie. Good service last night, huh?”

  “Yes, it was,” I said smiling. “You’ve been doing a great job, Gus. May would be really pleased.”

  “How’s she doing?” he asked, striding across the kitchen to unlock the walk-in cooler.

  “She’s been released from the hospital, and her bail hearing is this afternoon. Hopefully, the judge will release her. I’ll be staying at her house until this ordeal is over.”

  He turned to me and cocked his head to one side as if seeing me for the first time. “That’ll be good. She’ll need someone with her. When do you think she’ll be back at the restaurant?”