The Diva Cooks up a Storm

by Krista Davis

  A police car slowed and stopped just short of us. Officer Wong stepped out and walked over. She shone her flashlight at us. “What’s going on here?”

  African-American, Wong credited her last name to having married the wrong-by-a-long-shot man, but she liked surprising those who expected her to be Asian. She wore her hair short, with a sassy curl falling onto her forehead. Her uniform was always a little too tight on her curves thanks to her fondness for cupcakes and other sweets.

  I told her what had happened and in case it was somehow related, I told her about Angus and the beestings.

  Her forehead wrinkled. “Was Angus sweating like this?”

  “No, and it was already hot outside.” I frowned. “Do bees fly around at night? Seems to me my dad always knocked down wasp nests early in the morning while they were sleeping.”

  Wong bent over. “Hollis, can you tell me what happened?”

  His voice was weak. “Don’t know. Went to bed and woke up feeling dizzy and sick.”

  “Dizzy!” I said. “Angus was dizzy.”

  “And you ran out in the street?” Wong asked.

  Hollis wheezed, seemingly unable to breathe. “Needed . . . air.”

  Fortunately, the ambulance arrived and the professionals took over. Wong and I told them what little we knew.

  And then I broke my promise to Hollis. Under the circumstances, I had no choice. “He was afraid someone might be poisoning his food.”

  All of the emergency medical technicians stared at me.

  “He’s having some food tested. I don’t know anything more than that.”

  It wasn’t until one of them asked if Hollis lived alone that I remembered Kelsey. “He’s married, but I haven’t seen his wife.”

  I started for the house, but an EMT stopped me. “Ma’am, wait out here, please. We’ll check on his wife.”

  I stopped short. But I was worried about Kelsey. Why hadn’t she appeared yet? I hoped she was okay.

  The EMT had just reached the front door when it opened.

  Kelsey stepped out in a flowing silk bathrobe and coughed. “What’s going on out here? Did a car hit someone?”

  “Are you Mrs. Haberman?” he asked.

  I walked closer. “Kelsey, Hollis is ill.”

  She turned to gaze at me for a second, surprise and confusion mingling on her face as she took in the situation. She darted toward the street, crying, “Hollis! Hollis!”

  Wong intercepted her. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but Kelsey tore away from her, covering her mouth with a fist as she coughed.

  The EMTs were loading Hollis on a gurney. He had a clear mask over his nose and mouth, no doubt to help him breathe.

  Kelsey picked up Hollis’s hand. “What’s wrong with him? Is it a heart attack?”

  “Doesn’t look that way,” said an EMT. “Ma’am, how do you feel? You seem to be coughing a lot.”

  “I’m fine. I don’t know why I’m coughing.”

  “Maybe you should come along with us.”

  Terrified, Kelsey took a step back. “You mean I could have the same thing?”

  Chapter 7

  Dear Sophie,

  I love fried eggs with soft yolks, but when I try to make them, crunchy edges form on the whites. Is there a secret I don’t know?

  Softie in Two Egg, Florida

  Dear Softie,

  There is a little trick! Put a lid on the eggs and turn the heat to medium low. When the whites have cooked, remove the pan from the stove, but leave the lid on for about one more minute. Don’t forget that you run the risk of salmonella poisoning from eating soft yolks!

  Sophie

  “We don’t know what he has yet,” said the EMT.

  “But if you were with him, that’s certainly possible.”

  “I don’t have my phone or my makeup. I’m not dressed.”

  The EMT must have heard that kind of argument often. “Ma’am, your husband needs to go to the emergency room right away. You don’t want him to get worse.”

  Just then Kelsey had a little coughing fit. “Okay,” she choked out.

  My phone buzzed as I watched them close the ambulance doors. It was Nina.

  “Good morning,” I said. “Ready to roll?”

  “Obviously you haven’t seen the news. You won’t believe this. The hurricane swung out into the Atlantic and isn’t a threat, but something knocked out power in the Outer Banks, and they’re evacuating! They’re showing pictures of the highway. They’ve closed all beach-bound lanes. And now they’re saying a line of storms is approaching Old Town. It’s like we’re cursed.”

  I looked up at the predawn sky. No sign of inclement weather in Old Town—yet. I heaved a great sigh. Girls’ week at the beach was biting the dust. I tried to be positive. “Maybe it will pass quickly and we can go in a couple of days.”

  “I’m so disappointed! I was looking forward to hush puppies, shrimp boils, and giant daiquiris.”

  “Me too. Well, since we’re all up, why don’t you come over for breakfast?”

  “Who is we?”

  “We’ll tell you all about it over breakfast.”

  “Fried eggs with soft yolks?”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “If that’s what you crave, sure. See you there.” I hung up.

  The ambulance had rolled away. The first strains of light showed in the sky, and morning traffic had already begun.

  “Breakfast, Wong?” I asked.

  “Thanks, but I’d better take a rain check. I need to secure the house and write up my report.”

  Bernie, Mars, Daisy, and I strolled back to my house.

  “Is your trip off?” asked Bernie.

  “Looks like it.”

  Mars reached for Daisy’s leash. “That was one of the weirdest things I’ve seen. I hope it wasn’t something Hollis ate last night at the underground dinner. Do either of you feel sick?”

  Bernie and I glanced at each other and shook our heads.

  “Me either,” said Mars.

  “Parker said this had happened to Hollis before,” I said.

  Bernie’s eyebrows lifted. “Odd that Kelsey appears to have it, too.”

  I unlocked the door, and we piled into the foyer. Mochie mewed a welcome and greeted us by winding around our legs.

  In the kitchen, I ground Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans and spooned them into my French press. After preheating the oven, I pulled out two large frying pans for the eggs.

  Mars went straight for his old favorite, the oversized Fiestaware coffee cups. I was amused when he selected four different colors. The jumbo cups in tangerine, turquoise, poppy red, and bright sunflower yellow would make for a happy breakfast table.

  In preparation for his stay at my house, I had thrown a French print tablecloth of blues and yellows on the kitchen table the night before.

  Mars opened a can of kitty tuna for Mochie and fed Daisy one of her favorite dog cookies.

  Bernie opened the kitchen door for Nina, who carried a box from Big Daddy’s Bakery. “I thought we’d munch on these during the drive. They’ll be stale tomorrow, so we might as well enjoy them now.”

  She opened the box and arranged the contents on a poppy-colored platter. Chocolate croissants, ham croissants, cherry Danish, cinnamon rolls with vanilla icing, and bear claws threatened to tumble off the platter.

  “I thought it was just the two of you going to the beach,” said Mars, biting into a ham croissant.

  “It was.” Nina selected a bear claw.

  I sprinkled medium grind pepper over bacon and slid it into a hot oven.

  “Are you kidding? You thought the two of you would eat all of these?” teased Bernie.

  “It’s a long drive. There are a lot of Kristy Kremes in North Carolina, but when you whip by one on the highway it can be hard to turn around and find the side road that leads to it.”

  “You don’t really care about the beach, do you?” Mars bantered. “It was a foodie road trip in disguise.”

  Nina, w
ho lived catty-corner across the street from me, loved to eat but never cooked. Her idea of the perfect kitchen utensil was the telephone for takeout. One memorable holiday she had food delivered to my house, where she transferred it to pots and pans so her mother-in-law wouldn’t know she hadn’t cooked it. She even lit candles scented like turkey and stuffing, pumpkin pie, and roasted sweet potatoes to complete her little cover-up. Nina insisted no one was the wiser, though I found that hard to believe.

  I took the bacon out of the oven and placed it on a platter covered with paper towels. Mars whisked it to the table, where the three of them chowed down like they were famished.

  I cracked the eggs into the frying pans, then salted and peppered them. With the lids on the pans, I lowered the heat.

  Over coffee and bacon, Mars and Bernie told Nina about Hollis and Kelsey.

  I kept an eye on the eggs, waiting for the whites to cook. If my attention drifted for even a minute, the yolks would be cooked through.

  Nina was horrified. “What’s going on at that house? First the attack of the killer bees, and now some mysterious illness?”

  I pulled the eggs off the stove but left the covers on for them to finish cooking. “I wondered about that, too. But Hollis’s symptoms seemed different from Angus’s.”

  I slid the eggs onto plates and handed them to Bernie, who set them on the table. “Mmm. I love a good runny yolk.”

  When I joined them, Nina said, “Now that we’re not beach bound, maybe we should visit Hollis in the hospital to get a handle on what he has. It’s a little unsettling that their house is so close to ours.”

  Mars sipped his coffee. “What with Hollis taken ill, maybe we should check on those bees. I’d feel better if we knew they had been relocated. We wouldn’t want some kid stumbling into them.”

  Bernie turned to me. “And I thought you were the snoopy one.”

  “I am not!” I raised my hands, palms out, like he was holding a gun at me. “I haven’t been involved in any murder investigations in over a year.”

  “Shh. Don’t say that out loud. It’s like you’re inviting the fates,” Mars joked.

  “Count me out.” Nina reached for a chocolate croissant. “The closest I’m going to any bees is their honey in the grocery store. There’s no way I’m spending my vacation in the emergency room. Not taking any chances that one of them will sting me. For all you know they’re killer bees.”

  “Killer bees don’t come this far north,” said Mars.

  Bernie’s expression told me he disagreed. He probably felt like I did—there was no point in scaring Nina.

  “You don’t know that,” protested Nina. “What if they stowed away in some shipment? I’m always reading about tropical snakes that hid in a shipment to a big box store.”

  “Unlikely,” said Mars.

  “There’s always a first time.” Nina licked her fingers. “You couldn’t pay me to go over there.” She pulled out her iPhone, looked at it, and moaned.

  Bernie gazed at it over her shoulder. He spoke calmly. “We’d better batten down the hatches. A line of severe storms is on the way.”

  Mars switched on the TV, where a local station was issuing warnings to stock up on batteries and water in case of power outages. Our peaceful breakfast ended rather hastily after that. I thought we had plenty of time to prepare, but it wasn’t the way I had hoped to spend my vacation.

  Mars took Daisy with him, which always left the house feeling empty. After cleaning up the kitchen, I found Mochie in the sunroom washing his fur.

  Promising to be back soon, I walked to King Street and hit the stores for supplies.

  I stocked up on water and wine, uncertain which would be in more demand, then perused the offerings of my favorite butcher. Inspired by the dinner the previous night, I was eager to try a few different flavor combinations. But I thought I’d better keep some things simple in case we lost power.

  Bread, tuna, and peanut butter had already disappeared, leaving those shelves bare.

  I had plenty of veggies growing in my backyard garden, but I bought chicken, red and green cabbage, a couple of crisp apples, farm-fresh eggs, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

  The store was offering a new delivery service, which delighted me. No lugging heavy water and wine bottles anymore. I stopped by the hardware store to stock up on batteries, certain that the mere act of buying them would mean I wouldn’t need them.

  On the walk home, I passed the Habermans’ house. It was quiet and peaceful. No one would ever suspect that something terrible had happened there only hours ago.

  The groceries were delivered after lunch. I had just finished putting them away when someone banged the door knocker on my front door.

  It took my breath away a little bit to see Wolf Fleischman, a criminal investigator in the Alexandria police department, on my doorstep. I hadn’t seen him in ages. My first instinct was to hug him, but I knew I shouldn’t and resisted the impulse.

  Wolf and I had dated for a few years. A strange twist of life had interfered and our relationship had ended somewhat abruptly. Nevertheless, I still considered him a dear friend. He carried a sport coat hitched on his thumb over his shoulder, and I could tell he had lost a little weight. Wolf liked to eat, and like me, he often fought creeping pounds. The silver hair at his temples gleamed in the sun, and I thought there might a little more silver than the last time I saw him.

  “Hi, Sophie.” Wolf bent immediately to pick up Mochie, who didn’t feel any awkwardness about seeing him and was simply joyful about his presence. I had met Wolf on the same day that I rescued Mochie, and Wolf had even been present when Mochie was named.

  “I didn’t expect to see you. Could I offer you a cold drink?”

  “That would be great.” He followed me into the kitchen, still carrying Mochie, whose purrs were loud enough for me to hear.

  I poured both of us iced tea. “It’s been a while,” I said.

  Wolf tossed his jacket over a chair and studied me. “Feels like it was just yesterday that I was here in your kitchen.” He gulped the iced tea like he was parched. “You can imagine my surprise when they told me that one Sophie Winston reported that Hollis Haberman thought he was being poisoned.”

  We migrated to the kitchen table and sat down. My smile faded as I realized what Wolf’s presence meant. He wouldn’t have come around if he wasn’t investigating. And he wouldn’t be investigating unless they had called him in on a case. My spirits plummeted. “Hollis didn’t make it?”

  “I’m sorry, Sophie. Was he a friend of yours?”

  The news knocked the stuffing out of me. I hadn’t thought Hollis would die. A long stay in the hospital maybe, but not this. “Not really. He was a neighbor, but we weren’t particularly close.”

  Wolf raised his eyebrows. “Yet he confided in you that he was worried about being poisoned?”

  I nodded. “He thought I might know how to test food for poison.”

  “That didn’t worry you?”

  “Well, of course it did! I told him he should go to the police. Told him that at least twice, maybe three times as a matter of fact. He didn’t want to. Hollis said he had his reasons. Now I wish I hadn’t agreed to his request. If he had contacted the police he might be alive today.” I winced and took a moment to collect myself. Why had I done that? Why had I agreed to keep his concerns quiet? I should have taken him by the arm and dragged him to see Wolf, or at least Wong.

  I looked up at Wolf, who calmly poured himself another glass of tea. “I assumed he didn’t want to throw a wrench in his marriage to Kelsey. Can you imagine if he had gone to the police and said he thought she was poisoning him? That would have been a fast track to divorce.”

  Wolf leaned back in his chair. “It might have been at that. But it begs the question why he would want to remain in the marriage if he suspected his wife of poisoning him.”

  Chapter 8

  Dear Sophie,

  At the last funeral I attended, a woman’s cell phone r
ang, and she had the nerve to answer it! We’re still talking about this. Do we have to put up a sign that says “Cell Phone Free Zone”? Is that what we have come to?

  Appalled in Transylvania County, North

  Carolina

  Dear Appalled,

  Alas, such signs have become commonplace at weddings and parties. There is simply no excuse for taking a phone call at a funeral. Leave the phone in the car.

  Sophie

  Wolf had a very good point. “It does suggest that the marriage might have been on a downward trajectory,” I said. “I can’t imagine suspecting my spouse of wanting to harm me. It must be terrible to live that way. I guess he wanted to be sure. He could have just separated from her.”

  “Did he have any food tested?” asked Wolf.

  “I gave the food to Humphrey. He has a pal who is testing it.”

  Wolf nodded. “Thanks. I’ll check with him.”

  “He definitely died from poisoning? It seemed like he had a respiratory problem.” It certainly sounded that way, but I had to ask. I felt as though I’d had a hand in it by keeping Hollis’s secret for him.

  “He was poisoned but it was from something he inhaled, not something he ingested. I doubt that they’ll turn up anything in the food, but I’m obligated to check it out.”

  I felt a little bit better. “So it could have been accidental.”

  “We’ll know more after the autopsy. What’s the scuttlebutt on Haberman’s wives? Any gossip I should know about?”

  “It was an ugly divorce—”

  “Aren’t they all?”

  “Mine wasn’t. Mars and I were very civilized.”

  “An exception, I’m sure.”

  “Unfortunately, I overheard Hollis arguing with his ex-wife at the dinner last night. Seems he didn’t want to pay for their son’s education.”

  Wolf’s eyes narrowed. “Any threats?”

  “On both sides.”

  “How about the new wife? The one he thought was poisoning him?”

  “I don’t know her well. But I spoke with her a couple of times at the dinner last night. She’s young and insecure, but in a way she was very sweet. I wouldn’t have thought her capable of poisoning anyone, much less her husband.”