Shamrocks and Murder

by Patti Benning

  “Logan? Yeah. He’s still staying with her. Why?”

  “We can’t seem to locate him.” The detective hesitated. “We can’t seem to locate her other chef, Julian, either.”

  “Julian and Logan are both missing?” she asked, blinking. Suddenly she felt more awake. “Why are you looking for them?”

  “It’s in relation to the case,” he said. “I can’t say more.”

  “Well, if Logan isn’t at Denise’s house, then I have no idea where he would be. I think she mentioned that he had gotten a new job. You may want to check there.”

  “We already did. Call me if you hear from either of them, okay?”

  Moira agreed. Jefferson said his goodbyes and ended the call. She put her phone down and sat in bed for a moment longer, trying to make sense of everything. Hector was dead, Julian and Logan were missing, and Denise was somehow involved in all of it. She shook her head. She could go over everything from the evening before a thousand more times and still not have any answers. Right now, she was hungry, thirsty, and wanted to see where her husband was.

  She found David downstairs, cleaning up the kitchen. He had made breakfast; a stack of pancakes was waiting on the counter, and there was a plate of bacon pressed between sheets of paper towel.

  “Wow. This looks great. Sorry I’m up so late,” she said.

  “It’s okay,” he replied. “I’m sure you needed the sleep. Yesterday was a tough day.”

  She couldn’t have agreed more. “Are these all for me?” she asked, gesturing at pancakes.

  “They sure are. Dig in. I already ate mine. I would have waited for you, but I wasn’t sure when you would wake up.”

  “Thanks,” she said, grabbing the plate and pulling the syrup out of the fridge. “I love waking up to a home-cooked breakfast. Have the dogs gone out and been fed?”

  “They’ve been out, fed, and I gave them fresh water.” He smiled and kissed her on the cheek as she prepared her food. “I’ve taken care of everything. Don’t worry. I am capable of keeping the house in good order, you know.”

  “I know,” she said, giving him a faint smile. “Sorry. I just have a lot my mind. Jefferson called me this morning. That’s what woke me up.”

  “Oh?” David sat down at the table across from her to listen as she told him about their conversation.

  “I’m not sure what to think,” she said. “Logan and Julian are both missing, apparently. Why is Detective Jefferson even looking for them?”

  “Well, Julian was Hector’s co-worker,” he pointed out. “It’s probably natural that he would want to talk to everyone who Hector worked with. And Logan… well, he has a record.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he had anything to do with Hector’s death. Why on earth would Logan want to hurt Hector? The two of them probably barely knew each other. Logan didn’t go to the Grill much as far as I know.”

  “I don’t know,” David said. “We don’t know what Denise told Jefferson. We don’t know what else they found at the crime scene. I know it’s hard not to speculate, but there really isn’t anything we can do right now. We don’t have enough information.”

  “Denise!” Moira exclaimed. “I have to call her. I should’ve been up earlier. I wanted to talk to her first thing this morning and make sure she’s okay.”

  “Finish up breakfast first,” David suggested. “She’s not going anywhere in the next ten minutes.”

  She knew that her husband was right. She forced herself to eat her pancakes and bacon, and then she cleaned her dishes before grabbing her cell phone and going into the other room to call Denise.

  The call rang through to voicemail. Frowning, she tried again with the same result. She told herself not to worry yet; Denise was probably very busy. If Logan was missing, she would be out looking for him, or she might be down at the police station answering more questions.

  Still, she couldn’t help but be concerned as she returned to the kitchen. “She’s not answering,” she told her husband. “I hope she’s okay. Jefferson said that she was fine, but that was last night. What if something happened to her overnight?”

  “I’m sure she’s just busy,” David said. “Try again in an hour, and if she still doesn’t answer, then you can call Jefferson and see if he knows what’s going on.”

  She decided to take David’s advice. She reminded herself that Denise had been affected much more by what had happened the night before than she had been. It was Denise’s employee who had been murdered, and she herself had been injured. She had much more pressing concerns than talking to her friends at the moment.

  She spent the next hour getting ready for the day and spending some much needed one-on-one time with her husband. A little bit after eleven, she decided it was time to try Denise again. When her friend still didn’t answer, she sent a text message, asking her if she was all right and telling her that she was concerned. As the minutes ticked by, concern began to escalate into full-blown fear for her friend’s safety.

  “I’m going to call Jefferson,” she said. “I just don’t want to worry that something might have happened to her. She was home alone all night, and if she had a complication from her injury, she might need help.”

  “Go ahead,” David said. “I think that’s reasonable. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

  She dialed the detective’s number. He answered but sounded distracted. “Moira. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m worried about Denise,” she said. “I’ve been calling and texting her all morning, but she hasn’t answered. Do you think you could send someone out to her house to check and make sure…”

  “She’s fine,” Jefferson said. “We have her in custody.”

  The silence stretched between them for a long time before Moira spoke again. “She’s in custody? Do you mean… you arrested her?”

  “She’s being held for the time being in one of our holding cells, yes,” he said.

  “But… you don’t think that she’s the one who killed Hector, do you? I’ve known Denise for years, she’d never do something like that.”

  “I’m sorry, Moira. I’m not at liberty to discuss this with you. Just know that she’s safe, and we will treat her fairly. Okay?”

  Moira didn’t have anything else to say. She thanked him for telling her what he could, then said her goodbyes and hung up. Upset, and feeling on the verge of tears, she turned to David.

  “They arrested her,” she said, her voice full of disbelief. “How could they do that?”

  “I don’t know the full story,” David said. “I wasn’t there. But from what you told me, well, I’m not surprised. It sounds like her story didn’t line up. You said so yourself. I know you don’t want to think it, but you have to at least entertain the possibility that she might have had something to do with Hector’s death.”

  “No,” Moira said. “I agree that there’s something going on that she’s not telling us, but I don’t think she would kill Hector. You know she’s not a murderer.”

  “Do I?” David said. “She was found covered in blood that wasn’t hers. She came to you first, instead of the police. Now, her nephew is missing, as is her other chef. I don’t know what she did or didn’t do, but she’s definitely involved in something bad. Let the police handle this, Moira. I know you want to help her, but there isn’t anything we can do. It’s Detective Jefferson’s job. Let him handle it.”

  “Maybe she was trying to protect Logan,” she mused. “That would explain her behavior.”

  “Do you think Logan did this?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t like to think that he would, but with him missing, it does kind of make me question it.”

  “It’s very possible that it’s just a coincidence,” her husband said. “I don’t want you to worry yourself sick. Just give it some time. I’m sure we will get answers soon enough.”

  “I can’t help it,” she replied. “Denise is one of my best friends. And I’m involved in this too, whether I like it or not. She came to me. I saw th
e body. I wish I knew more. I wish I had learned more about Hector’s life while he was alive. It could be someone from his past, couldn’t it? What if it’s another chef, one who wants his job?”

  “If you want, I can head down to the office and run a background check on Hector,” her husband said.

  “Would you?” Moira asked. “That would make me feel a lot better. I know the police have probably already done it, but I just need to feel like we’re doing something.”

  “I understand,” he said. “I’ll call Karissa and let her know that I won’t be at the brewery until later. Do you want to come to the office with me? It shouldn’t take long.”

  “All right,” Moira said. “It will be better than sitting around here, anyway. I do have to be at the deli soon, though.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to take today off?”

  “No, I really shouldn’t. Working will make me feel better, and besides, I need to talk to Darrin about a couple of things. We’re going to be hiring a new employee soon, and I want him to do most of the work. It will be good experience for him.”

  “Okay. We’ll go to the office, then I’ll drive you back here, so you can head to work.”

  She grabbed her coat and shoes and made sure her phone’s volume was up just in case Detective Jefferson called again. She couldn’t help worrying about Denise. She didn’t want to believe that her friend might be involved in Hector’s murder, but a little voice in the back of her mind wouldn’t stop wondering what was really going on.

  CHAPTER SIX

  * * *

  It was good to get out of the house for a while, even if it was just to David’s office. She had helped out on and off at David’s private investigating business, and always enjoyed being there. The office had a comfortable, homey feel. It had gotten quite a bit more organized ever since Lenny had started working there, but it had lost none of David’s personal touch.

  “Hi, Moira,” Lenny said, looking up with surprise from his computer to see her and David walking in. “And David. I didn’t know you guys were coming in today. I thought you had that thing at the brewery to do with Karissa.”

  “Something’s come up,” David said. “I need to use my computer for a second to run a background check on someone. It shouldn’t take too long.”

  “Anything interesting?” Lenny asked, getting up and coming over to David’s desk, where he could look over their shoulders at the screen.

  “There was a murder at the Redwood Grill last night,” David told his partner. “We need some more information about the man who was killed.”

  “Is this something for the police, or your own personal work?”

  “Consider it personal curiosity,” he said. “The victim was a friend of Moira’s, and she wants to figure out what exactly happened.”

  “I see. Let me know if I can help out at all.”

  “I’m not sure if there will be much for us to do other than run the background check, but I will let you know if we need anything.”

  Moira waited while David typed something into the computer. She knew that the results wouldn’t be instantaneous; the background checks that David ran usually took three days, but sometimes up to a week depending on how thoroughly he was investigating the person.

  “There we go. I’ll let you know when I get the results. Do you want to do anything else before we head back home?”

  “No,” she said. “I should get ready for work. It will be good to have something to distract me. Let me know if you do any more investigating into all of this, okay? I don’t want to be left out of the loop.”

  “I will,” he promised. “See you later, Lenny. I’ll be at the brewery for the rest of the day, but I will stop in here again tomorrow. We can go over some of the new cases together.”

  “Okay,” Lenny said. “I’ll see you guys later. I hope you get everything figured out, Moira.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  She had to admit that Lenny had grown on her over the past few weeks. She had been leery of him when she had first met him, but he had quickly settled into the daily workflow at the office and had proven to be a good investigator. She was glad that David had someone else to rely on now. He had been working as a private investigator for a very long time, and she knew that he didn’t want to close the business down completely. At the same time, he was passionate about his new business; running the microbrewery. It had grown quickly. He now sold draft beers to many stores in the nearby small towns, and had signed a couple of larger contracts, though they wouldn’t start shipping large quantities for a few months yet.

  At home, Moira took a few minutes before heading to work to play fetch with the dogs outside. She was working the evening shift at the deli so she wouldn’t be able to bring the dogs with her since Perfect Paws closed earlier than Darling’s DELIcious Delights did.

  She found Darrin in the kitchen when she got to work. He was busy adding spices to a bubbling pot of black bean soup when she walked in.

  “Hey, Ms. D.,” he said. “I got the note you left yesterday, saying you wanted to talk to me.”

  “I do,” she said, mentally switching over from worried friend to capable boss. “As you know, we’re looking forward to a busy spring and summer here at the deli. I’ve been thinking of hiring someone else to help out around the kitchen and with catering in case Jenny and Cameron get overbooked. Normally I would handle hiring myself, but this time I thought you could take the lead.”

  “You want me to find someone to hire?” He blinked and set the wooden spoon down. “I wouldn’t have the first clue where to start.”

  “I’ll help you,” she said. “I’m happy to walk you through the process, and even be there for the interviews. I just want to give you a good understanding of how hiring works, and let you make some of the decisions.”

  Her phone buzzed, signaling an incoming text message. She glanced at it and saw that it was from Thelma. It could wait.

  “Cool,” he said. “I’m excited to learn about this. It will be neat to add someone else to the team. Have people turned in any applications yet?”

  “We’ve had a few people turn in applications over the past few months, so I thought we would start with them. I’ll forward them to you in an email, and you can go through and pick out the people you think would be best. Ideally, we will want to find someone with experience working in a restaurant, who also has a lot of good references. Once you have your choices, email them back to me, and I will go over them.”

  “I’ll get started as soon as you send me the email,” he said. “This should be fun. Thanks, Ms. D. I’m glad to have this opportunity.”

  “Thank you, Darrin. It’s good to have someone to rely on. I’m hoping over the next year or so, I’ll be able to teach you how to do a lot more around here. And of course, with more responsibilities comes a raise.”

  He grinned. Moira smiled back at him. She was really feeling better. It was good to have something to focus on besides the horrors from the night before.

  As Darrin got back to work, Moira remembered the text from Thelma. She wanted Moira to meet her at the farmhouse in a couple of days so that they could all go over the menu together. The deli owner texted back a quick confirmation, then put her phone away and put her apron on. It was time to work.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  * * *

  The morning of her meeting with Thelma, Moira got up early and made breakfast for herself and David before driving out to the farmhouse. The house shared the property with David’s microbrewery. Candice had bought the property the year before for a severely decreased price after a string of bad luck for the previous handful of owners. Shortly after that, Candice and Eli had been forced to move to a city on the other side of the state while Eli went through physical therapy for a major injury he had received when the candy shop had burned down. Candice had rented the farmhouse out to Thelma, Allison’s aunt, while they figured out what they were going to do long term.

  As she pulled up the long drivewa
y, Moira couldn’t help but wonder how the older woman could bear to live there all by herself. Moira had gotten lonely in her own little stone house before David moved in, and she had neighbors that were within shouting distance.

  The farmhouse was all by itself on over forty acres of farmland – most of which had been rented out to a local dairy farmer. The smell of livestock could get heavy in the summertime, but right now the air was fresh. The sky was still overcast, but it had stopped raining for the first time in days. It felt like spring, even though it wasn’t even St. Patrick’s Day yet.

  She knocked on the door and Thelma answered immediately. She welcomed Moira into the house warmly.

  “Thanks for meeting us out here,” Thelma said. “We could have met somewhere in town, but I figured this would be easier.”