Death of the Family Recipe (A Scotti Fitzgerald Murder Mystery Book 3)

by Anita Rodgers

  There was a certain wisdom to having the app on my phone because I did tend to attract trouble sometimes. I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Wait. Do you track me every minute of the day?"

  He glanced at me over his shoulder. "No. Just when you’re running late. Things like that." He got back under the covers and stroked my arm with his finger. "You have the same app for my phone on yours. So it’s an equal opportunity tracking thing."

  That information had a certain appeal. I tilted my head and smiled. "Really?"

  He laughed and pinched my butt. "Oh, you like that?"

  I straddled him and held down his arms. "First thing tomorrow, you’re showing me how to use it."

  "I can show you now."

  I switched off the light. "It can wait. Right now, I have other plans for you, mister."

  Chapter Four

  The next morning, I was too preoccupied with pie day to remember about the phone app. We sent Eric and Ted away and baked our little hearts out. We finished by mid-afternoon, stocked the food truck for Monday morning and had the rest of the day free. Zelda showered, then went off to meet up with Eric. I put six blueberry muffins in a container and paid a visit to Joe Enders.

  Joe is a former homicide cop who retired from Mississippi to California and hung out his shingle as a private investigator. In addition to our food truck business, Zelda and I were working under Joe’s tutelage to get our own P.I. licenses.

  Joe runs his business out of the lower unit of a three-plex he owns. A little unorthodox, I guess, but in L.A., people work in their pajamas, so maybe not so much. He sat at his big desk muttering, as he read through a document. His reading glasses were perched on his generous nose, and his belly butted up against the desk.

  From the front door I said, "What are you doing, trying to figure out the solution to world peace?"

  Joe looked up from his paperwork and peered over his reading glasses. "Well howdy, Miss Scotti. What brings you here on a fine Sunday afternoon?"

  I took my usual chair in front of his desk and offered the container of muffins. "We just finished pie day, and I thought I’d bring you these. Blueberry, your favorite."

  Joe opened the container, took a deep breath and smiled. "Like heaven in a box." Then he squinted at me. "You in a pickle?"

  I shook my head and smiled. "No."

  Joe leaned an elbow on the desk and rested his chin on his hand. "Then why are you sitting here with an old man instead of out with handsome Ted?"

  I put on my happy face. "I have things two tell you, and two things to ask you."

  Joe peeled back the paper on a muffin. "Do tell?"

  I raised my hand and pointed to my engagement ring. "First, Ted proposed.

  With a mouthful of muffin Joe said, "About time you stopped torturing that boy."

  I smirked. "Well congratulations, Scotti. Are you happy? You look mighty happy."

  "I am Joe, I’m as happy as a monkey at a banana convention. Well, that’s fine. Mighty fine."

  Joe rolled his eyes and waved his muffin at me. "I was getting to that. Can’t a man have a second to catch his breath?"

  I stuck my tongue out at him. "Or eat a muffin, right?"

  Joe scooched to the edge of his seat and wiggled his fingers. "Let me see that rock." I offered him my hand. He whistled. "Ain’t she a beauty? My, my, my." He looked back to me and grinned. "Well best wishes to the bride to be and the lucky fellow who snagged her." Joe gave me back my hand, grabbed another muffin and leaned back in his chair like the wily investigator he was and said, "What else?"

  I cradled my stomach and giggled. "I’m going to have a baby. Can you believe it? Me, a mommy?"

  Joe’s mouth dropped open. Then he dropped the muffin and rushed around the desk to me. "Oh my, little girl!" He pulled me to my feet and hugged me. Patting my back he said, "Isn’t that wonderful?" He held me by the shoulders gave me the once over. "You’re glowing like firebug." I got weepy, and Joe offered me a hankie. "Now, now, little girl. Why the tears?"

  I laughed. "Hormones — can’t keep the waterworks under control."

  Joe patted my hand. "You’ll be a fine, mama. And won’t that baby be prettier than a summer morning on the Delta? Probably win the Gerber baby contest."

  I frowned. "The what?"

  Joe rolled his eyes. "Oh never mind." He leaned against his desk. "All righty then, by my count, we got two more things to go."

  I wiped my face and blew my nose. "Right. I was wondering if you’d…you know, walk me down the aisle?" My voiced cracked. "Because like it or not Gramps, you’re the closest thing I’ve got to a father."

  Joe lit up like a fire bug himself and tipped an imaginary hat. "Why Miss Scotti, it would be my honor."

  "Really, Joe? Because I don’t want you to feel obligated."

  "Oh hush, child. Ain’t nothing make me happier than giving you away to handsome Ted." We shared a moment of true affection and grinned at each other like a couple of goofballs. Then I sighed and fiddled with my engagement ring. "What is it, child?"

  Feeling wobbly, I sat down again. "The baby is a secret for now. I told you so you’d understand what I’m about to ask." I squirmed and blushed and had a hard time looking at him. "If I hired you to look into something for me, you couldn’t tell anyone else, right?"

  Joe furrowed his brow. "If you were a client, I couldn’t tell anyone without your permission. That’s right." He peered into my face. "What kind of trouble are you in?"

  I shook my head. "Not trouble. Need." His blue eyes bore into me and I looked away. "I don’t know how to ask this…"

  "You can tell me anything child. No need to fret, just get it off your chest."

  I nodded and stared at him for a long moment. "Would you find my mother?"

  Joe scratched his chin and studied me. "You sure you wanna open that can of worms? Because if she can be found, I’ll find her. Y’all ready for what that could mean?"

  I shuddered and shrugged. "Ready? Who the hell knows? I only know that I need some answers." I blew out a breath. "I thought I could do it myself — even started on it." I shook my head. "I’m just too close to it." I laughed nervously. "It scares the hell out of me, but not knowing scares me more. Does that make any sense at all?"

  Joe nodded and thought about it for a while. "Mind if I ask you a question?"

  "Knock yourself out."

  "You had a long time to look into this, but you never did. Least, I expect you never did. So what’s changed? The baby?"

  I nodded. "Yeah. I’m getting married, I’m having a baby…" My weepiness returned. "My mother should be here. Helping me and giving me advice. And reassuring me." I swatted at my tears. "So, why isn’t she?" I stared at my beautiful engagement ring. "Some day, my daughter will want to know about her grandmother, and I want to have an answer for her."

  Gently Joe asked, "Just for her?"

  I raised my head. "For both of us. Ted has this big crazy family, and they’re so close, and they know each other so well. Why didn’t I have that? Birthdays and holidays? I want her to tell me why I didn’t deserve to have that."

  Joe nodded. "All righty then, we’ll get you some answers."

  I raised my brows. "You’ll do it? Really?"

  He took my hand and squeezed it. "Course I will, sunshine."

  I pulled out my checkbook before he could change his mind. "What’s your standard retainer?"

  Joe held up his hands and frowned. "Put that checkbook away."

  I continued making out the check. "The hell I will. I’m not asking for a favor. This is a business transaction."

  Joe shrugged. "Then we’ll make it a wedding gift."

  I shook my head. "No. Thank you, but no. It needs to be official." I tore the check out of the book and lay it on his desk. "Do you understand?"

  Joe pursed his lips and tucked the check into his top pocket. "Yeah, I understand."

  We signed a contract, and I was officially a client of Enders Investigations. It was a relief because Joe w
as probably the only person I’d trust to find the woman who’d abandoned me almost thirty years ago. Because he really was the closest thing I had to a father — he was family. My heart raced at the thought of finally facing her and asking the questions that haunted me all my life. All he had to do was find her and convince her to talk to me. And all I had to do was get up the nerve to ask the questions. "Will it take long?"

  Joe sucked in a cheek and chewed on it. "Hard to say. If she don’t want to be found, then probably." He patted my back. "But could be she’s looking for you too."

  My heart triple-axled at the thought. "You think she could be looking for me?"

  "You’re looking for her, ain’t you?" He cupped my chin. "My advice? Try not to expect too much."

  I frowned and pushed his hand away. "But you just said she might be looking for me."

  He nodded in his slow southern gentleman way. "I did. But it’s been a long time since you was left in that church, Scotti. A lotta things can happen in that kind of time."

  The brakes slammed on what little hope I felt. "Like what?"

  Joe flapped a hand to chase away my question. "Let me do what I do. We’ll see what falls out when I shake the tree." A little disheartened, I gathered my things and started for the door. "Scotti?" I turned back to him. "Does Ted know you’re looking for your mama?"

  I shook my head slowly. "No. If you find her, I’ll tell him."

  Joe scratched at the stubble on his chin. "It ain’t the kind of secret you wanna keep from your future husband."

  I pursed my lips. "It’s not a secret. But this is my battle, not Ted’s. If we come up empty, he’ll feel sorry for me. Think it’s his job to make it up to me. I don’t want to put that on him." I looked to Joe for approval. "You know what I mean?"

  Joe hugged me. "It’s going to be all right, child. Don’t you fret."

  But I was fretting. A lot of things can happen in thirty years, and I was doing my damnedest to avoid thinking about those things. But the ball was in motion. And I had no idea if it would be a dream come true or the worst nightmare of my life.

  Chapter Five

  It was great to be back with Zelda on the food truck. Because of all that business with Eric and Henry, it’d been weeks since we’d worked together. But we slid back into our routine as though nothing had ever changed. We zipped around the city in our lime green pie-mobile, hawking pie and coffee like nobody’s business.

  And she’d even refrained from needling me about breaking the wedding and baby news to Ted’s family that night. Which for her, was quite a feat. But as we headed home she asked, "Nervous?"

  I glanced at her. "I don’t know if they’ll freak out or throw me a party."

  Zelda chuckled. "You always wanted a big family." She nudged my arm. "Now, you’ve got one. Gotta take the bad with the good." She flicked me a look. "What’s the deal with Joe?"

  I turned to her and frowned. "We were just talking about my future in-laws and now we’re onto Joe?" I cranked down the window and closed my eyes against the breeze. "What does Joe have to do with anything?"

  Zelda snickered. "Nice try." She gave my braid a yank. "I know who you make those blueberry muffins for, so give."

  I gave her the innocent eyes. "Can’t I do something nice without an ulterior motive?" I shrugged. "We were baking anyway."

  Zelda wasn’t buying it. "Yeah, right. Come on, tell me."

  I shook my head and sucked in my lips. "Leave it alone, Zee."

  Zelda stared at me for moment then turned onto Hillcrest. Wise move on her part, she knew better than to push it. Especially since she just got off my shit list. So, she drove and I stared out the window. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell her I’d finally decided to find my mother. I was dying to tell her — but if I told Zelda I told the whole world. And I wasn’t ready to share it with the whole world. For the time being, the search for my mother was between me and Joe. If things worked, then maybe, I’d tell Ted and Zelda. But not now. Definitely not now.

  When I looked up again, Zelda was pulling onto the parking pad. She parked the truck by the back wall and switched off the engine. "And so ends another successful day in Pieville."

  I climbed out of the truck and opened up the back. "Let’s restock now, so we don’t have to worry about it later."

  Zelda grumbled, but we got it done quickly, and I didn’t think of the family dinner the entire time. When we were finished, I locked the truck and stared at it.

  Zelda paused at the front door. "We forget something?"

  "If I hid in there, do you think anyone would find me?"

  Zelda rolled her eyes and went into the house. I leaned against the truck and closed my eyes. In three days, I’d gotten engaged, learned I was pregnant, set a wedding date and hired Joe to find my mother. Even for me that was some kind of record.

  Boomer zoomed around from the back and proudly displayed the dead lizard in his mouth. He wagged his stub and dropped the lizard at my feet.

  With the tips of my fingernails, I picked up the lizard and held it away from me. "Boomer, didn’t we just have a lizard burial?" He led the way to the back patio, and I grabbed a hand trowel from the potting bench. I smiled at my little black beast — a perfect miniature version of a Rottweiler. "Find a spot."

  Boomer yapped and sniffed along the wall where lilies and irises nestled. He stopped in front of a calle lily plant, sniffed then started digging. When he was finished, he looked up and yapped. I dropped the lizard into the hole, covered it and planted the hand trowel in the dirt like headstone. "Off to lizard heaven you go, my friend."

  Boomer whimpered once, then shot into the house through the open patio slider. I frowned at my fallow garden. Ordinarily, I’d have gone into the house, put on my gardening sweats and got to work tearing it all down. But in six weeks I’d be married. This wouldn’t be home anymore. Come spring, I’d be too pregnant to start a garden. I felt the waterworks rising.

  Zelda stuck her head out. "What are you doing out here?"

  "Thinking."

  Zelda made a face at the garden. "What a mess. We should tear it out. Winter’s coming."

  I glanced at her hopefully. "You’ll keep the garden going?"

  Zelda chewed on her thumb. "Right. You won’t be here." She squinted at me. "Don’t start crying again."

  I threw up my hands. "I can’t help it — it’s the hormones."

  Zelda rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well your hormones kept me up most of Saturday night."

  I threw back my head and laughed. "Oh, you and Eric wanted to sleep?" I nudged her into the house. "What happened to best sex of your life?"

  She grumbled something, but I was distracted by a wave of nostalgia. Everywhere I looked was a memory. The bookshelves we found at a flea market and refinished. The sofa we rescued from the curb and reupholstered. The old china teacups I’d collected over the years. The curtains we’d made and remade. My desk, the kitchen stools, even the paint on the walls reminded me of some adventure that Zelda and I had shared.

  Zelda sighed and put her arm around my shoulder. "Look, we’ve been roomies for twenty years — and as great as that’s been, things change."

  I rested my head on her shoulder and put my arm around her. "What’ll I do without you?"

  Zelda hip-bumped me. "Without me? Am I moving to China? I’ll be twenty minutes away. You’ll be here, and I’ll be there. We have a business."

  "I’ll have a baby. And a husband. And they won’t let me play like I used to." I sighed. "Come live with us? It’s a big house."

  "Maybe I’ve got other plans." She wiggled her eyebrows and walked away whistling.

  I followed her into the kitchen. "What kind of plans?"

  Zelda pulled out a handful of chocolate chip cookies from the cookie jar and put them on a plate. "I thought I’d get another roommate."

  My head snapped back like she’d slapped me in the face. "You’re already looking for my replacement?" I snapped my fingers. "Just like that?"

  She put t
he platter of cookies on the butcher block. "Okay, drama queen take a breath. I meant that Eric could move in here."

  I pulled up a stool. "You two have gotten that close, huh?"

  Zelda shrugged. "We’ve talked about living together." She pulled a couple of sodas out of the fridge and plopped onto a barstool. "Not here — until this weekend, anyway. But since you’re getting married so soon, why not?"

  I grabbed a cookie, took a bite, then put it back on the platter. "What would you do with my room, make Eric a hacker cave?"