Ravioli Soup Murder (The Darling Deli Series Book 27)

by Patti Benning

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  RAVIOLI SOUP MURDER

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EPILOGUE

  Ravioli

  Soup

  Murder

  Book Twenty-Seven

  in

  The Darling Deli Series

  By

  Patti Benning

  Copyright 2017 Summer Prescott Books

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  RAVIOLI SOUP

  MURDER

  Book Twenty-Seven in the Darling Deli Series

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  Moira Darling pulled the mug of hot apple cider out of the microwave, wrapping her hands around it as she went to go and sit on the front porch. The dogs followed her; Keeva, their Irish wolfhound, stretching out her long legs as she took a lap around the yard while Maverick, their German shepherd, raced along behind her.

  Moira leaned back in her chair, sipping the cider and pulling her sweatshirt more tightly around her. Steam rose from the mug, to be blown away by the occasional gust of wind. It was a gray day, cold and damp from the night’s rain. It was one of the slowest times of the year at the deli, and she wasn’t in any hurry to get to work. Her shift didn’t start until two that afternoon, and she would be working alone until seven. After Thanksgiving, she knew that business would pick up again. As the Christmas season approached, and the town was decorated with cheery lights, people’s spirits would begin to rise. Families would go out to eat in the evenings, and with the children out of school and young adults home from college, the lunch hour would get busier as well.

  For now, she was just appreciating the month-long lull. The past few months had been a whirlwind, and not the good kind. Her daughter and son-in-law had moved away unexpectedly, one of her best friends had been busy trying to get her nephew out of prison, and David had been gone more often than not, trying to juggle two jobs he was passionate about.

  It felt good to have a couple of weeks where everything was going just as it should. Logan was back home at Denise’s house, on probation, but for all intents and purposes, free. David’s private investigation company had been seeing fewer cases lately, and she had gotten used to the fact that Candice now lived a couple of hours away instead of practically next door. She still missed her daughter, but the initial shock over the unexpected move had worn off, and now she was excited for the young woman. The change of scenery might be just what she needed to overcome the gut wrenching loss of losing her candy shop.

  The dogs returned to the porch, panting heavily, and laid down beside her. She reached over to scratch Keeva’s ears, just as both dogs tensed up, their gazes focused on where the driveway disappeared into the trees.

  “What is it?” she asked. She put her apple cider down on the small metal table next to the outdoor chair. “Is David coming home?”

  She had thought that her husband would be at the brewery until later that evening, but it was possible that he had decided to come home early for lunch.

  Instead of hearing the sound of wheels on gravel, she heard footsteps. Maverick sat up and let out a single, deep bark. Moira got out of her chair and grabbed his collar, leading him and Keeva back inside. She didn’t know who was visiting her, but she didn’t want to frighten them with two large dogs rushing towards them.

  She was exasperated to see her neighbor, Jonathan Goodman, walking towards her. Behind her, inside the house, the dogs started to bark. She tried to shush them. Ever since she had moved into the little stone house, he’d had an issue with her dogs. She didn’t know why. They were well behaved, and never left her property unless they were on leashes. Between her and David’s schedules, there were usually only a couple hours each day that they were home alone, and none of her other neighbors had complained about them being loud, even those neighbors that lived much closer than he did.

  “Good morning, Mr. Goodman,” she called out, reaching past the screen door to shut the heavy front door with the dogs inside in an attempt to quiet them. “How can I help you?”

  “I’ve been telling you for months that you need to control your dogs,” he said. “I found muddy pawprints on my porch again, and my garbage bin had been knocked over. I had a huge mess to clean up this morning. I’m not very happy about it.”

  Moira closed her eyes, trying to control her temper. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I’ve been home all morning. There is no chance that the dogs could have gotten out without me noticing. They sleep indoors, and are only ever allowed out of the fenced in yard if I’m going to be right there watching them. It must be someone else’s dog, or maybe coyotes.”

  “You’re the only person on the street that has such big dogs,” he said. “I know it’s them, and once I have proof, I’m going to call the authorities out here. You better hope neither of them ever gets one of my cats. I’m going to shoot on sight if they do.”

  “My dogs aren’t your issue,” she said. “I’m sorry you’re having problems, but please quit blaming them on me. Now if you don’t mind, I would like to go back inside and enjoy the rest of my morning in peace. I hope you have a nice day.”

  Not waiting for an answer, she spun on her heel and went back inside, pushing past the dogs. She was fuming. She had no idea why he had it out for her, or why he was determined to hate her dogs so much. She knew that they weren’t getting out. If there was any chance that they were causing his problems, she would be quick to remedy the issue, but it simply wasn’t possible. Next time she saw him, she would suggest that he set up some game cameras outside. Hopefully once he caught the real culprit, he would leave her and her dogs alone.

  She was unable to recover the peaceful mood that she had been in before the encounter with her neighbor that morning. She still felt out of sorts when she drove into work later that afternoon. Allison was there, finishing up her shift. She had worked since seven that morning, and looked understandably tired.

  “G
ood afternoon, Ms. D.,” she said. “This morning is pretty slow, which was a good thing. It’s hard to have energy when I start work before it even gets light out.”

  “I know what you mean,” Moira said. “It’s a lot easier to get up for the morning shift when the sun is rising on your way to work. It’s no fun to drive to work in the dark. You can head home as soon as I get settled in here.”

  “Thanks,” her employee said. “I’ve got to be up even earlier tomorrow, since I’m volunteering at the elementary school. Oh, I can’t believe I almost forgot – my aunt is planning on moving to Maple Creek. She wanted to know if someone local could help her find a few houses for sale in the area before she visits. I know that you and David know a lot of people. Would you be able to help her?”

  “I think David might know a real estate agent,” Moira said. “I can ask him for her contact information. What sort of home is your aunt looking for?”

  “Well, she’s always want to have land and live outside of town. But not too far. Maybe a nice little house on a couple of acres, or even a house with a big yard in one of the older parts of town. I can give you her contact information and let her know that you might be calling her,” Allison said. “I don’t know anything about buying a house or finding a real estate agent, or I would help her myself.”

  “I’d be happy to put her in contact with somebody. The agent that I used to buy my house retired, or I would just give her his number. I’ll see if David can help. Why did she decide to make the move?”

  “She just wants to be closer to family, I guess. My uncle passed away last year, and he left her quite a bit of money, I suppose now is a good time for her to relocate if she wants to.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about your uncle. I’ll do what I can help to her out. Now, you go ahead and clock out. Get some rest before your big day tomorrow.”

  Moira settled down onto the stool behind the register, pulling out her tablet to answer some of the emails on the deli’s account. Seeing Allison always made her miss Candice more. The two young women looked a lot alike, and were close friends to boot. She remembered a couple of years back, when she and her daughter had been the only ones to work at the deli. She missed those times. While she was happy with her life now, and loved being married to David, the past seemed like it had been so much simpler. Where had the time gone?

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  After the deli closed down for the evening, Moira called her husband to see if he wanted her to bring anything home for dinner. She was surprised when he told her that he was still at the brewery.

  “I thought you would be home by now,” she said. “Is everything alright?”

  “Yes, I just had to go into Lake Marion earlier to meet with a client. That put things behind here at the brewery. I should be home in an hour or two. I haven’t eaten since I left the house this morning, so I’m starved. Bring home whatever you want.”

  “I can bring something to you at the brewery,” she offered. “I’m still at the deli. We have some leftover ham and bean soup, and plenty of sandwich supplies.”

  “That would be wonderful,” he said with feeling. “Thank you, Moira.”

  “You’d do the same for me,” she said. “I love you. I’ll see you in about half an hour.”

  She bustled around the deli’s kitchen, packing up the leftover soup into to-go containers for her and David, and making them both deli meat and sliced cheese sandwiches. She did a lot of cooking at the deli, and wasn’t always in the mood for it when she got home, so it was always nice when they had some leftover soup from the day. David didn’t cook much himself, but usually brought home takeout a couple of times a week. Every few months, she made a resolution to try to eat healthier, but it never seemed to work. At the end of a long day, they both found comfort in food. As long as her pants continued to fit, she decided not to worry about it too much.

  The brewery was at the small farmhouse that her daughter, Candice, owned. She and Eli were planning on renting the home out while they were gone, but they hadn’t found anyone to live there yet. Halfway between Maple Creek and Lake Marion, and just a little further west, it was relatively close to her own home, but a good fifteen minutes away from the deli. She always had mixed feelings when she pulled up the dirt driveway. She had known a couple of the house’s more recent owners, and they all seem to have met terrible fates in the home. While she kept telling herself that she didn’t believe in curses, she couldn’t help but be a little bit relieved that her daughter and son-in-law weren’t living in the house.

  The brewery itself was in a large building on the other side of the driveway. David’s car was parked in front, and the outdoor floodlights illuminated the area. She heard the deep low of a cow in the distance, and found that she was glad for the light. The rest of the farm was leased out to a couple of the neighboring farmers who grew crops and kept cattle on the land. There were all sorts of strange noises on the working farm at night.

  She found David in the small office and took a seat on the other side of the table from him, placing the food between them.

  “What are you working on?” she asked as she began unpacking it.

  “The FDA has released some new guidelines that I’m going over. There is a lot to keep up with. I don’t know how you do it at the deli. I never knew there were so many regulations for selling food and drink for human consumption until I took over the brewery.”

  “It is a lot,” she said. “I might know someone that can help. You should have told me about this before, I could have put you in contact with him.”

  “That would be a lifesaver,” he said. He pushed the papers aside and reached for his cup of soup. “This smells amazing.”

  “It’s pretty good,” she said. “It was popular today. I just made a little bit too much of it. At least it’s not going to waste.”

  “How was your day? Is business still slow?”

  “It is,” she said. “I know it will pick back up, though. Allison told me that her aunt is planning on moving to town. You’re friends with a real estate agent, aren’t you?”

  “Charlie’s wife is a real estate agent. That must be who you’re thinking of. Do you need her number?”

  “Yes. I told Allison I would help her aunt find a real estate agent and maybe take a look at some properties before she visits.”

  “I’ll call him tomorrow,” he said. “Just remind me, if I forget. It’s going to be another busy day.”

  “I thought things had started to slow down a little bit on the private investigator side of things,” she said. “You’ve been focusing on the brewery a lot more lately.”

  “I’ve been getting a huge influx of cases the past couple of days,” he said. “I really feel like this microbrewery could be successful, all over the state or maybe even nationally, but it’s hard when I am so divided between this and my real job.”

  “I wouldn’t mind helping out in the office again,” she volunteered. “I only stopped because I had a lot going on with everything else, but I have some free time right now.”

  “That would help a lot,” he said. He sat up straighter and peered at her. “Would you want to help in other ways too? You could meet some clients, and maybe take some of the simpler cases. You wouldn’t need to be licensed if you were working under me.”

  Moira grinned. “I think that would be fun,” she said. “You’ll have to show me what to do. I wouldn’t want to make any mistakes.”

  “If you have time tomorrow morning, you can come sit in with me while I meet with two clients. You already know how to do all of the filing and record things in the computer, so that part will be easy. It doesn’t have to be forever, just until you get busy again, or I have more time to focus on the business.”

  “I’d love to,” she said. “You should have asked me for help sooner.”

  “Next time I will,” he said. “So where in Maple Creek is she looking?”

  “Allison said that her aunt is looking somewhere with some land,
” Moira said. “I figured I would just put her in touch with the real estate agent and maybe go see a couple of houses if she wants me to. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

  “I know the house across the street from us is going up for sale,” David said. “She might be interested in that.”

  “Goodman’s house?” she asked. “How do you know? I didn’t see a sign.”

  “One of the cases I had last month involved him. It wasn’t anything major, but while I was doing some investigating, I found out that he had listed his house online. Maybe he changed his mind. Charlie’s wife will know.”

  “I hope he moves,” she said. “He came over this morning complaining about the dogs again.”

  “What did he have to say this time?” David asked.

  “The usual. Complaints about them going on to his property, and he thinks that they got into the garbage can. I told him that’s impossible. It couldn’t have been them because I was there all morning, and they hadn’t been out without supervision. I think he just doesn’t like big dogs, so he likes to pin everything on them.”