Ravioli Soup Murder (The Darling Deli Series Book 27)

by Patti Benning

  “He was murdered, but that’s not all. Allison is the one who found his body. It happened back when she worked at the hotel.”

  “Oh, my goodness, Moira. She told me about that, but I didn’t realize… Can you imagine? It’s going to break her heart.”

  “I know,” Moira said, gazing down at the table. “I just wish we had known sooner. A girl should have a chance to get to know her father, even one like Mike.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  * * *

  Saturday dawned bright and clear. Moira rose with the sun, unable to sleep any longer. In just a few hours, her daughter and son-in-law would arrive. Not long after that, the four of them would head over to the farmhouse to meet Allison and Thelma.

  Her stomach was twisting with nerves. So much was about to change for both girls. How was she going to keep her daughter from realizing that something was going on until they got to the house later? It was a hard secret to keep.

  After making coffee, feeding the dogs, and giving the kitchen a good scrub, she peeked in on David, who was still snoring in bed. She didn’t want to wake him, but she was itching to talk to somebody.

  “I guess I’ll have to talk to you two,” she said to the dogs. “I just don’t know what I’m going to say to Allison. When I tell her who Mike is, she’ll make the connection. Finding a body isn’t something you just forget. I have no idea how she will react. It’s not something that anyone is prepared for.”

  Maverick bumped his nose against her hand and she petted him, sighing. She would just have to soldier through like she always did. There was no getting out of this.

  A couple of hours later, she opened the front door to see her daughter’s beaming face. In one hand was a cat carrier, and she could just see Felix’s calico fur through the bars. Eli was standing behind her, leaning on a crutch, but smiling.

  “It’s so good to see both of you,” Moira said. “Come on in.” She shooed the dogs out of the way so Candice, Eli, and the cat could make their way in, then shut the door behind them.

  “It’s good to see you too,” her daughter said. She put Felix’s carrier down and gave her mother a hug.

  “And you, Eli,” Moira said. “You look much better than the last time I saw you.”

  “I feel much better,” he said with a smile.

  She stepped aside so David could greet them, then helped Candice bring the cat and their overnight bags into the guest bedroom.

  “We have a big breakfast ready for you,” she said. “After we eat, we’ll head out to the farmhouse. Allison and her aunt are going to meet us there.”

  “Perfect,” Candice said. “I really hope she decides to rent it. It would be one less thing that we have to figure out.”

  As they drove to the farmhouse, Moira glanced in the rearview mirror. Candice and Eli were following behind them; they had decided to take their own car in case they wanted to go into town after giving Thelma a tour of the farmhouse.

  “The two of them seem happy,” she said to David.

  “They do,” he agreed. “I’m happy for them. And I’m glad that Eli is doing well. He got lucky.”

  She nodded. “He really did,” she agreed.

  She bit her lip, falling silent again. Her daughter had no idea of the surprise that she was about to reveal. She just hoped that Thelma was more prepared than she was, because she didn’t feel prepared at all.

  She exchanged a look with the other woman when Thelma and Allison arrived at the farmhouse. They were both nervous, but neither of the girls seemed to pick up on it. Candice and Allison greeted each other with a hug.

  “Alright,” her daughter said. “I know you already saw the house with my mom. Did you have any questions for me?”

  “I don’t have many,” Thelma said. “She did mention that you have done some renovations. What all did you work on?”

  “Sadly, nothing in the living room yet.” The younger woman looked around the room they were all standing in. “If you wanted to take down the wallpaper and paint, you’d be free to. This stuff has been up here for forty or fifty years, and it’s falling apart.”

  Candice moved through the house, telling Thelma about each of the rooms, and pointing out the work that she and Eli had done before Eli had had his accident. Moira and David hung back.

  “She’s good at this,” she commented to her husband.

  “She could have been a realtor,” he agreed. “I suppose if the whole candy shop thing doesn’t work out, she can always fall back on that.”

  “I think running a business is in her blood,” Moira said with a smile. “As long as she enjoys whatever she’s doing, I’m happy for her.”

  Once the tour was over, the six of them sat at the dining room table together.

  “So, what did you think?” Candice said.

  “It’s lovely,” Thelma said.

  “You can take your time to decide whether or not you’re interested,” Candice said. “I don’t want to rush you.”

  “Well, it seems perfect for me. I’m just renting a small apartment month-to-month right now. After the house sold, I didn’t want to commit to anything until I found a new place to buy, but I wouldn’t mind staying here until I find somewhere to settle down. Would you be willing to do a six-month lease?”

  “That would be perfect,” Candice said. “I’m not sure how long Eli and I are going to be gone for.”

  “It’s settled then,” the older woman said.

  “I’ll figure out a contract sometime tomorrow,” Moira’s daughter said.

  She rose and shook the older woman’s hand. Allison got up too.

  “I’m so glad you found somewhere to stay, Aunt Thelma,” Allison said. “This worked out perfectly for everyone.”

  “Sit back down, you two,” Moira said. “We aren’t done yet.”

  Candice raised her eyebrows, but sat back down in her seat. Allison did so as well.

  “What’s going on?” her daughter asked.

  “There’s something that Thelma, David, and I need to tell you,” the deli owner said.

  She exchanged a look with Allison’s aunt. The other woman swallowed, then nodded. It was time.

  Moira took a deep breath. “Thelma and I were talking the other day, and we found something out. It’s about the two of you.” She hesitated. “You’re sisters.”

  In the shocked silence that followed, Moira and Thelma explained all the little bits and pieces of the puzzle that fit together. Candice nodded when Moira mentioned her father’s scar.

  “How can this be?” she asked, stunned, but believing. “How could we not have known?”

  “Are you sure?” Allison asked. “This isn’t some sort of mistake?”

  “We’re sure,” Moira said. She bit her lip, seeing Allison’s eyes go wide.

  “He’s the one I found… the hotel room…” Her face crumpled.

  Thelma hugged her niece. Moira moved away, and Candice followed her, letting them have their privacy, her heart aching for the girl as she listened to her sobs.

  “This is unbelievable,” she said in a quiet voice.

  “How do you feel?” she asked her daughter.

  “Once the shock wears off, I think I’ll be happy.” The younger woman gave her a faint smile. “Allison’s already one of my best friends. I’m glad to have her as a sister. It’s weird, to discover you have a sister when you’re almost twenty-two. I feel so bad for her, though. I can’t imagine what she’s going through. I mean, it was hard enough for me when he died. If I was in her shoes…” she hesitated. “It kind of makes me angry at him, though. The two of you would have just gotten married. How can you do something like that? He had an affair with another woman, a serious one, and left his newlywed wife alone at home, pregnant. At the same time, I feel guilty for being mad at him, because he’s dead.”

  “I’m sorry,” Moira said. “For both you and Allison. I wish that Mike was a better person. I wish he had been a better father, and a better husband. And despite all the things he did, I al
so wish that he was still alive. I feel terrible that Allison never even got a chance to get to know him as her father.”

  “It’s going to be a lot for her to process. It’s a lot for both of us to process.”

  “I’m sorry for telling you like this. I would’ve told you earlier, but we thought that the two of you should learn about it together.”

  “No, I’m glad that we learned about it at the same time. I wouldn’t have known what to say to her if we hadn’t.”

  Moira’s phone rang. She gave her daughter an apologetic grimace, then walked over to her purse to check it. It was Detective Jefferson. She felt her stomach clench.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I have to take this.”

  She took the call out onto the privacy of the porch. She didn’t know what to expect. Would it be good news, or bad? She didn’t think he would be calling her if he was about to arrest her. The thought gave her hope.

  “Hello?” she said, answering the call.

  “Moira?”

  She felt a rush of relief. Detective Jefferson always called her by her last name when she was in some sort of trouble.

  “Yes, it’s me,” she said. “What’s going on?”

  “I need you to tell me if you remember seeing Tillie Rogers at the open house where Jonathan died.”

  She frowned. It was her neighbor, the one that she had seen just yesterday morning. Was Tillie a suspect? She had thought that if one of them had killed Jonathan, it would have been Derek.

  “I don’t remember,” she said. “I wish I could tell you for sure one way or the other. I was so flustered after my argument with Jonathan that I didn’t pay much attention to everyone else.”

  He sighed. “I will have to keep calling the witnesses. Thanks, Moira. Sorry to bother you.”

  He hung up. She stared at her phone for a moment before sliding it into her pocket. She had no idea what was going on with her neighbors, but it seemed that she was off the hook. If that was the case, then why didn’t she feel any better?

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  * * *

  Shortly after she returned inside, Candice and Allison decided they wanted some time to talk privately. David volunteered to take Eli to visit his grandfather, so Moira returned home alone. Usually, she would have gone with them, but right now she wanted the peace and quiet of an empty house to wrack her mind. Had Tillie been at the open house? There had been a few blonde women, and it was possible that one of them had been her neighbor, and she had simply not noticed. After her argument with Jonathan, she had been so distracted and upset that she probably wouldn’t have noticed if her own daughter was standing right in front of her, let alone a woman she had only seen a couple of times.

  Detective Jefferson must have a good reason to ask about Tillie. Moira frowned, remembering what her neighbor had said the day before about her husband’s accident. Had Derek’s fall down the stairs been attempted murder? Maybe he had said something to Detective Jefferson, something that made the detective believe that Tillie had killed Jonathan. But what reason would she have had for killing Jonathan, and also trying to kill her husband? Something didn’t add up.

  With a sigh, she decided that she needed some fresh air and slipped her shoes on. Calling Maverick to come with her — she didn’t trust Keeva off leash that close to the road — she went outside and began to drag their garbage bin down the driveway; trash pickup was bright and early the next morning.

  She took the trash down to the end of the driveway, Maverick trotting along behind her, and situated it at the edge of the road, then wiped her hands off on her pants and looked across the street at Jonathan’s driveway. She was surprised to see a car, only half visible through the trees. She thought that she recognized it; Shay’s vehicle. Was Jonathan’s house still for sale? She knew that Thelma had fallen in love with the place, so if it was still on the market, her friend would probably want to know about it before signing Candice’s lease.

  “Heel, Maverick,” she said. She looked both ways, then crossed the street quickly with the dog by her side. It was definitely Shay’s car. She would feel a little bit bad if the other woman ended up buying this house instead of renting Candice’s, but her daughter would be able to find another renter easily enough. If Thelma really liked this house, then it wouldn’t be fair to her not to let her know if it was still for sale.

  She didn’t see Shay anywhere outside, so she knocked on the front door. It took a couple of minutes, but eventually the door opened. “Moira?”

  “Hi,” the deli owner said. “Sorry for stopping by so unexpectedly like this, but I saw your car in the driveway. Is the house still for sale? Thelma was very interested in it, so I’d love to give her good news if it is.”

  “No, sorry, it’s not,” Shay said. She brushed her hair back from her face. Moira noticed what looked like a bundle of photographs in her hand. “I’m just here doing some cleaning. Sorry to get your hopes up. I have no idea what’s going to happen to the house.”

  “Oh, okay. Sorry to disturb you.”

  “It’s fine,” the other woman said, giving her a tight smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish up here.”

  She shut the door in Moira’s face. The deli owner frowned. Shay had never been that rude to her before. Come to think of it, what was she doing here? She had said she was cleaning, but that didn’t seem like a job for a realtor, especially not one as busy as Shay was. And what was with the photographs she was holding?

  “What do you think, Maverick?” she asked the dog. The German shepherd sniffed at the door, then trotted off the porch. She sighed. He wasn’t exactly a lot of help. “Come on, let’s head back.”

  She began to walk down the driveway, only to realize that he wasn’t following her. She turned to see him sniffing intently at a bush, his hackles up.

  “What’re you doing?” she said, walking over to him. Before she reached him, he took off, trotting towards the trees with his nose to the ground. Muttering to herself in annoyance, she jogged to catch up with him.

  “Maverick, come here right now,” she said.

  He stopped, intent on a patch of muddy ground. He gave a low growl. Beginning to get worried, she ran the last few feet and looked down. Clearly imprinted in the mud was a large pawprint. Maverick was sniffing it cautiously, and when she reached for his collar, he jumped.

  “What has gotten into you?” she asked. She pulled him away from the print, then took a photo of it with her phone. She remembered Jonathan’s complaints about loose dogs. Maybe she could finally get to the bottom of that mystery.

  With a firm grip on her dog’s collar, she turned to leave. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something through Jonathan’s kitchen window. It was Shay, standing at the sink. She was crying, and smoke was rising from the sink. When she opened her eyes a moment later, her gaze met Moira’s.

  The deli owner was frozen. She didn’t know what to do. Something was deeply wrong here, and she shouldn’t be witnessing it. She took a step backward, but Maverick didn’t budge.

  “Maverick, come on. We’ve got to get home. I need to call the police. I think Shay might have done it.”

  It was beginning to make sense. Shay had been at the open house the entire time. She had blonde hair, just like Tillie. And hadn’t she seen the two of them standing unusually close together when she arrived? What if the person Jonathan was having an affair with wasn’t Tillie, but Shay?

  She finally got Maverick to move, but when she looked up at the window again, Shay had vanished. Moira felt a prickle of apprehension. Where had the other woman gone?

  She managed to lead Maverick back around to the front of the house. The front door was hanging open.

  “Shay?” Moira called. She looked around, goosebumps rising on her skin. Where was she?

  The answer came as she heard Shay’s car door slam shut. She spun around and saw the other woman standing by the driver’s door, fiddling with a gun. She managed to rack the slide, then leveled the pistol at Moira.
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  “I wish you had never come here,” she said, her voice shaking. “I don’t want to hurt anyone else. Really, I don’t. I never meant to kill Jonathan. But I know you’ll tell David about what you saw, and then he’ll tell Charlie, and I just can’t let that happen.”

  “Calm down,” Moira said, raising her hands reflexively. She let go of Maverick’s collar without thinking, and the German shepherd dashed forward, barking. Shay’s gun went off, and Moira saw a splatter of mud as the bullet impacted the ground right in front of Maverick. The dog yelped in surprise and ducked back behind Moira, still grumbling, but with his tail tucked between his legs.