Creamy Casserole Murder: Book 15 in The Darling Deli Series

by Patti Benning

  “It sounds like he still thinks he’s a tiny kitten,” Moira said, laughing. “I bet that was pretty unpleasant. His claws are like needles.”

  They worked in silence for a few more minutes, the deli owner focusing on laying the chocolates out in nice rows on each layer of parchment paper. She sensed her daughter glancing over at her periodically, and got the sense that there was something on her mind. When Candice spoke up at last, it was to ask something completely unexpected.

  “Mom, do you love David?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Moira said, setting the box of chocolates aside so she could focus on her daughter. “I do.”

  “Like, as much as you loved Dad?”

  She was surprised. Her daughter rarely brought up Mike these days. His death had hit Candice hard, despite there being both physical and emotional distance between them. Wondering what the young woman was getting at, she considered her answer carefully, trying to remember the days when she had first been married to her ex-husband.

  “It’s a different sort of love,” she said at last. “Back when I met your father, I wasn’t much older than you are now. I didn’t really know what I wanted back then, or what kind of man I wanted to be with. I was infatuated with your father, but it just wasn’t the kind of love that lasted… on either of our parts. What I feel for David is much deeper.”

  The young woman nodded. “Good.”

  Moira was about to ask her daughter why she wanted to know, wondering if she was having doubts about her relationship with Eli, when Candice’s phone buzzed on the counter beside the stove. The young woman glanced over at it, then quickly wiped her hands on a hand towel and answered it.

  “Hello?” she said. She was silent for a moment as she listened, and Moira saw her visibly pale. “We’ll be right over.”

  “What’s going on?” Moira asked once her daughter had hung up the phone.

  “Someone else was just killed at the nursing home,” Candice said. She frowned, as if still trying to make sense of it in her own mind. “It was Danny.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  At first Moira thought that Candice meant that Danny had killed someone else, but by the time they had turned off the stoves and done what they could to salvage the last of the chocolate, she realized that her daughter meant that Danny had been killed. Her mind was reeling. What did this mean? Had Danny been innocent all along, or had the murderer been avenging the deaths of Beatrice and Delilah? Had Reggie…? No, she told herself firmly as she yanked her seatbelt across her chest. Don’t even think it. Reggie wouldn’t hurt anyone.

  As she put the SUV into gear, she asked Candice to give David a call and tell him what was going on. She was certain that he would want to be there, and he probably had a better chance than either of them at finding out what was going on.

  “Is everyone else all right?” she asked her daughter once the call to the private investigator had ended.

  “As far as I know,” Candice said. “Eli was in the courtyard with his grandfather when it happened. He said he’d tell us more when we got there. A lot of people are pretty shaken up.”

  Misty Pines was only a few short minutes away from Candice’s Candies, but the drive seemed to take an eternity. The parking lot was swarming with police and emergency vehicles when they got there, and they ended up parking in one of the farthest spots from the doors.

  “Do you think they’ll let us in?” Moira said, suddenly concerned that they would be barred from the building.

  “I’ve got no idea,” her daughter fretted. “Eli said to call when we got here…” She picked up her cellphone, and a minute later they saw Eli appear at the doors. He waved them over.

  “They’re only letting family in,” he said, keeping his voice low. “So don’t let them know you’re not related. Grandpa’s pretty shaken up, but he’s dying to talk to you.”

  “David’s coming, too,” Moira told him. “Is that all right?”

  Eli nodded. “Let me know when he gets here, and I’ll come out to bring him in, too.”

  He led them through the two sets of doors, past a police officer who was assigned to guard the entrance, through the hallway where residents were congregated, muttering quietly to themselves, and past the dining room, which was where Moira paused. The dining room doors were propped open, and the interior was swarming with police officers. Someone from a forensics team was taking photo after photo of something. She could see what looked like a spray of blood across one of the white walls, and saw tape on the floor in the outline of a body.

  “Come on,” Eli said softly. “They want everyone to stay out of the way.”

  She followed him wordlessly the rest of the way to Reggie’s room. Candice was silent beside her. I’ve seen death before, the deli owner thought. But nothing quite so violent. What’s going on here?

  Reggie, who was waiting for them in his room, heaved himself to his feet when they got there.

  “Did Eli tell you what happened?” he asked, his eyes flashing with excitement.

  “I didn’t tell them the whole story yet, Gramps,” the young man said. “David’s on his way, too. Why don’t we wait for him?”

  “Nonsense. It’s a good story, there’s no harm in telling it twice.”

  “You don’t have to sound so excited about it,” Eli said, shaking his head. “A man died.”

  “A killer met with justice,” Reggie declared, shaking his cane at his grandson. “Fine, I’ll tell it if you don’t want to. Take a seat, you two.” This last part was directed at Moira and Candice, who obeyed, sitting down on the small loveseat next to the television.

  “It all started when Eli and I were taking a stroll around the courtyard after dinner. I’m supposed to walk more, according to the nurses, though I still don’t see why they seem to think the best time to do it is after I eat. No one wants to exercise when they’re full. I guess they think they can tell me what to do just because I’m old, but really I’m paying their wages, I should be the one telling them to go and take a walk after dinner.”

  “Grandpa,” Eli said gently. “The story, remember? I promised to talk to the nurses and get your walk moved to the morning, but I doubt that’s what Moira and Candice want to hear about right now.”

  “Yes, well. Anyway, we were walking around that courtyard, talking about…” Here he shot a sly glance at Moira and gave a soft chuckle. “Well, I won’t spoil it. Let’s just say we were talking about some interesting personal matters, when out of the blue this guy starts shouting. It was Danny, of course. We could see him through the windows. He wanted to see the director, then started yelling for someone to call the police instead. He said something about the police questioning him about his mother’s death, but by then the staff were trying to calm him down and it got hard to hear. He had a gun, though, I know that much. One of the nurses saw it under his jacket. I heard her shouting about it from all the way out in the courtyard. See, Eli? My hearing isn’t bad. I don’t need one of those electronic aids. I’m perfectly fine.”

  “That’s only half of the story, gramps. We can talk about your hearing later. Do you want to finish it, or shall I?”

  “I will. Quit being so impatient. You have to take time to tell a good story. Back to it, then.” Reggie cleared his throat. “After a few minutes, a couple of the nurses managed to calm him down enough to convince him that he was scaring the residents. He agreed to wait in the dining room for the police, who were already on their way by then, and Nurse Southfield locked him in the second the doors shut behind him.”

  “So he was alone in a locked room?” Moira asked, confused. “Did he shoot himself?”

  “That’s the thing,” Eli said, exchanging a look with Reggie. “No one heard a gunshot. When the police got here and unlocked the doors… he was dead.”

  The deli owner blinked, not understanding. “If he didn’t shoot himself and he was alone… then how did he die?”

  “Well, Nurse Southfield only locked the dining room doors,” Eli said. “The do
or to the kitchen, which also has a door outside for deliveries and a door directly to the staff room, was still open. Someone must have snuck in and killed him, then snuck back out before the police got there.”

  “Justice,” Reggie said with satisfaction. “Someone must have been listening when I was telling everyone how he was a stinkin’ murderer, and they decided to take matters into their own hands.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  By the time David got there, the four of them had already gone over the story a couple of times. Moira couldn’t quite believe that one of the elderly residents of the nursing home had managed to stealthily and silently kill a man with a gun, but Reggie was convinced that that was what had happened.

  “Griff always had a soft spot for Delilah,” he said. “He brought her roses every week.”

  “Griff can barely walk,” Moira pointed out. “He needs a walker just to walk in between tables in the dining room. How on earth would he have managed to kill someone, especially when that person was armed with a gun of their own?”

  “He can walk better than he lets on,” said Reggie huffily. “He just likes all of the attention he gets for needing help.”

  “Something about this just doesn’t add up,” said David once they had caught him up. “Why would Danny come back to Misty Pines after the police interviewed him? His flight was supposed to leave in less than a day. The smart thing to do would have been to lay low and wait for Thursday evening. What could he have to gain by confronting people here?”

  Moira thought that the private investigator had a good point. Danny probably would have gotten away scot-free if he had just kept out of the way for the next day. She couldn’t see why he had risked everything by coming back to the scene of his two murders… but wasn’t it a well-known phenomenon that criminals tended to return to the scene of their crimes?

  “Maybe he left behind some sort of evidence when he killed Beatrice or Delilah,” she mused. “Something that would give the police a good enough reason to arrest him right away.”

  “Maybe.” The private investigator still didn’t look convinced.

  “What are we going to tell the cops?” Reggie said suddenly. They all turned to look at him.

  “What do you mean?” Eli asked. “If they talk to any of us for whatever reason, we’ll just tell them the truth.”

  “But if I tell them that Griff was sweet on Delilah, then they might figure out he’s probably the guy that killed Danny,” the old man said. “Griff is a good guy; he doesn’t deserve to go to jail.”

  “I’m sure other people knew about Griff and Delilah’s relationship,” Eli pointed out. “Besides, they aren’t going to send a ninety-year-old man to prison. The best thing that we can do is give them all of the information that we have, and let them close this case as soon as possible. Until then, I can bet that security will be very tight.”

  “This whole thing is a mess,” David said, shaking his head. “None of you should be involved in this in the first place. Reggie, if you think your friend Griff might have killed someone for whatever reason, then you must tell the police. Keeping that information from them won’t help anybody. Eli, I understand why you were here, but you two…” He turned to look at Moira and Candice. “I have to ask, why on earth did you run toward a murder scene with a killer still on the loose?”

  “It’s not like we were in any danger,” Moira said huffily. “There are police everywhere here, and Reggie wanted to see us. We’ve all been investigating the murders together, after all.”

  “Did you ever think that maybe you might be suspects?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. The deli owner froze.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Well, everyone here knows that you and I, along with Reggie, suspected Danny of killing his mother and aunt. And I’m sure Reggie let slip to some of his friends that Danny had a flight out of the country soon.” The elderly man nodded. “So think of how it will look to the police when Danny mysteriously dies the day before his flight leaves, and you show up shortly after, Moira. I wouldn’t be surprised if you and Reggie were the primary suspects.”

  The deli owner blanched. “They wouldn’t really think that we killed him, would they?”

  “Well, you do have something of a history of getting yourself into trouble down at the station.” David massaged his temples. “I’m sure I can convince them that the two of you are innocent, since Reggie was out in the courtyard with witnesses when Danny was locked in the dining room… Moira, were you at the deli by any chance when you got the call?”

  “No…” She realized what he was getting at and added, “I was at the candy shop. Candice has security cameras too, remember? I’m sure there’s footage of us being in the building before Danny was killed.”

  “Good. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble this time, but it’s probably a good idea for both of you to lay low for a while.” He looked back and forth between Moira and Reggie. “Danny is dead, so we don’t have to worry about him getting on that plane and flying away anymore. But any more poking around might get one or both of you into serious trouble. There have been three murders here in the past two and a half weeks. Trust me when I say tempers are going to be running very high at the police station for a while.”

  The conversation with David was sobering. Moira had been so involved with helping Reggie figure out who had killed his friends and trying to make up for not believing him right away that she hadn’t paused to think how this would reflect on her. She had been a murder suspect before, and it was by no means a position that she wanted to find herself in again.

  At least Danny won’t get away with killing his two family members, she thought. The only question is… who killed him? She and Reggie might be the obvious suspects to outsiders, but she knew that neither of them had done it. Was Reggie right? Had Griff taken it in his own hands to kill the man who murdered the woman he loved? It made sense, sort of, until she remembered how frail he had looked the other day. Even if Reggie was right and his friend was fitter than he looked, that still didn’t explain how he had managed to take down an armed man silently, on his own.

  It was an unsatisfying ending to the twin mysteries of Beatrice’s and Delilah’s deaths, but it was an ending all the same. She had to accept that. She knew it drove David crazy when she dove headfirst into tracking down a killer, and she could see his point. She was lucky that she hadn’t either been arrested or killed before now… and maybe it was time to stop pushing that luck.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  With Danny out of the picture, albeit more gruesomely than she would have liked, Moira was free to stop worrying about the murders and Danny’s impending flight to freedom. Instead she could concentrate on other important matters, like her date with David on Friday night.

  Things were finally beginning to calm down at the deli; they had stopped giving out the free samples of breakfast cookies, so the morning rush wasn’t as crazy as it had been, and Dante had offered to pick up more morning hours again. She was finally beginning to feel settled enough to think about planning a fun trip or getaway with David. Her aborted conversation with Candice a few days ago had made her realize how important the private investigator really was to her. If she wanted a future with him, she couldn’t let work get in the way.

  To her surprise, she found herself getting nervous Friday evening as she was preparing for their date. She realized that it had been a long time since just the two of them had gone out together, and she was looking forward to it more than ever.

  Deciding to go all out and dress up for an evening out, she pulled her new dress with the white rose trim out of her closet and tugged it on. It fit her just as well now as it had in the store the week before. She turned, admiring her reflection in the mirror. Not too bad for someone halfway through her forties, she thought, running her hands down the front of the dress to smooth away the wrinkles. The tan helps, though it’s already fading.

  “What do you think?” she said aloud to Diamond. The little bl
ack-and-white dog was laying on Moira’s bed, watching her alertly. When the deli owner looked over at her, she began wagging her tail rapidly. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  The new dress was only part of her ensemble. She left her naturally curly hair down, hoping that the product that she used would be strong enough to fend off the frizzies as the night wore on. She tucked a lock of it behind one of her ears to make sure her diamond earrings went well with the outfit, then gave her reflection her most winning smile.

  She kept her makeup simple, using it to accentuate her natural features and hide some of the more annoying wrinkles. That’s one thing that all of the sun I got on the cruise didn’t help with, she thought as she squinted at her crow’s feet. I need to buy the good moisturizer again.

  A few minutes before David was supposed to pick her up she decided that she had done all that she could… and that she looked pretty good after all was said and done. She pulled on a pair of her trusty black pumps—nothing too high, it would be embarrassing to trip over herself—and grabbed her purse to wait by the door. The three dogs gathered around her, all of them watching expectantly out of the window. By now all of them, even Diamond who only spent a few days each month at her house, knew that her behavior meant that David was soon to arrive. Sure enough, he pulled up the driveway just as her phone’s clock said it was eight-thirty. With butterflies in her stomach, the deli owner gave each of the dogs a quick pat goodbye, reminded them to behave themselves while she was gone, and slipped out the door.

  “You look perfect,” David said. He had gotten out of the car and had the passenger side door open for her. She paused for a quick kiss, then slid into the vehicle. The private investigator walked back around to his side and got in.