Shrimply Murder

by Patti Benning

  By then, the water was boiling, and she measured out two cups of orzo into the pot before turning the temperature down. Once the pot was simmering, she gave it a quick stir, then turned her attention to the shrimp. She loved seafood, and shrimp was no exception. It had been difficult for her to stay out of the bag of shrimp that had been living in her freezer for the past few days. The local grocery store always had the best selection of fresh food at the butcher’s counter and they hadn’t let her down this time.

  She spread the shrimp out over a baking sheet and drizzled them with olive oil before sliding the metal sheet into the oven. Checking the clock, she uncovered the orzo and grabbed a spoon from the drying rack. A quick taste test confirmed that the tiny pasta was done. Anxious not to overcook it, she removed the pot from the heat and drained it. After pouring it into one of the deli’s nicer bowls, she pulled the now-opaque shrimp out of the oven.

  Then it was just a matter of mixing all the ingredients together and seasoning it with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. She covered the bowl and put it into the fridge while she cleaned up the mess that she had made.

  Once the kitchen was clean and ready for the next day, she opened the fridge and took the bowl back out. Too impatient to wait for it to cool fully, she gave it a good stir, then scooped a small amount of the salad onto a plate, and returned the rest to the refrigerator. She sat down on the stool by the counter and tasted her new creation at last. It was delicious. There was just a hint of lemon, and the salt accented the other flavors in the dish. The texture of the shrimp mixed well with the al dente orzo, the crisp scallions, and the cucumber. She finished a small serving, then glanced back at the fridge, tempted to get more.

  Wait until tomorrow, she told herself. It would be even better then, she knew, and it would give her incentive to get to work. After giving the kitchen a once over to make sure everything was in its place, she grabbed her purse and shut off the music. As she walked out the door, she checked her phone and found that she had a missed call from Denise. She listened to the voicemail then called her friend back.

  “Sorry, I was busy cooking and I had the music turned up,” she said. “Do you still want me to come over?”

  “Sure. We’re slow tonight, and Julian’s here. If you still wanted to meet him, now would be a good time. If you want to, bring Martha or Candice.”

  “All right. I’ll be there in about half an hour, though I’m not sure yet if anyone else is free. I probably won’t order much, but I’ll stay for a little bit. David’s going to be home late anyway, so it’s not like I’m in a rush.”

  “Perfect. I’ll see you soon.”

  Moira got into her car and called Martha. She told her friend about Denise’s plan, and was disappointed when Martha told her she couldn’t make it.

  “Sorry, but I’m out with Dominic tonight. We’re down in Traverse City doing some shopping and then we’re going to this really nice restaurant that he told me about. You got to tell me how Julian is, though.”

  “I will,” she promised her friend.

  Candice wasn’t able to come with her either; she was at the hospital visiting Eli. Moira hesitated for a moment, then dialed David’s sister’s number. She and Karissa had had a rocky relationship in the beginning, but now she considered the other woman one of her friends. It had been a while since they had seen each other—Karissa kept very busy with the brewery—but if David was working late that night, then there was a chance that she might be free.

  Sure enough, Karissa agreed to meet her at the Redwood Grill in twenty minutes. Moira sent a quick text to Denise to let her know they were on their way, then started her car and pulled out onto the road.

  The Redwood Grill was the nicest restaurant in town. Moira would have been willing to bet that it was the nicest restaurant within quite a few miles. It was where she and David had had their first real date, where they had gone out to celebrate Candice’s engagement, and where she had gone with her friends and family to countless dinners.

  When Denise had first moved to the area, she and Moira had not gotten along very well at all. Moira had seen only a high-strung competitor with marriage issues, and it wasn’t until later that she found that she actually liked the person that Denise was under her sometimes-prickly skin. Yes, Denise was focused on her business, but she was also deeply involved with her family and friends. Moira had become more and more focused on the deli over the years herself, and had found that it was wonderful to have someone else around who understood what it took to run a successful restaurant.

  Karissa was already at the restaurant when Moira pulled into the parking lot. She hugged her sister-in-law on her way to the door, and the two of them walked in together. She was younger than David, but like him she had dark hair and well-defined facial features that made her stand out in a crowd. She was more striking than classically beautiful, and had a proud, bold personality to match. She was also very good at her job. Moira had the feeling that as time went on, Karissa would get more and more involved in the microbrewery, and David less so. She didn’t blame either of them for that—David had his private investigation business to focus on as well as the brewery, and Karissa had nothing but her dogs to distract from her work. She was glad that the other woman had made the decision to move back to Maple Creek. It was good for David to be able to spend more time with her, and it was nice for Moira to have a chance to get to know one of his family members better as well.

  They were seated immediately when they walked into the restaurant. Instead of the usual waitress, Denise was the one who walked out to take their drink orders.

  “It’s on the house tonight,” she said. “You’re only here because I need backup, after all.”

  “I can’t wait to meet this guy,” Karissa said. “From everything that Moira has told me, he’s a real character.”

  “He won’t disappoint. Since it’s so slow tonight, I’ll try to convince him to bring out your food himself. He drives me insane, but he does take pride in what he does.”

  Moira ordered an appetizer of calamari, and her friend order a salad and soup. They got their drinks quickly, and it wasn’t long before they saw a tall, handsome man about their age bringing out the tray with the food on it.

  “The calamari?” he asked Moira nodded. “And beet and carrot soup with the candied walnut side salad.” He placed that in front of Karissa. “Denise says that you are friends of hers. I recognize you, you own the deli. That means you must be the mother of the girl who stole our employee.”

  Moira frowned at him. “She didn’t steal him, she simply offered him a job and he accepted it.”

  “It was unlucky for him to take it,” he said. “I had a bad feeling about it all. I’m sorry for his family. It is sad for everyone. Your daughter has my condolences. Enjoy your food. I know it’s perfect, I made it myself.”

  With that, he walked away, leaving Moira and Karissa to look at each other and shrug.

  “He didn’t seem too bad,” Karissa said, digging into the salad. “What is he, German? He must just have a different way of dealing with things than we’re used to.”

  “Maybe. He seemed a bit more annoyed than sympathetic,” Moira said. “Let’s see how his cooking is.”

  His cooking, it turned out, was fantastic. Moira frequently ordered the calamari, but she had never tasted it better than it was tonight. She had liked Hector, and he had been a good chef, but Julian was truly magnificent. If the appetizer was this good, she could imagine what a full entrée would be like. She could see why her friend was reluctant to let him go, even though they didn’t get along very well.

  “Well, his food is wonderful,” she said. “I wonder what Denise will do about him?”

  “I have no idea,” Karissa said. “I’m so glad I don’t have to be responsible for a restaurant like this. The brewery’s pretty easy, all things considered. And it’s not like I could fire my brother, even if I wanted to.”

  Moira chuckled and was about to respond when she heard
her phone buzz in her purse. She pulled it out and saw that her daughter was calling. Remembering that Candice was at the hospital, she felt her heart skip a beat. She answered the phone.

  “Mom?” her daughter said. Her voice sounded strange.

  “Candice, what is it?” Moira asked.

  “He’s awake.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  * * *

  Moira made a beeline for David when she got to the hospital. He was standing by the front desk and seemed relieved to see her.

  “The doctors are with him right now. We can see him soon,” he told her.

  “So, he’s okay?” she asked, relieved. “He’s going to be okay?”

  “I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see—”

  “There you are,” Detective Jefferson said, pushing through the doors behind them. “Candice called me a little bit ago. Eli is awake? Have you seen him yet?”

  “No, we haven’t,” Moira said. “I just got here. I haven’t even seen Candice yet.”

  “Has he said anything to anyone about what happened?” the detective asked.

  “We have no idea,” David said. “Right now, you know as much as we do.”

  “Mom?”

  Moira turned and saw her daughter. She was standing in the doorway that led to the waiting room. Her face lit up at the sight of her family. “Come on back, you guys. He’s fine. He wants you to come too, detective.”

  The three of them followed the young woman through the doors that led to the heart of the hospital. Moira had never liked being in hospitals, and even now she felt uncomfortable as she passed by the rooms. She thought that part of it was the scent; despite the amount of antiseptic used, there was always something slightly off about the way hospitals smelled. The rest of it was the fact that it was a building full of sick, hurt, even dying people. It was a building of grief and pain, and that wasn’t anywhere that she wanted to spend a lot of time. Regardless, she was thrilled to be there, because it meant Eli was awake and doing well enough to see them. She had been so worried for him over the past few days. Most of the time, she had been trying not to think about what would happen if he didn’t wake up.

  Candice paused by the door to knock on it. From inside, she heard someone call, “Come in.” Her daughter opened the door and Moira followed her through it to see Eli in the hospital bed with a young doctor standing at the foot of it.

  “Ms. Rothberg,” he said, nodding to Candice. “I’ll let the five of you speak for a while. I’ll be back in a little bit to do more tests. Try not to tire him out too much, okay?”

  He left and Candice rushed to her husband’s bedside. Eli looked pale and weak, but he was definitely awake and aware of them all. He smiled at Moira and David, then his gaze settled on Detective Jefferson.

  “Candice told me you wanted to talk to me as soon as I woke up. I’m glad you’re here, and I’ll help you however I can. I want to make sure whoever did this goes to prison for the rest of their life.”

  “Let’s start with you telling me what happened the day of the fire,” Detective Jefferson said, sitting down in a chair on the other side of the bed. “Can you walk me through everything that happened that day? Don’t leave anything out, no matter how small or unimportant it may seem.”

  Eli winced. “I don’t… I don’t think I remember anything. I mean, I know I remember telling David that I was going to go and help Matt close up the shop, and I remember planning Candice’s surprise party—” he looked over his wife and smiled. “After that, nothing. I don’t remember getting to the candy shop, and I definitely don’t remember anything that happened after that. The next thing I knew after getting off the phone with David, was waking up here. Candice filled me in on what has been going on, and then the doctor came in to check on me. Everything has been such a blur.”

  “The last thing you remember is talking to David on the phone?” Detective Jefferson asked. Eli nodded. The detective looked at David. “What time was that?”

  “That would have been about five,” David said. “He was on his way over when he spoke to me.”

  “And the fire began shortly after six,” Detective Jefferson said. “That leaves us with an hour of missing time.”

  “It’s so frustrating,” Eli said. “So much happened, and I don’t even remember it. You don’t have any idea who did it? Candice tells me that it was arson, but she said that you don’t have any leads as far as she knows.”

  “We don’t. We’re still investigating. Look, I’ll let you get some rest. I’ll come back and talk to you more tomorrow. Sometimes in cases of amnesia the memories will come back with time. If you do remember anything, call me right away, no matter what time it is. In the meantime, I’m going to post an officer outside your door to keep watch. We don’t know who did this, or what their motivations were. I don’t want to risk anything happening to you.”

  Moira bit her lip, watching as the detective got up and left. She was glad to hear that someone would be posted there to look after Eli, but it really made the seriousness of the situation strike home. The thought of someone coming back to try to finish off her son-in-law made her shiver.

  “So, how do you feel?” David asked, moving forward to take the chair Jefferson had just left. He pulled a second one forward for Moira. She took it, still uneasy.

  “Not great,” the young man admitted. “I have the worst headache of my life even with the painkillers, and it hurts to breathe. At the same time, I feel lucky to be alive. I can’t stop thinking about Matt. It’s so odd to think that he’s gone. He grew up around here, and we went to the same school together. He was a couple of years younger than me, but I knew him pretty well. I hate that my last memories of him are gone.”

  “That’s got to be hard,” David said. “Just remember, Jefferson said that some of those memories may come back. You’ll just have to be patient.”

  “I know.” He sighed. “What about the candy shop? I was so worried about Matt and my own injuries that I didn’t give Candice a chance to tell me about it earlier. What happened to it?”

  “It’s gone,” Candice told him. “Don’t worry about that, though. I’m glad you’re okay. That’s what matters.”

  “It’s… gone?”

  “The fire just spread too quickly. You know how little it’s rained recently, everything was so dry… it’s practically burnt to the ground. It will have to be completely rebuilt.”

  “We’ll help you however we can,” Moira said. “That’s something that we can think of later, though. Right now, you have to get better.”

  “Well, I’ll try my best. At least I’m awake now. It’s weird to think that all those days went by, and I have no memory of any of them. How is everyone else doing? Did anything else happen while I was out of it?”

  “No, you haven’t missed anything important,” Moira promised.

  “That’s something at least,” he said, leaning back in the bed. His eyes landed on a vase of daisies. “Are those from you?”

  “No, they’re from another lady here at the hospital. She heard about what happened and stopped by with them. She was very nice. Her son is in a room on another floor.”

  “Have you been staying here the whole time?” Eli asked.

  “I’ve been here for as many hours as I could every day,” Candice told him. “I didn’t want to leave your side, but Mom convinced me that it was important to take care of myself too.”

  “I’m glad you listened to her,” her husband said. “This can’t have been easy for you. Are you doing okay? I’m so glad you weren’t there at the candy shop. If I had lost you in the fire…” he shook his head.

  “I can’t stop feeling guilty for leaving early,” Candice said. “Matt was my employee, and in a way, he was my responsibility to keep safe. I feel so guilty about it.”

  “Don’t, sweetie,” Moira said. “Whatever happened, you had nothing to do with it. We’ll find whoever did this, and then you will have someone to blame other than yourself.”

  “I
hope we find them soon,” her daughter said. “Whoever it is doesn’t deserve to be walking free after he killed one person, and almost killed another. Whoever it is, there’s no way I’m going to rest until he’s caught.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  * * *

  “He’ll be okay, though?” Martha asked.

  “They think so. He’s going to have one more surgery on his leg, then they’re going to send him to a place for physical therapy downstate. Apparently, it’s one of the best places in the country. Candice will be going with him. I guess there isn’t anything here she needs to worry about now that the candy shop is gone. I still feel so shocked by all of this. Sometimes I forget what happened, then I remember and it’s like being hit by a train.”

  Moira raised her coffee cup, but stopped before the liquid could touch her lips, remembering that it was still too hot to drink. It felt good to open up and have someone to talk to about everything that had happened. She walked on eggshells around her daughter. She didn’t want to mention any of her concerns in front of Candice in case it simply gave the younger woman more to worry about. Spending time with Denise, Martha, and Karissa gave her a chance to voice her fears.

  “I hope he gets his memory back,” she added. “Anything, even the smallest detail, might lead Detective Jefferson to the arsonist. Until he does remember something, he’s going to be in danger. He still has an officer posted outside of his room just in case the arsonist gets worried about the same thing that we’re hoping for.”

  She was beyond grateful to Detective Jefferson for posting an officer there. She didn’t know what would happen when Eli moved to the rehab facility. Maybe it would be far enough away that he wouldn’t be in danger, but still, she was worried for him and wished that they would catch the man responsible for all this—not really for revenge, just so that she could breathe freely, knowing that no one else was going to try to hurt her family.