Grilled Cheese Murder: Book 4 in The Darling Deli Series

by Patti Benning

  “I got a one-way ticket to Mexico, sweets,” he told her with a dry laugh. “Just gotta finish up my business here first. Once he’s taken care of, I’m not gonna be sticking around to see what happens next, if you get my drift.” He frowned down at her, as if just suddenly realizing that she had fallen.

  “Get up and go inside unless you want me to shoot you right here. I’m cold, I need a good warm coffee.” He reached for her and she shrank back, certain that if he got her inside the mobile home, she wouldn’t be coming back. Fear gave her strength, and she struggled to her feet, ignoring the way that the world seemed to spin around her head. Some part of her realized faintly that she could have a concussion. He had slammed her head against the car pretty hard. It looked like she was going to have to make a break for it. At least even if he did catch her, she would have tried to escape. Taking a deep breath, she did her best to push her throbbing head and the insistent nausea out of her mind. It was time to make her move.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  It seemed like once she made her decision, everything happened at once. The man lunged at her, and she took off, stumbling and weaving her way across the snow-covered grass. She stumbled twice, but managed to keep her feet under her and keep going. Her kidnapper was hot on her heels, and already she could feel a stitch in her side. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long.

  Suddenly, just as he was closing in on her, a familiar black car burst out of the trees. It skidded along the path, coming to a stop just behind the kidnapper’s vehicle. She changed course, heading back towards the cars, and heard her kidnapper swear behind her. Moments later, he bowled into her, sending her crashing down to the ground. She kicked out at him, but missed. Her second kick connected with his shoulder, but couldn’t put enough force behind it to hurt him. He seemed determined to finish what he had started, even though her rescuers were only moments away and were running to save her.

  Luckily he either didn’t have a weapon, or hadn’t thought to get it out. He clawed at her, struggling to try to reach her throat, but she was able to get her feet up and kick him away. If he’d had a knife or a gun, she would be dead by now, and she was very aware of that fact.

  After what seemed like an eternity but was really only a few seconds, David and Dante reached them. The private detective grabbed the blond man by his shoulders and yanked him off of her. All of the fight seemed to go out of him for a moment until he saw Dante, and then his face twisted into a vicious expression of hatred and anger. David seemed to expect it, and instead of trying to hold him back, he shoved him forward so that the man did a face plant in the snow. In a flash, he handcuffed him and pocketed the key. Then he turned to Moira and helped her up, wrapping her in a warm hug as soon as he saw that she wasn’t seriously hurt.

  “You found Dante,” she said once he had released her. “How did you know I was here?”

  “My cousin told me Stephan was staying at a campsite near town,” Dante said. “That’s what I’ve been doing these last few days. Looking for him. This was the only campsite I hadn’t checked yet.”

  “We took a chance,” David told her. “While the police were doing things the slow way, we came here.”

  “I’m glad you did,” Moira said. “Tell me everything. Why was this guy after him? Why did he kill his cousin? What’s going on?”

  “Later,” David said. “First, we’ve got to take Stephan to the police station and get your employee’s name cleared. Everything else can wait.”

  * * *

  It took them hours to explain everything to the police. The three of them had a separate portion of the story to tell and they were questioned separately. At first it seemed like Dante would have to stay behind bars at least for the night until they could get a lawyer to figure things out. Somehow—by that point, Moira was beyond exhausted and was still battling a headache—David managed to convince the police that he would watch Dante and bring him back in the morning. By the time they left the station it was late, but she didn’t want to go home without hearing the full story. Since David and Dante both seemed to be willing, she called up Candice and Darrin and asked them to meet her at the deli.

  Once she had made five cups of coffee and Darrin had dragged an old space heater out of the back to make the chilly front room bearable, she turned to Dante, who was looking at the broken window with a guilty expression.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” she began.

  “Thanks. I’m glad you are too. I never wanted any of you to get hurt.”

  “I know. And I know you’re probably exhausted… but I think we all need to hear at least the gist of what happened. How about you start with the guy that kidnapped me?”

  “That was Stephan,” he said. “It’s a long story… but the short version is that some of my family—my aunt and uncle—got in over their heads with some really bad guys. I was pretty young when it happened, but I know that there was a lot of money involved, and drugs.” He paused, taking a sip of his coffee and closing his eyes as he remembered. “I guess my aunt and uncle owed the drug dealers some pretty significant funds and tried to back out. As punishment, this gang sent someone to punish them. Since dead men don’t pay, instead of killing my uncle and my aunt, he targeted their family—my parents. I watched them get killed when I was ten.”

  Candice and Darrin looked shocked and Moira said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, Dante,. You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to.”

  “No, I should,” he said. “I think it’s good to talk about it after not telling anyone for so long.” He took a deep breath. “Obviously, the cops showed up, and a lot of confusing stuff happened. I ended up testifying in court, and I managed to identify the man who killed my parents. He made some sort of plea bargain—in exchange for giving up the other people in his gang, he got a shorter sentence. After that, I went into foster care and ended up moving a few towns away.”

  “How did you end up here?” she asked. “And how did you manage to fudge the background checks? David found out that you used to have a different last name.”

  “Oh, that.” He gave a slightly embarrassed grimace. “Well, once I heard that Stephan was getting out of prison soon, I took my life savings and got a fake ID—nothing fancy, it was probably a really terrible job in fact. The guy I went to was pretty shady. I just wanted to make it harder for Stephan to track me down. I had a feeling he’d be pretty mad at me for getting him sent to prison, so I ran. I came here because my parents had once rented a cabin in the area when I was younger, and I liked it. I probably should have chosen somewhere I’d never been to, but I fell in love with this place.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the police?” David asked. “And how was your cousin involved in all of this?”

  “I guess my cousin sort of got sucked into the same sort of life that my aunt and uncle lived,” Dante said. “I never really heard from him much until he showed up at my door in a panic, telling me to run because Stephan was coming to kill me. A moment later Stephan himself showed up. He called my cousin a traitor and shot him. I was lucky to escape. And as for the police…” He shrugged. “That’s not how I grew up. For my family, the police were the bad guys.”

  “I hope you don’t think that anymore,” the private investigator said.

  “No sir, I don’t.” her employee replied. “I’m just grateful that they gave me a chance to tell my story.”

  “Thanks for repeating it to us,” Moira said, offering him a gentle smile. “I know it can’t have been easy.”

  “Thanks for giving me a chance, Ms. D.” He stood up and looked around at the deli. “I’ll miss this place, and I’ll miss all of you guys.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked with a frown.

  “Well, I’m fired, aren’t I?” he said. “Because of me, the deli got broken into and you got attacked.”

  “Of course you’re not fired. Right, Mom?” Candice interjected.

  “Of course not,” Moira said firmly. “This is your home. And now that Stephan is b
ehind bars—this time for good—hopefully you’ll be able to have a normal life here.”

  Darrin, Candice, and David all raised their voices, talking over one another to convince Dante to stay. The deli owner smiled to herself as she watched them. They all had their own troubles and busy lives but when it was important, they always managed to be there for each other. She couldn’t imagine a better set of friends to have.