by Peter King
“It’s almost ready,” he said and Gabriella and I exchanged excited glances.
The previous day, as soon as I told Hal Gaines that Keyhoe was the buyer of the Ko Feng, he had promptly placed him under arrest. Leading him to believe that Eck had admitted who the Ko Feng had been sold to had resulted in Keyhoe caving in completely. The precious sack had been recovered and—for the last time, I hoped—I was called upon to authenticate it.
I had been tempted to turn a disappointed face to Hal Gaines and say that it wasn’t Ko Feng but I was doubtful if he had either the patience or the sense of humor at that moment so I gave him a thumbs-up sign.
“I’ll tell Marvell,” he had said. “He can make arrangements to come and collect it.”
I had held out a hand—it had two stamens in it. “My fee for the authentication,” I said and Gaines rolled his eyes and gave me a to-each-his-own kind of shrug as he went out.
Those same two stamens, carefully chopped, had been added to the seasoning of the osso buco that Mamma Rossini was now cooking as the main course. Little wonder that our mouths were watering.
“Speaking of fees for authentication,” said Gabriella, “I hear you donated the five bills you got at Martha’s Restaurant to the charities fund yesterday.”
“How’d you hear that?”
“We have our ways.”
“Evidently. Well, in our first meeting, Marvell cut me off completely but now he’s come through in style and is paying all my expenses and my originally agreed fee.”
“You could have kept the other five too.”
“No. That was blood money—bloodstained money.”
Giovanni went by, both arms laden with plates of pasta, then he was back at once with another bottle of Amarone. He pulled the cork, then as he poured, he looked back in surprise. “Hey, here’s Mamma!”
Beaming, perspiring, Mamma bustled out with a plate in each hand and set them before us.
“Have you tasted it, Mamma?” asked Gabriella, eyes alight.
Mamma touched fingers to her mouth and raised them in a salute.
“Buon appetito!” she wished us. “It’s magnifico!” She left us. Gabriella and I tasted … our eyes met. Perhaps the opportunity for research into one of Ko Feng’s fabled characteristics hadn’t slipped by after all.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MY THANKS ARE DUE to the following:
Dr. John B. Morrill of the Division of Natural Sciences at New College, University of South Florida, for his invaluable help in structuring the character of Ko Feng;
Joan Wasylik of Cargill Europe for an imposing array of data on the spices of the past; and
Donaleta Robinson of Magagnosc in the South of France for her tireless research into food and restaurants.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1997 by Peter King
cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7724-9 (ePub)
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