Catering and Crime

by Danielle Collins

  “And if not,” she added, “no harm done.”

  “Exactly. I think that’s why the chief went for it. Good plan, sweetie.”

  She grinned and accepted his praise, though she couldn’t take all the credit for it. She was sure she’d seen the technique done on some detective show or another. Or at least something similar. Either way, she hoped it would have the results they needed.

  They stationed themselves in an alcove and Adam checked his watch. “Just about time.”

  As they waited, she saw an officer bringing Roxanne down the hall. Adam motioned for the man to stop near them and he came toward her.

  “I wanted to give you another chance to open up to me.” He looked at her with a stern but kind expression.

  “You want me to admit to something? It’s not going to happen.”

  “But, Roxanne,” Margot said, playing the part she and Adam had agreed on before. “You don’t want to take all the blame in this, do you?”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Then Margot added the final blow. “It’s serious when murder is involved.”

  “Murder?” Roxanne nearly shouted. “Are you crazy?”

  “Either you tell us the truth or the police will hear it from someone else.”

  “Look,” Adam said, stepping forward. “It’s no use, Margot. She won’t listen to reason. We’ll just need to get in all the statements and then see where things land.”

  “What do you mean murder?” Roxanne asked, now more visibly shaken than before. Without her brother with her, she appeared more vulnerable.

  Margot stepped back into the alcove more to hide herself from view, but it also acted to make her look resigned. Just then, another door at the end of the hall opened and Lindsay walked in. She glanced down the hallway toward Roxanne in custody but the officer escorting her ushered her into her room before she could say or do anything other than flash a warning look.

  “What’s she doing here?” Roxanne asked. Margot knew they had worked together as vendor and event planner, or so Roxanne had said, but she also had a feeling that seeing Lindsay might be enough to push the girl over the edge.

  Adam nodded once and the officer took Roxanne into the interrogation room. He glanced back at Margot and said, “Here we go,” before entering himself.

  Margot watched from a side room with the two-way mirror as Adam went through his preliminary findings before Roxanne interrupted him again and asked about Lindsay. That was when Margot was almost certain they had her.

  “You see,” Adam began, and Margot held her smile back at his sure tone. “We have reason to believe you are involved in much more than a little theft at my supposed place of residence last night. We have someone who is telling us a very convincing story about murder and extortion, and you and your brother are at the center of that.”

  “That lying witch!”

  Margot jumped at the woman’s near-scream. Roxanne slammed her hands on the metal table, making it ring, all sense of propriety and good manners gone.

  “She told you about it, did she? Well, then she’s telling you tales, because Zach and I didn’t kill anyone.”

  “Who do you mean, Roxanne?”

  “Lindsay, of course.” Roxanne slumped back onto the chair. “You probably know her as Lindsay Arnden or some other name, but at one point she was a Fox too—in all senses of the word.” Roxanne huffed out a breath and shook her head, obviously distressed.

  “Why don’t you tell me about it?” Adam said, his tone even.

  “She married my dad—totally for money, mind you. Then when he died, she squandered it all until she could rope us into her fancy con scheme, all while she’s trying to make her way to the heart of Chef Franco and his money. I wouldn’t be surprised if she managed it too. She’d stop at nothing.”

  “And you expect me to believe all of this because…”

  “Because she’ll try and tell you some sort of lies about my brother and I, but that’s all they’ll be. Lies. She’s got us under her thumb because of some poor choices we made and then all the sudden, she thought we could make it the family business.”

  “Let me get this straight. She’s blackmailing you and your brother into working for her.”

  Roxanne looked like she was going to close up and stop talking, but something shifted. It looked like defeat.

  “You could say that, I guess, yeah. We were in deep with…some stuff—you know, gambling and other stuff—and she said she’d fix it if we could help her. Like she was some professional master criminal. The only thing is that we had outstanding debts and while she was stockpiling her earnings, we were barely making it.”

  “So you were assigned to work with her newest hire and a solo job, huh?”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “Answer the question, Roxanne.”

  “Yeah,” she finally said through clenched teeth. “We were supposed to break in the new guy. When I saw Wila—or whatever her name is—at that party, I knew she’d be perfect. New to the area, not well established, needed a party, was going to be gone.” Roxanne dropped her head into her hands and cried, but Adam stood and said he would be back. “It was all perfect. Too perfect. Lindsay said it was just what we needed to break in the new guy to see how he’d work on bigger projects.”

  He met Margot in the side room, shaking his head. “Can you believe that?”

  “Actually, yes,” she said with a sad smile.

  “Oh, I believe it too. Apparently, she’s willing to give Lindsay up, but we have to get her on murder, not just acting as the mob boss to a group of waitstaff thieves. Are we sure we want to go with Bistro Franco for our wedding?”

  Margot laughed, thinking about how she’d already had those thoughts, but that made her think of Jacqui. “You have to talk to Lindsay, see if she’ll admit to the murder.”

  “That’s where I’m heading next,” he said with a smile, then paused, “but I’m pretty sure we’ve got a few things of note we can pull in to convince her that telling us the truth now will go much better for her than lying. We’ve got a few bargaining chips.”

  “Oh?” she said, unaware they’d had more information come in.

  “Ben pointed us in the right direction. I had Blake Kauffman picked up for questioning this morning. Turns out that he got his friend the job because Simon was in need of some fast cash. Having worked with Lindsay before, Blake knew the drill and told his friend he’d get along fine if he did what he was told, but it seems little Simon got too smart for his own good.”

  “How so?”

  Adam shook his head. “He tried to blackmail Lindsay. Not sure how yet, I assume Lindsay destroyed the evidence he had when she killed him, but you play with fire and you can get burned.”

  “But it’s not hard evidence,” Margot observed.

  “No,” Adam said, his expression grim. “But with Roxanne and Zachary’s testimony, I may have enough leverage to convince Lindsay to confess.”

  Margot nodded. Now that Lindsay had seen Roxanne being brought into the interrogation room, she might believe the threat against her—and the information held—would be enough to convict.

  “I believe you can get this, Adam,” she said, gently squeezing his hand.

  “Justice will prevail,” he said confidently.

  14

  “That’s just messed up,” Julia said, shaking her head.

  “Oh, come on.” Margot smiled and took a sip of her lemonade. “Just because she ended up being a jewel thief doesn’t mean she wasn’t still an excellent event coordinator.”

  “Please,” Julia said with a laugh. “Spare me your peppy thoughts about that crazy woman.”

  Margot laughed. “She wasn’t crazy, just…desperate. And definitely misguided.”

  “You could say that again.”

  “But talented!”

  “Margot…” Julia let out an exasperated sigh. “But tell me this, was Jacqui finally released?”

  “She was,” Mar
got said with a smile. “I talked to her yesterday about our wedding order. She’s taken over Lindsay’s job and her father’s very impressed. He’s finally seeing her for what she can do, not just as a child. I’m happy to see that end well.”

  “I bet. But how did it work out?” Julia asked.

  “When Adam went to talk to Lindsay, though he said it took a while, he convinced her that the evidence they did have—from Roxanne and her brother—along with what he was certain they’d find now that they had a direction to look in, would be enough to convict and that it would go better for her to admit to the truth now.”

  “Smart. So she did?”

  “She actually ended up saying that it was in self-defense. That the boy had come after her and she’d had to defend herself against him.”

  “And she left because why?”

  “She claimed that she couldn’t risk exposure to their ring of thieves from being involved with something like that, even if it were self-defense. I have a feeling there was more involved, but there would be no way to prove it.”

  “Wow. So she chose whatever could get her off more easily.”

  “Yes.” Margot shrugged. “I have a hard time believing her at all with the ‘evidence’ that cropped up about Jacqui. I think pinning it on Jacqui was an easy way for Lindsay to get Chef Franco on his own so she could try her seduction tricks like she did with Mister Fox. That woman definitely had an end-game.”

  “She sure did.”

  “I know.” Margot took another sip and leaned back, enjoying the light breeze off the Potomac.

  “So,” Julia continued, “now that this is all wrapped up, do you feel like you’re still behind on the wedding preparation or…”

  Margot looked up and smiled, seeing Adam walking down the path toward them. He had a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a picnic basket in the other.

  “I think I’ve decided that, if someone like Roxanne can plan a party while really planning to steal people’s jewelry, then I can plan a wedding and run a bakery at the same time. I think we’ll get everything done on time and, until then, I’m just going to enjoy being engaged to this wonderful man.”

  She finished just as Adam came up and he laughed. “I think I’m wanted?”

  “Always, dear,” she said, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

  “Ready for our picnic?”

  “Yes,” she said, slipping her hand through his arm.

  They said good-bye to Julia and walked off down the path to a small park mere blocks away from her bakery by way of the river path. They enjoyed the silence of the early afternoon for several minutes before either of them spoke.

  “You did it again,” Adam said, sending a sideways glance at her.

  “Oh? What’s that?”

  “Solved another mystery.”

  “You did most of it, Adam. I merely added some…thoughts.” She flashed him a sweet smile and he laughed.

  “I don’t mind. You know that, right?” He made sure she nodded before he continued. “I only mind when it puts you in danger.”

  “I know. And I never purposefully put myself in danger.”

  He grinned. “That’s a relief.”

  “Oh, stop.” She playfully patted him on the arm.

  “No, I just want you to know that I support your curiosity, though there will always be restrictions on what I can tell you.”

  She pulled him to a stop and waited until he turned to face her. “Adam, I love that about you. That you support what I’m passionate about—from poisons to pastries—but I also want you to know I support you. I want you to be successful and if I ever get in your way—”

  He placed his index finger on her lips and shook his head. “You see things that I don’t. That other detectives miss. I think it’s important for you to keep seeing those things.”

  “We’re a good team, Adam.” She went up on tiptoe to kiss him and he accepted the kiss, pulling her toward him.

  “We are. And you know what? We’re more than a wedding.”

  “What?” Adam looked down at her, confused.

  “It was something Rosie said.” She sighed and shrugged. “I was so worried about getting everything done for the wedding, and yet what’s really important is us and our lives after the wedding. I’ve decided to stop worrying about all of this and just do what I can.”

  “You know I don’t care what the wedding is like, right?”

  “I do. And I love you for that, Adam Eastwood.”

  “And I love you, Margot. So very much.”

  They shared another quick kiss, then set off for the park again. There were still details to be finalized for the wedding, but they would figure them out as they went. Until then, she was going to enjoy a lovely afternoon and a picnic with her favorite detective and wonderful fiancé.

  Thanks for reading Catering and Crime. I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, it would be awesome if you left a review for me on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

  At the very end of the book, I have included a couple previews of books by friends and fellow authors at Fairfield Publishing. Both of them are USA Today Bestselling Authors. First is a preview of Up in Smoke by Shannon VanBergen - it’s the first book in the Glock Grannies Cozy Mystery series. Second is a preview of A Pie to Die For by Stacey Alabaster - it’s part of the popular Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery series. I really hope you like the samples. If you do, both books are available on Amazon.

  Get Up in Smoke here: amazon.com/dp/B06XHKYRRX

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  Preview: Up in Smoke

  I could feel my hair puffing up like cotton candy in the humidity as I stepped outside the Miami airport. I pushed a sticky strand from my face, and I wished for a minute that it were a cheerful pink instead of dirty blond, just to complete the illusion.

  “Thank you so much for picking me up from the airport.” I smiled at the sprightly old lady I was struggling to keep up with. “But why did you say my grandmother couldn’t pick me up?”

  “I didn’t say.” She turned and gave me a toothy grin—clearly none of them original—and winked. “I parked over here.”

  When we got to her car, she opened the trunk and threw in the sign she had been holding when she met me in baggage claim. The letters were done in gold glitter glue and she had drawn flowers with markers all around the edges. My name “Nikki Rae Parker” flashed when the sun reflected off of them, temporarily blinding me.

  “I can tell you put a lot of work into that sign.” I carefully put my luggage to the side of it, making sure not to touch her sign—partially because I didn’t want to crush it and partially because it didn’t look like the glue had dried yet.

  “Well, your grandmother didn’t give me much time to make it. I only had about ten minutes.” She glanced at the sign proudly before closing the trunk. She looked me in the eyes. “Let’s get on the road. We can chit chat in the car.”

  With that, she climbed in and clicked on her seat belt. As I got in, she was applying a thick coat of bright red lipstick while looking in the rearview mirror. “Gotta look sharp in case we get pulled over.” She winked again, her heavily wrinkled eyelid looking like it thought about staying closed before it sprung back up again.

  I thought about her words for a moment. She must get pulled over a lot, I
thought. Poor old lady. I could picture her going ten miles an hour while the rest of Miami flew by her.

  “Better buckle up.” She pinched her lips together before blotting them slightly on a tissue. She smiled at me and for a moment, I was jealous of her pouty lips, every line filled in by layers and layers of red.

  I did as I was told and buckled my seat belt before I sunk down into her caramel leather seats. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally, from the trip. I closed my eyes and tried to forget my troubles, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly to give all my worry and fear ample time to escape my body. For the first time since I had made the decision to come here, I felt at peace. Unfortunately, it was short-lived.

  The sound of squealing tires filled the air and my eyes flung open to see this old lady zigzagging through the parking garage. She took the turns without hitting the brakes, hugging each curve like a racecar driver. When we exited the garage and turned onto the street, she broke out in laughter. “That’s my favorite part!”

  I tugged my seat belt to make sure it was on tight. This was not going to be the relaxing drive I had thought it would be.

  We hit the highway and I felt like I was in an arcade game. She wove in and out of traffic at a speed I was sure matched her old age.

  “Ya know, the older I get the worse other people drive.” She took one hand off the wheel and started to rummage through her purse, which sat between us.

  “Um, can I help you with something?” My nerves were starting to get the best of me as her eyes were focused more on her purse than the road.

  “Oh no, I’ve got it. I’m sure it’s in here somewhere.” She dug a little more, pulling out a package of AA batteries and then a ham sandwich.

  Brake lights lit up in front of us and I screamed, bracing myself for impact. The old woman glanced up and pulled the car to the left in a quick jerk before returning to her purse. Horns blared from behind us.