Murder, Basted and Barbecued

by Constance Barker

  That’s more like it. “Thank you, Junior.”

  “You should be on TV all the time, Mercy. You’re a natural. The brisket needs another hour or so, Smoke, then you can let it breathe for a while. Give me another slice, just so I can be sure. Hey, Mercy...”

  “What is it, Junior?”

  “Come and taste the brisket, and I want to show you the little movie I’m making of our time at the Catch It and Cook It tournament. I’m editing it right on my phone in a Facebook app.”

  A little bit did sound good. Smoke had a winning smile on his face as he handed me two nice slices from the small end on a plate.

  “Here’s a scoop of my garlic smashed potatoes,” Deloris said, putting a big spoonful on the plate. “The cabbage isn’t done yet.”

  Ruby came running over with a steaming goody in her tongs. “And one of my butter-flake croissants, Mercy. This is a practice batch, so tell me what it needs.”

  “It smells delicious, Ruby – all of it does. And all it needs is to go into my mouth.”

  It all tasted amazing. “You all have done Paint Creek and the Old School Diner proud, guys. This is an amazing meal. Where are Babs and Jake, guys? And Red?”

  “Pops took them back to town,” Junior said. “They figured they’d open up the diner, since the amateur teams didn’t start up again after Flye got knocked off.”

  “Oh...they didn’t have to do that. Let’s see what kind of movie you’ve got there, Junior.”

  It was really cute. He was narrating like a TV reporter, going from kitchen to kitchen, interviewing some of the other teams and showing all the hubbub around the EATS-TV site.

  “Is this all today, Junior?”

  “Nope. I took most of it on Friday, when I was taking those pictures I showed you before. The race had already started, so Flye and Gourdaine aren’t in the movie. You’re not in it either, except for today at the judging. Here you see Flye’s team, working on the appetizer, while he was out getting himself killed.”

  “Wait...go back a little. I think I saw something.”

  He rolled it back, and I saw a yellow flash again on the screen.

  “Stop, and let it play again. There! There’s the yellow ATV heading out with the little shovel. There are two people on it. Is that...?”

  Junior leaned in and looked at it. “Um, yeah, that looks like Darnell driving Margot Steward out past the finish line, towards the hill.”

  “You know Darnell? Darnell Macki?”

  “I don’t know his last name, but he invited me in for a breakfast beer early Friday morning. He’s on Chef Gourdaine’s crew. Not the cooking team, but, you know, like a butler or handyman or something.”

  “Show me more. Were you still shooting when the racers started coming in?”

  “I guess I was taking pictures and recording some stuff until you got back, a little while after Flye came down the zipline with that gold cleaver in his back.” He rolled the recording ahead. Looks like the only ATV I caught coming back was Nancy Lu. She looks pretty banged up there. I hope she’s feeling better now.”

  Thoughts and theories were boiling in my brain. “Brody!” I looked around, but he had gone back to his trailer. “Nice movie, Junior. Send it to my phone, will you? I’m going to go find Brody.”

  By the time I got to the Sheriff’s trailer, I was pretty sure I had the crime figured out. I hurried up the three steps and opened the door. “Brody, I know who did it!”

  I stopped short. There was a tall, muscular black man sitting in the chair in front of Brody’s desk. I recognized him at once.

  “Hi, Mercy. So do I. Meet Darnell Macki.”

  The man had a long, serious expression on his face and sat there with his hands clasped on his lap.

  “Darnell,” I said, extending my hand. But he didn’t shake it. “I’m Mercy Howard.”

  “Mercy...” Brody came around the desk and Darnell stood up, putting his hands behind his back. Mr. Macki just confessed to the murder of Billy Flye,” he said as he cuffed him.

  My face scrunched up in disbelief, and I began to slowly shake my head. “But that makes no sense, Brody. Why would Darnell kill Chef Flye?”

  “Just one of those split second impulses. Flye got him angry, and he picked up the cleaver and killed him.”

  That was not at all the conclusion I had come to. I knew who killed Flye and it wasn’t Darnell Macki. I had to play my best bluff. I looked Mr. Macki in the eyes.

  “Why on earth would you make up such a lie, Darnell?”

  “It’s not a lie,” he said. “I did it. I killed him.”

  I shook my head, and I saw Brody slap his forehead.

  “I’ve got some pictures on my phone that say otherwise,” I lied, holding up my phone.

  He jerked his head, and I saw a brief look in his eye that told me my hunch was right.

  “Well, you can throw those pictures away. I already confessed.”

  I looked at Brody. “We all better sit down and talk about this. We only get one chance to get this right.

  Brody must have felt like I was eliminating his top suspect for the second time in two days, but he was curious too. “What kind of pictures do you have on your phone, Deputy?”

  I looked at Darnell and then had Brody follow me a few feet away into the corner. “I’ve got the whole, complicated story, Brody. I’ll tell you the whole thing.” Then I whispered very softly in his ear, “Just go along with me. He was there, but he didn’t do it. When you see that he believes me, then you’ll know he’s not guilty.”

  I held the phone so only Brody and I could see it. The screen was black. “Look at this,” I said. I pretended to slide through several pictures, and Brody nodded his head.

  “So, Mr. Macki,” Brody said, “Why did you confess to a crime you didn’t commit?”

  Darnell hung his head and didn’t say a word.

  “I think we’d better go through the entire course of events,” I said. “And your story better match my pictures.”

  WE TALKED FOR HALF and hour, and Brody video recorded our interrogation. I stopped by the kitchen to talk to Ruby and Deloris, and Brody called a press conference for the top of the hour – three hours before the judging of the entrées was scheduled.

  He wanted the briefing to be live on EATS-TV and the be available for the networks too. And he invited Talia Jones to introduce us live on camera. He also wanted all of the cooking teams to be present, which didn’t go over well with the chefs who were trying to prepare award winning meals.

  The executive producer for EATS did not want so much attention being paid to the murder, but Monsoon and most of the others agreed that the Sheriff’s big announcement was something they wanted to go along with.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Everything was set, and the presser would begin in just two minutes. Brody, Darnell, and I were on the stage in the big EATS-TV truck, and the folding chairs full of viewers were filled once again, as they had been for the judging just a couple of hours earlier.

  “Ooh, this is exciting,” Ruby said to me. “It's like Sherlock Holmes getting all of the suspects together in an old mansion during a thunderstorm, and then revealing who the killer is. Go get ’em, Merse! I’m going to sit with the team.”

  The speakers squealed as the crew tested the microphones, and then Talia stepped up.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, Sheriff of McLean County, Brody Hayes, has called this press briefing to give us some breaking news with regard to the terrible murder of Chef Billy Flye that took place here on Friday. Sheriff...”

  She extended her arm, and Brody stepped up to the microphone. He nodded at her, and the crowd became silent as his steely eyes looked over the crowd.

  “Thank you, Talia. We do have a major development in the case that I would like to share with you today. On my left is my consultant, Mercy Howard, whose good work has helped us solve this case. And on my right is Mr. Darnell Macki, who has detailed for us all of the facts surrounding the murder of Chef Flye.”

>   I looked over the crowd. Gourdaine and Steward were standing in the back, and Deloris was standing not far behind them. The Italian chef, Garaducci, was sitting near the front next to Lexi Becker. I saw Nancy Lu and Jackson alongside the rows of chairs. But I didn’t see Randy anywhere. He should be here.

  “Mercy,” Brody said into the microphone, “Since you are the one who put all the pieces together, why don’t you tell everybody what happened?”

  Seriously? I smiled, whispering to Brody through my teeth as I stepped up to the mic. “You are in serious trouble, mister.”

  “I know,” he whispered back, “but I’d rather face you later than face them now. Besides, you’re professional and pretty.”

  The crowd muttered for a while and then became silent again.

  “Just arrest him. We have cooking to do,” someone shouted from the crowd.

  “Yeah,” said a woman further back in the crowd, “We already heard that this Macki guy confessed. Just cuff him.”

  It figures that the gossip had already spread. I spoke loudly into the microphone. “Darnell Macki is innocent,” I said, as a murmur went through the crowd. “But I would like to invite the real killers to join me up here on the stage.” Everyone was silent. “First, I would like Miss Nancy Lu Carson to come up to the stage.”

  She tried to turn her wheelchair around, but two deputies were there to wheel her up. The crowd laughed when they saw the old woman in a wheelchair being wheeled onto the stage.

  More jeers came from the spectators. “Do you expect us to believe that this old crippled lady killed Flye and hoisted him up onto that zipline? What do you take us for?”

  “You let me out of here!” Nancy Lu protested. “I gotta bake rum-dum cupcakes for my Randy!”

  “Quiet,” Brody told her sternly, “or we’ll have to gag you, ma’am. Cuff her and read her her rights, Stan.”

  I looked into the crowd, but my next guest of honor had fled. Then I saw Deloris wave to me with the other killer walking in front of her, hands raised. Deloris had her Winchester in the back of the suspect. Two deputies each took one arm of the suspect.

  “I would like the second killer to join us up here now – Miss Margot Steward.”

  The entire crowd gasped in unison. Everyone was talking now, as the deputies tried to make their way through the crowd.

  Brody leaned in to the microphone. “We’ll have order here, people. Make way so the deputies can get through.”

  A woman tried to punch Margot as she walked by her, and shouted, “I never did like that old bitty. Billy Flye was a saint! Why? Why!”

  I was shocked. It seemed that people didn’t have a hard time believing that Margot Steward was a killer. Brody put his handcuffs on her and advised her of her rights.

  “This is preposterous, Sheriff,” Margot protested. “We’re celebrities! We do you a favor by coming to your Podunk little community, and you treat us disgracefully. I’ll see to it that the governor takes your badge, you ignorant little Barney Fife.”

  That won her a big round of boos and catcalls.

  Then she turned to Darnell Macki. “And you! I’ll have your family in the poor house and see you in prison for your lying and murderous ways.”

  Actually, she had already threatened to blame him for the murder if he didn’t confess. If he did confess, she would pay his family big money while he went away to prison.

  Talia walked to center stage with her own microphone. I’m sure she wanted to hitch her star to this national story, but she did bring order back to the scene.

  “Mercy Howard, tell the people here what happened. These are serious charges. You must have pretty solid evidence to arrest these two women for this heinous crime. Let’s do the sofa and discuss the details, now that the case has been solved.”

  That sounded like a great idea. I looked at Brody and he nodded. Talia was a talented journalist and could take control of the conversation. We followed her to the big couch on the set and sat. It was Talia’s talk show now.

  “So, Mercy, give us the sequence of events.”

  “Well, first of all, the two women were not in cahoots. They joined forces after they got to Big Bear Hill. Nancy Lu brought a long rope and a big rock in her backpack, with murder in mind. She wanted her nephew, Randy, to win, and didn’t like the idea of the big celebrity chef coming in to steal the award.”

  “A lot of people didn’t like that, actually, Mercy.”

  “That’s right, Talia. But she was the only one who planned a murder. She even wore camouflage clothing so she could hide in the woods, waiting for Flye to arrive. She had her nephew take her into the woods where she could lay in wait for Flye, and then she sent the boy on a wild goose chase.”

  “And how, exactly, did Margot Steward get involved?” She crossed her legs and took a sip from her bottle of water as the crowd listened intently.

  “She actually went to Big Bear Hill for the blueberries. Mr. Macki was able to fill in the missing details for us. The wild cherries she had hoped to use for her dessert were not ripe, so she had Darnell get an ATV and take her to Big Bear. She heard that it was well known for it’s big juicy berries. Chef Gourdaine texted just as she was ready to leave, asking her to bring the shovel so he could dig up the cleaver, which the clues had led him to.”

  “I see. So, she gave the chef the shovel and went out to pick berries while he dug up the cleaver.”

  “Yes. It was shortly after he found the cleaver that my partner and I arrived there on our ATV. Her yellow ATV was still there, but we didn’t know who it belonged to. We thought it was another team of racers. Then we heard a cry for help from the woods.”

  “It was Chef Flye?”

  “No, Talia, he hadn’t arrived yet. It was Nancy Lu’s nephew. She had disappeared, and we helped him look for her. Chef Gourdaine came down and helped look for a while too. We were in the woods for about a half hour, and that’s when the murder happened.”

  “So, how do you know how it happened, Miss Howard? Darnell Maki could be lying.”

  “Evidence, motive, opportunity.”

  “Do tell.”

  “Nancy Lu made her way back to the base of the hill and lured Flye out there. She saw him on the hill and hollered to ask him if he would help her back up. She called him softly enough so those of us further out in the woods wouldn’t hear her. Flye had seen the gold cleaver on the seat of Gourdaine’s ATV and knew the contest was over, so he came down to give her a helping hand. Margot was nearby picking berries and came to see what was going on too, and Mr. Maki was sitting on the ground, waiting, a little ways away.”

  “And then she hit him with the rock?”

  “Well, no. He saw Margot’s blueberries and he bent down to pick some too. Nancy Lu rolled the rock over to Margot and gave her a look. Margot liked the idea and smiled. Then she cracked him over the head with it. The women must have had some kind of conversation about their mutual hatred of Flye the night before. But, in any case. Margot smashed his head with the rock. Flye’s blood is on the rock, and the lab was able to get some ‘touch DNA’ from the rock, which may be Steward’s, and they found Flye’s blood in her bathroom drain too. She must have washed her hands there.”

  “So, no other racers showed up on the hill during that time?”

  “Not that we know of. Gourdaine texted in the code on the bottom box to the referee, proving that he had found the cleaver, and the word went out to the Mile Marker attendants and the other racers that it was over.”

  “I see. And how did these small women get Chef Flye up the hill and onto the zipline?”

  “They tried dragging him across some blueberry bushes, but it was difficult for them. Flye was about 220 pounds. Ms Steward compelled Darnell Maki to help them, threatening to blame him for the murder if he did not. Nancy Lu thought it would be humiliating for the celebrity chef to go back down the zipline dead, the same way he had made his glorious entrance. She had brought the rope, thinking she was strong enough to throw the rope over the z
ipline cable and hoist him up. She didn’t count on him being at the bottom of the hill.”

  “But what about the cleaver in his back? Was that just for show?”

  “Not at all. He wasn’t dead, and started to wake up after Mr. Maki got him up the hill. Nancy Lu can walk a little on some days when her MS isn’t so bad. She saw the cleaver on Gourdaine’s ATV and, picked it up. She was wearing golf gloves for driving. They have open thumb and fingertips, and that’s exactly what was found on the cleaver. The lab will determine if they belong to Nancy Lu, and I’m confident that they do, given that the other prints are just the finger tips and the thumb.”

  “And then what?”

  “Flye tried to get up, but he had lost a lot of blood. He pushed her back down the hill and then fell face down. Margot helped her back up the hill, and that’s when she used her strong arms to thrust the cleaver into his back, piercing his heart and killing him. Then hoisted him onto the zipline, and sent him back here to the arena.”

  “A very interesting tale of hatred and treachery, Mercy. Anything else that you can share?”

  “That’s pretty much it, Talia. When Nancy Lu got back, she had some bruises from her tumble down the hill, so she threw herself into a rocky ravine to cover up her other injuries.”

  “Wow. That’s real determination.”

  “I guess it seemed preferable to being charged with murder.”

  Epilogue

  Gourdaine withdrew from the tournament when he found out his wife was a murderer. The judges decided to walk away too. EATS-TV wrapped up their broadcast, and the cooking teams invited the crowd from the public area in for a picnic. It was a nice way to end a nightmare of a tournament.

  We were all at a picnic table near Ruby’s RV enjoying the meal that Team Smoke had prepared.

  “Great food, team,” I said to Smoke and Ruby next to me, “and you guys too, Red and Deloris. I think you might have won the whole thing if everything hadn’t gone sideways. I’m really sorry the big event didn’t turn out so well. You worked so hard.”