Murder Lo Mein

by Vivien Chien

  “I have your word?”

  “Yes. I’ll pinkie-swear if you want me to.”

  He groaned. “Not necessary. Just remember that you promised to keep this between us.”

  “Okay.” I wanted to tell him to quit stalling, but if I rushed him, he would probably back down on me.

  “The reason why I have been trying to contact Walter is because I wanted to enlist his help in getting my restaurant back in shape. He’s a very experienced man, and if there’s anyone that can help me put my business back together, it’s him.”

  “Why would he help you?”

  “Publicity. I pitched an idea to him about notifying the media that a long-standing local restaurant owner was helping one of the little guys. We could do a whole segment on it in local papers and it would give both of us more business.”

  “And he accepted the idea?”

  “Originally he did, but since then I’ve tried calling him several times and he refuses to return any of my calls. I don’t know what scared him away.”

  “That’s the big secret you’re telling me?”

  “No, the big secret is that Stella Chung, Penny, and I all go way back. Farther back than anyone realizes.”

  Pretending that I was learning this for the first time, I widened my eyes. “How far back?”

  “Back to culinary-school days.”

  “And you decided to keep this a secret because of the contest?”

  “Not really.” He sat back in his chair, focusing his eyes on the wall behind my head. He refused to make eye contact with me, and I wasn’t sure if it was because it was a hard story to tell, or he was lying to me. “We had a falling-out, and haven’t seen each other since school. Of course I’ve seen Penny around town since she moved back, but we’ve never confronted each other. This contest was the first time we’ve all been in the same place at the same time.”

  “You and Penny seem pretty friendly now.”

  His eyes flitted toward me momentarily. “Outward appearances can be deceiving.”

  “Okay, so what happened that split the three of you up so much you pretend not to know each other?” I thought about Megan’s love-triangle theory. If she was right, I would never hear the end of it.

  “The three of us, we were best friends. The best there could be. We met on the first day of culinary school, bonded, and immediately became inseparable.”

  “If you were such great friends, what horrible thing could have happened to make you separable?”

  “Stella.” He smirked. “She was always a little bit on the outside, keeping one foot partially outside the group. Because of her family situation, I think she always thought she had something to prove, that she needed to work harder than the rest of us. And she always did. Penny and I would go out partying on the weekends, and Stella would stay behind and practice cooking techniques and recipes. While Penny and I grew closer, Stella kept us at arm’s length. I still considered her one of my best friends, but there was always something she was holding back.”

  “So, she was a real go-getter … what was the problem?”

  “You’re not a very patient person, are you?”

  “I wouldn’t say it’s my strong suit.”

  Joel laughed, and it was the first genuine expression he’d shown during my encounters with him. “A girl that’s honest … I like it.”

  I gave him a small smile of appreciation. “Please … continue.”

  “Right … well, there was a job opportunity coming up, a cook-off of sorts was planned with a fine dining restaurant located in Chicago. They were going to give us a chance to work in their kitchen for a summer, and if we did well we could keep the job. All we had to do was create an original recipe to their specifications that really wowed them.”

  “How many job openings were they offering at this restaurant?”

  “One.”

  “Tough competition.”

  “Exactly, and three friends all gunning for the same job? I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how ugly that could get.”

  “I’m guessing Stella got the job, considering her last place of employment.”

  “You would be correct.”

  “But I don’t understand the problem. Okay, so Stella got the job, what’s the big deal? Even though you’re competing against each other, as friends you should be happy for her, right?”

  “It’s not the fact that Stella got the job … it’s how she got the job…”

  CHAPTER

  25

  I was on the edge of my seat—both literally and figuratively. “How did she get the job?” Right away my mind went to sleeping with a teacher or bribing one of the chefs … or maybe even sleeping with the restaurant owner that was offering the position. I had been watching too many movies and reading too many books.

  “Stella is a great chef, don’t get me wrong, but there was one thing she lacked … and that was creativity. She could never come up with a solid recipe of her own. They were good, but they weren’t great.

  “And she wasn’t one to lose a competition. So, her solution became stealing someone else’s recipe…”

  He let that hang there for a minute, and my mind continued to dance in circles, coming up with possible scenarios of the different ways this story could go. But, since Penny seemed to hate Stella so much, I knew there was only one logical explanation. “She stole Penny’s recipe.” The confidence in my voice surprised me but the minute I said it, I knew I was right.

  “And that, as they say, is that,” Joel said. “Each of us who applied for the position took turns having our recipes sampled by the restaurant owner and a few teachers. Stella was scheduled before Penny and me. Penny had no idea what was even happening until the chef and the teachers accused her of stealing her recipe from Stella.”

  “Why didn’t they believe that the recipe was hers and not Stella’s?”

  “I guess when Stella presented her recipe she told the restaurant owners that it was a re-creation of a long-standing recipe in her family. Stella had always been a good storyteller, so I’m sure the performance she gave them was quite impressive.

  “Penny, on the other hand, was missing proof that the recipe belonged to her. She wasn’t the most careful person and was a bit on the old-fashioned side when it came to certain things. She preferred to handwrite all of her recipes on index cards, and keep them on her desk. Anyone could have access to them. She never thought once to hide anything or back up her recipes on a computer. At least if she had done that, there could have been a way to claim ownership of the recipe. But she trusted Stella wholeheartedly and so did I.

  “By this stage of our friendship, we were all sharing a tiny apartment. One night while Penny and I were out having dinner, Stella went to her room, and stole the recipe card from her box. She rewrote it in her own handwriting, and there was nothing to prove that Penny came up with it on her own.”

  “Wow.” I sat back in my seat, shaking my head. “Talk about shady. How could you do that to your own friend?”

  “After that, things weren’t the same and got ugly really fast. We moved out of the apartment a week later and went our separate ways.”

  “How did this affect you?” I asked. “I feel like you got caught in the middle of this.”

  “I did. Both of them were mad at me for not hating the other more. Stella didn’t want to admit what she did and tried to convince me that I should be mad at Penny. She kept up the whole story about how that recipe really came from her family. But I knew Penny, and I knew Penny would never steal anything from anybody. She was too honest.

  “Meanwhile, Penny wanted me to completely cut off Stella. I knew that I probably should have, but truth be told, I felt sorry for her. She was a very lost young girl and didn’t have many friends to begin with. Of course, it doesn’t excuse what she did, but nevertheless, I felt bad for her. If she ended up with no one as a friend, I didn’t know what direction in life she would end up taking. Years later, I see there was nothing to worry about. She did jus
t fine on her own in Chicago. I don’t know what types of personal relationships she was involved in while living there, but it was clearly her career that mattered most.”

  Now that Joel had come clean about the situation, I was wondering how much of this story was true and how much more I could press him for. He didn’t seem to have a loyalty to anybody in particular. “Do you think that Penny…?” I couldn’t make myself finish the sentence.

  He sighed. “I know what you’re going to say because I’ve considered that too. I don’t know what to think anymore, to tell you the truth. After everything that happened with Norman, I was so sure that Ray was somehow involved in this whole thing. Stella even thought so.”

  “She told you that?”

  “Yes, that’s why she was here the other night. We both thought Ray was up to something. Stella said she had some kind of proof, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was. She thought maybe Penny knew more than she was letting on and tried to convince her to give up any info she might have. If something was caught on her tapes in the lounge, Stella wanted to use that as evidence.”

  “Penny told me that the cameras aren’t actually functioning. They’re only for show.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, that’s what she told us too, and I believed her at first…”

  “At first? What made you change your mind?”

  “Stella being murdered.”

  “You think she’s hiding something and Stella found out what it was?”

  “Maybe. Either way, Penny got awful weird when Stella and I started asking her questions. I decided to let it go, but Stella couldn’t drop it.”

  “And now … what’s going on now? Like I said earlier, the whole plaza is talking about how they see you guys together a lot.”

  “She needs a friend, and I’m trying to win her trust back. And, to be truthful with you, I’m trying to figure her out. If she comes clean with me then maybe I can convince her to turn herself in. What happened between her and Stella has been weighing on her since school. She tried running away from it and starting a new life in Florida, but obviously that didn’t work. Then she comes back here, and she has to see Stella all over again when things seem to be going so well for her. I’d hate to think of what she’d be capable of if she thought Stella was trying to compromise that.”

  I thought Joel trying to get Penny to admit to any wrongdoing was a pretty risky idea, especially if he believed there was a chance she might have done it. But I decided to keep that to myself since that would be the pot calling the kettle black. “I should go,” I said, checking the time on my phone. “I appreciate you telling me all of this. It really explains a lot of what’s been going on. If anything else develops, would you mind letting me know?”

  He stood up at the same time I did. “Sure. If you think it will help Penny in some way. I don’t know if she actually needs the help or I’m looking at this the wrong way. Regardless, I want to be there for her until this whole thing is resolved. I’ll sleep a lot better knowing that she’s innocent.”

  “You and me both.” I turned back around as I opened the door. A cool breeze came through, and I realized how warm I’d become sitting in his office. I took a deep breath. “If you happen to get any weird fortune cookies, make sure to contact Detective Trudeau right away.”

  “Weird fortune cookies? What does that mean?”

  “It means your number is almost up.”

  * * *

  I drove back to Asia Village in a daze, Wilkins a few cars behind me. Either he thought there was something strange about me going to Joel’s restaurant, or he figured it was just a normal part of my day. Whatever he thought, I hoped he didn’t mention it to Adam.

  After our discussion, I knew that Adam wanted me to relay these things to him, but the angle that I was digging into didn’t feel solid enough for me to report just yet. Once I put together a few more pieces, I would let him in on what I was up to. Besides, there was no reason to worry him unnecessarily.

  The conversation I’d had with Joel was not something that I’d expected and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I also wasn’t sure if I could entirely trust his story. He could be trying to set me up so I wouldn’t look into him anymore. But with all the details he’d given, I figured parts of it had to be true, at least.

  True or not, everything with Penny did seem to line up. I also found it suspicious that she had conveniently left out all the details of her life before moving to Florida. She had never come right out and said that she’d lived in Florida her whole life, but by the way she talked about it, you kind of got that impression. There was definitely no mention of her ever having lived in any part of Ohio.

  When I got back to the restaurant, business was still slow, and I hid out in my office trying to get some work done. But it felt impossible considering all I could really focus on was what I should do with the information I’d obtained.

  There were still too many loose ends to tie up, and I needed to be sure that Penny was who Adam should be looking at. Even though Joel’s story confirmed a solid reason why Penny would want to go after Stella, it still didn’t explain the Norman Pan angle.

  This led me back through the list of potential suspects and the only person I hadn’t really given much thought to. Walter Shen. Over the past handful of days as I’d pondered the possible motives and suspects, I hadn’t felt too strongly about him being the killer. I didn’t see him taking the time to plant menacing fortune-cookie messages on the people he intended to kill. But I had to be one hundred percent positive that I could cross him off my suspect list.

  I didn’t want to go back to his restaurant alone. He gave me the creeps because, guilty or not, he reminded me too much of Mr. An. And I had a feeling that the direct approach wasn’t going to work on him like it had with Joel.

  Sending Megan a quick text, I asked if she was free for dinner later that night. When she responded that she was, I told her that we had a mission to carry out … dinner at the House of Shen.

  CHAPTER

  26

  We pulled up in front of the House of Shen a little after seven thirty P.M. The dinner rush was wrapping up, and we were able to find parking without a problem. I took a couple of deep breaths before opening the car door.

  Megan observed me from the passenger’s seat. “Are you going to hyperventilate or what?”

  “I hate coming here. I hate Walter Shen … I hate his daughter … I hate their stupid restaurant.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this? I can always come back with Nikki or something?”

  “No, it’s okay. We’re already here and I just have to suck it up.”

  “That’s my girl,” Megan said with a wink. “Now let’s eat, I’m starving.”

  The restaurant was what I like to deem “comfortably busy.” There were just enough people there to assure you that it was a good restaurant, but it wasn’t packed.

  When Jackie realized that it was us, the ready-made smile on her face dropped. “Now what do you want?”

  “We want to eat dinner. Is that okay with you?” I glanced around the dining area. “You are still open, aren’t you?”

  Jackie huffed. “I suppose. You probably need to eat some decent food anyway.” She pulled out two menus from beneath the counter and turned to lead us into the dining area.

  The booth she took us to was right outside of the restrooms. “Your server will be right over,” she said with a smirk.

  I gave her a good nostril flare before sliding into the booth. “Of course…”

  Megan plopped down across from me. “Ignore it. Besides, we’re closer to the back … maybe we’ll catch something in action.”

  “Like what?” I grumbled, picking up my menu. The menus they had were nicer than what we had at our restaurant. The covers were black with the name of the restaurant engraved in red. The pages inside were made of a thin rice paper, with ornate writing both in English and Chinese characters. “We need menus like these. I hate to admit it, but these are way classier th
an what we have.”

  Megan picked up her menu and inspected the design. “It does give it a sort of fine-dining feel. Maybe now that you’re running things, your mom will let you pick new menus.”

  “Doubtful. I can’t imagine how much it would cost to have something like this printed.” I scanned the soups, feeling myself get agitated over nothing in particular.

  “So what’s the plan exactly?” Megan looked over her shoulder at the kitchen doors.

  “I’m not really sure. We have to eliminate him somehow. I can’t even think of a legitimate reason to talk with him. I have no business here.”

  “It’s too bad you don’t have some official contest news to discuss with him. That would at least be a way to get him talking.”

  “We could make up a story of some kind … say it’s for the contest. It’s not like he’d know the difference. He doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of Ian, so I don’t see him going out of his way to discuss it with him.”

  We sat for a few minutes, reviewing the menu, and plotting what kind of excuse we could drum up to get Walter talking to us. I was really kicking myself for not thinking this through before we got to the restaurant. I hated to waste a trip.

  But, the truth was, I was getting impatient with this whole thing and I was grasping at straws. My investigation was going in circles, and I didn’t feel closer to figuring anything out than I had before.

  One thing I did know was that most likely Penny was guilty of something. I just didn’t want to believe it. I thought about all the times that I had sat across from her at the bar in the Bamboo Lounge and it made me cringe. Had I been hanging out with a killer this entire time?

  The server came and took our drink order and asked if we wanted appetizers. Both Megan and I ordered tea and hot and sour soup.

  “You know what I’ve been wondering,” Megan said after our tea arrived. “Would all of this still have happened if the contest didn’t exist? We still don’t know if this is contest related or not. If someone was after both Stella and Norman, they got pretty lucky, wouldn’t you say? I mean, she doesn’t even live here. So, would that person have gone to Chicago and killed her there at some point? Do killers do that sort of thing?”