Gazpacho Murder (The Darling Deli Series Book 25)

by Patti Benning

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  GAZPACHO MURDER

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EPILOGUE

  Gazpacho

  Murder

  Book Twenty-Five

  in

  The Darling Deli Series

  By

  Patti Benning

  Copyright 2017 Summer Prescott Books

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.

  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

  Author’s Note: On the next page, you’ll find out how to access all of my books easily, as well as locate books by best-selling author, Summer Prescott. I’d love to hear your thoughts on my books, the storylines, and anything else that you’d like to comment on – reader feedback is very important to me. Please see the following page for my publisher’s contact information. If you’d like to be on her list of “folks to contact” with updates, release and sales notifications, etc…just shoot her an email and let her know. Thanks for reading!

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  * * *

  A heartfelt and tummy-pleasing thank you to Nicki Kovacich Mech for her delicious recipe suggestion! This is the first time that the deli has served gazpacho, but it won’t be the last.

  Gazpacho Murder

  Book Twenty-Five in The Darling Deli Series

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  Moira Darling patted the side of the white truck fondly, glancing at the words that were scrawled on its broad white side; Darling’s DELIcious Delights. It had been quite a while since she had gone on a catering event herself, and she hadn’t realized just how much she had missed it. She had made each of the crustless finger sandwiches, as well as the warm pots of soup. Quite a few of the baby shower’s guests had already come up and complimented her on the food, and she thanked each and every one of them earnestly. Hearing how much people enjoyed the food she served always did her heart good. At the end of the day, that was what the deli was all about – serving good food that would brighten up people’s lives.

  The event was over now, and it was time for her to start packing up. Cleaning was easily the least fun part of these excursions. Still, she did not regret volunteering to handle this event on her own. It was a relatively small one, and it was good for her to get out of the deli and do something for once. Much of the past few weeks she had spent moping about in her home and at work. Something had changed in the past few days, though, and she felt ready to start experiencing the world once again.

  I shouldn’t be taking this so hard, she told herself as she began to put plastic spoons and paper bowls into a large garbage bag. Her daughter was only out of town temporarily, and she wasn’t even the one that had been injured in the terrible fire at the candy shop a couple of weeks beforehand. Eli, Candice’s husband, was the one who was suffering from a head injury and broken bones. Right now, the pair of them were residing at a rehabilitation center downstate. Eli had a room at the center itself so he could continue to be monitored for possible complications from his head injury, and Candice was in a hotel just down the road from him.

  Moira and David had made it down to see them twice. Both times, the deli owner had seen notable improvements in her son-in-law’s condition. She had hopes that both of them would be moving back to Maple Creek soon, and when they did she would feel as if a huge weight had been lifted off her chest.

  It wasn’t as though she didn’t have enough to occupy herself with at home, even with her daughter out of the picture for the time being. The deli that she had opened just a few years beforehand was thriving. They were open twelve hours a day on weekdays, half that on Sundays, and were only closed for major holidays. She had a team of four employees, not including herself, that ran the place, and a couple of times recently had thought about adding someone else to her team.

  She wasn’t the only one that was kept busy with work. Her husband, David, had a full-time job as a private investigator, and had a side business that he ran with his sister, Karissa. The microbrewery was slowly gaining popularity in the local area, and she even sold some of his draft beers at the deli. Up until her daughter’s candy shop had been destroyed, the three of them had been a family of entrepreneurs.

  Moira sighed, her train of thought once again leading her back to the fire that had taken so much from her family. She grabbed a pile of paper plates and shoved them into the garbage bag, annoyed at herself for not being able to turn her thoughts away from the fire, and annoyed at the situation in general. Every time that she thought her life was as close to perfect as it could get, something always seemed to happen to bring her and everyone she loved down a peg. She knew that she still had a lot to be thankful for, but it was difficult for her not to dwell on everything that had gone wrong recently.

  “That’s life, I guess,” she murmured.

  “Pardon me?”

  Moira looked over to find the hostess, the mother of the woman whom the baby shower was for, giving her a puzzled look. The middle-aged woman had been busy sorting through the pile of gifts her daughter had received during the party.

  “Sorry,” Moira said. “Just talking to myself.”

  “Don’t worry, I do it all the time too,” the woman said. “Do you need a hand with any of that?”

  “Thanks, but I can manage.”

  “If you’re sure. I feel bad watching you do it on your own.”

  “I don’t mind. My employees are usually the ones that handle the catering events. I thought it would be nice to get out of the deli for the day, so I made them watch the restaurant instead. This counts as a break from normal work for me, and besides, it won’t take long to finish up.”

  “Well, just let me know if you change your mind. The food was delicious. You’ll be the first person I recommend if anyone I know is ever looking for a caterer.”

  “Thank you,” Moira said. “That means a lot to me.”

  The compliment boosted her mood as she finished cleaning up the garbage and packing the equipment back into the refrigerated truck. The deli was her pride and her passion, a restaurant that had grown from nothing more than a hobby to one of the most well-known places around town. When she first decided to open it, she could never have guessed that the little deli would take over so much of her time, but she was glad that it had. With an adult daughter, a busy husband, and two best friends that were workaholics, she would have had little to occupy her time without it. Of course, there had been some rough patches for Darling’s DELIcious delights, but she had never regretted
opening it

  She returned to the deli after it was already closed for the evening. She backed the truck into the alley between the deli and the neighboring building and unlocked the employee entrance, propping the door open with a brick. It didn’t take her long to unload everything that she had brought with her for the baby shower. After returning the truck to its parking spot out front, she went back into the kitchen, cranked the music up, and began washing the dishes.

  Once everything had been put away, she sat down on one of the bar stools by the counter for a short break before starting the drive home and pulled out her phone to check her schedule. The next couple of days were full with work and on Thursday morning she had an engagement with her two best friends, Martha and Denise. Saturday would be the soonest that she could go visit her daughter again. She made a note and sent a text to Candice. The deli might be almost like a second child for her, but it could never take the place of her real daughter. She had been so relieved when Candice had decided to stay in Maple Creek after getting her associate’s degree. The two of them had been through so much together, and it didn’t feel right to have her daughter so far away during such a difficult time.

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  Coffee with her friends was an event that Moira always enjoyed. With their busy schedules, it could sometimes be weeks before they got a chance for all three of them to get together, and when they did, it was always nice to catch up and talk over their problems.

  Moira had only known Denise for the past two years. Her friend was a fellow restaurant owner who ran the Redwood Grill – the nicest restaurant in town. The two of them always had a lot to talk about, and she was the only person that Moira could go to for advice not just about her personal life, but about business.

  Martha was a local to Maple Creek, and Moira had known her for most of her life. The two of them had become closer recently, after Moira had helped Martha come to terms with her sister’s death a couple of years back. Martha’s job kept her busy, and she traveled out of town every few weeks. Moira often watched her little black and white mixed breed dog, Diamond, when she left, and Martha returned the favor by watching Moira’s two dogs on the rare occasions that she and David both left town.

  When all three of them were able to get together in the morning, they frequented the small coffee shop on the corner of Main Street and Lake Street in Lake Marion. It was a cheery place, with ample seating and windows that looked out over the lake. The coffee itself was delicious, although it was always served slightly too hot to drink right away. The shop also had a variety of pastries, which Moira was always tempted to partake in. One problem that came hand-in-hand with running her own restaurant was keeping an eye on her weight. It was easy to over eat when she was her own gourmet chef.

  Walking into the café Thursday morning and seeing her two friends already seated at their table was a fresh breath of air for Moira. She had spent the last few weeks buried in her work to avoid thinking about her son-in-law’s injuries and her daughter’s losses, she hadn’t realized just how much she had missed her best friends. A lot had gone on in her own life since she had seen them last, and she was certain that the same would be true for them.

  She ordered her favorite caramel latte at the counter, and then, cupping the hot drink between her hands, made her way over to her friends. Denise greeted her with a smile and a warm hello, looking more cheerful than the busy redhead usually did. Martha, on the other hand, hardly seemed to notice Moira’s arrival. She was gazing at her cup, a frown creasing her brow.

  “Hi, sorry I’m late,” the deli owner said, taking a seat. “I forgot it rained last night, and I when let the dogs out Keeva ran straight to the muddiest corner of the yard. I had to wait for her feet to dry before I let her back inside.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Denise said. “We were just talking about some of the coming fall festivities. I was debating whether or not I wanted the Grill to be open on Thanksgiving.”

  “The deli won’t be,” Moira said. “I want to give my employees that day to spend with their families. And, of course, I want the day off myself.”

  “I’ll probably keep it closed,” Denise said. “In a bigger city, we might get a good amount of business for Thanksgiving dinner, but I don’t think we would see enough here in Maple Creek to make it worth it.”

  “How have things been going with that new chef of yours?” the deli owner asked. “Is he still trying to take over your kitchen? Has he forgiven you for thinking that he might have killed someone?”

  “Surprisingly, he laughed that little incident off. I think he’s been getting a little bit better about respecting the fact that the kitchen is mine and not his, or maybe I’m just getting used to him.”

  Moira noticed a flush across her friend’s face, but before she could comment, her attention was caught by Martha, who had just spilled her coffee all over herself. The deli owner got up to grab a wad of napkins from the counter and helped clean up the mess.

  “Are you okay?” she asked the other woman. Martha had hardly said a word since she had gotten there, and only now was Moira realizing that something seemed to be seriously wrong with her friend.

  “I’m — I’m fine,” Martha said. “I just haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

  “You look exhausted,” the deli owner said. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s going to sound silly, but I think my house might be haunted.”

  Moira exchanged a glance with Denise. Martha had never been a particularly superstitious person. This was out of the usual for her.

  “Haunted?” the red-haired restaurant owner asked. “As in… a ghost?”

  “I know, it’s ridiculous.” Martha shook her head. “It’s just that things keep going missing, and some of my stuff is turning up in places I know I would never put it. It’s like someone’s going in and rearranging things whenever I’m gone. Just this morning, I went to look in my pantry for some coffee, and everything had been moved around.”

  “Maybe you should take some time off of work,” Moira suggested. “It sounds like you might be stressed and overly tired.”

  “I’m not imagining this,” her friend said. “I always keep the cereal in a row on one shelf. This morning, the boxes were spread out over a couple of shelves with the spices mixed up between them. I know how I keep my kitchen, and I know that I would never make a mess like that.”

  The deli owner frowned. She wanted to give her friend the benefit of the doubt, but she didn’t believe in ghosts herself.

  “Well, who has a key to your house?” she asked.

  “You do,” Martha said. “Don’t worry, I know you’re not doing this to me. Dominic does, but he usually isn’t around when this sort of thing happens. I wouldn’t be freaking out so much if it was just him messing things up when he comes over. Who else? Oh, one of the young ladies from the local high school does. I ask her and her brother to stop in sometimes during the day to let Diamond out if I’m going to be working late.”

  Moira frowned. “Is it possible that she’s going through your stuff when she comes in to let the dog out?”

  “I suppose, but I don’t think that she would do that. I don’t see why. Besides, it’s happened even on days I haven’t asked her to come in. She would have to be sitting outside my house and watching my garage to know when I wasn’t there. Why would anyone do that just to come in and move some of my items around?”

  “I doubt you have a ghost,” Denise said. “It sounds like someone’s messing with you. You should hire someone to watch your house for you – how about David?”

  “Do you think it would be weird for me to ask him?” Martha asked.

  “No,” Moira said. “I think things have been slow for him lately anyway. I’m sure he’d be happy to take on your case. He enjoys his job, and he would love to be able to help someone he knows personally.”

  “All right,” her friend said. “I’ll give it a couple of days, but if it happens again, maybe I wil
l contact him. Thanks, I already feel better. Now if I could just get some decent sleep. This whole thing has me jumping at shadows.”

  “Sleep is in pretty short supply for me, too,” the deli owner admitted.

  “Oh my goodness, Moira,” Martha said. “I feel so bad, I completely forgot to ask – how is Eli doing? Do they know when he can return yet?”

  “Not yet,” she said. “His leg was completely shattered, so they have to make sure that it’s healing right, wait for it to get strong enough for him to start walking on it, and do physical therapy to help him build up the muscles again. They are also keeping an eye on his head injury. He is still at risk for further injury if he doesn’t take it easy.”

  “The poor kid,” Denise said. “Though I suppose, considering everything, he was lucky, especially when I think of what happened to Matt. How is Candice taking all of this?”

  “She’s hanging in there,” Moira said. “Now that Eli is mostly out of the woods, though, I think the shock of losing the candy shop is really beginning to hit her.”