Murder at the Cooking School: Book 7 of the Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Series

by Dianne Harman

  My instincts sure were right about this. It sounds like Signora Rizzo, if that’s who was talking, hired someone to murder Signora Nardo. Obviously, she must have known about the affair. Now if I can just get back to the gift shop without being seen. Heart beating rapidly, she hurried back to the gift shop, walked in, and almost bumped into Chef Bianchi.

  “I’ve been looking for you,” Chef Bianchi said, “where have you been? It’s almost time for Signora Rizzo to come here. She likes to personally welcome the guests to her property.”

  “I’m sorry, I had to use the restroom, and I noticed when we got out of the van that there was a separate building behind the main one with restrooms. I should have told you I was going there.”

  “It’s not a problem.” She turned away from Kelly and greeted the beautiful blond statuesque woman who was entering the gift shop. “Angelica, thank you so much for taking the time to come here today. My students have thoroughly enjoyed the tour, and I think many of them are taking your olive oil home as a souvenir. Would you like to say a few words?”

  “Certainly,” the voice Kelly had heard only a few minutes earlier say. “I want to thank you for coming, and I hope you enjoyed the tour. Now you know what goes into the process of making the olive oil we use so much of here in Italy and which is now very popular all over the world. I would stay longer, but I am expecting a very important phone call. Again, thank you for coming.” She turned and hurried out of the building.

  There is no doubt after hearing her speak that it was Signora Rizzo who was trying to find out if the person she’d hired to kill Signora Nardo was the one who had actually murdered her. Wow! That means she may have been responsible for the murder, but it certainly sounds like she didn’t get her hands dirty doing it. Wait until Mike hears about this.

  CHAPTER 16

  Kelly looked out the window of the van as it drove up the lane towards the castle, and she could make out Caesar’s form on the bottom step, waiting for her. As soon as she got out of the van he walked over to her side and stood next to her.

  “Hi, boy,” she said. “Have a good afternoon? It’s almost time for dinner. I’ll feed you in just a few minutes.” She stooped down and petted him. When she stood up, she realized the rest of the students and Alberto had all gone inside the castle. Something had been bothering her ever since she and Mike had arrived at the castle. She had no idea where the Nardos lived. The rooms on the second floor all seemed to be for the guests, and the only rooms she’d seen on the ground floor were the dining room, the kitchen, the library, and the large entryway which served as the hotel reservations area for the converted castle.

  She looked around and still not seeing anyone said, “Caesar, take me to Signora Nardo’s room. Can you do that? Signora Nardo’s room. Go, boy, go.”

  The big dog pushed against her legs and started walking towards the side of the castle. He looked back at her as if to say, “Hurry up, Kelly. How are you going to explain this if anyone sees you?”

  Caesar stopped at the side of the building in front of a large wooden door. She tried the doorknob, but the door was locked. Caesar pawed at the doormat and looked up at her. She bent down, put her hand under the mat and felt the cold steel of a key. She took a Kleenex from her purse and picked up the key, being careful to keep her fingerprints off of it. Kelly quickly looked around one more time, making sure no one was watching her. She put the key in the lock and opened the door, hoping no one was waiting for her on the other side. She gingerly walked in and saw several doors leading off of the hall. She said a silent prayer to whoever had the foresight to put the words Signor Nardo on one door and Signora Nardo on another. She listened for a moment in front of Signora Nardo’s door and heard nothing. Kelly opened the door and quickly walked in, Caesar following her.

  The large bedroom made her feel like she’d stepped into another century. While the parts of the castle she’d been in had been refurbished in bright colors with welcoming prints and plaids along with the antiques, nothing had been done to this room for what seemed like centuries. Everything in the room was red or gold. Kelly vaguely remembered reading something about red being the color of nobility during the Renaissance. With the exception of a modern king size bed, it didn’t look like anything had been put in the room for hundreds of years.

  This is unbelievable. I’m getting a serious case of claustrophobia, and I don’t even know why I’m here and what, if anything, I’m looking for.

  On the far side of the room she saw a door and opened it, remembering that the Signor’s suite had been on the other side of the hall. This was clearly the Signora’s office. It, too, was done in shades of red, but someone had decorated it with a much lighter touch. Instead of the heavy velvet drapes that were in the bedroom, pale red linen drapes were backed with sheer white ones to keep the sun from damaging them. Against one wall was a large Mediterranean pine desk. Kelly walked over to it. She wondered if the police had searched the room, because it didn’t look like anything had been touched. Signora’s calendar was on the desk as well as several invitations to local events.

  I wonder where she kept the business files for the castle. There’s no file cabinet. Maybe she used one of these drawers.

  Kelly tried to pull a large side drawer open, but it was locked, as were the rest of the drawers.

  Well, so much for that. I have no idea where to look for a key. She probably had it on a chain or something, and I don’t have time to search for it.

  “Caesar, we need to go,” she whispered. “I can’t find the key, and I don’t want to get caught. Mike would be furious with me if he knew I was doing this.”

  She was petting him as she turned to go when her finger touched something on the underside of his collar. “Caesar, what’s this?”

  The big dog wagged his tail, and she would have sworn he smiled at her. She pulled his collar around and over, discovering that that what she’d felt was a key that slipped into a key slide. She reached in her purse for another Kleenex and easily pulled it out. She inserted it in the desk drawer and it opened easily. Kelly looked at Caesar and gave him a kiss on his massive head. “Thanks. Let’s see what I can find.”

  As quickly as she could she looked at the files that were labeled in the drawer, glad once again that she’d retained the Italian she’d studied so long ago. Two of them caught her attention. One was a file marked “Wills” and the other was a file marked “Giovanni Rizzo.” Although Kelly really wanted to spend some time seeing what was in them, she knew she was pressing her luck by staying in the room any longer. Without thinking of the possible consequences of her action, she shoved both the “Wills” file and “Giovanni” file into her large purse.

  Kelly locked the drawer, put the key back in Caesar’s key slide, and walked through the office door to the bedroom. She listened for a moment but couldn’t hear anything. She quietly opened the bedroom door and walked down the hall towards the door that led outside. She looked around and still seeing no one, reached in her purse for the key to the outside door, locked it, and put the key back under the mat, making sure that the Kleenex she’d used to keep her fingerprints off of it when she’d gotten it out from under the mat was still wrapped around it.

  She walked around to the front of the castle and she and Caesar walked through the front door and into the reception area. “Matteo, I think I’ll feed Caesar this afternoon. I believe you said his food was kept in the dog run. How much should I feed him, and is someone else feeding Bruno?”

  “I’m taking care of Bruno. Caesar gets about three cups of dry dog food and a can of dog food. The measuring cup is in the bag. Thanks for feeding him.”

  “No problem. I’ll do it in a few minutes. I want to go up to my room and see if my husband’s returned.”

  “I haven’t seen him, but I haven’t been at the front desk the whole afternoon, so he could have come back.”

  “Thanks,” Kelly said as she and Caesar walked up the stairs. She felt like the purloined files were burning a hol
e in her large purse. She hoped against hope that Mike hadn’t come back yet. She knew he would definitely not approve of her methods for getting information.

  CHAPTER 17

  Kelly put her key in the lock for the door of their room, hoping against hope that Mike would still be at the station with Chief Varano. When she was inside the room, she looked around, but didn’t see him.

  Thank heavens he’s not back yet from his meeting with the chief. Now I can take a look at these files.

  She sat down on the bed, reached into her purse, and pulled the files out. Caesar lay down on the bed beside her and was snoring within moments. She went through the papers that were in the Wills file and saw that Signora Nardo had clearly designated Signor Nardo as the sole beneficiary of her estate which made sense considering they had no children and that her parents had considered their son, her brother, to be incapable of managing the castle. She spent a few moments looking at the contents of the Giovanni Rizzo file and then gasped in surprise. Kelly was so absorbed in what she was reading she didn’t hear the key being inserted in the door lock for their room. Caesar sat up suddenly and growled. He stopped when Mike walked into the room.

  “So how was the olive oil excursion? Are you an expert in making olive oil now?”

  “It was very interesting,” she said, trying to shove the file folders back in her purse before Mike saw them.

  “Kelly, I’ve been around you long enough to know that look you have on your face. What’s going on?” he said, sitting down beside her on the bed and reaching across her to get the files. He took them out of her hands and looked at her quizzically. “Wills and Giovanni Rizzo,” he said reading the labels on the tabs. “Kelly, where did you get these?”

  “Mike, you know there’s a complementary bottle of wine on the desk. Maybe you should open it and have a glass before I tell you about it.”

  “That’s not necessary,” he said in his serious sheriff’s voice. “I want you to tell me how you got these files.”

  “Look, I know you’re not going to be thrilled with how I got them, and that’s okay with me. I just opened them, and I think you’re going to be very pleased at what’s in them and probably happy I got them for you.”

  “Ah, so now it’s you got them for me. Kelly, let me repeat the question. How did you get these files?”

  She told him how she and Caesar had managed to get into Signora Nardo’s room and how she had found the key to the desk on the underside of Caesar’s collar. “Mike, I think the important thing is what’s in the Giovanni file.” She took it out of his hands and removed some papers from it. “Look at this. It’s a document deeding the legal title of Castello di Nardo to Giovanni Rizzo. It’s not dated, and it’s not signed. What do you make of that?”

  “I’d say it just might be the smoking gun investigators always look for in a murder case. No, I am not in the least bit happy you took a risk like that. If someone had seen you, you could have been arrested for breaking and entering. I suppose the only thing that was in your favor was that Signor Nardo is grieving and still not seeing people, so he wasn’t up and about when you entered their residence illegally. We tried all day to get him to see us, and he refused. That’s probably why you were able to get those files. Her room hasn’t been searched yet. I just hope to heck you were smart enough not to leave any fingerprints, because the chief is planning on having it dusted tomorrow, with or without the Signor’s consent.”

  “Of course I was. Believe it or not, I’ve learned a lot from you, like not to leave my fingerprints on anything. I used a Kleenex for the keys and on the doorknobs I touched. So what do you think of this document?”

  “Kelly, I’m going to have to show it to the police chief. All afternoon we’ve been searching for reasons why Giovanni Rizzo, a known skirt chaser of beautiful women, would be having an affair with Signora Nardo. It seemed completely out of character and didn’t make any sense. The chief has talked to enough people that the rumors about the two of them having an affair seem to be true. It appears that they were indeed having an affair, and had been having one for quite some time. The chief has a number of contacts in Florence who were able to identify both of them from photographs he faxed them, and they confirmed that the two of them often spent the day at various hotels in Florence.”

  “Mike, I’m not a lawyer, but as I understand this document, if Signora Nardo signed it, she would be deeding the castle over to Giovanni, and her husband would not inherit it. Is my thinking correct?”

  “Yes. That must be the reason for the affair. She was probably flattered by his attention, and he was using that as leverage to get her to sign the deed. What’s troubling me is that it’s certainly a motive for murder, but only if it was signed by her, and it doesn’t appear that she ever signed it unless he has an original signed deed and this one was only for her records. That we don’t know.”

  “If he has it, and if he records it with the local recorder’s office or whatever they call it here in Italy, that would certainly be a motive for killing her.”

  “I agree, Kelly, it’s a motive, but there would have to be solid evidence that he was the one, in fact, who murdered her.”

  “Yes, I see what you’re saying. By recording the deed, his reputation would be in shreds. Not only would it appear to be a really sleazy thing to do, but his wife would be certain he’d been having an affair with Signora Nardo. By the way, I need to tell you what I overheard today. Mike, don’t raise your eyebrows like that. I hate it when you do that. I just happened to overhear something I think you’ll find interesting.”

  “You just happened to overhear something. Uh-huh. This better be good. Go ahead, I’m all ears.”

  She told him about the olive oil excursion and overhearing Signora Rizzo’s conversation with someone. “Mike, what I’m wondering is this. If she hired someone to kill Signora Nardo, can she be charged with murder?”

  “I imagine she could be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, but I’d have to check into the Italian law on it. The interesting thing is now we have two people who not only have motives, but Signora Rizzo, from what you heard, was actively trying to have Signora Nardo murdered.”

  “Mike, don’t forget about Signor Nardo. If she signed the deed, and if he found out about it, he might have been angry enough to kill her.”

  “It means he doesn’t get the castle, that’s true, but at the moment, Giovanni has the most to gain. What I haven’t told you is there are rumors that some of his clients have filed complaints with the Italian Bar Association. From what the chief found out today from the one located in Milan, apparently there have been three complaints filed against Giovanni for embezzling client’s funds. All three are under investigation. The chief said he was told Giovanni had not been very cooperative in the investigation.”

  “If he’s embezzling his clients’ money, that’s pretty serious. Isn’t that a crime?”

  “I’m sure it is, but it has to be proven and that can be very difficult to do. What usually happens is a lawyer says it was a bookkeeping mistake and replaces the money in whatever account he’s being accused of embezzling. It’s not all that uncommon. The chief is hoping to get more information on Giovanni’s financial situation. He’d heard rumors that the olive oil business was not as financially successful as Giovanni has told people. There was also talk he was looking for investors who might want to buy it. All this makes me wonder about the man.”

  “I agree. So we have both of the Rizzos and Signor Nardo as possible suspects. A couple more who might also qualify are Berto Moretti, the owner of the other cooking school, and the Signora’s brother. What I don’t understand is why her brother would do something now. If he thought there was some way he could get the property, you’d think he would have done something long ago. Plus, from reading the Signora’s Will, it seems pretty clear that the Signor was the sole and only beneficiary and there’s wasn’t any mention in her Will about her brother. The same thing is also true about Signor Moretti. Why commit t
he murder now and not at some earlier time?”

  “I have no idea. I need to find out if the title to the castle was vested solely in her name. I’ll make a note to ask the chief about that tomorrow. He’s picking me up at ten again, so I’m going to have to bail on you. Some honeymoon. Me trying to solve a murder, you taking some cooking classes, and a one hundred fifty pound male dog instead of me in my wife’s bed. This is not exactly what I’d planned.”

  “Mike, I’m still loving it. I’ve always wanted to go to Italy, and it’s everything I thought it would be. Don’t forget when we leave here we’re going to Florence for a couple of days. I can’t wait to see the Uffizi Museum and the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, plus I’m going to insist you buy me something gold on the Ponte Vecchio, you know, the bridge that spans the Arno River and has all the jewelry shops. I’m really excited about that. Tomorrow’s the last day of classes, and even though the cooking school was only for three days, I feel like I’ve learned a lot, and I’m definitely going to put some of the recipes I’ve learned on the menu at Kelly’s. We’re taking a field trip tomorrow to the Mercato Centrale in Florence and I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve heard it’s one of the most interesting markets in the world.”

  “I think I would have enjoyed that, and I’m sorry I have to miss it. Kelly, seriously, what are you going to do about Caesar? Shouldn’t he be in his dog run or something and not in our bedroom?”

  “I’ve been so busy talking to you I almost forgot I told Matteo I’d feed him. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Okay. I want to see if there’s anything in these files we’ve overlooked. I know the chief will be happy with the information you got, but very unhappy that you took the risks you did.”