03 Food Festival and a Funeral

by Harper Lin

  “The mayor. He’s sick. They think it came from one of the trucks this way.”

  “You’re closing us up for food poisoning? Do you know how many guys are going to be on their pots all night from eating bacon-wrapped scallops out of a truck from the Aquarius Diner over on the eastern end of the park?” Lila protested. “No one is closing them down.”

  Dan looked at Lila with what was as much of a smile as he could muster. That was a slight curve at the right corner of his mouth. But when he looked at Amelia, his heart broke.

  “Dan, we had a record-setting afternoon.” Amelia shook her head, her eyes wide. “This isn’t even the peak. That comes tomorrow.”

  “Believe me, if it were just for food poisoning, I’d have no problem directing my boys around your truck. But we have reason to believe it’s more than that.”

  Both Amelia and Lila looked at each other.

  “When I say he’s been poisoned, I mean they are rushing him to County right now. I’m afraid it isn’t just bacon-wrapped scallops.”

  “He didn’t eat here, Dan.” Lila’s voice was calm.

  “No. In fact…” Amelia’s eyes bugged. “He ate a hot dog. I saw him. And then there was that whole kerfuffle.”

  “What kerfuffle?” Dan pulled out his notebook from the inside of his jacket. He always looked as if he’d stepped out of an old episode of Dragnet. His tall frame was perfect for a droopy suit. He wore hard shoes that had to be a size thirteen if they were an inch. Although he wasn’t wrinkled or disheveled, Amelia always got the impression that he was working very hard when she saw him. His clothes were as serious as the job.

  Standing closer to Dan, Amelia retold the story about the man with the hot dog cart. She told him everything, starting with Meg’s encounter all the way up to his exchange with the mayor. Amelia might have been wrong, but she thought Dan had become more ruffled by what the suspect had said to Meg than his possibly poisoning the mayor.

  “Can you describe this guy for me?”

  Both Amelia and Lila gave a detailed description of the fellow. They had gotten a very good look at his face. But the fact that he’d claimed to be the late politician George Pilsen’s brother would make tracking him down much easier.

  “Dan, do you really think you need to close us up for the rest of the weekend?” Amelia pleaded.

  “I’ll tell my guys to start here. They’ve got to comb the grounds.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not going to lie to you, Amelia. If they find anything on the grounds, they’ll have to close off this area. And the truck needs to stay put.”

  Had it been anyone else, Amelia would have used every obscenity she knew, of which she was sure there were three, and threatened they try and stop her from operating her business. But it was Dan. He was just doing his job, and she knew that if there were any other way, he’d take it.

  “I’ll drive you home, Amelia,” Lila offered, putting her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Let’s just get ready as if everything is going to go off without a hitch tomorrow.”

  “Lila is right,” Dan said encouragingly.

  Amelia looked up at him and felt the tingling of tears trying to surface in her eyes. Shaking her head, she gave him a weak smile. He was a gentleman and asked a few beat cops to help carry the supplies Adam had bought to Lila’s car. Lila led the way, but Dan took Amelia by the arm and held her back for a moment.

  “I will do everything I can do to get you up and running by tomorrow.”

  “I know you will, Dan.” She smiled up at him.

  “I think you should know that according to the Gary Food Fest, there were no hot dog vendors listed.”

  Amelia blinked.

  “This brother of George Pilsen didn’t have a permit to be here.”

  “Hmm, Meg and Catherine both said that about that guy. How do you know?”

  “Well, when you said you were going to participate in the event, I took it upon myself to see what the competition looked like.” He knitted his eyebrows. “I got a list of all the vendors. Not a hot dog vendor among the group. I guess the old American staple isn’t as glamorous as deep-fried pickles on a stick.”

  Amelia chuckled.

  “I’m touched you’d check and see who our baking rivals might be.”

  Dan’s right eyebrow shot up. Amelia would never say it out loud, but she thought he looked devastatingly handsome when he did that. She blushed and quickly looked at the floor.

  “I’ll walk you to Lila’s car.”

  “No. That’s okay.” She would have loved the escort, but her mind began counting numbers in her head. “Please, work with your team and let me know as soon as you can if we can come back tomorrow. Even if you have to call at two in the morning.”

  Dan nodded, and they exited the truck together. Without a second of hesitation, Dan took to shouting orders to the detectives and uniformed officers, to which they eagerly responded. Detective Walishovsky was a respected man among the ranks at Gary PD. He was known for being tough, fair, honest, and not to be messed with.

  Letting out a sigh, Amelia made her way to Lila’s Mercedes. She thanked the officers for their help and climbed in, and both women headed to Amelia’s house. The kids were already there and were told about the truck being under quarantine. But the excitement of another mystery seemed to outweigh their disappointment.

  Chapter Six

  “If you are just joining us this morning, breaking news. Mayor Richard M. Pearl has died. He was pronounced dead at County Medical Hospital yesterday evening after collapsing at the Gary Food Fest. Foul play has not been ruled out. Pearl had held public office for twenty-four years as mayor of the city of Gary, nearly making his silver anniversary. Services are being held at the…”

  Amelia shut the TV off, shaking her head.

  “They didn’t say anything about the weird guy yelling at him yesterday.” Meg pointed to the black television while taking a bite out of an apple.

  “That makes me wonder.” Amelia thought it strange. In this day and age, there had to be dozens of versions of that incident. There were at least that many people watching, and Amelia knew she saw a few of them recording with their phones. Not to mention the reporters that were right there.

  “Wonder what, Mom?” Adam asked before intentionally bumping into his sister, who elbowed him back.

  “Nothing.” She pursed her lips. Looking at her watch, she let out a sigh. She turned toward the window and saw a beautifully gray day with a cool breeze rustling the trees. It was a perfect day, in her opinion. It was a perfect day to be in her truck, baking. Instead, she found herself pacing the floor.

  Dan hadn’t called in the middle of the night to let her know she could get back to the truck and fire up the ovens. She was tempted to call him and ask for an update, but she knew he was already doing her a favor by keeping her in the loop. If he didn’t call, it was because he didn’t have any news. Not yet, anyway.

  “How did your pictures turn out? Were you able to get anything good?” Amelia asked, quickly changing the subject.

  “Well, I didn’t get any pictures. I mean I got off a few, but…”

  “You didn’t tell her?” Meg chirped.

  “Tell me what?”

  “No, Big Mouth.” Adam nudged his sister. “I didn’t want to bother you when you got home last night. You looked like you didn’t need any more bad news.”

  Amelia folded her arms in front of her and sat on the arm of the couch, facing the kitchen.

  “When Amy and I were bringing back the groceries, the cops stopped us, you know, to see where we were going. What we were up to. They took my camera and erased all the photos. There was a really good one of Amy and me on there, too.”

  “Did they say why?” Amelia looked sternly at her son.

  “No. But I didn’t ask any questions. I started to look for Dan. But by the time I saw him, it looked like he had his hands full. I didn’t want to sound like a whiney kid.” He looked at Meg when he said those words, to which she stu
ck her tongue out at him.

  Amelia’s eyebrows shot up to her forehead. None of this surprised her.

  “Sorry, Mom.”

  “It’s no big deal. I mean it’s a big deal that someone erased your photos, but it’s not a big deal to me that we don’t have any. I’ll ask Dan about that. See what he has to say.” She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “In the meantime, you guys have a couple of chores each. Then, well, the rest of the day is yours, I guess.”

  “What are you going to do?” Meg asked, pushing herself up from the table.

  “Sit around and wait for the phone to ring, I guess.”

  A loud knock on the door startled all of them.

  “Who could that be at this hour on a Saturday?” Amelia grumbled and went to the front door.

  “Good morning,” Dan said, holding two large coffees in his hands.

  “Good morning, Dan.” Amelia blinked, her hand again going nervously to the back of her neck. “You’re up early.”

  “You mean up late.” He smirked as Amelia stepped aside, letting him come in.

  “Hey, Detective!” Meg waved cheerfully as she bopped upstairs.

  “Hi, Dan!” Adam called from the kitchen before retreating to his teenager cave in the basement.

  “Meg. Adam,” Dan replied, his voice deep.

  “Let me guess,” Amelia started as she closed the door behind him. “I’m closed for the event, right?”

  “It doesn’t look good. We still might be able to get everyone back in their trucks by tomorrow.”

  Amelia’s shoulders slumped.

  “It’s better than nothing, I suppose. I’ll never get the traffic at that time like I did yesterday.” She looked at Dan as they made their way to the kitchen. “Please don’t think I’m blaming you, because I’m not. But why the heck couldn’t the mayor have dropped dead on the other side of the pond? And I don’t mean England.”

  Dan shook his head, chuckling a little as he took a seat at the kitchen table.

  “We’re trying to track down that hot dog vendor. We think that guy is a lot more dangerous than he appeared.”

  Amelia’s heart jumped to her throat as she thought of what he’d said to Meg.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “As it turns out, the mayor was poisoned. They won’t know with what until the autopsy. I put my money on arsenic.”

  “Arsenic?” Amelia pulled the lid off her coffee and took a sip. “Sort of an old-fashioned method, wouldn’t you say? Who poisons people with arsenic these days?”

  Dan shrugged as he sipped his coffee.

  “Actually, that is pretty genius,” Amelia said, looking out her kitchen window. “You have a grudge against someone, there is a food festival going on, meet up with your nemesis and sprinkle a little arsenic on their samples, and it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. There’s no telling where the poison may have come from. Yikes, you really think that hot dog peddler was that crafty?”

  “Maybe.” Dan nodded. “You’re right, too. According to witnesses, the mayor had consumed several samples in addition to the hot dog you and Lila saw him eat.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. If it didn’t cost him, he’d have his hands in it. Mayor Pearl was a crook from where I’m sitting, and I’m just a nobody. My question is when you catch the guy who did it, do you prosecute or give him a medal?”

  It was the first time Dan had ever burst out laughing, and it almost resulted in scalding-hot coffee coming out of his nose.

  “Amelia, why don’t you tell me how you really feel?”

  “He’s got a list of scandals behind him a mile long. You and I both know it. My gosh, he joked about them most of the time. You’ve seen him on the news.”

  Dan only nodded.

  “That guy loved the cameras,” Amelia continued. “Didn’t he actually say something like never let a good crisis go to waste or something horribly conceited like that?” Amelia shook her head. “And everyone knew about his women. His ex-wife is probably doing cartwheels if everything she said about him after their divorce was true.”

  “I’ve got to go talk to her, too,” Dan muttered, rubbing his face.

  “I’m sorry, Dan. Here I am getting all riled up, and you’re the one who has been up all night. Look.” She stood up and took the coffee from his hand. “How about I make you a soothing tea? You can lie down on the couch and take twenty winks. It’ll do you good.”

  Dan looked as if she had just suddenly come down with a slight case of Tourette’s syndrome and spouted off a string of obscenities to make a sailor blush.

  “What?” she asked in reply to his shocked expression. “You shouldn’t drive if you’re tired either.”

  “Amelia, I think that’s the best offer I’ve had all month. I’ll take you up on that.” He stood and began loosening his tie and unbuttoned his collar.

  “Go on in the family room, honey, and I’ll bring your tea in.” She heard the word come out of her mouth too late to stop it. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was breathy with embarrassment. “I used…to bring my husband tea in there. Old habits.”

  “No need to apologize,” Dan almost whispered. “I kind of liked the sound of it.”

  Amelia bit her tongue to hold back the schoolgirl giggles of excitement that were running madly up her throat. Instead, she turned and put the kettle on.

  Chapter Seven

  Dan conked out for a solid hour on Amelia’s couch. When he finally sat up, yawned, and stretched, Amelia was still at the kitchen table, calculating expenses and what she’d need to make within the next several hours at the event just to break even. There was a turkey sandwich with chips and a dill pickle across from her.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “A world of better. I think that is the most comfortable couch I’ve ever slept on.”

  “You find yourself sleeping on them a lot, do you?”

  Dan smirked and stood up, rubbing the back of his head. He had a five o’clock shadow at almost eleven in the morning. It made him look rough, manly, sexy. Amelia swallowed hard and nodded.

  “I thought you might be hungry when you woke up.”

  It was Dan’s turn to blush a little. He didn’t want to admit how much like home Amelia’s house felt to him. He’d never tell her how often he had thought of just stopping by after his shift was over just to see her and the kids. As it was, he rarely paid them a visit. It would be like playing house, and he didn’t want that. He wanted to plant stakes. Set up housekeeping, as they would say in the old west days. But moving fast wasn’t his style. It resulted in sloppy police work and an even more disastrous personal life.

  “Thank you. You were right.” He took a seat. While eating what he thought was the best turkey sandwich he had ever tasted, he looked at what Amelia was working on.

  “How’s it looking?” he asked in between a big bite of sandwich and a bite of pickle.

  Amelia sighed.

  “Well, it isn’t the end of the world.” She huffed. “In fact, if we hadn’t had to pay such an obscene fee to be in our usual spot, I’d still be in the black.”

  “What was the fee?”

  “Oh, no use worrying about it now. The city has my money, and they can use it to bury the mayor. Actually, they probably won’t even use it for that. They’ll use it for some stupid project like repainting the white lines in the road or naming some street after the late, great Mayor Pearl.”

  Dan lost himself for a moment. He reached across the table and took Amelia’s hand. Squeezing it tightly, he looked into her eyes.

  “It’ll be okay, Amelia,” he almost whispered. “And…if there is anything I can do, I hope you won’t hesitate to ask me.”

  Amelia squeezed his hand back. Her face wrinkled into a smile she couldn’t contain. Blinking her dark eyes, she opened her mouth to speak just as Adam came back up from the basement.

  “Hey, Dan. I didn’t know you were still here.”

  Slowly letting go of Amelia’s hand, Dan gave A
dam a wink.

  “Yeah, your mom was nice enough to let me get in a quick nap on the couch. But now, I’ve got to get back to work.” His eyes came back to Amelia and gently caressed her face. Pushing himself back from the table, he stood and buttoned his collar. Amelia stood and walked him to the door. Before he left, he turned to her, and she straightened his tie, patting it smooth and feeling his chest underneath.

  “Don’t eat anything from anyone you don’t know.”

  Amelia watched him as he climbed in his car, backed out of the driveway, and drove off, tooting the horn once.

  “So what did he say?” Adam asked.

  “Looks like we’re shut down at least for the time being. We might salvage a little of tomorrow’s traffic, but it isn’t looking good.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  “No worries. There isn’t much we can’t handle together, right?”

  Adam nodded and headed upstairs to pester his sister to get out of the bathroom already.

  But then Amelia’s confidence slipped as she heard the wind chimes of her phone and saw that all too familiar number. “What now?” she said before pleasantly answering.

  “Hi, John. What’s up?”

  “Have you heard about the mayor?”

  “Yes.” Amelia was unable to hide the sound of satisfaction in her voice.

  “This is just horrible. He was such a good man.” John sounded as if he were on the verge of bursting into tears.

  “Yeah, okay, John. Because of the mayor’s incident, they’ve closed down my part of the food fest event. The kids are heartbroken, and so am I. I guess the cops are scouring the area for clues.”

  “I just got off the phone with his wife.” John completely ignored Amelia’s comment. “Maggie is just beside herself.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet. Did you need something, John?”

  Amelia was losing her patience. John had never ever cared this much about anything that had gone on in Amelia’s life ever. When her father had passed away, John made sure he had a reason to leave the wake early and remained in the car on his cell phone the entire time at the cemetery. The only time she saw him actually feel any sadness was when Adam was about five, Meg was just a baby, and a cat had gotten run over in front of the house.