by J R Pearson
Grilled and Seasoned with Murder
A Josie Rizzo Cozy Mystery
J R Pearson
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Acknowledgements
To my beautiful and crazy family
CHAPTER ONE
Josie Rizzo exhaled heavily and collapsed onto her new couch. Finally. The last box was finally unpacked and the last item was put in place in its new home—her new home.
“Tired, Petey?” Josie asked her Welsh Corgi, who lay limp on his round belly with his short stubby legs spread out. Josie smiled at him, thinking how great a help he was in the unpacking process.
That wasn’t true. Not even close. Petey hated the new apartment and had used every ounce of his energy to sabotage the move. He howled the whole ride from Josie’s hometown, Jewel Cove, to Josie’s new home, Greenville. Each time she checked out a room in the apartment, Petey butted his head against Josie’s ankles, trying to herd her out. When Josie set a pair of shoes in her bedroom closet, Petey carried it back to an open moving box. When the last few items were being put away, Josie made sure to keep an eye on Petey…waiting for it to happen.
Petey came into the bathroom as Josie set out her toiletries. The two narrowed their eyes at each other, locked in a staring contest. Josie shook her finger at him.
“Don’t you dare.”
Petey tilted his head.
“I mean it. Don’t—”
Too late. Petey lifted a hind leg and peed on her new bath rug, then trotted away, wagging his little tail.
Josie expected no less.
Now she watched her baby-hippo-sized friend close his eyes and begin to snore softly. She smiled again and gazed around her new place that symbolized her brand-new start. A desk set up by the window held her sleek laptop, a small high-res digital camera, a larger professional camera, and note pads.
Despite the warnings and pleadings from her loving but bat-crap crazy mother, Josie had decided to break away from her parents’ over-bearing nature to become independent (now, at the age of twenty-five) and focus on her food blog, Good Eatin’ For The Curvy Soul. The name represented who Josie had been her entire life. A curvy woman who loved to eat and wasn’t ashamed of it.
Growing up, eating her mother’s delicious cooking and working at her parents’ twenty-four-hour breakfast diner, Josie learned how to create simple meals and fall in love with their tastes and smells. Soon Josie began expressing her passion, thoughts, and even photos of amazing cooked meals on her amateur blog, explaining how those simple meals were not so simple but works of art.
For the past year, Josie had ventured all over JewelCove, known for having really good seafood, and shared her finds to her small audience. Now that small audience had grown into an eyebrow-raising following. Josie owed it to herself and her “fans” to get a taste of something new.
And Greenville was it. Just thirty minutes away, Greenville was also small and full of cafés, bars, delis, and mom ‘n pop restaurants. A perfect place to feed her blog.
Josie hoped all her hard work in making her blog the place to be for foodies would gain the attention of big-city West Emily’s popular food magazine, Forks and Knives. Josie had been a subscriber for years and has all of their monthly issues. Stuck in the house on rainy days, Josie would dig out an issue from her archives and pick a recipe to make. Being able to write for Forks and Knives would be a dream come true for Josie. On the coffee table, her cell phone buzzed.
R U coming???
Josie was due to meet her old friend, Brad (with whom she’d recently reconnected) at a restaurant called Triple B’s. Brad had recommended the apartment she was currently in and helped her get a job he worked at. She quickly changed into a nice top and jeans. Petey opened one eye and watched his mom pour fresh water in his bowl.
“Behave,” she told him, stuffing her small camera in her messy purse. He turned away and began to snore louder.
***
The sun was setting, casting an orange glow upon the town. Shop owners began to turn on their outside lights, welcoming their nighttime customers. Josie passed the very tall and wide Greenville Inn. It overlooked a football-field-sized lake. She rolled down the window to listen to water spew from the fountain in the lake’s center. Couples walked hand in hand towards the lawn, about to enjoy a date night by the water.
Grumpy Petey was just going to have to deal with living in a new place, Josie thought, because they weren’t going anywhere. But she did make note to buy a new bath rug.
Inside the low-lit restaurant, Josie had trouble locating Brad. Triple B’s had advertised on a wall that the three B’s stood for: Burgers, Bacon, and Beer. Namely, stacked burgers, all types of beer, and unique dishes that integrated bacon. Though Triple B’s showcased their service of alcohol, families with kids always crowded into the booths and tables.
Josie noticed Brad waving at her by the bar. She made her way to her handsome friend, smiling up at him. That’s how it always was. Constantly looking up at people.
Short Girl Problems Number One: Looking up at people.
“It’s so good to see you.” Brad bent to hug her. Brad was movie-star handsome. Tall, blonde, muscular, perfect teeth—you get the gist. Brad's family was wealthy and owned JewelCove's cruise line and seaside resort. He and Josie were joined at the hip throughout high school until they graduated, when Brad joined a theatre group in West Emily and Josie joined her older brother, Robert, behind the stove at their parents’ diner. Throughout the years, friends wondered how she could remain so close to a guy and not have romantic feelings for him; her family had wondered, too, why they hadn’t married after graduating.
Easy.
Brad was gay.
Behind the counter, Jennie and Kal, Josie’s cousins, greeted the pair. (Anyone who lives in JewelCove has relatives living here in Greenville and vice versa.) Josie had no problem with this and was actually relieved to be surrounded by familiar faces. After catching up and finding out this was her younger cousin Jennie’s first night as a bartender, she and Brad placed their orders.
For Josie: a strawberry lemonade and a cheddar burger loaded with bacon, shredded lettuce, and blanketed with a medium-fried egg. Brad settled on a caramelized onion and mushroom double hamburger and a light beer. Knowing Brad, he could inhale five of those burgers and not have to worry about needing help taking off his jeans.
“How’s show business?” Josie asked, taking a sip of her lemonade, pleasantly surprised when she tasted a small chunk of strawberry.
“Boring. It’s not getting me anywhere, hence why I’m here drowning my sorrows in a drink that can’t even get a squirrel drunk.” He chuckled but Josie could see Brad was having a hard time. She patted his arm.
“It’s okay. You’ll find something that inspires you.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged before taking a swig of his drink. “In the meantime, I just want to hang out with you.” He playfully nudged Josie, causing her to laugh. “Tell me what you plan on doing here. I’ve seen your blog, by the way—it’s awesome. I especially love your impressions of your brother’s new seafood restaurant. You make me want to eat crab dip every day.”
Richie Rizzo, Josie’s second older brother, had opened his own restaurant, Richie’s Crab Shack, along the boardwalk in JewelCove. It was a win-win situation for both Josie and Richie. Richie, kno
wing Josie has many followers on her social media who read her blog, asked his sister to feature a few dishes on her site.
Josie happily agreed and the meal was on the house. Win-win.
She and Brad chatted, not missing a beat, as if they had never parted ways to begin with. Soon their food arrived. Josie took a few pictures of their burgers so she could upload later, and then dug in. The bacon wasn’t too chewy and didn’t crunch like glass. The egg yolk mingled with the burger’s juiciness, resulting into a heavenly bite.
Why hadn’t she moved to Greenville sooner?
“Are you dating anyone?” Brad asked, smirking. Josie couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She never was comfortable with the idea of being all lovey-dovey with someone. She liked having a good time and hanging out with some of her guy friends. But being committed to a serious—or somewhat serious—relationship made her want to run for the hills.
“Absolutely not,” she replied. Jennie leaned over and refilled her glass and gave Brad a new bottle. For a new bartender, Jennie was doing really well paying attention to her customers.
“Same here, sadly,” Brad said. “After finding out the director I was dating was married with kids and wore a toupee, I was pretty much done. I mean, come on! He wore a toupee, really? A toupee! I swear you can’t trust anybody.”
“I feel ya, buddy.” Josie sighed. Finished with her burger, she pushed her plate away. “Toupees are deal breakers.”
Eerily, the bar’s atmosphere chilled and the steady hum of activity froze. Loud laughter and conversations dropped to whispers. Josie hadn’t noticed until Brad looked over his shoulder, eyes widening.
“Holy sh—.”
“What?” Josie turned around to see every head in the joint face the front door.
Tony Santino.
Standing over six feet, wearing a black t-shirt that stretched across his wide torso, barbed wire tattoos wrapping around both biceps, Josie’s childhood next-door neighbor walked up to the other side of the bar and signal Kal for a drink.
“It’s like seeing a ghost,” Brad whispered. Tony sat on a stool and glanced around the bar, causing other patrons to quickly look away and go back to their food and drinks. Brad wasn’t wrong. Josie hadn’t seen the boy she’d lived next to in ten years. The boy she’d considered a really good friend, who wouldn’t mind letting her tag along with him and his friends. Every day they walked together to and from school.
Their parents enjoyed each other’s company, inviting one another over for barbeques and birthdays. Heartwarming good times of laughter, big families, kids being kids, running around and not caring what tomorrow held. Just living in the moment, covered in grass stains and barbeque sauce.
Up until the evening of the first day of high school.
Mike Santino was arrested for the murder of his wife, Rose. Later, he was charged with her death and sentenced to life in prison. The news shook the whole town. More so, when word spread that Mike Santino had tried to commit suicide after murdering his wife. Days after, Tony became cold and detached from the world. Josie just hadn’t expected to be shut out, too. Soon Tony was put in another relative’s custody and moved away to West Emily.
“I think this calls for another drink.” Brad’s voice brought Josie back to the present. She agreed and asked Jennie for whatever Brad was having, plus a basket of chocolate-covered bacon bites. After putting in the order, Jennie joined them.
“What do you think he’s been doing all these years?” her cousin asked. Josie shrugged, trying not to look down the bar again.
“The real question is, what’s he doing here?” Brad said.
Good question. A very good question, Tony thought. The blonde man sitting at the other end of the bar obviously had no clue how loud he was. But the blonde’s companion was someone he knew.
Little Josie Rizzo.
Well, not so little now. Josie had grown into a beautiful woman. Her brown curly hair was longer then he remembered. Of course a lot could happen in a decade. But her big green eyes shined the same, as did her crooked smile raising a beauty mark at the corner of her mouth. If he hadn’t left JewelCove, he would've been there to see Josie’s protective brothers shield her from teenage boys.
Tony thought he’d no doubt have been one of them.
Enough of that. Tony scowled into his drink and pretended he didn’t notice the men sitting to his left cast him wary glances. Couldn’t blame them. Tony wouldn’t be there if hadn’t agreed to take over the bistro his uncle opened since Tony graduated. Don’t think of it as a dying wish he needed to uphold for the man that helped raise him. No, Uncle Sal was very much alive and well on a cruise ship, drinking more than his doctor recommended and hitting on women half his age.
His uncle knew he wanted to slow down the fast life he’d been living since moving to city and thought this was a path his nephew needed to take. Plus Uncle Sal left him his fully furnished house. Hard to pass that up. Though this new path was cluttered with the debris Greenville caught of whatever gossip or news JewelCove threw at it. So starting completely fresh wasn’t going to happen.
Tony knocked back the rest of his drink and tossed some bills on the counter. He glanced at Josie one more time, wondering if he’d bump into her again (and deciding whether or not that was a good idea), when a woman at the front entrance emitted a high-pitched scream.
“In the back alley! A woman! She’s dead!” The woman unleashed another ear-piercing scream before collapsing to the floor.
CHAPTER TWO
The town’s detective, Caleb Evans, locked down the restaurant, preventing anyone from leaving, while his officers secured the crime scene. This did not sit well with the mothers with restless kids, and the credibility of the screaming woman’s allegations was put into question.
But it was true. A body was found lying in the back alley of Triple B’s. It was still unclear if foul play was involved. Anyone near the front entrance or parking lot was asked to stand in the back of the restaurant and wait to give their statement to an officer.
Word started to spread that the victim was a beautiful redhead wearing hot-pink stilettos, catching the attention of several individuals when she stepped out of a black truck carrying a motorcycle in the back. The truck was located in the far end of the lot. Speculation that the person who dropped off the victim could be in the building, and—if foul play was confirmed—that same person was likely the one who harmed her before dining on bacon chili-cheese fries.
Detective Evans stormed into the restaurant, demanding who owned the vehicle. Tony Santino stepped forward.
For Josie, time slowed around her. Evans’s face darkened. Tony’s jaw clenched, and he made his way to the detective. Officers approached him on either side. Before crossing the threshold, Tony looked back at Josie. She had no clue Tony had seen her and couldn’t understand why or how his dark brown eyes seemed to pierce right through her. An inner alarm started to go off. Once her view of Tony was obscured by patrons now allowed to leave, time was pushed back into overdrive.
“The second he’s back in town, something bad happens,” Brad stated. Josie bit her tongue, paid for her meal, said her goodbyes to her cousins, and told Brad she’d see him at work tomorrow.
The situation didn’t involve her and she wanted to get home to Petey and her computer, the two things she needed to clear her mind and somewhat salvage the evening.
***
Once she had changed into a pair of yoga pants and a white t-shirt, Josie piled her long curls on top of her head and typed up her first post since being in Greenville. Fortunately Petey hadn’t ruined anything else. He was still knocked out on his bed but was now on his back, paws in the air. Josie doesn’t contemplate why her baby was strange anymore. He just was.
As some of you may already know, or if you’re new (Welcome to my blog!), I recently have settled into a new home, not far from where I grew up. Kicking things off on my adventure of exploring new cuisines, a friend and I had dinner at a local restaurant, Triple B’s.<
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Josie went on to explain how cozy the restaurant made her feel, easily relaxing in all the smiles and laughter of locals unwinding from the day. Then she described what she ordered and how amazing her burger tasted. She uploaded the photo and assured readers that her burger looked easy enough to be recreated at home.
You can probably get other ingredients and put your own spin on the classic fried-egg and bacon cheddar burger, but what you can’t do is: buy the genuine, homey feeling Triple B’s offers and the smell of char-grilled burgers in a perfume bottle.
But if you do, let me know!
Josie finished the post, declaring she would return to Triple B’s to see what other unique handcrafted sandwiches they had, and then clicked Submit.
A knock at the door startled her. She looked through the peephole, only to be met with blurriness.
“Open the door, Jo.”
Josie felt her eyes bulge out of their sockets. There was only one person who called her Jo, and no way was she going to open the door. Why was he here? Should she be afraid of him? She had never thought she would be, but a lot could happen to change a person in ten years.
“Please, I need to talk to you,” Tony said softly.
Josie glanced at Petey, now awake and waiting for her to do something.
“What should I do?” she asked her dog.
“You should open the door.” Tony interjected. “Is someone in there with you?” Was it the blonde man he’d seen earlier? Josie let out a breath before opening the door.
“Just my dog,” she replied Tony towered over her in the doorway. They both eyed each other, cautious of what the other might say. That was definitely the case for Josie. What did you say to someone you hadn’t seen in years and had been hauled off by police the second you met again?
“Um, can I come in?”
That was a start.
Josie led Tony into her small living room, asking if he would like something to drink. He politely declined, and, to her surprise, Petey jumped on to the couch and settled in Tony’s lap.