Murder at Le Bijou Bistro: Northwest Cozy Mystery Series (Northwest Cozy Mysteries Book 5)

by Dianne Harman

  “I’ll take you home, baby,” Mario protested, but Kitten stood up.

  She leaned down and kissed Mario briefly on the lips, pausing to whisper in his ear. “If you have any sense at all Mario, you won’t wait for my call. I’m not sure what’s going to happen after next week, but I might be going away for a long time. Goodbye.”

  Mario sat alone at the table for a long time, not in any hurry to make his way home alone. Nursing a whisky, it was thoughts of Lola, not Kitten, that drifted through his mind. The night she died would be etched in his memory forever. At least he’d made it to the scene in time to hold her hand and comfort her while she bled to death, shot several times in the abdomen.

  He’d been on his way to pick her up from her family home when he got a call saying that Lola, her brother Charlie, and Vinny Santora had just been hit at a take-out pizza joint in Chicago. They’d gotten their pizzas and were standing on the sidewalk in front of the pizza joint waiting for Al De Duco to pick them up, when a car pulled up next to them and shots rang out.

  Al De Duco, who was supposed to be driving them home, had arrived at the pizza place minutes after the shooting, only to find all three of them wounded. The two men survived, but unfortunately Lola died at the scene with Mario kneeling on the sidewalk next to her. As it turned out, Al had been delayed because he’d stopped on the way to pick up cigars as a surprise for Vinny. Otherwise, they all would have been out of there before the gunmen arrived.

  Finishing his whiskey with a gulp, Mario decided it was time to get those memories out of his head once and for all. The only way to ever get over Lola’s death was to settle the score with Al De Duco. Mario could find out where he was living easily enough. A slow, painful death, like Lola had suffered, was no less than the man deserved. Then, with Al gone, there would be no one standing in the way between Mario and Kitten.

  A smile returned to Mario’s face. He was a man with a plan, and that’s just how he liked to do business.

  CHAPTER 6

  A stony-faced Al entered the kitchen with his arm around a pale and drawn looking Cassie. As usual, Balto was glued to Al’s heels.

  DeeDee took one look at her friend and rose from her seat at the counter. “Let’s go into the great room, Cassie, where it’s more comfortable, and leave these two men alone to do whatever it is they need to do.”

  Cassie looked up at Al, who nodded, and gave her a reassuring smile. “Ima gonna’ talk with Jake about a plan of action. Ya’ go on with DeeDee fer now. Right, Jake?”

  Jake looked up from the coffeemaker where he was just finishing brewing a fresh pot of coffee and said, “I think that’s a good idea. You two go and sit down. I’ll be through in a moment.”

  “And we need cake,” DeeDee reminded him. “Lots of cake.”

  Al adjusted his sunglasses. “Yer’ in the right place fer cake, Cassie. I can vouch for that.”

  “That’s settled then,” DeeDee said, ushering Cassie out of the kitchen and into the hallway, where she paused to give her a big hug. “This is all going to be okay,” she said, “although I realize it doesn’t seem that way now. If anyone is out to harm you or Al, he and Jake will make sure nothing happens to either one of you.”

  Cassie followed DeeDee into the great room. It was a bright spring morning, and DeeDee had the windows open, allowing a light flow of fresh air to circulate into the room. The view outside, past the garden, and over the trail to the beach, was dotted with early spring wildflowers starting to bloom, beyond which Puget Sound was a calm, inviting deep blue.

  “Thanks, DeeDee. Al also said something along those lines,” Cassie said with a tight smile, settling onto the sofa. “Except, he didn’t put it quite so politely.”

  DeeDee sat opposite Cassie in an armchair. Cassie involuntarily shivered, and DeeDee stood up. “Sorry, Cassie. I’ll close the windows.”

  Cassie waved her down. “No, please, I’m not cold. I love the feel of the fresh air flowing through here. I felt claustrophobic at the hotel, so I really am enjoying it. Al was so concerned about me, he wouldn’t leave me alone for a minute.”

  “Yo. Walls have ears, ya’ know.”

  DeeDee and Cassie both turned to where Al was standing in the doorway. He smiled, standing back to let Jake walk past him with a tray filled with a coffee pot, mugs, and several slices of cake.

  “I skipped the chocolate cake,” Jake said, setting the tray down in front of Cassie and DeeDee. “I understand that’s what the poor woman who died choked on last night.”

  Cassie gave him a pointed look. “In that case, I think I’ll be skipping chocolate cake for a very long time. I’m really sorry, because it’s my favorite.”

  Cassie’s words hung in the air, as the gravity of her statement sunk in for all of them. The flapping wings of a flock of birds as they flew past the window was the only sound that could be heard. DeeDee exchanged a look with Jake, and noticed Cassie and Al doing the same.

  Jake was the first to speak. “Let’s get started on what we plan to do, because there’s no time to waste. Al and I are going to go to Le Bijou Bistro this morning. We decided to talk to the staff before the lunchtime crowd starts arriving. They should be open by now for deliveries and setting up. My police contact told me that the forensic team finished their work up at the restaurant last night.”

  Al walked over to Cassie, and pulled out a heavy revolver, setting it on the arm of the sofa beside where she was sitting. “Cassie, I want you to stay here with DeeDee, and don’t let this out of your sight. Got it?” His voice was encouraging, and he crouched down, his face hovering close to his wife’s, before tenderly touching the back of her head and leaning in to kiss her.

  Cassie smiled at Al’s touch, and she nodded.

  Al stood up and turned to DeeDee. “DeeDee, ya’ better not upset Cassie. She’s gotten to be a pretty good shot with that thing. Took the head clean off a target at the range the other day.”

  DeeDee tried not to giggle. The thought of Cassie shooting the head off of anything was hard to imagine, but she knew Cassie was level-headed and would do whatever was required for self-protection.

  “In that case I’d better get my gun, too,” DeeDee said.

  Jake raised an eyebrow, taking DeeDee’s gun from his inside coat pocket and handing it to her. “I beat you to it. It’s fully loaded.” His gaze passed from DeeDee to Cassie, then back again. “I hope I don’t need to tell you both to be careful?”

  “We will,” DeeDee assured him.

  “Good,” Al said. “We’ll be a coupla’ hours at least. Balto’s gonna stay in the house with ya’, and Red’s on guard outside. I’m tellin’ ya’ nobody, but nobody, gets past Red.”

  Balto growled as if he understood what Al had just said.

  “Or Balto,” Al said, leaning down to rub his thick black and white fur.

  “We’ll see you later,” Jake said, as he leaned down and kissed DeeDee on the cheek. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear, sending a tingle down her spine.

  “Love you too,” she mouthed as they began to leave. She stood up and followed Jake to the door. When they were out of the house she locked the door and engaged the deadbolt.

  “Sit tight, Cassie,” she said, “I won’t be long.” It took several minutes for her to go around the house, closing all the windows, and making sure they were secure. Her tour ended with her locking the door from the kitchen to the yard and picking up her cell phone from the kitchen counter where she’d left it. She carried it into the great room and set it down on the side table next to her gun. She looked over at Cassie, who was stroking Balto and said, “Well. This is certainly a strange situation for us to be in. A bit different from when we lived next door to each other on Mercer Island. Would you like some coffee?”

  Cassie nodded. “Sure. But I’ll pass on the cake, if you don’t mind. Yours are the best, but I can’t quite handle any right now.”

  DeeDee poured two mugs of coffee and after adding sugar and some cream to both of them, handed one t
o Cassie. She stared at the cake, then thought better of it. “I know what you mean. Even though I made it myself, I think I’ll pass, too.”

  Cassie sipped her coffee, and DeeDee watched her visibly relax as she sat back in her chair. “Al and I are really grateful for you and Jake helping us like this,” Cassie said. “Thank you.”

  “That’s what friends are for, and I don’t want to hear another word about it. How about Liam and Briana, do they know what’s happened?”

  Cassie’s chin quivered, and she cupped both hands around her mug. “No,” she said at last. “Liam’s off taking photos in the jungles of Mexico. National Geographic has hired him for his first paid shoot, and he’s out of contact right now. As for Briana…well, I don’t want to worry her. There’s no point until we know a little more.”

  DeeDee had the same feeling she’d had the night before, that Cassie was holding back something. “I understand,” she said, wondering how to phrase her concerns. “I bet Briana’s excited about your new home. I’m sure you’ll want to put your own touch on it. Is your award-winning interior designer daughter going to help you with the decorating?”

  “I doubt it. I haven’t spoken to her since the wedding. It seems she’s blocked my telephone number.” Cassie sat forward, her posture becoming tense once more.

  “Oh, Cassie. I’m sorry. Did she object to you marrying Al?”

  Cassie shrugged. “She was there, but she didn’t say anything until afterwards. I guess I didn’t realize how hurt she was when I started seeing Al so soon after her father died. I’ve been so caught up in my own little bubble, I couldn’t see how my marrying Al might affect my children. Maybe I was too hasty. I know I’ve disappointed her.”

  DeeDee’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. Please don’t tell me you’ve made a mistake. Al would be brokenhearted if he heard that. He adores you.”

  “Of course not.” Cassie’s eyes were shining. “After I met Al, I never doubted I’d be with him for the rest of my life. When we went to Las Vegas I had no idea what he was planning, and I certainly had no thought that I’d return to Seattle as a married woman. What I meant was, I got so carried away in the moment, it never occurred to me I should have talked to Liam and Briana about it. I think if I’d explained it to them, they would have understood a little better, and if I’d known how they felt, and especially Briana, maybe I would have persuaded Al that we should wait a while.”

  “Cassie, you’re a grown woman,” DeeDee reminded her. “I think you’re being too hard on yourself. You don’t need to ask your children’s permission for anything.”

  “I know, and you’re right. I think Liam is being pragmatic about it, certainly less emotional. But Briana made it very clear she thinks I’ve betrayed her in some way. I really thought she’d love Al once she got to know him, but she’s never given him a chance. I just hope she accepts Al at some point, and I don’t lose her over this. Al is my husband now, and that’s not going to change, no matter what my daughter thinks.”

  DeeDee sighed. “I don’t need to tell you that Briana was a daddy’s girl. It’s understandable that her nose is a little bent out of joint, but I’m sure she’ll get over this and come to her senses. In the meantime, we need to get to the bottom of the death of Megan Reilly. So tell me, who were the suspects you came up with for Rob to check out? Jake told me you were struggling to think of anyone who would want to kill you.”

  There was the sound of a car driving past, and DeeDee and Cassie both froze. DeeDee held her breath as she reached for her gun. She got up and crept across the room to the edge of the window, where she stood with her back to the wall before turning her head to the side and daring to look out the window.

  “It’s just a car driving by,” she said to Cassie, after looking in both directions. “It had nothing to do with us.” She returned to her chair. “Now, where were we?”

  “Suspects,” Cassie said sighing. “What Jake told you was absolutely right. It was hard. Eventually we came up with three names, as well as a few restaurants I wrote bad reviews on. There were four of them.”

  “Let’s get back to the three people you mentioned,” DeeDee said. “I guess we need to see what Rob finds out, but there might be something you and I can do to help out with the investigation. Who were they?”

  “The first one is Myles Lambert,” Cassie said. “He’s the guy whose column I’m covering at The Seattle Times while he’s on a temporary leave of absence. I’ve never met him, and since I’m doing him a favor by taking over his column, I don’t know why he would possibly have a grudge against me, but Al said he should be checked out, because you never know what someone else is thinking. The next one I wrote down is Jessica Simmons. Come to think of it, you might know her.”

  DeeDee made a face. “I remember the name. If it’s who I’m thinking of, her daughter went to high school with Tink and Briana. Is that the one? And as I remember she had a pretty sharp tongue.”

  “Yes, that’s the one. I ran into her a couple of weeks ago. It’s a long shot, but something about how she was that day gave me the impression she really doesn’t like me.” Cassie grimaced. “I’m not sure what I’ve done to upset her, but I sure got that feeling from talking with her.”

  “I can’t imagine you upsetting anyone,” DeeDee said, confused. “Exactly what happened?”

  “I’d just parked in a downtown parking garage, and she drove in behind me. I was glad to see her, since she writes a food blog, which I think is quite good. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, A Gourmand’s Guide to Eats. Anyway, I wanted to ask her if she’d like to team up with me on some restaurant reviews. That way, we could cross-promote each other. I could reach her readers, and she could reach mine. I thought it was a great idea, but she said she was in a hurry and had to go.”

  “Yes,” DeeDee said. “I know the blog you mean. I’ve used some of her recipes for Deelish. I thought some were good, and some not so good, but why does that make her a possible suspect?”

  Cassie thought for a second or two. “Well, as we talked, she became more and more agitated. I realized I was probably keeping her from a meeting or something, so I apologized and asked if she wanted to get together so we could talk about it when she had more time. Not only did she turn me down flat and rush off in a rage, but something weird happened when I got back to my car a little later.”

  “What happened?”

  “The paint on both sides of my Mercedes was badly scratched. The scratches were pretty deep, and it looked to me like it had been done deliberately, probably with a key. I looked around at the other cars parked near mine, but none of them seemed to have been damaged, and there were plenty that were a lot nicer than mine.”

  DeeDee looked over at Balto, who was standing by the front door. “No walkies till later, Balto. Al and Jake will be back soon.” Balto whined, and laid down next to the door. “I’d agree with you. I definitely think Jessica is worth following up on,” she said to Cassie. “Who was the last one?”

  “Someone else you might know. Do you remember Nora Jenkins, the woman from the Seattle Art Museum?”

  DeeDee laughed. “As if I could ever forget her. She was a real battle-ax.” DeeDee had encountered Nora when she’d volunteered as a docent at the Seattle Art Museum before she moved to Bainbridge Island. Cassie had previously been on the leadership team at the museum and worked closely with Nora, who was a conservator, before Nora had retired a couple of years earlier.

  Nora’s run-ins with management were legendary, and one incident ended with the police being called after Nora held a knife to a priceless painting and threatened to ruin it unless Cassie agreed to review her salary package with the Director of Human Resources. “I thought she moved out of state.”

  Cassie shrugged. “So did I, but for some reason, I remembered the last words she said to me when she was leaving the museum.”

  “Which were?”

  “She was upset about going, and I encouraged her to look forward to her future and enjoy her retirement. She tur
ned to me, and sneered, ‘Cassie, you don’t know what your future holds. You better keep looking over your shoulder. You never know when trouble might strike your perfect life.’”

  DeeDee scribbled all three of the names on her notepad. “What a charming person,” she said in a sarcastic voice. “When Al and Jake get back we can find out if Rob’s come up with anything yet. He’s usually pretty quick to get information. “Since we’re kind of at loose ends, how about a game of Scrabble?”

  Cassie said, “Fine. But let me warn you, I’m good.”

  DeeDee shrugged. “You may be, but remember, I’ve got a gun.” She looked up to see Cassie’s face break into a broad smile, and went to find the Scrabble board.

  CHAPTER 7

  Jessica Simmons checked her website stats and frowned. “Good grief, this is not good,” she muttered to herself, straightening her glasses and refreshing the page, hoping to see better numbers.

  Her Google Analytics account was telling her that the traffic for her food and restaurant review blog, A Gourmand’s Guide to Good Eats, was down for the third month in a row. Worse than that, with only a few days left in the month, the blog’s page views for March were coming out below the threshold for one of her main sponsors, a Seattle food delivery service that paid for banner ads on her site. They’d already called her earlier in the month checking to see if there were any technical problems, since the ad click-through rate they tracked to orders on their site had fallen drastically.

  Now, she knew the reason why. It was very simple. There was practically no traffic to send their way. If things didn’t pick up within another couple of weeks, Jessica could expect a call from them cancelling the ads, and with them, her main source of income.

  She lifted her mug of coffee to her lips and grimaced when the cold, gritty liquid hit her tongue. She stood up from the rickety wooden chair in front of her laptop computer and walked across the cracked linoleum floor of her studio apartment to the microwave in the corner. She put the half-full cup of coffee inside and pressed the start button. Heating it for thirty seconds, she raised it to her mouth again, her heart sinking as she looked around at her dismal surroundings.