High Steaks Waffle (The Diner of the Dead Series Book 16)

by Carolyn Q. Hunter

  “Well, my appetite is gone,” Sonja muttered, grabbing her purse.

  “I didn’t think you had one to begin with,” Frank pointed out. “But if you did, it certainly would be gone now. I know mine is.”

  “That was completely unprofessional.”

  “I have to agree with you there. It’s bad enough that he treated him that way, but to do it in front of everyone was just uncalled for.”

  “Didn’t he say he was new on the job? Shouldn’t he be more lenient of mistakes during the first couple days of work?” Maddy asked.

  “That man doesn’t have a lenient bone in his body,” Sonja spat. The glasses on their table vibrated slightly, as if there had been a minor earthquake. What was that? Sonja wondered, feeling the familiar tingle on her back.

  “I hope he’s alright,” Frank whispered, looking at the front door where the host had disappeared.

  “Do you know the guy?” Maddy asked. “Is he from around here?” Maddy, not being from Haunted Falls herself, didn’t know a lot of people in town. However, in this case, Sonja hadn’t recognized the young man either.

  “I know him mostly in passing, but I was at his house a few weeks ago.”

  “His house?” Sonja chimed in, having forgotten the strange vibration of the glasses. “I’ve never seen him around Haunted Falls before.”

  “He was living here with his mom. She was sick and he stayed home all day taking care of her.”

  “His mom is sick?” Maddy gasped. “That’s probably why he needs this job.”

  Frank looked somber. “Actually, she passed away. That’s why I was at his house. I arrived with the paramedics on the emergency call.”

  “He just lost his mother?” Sonja asked, taken aback.

  “That’s right. Died of a weak heart.”

  “And Shakeman just fired him? For not staying at his post one hundred percent of the time? What kind of heartless man is he?”

  “Maybe he isn’t aware of the situation,” Frank offered. “And we don’t know the whole story behind why he was fired.”

  “Still.”

  “Either way, it’s put a sour taste in our evening.” Folding up his napkin, he set it next to his plate. “Let’s go.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Sonja said, standing up. As she did, she caught the glasses shivering again, the water in them dancing in circles like when she would let the water out of the bath.

  Maddy paused and looked up at Sonja, having also noticed the phenomenon.

  The way the hair on her arms were standing up made her aware that something supernatural was in the dining room with them.

  “Are we going?” Frank asked, looking at the two women who were simply standing there looking at one another as if they were having a silent conversation.

  “Yes. Let’s go,” Sonja said, not wanting to think about what potential paranormal entities were at play. Digging into her purse, she left a tip for the waiter and began marching for the door. Frank and Maddy were close behind.

  “Leaving already?”

  Turning, Sonja spotted Tanner coming their way, a big sickening smile on his face. The way he switched between angry and happy was almost manic.

  “I hope everything was to your liking,” he offered.

  “Hardly,” Sonja snapped.

  “Come on, Sonj’,” Frank urged. “No need for that.”

  This time, against her better judgement, she didn’t listen “I was greatly disappointed by your new menu.”

  Tanner played at looking hurt. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “I think you know what I mean,” Sonja whispered.

  “I offer you one of our best tables in the house, complimentary food, and this is how you repay me?” he shook his head. “You’re a worse businesswoman than I thought.”

  Sonja’s jaw dropped open in surprise.

  “Okay,” Frank insisted. “Time to go.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff,” Tanner replied. “I’m so sorry you all have to leave already.” The corner of his mouth twitched with a sinister smile.

  A surge of anger passed through Sonja, and she felt a cold chill run down her spine, making her stop in place. Around them, the whole room vibrated with a strange otherworldly energy. Glasses of water, soda, and wine made a strange chorus of ethereal music as the liquid inside swirled and sloshed back and forth. A glass of water from a table almost fifteen feet away lifted up and zoomed across the room, ultimately splashing water all over Tanner Shakeman’s face and then breaking on the wall nearby.

  “Good heavens,” the restaurant owner muttered.

  “Gotta go,” Sonja whispered, darting out the door.

  CHAPTER 6

  * * *

  When they got to the car, and after Maddy had climbed into the backseat, Frank gently grabbed a hold of Sonja’s arm and turned her around to face him. “Sonja?”

  “Y-yes, Frank?” she asked, afraid of what his next question might be.

  He swallowed hard. “Was there something . . . paranormal going on in there?”

  She blinked as if she had no idea what he was talking about. “Paranormal?”

  “You know, glasses of water generally don’t just get up and fly across the room at people.”

  “I suppose they don’t,” she agreed.

  “Sonja,” he said sternly, looking her dead in the eye.

  “Okay, okay. It definitely seemed paranormal, but I can’t say for sure yet.” She knew she was omitting the truth, that she herself had probably caused the glass to move. When fooling around with some occult magic during one of her investigations, telekinesis had been one of the unexpected side effects. Unfortunately, she didn’t really have a lot of control over it and had no idea when it might happen.

  “Should we be worried?” Frank asked. His exposure to paranormal entities was limited at best, and his previous encounter had been with one evil ghost.

  Sonja shrugged. “Probably not, at least not yet.”

  “Not yet?”

  “Well, if there is a ghost, it hasn’t shown itself to be violent yet. Maybe a little playful, but not violent.”

  “Throwing a glass at someone’s head is playful?”

  “It only threw the water in his face,” Sonja pointed out. She smiled, shrugging. “This ghost just already knows what a jerk Tanner is and did something about it.”

  Frank hesitated, clearly uncomfortable with what had just happened. “It is my responsibility as sheriff to make sure the citizens of this town are safe. Now, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t just a little earthquake in there.” He folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at her in the same way he always did whenever he was in police mode. “You would tell me if there was anything I needed to be concerned about, right?”

  “Of course, I would,” Sonja shot back, slumping her shoulders.

  “Are we going, guys?” Maddy asked, poking her head out the window.

  “Yeah, let’s go.” Leaning in, he whispered to Sonja, “but if someone ends up dead again, I’m not going to be happy.”

  “Don’t worry. No one will end up dead.”

  * * *

  Sonja spent much of the rest of her night discussing the strange events at the restaurant with Maddy while they ate microwave popcorn with the TV blaring old black and white chiller movies in the background.

  Despite the fiasco of a date at the restaurant, the two women were having a great time reliving the memories of childhood sleepovers.

  After debating whether the strange event at the restaurant had been a poltergeist, telekinesis, or something else completely, they then began discussing food. Maddy offered ideas of new steak themed waffles that Sonja could possibly serve at the diner.

  By one A.M. they’d finally both drifted off to sleep.

  The next morning, Maddy accompanied Sonja to the diner to help cook the new dish.

  “Okay, hand me the strips,” she told Maddy as they stood in the kitchen just before opening. The waffle iron was hot and ready for the new experiment.

&nbs
p; Maddy pulled out the plastic container with the thin strips of breakfast steak in it, the one they had started marinating the night before. The marinade had a combination of lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and chipotle pepper. An added dash of maple syrup, Sonja’s secret ingredient, added a sweetness to the mix.

  She knew she should have let it marinade for longer, but she was in a hurry to combat Shakeman’s new menu.

  “This is fun,” Muddy gushed. “I’ve never been in a professional’s kitchen before.”

  Sonja had to laugh at this. While it was true that she was a professional chef, she had never thought of it in that light before.

  “Let’s just hope this works,” she noted, carefully laying each of the small strips of steak in the iron and closing the lid. As she knew it would happen, the iron didn’t close all the way. Steam erupted from the meat as it sizzled and popped, and the scent of southwestern style spices filled the kitchen.

  “It sure smells good already,” Maddy commented. “I’d eat it.”

  “Well, it’s got to do more than smell good. Hopefully it blows our customers away.” Sonja didn’t want to just copycat Tanner’s own actions by slapping a steak on her menu, but she did want something with a somewhat similar flavor that would encourage her customers to keep coming back. Doing the small strips of steak was something she had already considered before. In fact, they already had the steak strips in one of the morning hash recipes they served. Sonja was just repurposing that same idea as part of a new waffle dish—something she had already considered doing in the past.

  “Let’s work on that waffle,” she noted, pointing at the bowl of batter they’d mixed already that morning.

  Maddy pushed the bowl over to Sonja who then added a cup full of batter into the iron and closed it shut.

  “You chopped the potato?”

  “Right here,” Maddy announced, holding up the wooden cutting board with a small pile of diced potato on it.

  “Okay,” Sonja smiled, taking the cutting board and heading toward the stove where they had a cast iron skillet with oil waiting. Sonja dropped in one tiny piece of potato to check the temperature. Sure enough, it sizzled on contact. “It’s ready,” she announced, dumping them in.

  The room was filled with the symphony of pops, crackles, and hisses of food cooking.

  “Smells great,” Maddy beamed. “I can’t wait to taste it.”

  “Me neither.”

  Checking the steak in the iron, Sonja noted it still needed another minute or two.

  “So,” Maddy asked, “what do you think about what happened last night?”

  “What do you mean?” Sonja shot back.

  “The water glass, of course,” she confirmed. “We never came to a firm conclusion last night. What kind of ghost do you think we’re dealing with here? Is it just a poltergeist moving things around or a spirit purposefully throwing things at Shakeman?”

  “If I have to pick one right off the top of my head, I’d say poltergeist.” It was the closest explanation to what they were experiencing since a poltergeist was a type of entity created by the stressful energy of someone residing in the vicinity of the haunting. If Sonja really had used her newfound telekinesis without realizing it, this could very well be classified as a poltergeist. She worried about what other things might happen without her knowledge or control.

  “Poltergeist, huh? That’s what I’d go with, too. Between you, Shakeman, the chef, and the host, there was enough hostile energy to move ten glasses of water.”

  “It’s true. The entity could have been created by any one of us involved in those arguments.” Sonja noticed the steak was nearly done and pulled the plate and fork close to be ready. “I think the more important question here is, why?”

  “Why?”

  “Why is there a ghost haunting the Firehouse Grill? Or, if someone has created a poltergeist, who is behind it? Is it one of the staff members, or was it me?”

  “Do you really think it could have been you?” Maddy asked.

  She nodded. “I’m actually leaning that direction. If I’m right, this is an open and shut mystery. I took temporary control over the glass and threw it without realizing what I was doing.”

  Opening the second iron, she pulled out the waffle which had been cooking and plated it. “Quick, the potatoes!” she said, heading for the stove.

  Maddy helped scoop the fried potatoes out of the pan, all wonderfully crispy and brown, and placed them over the top of the waffle. Sonja went back to the irons and took out the steak strips, laying them over the top of the bed of potato.

  A dash of salsa was placed on the steak with some fresh cut green onion as a garnish.

  “Looks amazing.”

  “Let’s try it first before we make any judgments.”

  Both women brandished forks and steak knives, each cutting into opposite sides of the dish. Taking the first bite, Sonja tried to be unbiased, but she was swept away by the mixture of spices and flavors before she could make any real critique.

  “Wow,” Maddy whispered. “That is phenomenal.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so,” she affirmed, cutting in for a second bite. “You know, I don’t think the supernatural occurrence was caused by you.”

  “Why not?” Sonja asked. “I told you last night that I have slight telekinetic abilities, which I can’t control.”

  “I know that, but it just doesn’t feel like the right answer.” She shrugged. “I think it’s something else.” Taking the bite on her fork, she smiled as she savored the taste. “Really, delicious.”

  “Then who or what is behind the flying glass?” she asked.

  A knock came on the front door of the diner. Setting down her utensils, Sonja walked through the dining area and opened the door. Instantly, she recognized Shakeman’s assistant, Dickson Briarson.

  “Sonja?”

  “Dickson? What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Mr. Shakeman is wondering if your friend Maddy The Mystic is still in town.”

  “She is, but why does that concern him?” she asked, confused about the situation.

  “Did I hear my name?” Maddy asked, coming through the swinging kitchen door. She paused upon seeing the assistant. “What’s going on?”

  “Mr. Shakeman has asked if you’d be willing to come and meet with him this morning.”

  “This morning?” she asked, clearly just as confused as Sonja. “Well, I’m sort of helping Sonja with a new recipe.”

  “What does he need Maddy for?” Sonja asked.

  Dickson sighed, looking somewhat embarrassed about what he was about to say and dropping his usual professional demeanor. “Tanner thinks he’s being haunted. He was hoping Maddy, with her expertise in ghost hunting, might help him.”

  The two women looked at each other.

  “I’m coming too,” Sonja insisted. “Let me grab my jacket and give Alison a call. Maybe she can open up shop today.”

  CHAPTER 7

  * * *

  “What the devil is she doing here?” Tanner complained as both Sonja and Maddy walked into the front door of the Firehouse Grill.

  “She insisted on coming along,” Dickson commented.

  Sonja, being the stronger medium of the two women, wouldn’t stand for Maddy going alone. Also, hearing that Tanner was being haunted intrigued her. It meant it wasn’t her telekinesis at work the night before. Something else was afoot, and she was too curious of a woman not to come and help in the investigation.

  “Well, I don’t want her here,” he snapped, drinking from a short glass of amber liquid. He seemed like a different man with a few drinks in him, even meaner somehow. He probably had less of a social filter as well.

  If he was creeped out enough to be drinking this early in the day, she wondered just how determined or sinister this ghost might be.

  “Mr. Shakeman,” Maddy interjected, “you invited me because I’m a psychic and medium, correct?”

  “Of co
urse. Who else would I call about something like this? The police? Ridiculous.” He took another drink, his cheeks flushing slightly red. “You were the only person I could think of who might know a thing or two about ghosts.”

  “If you’re looking for expert advice about ghosts, Sonja is just as good a medium if not better than myself.”

  Tanner raised an interested eyebrow. “Sonja Reed, the woman behind The Waffle Diner and Eatery, the bane of my existence, is a medium?”

  Sonja looked nervously at Maddy and then at Tanner. “Yes, it’s true.”

  “Is that how you’re stealing all of my business away,” he sneered, “some sort of weird mystical hoojoo?”

  “Tanner, really? Is that appropriate?” Dickson cut in.

  Sonja was beginning to understand the dynamic here. Tanner had the drive and business knowledge to run a successful restaurant, but Dickson was the one with people skills and customer service expertise. He most likely spent his days keeping his over eager, hot-tempered boss at bay.

  “Okay, okay. You’re right, Dickson. I need as much help as I can get.”

  “Why don’t you sit down and go through what happened with us?” Maddy suggested.

  “Very well,” he grumbled, motioning to one of the tables.

  “I thought you had new hours,” Sonja inquired, taking a seat and looking around the completely empty room.

  “Starting next Saturday,” he noted. “Then people will be coming here for their breakfast.”

  “Sir,” Dickson scolded him like a father scolds a child.

  “Speaking of breakfast, where is it? I need something to wean off this buzz,” he demanded.

  “I’ll go check,” he offered, heading into the kitchen.

  “Start at the beginning,” Maddy encouraged him.

  “It was about a week ago. I was working late in the office when all of a sudden my file cabinet unlocked itself, opened, and all of my papers flew everywhere.”

  Sonja and Maddy looked at each other. This was sounding more and more like a poltergeist.