by Lee, Carol
Sydney began mixing the first batch of dough—flour, water, salt and yeast. A simple recipe that, when cooked correctly, was mouthwatering and addictive. Each batch of dough made two loaves and she’d cook them each in a Dutch oven at 475°F.
The trick was getting the consistency right and not letting the crust burn at the high temperature.
When she was happy with the first batch, she set it aside to rise slowly and began on the second. Her hands were covered in dough when the doorbell rang.
She suspected the bartender would come at some point today to take stock of his area, but she assumed he’d made plans with Julia to come when Julia was home. Given her helicoptering the day before, Sydney didn’t think she’d want him doing anything without her overseeing it.
Sydney wiped her hands on her apron and headed to the door, feeling funny about opening the front door at someone else’s house and greeting a stranger.
“Sydney, hi.” Ryan stood on the threshold with a dozen roses.
“Ryan. Julia and Marcus are gone for the day,” Sydney told him, not inviting him in.
He looked surprised, like he’d expected to be greeted by a welcoming Julia. “Well, I’ll see her tomorrow night then. No message. You don’t have to tell her I was here. I’ll call her.” His last statement was more of an afterthought than an actual plan.
He abruptly turned and walked back to his car.
Sydney remembered the look Julia got in her eyes when they were at Natural Wonders yesterday. There was no mistaking the lust she felt for this man. Sydney recognized it from herself when she thought about Austin.
She made herself put that out of her mind, knowing it wasn’t her business, and returned to her dough.
After the fifth batch, the first one was ready to be punched down. She got to work, rhythmically working on each batch in turn.
By the time the first one was in the oven, evenly divided into two Dutch ovens, she was ready for a break but knew there wasn’t time for that. She set to work making the quiches—spinach, ham and cheese.
The phyllo dough wasn’t her favorite to work with, but she knew it made a better quiche than a traditional pie crust. It was worth the extra work to have the buttery flakiness melt in your mouth. Today, she would just get them all ready and would bake them tomorrow afternoon.
She could smell the bread baking in the oven and her mouth started watering. She suddenly realized she hadn’t even eaten breakfast. She’d been so caught up in getting as much work done before Julia started hovering as possible, she hadn’t eaten a thing. She looked at the clock and was surprised to see it was already mid afternoon.
She helped herself to an apple as she finally took a break. She looked at her phone and smiled when she saw another message from Austin.
When are you finished this job? I think I’ll owe you another dinner then.
She wrote back, Monday night. Can’t wait to see you.
She considered calling Mia, knowing she should make an effort to ask about Maple, but she was too tired and wanted to keep working.
The apple gave her enough of a boost to get the quiches finished and waiting in the fridge, and to get through one more batch of bread. Then she had to raid the fridge again. She opened a yogurt and helped herself to some.
By the time Sydney had finished the bread and boiled all the eggs, she was exhausted. Julia and Marcus weren’t home yet, so she cleaned up the kitchen and left the clean dishes out to dry. She made her way to bed, satisfied with her progress. She knew that she and Grace could easily finish the baking well before the party.
She was nearly asleep before her head even hit the pillow.
***
Sydney woke up slowly on Saturday morning. She wasn’t sure where she was and was confused about why Maple wasn’t next to her. She had to open her eyes and fully get the fog out of her brain before she remembered that today was the biggest test of her career so far with the Durans’ Christmas party. She quickly showered and dressed, hoping she had a message from Grace letting her know she was on her way.
Nothing. Sydney sent Grace a message instead, I’m up. Manageable amount of work today. See you soon.
She hoped that if Grace wasn’t on her way yet, she would be soon.
Her phone rang and she looked to see who was calling. Grace.
“Hi,” Sydney answered.
“Hey, I’m almost there, but I think I’m lost. Text me the number again. It’s not coming up in my GPS. I must have written it down wrong.”
“Sure. See you soon. Oh, and don’t ring the bell when you get here, just come in. They won’t be up and I don’t want them to wake up yet.” Sydney hung up and sent the address to her best friend.
If Grace was almost here, then Sydney had to get downstairs and start getting things together. She’d start the last of the bread dough so it would be fresh when they served it nearly 12 hours later and she’d get a start on the deviled eggs. The last things would be the dipping oils, parfaits and kale chips.
Sydney looked at her watch and saw that it was only 5:30. Given yesterday’s late start for Julia and Marcus, she didn’t expect to see either of them for a few more hours. Even if today was their Christmas party, she figured they paid people to take care of the details so they didn’t have to worry about doing anything themselves.
That was why Sydney was especially surprised to see Julia lying in a stagnant and coagulated puddle of her own blood on the white tiles of the kitchen, her two prized cats refusing to leave her side.
CHAPTER 2
Sydney made herself not scream. She froze, hand to her mouth, unsure of what to do. It was Grace’s arrival that brought her back to life.
“Hey Sydney. I had put the wrong number into my GPS and it brought me way across town. Apparently there are two streets with the same name in Newhall!” Grace said, coming into the kitchen. “Wow! You weren’t kidding when you told me this place was incredible to work in. This is a nicer kitchen than we have at Sinful Sweets! When are you going to upgrade?” Grace started walking around the kitchen, looking out the window, touching the counter, checking out the appliances under the counter.
“Grace,” Sydney squeaked. Julia’s body was hidden behind the island, so Grace hadn’t seen it yet.
“What’s up?”
Sydney could only point. Grace walked around the rest of the island and saw the cause of Sydney’s speechlessness.
“Oh . . . We need to call the police. Have you called them yet? Where’s Marcus?” Grace asked, fully taking charge of the situation.
“Haven’t seen him yet,” Sydney managed to get out.
Grace took her phone out of her pocket and called 9-1-1. Given her location at the wealthy Duran home, there were two cop cars outside almost before Grace got off the phone.
The police immediately sprang to action, removing everyone from the room and separating them while they took stock of the crime scene in the kitchen.
“Sydney, we’re going to have to get your statement. Do you think you can do that?” Detective Joe Moore asked gently.
“Sure,” she replied hesitantly. The last time she’d had to give a statement, she’d ended up dating the arresting officer. Well, in truth, she’d never been arrested. But he’d picked her up and brought her in for questioning.
“Just tell me everything that happened this morning.”
“Well, I got up early because I had to finish baking for the Christmas party Julia and Marcus are having tonight. I showered and came downstairs. And the first thing I saw was Julia lying on the kitchen floor. Her cats were lying next to her. That’s it. Then Grace showed up and she called the cops. I guess I was in shock.”
“Thanks. If you think of anything else, here’s my card. And Sydney, please don’t leave the state.” Joe handed her a card and turned to talk to Grace. Sydney didn’t like that she was growing a collection of detective’s cards.
“Grace, you arrived at what time?” Joe asked.
“It was about 5:40.”
�
��And what did you see when you walked inside?” he continued.
“Nothing at first. Well, I saw Sydney standing still, hand over her mouth. I guess her face was white, but I was so caught up in getting lost and getting here later than I’d planned that I didn’t notice that at first. But then she called me to come around to the other side of the island,” Grace pointed back toward the kitchen to indicate where she’d walked, “and I saw Julia lying on the floor.”
“Thanks, Grace.” Detective Moore handed her a card as well.
Sydney spotted Marcus sitting in a chair in the dining room. She didn’t know him well enough to offer any support, but he was the next to be questioned by Detective Moore. Sydney took that moment to pull Grace up the back stairs to her room, away from the chaos.
“You were asked to not leave the state?” Grace whispered as they walked up the stairs.
“Yeah. I guess that makes me a suspect in the eyes of the cops.”
“Are we out of a job?” Grace asked.
“I would think so. I can’t imagine he’ll want to keep the party on for tonight.”
“What are we going to do with all the food?”
“We can donate it to a food bank. I wouldn’t feel right making money on it.”
“Tell me about Julia,” Grace requested. They’d only met during the interviews. Sydney hadn’t had time to tell Grace much about baking in the Durans’ house and being under Julia’s constant scrutiny.
“She’s . . . tough to work for.”
“How so? She seemed great when she was interviewing you.”
“Yeah. I’m sure she had to seem that way or no one would cater her party. I never asked why last year’s caterer didn’t come back, but my gut tells me that they didn’t want the headache of dealing with her.”
Grace’s eyes showed surprise. “What happened?”
“She was just the epitome of micromanagement. She came to the store with me to pick everything up. Which ended up being good because she knew the manager of Natural Wonders, so it was easy to get everything in one stop. But then she added things to the menu, tasted everything, was never supportive and just never left the kitchen.”
“That’s too bad,” Grace said, looking disappointed that her friend hadn’t had a positive previous two days.
“How was Sinful Sweets without me? Did it get too busy?”
“Everyone was great. They all send their greetings. No, I managed fine. But I wouldn’t want to do it alone every day!”
“Don’t worry,” Sydney said with a smile.
“Did you notice what Julia was wearing?” Grace asked, bringing the conversation back to the disaster in the kitchen.
“No. I was too shocked by the whole scene to take in much of anything else. What was it?”
“She had a dress coat on.”
“That is strange. She and Marcus were gone all day yesterday. I don’t even know when they got home, I’d already gone to bed and fallen asleep.”
“Well, it looked like she never made it to her bedroom.”
“Wouldn’t Marcus have been with her in the kitchen then?” Sydney speculated.
“Maybe he went upstairs right away and she didn’t. But you’d think he would have realized she didn’t come to bed. Unless he did notice but is hiding that.”
“Maybe we should go back downstairs and see what he wants to do about the food.” Grace agreed and they walked back down to the kitchen together.
The police had cleared out and taken the body with them. They’d cleaned up the scene of the crime and Marcus was the only person left downstairs. He hadn’t left his chair in the dining room. He was still in his pajamas, a robe over the top.
“Marcus, I’m so sorry for your loss,” Sydney started.
He looked up, startled. He hadn’t heard them come into the room.
Grace nodded in agreement with Sydney’s condolences.
“It’s a shame this happened last night. Of all nights.” He didn’t look sad about losing his wife. He looked angry instead. “Tonight is the biggest night of the year in Newhall. And Julia won’t be here to enjoy it.”
“You don’t mean . . .” Sydney started. She wasn’t sure how to finish the question.
“You mean the party will go on?” Grace stepped in and asked for Sydney. Sydney offered her a look of thanks for being direct when she couldn’t.
“Of course it will. Julia has been planning this for nearly a whole year. As soon as one party finishes, she starts planning the next one.” He chuckled. “The first thing to go last year was the caterer.”
“I thought the food was a hit?” Sydney asked, remembering Ryan’s comment about having her hands full with meeting the guests’ expectations.
“Oh, that wasn’t the problem. Julia couldn’t work with them. They kicked her out of the kitchen and wouldn’t listen to any of her suggestions. I heard about it for months. Probably until you were hired.”
Grace and Sydney exchanged a knowing look.
“Well, if the party is to continue as planned, we have work to do,” Sydney said. The women walked back to the kitchen and started getting dough ready, pulled out the hundreds of hard boiled eggs from the oversized fridge and set out ingredients for the parfaits.
They both set to work on the bread together. If they were going to get all remaining loaves cooked by the five o’clock arrival of guests, they had to get the dough ready as quickly as possible so it had time to rise.
“Do you think it’s strange that Marcus wants to keep the party on as scheduled?” Grace asked as they each finished their first batches of dough.
“Very strange. What husband wants to socialize when he just lost his wife?”
“What else do you know about him?”
“Almost nothing. He let Julia do all of the planning. Or at least hire everyone to do the planning,” Sydney told her.
The sound of the front door opening made them both stop their conversation as Marcus walked through to see who it was.
He came back into the kitchen, leading a woman dressed in a traditional maid’s uniform. Sydney had to stifle a chuckle. She didn’t know anyone still made their hired help wear uniforms like that.
“Sydney. Grace. This is Maria, our housekeeper. She’ll be cleaning the house from top to bottom today and will be staying through the party as well. I suspect that she’ll want to clean the kitchen at some point but I’ll let the three of you work that out.”
“Oh no, Mr. Duran. I can wait until Monday to clean the kitchen. The guests won’t be coming in here, so unless you’d like me to clean it up—” She looked expectantly to Sydney and Grace.
“It’d be easier for us if we didn’t have to worry about that today, thanks. We’re already a little behind schedule because of this morning’s . . . events.” Sydney wasn’t sure Maria knew about her boss’ death yet.
“No problem.” Maria made no indication that she’d been informed of the murder. “I’ll get to work in the main room. Will there be others who I should expect today?”
“Drew should also be arriving soon. He’ll be the bartender, I think. Julia was taking care of all of that.”
“Where is Mrs. Duran?” Maria asked innocently.
“She was . . . murdered last night,” Marcus said slowly, emotionlessly.
“Oh my.” Maria didn’t know how to react. “I’ll start in the bar then so that I’ll be out of his way whenever he gets here. Good to meet you Sydney and Grace.”
“You too, Maria.”
Marcus and Maria left the kitchen in opposite directions and Sydney and Grace were free to get back to their work. And their conversation.
“I bet Maria knows all the inner goings on of this house,” Grace said. “I wonder how long she’s been working for them.”
Sydney nodded her agreement. “Yesterday, something interesting happened. Maybe she’ll have insight into it.”
Grace turned and gave Sydney her full attention, inviting her with her eyes to continue.
“On Thursday, I me
t Ryan Jacobson, the manager of Natural Wonders. He and Julia seemed very . . . friendly. Then, yesterday, when Julia and Marcus were gone all day, Ryan showed up with a bouquet of flowers. I told him she wasn’t here and he told me not to tell her he’d stopped by. I forgot about it right after because I had so much to do, but maybe that had something to do with her murder.”