Curried Lobster Murder: Book 14 in The Darling Deli Series

by Patti Benning

  The required ingredients were already set up at her station, but staring at them didn’t spark any brilliant ideas. Should she make some sort of lobster dish over rice? Or maybe some sort of… curry pasta? None of that sounded right to her. Then her eyes landed on one of the big pots hanging above the stove, and she smiled. The answer was obvious. She was going to do what she did best; make soup.

  She was keenly aware of the time limit. Somehow, she had already wasted four of her forty-five minutes. She rushed to gather the other ingredients that she needed for the brand-new soup recipe that was forming in her mind.

  First things first, she measured out some water and set it to boil in the big pot on the stove. While that heated, she began sautéing the lobster meat and bok choy in butter. Once the lobster meat and bok choy looked ready, she turned her attention to the other ingredients. The curry powder was easy; it would be the base flavor of the soup. The red dates and candied ginger were going to be her most difficult ingredients. Both were sweet, and weren’t ingredients that she had ever attempted to use before in a soup. At least lobster meat goes well with sweeter flavors, she thought. As long as I balance everything correctly and there’s enough time to cook it, the soup shouldn’t be too bad.

  She cored the dates and sliced them into quarters, then tossed them into the pot of water so they could begin cooking. The carrots she chopped into small pieces and added them as well, then added some chicken bouillon and a scoop of curry powder. The soup was already beginning to smell good. The only question was; would it be good enough to win?

  The candied ginger was already thinly sliced. She began by rinsing it in cool water to remove the excess sugar, then simmered it in a shallow pan of water to begin softening it. Hopefully some of the sweetness would be drawn out while it simmered, and when she added the ginger to the soup it wouldn’t affect it as much.

  The clock was ticking, and she got everything in at the nick of time. I don’t know if the carrots will finish cooking, she thought anxiously. But there’s not much I can do about that. I just need to grab a few more ingredients, and then I can let it simmer and begin cleaning up the station.

  She ended up adding onions, a few spices in addition to the curry, and cubed tofu, which she thought tied the dish together well. After double-checking the list of required ingredients to make sure she had used everything—she had—she began cleaning up the workstation. Although a cleaning crew was supposed to come through later and do it, she had always hated leaving a mess behind, and cleaning gave her something to do besides stare anxiously at her soup for the next fifteen minutes.

  On her way to throw out the debris from her cutting board, she passed by the station that Daphne had been assigned to. She was shocked to see that the woman wasn’t even there, and a dried-out lobster tail was sitting on the stove. Concerned, she looked around for the other woman. She knew Daphne hadn’t felt well, but Moira was still surprised to see her missing from the competition completely. It must really be serious, she thought. I wonder if she ate something bad? Maybe something was wrong with that seafood platter she had at the beginning of dinner last night. I wonder if her husband is sick too? Worried, the deli owner returned to her station and began preparing the bowls for the judges.

  Daphne still hadn’t returned by the time the buzzer rang and the four contestants were herded into the banquet hall for the second portion of the challenge to begin. Moira overheard a couple of the others talking about Daphne, but no one seemed to know where she was. Charlie was already up on the stage talking to the judges, so it was too late to ask her. I’ll just have to wait until after they’ve judged the dishes to find out, the deli owner thought. I hope she’s all right.

  Nadine was called up first. Moira gave her a supportive smile, which the other woman hesitantly returned. She saw her brace her shoulders and take a deep breath before she faced the judges.

  “Nadine Jenkins, your lobster over rice was quite good,” Damien said. “Well, the rice was quite good—I love how you fried it with the curry, carrots, bok choy, and dates. The lobster was unexceptional, and the sweet ginger sauce you made just didn’t seem to go well with the rest of the meal.”

  Nadine’s shoulders fell, but she turned gamely to Felicity, who for the most part agreed with Damien.

  “I would have liked to see the lobster tail flavored with curry as well as the rice,” she said. “It would have tied the dish together. What you have now tastes like two separate dishes, and that just isn’t working for me.”

  “I don’t like the ginger sauce either,” Walter said when it was his turn. “It tastes like it should be a salad dressing. Lobster is a flexible ingredient, but you do need to have the knowledge to pair it right.”

  Defeated, the woman returned to her seat. Moira saw a tear glimmer in the corner of her eye, and felt her heart ache for the poor woman. So what if she was a competitor? She was still a human being, and the deli owner didn’t like to see anyone upset.

  Hector went next, and his dish—he had gone with pasta—was received much more positively than Nadine’s had been. For a moment, Moira wondered if she should have done something with pasta or rice too. Had anyone else even made soup? She didn’t remember seeing any other pots steaming on any of the stoves, but she might just have been too focused on her own cooking to pay attention to what everyone else was doing.

  When Hector went back to his seat with a relieved look on his face, the five of them turned their attention to the judges to see who would be called up next. Damien took a sip of water, cleared his throat, then spoke.

  “Moira Darling.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Moira took a deep breath and then faced the judges, unsure of what to expect. She didn’t feel as confident about the soup as she had about the breakfast cookies. At least the cookies had been based on a recipe that she knew was good; the soup was a completely new recipe that she had invented on the fly.

  “Delicious,” Damien said, sounding almost surprised after tasting the first spoonful of soup. “The flavors blend together perfectly. Tell me, what made you think to try a soup?”

  “Well, my deli serves hot soup daily, among other things,” she told him. “I try to come up with new recipes as often as possible. Soup is what I’m most comfortable making, I suppose. It’s kind of what I default to when I want to use a bunch of odd ingredients.”

  “Well in this case, it worked,” he said, evidently impressed. “The only complaint I have is the tofu. It’s still a bit chewy.”

  “I don’t even like curry,” Felicity added. “And even I think this is pretty good. You go, girl.”

  Moira beamed at her, then turned her attention to Walter.

  “The tofu is chewy, and the lobster is also somewhat tough,” he told her. “But other than that, it is an impressive dish. I think it’s definitely the most creative out of what we’ve seen today.”

  The deli owner floated back to her seat, hardly noticing the next name being called. They had liked her soup! It seemed that the decision to go with her gut and play by her strengths had been a good one.

  “It’s time to give you your scores,” Damien said once they had finished tasting the last contestant’s dish. “This time, we will start with the lowest score. Nadine, I’m sorry, but your lobster over rice dish just did not match up with the others.”

  Nadine’s breath hitched and she brought her hand to her mouth. Moira could imagine her holding back tears, and felt a small stab of guilt for her own success with the soup. If she had decided to make something else, she very well might have been in the other woman’s place right then.

  Damien then turned to Hector, who had come in second to last. Each time he addressed a new contestant, her heart beat faster until she was the only one left.

  “Moira, I’m happy to announce that you’re the winner of this round. Your soup was phenomenal. Congratulations, you have immunity for the next round.”

  He cleared his throat and looked at the other contestants. “There is an unexpe
cted issue this round. Daphne, the winner of the last challenge, is dropping out of the competition due to a severe and unexpected illness. Since Nadine scored lowest of the contestants that actually competed this round, she would normally be disqualified, but we really can’t lose two more players this early in the competition without unbalancing it, so Nadine… you got lucky. You’re in it for another challenge, maybe even longer if you can come back from this.”

  “Thank you so much,” she gasped. “I won’t let you down again, I promise.”

  With that they were dismissed, with another day before their next challenge. Moira, still stunned by her victory, made her way back to her room and collapsed on her bed. She had done it. She had won one of the challenges. All of a sudden winning the whole competition didn’t seem so far-fetched. If she kept this up, there was no reason she couldn’t be the top chef in the Chef War.

  With no idea where her daughter was and no way to call her without a working cell phone, Moira couldn’t tell Candice the good news. She was itching to tell someone so she got on her tablet and opened her email. Who to tell first? If she did somehow manage to win, the prizes would affect everyone at the deli. On the other hand, it wouldn’t feel right to tell her employees about her victory before even telling the man that she loved.

  Decision made, she opened up a new email and was about to start typing when her tablet made a beeping noise and a pop-up informed her that a video call was incoming. She clicked the button to accept it, thinking it was David. She was surprised to see Martha and Denise peering into the camera instead.

  “My goodness, you guys,” she said. “It’s so good to see you.”

  “You too,” Martha said, pulling back a bit to straighten her hair. “I know it’s only been a few days, but it’s weird not having you around.”

  “Are you at the deli?” Moira asked, recognizing the window sign behind her friend.

  “We thought we’d stop in and see how things were going in your absence,” Denise told her. “But it felt odd to be here without you, so we thought… why not bring you here too?”

  “Hi, Ms. D,” Meg said, popping into view behind the deli owner’s two friends. “How are you doing? Everything is great here.”

  “That’s good to hear.” She smiled at her employee, surprised at the pang of homesickness at the sight of all of the familiar faces. Even though she was having a good time on the cruise, she missed Maple Creek terribly. “I actually just won one of the challenges.”

  “Awesome!” Meg exclaimed. “We knew you’d do well, but it’s still cool to hear. What did you make.”

  The deli owner grinned. “Lobster curry soup.”

  Denise chuckled. “I think that’s something only you could pull off, Moira. So tell me, do you like the cruise? I might try to take a few weeks off sometime this winter, and it’s been years since I’ve been on a cruise ship.”

  “I’m enjoying it,” Moira told her friend. “The food is good, the rooms are clean, everyone seems really nice so far… I’m not sure what more I could ask for.” Other than no more mysterious deaths, she thought, but she didn’t say anything to her friends. Telling David was one thing, but Martha, Denise, and Meg would just worry.

  “How’s Candice?” Martha asked. “She doesn’t have to do anything for the competition, right?”

  “Right. I think she’s enjoying herself. Who wouldn’t be?” she chuckled. “She gets to go on a free ten-day cruise in the Caribbean.”

  “How are the people you’re competing against?” her friend asked. “Are they nice?”

  “Yeah, they have been pretty nice. The first guy to get disqualified seemed pretty upset, but that’s understandable. I actually feel pretty bad for one of the other women. She got sick and couldn’t stay in the competition anymore.”

  “Oh, how horrible.”

  “She was a really good cook, too,” Moira said with a sigh. “She won the first round. You know what? I kind of want to go find her and see how she’s doing. I had dinner with her last night, and I like her a lot.”

  “All right,” Martha said. “It was good talking to you. You’ve got to tell us how you do tomorrow, okay? I bet you’re going to win this thing.”

  “You’ve got this, Moira,” Denise added. “If anyone deserves the prize, it’s you.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  On her way out of her room to go look for Daphne, Moira ran into Candice.

  “I was just coming to look for you,” her daughter said. “I saw that today’s challenge was over. How did it go?”

  “Great.” She grinned. “I won.”

  “No way! That’s awesome. So that means no matter what, you can’t be disqualified in the next round, right?”

  “Right. Though the lady who won yesterday’s challenge ended up dropping out today even though she had immunity. She’s the one who got sick. I feel bad that she decided to drop out of the competition.”

  “She probably didn’t want to risk working around food while she’s sick,” Candice said. “She could get the judges and you guys sick too.”

  “It seemed like she just had food poisoning,” Moira said. “But I guess she knows best. I was about to go find her and see how she’s doing. Do you want to come with me? It’s Daphne, one of the people we had dinner with last night.”

  “Sure.”

  Together they wandered down the hall, not quite sure where to start their search. Since Daphne was in the competition, her room would be on the third floor, but there were no convenient name tags to help them figure out which one was hers.

  “Does the ship have a hospital or anything?” Candice asked at last. “If she’s really sick enough to drop out of the competition, maybe she’s under the care of a doctor.”

  “The ship does have an infirmary,” Moira remembered. “Xavier, the first mate, said as much when he was dealing with Bobby and his wife.”

  “Well, that should be easy to find, at least,” the young woman replied. “Let’s go find one of those maps.”

  A few minutes later they had oriented themselves around the ‘you are here’ sticker on the map in the hallway and were on their way to the infirmary on the main deck. It was easy to find once they knew where they were going, and Daphne welcomed them in to her small room.

  “What happened?” Moira asked, looking at the pale woman in bed. “You were doing so well in the competition. We were all worried when you disappeared.”

  “I tried to work through,” she told them. “But I kept feeling worse and worse, and I finally told Charlie that I needed to go. When I got here, the doctor wouldn’t let me leave; he said he was concerned that I might have something contagious, and he didn’t want to risk me spreading it to anyone else on the ship. I guess viruses spread quickly on cruises.”

  “I’m sorry, I know it must be terrible to have to drop out like you did,” the deli owner said.

  Daphne made a face. “You know; I feel bad enough that I don’t even care about the competition. I just want to get better. And it would be great if my guts stopped trying to crawl out of my throat. Luckily one thing this boat has a lot of is anti-nausea medicine.”

  “You look a lot better than you did when you got up during dinner the other night,” the Moira said. She was leaning against the wall, keeping a cautious distance away from the sick woman. The last thing she wanted was to catch Daphne’s bug. “I hope whatever you had was just food poisoning and you’ll be free to enjoy the rest of the cruise before you know it.”

  “Thanks,” the other woman said. “I really think that’s all I have myself, I guess the doctor is just being overly cautious. I told him it started right around dinner time, but he still thinks that the symptoms are too severe for regular food poisoning. I don’t have much of a fever, though.” She shrugged. “Either way, it was really nice of you to come visit me. You didn’t have to; you should be out celebrating. I heard that you won today’s challenge. Congratulations, by the way.”

  “Thanks.” The deli owner couldn’t hold back her smi
le. “I hope you feel better, Daphne. It would be nice if all of us contestants could get together for one last dinner after the competition is over. I think all of us are good cooks, and we could really learn a lot from each other. We all share a passion for food, and would probably have a lot to talk about once we aren’t so focused on winning this thing.”

  “Well, as long as I can keep the food down, I’d be happy to join you and whoever else for one last meal once this is all done,” Daphne said. She smiled. “Now, go celebrate your win. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

  Moira and Candice took her advice and went to go find a dining room serving an early dinner. The deli owner had once again skipped lunch, and she had been so anxious about the challenge that she hadn’t eaten much for breakfast either.

  They were debating whether to try one of the buffets or a nice steak place overlooking the main deck when Nadine and her father, Doug, ran into them. The woman looked much better than she had at the end of the competition, and Moira was glad that she wasn’t on the verge of tears anymore. The woman seemed nice enough, and it was obvious that the pressure of the competition had been getting to her.

  “I’m glad we ran into each other,” she told the two of them. “We were just looking for somewhere to eat. Do you want to join us?”

  “Sure.” Nadine gave her a hesitant smile. “Where were you thinking?”

  “How about the steakhouse right over there?” she asked. “The food looks good, and they’ve got outdoor seating. Plus, it’s early enough that they shouldn’t be too crowded.”

  “Sure,” the other woman said. “I’m hungry enough that I’d agree to pretty much anything.”

  “Hold on,” Candice said. “I told Sofia I’d let her know where we’re eating. I just have to send her a message really quick.”

  Twenty minutes later, Moira, Candice, Nadine, Doug, and Sofia were seated at one of the steakhouse’s outdoor tables with a waiter taking their drink orders. A crisp breeze blew in from starboard, and they could hear strains of music from the deck above. It was a beautiful night.