“It looks like everyone's done,” Kiki said in her perpetually cheerful voice. “The five of you can go sit down at one of the tables. Audrey and I are going to go over your dishes visually right now, then we’ll bring them out and we can all eat. First, though, feel free to take a look at what everyone else has made. A good chef never stops getting inspiration, and besides, it's always fun to see what other people come up with.”
The five of them filed around the room, each of them shooting nervous glances at each other's dishes. Autumn was the only one who had made a pesto dish. Beatrice and Drew had both made variances of chicken Alfredo, and Calvin had made breaded chicken Parmesan with marinara sauce. Leo’s dish was something exotic looking that Autumn couldn't place off the top of her head. The chicken breast had been sautéed in some sort of brown sauce and had sprigs of cilantro placed carefully on top. It smelled delicious and looked even better.
Autumn glanced back at her own food and her breath caught as she saw Beatrice knock into the bowl containing the mashed cauliflower. She exhaled when the other woman reached around and caught it before it could crash to the floor. She wondered suddenly if she should be worried about one of the other applicants trying to sabotage her food. They had all gotten along well so far, but she realized that they were each in competition for the position. It’s too late now, she thought, deciding not to worry about it.
The five of them filed out of the kitchen and took a seat around one of the larger tables. All of them were silent; the casual chatting from earlier in the morning gone as they considered their dishes and, if they were anything like Autumn, thinking about all of the changes they wished they had made.
It wasn't long until Kiki and Audrey came out of the kitchen, bearing platters of food. They started with the salads. Each of them got five small bowls with a portion of each salad inside. Autumn tried hers first. It wasn't bad; the walnuts added a lot, but she wished that she had thought to put some dried cranberries in as well. They would have added more texture, and just a dash of sweetness. The other salads ranged from basic – Beatrice’s was simply baby spinach leaves, almond slivers, and balsamic vinaigrette – to exquisite. Leo's was her favorite. He had shredded iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, red cabbage, and had added crunchy rice noodles as well. Over the top, he had drizzled a sweet ginger dressing. She made a note to ask him how he had made the dressing, because she didn’t remember seeing it in the fridge.
Next came the main courses. After tasting hers, Autumn was satisfied with it. While it didn't have the same impressive presentation as Leo's dish did, it tasted amazing. There was something a little bit off about the cauliflower dish, but she couldn't put her finger on it and was too distracted by the rest of the food to pay much attention to it.
The other dishes were all quite good as well. Beatrice’s tasted like something that Autumn's grandmother might have made. It was homey and comforting. The chicken Parmesan dish was one of the best that Autumn had ever had, but once again it was Leo's dish that won her over. The chicken had been cooked in a sweet teriyaki sauce, and the sprigs of cilantro both made the dish look nice, and added a fresh, crisp taste.
Dessert was the only course where Autumn was confident that her dish was the best. The chocolate lava cake was moist and perfectly gooey on the inside. Combined with the vanilla ice cream, it was a dessert to die for.
“Well, that was quite the meal,” Audrey said. “I want to thank everyone for coming in. Kiki and I will –”
Audrey broke off midsentence as Leo began to cough. He pounded at his chest, leaning over the table as he gasped for air. Concerned, Autumn began to stand up, but then sat back down again; she had no idea what to do.
Wheezing, Leo looked up at them. Autumn saw a red rash on his neck. His eyes met hers, then his breath caught, and his face began turning purple as he scratched at his neck, unable to draw in air.
Feeling frozen, Autumn could do nothing but watch as Beatrice leapt up and helped Leo to the floor. She was the only one out of all of them that seemed to have her wits about her as she tilted his head back and began attempting to give him CPR. After a couple of seconds, Kiki jumped up and ran to the other room. Autumn heard beeping as she made a call on the restaurant’s landline. Feeling helpless, and not wanting to get in Beatrice's way, Autumn kept to her seat, staring at Leo. She kept waiting for him to start breathing on his own again, but he had fallen frighteningly still.
CHAPTER FIVE
* * *
Autumn stared blankly at the ambulance through the restaurant’s front doors. The doors had been propped open to allow the paramedics to come and go freely. She had watched as they gave Leo an antihistamine injection, but it had been too late. She had seen the moment that they had stopped trying. Now, they were wheeling him out of the building on a shrouded stretcher. No one knew what had happened to Leo. Had he had a heart attack? She wondered. He had been older, but he had seemed so healthy. The way he had been gasping for air made Autumn think that he might have choked on something, but that rash that had appeared on his neck didn't fit with that idea.
The other applicants were all sitting stunned, staring either at the place where Leo's body had been, or watching the ambulance, like Autumn was. Kiki was talking to one of the police officers, and Audrey was nowhere to be seen.
“Can I have your name, please?”
Autumn blinked and turned her head to see a young police officer standing next to her.
“Autumn Roth,” she said. “I was here for a job interview.”
The officer nodded. “The owner told me all about it. If you take a seat with the others, we will call you for questioning in a couple of minutes.”
“Okay.” Autumn started for the table, then paused. “What… what happened?” She asked. “Did the paramedics say anything?”
“I don't know anything,” he said apologetically. “I'm just supposed to get everyone's name.”
She nodded. Knowing that asking any further questions would be useless, she sat down at the table with the remaining three applicants. Beatrice had her hands pressed to her mouth, was rocking back and forth slowly with a horrified expression on her face. Calvin was staring blankly down at the table, and Drew kept glancing toward the place where Leo's body had fallen. None of them spoke to Autumn as she sat down.
“It's all my fault,” she heard Beatrice mutter softly to herself.
“It's not,” Autumn said. “You're the only one that even tried to save him. The rest of us were frozen. Don't blame yourself.”
The other woman ignored her, seemingly too horrified to respond. Autumn didn't blame her; they were all in shock.
Autumn jolted when she heard her name a few minutes later. She kept replaying Leo's death over and over in her mind, looking for a possible cause. It had just happened so quickly. It had been completely without warning, and try as she might, she couldn't think of a single thing that might have caused it.
“Autumn?” She jumped when her name was called.
“Right here,” she said. She headed over to the young female detective who would be questioning her. Her fingers felt cold, and she was beginning to feel sick to her stomach.
“I’m Officer Tidwell. I'm just going to ask you a few questions about what happened today. Let's start with how well you knew the deceased.”
“I had just met him today,” she said. “He was here to apply for the same job that I was.”
The young officer nodded and made a note on her notepad. “Would you say this is a particularly competitive position?”
Autumn blinked. “I suppose so. The owner is the one that approached all of us. I don't think any of us need this job to make ends meet; we all have our own professions and hobbies right now. But we are all passionate about cooking, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us.”
“Did Mr. Dodd speak with you at all during the interview process?”
“He introduced himself to me, but that's about it,” Autumn said. She thought back, trying to remember if she and
Leo had exchanged any words. “I think he complimented me on the cake, right before he started choking.”
“You said choking… did he have something caught in his throat? Did anyone attempt to perform the Heimlich maneuver?”
“No,” Autumn said. “I guess I shouldn't have said he was choking. I really don't know what happened. He started coughing, and his breathing became wheezy, then his face started to turn purple and he collapsed. He also had a rash on his neck.”
“Was he served separately from the rest of you? Did he eat anything that you didn't?”
“No,” Autumn said. “We all ate the same things. We each made a three-course dinner, and then got to taste part of each dish.”
“Who served him?”
“It was either Audrey or Kiki,” Autumn said. “I'm sorry, but I don't remember which one it was.” She had been too focused on her own success or failure to pay attention to anything else.
“Thank you. I think that's all we need. I'll just take your contact information, and if we need anything else, we will call you.”
“Am I free to leave?” Autumn asked.
“You are, however, everything in the kitchen is going to be considered evidence. An officer will escort you to your purse, so you can retrieve your car keys and phone, but you're going to have to leave the rest of the contents of your purse along with your coat and any other personal belongings here.”
Autumn paled. She didn't mind leaving the rest of her stuff behind – as long as she had her keys, her wallet, and her cell phone, she would be fine – but the fact that they were keeping evidence behind meant that they must think Leo's death hadn't been an accident. Were they looking for something in particular, or were they just being thorough?
She mulled over the question while she followed the police officer into the kitchen to get her keys, her phone, and her wallet. The officer watched her carefully, making sure that she didn't remove anything else from the purse. She looked around, wondering what it was that the police would be looking for. Calvin and Beatrice had both brought light jackets, though Autumn hadn’t bothered. She wondered if the police would find anything incriminating in their pockets. Was it possible that one of them had wanted the job badly enough to poison Leo? It was true that he was the obvious winner out of the five of them. His food had tasted amazing, and he was also much better at presentation than any of them had been.
Feeling naked without her purse, Autumn walked through the restaurant, not meeting Beatrice’s, Calvin’s, or Drew's eyes. If one of them was a killer, she wanted to keep her distance. She slipped through the restaurant’s front doors, nodding to the police officer that was guarding it, and took a single step toward the parking lot, only to realize that she wasn't the only one outside of the restaurant. Audrey was sitting on a bench next to the doors, sobbing quietly into her hands. Autumn hesitated, wondering if she should go to the other woman, then decided against it. What comfort could she possibly offer? No, it was better to let Audrey work through her grief by herself. For all she knew, Audrey might consider Autumn a suspect. She didn't know if the police had told the restaurant owner anything more than they had told her, but she wouldn't be surprised if Audrey had come to the same conclusion that she had; the police were treating Leo's death as something more than an accident.
CHAPTER SIX
* * *
Autumn woke up the next morning before her alarm went off, feeling depressed and out of sorts. The fact that she had seen someone die the day before weighed heavily on her. She hadn't heard anything from the police yet and knew that even if they did need to ask her more questions, she wouldn't learn anything new about the investigation unless they wanted her to. For all she knew, she was a suspect.
Even Frankie's happy attitude couldn't cheer her up. She went through the routine of letting the dog out, making coffee, and getting ready for work, but her heart wasn't in any of it. All she wanted was answers. Until she knew why Leo had died, she doubted she would be able to think of anything else. If he had simply had a heart attack or another medical emergency, his death would still be sad, but at least she would know that none of the other applicants had killed him. She had liked them all, and found it disturbing to think that she could like someone willing to commit a murder. It made her question her own judgment of character, and it was uncomfortable to think that a seemingly normal person could commit such a serious crime, and not act any differently after.
While lying in bed the night before, she had decided that even if Audrey still decided to offer the position to one of them, and on the off chance that Audrey decided that Autumn was the best fit, she would turn down the position anyway. She didn't want to spend the next few years of her life walking past the spot where Leo had died every single evening. She was beginning to wish that she had never even accepted the offer to go in for an interview.
This wasn't her first close encounter with death, but it wasn't getting any easier. She didn't think that she would ever be able to take something like this in stride, and she didn't want to. Life was precious, and each and every person had their own dreams, goals, and future. She couldn't stop thinking about Leo, and his family, if he had any. Their lives would have all changed in an instant when Leo hit the floor.
Autumn tossed a dog cookie to Frankie and stepped out the front door, locking it behind her. She was glad that she had to go in to Asheville Meadows today. Spending time around the people who had started to feel like family to her would be good. She didn't like being alone with such heavy thoughts weighing on her mind.
Autumn fought back a yawn as she walked through the nursing home’s front doors. She had gotten poor sleep the night before and knew that she would pay for it that evening. Still, it felt good to walk into the familiar, warmly lit entranceway. It was early enough that only a couple of residents were up and about. She waved to a pair of elderly women who were sitting in the common area, then made a beeline for the kitchen. She had dug an old purse out of her closet, since her favorite one was still at the restaurant, and it was this that she set down on the counter. She would go to the staff room soon, but first, she wanted to see what was on the menu for the day.
Before she could grab the month’s menu, she heard a soft rap at the kitchen door. She turned to see Nick standing there, an unusually grim expression on his face. Her stomach clenched. Had something happened to one of the residents during the night?
“Autumn, could you come with me?”
She nodded, grabbing her purse and following Nick out of the kitchen, toward the staff room. Her thoughts went immediately to her aunt and uncle, but she forced herself to calm down, telling herself that if something had happened to one of them, Nick would have called her immediately; he wouldn't have waited until she got to work.
“Go ahead and sit down,” he said when they reached his office. He shut the door gently behind them. Autumn settled herself in the comfortable seat and waited as he took his own chair on the other side of the desk.
“Have you seen the news this morning?” he asked her.
“No,” Autumn said. She hadn't wanted to be reminded of what had happened the day before. She already couldn't get it out of her head.
“Well, the reporter is saying that that man – Leo – was poisoned.”
Autumn bit her lip. She had told Nick about Leo's death the evening before but hadn't gone into detail about it. She wondered whether the reporter had learned something about the case from the police, or if she was simply embellishing the tale to get more interest in it.
“Unfortunately, your name has been leaked as one of the possible suspects, along with the other people that were there.”
“What?” Autumn exclaimed. “Nick, you know I wouldn't –”
“Of course I know you didn't have anything to do with it,” Nick said, looking tired. “The only problem is, not everyone knows you as well as I do. When I walked in this morning, there were three separate messages on the answering machine from relatives of some of the residents here, expressi
ng their concern that you were still cooking in the kitchen. Since I've been here, two more calls have come in. I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to ask you to take a leave of absence until this whole thing blows over. I know it's unfair but making sure the nursing home runs smoothly is my responsibility, and I don't want to cause anyone here concern when I don't have to. You're welcome to come and visit me and your aunt and uncle, of course, but you will have to stay out of the kitchen. We will keep paying you, and I'm sure this won't last too long. As soon as the police figure out what really happened, you will be free to go back to work.”
Autumn stared at him, trying to sort through the emotions that were whirling around inside of her. She was angry, though she didn't want to admit it to Nick. He was right; it was his job to protect the nursing home. She knew that he didn't want to hurt her, and he was only doing this because he thought it was best. She was also hurt that any of the residents’ relatives thought that she was a killer. Not only that, but they were concerned that she might poison the people here, the very people she had come to care so much about. They don't know you, she told herself. To them, you are just a name and a face. All they have to go on is what they see on the news.
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