Creamy Casserole Murder: Book 15 in The Darling Deli Series (10 page)

“Did you ever think that maybe you might be suspects?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. The deli owner froze.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, everyone here knows that you and I, along with Reggie, suspected Danny of killing his mother and aunt. And I’m sure Reggie let slip to some of his friends that Danny had a flight out of the country soon.” The elderly man nodded. “So think of how it will look to the police when Danny mysteriously dies the day before his flight leaves, and you show up shortly after, Moira. I wouldn’t be surprised if you and Reggie were the primary suspects.”

The deli owner blanched. “They wouldn’t really think that we killed him, would they?”

“Well, you do have something of a history of getting yourself into trouble down at the station.” David massaged his temples. “I’m sure I can convince them that the two of you are innocent, since Reggie was out in the courtyard with witnesses when Danny was locked in the dining room… Moira, were you at the deli by any chance when you got the call?”

“No…” She realized what he was getting at and added, “I was at the candy shop. Candice has security cameras too, remember? I’m sure there’s footage of us being in the building before Danny was killed.”

“Good. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble this time, but it’s probably a good idea for
both
of you to lay low for a while.” He looked back and forth between Moira and Reggie. “Danny is dead, so we don’t have to worry about him getting on that plane and flying away anymore. But any more poking around might get one or both of you into serious trouble. There have been three murders here in the past two and a half weeks. Trust me when I say tempers are going to be running
very
high at the police station for a while.”

The conversation with David was sobering. Moira had been so involved with helping Reggie figure out who had killed his friends and trying to make up for not believing him right away that she hadn’t paused to think how this would reflect on her. She had been a murder suspect before, and it was by no means a position that she wanted to find herself in again.

At least Danny won’t get away with killing his two family members,
she thought.
The only question is… who killed him?
She and Reggie might be the obvious suspects to outsiders, but
she
knew that neither of them had done it. Was Reggie right? Had Griff taken it in his own hands to kill the man who murdered the woman he loved? It made sense, sort of, until she remembered how frail he had looked the other day. Even if Reggie was right and his friend was fitter than he looked, that still didn’t explain how he had managed to take down an armed man silently, on his own.

It was an unsatisfying ending to the twin mysteries of Beatrice’s and Delilah’s deaths, but it was an ending all the same. She had to accept that. She knew it drove David crazy when she dove headfirst into tracking down a killer, and she could see his point. She was lucky that she hadn’t either been arrested or killed before now… and maybe it was time to stop pushing that luck.

With Danny out of the picture, albeit more gruesomely than she would have liked, Moira was free to stop worrying about the murders and Danny’s impending flight to freedom. Instead she could concentrate on other important matters, like her date with David on Friday night.

Things were finally beginning to calm down at the deli; they had stopped giving out the free samples of breakfast cookies, so the morning rush wasn’t as crazy as it had been, and Dante had offered to pick up more morning hours again. She was finally beginning to feel settled enough to think about planning a fun trip or getaway with David. Her aborted conversation with Candice a few days ago had made her realize how important the private investigator really was to her. If she wanted a future with him, she couldn’t let work get in the way.

To her surprise, she found herself getting nervous Friday evening as she was preparing for their date. She realized that it had been a long time since just the two of them had gone out together, and she was looking forward to it more than ever.

Deciding to go all out and dress up for an evening out, she pulled her new dress with the white rose trim out of her closet and tugged it on. It fit her just as well now as it had in the store the week before. She turned, admiring her reflection in the mirror.
Not too bad for someone halfway through her forties,
she thought, running her hands down the front of the dress to smooth away the wrinkles.
The tan helps, though it’s already fading.

“What do you think?” she said aloud to Diamond. The little black-and-white dog was laying on Moira’s bed, watching her alertly. When the deli owner looked over at her, she began wagging her tail rapidly. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

The new dress was only part of her ensemble. She left her naturally curly hair down, hoping that the product that she used would be strong enough to fend off the frizzies as the night wore on. She tucked a lock of it behind one of her ears to make sure her diamond earrings went well with the outfit, then gave her reflection her most winning smile.

She kept her makeup simple, using it to accentuate her natural features and hide some of the more annoying wrinkles.
That’s one thing that all of the sun I got on the cruise didn’t help with
, she thought as she squinted at her crow’s feet.
I need to buy the good moisturizer again.

A few minutes before David was supposed to pick her up she decided that she had done all that she could… and that she looked pretty good after all was said and done. She pulled on a pair of her trusty black pumps—nothing too high, it would be embarrassing to trip over herself—and grabbed her purse to wait by the door. The three dogs gathered around her, all of them watching expectantly out of the window. By now all of them, even Diamond who only spent a few days each month at her house, knew that her behavior meant that David was soon to arrive. Sure enough, he pulled up the driveway just as her phone’s clock said it was eight-thirty. With butterflies in her stomach, the deli owner gave each of the dogs a quick pat goodbye, reminded them to behave themselves while she was gone, and slipped out the door.

“You look perfect,” David said. He had gotten out of the car and had the passenger side door open for her. She paused for a quick kiss, then slid into the vehicle. The private investigator walked back around to his side and got in.

As he put the car into gear, Moira said, “You look pretty handsome yourself.”

It was true. He seemed to have gone the extra step for this date himself: he was wearing a well-fitted black suit, his hair had been styled back, and he smelled of her favorite cologne.

“Only the best for you,” he said with a smile.

The Redwood Grill was as busy as they’d ever seen it, but they didn’t have to wait even a minute for their table. The hostess walked them back, leaving them with their menus and promising to have their drinks out soon.

“Denise runs a tight ship,” Moira said, impressed. Every other table in the restaurant was packed, and she was surprised that they hadn’t had to wait a few minutes, even with their reservation.

“She definitely goes the extra mile,” David said, just as a chilled bottle of champagne along with two flutes were delivered to their table.

“Oh, but we didn’t order—” Moira began.

“On the house,” the waiter said, winking at her.

“What’s wrong?” David asked after the waiter had gone.

“Oh, I’m just trying to remember if Denise owes me for anything,” the deli owner said. “She made sure our table was free right away even though she’s slammed tonight, she sent the champagne… and look, isn’t this one of her fancy tablecloths?” She plucked at the shimmering white cloth.

“Maybe she’s just being a good friend?” he suggested, taking her hand.

“Oh, she’s a great friend,” Moira said. “She just usually isn’t this
nice.
”

“Not every mystery needs to be solved,” David said with a chuckle. “Let’s decide what we’re eating. It looks like they changed the menus again.”

Indeed they had, and the promise of trying a new entree distracted her from wondering what had gotten into Denise.

“Oh my goodness, it’s going to be hard to choose,” she said after perusing the menu. “What do you think you’re going to get?”

“Mmm? Oh, probably just steak and potatoes,” he said. “What about you?”

“I’m thinking about the pasta with lamb ragu,” she told him. “It looks delicious.”

He smiled over at her, and she noticed that he hadn’t even opened his menu.

“Don’t you want to see what their new dishes are?” she asked. “They’ve got some sort of shepherd’s pie… it looks like something you’d like.”

“I’m not feeling super hungry right now,” he admitted. “I’d better stick to the basics. Besides, you can’t go wrong with a good steak.”

“David, are you feeling all right?” she asked him. On closer inspection, he did look slightly odd. His hand was shaking a bit, and he looked a shade paler than normal.

“I’m fine,” he promised her. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”

“All right…” Before she could say anything else, her phone buzzed from inside her purse. “It’s Reggie,” she said as she pulled it out. She shot David a quick glance, not wanting to be rude, but also curious to know what the elderly man could possibly want this late in the evening.

“Go ahead,” he said with a smile. “I know if you don’t answer it, you’re going to be fretting about it all during dinner. I’m just as interested as you are to find out why he’s calling right now.”

“I’ll keep it short,” she promised. She hit the button to answer the call.

“Reggie, it’s me. Is everything all right?”

“Moira,” the old man said in a low voice. “You need to get over here right now. Bring David. I know who killed Beatrice and Delilah, and it wasn’t Danny.”

“What?” she asked, her own voice low and urgent. “What do you mean? What’s going on?”

“She’ll be back any minute,” he said. “You’ve got to hurry… I think she killed Danny too.”

“Reggie, what—” But it was too late; he had hung up.

Moira glanced up at David, her heart pounding. “We have to go, now.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, frowning.

“Reggie is in trouble,” she told him. “He thinks that someone other than Danny killed those two women… and from what I gathered, she might be on to him.”

David spared one regretful look at the champagne, then turned to her with a look of resolve. “Let’s go,” he said. “I’ll drive; you phone the police.”

“They said they’re going to send a unit out immediately,” Moira told David. She turned off her phone’s screen and leaned her head back against the seat’s headrest with a sigh of relief. “Are we almost there?”

David didn’t answer. His grip on the wheel was so tight that his knuckles were white.

“David?” she said, then paused, her eyes searching the dark forest rushing by. She had been distracted by her phone call to the police when they pulled out of the Redwood Grill’s parking lot, and hadn’t been paying attention to the turns that they had been taking. Was it possible…? “David, are we going to my house?”

He nodded, still not speaking or meeting her gaze.

“What?” She sat bolt upright. “Reggie needs us! We have to go to Misty Pines.”

“I’m not putting you into danger, Moira,” he said. “I can’t just drive you into a confrontation with a killer and a whole squad of police. I’m going to drop you off at your house, then go and see what I can do to help.”

“But…” She trailed off. Arguing would be of no use. She saw the determination in his face, and had known him long enough to be able to tell when he had made an unshakable decision.

Reggie,
she thought.
I’m sorry…

He pulled up to her house and left his car running as he walked her to her door. “I’ll come in for just a second. I want to make a call.”

Without speaking to him she unlocked her front door and sat angrily on the couch while he pulled out his cellphone and walked into the other room. She wasted only a few seconds feeling helpless and angry when she decided that it wasn’t helping anything. Getting up, she gestured the dogs to lie down and stay, then tiptoed out of the living room and down the hall to the kitchen. She paused at the doorway, listening to David’s voice inside.

“You really can’t do anything, Detective?” he said, sounding pretty upset himself. “I know this man. If he says he knows who Danny’s killer is, chances are he does.”

He ground his teeth, listening to the person on the other end of the phone.

“No! You can’t just leave,” he said after a moment. “What do you think is going to happen to him if he’s right? Jefferson…”

Moira backed away. She had heard enough. It sounded like the police had gone to Misty Pines, but whatever Reggie told them hadn’t been enough for them to make an arrest.
They don’t believe him
, she thought angrily.
But I do, and I’m not letting the Misty Pines killer claim another victim.

Casting an apologetic glance back at the kitchen door—David was going to be furious when he got off the phone and came out to find her gone—she grabbed her keys and purse off of the end table. If he wouldn’t drive her to Misty Pines, then she was just going to have to drive herself.