Spiced to Death (36 page)
“I’ll tell Marvell,” he had said. “He can make arrangements to come and collect it.”
I had held out a hand—it had two stamens in it. “My fee for the authentication,” I said and Gaines rolled his eyes and gave me a to-each-his-own kind of shrug as he went out.
Those same two stamens, carefully chopped, had been added to the seasoning of the
osso buco
that Mamma Rossini was now cooking as the main course. Little wonder that our mouths were watering.
“Speaking of fees for authentication,” said Gabriella, “I hear you donated the five bills you got at Martha’s Restaurant to the charities fund yesterday.”
“How’d you hear that?”
“We have our ways.”
“Evidently. Well, in our first meeting, Marvell cut me off completely but now he’s come through in style and is paying all my expenses and my originally agreed fee.”
“You could have kept the other five too.”
“No. That was blood money—bloodstained money.”
Giovanni went by, both arms laden with plates of pasta, then he was back at once with another bottle of Amarone. He pulled the cork, then as he poured, he looked back in surprise. “Hey, here’s Mamma!”
Beaming, perspiring, Mamma bustled out with a plate in each hand and set them before us.
“Have you tasted it, Mamma?” asked Gabriella, eyes alight.
Mamma touched fingers to her mouth and raised them in a salute.
“Buon appetito!”
she wished us. “It’s
magnifico!”
She left us. Gabriella and I tasted … our eyes met. Perhaps the opportunity for research into one of Ko Feng’s fabled characteristics hadn’t slipped by after all.
M
Y THANKS ARE DUE
to the following:
Dr. John B. Morrill of the Division of Natural Sciences at New College, University of South Florida, for his invaluable help in structuring the character of Ko Feng;
Joan Wasylik of Cargill Europe for an imposing array of data on the spices of the past; and
Donaleta Robinson of Magagnosc in the South of France for her tireless research into food and restaurants.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1997 by Peter King
cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7724-9 (ePub)
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