Death by Deep Dish Pie by Sharon Short

Author:Sharon Short
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins

11

There’s more than one way to clean up a stain.

And there’s more than one way to get to the bottom of a murder.

The key in either case, though, is knowing what you’re dealing with. My dream visit with Mrs. Oglevee reminded me of that basic wisdom on both accounts.

First of all, she’d stomped into my slumber land parading about in Mrs. Beavy’s blouse, drinking from an eternal stash of red wine. And it finally hit me—the stain on the real Mrs. Beavy’s pink blouse was red wine.

To a lot of folks, a red wine stain would be nothing to hide. But Mrs. Beavy is a strict Baptist. And in the Baptist scheme of things, drinking’s worse than lying, although poor Mrs. Beavy was probably suffering from a burdened conscience for that sin, too.

And the blouse was all cotton, so that was another good thing—silk or linen would be a lot harder to clean.

Of course, there are a lot of approaches to dealing with a red wine stain. If it’s still fresh, you can dab on club soda (some people say use a clear soft drink or white wine—but I don’t recommend it—because the sugar from those liquids will make its own stain!), then wash as usual. If you still have a stain, try half glycerin and half water, or try dabbing with hydrogen peroxide. (Need I mention you should always try these methods on some non-obvious place on the garment first, like inside on the hem?)

And if you’ve spilled red wine on carpet, you can pour salt on it. The salt will soak up the wine. Then vacuum up. Just don’t use baking soda like my Aunt Clara did once. That’ll make a paste that sets the stain.

Of course, all of those tips assume you’re attacking the stain as it occurs. But Mrs. Beavy tried hiding the truth of her stain with a lie, so rooting it out was going to be a lot harder.

Which meant I had to bring out the big gun dried red wine stain-removal tip that, I kid you not, has been tested by University of California, Davis, professors of enology, which is the science of wine and winemaking. (And I thought my niche was specialized.) This also works on red pop and cherry Kool-Aid—because I’ve tested it myself, since Paradisites are more likely to be beset with red pop and cherry Kool-Aid stains than red wine stains, or, in the alcohol category, beer stains, but that’s a different stain treatment altogether.

I read about the red wine stain-removal tip in a wine magazine on Winnie’s bookmobile while waiting for her to reserve the latest mysteries for me for my early summer reading. That just goes to show the importance of leafing through anything, because you never know what you might learn.

So here’s the enologist-approved-and-proven red wine stain-removal tip: mix equal parts hydrogen peroxide and Dawn dishwashing detergent. (I normally don’t like to recommend brands, mind you, but Dawn is really the one that works best for this procedure.

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