Murder with Darjeeling Tea by Karen Rose Smith

Author:Karen Rose Smith [Smith, Karen Rose]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

The tea garden was full ... absolutely full.

As Daisy looked around, she could only see one spare chair. Two tour buses had arrived at around the same time. They must have all put the tea garden on their schedule for ten a.m. Someone from each bus had come into the tea garden, looked around, and decided she could seat all of them. She could.

Between the two rooms, the tea garden could seat sixty customers. She and her staff had scurried into fast gear, brewing tea, taking dough from the walk-in and scooping it into cookies that would be baking in the oven for fifteen minutes. She’d made a double batch of cheesy cauliflower soup, intending to take some of it home. Now they might be using that for customers who believed the soup would be a good substitute for baked goods for breakfast.

Daisy loved a full house. She was simply hoping all of her customers would be well-satisfied. The carrot-grape salad and peach salsa were going fast, and they might run out of those. But otherwise ... she could prepare more soup for the lunch crowd, and the same with the salad.

She’d been covering two tables in the spillover tearoom and was on her way to the kitchen for another pot of Darjeeling tea when the front door opened and a male voice called her name.

She’d swung around to face him when the man practically yelled, “Daisy Swanson, I want to talk to you.”

With two four-cup teapots in her hands, she froze when she saw Stanley King.

Before she could even think of saying “good morning,” he began his diatribe. “How dare you give information to the police about me? How dare you insert your nose into my affairs? My business is none of yours. If you don’t stay on your own property and stay away from mine, there will be consequences, and you won’t like them. I’m a powerful man, and I can ruin you.”

His diatribe overflowed with vitriol. Everyone in the tea garden was gaping at her and Stanley King.

Foster rushed up beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. Also standing close to Daisy, Tessa, phone in hand, looked as if she wanted to pummel Stanley King with both fists.

However, the man had said his piece, and he wasn’t staying. He swiftly turned, his expensive black suit jacket flaring out in back of him as he opened the door and left the tea garden.

Daisy was still staring at the door when chatter erupted all around her.

“Who was that man?” people were asking.

“What did he want here?”

“What did Mrs. Swanson do?”

Daisy could hear commotion around her as her staff soothed gossipy patrons, refilled teacups, and replenished breakfast plates.

Daisy was rooted to the spot.

Foster leaned close to her. “Daisy, come into your office for a few minutes.”

She heard him, but she still felt icy fingers run up and down her spine.

Iris took the two teapots from Daisy’s hands. “I’ll take care of these,” she said. “You go with Foster.

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