Close Encounters of the Deadly Kind (The Cook and Inspector Mysteries Book 4) by Pence Joanne

Author:Pence, Joanne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quail Hill Publishing
Published: 2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

Angie felt like a zombie when she walked into The Wings of An Angel just before noon. Earl hurried her to a table. “What can I get you to drink, Miss Angie? You aren’t lookin’ so hot today.”

“Gee, thanks, Earl. I really needed to hear that.” She put her head in her hands. “Just some coffee.”

“You wanna sangwich? Some spaghetti?”

“I’ll have something light—how about a frittata?”

“I don’ t’ink Butch has much fancy stuff to put in one—no aspary-gus or any a dat kinda stuff.”

“Diced onions, a little cheese, plus ham or Italian sausage would be great.”

“Oh. I t’ink he can do dat.” Earl’s eyebrows scrunched with worry. “So, how’s da inspector dese days?”

She glanced up at him. “I hope he’s okay,” she admitted. She couldn’t stop thinking about their words last night. His feelings—good and bad—ran deep. The realization that she’d hurt him, disappointed him, although she hadn’t meant to, had her feeling miserable.

Earl’s gaze held hers a moment, his eyes sad, then he gave a small nod and walked back toward the kitchen. Angie slumped back in her chair. Most of last night seemed like a bad dream. She’d fallen asleep watching a lecture, and from that time on, everything that happened seemed out of focus.

Earl soon returned with a tall, steaming cup of coffee and placed it before her. “Butch’ll make you a real good frittata, Miss Angie. His cookin’ll make you feel a lot better.”

“Thanks, Earl.”

The door to the restaurant opened, and two of Earl’s favorite customers, Rose and Lena, entered. Earl slicked back his hair, straightened his spine, and strutted over to welcome them. He was obviously sweet on them both.

As Angie sipped her coffee, her mind replayed the horrible scene last night at the lecture hall. Why would Oliver Hardy have committed suicide? Or, if not that, why would anyone want to kill him? Personally, she had found him too strange for words, but the others didn’t seem bothered by him.

She tried to turn her thoughts to the Fantasy Dinner, tried to plan some menus, but images of Tardis Hall and Paavo’s unhappiness got in the way.

Just then, Vinnie came through the kitchen doors, marched straight to Angie’s table, pulled out a chair and sat down. Vinnie, like Earl, was somewhere in his sixties, but where Earl was short and round and solid having once worked as a bouncer in Vegas, Vinnie was short and round and soft. Probably because his chief form of work was to order Butch, the restaurant’s cook, or Earl to do something. Angie was surprised to see him, though. He rarely ventured out of his downstairs office.

“I heard that you’re actin’ real down,” he said. All three of the guys had similar old-time San Francisco accents, which was an offshoot of the New Yorkers and Irish who had settled in the city over a century earlier.

“Yeah. I tried to start a new business,” she began. “Big mistake.”

With a hangdog look, he slowly nodded. “That’ll make a person miserable real fast.”

“I’m

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.