Murder on the Beach by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Destination Murders
Published: 2021-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

Sadly, even though the beignet bakery was right next to the parking lot, I had to resist stopping in for another one the next morning. The green sheath dress I was wearing was already a little snug. There wasn’t even a single beignet’s worth of room. I did grab a café au lait, counting that against my burned calories from the Frog Dance.

I was up bright and early, determined to make a good impression on Chef Henri. Only a few competitors were here already, but I was happy to see Brenda. Although she didn’t look happy at all.

“Hey girl, want me to grab you a coffee or something?” I asked, since the other chef seemed to be busy moving around her booth.

“Coffee would be wonderful, but what I want more is my filleting knife.” She bent over, checking under a table.

“It’s missing?”

“Yes, and I need it to prepare the frog legs. Manuel must have misplaced it during clean-up.” She scowled at her sous chef.

Manuel help up his hands, protesting his innocence. “I’m sure I kept everything together when I went to wash up.”

Having faced Brenda’s wrath as her sous chef before, I defended the poor guy. “You know how easy it is to lose track of things when you’re at these outdoor events. Everyone’s vying for the same sink.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. But it’s pissing me off.”

“Is anything else missing?” I asked, though everything else seemed in its place, as Brenda’s kitchens always were. She was the poster child for mise en place. No wonder she was irritated at a missing knife.

“No.” She frowned and grabbed a paring knife from her roll. “This’ll have to do. I’ve got to get started. Can you ask around, see if anyone has seen it?”

“Sure. And I’ll let Chef Henri know as well, so that he’s aware.”

Brenda glanced up, clearly distracted. “I haven’t seen him yet, which is odd. He’s usually first on site.”

Great. So now I was looking for a knife and a pompous chef.

I checked in with everyone, which gave me the opportunity to talk to Gabriel and Taylor. I also made certain to greet Kayla, hoping she’d decide that I was just as trustworthy as my brother and spill the deets on Henri.

No one had seen the knife, or Henri. Making it to the end of the row, I came to a booth that was still closed.

“Whose booth is this?” I asked the competitor next door, who I recognized as Andrea Gomez, Chef Henri’s latest victim. The Hulk, aka Paul, was hunched on a stool in the booth, clearly on wife-guard duty. From the scowl on his face, he didn’t seem the forgive and forget kind of guy.

Andrea didn’t even look up from her chopping, “It’s supposed to be for Chef Frederick, who never deigns to show up until nine am. He claims the pressure on him transfers to the frog and makes it more tender.” She raised her head. “Did you know there are some oddballs in our profession?”

“That’s definitely true.

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