Stick a Fork In It by Robin Allen

Author:Robin Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: soft-boiled, mystery, murder mystery, fiction, amateur sleuth, mystery novels, murder, amateur sleuth novel, cuisine, culinary, death row, last meals, inmates
Publisher: Midnight Ink is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.
Published: 2012-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

seventeen

The clock on my penance for ruining the Johns’s anniversary dinner had some time left on it, and I needed to gear up to face Drew, so I sat in my Jeep in the Markham’s parking lot roasting like a Peking duck while I pondered Daisy’s insight. She wasn’t right that I had crossed Jamie with Drew, but I did feel abandoned by Drew in addition to feeling betrayed, which was only compounded by all the other things going on in my life at that time.

Drew had to help his mother, of course, but why did he withdraw from me? I loved and trusted him, and I thought he felt the same. At the time, I had played through the usual scenarios of sudden death, amnesia, and Russian double agent, but after months of silence on his end, I knew he had made a life with someone else. And after I moved on to Jamie, I hardened my heart against Drew. I wanted to hear the rest of his story, but only to cross that T.

A knock on the back of the Jeep brought me back to real time. I glanced up at my rearview mirror and saw a bandaged arm wave at me through cigarette smoke, then Trevor came around to my open door.

“Those were some deep thoughts,” he said.

“How many times have you cheated on Ursula?” I asked.

He coughed smoke out of his mouth. “What kind of question is that?”

“I’m doing research.”

He put both hands on top of the Jeep and leaned into me. “You lookin’ for some action, Popstar?”

I pushed him back. “Not today,” I said. “How many times?”

“Define cheat.”

“Trevor.”

“We don’t have that kind of relationship. You know that. One week she’s callin’ me into the dry storage and I’m her MVP, the next week she’s callin’ me an immature churl and I’m a free agent.” He looked toward the kitchen door. “A guy can get restless during the off-season.”

“The dry storage?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “Or the walk-in.”

I put my hand up. “Forget I started this.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said it the cute, flirty way.

He dropped his cigarette on the ground, and I stepped out of the Jeep and onto it. “Is Drew Cooper inside?”

Trevor crossed his arms and squinted at me. “Not you too.” He sounded jealous, which could only mean one thing: Ursula was paying too much attention to the new GM.

In a restaurant, the term “private life” does not mean that your life is private; it means that you know about your business before everybody else does. Usually. It’s not unusual for a waitress to find out that her bartender boyfriend dumped her when her coworkers tell her that he showed up the night before to give the new hostess a ride home. It’s a lot like high school.

If Trevor suspected that Ursula was interested in Drew, the entire staff and some of the regular guests probably did, too. In a well-tended rumor mill like Markham’s, Drew and Ursula could already be dating or engaged.

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