Suzanne Price - Grime Solvers 01 - Scene of The Grime by Suzanne Price

Author:Suzanne Price [Price, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery: Cozy - Cleaning Business - Massachusetts
ISBN: 0451221095
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2007-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

At eight o’clock on Friday night, Mike Ennis and I were out having dinner at Linaria, a Greek seafood restaurant in a two-story redbrick building on Rogers Street opposite the working docks of Gloucester’s Inner Harbor. Mike had picked me up at the Fog Bell in his Mini Cooper, which was sort of cramped if you were a human being of average proportions but would probably be the ideal size for Skiball’s first set of wheels when she was old enough to qualify for her driver’s license. Just so long as she didn’t try squeezing any of her huskier feline friends into the backseat.

As Mike had promised, the atmosphere at Linaria was Old World friendly. Each of the dozen or so tables had a white tablecloth and napkins and a ceramic vase of fresh, tastefully arranged flowers. Most were set for no more than two to four diners. The restaurant’s small capacity, carpeted floor, and stone fireplace with a crackling blaze gave it a warm, intimate coziness. According to Mike, it was one of the few places around where you could have a quiet conversation even when there was a full house.

Mike had mentioned that, and a bunch of other things about Linaria, at our table while we were waiting to be served. He told me it was named after a tiny island in western Greece that had been the ancestral home of its owners, who’d immigrated to America several generations ago. He had told me the owners’ son and his wife, Alex and Ruthie, were the ones mainly running the show nowadays, and that both had solid culinary pedigrees. The eldest of three brothers, Alex had practically grown up in the restaurant during its early years, when his family hadn’t been able to afford a babysitter, and he’d hung around every day after school, helping out with this and that once he finished his homework. As a result, there was nothing about the business he didn’t know or couldn’t do, nor any dish on the menu he wasn’t able to prepare. Very much likewise, Ruthie, a top-notch baker and pastry chef, had spent a big chunk of her childhood in her parents’ Boston bakery. Together they’d built upon and diversified the appeal of what had already been Cape Ann’s oldest established eating spot.

I suppose I ought to explain that Mike knew all this because the restaurant’s owners were his paternal grandparents and because Alex Elpidios was his favorite uncle—both of which were tidbits he had neglected to share in advance. Instead I’d found out for myself when Alex showed up to welcome him at the door.

“All right, here you are!” Uncle Alex had said, his bearish embrace squeezing the wind out of Mike. He gave him a loud, smacking kiss on the cheek, glanced at me, and smiled. “Hello, young lady! Mama said our nephew was bringing a friend!”

Which put Uncle Alex at least a step up on me, I’d thought. To be fair, Mike had mentioned being close to the people who ran the place.

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