Creamy Casserole Murder: Book 15 in The Darling Deli Series
Read Creamy Casserole Murder: Book 15 in The Darling Deli Series Online
Authors: Patti Benning
Tags: #Fiction
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Creamy
Casserole
Murder
Book Fifteen in the Darling Deli Series
By
Patti Benning
Copyright 2016 Summer Prescott Books
All Rights Reserved
. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder.
**This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.
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CREAMY CASSEROLE
MURDER
Book Fifteen in the Darling Deli Series
ONE
It’s good to be back
, Moira Darling thought when she woke up in her own bed the first morning after returning from her cruise in the Caribbean. The trip had been an experience that she wouldn’t soon forget, especially the beautiful scenery and summer-like weather, but nothing could compare to home.
Maverick, her loyal German shepherd, perked his head up as she stretched. Keeva, the giant Irish wolfhound that she had taken in a few months ago, was already up, her large head resting on the bed near Moira’s pillow. Both dogs looked thrilled to see her finally awake, and she couldn’t blame them—it was past ten in the morning already.
Yesterday must have really taken it out of me
, she thought. She and Candice, her twenty-one-year-old daughter, had disembarked the cruise ship in the early afternoon, then had rushed to the airport to make their flight back to Michigan. It had been close, but they had managed to get on the plane at the last second, and just a few hours later, David had picked them both up at the airport in Traverse City.
The dogs had nearly bowled her over when she got home last night, and both of them still seemed to be unusually clingy. She felt bad for having been gone from them for so long, but at least she knew David had taken spectacular care of them. If there was anyone she trusted to watch her dogs, it was him.
“All right, all right, I’m getting up,” she told the two impatient pooches. She was supposed to be at the deli in just a couple of hours, and the list of stuff she wanted to get done first seemed endless. Whether she was ready or not, her day had to begin.
She went downstairs, let the dogs out into the back yard, started the coffee machine, then turned her attention to the suitcases sitting by the front door. Last night she had been too tired even to begin the task of unpacking, but there wasn’t any putting it off now. With a longing glance at the still gurgling coffee machine, she got to work.
David had stayed at her house for the duration of her stay on the cruise, and he had left it in stellar shape. The floors had been swept and mopped, the kitchen was spotless, and even the dogs’ yard had been cleaned.
He’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime sort of man,
she thought as she finished loading the last of her laundry into the washing machine in the mudroom, which had also been swept out and mopped.
I think the house is even cleaner than it was when I left.
She felt a bit bad that he had done so much without asking for anything in return. She had been hesitant to even ask him to watch the dogs, knowing how busy he was.
He definitely went above and beyond,
she thought with a smile, watching the clothes begin to spin in the washer.
I’ll have to think of some way to repay him.
She would have to figure all of that out later, though. Right now she had to get dressed for work, then go and see how Darling’s DELIcious Delights had fared without her.
An hour later, she pulled into the deli’s parking lot in her green SUV. The dogs had looked heartbroken when she left, but she had promised them that she would be back that evening—no more trips for her, at least not for the foreseeable future.
The deli looked the same as it always had… except for the big banner hanging over the front door that read
Welcome Home, Ms. D!
She grinned at the sight of it and happy tears moistened her cheeks. She hadn’t expected anything like this and was reminded once again of why she loved her job so much.
Darrin and Allison were waiting for her inside, both smiling in welcome as she walked through the door. She looked around, impressed to see how clean the deli was. It smelled amazing too; the little blackboard on the counter declared that the soup of the day was southern corn chowder, and her stomach growled at the thought of the sweet, filling, slightly spicy soup simmering away in the kitchen. She would definitely have to get herself a bowl of it before settling in to work.
“Welcome back, Ms. D,” Allison said. “How was your trip?”
“It was…” She paused, not wanting to wreck the happy return with stories of the events of the competition, which had been cut short due to a murder. “Well, the cruise ship was very nice, and the ocean and islands were just beautiful. I’ll tell you more about it later. How did things go here?”
“Everything was fine here, though we did get a few catering requests that I left for you to look at, since I wasn’t sure how busy you’d be after getting back,” Darrin told her. “But as far as day-to-day things, everything went off without a hitch. A lot of the customers asked after you when they didn’t see you, and I’m sure a lot of people will be stopping in to say hi now that you’re back.”
Moira smiled at that. One of her favorite things about running the deli was the personal connection with her customers. In a town as small as Maple Creek, especially in the off-season for tourists, she recognized almost every person that stopped at the deli, and they all knew her, too. It would be nice to see all of her regulars again, though she was sure talking about the cruise would begin to get old after a while.
That reminded her…
“I have pictures of the trip on my tablet if you want to see,” she told them. “I thought I would make a sort of a slideshow so people who ask about my trip will have a chance to look through them.”
Showing people pictures of her trip turned out to be a good idea. It saved her a lot of time when one of her customers wanted to know how the cruise had gone, and everyone seemed to love the gorgeous photos. By the time five o’clock rolled around and people began getting out of work, business was booming. She had just finished serving a roasted chicken breast sandwich to an elderly man who had been especially interested in the pictures of the cruise, since he was thinking of surprising his wife with one for their anniversary, when two of her closest friends walked in.
“It’s great to see you,” she told Martha and Denise when they approached the register. “I was hoping to get together sometime this week—I have so much to tell you, but I can’t do it here.”
“Will you be able to make our normal Wednesday morning coffee?” Martha asked. “We can get a corner table. As long as it isn’t too busy, we should be able to talk pretty privately.”
“Sure,” the deli owner said. “I gave myself a light schedule this week while I get back into the swing of things, so that works for me if you both can make it.”
“Even though the Grill opens earlier now, mornings still aren’t a particularly busy time,” Denise said. “So that works for me, too. In the meantime, you’ve
got
to tell us how the cruise was.”
It was wonderful to get caught up with her friends, though once she mentioned some of what had happened on the cruise ship, they were dying to know more. She felt bad making them wait until Wednesday for the full story, but she was reluctant to get into details with so many customers around. The last thing she needed was more rumors being spread about her and the trouble she kept getting herself into. The deli was doing really well now; she didn’t need any bad publicity to wreck that. As her friends left, each with a small to-go bowl of corn chowder, she swore she would go into more detail later. They wouldn’t be disappointed, she knew. The cruise had been many things, but boring was not one of them.
Despite the busy day, she felt overwhelmingly good to be back. It was wonderful to work in the deli’s kitchen again, which she knew like the back of her hand, to prepare the food for the next day’s special, and it was even better to be able to take her time and cook stress-free. She hadn’t liked cooking with a timer ticking away—the pressure had taken a lot of the fun out of making food for her.
Overall it was a good experience, though
, she thought as she scrubbed the counters at closing time.
I do feel that the competition made me more confident in what I do, and at least now I’ll always be able to say that I’ve done it.
After closing, Moira paused outside the deli and looked inside fondly. She had built so much, and continued to build so much, both at the deli and in her personal life. Her business was thriving and her relationship with David seemed to be going better than ever. Her life was as near to perfect as she could hope for. What could go wrong?
“David’s going to be here any minute, and I still can’t find that other earring,” Moira muttered, digging through her vanity drawer once again in hopes that she had somehow missed it the two other times she had done exactly the same thing. The earring, a small diamond stud that her father had gotten her decades before, had been missing for a while, and she suspected that Candice’s cat Felix was to blame. She had watched the little beast for a week a while ago, and she was still finding bits of jewelry and socks that he had stashed away throughout the house.
One of her rings seemed to be missing as well, though she couldn’t blame that one on the cat. She had worn it just a couple of days before leaving for the cruise. Where could it have gone?
I really need to reorganize my jewelry
, she thought.
I’m sure I wouldn’t lose things as much if I actually had proper places to put it.
Her old jewelry boxes had all been destroyed in the house fire a few months back, and she hadn’t gotten around to replacing them yet.