Hungry Heart: Konigsburg, Texas, Book 8 (36 page)

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Hell, barbecue’s as bad as a Bordeaux tasting. Purists are a pain in the butt.”

“Maybe, but they’re the ones who run the competitions. And they’ve got a bunch of rules that make the tax code seem simple.” Andy glanced at Chico again and grinned. “Fortunately, we’re only doing two entries and they’re in two of the more straight-forward categories. You ready to go there, hon?”

Amazingly enough, Chico’s ears turned pink. Darcy could have sworn he was blushing. “Yeah, almost.” He glanced at Harris. “How about you?”

Harris placed his container of brisket on the kitchen scale, checking the weight. “Ready here.”

Chico nodded. “Let’s do it.”

Darcy pulled off her apron, dropping it on one of the lawn chairs as Andy did the same. Other teams were marching up the row in front of them, matching T-shirts and costume pieces in place. Darcy was just as glad nobody had suggested she wear a pig-shaped baseball cap. There would have been violence involved.

A crowd milled around the front of the judges’ tent, teams dropping off their entries along with spectators coming in to watch. A group of exasperated men in bright blue T-shirts tried to clear away the non-contestants.

“Come on, folks,” one man called. “These teams have to get their entries in before the time limit runs out.”

Some people moved back fractionally. Then suddenly the crowd seemed to part like the Red Sea in front of them. Darcy glanced back to see Chico glaring straight ahead. Yeah, she would have gotten out of his way too.

She dropped back beside Andy as Chico and the King approached the judging table. “Team 45A,” Harris said, placing his foam container carefully on the table in front of him. “Barbecue Royale.”

“Hey, Chico.” The woman checking the list grinned up at him.

“Hey, Doreen.” Chico’s smile was more like a baring of teeth, but Doreen seemed unintimidated. She took the two containers from Chico and Harris and checked off something on her list.

“Okay, you’re set.”

“I want that man disqualified.”

Heads turned up and down the line as people craned to see who was talking.

“That man deliberately sabotaged my entry. I want him disqualified.” A husky man dressed in a black T-shirt and ball cap stepped forward, his arms folded across his chest.

On a guess Darcy figured he was Lew Burke. She turned to Andy. “Your ex?”

Andy grimaced. “What can I say? I was young and stupid.”

The woman at the table, Doreen, peered up at him. “Mister, I can’t disqualify anybody and neither can you. And you’re holding up the line.”

Chico and Harris moved hastily to the side, letting the next contestants through. Lew Burke scowled at them. “You’re not getting away with ruining my brisket, asshole. If my brisket doesn’t get entered, neither does yours.”

“What the hell is going on here?” The man who stepped up beside them was shorter than any of the three barbecue cooks, but he didn’t look like he was willing to take much crap. His walrus moustache bristled. He narrowed his eyes behind his wire-frame glasses, glancing between the three.

Chico nodded, his expression suddenly bland. “Mr. Mayor.”

The mayor nodded back, still scowling. “Chico. What’s up?”

“I’ll tell you what’s up.” Burke stepped forward, his arms folded across his beefy chest. “This man—” he nodded toward Harris, “—deliberately ruined my brisket so that I couldn’t enter it. I want him disqualified. Hell, I want him kicked off the circuit permanently.”

The mayor scowled as he turned toward their team. “What’s your version?”

Harris shook his head. “Mr. Burke’s rig was close to catching on fire last night—I could see the smoke from my booth. I closed down the dampers before the fire could spread to any of the other rigs, including Mr. Burke’s.”

“Anybody else there?” The mayor’s eyebrow went up. “Did you see it, Chico?”

Chico shook his head. “I was home in bed.” He seemed to be deliberately not looking at Andy.

“Ms. Cunningham was there.” Harris nodded at her.

The mayor turned in her direction, then gave her a brief, appreciative smile. For once, Darcy was glad she’d worn the short shorts. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am. You cook out at the Rose, correct?”

Darcy nodded. “Correct.”

He nodded toward Harris. “He telling the truth?”

“Yep.” Darcy folded her arms across her chest, giving Burke the death stare.

“All right then.” The mayor turned back to Burke, Chico and Harris. “I’ll ask around, see if anybody else can tell me anything.”

“One of my boys was there at the time,” Burke cut in. “Lou Shoney. He can tell you what happened.”

The mayor gave him a steely glance. “I’ll talk to him. And the other people on that row. Anyway, I’ll get back to you before the judging.”

“That man should not be allowed in this contest,” Burke snapped.

The mayor narrowed his eyes. “Nobody’s getting kicked out of this contest yet, Burke. Now everybody go off and cook your barbecue. Probably got customers waiting by now.”

Andy took hold of Chico’s arm, drawing him quickly away from her ex, who stared after them with burning eyes.

Darcy turned down the row toward their booth. So did a lot of other people in the crowd. She heard muttering, accompanied by a few narrow-eyed looks toward Andy’s ex-husband.

“So that’s the mayor of Konigsburg?” she asked.

Harris nodded. “Horace Rankin. Known for not putting up with bullshit.”

“So he’ll find out Burke is lying and everything will work out, right?” Darcy wasn’t sure why she felt uneasy, but she did.

Harris shrugged. “I don’t think there’ll be any trouble about the fire. The problem is, Burke looks like he’s got a one-track mind.”

Darcy frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean now he’s decided we’re the enemy, and he’s going to do his damnedest to make us pay.” Harris looked thoughtful. “Of course, given that we’re on a team with Chico and Andy, he’d probably already decided we were the enemy even before we turned his brisket into jerky.”

Darcy sighed. “Can you think of any way to head him off?”

Harris shook his head, grimacing.

“There’s slander,” a voice said behind them.

Darcy turned. Harris’s brother, Gray, stood slightly to the right, looking back at Andy’s ex-husband with a raised eyebrow. He wore jeans for once, along with a crisp knit shirt, but they both looked like the kind that came from a very expensive store. “Or we could go for defamation. We could bring suit on the basis of damage to your professional reputation.”

Harris folded his arms. “How do you figure?”

Gray shrugged. “He said you got him eliminated so that you could win. He was implying your brisket wasn’t good enough to win on its own. That would damage your reputation as a barbecue chef. I’m not up on the case law, but it looks pretty open and shut to me.” His lips spread in a faintly predatory grin. “And of course, I’d really enjoy bringing the suit. I’d get a kick out of hearing him explain himself in court.”

Harris sighed. “Thanks just the same. I’m not up for a lawsuit right now.”

Gray raised his eyebrows. “Well, we could keep the options open. You’ll run across him again if you enter other competitions.”

Darcy frowned. “How do you know that?”

“I asked.” Gray smiled at her. “Everybody knows everything about everybody in these Hill Country towns.”

Darcy felt like shivering. The idea of everybody knowing everything about her was less than reassuring.

“He may let it go after Horace asks around.” Harris shrugged. “His guy was drunk as a skunk and he screwed up. Burke can’t want people talking about it that much.”

“I wish he’d let it go this time myself.” Gray raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want to try some legal harassment?”

Harris shook his head. “Forget it, Gray. Let’s see how the competition plays out.”

Gray sighed. “You’ve got no killer instinct, Harris. Are you sure we’re related?”

“Mom always said so.” Harris gave him a slightly lopsided smile.

“So she did.” Gray’s smile faded. “I need to talk to you about that. Well, about associated issues.”

Harris shook his head. “Not today, Gray. Today I’m cooking ’cue. Come on back to the booth and have a beer. You can help us serve the masses.”

Gray sighed again. “I suppose it won’t kill me. Judging from these crowds you may need all the help you can get.”

“We may at that.” Harris’s grin was back. “Come on, big brother. Let me show you what it’s like to be a working stiff.”

Darcy stood for a moment, watching the two men walk back up the row toward the booth, one dressed like a slumming prince and the other like a barbecue pirate. It was the kind of view that made you think about the vagaries of life.

Or it would have been if she hadn’t had several hundred people to feed. She headed up the row after them. At least she knew what they needed to do for once.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Several hundred people
turned out to be pretty accurate. They put Gray in charge of collecting the tickets that the crowd had purchased from the ticket booth at the head of the row. Their prices were posted on a board at front: four tickets for a sandwich with potato salad or coleslaw, eight tickets for a plate that included two sides and dessert. Most people took the plate.

Harris kept his concentration on slicing brisket. Fortunately, his best slicing knife had survived the flood, thanks to Darcy’s insistence on taking the knives with them. He and Chico made up a steady stream of plates filled with brisket or pork or sometimes both for people who were willing to kick in a few extra tickets.

Darcy seemed to be in her element, dishing up bowls of cobbler and adding sides to plates alongside Andy. She grinned occasionally when she recognized a face and tried unsuccessfully to convince MG Carmody to come behind the counter to dish slaw.

“It’s okay,” Andy assured her. “We don’t need extra help. I can keep up.”

Chico seemed remarkably calm, considering that Horace Rankin could disqualify both their entries, making the contest a wash. On the other hand, Chico was probably used to keeping his anger in check since letting it run full-bore could well end in devastation.

After a couple of hours of meal service, Harris saw a walrus moustache bristling at the head of the line. “Hey, Chico,” Rankin called.

Chico glanced up and gave him a flat smile. “What’s up, Mr. Mayor?”

Rankin pushed his wire-framed glasses up his nose. “Got any of that pulled pork left? And a place for a man to sit down?”

Chico piled some of his pork on a paper plate, nodding toward the folding table in back. “You can come on back here if you don’t mind being in the middle of the kitchen, such as it is.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Rankin stepped around the counter, taking the plate from Chico and pausing to let MG and Andy give him some coleslaw and beans.

He pulled up a chair, plopping his plate onto the table. “Need to talk to you both, but I wanted to taste this pork of yours, son. I heard it’s the real thing.”

“Have at it.” Chico wiped his hands on a towel and then turned back to the mayor. “What’s up, Horace?”

“Talked to Burke’s guy. Now I need to hear your version.” He cocked an eyebrow at Harris. “Tell me again—what happened?”

“Darcy and I were keeping an eye on our smoker last night.” That was true. Sort of. He managed not to look at either Chico or the mayor or Darcy as she stepped up beside him to hear what he had to say. “We saw a lot of smoke coming from the end of the row. I headed up there, and it was Burke’s booth. His guy was asleep in his chair and the smoker was running way too hot. I woke him up, but he was too woozy to know what to do. I stopped him from opening the lid or throwing water on it. Then I told him to close down the dampers to smother the fire, but he didn’t understand. So I did it myself.”

Rankin nodded as he chewed his pork sandwich. “Makes sense. The trouble is, the only ones who were there were you and your lady friend and Burke’s guy Shoney.”

Harris’s shoulders tightened. “What does he say?”

“Says it wasn’t that bad. Just a normal fire. Said he could have put it out with a spray bottle.”

Darcy snorted. “He was going to pour his whole water jug over it. On a grease fire. That would have set the whole place off.” She folded her arms across her chest, her serving spoon dangling from her fingers. Harris hoped she had somebody dishing up coleslaw in her absence to keep the line moving.

Rankin nodded again. “Yeah, I heard that too.” He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, then turned to Harris. “People said you got hit by that flash flood last week. You got much damage?”

Harris sliced off a little more brisket as Andy handed him a plate. “Some.”

Rankin frowned. “You got flood insurance?”

He shook his head. “I took a chance and got nailed. Didn’t expect a flood in the middle of a drought.”

“Right.” Rankin took a final bite of pork. “That’s always the way, I guess. Either too much rain or too little.”

On the line, Gray shifted slightly, frowning in his direction. Harris decided to ignore him. “I’ll see about taking care of that once we get through this.”