Corned Beef Murder: Book Two in The Darling Deli Series Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CORNED BEEF MURDER

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Corned Beef Murder

  Book Two 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.

  CORNED BEEF MURDER

  Book Two of The Darling Deli Series

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Big dinner plans?” Moira Darling asked with a smile as she rang up her customer’s items. The elderly man had bought a selection of summer sausages, cold cuts, Amish-made cheeses, and frozen homemade soups—far more than he usually bought on his weekly stop to her deli.

  “I’m stocking up, just in case,” he replied. “Once the storm hits, I’m going to be snowed in.”

  “There’s a storm on the way?” she asked. One of the downsides of spending so much time at her store was that she didn’t have much free time to do anything else, like watch the news.

  “Sure is,” he nodded. “And it looks like it’ll be a bad one. The radio said that there would be record snow and wind speed. It’s going to be worse than last year. The worst we’ve had in fifty years, in fact. You should bring some extra necessities home too, and stock up on blankets and candles.” Moira shuddered as she remembered last year’s blizzard when over half of the small town had been without power for nearly a week.

  “Thanks for the warning.” She finished carefully putting his items in the paper bag, then handed the bundle across the counter to him. “Have a nice evening, and keep warm.” Smiling, Moira watched her customer leave the deli, and then glanced at the clock. Only two hours left until closing time. It looked like she would have some shopping to do once she got out of here, though she hoped that the storm wouldn’t be as bad as her customer seemed to expect. It would be a pity to have to close the deli down for a few days—most of her fresh produce had to be used quickly to keep it from going bad.

  Darling’s DELIcious Delights was her pride and joy—her very own business that she had built from the ground up. Her homemade soups, sandwiches, and salads were surprisingly popular in the small town, and the delicious meats, Amish cheeses, and artisan drinks that she sold weren’t found anywhere else for miles around.

  At just over forty, divorced once, Moira had gone through a long period where she thought that she had already achieved all that she would do in life. Opening the deli had taken some nudging from her daughter, Candice, but it had turned out to be the best decision that she had ever made. Not only did it provide a much-needed source of income, but running the business had given her a new goal in life, and it had proved that the best part of her life was yet to come.

  The last few hours before closing passed quickly, with a steady stream of her regular customers coming in. She traded pleasant words with each of them, glad to see that the citizens of Maple Creek seemed to have decided that it was safe to shop at the deli again. Just a couple of months ago, the entire town had thought that she had murdered one of her competitors in cold blood. While she had eventually been able to prove her innocence, Moira still felt a twinge of sadness whenever she thought of the real murderer sitting in prison.

  “All right, Ms. D, it looks like it’s time to close up.” Darrin, her original employee, came out of the kitchen with his coat over one shoulder and a warm bowl of soup in his hand. She always let her employees take home the leftover soup, and she knew that the young people that worked for her appreciated the free meals.

  “Enjoy your day off, Darrin,” she told him. “Hopefully you’ll be able to meet the new employee next time you come in.” She had been putting off hiring a new person, but knew that it wasn’t fair to Darrin and her daughter to have to pick up the extra shifts.

  The next day was clear and bright, with the sun sparkling off the pure white snow that covered the small town of Maple Creek. There was not a sign of the promised storm in the sky, but Moira knew how quickly Michigan weather could change. As a precaution, she had taken the advice of the elderly gentleman, and had stopped at Tulman’s Fresh Market, the local grocery store, on the way home. Even if they didn’t end up getting snowed in, the extra hand- and foot-warmers would be nice if the power went out again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The deli didn’t serve breakfast, so she was free to take long mornings if she wanted to. It was just after ten-thirty when she got to the deli, and she took a moment to enjoy the familiar smells of spices and food and the silence that came from being the only one in the building. The little shop was like a second home to her, and she was beyond relieved that business was doing well again. In such a small town, reputation really was everything.

  After tidying up and making sure the cases in the front room were freshly stocked, she got down to the real work. She began by slicing the rye bread that had been defrosting in the refrigerator overnight, making sure that the slices were as even as possible. Next, she double-checked that they had plenty of corned beef and swiss cheese. The sandwiches would be made fresh for each customer, toasted and with just a dash of horseradish sauce.

  She started on the soup, carefully chopping mushrooms as the creamy soup base simmered. wild rice and mushroom soup was one of her favorites, and Moira could feel her stomach growl as the savory scents filled the kitchen. Even after over two years of owning the deli, she hadn’t gotten tired of eating the food that she sold there, although she did usually make one or two meals a week for her and Candice that didn’t involve soup or sandwiches.

  Even though her daughter had been the one to encourage her to open the deli, the young woman hadn’t been around much for most of the time the business had been open. She had spent two years at college to get an associate’s degree, and had only recently moved back. Moira loved her daughter, and appreciated how helpful she was at the store and at home, but she often worried that the girl only stayed in Maple Creek for her. She just hadn’t quite figured out yet how to encourage her daughter to follow her dreams without making her feel unwelcome. The familiar sound of the deli’s front door being opened distracted her briefly; a moment later, as if summoned by her mother’s thoughts, Candice walked in.

  “Wow, Mom, it smells delicious in here.”

  “Go sign in, and I’ll whip us up some sandwiches before we start getting customers,” Moira offered. “The soup won’t be done for another twenty minutes or so, but we can take leftovers home.”

  “If there are any leftovers,” Candice replied as she stored her purse and coat in the closet. “I’m pretty sure we’ll have the whole town at our doors once they catch a whiff of that. Oh, what time are you going to interview the last applicant?”

  “At one,” she responded. “Afterwards, do you want to help me go through everyone we interviewed and fin
ally choose someone?”

  “Sure. It will be neat to have someone new around. I won’t be the rookie anymore.”

  Ten minutes to one, the last person that she was interviewing arrived at the deli. He’s early, Moira thought. He gets points for that. The young man was sharply dressed and greeted her politely.

  “Dante Williams,” he said. “And are you Mrs. Darling?”

  “I prefer Ms.,” she told him. “I’m not married.” She smiled to let him know that she wasn’t upset, and then gestured for him to follow her. They went through the door to the kitchen, where Candice was toasting a couple of slices of rye for one of their customers.

  “I’m going to start the interview now,” she told her daughter. “Can you watch the register once you’re done here? We shouldn’t be long.”

  “Sure thing.”

  “Right this way, Dante. I hope you found the place all right. If I remember your cover letter correctly, you said you were new to town?”

  * * *

  “What did you think of him?” Candice asked once the young man had left.

  “Well, he fits all of my requirements. He’s got a flexible schedule, good references, and he seems to know his way around food. But nearly everyone I interviewed fit those requirements.” Moira sighed. “I just don’t know how to choose. These days, I don’t have the best track record on judging character.”

  “Hey, you did a good job with Darrin.” She gave her mother a one-armed hug before turning to the pot of soup on the stove to ladle some of it into a to-go bowl for a customer. “Just trust your instincts, Mom. We all make mistakes sometimes.” She paused. “But if you want my two cents, go with Dante.”

  “Why?” Moira agreed that Dante seemed like a good choice, but was curious about her daughter’s reasoning.

  “Because he’s cute and he’s new to town, so he probably doesn’t have a girlfriend yet,” Candice said with a grin. Laughing, Moira had to agree. The young man had curly brown hair, olive-colored skin, and dark gray eyes that seemed to take in everything. If only I were twenty years younger, she thought. Then the face of David Morris, the private investigator that she had hired during the murder investigation, seemed to flash across her vision. He was single, as far as she knew, and devastatingly handsome with his salt-and-pepper hair and shockingly blue eyes. Maybe being older wasn’t so bad, if only she had the time to actually go on a date every once in a while.

  “Tell you what,” she told her daughter. “I’ll give him a chance. You give him a call and let him know he can come in tomorrow.”

  “Awesome. Thanks, Mom.” They walked through the door to the front room, where Candice handed her customer his bowl of soup. Two women were in line behind him, and Moira recognized her friends right away.

  “Emilia. It’s great to see you again. Are you feeling better?” she asked.

  “Oh, a bit. It’s one of my better days.” She and Emilia had been friends for years. The older woman had often babysat Candice when she was younger, long before Moira ran her own business, when she still had to go into an office every day.

  “That’s good to hear. Hi, Martha,” she added with a smile at the woman standing next to Emilia. Martha, Emilia’s younger sister and caretaker, smiled back at her. Martha and Moira were nearly the same age, and had been friendly since Martha had moved back to Maple Creek to take care of her older sister.

  “Hey, Moira. Glad to see business is good. We won’t hold you up for too long. Can I have the special today?” she asked, glancing at the small blackboard that announced the soup and sandwich combo of the day.

  “Of course,” she said. “And you, Emilia?”

  “Oh, just a small bowl of the soup, please. We’ll also take a package of the honey-glazed ham, if that’s not too much trouble.”

  “Not at all.” Moira went to get the meat out of the refrigerated case while Candice went to the back to get the soup and make a fresh sandwich for Martha.

  “Have you two heard about the storm that’s supposed to hit this evening?” she asked while they were waiting for her daughter to come back with the food.

  “I saw it on the weather report last night. Thanks to Martha, I now have enough blankets, candles, and firewood to last me for the next ten years.” Emilia gave her younger sister an affectionate smile. “I told her I would make do with what I already had, but she insisted on taking me shopping today before she goes out of town.”

  “I don’t want to worry about you freezing while I’m gone,” Martha replied. “Is the cell phone I gave you fully charged?”

  “Yes, yes, and it’s in my nightstand. I did manage to survive on my own for the last forty years, you know,” Emilia said in a gently chiding voice. “Plus, that repair man will be in and out to fix the burst pipe in the basement, as long as the roads are clear. He’ll keep an eye on me too.” She chuckled. “I feel like a two-year-old. I don’t need babysitting, you know.” Moira smiled at their good-natured bickering. She often wished that she had better relationships with her own family members, but her family had never been close. She had one older brother who had left for college before she’d started high school. While she still saw him a couple of times a year, they just didn’t have the same bond that the two sisters in front of her did.

  When Candice returned with the two soups and the toasted sandwich, she and her mother bid the two sisters farewell. Moira watched as they exited the deli and walked carefully across the snowy parking lot to their old station wagon. Martha helped Emilia into the passenger seat, and then bent down to say something to her sister. A moment later, she was walking quickly back towards the store.

  “Did you forget something?” Moira asked when the other woman had made it back inside. She glanced at the counter, but didn’t see anything that Martha could have left behind.

  “No, I actually wanted to talk to you without Emilia around,” the sister replied. “I was hoping you could do a huge favor for me.”

  “Sure,” the deli owner said. “What is it?”

  “Well, I’m going down to Traverse City for a conference tomorrow. I’ll be gone for two days. Now, normally I wouldn’t worry about it, but with this big storm coming, and Emilia still not feeling so well, I don’t like the idea of her being all alone in that big house of hers for the whole time. Do you think you could stop by and check on her tomorrow, once the roads get plowed?” Martha asked.

  “Of course, it would be my pleasure.” Emilia’s house, a huge ancient home that was often on the Historical Homes tour in the summer, wasn’t much farther from the deli than Moira’s own house was, though it was the opposite direction. It would be easy enough to stop there tomorrow after closing up the deli, as long as the winter storm was over and the roads were clear. She could even bring her old friend some warm soup for dinner, which would be a great excuse for a sudden visit.

  “Here’s a key,” Martha said, reaching into her purse. “Just in case you need it.” She paused and glanced over her shoulder, as if to make sure her older sister wasn’t somehow listening in. Just… don’t tell her that I asked you to do this, okay? She hates it when I treat her like she can’t take care of herself.” Martha sighed. “She still wants to act like she’s thirty. One of these days, she’s going to bite off more than she can chew.”

  Moira and Candice locked the deli up before they left. The sky was heavy with dark clouds by then, and flurries had started. Moira had made a sign for the front door that read Closed due to weather, come back tomorrow. She wasn’t certain that she would be able to open the deli the next day, if the storm was as bad as the man on the local radio station was making it out to be.

  The wind was gusting around her car by the time she got home. The last few minutes of driving had been stressful; she couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her, even with her brights on, and the familiar roads were almost unrecognizable in the snow. Her porch, which she had cleared that morning, already had a few inches of fresh snow on it, and drifts were starting to build up around her house. Once s
he and her daughter had gotten inside, they could hear the howling and moaning of the wind as it blasted against the house, finding tiny cracks and holes to force itself through.

  Moira got started on dinner immediately, since she didn’t know how much longer the power would last. Once the wild rice and mushroom soup had reheated on her stove, and the crispy rye sandwiches with melted swiss were made, she called Candice to the table. She was just taking her first bite of the creamy delicious soup when the lights went dark.

  She got up to fetch a few table candles which her daughter helped her light. They ate the rest of their meal in the warm, flickering candlelight. Now all that’s left to do is to keep warm during the night, and hope that the power comes back on sooner than it did last year, she thought, though she knew that there wasn’t a hope of that until the storm had run its course. She was thankful that she was at home, with her daughter, right now—there was nowhere else that she would rather be. Her thoughts went to poor Emilia, sitting all alone in her big house. She promised herself that she would stop by and check on her friend as soon as it was safe to do so.

  CHAPTER THREE

  It was still snowing heavily the next morning, although the winds had nearly stopped, except for the occasional gusts that picked up the loose powdery snow on the ground and pushed it into high drifts against trees, rocks, and her car. I’ll have to do some digging to get out of the driveway, she thought as she gazed out the front window at the snowy scene before her. Though I’m not going anywhere until the plows come. It was beautiful, though. There was no denying that. Each branch on the trees was coated in white, and the silently falling snow made the world outside her window look like a wonderland. The snowfall was so thick that she couldn’t even see her nearest neighbor’s house; with no power, the whole street was dark. Not a single car drove by as she watched.

  “Hey, Mom,” a voice behind her said softly. She turned away from the window to find Candice standing behind her, biting her lip in a nervous expression.