Chicken Club Murder (The Darling Deli Series Book 21) Read online

  The interior of David’s car was still warm, and she felt herself relax almost as soon as she slid into the plush seat. Her daughter was staring at her, blue eyes wide and worried.

  “I’m fine,” Moira assured her.

  “I was so worried. What happened?”

  She told the story for what felt like the hundredth time that day, skipping over the more gruesome parts out of habit from the days she used to read to Candice before bed. Old habits die hard, she thought.

  When she finished, her daughter looked even more concerned. “Are you sure he wasn’t anyone we know?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “Dark hair, kind of stocky. His hands were tan. I think he was probably around my age.”

  Candice relaxed a fraction. “What was he doing there?” she mused. “Do you think he was a stalker, Mom?”

  Her daughter’s words gave her pause. She hadn’t told the young woman about the person that had taken pictures of her a couple of days before. She hadn’t even considered that the two events might be related, but Candice might just be on to something, even though the thought was absurd. A stalker? Her? She was in her forties, for goodness sake. She thought she looked all right for someone her age, but she definitely wasn’t the type that would attract a stalker.

  Any yet, someone had been taking pictures of her.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I really don’t. The whole thing is just weird. If it’s okay with you, I’d rather talk about something else.”

  “Of course. What do you want to talk about?”

  “I’m not sure. Anything. What happened to you this morning? You and David both disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

  To her surprise, her daughter grinned. “Yeah. He was helping me with something for you. We wanted to do a big Mother’s Day thing to surprise you. We were going to meet here at eleven, since we knew you’d be here by then to get the deli ready for the day. We had a banner, and we packed your favorite foods, and I got you a present. We thought you’d be surprised.”

  “I would have been.” Moira laughed. “I wasn’t expecting anything. I thought David had just run in to the office or something, and I assumed you were busy with Eli and the new house.”

  “Sorry. I felt a little bit bad not getting back to you about our lunch, but I knew that if I talked to you you’d know something was up.” The young woman glanced at the deli and sighed. “Though it looks like it was all for nothing. It would be weird to celebrate now.”

  “Maybe we can all go back to the house after this. We can still eat the food you packed, and I’m sure the three of us will want to talk about all of this.”

  “All right,” Candice agreed. “We can—oh my gosh, is that the body?”

  Moira looked up to see the paramedics wheeling a shrouded form out through the deli’s front doors. She fought the urge to cover her daughter’s eyes with her hand. Instead, she answered her.

  “Yes.”

  “Wow. That’s horrible. It’s one thing to hear about a body, but to actually see it, even when it’s covered…” Candice shook her head. “It must have been horrible to find.”

  “It was. I’m sure I’ll have nightmares about it for a while.” She shook herself and reached for the door handle. “It looks like David is done talking to Detective Jefferson. I should see if he needs anything else before I leave.”

  When she asked Jefferson if he had any more questions for her, he shook his head. “I know where to find you if anything else comes up. Unfortunately, we’re going to need to ask you to keep the deli closed for a couple of days. I know it’s going to affect your revenue, but this is a complex crime. I don’t want to risk missing anything. Once evidence is destroyed, there’s no getting it back.”

  “I guessed as much,” she said. “I’m more concerned about finding out who did this, and why, than about selling soup. We’ll be fine, so don’t feel like you should rush.”

  “Take it easy, all right?” he said. “Something like this, it takes a while to recover from.”

  She nodded, wondering if she would ever forget the image of the dead man slumped against the counter out of her mind. It would be hard to look at the deli the same way again.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  * * *

  The three of them went back to the house after that. The sight of Maverick’s happy face and Keeva’s soulful brown eyes instantly boosted her mood. The dogs reminded her that pure good existed, even in a world where a man could be stabbed to death and left for her to find.

  “First things first,” David said. “Let’s watch the video footage.”

  Moira and her daughter both stared at him in confusion.

  “From the security cameras?” He raised his eyebrows. “Or would you rather eat first?”

  “Let’s watch it now,” Moira said. “If it shows who did this, I want to know.”

  Her husband nodded and went upstairs to retrieve his laptop. When he came back down, he joined the three of them at the kitchen table.

  Darling’s DELIcious Delights had three security cameras and one motion detector. One camera was above the front door, another looked over the register and the eating area, and the last one was installed above the employee entrance. The motion detector was in the kitchen. She had decided not to put a camera in that room for her employee’s benefit. No one wanted to work somewhere where they were being watched the entire time, and she didn’t think it would be fair to put her employees in that sort of position.

  The cameras’ footage was stored online, and was deleted automatically after seven days. David selected the footage from the night before, and began to fast-forward through it. Moira always felt a little bit uneasy when she watched footage of the deli at night. It reminded her of those horror movies where a ghost was caught on camera.

  Nothing happened until past dawn. David slowed the video down to normal speed when the hooded figure appeared by the side door. He paused it just as the person reached for the knob, and all three of them leaned forward to look.

  It had been drizzling out that morning, and the wet weather combined with the poor resolution of the video camera made it impossible to tell more about the person other than that he or she was wearing some sort of dark jacket with a hood that was pulled up to cover their face. The person’s shoes weren’t visible—the camera cut him off at the knee. From the little the shot suggested, he or she seemed to be of about average height and average weight. All in all, it wasn’t a very helpful image.

  David and Candice exchanged a look. The private investigator raised an eyebrow, and Candice shook her head.

  “Logan ended up staying home,” she said. “I already texted him to check.”

  Moira looked between her husband and daughter, confused. A question was on her tongue, when David pressed the play button. She would ask later. Just then, her attention was drawn by the man breaking into her deli.

  They watched as the person fiddled with the doorknob. He dropped something that they couldn’t see, picked it up, and then finally got the door unlocked. Had he used a key, or lock picks? Moira couldn’t tell, though David might be able to guess from the movements.

  After the person went into the deli, they had no way to see him unless he ventured into the main room. David kept the footage playing, but shrank the screen and pulled up a complicated-looking file alongside it.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “The alarm records the time and date of each activation and deactivation,” he explained. “This spreadsheet shows the past week’s history.” He raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure I showed you this when we first installed the system.”

  “David, you know how terrible I am with technology. I can work my tablet and my phone, and I know how to disarm the alarm, but that’s about it. Besides, that was almost two years ago.”

  “Remind me to show you how to access this information later. I thought you knew about it. It’s a useful tool to have at your disposal if there�
��s ever any sort of incident with your employees.”

  He typed on the computer for another second, and eventually highlighted a row of numbers.

  “It looks like our culprit deactivated the alarm, which is why the motion detector didn’t alert you. Look right here; you can see he got the code right on the first try.”

  Moira nodded, a few numbers out of the confusion beginning to make sense to her.

  “Who all knows the code, Mom?” Candice asked, frowning.

  “All of the employees. You. David. Myself. I think I gave it to one of the maintenance men that was in last month. Martha has it; I asked her and Denise to stop in and grab something after hours a while ago, while we were on our honeymoon. Or maybe it was Denise that I gave the code to. Oh, and Karissa.”

  David looked surprised at her answer. “That’s a lot of people. Once we can get back into the deli, I’ll help you change the code. Really, only you and your employees should have it. Sharing it with your family is okay, but no one else should know.”

  “I know, I’ve just been busy and sometimes it’s easier to tell people the code than to meet them there. I kept meaning to change it, but it didn’t seem important at the time.”

  “Well, don’t worry about it too much. We still don’t know who this person is. One of your employees could have let something slip. How many people have a key?”

  “Other than me? You, Candice, and the employees. Plus the spare one I keep in the junk drawer here.”

  “That’s not too many people, though I suppose anyone could have made a copy.”

  “Hey, there’s someone else,” Candice said, looking at the screen.

  Moira focused on the computer and saw that someone else had indeed entered the view of the camera. With how blurry the image was, it was difficult to be sure, but she was almost certain that this was the dark-haired mad that had died.

  So, the person who unlocked the door and disarmed the alarm wasn’t the guy who died, she thought. She didn’t know what it meant, but it was interesting. Had they been working together? There were still so many questions she had. It was frustrating to see only bits and pieces of the story play out.

  The man pushed the door open. He didn’t seem surprised to find it unlocked. She saw a bundle in his arms, but couldn’t tell if it was the flowers or something else.

  After he disappeared through the door, David pulled up the other cameras. It wasn’t long before the man came into view in the camera that looked over the main room. They could only see the very top of his head; he was standing right behind the counter.

  Less than a minute later, the man turned around. Another couple of seconds passed before his body jerked, and he slid out of view.

  The last thing the cameras showed was the first man running out the back door. He didn’t look back as he vanished into the rain.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  * * *

  Moira tossed and turned all night. The footage from the security cameras had been more frustrating than helpful, and didn’t help to answer any of the questions she had. Who were the two men? Why had one of them stabbed the other? Why did they leave flowers in her kitchen?

  None of it made sense. Even David, whose judgment she trusted above anyone else’s, couldn’t figure it out. She had spent hours discussing the murder with him and Candice the night before, but they had simply spent the time coming up with more and more outlandish theories.

  It felt as if she had just fallen asleep when David nudged her back awake. She forced her eyes open and mumbled at him.

  “Moira, wake up. The police want to see us.”

  Something in his tone—or maybe it was the word “police”—helped to wake her up quickly. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was a hair past seven-thirty. Her husband was already fully dressed, and was offering her a cup of coffee. She took it gratefully.

  “Thanks,” she muttered. “What’s going on?”

  “Detective Jefferson called me at seven. I’m surprised it didn’t wake you.”

  “It took me a while to fall asleep,” she said. “What did he want?”

  “They… found something,” he said grimly. “He wants us to come down to the station to take a look at it.”

  Frowning, the deli owner set the mug down. They found something? What on earth could they have found that made David look so worried?

  “All right, I’ll get dressed.” She covered up a yawn and shot another glance at the clock. Oh well, she thought. I can take a nap later. It’s not like I’ll be going into the deli today.

  It was past eight by the time she had showered, dressed, and gotten into the car. David pulled out of the driveway without a word and drove towards town. It was early enough that mist still clung to the low parts of the land, and she watched the soft white wisps instead of watching her husband. She didn’t like the look in his eyes. He looked concerned, but also angry.

  Is he upset with me? she puzzled. It didn’t seem likely, but it didn’t seem like he would be mad at Jefferson either. Unless… unless the detective thought she might be involved in the mysterious death.

  That thought was enough to occupy her until they reached the police station. It wouldn’t be the first time that she had been accused of a crime, but that didn’t make the idea any easier for her to stomach. Surely Detective Jefferson knew her well enough by now to know that she wouldn’t kill anybody? And he must have seen the footage. It was obvious that neither figure shown on camera was her. They body type was all wrong; neither had had her curves.

  “Well, we’re here,” David said. His tone was grim.

  She reached over and squeezed his hand. He returned a faint smile. It might have been reassuring, but he couldn’t hide the worry in his eyes.

  “Let’s go in,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “I want to see what Detective Jefferson found.”

  The Maple Creek police station was small, and probably more comfortable to her than it should have been. She waved at the woman behind the glass, and the woman returned the gesture with a smile.

  If I am in trouble, not everyone knows it yet, she mused. Detective Jefferson appeared to have been waiting for them, because only seconds after they walked in, he poked his head through the door that led to the rest of the station, including the offices.

  “Come back, please,” he said.

  They followed him. When they reached his office, he let them go in first, then shut the door behind him. Her gestured at the two chairs across the desk from his seat.

  “Go ahead and take a seat,” he said. “Do you want coffee or anything?”

  They both declined. Well, we aren’t in an interview room, Moira thought. That’s got to be good news.

  “Let’s get started, then.”

  She thought the detective’s words sounded almost reluctant. He settled himself into his leather chair and clicked the mouse a few times before looking up.

  “Now, Ms. Darling, these might come as a shock to you. I need you to tell me if you remember any of these being taken.”

  Utterly confused, Moira agreed. The detective turned the screen around so it was facing them. The deli owner found herself staring at… pictures of herself.

  “What is this?” she asked. “Where did you get these?”

  “They were found on a camera in the… victim’s pocket.”

  Moira noticed his hesitation before calling the man a victim. She didn’t blame him. Whoever this guy was, he definitely wasn’t an innocent bystander.

  Jefferson continued, “He had a couple of pictures printed out and stored in his wallet as well. He didn’t have any identification, unfortunately. No driver’s license, no credit cards, just photos and some cash.”

  She hardly heard him. Her eyes were glued to the imaged on the computer screen. They were all photos of her, dating back at least two months, but she didn’t remember having any of them taken. One of the ones near the top caught her eye. It was a photo of her in the hammock with a book. She could see the two dogs in t
he background. It was a nice photo, but seeing it gave her chills.

  She did remember this one being taken. It was from the day that she had felt someone watching her.

  There were photos of her at the deli, as well. One or two seemed to have been taken from inside the building, but most had been taken through the glass. They showed her laughing, smiling, and interacting with customers. One showed her getting into her car after work.

  It wasn’t just her deli that the mysterious camera man had invaded. There were photos of her at home, as well—photos other than the one on the hammock. She saw herself going in and out of the front door, throwing sticks for the dogs, and looking out the living room window with a cup of coffee.

  Her eyes slid over the one where she was drinking coffee, and she gasped when she saw what was next. It was a photo of her moving a large branch off of the driveway. What made it different was that, unlike the others, this one was taken from a height, from someone that had a perspective facing away from the house.

  Either someone had been on the roof, or this photo had been taken from their bedroom window.

  CHAPTER NINE

  * * *

  This can’t be happening, Moira thought. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the photo. Someone had been in their house without their knowledge. This person had wandered around freely with a camera, invading their private lives.

  David tensed beside her. She knew that he had seen it too.

  “There are photos here that were taken from inside our home,” he snapped at Detective Jefferson. “What was going through this sick person’s mind?”

  “I doubt we’ll ever know. The dead don’t tend to give many explanations.” The police detective looked at David sharply. “I know a couple of good defense attorneys I could put you in touch with if you think you need—”

  “Wait, are you saying you think David killed him?” Moira asked, finally tearing her gaze away from the screen. “That’s insane.”