Salami Murder: Book 8 in The Darling Deli Series (3 page)

“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked anyway.

“I don’t think so,” Candice said. “Pretty much everything is done. I’m just waiting for Matt—he’s one of the workers—to finish up in the kitchen. There was some sort of problem with one of the outlets, and he’s been in there for the last few hours trying to get it fixed.”

“Nothing serious, I hope?” Moira asked, concern lacing her voice. The last thing her daughter needed was for something to complicate the opening day of her store.

“I don’t think so. He said it shouldn’t take very long, and that he would try to be done and out of here by the time the store officially opens.”

“That’s good.” She smiled at her daughter. “Are you excited?”

“Excited… nervous… I’m not sure which is stronger,” Candice said with a quiet laugh. “I keep thinking… what if no one shows up?”

“People will show up,” Moira assured her. “Look, here’s your first customer,” she added as David walked through the front door. The private investigator had a white box in his arms, and Moira recognized the local bakery’s logo. She smiled when she saw the stack of paper plates on top of the box. She could always count on him to think a few steps ahead.

“It looks like you two already started the party without me,” he said with amusement, eying the smorgasbord of food that Moira had been taking out of the paper bag.

“Don’t worry, we haven’t started eating yet,” she told him with a grin.

“Wow, thanks so much,” Candice said, staring at the cake box. “I thought we were just going to grab a quick bite before we got busy.”

“This was all your mother’s idea,” David told her. “I just did the best I could to pick the right cake. How does it look?”

He opened the box and turned it towards them so the two women could see it. Inside was a round three layered cake, each layer frosted in a different pastel color—pink, blue, and green—to match the colors that Candice had chosen for her store. On top were the words
Congratulations, Candice!
in white letters, surrounded by a few artfully placed pieces of candy. Moira glanced up at David and mouthed “thank you” at him as Candice’s face broke into a grin.

“It’s wonderful,” she said. “Thank you, both of you.”

The three of them pulled stools up to the register and dug in, first eating the lunch that Moira had packed for them before turning to the cake. It was so beautiful that she was almost reluctant to cut into it, but if the bakery’s reputation was true, then it would likely taste just as good as it looked.

“To a prosperous future,” David said once each of them had a piece of cake on their plates. He lifted his bottle of raspberry sparkling water in a toast. Candice and Moira mirrored his gesture, and they each took a drink before digging into the delicious cake.

“That was even better than I expected,” Moira said when her piece was gone. She gazed at the cake in the box, more than half of which remained, toying with the idea of taking another piece.
Just a small one
, she thought. After all, it wasn’t every day that her daughter would be opening the doors of her first business.

“What are we going to do with the leftovers?” Candice asked. In addition to the leftover cake, there were also a few unopened sandwiches and an extra bowl of soup.

“I shouldn’t have brought so much,” Moira said regretfully. “We can put the leftovers in the fridge, I guess. That way we’ll have something more substantial than candy to eat if we get hungry later.”

“Sure,” the young woman said. She rose from her stool and began putting the sandwiches back in the paper bag. “After that, I’ll run upstairs and fix my makeup. I want everything to be perfect for the grand opening.”

“I’ll take care of all of this,” her mother told her. “You just go get ready.” Candice gave her a quick hug, then hurried out the back door. Moira could hear as she ascended the stairs leading to the apartment above the candy shop.

“I’ll take care of the trash,” David told her. “Do you need help carrying anything to the kitchen?”

“I think I’ll be able to manage on my own,” she replied. “Thanks again for getting the cake. It was just perfect. Are you sure you can’t stay longer?”

“I wish I could,” he said regretfully. “But I have an appointment with a client. It’s been a while since I’ve taken on a new case, so hopefully this will lead to something.”

“Good luck,” Moira told him. They exchanged a quick hug before Moira gathered up the remains of their lunch and made her way to the back of the shop.

With the cake box balanced on one hand and the paper bag containing the sandwiches and soup under the other arm, it was all she could do not to drop anything as she hip bumped the kitchen door open and pushed her way inside. The candy shop’s kitchen had previously been a storage room for the toy store, and the room retained a cavernous feel. It had already had plumbing, to an extent, when Candice bought the building, but no gas lines or appliances. Getting the room renovated and up to code had been an intensive project, but now that it was done it looked great, with shiny new appliances and rows of rolling shelves for Candice to store her homemade candy on.

Humming quietly to herself, Moira tugged the fridge open and found a space to slide the cake box. She put the bag of sandwiches in the door, then almost jumped out of her skin when a loud beeping sounded from somewhere behind her. She let the fridge door swing shut and turned around to find the source of the noise.

It seemed to be coming from the outlet next to the stove, where a small machine with a blinking red light was plugged. Moira approached it curiously. A moment later it beeped again, and she realized that it must be some sort of voltage tester. She remembered Candice saying that there had been some sort of problem with an outlet back here; from the looks of things, the problem had been resolved.
Good
, she thought.
One last thing for Candice to worry about.

She turned back to the fridge to make sure that it had shut all the way, but stumbled to a stop when she saw the slouched form in the corner next to the shiny stainless steel refrigerator. Her breath caught in her throat and she took a hesitant step forward, half wanting to check the man’s pulse even though the trickle of congealing blood down his forehead and the glazed, blank look in his open eyes left little doubt that he was dead.

She managed to catch David before he left, her rubbery legs barely supporting her as she stumbled back into the main room of the candy shop. He gave her a sharp, concerned glance.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Moira couldn’t bring herself to say out loud what she had seen, but managed to choke out the words “the kitchen,” and point towards the back of the store. David frowned and hesitated for a moment, then strode towards the door that lead to the back. A few minutes later he returned, his cell phone pressed to his ear and his face pale. He put a comforting hand on Moira’s shoulder, and when she looked up at him he glanced towards the ceiling his eyebrows raised questioningly. Feeling sick to her stomach, she knew that he wanted her to get Candice. Though the last thing she wanted to do was be the bearer of bad news for her daughter, she knew he was right. Candice had to know what had happened back there, and better that she heard it from her mother than from anybody else.

While David was on the phone with the police, Moira made her way up the stairs that led to her daughter’s apartment. She took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. The sight of the dead man seemed to be burned into her eyelids. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t noticed him as soon as she had walked into the kitchen. As soon as she had laid eyes on him, she had been unable to look anywhere else.

Candice answered her mother’s knock at the door just as the wail of sirens started in the distance. The young woman’s happy, excited expression dropped as soon as she saw the look on Moira’s face.

“What happened?” she asked.

“One of the workers that you hired is dead,” the deli owner told her daughter, her voice shaking. “I think you need to come downstairs. The police will have questions for you.”

Within minutes, the candy shop was full of people. Police officers and paramedics crowded into the building, and the intermittent flash of a camera eerily lit the back hallway as a crime scene photographer did his job. Moira glanced at the clock and realized that the candy shop’s grand opening was supposed to begin in only a few minutes.
It looks like the only crowd in this store today will be one made up of law enforcement,
she thought. The grand opening would have to wait until another day, when the candy store was no longer a crime scene.

She was sitting at the counter, having already given her statement to the officer who had been the first on scene. Now she watched as Candice and David gave theirs.
Was it murder?
she found herself wondering.
Or could it have been an accident? Maybe he slipped and hit his head on something.
She closed her eyes, then snapped them open again as image of the dead man appeared in her mind’s eye.

David’s gaze met hers from across the room, and she knew from the cloud of worry in them that he assumed the worst.
Surely we would have heard a murder happening right under our noses,
she thought, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck rise at the thought that the killer had been in the building with them while they were laughing and eating cake.

“Matt was so nice,” Candice said sadly a few minutes later once she had given her statement to the police. “I feel terrible for his family. I met his daughter. She was so excited for the candy shop to open.”

The three of them had been allowed to leave the crime scene, and were now sitting in David’s office while the forensics team finished combing through the candy shop. David had called and rescheduled his meeting with the client, for which Moira was grateful. If anyone could help her and Candice figure out what was going on, it was him.

“Her life will never be the same,” she said, agreeing with her daughter. “I hope his family gets answers quickly.” She knew firsthand just how deeply this man’s death would affect his family—she and Candice had gone through the same thing not long ago. The three of them fell into a subdued silence.

“Did they tell you how long it will be before the candy shop can reopen?” David asked after a moment.

“The detective said the day after tomorrow. But…” Candice paused for a moment, looking uncomfortable. “Well, I’m not sure I want to open the candy shop right away, not after this. It feels wrong somehow.”

“I understand,” Moira said gently, patting her daughter’s hand. “I don’t think it would be right to have your grand opening right away either. Give the family some time to grieve, first, at least.”

“You don’t think I’ll lose too much business?” Candice asked anxiously. “I don’t want to wait too long, either. Summer is almost over, and I’ve hardly even gotten my name out there yet.”

“I think it will be much better for business in the long run if you wait,” David said, chiming in. “I think the people of this town will be much more impressed by your respect for Matt than if you rushed the grand opening.”

Candice nodded, and Moira was glad that the young woman wouldn’t have to choose between respecting the dead man and doing what was good for business. She agreed with David’s assessment; the townspeople would likely have a lot more respect for Candice if she put her plans on hold, instead of rushing forward with business ruthlessly.

“I just don’t understand what happened,” her daughter said, biting her lower lip in distress. “I spoke to him only a few hours ago and he was fine.”

“Had anyone else been there this morning?” the private investigator asked. “Maybe a delivery man, or another worker?”

“No,” Candice said with a shake of her head. “Just him. And me, of course. I mean, I suppose he might have had someone else over to help him; I was pretty busy putting the last minute finishing touches on everything.” Disappointment flickered across her face and Moira knew she was thinking of the wonderful grand opening that was supposed to have started only half an hour ago. None of them could have expected the day’s dark turn.
The candy store already has a bad start
, she thought superstitiously.
Will Candice ever manage to get it up and on its feet?

“How about the video cameras?” David asked. “They should have caught anyone who came in or out the entire day.”

Abashed that they hadn’t thought of it before, Moira got her tablet out and let Candice log in to her account, where the video camera footage was stored online. Candice leaned the tablet against a stack of papers and began fast-forwarding through the hours. It only took them a few minutes to find the right time. All three of them leaned in curiously.

At first the footage showed only Candice and Matt walking in and out through the back door. When the other person appeared, they almost missed it. Candice hurriedly rewound to the right time, then played the video at normal speed.

A person—it was impossible to tell from the camera’s angle if the person was male or female—wearing a dark sweatshirt and a baseball cap pulled low over their eyes walked quickly through the candy shop’s back door and disappeared from view. Candice fast-forwarded again, about ten minutes, until they saw the person walking out more quickly. No matter how many times they tried pausing and zooming in, they couldn’t see any distinguishing features about the person, besides the fact that he or she was of average height and weight.