Free Murder in the Pearl District (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Series Book 5) by Dianne Harman

at?”
    “Table number 27. It’s in
the center of the restaurant. There are two women seated at the table. She’s
the one wearing the red hat with the purple scarf thrown over her shoulder.”
    Kelly introduced herself
to diners at several of the tables near Elena’s, and when she reached her table
she said, “Hello and welcome to Mangia! Mangia! My name is Kelly Reynolds. I’m
helping the new owner and want to meet as many of the guests as I can. And you
are?”
    The woman in the red hat
looked up at Kelly and said, “Surely you know who I am. I’m Elena Wright. I
thought everyone in Portland probably knew me by now, although most of them
know me because of what Donatella did to me. You must be new to the area.”
    “That I am,” Kelly said,
forcing a smile on her face. “I came up from Cedar Bay to help a friend of
mine. Is this your first time at the restaurant?”
    “It’s the first time I’ve
been here in several weeks. I used to be a very good customer, but that was
before Donatella tried to poison a guest of mine with bad scallops she served
at a dinner party I was hosting. She never admitted her mistake and tried to
put the blame on me, telling everyone I should have asked my guest if she had
any food allergies. It’s a good thing there was a doctor at my dinner party, or
my guest might have died. The only reason I’m here is to celebrate the closing
of this restaurant and a very bad time in my life,” she said bitterly. “I’m not
surprised Donatella was murdered. I just wish she’d been murdered before she
catered my dinner party. She was an evil conniving woman, and I truly hated her
for what she did to me.”
    “Elena, that’s enough,”
her dining partner said in a low but commanding tone of voice.
    “Yes, well it’s been nice
meeting you Mrs. Reynolds. I rather doubt we’ll be seeing each other again.”
    “ Buon appetito ,”
Kelly said as she continued on to the next table and introduced herself. When
she came to the end of the row of tables she walked over to the reception desk.
“Carlotta, do you know the woman who’s with Elena?”
    “Yes. She’s Elena’s
attorney. They used to come here a lot before the scallop incident. Why?”
    “She told Elena more or
less to shut up. I was wondering why.”
    “I don’t know. We’re sure
getting a lot of people in here who Mrs. DeLuca had some kind of trouble with.
I just received a call from Chef Pierre DuBois for a reservation for six people
at 8:00 tonight. I know he and Mrs. DeLuca weren’t friends. This is all very
strange.”
    “I agree. I imagine the
people who didn’t like her are hoping that the restaurant fails. Would you let
me know when Chef DuBois arrives? I’d like to meet him.”
    “Of course. I’ll call the
kitchen and let you know.”

CHAPTER 14
                                                                    
    “Kelly, Carlotta said to tell you
that Chef DuBois and his party have arrived. They’re being served their
cocktails right now,” Nico said, hanging up the house phone.
    “Well, what am I now?
Three down and one to go. Let’s see. There’s Elena Wright, Bill Hossam, Tina
Ramos, and who knows, maybe Chef DuBois. All of whom for one reason or another
didn’t like Donatella and actually seem to be glad that she’s dead. For a woman
who was supposed to be so popular, it seems that Donatella had quite a few
people who weren’t all that happy with her. Hopefully, this will be short and
sweet.” In her mind, Nico was still a suspect, but she certainly didn’t want to
tell him that. She walked out of the kitchen and into the crowded restaurant
dining area.
    I wonder if it’s always
this busy on weeknights. They’re standing three deep at the bar, every table in
the restaurant is taken, and the reception area is filled with people waiting
for tables. And they haven’t even tried the new menu which debuts tomorrow at
lunch. This bodes