Free Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles (Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mystery) by A.L. Herbert

used to house a Zayre and a Chesapeake Bay Seafood House in Camp Springs is now a self-storage facility. Hell, even the Chi-Chi’s by the bowling alley closed. A real sore point with us Prince George’s County residents is that Whole Foods, that overpriced, hoity-toity organic market, has a warehouse in Prince George’s County, but no stores.
    The county had been in decline for a long time, but over the past few years, a revival of sorts has been taking place. Crime rates have been going down, and retailers seem to have finally realized that while we may be black, and our county may have a higher crime rate than other areas, we are mostly a county of hardworking people who make good livings. In fact, we are the wealthiest and most highly educated majority African American jurisdiction in the country and would be happy to spend our money close to home if only there were somewhere to spend it.
    New town centers in Largo and Bowie opened a few years ago; FedExField, home of the Washington Redskins, was built near the old Landover mall site; trendy shops and restaurants have opened in Arts District Hyattsville; and Wegmans, a specialty high-end grocery store chain, opened in Lanham. But the crown jewel in Prince George’s County’s rebirth was the opening of National Harbor on the Potomac River in Oxon Hill. It was a project that was in development for years, and I, like so many jaded residents, never thought it would actually happen. But in 2008, the three-hundred-acre positively elegant waterfront development opened. It’s now home to the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center and several other hotels, waterfront condos, offices, retail stores, restaurants, and a marina. And thanks to a successful gambling ballot measure (that I have mixed feelings about) a full Las Vegas–style resort and casino is in the works. It’s the biggest thing to hit Prince George’s County in decades.
    Well, no one can accuse me of being a “Moesha Come Lately.” I opened my restaurant long before Wegmans came to town, or National Harbor opened for business. I helped ease the shortage of high-end restaurants that had existed in the county for years. In many parts, if you wanted something more than a burger or some fried chicken from Popeye’s, you had to drive for miles.
    I got the idea to open my own restaurant years ago when I worked nights as line cook at a nice all-American restaurant in Arlington, Virginia. My day job was at the Census Bureau in Suitland, Maryland. Four days a week I’d make the hike from Suitland to Arlington, which usually took more than an hour in heavy traffic. The part-time line cook job did bring in a little extra money, but I mostly did it because I loved to cook, and I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of a busy kitchen. And to be honest, my day job at the Census Bureau didn’t exactly leave me exhausted. Often I could get most of my duties for the entire week done in a day or two, so being a little fatigued from a late night broiling crab cakes and sautéing pecan-crusted trout didn’t really get in the way of my day job.
    My official title was line cook, but I was sort of a jack-of-all-trades at the restaurant. If they were short on servers, I’d step in. I functioned as the hostess here and there, and sometimes I even ended up supervising the kitchen. But mostly I cooked. I sautéed shrimp, and grilled steaks, and fried fish, and roasted chicken. I had a knack for it, and it was me who developed a shrimp scampi recipe on the fly when we ran out of grit cakes for the shrimp and grits entrée on the menu one busy Saturday night. That recipe became a regular menu item and is still served there today. I may not have gotten straight As in school, and I may not be the most beautiful or thinnest girl on the block, but the thing about Mahalia Watkins—girl can throw down in the kitchen.
    I grew up cooking with my grandmother. Truth be known, and for better or for worse, my adventure into the culinary arts