Free Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series) by Elaine Macko Page A

us directly after that and we thought it would just die down. But people just stopped coming. Restaurants are funny businesses. Once people think there’s something wrong in your kitchen, they don’t want to eat there anymore. Plus, we specialize and it’s hard getting people to try what amounts to a whole new choice for them.”
    Mr. Corliss took another bite of his sandwich. “Sorry. I only have another twelve minutes before I have to get back.”
    “I also talked to Julie Vang yesterday.”
    “She’s a nut case, that one. Carol and I wanted to start a network of vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Maybe get a blog out there ourselves promoting our restaurants, talk about the benefits of eating healthy. Promote the local farms. You talk up their businesses and they’re more likely to recommend your place when people stop by their stands. We had flyers made and we gave them to all the bed and breakfast places in the area hoping they’d recommend us to their guests. Thought it would be good all around. But she wasn’t interested. Heard she’s turned her place into just one more Chinese restaurant.”
    “Vietnamese.”
    “Whatever.” Frank gave a grunt.
    “You were lucky to get your job back,” I said.
    “Yeah, well, it’s not the job I had for over ten years before. At least I have good benefits but the pay is about half of what I made and the work is hard. Plus we pretty much lost all of our savings. Broke my wife’s heart and I don’t like seeing her hurt.”
    “Were you happy to hear about Mrs. Kravec?”
    Frank Corlis looked at me with those pale eyes. “Happy? Can’t say it matters to me one way or the other. I do think people need to take responsibility for what they say on the Internet. Doesn’t seem fair that one person, who didn’t know anything about us at all, could simply write a blog, cause us all this trouble, and get away with it. Now that she’s dead I would love to sue her estate for damages but then where do I get the money to hire a lawyer? She didn’t seem like a nice person and didn’t even have the decency to respond back. Just ruin someone’s livelihood, break their heart and move on to the next. Nope,” Frank shook his head, “can’t say I mind very much what happened to her. What goes around comes around and it looks like she got what she deserved.”

 
     
     
Chapter Nineteen
     
     
    I really couldn’t blame the man for feeling the way he did. Maria Kravec did indeed seem to make accusations without any proof and then wasn’t willing to take another look and write a blog explaining the situation and admit her error. Maybe in the end it wouldn’t have mattered. Restaurants were notorious for going under within a couple of years. It was the nature of the beast and I would imagine a restaurant with such a specific menu would have a hard time attracting new customers. It wasn’t like mom and dad could try something healthy while the kids ordered burgers and fries. Those choices just weren’t available at The Natural World.
    The next person on my list was Nadine Davis. She was Maria Kravec’s assistant and Ellery had written down the address of the small office space Mrs. Kravec had rented for her business. Which was what exactly? So far there was the Web site and the blog. Couldn’t she have done that at home? And why an assistant? Sam and I had waited quite a while before bringing Millie on board.
    Suddenly I was very hungry and as I was near to my parents’ home I decided to stop by and see what they had in their pantry besides dog food. My mother and father still lived in the house Sam and I grew up in. It was certainly more room than they needed, but I liked that they had kept it all these years.
    “Alex, what brings you here in the middle of the day?” my mother asked. She and my dad were seated at the kitchen table eating grilled cheese sandwiches. With bacon. Just what I wanted.
    “Have a seat, dear. I’ll make you a sandwich.” My mom busied herself