Lentil Death Do Us Part Read online

  LENTIL DEATH DO US PART

  A Death du Jour Mystery #4

  Hillary Avis

  Published by Hilyard Press, Eugene, OR

  ©2019 Hillary Avis www.hillaryavis.com

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people, places, events, or organizations is purely coincidental, and all are the creation of the author.

  Cover by Mariah Sinclair www.mariahsinclair.com

  For permissions contact: [email protected]

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1 - Monday

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5 - Tuesday

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10 - Wednesday

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16 - Thursday

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21 - Friday

  Chapter 22 - Saturday

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue – One week later

  Recipes

  The end.

  Books by the Author

  Stay in touch!

  Chapter 1 - Monday

  “All I can say is—thank goodness we have an espresso machine!” Bethany said. She slid a steaming mug down the counter of the Railway Café to her business partner and best friend, Kimmy. She took a sip of her own frothy latte and watched the clock tick over to four a.m. as the rain pattered down on the sidewalk outside. The warm, spicy scent of snickerdoodle muffins baking in the oven permeated the little restaurant, and snug rows of sourdough rolls gently proofed on the counter, ready to be slipped into the ovens when the muffins were done.

  “Hashtag baker life!” Kimmy said, yawning as she picked up the mug. She glanced into the mug and smiled. “Aw, you made a Caboose face in the foam! Barista skills on point.”

  As if on cue, Caboose pawed at the glass door and meowed to be let into the café. Bethany grinned. She pushed open the door a crack and let the fluffy orange cat inside. The train station cat was a regular visitor now that the café was open. Bethany and Kimmy had settled into their morning routines for baking and food prep, and Caboose had his pest control rounds. He never stayed long at the café, just enough time for a few cheek-scratches, his mouse patrol, and a little treat as payment for his trouble.

  Kimmy poured a splash of cream into a saucer and set it on the floor for him. Caboose trotted over and lapped it up, then wound around their ankles, purring. Kimmy rubbed his head between his ears. “Good boy. You keep those mice on their toes.”

  “Knock on wood they’ll never come to visit.” Bethany rapped her knuckles on the butcher block countertop, then drained her coffee and set the mug in the sink. “Now get outta here before the health department throws the book at us!” She playfully shooed the cat back through the door into the train station concourse.

  The timer chimed and Kimmy jerked open the oven door. She dumped the muffins onto the cooling rack without her usual grace and slung the pans of plump sourdough rolls in to bake. Then she sat down on one of the counter stools, her forehead creased and her shoulders slumped. Bethany frowned. It wasn’t like Kimmy to be distracted and careless in the kitchen. In fact, she was more often the calming force when Bethany was wound up about something. And Kimmy never sat down before everything was checked off the prep list.

  “OK, tell me what’s wrong.”

  Kimmy shook her head, refusing to make eye contact. “It’s nothing.”

  “Don’t mess with me. I know something’s not right.” Bethany rested her elbows on the counter and leaned so she had a better view of Kimmy’s face.

  Kimmy gnawed her thumbnail and then forced a smile, waving her hand toward the windows. “It’s just the rain. It was probably stupid to plan an outdoor wedding this time of year.”

  Kimmy was due to marry her girlfriend, Charley Perez, in a little less than two weeks. They’d booked the local history museum as a venue; it had a beautiful courtyard full of bright autumn foliage that would be the perfect backdrop for their vows. The museum had once been a church in the neighborhood where Kimmy grew up, so marrying there held extra-special meaning for her.

  As Kimmy’s groomsmaid, Bethany had been the sounding board and sympathetic ear for most of the wedding planning during the six months since Charley proposed. She put her arm around Kimmy and squeezed. “Rain or shine, you’re going to have a beautiful wedding. If the weather doesn’t let up, you can have the ceremony inside the old sanctuary.”

  Kimmy smiled, and her shoulders relaxed. “You’re right. My brain just keeps going to the worst-case scenario. I’m convinced a disaster is going to strike and the wedding will be called off.”

  “That’s anxiety talking. You know what the antidote to anxiety is?” Bethany raised an eyebrow. She’d known Kimmy long enough to have a good answer to the question.

  “Mimosas?” Kimmy grinned hopefully.

  “Nope. Good old-fashioned distraction. And you know what the best distraction is?”

  “Mimosas?” Kimmy repeated, giggling.

  Bethany couldn’t help cracking a smile as she shook her head. “Not day drinking—menu planning.” She slapped a notebook and pencil down in front of Kimmy. “Your turn to take notes. I’ll update the menu board.” Bethany and Kimmy tried hard to keep their menu seasonal and local, so they switched up the offerings daily.

  Kimmy nodded and flipped the notebook open while Bethany climbed the stepstool and stood poised to update the sign. In keeping with the theme of the Railway Café, one of the old mechanical arrivals and departures boards was mounted on the wall. They’d salvaged it when the train station was being renovated last summer.

  Instead of displaying the train schedule, it displayed the menu. On the “Arrivals” side were listed pastries and hot drinks, and on the “Departures” side, the lunch special: a soup, a salad, and a sandwich, each inspired by the mood, season, or weather of the moment. The sign no longer worked electronically, but Bethany changed it by hand each morning before opening the doors to the early commuters.

  “We’ve got the snickerdoodle muffins,” Kimmy said, jotting in the notebook. “Chocolate croissants, of course...and I’m going to put in some little pumpkin pies next. Can’t beat pie for breakfast.”

  Bethany started updating the board with the pastry selections. “We can do a chai latte as the drink special. What do you think about lentil soup for lunch? Something hearty would be nice in this rainy weather.”

  Kimmy’s face lit up. “Ooh, perfect! And I’ll put some fruit in the salad—maybe apples? To add a little brightness.”

  A little brightness is just what we need. Bethany smiled to herself as she updated the board. Kimmy so absorbed in the task that seemed to have forgotten her wedding worries. They finished planning the day’s menu and, after Bethany climbed down and stowed the stepstool, planned the rest of the week’s menus before the oven timer chimed again.

  At the sound of the timer, Kimmy leaped into action, putting the rolls to cool and filling wee pie shells with creamy pumpkin custard. Bethany warmed stock and prepped the vegetables for the soup and salad. Neither looked up from their tasks until someone rapped softly on the glass door to the sidewalk.

  A slender young woman with her hair in two tight French braids peered into the restaurant and waved. Viv.

  Viviana Perez, Charley’s little sister, had been working the counter at the café for the last couple of months. She bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited, eager to get in out of the rain. Bethany jogged to the door and unlocked it; it was only five minutes until time to open, anyway.

  “Hey, girl,” Viv said. Her eyes went immediately to the menu board, scanning it to see the day’s updates. This was why Bethany loved her—Viv was an overachiever to the max. Everything she did, she gave her all, whether it was memorizing the specials at the café, studying for the hotel management classes she took in the evenings...or partying all night.

  “I wasn’t sure you were going to make it today,” Bethany teased. “You still weren’t home when I left at three-thirty.”

  Viv stayed in Kimmy’s old room at the cottage now that Charley and Kimmy were shacked up. It wasn’t a permanent situation, just until Viv graduated in the spring, but in the meantime it was nice to have the company—and the help with the rent while the Railway Café got off the ground.

  “Actually, I didn’t go home. I came straight from the club.” Viv stifled a yawn and stole a guilty look at Kimmy, who was intently piping a cinnamon drizzle onto the snickerdoodle muffins now that they were cooled. Kimmy put down her piping bag long enough to wave to Viv before she began loading the sticky muffins into the display case. Viv grimaced. “Don’t tell anyone, OK?”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t. Charley’d kill me if she knew I let her baby sister stay out all night.” Bethany grinned ruefully. She handed Viv an apron. “Come on, you can help me with the soup until customers start coming in.”

  She showed Viv the spice blend for the lentil soup as the first couple of baker
y patrons trickled in. Kimmy staffed the counter, handing out chocolate croissants and whipping up fragrant chai lattes as she chatted with the regulars and wished them a swift commute. Bethany scanned the prep list for what to do next.

  Wash salad greens. Ugh, her least favorite task.

  “Hey, B!” Kimmy called from the counter. She pointed to the buzzing phone she held in her hand. “Do you mind? I need to take this.”

  “Sure!” Bethany certainly didn’t mind if it meant she didn’t have to deal with the arugula. Kimmy smiled gratefully as she exited the bakery to take the call, one finger in her ear so she could better hear the person on the line.

  Bethany looked up at the next customer in line and a broad smile spread across her face. “Ryan! What’re you doing here?”

  Ryan Lazam smiled back at her and shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t know—I heard this place makes a mean cup of coffee.”

  “Au contraire, we make a very nice cup of coffee.”

  “I’d like one of those, then.” He leaned on the counter, his eyes twinkling. “Please.”

  She flushed. Somehow that please made her knees weak when it came out of his mouth. She was pretty sure he could talk her into anything with that one word.

  Not that he’s my boyfriend or anything. She’s been seeing Ryan off and on for the past six months, but both of them had been busy with new ventures and hadn’t had much time to date. Bethany was opening the Railway Café and Ryan was working on his family’s latest project, a fancy art museum up in the hills.

  His family, the Lazams, were the richest people in town. They owned half of Newbridge, including the Zamrail commuter trains that took passengers up and down the eastern seaboard. They’d purchased the grand LaFontaine mansion—along with the LaFontaines’ extensive art collection, which would form the backbone of the museum’s collection—to give Ryan a respectable occupation.

  Respectable according to Ryan’s dad, anyway. Lazam Senior hadn’t been too impressed with his son’s previous project, the town’s homeless shelter. He especially wasn’t impressed with Ryan’s passion for painting murals. But managing a prestigious art museum? That was an occupation fitting a Lazam.

  And I have to admit, Ryan does look good in a suit. Bethany glanced back over her shoulder at him as she made his coffee. There was no denying the man would look at home on the cover of Forbes. But she missed the old Ryan, too, the one who wore ratty T-shirts and painted colorful murals in the common rooms at the homeless shelter. The one who peeled potatoes elbow-to-elbow with her on Saturday nights during volunteer hours at the soup kitchen. The one who’d stolen her heart even when she thought he was penniless and homeless.

  Now that she thought about it, he hadn’t volunteered on Saturday night for a while.

  “Will I see you at the soup kitchen this weekend?” She snapped the lid on his coffee and set it down on the counter in front of him.

  His face fell as he picked up the cup. He shrugged helplessly. “I wish. But it’s Halloween and my parents have a big masquerade ball every year. I have to go to that or my dad will disown me.”

  Kimmy reappeared at Bethany’s elbow. “You can’t volunteer either, remember? Saturday is the our bachelorette night.”

  “Oh, right! We’re going out! It’ll be a blast to—” Bethany broke off as she saw the look on Kimmy’s face. Kimmy’s eyes brimmed with tears and she, scrubbed them furiously away. “What’s wrong?!”

  “Nothing.” Kimmy shook her head, but more tears streamed down her cheeks. “I just got some bad news, that’s all.”

  “Excuse me, can I get a muffin?” the woman standing behind Ryan asked. “My train leaves in five minutes.”

  “Of course!” Bethany said, ushering Kimmy to the side so she could dry her tears in private. “Viv, can you take the register?”

  Viv nodded, wiped her hands on a towel, and began serving the customer. Ryan made his way around the end of the counter and met Bethany and Kimmy at the back of the café.

  “Hey,” he said gently, touching Kimmy on the shoulder. “Whatever it is, I’m sure we can fix it.”

  Kimmy laughed humorlessly. “Unless you can upend the entire wedding industry and find me a venue in less than two weeks, I don’t think this something that even a Lazam can fix.”

  Bethany gasped. “What happened to the museum? Did they cancel on you?!”

  Kimmy nodded and sighed. “That was Olive on the phone. She said the whole first floor of the museum is flooded because of the rain.”

  “They can dry it out,” Ryan said, nodding firmly. “They can rent big fans and it won’t take more than a couple of days. If I’ve learned one thing while working on the museum, it’s that anything can be accomplished when you throw enough money at it.”

  “Not all of us have money to throw around!” Kimmy snapped, and then her face crumpled when she saw his hurt expression. “Sorry, Ryan. It’s a little more complicated than that. The floodwaters backed up the sewer system, so it’s not like they can just dry it out. It’s going to take a huge cleanup effort.”

  “Ugh.” Bethany made a face. “Poor Olive. She must be freaking out about the collection.”

  “She said they were able to save almost everything, so at least there’s that. But I think it makes sense to just postpone the wedding until we can’t find somewhere else to have it.”

  “What about here at the train station?” Bethany asked. The concourse was surprisingly grand for such a small station, with marble floors and huge arching windows. It’d be a beautiful backdrop for a wedding reception.

  Now it was Kimmy’s turn to make a face. “It’s so noisy! Plus there’d be people wandering through every hour to catch their trains. Not exactly the magical setting I’d pictured.”

  “But as a backup plan?” Bethany ventured.

  “Ugh! No! I don’t want my wedding to be a backup plan!” Kimmy looked ready to burst into tears again.

  “You know...” Ryan began thoughtfully.

  Kimmy rolled her eyes. “What? I suppose you know of a fancy country club that we can’t afford?”

  “No,” he said patiently. “I was thinking—the space up at the art museum isn’t quite finished, but maybe with some creative decorating, it’d work for a wedding. I can have my guys clear out the tools and debris in the main hall. And there are beautiful gardens. If the rain lets up, you could have the wedding outdoors and the reception inside. Come check it out—I’m heading that way right now.”

  “Ooh, what a good idea!” Bethany exclaimed, smiling gratefully at Ryan.

  Kimmy’s expression shifted from irritated to surprised and then to frustrated. “I can’t! My dress fitting is this morning. I’ve already put it off to the last minute.”

  “I’ll go!” Bethany squeezed Kimmy’s hand reassuringly. “I can at least scout it out and see if it’ll work.”

  “You can’t go, either! Who will run the café? We can’t just close the restaurant on a whim!” Kimmy pulled her hand out of Bethany’s grasp and began gnawing on her thumbnail. Bethany watched her, worry knotting in her stomach.

  Viv tapped her on the back. “I got this, Kimmers,” she said, using Charley’s pet name for Kimmy. “It’s not even that busy today, and the prep is all finished. Go do wedding stuff.”

  Bethany held her breath as she watched the creases in Kimmy’s forehead smooth.

  “You sure?” Kimmy asked.

  “Go! Go!” Viv waved her away and went back to the counter where a small, antsy line of commuters was forming.

  Kimmy leaned forward and rested her forehead on Bethany’s shoulder. She moaned. “How am I going to get through the next two weeks? Not one single thing is ready for the wedding!”

  “Everything’s going to be fine. Go have fun trying on your dress,” Bethany said. “Then you can check one thing off the list, at least.”

  “Two.” Ryan held up two fingers. “We’ve got you covered on the venue.”

  Kimmy smiled, her face still strained. “Two down, two million to go.”

  Chapter 2

  Ryan leaned forward over the steering wheel, squinting through the rain-battered windshield before turning down the long, tree-lined drive of the LaFontaine estate. “Phew! This weather is not playing around!”

  Bethany stared out the window at the manicured grounds. To the right of the drive, an expansive meadow stretched to the tree line, the dark sky hanging heavy above it. The bright green grass would have been cheerful under any other weather conditions.