Pies & Peril - Culinary Competition Mystery #1

Chapter 10

(Amy)

"You're sure you want to eat here?" Carla asked as she careened into the only available parking space in Louie's parking lot. "I thought you hated their burgers."

Amy stared out the window, pretending to be interested in the elaborate leopard print garter hanging on the rearview mirror of the pickup truck parked next to them. Louie's hamburgers were a double-whammy of noxious fumes before and after consumption. The onion-studded patties gave her such bad breath even Pogo didn't want to kiss her. The dog that routinely raided the stinky trash can as if it was a gourmet market had run away yelping when she tried to kiss his snout after her last visit to the malodorous restaurant.

"Sliders are trendy, you know. I enter main dish cooking contests, so I need to keep up with what's popular on the food scene. Louie's has been named the best hamburger restaurant in the area three times. I may not care for their food, but obviously a lot of other people do. It's research."

Research into positively confirming Kevin and Lucy were having an affair, more than replicating the salty, apparently addicting burgers. If Lucy had picked up the burgers for lunch for two days in a row, maybe she was enough of a fan to eat them every day. Or she could be trying to give herself an early heart attack because of guilt over being the other woman. It didn't matter why Lucy liked eating the greasy hamburger nuggets. To Amy, the chaotic restaurant was the perfect place to eavesdrop on another one of the oblivious secretary's incriminating phone conversations.

"Whatever floats your foodie boat," Carla said as she got out of the car.

"Thank you for coming along on the three-hour cruise."

"Yeah, that's what friends are for."

Had Carla actually smiled? Amy glanced at her best friend again, but her expression had returned to its usual blank mode. Either the Botox was finally wearing off or Shepler had some kind of magical, toxin-neutralizing properties. The conversation during the ride to the restaurant had actually been bubbly. Carla was a wonderful, compassionate person, but smiling and giggling was not a part of her usual, no-nonsense demeanor. The hot detective seemed to be chiseling through her glass-smooth exterior a bit. Good. It was time for Carla to shed the lonely, hard shell and have some fun.

The beefy onion odor drifted through the parking lot. Amy picked her way across the asphalt littered with foot-swallowing, ankle-breaking craters. There were houses beside and behind the restaurant. The poor residents. They should look into filing a lawsuit against the business for producing noxious fumes. She opened the door and walked into the lunchtime chaos. The place was packed again with an assortment of customers.

Carla pointed at an open table for two in the far corner. "Tell me what you want, and then go grab that table. Finding a seat in here at this time of day isn't easy."

Amy homed in on the open table. "I'll take a number two combo with a diet Coke."

Occasionally being short was an advantage. She sidestepped a teen boy bouncing to the song playing in his earbuds while carrying a tray with an open cup sloshing brown pop onto his hamburger buns. Two men, clad in highlighter-yellow safety vests, stopped to chat with a friend on their way to the trash cans. Amy darted around them and slid onto the slippery vinyl bench that faced the rest of the restaurant. Victory!

She had a few moments to look around. The corner table was the perfect vantage point to check out the other diners. Lucy wasn't among them. Perhaps she didn't indulge in the artery-clogging meal every day after all. Carla was to the cash register already. The combo meals were designated by the number of sliders and size of fries. Amy had requested the meal with two sliders and a small fry, which would provide the maximum amount of grease her stomach could take before staging a grumbling revolt.