Chicken Soup & Homicide - Culinary Competition Mystery #2

Chapter 6

(Amy)

The next morning, Amy needed to get groceries. Sure, she had a pantry full of shelf-stable ingredients and the knowledge to make many meals without having to leave the house, but grocery shopping was her favorite form of relaxing retail therapy. Carla had woken up in a better mood. After filling up on praline baked French toast and coffee, her friend headed back to her loft. Alex wasn't in bed when Amy woke up, so she had no idea when he left for work after coming home at 10:00 p.m. Life was tossing lemons at her. It shouldn't have been much of a surprise when she realized she was craving lemon pie.

She steered the mini shopping cart through the obstacle course of produce islands, searching for Meyer lemons. Since the fruit was a cross between the standard lemon and a Mandarin orange, the pie would be even sweeter. She could use an extra dose of sweetness in her life, to combat everything that was trying to make her bitter and sour. Columbo's Market always kept an impressive array of produce in stock, from navel oranges to purple Peruvian potatoes. The place was heaven for foodies, and she loved to just wander the aisles looking for unique ingredients to add to a recipe. All she had come in for were the lemons and a couple of bundles of herbs to make savory shortbread cookies, her latest contest-bound recipe experiment. But her cart was full. Bags of black rice, shiitake mushroom ravioli, and a jar of radish kimchi were crammed into the basket long before she even made it to the produce section.

She skirted around a carousel of gourmet potato varieties and found Trisha Dunbar arranging bouquets of herbs in an upright cooler. The display of greenery, with different shapes of leaves and colors of green, looked like a mini tropical rain forest. Amy moved closer and waved at Trisha. "How are you?"

Trisha wiped her hands on the blue jean half apron dotted with dark blotches of water. "I'm still shocked. I can't believe Chet is dead...murdered. What a horrible outcome for the event. I was hoping to get more positive exposure for my business and win the grand prize for the community garden we were competing for. Instead, I'm in the newspaper for being the partner of a murder victim, and the garden didn't get any money." She shook her head. "What a mess."

"Yes, it certainly was an unexpected outcome for the showdown." Amy selected bundles of thyme and parsley from the water buckets. Maybe Trisha could help shed some light on the reason why Chet was killed. It was worth a shot. As she wrapped the stems in paper towels, she asked, "How did you team up with Chef Britton?"

"I supply the fresh herbs for Cornerstone restaurant. We often chatted when I made deliveries. When he asked me to be his partner for the Chicken Soup Showdown, I jumped at the chance to be associated with him beyond being an anonymous produce supplier." She plucked a bundle of spiky rosemary from a plastic tray on the flatbed trolley sitting behind her. "He was really nice, and I had a lot of fun working with him to develop our recipes for the showdown."

He was really nice? Judging from everything Amy had heard so far about Britton, he must've been hiding his true personality from Trisha, at least until the showdown was over. If they had lost, the egomaniac probably would've blamed the sweet herb gardener. Or maybe Trisha was just very tolerant of obnoxious people. Amy wrangled her herb bundles into plastic bags so they wouldn't drip on the rest of her groceries. "It's so scary to think that a killer was running around among us at the expo. Did you happen to see anybody that seemed out of place or was acting strangely backstage?"

"Nope. I was too busy prepping everything by myself to notice anything after we got onstage. Before that, I was in my booth in the expo most of the time. I only had a high school co-op that helps me around the greenhouse in the winter stop by a few times to give me breaks." She squeezed the rosemary bouquet into a bucket filled with a mix of herbs. "Since Chet had a whole team of chefs in his booth all day, he was supposed to check to make sure all of our supplies had arrived. I only saw him in the morning before they started letting people through the doors. We had our morning coffee together out by the loading dock."