Chicken Soup & Homicide - Culinary Competition Mystery #2

Chapter 21

(Amy)

Carla looked like one of Pogo's old doggy toys, bedraggled and falling apart, as she walked up the path from the driveway. It broke Amy's heart to see her friend so distressed. Being accused of murder and breaking up with her boyfriend on top of having a constantly stressful job had sapped the life from her normally energetic friend. But if everything went smoothly, a bit of joy would be reappearing in Carla's life very soon.

"Thanks for stopping in. My mind is such a tangled mess right now. I need you to help sort everything out," Amy blurted when she opened the door. Was she imagining things, or did she speak faster when she was nervous? Luckily, Carla didn't appear to be in the mood to decipher body language and speech patterns.

"No problem," Carla said as she brushed past Amy. "Sorry to be rude, but I need to sit down. I don't mind helping, but it's been a long night in the ER."

"Have a seat. I'll bring your brunch and coffee." Amy quickly poured a huge mug of coffee and took that to Carla, who was slumped in the breakfast nook looking like she would fall asleep while sitting up. After the caffeine was delivered, Amy went back to the kitchen island and retrieved the individual tomato cobblers. She returned with a tray full of savory brunch yumminess and said, "I hope you don't mind tomatoes this early in the day."

"I'm working third shift again. This is dinnertime for me, so tomatoes are fine."

Not good. Third shift had been fine when Carla was happily single with nothing better to do than work odd hours so other nurses with families could take the day shifts. She had switched to day shift herself after things with Shepler got serious. They got to spend much more time together when they worked similar schedules.

"I know you're tired, so I might as well get started telling you what I've discovered." Amy pulled out her new notebook, a sedate black-covered spiral-bound model that fit the seriousness of the situation. She ran through all of the things she had turned up while poking around, from Chef Jake's wicked temper to Bridget Mahoney's newest boy toy.

Carla nodded in acknowledgment as she nibbled on bites of the cobbler. When Amy was done reciting her list, Carla said, "It still sounds like any of them could be the murderer."

"I know. I'm sorry." Amy slammed the notebook shut. "Nobody is standing out to me either. I think we need to let Shepler know. Maybe he'll be able to make more sense of this tangled mess."

"Why tell him?" Carla scowled at the cobbler as she pried bits of the crumbly topping loose with her fork. "He's not involved with me anymore, so there's no reason for him to endanger his career any further by meddling in the murder investigation."

"Umm, I think we should tell Shepler because Pitts is an idiot." Amy nudged Carla's foot with her toes under the table. "Would you stand back and let your coworkers purposely give a patient a lethal dose of the wrong medication? How about letting them tarnish the reputation of the entire hospital because of their incompetence?"

Carla shrugged and resumed her vigil, staring at her cobbler. The ding of the doorbell snapped her head up. The breakfast nook jutted out from the side of the house, so she twisted to look out the window behind her to see who was at the door.

Amy hopped up to let Shepler in. She made a wide arc around the end of the table to stay out of Carla's reach. Amy let Shepler in and let him lead the way back to the table. He made a great big human shield in case Carla exacted some physical retaliation for the unexpected reunion.

"Good morning, ladies. Sounds like you have some information for me."

He nudged Carla further into the nook with his hip as he sat down. She furiously scooted to the middle of the U-shaped bench. Amy was going to get a cup of coffee for Shepler, but she decided it was better to cut off the escape route. She sat down at her spot again, facing him. Carla had no choice but to stay put. Amy hurriedly repeated her list of suspect theories so Carla didn't have a chance to launch a verbal assault. She wrapped up her speech with a question. "What happened to Pitts after the interview on the morning news?"