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of mugger or ax murderer.” Satisfied with her pep talk, she got up and started to prepare her dinner for two. Her digital camera was placed within easy reach as she got out her cooking utensils and the food she was going to prepare. Stuffed peppers, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, grilled corn she would shave off the cob when it was done. She would photograph all the steps for easy following for the readers of the book she would probably never write.
    Today’s menu highlighted what she called wraparound stuffed peppers, and what that meant was she would cut the bottoms off the peppers, as well as the tops, and set the peppers in a roasting pan. One filling mixture was ground turkey. The second set of peppers would have ground chuck. To both fillings, she would add finely chopped peppers from the cut-off tops along with some finely chopped onion and parsley, a smidgen of garlic, and, of course, salt and pepper. The sauce in both recipes would be a fire-roasted tomato sauce with a good-sized portion of chopped garlic. Cooking time—one hour and fifteen minutes. She spoke into her recorder, which was next to her digital camera, saying she would be using red, yellow, and orange peppers in both recipes, because the green peppers were too bitter in her opinion.
    Julie worked silently and efficiently, her hands working in tandem with what she was saying into her recorder, even when she was snapping pictures of her culinary endeavor. Her ears were half tuned to the television on the counter, which she kept on all day and sometimes during the night. If she did say so herself, she excelled at multitasking, and put all thoughts of her new tenant on a mental shelf for the moment.
    Julie pressed the button on the dishwasher to clean up her cooking utensils just as Cooper slammed his huge body against the kitchen door. A nanosecond later, Gracie hit the doorbell with a look that clearly said this is a woman’s job. Cooper bounded into the house, sniffed at the oven, then planted his paws on Julie’s shoulders, his plea for TLC, which she gave willingly. Gracie was next, nudging her leg, so Julie sat down on the kitchen floor and rolled around, Cooper’s tennis ball, which he slept with, in her hand.
    “Did he kick you out, or did you come home willingly?” Julie gasped when Cooper pinned her to the floor as he tried to get the ball. Gracie barked twice. Twice meant yes, they came home willingly because Cooper was anxious. At least, that’s what she thought it meant.
    “Okay, enough,” Julie said, struggling to her feet. “We have to set the table since we’re having a guest. C’mon, now, Coop, let me up.” Gracie nipped Coop’s ear, and he yelped, but then he moved. “Thank you, Gracie.”
    Within minutes, Julie had the kitchen table set with place mats and dishes she used when she wanted to impress. She loved the vivid blue violets on the plates, the mats, and the napkins. When she ate alone, she usually ate off hard plastic plates and used paper napkins so she wouldn’t have to run the dishwasher a second time. She was into conserving everything on the planet, and that included water. She had a fat blue candle she sometimes used, but decided that might be overkill for such a casual dinner with someone she didn’t even know and who might just be an ax murderer.
    As she folded the napkins, she stopped to wonder what kind of palate Oliver Goldfeld had. Did he eat high-end food like lobster and filet mignon? Did he eat out all the time since he didn’t cook? Was he married? She should have asked, but then, that was none of her business. A rental was a rental. Maybe his wife cooked, or maybe they had a housekeeper. She shrugged. If he didn’t like her dinner, then he would simply not eat it, and she and the dogs would be the judge of whether her food would pass muster so she could include the recipe in her cookbook. Personally, she loved stuffed peppers, especially with the fire-roasted tomato sauce.
    With an hour to kill