Salami Murder: Book 8 in The Darling Deli Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

there is death.”
    “It will get better,” Moira promised her, speaking from experience. “Once they catch the person who did this, well, that will help a lot.”
    “And I know you already spent a long time talking to the police about this,” David said. “But I’d appreciate it if you can tell me anything that you remember too. I do have connections that the police don’t have, and in some ways I’m freer to investigate than they are.”
    “I’ll tell you if I do remember anything,” Candice told him. She sighed. “I hope I do. Can we talk about something else now though?”
    “Of course,” Moira said quickly. She turned to David. “How did that meeting with your new client go? Did they hire you?”
    “Yep,” he said, grinning. “I’m officially on the job.”
    “Can you tell us about the case? I know you can’t mention the details, but I love hearing about the sorts of things you investigate.”
    “Well, my client isn’t just one person,” he told her. “I was actually hired by a group of people. All are business owners, and local. And they’ve all had various things go missing over the last few weeks—expensive electronics, jewelry, even money.”
    “I had some money go missing,” surprised, Candice chimed in. “Do you think that could be related?”
    “Maybe.” David leaned forward in interest. “Tell me the details,” he offered. “I’ll see if it matches up with what happened in the other cases.”
    “I had cash in my wallet… about a hundred bucks. It just disappeared.” She shrugged. “Mom and I think that one of the people who I hired to work on the candy shop must have stolen in.”
    “Give me the names of everyone you hired,” the private investigator said. “I’ll cross reference your list with what my other clients tell me, and see if there are any familiar names.”
    Moira smiled to herself as she watched David and Candice talk animatedly about the missing money. She was glad that her daughter had this distraction from the more serious, and more dangerous, murder case. If her daughter had to play detective, she would much rather Candice help David look for a thief than for a killer.

CHAPTER SIX
    Moira scraped the chopped peppers off the cutting board and into the stock pot with a sizzle, the water in the fresh vegetables sending up pops as they began to cook. She added a few more drops of olive oil, then grimaced as her eyes began to tear as she turned her attention to the onions. She ignored the tears, knowing from experience that the surest way to stop the stinging was to finish the slicing and add the onions to the sizzling peppers.
    As soon as the veggies had softened, she poured the homemade tomato purée into the pot and began stirring. The other ingredients were simple enough, and would cook while the soup simmered—olives, diced chili peppers, salt and pepper, and a dash of Darrin’s special hot sauce to give the soup a little kick.
    She prepared the ingredients for the sandwiches next: fresh tomatoes, soft slices of mozzarella, and sliced jalapeño and bell peppers. Each sandwich would be made to the customer’s specifications, and would be heated up in one of the brand new sandwich grills that had finally arrived the other day. She planned to use one for vegetarian sandwiches and the other for sandwiches with meat. Moira was eager to expand the variety of sandwiches that she could offer her customers, now that she could easily make everything from grilled cheese to paninis.
    Satisfied that the day’s special was well on its way to being ready to serve, Moira stripped off the thin plastic gloves that she wore while handling food and tossed them into the trash. Then she left the kitchen and went to find her employees.
    She found them changing one of the fluorescent lights in the dining area of the deli and waited until they were done with the delicate task to start talking. She hoped that they would be as excited by what she was about to say as she was;