Page 15 of Covert Chaos

Yep. I definitely would vote for Felicia over Rachel as best friend of the year. Had Emmeline been texting Rachel? Emmeline had seemed too nice to betray Hattie. One of them alone might not have the strength to kill Beckwith and drag him out to the truck, but together? I would vote yes.

Devlin swore under his breath. "I thought I saw Mia. Did you see where she went?"

"She's in here somewhere." Rachel looked pouty.

I looked at Emmeline, catching her just as she slipped into the back of the kitchen between some shelves, and then she was out of sight.

Interesting.

Well, at least she hadn't ratted us out to Devlin and Rachel. Emmeline might hang out with less savory folk, but her moral code had some decent standards.

"I’ve been in the hall. The only place she could be is here." Devlin turned to scan the kitchen again, and I pulled back and crouched so only my right eye was around the door. I was also below eye level, because most people looked at eye level, not below.

Of course, Devlin was a great cop, so he would probably look down, but maybe his observation skills were out of practice after living in Bass Derby for a while.

Felicia put both hands on her hips, pulled her shoulders back, and stepped right in front of him, forcing him to look at her. "This is my kitchen," she snapped. "I can assure you that no one has been running through here, and that includes you both. Out. Now."

She was fierce. I loved her.

Devlin narrowed his eyes at her, apparently decided she was in cahoots with us (damn his cop instincts), and looked past her, scanning the kitchen.

I ducked out of sight just before he looked my way. Hattie and Lucy were waiting in the hallway as I let the door shut gently. "He's such a suspicious man," I said. "It's so annoying."

Hattie grinned. "Well, he does know you pretty well. How could he be anything but suspicious? Speaking of suspicious, did you guys find Charles?"

We both shook our heads as we headed toward the back deck. "No sign of him," I said. "He must be in the bathroom, or the back room. We didn't get that far."

"Let's recap on the deck," Hattie said. "We'll figure this out."

I paused as we passed the door of the storage room. "The entire kitchen staff heard Chef Felicia tell us to go to the deck. I don't think we should go there." I pushed open the door to the storage room. "Let's go this way."

I stepped inside, saw the meat freezer that we'd recently had a bad experience with, and decided to ignore it. "What do you guys think?" I asked as Lucy and Hattie followed me inside.

Lucy locked the door behind her.

"I think Charles and Beckwith had it out over the business," Hattie said. "It went south."

Lucy nodded. "I agree. We need to talk to Charles."

I ran my hands through my hair. "No, we don't. We're definitely not talking to him. He's big and scary and a possible murderer."

Hattie grinned. "So, we find evidence, right? To trap him?"

I nodded. "Exactly."

"Emmeline probably knows more," Hattie said. "She sold her recipes to the Barnes brothers. Losing control over your livelihood can make any woman cranky. She'll be willing to talk."

"Or Rachel," Lucy said. "There's a lot of hostility in that woman."

Hattie frowned. "Which Rachel are you guys talking about?"

"Rachel Harrison," Lucy said.

"Son of a biscuit." Hattie sighed. "She was Emmeline's best friend in high school. Rachel was trouble. Emmeline begged me to give her a job because she was broke, but I caught her stealing credit card numbers the first night. I fired her, and had a long talk with Emmeline about choosing her friends. Last I heard, Emmeline had cut her off."

Yeah, that was the vibe I got from her. "Sounds like they're in business together again."

Hattie sighed, and looked over at me. "You pick up on anything else?"

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