Page 61 of Dodge

“The doctors said she ingested the drug. You have water at the bar for the waitresses. Tell me about that.”

Macie wiped his eyes again, and Stud handed him a tissue. “We call them servers. It’s a lot of work serving people, and I need to keep my staff hydrated. I keep glasses for them behind the bar along with a pitcher of ice water. That way they can get it themselves if I’m covered up. I make sure the pitcher is always full.”

He shook his head. “It’s just water, I swear. I poured my girl a big ol’ glass and added a slice of lime to it. Other servers drank water I poured from the same pitcher. No one else got sick.”

“Did anyone else get a lime?”

Macie shook his head. “A couple of them like lemon wedges, but Gracie K prefers lime. You think that was it?”

Stud frowned. “Hold up. Did the mojitos have lime in them?”

“Of course they did. Three sprigsof fresh mint crushed on the inside of a tall glass,two teaspoons sugar, three tablespoons lime juice, one and a half ounces club soda, chill with ice, garnish with lime slice and mint leaves. I increased everything by the pitcher.”

Blue swiveled to the deputy. “Find out if anyone else came to the hospital tonight with signs of being disoriented or dizzy. If they didn’t, they might just think they got drunk instead of drugged. Get samples of the limes over to the lab ASAP. I don’t know if they can find anything or not, but it’s a lead.”

Macie raised a hand to his mouth. “Oh my God, you think there are more besides Gracie K?”

“I don’t know. What can you tell me about the women who ordered the mojitos?”

Macie blew his nose. “One of them mentioned some sort of retreat group for single mamas. They’re going rafting tomorrow. I don’t know what company.”

Blue’s voice was grim as he gave more orders to the deputy. “Call Dennis and have him check his reservations. His is the closest raft tour place. Find those women ASAP.” He turned back to fully face Macie and Stud. “Where does Fauna get her produce?”

“She buys local when she can, but some stuff she gets from a wholesaler in Asheville.”

“Who has access to the food from when it arrives to when it’s served?”

Macie let out an exasperated breath as his tears were replaced with frustration. “Just about everyone who works there. The kitchen staff, preppers, servers, me, and Fauna.”

“Who cut the limes for the bar last night?”

“Gracie K. I ran out while I was fixin’ all those mojitos, and she went back in the kitchen and cut them up for me.”

Stud chuffed. “Well, she didn’t roofie herself. Someone else had to have touched the produce first. Anyone in the kitchen staff you think might be a culprit?”

Macie snapped his fingers. “Chase was here a few nights ago. You remember him? Fauna’s ex?” He faced Blue. “He blames her for getting him fired from the Omni and tried to do this bogus health inspection to get her shut down.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “He’d do anything he can to fuck with her.”

Stud pursed his lips. “That’s true. I met him when we picked up the restaurant furniture some months ago and again last week. What do you think, Blue?”

Blue sighed and tapped the legal pad with all of his notes. “There’s motive, but it would be pretty damn hard for him to sneak into a walk-in fridge with a bunch of people working. There’s also nothing to connect him with any of the other cases, but that’s not my job right now. All I need to do is catch whoever hurt Gracie K.” He shook his head to clear it. “Katie Grace. We’ll start there and see where it leads.”

CHAPTER31

I’ll never understandhuman nature.

I was sure that people would stay away from a restaurant where a woman got drugged.

Totally. Fucking. Wrong.

The very next night I was flooded. Three nights later, people were still lined up before the doors opened for dinner service and didn’t stop. The wait time increased to an hour or more. Instead of going to another restaurant, some parties put in their names and left to go explore the bookstore down the street, then came back before their names were called. Others ordered drinks at the bar and stood around, basically getting in the way. It was a skeleton crew, as I was down my best server and the bartender. Both Macie and I decided that even though he was free to go, there might be some backlash from the community and he should take some time off. Dewey had dumped him via text, which added another layer of shit on my best friend’s back. Gay or straight, men could be real assholes. Macie had gone back to hang in Asheville with some friends for a while and lick his wounds, so to speak.

Who stepped in to help me? Betsey of all people. She didn’t put on a show like Macie did by flipping caps and tossing bottles in the air, but simply her presence drew people in. She mixed drinks, dispensed conversation, and dropped some wisdom. All in her red hair and high heel boots glory.

I wanted to be her when I grew up.

The kitchen was subdued chaos for the first time, but we kept up. Dodge was over at the hospital. Katie Grace was home, but Mallory was still there, unconscious in the ICU. The assumption had been that she was another victim, but Blue did some investigating and learned some bad shit.

They had discovered Mallory outside a way off-track bar near Maggie Valley. Not a place for tourists, and from what Dodge described not really a bar. It was an old doublewide where drinks were served, but it was better known for shady deals, mostly in illegal moonshine so potent it would serve better for rocket fuel than consumption. According to the medical report, Mallory had a blood alcohol level of 0.13. Since 0.08 is considered being legally drunk, she was past that and probably headed to alcohol poisoning. The doctors said they couldn’t tell if she’d been roofied in addition to the booze, but she had sex with someone before she stopped breathing. Several someones. There weren’t signs of force, but whether the sex was consensual was up in the air. Of course, no one saw anything.

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