Wrong. Thats before costs. And paying the help. And taxes.
Who helped you tonight?
No one.
Then what does your help do?
Kate sat back and rubbed
her forehead. Four out of five clients call already knowing what they want. You know, theyll request lobster oror just something specific. They call with these silly, preconceived notions of what a gourmet meal should be. If I have to cook to their prerequisites, I cant always orchestrate it so that I can do the whole thing myself. I cant be serving if I need to be in the kitchen doing something to whatevers simmering there. On those occasions, I pay a second pair of hands to serve.
How many employees do you have?
Two now. Theyre on call. If one cant do it, the other one generally can. Actually, I just hired Beth four days ago.
Raphaels antennae twitched. That was convenient. It would bear some looking into. Beth who?
Beth Olivetti.
Whos your other employee?
Janaya Thomas. Shes been with me for about two months now.
But no one was with you tonight?
No. I just told you that. McGaffney gave me carte blanche to prepare whatever I wanted so I could streamline the meal.
Okay. Lets move on to that. To what you did tonight.
Kate nodded, sitting forward again. She didnt entirely understand all his questions, but she was beginning to enjoy thisin a matter of speaking. It was intriguing, she admitted, watching him work through what had happened. I didnt hear anything.
His eyes narrowed. Let me ask the questions, okay?
But that was what you were going to ask next, right?
It had been, but hed be damned if hed say so.
Anyway, I didnt. I just took the steaks to the dining room and there he was. Splat in the salad.
No gunshot.
No.
The killer had used a silencer then, Raphael thought. But shed been right there in the kitchen, through a solitary door. What about alike, pffting sound?
She thought about it. I didnt hear anything like that. But then, there was the matter of the dog. As soon as the words left her, Kate felt her face go scarlet.
Raphael sat forward, his eyes narrowing sharply. What dog?
Kate got to her feet unsteadily. She looked warily at the door, where the little beast had once slept religiously whenever Shawna had gone out. Love, murder and mayhem. Belle had trailed those things behind her like a banner. And she had also saved Shawnas life.
As she had saved Kates tonight.
It had been Belle, Kate realized. Because if she had taken those steaks to the dining roomthe first steaks, twelve and a half minutes earliershe could very well have walked in on the killer. McGaffneys skin had still been warm when shed felt for his pulse. He hadnt been dead long.
Her heart caught, and Kate hit her chest with her fist to start it again. Uh, I had just finished the steaks, she explained. The first steaks, that is. There was a crash. Shethis dogcame in through the back door Id left open. She got up on the center island somehow and stole a steak and knocked one of my plates over. I had to cook two new ones.
Raphael frowned. A dog came in and stole a steak.
Correct. She really bit that word off.
Did McGaffney have a dog?
Not that he mentioned. She bit her lip. I dont think it was his.
So where did it come from?
I just told you that. The back door.
Uninvited?
Well, I certainly didnt offer her a nine-dollar-a-pound tenderloin!
Maybe it smelled the food. Raphael frowned. There was more to this, he realized. Unless he badly missed his guess, something really bothered Kate Mulhern about this dog. Go on.
Kate shrugged meticulously. Theres nothing left to say. The whole thing set me behind twelve and a half minutes.
Knock it off, he growled, deciding to get a little rough with her.
Kate flinched a little. Knock what off?
Youre hiding something.
I am not!
Honey, Ive been asking questions like this for a lot of years and I know evasion when I see it. Her eyes wouldnt quite meet his, he thought. Then she surprised him.
Okay! she cried. Okay. You want to know the truth? I know that dog.
It wasnt what he had been expecting. So youre saying whatit followed you there or something?
Or something. Then she gave a giddy laugh that bordered on the hysterical. Four months ago, my roommate was walking to work. Some homeless woman stopped her and gave her a dog. That dog. And while Shawna was trying to figure out what to do with it, she was mugged.
Yeah? Raphael frowned, wondering what this had to do with anything.
And Gabriel Marsden rescued her.
Gabriel Marsden, the writer? The ex-cop?
The one who was on the run from that crazed Broadway producer at the time. The
producer who was trying to kill him.
Raphael was starting to get it. A little. He remembered the story. It had captivated newsmongers for broadcasts on end.
Shawna ended hooking up with him and they spent the better part of two weeks running for their lives. Kate took a deep breath. With the same dog I saw tonight.
Raphael felt dazed. This was turning into the oddest witness interview hed ever conducted. Why didnt that surprise him?
Shawna named her Belle. Belle saved their livesa couple of times, actually. And then she just disappeared into Manhattan once Gabriel and Shawna had brought the killer down.