Breakfast and Bedlam Read online

  “What are you saying to me right now?” Joss asked, feeling completely lost.

  “Mrs. Krispin saw Becky at the old Uncle Mick’s restaurant. She sat there doing her laundry, watching Becky go back and forth like she owned the place or something.”

  Joss tilted her head, shocked at what she’d just heard. Becky had been taking time off of work because of some trouble at home, and from what Joss knew, Uncle Mick’s was out of business, and there was nothing in the old building.

  “Garth has a girlfriend!” Mrs. Krispin blurted, turning red.

  “Mrs. Krispin!” Garth gasped. “I asked you not to say anything!”

  “Yes, well, I also asked you not to say anything. I suppose we’re even now.”

  “Wait.” Joss frowned. “Is there something in the building? Did Becky get a job there? What are you trying to tell me?”

  “We don’t know. There’s no sign or anything in the windows telling us if something new is opening, but I think it’s pretty clear that something is happening there. I saw Becky going in and out, carrying boxes, and talking to people in the area. She looked kind of official,” Mrs. Krispin answered. “I’m sorry if I caused any trouble.”

  “Can we ask around? Who do we know that works in that plaza? They’d know if there was a business going in, wouldn’t they?” Joss put her hands on her hips. “I can’t believe Becky. Did she think it was okay to lie to us so she can go work somewhere else? On top of that, what if it’s another restaurant going in? We really don’t need any competition.”

  “I think we may know someone that works in the plaza,” Mrs. Krispin offered, nudging Garth.

  “Okay. Who?” Joss asked.

  “My girlfriend.” Garth sighed. “Ashley works at the laundromat, and Mrs. Krispin was there when I stopped by to surprise her at work. I guess nothing is a secret around here. Except for Becky, that is.”

  “Congratulations on your new relationship,” Joss said, sincerely. Garth was a good guy and deserved to be happy. “Let me know as soon as you talk to her. I’d rather have at least a little information before I confront Becky.”

  “Confront her? I didn’t mean for all that to happen. For all I know, it wasn’t even her. I’m new here still and may be mistaken,” Mrs. Krispin rambled.

  “I’m not going to do anything crazy. I just want to know why she lied. We’ve been covering for her for weeks now and bending over backward so she can handle her personal stuff. If that was all a lie so she could apply for a new job, I can’t pretend that’s okay. I also can’t say anything until I know the real reason she’s there. Maybe she was just talking to whoever bought the place. Quite frankly, I’m more worried about a new restaurant opening than I am about Becky lying.”

  “If you say so.” Mrs. Krispin pulled out a knife and began slicing her pumpkin bread.

  “Garth, let me know what you find out. I’m going to have to call Luke about all of this no matter what. I think he’d want to know.”

  “Sure thing,” Garth agreed, moving out of the way for Mrs. Krispin to use the grill.

  “We’ll call you when breakfast is ready,” Mrs. Krispin said as Joss left the kitchen and retreated to the office.

  Chapter Four

  “That’s the second person in three days to come in and say our food made them sick. What do you think is going on?” Tyla asked, a look of concern coming over her face.

  “I don’t know. I thought the first woman was just looking for some free food, but now, I’m not so sure,” Joss replied, looking around at a nearly empty diner.

  “She caused quite the scene, and four different tables walked out. Do you think we’re really serving bad food?”

  “I don’t, but I’m afraid it doesn’t quite matter what I think. Like you said, four tables left, that’s several people who heard about the food making someone sick, and whether it’s accurate or not, won’t stop at least a couple of those people from telling someone else, who will then tell someone else and before we know it, we won’t have any customers at all.”

  “So, you want to keep it quiet? I just hate to think we really did serve something bad,” Tyla pointed out.

  “I don’t want to hide it if we really did something wrong. I want to make sure we get the problem solved. The first woman said she’d ordered a burger and got sick from that.”

  “This person said it was a burger, too. Oh, no. Are we poisoning people? Are they going to shut us down?”

  “Tyla,” Joss said slowly. “Think for a second. The day the first woman came in, I had you and Garth go through all the food in the building, checking everything, right?”

  “Yup.” She nodded. “We threw out the burger meat that day, just in case...oohhhh.”

  Joss smiled as she watched Tyla catch on. “Get it now?”

  “This guy said he came in last night, and the meatloaf made him sick.”

  “We threw away what was left and had a new delivery yesterday morning. So, either we are continuously getting bad meat in from our vendor, or…”

  “Someone is lying.”

  “Right.” Joss nodded. “I can’t think of who would have a reason to have it out for the diner, but I’m willing to bet that we aren’t actually serving anything bad. If Dina would hurry up and get here, we could have a quick staff meeting to see what everyone else thinks. Let me know when she arrives. I’m going to the office to call our vendor.”

  “I thought you said it wasn’t our fault.” Tyla worried.

  “I don’t think it is, but I’m still going to do my due diligence and find out everything I can. That includes letting the vendor know in case any other illnesses are reported. We have to be cautious, either way.”

  Tyla nodded. Joss had worked at the Day and Night Diner for fifteen years, and never once had they received a complaint about an illness from something they’d served. There was a first time for everything, but two people in a few days seemed more than strange.

  Joss called the vendor, tied up a few loose ends on a catering job, and decided it was time to get out front to work. She assumed Dina had already arrived and was working in the kitchen until Joss was finished. Entering the dining room, she realized she was wrong.

  “Where is Dina?” Tyla asked. “Not that we need her here because we are dead, but still. I thought the schedule said she was supposed to be here already.”

  “She is. Dina is never late.” Joss looked for the phone to call her and find out where she was.

  “I’m here. I’m here!” Dina came barreling in the kitchen door from the parking lot.

  “Where were you?” Tyla asked.

  “Yes, Dina. Where were you?” Joss met her at the door.

  “If Verona calls, I was here all morning,” Dina said, brushing past them.

  “Where are you going now?” Joss moved out of the way, “and why would Verona be calling?”

  Dina stopped. “I may or may not have been at Uncle Mick’s, which is now no longer Uncle Micks, but Becky’s Bistro. I have to go make it look like I’ve been working all morning. Maybe I’ll dump some flour on myself, or some coffee grounds. I don’t know. I just need to make it look like I’ve been here, not there. You two will cover for me, right?” Not waiting for a reply, Dina dashed to the back.

  “Did she just say Becky’s Bistro?”

  Joss was shocked. There were a lot of times when Dina was wrong, but if she was right, that sure made it sound like Becky didn’t just take on a second job.

  “She just said a lot of things. I need to know more,” Joss answered, going after Dina.

  “Joss, I didn’t do anything that bad, I swear,” Dina said, defending herself.

  “That bad? Dina, what is going on?”

  “I found out from Garth last night that Becky was seen at Uncle Mick’s, so I went there. The best way to get an answer is to get it for yourself, so that’s what I did. I saw a sign inside the building when I was looking through the windows that said, Becky’s Bistro. It looked like the kind of sign that you’d hang up abov
e the entry. I think she bought the place and has been making stuff up about her life so that she can set up her new place. The more I looked around, the angrier I got. Do you remember when Luke was going to put up a new sign here, and I offered to help design it? Well,” she said, not waiting for Joss to answer, “the Becky’s Bistro sign was almost exactly the same design I created. She stole it from me.”

  “What did you do?” Joss asked, pursing her lips. No matter what Becky did, she didn’t want anyone at the diner to do something stupid in revenge.

  “Nothing.” Dina looked away, flicking flour in her hair.

  Joss sighed, realizing Dina wasn’t going to admit anything. “I can’t believe her. Luke is going to be so upset. I’m not going to tell him, yet.”

  “You should call him. I bet he’d want to hear it from you, anyway. I already told Richie about it, and I’m sure he’s going to tell Luke. If he finds out you knew and didn’t tell him, I think he’d be hurt.”

  “Oh, no. He probably already knows, then. There’s no way that Richie waited to tell him.”

  “Probably not. Hey! Can I hide this superglue in the desk?” Dina asked, holding out a small container. “If Verona comes in, I don’t want it on me.”

  “What?! Dina, what did you do, and why would the police come here for you?”

  “Today? Nothing.”

  Chapter Five

  Joss was beginning to think that the diner and everyone that worked there was cursed. First, everything with Becky, then people claimed they were getting ill, then Dina was late, and now Mrs. Krispin was late. Something wasn’t right, and of course, Joss was tasked with being in charge of everything.

  “I’m sorry I’m late. Traffic is backed up to Kingdom Come, and it took my taxi forever to get through it and get me here.”

  “You take a taxi here?” Joss asked, addressing her first concern.

  “Yes. I don’t want to put any miles on my car,” Mrs. Krispin responded.

  “Isn’t that what they are for?”

  “Not mine. I want to sell it in a few years and be able to say that it was a little old lady’s car that had barely any miles on it. I think I’d do well on a sale. Old car, low miles. I’m using my thinking cap.”

  Joss couldn’t argue with her plan, although, it was a little strange.

  “You said there was a lot of traffic. I wonder why?”

  Mrs. Krispin shrugged. “Something at the park. Lots of cops, and some tape up over by the bridge. I didn’t get a good look.”

  Joss winced. Lots of cops and tape of any sort didn’t sound like good news. She pulled out her phone, looking to see if there was anything on any local news websites.

  “I found something,” Joss said, not wanting to say the words.

  “They reported about it already?” Mrs. Krispin asked.

  “No. Courtney Asher posted about it.”

  “Ahhh. The hairdresser? She does have a big mouth,” Mrs. Krispin pointed out.

  Stifling a laugh, since now certainly wasn’t the time for it, Joss explained what Courtney had shared.

  “A murder? What is going on around here? Are we even safe anymore?” she asked.

  “She said they found a woman’s body underneath the bridge.”

  “So, a drowning?” Mrs. Krispin asked. “I didn’t think the water there was very deep.”

  “It’s not. Nothing says she drowned. Of course, this is coming from Courtney, not the police or a news channel. She’s just Lemon Bay’s Gossip Queen. Nothing to be taken seriously.”

  “Did it mention who they found, a name I mean?” Mrs. Krispin put her hands over her stomach.

  “Courtney said she was able to see long, fire engine red hair, but that was it. From her post, it sounds like she was nearby when the body was found. I feel for everyone involved here. Finding a body, or even being near one, is awful, and that poor person who was found… It’s terrible.”

  Joss hoped that Courtney was exaggerating, knowing she was notorious for doing that, and that whatever had happened was accidental. She’d wait until she heard something from a real news channel before thinking about it too much. Facts were important.

  “Fire engine red, huh? I just saw a lady with hair like that the other day. I thought to myself that she looked like a candy apple, but now that you mentioned it, I think it is better referred to as fire engine red. Gee, I sure hope it wasn’t her. Not that I want it to be anyone at all,” Mrs. Krispin added.

  “Who was it? I hope it wasn’t anyone you knew.” Joss didn’t want it to be anyone she knew, either. It was a shame no matter what, but losing someone close to you was never easy.

  Mrs. Krispin froze.

  “What is it? Do we know her?” Joss asked again.

  “Not particularly. It’s just…. Well, I saw a woman with hair like that when I was at the laundromat. She was talking with Becky, maybe even working with her.” Mrs. Krispin finally got the words out.

  “You think she was working for Becky at her new place?” Joss asked.

  “I can’t be sure. She was definitely helping out a little.”

  “Do you know her name?”

  Mrs. Krispin shook her head. “No, but I bet Ashley does. We can ask her, or have Garth ask her if it’s easier.”

  “That’s right. I never did hear back from Garth. Since Ashley works at the laundromat, she might know this woman. Although, if Becky just started working on the place, it’s not likely that anyone in the plaza is very familiar with her or her workers since they’d be new to the area. I know Lemon Bay is a small place, but we all don’t know each other. I’m still surprised that we didn’t know sooner about what Becky was doing, though. Normally, word about a new business in town spreads like wildfire.”

  “I get the feeling that she kept it pretty quiet until she knew that Luke was going out of town,” Mrs. Krispin said. “And if the opportunity presents itself, why not take it, sort of thing.”

  “What makes you think that?” Joss wondered. “Luke didn’t know he’d be going out of town or anything.”

  “I’ve been around the block a time or two. If you were hiding something, wouldn’t you do your best to plan it so as few people as possible knew about it? Becky just started really getting into things outside. All the windows were covered with newspaper until a couple of days ago so no one could see inside.”

  “Jeez. How much laundry do you have?” Joss asked, wondering just how long Mrs. Krispin had been following along with Becky’s doings.

  “I observe. It’s in my nature. I think Becky found out Luke was gone and used now as the time to really get things going. I bet if you look into it on your fancy little phone, you’ll see people are starting to talk about Becky’s Bistro. She’s a smart cookie, that one. A conniving little thing, too.”

  “I hate to say this, but I hope you’re wrong. I don’t want to think about how awful Becky is right now, even though it’s pretty obvious. If you are right, and the body they found belonged to this girl who you say may have worked for Becky, she has a lot more to worry about than her new business or this diner. I almost feel bad for her; losing an employee.” Joss genuinely did feel bad. No matter what Becky had done, the death of someone she knew wasn’t news she deserved to hear.

  Chapter Six

  “You’ve got a live one,” Dina joked, popping her head in the office.

  “Huh?” Joss asked, perpetually confused by Dina.

  “Someone is here asking for a manager, and I’d like to point out that I happily said I’d go and get you. I know there was a time when I might have been a little difficult and insisted I should be the manager, but I take that all back now. The job is yours.”

  “Dina.” Joss shook her head. “Who is here, and what do they want?”

  “How should I know? I assume someone else is claiming they are sick from something we served. Deep down, I know it’s not true. It’s probably our friend Becky sending people here to ruin our good name so she can drum up more business for herself.”

  �
��Sometimes you surprise me, Dina. That’s a great point.” Joss stood, prepared to meet whoever had asked for her.

  “Hi, there!” Joss greeted a young woman who sat at a table in the corner, waiting for her.

  “Are you the manager?” the woman asked.

  “I am.” Joss nodded. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  Joss got the vibe that whoever this person was, they weren’t there to complain.