Hearty Homestyle Murder: Book 9 in The Darling Deli Series by Patti Benning

police the video, but they haven’t done anything about it yet.”
    “That’s so scary. Someone’s definitely targeting you, Mom.”
    “That’s not all.” Moira took a deep breath. Something had been nagging at her since the picnic with her friends the day before. “Darrin has been acting weird lately. And I think he lied to me about where he was going this weekend. He told me he needed some time off to go help a family member, but Denise said she saw him at the Grill later that same day with a girl. I don’t like to think that he would have lied to me to get time off, but I really can’t think of another option that makes sense.”
    “Normally I would tell you to relax. I mean, it’s Darrin,” Candice said. “He’s like the most reliable guy ever. But I think he’s been acting odd lately too. He stopped by the candy shop a few times last week and kept asking me if I knew anything about the murder at the fair.”
    “What did you tell him?” Moira asked, an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.
    “Oh, just what I heard from you and David. That someone poisoned the bowl of gumbo, and that the police had spoken to you.” She shrugged. “He mostly wanted to know what sort of evidence had been found at the crime scene and stuff. All that stuff I didn’t know, and I told him so. Why? What do you think is going on with him?”
    “I don’t know,” Moira said. “But I’m going to find out.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    Dinner at the Redwood Grill twice in seven days might have been a bit excessive, but Moira wanted to do everything she could to support Denise. Besides, she wanted to talk to David, and she knew the best way to put him in a talkative mood was to get a nice juicy steak in front of him. For good measure, she had also saved the good news about Keeva for their dinner.
    “And Chelsea said she’ll be here tomorrow to pick her up,” she finished. Now that she had had a chance to get used to the idea of the big grey wolfhound leaving, she was overjoyed for both dog and owner. She couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces as they were reunited. Sure, Maverick would miss her, but he’d get used to it being just the two of them again soon enough. She would just have to take him on a few extra walks and have a few more sessions of fetch in the backyard until he was used to being the only dog again. Besides, he and Diamond would still get together for playdates, so he wouldn’t be completely alone.
    “I just can’t believe that she’s all the way from Kentucky,” he said, amazed. “That is one lucky dog. Are you going to be all right with her gone?”
    “I’ll miss her of course, but it feels really good to be reuniting the two of them. You should have heard how happy Chelsea was on the phone. That dog is like her child,” she told him.
    “I wonder how she got lost in the first place,” he mused.
    The waitress, a young woman with tight, curly black hair and a bright smile, appeared at their table. She must have been new; Moira had never seen her before, and she was there often enough to recognize most of her friend’s employees.
    “Hi, can I take your order?” she asked, glancing first at David, then at Moira, unsure about who to address first.
    “I’ll have the southwestern chicken sandwich,” the deli owner said. “And can I get that with a side of sweet potato fries instead of normal fries?”
    “Sure, how would you like those seasoned?”
    “Um, what are the options?”
    “Regular sea salt, garlic Parmesan, or extra-spicy barbecue rub,” the waitress said. “I recommend the garlic Parmesan, personally.”
    “Sure, that sounds good to me.” The different seasonings for the fries must be new; probably another of Denise’s ingenious ideas to make the Grill’s offerings more specialized.
    David ordered a slab of baby back ribs and mashed red potatoes, one of the three meals at the Redwood Grill that he alternated between. Moira tried a new dish almost every time she