Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series)

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Authors: Elaine Macko
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that?”
    “That’s what I want to know. Why would anyone do a thing like that? We poured everything into that place. If she had found something, all she had to do was let us know. Of course we pulled the burgers right away and I was in the process of searching for a new supplier, but…people stopped coming. These blogs, they travel through cyberspace faster than a rocket. In less than two months, we’ve gone to no customers. People hear that you have something in your food that shouldn’t be there and they stop coming. Things get blown out of proportion.” Carol shook her head. “It’s not like we had a health department citation or someone found a severed finger in their casserole. We couldn’t afford to have any staff, we had no money coming in and a lot needing to go out.” She reached for her coffee and took a slow sip.
    “Before we started the restaurant I was an executive assistant at a law firm. I made great money and my husband was the purchasing manager for a manufacturing firm in Bridgeport. He had to go back. Of course his job was gone so now he works on the loading dock for a lot less money and it’s back-breaking work. He’s fifty. I’ve been offered my old job and I’m going to take it, but I have to close everything up first and try to sell the business. Look,” Carol said as she leaned forward on the sofa. “I’m not a bad person. I’m sorry the woman is dead. I am. But she was a nasty piece of work. I didn’t even know her, for God’s sake. Why would she attack my business like that over something that could have been easily fixed?”
    I shrugged. “I have no idea. She was my neighbor but I didn’t really know her at all.”
    “You said you were trying to prove her husband didn’t kill her and since you’re here, I guess you thought maybe I did?”
    “Well, I had to check. What about your husband?”
    Carol shook her head but for a second I saw hesitation in her eyes. I was going to have to find out exactly where Mr. Corliss worked and have a chat with him.
    “Well, I’m sorry I took up so much of your time and good luck with finding a buyer.”
    Carol stood up and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I understand. And no, for the record, I didn’t kill her. But,” this time Carol’s smile was something like the Cheshire cat, “I just might be able to tell you who did.”

 
     
     
Chapter Sixteen
     
     
    For a second there I thought Mrs. Corliss was going to give up her husband, but no, it wasn’t going to be that easy. I was now headed to the Great Wall, a vegan restaurant in Pirates Cove. Yes, I know. Indian Cove. Pirates Cove. Our forefathers didn’t seem to have much imagination where town-naming was concerned. Truth be told, I always wanted to come from Pirates Cove. I mean, really, how cool would that be? And town lore had it that somewhere along the beach pirates had buried their booty. I spent many a summer day digging on that beach as a kid to no avail. And I wasn’t the only one. It got so bad the town had to pass an ordinance to stop everyone from digging up the beach. And as far as I knew, no treasure was ever found so it might very well still be there.
    I pulled into a small parking lot in front of the Great Wall and went in. This restaurant was still in business and even had a few customers. I asked to speak to the owner and a few minutes later I was introduced to Julie Vang.
    “If someone did kill her then she deserved what she got,” Julie Vang, a petite Asian woman, spat out. “She had a lot of nerve writing stuff about my place.”
    “So it was all lies? A misunderstanding?” I asked looking around. The Great Wall was not as quaint as the Natural World. The outside was just a worn looking building, typical of low budget strip malls and the inside was dark, a bit musty and clearly no expense at all had gone into the décor. The red carpet needed to be replaced or at least cleaned and the heavy drapes needed to be taken out back for a good beating

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