Beth, Daniel, and I laughed, but I was the one to respond. “She does like things done a certain way…”
“A certain way?” Carol repeated, eyes wide. “Do you know the difference between pearl, ghost white, bright white, antique white, and cloud white? Because,” she gave a laugh that was a little maniacal, “I listened to Deva carefully explain the difference to the contractors for a half hour today, and I still don’t know how they’re different.” She put her hands on her head. “Emma, they look thesame! The same!”
It was hard to keep a straight face. “At least the contractors are warlocks, so they can work their magic to get it just right.”
“You’d think!” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “Marquis is the only thing keeping her sane, I think. That man has a way with words, a way I tried to emulate and failed miserably, but I’m just glad she has him.”
I smiled. “That man is incredible.”
“Hey!” Daniel said playfully, and I grinned.
Beth sighed. “As much as I just want to hang out and relax, we have to focus on who cursed the restaurant, or, for all we know, the restaurant will just end up burning down again.”
Whoa. That was sobering.
“You’re right,” Carol said, and her frustration melted away.
"Let's get down to business," Beth said, flipping open her laptop and pulling up some files. The sweet aroma of the coffee we'dbeen sipping on filled the air, providing a bit of comfort as we dove into our sleuthing.
"Okay, here's what we've got so far." Beth scrolled through some documents. "Deva's dad had a few minor run-ins with the law in the past, nothing too major. Mostly petty theft and a DUI. It doesn't seem like he'd have a motive to harm Deva. Seems more like he'd want her successful to mooch off of."
Wasn't that the truth. "Right, but like you said before, we can't rule anyone out." I took a sip of my now lukewarm coffee. The bitterness hit my tongue. Blech. I should probably reheat it soon.
"True," Beth said, albeit reluctantly. “And he passed the glove test.”
“So we have to look at other people,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “People who we might not want to look at.”
We all knew where I was going with this. Beth was the one to bring it up earlier, but I think we all just disliked the idea. No one was thrilled about having to dig into the lives of her friends and coworkers. Except, we had no choice.
Beth sat up straighter. "Let's move on to Deva's employees. What do you think about Lucas, the sous chef?"
"He's the assistant chef, forty-five years old, swan shifter. Quiet outside of the kitchen, but really takes charge when he's in there. Creative, artistic, makes beautiful dishes. He seems to admire Deva and wants to make her happy. Oh, and he has a crush on Evelyn. Divorced, has one child, a girl who's seventeen. Anything suspicious there?" I said, the image of his thin frame and serious expression coming to mind.
She shook her head. "No, I can't imagine Lucas wanting to harm Deva in any way. He genuinely respects her and is content with his role at the restaurant or appears to be." She sighed. "All right," Beth said, tapping her pen on the table. "Let's talk about Evelyn."
"Ah, Evelyn," I said, picturing the elegant deer shifter who always glided through the kitchen with an air of serene calm. "She's been working at Deva's place for a few years now. She's really good at taking orders and tends to avoid making decisions whenever possible."
"Sounds like she knows her place in the pecking order." Daniel leaned back in his chair.
"Definitely," I said. "She has this quiet admiration for Lucas, you can tell she respects him a lot. Between you and me, I think she might have a little crush on him too."
"Really?" Beth raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "Do they ever flirt or anything?"
"Nothing obvious, but there are these subtle glances and lingering touches that make my romance radar go haywire," I said, grinning.
"Interesting," Beth scribbled something down. "What else do we know about her life outside of work? Family? Friends?"
"She's divorced and has a son who's eighteen," Carol shared. "From what I've gathered, she's pretty close with her kid, and they have a strong bond. As for friends, most of her social life revolves around the people she works with. She's friendly, but also kind of reserved."
"Okay, let's move on to Michael," Daniel suggested.
"Ah, yes, our resident wolf shifter." Beth grinned. "He's young, only twenty-one, and quite the looker if I do say so myself. I've caught him exchanging some flirty smiles with Rose, one of the servers."
"Any idea if there's something going on between them?" Carol asked.
"Possibly." I grinned. "He asked her out. She didn’t quite say no, but maybe no for now. The chemistry is definitely there."
"So we have a potential romantic entanglement between Lucas and Evelyn, as well as Michael and Rose." Beth arched an eyebrow. "Anything else we should know about them?"
