Roast Turkey and a Murder Read online

  Roast Turkey and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 7

  by

  Kathleen Suzette

  Copyright © 2019 by Kathleen Suzette. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

  Books by Kathleen Suzette

  Clam Chowder and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 1

  Short Stack and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 2

  Cherry Pie and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 3

  Barbecue and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 4

  Birthday Cake and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 5

  Hot Cider and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 6

  Roast Turkey and a Murder

  A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery, book 7

  Books by Kate Bell, Kathleen Suzette

  Apple Pie A la Murder,

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 1

  Trick or Treat and Murder,

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 2

  Thankfully Dead

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 3

  Candy Cane Killer

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 4

  Ice Cold Murder

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 5

  Love is Murder

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 6

  Strawberry Surprise Killer

  A Freshly Baked Cozy Mystery, book 7

  Pushing Up Daisies in Arizona,

  A Gracie Williams Cozy Mystery, book 1

  Kicked the Bucket in Arizona

  A Gracie Williams Cozy Mystery, book 2

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter One

  “Hi Rainey, You’re just the person I wanted to see! I’ll just die if you don’t come and help out at the community Thanksgiving Day dinner tomorrow!”

  I stopped in my tracks. Tori Wells, president of the Sparrow, Idaho business owners association stood in the middle of the British Tea and Coffee Company with her hands on her hips. Her voice rose above the din of the busy coffee shop, and her head tilted to the side, looking at me expectantly. My eyes went to my good friend Agatha Broome, but all she did was shrug and shake her head.

  “What do you mean?” I asked Tori. I had just bought a pumpkin spice latte, and I was getting ready to take a deep slug of it when she interrupted me. I didn’t have any plans to help out at the community dinner. I had a Thanksgiving dinner of my own to put on for my family and a few close friends.

  She chuckled, her surprisingly deep voice resonating through the shop. “Didn’t your mother tell you? My goodness, what am I going to do about that woman? I asked her weeks ago to get with you and see if you would help out Thanksgiving morning. We start at 4:00 a.m. Can you make it?”

  I hated being put on the spot, but I also hated turning down helping out a good cause. The annual Thanksgiving community dinner was something a lot of families in Sparrow depended on. The meal was for anyone that needed a good meal and didn’t have anywhere else to go, regardless of financial status.

  “4:00 a.m. is awful early,” I said lightly. I had been obsessed with going over what to make for the meal I was going to cook for my own family. This year my boyfriend, Detective Cade Starkey, would be joining us and I could hardly wait to wow him with my holiday cooking skills. I had already planned on getting up at six o’clock in the morning to get things started for our dinner and now Tori wanted me to be at the community center at four? I sighed.

  “We’ve got to get those turkeys roasting so they’ll be done by the time we start serving at eleven,” she said, moving closer to me. “I tell you, I’ve been working on this dinner for the past two months. I don’t know what this community would do without all the hard work I put into it.” She chuckled loudly. “But it’s a sacrifice that I’m more than willing to make. Giving the way I do makes life worthwhile. I enjoy helping the less fortunate though. As a matter of fact, I live for it. I’ve got a servant’s heart. I just wish others had one, too.” She looked at me pointedly when she said it.

  I nodded slowly, and my eyes went to Agatha again. I really didn’t want to commit to this, and I felt like a heel for that. “I tell you what, I can spare a few hours in the morning, but that’s really all the time I have. I wish I had known about this sooner so I could have planned accordingly.” I cringed inwardly as I agreed to help. I already had so much to do that day.

  “Well, that’s your mother for you,” she said and laughed again. “Like I said, I’ve been on her for weeks to talk to you about it. But thankfully, I’ve already got things rolling in the right direction. We just need your expertise to get those turkeys in the oven. Do you have a special recipe? We’re going to use those nifty oven bags to get them done quickly, but what about seasonings? I guess I could do it myself, but I thought you might like an opportunity to help out. I think everyone should help out with community functions. Don’t you?”

  Tori spoke so fast I had a hard time keeping up. “Yes of course,” I said. And I did feel that way. I just didn’t like this being sprung on me at the last minute. I had been carefully planning the day’s meal and the time by which each dish needed to be done in order to make it to the table on time. It would be a squeeze, but I could manage this. I was almost sure of it.

  She nodded. “I tell you what Rainey, you don’t know how much this means to me. I’ve been working so hard on this, but I told you that, didn’t I?” She laughed. “Without me getting things rolling, I don’t know what this town would do. All these poor indigent people that have no place else to go. No food and no money. I just can’t imagine being in their shoes, can you? But thankfully, we’ll get this done. I’ve been rounding up all the business owners for donations of time, money, and food, and I have to say, things are coming together. Thank goodness I’m a planner!”

  I nodded, pasting a smile on my face. “I’m sure it takes a lot of planning to bring this event together.”

  She nodded and took a sip from the cup in her hand. “Did I tell you my daughters are coming home from college? They’re just like me! They’re such givers. I know they get it from me. All I do is work, work, work, and they’re the same way.”

  I nodded and slowly inched my way toward an empty table. The pumpkin spice latte in my hand was cooling off, and I wanted to enjoy it before that happened. Tori would keep me talking all morning if I didn’t at least try to make an escape. “Well goodness, it’s a good thing the community has you, isn’t it?”

  “Well, I can’t take all the credit,” she said, placing one hand on her chest and doing her best to look modest. “Lots of people contribute. And I’m s
o glad of that. I can’t imagine what this meal would be without everyone contributing. But I’ll have you know, I spoke to the mayor not three days ago, and he told me exactly how important I was to this town. I was so embarrassed. He went on and on. But I guess somebody’s got to do it and no one else volunteered.”

  I nodded again, trying to appear engaged in the conversation. I smiled at her and turned to Agatha. “Can I get a pumpkin spice scone, please Agatha?”

  “Yes and I’ll serve that up with a bit of humble pie shall I?” Agatha said from behind the counter. I ignored the comment and turned back to smile at Tori. Agatha and Tori had never gotten along.

  Tori turned and glared at Agatha. “Well, I don’t want to keep you, Rainey,” Tori said, turning back to me. “But I do appreciate you helping out. We have thirty turkeys just waiting to be stuck into the oven.”

  “Thirty turkeys? Where on earth are those going to be cooked?” I was stunned. I had never cooked that many turkeys at once.

  “At the community center kitchen. They have ovens large enough to cook at least ten of them, plus I have a number of electric roasting pans that we’ll be using. Don’t you worry about a thing, everything will work out just fine.”

  Tori was in her late forties with short blond hair and blue eyes. She was striking at six feet tall. She liked to brag that she had been a former model, and I believed it. I could imagine her gracing fashion magazines at some point in her life.

  “That sounds great, then,” I said, pulling a chair out from the table. “I’ll see you at 4:00 a.m.”

  “And what about you, Agatha? I guess I’ll be seeing you at 4:00 a.m. as well, right? You don’t want to let down the people of our community, do you?” she said, turning to look at Agatha. There was a smug smile on her face when she said it, as if daring Agatha to decline.

  “Oh, I suppose so,” Agatha said without looking at her. She came around from the front counter bringing me a scone. “No charge, dear. You’re one of my favorite customers.”

  “That’s sweet of you, Agatha,” I said. “Aren’t you excited about tomorrow?” I couldn’t resist teasing her. Her disdain of Tori Wells was common knowledge to most people in town.

  “I can hardly wait for dinner at your house. I know everything you make will be wonderful. Are you sure you don’t want me to bring anything?” she asked, still ignoring Tori.

  “Well then,” Tori said hesitantly. “I guess I’ll be going.”

  I looked over my shoulder and nodded. “Okay then Tori, I’ll see you bright and early Thursday morning.”

  When Tori had left, Agatha rolled her eyes. “That woman!”

  “Now, now, Agatha,” I teased. “She’s doing a wonderful thing for the community. You need to appreciate her more.”

  “And if I don’t appreciate her, you can bet she’s going to make me miserable, one way or another.”

  I giggled. “You certainly aren’t going to be able to overlook anything she does for the community, are you?”

  She shook her head. “There’s no chance of that. She’ll make sure everyone knows,” she said and went back behind the counter and picked up a cup of tea. “Let’s have a sit and catch up.”

  She headed back to my table and pulled out a chair. “My mom didn’t say anything to me about the community dinner. I guess I should have known better than to think Tori wasn’t going to ask me to participate. It’s just that time got away from me and I sort of forgot about it. I can hardly believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving.”

  She nodded. “I don’t mind helping out at the dinner, it really is a good cause. It’s terrible that so many people either don’t have the money to fix their own dinner or have no place to go. It’s just Tori. Let’s just say she’s more than I can stand most of the time.”

  I nodded. “I understand completely. Tori is so full of herself at times, but I try to ignore her when she starts bragging.”

  “I’ve tried that, but she gets up in my face when I do that. I told her I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the community meal because I had something important to do, but she’s done nothing but try to make me feel guilty ever since.”

  I looked at her. “What did you have that you needed to do?”

  “Sleep in!” She sat back in her chair and laughed.

  I shook my head. “We’d all like to do that, wouldn’t we? Don’t worry. It will be fun. You just wait and see. Besides, you can come in with me at 4:00 a.m. and we’ll do our time together. As soon as we get those turkeys into the roasting pans, we’ll be able to go home.”

  “I hope so. But knowing Tori, she’s going to try to strong-arm us into staying the whole day,” she said and took a sip of her tea.

  “Oh no, that’s not going to happen. I’ve got our dinner to put on. I’ve got to leave no later than 8:00 a.m.”

  I did enjoy helping out at the community meal, but like Agatha, Tori could get on my nerves. Every time I saw her she spent more time talking about herself that she did anything else and it quickly wore on a person’s nerves. It was probably why my mother hadn’t told me Tori had asked for me to come and help out. My mother couldn’t tolerate people who admired themselves as much as Tori did.

  Chapter Two

  “I’m so glad you brought coffee,” I said to Agatha. She was slouched down in the passenger seat of my car and we were headed to the community center. A light snow had fallen overnight, and I was being careful to keep the car from sliding across any unseen ice. I needed to get my car weatherized for the winter. Thanksgiving had slipped up on me so quickly that I hadn’t done nearly the preparations for it that I normally did.

  “I figured we both needed the caffeine to keep us awake, as well as keep us from hurting Tori.” She wore a pink knit hat on her head, matching pink knit gloves on her hands, and a black wool coat. She picked up her cup of coffee and took a sip.

  I chuckled. “Now Agatha, you don’t mean that.”

  “Don’t I?” she said and took another sip of her coffee. “I know I’m probably harping on it, but that woman just irritates me. How can one find themself that interesting? I don’t know of anyone else that behaves that way.”

  “Some people are a legend in their own minds,” I agreed. “But let’s try to have fun today. We’ll get these turkeys seasoned and into their snug little roasting pans, and then we’ll head out of there no later than 8:00 a.m.”

  “I hope you’re right,” she said as I pulled into the community center parking lot. Tori’s car was parked out front, but the community center was still in darkness.

  “It looks pretty dark in there,” I said as I parked. “I was hoping Tori would have gotten the lights on and the heater going. It’s going to be cold in there.”

  “It’s the least she could’ve done,” Agatha agreed as we got out of the car.

  We went to the front door the community center, and I took hold of the door handle to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. I looked at Agatha and I shook the doorknob. “Maybe she got worried about leaving the door unlocked, being the only person here this early.”

  Agatha nodded. “Probably so.”

  I knocked on the door and we waited. When no one came to open the door, I pounded on it with the side of my fist. “Maybe she’s back in the kitchen and can’t hear us knocking?”

  “That could be,” she said and fished her phone from her purse. “I hate to admit it, but I have her phone number. I’ll give her a call and have her come around to open the door.”

  I nodded and waited as Agatha hit dial. After several minutes Agatha shook her head and hit end.

  “No answer?” I asked.

  She shook her head again. “Maybe there’s a side door we can get in,” she said. We headed around the side of the building in search of another entrance. We found one and tried it, only to find it was locked as well.

  “Let’s try around back where the kitchen is,” I said. “I should have parked back there anyway.”

  We walked carefully across the wet sidewalk, trying not to slip.
Agatha took hold of my arm and we made it around to the back door. I reach for the doorknob and tried it, but it was locked as well. I looked at Agatha

  “What you make of that? She isn’t usually late for anything. She likes for people to see her,” she said.

  I shrugged and pounded on the door. After a couple of minutes, I tried it again. “Seems like she would hear us.”

  “I should say so,” she said, and she reached out a boot-clad foot and kicked at the door in the hopes it would make a louder sound than knocking had. We waited but there was still no answer.

  I turned away from the door and my eyes caught something lying off in the shadows. “What is that?”

  Agatha turned to look. She squinted her eyes at the dark. “I don’t know, I can’t make it out.”

  The hair on the back of my neck suddenly stood up. I didn’t feel good about whatever it was that was laying over in the shadows in the alley. “I guess we should go find out,” I said and pulled my phone out of my pocket. At 4:00 a.m. it was still completely dark out and with just one dim light in the alley to see by, I wished I had a flashlight.