Any Meat In That Soup? (Sam Darling Mystery #2) Read online

  CONTENTS

  Praise

  Synopsis

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  Praise for Jerilyn Dufresne and the Sam Darling Mysteries

  Dufresne has created a charming, nosy, and slightly irreverent character in Samantha Darling, the heroine in Who Killed My Boss?, a fast-paced cozy that takes place in the small town of Quincy, Illinois.

  Beth Amos, author of the Mattie Winston Mystery series (as Annelise Ryan)

  The plot kept me guessing until nearly the end and I am looking forward to reading further adventures! Fun and entertaining read…highly recommended…well done!

  Anne Kelleher, author of A Once and Future Love and Wickham’s Folly

  Dufresne shows her gift of storytelling as she moves the plot forward, introducing believable characters and a complicated plot. Recommended to everyone who enjoys a well-written, fun, cozy mystery!

  Kimberly Shursen, author of Itsy Bitsy Spider and Hush

  And from Amazon reviewers:

  …It’s like reading the old Nancy Drew books with others. Loved it very very much!

  …This book was very well written and I loved all the humor sprinkled throughout the story. Characters were loveable, not to mention the dog. Great ending.

  …Sam Darling is the kind of gal you wish you could know in real life. Funny, quirky, entertaining. And her “partner,” Clancy the dog, helped make this book just plain fun to read. When’s the next one?!

  …Very exciting plot and hard to put down. Waiting for the next book to come out. I have told all my friends about how good the book was.

  …I am one who figures out the guilty party before the author does. This time I was WRONG! Very enjoyable book, fast paced…Looking forward to the next one.

  About

  ANY MEAT IN THAT SOUP?

  When a man falls down at Samantha Darling’s feet, she thinks it’s pretty funny. But she stops joking when he turns up dead.

  Social worker and would-be crime-solver Sam is busy trying to unravel the mystery as the death toll keeps mounting. She’s thrilled to be hired by the handsome local PI to work in the ER and investigate. “I’m being paid to snoop! I’ve died and gone to heaven.” Her elation quickly evaporates when she finds out that her sister Jen is being investigated for the murders.

  A trio of other suspects, a poisoning scare for her best bud and canine companion Clancy, and the back-and-forth pull of Sam’s attraction to the dreamy Michael and the loyal George keep her unbalanced as she tries to juggle social work, secret sleuthing, and a romantic triangle.

  As usual, Sam takes her snooping to extraordinary heights. She can’t seem to stop putting her nose where it doesn’t belong. And this time…she may have gone too far.

  ANY MEAT IN THAT SOUP?

  a Sam Darling mystery

  Jerilyn Dufresne

  To Rob Dufresne and Jill Dufresne Potrykus, the best kids (and adults) a mom could wish for.

  ONE

  He fell at my feet. Nice place for a man. Problem was, he was blue. Maybe dead.

  It seemed like an eternity before a sea of color descended on him. One white coat checked for a pulse. A Mickey Mouse scrub suit listened for breath sounds. Someone in jeans and a sweater retrieved a gurney. Mickey Mouse put a finger in the man’s mouth, and swept it from side to side, looking for God-knows-what.

  A green scrub suit said, “On my mark. One, two, three.” The sturdy group of four lifted my dinner companion and placed him on the stretcher.

  My sister, Jenny—the guest of honor at this birthday party—orchestrated the procedure. As the nurse manager of the Emergency Department, she couldn’t enjoy the festivities while there were chests to be pounded.

  My other sister, Jill—she was the one in jeans and sweater—joined her. Even though Jill was off duty today, she was an ER resident and couldn’t bear to sit and watch.

  “Damn, Sam, when we tell ya to knock ’em dead, we don’t expect you to take it literally.”

  “Shut up, Rob.” I said to my brother, the smart-ass cop. “He’s not dead. I saw him breathing.”

  He grinned. He knew how to push my buttons. Too bad he was such a little cutie; I found it hard to stay mad at him.

  After the hubbub subsided, the rest of us returned to the mundane task at hand. Eating the goodies.

  A visitor might remark that we were eating in the midst of a crisis. Any one of us would reply, “Yeah. And…‌?” Crises were something we were used to.

  I looked around. My brothers were being their usual selves, joking with each other and happily munching on chicken wings. Other Emergency Department employees and guests relaxed in the staff lounge as they also enjoyed the food. The small dark room was made more festive with Happy Birthday signs and crepe paper throughout. Danny Jacobsen and Connie Mumford were having a heated discussion about the importance of exercise to maintain good health, as Danny ate a pulled pork sandwich and Connie started on her second. As a paramedic and nurse respectively, their experience, both in the ER and with carry-ins, kept them calm during the crisis.

  “Hey, you two. For a married couple, you sure argue a lot.” They both turned to look at me. “But it sounds like you were arguing the same point.” I smiled as I said it.

  Connie replied, “We do that all the time. We think we’re disagreeing and then notice that we’re on the same side. Crazy.” She looked at Danny, her bright brown eyes practically disappearing because of her huge smile.

  Danny didn’t say anything. Just grinned. He was a man of few words unless he was arguing with Connie.

  I noticed a pale, thin guy sitting by himself in a corner. He wore a white shirt and pants, and it was hard to see where his skin ended and the fabric began. The guy would take a bite of food, and as he chewed, he kept looking from side to side and over his shoulder. He was attached to the corner and was mostly in shadow, so it wasn’t easy to see him. I moved closer to Connie and asked, “Who’s he?”

  Connie replied, “Oh, that’s Carter. He was just laid off as an EMT, but he still stops by here every day.”

  “I’m not one for talking about people,” I fibbed, “but he looks creepy.

  “I agree,” she said, “but he worked here for several years. He’s harmless.”

  At that point Jill returned, blonde ponytail pleasantly mussed, a confused look on her face.

  “Who took my plate?”

  “No one,” I replied. “It’s right where you left it. How’s my date?” I took another slurp of the vegetarian vegetable soup, which was almost the only thing in that room that didn’t stink of burnt flesh.

  Jill’s brow furrowed, then relaxed again. “First of all, he’s not your date…”

  I interrupted with, “Were we, or were we not, dining together?” Silence. “I think that constitutes a date.”

  Jill ignored me as she started munching on the Buffalo wings again. “An
d secondly, he’ll be fine. We don’t know exactly what it is yet, but it doesn’t look serious. Heart looks okay, but his pulse is elevated, blood pressure is low, and he’s dehydrated. Smelled like alcohol. How lucky could someone get…‌passing out in an emergency room.” She smiled between bites. “They’re admitting him to run some tests. Dougie’s on duty.”

  Dougie was Dr. Kareem Douglas Johnson. Short, dark and handsome. And young. A resident in the ER where his mom, Loretta, worked as a technician. He was a rising star, so I had no doubt he’d take good care of…”Hey, what’s the guy’s name anyway?”

  Jill shook her head as she munched on another bite. “Dunno. He’s a homeless guy. One of our regulars. Says his name is ‘Pluto,’ so that’s what we call him. He was hanging around outside, so I invited him to join us for Jenny’s party. Gave him my plate and made another.” She smiled. “Looks like he wasn’t a vegetarian. He sure ate a lot of those wings before he keeled over.”

  I looked at Rob again. “Can’t you quit licking your lips over those chicken wings? It’s practically making me ill.”

  He made even more noise. “Just because you’re a vegetarian doesn’t mean that we carnivorous types can’t enjoy eating flesh.” He licked his lips again, but this time widened his eyes and chuckled a la Hannibal Lector.

  “One of these days you’ll see I’m right. It’s a well know fact that people who eat meat get sick a lot more than vegetarians. And besides…”

  Rob interrupted with a rather loud belch. “I don’t feel so good.”

  I looked skyward and mouthed a silent, “Thank you, God,” but my sick sibling didn’t notice.

  Jill quickly became a doctor again. “You want me to look you over?”

  “Nope, think I’ll go home. Probably got a touch of the flu. I’ll be fine.” I knew Rob must feel really bad, because he didn’t make a wisecrack.

  He exited, looking slightly green and holding his stomach.

  I turned to Jill. “That sure happened fast. What do you think it is?”

  “Probably just the flu. Lots of it going around. The ER’s been full of people who think they’re dying, but just have a stomach virus. Not much we can do for it. We just tell them to stay in bed, drink lots of fluids and to eat when they can.”

  “Yeah, but they don’t seem to think that’s enough,” Jenny chimed in as she reclaimed her plate. “They’re feeling so rotten that they want antibiotics at the very least. And they’re disappointed when we say they need to rest and drink a lot of fluids.” She took another big chomp out of a chicken wing. “Gosh, most people left before we cut the cake. You guys want some?”

  “Yeah, as long as there’s no meat in it.” They laughed at me but I didn’t react. Hell, the intense smell of chicken, pork, and beef in that small room was so overpowering it nearly grossed me out. But not enough to stop me from eating other stuff.

  As Jen handed slices of cake to Jill and me, I asked again about Pluto. “So is the guy going to be okay?”

  “Don’t know. I was going to wait a while and then call upstairs to check. If you have a few minutes, I’ll call now.”

  I nodded, my mouth too full of cake to talk.

  By this time the room had cleared except for Jill and me. Our other brothers left soon after Rob did, but not before making fun of him for taking off sick. Jill and I sat in companionable silence. Munching.

  Jen returned, minus the grin. “Nurse in ICU told me that Pluto died just a few minutes after he was admitted.”

  “What happened?” Jill looked up expectantly.

  “Don’t know for sure. They might do an autopsy to find out what happened, but the nurse I talked to said he smelled like alcohol, so maybe that had something to do with it. Dougie’ll be down in a minute or so and we can ask him.”

  “I don’t remember him smelling like booze when he was sitting by me, but the smell of this barbecued meat kind of kills my ability to smell anything else.”

  “‘Shup’ about the meat.” Jen was the sibling closest to me in age. A year younger and normally a lot nicer than I was. Yet I wasn’t surprised at her “shut up.” The gang got tired of my carnivore comments.

  I decided to ignore her retort. “Will the cops have to come to check out Pluto’s death?”

  Jill and Jen both started talking at the same time, “Probably not.” “Maybe.”

  They looked at each other and laughed. Jill continued, “It’s hard to say. This death will probably fall into the gray area. Since there was no sign of physical injury and no obvious cause of death, the police might feel they need to check it out. But we have lots of deaths that fall in the gray area, and they aren’t always investigated. Too bad Rob went home sick. He could’ve saved some other cop a trip.”

  Our youngest brother Rob was a rookie police officer in our hometown. He wore the “QPD” patch proudly. The Quincy Police Department was small but pretty efficient, so I expected someone to show up momentarily.

  “Hi ya, Sam.” The new arrival was right on cue.

  I cringed. It was George Lansing, my old, un-lamented boyfriend from high school, dressed in his usual Detective Colombo-like rumpled suit.

  “Hi, George.”

  Jen and Jill chimed in with “Hi, George.”

  My feelings toward George were ambivalent. He abandoned me on prom night twenty-five years ago. I’ve been told I hold a grudge. The jury’s still out on that as far as I’m concerned.

  After gracing me with his infuriating smile, he turned to Jill and said, “Jill, I was walking through the ER lobby when I heard that there was a sudden death with no known cause. Do you know anything about it?”

  She nodded, “His name was Pluto, a homeless regular here in E.R. We had a little birthday party for Jen…”

  “Happy birthday, Jen.”

  Jenny smiled and nodded her thanks.

  Jill continued, “…‌and while he was eating, he passed out at Sam’s feet.”

  A sound escaped from George that sounded like a snort of laughter. I glared, but he ignored me.

  “What happened then?”

  “We did some preliminary work on him here, but then rushed him up to ICU after we temporarily stabilized him,” Jill said. “That’s really all I know. It didn’t look too serious from what I saw. I’m pretty confident it wasn’t a heart attack from what they said…‌but Dougie was the doctor in charge and it was his call. I just phoned ICU a few minutes ago and they told me he died.”

  George took notes as Jill talked. He looked up, “I don’t really know yet if we’ll be investigating. We’ll probably wait until after an autopsy, if they do one. But if you guys don’t mind, I’ll want to talk to you three individually. Just in case.” He paused, then added, “And do me a favor, tell Dougie—what’s his full name?”

  Jill answered, “Johnson. Kareem Douglas Johnson. He’s a new resident in E.R. I think you know his mom, Loretta. She’s been a tech here for a long time.”

  “Thanks for the info. Tell him I may want to see him in a few minutes. As I said, I don’t know if we’ll launch an investigation until after the autopsy. Will the three of you wait for me here while I go upstairs and check things out? I’ll let you know then if I want to interview you or not.”

  Jenny and Jill both answered in the affirmative. I did not.

  “Sorry, George. I have a date tonight. With Michael. Michael O’Dear. You know, the private eye?”

  “Of course, I know O’Dear. We worked together on the Burns’ murder…‌Hell, Sam, you know that. You were there. Trying to impress me that you have a date?” His words sounded mad, but his smile said something different.

  “’Course not. Just wanted you to know I can’t wait all night for you.”

  He waited for the inevitable.

  I didn’t give in.

  He finished for me, “You mean you won’t wait for me like you did on prom night.”

  I ignored the comment. “Is it okay if I go? I can talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, come down to the stati
on.” He turned away, then back again, continuing with his Columbo imitation. “Unless you want to meet me for breakfast?”

  “Sure. Seven o’clock at The Dairy?”

  He grunted and began walking toward the elevator.

  “And, George?”

  Another grunt as he turned to face me again.

  “Don’t stand me up.”

  I swear the final grunt had a smile in it.

  TWO

  “Clancy.” I whistled as I walked into the carriage house. Before the whistle finished, there she was. “Hi, girl. Want to go for a quick run?”

  A stupid question. Of course Clancy wanted to go for a run. She’d been inside all day and her look reminded me that I wasn’t keeping up my end of our bargain. I smiled at her eagerness and her beauty. When my kids and I had brought her home from the Humane Society, we fell in love with those eyes and didn’t care about what breed she was, although we found out later she was a cross between a yellow lab and a chow.

  “Yeah, I know you’ve guarded the house all day and kept the place safe for me. I can’t help it I have to work for a living.”

  I hooked her leash onto her collar and headed out the door. “Okay, you’re right. I am later than usual. I’ll tell you all about it.”

  As we walked and ran along our usual route in our mansion-filled neighborhood, I filled Clancy in on the events of the afternoon. She forgave me once she knew the facts.

  The dogwoods were in bloom and Maine Street was ablaze with spring colors. I could even smell the delicate magnolia trees. This route never really felt like work; it could even be a meditative experience. But not today. I was in a hurry.

  After a half-hour of exercise, I called it quits. “I need to get ready for Michael.” As Clancy sat, she almost pulled my arm out of the socket. “Clancy, come on. I told you the other day that I had a date for dinner tonight with Michael. Don’t pull this shit with me.”

  She stood up and it seemed as though I was watching this in slow motion. The ruff around her neck stood at attention and her blonde coat shone in the setting sun. Her regal bearing let me know that she put up with my antics because she loved me, not because she had to. She began walking slowly, ignoring my existence.