Agony of the Leaves: Tea Shop Mystery #13 Read Free Page B

she doing? she suddenly wondered. A recitation of the menu? Surely, her overtaxed brain was spitting up information that was decidedly unhelpful. Better stick to the subject.
    “And you didn’t have any sort of disagreement with him?” Tidwell asked.
    Theodosia jerked as if a hot coal had been pressed against her flesh. “No!”
    “Oldboyfriend-girlfriend issues?” Tidwell prodded.
    “What are you implying?” Theodosia asked. She didn’t like his line of questioning. Not one bit.
    “I bring this up,” said Tidwell, “only because someone mentioned seeing the two of you together.
    Theodosia practically bared her teeth. “Who said that?”
    Tidwell drew back from her. “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say.”

3

    Theodosia stared into
the mirror and saw a crazy woman staring back at her. Quickly bending forward, she splashed cool water on her face and blotted herself with a paper towel. Then she dug in her clutch purse for a comb and a tissue, patted down her hair, and blew her nose.
    There. Better? No, not really. Not by a long shot.
    As she exited the ladies’ room, she wheeled left and ransmack-dab into Chef Toby Crisp, Parker’s friend and executive chef. At which point they pretty much collapsed against each other.
    “How could this happen?” Chef Toby cried. The sorrow on his plump and usually garrulous face was palpable. “I was just talking to Drayton and he…” His face crumpled. “Well, he said you were there.”
    “I was,” said Theodosia. “It was awful.”
    “He drowned,” said Chef Toby, shaking his head, brushing away tears. “In that big tank.”
    “Apparently,” said Theodosia.
    Chef Toby stared at her. “How could he have drowned?” he asked, his voice practically a growl.
    Theodosia gazed at him through a veil of tears. “You think that’s strange, too?”
    “Yes, I do,” said Chef Toby. “Sure. I mean Parker pretty much grew up on Hilton Head, something like a mile from Sunset Beach. He surfed, he did boogie boards; Parker even took dive lessons. He was
certified
, for gosh sake.”
    “You’re thinking Parker didn’t just fall into that tank and drown,” said Theodosia. She was believing this more and more. Trying to convince herself of what really might have happened? Yes, probably.
    Chef Toby scratched at his curly sideburns. “It just doesn’t seem in character that Parker would launch into afull-blown panic, even if he was wrapped in a net. Seems like he’d just…”
    “Kick,” said Theodosia. “He would have just kicked his way to the surface.”
    “You’d think so.”
    “Unless someone held him under,” said Theodosia.
    “Huh?” Chef Toby looked surprised. “What are you saying?”
    “Parker’s hands were all cut up,” she told him. “I saw him. I looked at the body just before the rescue guys took him away.”
    Chef Toby looked confused. “You mean like he cut himself trying to climb out?”
    “More like he was fighting with someone and got…” She took a deep breath. “Got stabbed.”
    Chef Toby waggled his hands in a questioning gesture. “You mean…murdered?”
    She nodded. “Something like that.”
Exactly like that.
    “And you talked to the police about this?”
    “Yes, but they don’t seem all that interested in my theories right now,” said Theodosia. Even though she felt angryand frustrated, she fought to keep any note of hysteria out of her voice.
    Chef Toby stood there frowning, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his white jacket, his chef’s hat canted at a crazy angle atop his head. “Is there somebody else we can get to pursue this? Like a lawyer or something?”
    Or me
, thought Theodosia.
    “I’m not sure,” she said.
    “But why?
Who?
” Chef Toby cleared his throat. “That’s the better question. Who would push him in, or push him under?”
    “That’s the real question,” said Theodosia.
    “You really think… ?”
    “Possible.”
Probable.
    Chef Toby was having trouble wrapping his mind around