Leave No Scone Unturned Read online

  Also by Denise Swanson

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  Chef-to-Go Mystery

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  Books. Change. Lives.

  Copyright © 2019 by Denise Swanson Stybr

  Cover and internal design © 2019 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Cover design by Adrienne Krogh/Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Cover illustration © Tsukushi/Peter Lott Reps

  Sourcebooks, Poisoned Pen Press, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious and are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

  Published by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60563-4410

  (630) 961-3900

  Fax: (630) 961-2168

  sourcebooks.com

  Contents

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Back Cover

  To Doris Ann Norris (1940–2018), the two-thousand-year-old librarian. Doris Ann was one of the first people who welcomed me into the cozy mystery community and was a huge support throughout my career. She will be greatly missed.

  Chapter 1

  Dani Sloan’s muscles strained as she lifted a heavy container of tasty dessert samples into her van’s cargo area. After sliding it into place, she stretched her back. Blowing out a puff of exasperation, she scanned the street running in front of the mansion. There was no sign of her youngest employee, Ivy Drake, and there were still several more bins to load up, along with boxes of coupons and promotional brochures.

  Ivy should have reported for duty half an hour ago and she was nowhere to be seen. Dani wasn’t sure if she should be angry or worried. Of her three helpers, Ivy was usually the most reliable. It was usually Tippi Epstein who disappeared or had an excuse not to work her shift, not Ivy. Friends or not, she couldn’t allow her assistants to walk all over her. She would have to start running a tighter ship.

  Dani shook her head and returned to the kitchen to grab the next box of tasty treats. She was lucky to have escaped the rigid nine-to-five workplace and be able to focus on her passion for cooking, but there were still plenty of challenges in running her own small business.

  Then again, even though her company had been up and running for four months, Dani always felt a little thrill whenever she started to load supplies into the white Ford Transit with the red Chef-to-Go logo on the side. She bit her lip. If only Ivy would get here and help.

  Irritation fought with a sense of unease, but Dani shoved away her concern, and while she continued to fill the van, she thought about how she’d ended up opening her business. It had started when she’d analyzed the gastronomical competition in Normalton, Illinois, and discovered an unfilled niche.

  There were plenty of catering companies, but none that also provide itinerant personal chef services to people too busy to cook for themselves, and none that sold fresh, tasty, and portable lunch-to-go meals on weekdays to busy college students.

  Those lunches were what brought in the day-to-day cash flow. Which is why this morning, she was focused on gaining more consumers for that part of her company.

  It was seven days before classes started at nearby Normalton University, and Orientation Week Normalton, a.k.a. OWN, would officially start in a couple of hours. With students comprising the vast majority of her lunch-to-go regulars, Dani was determined to make the incoming freshmen aware of her products and entice them to become her customers.

  Which made renting a table on the quad for today’s OWN kickoff a necessary expense. Ivy was supposed to have helped with the preparations for the booth, then accompany Dani to work there, and she was now over forty minutes late.

  Balancing an enormous container of bite-size Fowling for U sandwiches, her special turkey subs made with lemon basil hummus and balsamic onions, Dani freed one hand and opened the door of the refrigerated container. The ongoing heat wave made her glad she’d recently had the chiller built into the back of the van. She couldn’t afford to have food spoil.

  Once she was free from her burden, she looked at her watch. It was already ten and she wanted to have her booth set up by eleven thirty for the noon kickoff. If Ivy didn’t show up in the next few minutes, she’d have to leave without her.

  Sighing, Dani started to head inside to get the rolling cart with the lunch-to-go side dish samples but halted when she heard a noise from the carriage house.

  The carriage house was an empty building the size of a three-car garage. At some point, when she had the money, Dani planned to turn it into apartments. However, for now, she used it mostly for storage.

  That meant there shouldn’t be anyone inside. Taking her cell phone from her pocket, Dani punched in 911. Holding her thumb over the Send icon, she noiselessly approached the carriage house intent to take a quick look through one of the windows before calling for help.

  While she didn’t want to summon the police over a raccoon or some squirrels who had found their way inside through an opening in the eaves, after having her home trashed a few months ago by an intruder, she wasn’t about to take any chances. If the animal inside the carriage house had two legs instead of four, she’d back away and phone the cops.

  The dirty windowpane obscured Dani’s view as she tried to peer through the glass, and she searched her pockets for a tissue. Coming up empty, she sighed and used the edge of her T-shirt to wipe away the grime.

  Once it was clean enough to see through, she leaned forward and cupped her hands around her eyes. Squinting, she could just make out the shadowy figure of Ivy and a man the size of a small mountain.

  Dani swallowed a scream, then relaxed when she real
ized that the girl was holding on to the guy’s arm, not vice versa.

  Ivy’s captive towered over the petite young woman. He wore a long-sleeved desert-camo shirt, threadbare blue jeans, and combat boots. A thick beard covered the bottom half of his face, and a cap was pulled low over his forehead. It was clear the man was trying to leave, but Ivy continued to hold on to him as she spoke.

  Anxious to find out what was going on, Dani hurried around to the carriage house door with her phone still at the ready.

  As she approached the pair, Dani heard Ivy say, “I can get you the drugs.”

  Dani’s eyebrows shot into her hairline and she jerked to a stop. What in the heck! Was Ivy involved in selling dope?

  “Don’t bother.” The man’s voice was raspy, as if he hadn’t used it in a very long time. “Those meds make me feel like I’m a step behind everyone else and that I have to summon up every ounce of energy just to function. It’s like being covered in a wool blanket and being asked to run a marathon.”

  Ah! Ivy had been offering to get the guy his prescription. Dani sagged in relief that her friend wasn’t involved in something more sinister.

  “Okay.” Ivy’s voice changed, and she coaxed, “At least stay here. No one will be home all day and you’ll be safe, Deuce. Stick around and rest. I can set up a cot for you behind a stack of boxes and no one will bother you.”

  “No. I gotta go.” The hulking man shook his head. “Don’t worry about me.” He pulled loose from Ivy’s grasp and backed toward the door. “I’ll be fine.”

  “At least take the boxes of food before you leave.” Ivy hurriedly grabbed a carton from the stack on the floor and pursued the retreating man. “I bet the others are waiting for these.”

  Neither Ivy nor her friend had noticed Dani standing in front of them, both too intent on their conversation to realize they had company. However, with the guy only a few steps away, Dani recognized it was high time to make her presence known before she startled the oblivious twosome. The guy was already jumpy, and his hypervigilant aura led Dani to believe he might not be a good person to surprise.

  Loudly clearing her throat, Dani said, “Hi. I’m Ivy’s friend Danielle Sloan, but you can call me Dani.”

  Instead of introducing himself, the man froze and stared fixedly at Dani for a long moment. When she held up her hands, palms facing him, he gave a tiny chin jerk, then frantically scanned the area around her. As he was checking the perimeter, he fingered something in the pocket of his jeans. And, if Dani had to guess from the outline, the object he was touching was a large knife.

  When it became clear the man wouldn’t speak, Ivy moved next to him and said, “This is my friend Deuce. He hasn’t shared his last name with me yet. He stopped by to pick up some food for his buddies.”

  “Nice to meet you, Deuce.” Dani put out her hand, then quickly dropped it back to her side when he made no move to shake it. Quirking an eyebrow at Ivy, Dani returned her attention to Deuce and asked, “Do you come here often? I mean, to my carriage house.”

  Once again Deuce remained silent, and Ivy, an explanation falling off her tongue in a rush of words, said, “Remember several weeks ago when you catered a picnic for that motorcycle club?”

  Dani barked a laugh. “Sure. Those steaks they had for me to use were the biggest pieces of meat I’d ever seen that didn’t have four legs and a bell around its neck.”

  “Do you remember all the food that they didn’t eat?” Ivy asked, and when Dani nodded, she continued, “And I asked if I could give the leftovers from that gig and our other catering jobs and lunch-to-go meals to the hungry?”

  “I do,” Dani confirmed. “I was glad you brought it up and mad at myself for not thinking of it when I first started the company.”

  “Well, I tried the downtown shelter first.” Ivy scowled. “But due to some stupid health department regulation, they couldn’t take the food.”

  “And?” Dani prompted, knowing how Ivy liked to drag out a story.

  There was more to whatever was going on here, and they really needed to get to the quad soon. She glanced at Deuce, surprised that he hadn’t taken the opportunity to get away, since he had obviously wanted to leave earlier. Then she noticed that he had edged a tiny bit in front of Ivy, as if protecting the young woman.

  “One of the guys at the shelter told me that there was a homeless camp under the old railroad overpass a couple of blocks from the quad, and that the people there could use the food.” Ivy shot Dani a sheepish glance, then continued, “So I went over there and talked to them.”

  Wanting to ask Ivy if she had any idea how dangerous her actions had been, Dani instead bit her tongue and murmured, “I see.”

  Dani was still clutching her cell phone and briefly considered calling Ivy’s uncle to inform him of his niece’s reckless actions. Spencer Drake was head of campus security, and after Ivy, Star, and Tippi had been kicked out of their apartment, his supervision had been part of the deal that the girls had struck with their parents in order for them to allow their daughters to live with Dani.

  At first, he had just checked up on Ivy by texting Dani. But then a couple of months ago, Dani had been accused of killing one of her catering clients, and Spencer had helped her investigate the young woman’s murder. Between the two of them, and with a little help from a reporter, the true culprit had been brought to justice.

  At the time, it seemed to Dani as if the handsome former law enforcement agent was attracted to her. However, once the real criminal was behind bars, Spencer had withdrawn, and he’d returned to only contacting her with a weekly text asking if Ivy was behaving.

  Intellectually, Dani knew it was better this way. Her new business needed all her attention and she didn’t have time for a relationship. Not to mention the baggage both she and Spencer were carrying around. He was divorced and, as far as Dani knew, still in a financial battle with his ex-wife, while Dani’s previous boyfriend had left her too emotionally scarred to trust anyone.

  Too bad her brain and her heart were on different pages. She missed their conversations and couldn’t get Spencer out of her mind. They’d worked well together as a team and his abrupt cold shoulder had hurt her.

  Was that why she wanted to call him now, or did he truly need to know about Ivy’s rash behavior? Was Dani so desperate to talk to him that she was blowing this whole incident out of proportion?

  Unsure of her own motives, Dani said, “Tell me a little more how this works. Does Deuce always come here, or do you deliver to the camp?”

  “Well, generally, when we have some big events scheduled that will probably result in leftover food, I put a note for Deuce on the board at the Union and he meets me in the quad parking lot.” Ivy played with one of the bright-pink wisps of hair scattered among her long, blond strands. “But with orientation week starting today, I knew the crowds and noise would be too much for him, so I told him to come here.”

  “So you aren’t going to the camp anymore?” Dani wanted to be sure she understood exactly where the food exchanges were taking place.

  “No.” Ivy’s lips thinned. “Deuce said it’s not safe for me to go there.”

  “And he’s right. While I’m sure that most of the residents are fine, there’s probably some with mental health problems you might not understand.” Dani caught the man’s eye and said, “Thank you for looking out for Ivy.”

  Deuce dipped his head in acknowledgment as he shuffled his feet.

  “Let’s help Deuce with the food cartons,” Dani said to Ivy as she slipped her cell phone into her pocket. Then, recalling that she hadn’t seen a vehicle anywhere nearby, she asked, “Deuce, do you have a way of getting the boxes from here to your camp?”

  “His cart is outside.” Ivy gestured to the back of the carriage house.

  Dani stacked two boxes, stepped closer to Deuce, and handed them to him. Except for the odor of stale cigarettes, he
smelled clean and she briefly wondered where he showered. The unofficial homeless camp certainly didn’t have any facilities.

  Hefting two more boxes into her arms, Dani said, “Not to rush you, but we need to finish loading the van, drive to the quad, and set up our table before the noon kickoff.”

  Ivy picked up the remaining cartons, and she and Deuce followed Dani as she walked outside and rounded the building. Deuce moved past Dani and pulled out an empty flatbed cart, the kind found at home improvement and big-box stores, that had been hidden among a cluster of lilac bushes. Its normal bright-orange color had been painted over in browns, greens, and tan splotches.

  Once they’d deposited their boxes on the cart and Deuce had tied them down, he jerked his chin at Dani and Ivy and muttered, “Thanks.”

  Dani smiled. “You’re very welcome. I’m happy that people can enjoy the meals I’ve prepared. I absolutely hate throwing good food away.”

  “Isn’t she awesome?” Ivy linked her arm with Dani and beamed.

  Deuce ducked his head and started to push the cart down the alley.

  Looking at Ivy, Dani said, “There’s still one thing I don’t understand.” She frowned. “Why did you want Deuce to stay in the carriage house today? I mean, if he’s usually okay at his camp, what is there to be afraid of today?”

  Evidently overhearing Dani’s question, Deuce halted his progress down the alley and turned toward her. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he scowled. “It’s the zombies. They raided the camp last night around midnight, and I’m pretty sure they’re coming back.”

  Chapter 2

  “Zombies?” Dani voice rose incredulously and she turned to Ivy as Deuce’s retreating figure continued down the alley. “Seriously?”

  “First I heard of it.” Ivy shrugged. “Deuce just said that the camp wasn’t safe anymore and he’d have to start thinking about finding somewhere else to put up his tent.”

  “How delusional is that guy?” Dani asked, concerned about Ivy’s safety.

  “He isn’t.” Ivy crossed her arms. “Deuce has PTSD from his time in Afghanistan and can’t deal with noise or crowds, but he isn’t crazy.”