Curried Lobster Murder: Book 14 in The Darling Deli Series Read Online Free

there. The rest of the floor was covered by smaller round tables for the contestants and their guests. Servers were making the rounds, delivering drinks and appetizers to those already seated.
    “Ms. Darling?” one of the servers said, peering at her ID tag hanging from a lanyard around her neck. “Right this way. You’re seated over by the window. Each table seats six, so you’ll have two other people joining you.”
    She led them over to a round table where a middle-aged woman and an elderly man were already seated. Moira sat down in the spot indicated by a name card. She felt a thrill at the sight of her name printed in curling script on the thick paper. It felt so official, and so final. There was no backing out now.
    “Hi, I’m Nadine Jenkins,” the woman said, giving her a nervous smile. “I’m one of the contestants.”
    The woman had mousy brown hair that curled around her shoulders. Her floral print dress was clean, but looked worn, and Moira noticed that she kept chewing on her lower lip; a nervous tic that left it red and irritated.
    “Moira Darling,” the deli owner said, extending her hand, which the woman grasped and then released in a quick shake. “I’m a contestant too. This is my daughter, Candice.”
    “This is my father, Doug,” Nadine said. “My husband had to stay home and watch the kids, so he offered to come with me.”
    “Nice to meet you, Doug.” Moira smiled at him, then turned her attention back to Nadine. “So, what do you do? I know each of the contestants has to either own or work at some sort of restaurant. I own a deli up in Michigan.”
    “I own a small diner in Minnesota,” the other woman said. “Well, my husband is the one that owns it. I just run it.”
    “That sounds nice. It must be wonderful to work together as a family like that. Do your kids help out too?”
    “They’re too young,” Nadine told her. “The oldest is twelve. She helps out with the dishes sometimes.”
    “Well, just a few more years and I bet she’ll be doing a lot more,” the deli owner assured her. “Candice here was a great help at the deli while she worked there. She owns her own business now though.”
    “Oh, that’s nice.” The woman gave them a small smile. If she was going to say anything else, it got interrupted by the arrival of another set of people.
    The older of the two, a man in his fifties, introduced himself as Bobby Babcock. The woman, who looked to be Moira’s age, was his wife, Linda. They owned a burger joint on the East Coast, and both of them looked very happy to be there.
    “Our son is in charge of the restaurant while we’re gone,” Linda told them. “I’m so proud of him. For a long time, we were worried that he wouldn’t want to take over the restaurant when we retired, but he’s finally starting to show some interest.”
    “That’s wonderful,” Moira told them.
    Who will take over the deli when it’s time for me to retire? she wondered as the others picked up the conversation. Darrin, maybe? Does he really want to spend the rest of his life working at the deli? She wondered how different her life would have been if she hadn’t gotten divorced. It would be so nice to have a real partner in life and work, like these women seemed to have with their husbands.
    “You all seem really friendly,” said Bobby when the conversation hit a lull. “I have to admit; I wasn’t expecting to meet such nice people. With the prize at stake, I was expecting the atmosphere would be more like every person for him- or herself. This is much nicer.”
    “We’re all civilized,” the deli owner said with a smile, though she had been worried about the exact same thing not long ago. “I’m sure things will change once the competition starts and people begin getting eliminated.”
    “Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money,” Nadine said, nodding in agreement. “I’d be surprised if people kept on being so civil to each other for the whole week.”
    “It’s not