Chow Down (A Melanie Travis Mystery)

your basic lose-lose situation.”
    “And that was worth committing murder over?”
    “How many times do I have to tell you? I’m not a murderer and I didn’t kill anyone. If I’d thought that was a plausible way out, don’t you think it would have occurred to me that it was simpler to fix the problem at the source and just strangle my Aunt Dorothy? The only thing I did was talk to Larry and try to make another deal.”
    My head was spinning from all these back-room machinations. Were Faith and I the only ones who hadn’t been approached? I wondered. I supposed that said something, probably unflattering, about how seriously we’d been taken as contestants.
    “Fine,” Simone snapped. “We’ll have to finish this later. We’re holding everything up downstairs. Let’s go.”
    The four of us filed out of the office. Later my ass, I thought. We could all walk and talk at the same time. Simone and Chris headed for the elevator. Faith and I followed. I wasn’t about to let the two of them out of my sight.
    “So you didn’t intend to kill Larry,” I said to Chris. “You only wanted to make a deal with him.”
    “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. By that time, I’d pretty much figured out that Simone was backing Yoda because Larry and Lisa needed the money from the advertising contract. Well, Dorothy didn’t care about the money. What she wanted was the fame and the excitement. The chance to see MacDuff back in the spotlight again. So after the opening reception, I pulled Larry aside—”
    “In the stairwell,” I said, just to make sure that I was keeping things straight.
    “Right. It’s not like I wanted anyone to overhear what I was saying. I told him that since the fix had already been put in once, if he’d agree to work with me, I was sure we could make a mutually beneficial business arrangement. All he had to do was withdraw Yoda from the contest and let MacDuff win and I’d make sure that he and Lisa got the money they needed.”
    “Oh . . . my . . . God,” Simone said softly as the elevator doors opened and the four of us stepped inside.
    Chris hit the button that would take us to the lobby. “What’s the matter? It’s not as if I was doing anything worse than what you’d already done yourself.”
    “You idiot!’ she said. “Larry didn’t know about the arrangement I’d made with Lisa. He wasn’t supposed to know anything about that. The Kims didn’t need money, Lisa did. She was going to use it to buy her freedom. From him.”
    Chris gulped. “I guess that explains his reaction.”
    “Which was?”
    So help me, I half-expected him to say that Larry Kim had thrown himself down the steps. At that point, I was almost ready to believe it.
    “He turned kind of pale and got this funny look on his face like someone had just punched him in the gut. I remember wondering what he was so upset about. He’d already made one deal, so it wasn’t like he could say he didn’t know how the game was played.”
    “And then?” I asked.
    “And then nothing,” said Chris. “Larry reached out and pushed me away from him, like he found me repulsive or something. So I left. Last time I saw him, he was standing in the stairwell, holding Yoda and staring off into space. I don’t have any idea what happened after that.”

31
    W ell somebody had to know, I thought, as the elevator bumped to a gentle stop and the doors whooshed open.
    I supposed I should have been prepared for the scene before us, but my mind had been on other matters. It was chaos. Bright lights seared my eyes. My ears were assaulted by a cacophony of sound. Cables snaked across the floor. People were everywhere.
    Faith took one look at all the commotion and pressed up hard against my thigh. As the two of us stood and stared, I dropped a hand down to steady her. Between the Champions employees and news teams from several local stations, the press conference had drawn a huge crowd. Simone must have been superb at her job to have garnered coverage like this.
    Chris and Simone both recovered faster than I did. They moved past me into the lobby and immediately began to work the crowd. Meanwhile Faith and I had to scramble to beat the closing elevator doors.
    “Where have you been?” Doug demanded, materializing at my side. He wrapped his fingers around my upper arm and closed them like a vise, as if he was afraid Faith and I might disappear again if he didn’t hold on to us.
    “I was upstairs with Chris and Simone. We