Chow Down (A Melanie Travis Mystery)

contest was Simone’s idea.”
    “That’s what Simone told you,” I said. “But she stole the idea from Chris and passed it off as her own.”
    Doug shook his head. “Why would she do something like that?”
    “Because she needed a way to channel money to her old friend, Lisa. I think you know about that part—”
    “I knew it would be about the money,” Bill broke in. “It always is, isn’t it? Well, if that’s the deciding factor, we need money, too.”
    Suddenly everyone was speaking at once.
    “Like I don’t?” said Ben. “If we’re talking about need—”
    Lisa looked across at the Reddings. The couple was standing side by side with Ginger between them. “At least you two have each other,” she said softly. “You have no idea how important that is.”
    “Wait!” Dorothy cried. “Hold the phone. What did you mean”—this was addressed to me—“when you said Doug knew about Simone needing to get money to Lisa?”
    “Lisa wanted to leave Larry,” I said. “The contest was set up to give her the means to do so.”
    “No, you have it all wrong,” Dorothy replied. “The contest was supposed to put MacDuff on television.”
    “Cindy told me the contest would revive my career,” said Ben.
    Nobody paid any attention to him.
    “Chris was trying to do what you wanted,” I told Dorothy, “but he lost control of the process. When he realized that the prize that was supposed to go to MacDuff would be going to Yoda instead, he tried to make a deal. He talked to Larry Kim in the stairwell after the opening reception. He offered him money to withdraw his dog from the contest.”
    “Larry was a very proud man,” said Lisa. “He would have been hugely insulted by such an offer. He would never have withdrawn for money. He never backed down from anything where he felt that his honor was at stake.”
    And there it was, I thought, the answer I’d been looking for. Right that moment, I knew who the other person in the stairwell had been.
    “It was you, wasn’t it?” I said to Lisa. “Larry would never have voluntarily ended your marriage. That was why you needed the money. It was the only way you could escape.”
    “Everything would have been all right.” She shifted her eyes downward, gazing at the little Yorkie she held cradled in her arms. “Not easy, but I would have been able to make things work. Then Chris got in the middle and messed it all up.”
    “Chris was trying to help,” I said. “He offered Larry money he thought the two of you needed.”
    “Larry was outraged,” said Lisa. “We didn’t need any money and he was greatly offended. He felt as though someone had offered him a handout. But then he stopped and began to think about it. He began to wonder what I might need the money for.”
    “You were with him in the stairwell after Chris left,” I said. “Your voice is so soft, that’s why I only heard one person arguing.”
    “Larry had sent me outside to cool off the car but I came back in to see what was keeping him. I must have entered the stairwell on the third floor as Chris was leaving on the fourth. By then the damage was already done. Larry had realized that the money was meant for me. He wouldn’t listen to reason. No matter what I said, it didn’t make any difference. He told me that unless I changed my mind he would make me very, very sorry. He said I would never see Yoda again.”
    While Lisa and I had been speaking, everyone else was, too. Clustered around us, the other finalists had continued to bicker among themselves. Doug was alternately playing referee and trying unsuccessfully to keep them quiet.
    Now, however, the audience in the lobby was primed and waiting for our appearance. Simone came striding over to see what was causing the delay.
    The other contestants saw her coming. One by one they fell silent. Only Lisa and I continued to speak.
    “You pushed Larry down the steps, didn’t you?” I said into the sudden silence.
    Lisa nodded imperceptibly. She clutched Yoda tightly to her chest. “He wouldn’t listen. He never listened. Larry made me so mad that I reached out and shoved him. One of us had to go. If he wouldn’t let it be me, then it had to be him.”

    A quick thinking reporter from a local affiliate caught the confession on tape. When it aired that evening, the station was inundated with phone calls. At least half of them came from lawyers offering to take Lisa’s case and represent her in court.
    Last I heard, she’d