Chow Down (A Melanie Travis Mystery)

thinking when you’re with Doug.”
    Simone started to speak. Then she stopped and sighed. “Shit. Is there anything you don’t know?”
    Plenty, but I started by stating the obvious. “I don’t know who murdered Larry Kim.”
    “It wasn’t me.”
    “That’s what everybody says. But Lisa thinks her husband’s death was related to the contest, and I have to agree. Someone saw Yoda as a threat. The killer must have known that the Yorkie was supposed to win. He thought he saw a way to eliminate her from the competition and he took it. So this is important, Simone. Who else was in on your plan?”
    For once, the PR director didn’t argue. Finally she seemed to have found my logic compelling enough to try and help me work things through.
    “Lisa and I came up with the idea,” she said slowly. “And once Doug had seen Yoda and realized what a great spokesdog she would make, he agreed to go along.”
    “So it was just the three of you?”
    That would have been enough to decide the outcome in their favor. Yoda would have had two votes out of four, including Doug’s, which Cindy had told me earlier counted for more than the others.
    “And Chris,” said Simone.
    “Chris?” I repeated. That was the second time his involvement had surprised me. “How did he find out what was going on?”
    “It was during a meeting we had about the direction we wanted the contest to go. Upper management only.”
    I assumed that meant just the vice president and the two directors, excluding Cindy, who was only a product manager.
    “Chris felt that his input wasn’t being given the weight it deserved. He thought we were ignoring his contributions. Oh, let’s be frank. He threw a hissy fit. He wanted MacDuff to win the contest, and if MacDuff wasn’t going to win he wanted to know the reason why. Finally, just to shut Chris up, Doug told him that Yoda was our pick and there was nothing he could do to change that.”
    “I wonder where Chris was when Larry was killed?” I asked. I’d been thinking out loud and didn’t really expect an answer, but it turned out that Simone’s thoughts had mirrored mine.
    “He’d already left the conference room. He said he was going upstairs. Chris’s office is on the fourth floor. He said there was someone he needed to see.”
    Bingo, I thought.

30
    T he door to Simone’s office opened. Her secretary stuck her head in. “Everybody’s going down to the lobby for the press conference. And Mr. Allen just called. He wants to see all the finalists in the conference room for a quick briefing before they head downstairs.”
    “You’d better go.” Simone rose quickly. I got the impression that she didn’t mind having an excuse to get rid of me. “Doug hates to be kept waiting.”
    “What are we being briefed on?” I asked. Surely Doug wasn’t planning to spill the beans about the winner. More likely, we’d be receiving a lecture on how to conduct ourselves in front of the press when we lost.
    Simone just shrugged. Now that our meeting was over, her thoughts had clearly moved on.
    “Go,” she said, making shooing motions with her hand. “Tell Doug I’ll see him downstairs.”
    Faith and I left the office and headed in the direction of the conference room. Walking down the hall, my feet were dragging. Faith kept scampering on ahead, then having to stop and wait for me to catch up.
    The truth was, now that my association with Champions Dog Food was about to come to an end, I wanted more time. As soon as the contest winner had been announced, the finalists would disperse and the committee members would move on to new tasks. And I’d be out of excuses for hanging around and asking questions. I might be forced to concede that I hadn’t been able to figure out who killed Larry Kim.
    Faith and I hadn’t gone very far when I heard the door to Simone’s office open behind us. I paused and took a peek back.
    Though nearly everyone on the third floor was gathering by the elevator to head down to the lobby, the PR director was striding purposefully in the other direction. As I watched, she reached the door to the fire stairs, shoved it open, and ducked inside.
    Briefly, I gazed back in the direction of the conference room. The other finalists were probably already there with Doug. No doubt they were waiting for me and Faith to show up.
    Duty warred with curiosity. Sad to say, it was a brief battle. I wanted to know where Simone was in such a hurry to get to and there was only one way