Turn up the Heat

How can you not find it? I can’t believe you call yourself a chef. The appetizers were shit anyway!’ This guy was a piece of work.”
    “So what happened?” I had no idea that customers ever behaved that way.
    “Well, then he takes the wine bottle that had been chilling in a marble cooler on their table, and he smashes the bottle on the cooler and continues screaming at me, and there I am, having just worked fourteen hours, and I’ve got to deal with this punk. Wade and Kevin came and threw him out before he got it together to do anything with the broken bottle.”
    “Dude, that sucks!” Digger clapped his hands together. “Everybody is entitled to be unhappy with their food, right? But that is out of control. I’ve never had anything that bad happen. Usually it’s just someone saying nasty stuff like I need to learn how to cook, or the plate doesn’t match the description on the menu. Your food must blow to have made that guy so mad!” Digger leaned to the side before Josh could whack his arm.
    Porcaro returned with two servers, all carrying plates of beautiful food. One tray held an absolutely detectable-looking assortment of sashimi and maki complete with splays of finely cut vegetables, wasabi paste, and thinly sliced pickled ginger. What else? Swordfish with a mango salad and coconut jasmine rice; smoked duck confit with a goat cheese tart, golden raisin sauce, and fig syrup; pan-seared halibut with roasted tomato, baby artichoke, a potato truffle hash, and vegetable bouillon. Also, the foie gras, the scallops, and the salmon that I’d noticed on the menu. Wow! Oh, and the crispy calamari with the Asian slaw and roasted pineapple dressing!
    “I’ll see if I can pop back out in a few minutes, okay? Enjoy! And I hope everything is all right,” Porcaro said with completely false modesty. He knew he was good.
    Lefty, of course, gestured for me to help myself first. I didn’t protest. But I did have to fight my way around Josh and Digger. I bit into a ring of chewy calamari and moaned with delight. The calamari had been tossed into the slaw with the sweet pineapple dressing to become the ultimate spring salad. Phenomenal.
    “Mmm... Hey, did you guys hear about Leandra?” Josh asked as he noshed on a piece of fresh yellowtail that he’d piled with wasabi and ginger.
    “We were just talking about that on the way over.” Lefty nodded. “That is awful. Wait! She worked for you, didn’t she?”
    Josh’s mouth was too full to answer, so I spoke for him. “Yes. She was a server there. Actually, I was one of the people who found her. Did you know her?”
    “Lefty and I have both worked with Leandra before, only at different restaurants. She’s worked all over the place, so the odds are we would’ve run into her at some point. Pretty nasty story. Do they know what happened yet?”
    I shook my head. “No, although it seems pretty clear she didn’t die from natural causes.” Those marks on her neck? I still had no idea what had caused them. “And, well, since you two knew her, maybe you could help me with something.” I popped a piece of duck into my mouth. “I don’t know if you knew that Gavin and Leandra were dating, but he asked me to try to gather some stories, memories, thoughts, that kind of thing, to put together into a book. Maybe you guys have something I could put in?” I was pleading.
    “I’m not sure most of the memories I have of her are going to work for your book,” Lefty informed me politely.
    “Why wouldn’t they work?”
    “Leandra had her moments. She could be a little difficult.” Lefty looked at Digger for help.
    “She was a bitch,” said Digger.
    “How do you mean? Did a lot of people hate her?” If Digger or Lefty could point out anyone who might have hated Leandra enough to kill her, it might take the heat off of poor Owen.
    “It’s not like I wished her dead or anything,” Digger began. “But she was nasty and rude a lot of the time. She was one of those people that would kiss the customers’ asses and then treat the kitchen staff like shit. She’d flirt with the front-of-the-house guys and then make fun of them behind their back. Act like she was too good for them.”
    Lefty agreed. “Leandra hurt a lot of feelings everywhere she worked. She was pretty good at her job, but she could be a monster to work with. Restaurant people like to have fun. Plain and simple. And Leandra did her best to ruin that. For instance, we always play practical jokes