Town in a Lobster Stew

didn’t know who made my number one stew — the cinnamon one.”

“And you figured if you knew who made it,” Wanda put in, “you’d know who stole it.”

Candy nodded. “Exactly.”

Wanda gazed at her. “You know, if you suspected me, you could have just walked over to my booth and tasted my stew yourself.”

“I could have, but I never made it over there.”

“I noticed.”

Candy ignored the comment and went on. “Instead, I got a look at the list of contestants on Robbie Bridges’ clipboard. I checked names and numbers, and your name matched up with the cinnamon-flavored stew. But,” Candy added, “there was a big black X across the list for some reason. And someone had written a note up in the corner, saying the list was a fake.”

“A fake?” Wanda’s face scrunched up. “Who wrote that?”

Candy shrugged. “I don’t know. Oliver LaForce, is my guess.”

A flash of anger flitted across Wanda’s eyes. “Oliver!” She practically spat out the word. “I knew he had something to do with it. That at least explains part of it.”

“Part of what?”

“What happened yesterday.”

Still confused, Candy motioned toward Wanda. “Okay. I’ve told you what I saw. Now it’s your turn. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s simple,” Wanda said a little haughtily. “I thought I’d be smart and pull a switcheroo. But obviously it backfired.”

Candy shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the cook-off. You saw where my booth was located, over on the far side of the lawn. When I got there yesterday morning I had everything I needed, and I was all set to make a stew using cinnamon. But when I looked over at the booth next to me, what do you think I saw?”

“Ahh.” Candy finally realized what she was hinting at. “You saw Charlotte using cinnamon in her stew too.”

Wanda pointed at her with a finger. “You got it, Sherlock.”

“So what did you do?”

“Naturally I was shocked. I thought she had spied on me somehow, found out what I’d been doing up in the archives, and stolen my idea. But then I realized I had it all wrong. And you were the key to the whole thing.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. Like I said, when you showed up at the museum that day, I knew right away it was no coincidence. I’d heard you were interviewing Wilma Mae for the paper, and there’d been rumors going around town that something had happened to that recipe. Just so you know, Wilma Mae’s not great at keeping secrets. So I figured when you showed up at the museum that day, it must be true.”

Candy could see where this was going. “So yesterday, when you looked over at Charlotte’s booth and saw her using cinnamon...”

Wanda snapped her fingers. “It popped into my head just like that. I realized Charlotte really did have Mr. Sedley’s recipe. I figured she must have stolen it or got her hands on it somehow, and she was making it for the cook-off. I even remembered her looking through an old ledger a few days ago.”

That caught Candy’s attention. “You saw Charlotte with a ledger? What did it look like?”

“Just some beat-up old gray thing. I’d never seen it before around the archives. I tend to notice things like that.”

“Where was she when you saw her reading it?”

“In her office. I popped in to say hello, and she was hunched over it. But when I walked in, she closed it real discreetly and slid it in the top drawer of her desk.” Wanda paused. “That was it, wasn’t it? That ledger belonged to Mr. Sedley, it had the recipe in it, and somehow Charlotte got her hands on it.”

Candy gave a noncommittal shrug, although her mind was racing. Still, she had a hard time believing it was true. “But Charlotte? She’s the last person I’d suspect of being a thief.”

“If you knew her like I know her,” Wanda said, “you wouldn’t be so surprised. She’s wanted to win that contest for years. But more importantly, she didn’t want me to win it. So that must have driven her to a life of crime.”

“But I thought you two were good friends.”

Wanda shifted her position. “Appearances can be deceiving,” was all she would say.

“You two sure had me fooled,” Candy admitted. “So Wilma Mae was right. She really did taste Mr. Sedley’s stew yesterday. And Charlotte was the one who made it.”

Wanda nodded. “When I saw what she was doing, and figured it out, I couldn’t decide what to do with my own stew. If I made my recipe with cinnamon, and Charlotte made hers, there’d be two similar stews, and I figured they’d cancel each other out, and neither of us would win. So I decided I’d let her finish the recipe she was making, and I’d make something else. I went back to my original recipe. I used lemons.”

“Ohh.” Candy smiled. “So you’re the one who made that lemony stew.”

“That was mine.”

“It actually wasn’t half bad. I kind of liked it.”

“Well, thanks.” Wanda seemed gratified, and the beginnings of a smile worked across her lips.

“But Roger didn’t,” Candy continued, as the smile dropped away quickly from Wanda’s face. “He thought it was too citrusy, and he nixed it right off the list.”

Wanda frowned.

A thought crossed Candy’s mind. “But it still doesn’t make any sense. If you made the stew with the lemon, and Charlotte made the one with cinnamon, how come your name matched up with the cinnamon-flavored stew?”

Wanda’s sly smile returned. “It was simple. I swapped the lists.”

“What do you mean, you swapped the lists?”

“Just what I said. Robbie wasn’t the only one there yesterday with a list of the contestants, you know. There were a few other lists floating around the event. I had one. Alby had one somewhere. I think Oliver kept one in his office. That morning, before the whole thing began, I got a look at Robbie’s list. I remembered my number, and Charlotte’s. So when I figured out what Charlotte was doing, I created a new list of names and numbers, using the one I had with me. I handwrote the numbers so they matched the originals. I just switched the numbers for myself and Charlotte.”

“Clever,” Candy said. She had to admire Wanda’s plan. “It also means you cheated.”

Wanda shrugged her broad shoulders. “Maybe. But so did Charlotte. I figured I was just righting a wrong. But Oliver must have figured out what happened.”

“So that’s why he put an X across the sheet on Robbie’s clipboard.”

“Looks that way,” Wanda said. “He must have also had a talk with Roger and told him what was going on. Or maybe something else happened. I don’t know.”

“And as it turned out,” Candy said thoughtfully, “neither of you won.”

“Sure surprised the heck out of both of us,” Wanda agreed. “I was shocked when Juanita won. But so was Charlotte. I saw her stomp across the lawn toward the parking lot, so I followed her. I thought she was leaving. But she came back and said something to Oliver. What, I don’t know. He just gave her the brush-off. He told her the judges’ decision was final — or something like that. I couldn’t hear everything they said.”

Wanda gave her an odd look then. “So tell me — how did Juanita win anyway? I know she had a pretty good stew, but it wasn’t the best one there, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t,” Candy admitted.

“Then what happened?”

“Roger happened,” Candy said. “He made the final decision. I had Juanita’s stew highly rated, and so did he, so we reached a consensus. He didn’t seem to like your stew — or Charlotte’s — or Mr. Sedley’s, I guess.”

“Why not?”