Not at all sure of her reception, Dani took a deep breath and grabbed the cooler of food by the handles. Balancing the box of equipment on top of the ice chest, she made her way down the sidewalk leading to the rear of the faux castle and used her elbow to ring the bell.
Several terrifyingly long moments later, in which Dani’s imagination raced between rejection and another murdered client, Trent Karnes opened the back door. He held a cell phone to his ear with one hand and motioned Dani inside with the other.
After a distracted greeting, he continued his telephone conversation as he led Dani through the mudroom. When they entered the kitchen, Trent finally said goodbye to whoever was on the other end of his call and slipped the cell into his pants pocket.
With a guilty look on his handsome face, he turned to Dani and said, “I know this is impossibly last minute, and I truly hate to ask, but could you possibly serve dinner for four tonight?”
“Absolutely.” Dani didn’t bother to tell him that his wife routinely didn’t give her any notice about either the change in number of guests or the time they wanted to eat and that she came prepared with extras of everything and a game plan for an unexpected time crunch. “Do you still want dinner served at seven thirty?”
“If that works for you.” Trent flashed his dimples and when Dani nodded, he added, “Friends of ours just phoned to say they were in town. We’ve been bragging about your skills and when the Ackermans asked if you were cooking for us tonight, I felt like I had no choice but to invite them to dinner.”
“Are they vegan or vegetarians?” Dani asked. When he shook his head, she smiled and said, “Then it’s no problem and we’re in good shape.”
“Outstanding. Maureen and Scott will be ecstatic.” Trent started to leave the room, then paused and asked, “Do you need any help carrying in the rest of your gear?”
“Thanks, but I’ve got it,” Dani assured him, hoping to get him moving out of the kitchen.
When he hesitated, she waved him away, then headed back to the van. Trent was a lot nicer than his wife, but she didn’t like clients hanging around while she cooked.
Once Dani had everything inside, she laid out the food and equipment on the counter, then went to fetch what she needed from the walk-in pantry. Entering, she smiled. The pantry shelves looked as if nothing had been touched since her last visit. With the couple’s aversion and/or inability to feed themselves, unless she was actually incarcerated for Regina’s murder, her job as their twice-a-week personal chef seemed to be safe.
Relieved, Dani focused on preparing the tenderloin. It was a prime cut that would be delicious with the port sauce. The beef needed to be in the oven fifty minutes before it was served so that it would have a chance to rest prior to being carved; otherwise, the juices would run out, and the meat would be dry and stringy.
After rubbing the meat with oil and sprinkling it with cracked peppercorns, Dani programmed one of the double ovens to 425. While it was heating, she prepped the fresh green beans.
An hour later, the doorbell chimed the first few bars of “Dixie” and she heard Chelsea and Trent greet their guests. From the sounds coming from the living room, the couples were remaining inside instead of having drinks on the patio, as was the Karneses’ habit. Evidently, Chelsea had decided that no matter how much she wanted to show off her fancy patio with the fireplace, lap pool, and flat-screen TV, the hot, sticky weather wasn’t conducive to outdoor entertaining.
With her clients and their company nearby, Dani had to tune out their voices as she worked. The tenderloin and the potato tart were in the oven, due to come out in ten minutes, and she needed to concentrate on the tricky port sauce. She had already melted butter, sautéed shallots, and measured in Cognac, rosemary, and pepper. Then, after simmering, she had added port and beef stock. Now, she had to watch the mixture as it boiled, waiting for it to reduce to the perfect consistency.
When the timer sounded, Dani turned the burner under the sauce to low, slid the meat, potatoes, and rolls from the ovens, checked on the Georgian green beans, and grabbed the four seafood cocktails from the fridge. The Karneses and their guests could have their first course while Dani sliced the tenderloin and plated the entrée.
After putting the appetizers on the dining room table, Dani headed back to the kitchen. But a few steps down the hallway, she heard Regina’s name mentioned. Hoping to catch an important tidbit, she paused, then tiptoed to the end of the passage and flattened herself against the wall.
The house was decorated in a starkly modernistic style and the brushed-steel arch lamps illuminated the two couples as if they were on a stage. The Karneses and the Ackermans were sitting across from one another with their profiles to Dani, and were so engrossed in the conversation that none of them noticed her peeking around the wall.
“I wasn’t at all shocked when you texted me that Regina had been murdered.” A slim strawberry-blond who had to be Maureen Ackerman crossed a white-linen-clad leg. “After what the beastly girl did to our wonderful sorority’s reputation, I’m just surprised no one killed her back then.”
Dani gasped, then clapped a hand over her mouth, hoping she hadn’t just revealed her presence. What in the world had Regina done to bring out such vehemence from the sophisticated woman? Starr had mentioned that Regina had been asked to leave her sorority’s house, but she hadn’t known the reason for her banishment. This was Dani’s chance to find out the details.
“Now, honey.” A paunchy, fiftyish man who had to be Scott Ackerman shook his finger in his wife’s face. “I
