“We will?” Carlita laughed.
“Yes. I want to bake Nonna Garlucci Italy cookies.”
“Italian Cookies,” Carlita corrected.
“Yep. They’re Mommy’s favorite.”
Shelby smiled. “And they’re your favorite, too.”
Violet wrapped her arms around her mother and then hugged Tony. “Bye-bye, Tony Baloney.”
“See you soon purple cookie eater,” he teased.
“I’m not purple.”
“You’re right. You’re Violet.” Tony gave his new stepdaughter a gentle hug and kissed the top of her head. “Behave for Nana.”
Violet promised she would. Her lower lip trembled as her mother and Tony made their way to the car.
Anxious to distract the young child, Carlita handed the leftovers to her daughter and scooped Violet up. “Would you like to take Rambo for a walk? He’s been stuck inside the apartment all day. I’m sure he misses us.”
“I miss him, too.”
“Why don’t you and Aunt Mercedes go get Rambo, while I stop by Elvira’s place?”
“Haven’t you had enough of Elvira today?” Mercedes joked.
“More than enough. Unfortunately, Elvira may have valuable information on Megan’s collapse. I want to know what she overheard.”
Chapter 9
Carlita rapped sharply on Elvira’s back door while Mercedes and Violet ran upstairs to get Rambo.
She caught a glimpse of movement through the window. Elvira didn’t answer, so she knocked again, harder this time.
The door flew open. Elvira stood in the doorway, clad in a pair of paint-spattered sweatpants and a tie-dyed Grateful Dead t-shirt. A red bandana tied around her head completed the ensemble.
“You look comfy.” Carlita said the first thing that popped into her head.
“I’m painting. It’s my only free afternoon for the next week.” Elvira leaned her hip against the door. “Are you here to critique my attire or did you need something?”
“I want to know what you overheard on your earpiece during the reception.”
“Ah. I almost forgot.” Elvira’s expression grew thoughtful. “Now you’ve got an almost-dead wedding guest on your hands.”
“How do you know…”
Elvira cut Carlita off. “I have my sources. Word on the street is she consumed tainted food.”
“The story is spreading like wildfire?” Carlita pressed a hand to her forehead. “How did you find out?”
“In my line of work, you gotta have connections.”
“Good grief.” Carlita slumped against the wall. “She ate something at the wedding, something tainted.”
“That would be my guess.”
“As far as I know, no one else got sick. What if the health department shuts me down before I even open my doors?” Carlita felt nauseous at the thought that not only was it possible her food was the cause of a young woman’s perilous condition, but that her dream of opening Ravello’s might not happen.
She could feel herself growing hysterical. “What am I going to do?”
“I would wait until the cops show up, find out what they plan to do,” Elvira suggested. “It’s not like you intentionally poisoned the woman.”
“Of course I didn’t, but the authorities might not see it that way.”
“This was a private event. Unless the family wants to pursue a lawsuit, they’re going to have to prove you or your food was responsible.”
Carlita started to pace. “Without samples of the food, they would have a hard time proving it.” She remembered how she and her children had split the leftovers to take home.
She replayed the events in her mind, from the moment she first arrived in the courtyard after finding out about the young woman’s condition. “Wait a minute. Megan collapsed during the cocktail hour.”
“So maybe one of your delectable appetizers was responsible,” Elvira said. “I have my doubts on the food as a whole being contaminated. I ate several tasty morsels of each, and I’m perfectly fine.”
“That’s debatable,” Carlita muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Carlita ignored the question. “The only problem is we didn’t have any appetizers left.”
Elvira gave Carlita a funny look.
“You have leftover appetizers,” Carlita guessed.
“Did I say that?”
“You didn’t have to. Listen, I need the leftover appetizers.” Carlita shoved Elvira aside and barged into her apartment. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The appetizers.” Carlita marched to the refrigerator and yanked the door open. There, sitting on the top shelf was a stack of Carlita’s to-go containers. “You do have leftovers.”
“You can’t just barge in here and help yourself to my food. I planned to eat the leftovers for dinner.”
“I’ll swap you some of the leftover spaghetti and meatballs.” Carlita pulled the containers from the fridge. Keeping a tight grip on the food, she marched to the door.
Elvira lunged forward in an attempt to grab the containers, but Carlita was too quick. She easily slipped away. “This is life or death.”
“You don’t need all of the food, just a sampling of each.”
“Then I’ll take a sample and bring the rest back.” Carlita ran across the alley as Elvira called out for her to stop. She ignored the woman’s pleas, ran upstairs and into the apartment.
“Ma?” Mercedes and Violet emerged from the hall. “We were on our way down. Violet needed to use the bathroom.”
“That’s fine. I have to take care of something. I’ll be done in a couple minutes.” Carlita split each of the leftover appetizers in half. She placed her half in storage containers and left Elvira’s half in the to-go containers.
She added a generous helping of spaghetti and meatballs to one of Elvira’s containers before returning to the alley.
Elvira’s back door was ajar. Carlita tapped lightly. “Elvira? I have the leftover leftovers.”
Elvira tromped out to meet her, an annoyed expression on her face.
“I only took half.” Carlita held out the containers.
“Half my food. Did you replace it with the spaghetti and meatballs?”
“I did.”
“I guess that’ll have to do. The spaghetti and meatballs weren’t my favorite. They were kinda bland.”
“Then don’t eat them,” Carlita said. “Before I leave,
