CRUNCH TIME
Diane Mott Davidson
Dedication
Epigraph
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, SONNET 138
1
When I heard that Ernest McLeod had been killed, I should have packed up my knives and left. Well, not
Then again, I could have left well enough alone. I also could have kept my mouth shut. But I’ve always had a hard time with that.
Yolanda, a fellow chef and caterer, never asked me for anything. I volunteered. Maybe she was a mind reader, or psychic. Perhaps she thought if she told me some of the things that were going on with her, her great- aunt Ferdinanda, and Ernest McLeod—who’d been housing the two women when he was killed—I would say what I did, which was
Back before Ernest McLeod was forced to retire, he had been a very good cop. My husband, Tom, a sheriff’s department investigator, had worked with Ernest and admired him.
While Tom was questioning Yolanda, she had repeatedly avoided his gaze. To Tom, this was a clue that more was going on than Yolanda was letting on. And as I already knew, he didn’t trust her.
When Tom listened to Yolanda’s tale, he pointed out that in Ernest’s work as a private investigator, he’d had
None of this was apparent on Sunday, the thirteenth of September. That afternoon, Yolanda and I were busy slicing, dicing, and sauteing. I hadn’t gotten to the tomatoes yet. In fact, I wasn’t even thinking about them. Instead, I was wishing we could be outside, perhaps picnicking, fishing in Cottonwood Creek, or hiking in the nearby wildlife preserve. Usually, Colorado’s early fall weather is glorious—with the occasional blizzard, of course.
All summer, townsfolk had complained about our extraordinary rainfall. And then we’d had a reprieve. A warm Indian summer had unfurled over Aspen Meadow. Our mountain town is forty miles west of Denver, at eight thousand feet above sea level. Now, in mid-September, yellow cottonwoods lined the creeks. Higher up, golden aspen leaves shook like coins strung from bright branches, in stark contrast to the dusty blue spruce and deep greens of lodgepole and ponderosa pines. All the mountain gardens, including ours, were studded with sprays of purple Russian sage, bunches of amethyst viola, and brilliant daisies. The sweet air was still, as if it were waiting for the first blast of winter.
Alas, instead of enjoying the outdoor life, Yolanda and I were putting together a lunch for the following day. We didn’t talk much as we bustled around my home kitchen, which the county health inspector had once again certified I could use for my business,
At thirty-five, Yolanda, a Cuban-American, was a knockout. She had unruly masses of curly russet hair, a stunning face, large chocolate eyes, and a figure most women wouldn’t get without a trainer. At Andre’s, the now- defunct restaurant where we’d labored together years ago, at parties since then, and at the spa where Yolanda had worked until recently, I’d seen men give her looks of adoration. I always found this amusing, if somewhat deflating for yours truly, who was short and pudgy, with unremarkable brown eyes and unfashionably curly blond hair.
After several hours, we became so involved with our tasks that we didn’t notice the weather turning blustery. Despite the freeze we’d had the previous night, only a few clouds had salted the sky that morning. Now, without warning, gray masses obscured the sun.
I looked out the window and caught my own reflection. If I’d slimmed down a bit in the past few weeks, it was not from dieting, but from worry. Yes, indeed: worry, unease, apprehension—I had lots of those.
I forced myself to put the anxiety aside as I checked the thermometer. The external temperature had dropped twenty degrees in less than an hour, from seventy degrees to fifty. The fir and aspen that had drooped in the motionless air now slapped the sides of our two-story brown-shingled house off Aspen Meadow’s Main Street. In the west, an ominous charcoal nimbus bloomed over the Continental Divide. Judging by the dark haze obscuring the highest peaks, it had already begun snowing above twelve thousand feet.
Hoping for a breath of coolness, I’d left some windows open when we started working. To me, the breeze was welcome, as the kitchen had become hot. The sudden scent of fall whisking through the house was as sweet as the cherries farmers sold off the backs of their trucks this time of year. When the wind became sharper, as it did before a storm, I actually laughed. Sudden blasts of cold air shrieked through the window jambs. I should have paid more attention to Yolanda, who jumped every time a chilly blast made the house moan. But my friend quickly smoothed her face each time she was startled. I wondered briefly what was bothering her, then dismissed the thought.
As if to calm her nerves, Yolanda ducked back into the walk-in. While I continued to knead the soft dough that would become loaves of Cuban bread, she brought out the last of the marinating pork shoulders, which she was about to roast.
Our plan for the next morning, Monday, was to slice the bread and the pork for the sandwiches that would be the centerpiece of our buffet. They weren’t strictly “Cuban sandwiches,” for which we would have needed several panini presses, mountains of cheese and ham, numerous jars of pickles, and a whole staff of cooks. But they would work for our guests. We were also serving prepared buffalo chicken wings and potato salad that my supplier had brought up from Denver the day before, plus sliced fruit, and Caprese salads served over tossed greens. For dessert we were bringing cookies and fudge—lots and lots of both, because our clients were teenagers.
The Christian Brothers High School had hired us to take the food down to Denver for lunch the next day. Although classes had started, scheduling glitches had prevented the school from administering the annual physicals required of students who played on, or planned to try out for, winter sports. These included basketball, ice hockey, and—most important from our family’s perspective—fencing.
On Monday, the teachers had an in-service, and a full staff of medical personnel had agreed to come for six hours. My son, Arch, who had turned sixteen the previous April and now possessed growth-spurt long arms and legs, had been on the varsity fencing team the previous year. I wanted to be supportive, but when you’re the mother of an adolescent boy, it’s hard to be helpful without your child acting as if you’re driving him nuts. So, to be
