Rice, Beans, and Revenge Read online

  RICE, BEANS, AND REVENGE

  A Mexican Café Cozy Mystery

  Holly Plum

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Also by Holly Plum

  A Special Thank You!

  Copyright © 2017 by Holly Plum

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  CHAPTER ONE

  It was a chilly November morning. A blast of cold air swept over Mari Ramirez as she opened the door to her apartment, sending shivers up and down her spine. Racing back inside, she grabbed her favorite Longhorns hoodie which she hadn’t worn in over a year. She had found it at the bottom of a pile of clothes in her closet. She caught a glimpse of her bulldog, Tabasco, staring at her sadly from behind the entertainment center.

  “You know you can’t go with me,” Mari said. “Dad has specifically asked me not to bring you into the restaurant.”

  Tabasco whimpered as she scratched behind his ears.

  “Alright,” she said, waving a hand. “But if I catch you anywhere near the spice rack, I'll bring you straight home.”

  Tabasco barked in agreement, and Mari grabbed his leash on their way out the door.

  A light mist had settled over the streets as Mari drove past the town's main shopping center and grocery store toward Lito Bueno’s Mexican Restaurant. She felt a surge of pride every morning as she reflected on the fact that she worked at a family-owned business. The Ramirez family had been through many financial ups and downs, but it was still satisfying for Mari to switch on the neon open sign at the start of each business day.

  It was nearing nine o'clock. Usually, the restaurant was deserted at this hour, but Mari was surprised to find a crowd of photographers and onlookers gathered outside the front entrance. The moment they saw her, they began taking pictures and shouting questions.

  “Ms. Ramirez, how long have you known Karlie Lam?” one yelled.

  “Can you confirm that Ms. Lam is sitting in the dining room of your restaurant at this moment?” another one shouted.

  “What do you say to the accusations that you give special treatment only to certain customers?” The photographer raised his eyebrows and looked at Mari disapprovingly.

  Mari rolled her eyes at this last question. Over the years she had learned to spot the many tricks of Mr. Chun, the man who owned the Chinese restaurant across the street. He had friends at the local newspaper, and he was forever trying to soil the good name of Mari's family.

  Mari turned to face the crowd as she approached the front door. Tabasco's bark settled some of the chaos. Motioning for silence, she said in a loud voice, “If you have any questions, you can direct them to my father, Jose Ramirez. Lito Bueno’s Mexican Restaurant treats all customers fairly."

  A surge of questions rose anew as Mari turned around and unlocked the door to let herself inside. She paused for a second in the colorful entrance hall to let the warmth of the place wash over her. Tabasco tugged at his leash. Mari let go of it, and the dog trotted to the office at the back of the restaurant where he usually napped for most of the day. The lights in the kitchen were on, but the dining room was still dark. However, a slim figure was seated at one of the booths in the back beneath an oil painting of a broken-hearted matador and his lover. The woman set down her fork and waved excitedly as Mari approached her table.

  “Hey, Mari,” Karlie Lam greeted her. She was much taller than Mari, with auburn shoulder-length hair and long, dark lashes. “Your dad let me in. It feels like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

  “It does feel like forever, doesn’t it?” Mari replied, smiling in spite of herself, as she sat down opposite her old friend. “At least one of us managed to get out there and see the world, right? After you had left for New York to pursue your modeling career, I thought I'd never see you again.”

  "Except on TV," Karlie joked. "You did see me on TV last month. Right?"

  "I sure did." Mari refrained from mentioning that her brothers, Alex and David, had recorded it.

  “Everyone talks about what a terrible place this is,” Karlie said, peering around the dining room from behind black rectangular sunglasses. “Honestly, I don’t see what’s so bad about it. It has a particular, I guess you could say, decrepit charm to it.”

  “One might say that,” Mari responded. She crossed her arms. Karlie hadn't changed at all since Mari had last seen her. She was still dishing out backhanded compliments as usual.

  “Anyway, what have you been doing with yourself?”

  “Well,” Mari began, allowing herself exactly two seconds to think of a way to answer that question without embarrassing herself, “I moved to Fort Worth and became a teacher. And then I got engaged, and neither one of those things ended up working out, so I’m back here helping Dad.”

  They both laughed, though Mari wasn’t entirely sure why.

  "Typical Mari." Karlie smirked.

  “Anyway,” Mari continued in the awkward silence that followed, “what brings you back to Texas?”

  “Well,” Karlie replied, “I’m back in town for a photo shoot. You probably noticed all the photographers standing outside.” Mari nodded; they would have been hard to miss. “My agent has been on the phone with a very famous magazine all weekend. I won't name drop.” Karlie took a deep breath. "It's Vogue. They want me to do an exposé type of thing. I'm supposed to get in touch with my roots or something by letting them photograph my inner Texan? Anyway, it's Vogue."

  Mari frowned slightly. “That's interesting."

  Karlie’s expression turned frosty. “My agent is a genius. Any model out there would kill for this opportunity."

  Mari shrugged. “Of course.”

  Karlie snapped her fingers, changing the subject. “Oh, by the way, I was on the phone with my agent last night, and he told me to find a dog. Apparently, that will make my shoot seem more authentic. So I told him I would try to find one for this afternoon. You wouldn’t happen to have your dog, Whiskers, or whatever still?”

  “Tabasco,” Mari corrected her. “And sure, you can borrow him as long as you bring him straight back when the photo shoot is over.”

  “Tabasco?” Karlie responded. “I love it.”

  Mari continued to smile, though Karlie had finally revealed that she wasn't at the restaurant to reminisce about their high school days. Karlie was there because she needed something.

  “Just so you know,” Mari added, “Tabasco doesn’t always listen. And he loves shoes. He will destroy them if he’s left alone with a pair for longer than ten seconds. I'm serious.”

  “You got it,” Karlie replie
d. She barely seemed to be listening.

  The two of them sat there in silence for a moment longer before Mari said, “Hey, why don’t you come back around dinner time? I’ll make a few calls to round up some of the old gang, and we’ll have ourselves a little hometown reunion.”

  Karlie’s dark eyes glittered with excitement. “That sounds like a fabulous idea. I get tired of the usual fans anyway. Are Hazel and Robin still around?"

  “They sure are,” Mari stated, reaching for her purse. “I’ll get in touch with them and see if they want to meet up. We’ll make a night of it.”

  “Alright, you've convinced me,” Karlie said. "A night with old friends from high school can't be all bad."

  ***

  Later that night after, Mari changed into a comfortable tee and a pair of blue jeans in the back office. She let down her dark curls that were normally up in a tight bun. Then, as the first dinner guests began trickling in, she set up a table near the back of the dining room as far away from the windows as she could manage.

  Hazel and Robin came in a few minutes later. Like Mari, both women were in their early thirties. Robin was a woman of average height with short, reddish hair and a nose that seemed slightly too large for her face. Hazel was a petite and unassuming blonde who wore thick, rectangular glasses. They looked plain and simple compared to Karlie's slim-fitting cocktail dress and expensive jewelry.

  “It was awfully kind of you to invite us out here,” Robin said. “I have seen the reporters around town, but I had no idea what was going on until you told me Karlie was back in town.”

  “She’s hard to avoid," Mari replied, her stomach taut with anxiety. She was already beginning to regret having arranged this reunion, knowing how likely Karlie was to say something rude. Mari would consider the night a success if Hazel and Robin didn’t walk away hating her.

  "Mari, you always were the funny one." Karlie laughed politely.

  Chrissy, one of the waitresses, came around with the menus. Mari ordered beef enchiladas covered in homemade red sauce with a side of Spanish rice, which Hazel and Robin decided they also wanted. Although she didn’t feel particularly hungry, Mari knew it would be rude not to order something. Whatever she didn’t finish tonight, she could take home and eat tomorrow, or feed to Tabasco, who was presently curled up in Karlie’s lap fidgeting uncomfortably.

  Karlie spent ten minutes reading through the menu with an air of increasing disdain before folding it shut. She glanced up at Chrissy. “I’ll just have rice and beans, thanks. No seasonings.”

  “Are you sure?” Chrissy asked. “Can I help you find something?”

  “I’m a vegetarian,” Karlie replied, eyeing a group of photographers at the front doors. “I should have mentioned that, Mari. Honestly, this menu is riddled with so much meat that I think I might be sick. Your kitchen must look like a slaughterhouse.”

  Mari shot Karlie a withering glare, but Karlie was too preoccupied with stroking Tabasco and sipping her margarita to notice. Robin coughed, trying not argue.

  Chrissy gathered up the menus and exchanged knowing glances with Mari. Outside the restaurant, the pool of photographers and reporters now took up half the block. Mari couldn’t imagine Mr. Chun was very happy about it—his own customers were going to have trouble parking.

  “What does Dad think about all this?” Mari asked Chrissy, gesturing to the commotion near the front doors.

  “He's not complaining like he was this morning,” Chrissy replied. “At least, not since some of those press people ordered drinks.” Hazel and Robin nodded uncomfortably, but Karlie, who was used to the attention, looked oblivious.

  “Oh, and before you go,” Karlie added as Chrissy began walking away, “would you take this thing? I don’t want him to pee on me.”

  Karlie glanced at Tabasco who was disappointed that the ear scratches were coming to an end.

  “Excuse me?” A look of confusion crossed Chrissy's face.

  “Just take him to the office,” Mari said. “Dad won’t be happy about it, but we’ll sort it out later.”

  Chrissy nodded and left carrying the dog under one arm, leaving the four friends to stare at each other quietly. Mari gripped her hands tightly around her water glass, watching the bubbles rise to the top.

  “So, what are y'all doing these days?” Karlie chuckled. "I haven't said y'all since I left for New York all of those years ago. Funny."

  No one seemed to want to be the first to answer. Finally, Robin said, “Well, I spent most of my twenties in school, but now I'm the town pharmacist.”

  “That’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Karlie replied as if pharmacy school was a piece of information she should have kept hidden. Robin glared at her. “Hazel, what about you?”

  “Well,” Hazel said in an unnaturally high voice, “well, I work at the furniture store.”

  This time Karlie couldn’t hide her disdain. “We all have to do what we have to do to survive, right? It’s amazing how far some of us have come. Back in high school, who would have thought you would be a pharmacist, you’d be working in retail, Mari would be a waitress, and I’d be in GQ?” Karlie took a sip of her water. "Furniture, Hazel? Really? No one else would hire you?"

  Hazel sniffled and cleared her throat. Robin and Hazel both excused themselves to use the restroom. The moment they were gone, Mari turned to Karlie.

  “What was that all about?” she snapped.

  “What was what about?” Karlie asked.

  “You can't say things like that to people you hardly know. It's cruel.” She felt heat rising in her face. There was so much more she wanted to say, but the other customers and some of the photographers who had managed to sneak into the restaurant were watching them with interest.

  “Maybe it’s what they needed to hear,” Karlie said with a shrug and a smile. “Personally, I find it very motivating.”

  “Do you,” Mari said flatly.

  Karlie nodded. “There's nothing like a sting in the face that makes you reexamine your life and consider what other options are out there.” She raised her glass.

  “Why don't we talk about something other than work,” Mari suggested.

  “If you insist,” Karlie replied. “Do you ever see Rex Jones around town?”

  She asked the question so quickly that Mari had a hard time believing it wasn't premeditated. “He’s—he’s good. He's teaching high school, last I heard. Why do you ask?”

  “What a waste of good looks,” Karlie responded, her mouth curling into a slight sneer. “I wish we could all have it good.”

  “It must be difficult to be you,” Mari muttered. But she never found out how difficult Karlie’s life was because at that moment both Robin and Hazel returned to the table. Hazel looked apologetic, and Robin still looked annoyed.

  “Sorry for being gone so long,” Hazel said. "Oh, good. Our food hasn't arrived yet."

  "Which speaks volumes about the service around here." Karlie raised her eyebrows. "No offense, Mari."

  Luckily, Mari had no time to fashion a reply. Chrissy approached the table with a large tray of food. Robin groaned audibly as the plates full of steaming rice, refried beans, and cheesy enchiladas were laid out in front of them. Mari’s mouth watered and she dug into her meal with an appetite she hadn’t known she had.

  “How are your plain beans and rice?” Mari asked Karlie.

  “Surprisingly good,” Karlie answered, though the look she gave her suggested the opposite.

  “How are y’all’s meals?” asked Mari asked the others.

  Hazel tasted her food thoughtfully. “It’s—it’s not bad,” she said in her thin, wispy voice.

  Robin, who was busy chomping her enchilada, gave Mari a thumbs-up.

  “Mari and I were just talking about Rex Jones,” Karlie said loudly. “I doubt he looks the same after all of these years. Not everyone can afford top-notch beauty products, right Robin?”

  Robin shook her head, and Hazel just stared at her plate with wide eyes.

 
"Have I mentioned how glad I am that I came tonight?" Robin said quietly as she looked at Mari.

  "Dinner is on me," Mari replied.

  “I always said Rex was a keeper,” Karlie went on. “Back in high school, he was quite a catch. Of course, not everyone goes places after high school. I guess Rex never went anywhere either.”

  “I heard he’s teaching history at the high school,” Robin said. “That's a pretty challenging profession if you ask me.”

  Karlie rolled her eyes. "How boring."

  That was the last straw for Mari. She threw down her napkin and was about to launch into a long speech about manners when she noticed Karlie’s face. It wasn’t her usual color. It was pale. Very pale.

  “Karlie, are you okay?” Mari asked, her anger giving way to panic.

  But Karlie didn’t answer.

  Instead, she fell face-forward into her plate of rice and beans.

  Immediately a crowd of photographers gathered around the table snapping pictures.

  “She’s fainted!” someone shouted.

  But amid the shouting and commotion, Hazel leaned forward and shook Karlie's shoulder. Karlie didn't respond. Mari felt for a pulse and gulped.

  “I don’t think she’s fainted at all," Mari stated. "I think she’s dead.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Mari pushed away her food, feeling like the ground had just given way beneath her. Hazel and Robin eyed each other nervously, and for a moment no one spoke. Words couldn't describe the feelings among them.

  One minute Karlie had been alive and well, hurling insult after insult. And now, she was dead. Mari couldn't explain how or why. All she knew was that something was seriously wrong.

  Chrissy began ushering customers out of the restaurant. A few of them looked distinctly perturbed at having their dinner interrupted, but it seemed like the appropriate response. As each customer passed the booth where Karlie lay, they gazed with open mouths.

  “What do you suppose is going on?” Mari heard an old man say.