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Agnes was distracted by the alliteration. “Shouldn’t that be ‘Wesley’s Wonderful Wedding Wemories’?”
“I don’t feel bad at all for canceling on you,” Wesley said. “Kristy will be out tomorrow to talk to you and get a feel for the place.”
“Thank you, but—,” Agnes said, but Wesley had already hung up.
“Photographer cancel, too?” Taylor said from behind her, and when she turned, he was standing in the kitchen doorway, smiling like he owned the place, instead of just half of it. He was wearing a suit jacket and an ascot, and he looked ridiculous, but she shouldn’t really criticize since the ascot was probably to cover up the fork holes.
“You look ridiculous,” she said. The dumbass had lied to her and left her all alone out here. And he’d never fed her shrimp, either.
Beside him was a tubby little man who looked around with the air of an inquisitive basset hound, alert but patient.
Rhett ambled in from the from hall to collapse in front of the counter. He didn’t seem too perturbed with either of them.
“This is Mr. Harrison,” Taylor said, still smiling. “Mr. Harrison is our health inspector in Keyes. I told him you had some health violations out here, and he’s concerned about you serving food to a hundred vulnerable people on Saturday at the wedding.”
“Yes, I am,” Mr. Harrison said, smiling, too, the smile of a man who has been well paid to find health violations. “Concerned, that is.”
“Taylor, you’re the one catering that wedding,” Agnes said. “That’s your big break, catering the most important wedding of the season for this godforsaken county. Will you never learn not to shoot yourself in the foot?”
“I’ll be catering it at the country club, too,” Taylor said. “My foot is just fine.”
“It won’t be when Shane gets finished shoving it up—” Agnes began, and then Dr. Garvin said, Agnes.
Where the hell have you been?
You haven’t been listening. Don’t threaten people in front of witnesses, Agnes.
But it’s okay to threaten them otherwise? What are you, Dr. Garvin’s evil twin?
“What were you saying, Agnes?” Taylor said, his smile widening.
“I was saying you’re an evil moron whom fate and karma are going to take care of,” Agnes said. “Now your line is ‘Who’s Fate and Karma, and what did I ever do to them?’“
“That’s not funny,” Taylor said.
Agnes looked at Mr. Harrison. “I thought it was a little funny, didn’t you?”
“A little,” he said, smiling. Taylor glared at him and he shrugged. “So what am I supposed to look at?”
Taylor pointed to Rhett, now asleep on the floor of the kitchen. “That dog is unsanitary.”
Harrison looked back at him. “You want me to shut down this place because there’s a dog on the premises? We have to make this plausible, Mr. Beaufort” He looked around. “This is a clean kitchen. I can go through it, but you’re going to have to do better than that.”
Taylor glared at him. “There’s a basement that hasn’t been cleaned in twenty-five years.”
Harrison sighed. “I’ll poke around under the sink.” He bent down and patted Rhett and then opened the cupboard doors under the sink. Everything was packed in plastic tubs with airtight lids, clearly marked as to the contents. He looked up at Agnes.
“I’m a Virgo,” she said. “We do that.”
He closed the doors and stood up. “This could take a while. Let’s see the basement.”
Agnes pushed on the door in the wall. “There’s a ladder.”
Harrison looked taken aback and then poked his head through the door. “This doesn’t look like you, Miss Crandall.”
“We just found it two days ago,” Agnes said. “And I can’t put stairs in and clean it up because it’s a crime scene.”
“That must be hard for you,” Harrison said with real sympathy, and then he turned to Taylor. “This is probably where we’ll get her.”
