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Daniel's frame relaxed as he told the story. "The whole time we were waiting for the Vet to take care of the dog, Steven spent his time telling joke after joke. Some were funny and some not so much but he kept my mind off the dog. The dog didn't have a chip in him or a collar on either. We didn't know who he belonged to. When I hit him, I was on a stretch of road with no buildings on either side. We figured him for a stray."
"And you kept him, didn't you?"
"He wasn't hurt too badly and yes, we kept him. We rented a house with a couple of other guys until our senior year. We all adopted the dog and named him Benji."
"Who got him when all of you graduated?"
"None of us. One evening when the weather started warming up Benji was nowhere around. It was early May. We looked everywhere and he was just gone. We never saw him again."
We sat in silence. "Maybe he decided to go home again. I mean back to where he lived when you hit him that night."
"That's what we finally convinced ourselves of. My point is that I remember the way Steven took that dog under his wing and got so attached to him. I've never forgotten his empathy with that stray. There is no way he could murder a person. It just isn't in him to do something like that."
I sipped the last of my now lukewarm chocolate. I thought Daniel could have told me that story long ago if he wanted to.
"That doesn't explain to me why I never heard the name Steven Landers before. You aren't off the hook yet."
"I saw the good in Steven, but Laila, he was a runaway womanizer. That part of him didn't always set well with me. I mean he tried to get every woman on campus to go out with him. He usually succeeded. They didn't stay with him long, though. Even when he was on a date, he made eyes at any woman who caught his attention."
"That wouldn't set well with me for sure. It sounds like he could relate to animals better than he could to women. Or, at least he knew how to treat a dog. That explains why he flirted with me. I guess he hasn't outgrown that habit."
I had felt uncomfortable when he winked at me in the restaurant dining room. I doubted Steven was thinking much about women right now with a murder suspicion over his head. The sadness over the long-ago incident of Benji remained in Daniel's eyes. I knew it was time to change the subject.
"Have you thought any more about who could have murdered Frank Duvall?" I asked.
"The first thing to figure out is why was the back door unlocked and who left it that way to begin with," said Daniel. "If I don't find out who really killed the man, I'm sure the police won't hesitate to
try to pin it on Steven. I wish I had a few more days to spend on this before leaving town."
"Do you want some help? I'll do what I can if you want me to get involved."
Daniel looked at me with relief. "I really do want your help, Laila. I'm sure Steven is not guilty of this. Let's get our heads together and go through each employee we saw in the kitchen."
"Don't rule out the repairman."
"I doubt he was involved in any way."
I looked at Daniel. "The cops won't rule anyone out, even us. We need to think like them."
Daniel got a notebook and tore a sheet out for me and one for him. He handed me a pen. "Let's start with the repairman. I don't even know his name, do you?"
"I don't know except his name tag had Neb on it. So we'll just use Neb for now," I said.
We listed observations about Neb including his nervousness. He had willingly given his name and address to the cops. He was in a hurry to get out. Who wouldn't be after discovering a dead Santa in a freezer?
"I think we can rule him out for now, Laila," said Daniel. "Let's move on to others who may have done it."
I agreed with him. Most likely Neb was innocent. We then talked about Cassie Johnson. Daniel wanted to rule her out, too, because of her reaction to the discovery. I disagreed with him on that and told him she may have been involved since she worked there.
"We can't rule everyone out," I said. "That would leave only Steven."
"You are right. The police will question all the employees again, so let's act like we are looking at it as they would." I tried not to roll my eyes.
I pointed out that Cassie could have lured him into the freezer for some reason and then murdered him. "Maybe she asked him to help pull out something heavy. I heard Steven tell one of the detectives that large pieces of frozen meat were often brought out to the refrigerator in the kitchen to thaw for the next day. That would be a reason for her to ask Frank to go into the freezer with her."
"Why would a server take that upon herself? I would think the Chef would be responsible for that job," said Daniel. "Besides, Cassie probably finishes her shift of serving and leaves. She wouldn't have a reason to spend much time in the kitchen."
I should have been used to Daniel playing the devil's advocate. He had done that once before with me on another case of murder near Roasted Love. Though his method sometimes irritated me, he had a way of bringing everything to reason. We went on to other employees.
