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“I’ll do anything for it,” said Casey. “They’re asking for seconds on the cake! They’re not even worried about the entrée.”
“That’s Mama,” smirked Gabe. Casey turned to the others in the kitchen, nodding at the baskets and crates of produce.
“Let’s go. We’ve got a dining room full of hungry people.”
It was unbelievable that they were actually able to get the dinner menu out and complete. Shortly after midnight, the last patron left the restaurant, and Islip locked the front doors. When he entered the kitchen, there were a few new people standing around.
“I can’t thank you all enough,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what I would have done other than shut my doors. I owe your family everything.”
“You don’t owe us anything, chef,” said Gabe. He turned to his brother, Rafe. Dressed in a hazmat suit, regulator at his mouth and goggles, he lifted the objects to speak clearly. Gabe waited, hoping for some insight. “Did you find anything?”
“Yep. These were on the inside of all the produce crates.” He held up a flat, small disc about the size of a silver dollar. It was black but didn’t appear to be anything significant.
“What is that?” asked Casey.
“It held two things. Fly larvae and a chemical compound that speeds up the process of the larvae becoming maggots.”
“Oh, my God,” whispered Casey. “Who would do that?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” said Luc. “Whoever brought that in here either brought it with the discs inside or placed them there.”
“They were difficult to find,” said Rafe. “The discs were placed between wooden slats and covered with fruit. I’m not positive, but I think once the produce rots, it actually rots the casing around the disc. We just found it before it could do that.
“These are like larvae nests. Someone had gotten very advanced at creating the nests, then exposing them to whatever is on the inside of the discs, which speeds up their maturation. Then they go to town on the food. They could have been inside the crates for as long as a few days before finally kicking in.”
“So, it could have happened at the farmer’s market, or on the truck, or when it was brought into the restaurant,” said Casey.
“That’s right. It’s a long list of possibilities. We need to narrow it down, and more importantly, we need to find out where those discs came from,” said Gabe.
“I could help,” she said, staring at the others in the room.
“No. Absolutely not,” said Islip. “You need to be available to help your father if he needs you. I won’t risk your life.”
“I want to do this,” she said, looking at him. “Listen, you could have easily fired me when you found out why I was here, but you didn’t.”
“I didn’t, Casey, because you’re a good chef, and you did nothing wrong other than take a photo from my desk.”
“I want to help,” she said. “What if, what if I went to the market tomorrow and had a conversation with them? Maybe I could tell them that I am your daughter, just pretending. I could make them think I might be taking over the restaurant and want to make some changes.”
Luc and Gabe stared at one another, then at Islip. Otto let out a sigh, looking at Casey. She wasn’t giving a terrible idea. It just wasn’t an idea they were crazy about.
“It could work,” said Rafe.
“Yeah, I know, but I’m not sure I want her sticking her neck out like that,” said Gabe.
“I want to,” she said. “Please, let me do this for chef.”
“You can’t call me chef if you’re pretending to be my daughter,” smirked Islip.
“Sure, I can,” she smiled. “Even in the kitchen, I would call you chef, not Dad.”
“Alright,” nodded Gabe. “Tomorrow, take Otto with you and go to the farmer’s market. Have a conversation near the RMN booth and see if they bite. Maybe you can get some information from them, or at the very least, a tour of the facility. But not alone, Casey. You will never be alone with them. Understand?”
“I understand,” she nodded with a smile. “Let’s catch some bad guys!”
“Shit, we’ve created a monster.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
