Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

My aunt retired to her office after the detective and his crew left the restaurant. She said she wanted to get some paperwork done, but the rest of us out in the dining room could hear her sobs through the thin walls.

“We really need better insulation,” was all my grandmother said before heading into the kitchen. She came out moments later with her jacket on and some foil-covered trays in hand. “We can’t serve this food to customers, but he can’t stop us from eating it ourselves.”

“Um, Lola. He already stopped us earlier, remember? Shouldn’t we be throwing this all away?”

She shoved one of the trays into Amir’s hands. “I’d like to see him try. Do you think this food is going to kill you, too? No? Then eat up. No wasting food.”

She marched out of the restaurant, hands still full with the other trays. My godmothers, all smart enough to be afraid of my grandmother, waited till she’d left before getting up themselves.

“We should go, too. Take care of your tita, ok?” Ninang April said.

Ninang Mae hugged me. “We’ll come over to your house sometime tomorrow. I’ll bring my ensaymada. I know it’s your favorite.”

I smiled my thanks, then turned to Ninang June, who also hugged me. I started to pull away, but she held tight, her lips close to my ear. “Come over to my place for dinner. I might have some information for you.”

Before I could say anything, she’d released me and scurried off after the other two.

“That was weird,” I said, facing Adeena and Amir, who were the only ones left.

“What’d she say?” Adeena asked as she peeled back the foil to check the tray’s contents.

Her eyes lit up when she saw the lumpia, then wrinkled her nose when she broke one open and saw the ground beef inside. She shoved the tray to Amir, who happily dished up a plate.

“She wants me to come over for dinner. Said she had information for me.” I handed Amir a container filled with sweet chili sauce.

He dribbled the sauce over his fried spring rolls before digging in. Between bites, he asked, “Auntie June was the one texting the whole time, right? I wonder who she was talking to.”

I snorted. “She was probably just telling everyone she knew about what happened here.”

What I said slowly dawned on me. I peered through the blinds at the parking lot, which was blessedly empty. When Detective Park and his team had left with the evidence, he delivered a general statement, basically repeating what he’d told us: investigating suspicious death, no crimes alleged, etc. The news van seemed to have left when the police did. Still . . .

“With the Calendar Crew on the loose, the whole town will know Derek died here, if they don’t already. How’re we going to recover from that? Who’ll want to eat at a restaurant where someone died?”

Amir nodded. “Unfortunately, I think you’re right. Even if you’re innocent, until we know the real cause of death, people will likely avoid this restaurant.”

Tita Rosie emerged from the office in time to hear Amir’s statement. “I’m not sure that matters now. You heard Jonathan. Closed for weeks while we wait for the results? We’ll be out of business by then. We can barely pay the bills as is.”

I looked down and noticed the stack of papers she clutched in her hand. I’d already gone through my aunt’s accounts to figure out the problem areas—it was one of the first things I did after returning home. Figured I should put my expensive education to work, even if I didn’t have a degree to show for it.

We were a fairly popular restaurant with the locals, yet couldn’t seem to make ends meet and I didn’t understand it. Till I looked through our records. My aunt and grandmother were wonderful cooks, but not very business savvy. Or at least my aunt wasn’t. My lola was a killer at mahjong and pusoy, a kind of Filipino poker. She was also really slick when it came to day-to-day transactions. She was not a record-keeper, however, which made it difficult to track what needed to be done. And she sure did love the casinos, eating up what little profit we made.

Tita Rosie’s problem was that she was too soft. Too soft to charge her customers the true value of her food. Too soft to go after her estranged, alcoholic husband who’d run off with most of her savings. Too soft to ask her son Ronnie, my good-for-nothing cousin, for help—he was a boy, therefore free to live his own life. Not to say that the rest of the family never lobbed guilt his way—he just managed to dodge it while I took nothing but direct hits.

“Tita Rosie, that’s not going to happen. I’m not going to let them just take away your life’s work. Trust me, OK?”

She smoothed my hair and kissed my forehead, something she hadn’t done since I was a child. “Thank you, anak. I’m going home now. Think I need to lie down for a little bit. Do you all need anything?”

We shook our heads and she took her leave.

Adeena looked at her brother. “So what are the next steps?”

He frowned. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do until the police are done with their investigation. Or at least till the test results come back.”

Looking at my crestfallen expression, Adeena said, “Hey, remember when West Haven stole Petey Pablo sophomore year and we worked together to find him and exact revenge?”

No, not Petey Pablo the rapper. Petey Pablo the parrot was the Shady Palms High mascot. I didn’t care much for sports, but Derek had been on the football team and was devastated that their good luck charm had disappeared right before the big game. Plus I really loved that ridiculous bird. So Adeena and I teamed up to investigate our rival school and saved the day.

We’d actually earned a decent chunk of change that year finding lost items and spying on cheating boyfriends (I know, the irony) but I gave it up junior year to focus on college prep.

Reminded of those days, I tilted my head, formulating a plan. “You said our restaurant’s closed until they learn how Derek died, right?”

Amir stared at me, having had to bail us out of trouble enough times to not like my line of thinking. “Yes . . .”

Adeena grinned. “So, we back in the game?”

I slung an arm around her. “Yep. Put on your sleuthing cap, girl. We’re on the case!”