That wasn’t all. There was an added wrinkle to deal with. Steve was quite the wild card. Unlike the previous night, we just kept running into each other. I didn’t like that. The more we crossed paths, the bigger the chances were that he would blow my cover. It didn’t help that he had this look in his eyes like he wanted to get minute-to-minute updates from me.

  I definitely understood his eagerness to get answers. He would just need to muster some patience.

  As for the investigation itself, I seemed to hit a wall trying to get information from Julie. Rather than trying to wear her down, I decided to branch out a little. When I saw the hostess, Danielle Lorenzo, standing alone at the front of the restaurant, I grabbed a few stray menus from one of the server stations and brought them back to the host stand.

  As I reached Danielle’s location, I handed her the menus.

  “Here you go,” I said.

  “Thank you,” Danielle replied.

  “You’re welcome,” I said. “It has been quite a busy day, huh?”

  “It’s always busy around here.”

  “How are you holding up?”

  “I should be the one asking you that. After all, you’re new here.”

  “I know. But I’m just curious about how you’re doing you.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Really? No customers have given you any problems?”

  “No more than usual.”

  “How about your co-workers? Anyone giving you trouble?”

  “No.”

  “That’s good. Does that mean you like it here?”

  “Where are you going with this?”

  “I’m just curious about your life. Have you ever thought about becoming a server?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m not going to be here that long.”

  “How come? Do you not like it here?”

  “You sure ask a lot of questions.”

  Just as I was about to open my mouth to reply, a couple entered the restaurant.

  Danielle immediately grabbed and few menus and greeted the couple.

  She then whisked the couple off to a table.

  Like that, our conversation was over.

  Chapter Seven

  Unfortunately, work kept me busy for the rest of the day. I was unable to carve out time to approach Danielle again. I had my own tables to take care of.

  Just like with previous days, my shift went by in a blur. Before I knew it, the time had come for me to clock out.

  When I got home from work, I was absolutely exhausted. That seemed to be the prevailing theme in my life lately. I was hoping that dinner would give me a burst of energy. While I could have easily popped a TV dinner in the microwave, I wasn’t about to heat anything up quite yet.

  I wanted to hear from Scott first. He would be getting off work soon as well. Most likely, he would want to get together with me. While I waited to hear from Scott, I plopped down on the couch. It felt so good to be off of my feet.

  About half an hour after I arrived home, my phone rang. Just as I suspected, when I looked at the caller identification screen, it was my boyfriend.

  A little rush of joy went through my body as I said the word boyfriend. It had been a long time since I had been serious with a guy. And although Scott and I had only been together for less than a month, there was no doubt that we were a serious couple. It seemed like a great little milestone in my life.

  When I picked up the phone, we made some small talk. Scott then got to the meat of the matter.

  “Do you want to get some dinner?” he asked.

  “I was wondering when you were going to ask me that,” I replied. “I’d love some food.”

  “Great. Should I pick you up in fifteen minutes then? We can head over to Tolliver’s Diner.”

  “Actually, I don’t want to sit down at a restaurant.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m hungry, but I just can’t deal with sitting in a restaurant. Or even a diner.”

  “Did you have a bad day?”

  “Exhausting is the word I would use for this afternoon.”

  “This case is operating at a much different speed than your usual investigations, isn’t it?”

  “You’re not kidding. I’ve been running around like crazy. It’s a far cry from the stakeouts that I usually perform.”

  “Is the case more of a handful than you thought?”

  “The case itself isn’t that difficult. I just didn’t think it would be so physically taxing.”

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “I should be fine—”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “As long as things don’t stretch on for too long.”

  “I hear you.”

  “Given how much time I’ve spent in a restaurant lately, I hope you can understand why I wouldn’t want to set foot in another eatery tonight. Even if someone else happens to be waiting on us.”

  “I get it.”

  “Good.”

  “What do you want to do about food then?”

  “If it’s not asking too much, can you order some takeout and pick it up on the way over here?”

  “Sure.”

  “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

  “Hey, that’s what boyfriends are for.”

  ***

  Scott arrived at my place about half an hour later. He brought some pizza with him. As we made quick work of a few slices, he let his mind wander.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t get free food at the bistro,” he said.

  I laughed.

  He squinted. “What’s so funny?”

  “Leave it to you to be eating one meal while thinking about another.”

  “Come on. Are you saying that same thought didn’t occur to you?”

  “No.”

  “Why not? You are working undercover at a restaurant. It’s only natural to think that your client would throw some free food your way.”

  “Honestly, free food was the last thing on my mind today.”

  “It was that stressful of a day, huh? Even more than you led on earlier?”

  “Have you ever worked in a restaurant before?”

  He nodded. “In high school, I flipped burgers for a while.”

  “That’s right. You worked at Rocky’s Burgers, right?”

  “Yup. And ever since then, my taste for fast food hasn’t been the same.”

  I chuckled. “I’ll bet.”

  “Anyway, I get where you’re coming from. It’s a business where you’re on your feet all day. Where you’re running around like crazy.”

  “Crazy being the operative word. I haven’t worked this hard since college. Do you know what my job was back then?”

  “You waited tables back then, didn’t you?”

  I nodded.

  He continued. “Not much has changed in the restaurant business since then, has it?”

  “Actually, a lot has changed. I’ve gotten much older. And it takes a lot less to make my muscles ache.”

  “Hold on a second. Let’s not get crazy. You’re not old. Melody, you’re only thirty-seven.”

  “True. But being a server is a young person’s game. Remember, I spend most of my private investigator life staking out in front of people’s houses, conducting surveillance, not running around like a mad woman.”

  He looked at me with concern in his eyes. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah. I just need to stay off of my feet for the rest of the night.”

  “That’s understandable. Speaking of the case, are you making good progress?”

  “That’s the real problem. Not at all.”

  “What a shame.”

  “Tell me about it. This case could take all week.”

  “Yikes.”

  “I know. It depends, though. Anything can happen. There’s a chance that someone will say something really eye-opening tomorrow that will blow the case wide open.”

  “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  “I’m praying for that.”

  “I’ll do the same.”

  “I’ll say this. I plan on getting lots of rest tonight. I have a feeling that I’m going to need it.”

  Chapter Eight

  Much to my chagrin, my third day on the job didn’t go any better than the previous ones did. If anything, my list of complaints was only growing as time wore on. In particular, some of the customers that I waited on were absolute nightmares to deal with. They had so many demands and yet tipped so little.

  There was an old saying about the customer always being right. That wasn’t my experience. Sometimes, the customer was dead wrong. And belligerent. Yikes. The way some people treated servers like servants was crazy.

  Of course, this wasn’t something that was specific to me. All of the wait staff had to deal with unpleasant customers now and then. It was just an occupational hazard of being a server.

  I could go into further detail, but I’ll spare you any additional complaints. Mostly because they didn’t have any direct effect on my investigation. They did wear me down, however. And this was a time when I needed all of the energy that I could get.

  Rather than focusing on customers, I needed to shift gears and spend more time interacting with staff members. On that front, I seemed to be making no progress.

  It was quickly becoming clear to me that this whole posing as a waitress and waiting tables just wasn’t working. I spent more time during my shift speaking with customers than with staff members. And when I did interact with the staff, it didn’t involve any gossiping. If I was going to make any progress, I would need to try something different.

  Of course, there was another option. Maybe I hadn’t discovered anything eye-opening because there wasn’t any big conspiracy against Steven in the first place. Perhaps he was just being paranoid.

  If that was true, I wouldn’t complain. I always preferred a happy ending over a sad one. Besides, my clients were wrong sometimes. It was rare, but it did occur from time to time.

  Whether that was true in this instance was still yet to be determined. I needed to be as thorough as possible before drawing any conclusions.

  That’s when a unique idea came to me. In my experience, my co-workers were the most talkative when they were on their break. Most of the time, they took their break in the alleyway beside the restaurant. Unfortunately, they were only out there for ten or fifteen minutes before they had to get to work. It would be nice to get more time.

  In my mind, there was only one way to do that. When I finished up my shift, I called Steven and ran my idea by him. He then took me off of the schedule for the following night.

  Why?

  Simple. So I had all the time in the world to hang out in the alleyway.

  Now, you might be wondering, wouldn’t the staff find that odd?

  Not really. To start, I showed up at the bistro the following day in uniform. Even though I wasn’t on the schedule that evening, I wandered around the restaurant like I was. But since I didn’t have any tables to wait on, I could roam freely. Or, head into the alleyway.

  The real reason that the staff didn’t get suspicious was because they were so focused on their own work. They had orders to get out. And customers to take care of.

  Honestly, they had no clue that I wasn’t supposed to be there that night.

  While I leaned against a brick wall in the alleyway, I spoke to various employees while they were on their break.

  There was one more thing that I used to my advantage. The knowledge that most of my co-workers smoked. Pretty heavily, I might add. I’m talking about a pack a day habit. They lit up a cigarette as often as possible.

  Meanwhile, I hated cigarettes. But it didn’t mean that I couldn’t bring a lighter and a pack of cigarettes with me to use as props.

  I was interested in speaking to a lot of people that evening, but Danielle was near the top of the list. I felt like she might have some vital information.

  One thing was clear. She was in a much different mood that night than the previous day. Her guard wasn’t up. That was a good sign.

  I broke the ice.

  “It feels pretty nice to take a break, doesn’t it?” I asked.

  Danielle nodded. “You bet, it does.”

  “You’ve been running around like crazy today.”

  “That’s pretty much my job.”

  “Well, you’re really good at it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “If I were you, I’d ask for a raise.”

  She broke out into laughter.

  I shrugged. “What’s so funny?”

  “The idea of me scoring a raise.”

  “I still don’t get what’s so funny.”

  “Steven doesn’t give raises.”

  “Is that so?”

  She nodded.

  “To you? Or to anyone?”

  “Anyone.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know, right? Pretty crazy. I’ve been here over a year. During that time, I haven’t seen a single person get a raise.”

  “To be fair, how would you even know? Aren’t raises private things?”

  “Are you kidding? Not in a place like this. Here, gossip spreads like wildfire.”

  “So, you’ve heard a lot of people gossiping about pay then?”

  “Uh-huh. Amongst other things.”

  “What types of things?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You sure are asking a lot of questions.”

  “What can I say? I’m curious. I want to know as much as possible about the place that I’m working.”

  “I suppose that makes sense.”

  “So, what’s the biggest complaint around here?”

  “I already told you. People not getting paid enough.”

  “All right. What’s the number two complaint then?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t keep a list in my head.”

  “It’s okay to not have a number two. In fact, it would probably be better if that was the case. I prefer jobs where there isn’t a lot to complain about.”

  “Let’s not get crazy now. In the restaurant world, there is always plenty to complain about.”

  “If that’s true, then I have to ask. Have you ever thought about leaving here?”

  “Oh yeah. All the time.”

  My eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “If you feel that way, you must have a reason for it.”

  “Of course, I do. I actually have a different reason for every bad day that I’ve ever experienced on the job.”

  “Yet you’re still here.”

  “For now.”

  “Are you planning on going somewhere?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Where?”

  “When I get enough money saved up, I’m going to open my own shoe store.”

  “Is that so?”

  She nodded. “That has been my dream for a while. I just don’t have the money to make it happen…yet.”

  “I hope you’re able to save up the cash.”

  “Thanks. In the meantime, I need to get back to work.”

  Chapter Nine

  Apparently, my instincts were correct about Danielle. She did have a secret. It just didn’t have anything to do with Steven. Instead, Danielle wanted to leave the food industry behind entirely. So much for making headway with this case.

  After Danielle went back to work, I remained in the alleyway. I was alone for a few moments until another employee went on their break.

  Much to my surprise, when the door to the alleyway opened, Julie exited the restaurant.

  That wasn’t all.

  She looked really surprised to see me.

  “Melody, what are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Having a smoke,” I replied.

  “I meant, what are you doing at the restaurant? I didn’t think you were on the schedule today.”

  “I’m not. I just came in to talk to Steven.”

  She tensed up. “You’re not thinking about quitting, are you?”

  “No.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief.

  “What would make you think that?”

  “I was just wondering.”

  “Do people do that a lot around here? Quit during their first week on the job?”

  She laughed nervously. “Of course not.”

  Her mouth said one thing, but her eyes said another. She was lying. I could tell.

  People had definitely quit this job during week one before. The question became, why was Julie trying to pretend like that wasn’t the case? Did it happen pretty frequently? I wanted to get to the bottom of this.

  “Julie, you can tell me the truth,” I said.

  “Wait. Are you accusing me of lying to you?”

  “Not at all. I’m just letting you know, if there’s something on your mind, you can tell me what it is.”

  “Nope. There’s nothing on my mind.” She then tried to change the subject. “What were you talking to Steven about?”

  Suddenly, I had to come up with an excuse on the fly.

  “I have a doctor’s appointment coming up. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t working that day.”

  “Oh. So, you’re definitely not quitting then?”

  “No. I already told you that.”

  “I’m just checking.”

  I couldn’t pinpoint what was bothering her, but something was definitely up.

  “Julie, are you all right?” I asked.

  “It has just been a rough day,” she replied.

  She checked the time on her phone.

  “Anyway, I should probably get back to work.”

  My nose wrinkled. “But you haven’t even had a smoke yet.”

  “I’ll have to wait until later. I need to check in with my tables,” she said.

  Chapter Ten

  I couldn’t help but feel like Julie just wanted to go back inside so she could avoid my questions. Maybe I was wrong. Either way, Julie went back to work.

  I remained in the alleyway and waited for the next employee to take their break. A number of line cooks came out next. I made some small talk with them, but they seemed mostly interested in keeping to themselves.

  I tried not to get discouraged, though. There were plenty more employees left to speak with.