Page 26 of Slow Simmer

Chapter Thirteen

The rest of the day was a blur of rushed activity for Suzannah. Carlo and Samira worked frantically to salvage the cake and she stood in the centre of the kitchens, somehow managing everything so that lunch ran as smoothly as usual even with two crucially important staff members unable to assist. Nobody had come forward to admit guilt, of course, and nobody had seen anything amiss in the cold room until Samira found the cake.

She didn’t have time to investigate right now, but there was no way she was going to let something like this drop. It was sabotage, plain and simple, and she needed to know who and why, and then get them the hell out of her kitchen so nothing like it could ever happen again.

All of the staff in the pastry kitchen seemed shocked and horrified, working extra hard to take up the slack, none of them leaving until everything which could possibly be done to prepare the desserts for dinner was taken care of. At that point, Suzannah dismissed them all, telling them to take a break before coming back at five.

Carlo and Samira were shoulder to shoulder at the bench, dehydrators humming away in front of them drying sugar flowers as the two chefs worked at breakneck speed to prepare more. The resort photographer was watching with wide eyes, occasionally lifting her camera for a sneaky shot but mostly waiting for them to snap an instruction, telling her what to do next.

“Are any of these salvageable?” Suzannah asked, moving to where the icing and crushed flowers removed from the cake lay in a mess of green, pink and white crumbs.

“Didn’t really have time to look,” Carlo admitted without looking up. “There might be some buds and a leaf or two, but a lot of them had green dye on them and I figured it was probably quicker just to start fresh.”

“Maybe for you two, but I’m not as quick at making them. I’ll have a poke through, see if I can salvage anything.” Carefully, she began sifting through the mess, kicking a rubbish bin over to the foot of the bench and dumping everything which was definitely too ruined to use. Ten minutes later she had quite a pile of usable petals and buds, enough to make up a couple of flowers at least, and transferred them carefully to the bench beside Carlo.

“Brilliant!” He shot a quick glance at her. “We’re gonna pull this off, I think. Sorry to wreck your planning session, though.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Fixing the cake was the most urgent priority. The wedding couple weren’t high profile, but they’d paid a hefty price to have the cake they wanted and their reception hosted inLa Sirène’sprivate dining room, and Suzannah would have moved mountains to avoid letting them down. Fortunately, she didn’t have to. She had her very own miracle workers right in front of her.

* * *

At five o’clock, Carlo called time on their work. The cake didn’t look quite as incredible as it had originally, but even the most critical eye wouldn’t be able to find fault with it. The wedding guests would begin arriving shortly for pre-dinner drinks, though, and the cake was supposed to be on display when they did. Carefully, Carlo picked up the display board and headed out to put the cake on the stand all ready for it, Gemma hurrying ahead of him to open doors and clear the way.

“Take the evening off,” Suzannah told Samira as the young chef sagged against the bench.

“Oh, but I’m on the roster.” Samira straightened up. “I’m fine, really, Chef.”

“You’ve done a terrific job. You’ve earned the evening off, whether you’re tired or not. Go. Relax. That’s an order.” Suzannah smiled to take the sting from her words, and Samira smiled shyly back.

“My back’s pretty stiff,” she admitted.

“Why not give the spa a call, see if they’ve got any evening massage appointments? Ask for Shae, and tell her I said it’s on me. You’ve saved our bacon this afternoon, Samira,” Suzannah raised a hand to quiet her as the younger woman protested. “I won’t forget it.”

“Thank you, Chef,” Samira said sensibly, obviously realising continuing to argue with Suzannah would get her nowhere.

“Thank you,” Suzannah replied, watching as Samira took the time to tidy her workspace before leaving the kitchen, bidding a cheerful good evening to her co-workers as she went.

“She’s a terrific young chef,” Carlo said as he returned to the pastry kitchen.

“My office,” Suzannah said abruptly, and he raised an eyebrow but followed her into the small room, watching as she closed the door and turned to lean on it.

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you sure Samira didn’t sabotage the cake herself?”

Carlo’s eyebrows shot up, but he appeared to give her question due consideration. “I suppose she’d have had the opportunity, same as anyone else on the staff,” he said slowly, “but… why on earth would she? She’s had to work like a slave all afternoon, and she was fully prepared to keep going until midnight. It’s not like she’ll get paid any extra for it, either.”

“Except by gaining your trust.”

“She already has it!” Carlo gave her an incredulous look, shaking his head. “She was devastated, Suzannah. No, I can’t believe it was Samira. Why would you suspect her?”

“I can’t count anyone out. I wondered, last week, after that incident with the fire when the automatic fire suppressant system didn’t come on, and now I’m certain. Someone’s trying to sabotage us.” Suzannah took a deep breath, hoping she wasn’t misplacing her trust in Carlo, but she made herself carry on and tell him the rest. “That’s not all, either. Twice in the last month - before you got here - there’ve been things which could have gone seriously wrong and created a major incident if I hadn’t been quick enough to spot them. There could have been a mass food poisoning in the restaurant.”

Carlo stared at her before slowly sinking into the chair in front of her desk. “Why?” he said finally. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s not like there are rival restaurateurs here trying to shut you down.”

“It started after I fired your predecessor,” Suzannah admitted, taking her own seat, letting her shoulders slump with weariness as she shared the burden she’d been labouring under at last. “I can only think someone was upset she got fired and is trying to get revenge.”

“Who would want to do that? I can tell you Samira doesn’t speak highly of her,” Carlo noted. “She wouldn’t let Samira do any of the wedding cake stuff. Samira said she told Vicky on the day she got fired that the supports she was using weren’t going to cut it, by the way.”

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