Kitchen Conundrum

Lieutenant Baskins was in charge of the investigation. It wasn’t her first murder investigation, far from it. Since transferring to homicide ten years ago, it felt as though she had a fresh case every week. Most of the bodies she inspected were in back alleys, bedrooms, or cars. This one was different. The body lay face down in the middle of a restaurant kitchen.

The cause of death was clear. A large cast-iron skillet with drying blood and hair on it, the obvious murder weapon, rested near the body of chef Antoine Bordeaux. The top of the chef’s skull appeared dented, and it displayed a deep laceration. The logical conclusion, someone had snuck up on the chef and hit him with the skillet. Unfortunately, in a murder investigation, nothing was ever simple.

The on-scene coroner estimated the T.O.D. (time of death) to be approximately two hours prior, which meant it happened just after closing. She meticulously walked around the kitchen looking for clues. What she noticed was how tidy everything was. Each pot, pan, knife, and spatula had a designated spot. Various size skillets hung from an overhead rack by size in descending order, just above the gas burners. She returned to the body and asked the senior patrolman, “Who found the body?” He said the owner was making his final rounds before heading home when he came upon the chef.

Lt. Baskins walked to the owner’s office, where he was being guarded by two officers. She took a chair by the boss’s desk and began her interrogation.

“Mr. Conner, I understand you found the chef’s body. Were you the only other person in the building?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“That’s lieutenant.”

“Sorry, lieutenant. Our normal routine is I make sure everything is secure in the restaurant and bar, and chef closes up the kitchen. Then we take the daily revenues and deposit them in the bank down the street. Once that’s done, we go our separate ways. It’s how we’ve done things for the last ten years.”

“Do you know if Chef Bordeaux had any enemies, Mr. Conner?”

“Probably everyone that worked in the kitchen. He was a hard taskmaster. Everything had to be perfect. We went through a lot of help because someone did not properly plate a meal or they did not return a pot to the right spot. It was his attention to detail that made him the best chef in town, but the staff hated it. I guess I’ll have to promote my sous chef now, but he’s not nearly as good.”

“Thank you, Mr. Conner. If I think of anything else, I’ll contact you.”

Lt. Baskins left the office and returned to the kitchen where forensics had just lifted prints from the skillet and the chef. The forensics tech told her that the only prints on the skillet were the chefs.

Baskins crossed her arms over her chest and replied, “I’m sure he didn’t hit himself over the head with a frying pan.”

“Not so fast, Lt. He just needed to be standing under the skillet rack when this ten-pound pan came off its hook and bang. He’s dead!”

She wasn’t buying it. “Did you find anything helpful?”

“I found this flyer in his pocket.” He handed it to Baskins. She looked at it and headed back to the owner’s office. He was still sitting behind his desk doing paperwork.

“Mr. Conner, did you know about this?” She placed the flyer on his desk. The paper was an announcement of a new restaurant called Bordeaux’s Bistro, opening on the first of next month.

“Yes, I knew about it, and I wasn’t happy. After ten years, my trusted friend and employee was becoming my competitor. He didn’t even bother to tell me. I saw an ad in the newspaper announcing the grand opening. But I didn’t kill him if that’s what you’re implying.”

“I was simply asking, not implying,” she replied. “You claimed to be in your office until you found the body. Can anyone verify that?”

“Better than a person. Look at the video. I have surveillance cameras in the office in case of a robbery, and no, I don’t have any in the kitchen.”

“I’ll take a copy of the video. You can give it to one of my men. We’ll be in touch.”

She returned to the kitchen and talked to the forensic tech and the coroner.

“Well, gentlemen, what’s your conclusion?”

The coroner and the tech both agreed it was a freak accident. Lt. Baskins didn’t like it. She felt something was off, but couldn’t put her finger on it. Finally, she had to say, case closed!

Later that night, Conner and the sous chef sat at the bar of a local pub. Conner spoke first.

“I have to admit, straightening that hook slightly was a brilliant idea.”

“Yeah, boss. All I had to do was jiggle the rack just enough, and the skillet fell right off.”

“Starting tomorrow, you are my new head chef. We just couldn’t let that bastard open his restaurant. He would have put me out of business.”