Murder on a Silver Platter (A Red Carpet Catering Mystery Book 1) by Shawn Reilly Simmons Page A

quietly. She squeezed the steering wheel even tighter.
    “That’s why you called, isn’t it?” Joey asked. “Because you think someone might be trying to hurt Arlena.”
    “Yes,” Penelope said reluctantly, shaking her head. “But, I don’t know what to think, Joey.”
    “Hold on a second,” Joey said. Penelope heard him put his hand over the phone to muffle his voice as he spoke to someone else in the room. She tried to make out what he was saying but only caught a few words: tonight, case, later and Arlena. The connection opened back up and she heard him clearly again. “Sorry about that.”
    “It’s okay. I know you’re busy working,” Penelope said.
    “Actually, I’m at home.”
    “Oh, sorry…” Penelope said, wondering who he was talking to.
    “I’m thinking I should look into this latest incident. I also have some new information on Holly Anderson.”
    “Tonight isn’t great. Arlena and Sam are at our house. I spoke with Sam to be sure they were home safe and to make sure Arlena was feeling better. He said she took a Valium and went to bed, that was over an hour ago.”
    “Are you still at work?” Joey said.
    “I’m finishing up a few things. Most everyone is already gone for the weekend,” Penelope said. “I should go home.”
    “Tell you what. Why don’t you stop by my apartment? I’m in Bradenton. It’s on your way.”
    Bradenton was in between South Point and their house in Glendale. New Jersey was full of quaint little towns, all with their own village greens, shopping areas and residential neighborhoods.
    “Sure,” Penelope said. “But I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
    “No, it’s nothing,” he responded quickly.
    Penelope paused for a moment. She was tired but didn’t want to go home just yet. Maybe talking to Joey would settle her mind so she could get some rest. She also felt a spark of excitement peeking through her exhaustion at seeing him again. “Text me your address. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
    “See you then. Drive safe,” Joey said and hung up.
    Penelope exhaled as she pulled the phone away from her ear, the little wiggle of excitement still churning at the base of her stomach. She flipped down the visor to look at herself in the little mirror on the back of it. “Ugh!” she said when she saw her smudged mascara and the circles under her eyes that looked like faint bruises. She looked pale, paler than she normally looked in the middle of New Jersey winter. She glanced down at her clothes and sighed. She had pulled off her apron after talking to her crew in the tent and hadn’t noticed a big stain of red sauce at the bottom of her sweater. Her jeans also looked dingy after twelve hours of walking around on set and working with food. “I need help,” she said out loud in the cab.
    She grabbed her messenger bag out from under the seat of the truck and tucked her phone inside one of the front pockets. Penelope kept the cab of the truck locked at all times since it was essentially her office and she always kept her bag stashed under there. Only she and Francis had keys and she trusted him completely. She looked through her bag and saw that she had nothing with her, no cosmetic help at all. Just an old tube of lipstick, a tampon and some loose change.
    Penelope flipped off the cab light, opened the door and jumped down from the truck, her bag looped over her shoulder. She locked the door behind her and headed towards the trailers on the far end of the lot.
    Arlena’s trailer was right next to Kelley’s, the two biggest on the set. As Penelope approached she saw Freddie, one of the interns, coming out from between the trailers. “Hey, Freddie, is Kelley still in there?”
    “I think so,” Freddie said, nodding at her door. He was coiling up the cables that ran power to Arlena’s home on the set. “At least she was ten minutes ago.” He wore an oversized puffy coat over a black t-shirt, a large neon-green skull stretched over his