“Did you try to drop out?” Michelle asked.
“Of course I did! It’s what my mother wanted. I told my brother and sister that I was too nervous to be a contestant in a big competition like that, and I was sure that something bad would happen if I competed. And that would generate negative publicity for the restaurant.”
“Your brother owns the restaurant?” Hannah asked, even though she remembered Brooke telling them that.
“Yes, and my sister and her husband helped him to finance it. I really thought I could convince them that I might hurt business if I stayed in the competition and they’d be happy to see me drop out.”
“But they didn’t see it that way?” Michelle asked.
“No. It was . . . just the opposite!”
Hannah could see that tears were gathering in Brooke’s eyes so she quickly asked another question. “What did they say when you told them you wanted to drop out?”
“They were . . . very supportive. Too supportive. They said they had faith in me, that I was a good dessert chef. And then they told me that it didn’t matter if I came in last, that it was a national competition and just being a contestant would increase business at the restaurant.”
“Oh, boy!” Michelle shook her head. “That put you between a rock and a hard place.”
“It did! And I couldn’t tell them the real reason because I’d promised my mother I wouldn’t.”
“Have you heard from them since you’ve been here?” Michelle asked.
“Yes. They call me every night after the competition airs, and they give me a pep talk. And it turns out that they were right. Business at the restaurant has increased by sixty percent. They told me last night that they had to hire four new waitresses for the evening shift. And the bar business is way up because they record the competition and show it again, two hours later, in the lounge on the big-screen television.”
“Let’s talk about Chef Duquesne.” Hannah brought the conversation around to the point where she could ask the questions that she needed Brooke to answer. “Why did you go to Chef Duquesne’s room on the night he was killed?”
“You know about that?” Brooke looked astonished.
“Yes. The housekeeper saw you run back to your room, and she said you were crying.”
“She’s right. I had to tell someone why I had no business being in the competition. The lie I was living was just killing me. So I decided to ask Chef Duquesne for advice. I mean . . . he was my father, after all, and I thought he should know who I was.”
“He didn’t know before?”
Brooke shook her head. “My mother never told him. And I don’t think he ever guessed, because she stopped working at the restaurant right after it happened between them. You see, my mother and my dad were having problems in their marriage and they separated. My mother went to live with my grandmother and Dad stayed in their apartment. My mother got a job at Chef Duquesne’s restaurant as a dessert chef, and a second job as a fry cook at a truck stop. She told me that Grandma was living on a fixed income and she didn’t want to be a financial burden on her, especially since Grandma was taking care of my brother while my mother worked.”
“Your mother was working two full-time jobs?” Michelle asked.
“Yes. And helping Grandma take care of my brother when she was home. One night my mother was baking desserts for the next day at Chef Duquesne’s restaurant when he came in. And he found her crying because she was so lonely and so tired. He asked her what was wrong and she told him, and she said that he was a good listener, and . . . well . . . you can guess the rest.”
“So your mother had an affair with Chef Duquesne?” Hannah asked.
“No! She told me it was just that once. And she felt so guilty, she ended up calling my father and saying that she wanted to work things out with him. She packed up my brother and they went back home to my dad. They saw a marriage counselor, and they were doing great working things out when she found out that she was pregnant with me.”
“That must have been a shock,” Michelle commented.
“She said it was. She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t sure whether Chef Duquesne was my father, or if my dad was my father. So she . . . she never mentioned it to Dad. They had a happy marriage, and they were together until the day he died.”
“And your mother never told anyone about this?” Hannah asked.
“No one knew. She would have taken that secret to her grave if I hadn’t told her about the Dessert Chef Competition . She said that she’d decided that a confession on her part wouldn’t do anyone any good, but she had to speak up, now that I was a contestant.”
“What did Chef Duquesne say when you told him?” Hannah asked, bringing them back to the point.